2 10 12 https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/9fd0c3ac07968025af3dbb2b0a9012ea.pdf b71d8ac370d38ba32d2cb268c5c9e0a4 PDF Text Text February, 2005 STREETVIBES Martin Luther King Jr. Remembered and Honored in Cincinnati story and photos by Jimmy Heath Temperatures were well below freezing, but several hundred people who attended the 30th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemorative event downtown Monday, January 17th, were unfazed by the cold weather. The tri-state’s observance of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday included many events - a public gathering at Fountain Square, speeches and a march to Music Hall for music and remembrance. The Music Hall portion of the event was emceed by local television personality and former candidate for mayor, Courtis Fuller. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Chorale, led by Catherine Roma performed traditional spirituals and gospel music. Around the country events were held to celebrate and remember the legacy of Martin Luther King. San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium was packed with adults and children honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. On the 19th anniversary of the remembrance hundreds made their way to the auditorium at the Civic Center to hear from American Idol finalist Latoya London, the Glide Ensemble, and U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee. Martin Luther King Jr. was honored for the 10th year by community leaders in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Guest speakers included Mayor Heartwell, Police Chief Harry Dolan, and Rev. David May, who spoke about unity and the racial divide in our community. Rev. May says Grand Rapids has made progress, but still has a long way to go before the dream is realized. “All of the statistical information squarely puts us as one of the most segregated divided communities in the country and so that speaks volumes in terms of where we need to go. But it also doesn’t mean that nothing has been done, there are gains that have been made in our city, but we just have leaps and bounds of progress that we need to make.” President Bush spent part of the Martin Luther King holiday praising the secretary of state. Colin Powell and his wife Alma were given the John Thompson Legacy of a Dream Award during a “Let Freedom Ring” celebration at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Bush called the Powells “among the most admired people in our country.” As secretary of State, Bush said Colin Powell “became one of the most effective and admired diplomats in America’s history.’’ The president noted that besides rising to the top in the military, Powell has been an official in the administration of six presidents. Bush also praised Martin Luther King Junior. He said King made this country a different and better place when he could have had an easy life in a respected pulpit. Many people know first hand that the work that eventually took King’s life still goes on today. But the challenges that human rights workers face now are bigger than ever. March from Fountain Square to Music Hall MLK Cont. on page 8 Hundreds gather in the cold on Fountain Square to honor MLK Marching on 12th Street to Music Hall in Over-the-Rhine Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless �Streetvibes Streetvibes, the Tri­ State’s alternative news source, is a newspaper written by, for, and about the homeless and contains relevant discussions of social justice, and poverty issues. It is published once a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Becoming a Streetvibes Vendor is a great way for homeless and other low-income people to get back on (or stay on) their feet. Streetvibes Vendors are given an orientation and sign a code of conduct before being given a Streetvibes Vendor badge. Vendors are private contractors who DO NOT work for, or represent, the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homleess. All profits go directly to the vendor. The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a group of shelters, agencies and individuals committed to ending homelessness in Cincinnati through coordinating services, educating the public and grassroots organizing. GCCH Staff Georgine Getty - Executive Director Allison Leeuw - Administrative Coordinator Andy Erickson - Education Coordinator Rachel Lawson - Civil Rights VISTA Kate McManus - Civil Rights VISTA Janice Faulkner - Receptionist Mary Gaffney - Receptionist Streetvibes Jimmy Heath, Editor Photographers Jimmy Heath, Berta Lambert Cover by Jimmy Heath ­ Memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr. Streetvibes accepts letters, poems, stories, essays, original graphics, and photos. We will give preference to those who are homeless or vendors. Subscriptions to Streetvibes, delivered to your home each month, can be purchased for $25 per year. Address mail to: Streetvibes Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 (513) 421-7803 e-mail: streetvibes@juno.com web: http://cincihomeless.org Page 2 Politics Drive Taser Policy at juvenile suspects 52 times last year, only three of the juveniles had by Jimmy Heath suggested that some officers were too weapons. Most of the children described in these episodes were In December of 2003, a quick to resort to the weapons. divided City Council voted in favor of In Illinois, a pregnant woman involved in relatively minor incidents for which other measures could have equipping every police officer with a lost her baby after being Tased. In been taken to de-escalate the Taster despite the feelings of many Portland, an out-of-court settlement situation. residents had that the stun-gun would for excessive force was reached in The vote has been be misused. Mayor Charlie Luken favor of a blind and hard-of-hearing deadlocked (4 against the proposal, pushed for the spending of $1 million woman after she was injured in a 4 in favor) because of the slow to equip each Cincinnati police officer Taser incident. In an Arizona with a Taser stun gun. incident, an unarmed suspect in a tree appointment of Chris Monzel to City Council, a seat vacated by Pat More than 5,000 US law was Tased. The fall resulted in a DeWine, who has gone on to serve enforcement agencies are currently head injury and a lawsuit against the as a county commissioner. Chris using Tasers; dart-firing electro-shock city of Tucson. weapons designed to cause instant A court-appointed monitor of Monzel is reportedly against the proposal so he, in theory, supports incapacitation by delivering a 50,000 the Cincinnati police department has the police use of Tasers against volt shock. Tasers are hand-held told a federal judge that the police aggressive 7 year-old children. electronic stun guns which fire two don’t always follow proper What is in the minds of barbed darts up to a distance of 20 procedures when using Tasers. feet, which remain attached to the gun Included in the improper uses people who would allow police to Tase second-graders? It may be an by wires. The fish-hook like darts are shocking suspects more than issue of political greed. The support are designed to once or trying to shoot of the police union is important in this penetrate up to two suspects with more than city if you want to get anywhere in inches of the target’s one stun gun. clothing or skin and During their first year Cincinnati politics. Restricting or criticizing the deliver a high-voltage, in use in Cincinnati in police in Cincinnati suggests that you low amperage 2004, Tasers were are anti-cop, and that is political electro-shock along deployed 629 times by suicide. The police culture is insulated copper Cincinnati police. The Jimmy Heath determined to keep their power on wires. weapons immobilized the streets. And rest assured, the In some suspects in 527 of those police union has a long memory come police departments, Tasers have incidents. Tasers have led to a 37 election time. become the most prevalent force percent drop in injuries to suspects, I don’t see why it has to be a tool. They have been used against and an 88 percent drop in injuries to battle in the first place. The police unruly schoolchildren, unarmed officers. But, use of force incidents are preoccupied with “subduing mentally disturbed or intoxicated by police has reportedly increased. suspects” and they hold on to this individuals, suspects fleeing minor Critics say the police are using the power dearly. Being a cop in any city crime scenes and people who argue Tasers in situations where no force with police or fail to comply was required in the first place, simply is a dangerous and scary business, but City Council has a responsibility immediately with a command. to overcome resistance to arrest. Several police agencies Now Cincinnati City Council to its citizens, especially kids. Police like Taser guns across the country have announced is in the midst of a debate on the that they will restrict their use of police use of Tasers against children. because they are easy to carry, usable at a distance and capable of Tasers following reviews which The proposal, introduced by immobilizing a target without, Councilmember Christopher allegedly, causing permanent injury. Smitherman, would ban the use of The statistics show that police police stun guns against suspects shooting of unarmed subjects has younger than 11. The current limit is fallen. But using Tasers against age 7. So far, the youngest child unarmed children is repugnant. Tased by Cincinnati police was 12 God forbid, a 7 year-old is years old. Tased and faces irreparable brain The first and second City Council votes on the issue resulted in damage or dies as a result of being zapped with 50,000 volts. If this a stalemate last month between the happens City Council members will eight sitting council members. Cincinnati Police Officers are have more to worry about than the New data reveals that armed with a Taser, similar to although Cincinnati police fired Tasers police union come election time. this one Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence. Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle. Alexander Solzhenitsyn Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence. Alice Walker Democracy don’t rule the world, you better get that in your head; this world is ruled by violence, but I guess that’s better left unsaid. Bob Dylan Streetvibes �Homeless News Digest Those who won’t go to a shelter are given a warm drink, extra blankets or sleeping bags. In Paterson, N.J authorities say frigid temperatures were likely to blame for the death of a homeless man whose body was found behind a school building last month. The 42-year-old man was discovered by a man who lived with him behind the school district’s Office of Special Programs building. Police Lt. Anthony Traina said temperatures were well below freezing during the period in which the man died. The homeless man’s name was not released because his family hadn’t been notified, Traina said. The man had a daughter who lives in Poland, where he was born, but investigators could not immediately determine if he had any local relatives. An autopsy was to be conducted, but Traina said the cold was likely responsible. There were no signs of violence or trauma to the man’s body. ee tvib es Streetvibes Last month a homeless man was flown to Delray Medical Center after he was found lying in a Burger King parking lot in suburban West Palm Beach, Florida with serious stab wounds. Burger King employees called the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office about 5 a.m. after finding him lying in the back of the lot at 1800 S. Military Trail. When authorities arrived, the man, identified as William Jarrett, denied he had been in a fight and appeared unaware he had been stabbed, sheriff’s spokesman Paul Miller said. Jarrett, described as being in his 40s, appeared intoxicated at the time. His injuries are not considered life threatening, Miller said. Str The Washington D.C. government is getting set to close another homeless shelter. The Washington Post Compiled by Jimmy Heath services, the plan will be heavy on reported that the Franklin School in providing permanent housing and Northwest will soon be sold to a The political pendulum services, rather than simply giving developer and the homeless people swung in favor of the homeless emergency shelter. living in the building will be moved. last month after the San Diego The philosophy today moves A spokesman for the mayor City Council gave a local nonprofit the go-ahead to propose away from the model of the past that acknowledged that closing the shelter just put people in homeless shelters, will be a “contentious issue.” Chris a second shelter in town. Bender said there will be sufficient The move ended a 50-minute Siedhoff said. “It was merely warehousing people without providing beds in other shelters to make up for debate for which 31 people showed any services that might enable people the closing. up in support of North County The city has taken a lot of Solutions for Change, an agency that to escape the cycle of homelessness,” Siedhoff said. heat from homeless advocates for opened a facility for homeless families “It enabled people to selling the building that housed the in November and wanted to add a maintain a certain lifestyle of Randall Shelter to the Corcoran location in December. homelessness that was not beneficial Gallery of Art late last year. Councilman Steve Gronke to those individuals or the Bender said the city should said he was proud of Vista’s community,” Siedhoff said. “We’re decide within the next few weeks involvement in helping the homeless, optimistic that our plan will be able to how the Franklin School will be but that the city had done enough. accomplish what it sets out to do, redeveloped. He calls it an He cited a staff report showing Vista with some exceptions.” “extraordinary” piece of real estate had allocated $760,000 to various that is doing nothing more than outreach programs since 2002 and In the Los Angeles area, a “collecting dust.” helped fund the central Vista facility of homeless man was killed when the Solutions for Change. hillside where his tent was pitched In Homewood Illinois, no Gronke also accused Solutions for Change president Chris gave way. The landslide came as the headstone rises over Reta West endured the fifth straight day of Reingruber’s freshly covered Megison of building an “empire” of rain and snow, part of a storm grave at the Homewood homeless shelters that would attract expected to continue through Memorial Gardens cemetery in the wrong homeless crowds. Wednesday and just the latest in a suburban Chicago. “This is just one of the many series that has buffeted the region Reingruber is among the things that will happen as you since before New Year’s Day. seven-thousand homeless and continue to build your empire,” indigent buried in common graves at Gronke said. In Lansing, Michigan the the cemetery. The graves are set Megison said the needs of the homeless still exist, and that adding a recent chilly weather is creating a back from the adorned family plots with their finely polished headstones facility is part of the agency’s strategic deadly situation for those with no home to go to. One homeless man that read “Our Beloved” and “Rest in plan. He also accused Gronke of has already died from hypothermia in Peace.” never visiting one of the agency’s Detroit. In the winter, many homeless The 45-year-old woman died shelters, which Gronke flatly denied. men in Lansing turn to the Lansing in August and was kept in Cook County’s morgue for five months The Los Angeles Board of City Rescue mission for shelter. Though the 24 beds at the before she was buried along with 22 Supervisors approved spending shelter are full all year long, mission other people whose bodies no $1.5 million last month to help as Executive Director Mark Criss says relatives ever claimed. They are the many as 2,000 homeless families latest reminders of what cemetery on welfare find temporary shelter. in the winter the beds alone are not enough, but instead of turning people owner Tom Flynn calls the “forgotten The money will be used to away, they put mats down on the people.” provide hotel vouchers that families floor. Homeless advocates say can collect from the Los Angeles “We’re never too full, we more could be done to connect these Homeless Services Authority through have room, find room anywhere to forgotten dead with relatives or June, 2005. lay people so they’re not sleeping friends so they don’t have to lie In addition, the board outside.” unclaimed for months and be given allocated $60,000 to identify other While the beds and mats are anonymous mass burials at the homeless families and children who normally enough to accommodate the cemetery. do not get the aid they qualify for. number of people through most of the winter, Criss says when the Australian police believe a If you can imagine temperatures drop below zero even homeless man was beaten to Downtown St Louis without any more come in. death in an inner-city Brisbane homeless, you can imagine park as 40 other homeless people success for a regional plan to end drank and played touch football In Ottawa, Canada, the chronic homelessness within 10 Salvation Army outreach van is nearby. years. Officers are seeking to The soon-to-be released plan making the rounds helping the city’s homeless during the frigid interview every member of the group will detail steps to be taken to see after the 54-year-old was found weather that there will be few hardcore People living on the streets unconscious in a dimly lit area of a homeless people in the city and are considered more vulnerable, often park at Kuripla Point, West End. county by the year 2015. suffering from frostbite or Ambulance crews tried to revive the According to William hypothermia during these winter days. man but he died at the scene. Siedhoff, city director of human A large group of homeless people had been playing touch football and drinking in the park at the time, regional crime coordinator acting Detective Inspector Geoff Sheldon today said. “There were a large number of people present at the time and we’re trying to locate as many witnesses as we can to find out exactly what did occur last night,” Inspector Sheldon said. Support Your Vendor Buy Streetvibes Page 3 �Berta’s Art Corner... Urban Tree, on top the Terrace Hotel, downtown Cincinnati, Ohio Show your support! Get your STREETVIBES T-Shirt Today! Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for your meeting his eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to lose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even. - Daniel Berrigan, SJ 20 YEARS SERVING THE NEIGHBORHOOD (Back shown here. Shirt not actual size) Empowering our neighborhood children through peace, art and education Only $15 We will send your Streetvibes T-shirt to your door ­ All proceeds benefit the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and the Streetvibes newspaper. Call 513.421.7803 x 16, or come in to our office at 117 E 12th Street in Over-the-Rhine Page 4 Streetvibes Peaslee Neighborhood Center 215 East 14th Street Over-the-Rhine Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 (513) 621-5514 �Train Hopping Squeegee Punks by Rodney Graham I t was raining that day, so they had taken shelter under a bridge. The beer was flowing freely and there was carnival atmosphere there. It was like a family reunion, as young men and women who had not met in months or years shared adventure stories. They seemed to have a special family type bond. Woody Guthrie could be heard wailing away from someone’s ghetto blaster. Later on, as everyone got more sauced, a few of the boys began singing King of the Road. None of them knew all the words to it though. Not much opportunity to interview there, but it was entertaining nonetheless. The squeegee punks were different than the ones of the early ’90s. By the way, it is not meant derogatorily to call them ‘punks’ because the ‘punk movement’ is seen as a noble thing. The young men and women I met were mostly from Ontario and mostly from Toronto and environs. These young men and women, compared to the ones of 1990 were crusty, rough, and cynical. seasoned beggars and had hawk eyes. In fact Mackie and Dustin had They were also older. Growing up themselves a quite a good dinner — on the street as virtually all of these while at the same time generously people interviewed did, they were offering me all kinds of info about wizened and hardened around the their very interesting lives. edges, but they still had the everI showed them the pictures I charming air of the squeegee punks of had taken of the big group under the the early ’90s, and the hoboes of the bridge the previous rainy night. They ’20s: mischievous, daring, and fun enjoyed them and looked at them as loving. cherished relatives would be looked One might ask — what do at in pictures. they offer society? Well, they offer us “Can I keep this one?” Dustin a lot actually: the hobo tradition is a asked. I told him to keep them all wealthy one, they are a national since I made two sets of them. treasure just as the fun lovable and “Wow, the rest of them will wandering hobo was. They are get a kick out of them when we meet survivors and don’t burden us much up again some day,” he said. They really, they survive by panhandling, showed me some pictures they had squeegeeing, and begging in different taken on trains. There was a picture ways. of an old man in one of them. As I sat on Osborne St. in “Who is this old man?” I Winnipeg talking to Dustin and asked. I thought he might be a Mackie the next day, they would relative. every so often jump up and deftly “He is a man who saw us sidle up to passersby and ask them sitting on the sidewalk in Melfort politely if they could have their Saskatchewan earlier this summer. It leftovers. People were coming out of was on our way from Vancouver to everywhere with little bags. Halifax,” Mackie answered. It was Personally, I never would have funny; he said, ‘What are you two, noticed the bags but these two were some kind of new age hoboes?’ He was so interested because he had known hoboes 60 years ago and thought they were cool,” she added, “He invited us home and he had insisted we eat all the hot dogs we could because he had a hot dog concession in town.” She looked sad for just a moment. “He’s dying of cancer,” she whispered. Her eyes fixed on his picture. “He won’t live much longer.” “Yeah,” Dustin said, “we have to stop off and see him on our way through.” “Yeah, we really should, Dustin,” Mackie replied. ‘…One evening as the sun went down and the jungle fires were burning, Down the track came a hobo hiking, and he said “Boys, I’m not turning.” “I’m heading for a land that’s far away beside the crystal fountains;” “So come with me, we’ll go and see …the Big Rock Candy Mountains..’ Reprinted from Street Sheet, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Summer 2004. Life Learning: Speak of the Devil by Cindy Carlson Life is odd! Why do things happen how they do and when they do? I am sure it is a question that many people have asked themselves. I had cause to stop and ask it again, just yesterday. I was sitting in a one of my Graduate Studies classes discussing a big adventure; it was a homework assignment about processing life learning. I chose to talk about the time I went into the air force. I mentioned that it was after a really abusive marriage. That all happened in 1977 a very long time ago, long before domestic violence programs and battered woman’s shelters even existed. I thought that it was all in the past and would stay in the past. I have processed it throughout my life: counseling, a thousand self-help books, journals and the personal transformations of life. Life moved on, another marriage (and a divorce) and now two grown children later, my life is pretty cool. I had left class early so that I could travel to Concord where there is currently no outreach worker available to the city. I had arranged for Joe, who has been with the Under The Bridge project about four years to meet me at school to go to Concord. I know Joe well, even knew him before he was homeless. The night before, I went down to Joe’s place, a sofa under a bridge and invited him up to my sofa. Joe Michael Moore’s Pre-Election UC Speech Challenged The University of Cincinnati says there was nothing improper about paying filmmaker Michael Moore his fee of nearly $8,000 for his Bush-bashing speech on campus just before the November election. The Federal Elections Commission had inquired about it. The school said it told the FEC that no election laws were broken because Moore was not officially connected to the Kerry campaign. University spokesman Greg Hand says a coalition of seven campus groups ranging from the student NAACP chapter to the Arts and Culture Club paid Moore from activity fees collected when students register. Hand stated that no tax money was used. The speaking engagement at UC was very popular and well attended. Moore answered questions from the audience and inreacted with the students, encouraging them to use thier power to vote. Moore’s film “Fahrenheit 9­ 11” harshly criticizes the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq. And Moore was active against Bush, visiting 66 cities last year in a Slacker Uprising Tour where he attempted to muster voters against the president. doesn’t go to shelters or into unfamiliar closed in surroundings. On the way to Concord, we talked about my class and another homework assignment. The idea of who would get a degree from HKU or the University of Hard Knocks? What would be the criteria for such a degree? And how would one go about figuring this all out. It was an interesting and stimulating conversation. We arrived at the Concord’s Friendly Kitchen and Joe went off to get something to eat. I saw two guys, one named Jeff, that I knew lived in places not fit for human habitation. One was staying in an unheated cellar and the other in a tent. I went to talk to the guys. I told them about the directive from Lance DePlant who is the chief at the office of Homeless and Housing for the State. Lance said there were additional funds added to ensure that no one freezes to death and we were to house everyone in a heated environment. I asked the guys if I could help house them for the next couple of days. There was a bit of conversation, “Nah, I am all set,” one said. “Don’t you want to go inside and warm up, maybe get a hot shower?” I asked. “I ain’t going to no shelter!” LIFE cont. on page 8 Know Your Rights Brochure Available! The Know Your Rights Brochure is now available at the Coalition’s office. The brochure is a legal guide for Cincinnati’s homeless and covers a person’s basic rights when interacting with the police, as well as some local laws that might be of interest to the homeless population. If you are a homeless person or if you work with homeless people and would like to obtain free copies of the brochure for yourself or your agency, please call 421­ 7803, or stop by the Coalition office and pick one up. Streetvibes Page 5 �Another New Year Is There A Difference? by Sean Anthony Cononie It happens from time to time. Disaster after disaster. And when you see it on TV, some respond in the most saddened way and some just make a comment like, “This is so bad, how can that happen, this is a shame,” while others do not even say a word. Do we not even say a word because we don’t care or do we not say a word because we want to block it out? Years ago, I would have said people just don’t care but today I find myself saying and thinking that people just want to block it out. I do consider myself a compassionate person but I fall short in other areas of my life. When a disaster strikes I try to be the level headed person always thinking ahead and trying not to worry about the death but think about how many we can save. Years ago when 911 struck by Rachel Lawson invest financially in this community? us all, my assistant Mary Lingo, who While working at the Greater Why is it so known that drug dealers died just a few years ago, sat on the Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, profit on Vine Street and it appears couch of her office/bedroom and had so far I have met a variety of as if no measures are done to stop tears in her eyes. All she kept on wonderful people, but I enjoyed the this? most my visits to the Drop Inn Center So I found myself in the same saying was, “those poor people.” I think I fell in love with her mind, soul (DIC) and the opportunity to talk to situation as the very homeless and spirit when I saw how upset she Tom-Lee and Bobby, two of the individuals who I attempt to offer was. This was a woman with more most passionate soldiers I have met in hope too. Until I visited Tom-Lee the war for equality and Bobby. Both of these compassion than any person I have known. To see her sit there and and justice. Tom-Lee men have worked at the and Bobby work at Drop Inn Center for more weep for total strangers proved she had so much love in her heart. the front of the Drop than 20 years and as a But for me, that day I Inn Center, doing result have seen remained strong and was planning in everything from everything. Two strong my head what I would do if working the office, souls that have a lot to something like this ever came our security, and basically Rachel Lawson offer the Drop Inn, way. I thought what happens if we in making sure things run personality wise they smoothly. One might assume I enjoy couldn’t be more opposite. There is Broward got attacked are we at the shelter prepared to assist the listening to the wisdom that they have Tom-Lee, who marches around the community and our own clients. Are to offer, but it’s not just their words Drop Inn Center as the sergeant, we the shelter ready for a local that move me but rather the passion gentle yet stern; he works to “arm” disaster? behind them. I recently found myself the clients of the Drop Inn Center I did not want to panic the feeling detached from “reality” with the understanding that they are staff so I started, without anybody in because of the repetitive hopeless capable of anything. Then there is the office really wondering what I attitude that is vocalized from most of Bobby, a quiet and reserved was doing, checking to see if we the homeless individuals that I come individual, who makes you feel that were really prepared. I called my in contact with. Unfortunately, they when he speaks you should listen or mom and dad and told them to have every right to feel hopeless. The chances are you might not have the remain inside for a few days and feeling that nothing can be done to opportunity again. After having a change the lack of jobs and short conversation with Tom-Lee and watch the TV for better instructions. As some of you may economical housing simply does not Bobby, I learned that you can’t be in and cannot put a smile on anyone’s a battle for a short while and quit, you remember from reading my past th stories in The Homeless Voice, the face. I even begin to think of 12 have to stand strong until the war is 911 incident did not hit me until I was Street as “Doom Street” because of over. As well, you can’t loose hope there just a few days after the attacks all the doomed futures I see when I when people literally expect you to with our disaster crew. Our crew walk past them. Never in my life inspire and encourage you to do the was made up of our Homeless have I encountered individuals so best that you can. In turn I thank people who wanted to help. These comfortable with offering drugs to them for being soldiers in a war that are the same Homeless people who any and everyone who walks down has gone on from the beginning of helped the west coast of Florida this the street. However, the drug dealers time, when everything and everyone year when we got three hurricanes. are not what keep the community at some point has struggled to be These same former clients also are down, in my opinion. It is the treated and viewed as equal. The starting EMT school to volunteer with struggle to remain hopeless. I two individuals who sit at the front our sister agency, Helping People in entered a corner store to inquire desk of the Drop Inn Center, Tomabout the ATM machine and Lee and Bobby, who have fought the America Disaster Agency. The ground zero did not bother me as everyone laughed at the possibility battle and continue to do so with much as the people putting up the that anyone would put an ATM spirit, honor, and most important of th pictures of their lost ones… Have machine on 12 and Vine. Why is it all hope. you seen this person? Have you seen funny that anyone would be willing to would not be able to make it. You by Miss Mary Gaffney really have to be around them to To my fellow readers and understand the situation they are in. purchasers of Streetvibes; as we Without the help life would be bleak. enter into the second month of the new year of 2005, the vendors and I One day, any one of us could find ourselves in the same situation. wish to thank you for your support I was once asked why I over the past years. Without you, the spoke so much of my vendors would not be homeless friends. able to go on. Your Even in their situation purchase is an they always speak to important part of their me with concern. lives. They worry about me Also, hats off during the bad to the Free Store, the weather. They greet soup kitchens, the me every day when I churches, shelters and come to work. If Over-the-Rhine and Miss Mary Gaffney I’m absent they will other neighborhoods; call me. Avondale, Walnut hills and many As I always say, God loves other areas. Without your concern and support for the less fortunate, the us all; we are his children here in the garden of life. Until next time. homeless and low-income families The Morning Battle Page 6 Streetvibes my dad? Have you seen my son? Pictures everywhere! And moms falling asleep on the ground holding a picture of their lost child hoping for signs of survivors! This was the worst time I have ever had when dealing with disasters. Years of working as a volunteer for the American Red Cross Disaster Action Team going to many disasters, I really never felt such an impact until I saw the pictures everywhere in New York. To see so many people waiting to find out if their loved ones were alive or dead is so heart wrenching it can make a big, burley, husky, some say fat guy cry. (This is me) I never thought I would see those pictures again, but I did like many other people who saw the news of the Tsunami. This disaster in Asia was not even at my finger tips for two days. I knew something happened but truthfully I was a little selfish because my body told me I was getting meningitis again and I was going from one hospital to another because not that many doctors really know a lot about meningitis. As you may remember I was in critical care for days in a coma from Meningitis last Christmas. I was paying attention to myself. Then a day or two later I saw the death toll it was in the 20,000’s. I sat in front of the TV and just stood there and I did not want to face it because I knew we would not be able to help this time and I did not want to see the disaster at all. It is just me. I knew we could not send anybody over there because of me being out sick. I figured if we went and my meningitis was exposed to so many infections and got sick there, I would simply die within 24 hours because there were no advanced medical services there that are required when dealing with such an illness. The next day numbers kept on going up and I was even sicker. I tried to avoid the TV as much as possible because I felt guilty we were not going to help, but soon got lured back to it. They were calling for agencies that had experience and resources dealing with disasters of this magnitude. We then called a meeting to see if we would send volunteers. Considering most of our staff are disaster prepared, and have worked many disasters and all are First Responders , I thought we could do something but soon was reminded by the smart ones in the office, ‘The Gals,’ “Sean, you’re out sick and not working, now let it alone.” So we thought of other ways of helping. Sending money was an option. So we did, we donated Cont. next page �money to Map International to buy medicine. We knew they were a good agency because they supplied the meds when our international agency The People’s United Nations provided medical services to the children of Haiti. Praying was already done and was happening by some of us for a few seconds throughout the day. As the days grew and numbers increased I started to put myself back into the planner of stopping the damage, stopping the death and I got lost in a world of my own thinking of what I could do if we were there or if I was in charge. Some call it day dreaming, some call it the “hoping to do more” syndrome, and even some of my friends call it “you are nuts, Sean” syndrome. Well in this disaster the “what can you do” is probably the most accurate, for we all wanted to do something but how many of us really could. Sometimes we all must block it out because we know we should be doing something but don’t know how or do not know where to begin.. After all, where do you exactly start? They have lost everything; it will take years and I mean years for the after effects to be gone. There will be counseling, dysfunctional families, orphans, drug addictions and many more social problems. Reports already are suggesting with so many orphans children may be sold into “ sex slavery.” The elderly won’t have their kids to take care of them and the kids won’t have their parents and those parents will never see how well their grandchildren grew up. These statements alone are enough to make you cry. Their economy will be bad and they will be stricken with all kinds of diseases and new medical problems that have not existed for years. I don’t want to sound negative but look at the damage, what can we really do? They lost EVERYTHING AND MORE THAN THAT. As I write this letter the death toll is at 120,000 and they say that 1/ 3 of that figure are small children. Yes, that is the most horrific thing in the world. After all, no parent ever recovers from the loss of one of their little ones. No matter how old their child was when they died they will never fully recover. They may look like they are functioning but I am sure as the years go by they still ask God why, why did you take my child? I guess Mother Mary could ask the same thing about her Son, Jesus. I always ask how God lets this happen. I end up closing with God knows no matter how much suffering we do at the time of our death, if we are a believer in Him, it is all perfect from death on. Jesus knew how much He would suffer but He knew it would end and He would be perfect once again. We were in the office today, I was having my temperature taken, and CNN also talked about how many children have died and we all just sat there in a state of shock. Let me give you some facts. But before the facts let us remind ourselves how great the world is reacting by giving so much aid. People from all over are lending a helping hand while others may be so upset knowing they cannot do anything and are becoming depressed over the entire incident. Even our Homeless who have nothing wanted to help in some way, and that is why I sometimes refer to them as “ Heroes” They are the ones who raised the money we are sending, Some people who have a lot of money are sending money to charities and some people who have a little money are trying to get it to the charity they think will do the best. Either way the giving is what counts… We all want to do something to help. Why is that? Is it because it is unexpected and it happens so fast or it is just the death itself ? I tend to think it is the unexpected disaster that hits our hearts. We see the damage and we see the death. But let me tell you this… it has been five days now since this disaster and they have lost about 120,000 people. But we are forgetting about the 30,000 kids who die daily of starvation and the lack of simple medicine they need, medicine that we take for granted. Since this disaster happened and this being the fifth day at the time I wrote this letter, 150,000 children have died in Third World countries and what has the world done? What I have done? What have the presidents and leaders of great nations done? It just seems so simple that we have the ability to stop the death of 30,000 children who die nightly when we go to bed. Which disaster is worse... this one or the starving one? It seems to me the starving one would be a lot worse but why do we really do nothing to change it? Why do we let it happen? Are we just so used to it and we just think it will happen and there is nothing we can do? Hear me out. And hear me loud! And Sean, you listen too, because I know personally I must do more. I have always written about, “There is no excuse.” I have lobbied the Pope and I have lobbied many governmental leaders and I still get no response. Every preacher in the world talks about helping those who are poor but what do we all really do? I am not talking about our homeless, I am talking about the children and the adults who die daily because of starvation. I am asking what does anybody, including myself, really do to help the starving children? It’s not just a lack of food, it is ongoing malnutrition that can be solved so easily. We should stop what we are doing right now and make a plan and do it like Nike says, “Just Do It.” Tonight go to Target or Wal-Mart and buy a bag of balloons QTY 100, blow them each up and lay them in your living room. When you get to 100, picture that being 100 babies who just died. By the way, by the time it takes you to blow up one balloon and tie it up, 9 babies have just died because of lack of food and medicine. This happens every day. You know to me it makes no sense whatsoever to allow this to happen. We worry about so many hard things to fix when the impact is not that great, but simple things like feeding the starving people of the world which is so easy compared to figuring out ways to stop another problem that has less impact like bringing democracy to a foreign country. Why can’t we all figure out how to stop this from happening? I repeat these words, “There is no excuse.” What I mean is no longer can world leaders and people like me allow this to happen anymore. No longer can the United Nations allow this to happen. I know that some people say we should only help our own. However, if we only help our own , our hearts will become hardened. When we harden our hearts it allows us to use the same hardened heart attitude when dealing with our own. Soon we will create a forth and fifth class of people in America and we will ignore our own as we ignore the poor of the world now. Please pray for this problem to be solved. Please come up with ways to help them. We are all God’s people and yes, we should pour our hearts out to these people of Asia; we should give them the shirt off our back, but then we should give the kids who have been starving for decades our next meal. Yes, Yes, Yes we should help those poor disaster victims of Asia and don’t stop helping but let’s not forget that many more die daily because they can’t get to eat...what we throw in the trash...to save their lives. We can’t change the past, but we sure can do something to help the future of these starving children. I am not asking you for a donation, what I am asking you to do are: that you form groups in your own communities and lobby our leaders that all world hunger is to stop now. Homeless in Austria Streetvibes Page 7 �MLK Cont. from page 1 Segregation and racism still have a stronghold on African American communities. Signed into law on May 2, 1975, Senate Bill 18 declared the third Monday in January as Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the state of Ohio. The first proposal for a statewide holiday honoring Dr. King came from the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission, and numerous area legislators were instrumental in the bill’s passage. The non-profit Martin Luther King Jr. Coalition was founded in 1978 to ‘strengthen the diverse human community through the promotion and practice of non­ violence and understanding.’ This year’s celebration took on added significance as participants celebrated the 40th anniversary of two acts of federal legislation considered hallmarks of King’s efforts: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned segregation in public places based on race, color, religion or national origin; and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which made it illegal to deny a person’s right to vote because of race or color. Martin Luther King continues to challenge us to question these philosophical dilemmas in our everyday lives, no matter what our LIFE cont. from page 5 “It doesn’t have to be a shelter. There are funds for a hotel room. Let me call the hotline and see what I can arrange for you,” I said. At the shelter I went to get a cup of coffee. Then it happened. My past smacked me in the face; just like the old saying - speak of the devil. There was a man standing in front of the coffee table and he said “Hi Cindy.” I said hi back and was looking at his face and trying to figure of why it was faintly familiar. I was processing in my head, what camp did he live in? What agency did he work for? He reminded me of a guy in Manchester that I avoid because of his abusive nature; a man who burns cigarettes into the arms of homeless women that he gets drunk. Though I knew it wasn’t him, I couldn’t help but feel something yucky and familiar about the guy. He said, “You don’t remember me?” He pulled me into a hug and I pushed him off. It was an unprivileged assault. I don’t hug people on the street, especially people that I don’t know. Not that I haven’t ever hugged anyone, just that there is an appropriate time and this was not one of those times. The instant he touched me I felt ill, he said in my ear, “It’s Lee.” I thought I would vomit right there. As I came loose from his grip, I backed away. Panic ran through my body. I walked quickly away and into the Page 8 life circumstance. More than 30 years after his death Martin Luther King Jr. is seen as the voice for all poor people – people left behind in the wake of other people’s economic affluence; stuck in low paying jobs and homelessness and poverty. After 30 years, his voice still rings true. The Martin Luther King Jr. Day Memorial March was held in downtown Cincinnati to rekindle the spirit of his work and to provide a voice to the unheard, to provide inspiration to those who have been cast aside by society’s indignities. Courtis Fuller MC’s MLK event at Music Hall safety of some street men that were gathered at a round table in the corner of the room. I leaned over and whispered to Joe, “my very abusive ex-husband is over by the coffee table.” I heard a voice behind me “Does this mean you don’t want to talk to me?” I never even turned around but said, “No, I don’t want to talk to you.” One of the guys said, “go away and leave her alone.” Panicked thoughts ran around in my head, could he recognize which vehicle parked out front would be mine? Was I safe? I had recently read his name on the Manchester police department’s web page, while scanning the “wanted” list. He was wanted for a violation of a restraining order indicating that while I had worked really hard to change my life over the past twenty-seven years, he had not. On the phone it was the Homeless Hotline calling me back. He had a hotel room for the guys I was trying to hook up, and was faxing the hotel a voucher. When we were all ready I drove the guys to the hotel. On the way the conversation was about Lee and not to worry because if he began hanging around the kitchen, there would be some street justice. I thanked the guys for their loyalty but I would handle it with the Concord Police Department. After dropping off the men at the hotel, Joe and I headed back to Manchester. I filled his ears with memories of that marriage: I was a naive 15 year old when I my mother signed guardianship over to this man. He was just a regular run of the mill drug pushing pimp who convinces girls that he will protect them and love them; then gets them addicted to crank and turns them out to the street. I am proud that I made it through it. Many don’t. In the end, it was an experience I am glad I went through. It taught me many things about myself as well as other people. Because of it, I learned of another side of life you simply cannot understand unless you have gone through it. In my case, Lee decided to marry me at sixteen and my abusive mother signed the documents for permission. She wanted me out of the house away from my also very abusive stepfather. She wasn’t doing it to protect me; she was doing it because she was in denial. She had chased all of my older sisters out of the house by the age of sixteen, because we were causing her husband to act in certain ways toward us. I told Joe about being dragged around by the hair in my old apartment building’s hallways and no one calling the police. About being handcuffed to a bed for three weeks and things that went along with that. I just kept vomiting out all the horror and at the Streetvibes same time trying to get control of myself. We parked and got out to walk. I yelled over a wall, “Hey Dino, are you guys down there?” He grunted. I said come out and talk to me. He skipped up the snow-covered hill and I gave hime the directions t a heated shelter. He and a buddy were still in the camp. I told them to get in the van and we would go use the phone at my apartment, since I don’t have a cell phone. Upstairs in the apartment, I make the calls to the Hotline. Again arrangements are made for the guys. One man is banned from the shelter. The other has lived outside for the past 6 years that I have known him. They both get a hotel voucher. I ask Joe if he wants to go to the hotel too. He says no, mumbles about unfamiliar places, and I understand but simply wanted to make the offer. I call the Hotline again to check on arrangements for tomorrow. There was one guy MIA at the Friendly Kitchen, the guys said they saw him earlier and he was intoxicated. I hope he makes it through the night okay. Then I start a dialogue with my daughter. If success is the best revenge, what would it be like for all of my ex’s to be standing in the room as I graduate with my Master’s degree? I just spoke to my landlord and he said rent is going up again in June. �Protests, Boycotts Loom Over Inaugaration Thousands of people in dozens of cities across the nation walked out of work and school, held mock coronations, intoned the names of the Iraq war dead and held candlelight vigils to show their disapproval of President Bush as he was sworn in for his second term. From Bridgewater, Mass., to San Francisco, the protesters carried a similar message that Thursday, deploring the war in Iraq, angry about the Patriot Act and concerned about the next four years. “The administration thinks it’s got a mandate to continue its policies,” said David Williams, a 49­ year-old construction company owner from Oakland, Calif., who wore a T-shirt to the San Francisco march with Bush’s picture and the description, “International Terrorist.” In Detroit, David Livingstone says the idea behind the economic boycott he organized was simple: If people don’t show up at work or buy things, companies lose money. As he sees it, that’s money the Bush administration can’t tax, and can’t use to run the war in Iraq, protect polluters or chip away at the Constitution. So the Detroit Democrat and a handful of other anti-Bush groups across the country urged others of like mind to withhold their cash and labor on Inauguration Day - from all businesses. They didn’t think they’d inflict a huge economic pain, but they did want to make a point. “I viewed the inauguration of Bush as a black Thursday for this country,” Livingstone says. “We’ve tried marching in the streets to stop the war, we tried writing letters, we tried initiatives on the Web, but Bush doesn’t listen. It seems to us the only thing Bush and the Republicans will listen to is money.” Livingstone, a 41-year-old writer, hoped to be in Washington for the Jan. 20 festivities, which for him means protests, black armbands and backs turned to the parade route. Don’t be Squirrelly! And he vowed not to buy gas, food or use his credit card that day: He wants the GOP, big oil, big banking, big box stores and any other “bigs” to know they can’t push him around or ignore him - at least not on January 20. The White House took all the boycott talk in stride. Bush “is proud that we live in a society where people are free to peacefully express their opinions,” spokesman Jim Morrell says. Other groups nationwide, many loosely connected through the Internet, put out calls similar to Livingstone’s. Jesse Gordon, 44, of Cambridge, Mass., spreads the word through his Web site, Not One Damn Dime! Gordon doesn’t expect to shake the economy, but does want to see the president recognize dissent. “I think Bush should acknowledge the boycott. If we’re effective, he’ll know about it, and he should acknowledge it,” Gordon says. In New Orleans, Buddy Spell says his January 20th Committee eagerly endorsed the idea of an economic boycott. He was primarily concerned with organizing a jazz funeral procession through the downtown to mourn a second Bush term and what he calls the death of democracy. But he says a boycott was worth pursuing, in part because it can help unite disparate anti-Bush forces. The groups hoped to see several million people eating brownbag lunches and dinners on Inauguration Day. If people didn’t want to boycott all business, the groups suggest buying from just those that support Democrats. The protesters say they’ll measure success not in economic terms, but by whether people know about the boycott and if it sparks future activism. “I can’t imagine it would have any impact whatsoever,’’ says David J. Vogel, professor of business ethics at the University of California at Berkeley. “Even if everyone didn’t buy on that day, they’d make up for it the next day.” Historian Lawrence Glickman says boycotts rarely accomplish any substantial economic goal, and if they do, it’s usually because they are tailored to a specific product. Boycotts tend to have more success applying political pressure, but even that is limited. Still, he said, their record of failure never seems to stop Americans from launching them. “It’s a way of feeling like we’re participating in something bigger than ourselves.” Buy Streetvibes! Streetvibes Page 9 �The Peace Village by this outpouring? Both waves of action have taken my breath away and made me wonder about the roots of compassion in people and governments. Can anything predictable be said about what is now going on? The US appears to be working UNDER the supervision of the UN. US warships are delivering life saving missions of water and food to areas of Indonesia that have been scraped clean of basic by Steve Sunderland The amazing and quick response of the world community to the disaster inAsia is heartening, fulfilling a gap that just days before suggested that the world’s hungry, sick, and thirsty would continue to receive little help from the most affluent nations. Now, the world situation forAsia is totally changed as the impact of the wave and earthquake has moved not only billions of gallons of water and dirt but the stubborn hearts of governments. All of a sudden villages in Indonesia have become household names as stories of fantastic heroism pop Dr. Steve Sunderland out of the muck and become connected to our structures. Rebel groups, with years consciousness. The world of Sri of murderous experiences, have Lanka, now damaged by massive declared peace agreements and death and devastation of land, has opened up areas that have been become synonymous with sealed and protected by brutal unbelievable pictures and news guerilla and government wars. Relief reports of elders sacrificing organizations are asking for the themselves to have their children cessation of monies for their saved. And, the dead of southern organizations and the redirecting of India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Mal funds to equally fatal problems of Dives all have charged into our people such as malaria, hunger, minds, making it clear that waves of typhoid and AIDS. destruction can travel faster and All of this has happened in further than our wildest imagination. the wake of the search for people Yet, the sudden and violent who may have survived the day after hours of destruction have matched Christmas. Perhaps 200,000 or more and beaten by the even quicker Indonesians did not. Over 30,000 Sri compassionate wave of relief pouring Lankans have died, along with over from the hearts of so many countries. 10,000 Indians and thousands more Have you been as shocked as I have around the great circle of nations embracing the Indian Ocean. These countries, perhaps with the exception of India, have been placed squarely in the center of our concerns for the first time. It has been like learning a new set of vocabulary words with each word connected to ghastly pictures of destruction and amazing beautiful pictures of relief work. The combination has been a tsunami of words, emotions, gratitude, and horror. What does this all mean? And, of course, I am asking, what does this mean for the development of sustained compassion toward “the stranger?” Has the world totally underestimated the human heart, again? Have those of us engaged in anti-war efforts and partisan politics, both defeated in the past election, missed the finer qualities of our world as well as our national heart of caring? Of course, the war, continues, hunger and disease will kill millions unnecessarily, and our geo-political games will start back up and take this story out of our front lobes. But, and this is a “but” I am betting on, but we have seen and learned something so powerful in the past 20 days of the ways in which the world can create the logistics of compassion that something more important than the shift in geological plates has occurred. Can we, those of us working in the service of peace, continue our efforts to help, take leadership from ourAsian brothers and sisters, and become the loving co-parents to the entire Asian land so deeply orphaned, so upset by the waves upon waves of grief? There is no model I know of that explains or informs the next steps. Gandhi said: “The future of what we do is the present.” I see a level of action that is heartening. We, in the Peace Village, bow in gratitude. Dr. Steve Sunderland, professor of Social Work at the University of Cincinnati, is the Director of The Peace Village, a group of individuals from the national and interna­ tional community committed to examining all issues of Peace in the world. Dr. Sunderland also heads up Posters-for-Peace which en­ gages people in expressing their visions of Peace, in their own words, through the cre­ ation of posters. A lighter side of the inauguration.... Jon Stewart: “Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for – the official halfway point of the Bush presidency.” President Bush: “I George Walker Bush do solemnly swear...” Stewart: “At which point 49 percent of the country also solemnly swore.” “President Bush is being criticized because his inaugural celebration cost $40 million. When asked about it, the president said, ‘Sorry, but my daughters insisted on an open bar.’” – Conan O’Brien “Some people are criticizing President Bush for spending $40 million on his inauguration, but hey, give the guy a break, he’s excited. After all, this is the first time he’s really been elected.” – Jay Leno “You folks see the inauguration ceremony last night? George W. Bush sworn in as president? I’ll tell you it is starting to look really bad for John Kerry. But it was nice to see a president put a hand on the Bible instead of an intern.” ­ David Letterman “CNN is reporting that a longtime friend of President Bush says that Bush is telling everyone, in the next four years he intends to be ‘really aggressive’. ‘Really aggressive’? In the past four years we launched what, two wars? What’s ‘really aggressive’ going to look like? What, are we gonna’ bomb Canada now?” - Jay Leno “President Bush is getting ready for his inauguration next week. He’s working on his speech. It’s a pretty good speech. So far all he has is ‘ask not what your corporation can do for you but what you can do for your corporation.’” - Jay Leno “Don “Don’’t Leave Home W ithout IIt...” t...” Page 10 “Security is a big issue this year. So the Secret Service announced that people attending President Bush’s inaugural ceremony will not be allowed to bring coolers or alcoholic beverages. In other words, the Bush twins will not be going.” - Conan O’Brien Streetvibes �Closing the Gaps To Make Families Safe and Stable by Judi Clark, Ohio Empowerment Coalition East Ohio Organizer There are gaps in Ohio’s welfare system that create barriers to families trying to escape domestic violence. Families cannot become Safe and Stable with our current system. We need to close those gaps so families all across Ohio are safe. Unlike other states, Ohio allows each of its 88 counties to develop their own welfare policy. While the counties may think this is working, it is causing confusion and placing lives of families in danger because there is no consistency in policies across Ohio. Each of the 88 counties is deciding whether or not to help families become Safe and Stable. They decide which victims of violence, if any, receive services to escape domestic violence while trying to become economically independent. We know that almost 60% of women on public assistance have been victims of domestic violence. We know that domestic violence is the single greatest barrier to a family’s self-sufficiency. So why is Ohio one of only 6 states without clear guidelines to provide a safety net to low-income families trying to escape domestic violence? What happens when families have to flee their homes, maybe giving up jobs or the financial support of an abusive partner, and go to another county for safety? There’s no guarantee that the county where they end up will offer them that safety. There are so many gaps in the system. For example, a family may flee Hamilton or Stark Counties, where the welfare department works with community agencies to provide counseling and support services as an alternative to traditional work requirements, allowing a family to become safe before going to a job. They might go to Greene County to escape and will find that Greene County has no official hardship exemption for victims of violence. Or maybe they go to Defiance or Gallia County where they can only receive support if they live in a shelter. Wood and Crawford Counties have good support systems in place, yet they both have a mandate which can put a woman’s life in danger if she is hiding from her abuser. Gaps in the system led to a lawsuit in Cuyahoga County where lack of caseworker training and improper screening resulted in caseworkers taking children out of the home when low-income mothers reported that they were victims of domestic violence. Cuyahoga County now has a pilot screening program, only being used some of the time, but based on the agency’s past performance, recipients can’t trust Cuyahoga County Department of Job and Family Service to do it right this time. Victims there have been victimized by the system that was supposed to help them. We need to make sure that we close the gaps to ensure that families are Safe and Stable all over Ohio. The Ohio Empowerment Coalition’s “Safe Families are Stable Families” would close those gaps if adopted into state legislative policy. We urge the Ohio Assembly to adopt this policy so that families don’t have to wait any longer to be Safe and Stable. For more information on the “Safe Families are Stable Families” Campaign, please call 513/381-4242 or toll-free 1-877-862-5179. The Biggest Challenge Facing Cincinnati is Overcoming Fear by Brian Garry Cincinnati needs to face its collective fears and be rid of them. One fear our city needs to face is that of conflict. We should address our conflicts head on. We should work, however long it takes, to find common solutions and compromises. Progress comes by a series of compromises. Both sides give a little. Everyone is not always going to get everything that they want, although we should always constantly strive for that ideal. Cincinnati seems to have adopted the ostrich concept of problem solving: “If I don’t see, then it doesn’t exist.” Thus Cincinnati has placed blinders on and settled into a warm, comfortable lullaby hoping that conflict will resolve. We employed this ostrich concept with race relations until faced with an emergency of utter chaos. Suddenly, we were forced to face and be-rid of the things blocking us. We started down the path to face our fear of conflict, but now that we have regained control, chaos has subsided, and we are being lulled off to sleep once again with our heads in the ground on the race issue. And they will stay there until there is another eruption/disturbance of our sleep. Similar to the way we treat the race issue we use the “sweep it under the rug” technique regarding the class issue. Again, if we don’t see it, then it doesn’t matter. Unfortunately, one of these elephants is right in downtown’s living room, Over the Rhine. We, however, don’t see the poverty. We look right past the human suffering and we gaze at the splendid, ItalianateArchitecture and we daydream about what we can get out of it instead of seeing what we can give to the community of Over-theRhine. Fear of the unknown, fear of change, fear of losing what we have, fear of discomfort, fear of the pain of facing ourselves, our mistakes, our transgressions, our greed. The second way to face our fear of conflict is to take inventory. We need to collectively “take inventory “and perhaps share this inventory with another city. Let’s see what our strengths and weaknesses really are and set about the work of true change. We can then begin the restructuring our society, of making our little piece of the world a more equitable one. We can make a city where we eliminate extreme poverty and eliminate extreme wealth. A city where people feel valued because they are valued and that no one is locked-down, burdened with the fetters of collective racism and classism. I wish to create a Cincinnati wherein we can truly share and exchange the best of what each of us, our cultures, have to offer. Part of this change is addressing what needs change in each of our cultures. We need true justice and mercy in our court system, business world and policing. When we stop economic injustice, we will see huge drops in crimes, of theft, drug dealing, robbery and murder. We also need to educate and eradicate the glorification of killing, the objectification of women and drug dealing in our culture, media and music. These behaviors just don’t work and just don’t help anybody. We need massive cross-cultural experience and education. Another need is a United Neighborhood Organization. The creation of this Community of Communities is one way our City can come together on real community issues, supporting each other, helping one another. The Third way to face our fear of conflict is to make a start, not the be-all-and-end-all, but a start, to engage in a massive East meets West effort, rich meets poor, black meets white. To do a cultural exchange, in which for example, half of Taft High School goes to Elder for a while and vice versa. Where churches and businesses and government follow suit. Our System is awful and needs to be changed, however, we really do have some tangible aversion to each other - rich, poor, black, white etc. For the greatest fear is fear of the unknown. If people really get to experience each other’s cultures in a safe and friendly environment, it will help begin addressing our ultimate goal of a just, equitable, open, accepting, peaceful city. Our real work is to change the culture in Cincinnati. To make our little heaven right here, in Cincinnati. Christopher Smitherman has taken some first steps and we must continue this journey, walking down this path hand in hand. We must try to make our lives microcosms of this great vision. The Serenity Prayer says, “Change the things We can…” We must live our lives this way. Enjoying the company of rich, poor, black, white, gay, straight, abled and disabled, Christian and non-Christian. We must allow room in our lives for all kinds of people, ex-offenders, homeless people, mentally ill, business executives, and all kinds of people. In this way we will begin the equalization of our city. A little Utopia. We will work first by equalizing the extreme poles of extreme wealth and extreme poverty. Rev. McCrackin was my mentor. To be around Rev. McCrackin was to enjoy a little bit of heaven, first because of his spiritual connection, but equally important because of his deep connection to all people. Rev. McCrackin said, “We are only people in relation to other people.” If Cincinnati lives by his example of courage, service and love we would truly face and be rid of our biggest challenge, that of overcoming our fear by exercising our faith. Tsunami Relief Raises Earmarking Issues for Charities The enormous outpouring of giving for victims of the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia is bringing the role of nonprofits in international disaster relief into the public eye once again. Many donors are earmarking their contributions for tsunami relief, raising some concern that disaster relief needs in other areas of the world may suffer. By the middle of January the Red Cross had collected $92 million, which will be used for immediate relief as well as long term needs. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11 the group was criticized when donors learned some of the funds for collected would be used for other purposes. This time all gifts are going to its International Response Fund. New York attorney Jack Siegel has set up a website for donors to get information on how to ensure their intent is honored. Streetvibes More contributions are likely to be made now that Congress has passed a bill (H.R. 241) that allows donors to deduct contributions made through the end of January 2005 from their 2004 taxes. Page 11 �Streetvibes Vendor Code of Conduct About the Greater Cincinnati All Vendors Sign and Agree to a Code of Conduct Coalition for the Homeless and Report Any Violations to GCCH - 421-7803 Streetvibes.... 1. Streetvibes will be distributed go to the individual vendor. This program has helped for a $1 voluntary donation. If a customer donates more than $1 for a paper, vendors are allowed to keep that donation. However, vendors must never ask for more than $1 when selling Streetvibes. 2. Each paper purchased from the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) costs 30 cents. Papers will not be given out on credit. Old papers can not be traded in for new papers. 3. Streetvibes may only be purchased from GCCH. Never buy papers from, or sell papers to other vendors. 4. Vendors must not panhandle or sell other items at the same time they are selling Streetvibes. 5. Vendors must treat all other vendors, customers, and GCCH personnel with respect. 6. Vendors must not sell Streetvibes while under the influence. 7. Vendors must not give a “hard sell” or intimidate anyone into purchasing Streetvibes. This includes following customers or continuing to solicit sales after customers have said no. Vendors must also never sell Streetvibes door-to-door. 8. Vendors must not deceive customers while selling Streetvibes. Vendors must be honest in stating that all profits Vendors must not tell customers that the money they receive will go to GCCH or any other organization or charity. Also, vendors must not say that they are collecting for “the homeless” in general. 9. Vendors must not sell papers without their badge. Vendors must present their badge when purchasing papers from GCCH. Lost badges cost $2.00 to replace. Broken or worn badges will be replaced for free, but only if the old badge is returned to GCCH. 10. Streetvibes vendor meetings are held on the first weekday of the month at 1pm. The month’s paper will be released at this meeting. If a vendor cannot attend the meeting, he or she should let us know in advance. If a vendor does not call in advance and does not show up, that vendor will not be allowed to purchase papers on the day of the meeting or the following day. Five free papers will be given to those who do attend. 11. Failure to comply with the Code of Conduct may result in termination from the Streetvibes vendor program. GCCH reserves the right to terminate any vendor at any time as deemed appropriate. Badges and Streetvibes papers are property of GCCH, and must be surrendered upon demand. The mission of the North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA) is to support a street newspaper movement that creates and upholds journalistic and ethical standards while promoting self-help and empowerment among people living in poverty. NASNA papers support homeless and very low-income people in more than 35 cities across the United States and Canada. Streetvibes Vendor: 70 cents Printing and Production: 30 cents Page 12 The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) was formed in May of 1984 for one purpose: the eradication of homelessness in Cincinnati. What started out as a coalition of 15 volunteers meeting weekly in an unheated church basement has since grown into a Coalition of over 45 agencies and hundreds of volunteers dedicated to improving services for homeless individuals, educating the public about homelessness and empowering homeless individuals to advocate for their civil rights and housing needs. Streetvibes is a tool of GCCH used to help us achieve our goal of ending homelessness. On the one hand it is a self-sufficiency program geared towards the homeless and marginally housed individuals who are our vendors. Streetvibes vendors buy the paper for 30 cents per copy and sell it for a suggested one-dollar donation, keeping the profit that they have earned. hundreds of people find and maintain housing. The vendors also sign a code of conduct stating that they will behave responsibly and professionally and they proudly display their official Streetvibes badge while selling the paper. Our vendors put a face on “the homeless” of Cincinnati and form lasting friendships with their customers. On the other hand, Streetvibes is an award-winning alternative newspaper and part of the international street newspaper movement. Focusing on homelessness and social justice issues, Streetvibes reports the often-invisible story of poverty in our community. Streetvibes is also proud to include creative writing, poetry, articles, photography and interviews written by homeless and formerly homeless individuals. Streetvibes enjoys a loyal reader base that respects the honest portrayal of the joys, sorrows, and challenges facing the people of Cincinnati. Streetvibes is a member of the: The International Network of Street Papers (INSP) unites street papers sold by homeless and people living in poverty from all over the world. INSP is an umbrella organisation, which provides a consultancy service for its partner papers and advises on the setting up of new street papers and support initiatives for marginalised people. Where Your Dollar Goes... The Streetvibes program maintains a minimal overhead cost so that our vendors can keep as much of the proceeds as possible. Please call our office at 421-7803 for more information about the program. Many thanks for your support. Streetvibes We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living. ­ General Omar Bradley The pens which write against disarmament are made with the same steel from which guns are made. - Aristide Briand, French statesman, Nobel Peace Prize, 1926 The pacifist's task today is to find a method of helping and healing which provides a revolutionary constructive substitute for war. - Vera Brittain, 1964 �School of The Americas by the Purple Turtle For more than 10 years, the Catholic left has organized protests in Columbus, Georgia to push for the closing of the School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning. SOA military graduates have been involved in many tortures and deaths through out Central and South America. The government denies that it trains in these techniques but the record is large and infamous. In a public relations effort the SOA name has been changed to Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, acronym WHINSEC, but is still called SOA throughout the world. Fifteen thousand secularists, atheists, agnostics Buddhist, Catholics and others joined together the week end of November 19 – 21, 2004 to close down the SOA. Friday, my friend Gordon Maham and his neighbor Jacob picked me up at my apartment in Over-the-Rhine. We gathered with 45 students at the Dorothy Day House at Xavier University for a bus ride south. The trip displayed a group of students both outgoing and friendly. Saturday, 3AM – arrive at Hotel in Columbus, Georgia. 7AM – rise and shine and eat in the lobby, then off to the SOA tour at Fort Benning. Cameras were allowed on a short bus trip on the base. The tour was straight from a movie satire of stereotypes, with uniformed military personnel and their excited civilian Protest marchers at Fort Benning, Georgia cohorts. An hour and a half was A procession was held that About noon we were off to allowed for open questions with no lasted several hours. The names of the main entrance of Fort Benning. follow up questions and a notable Speeches, music and talking, talking, the deceased victims of the SOA failure to mention, (1) 80% of their were read with the crowd responding talking...100 plus. Gordon and I current students are from Columbia “presente!” A very dramatic and looked for our friend, three time and (2) President Hugo Chavez has personal event. Noble Prize Nominee Kathy Kelley. military participation, a result of SOA This event is characterized by Watch lobbying, which organizes this Later in the day I discovered both he thousands of people holding white and I found her, and a search team demonstration. crosses, political signs, (mine read looking for both of us found her – IRAQ-NAM and BUSH HAS what are the odds? IRAQTILE DYSFUNCTION. The 5PM – to the bus, hotel and latter was commented on a lot and eating. 7PM – at a separate site at a photographed), art works, and large puppets. large white tent the students went to 5:30PM – the protest ends Mass. I went 3 blocks away to the with joyful dancing in the streets. Convention Center. SOAWatch 6PM – Xavier group eats held a benefit concert. Sunday, 12:25AM – 3AM – nearby. (By the way, one student estimated 70 plus Cincinnati citizens I walked 7 miles to our hotel. were in Columbus, Georgia.) 7AM – Morning came early 3AM – Where have I seen 9AM – At protest site. that time before? Back at Xavier. Mid-afternoon – an oral 3:30AM – Back in Over-theprotest. Rhine. Berta Lambert, Kathy Kelley and Gordon Maham New York’s Homeless World Cup Called Off by Bernhard Wolf Despite the best efforts of the organizers, the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) Homeless World Cup, scheduled for New York 2005 has been called off due to the uncertainty of obtaining visas for the teams of homeless players from around the world. The tournament which was scheduled for August next year in Bryant Park, Manhattan, will now be moved to a European location to be announced this week. The Homeless World Cup is an innovative sports­ integration initiative for homeless people associated with the street paper movement. It has been successfully held in Graz, Austria in 2003 and Gothenburg, Sweden in 2004. Despite repeated efforts to reach an agreement on the issue of Visas, the organisers of the event, ProPoor Sports Ltd., have been advised that it is very unlikely that all the teams anticipated to participate would get to the event in New York. Mel Young, President of the International Network of Street Papers (INSP), says, “This poses an ethical problem for us and it runs against the spirit of this tournament. Regretfully we will have to move the 2005 Homeless World Cup to an alternative location in Europe.” Young referred to the enormous effort of the Homeless World Cup Committee in New York led by the city’s BIGnews street paper who won the bid to host the event against other candidates of the INSP, and to the strong support from the New York City Council and some major NYC sports marketing and media companies. “We want to express our respect for their commitment and their hard work”, says Young. “What’s happened is really sad but we had to make a decision and the fact is that the current legal situation around visa availability into the US means that we cannot guarantee our people would be admitted for the week and so regretfully we have to pull out. I personally wanted this event to take place in New York, but we are responsible to the participating teams and so the 2005 event will take place somewhere in Europe.” Jeff Grunberg, editor in chief of the New York street paper, BIGnews says: “Because as many as 1/3 of the players might not have been accepted into the country upon arrival and a higher level of organization on the part of street papers would be necessary to facilitate the visa application process, more time will be spent in the next years to reach a better level of certainty so that the tournament could take place in New York the way we would have liked.” Illinois State Police Issue Gag Order A new Illinois State Police policy could silence whistleblowers that expose corruption, impropriety or wrongdoing within the police department by prohibiting employees from talking to news reporters. The gag order came soon after a November 2004 Chicago television news station story exposed improper conduct on the part of state police guarding the governor. The report questioned the size of the governor’s security force on out-of­ state trips and detailed how bodyguards allowed unauthorized people to drive or ride in state vehicles, among other things. Illinois Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn spoke sharply against the policy stating, “State government should do everything possible to protect those with the fortitude to speak out about wrongdoing. The officer who informs the media about possible officer misconduct may be subject to greater discipline than someone committing the misconduct!” Whistleblowers should be ensured the opportunity to report Streetvibes illegal activities without fear of reprisal from their employer, but despite legal protections afforded under the national Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, whistleblowers remain at risk of reprisal. This gag order appears to be a method for the state police to avoid public scrutiny and accountability. Page 13 �Today A Day At Ursuline Academy by Ron O’Neal and Rachel Lawson Last month, Streetvibes readers were able to learn a little about Ronald “Ron” O’Neal and his recovery from addiction. He recently was invited by Lynda Hoffman-Jeep and Todd Forman to visit Ursuline Academy in Blue Ash. Ron spoke to the students about a variety of things such as his addiction and how he expressed himself in a positive way in order to get some perspective in his life. Ron was amazed to learn that some of the students had close friends and relatives who had experienced addiction. While he was there he engaged the students in an impromptu writing session based on how they felt about homelessness, addiction, and poverty. Ron would like to share with you the writings by some of the students. He deeply enjoyed his visit to Ursuline and meeting the students, most of all he felt that he had a positive impact on some of the students. Addiction by Emily Becker I always thought of an addiction as something that you could control and get rid of. However, after listening to Ron I realize that an addiction is a disease and it will always stay with you. If you have help from God and others you can learn to deal with an addiction. I think that in order to control any addiction you may have, you have to really, truly want to end/stop the addiction. Without strong determination and self-drive, I don’t see it possible to overcome a serious addiction. The question I have is are you born with an addiction or does it develop over time? I’m thinking it develops over time because I don’t think a baby would be born a cocaine addict or an alcoholic. Addictions are a difficult thing to overcome and deal with, but with the help from each other we can one by one help those with addictions. by Robert Manassa I’m sitting here wondering what I am going to do today. Shall I go out on a shopping spree? There are so many things to do and see I’m not worried about yesterday or tomorrow I’m truly worried about today. Yesterday is dead and gone And tomorrow is out of sight Today is here. I’ll fight a good fight I’ll face whatever comes my way I’ll accept my plight I live each day one day at a time Realizing that none of the days I live are mine It is through God’s grace That I’m here right now I’m living for today. Untitled by Tess Henderson Homelessness by Jackie Kern Notice the word is “homelessness,” not “houselessness.” The homeless have nowhere to go, no one to go to. The homeless feel abandoned and alone. They don’t just need a house, they need a home. A home is a support system. A home can fill a void within a person. That’s why the Drop Inn Center is so great. It’s not just a shelter (house). It’s a recovery program (home). Untitled by Elaine Whitaker Addiction by Anonymous Many lives are touched by addiction. Most of the time this is nothing good. A person’s addiction hurts them, their family, and their friends. Nothing is more important than your relationship with other sand an addiction damages those dramatically. I personally know what it’s like to experience addiction. An extremely close relative of mine has hurt me so much because of his addiction. The alcohol (and who know if there’s more) is used day after day. No matter what the consequences are, he has to drink. When I was little he would come home late and start yelling. The alcohol was supposed to make things better for him, but made things worse for those bearing the weight of his hate. He was kicked out and even that didn’t stop his drinking. What I wish is that somehow he comes to the light and realizes there are other joys in his life other than feeling that high! No food. No home. No life. “It’s his own fault he’s poor.” Those who do not know Speak that which they Don’t understand. To live, to maintain Exist from day to day, Is the greatest challenge. Hungry eyes, hungry bellies, Hungry hearts: All yearning for things So simple we take them for granted. Eating in shelters, Sleeping in cars. Broken dreams and Shattered hearts. Hardest of times and endless strife. No food. No home. No life. Hope, my friend, Is a four-letter word, It keeps you flying, It’s the wing of a bird. Hope is the grace That keeps me goin’ I’m a bird in the sky Hope keeps me soarin’ Hope is my friends, Hope is my family, Hope is my life Hope is life. Poverty by Jessica Brock by Sarah Hattersley Poverty is such a powerful word with a powerful meaning behind it. Most of us here are so sheltered to poverty and don’t usually think that there are actually many poverty-stricken people on our streets of Cincinnati. Usually when we hear poverty we think of the third-world countries such as Mexico and Cuba who are so poverty-stricken. What we do need to realize is that while we will never be able to completely eliminate poverty, there are ways we can help. For example, gathering old clothes for St. Vincent de Paul or Goodwill to come pick up or donating extra money. Even just a couple dollars or cents. Every penny counts. One of the most powerful ways to help is to volunteer for the poor. Just helping them out may put a smile on their face for the day and I’m sure it will put one on yours, too. This is a powerful way to do God’s will. By the breath of life Stands a silent cry For the hopeless and homeless Page 14 Streetvibes The weak that survive Is the Strong that stays alive The streets are fierce with Violence and gun play But all we can do is pray. Thw worlds is a vicious place But in our hearts and mionds Will be fine. The drugs are from corner To corner, block to block But we wonder will it ever stop. �Homelessness Untitled by Emily Haglage by Katie Madges I think about this often, about the people on the streets. I think about what they do and where they could possibly sleep. I think about their lives and what led them to this state. But I know that in every one of them beats a heart that is so great. I try to give God thanks for my family, friends, and home; But I also want Him to show me how to help people who are so alone. So I thank God for people like Ron who help show me the way. It all starts to become clearer each and every day. So maybe one day, in time We can all “commit the crime” Of better understanding homelessness and helping those people in need. is a turtle without his shell naked or homeless? is a man without a cause lost or homeless? homelessness is not necessarily whether or not you have a roof over your head it’s not if you have your very own bed but rather it speaks of if you belong somewhere…or not maybe a home is just an imaginary place that the same group of people misses but the man or woman with a home knows it whether or not a home is a tangible thing and everyone should have a home Homelessness by Abby Haglage As I leave my home to go downtown my face is tired and in the shape of a frown I’m going to see the Bengals play, But for some reason my thoughts are in the way, I am not as excited as others seem, Small things in my life make me feel mean. Untitled by Kristen Ruthmeyer The money makes you poor, but the spirit makes you impoverished. A man without a home is not a man without a wealth of wisdom. Wisdom can’t put food on the table, but it can bring you peace. “Where are you going, little girl?” “Home.” A firm reply. “Home to a nice little house tonight made of cardboard. Tomorrow…who knows?” As we park the car and begin to walk, I complain about my itchy socks, When looking in front of me I see, An old man looking down and depressed as can be. With a can in his hand and a hat on his head, I know compared to me, He has much more to dread. As I worry and complain about tiny matters, I realized that this man’s life is in tatters. He is the one that needs my prayers, He is the one for whom no one cares, I give him a smile and hoped he know, That a seed in my heart, he has sown. “Simple” Shutter Speed by Jimmy Heath by John Buechel The woods—where most people go once a year to kill. I go once a year to live. Kentucky is where I grew up. I go back to McCreary County to find the purity I’ve lost. I go back to the same spot past a fallen tree, Near my old house that now belongs to someone else. I use this spot of familiar earth and brush to time travel. Back to a time when dad wasn’t sick, And mom wasn’t crippled. I was six. I go there and stand in the shade, I expect to see my childhood friend, Angel. She was my best friend even thought girls were Icky. She would bring Fig Newtons. But I won’t see her. She has moved. I sit where I once stood when I was six, I am taller now. I look back past the brush to my old house, Wondering, do they have a little boy? And before I leave I take in a breath. It tastes like Fig Newtons. Snowfall in Parvis Alley, OTR Streetvibes Page 15 �TREATMENT: Both N.A. Hopeline 820-2947 A.A. Hotline 351-0422 C.C.A.T. 381-6672 Talbert House 684-7956 Transitions, Inc 859-491-4435 VA Domiciliary 859-559-5011 DIC Live-In Program 721-0643 TREATMENT: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 Prospect House 921-1613 Starting Over 961-2256 TREATMENT: Women First Step Home 961-4663 Full Circle Program 721-0643 HOUSING: CMHA 721-4580 Excel Development 632-7149 Miami Purchase 241-0504 OTR Housing Net. 369-0004 ReSTOC 381-1171 Tender Mercies 721-8666 Tom Geiger House 961-4555 Dana Transitional Bridge Services, Inc 751-9797 Caracole (AIDS) 761-1480 Friars Club 381-5432 Drop Inn Center 721-0643 Haven House 863-8866 Interfaith Hospitality 471-1100 Lighthouse Youth Center (Teens) 961-4080 St. John’s Housing 651-6446 Need Help or Want to Help? If you need help or would like to help please call one of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless members listed below. SHELTERS: Women and Children YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 (Toll Free) 1-888-872-9259 Bethany House 557-2873 Salvation Army 762-5660 Welcome Hse. 859-431-8717 Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 357-4602 SHELTER: Men City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Garden St. House 241-0490 Joseph House (Veterans) 241-2965 St. Francis/St.Joseph House 381-4941 Mt. Airy Center 661-4620 Volunteers of Amer. 381-1954 SHELTER: Both Anthony House (Youth) Formed in 1984, The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a membership organization. Our member groups serve the homeless through emergency shelter, transitional living facilities, permanent housing, medical services, social services, soup kitchens, and mental health/addiction services. The Coalition also consists of individual citizens who want to take an active role in ensuring that Cincinnati is an inclusive community, meeting the needs of all of its citizens. Join the fight to end homelessness; contact the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless at (513) 421-7803, 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 OTHER SERVICES: AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati 421-2437 Appalachian Identity Center 621-5991 Beech Acres 231-6630 Center for Independent Living Options 241-2600 Churches Active in Northside 591-2246 Cincinnati Health Network 961-0600 Community Action Agency 569-1840 381-4242 241-2563 Contact Center Emanuel Center Freestore/ Foodbank 241-1064 Fransiscan Haircuts 651-6468 Goodwill Industries 771-4800 Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 Hamilton Co. Mental Health Board 946-8600 Mental Health Access Point 558-8888 Hamilton Co. TB Control 632-7186 Health Rsrc. Center 357-4602 Homeless Mobile Health Van 352-2902 House of Refuge Mission 221-5491 Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Madisonville Ed. & Assis. Center 271-5501 Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 621-5514 Project Connect Homeless Kids 357-5720 St. Vincent De Paul 562-8841 The Emergency Food Center 471-4357 Travelers Aid 721-7660 United Way 721-7900 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 Women Helping Women 872-9259 MIDDLETOWN/HAMILTON (Butler County) St. Raphaels (Food Bank/Soup Kitchen) 863-3184 Salvation Army 863-1445 Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276 New Life Baptist Mission (Soup Kitchen) 896-9800 Hope House (Homeless Families/Singles) 423-4673 $1 Donation February 2005 STREETVIBES BUY FROM BADGED VENDORS ONLY Remembering Martin Luther King Cover Story Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2005 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource February 2005 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Martin Luther King Jr. Remembered and Honored in Cincinnati Pg 2: Politics Drive Taser Policy Pg 3: Homeless News Digest Pg 4: Vendors Pg 5: Train Hopping Squeegee Punks Life Learning: Speak of the Devil Michael Moore’s Pre-Election UC Speech Challenged Pg 6: Another New Year Is There a Difference? The Morning Battle Pg 7: The Morning Battle Continued Pg 8: MLK Continued Life Continued Pg 9: Protests, Boycotts, Loom Over Inauguration Pg 10: The Peace Village Pg 11: Closing the Gaps to Make Families Safe and Stable The Biggest Challenge Facing Cincinnati is Overcoming Fear Pg 12: Streetvibes Vendor Code of Conduct About the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and Streetvibes… Pg 13: Schools of the Americas New York’s Homeless World Cup Called Off Illinois State Police Issue Gag Order Pg 14: Arts & Poetry Pg 15: Arts & Poetry Continued Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource February 2005 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Georgine Getty Alison Leeuw Andy Erickson Rachel Lawson Kate McManus Janice Faulkner Mary Gaffney Jimmy Heath Berta Lambert Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Alison Leeuw Andy Erickson Berta Lambert Boycotts Charities Cincinnati education Election Gag Order Georgine Getty Homeless News Digest Illinois Inauguration Janice Faulkner Jimmy Heath Kate McManus Martin Luther King Jr. Mary Gaffney Michael Moore MLK New York Peace Village Police politics Protests Rachel Lawson Schools University of Cincinnati World Cup https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/99f89eceef61623eabc5d3f62fdc6f82.pdf d3aefd6099d81366082e96fdd611df69 PDF Text Text January, 2005 STREETVIBES Homeless Memorial Day honors homeless individuals who have passed away in 2004 The Annual Homeless Memorial Day was held at dusk in Washington Park on December 21, 2004 with a barrel fire and the reading of names. The gathering was sponsored locally by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Homeless Memorial Day is a national day of mourning for the homeless men, women and children who have passed away in a given year. The event featured the lighting of candles as the names of the deceased were read. Local church and youth groups were on hand to pass out soup and warm clothing. Coalitions in Cleveland, Dayton, Columbus and others all across the nation participated in the event with a candlelight vigil and the reading of names of persons who have died. Held on the longest night of the year, the winter solstice, Homeless Memorial Day is a chance for friends and loved ones to gather to mourn those, both known and unknown, who are no longer with us. Over 100 people attended the event in Washington Park near the Drop Inn Center in Cincinnati. Homeless Memorial Day is also a chance to mourn the national tragedy of homelessness and bring awareness to the suffering of the 25,000 men, women and children who experience homelessness each year in Cincinnati. “It is great to see the community pull together to help provide relief for the people experiencing homelessness in Cincinnati,” stated Georgine Getty, Executive Director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, “it’s just unfortunate that we have to meet on such somber terms. It’s a tragedy that people continue to die homeless.” Record turn out helps Coalition celebrate 20 years of service at annual dinner by John Zeh photos by Jimmy Heath The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless celebrated its 20th anniversary with a record turn out, a look back at GCCH’s success, and a powerful vision of what’s necessary in the future. “Homes, Dignity, and Hope” included a silent auction, an award’s ceremony, and an address by a veteran advocate for the poor on December 9 at Xavier University’s Cintas Center. The event’s master of ceremonies, dental hygienist Clifford Jones, introduced “two dynamic souls,” GCCH director Georgine Nearly 300 people attended the GCCH Anual Dinner Getty and social worker/psychologist Dr. Ronald Arundell. encamped along the Ohio River in The Coalition published the Getty praised the coalition’s Covington, KY, transporting citizens 100th issue of Streetvibes last year, leaders for their great “sense of to the polls November 2nd, served “a real milestone leading to the humor and sense of humanity. You Mother’s Day luncheons to 150 monthly papers’ 10 year anniversary are the backbone of preserving women, helped operate a successful as an alternative to the mainstream GCCH’s mission and future,” she 2004 Stand Down for 500 folks, press in 2005,” said editor Jimmy said. “What an amazing gift you have worked as advocate for affordable Heath. given Cincinnati.” housing, and introduced He cited Streetvibes’ biggest She listed accomplishments homelessness into the curriculum of challenges as a “political struggle” such as: ‘hosting 11 general body public schools with “amazing results,” with City Hall, saying mayor Charlie meetings last year of member groups’ creating a whole new outlook that will Luken would like to shut down representatives, participation in the help children and teenagers become Streetvibes, because, in Luken’s Greater Cincinnati AIDS Coalition, advocates for the homeless,’ Getty words, GCCH is “arming defending homeless people said. panhandlers with papers to sell.” Streetvibes is part of a network of about 50 other street papers with a new online newswire “bringing a voice to people who often go unheard.” Heath is a photographer and community activist living and working in Over­ the-Rhine, where he arrived nine years ago as a homeless person, eventually finding his way to the Drop Inn Center homeless shelter. Dr. Arundell is associate professor of social work at Mt. St. Joseph College on the west side holding a masters from Fordham University and a doctorate in counseling from the University of Cincinnati. He worked in the 1970’s to make General (now University) Hospital here more accountable to patients. He has also worked as an ironworker and millwright. He said he uses Streetvibes in his classrooms to give students insights to people who are poor and See DINNER, Page 8 Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless �Streetvibes Streetvibes, the Tri­ State’s alternative news source, is a newspaper written by, for, and about the homeless and contains relevant discussions of social justice, and poverty issues. It is published once a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Becoming a Streetvibes Vendor is a great way for homeless and other low-income people to get back on (or stay on) their feet. Streetvibes Vendors are given an orientation and sign a code of conduct before being given a Streetvibes Vendor badge. Vendors are private contractors who DO NOT work for, or represent, the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homleess. All profits go directly to the vendor. The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a group of shelters, agencies and individuals committed to ending homelessness in Cincinnati through coordinating services, educating the public and grassroots organizing. GCCH Staff Georgine Getty - Executive Director Allison Leeuw - Administrative Coordinator Andy Erickson - Education Coordinator Rachel Lawson - Civil Rights VISTA Kate McManus - Civil Rights VISTA Janice Faulkner - Receptionist Mary Gaffney - Receptionist Streetvibes Jimmy Heath, Editor Photographers Ben Boswell, Jimmy Heath, Berta Lambert, Curtis Proffett Cover by Jimmy Heath ­ Homeless Memorial, Washington Park, December 21, 2004 from responsibility and the smelly visage of poverty? I don’t think we are a society anymore. We are groups of people living together, nothing more, and we take solace in our isolation from the uglier aspects of human suffering. We pull down the shades and turn up the sound so that we aren’t exposed to the pain and suffering of our brothers and sisters. For those of us fortunate enough to have choices, the promise of poverty is not a risk. We take for granted each and every gift we receive. How many of us have thought about what would happen if the clean water stopped flowing from our faucets and showerheads? A child dies every 15 seconds from diseases largely caused by poor sanitation and contaminated water; that is more than 2 million preventable child deaths a year. Young girls in Tanzania miss school because they need to help their mothers fetch water from several kilometers away. Thousands more will die in Asia of water born illness as a result of last month’s earthquake and tsunami. How many of us stop to think about what would happen if oil stopped flowing? It looks like planet Earth has enough oil for about for about 27 years. That’s it, assuming that consumption does not increase. What will we do? We might have to walk a block or two. Ask the Iraqi’s what it is like to not have electricity for months. It is easy to take it for granted when you have it. The holidays celebrate the gluttony of the American masses. We are so caught up in the ritual meals and spending sprees, we forget who we are and who suffers. As many Americans hoist their lard pile into post-holiday winter doldrums we need to seriously consider what we have devolved into as a society. Yeah, I love this time of year. It helps me get my spirit straight. Some City Social Service Budget Cuts Restored Streetvibes Luken’s budget had cut the $4.8 million Human Services Policy program completely; City Council put back $2.5 million from city and federal funds. Luken questioned using new ticket revenue to balance the budget, saying he believed the $2 million figure to be “optimistic.” In 2005 Lukens’s mayorship will be over and he does not plan to run for reelection. es Cincinnati’s poorest citizens, including programs for children, senior citizens and community councils. The City is mostly relying on $2 million the city hopes to get in 2005 from a new program to catch speeders and red-light runners using radar-equipped digital cameras. Holdouts were Republican Pat DeWine and Democrats Laketa Cole and Alicia Reece, whose main objection seemed to be to the redlight cameras. The Human Services Policy, which has traditionally used 1.5 percent of the city’s general fund also provides money for battered women’s shelters, food pantries and drug abuse programs. tvib Cincinnati City Council finally reached a compromise last month on a $2 billion, two-year budget that will restore only partial funding for social services, neighborhood grants and City Council members’ own budgets. After public outcry and efforts by some councilmember’s, the budget restored $3.2 million in politically popular programs. The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and representatives of City service providers all rallied together to oppose the cuts during City Council meetings and Finance Committee meetings. Mayor Charlie Luken’s budget proposal severely cut many programs that give care to ee Page 2 relief programs. If you want to make a pitch for programs for the poor, you by Jimmy Heath better be able to explain it in dollars. I enjoy the period of time For example, homeless shelters between Halloween and the Super Bowl. It’s one holiday after another. speak to the dollars saved providing I don’t much like the cold weather or shelter as an alternative to locking the short days of winter. But there is people up in an expensive jail. It is the promise of spring on the horizon. the only thing that government understands. The passing years close as if Like winter, rich or poor, the chapters in a book. The events of a cold wind of the heartless cuts given year are forever bound in a through all of us. Those of us who do block of time marked by the passing nothing are guilty too. We all bare of the seasons. Events continue to the shared responsibility of the recycle over and over again, until suddenly it is the end of another year. tragedy of poverty. These are my concerns as we I wish we could learn from the past, but we always forget. Or, we choose step into this New Year. As the economy faces new challenges, the not to remember. The good things; babies being poor suffer even more. Poverty is a complex phenomenon. It born, children has been established that becoming adults, poverty is not only about friendly greetings from low income and a neighbor, love and consumption, it is also celebrations mark low achievement in most of our existence. education, health, And this is what being nutrition, and other areas human is all about – of human development. the celebration of life. Jimmy Heath The poor lack material When we look into the eyes of the poor, do we opportunities like jobs, credit and safe neighborhoods. see this promise? Some of society Suddenly, government begins does not. There is a cynicism that to recognize what it deems as transcends the potential of the less “essential services” because there is a fortunate citizen, relegating them to realignment of priorities in a tight stereotypes and a life of failure. It is economy. Social services are the first considered by many, especially thing to be cut in a budget. government, that the poor are When the middle-class and unredeemable and the best we can do is keep them from straining social the rich feel the pinch, it is passed on to those who are most in need. systems. As long as the poor stay quiet, stay out of trouble and perform Everyone stops writing checks or passing out spare change. The the menial tasks required by society, babies cry. The elderly poor become then we don’t need to do more. This is an unfortunate tragedy, invisible. Government is nothing more because we will lose our future by than people, like most of us, yet we letting these children and adults languish in substandard housing, pain look on it as a lumbering monster without identity. Corporate buildings and hunger, and the lack of an are about the people inside, not some adequate social net. indiscriminate logo tinplate. Do Government calculates the value of a poor person by projecting people find safety and isolation within these structures? Is there shelter in what it will cost in dollars to keep these institutions that allow those these graduates of destitution out of people, people like us, a reprieve expensive, tax-payer funded social Str Streetvibes accepts letters, poems, stories, essays, original graphics, and photos. We will give preference to those who are homeless or vendors. Subscriptions to Streetvibes, delivered to your home each month, can be purchased for $25 per year. Address mail to: Streetvibes Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 (513) 421-7803 e-mail: streetvibes@juno.com web: http://cincihomeless.org Worthy of Promise, Doomed by Gluttony Support Your Vendor �Homeless News Digest compiled by Jimmy Heath Seven activists who were arrested after occupying a former DC homeless shelter are out of jail. The Washington Post reported the seven were released on their own recognizance by a judge. They were told to stay away from the former Randall Shelter in Southwest while their cases are pending. The protesters oppose city plans to sell the shelter building to the Corcoran Museum of Art. They got into the building last month, served Thanksgiving meals to homeless people via a window, and stayed there until being removed by DC Protective Services. Each was charged with unlawful entry. City officials say a new shelter in Southeast was opened when the Randall Shelter was closed. The Office of Community Services in Miami Beach, which coordinates the city’s homeless services, has moved out of City Hall to larger offices. Maria Ruiz, the city’s homeless outreach coordinator, said homeless services and the entire Office of Community Services was relocated to the adjacent City Hall building because they needed a larger space to accommodate staff, the homeless and others served by the office. Ruiz said her six staff members were sharing two desks in the old space. “It was hard,” she said. “We were literally on top of each other. We had no waiting area and we constantly had people waiting around in the hallways. Employees now have their own work station in the new space.” Police dragged screaming protesters from an abandoned building near Halifax, Nova Scotia on Saturday as nine people demonstrating against homelessness were arrested. About 40 demonstrators boarded a bus in downtown Halifax and rode to an abandoned library in nearby Dartmouth, N.S. The demonstration had been advertised for weeks and police vehicles followed the bus along its route to what had been, until Saturday, an undisclosed location. Protesters said they wanted the building to be used for affordable housing to keep people off the streets. Some of the demonstrators filed into the building, which is owned by the Halifax Regional Municipality, and barricaded themselves on the third floor. About 30 police officers arrived on the heels of the demonstrators. Officers rounded up some protesters from inside the building, taking others off the roof. The protesters were then loaded into a police van, even as some yelled at the force police were using to arrest them. Beginning next month, some south suburban homeless shelters will begin giving people breath tests to see if they are intoxicated, according to published reports. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that if the test registers a blood-alcohol level greater than that state’s legal limit of .08 percent for driving, the person will be denied entry into the overnight shelter. The move met with opposition from some shelter volunteers from Public Action to Deliver Shelter, according to the paper, who felt the policy would force them to turn away clients. PADS runs 26 shelter sites. Rich Otto, a South Suburban PADS board member, told the paper that the board approved the testing policy, but later decided to make compliance voluntary. In Seattle, Washington a civic and nationwide effort to end chronic homelessness received a recent boost with the announcement of a new charitable partnership aimed at providing more supportive housing nationwide. Local housing advocates received more good news with the release of a national report showing that in Seattle and eight other cities, supportive housing has proven more successful and cost-effective in dealing with the chronically homeless than relying on jails, prisons, treatment centers, emergency shelters and emergency rooms. “Supportive housing” is housing where an array of services ­ such as mental health and employment counseling, and drug and alcohol treatment - is provided to help end the persistent homelessness seen in about 20 percent of the overall homeless population locally and nationally. Without such supports, many chronically homeless people repeatedly move from streets to shelters, emergency rooms, prisons or mental hospitals — and then right back to the streets, advocates say. It analyzed the costs of supportive housing, jails, prisons, emergency shelters, mental hospitals and hospital and emergency rooms in nine cities — Seattle, San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix and Columbus, Ohio. In Seattle, the cost of supportive housing was estimated at $26 per person per day, in contrast with $87.67 for a day in jail, $555 for mental hospitals and $2,184 for hospitals. otherwise occupying themselves. Homeless people who have night jobs will also be welcome. They usually end up in the street because most sleeping shelters fill up early. . The City Council has approved $30,000 in hotel vouchers for families, which sadly make up the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population. Early next year, the city will work with the state to open one of the unused buildings at the Fort Logan Mental Health Center for homeless women and their children. In San Francisco firefighters dousing burning brush along Interstate 80 last month While Denver Mayor John found the burned body of a 54­ Hickenlooper’s Commission to year-old homeless man under an End Homelessness is hammering overpass, police said. out a 10-year plan to deal with the Investigators were trying to city’s homeless population, the figure out whether the man died from commission headed by Roxane the fire. White is taking a host of shortThey have found evidence of term measures that will provide camping in the area, but no evidence shelter for nearly 1,000 people of foul play, Richmond police Sgt. this winter. Enos Johnson said. For the last two winters, The victim was identified Denver has opened the lobbies of through fingerprints by the Contra various city buildings to house an Costa County coroner’s office. overflow of homeless people. This winter, those who don’t fit into the Don’t be Squirrelly! city’s other shelters will bed down at the former district attorney building at 303 West Colfax. It is an innovative solution for the short-term, but this is expected to be the last winter that overflow homeless end up in a building lobby. Starting next spring, nearly 100 beds will be made available at the downtown Rescue Mission by shifting working homeless to a renovated motel. At the St. Frances Center, which does not have overnight sleeping facilities, hours will change to allow homeless people unable to tolerate sleeping in shelters to spend the night there reading and Buy Streetvibes! The Coalition for Peace With Iraq (CPWI) We will meet in January on the 2nd and on the 16th from 4 to 6 PM at the Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, located at 103 William Howard Taft Road As of December 7th, 1,276 American Troops have been killed in Iraq. The official death toll of Iraqi civilians is 16,804, just since March 20, 2003. Come out and learn what you - what we together can do to end this madness. For information call Hal at (513) 325-8620 or email steve,carltonford@uc.edu Streetvibes Page 3 �Who Let the Dogs Out? by Gray Dog Years ago, we had the dogs of Birmingham, snarling and leaping at Civil Rights demonstrators, barely restrained by their handlers. This spring, we had the dogs of Abu Graib, straining at the leash to threaten and humiliate naked men. And now, the dogs of Passaic. I hear, this week on National Public Radio, of a prison in Passaic, New Jersey where aliens convicted of crimes are waiting to be deported. These men are unarmed, unable to threaten their keepers, nonetheless the dogs are there to control them, intimidate them, keep them in line. Even lawyers coming to assist them are threatened with the dogs. This story has been better hidden than the others. We have no photos of the dogs and their masters and victims. And it took several months of investigative reporting by an NPR reporter before it came to light at all. (See www.npr.org/ templates/story/ story.php?storyId=4184282) From what I can tell, all these dogs are German Shepherds. Police dogs, we sometimes call them. We think of them as hero dogs. When I was a child, one of my favorite programs was Rin Tin Tin, the on-going story of a German Shepherd attached to a troop of cavalry; every week, he saved a life, gave warning just in time, carried someone to safety. Shepherds carried messages in battle in the two World Wars. They sniff out drugs, guide the blind; I suppose they even herd sheep. Good dogs to have. They make good guardians for your property; they’re gentle with children; they’re big, sturdy, loyal dogs. If you want a good family dog, choose a German Shepherd. But the dogs of Birmingham, of Abu Graib, of Passaic have turned to something else. These are dogs willing to rip into a man’s flesh on command, to instill fear and terror. They do not merely guard and protect, they dominate, pacify, and humiliate. The world watches in horror what these dogs have done. But the dogs are not the problem. The problem is with the one who is in command of the dog. We know what it takes to turn a dog from a pet into an instrument of terror - training. Wild dogs will bite, intimidate, and kill. That is their job, that is how they make their living. And I suppose that if you’re the prey, a wild dog can be a pretty terrifying creature. Even my little terrier will torment a mole to death. But wild dogs will pretty much limit themselves to biting and killing what they need to survive. To become an instrument of humiliation, a dog needs human intervention. A prison dog needs to be taught to become what we have seen in Birmingham and Abu Graib and what we hear of in Passaic. This is true even for breeds of dog known for their viciousness. A few years ago, when the American Kennel Club published an annual report on different breeds of dog, owners of Pit Bulls raised a storm of protest over wording that suggested that Pit Bulls were a potential threat to children and other pets. Not so, the Pit owners said. It’s all in the training. (My personal friend, Dixie, is thick in the shoulder and has a fearsome bark, but lives in house full of children and wants nothing of me when I visit but my full and undivided attention.) A properly trained Pit can be as gentle as any other dog, or as vicious. It all depends on their trainer. So what of the trainers? Who trained these trainers to teach a dog to attack a helpless other? What does it take to turn a regular American kid (assuming there is such a being) into a handler of attack dogs, into a brutalizer, a dehumanizer of others? We know how easily it can be done with a dog. A dog has a relatively simple brain that operates in fairly predictable ways. Pavlov taught us this trick in the lab. A New Year easy to look down or otherwise have In working together towards by Riccardo M. Taylor a problem with someone who does set goals that benefit the entire As we greet the year, I not fit our perception as a worthy community many of the obstacles, believe there is a lot of reflection we member of our community. I, for which cause so much disparity can be should have, in accordance with the one, believe that, like in the words of overcome, paving the way for a year in passing. Ms. Mary Gaffney “the only time you greater sense of belonging for all the For one thing there is a great should look down on communities’ members. need for people to unite. Life has so someone else is to Although it seems quite much to offer for all of us, but the be giving them a simple, I am the first to reality is that no one is an island, hand to stand up.” admit that the therefore, not enough emphasis can Such an easy formula community of be put on the idea that we must stand should be easy to Cincinnati has a long united on many issues. follow. way to go. For years Then world in its bigger However, we have as a scope is mostly beyond our reach, we have been community practiced and although peace does not prevail instilled with so many division on so many Riccardo Taylor throughout the world, we can and prejudices that it is fronts that we need a must do our part to foster peace here hard to see or act degree of education on at home. I do not believe that we can beyond our meager ideas of what or receptiveness towards those groups police the world, or solve the how things should be. Learning to be of community members whom we problems that abound abroad. Yet, I more open minded about another’s have not had close encounters with. am convinced that a united front at disposition in life is key to bridging It takes more than a passing word, or home can solve most of the problems the gaps, which keeps us at odds a nod from a distance. It has to be we face, which effects so many of an in your face type of encounter to with others of our community. We ours lives. The understanding of understand and ‘feel’ another’s must stand up against injustices community is relationship too those committed against others, and perceived position. Once the blocks who share common goals, facilities, of ice which sever the lines of become instrumental in setting up and ideas with each other. In saying, entities, which help to close the gaps communication are melted away, we greater emphasis needs to be placed that cause us so much variance in are sure to find much more on the common interest, which effects scope. No one person can go out commonness, then we may believe those who are apart of the particular and save the world, or in this instance existed between the different groups. community. Minor differences of the community, however, a united Of course I do not contend to have status such as race, economics, and front can and will set the stage for the master plan of sorts to heal the creed must be sidelined in order for a hurdling the many differences we deep wounds our community suffers, true community to be realized. It is so suffer as a community. yet I’m convinced that if we are to Page 4 Streetvibes Farmers, hunters, and shepherds knew the basics centuries before that. But what sort of training does it take to turn a human American boy or girl into a person who will turn an animal into a tool of abuse? The human brain is much more complex than that of a dog. Moreover, it is frequently encumbered by natural affinities, conscience, moral teaching, and ethical principles that get in the way. So how do we get from “We Are the World” to “We’re Number One?” I’m not sure I even want to know. But I know it continues to happen, for I see that we as a people are becoming steadily more callous and arrogant, easily dismissive of losers, wrongdoers, or the “evil.” However the process works, I am sure it is reinforced by talk shows, video games, reality shows, and a national leadership that disguises its contempt for the weak under a thin, opportunistic veneer of “Christian” compassion. There is a good chance more tales of the abusive misuse of dogs will come out in the months ahead. But it would be wrong to suggest that we, as a nation, are going to the dogs. Really, it’s the handlers we need to fear. survive and grow as a community we must act. They say Rome was not built in a day, but today is a good starting point for our community to revitalize itself. 20 YEARS SERVING THE NEIGHBORHOOD Empowering our neighborhood children through peace, art and education Peaslee Neighborhood Center 215 East 14th Street Over-the-Rhine Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 (513) 621-5514 �Farm Worker Victory in to speak to the crowd. North Carolina asked The church went silent as the by Dick Wiesenhahn I first got the word in September from Beatriz Maya, National Boycott Director in Toledo that the 5 1/2 year boycott of the Mt. Olive Pickle Company was over! The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) AFL-CIO had just won the largest union contract in the history of the state of North Carolina, covering over 8,000 guest workers form Mexico. FLOC organizers Santiago Rafael, Maria Garcia, Beatriz Maya and I began the long trip south to attend the official signing ceremony in Raleigh, North Carolina. More than 150 people were squeezed into the small Church of Christ in anticipation of the great event. The church was decorated with red FLOC banners and flags everywhere. Directly behind the speakers table hung a banner which stated “Farm Workers Feed The World.” It was all very exciting. The official gathering included Farm Worker Union president Baldemar Velasquez and executives from the Mt. Olive Pickle Company and the North Carolina Growers Association. Also present was the Roman Catholic Bishop of RaleighDurham and the directors of both the National Council of Churches and the National Farm Worker Ministry. After the contracts were signed and the principals had had their say, an actual farm worker was new immigrant worker said in broken English that this was the best day of his life! At first contact with FLOC he was not sure he could trust the union organizers. But, after learning about union representation and the benefits of a contract he could see how his wages and working conditions would improve. Therefore, he and other workers became enthusiastic supporters. We all had a great lunch in Raleigh and then drove the 60 Farm Worker Union president Baldemar Velasquez and executives from the miles south to visit FLOC’s modest headquarters in Dudley, Mt. Olive Pickle Company and the North Carolina Growers Association at official signing North Carolina. The small office located in the back of the Mexican store owned by Angelita is support to enable FLOC to hire Velasquez, Democratic donated to FLOC rent free. The additional field organizers and to Congresswoman Marcy Kaptar, walls were filled with all types of open a FLOC office in Mexico. Toledo Mayor Jack Ford and long information such as farm locations, Please come and hear time national farm worker ministry farmer’s names and strategies for representative Olgha Sandmann. The Baldemar Velasquez tell the story field organizers. It was a very of the Farm Labor Organizing press conference and panel impressive example of grass roots Committee and sing the many discussions were followed by a power. songs of the farm workers Mexican pot-luck dinner and fiesta The first Midwest celebration and finally a very inspirational speech movement. Help us to raise the and press conference for this great needed funds to do the hard work by Baldemar. union victory took place at FLOC of organizing 8,500 farm workers Now, the FLOC victory headquarters in Toledo, Ohio in celebration is coming to Cincinnati on on 1,000 farms ion North October. Three Greater Cincinnati Carolina. Tickets are priced at Saturday, January 15, 2005. The FLOC support committee members $10 for adult, $5 for children and Greater Cincinnati FLOC Support Lon Coleman, Sara Hayes, and I free for 10 years and under. For Committee is sponsoring a benefit made the 350 mile round trip to more information please contact concert to celebrate the historic Toledo to be in solidarity with the Dick Wiesenhahn, Greater agreement and to thank everyone FLOC staff and supporters from all Cincinnati FLOC support who supported the boycott of Mt over the country. The celebration committee, (513) 984-1963 Olive Pickles. Also, we need to included FLOC president Baldemar provide very important financial Frost Elementary holds benefit about homelessness, it is not often for GCCH that we have the pleasure of by Andy Erickson Sixth-graders from Frost Elementary helped raise $900 to benefit the Coalition for the Homeless in November. The benefit was part of “Soup Bowls for the Homeless,” an event created by art teacher Tracy Ferguson and her students. Guests at the event received handmade soup bowls in exchange for donations. Students served soup to the guests and spoke about homelessness in Cincinnati. The Coalition for the Homeless would like to thank Tracy Ferguson, her students and Frost Elementary Principal Mark Walden for putting this event together. While we are committed to working with schools to educate students working with elementary schools. The donations were very generous, the students were fantastic, and the soup bowls looked great! National Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project (NHCROP) 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 homelesscivilrights@yahoo.com Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (513) 421-7803 Berta’s Art Corner Andy Erickson Streetvibes Page 5 �Listen to Elders by Ms. Mary Gaffney To my fellow readers of Streetvibes, and my homeless friends, Happy New Year, the first month of 2005. As I sit here in the office reflecting on 2004, I think of the happiness as well as the sadness. Happiness for being a witness to the 113 year anniversary of my home church, St. John A. M. E. Zion. The sadness is for one of our oldest members, Rachel Hanley, who closed her eyes forever for the sweet rest. She was 101 years of age. In October, another of the oldest members, Loretta Jefferies died. The reason I mention these two ladies is because as a child, I remember how they treated me, with advice for a young child, and even later as I grew up, I remember the talks they had with me. Even though they are not here, I still remember them and thank them for their talks with me. Happiness to Sister Jeffries and Sister Hanley. I am still at St. John, attending with my great-grandchild. There is another lady who is still active and demonstrating her leadership in the church. And another member, who has shared Raynelle Mount What a Year! by Linda Corey Thanks to God and the fellowship of Narcotics Annonymous, I had a year clean on December 23. Boy, what a year! I have met a lot of special people. I completed the Woman’s Full Circle program at the Drop Inn Center July 21st. My counselor, Miss Annie is a very special and smart lady. I have learned a lot about myaddiction to alcohol. I live life on life’s terms and I have learned spiritual principles before personalities. I have also learned one-day-at-a-time. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Page 6 An Agenda of Plunder Miss Mary Gaffney her kindness with all the members, has been in the gospel choir for 66 years. Thank you Sister Raynelle Mount, and may the Glory of God be with you. It doesn’t take much time to stop and listen when the elders take the time to speak or give advice on things that you are bound to encounter in your life. It helps when an issue in your life comes before you. Yes, there may be stress but you will survive. To my homeless friends, some have found a place to call home, and some have found employment. I am happy for this. To the ones who have not met their goals, don’t give up. Keep striving and keep the faith. And to my readers, also remember, God loves us we are his children. Until next month... Loretta Jefferies A Rattlesnake, if cornered will become so angry it will bite itself. That is exactly what the harboring of hate and resentment against others is ­ a biting of oneself. We think we are harming others in holding these spites and hates, but the deeper harm is to ourselves. ~E. Stanley Jones Hate must make a man productive. Otherwise one might as well love. ~Karl Kraus All men kill the thing they hate, too, unless, of course, it kills them first. ~James Thurber by Timothy Harris Francis Fox Piven is professor of political science and sociology at the graduate school of the City University of New York. She is co-author with Richard Cloward of a number of awardwinning books, including Regulating the Poor, The Poor People’s Movement, The Breaking of the American Social Compact, and Why Americans Still Don’t Vote. Her latest book, published in 2004, is The War at Home. Seattle’s Real Change street newspaper caught up with Professor Piven when she was in town last month to speak at the annual conference of the Statewide Poverty Action Network. Real Change: So your new book makes the point that the war and the events of 9/11 have provided political cover for a huge transfer of wealth and other sorts of shifts in national priorities. What are some examples of that? Piven: I guess the more apparent examples are the tax cuts which are geared to reducing taxes on the wealthiest people in the United States and corporations, much more than ordinary working people. Those taxes were justified in Congress as being necessary in time of war. It’s a pretty obvious use of war to redistribute domestic wealth. You usually think of war as a strategy in which one nation plunders another nation’s resources. In this case our leaders were trying to do that for sure - they invaded a nation with a lot of oil resources ­ but they also were using the fog of war to impose their own agenda, which is an agenda of plunder in the United States. I think another dimension of that is the environmental changes that are occurring. Now those don’t have the acute pinch that cutting your wages does because it takes a much longer time to feel the environmental affects of increased pollution. But this administration is committed to the use of public lands for private business: more logging, more drilling. That’s a heritage, a public heritage, and it’s being given away. Another example, not so related to the war: the President and his party were able to increase subsidies to pharmaceutical companies. As if they needed subsidies! They are among the most comfortable industries in the United States. Bush is promoting the Medicare Prescription Drug Act as evidence that he really is a compassionate conservative! That act give big subsidies to the pharmaceutical companies and it also protects them from competition from drugs imported from Canada. It also protects them from any effort by the government to use its Streetvibes buying power to force down drug prices. This is an agenda of plunder. One of the features of this that I’m not sure I entirely understand is the reckless quality of it. Ordinarily, when you look through history and across the globe, elites try to ensure that they will remain elites over time. They look for stability. This regime is so risk-taking, so reckless, that it’s as though they don’t have a time horizon. Their roots are not sunk in society. They want to take it and run. I find that very, very strange, and also very alarming. Because they’re taking it from us, and they may run, but we will inherit the damage that they do. RC: What should we be most concerned about in terms of the Bush administration agenda on poverty over his second terms? Piven: We should be concerned about everything, but we should be concerned about the further erosion of income supports, which includes unemployment insurance. They did not extend federal unemployment insurance since 2003. TANF becomes more restrictive, more punitive, more derogatory of its clients. They want to privatize the Medicaid program because it’s a big program. And union rights are very, very important, and worker rights generally. The attack, for example, on overtime pay standards is very important if it succeeds, if it is in fact implemented. We should work on a minimum wage increase. Five dollars and 15 cents is the minimum wage. That’s the lowest minimum wage in history, in real terms. RC: Why are they so fixated on Social Security? Piven: Because there’s money to be made there. Money to be made by bankers, investment firms, brokers, and financial advisors, and maybe also because the Social Security reserve fund, which is built up through the Social Security tax, is paid entirely by working people. Social security tax is rigged so that there’s no tax on incomes over a certain amount. But that fund has built up, and as it builds up, it creates at least the legal possibility that the public sector can become a player in the economy. RC: Kerry talked a lot about jobs, he talked a lot about tax priorities, but he didn’t say that much about poverty. Piven: The entire tendency of the Democratic Party in the last 30 years, under the influence of the Democratic Leadership Council, which is pernicious, has been to move away from the issues of the 1960s; the issues through which the Democratic Party becomes the See PLUNDER, page 9 �almost ten years. After all this, he is still requesting a relationship and custody of our son. out of college again this past fall The Safe and Stable (for the third time) to focus my Families legislation would directly attention on helping my son benefit my family. My time clock is Matthew. running out on public assistance Matthew’s abuse started benefits. Yet I have had to drop when he was only 19 months old. out of college several times in order His father sexually abused him. The to be there for my son. He is very courts ended up allowing the father angry about the sexual abuse he has supervised visits with his son after I suffered by his own dad. I have got custody, but when Matthew had to spend much time in and out turned four years old, they allowed of court hearings, and even was his dad unsupervised visits. After temporarily jailed when I refused to two or three visits with his dad, my force my son to visit his dad. So I son came home and told me of was in contempt of court and I have more abuse. Again, I fought for no regrets for being in contempt. supervised visitation; this lasted until I need more time to pull my son was 6 1/2 years old when myself and my family’s stability his father regained unsupervised together. The Safe and Stable visits again. When he became 7, Families Campaign aims to give me his father abused him again and the that time.” visitation became supervised. The Safe and Stable In the meantime I learned Families Campaign welcomes the that Matthew’s father was abusing new year firm in our resolve to his new wife. He has now been battle united with Angela, Matthew, charged five to six times for and the thousands of other women domestic violence assaults, and children across Ohio who bear convicted two times, and has scars from living in violent homes. incredulously been allowed For more information on how you supervised visitations with my son can join the battle call the Ohio throughout much of that time for Empowerment Coalition at 513/ 381-4242 or 877-862-5179. Safe and Stable Families Campaign 2005 by Lynn Williams, Ohio Empowerment Coalition organizer In January 2005 the Safe and Stable Families Campaign will be leading the way to get statewide guidelines adopted to assist lowincome domestic violence victims & their children in Ohio. The Campaign is working to ensure that public assistance recipients in Ohio are screened for domestic violence by trained caseworkers; ensure that victims receive referrals for care and support services; and allow caseworkers to grant waivers exempting recipients on a case by case basis from program requirements if the requirements would place a victim’s family in danger. The waivers will allow battered victims time to access the supports needed to successfully pull their families’ lives back together without jeopardizing their safety. Domestic violence occurs at every income level, and across all races and ethnic cultures. Women living in wealthy suburbs are battered as are women living in the poorest areas of the inner cities. In some cases, men are battered, although statistically over 98% of battered victims are women. Research also shows that over 60% of public assistance recipients have been battered….and these are just the reported cases, the tip of the iceberg. The Safe and Stable Families legislation would help Angela of Greene County who shared her very painful story with members of the Ohio Empowerment Coalition. “My children and I have been through domestic violence and sexual abuse and my family is still reeling from the repercussions of a father abusing his own son, our son, Matthew. Resolving this and making sure justice is done, getting counseling for my children and myself, and dealing with an often indifferent court system has zapped a lot of my emotional strength. Even though I have ambitions of getting my degree from Wright State University and finally finding a “family” supporting job, I dropped The Impossible Will Take a Little While Bush’s Iraq war, yet has remained that hope is a way of looking at the light-hearted and free of bitterness. world-in fact a way of life. How do we learn to keep Because Tutu embodies a defiant, Nowhere is this more apparent than on in this difficult political time, and resilient, persistent hope, where we in the stories of those who, like keep on with courage and vision? act no matter A few years ago, I heard what the seeming Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak at odds, both to be a Los Angeles benefit for a South true to our African project. He’d been fighting deepest moral prostate cancer, was tired that values, and to evening, and had taken a nap open up new before his talk. But when Tutu possibilities. As addressed the audience he became Jim Wallis, editor animated, expressing amazement of the that his long-oppressed country had evangelical social provided the world with an justice magazine unforgettable lesson in Sojourners, reconciliation and hope. Afterward, writes, “Hope is a few other people spoke, and then believing in spite a band from East L.A. took the of the evidence, stage and launched into an then watching the irresistibly rhythmic tune. People evidence change.” started dancing. Suddenly I We need Paul Rogat Loeb noticed Tutu, boogying away in the to be strategic, of middle of the crowd. I’d never course-to learn seen a Nobel Peace Prize winner, new ways of framing our vision and Tutu and Nelson Mandela, persist still less one with a potentially fatal reaching out to those who under the most dangerous illness, move with such joy and supported George Bush because conditions, when simply to imagine abandonment. Tutu, I realized, they saw no other alternative. We aloud the possibility of change is knows how to have a good time. need to muster enough power to deemed a crime or viewed as a Indeed, it dawned on me that his convince mainline Democrats that type of madness. We can also ability to recognize and embrace capitulation was at the core of the draw strength from the example of life’s pleasures helps him face its most recent defeats, and that former Czech president Václav cruelties and disappointments, changing America’s politics requires Havel, whose country’s experience, be they personal or political. drawing the line. But none of this he argues, proves that a series of Few of us will match Tutu’s will happen unless we persist and small, seemingly futile moral actions achievements, but in a political time find ways to keep engaged those can bring down an empire. When that’s hard and likely to get harder, several million Americans who’ve the Czech rock band Plastic People we’d do well to learn from just come in to peace and justice of the Universe was first outlawed someone who’s spent years movements in the past couple and arrested because the authorities challenging abuses of human dignity years. said their Zappa-influenced music from apartheid’s brutal system to We do this by recognizing was “morbid” and had a “negative photo by Jimmy Heath by Paul Rogat Loeb Streetvibes social impact,” Havel organized a defense committee. That in turn evolved into the Charter 77 organization, which set the stage for Czechoslovakia’s broader democracy movement. As Havel wrote, three years before the Communist dictatorship fell, “Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart.” Even in a seemingly losing cause, one person may unknowingly inspire another, and that person yet a third, who could go on to change the world, or at least a small corner of it. Rosa Park’s husband Raymond convinced her to attend her first NAACP meeting, the initial step on a 12-year path that brought her to that fateful day on the bus in Montgomery. But who got Raymond Parks involved? And why did that person take the trouble to do so? What experiences shaped their outlook, forged their convictions? The links in any chain of influence are too numerous, too complex to trace. But it helps to know that such chains exist, that we can choose to join them, and that lasting change doesn’t occur in their absence. A primary way to sustain hope, especially when our actions seem too insignificant to amount to anything, is to see ourselves as links on such a chain. see HOPE, page 9 Page 7 �DINNER, cont. from Page 1 live with “tremendous resilience to poverty and addiction.” The coalition has two key aspects that inspire Dr. Arundel, “a spirit of resistance” and service to others. “You fight for the rights of the homeless to be treated fairly and with dignity,” he said. “Your shelter and food are used tirelessly to help others, seeing the impact of social policies on old people. You resist and advocate against policies not in the interests of the people.” With city funding of social services, Dr. Aundel cautioned that there is a direct connection between cutting aid and increased incarceration and the number of people who disagree with unfair policies. He said he was alarmed at the federal government for going after people in the anti-war, environmental, and anti-globalization movements. “There is a climate of intimidation and silenced public dissent,” he warned. The soundtrack is “Bad Moon A’rising” by Credence Clear Water Revival, he said, “but there’s also a time now for opportunities to build a strong movement of resistance based on the real issues of people to actually stop (President) Bush’s agenda.” The best ways to make change happen? Build a broadbased movement, a network of people who act cooperatively, help people feel solidarity and a common identity, set goals that require major change and a challenge to the status quo. “Acting collectively to sustain a great goal must unite all progressive forces to set the terms of the debate,” he said. There also needs to be “an all-out assault on corporate criminals who are looting our future. And we need to build a movement from the bottom up and stop apologizing for asking for services that are as essential as police and fire prevention.” Activists will face resistance but can create change, he assured the Andy Erickson (left) presents Vendor of the Year Award to William Johnson Page 8 audience. “They say cut back. We say fight back,” he concluded. “The people united will never be defeated!” At the elegant dinner, awards were made to winners in five categories: Volunteer of the Year to Susan Smith, Service Provider to Eve Beasley, Streetvibes Vendor of the Year to William Johnson, the Jimmy Render Award to Marcia Battle, and the buddy gray Award to Kevin Lab. buddy gray was a grassroots activist who saved old housing in Over-the-Rhine and helped the coalition grow stronger before he was killed by a client with questionable motives that led some to feel gray was assassinated by people working to gentrify Over-theRhine. Dr. Ron Arundel challenges the crowd to unite progressive forces “This coalition is one of a kind,” said Lab. “Never doubt it. The evidence that you are just overpowering is what we accomplished last week (saving most of the social service funding cut by mayor Lukin). “We are indeed alive!” Sponsors of the dinner were 3C Ministry Foundation, Real Estate Investors Association, Sisters of Charity, Xavier University, Bethany House, Center for Respite Care, Cincinnati Health Network, Drop Inn Center, First Step Home, Goodwill, Health Resource Center, Homeless Medical Van, Interfaith Hospitality Network, Joseph House, Lighthouse Youth Services, and People Working Cooperatively. GCCH’s mission is to serve Executive Director Georgine Getty Addresses the dinner as a unified, social action agency, fully committed to its ultimate goal: the eradication of homelessness with respect for the dignity and diversity of its membership, the homeless and the community. The Coalition works towards this goal by coordinating services, educating the public, and engaging in grassroots organizing and advocacy. It was formed in May of 1984 for one purpose: the eradication of homelessness in Cincinnati. What began as a coalition of 15 volunteers meeting weekly in an unheated church basement has grown into a coalition of over 45 agencies and hundreds of volunteers. Left to right, Kevin Lab, Bonnie Neumeier, Alice Skirtz Homeless and formerly homeless individuals are incorporated into all programs and initiatives at the Coalition. Contact GCCH at 117 E. 12th Street (one block north of Central Parkway), Cincinnati, OH, 45202, (513) 421-7803, or infor@cincihomeless.org. Visit http://www.cincihomeless.org Veteran journalist John Zeh is a native Cincinnatian who lives in western downtown and edits Rainbow NewsAMP Alert. Georgine Getty presents Volunteer of the Year Award to Susan Smith Streetvibes �the descent of some, like the Weathermen, into violence. Yet privately, as we now know from Nixon’s memoirs, he decided the movement had, in his words, so “polarized” American opinion that he couldn’t carry out his threat. Moratorium participants had no idea that their efforts may have been helping to stop a nuclear attack. Although we may never know, I’d argue that America’s recent movement against the war on Iraq similarly helped make further wars against countries like Iran and Syria less likely, and paved the way for more widespread questioning, even if not quite enough to turn the election. The protests of early 2003, the largest in decades, brought many into their first public stand, or their first in years. It wasn’t easy to voice opposition when being called allies of terrorism. Yet people did, in every community in the country, joined by the largest global peace demonstrations in history. Many then continued through electoral involvement, raising further issues and building further alliances. These movements may have inspired the next Rosa Parks, Benjamin Spock, or Susan B. Anthony. They certainly marked the first steps for innumerable individuals who if they continue on will become a powerful force for justice, joining the ranks of the other unsung heroes who ultimately create all change. Even if the struggle outlives us, conviction matters. Actions of conscience confirm the link between our fate and that of everyone and everything else on the planet, respecting and reinforcing the fundamental connections without which life itself is impossible. Whether we flourish or perish depends on how well we can honor the interdependence that Martin Luther King evoked: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” Nor should we forget that courage is contagious, that it overcomes the silence and fear that estrange people from one another. In Poland, during the early 1980s, leaders of the workers’ support movement KOR made a point of printing their names and phone numbers on the back of mimeographed sheets describing incidents of police harassment against then-unknown activists such as Lech Walesa. It was as if, in the words of reporter Lawrence Weschler, they were “calling out to everyone else, ‘Come on out! Be open. What can they do to us if we all start taking responsibility for our true dreams?’” As the Polish activists discovered, we gain something profound when we stand up for our beliefs, just as part of us dies when we know that something is wrong, yet do nothing. We could call this radical dignity. We don’t have to tackle every issue, but if we remain silent in the face of cruelty, injustice, and oppression, we sacrifice part of our soul. In this sense, we keep on acting because by doing so we affirm our humanity-the core of who we are, and what we hold in common with others. We need to do this more than ever in the current time. Paul Rogat Loeb is the editor of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear (Basic Books, 2004, $15.95), named the #3 political book of fall 2004 by the History Channel and the American Book Association. He’s also the author of Soul of a Citizen. This article is adapted from The Impossible, and part was excerpted earlier in The Nation. www.theimpossible.org agenda but it’s a different values agenda. It’s a values agenda that a party of the down-and-outs, the lot of the people who are talking marginals, immigrants, people of values talk would respond to. color, and women. So the RC: Do progressives simply argument has been that they have to need to out-organize get with mainstream America. fundamentalists, or is there room I actually think that the for dialogue? American people are not so selfish Piven: Grover Norquist, and so evil that they would not who runs a populist right coalition in respond to appeals to improve the Washington but now has links with conditions of the poor. All the such coalitions in the states, boasts survey data shows that they would. that his coalition has moved If you call it welfare, they shrink evangelical Christians from being from it because welfare has been quasi-socialists to being free assaulted since the early 1970s. marketers. He’s talking about the The program has been said to be sense in which many evangelical the cause of every social problem in Christians were big supporters of the world, without any evidence, to the New Deal. Why were they big be sure, but the propaganda works. supporters of the New Deal? But if you ask people whether they Because they recognized that the think the poor should get a hand up, New Deal gave them work relief. everybody agrees. It gave them early food subsidies. RC: There’s been a lot of It gave them the Works Progress talk lately among progressives Administration. These were things about recapturing the language of that made a lot of sense to them values. How do you rate that as a even though they were also strategy for overcoming single-issue evangelical Christians. And if isolation? Christ was an evangelical Christian, Piven: Well, I don’t know Christ also would have been in about that. I mean, what do they favor of relief, WPA, food mean by it? If they mean that we subsidies, and so on. should talk about sex too, I think RC: In Poor People’s it’s crazy. If they mean we should Movements, you write about how advance our own ideals with moral social movements gain power in conviction our ideals about equality, proportion to their ability to democracy, the elimination of threaten and even stop business as poverty, more inclusive society — usual. One of the things that was yes. Those are moral ideals. apparent to me in Seattle during Those are values and we should be WTO — and I’ve seen it growing clear that they are values. It’s not around the country — is the an economic agenda, it’s a values militarization of policing. Do you think the political space still exists for noisy disruptive movements to occur? Piven: Yeah, I certainly do. It’s not fascism. The political space still exists. If you wanted to be entirely safe without any cost, well, it never really is. There are risks associated with truly disruptive action. Sometimes high risks, but that has always been the case. And yet, people have undertaken such actions, they have gone to jail, and they’ve sometimes won. RC: So, what else would you say to those who are wondering “What now?” Piven: Well, it’s gonna be a tough few years but I think only a few years. We cannot continue following these policies without creating domestic political crisis in the United States. And we should be ready for that crisis. We should be politically prepared, politically mobilized, straighten out our heads about what we believe in and what we want to correct in our own society and we should understand that this is not only important for us, it’s important for the entire world, because the United States has become a very dangerous power. People all over the world now agree that the greatest danger to world peace is the United States government. Reprinted from the November 24 issue of Real Change, Seattle HOPE, cont from page 7 The unforeseen benefits of our actions mean that any effort may prove more consequential than it seems at first. In 1969, Henry Kissinger told the North Vietnamese that Richard Nixon would escalate the Vietnam War, and even use nuclear strikes, unless they capitulated and forced the National Liberation Front in the South to surrender as well. Nixon had military advisers prepare detailed plans, including mission folders with photographs of potential nuclear targets. But two weeks before the president’s November 1 deadline, there was a nationwide day of protest, the Moratorium, when millions of Americans joined local demonstrations, vigils, church services, petition drives, and other forms of opposition. The next month, more than half-a-million people marched in Washington, DC. An administration spokesperson announced that Nixon had watched the Washington Redskins football game and that the demonstrations wouldn’t affect his policies in the slightest. That fed the frustration of far too many in the peace movement and accelerated PLUNDER cont. from page 6 Many Thanks to Aiken Leadership Team Students who donated a mountain of gifts for homeless children! Streetvibes Page 9 �cars with smiles all around. Little children, dressed for long waits in the cold, were on the lines along with babies in carriages, very old and disabled people waited, and those in wheelchairs or on crutches kept their places in the ever moving line. No one was turned away and many decided to juggle the boxes and bags without help, turning down the eager offers from high school and college youth. Monday, I was thoroughly soaked by the rain but my spirits were lifted by the both the work of the teams, the support of the Free Store staff, and by the good spirits of the people accepting the food. Tuesday, was more of this same generous spirit. Today, a warmer rain steadily fell but people continued to come and to receive the generosity of important. Waiting on lines was an opportunity for several to see old friends and embrace in the warmth of the room. Others seemed lost in their thoughts, moving toward a young person who lifted boxes of vegetables It has been raining off and on and a bag with a turkey into their since Monday but nothing can stop hands, gesturing with a finger that our efforts to bring and deliver food, they needed help getting to the curb toiletries, and friendship to the Free or to their cars. Very brief greetings Store/Food Bank. With members of were exchanged by those carrying the the Peace Village participating in key boxes with those leading the way to roles in logging in people, organizing some form of transportation. Yet, it to bring food to the sites, volunteering was clear that food and peace were to give the food away, and planning connected even though there was for next steps, the work of the past little discussion about how rare good few months has blossomed into three food and generosity was in anyone’s days of unforgettable experiences. life. Thousands of families and individuals What was remarkable about started to line up for the food at 3am, the great giveaway, the unlimited Sunday evening. The stream of generosity, also raised important people, standing for questions about why our city and long times in a cold country refused to establish a policy drizzle and hard rain to end hunger for most people once was frustrating for and for all. Why do we see very old those of us who and sick people in the rain, on a long wanted to move the line, seeking food? Why were line along as quickly as families, hugging little beautiful possible. After a while, children, soaked to the skin, waiting we got the hang of it on line for even a few minutes for and the room where food? Why were vets, some wearing food was distributed by old military clothing, forced to march family size was jammed in this kind of food line? Why is our and people began city government planning to cut all moving toward doors, subsidies to this agency and all to cars and buses. A pantries involved in collecting and wonderful group of distributing food? And, why does it Dr. Steve Sunderland volunteers from area take a major national holiday to high schools and colleges, plus some a city and the Peace Village that had spring open the coffers and hearts of churches, assisted all who would let donated and continued to donate people for something as basic as us with carrying their boxes of food, thousands of pounds of food. food? bags of turkeys, hams, and chickens. The Free Store/Food Bank Peace seems like an orphan This morning, only a little line had become transformed into a site of in all of this effort to reduce hunger, of hungry people were on hand at peace. Everywhere you could look, taking a place on a line behind a blind 7:30AM as the rain pounded down peace meant being respected, and and angry person, ashamed and but they were whisked into the food being given some food to celebrate in stubborn that this place is necessary room and then out to their waiting one’s own way just what was for such meager food. Peace cries The Peace Village out for a different kind of relationship to the poor and the rich. What is clearly being demanded is a peace with respect for predictable food, a peace with relationships that are open to knowing and believing in a society of sharing, a peace, finally, of radical insistence that no one ever face the humiliation of hunger. Questions swirled around us but we were too busy lifting, walking, and moving the food along, to face these realities. From time to time, I would see the face of a teenage volunteer; eyes wide open in disbelief, shoulders tense with fear, looking into souls of this army of need. What were they wondering about the world that we have left them and not told them about? We learned that all over our region, organizations are at work preparing food for strangers through pantries in churches giving food, through relationships with welfare agencies that have identified needy individuals and families, and through a traditional Thanksgiving dinner provided to thousands in the Dayton, OH convention center. The student’s reports spoke of an old value in people to share a little, to make a small difference of a meal, to feed strangers a fine meal and send the accompanying message of hope and friendship. This is an important event in the lives of many organizations for reasons that are very varied and largely unknown and certainly unheralded. Thanksgiving stops normal action, calls for a peace gesture that involves something more than the donation in the basket. At this time, we see and hear about people in their eighties coordinating services including food for strangers as if this was as natural as sunshine. Youth are enlisted in sorting foods, making boxes, helping deliver food to the sick and working right next to their neighbors and family, perhaps for the first and only time in their lives. Brilliant poems, imaginative press releases, and sentimental pictures flood into view, many created by young people who have found the right words and pictures to reveal the reality of a holiday that is bittersweet for too many. Dr. Steve Sunderland, professor of Social Work at the University of Cincinnati, is the Director of The Peace Village, a group of individuals from the national and interna­ tional community committed to examining all issues of Peace in the world. Dr. Sunderland also heads up Posters-for-Peace which en­ gages people in expressing their visions of Peace, in their own words, through the cre­ ation of posters. Page 10 Streetvibes �The Next Day attacked, mentally terrorized (orange alert, red alert, etc.), we lost jobs, couldn’t get more, went into a by Maria Guerriero horrible recession, made foreign Maybe people felt lonely at work that day. People needed to talk enemies. Take this as my cry for help and convince me not to go to but were stuck behind a desk or at Canada.” home taking care of the kids or And thus began a continental standing in front of a room of five dialogue. The writing, off the cuff, year olds. Email was their only probably typed with droopy eyes exhaust. At 11:34 am on November 3, over morning’s second cup of coffee, Amberly, an administrative assistant in took on the air of well-crafted journalism. In it all was the real news Cambridge, sent out an email that and commentary of the day, written read: “The bloodshot eyes here are many. People wear black and wince by people like your next door neighbor. in the cold gusts outside . . . and Chuk, a visual artist living in inside I suppose. One gust. Long New York: “I won’t be voting again, and draining. Feeling like it’s ever. That’s it. I’m done with it. I’m stripping me of my freedoms. But I was mostly stripped of them gradually not playing by anyone else’s rules anymore. I’m not playing the ‘pick over the last four years, not your representative and live with it’ necessarily realizing. The sudden game anymore. It’s a waste of change in climate makes me everyone’s time and effort. Never understand how close I am to again. Never.” Marc, an activist and freezing.” The subject of the email poet living in Belmont, read “Comfort.” The thread of discontent after Massachusetts, wrote in a poem: “We close the curtain on the voting the presidential election sparked booth, our pencils cry out.” Chris, a dialogue, email being the means of producer from Boston: “I’m going to bonding that day. Most wanted to stay under the covers, hoping to take channel any anger into push ups, crunches, and dumbbell curls while some sort of post-election holiday. thinking of the ‘map.’” Pamela, a Julie, a mother and student from Levittown, New York, sent around a communications expert from Danvers, Massachusetts: “I am a message that read: “I feel a hollow ‘60s kid and my generation is about place in my stomach and a great to see its gates fall. Everything we black cloud all around me. In the fought for, everything we rallied for, immortal words of Janet Jackson I everything we had ‘sit ins’ for, all want to ask Bush, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ cuz as far as my those marches, all this may be reversed.” A quote from Abraham eyes can tell we were physically Lincoln got around electronically thanks to Michael, a student at UMass Boston: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” In response to Julie’s email, Owen from East Meadow, New York sent a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Owen, inspired by history, added, “We are reaping what we have sown. It is time to plant new seeds. Whatever you see in this world that doesn’t make sense to you, resist it. I am human and I do not always practice what I preach, but I will try to change. I love you guys. The election is bull@#$%. Every day we can do something.” There were some resounding themes, including anger, loss of hope, and the urgent need to find the nearest Canadian passport office, but this shocked love and resilience emerged most often, and lasted a bit longer. Mary, a retired professor from Ohio, worked at the polls in Oberlin that day. The next morning, she emailed her kids. “My very dear children,” she began. “Please remember that this is our country, and we need to participate in it as fully as possible. We must remain actively involved in the electoral process at all levels—all those ‘unimportant, unglamorous, unexciting’ elections to things like school boards, city councils, state legislatures. . . . By the time of the presidential election, so much else has already been decided. Don’t let others make these choices for you. So stay the course you’ve set for yourselves, and eventually the two halves of this sadly divided country will find a way back to each other.” It was comfort that people needed, shelter from the idea of four more years. And it was found, as with all comfort after something tragic and confusing, by reaching out to each other. James chose a new path. “The answer has never been in politics or broad social movements,” he wrote. “That is not where human beings live. We live in homes and neighborhoods with each other. What is important to us is who we pass on the street on our way to work and in the grocery store, and who we come home to and who we go out with. “There is no hope in Canada either, except for the hope that is here — and that is the hope in how we treat each other every day, and nowhere else. Even if Kerry had won, 15 million children would have died this next year due to poverty and preventable disease. The only thing that matters is what you decide to do for other people with the gift of your life. “That’s what I think anyway.” Maria Guerriero feels that spontaneous overflows of emotion are key to any revolution. Reprinted from Whats Up, Boston, MA, USA, in its December 2004 issue. Queen City Barrel - photo by Curtis Proffitt Streetvibes Page 11 �Streetvibes Vendor Code of Conduct About the Greater Cincinnati All Vendors Sign and Agree to a Code of Conduct Coalition for the Homeless and Report Any Violations to GCCH - 421-7803 Streetvibes.... 1. Streetvibes will be distributed go to the individual vendor. This program has helped for a $1 voluntary donation. If a customer donates more than $1 for a paper, vendors are allowed to keep that donation. However, vendors must never ask for more than $1 when selling Streetvibes. 2. Each paper purchased from the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) costs 30 cents. Papers will not be given out on credit. Old papers can not be traded in for new papers. 3. Streetvibes may only be purchased from GCCH. Never buy papers from, or sell papers to other vendors. 4. Vendors must not panhandle or sell other items at the same time they are selling Streetvibes. 5. Vendors must treat all other vendors, customers, and GCCH personnel with respect. 6. Vendors must not sell Streetvibes while under the influence. 7. Vendors must not give a “hard sell” or intimidate anyone into purchasing Streetvibes. This includes following customers or continuing to solicit sales after customers have said no. Vendors must also never sell Streetvibes door-to-door. 8. Vendors must not deceive customers while selling Streetvibes. Vendors must be honest in stating that all profits Vendors must not tell customers that the money they receive will go to GCCH or any other organization or charity. Also, vendors must not say that they are collecting for “the homeless” in general. 9. Vendors must not sell papers without their badge. Vendors must present their badge when purchasing papers from GCCH. Lost badges cost $2.00 to replace. Broken or worn badges will be replaced for free, but only if the old badge is returned to GCCH. 10. Streetvibes vendor meetings are held on the first weekday of the month at 1pm. The month’s paper will be released at this meeting. If a vendor cannot attend the meeting, he or she should let us know in advance. If a vendor does not call in advance and does not show up, that vendor will not be allowed to purchase papers on the day of the meeting or the following day. Five free papers will be given to those who do attend. 11. Failure to comply with the Code of Conduct may result in termination from the Streetvibes vendor program. GCCH reserves the right to terminate any vendor at any time as deemed appropriate. Badges and Streetvibes papers are property of GCCH, and must be surrendered upon demand. The mission of the North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA) is to support a street newspaper movement that creates and upholds journalistic and ethical standards while promoting self-help and empowerment among people living in poverty. NASNA papers support homeless and very low-income people in more than 35 cities across the United States and Canada. Streetvibes Vendor: 70 cents Printing and Production: 30 cents The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) was formed in May of 1984 for one purpose: the eradication of homelessness in Cincinnati. What started out as a coalition of 15 volunteers meeting weekly in an unheated church basement has since grown into a Coalition of over 45 agencies and hundreds of volunteers dedicated to improving services for homeless individuals, educating the public about homelessness and empowering homeless individuals to advocate for their civil rights and housing needs. Streetvibes is a tool of GCCH used to help us achieve our goal of ending homelessness. On the one hand it is a self-sufficiency program geared towards the homeless and marginally housed individuals who are our vendors. Streetvibes vendors buy the paper for 30 cents per copy and sell it for a suggested one-dollar donation, keeping the profit that they have earned. hundreds of people find and maintain housing. The vendors also sign a code of conduct stating that they will behave responsibly and professionally and they proudly display their official Streetvibes badge while selling the paper. Our vendors put a face on “the homeless” of Cincinnati and form lasting friendships with their customers. On the other hand, Streetvibes is an award-winning alternative newspaper and part of the international street newspaper movement. Focusing on homelessness and social justice issues, Streetvibes reports the often-invisible story of poverty in our community. Streetvibes is also proud to include creative writing, poetry, articles, photography and interviews written by homeless and formerly homeless individuals. Streetvibes enjoys a loyal reader base that respects the honest portrayal of the joys, sorrows, and challenges facing the people of Cincinnati. Streetvibes is a member of the: The International Network of Street Papers (INSP) unites street papers sold by homeless and people living in poverty from all over the world. INSP is an umbrella organisation, which provides a consultancy service for its partner papers and advises on the setting up of new street papers and support initiatives for marginalised people. Where Your Dollar Goes... The Streetvibes program maintains a minimal overhead cost so that our vendors can keep as much of the proceeds as possible. Please call our office at 421-7803 for more information about the program. Many thanks for your support. There have been periods of history in which episodes of terrible violence occurred but for which the word violence was never used...Violence is shrouded in justifying myths that lend it moral legitimacy, and these myths for the most part kept people from recognizing the violence for what it was. The people who burned witches at the stake never for one moment thought of their act as violence; rather they though of it as an act of divinely mandated righteousness. The same can be said of most of the violence we humans have ever committed. Gil Bailie line War would end if the dead could return. Stanley Baldwin line Page 12 Streetvibes �Community Shares honored four local activists at the presentation of the McCrackin Peace & Justice Awards on Sunday, December 12. Named for the late Rev. Maurice McCrackin, the awards recognize individuals who have demonstrated long-term commitment to the creation of a peaceful and just community. The ceremony took place at the Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church. The 2004 Honnorees: Rev. Dr. Paula Jackson The Reverend Dr. Paula Jackson (Mother Paula) has been Rector of the Church of Our Savior Episcopal Church in Mt. Auburn since 1986. Under her leadership the congregation has become well known for its commitment to social justice issues. The church advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons in the church and in the community at large and offers literacy education, outreach to Hispanic persons, a Black Women’s support group, and an HIV/AIDS support group. Jim Lowenburg Jim Lowenburg is a powerful and effective leader who has had a major impact on a variety of efforts for social justice in Greater Cincinnati. For many years, he was a driving force of Cincinnati’s Central American Task Force — raising funds for community-based efforts in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala and keeping Cincinnatians informed of events there. He was one of the founders of Peace Works, which connected international issues to those at home. And, it was Jim who brought local nonprofit leaders together to form a federation called Community Shares. Rev. Rodney Sutton Rev. Sutton is active in the affairs of the United Church of Christ and is a strong voice for racial reconciliation and peace. He is a minister and youth leader working with lowincome African American youth from several neighborhoods throughout Cincinnati in his capacity as Director of the Racial Justice Youth Ministry of Inwood Park - photo by Ben D. Boswell photo by Jimmy Heath Four Activists Honored with 2004 McCrackin Peace & Justice Award Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Once homeless himself, Rev. Sutton works with the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and is a tireless advocate for the rights and dignity of the homeless. Ruth (Cookie) Vogelpohl Cookie Vogelpohl’s work in feeding people in Rev. Maurice McCrackin Over-The-Rhine and the West End is legendary by her founding of Our Daily Bread nearly 20 years ago. Our Daily Bread is a ministry of hospitality dedicated to serving the needs of neighborhood residents – providing shelter for the homeless, food for the hungry and socialization “Too many governments are for those who are alone. Cookie making informed, deliberate choices respects and supports the human that actually hurt childhood,” rights of all individuals, especially UNICEF Executive Director Carol those most in need. Bellamy said in a statement released ahead of the launch of a report at the London School of Economics. “Poverty doesn’t come from nowhere; war doesn’t come emerge from nothing; AIDS doesn’t spread by choice of its own. These are our choices.” In ideal circumstances, childhood is the relatively short window within which society can provide a certain quality of life to build hope for a successful future. But as the report argues, with over half the world’s children crippled by the toxic cocktail of HIV/AIDS, poverty and war, the world is failing to deliver on the promise of a happy childhood. The report entitled “Childhood Under Threat” is a call to action for the world to harness whatever means necessary to do better for the future of our children. Perhaps the most devastating attack on children and childhood is coming from the scourge of HIV/ AIDS and the huge spike in the number of children orphaned by AIDS. In just two years, 2001­ 2003, the number of children who had lost one or both parents due to AIDS rose from 11.5 million to 15 million, according to the report. Eight out of ten of the children who have been orphaned due to AIDS live in sub-Saharan Africa. Working to stem the tide of infections and in helping to take care of the children that have been left behind is filled with tremendous challenges. Streetvibes Children under attack from AIDS, war, poverty Page 13 �Deer Skull I WANTED TO WRITE Abbey of Gethsemani, December 2004 by Michael Henson I hike the trail to the second pond and find, in the snow, the skull of a deer, a doe, a young doe. The bud of a molar still hides in her jaw. A few black flakes of leaf cling to the butter-colored bone; some stamens of pine, some bits of earth lie within her vacant orifices and in the narrow flutes of her nostrils. A treasure, I think. So I start to walk her down the road that passes through the field of red winter grasses. And I am startled, for I hear a chirruping, thin whistle, a sigh, an extended bleat. A hawk? I think, a young hawk? But the piping stops when I stop and starts again when I start. And starts and stops again. So I know: the wind I make by walking plays through those slender, piccolo nostrils. And so she whistles me bleakly back to the house where I am staying. There, I place her on the desk and study her closely. I ponder the strange arabic interstices that knit together three plates of bone and the deep, sullen cavernous sockets that once held her eyes. And it seems she watches me as I write and it seems she tells me, Your turn, some day. And what she says is true. For who am I? And what do I have for all my tinkering and complaint? My worry and work? All this heaving of animal breath in and out of my damp nostrils? Nothing at all. Only this breath that I catch from moment to moment. Only this moment of body, this articulated stack of whistling bone. I wanted to write but The pencil I was given had a broken point. I wanted to write of my fear That the hatred of Palestinian children Will increase and more 13 year old girls In school uniforms will be Killed. I wanted to write of my hope To see this vote as an affirmation Of the path of peace for our broken country. Others by Robert Manassa Lord, let me live form day to day, In such a forgetful way, That even when I kneel to pray, My prayer shall be for others. Help me in all the work I do, Ever to be sincere and true, And know that all I do for thee, Must need be for others. Let self be crucified and slain, And buried deep nor rise again, And may efforts be in vain, Unless they be for others. And my work on earth is done, And my new work in heaven begun, May I for get the crown I’ve won, While thinking still of others. Yes, of others Lord, yes others, Let this my motto be, Help me to live for others, That I may live with Thee. I wanted to write with a pen Of love for My enemies. I wanted to write of the shabby Trees that will need to be sold For Christmas. I wanted to write of the blind That are leading one path to Healing. I wanted to write of my admiration For the parents of soldiers caught In the web of service to a spoiled ideal. I wanted to write of the hungry Who could not come for the free Meal of humiliation. I wanted to write of those lost In the world of their own chaos Including my sense of humor. I wanted to write to Jos, Nigeria And remind my brothers and sisters That the world watches and waits for peace. I wanted to write to those children Outside the walls waiting to get in And share the joy of Binny, Amos and Katy In India. I wanted to write to the families of Buenos Aires Who have eaten regularly only from nightly Trips to garbage cans and ask: “Where is Humberto?” I wanted to write the Indonesian peace movement And remind them of my continuing love for their struggle To bring non-violence to the new democracy. A Personal Darkness I wanted to write Mary Ann of her beauty and Inner passion for love that bubbles forth from a body Without only legs. by jh The rising voice speaks of a dreadful past, an anger that hides. Lurking invisible, revealed by the press of a challenge. The grown man, unborn, reeling from a personal darkness. What is this presenting creature, who brings a hidden madness? Ignored? Abused? Dominated? The grown man, unborn, reeling from a personal darkness. The tattered garments, the eyes, the anger. A broken human, wanting to be heard, nothing more. The grown man, unborn, reeling from a personal darkness. The scars of a history in the hands, the broken nails. The broken voice that swells but does not speak. The grown man, unborn, reeling from a personal darkness. Page 14 I wanted to write that my faith In people continues despite the swagger Of tyrants in my own heart. Streetvibes I wanted to write Duraid and Mama of my admiration For keeping the flag of peace waving Inside their beautiful hearts, our hearts as exiles. I wanted to write Hans of my love For our German brothers and sisters Who continue to light the lamp of justice. �Unwritten Beatitudes 1. Blessed are the ignorant for they shall be taught. 2. Blessed are the humble for they shall be made proud 3. Blessed are the blind for they shall see 4. Blessed are the falsely accused for they shall exonerate 5. Blessed are the losers for they shall be triumphant 6. Blessed are those in tribulation for they shall experience bliss 7. Blessed are those in debt for they shall be forgiven 8. Blessed are those in prison for their minds shall be set free 9. Blessed are the addicted for they shall be made whole 10. Blessed are the impaired for they shall renewed 11. Blessed are the pacifists for they shall honored 12. Blessed are the powerless for they shall overcome 13. Blessed are the scared for they shall no longer doubt 14. Blessed are those who serve for they shall be served 15. Blessed are the undesirables for they shall find acceptance By Club Quaker, Youth Group of Eastern Hills Friends Meeting: Jeremy Coppock, Nathan Coppock, Daniel Coppock, Daniel Montgomery, Grace Montgomery, Matt Whispe, and Jamie Pogue. by Robert Manassa Heavenly Father up above Please protect the ones I love. Guide them and keep them and let them know that I’ll always love them so. I’m sending up this prayer, down on my knees Father God – all of my sins, forgive them please I’m not to proud to beg I’m standing on my last leg. Precious Lord – please continue to hold my hand I need your help and grace to help me stand I need you not only for a day If these words are wrong in any way Then Father God – teach me how to pray CHILD OF THE UNIVERSE I firmly believe that mother universe will provide all that I am in need of to sustain this life of mine. Each of us can harness the talents and energies to accomplish everything we set for ourselves as a goal. We are each in the space and place we belong in. Where we are and where we are headed is already pre-destined. It has been determined by the seeds we have sewn in this life and by those of the past. Its success depends on how well we attend to the crop we have planted within us. when in doubt we must speak truthfully.......in all matters love every one with a open hand......even when it is painful to do so ......look into tomorrow and do what is for the good of all.......including you. Great care should be taken of what you manifest. Do not speak or act anything negative into existence...Knowingly refrain from these activities. A Servants Prayer Shutter Speed by Jimmy Heath Writers! Submit your Poetry to STREETVIBES ­ Streetvibes@juno.com Christmas Tree in Fulda Apartment Building Courtyard, Over-the-Rhine Streetvibes Page 15 �357-4602 Formed in 1984, The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a membership organization. Our member groups serve the homeless through emergency shelter, transitional living facilities, permanent housing, medical services, social services, soup kitchens, and mental health/addiction services. The Coalition also consists of individual citizens who want to take an active role in ensuring that Cincinnati is an inclusive community, meeting the needs of all of its citizens. Join the fight to end homelessness; contact the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless at (513) 421-7803, 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 SHELTER: Both Anthony House (Youth) SHELTER: Men City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Garden St. House 241-0490 Joseph House (Veterans) 241-2965 St. Francis/St.Joseph House 381-4941 Mt. Airy Center 661-4620 Volunteers of Amer. 381-1954 SHELTERS: Women and Children YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 (Toll Free) 1-888-872-9259 Bethany House 557-2873 Salvation Army 762-5660 Welcome Hse. 859-431-8717 Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 If you need help or would like to help please call one of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless members listed below. OTHER SERVICES: AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati 421-2437 Appalachian Identity Center 621-5991 Beech Acres 231-6630 Center for Independent Living Options 241-2600 Churches Active in Northside 591-2246 Cincinnati Health Network 961-0600 Community Action Agency 569-1840 Contact Center 381-4242 Emanuel Center 241-2563 TREATMENT: Both N.A. Hopeline 820-2947 A.A. Hotline 351-0422 C.C.A.T. 381-6672 Talbert House 684-7956 Transitions, Inc 859-491-4435 VA Domiciliary 859-559-5011 DIC Live-In Program 721-0643 TREATMENT: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 Prospect House 921-1613 Starting Over 961-2256 TREATMENT: Women First Step Home 961-4663 Full Circle Program 721-0643 HOUSING: CMHA 721-4580 Excel Development 632-7149 Miami Purchase 241-0504 OTR Housing Net. 369-0004 ReSTOC 381-1171 Tender Mercies 721-8666 Tom Geiger House 961-4555 Dana Transitional Bridge Services, Inc 751-9797 Caracole (AIDS) 761-1480 Friars Club 381-5432 Drop Inn Center 721-0643 Haven House 863-8866 Interfaith Hospitality 471-1100 Lighthouse Youth Center (Teens) 961-4080 St. John’s Housing 651-6446 Need Help or Want to Help? MIDDLETOWN/HAMILTON (Butler County) St. Raphaels (Food Bank/Soup Kitchen) 863-3184 Salvation Army 863-1445 Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276 New Life Baptist Mission (Soup Kitchen) 896-9800 Hope House (Homeless Families/Singles) 423-4673 Freestore/ Foodbank 241-1064 Fransiscan Haircuts 651-6468 Goodwill Industries 771-4800 Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 Hamilton Co. Mental Health Board 946-8600 Mental Health Access Point 558-8888 Hamilton Co. TB Control 632-7186 Health Rsrc. Center 357-4602 Homeless Mobile Health Van 352-2902 House of Refuge Mission 221-5491 Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Madisonville Ed. & Assis. Center 271-5501 Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 621-5514 Project Connect Homeless Kids 357-5720 St. Vincent De Paul 562-8841 The Emergency Food Center 471-4357 Travelers Aid 721-7660 United Way 721-7900 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 Women Helping Women 872-9259 January 2005 Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless Remembering Those Who have Died On The Streets Homeless Memorial BUY FROM BADGED VENDORS ONLY STREETVIBES $1 Donation � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2005 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource January 2005 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Homeless Memorial Day Honors Homeless Individuals Who Have Passed Away in 2004 Record Turn Out Helps Coalition Celebrate 20 Years of Service at Annual Dinner Pg 2: Worthy of Promise, Doomed by Gluttony Some City Social Service Budget Cuts Restored Pg 3: Homeless News Digest Pg 4: Who Let the Dogs Out? A News Year Pg 5: Farm Worker Victory in North Carolina Frost Elementary Holds Benefit for GCCH Pg 6: Listen to Elders An Agenda of Plunder Pg 7: Safe and Stable Families Campaign 2005 The Impossible Will Take a Little While Pg 8: Dinner Continued Pg 9: Hope Continued Plunder Continued Pg 10: The Peace Village Pg 11: The Next Day Pg 12: Streetvibes Vendor Code of Conduct About the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and Streetvibes Pg 13: Four Activists Honored with 2004 McCrackin Peace & Justice Award Children Under Attack from AIDS, War, Poverty Pg 14: Arts & Poetry Pg 15: Arts & Poetry Continued Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource January 2005 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Georgine Getty Alison Leeuw Andy Erickson Rachel Lawson Kate McManus Janice Faulkner Mary Gaffney Jimmy Heath Ben Boswell Berta Lambert Curtis Proffett Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Alison Leeuw Andy Erickson Annual Dinner Ben Boswell Berta Lambert buddy gray Budget campaign Cincinnati Curtis Proffett education Farmers Frost Elementary GCCH Georgine Getty Homeless News Digest Janice Faulkner Jimmy Heath Kate McManus Mary Gaffney Memorial Day North Carolina Peace Village politics Rachel Lawson Social Services