16 10 291 https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/2e2870501e546706613f8b3d3b690c03.pdf 127cb631a9a55c867527eb46941db712 PDF Text Text Immigration Protests Mark Reds Game CS13 Re-examines and Reinvents art page 6 page 7 Oct. 1-14, 2010 • Issue 185 • One Dollar ADVOCATING JUSTICE • BUILDING COMMUNITY Cost of Justice: $42,000 an Hour ­ Too much prosecution? By Eli Braun Contributing Writer “ ‘S mall potatoes’ is no defense,” a judge tells a defendant in a recent New Yorker cartoon. And while “small potatoes” might be a poor defense, it might be reason enough to keep a case out of court. That’s the thrust of a new study on the cost of prosecuting criminal defendants in Hamilton County. The study, which I helped research for the Ohio Justice & Policy Center (OJPC), asks the question: How much does it cost taxpayers to put people on trial, from their initial detention to a con­ viction or acquittal? The OJPC study only counted adult cases and exclud­ ed juvenile cases. It also excluded the costs of civil cases, policing (except testimony in court by police) and cor­ rections. Generally, if a program did not deal directly with adult crimi­ nal defendants, it wasn’t counted. The result was astounding: For every hour the Hamilton County Courthouse was open for adult criminal cases in 2008, taxpayers put up $42,000. That’s just under $400,000 per weekday and $2 mil­ lion per week. The cause, in part, is a flood of small-potatoes cases. Hamilton County files twice as many misde­ meanor cases annually as Frank­ lin County – despite comparable population size and demograph­ ics. The misdemeanor filing rate is 1 per 23 people in Hamilton County and 1 per 45 in Franklin County. In fact, Hamilton Coun­ Warped justice: Unnecessary prosecution drives up costs. Eli Braun. ty’s misdemeanor filing rate far exceeds Franklin County’s even after excluding cases stemming from workforce and for the entire com­ study, as the report explains, because Cincinnati’s regressive marijuana or­ munity’s safety. The study highlights “policymakers and taxpayers should dinance (see “Cincinnati’s Marijuana three points. understand the economic impact of Law Fiasco,” issue of May 15-31). First, during this economic misdemeanor arrests and subsequent downturn, counties have come to court functions.” ‘Flooding the system’ understand that prosecuting petty Second, regarding social impacts infractions such as loitering, open beyond money, an excessive misde­ Such heavy misdemeanor casel­ containers of alcohol and curfew meanor caseload needlessly creates oads carry enormous costs – not just violations can often lead to expensive for taxpayers’ wallets but for the city’s prosecutions. OJPC undertook the See Justice, P. 5 Serving the Ministry of Irritation ­ A woman priest point? That’s what Jesus is about – not about be­ ing consumers, not about the constant search for security.” works for reform ‘Another system of evil’ By Gregory Flannery Editor P eople gather at an undisclosed location to celebrate Mass. They face persecution if they are caught – not from the state, as in the early days of the Christian church, when the Ro­ man Empire forced believers into catacombs or, as in the 20th century, when communism forced Catho­ lics in Eastern Europe underground. These Catholics fear repression by their own religious leaders, the hierarchy of the Roman Catho­ lic Church. Their priest is a woman, Janice SevreDuszynska, who says God called her to the ministry. In 2008 a female Catholic bishop ordained SevreDuszynska. The Vatican holds that both women thereby incurred automatic excommunication. Catholics who attend a liturgy presided over by Sevre-Duszynska risk the same punishment, and she spoke on condition that the location of their gathering not be reported. Sevre-Duszynska says she celebrates Mass where she’s invited. She moved to Cincinnati last year when her mother-in-law’s health declined. For 25 years SevreDuszynska was a teacher in Lexington, Ky. For the past two years she has served as a priest. She sees her vocation as something more than a ceremonial Janice Sevre-Duszynska celebrates Mass. Robert Pohowsky. role – it is inevitably and vigorously political. “Jesus was very political,” she says. “They’ve got him so watered down. They want to stay in their comfort zone, but that’s not what he was about. He was about empowering people. If the church isn’t standing up for the poor and oppressed, what is the Last summer Sevre-Duszynska was one of 37 peace activists arrested during a demonstration at the Y-12 nuclear-weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn. (see “A Joyous Hammer Strikes Again,” issue of Aug. 1-14). During the protest – she prefers the term “witness” – she danced a polka and wore a stole, or liturgical scarf, bearing images of children around the world. “To me, this is a sacrament,” she says. “It was great to be with all these peace- and justice-makers from around the world. That’s where I’m happiest – on the streets.” In 2002 Sevre-Duszynska was sentenced to three months in a federal prison for her participation in a protest at the School of the Americas at Fort Ben­ ning, Ga. She sees her liturgical role completely in sync with her political work, opposing what she calls “the idol­ atry of the weapons.” Indeed she points to priests and nuns who have participated in non-violent civil disobedience as “models of priesthood” for her. “These are the Old Testament prophets, people who address the powers that be,” Sevre-Duszynska says. “They say, ‘Is this how you treat my people? Is this taking care of the basic needs of my people?’ See Priests, P. 5 �2 The Vibe ­ By The Numbers ­ 710 The amount, in dollars, that Choctaw Indians sent to poor people in Ireland in 1847(see page 11). 1420 The address on main Street for CS13’s new gallery (see page 7). 1903 The year W.E.B. Du Bois wrote The Souls of Black Folk (see page 16). 400,000 The death toll for bats so far from white nose syndrome (see page 7). 100 The cost, in millions of dollars, spent by Hamilton County on adult prosecutions in 2008 (see page 1). 2009 The year the Rev. Mark Schmieder died (see page 14). 1 The number of decades Riccardo Taylor spent as a Streetvibes vendor (see page 12). 10,000 The number of ex-prisoners asking the Safer Foundation for help finding jobs (see page 8). 15 The date in September when supporters of immigrants’ rights unveiled posters at a Reds game (see page 4). 5,265 The cost, in dollars, to shelter and re-house a family of four after they’ve been evicted (see page 4). StreetWise By GreGory Flannery Editor A Year of Writing Artfully When Saad Ghosn wrote his second biweekly column for Streetvibes, he asked that we change the tag line we had first used, identifying his day job. Ghosn is a physician and a medical professor. He didn’t want those facts distracting readers from the subject of his column. He also organizes SOS Art, an annual exhibition of art on social and political themes. He is a busy man, and he takes both medicine and art seriously. Our Sept. 1 edition was the one-year anniversary of Ghosn’s column, “Artists as Activists” (see page 16). In the past year he has showcased the work of artists in Greater Cincinnati whose work in a wide range of media – painting, poetry, sculpture, mixed media – give expression to the human condition and the irrepressible urge to improve, even ennoble, it. We look forward to another year of “Artists as Activists.” Ghosn is one of a corps of volunteers whose writing, photography, layout and proofreading make Streetvibes what it is. Do You Find This Titillating? Of course, what Streetvibes is doesn’t appeal to everyone. In the past few weeks some street papers in the United States, including Streetvibes, have found themselves in conflict with the Catholic Church. Street Roots in Portland, Ore., lost funding from the Archdiocese of Portland because the paper publishes a resource guide that includes Planned Parenthood. That organization offers contraceptive and abortion services, of which the Catholic Church disapproves. In the case of Streetvibes, copies of a recent edition were distributed to a group of Catholic ninth-grade students, which probably was not a good idea. The Sept. 1 edition contained an interview with rock star John Mellencamp, who used vulgar language in referring to members of Congress. Catholic organizations have previously criticized Streetvibes for quoting people using coarse language. For what it’s worth, I bet that every one of the kids who received that issue of our paper was already familiar with the word that Mellencamp used. But we’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Streetvibes isn’t written for children. Let them enjoy such innocence as they can on their path to adulthood. We don’t use vulgar language in order to titillate – and no, that’s not a naughty word. People in distress sometimes use vulgar language, especially faced with the kinds of issues that are often the subject of articles in Streetvibes: Poverty, homelessness, oppression. We believe in quoting people as they really speak, and sometimes that offends certain readers. At the same time, our society has an unhealthy habit of believing some words – which aren’t at all vulgar – shouldn’t be spoken in public. The result can make certain problems worse, which is the point of Margo Pierce’s column, “Eight Minutes using the V Word” (see page 3). Ohio Didn’t Kill This Time We are pleased to report that Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland commuted the death sentence of Kevin Keith, who was scheduled to be poisoned Sept. 15 by prison guards. The state prefers to use the phrase “lethal injection” – a bit of word play that should offend all our readers, given that its use is intended to mask the odious nature of what is done. Keith benefited from a nationwide petition campaign calling on Strickland to spare his life. Many believe Keith is innocent. His supporters included more than 30 former state and federal judges and prosecutors, the Ohio Innocence Project, the National Innocence Network, more than 100 religious leaders and organizations and 13 leading experts on eyewitness and memory. Strickland changed Keith’s sentence to life in prison without parole. La Botz Says, ‘ONO, You Don’t’ Dan La Botz, Ohio’s Socialist candidate for the U.S. Senate, has filed a complaint accusing the Ohio Newspaper Organization (ONO) and its corporate members with making illegal corporate contributions to Rob Portman’s and Lee Fisher’s Senate campaigns. ONO is a for-profit business enterprise created by the eight largest newspapers in Ohio. ONO organized three televised debates (using television stations owned by ONO’s members). No candidate other than the Republican and Democratic candidates are allowed to participate in these debates (see “Dems and GOP Say, ‘Stay Away,’ ” issue of Sept. 15­ 30). By arranging the debate in such a way, ONO has, in effect, made an illegal corporate campaign contribution to Fisher and Portman, according to La Botz’s complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). “Clandestine deals between corporate America and its preferred candidates cannot be tolerated in free elections,” La Botz says. “If corporations, including news organizations, are to participate in American politics, they must – absolutely must – comply with the law. They must be neutral. They must be fair. They cannot simply shovel money, coverage, television exposure and political favors to the two major-party candidates. Nor can candidates legally bargain for these gratuities. “If they really believe in a democratic process and fair elections, the news organizations and candidates named in this complaint should take action immediately to include all other parties and candidates in the debates they are organizing. The FEC, as the guarantor of fair elections, should also act at once to ensure that I and other parties and candidates are included in these and other such debates. I think it important for these and for future elections to hold these candidates and their corporate sponsors accountable for their wrongdoing.” STREETVIBES October 1-14, 2010 Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by people who are or once were homeless, in exchange for a $1 donation, Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Address: 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Phone: 513.421.7803 x 12 Fax: 513.421.7813 E-mail: streetvibes2@yahoo. com Web site: www. cincihomeless.org Blog: streetvibes.wordpress. com Streetvibes Staff Editor Gregory Flannery Art Director Joseph Szydlowski Vendor Coordinator Georgia Bohannon Contributing Writers Michelle Dillingham, Samantha Groark, Margo Pierce, Paul Kopp, Jeremy Flannery, Michael Henson, David Heitfield, Corey Gibson, Jeni Jenkins, Saad Ghosn, Lew Moores, Larry Gross, Eli Braun, Jesse Call, Michael Fanning, B. Clifton Burke Photography/Artwork Aimie Willhoite, Lynne Ausman, Anne Skove, Vinit Murthy, Jon Hughes, Brad Foster Proofreaders Jeremy Flannery The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati through coordination of services, public education, grassroots advocacy and Streetvibes. We are proud members of: �8 3 Column STREETVIBES October 1-14, 2010 M I N U T E S Using the V-Word Chronic vaginal pain is common but rarely discussed By Margo Pierce Contributing Writer When the pain your experience is socially acceptable – a headache, lower back pain, a sprained ankle – it’s a perfectly reasonable topic of conversation and frequently leads to sharing, “This medicine works for me.” But if you’re a woman and the pain you experiences results from just putting on a pair of panties and walking across the room, well, you’d best keep that little problem to yourself. What more than six million aren’t talking about much is vulvodynia – vaginal pain disorders. According to the National Vulvodynia Association (http://www.nva.org), this statistic represents a variety of pain disorders ranging from a rash and occasional irritation to constant pain or sharp pains during sexual intercourse. There is no known cause for vulvodynia and the only treatment is alleviating the various symptoms that are diagnosed. The current definition, according to the association, is “chronic vulvar pain without an identifiable cause.” “We cannot educate and we cannot better understand our bodies until we get rid of the stigma that’s attached to the word ‘sex,’ ” says Patty Brisben, founder of non-profit Patty Brisben Foundation for Women’s Sexual Health (www.pattybrisbenfoundation.org). “I want people to be more open because it’s not only going to be about us – it’s going to be happening to our daughters and our daughter’s daughter. It’s so important to learn more about our bodies. We pay that forward to our children by being able to openly talk.” So how does a woman deal with an ailment that has no known cause and no known cure? The first step is to pay attention to what your body is telling you – something isn’t right. Then persist in getting a diagnosis, even when you’re being told there’s nothing wrong with you. “We have to educate, and we have to allow women to know that this truly does exist. This is not in their mind,” Brisben says. “When women go see their health-care providers, they generally have to see seven doctors, and I’ve heard high as 16. A lot of women have suffered and still are suffering in silence because they have been dismissed by their doctors: ‘Maybe you should see a marriage counselor. Drink a bottle of wine (before sex). Get a good lubricant; it’s going to be so much better.’ ” The board of directors of the Brisben Foundation includes physicians who are treating women with vulvodynia. Brisben says more research and collecting information about this disorder is a top priority for the foundation. “We’re currently starting a registry and the women who are now being treated for vulvodynia can go in and report what’s going on Patty Brisben asks why it’s OK to say “erectile dysfunction” but not “vagina.” Jon Hughes/ Photopresse. with their treatment,” she says. “This is going to better educate our physicians on how to treat this. There is no cure. There is none because there is so little research done. Doctors are seeing more and more patients with this … and trying to find answers.” The stated mission of the Patty Brisben Foundation is to “support research to identify information and develop tools that enable women to have appropriate discussions regarding sexual health among themselves, with their family members, relational partners and health-care providers.” That last one – health­ care providers – is a special concern for Brisben. In addition to developing two educational videos to help educate physicians and their patients about vaginal pain disorders, Brisben says she wants women to understand that finding a doctor who will listen to their concerns is critical. “If you cannot go in and you cannot sit with your health care provider and you’re not able to open up to him or her about what’s currently going on with your body, if they’re not giving you sound information, they’re not talking to you …you need to look for another health-care provider – someone you are comfortable with, someone who is going to provide answers,” she says. Brisben expects doctors to do their homework. She says resources about vulvodynia are not as extensive as they need to be, but the information is out there and the docs need to learn all they can in order to help women. “I don’t think it’s fair for any woman to go to her health-care provider and not be able to get answers,” she says. “I want doctors to know that women should not suffer in silence anymore. They should be able to provide more answers and more information. “I’ve been in this industry working with women and sexual health and providing a safe environment for them to be able to have a platform to ask questions and learn more about their bodies. I take great pride in that. I love that. I fell in love with this platform early on. I’ve always wanted to be for all women … to be the one to go out and find these answers for women.” While vulvodynia is a priority for the Brisben Foundation, the organization advocates for women’s health in a variety of ways. Menopause, cancer, breast health, vaginal health, female sexual dysfunction, intimacy after childbirth and libido are the other areas unique to women – rarely discussed but deserving attention. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but breast health is hardly dinner-table conversation in most households. It is only by openly discussing and sharing information about women’s sexual health that we will begin to develop a healthy relationship with these issues, according to Brisben. Does this seem far-fetched? Consider the last time you saw a TV ad for erectile dysfunction medication. In her ideal world, Brisben would like to have women sitting in the bleachers at Little League baseball games or sitting around the dinner table discussing vulvodynia and the research efforts underway to find much needed answers. “This is when the suffering in silence will stop, and this is when our doctors will really be able to know that it’s important to … talk to women about these things,” she says. Many people work hard to make a difference for the less privileged in the Queen City; “Eight Minutes” is an opportunity to learn who those people are and what motivates them to do be a positive influence. �4 Issues STREETVIBES October 1-14, 2010 Study Backs Federal Eviction Aid ­ A little help now prevents homelessness later By Michelle Dillingham Contributing Writer U nlike with corporate institutions, it is a rare luxury in the world of socialservice non-profits to find the time and resources to conduct program evaluation and research. Funding for such “extravagant” activities is hard to come by – and yet so important as we seek to identify best practices (otherwise known as “good ideas that work”). Under the watch of Kevin Lab, a fellow social worker and director of programs at the St. Vincent de Paul Society, that agency was able to conduct research on the effectiveness of the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP). EFSP dollars are federal monies for non-profits to provide emergency assistance for people who are homeless or at risk for homelessness. St. Vincent de Paul used EFSP funds for emergency rental assistance to those facing eviction. In 2007 they provided 128 households with rental assistance, then studied the follow-up data in 2008 to see how effective the assistance was. Their research revealed that a majority of households whom they assisted were able to avoid eviction for at least one year. They were a diverse demographic group, and a majority of those assisted were children. The data also pointed to indicators of increased or decreased likelihood of future eviction. Clients who didn’t face a court eviction hearing in the year prior to receiving EFSP assistance had a smaller chance of facing an eviction hearing after the assistance was provided. Less than one-third of clients who recently started a new job went on to face eviction. And only 9 percent of clients who were temporarily off work due to health reasons faced an eviction after receiving EFSP assistance. “EFSP rental assistance is a relatively low-cost, effective method of homeless prevention for households, especially those with children, facing a short-term financial crisis,” the study found. “EFSP funding should be increased to prevent a greater number of households from becoming homeless.” The study includes compelling cost comparisons showing how assisting a potentially homeless family in their apartment for at least one month with EFSP funds ($700) is significantly more cost-effective than the cost of sheltering and re-housing a homeless family of four ($5,265). Perhaps most important was the conclusion that, even though certain characteristics might be present in a household, no one characteristic can be seen as a determining factor of future housing stability. Lab emphasizes that the findings of the study “are not meant as tools to reject some requests for assistance but to alert us to the special help some people may need to carry forward and maintain their plan for housing stability.” For a copy of the study, contact Michelle Dillingham of Affordable Housing Advocates at 513-421-2701. Explore Your Fairy Tale Forest It’s more important than you realize By Sarah Robinson Contributing Writer I had the privilege this summer to intern at a nature sanctuary in the northern Appalachians of Ohio. The temperate broadleaf (deciduous) forest is southern Ohio’s backyard, but is sadly ignored or taken for granted by Ohioans. The forest here in southern Ohio is the same kind of forest that is in Europe and eastern China. It is also the most disturbed forest in the world. After all, people like to live in the same climates that all those trees, flowers, birds and animals like to live in, too. There are more species of oak, salamanders and mussels – to name just a few – here than in our partner forests around the world. But one legacy we do share lies more in the cultural than biological. Hundreds of years ago, before Europeans cut down most of their forest, people were living and writing in it, and carried those stories with them to the New World. Most of the fairy tales we tell in America are the ones that come from Europe, and they take place in the same kind of forest that is here in our backyard. I feel it every time I step out onto a trail here: “I am walking through a fairy tale.” I am from the West and an admitted nature snob, so I was not sure what I was getting myself into when I came here. I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised. The life teeming in these woods is different from what I am used to, but it is just as – if not more – important than the Redwoods of California or the Ponderosa Pine of the Rockies. Southern Ohio’s forest is known as a “biodiversity hotspot,” second only to the rainforest. It is home to the most impressive spring wildflower display in the country, and its fall color rivals New England. So get out there, explore. Look around you. Grab an identification book and start getting to know your neighbors by name. Some of them are disappearing quickly. But they are all important. Let’s not let our forest be known only by some out-of­ date children’s stories. �5 Local News ­ STREETVIBES October 1-14, 2010 Justice Continued from page 1 a large class of former offenders. The over-criminalization of “small potatoes” cases ends up scarring petty offenders as criminals, who then face barriers to jobs and education. Third, excessive caseloads prevent public-safety officials and prosecutors from identifying truly important cases. The study offers an analogy from Janet Moore, a former senior staff attorney at OJPC. Moore compares the county’s criminal justice system to a resource-intensive, resource-scarce hospital emergency room. “Flooding the system with lowerlevel misdemeanor cases is equivalent to swamping the ER with head colds and nosebleeds,” she says. It’s not easy to find the patient with a heart attack when the waiting room is full of minor cases – patients with little more than a sniffle, patients who should not be patients. The study continues, “In addition to obscuring the important cases, the flooded system makes it harder for judges, prosecutors, defenders and jail personnel to implement evidence-based best practices, such as risk/needs assessments and diversion programs that improve public safety.” The most concrete of these three considerations, of course, is the first: money, and it’s the principal subject of the OJPC study. The study aggregated expenditures spread across city and county departments in an unprecedented effort to calculate the full financial burden of court prosecution. In its own words, the study “provides hard numbers to substantiate the expense of pre-conviction operations and to provide an impetus to seek less costly alternatives like mediation.” In the end, the judicial budget made other county expenditures look like small change. The $100 million that the county spent on adult criminal prosecutions – at a rate of $42,000 per hour – was three-and-a-half times larger than what the county spent on public works. Public works includes stormwater management and road, bridge and highway maintenance. It was nearly 14 times larger than what the County spent on environmental functions, including solid waste, air quality and litter management. It was also 1.35 times larger than what many residents see as the county’s bloated recreational activities budget. In 2008, these courthouse expenses exceeded the city’s expenditures on Paul Brown Stadium, Great American Ballpark, Cincinnati Museum Center, the Zoo and even the riverfront development project – combined. Mediation steps up The problem is not that court budgets are bloated; it’s that the demand is too high. Simply cutting office budgets would therefore prove disastrous. In fact, the county’s public defender is already under-funded, according to a 2008 report by the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (see “The Best Justice You Can Afford,” issue of September 1, 2008). Their report, Taking Gideon’s Pulse, found that misdemeanor staff attorneys in Hamilton County handle nearly 2.5 times the caseload recommended by national standards – the equivalent of 30 attorneys handling the work of 74. On average, in 2008, a Hamilton County public defender spent just one hour and 42 minutes per misdemeanor case, including trials. A system can reduce costs by reducing the demand on courthouse functions, which could be as simple as reducing the number of cases filed in court. The county could revise its unusually draconian charging and prosecuting decisions to mirror those of Franklin County or other counties, or it could take steps to intercept small-potatoes cases before they reach the courtroom. One promising strategy has been mediation. Hamilton County approved mediation services in 1974 through a joint city-county effort. Thousands of misdemeanor cases were referred annually. Of these referrals, 80 to 90 percent were successfully diverted from court, with low recidivism rates. Diverted cases included assault, criminal damaging, trespassing, disorderly conduct and telecommunication harassment. In 2008 there were 14,399 cases in these categories – nearly 40 percent of the annual misdemeanor caseload – that were potentially eligible for mediation services. Despite these successes, pre-filing diversion to mediation in misdemeanor cases was effectively eliminated during the recent economic crisis. Yet mediation might be back on Hamilton County’s horizon. With a grant from the Ohio State Bar Foundation, a group of stakeholders will implement a mediation program over the next few years. The working group includes faith-based organizations, law enforcement, prosecutors, defense attorneys, the courts, OJPC, the YWCA and the Cincinnati Bar Association. The Cincinnati Mediation Project “uses trained volunteers overseen by professionals to bring low-cost/no­ cost dispute resolution services and education on mediation skills to highneed neighborhoods,” according to a recent program announcement. It works both “to address conflicts before they rise to the level of a police call” (conflict prevention) and to divert cases that do enter the criminal justice system (dispute resolution). “The criminal justice system is at capacity. You can’t consider new ideas when you’re struggling to complete what you’re mandated to do,” says Paul Komarek, the project’s director. The mediation program adds “play­ ers, resources, and techniques that are not currently available,” and most important, says Komarek, changes “who we think of as the consumer.” With $100 million at stake, disagreements might seem inevitable. But reforming an expensive court system need not pit one group against another. A system that diverts small-potatoes cases – or diffuses them before they become cases – benefits the entire community. Petty disputes would not need to assemble a judge, a bailiff, defense attorneys, prosecutors, sheriff’s deputies and other court personnel. With a smaller caseload, prosecutors could focus on tough cases and county leaders could invest in other priorities. Such a system could truly achieve, in the words etched above the courthouse pillars, “the first end and blessing of social union.” The study, “$42,000 for a Courthouse Hour: The Cost of Processing Adult Criminal Cases in Hamilton County, Ohio,” can be found at http:// www.ohiojpc.org/text/publications/ court cost.pdf Priests Continued from page 1 This militarization is another form of idolatry. These corporate, multi-national organizations get to do what they want without regard to the needs of the people. This is another system of evil.” The effects of war are not merely theoretical to Sevre-Duszynska. She first encountered them as a child. Her uncle was in Battle of the Bulge during World War II. When she was 10, her uncle told her, “Our parents and sisters and priests taught us not to kill.” The lingering pain of what he saw and did during the war made a mark on Sevre-Duszynska. One night before battle, her uncle was giving haircuts. “The next day he picked up body parts and had to put them in the bag,” she says. “His whole life was more or less traumatized with that single event. All I could see was the pain inside of him. It affected his whole being.” In Lexington, Sevre-Duszynska taught English as a second language. There, too, she saw the effects of war. “My children suffered from the ravages of war and economic disparities – children who lived through the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, children from different parts of Latin America,” she says. “I made my classroom into a sanctuary. That was very healing and a great joy.” ‘Changed by the fire’ Healing and joy are not always characteristics that women associate with the Roman Catholic Church. Sevre-Duszynska is active in Roman Catholic Womenpriests and directs its “Ministry of Irritation.” The organization supports women who believe they have priestly vocations. It once posted a billboard that said, “You’re waiting for a sign from God? Here it is: Ordain women.” Prior to being ordained by Bishop Dana Reyn- olds, Sevre-Duszynska sought to become a priest in a more conventional way. When a man was going to be ordained in a Catholic cathedral, she stepped forward, too, saying God had called her to the priesthood. It didn’t work. The Catholic Church forbids women from priesthood. “The argument of the Church is that there were no women at the last Supper,” she says. Catholics who support women priests argue, however, that, in the New Testament, it was a woman – Mary Magdalene – who first announced the resurrection of Jesus. Nor was Jesus’ crucifixion unique, according to Sevre-Duszynska. “The Romans crucified women and children, too,” she says. “Jesus experienced humanity. It wasn’t a superman thing.” Earlier this year the Vatican issued a statement again stating that women are forbidden to become priests. The context of the reminder infuriated Roman Catholic Womenpriests. “The ordination of women appeared on the list of most serious crimes against Roman Catholic canon law, or ‘delicta graviora’ – putting it in the same category as sexual abuse of children by priests, according to Vatican Information Service. … We demand an end to misogyny in the Catholic Church,” said a statement by the group. The issue of women’s ordina­ tion isn’t Sevre-Duszynska’s only criticism of the contemporary Catholic Church. “It’s not just adding women and stirring,” she says. “We’re worker priests. We’re about reforming and transforming.” She believes the church has strayed from its founder’s mission, reflected in the absence of people whom, she says, Jesus would welcome. “Where are women?” she says. “Where are homosexuals? Where are street people? The god of Jesus is full of compassion, walking with us, a fierce defender of the poor and marginalized.” Sevre-Duszynska’s own life has had its share of pain. Her mother died when Sevre-Duszynska was 15. She lost her 18-year-old son to a traffic crash 20 years ago. “I think you come out on the other side of a very difficult loss and you are changed by the fire,” she says. “I was transformed by that.” Transformation is at the heart of Sevre-Duszyn­ ska’s ministry. She rejects the idea that suffering in this life is meant to be endured in hope of paradise after death. “I see my priesthood really as empowering, liber­ ating, being a voice for the voiceless,” she says. “In the Old Testament, God said, ‘Forget the smoke from the sacrifices. I want you to work for the needs of my people.’ I never bought into this ‘next life.’ This is the place. We are here on this earth. We’re all here to care for one another, including the animals. Spirituality is not compartmentalized. The personal is the politi­ cal is the social is the religious. That’s how I name Jesus. There’s not a separation. Our personal lives are entwined with the political.” �6 Local News ­ STREETVIBES October 1-14, 2010 Time to Build a ­ ‘Reverent Fear’ ­ Homeless march meant as show of strength By Jesse Call Contributing Writer P eople concerned about homlessness will march Oct. 16 through Over-the-Rhine and downtown. “We want to throw away the fatalism. ... We believe that we will win,” says Josh Spring, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. As part of Homelessness Awareness Week, the nonviolent march will visit several sites that have been important in the struggle against homelessness, both positively and negatively. Spring says the march has a triple goal: • Inspiring those battling homelessness to organize together to stand up for their rights, especially those who believe nothing will change or that they are already defeated; • Educating the citizens of Cincinnati about homelessness on their streets; and • Showing the large number of people willing to stand against the “gentrifiers and developers” who are pushing homeless people away. “3CDC and City Hall should have a reverent fear of us – of the people,” Spring says. The Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) has long been a target of the Homeless Coalition because of its development plans, which have pushed people out of affordable housing downtown and in Over-the-Rhine and restricted access to several areas frequented by those experiencing homelessness, including Washington Park and Fountain Square. The march will include stops at more than a dozen sites, highlighting 3CDC’s role in furthering homelessness in Cincinnati, according to Spring. These include the still-vacant apartments on the 1300 block of Race Street, where people were forced out of their homes for “economic development” purposes in 2006; the Metropole Apartments, which for 30 years offered subsidizedhousing, but which 3CDC purchased and plans to convert into a boutique hotel; and Washington Park, where many people experiencing homelessness often congregate, now undergoing major renovations that, the Homeless Coalition fears, will make it a private park. 3CDC describes its work in Washington Park as “an important and critical next step in the overall, on-going renaissance of Over-the-Rhine (to create) beautiful, safe, public, green space ... for all neighborhood residents as well as visitors to enjoy,” according to a press release. The Homeless Coalition calls it “gentrification.” The march will also visit spots where allegedly bias-motivated crime against those experiencing homelessness has occurred, including near the Metropole, where a man was severely beaten. Other sites include daylabor halls, which “pay slaves’ wages and keep people in poverty,” Spring says. However, the coalition also hopes to feature organizations that have a positive impact, such as Venice on Vine restaurant, a job-training program operated by Power Inspires Progress; Rohs Hardware, which has a long history of employing Over-the-Rhine residents; and Over­ the-Rhine Community Housing. Speakers will talk about the importance of each site in the battle against homelessness. In addition, the Homeless Coalition is planning three “theatrical events.” The hope is that people will not feel alone in their struggle and will realize that “there are more of us than there are of them,” Spring says. Some might believe that actions such as marching and sharing fliers are outdated, but many of those are actually afraid of people organizing against them, according to Spring The march is scheduled from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16, beginning at Buddy’s Place, 12th and Vine streets. For more information, call the Homeless Coalition at 513­ 421-7803. A sign opposing Arizona’s immigration law. Bradley R. Foster. Going to Bat for Immigrants ­ Protest at Reds game to ‘escalate the struggle’ By Eli Braun Contributing Writer O ne, two, three strikes you’re out at the old ball game, as the song goes. But it took just one strike for Dan Moore and Sarah Jaine Szekeresh to get booted from Great American Ballpark on Sept. 15, after unfurling a banner over the center field wall during a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The banner, which reached nearly to the grass, proclaimed, “Not in Arizona, Not in Ohio: Immigration Reform Now,” with the words SB1070 crossed out. SB1070 is the bill number of the new Arizona law that targets undocumented people through racial profiling. It has been condemned by both civilrights leaders and the federal government. Moore and Szekeresh were arrested for disorderly conduct and spent six hours at the Hamilton County Justice Center. Charged with a fourthdegree misdemeanor, they face up to a $250 fine and 30 days in jail if convicted. The pair pled not guilty and will have a bench trial Oct. 4. Later during the baseball game, two other activists, Ruairi Rhodes and Zach Fisher, unrolled a second banner with the message, “Shame on Arizona, Don’t Spread the Hate.” It also plugged MoveTheGame.org, a website petitioning Major League Baseball to change the venue of the 2011 All-Star game, currently set for Phoenix. Rhodes and Fisher were not arrested. The protesters were tossed out for violating the stadium’s ban on political signs and interrupting the game, but it remains unclear whether violating stadium rules actually constitutes a criminal offense. Regardless, talking about his arrest misses the point, according to Dan Moore. “Immigrant families get arrested every day for bogus reasons, and these criminal records cause significant damage to their lives,” he says. “All this talk about being arrested – when I can go home and continue my job and my life – just dramatizes the true catastrophe going on in immigrant communities around deportation. Families get ripped apart. It’s hard to pity myself.” Nevertheless, the risk of arrest is a real concern for undocumented people. “It highlights the role that allies can play in the struggle for immigration reform,” Moore says. “Immigrants have owned much of it, but when it comes to tactics that would expose undocumented people to unnecessary risks and even deportation, allies must also step up. We must work to responsibly escalate the struggle.” Moore, who organizes lowwage and immigrant workers with the Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center, says the four protesters planned their action with the help of immigrant communities. Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones has pushed similar antiimmigrant legislation for Ohio. “It’s not acceptable there, it’s not acceptable here,” says Sarah Jaine Szekeresh, who was arrested with Moore. Protests have followed the Arizona Diamondbacks across the country. “We don’t have ambassadors between states,” Moore says. “Baseball games are as close as we get, and these actions communicate to people in Arizona that anti-immigrant hate will not be welcome here. It won’t be normalized.” The protesters’ message, disseminated on the Associated Press wire, reappeared in Arizona newspapers. Arizona’s SB1070 mandates that police apprehend people they suspect to be undocumented during the course of a police stop. No authority has clarified how police are supposed to discern someone’s nationality. In response, some activists have created T-shirts with the phrase, “Do I look illegal?” Several immigrant-rights and civil-liberty organizations have filed lawsuits against the law. These lawsuits claim that SB1070 violates two essential provisions of the 14th Amendment: the Equal Protection Clause, by subjecting people to police stops and detention based on their race or origin; and the Due Process Clause, by being impermissibly vague. The U.S. Department of Justice also sued in federal court, arguing that the Arizona law bypasses the federal immigration law and therefore violates the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause. In July, a federal district court agreed that SB1070 usurps federal authority over immigration and temporarily blocked some parts of the law. The state of Arizona appealed, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is scheduled to hear arguments in November. Moore was present in Phoenix on the day SB1070 went into effect. “What I took back,” he says, “is that people are more prepared now than ever before to raise the stakes on immigration.” In particular, “there’s a lot that allies can do in this struggle that has not been done so far.” And it seems they can have fun doing it. Ruairi Rhodes says the protest combined two of his great loves: immigration reform and Reds baseball. Moore says that when they unrolled the banner over the outfield wall, the people behind them couldn’t see it. “What’s it say?” they asked. Moore answered, “Pete Rose for the Hall of Fame!” A shorter version of this article appeared at WagingNonviolence.org. �Local News ­ STREETVIBES October 1-14, 2010 7 CS13 Finds a New Way of Doing Art Collective, original and not for sale By Brian O’Donnell Contributing Writer C incinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood has a reputa­ tion for being both historic and dangerous. Within the past decade, however, the community has become the center of Cincinnati’s art revival, calling itself home to numerous galler­ ies and cafés that peddle eclectic wares ranging from vinyl records to canvass paintings, all in the name of art. One Over-the-Rhine gallery creates art with no commercial intention. Contemporary Space 13 (CS13) doesn’t act like other galleries. It doesn’t even look like them. The “gallery” is simply a performance space, according to Aaron Walker, one of about 15 core members of CS13. Nick Swartsell and Walker are two of the faces making up what they say is a collective project to facilitate conversa­ tion and engage the community in art projects. “The main objective is a dialogue with the community that surrounds the space,” Walker says. “The goal of CS13 has always been to be plural.” The members of CS13 have back­ grounds ranging from fine arts to jour­ nalism to library science. Walker gradu­ ated from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning with a degree in fine arts. Swartsell studied political science and English at Miami University. Between them, they are only six years out of col­ lege. Youth is the norm for the group, with the oldest member age 30. Swartsell and Walker are reluctant to take credit for CS13. They’re hesitant to even have their names known; they consider the gallery to be a collective, with no leadership hierarchy. “We try to keep a low personal pro­ file,” Walker says. The less personal, the easier it is to be part CS13, he says. The gallery evolved from the demise of Murmur, a do-it-yourself music space in South Fairmount. When CS13 emerged from Murmur, Walker says, the focus shifted from strict music and art projects to exhibitions about social practice that would address the audi­ ence in that context. The friendships forged at that space led directly to CS13‘s formation in June 2009. “We’ve kind of shied away from any one person, like, being the face of the group,” Walker says. “It’s a collective endeavor.” As a collective, CS13 is always allow­ ing members to tackle different projects through varying media. Uniformity is no part of the collective. “I don’t think any of us understood what it would look like when it was finished,” Swartsell says. Even so, Walker and Swartsell sound like the de facto spokespersons for the gallery. When others are explaining CS13 and what it does, they look toward the duo for clear definitions. Walker de­ scribes the group as “structured enough that we’re stable but organic enough for surprises.” He says the vision for CS13’s future is “more of the same but better.” “Widening the conversation,” is Swartsell’s response. He and Walker share a desire to build on what CS13 learned and accom­ plished in the past year. If there is a need for increased efficiency, the gallery is clear about operating within its ideals. Walker says CS13 doesn’t sell art, and donations are solicited at musical events only to cover production costs. The space itself was always funded by its members. “I try to steer away from the idea of the artist as struggling,” Walker says. Many galleries act the part of art mavens but CS13 has taken a step back to make its art a collaborative learning process, Swartsell says. “One of the goals that’s emerged with CS13 is interaction,” he says. Aural Grid is a prime example. In this project, CS13 used contacts within the Over-the-Rhine to place musicians on the roofs of buildings in a two-block perimeter around Main Street, Orchard Street, Sycamore Street and 13th Street. Walker describes it as a rooftop soundscape that bordered on ambient. This kind of interaction generates buzz. Swartsell says CS13 receives a lot of support for exhibitions. The recent Out in the Open exhibition showcased one of the collectives’ goals – social dia­ logue. The exhibit, a collaboration with the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless included photographs and first-hand accounts about homeless­ ness and the neighborhood of Over­ the-Rhine. CS13 opens at a new location, 1420 Main St., with a celebration and Designed by Jesse Reed. fundraiser on Oct. 1 and 2. The event includes a potluck dinner the first night and 10 musical acts on the second. The goal is to get enough money to pay out­ standing bills and continued operating costs. “It’s just not done yet,” Walker says. Bat Fungus is a Problem for Humans ­ Extinction would mean more insects By Sarah Robinson Contributing Writer S omething is killing off the bats in this country, and scientists are stumped. Not too long ago, in the winter of 2006, bats were spotted lying dead outside some caves in New York. On their noses and wings was a white fungus (geomyces) that thrives in cold and humid condi­ tions such as caves. Scientists aren’t sure if the fungus is causing bat deaths or is a secondary symptom, but bats all over New England are waking up in the middle of their hibernation period, losing their fat stores and either starving or freezing to death. The fungus is highly contagious between bats. There are already places in New England where there are no more bats at all, and the fungus is rapidly spreading to the rest of the country. As of April 2009, 400,000 bats have died from this “white nose syndrome,” and the little brown bats could be completely extinct within two decades. White nose syndrome affects, in addition to the little brown bat, the tricolored bat, the northern long­ eared, the big brown, the smallfooted and the Indiana, which is already endangered. All these bats are insect eat­ ers, and their demise could mean disaster for agriculture, ecology and recreation. One bat can eat its own body weight in insects every night. Caves all over the United States might be closing in the next few years in an attempt to corral the spread of this devastating fungus. Bats are highly sensitive to dis­ turbances in their environment anyway, and as they begin prepara­ tions for their long winter hiberna­ tion, it is especially important to leave them be in their caves. “We don’t feel satisfied ending the con­ versation as we go into another year.” Pursuing these creative interests un­ der the context of community and navi­ gating the art world in a different way is how Walker perceives CS13’s goal. “That’s the payoff,” he says. �8 Beyond the Bootstraps ­ STREETVIBES October 1-14, 2010 Invisible Punishment Lasts a Lifetime ­ Former prisoners need a fair break By Margo Pierce Contributing Writer P rison isn’t just a punishment – it’s a place apart with its own culture and rules. The experience of prison changes not only the inmate, but the families, friends and the community from which the convicted individuals come. More than 80 percent of inmates leave prison, and yet almost no preparation is done by anyone in any of these groups to support successful reentry. The Safer Foundation in Chicago, Ill., helps inmates navigate the barriers to re-entry, according to B. Diane Williams, executive director. B. Diane Williams: It is our role to help people with criminal records help themselves. They are not com­ ing to us asking us to fix everything for them; they are asking for some tools and support for fixing those things that need to be fixed. All of our programs help people with criminal records, and our pri­ mary focus is employment. But we recognize that employment alone doesn’t work, so we form linkages with other programs, and we pro­ vide additional services ourselves so we can better prepare people to go to work. It’s really a much broader picture – what people call a reentry picture –than just an employment picture. If you think about this, people who have been in prison for any period of time … what they know about (their) community is exactly what they left when they went to prison. They don’t know any dif­ ferences, any shifts, any change. If there were not ATMs when they went to prison, they have no idea what an ATM is. So when they come home, they expect exactly what they left, be­ cause nobody has begun to prepare them for what they might experi­ ence; and that might be differences inside their households, on their blocks, in their communities at large. They’re looking for what was when they left. What was is what got A painting crew, part of the Safer Return initiative, paints viaducts along train lines in Chicago. Courtesy of Safer Foundation. them in trouble in the first place. If you’re in the institution for a very long time, you get to make very few choices. So if you aren’t prepar­ ing to make good choices when you go home…you find yourself falling into the same bad choices that you made before you went in. But according to Williams, it’s not enough to wait for a person to leave prison and see how s/he fares. The work has to start before the inmate gets out. B. Diane Williams: We go inside the prisons in a number of differ­ ent ways. One example is we go in what we call Welcome Panel format, which means we have people [with us] from the community to which that person’s returning; people will­ ing to help them make that transi­ tion home. Whether we do that face-to-face or through a video or teleconferenc­ ing format, we try to connect with them before they come home so that, when they come home, they have a support system. They know there’s someone there to help them with the transition. The word “rehabilitation” is seldom heard anymore. The fact is, people are more likely to leave prison with bigger problems than when they went in. That means they are not ready to successfully renter the community. B. Diane Williams: Some of the people who come to see us … need help before they can go to work. They need substance abuse treat­ ment or they need medical treat­ ment. When we are comfortable that somebody is ready to go to work, the first step for them will probably be one of the work crews that we run. We have bids on projects … and have responsibility for clean­ ing the street and snow removal and those kinds of things. We have a number of other opportunities where we are cleaning areas around train tracks … We’re moving into the area of urban landscaping and things like that so our people can get to work right away. By definition, these are low-pay­ ing opportunities. But the intent is to prepare them with both the soft skills and hard skills they can then use for permanent employment. Our goal there is to look for higher paying, better-benefit kinds of op­ portunities for people. Safer Foundation provides jobreadiness workshops and classes, but former inmates need more than just job preparation. They need to be able to navigate what Safer Foundation calls “invisible barriers.” B. Diane Williams: When we talk about invisible barriers, they’re everywhere. There are those people who don’t even know that they have a certain perspective on people with a criminal record; there are people who believe that everybody in our prisons have significant mental health issues, have killed lots of people, have raped lots of people, have commit­ ted very violent crimes. And what we know is that a great majority of people are not in prison for violent crimes. Employers assume that they are going to disrupt the workplace. Employers assume that they’re going to bring violent tendencies into the work place. They assume that they are not going to contrib­ ute. If you interview the employers who hire our clients, they will tell you the exact opposite. The em­ ployers will tell you that they are the people most appreciative of the opportunity. They are the ones em­ ployers find most flexible; they will do whatever is needed to be done in a given environment because they really appreciate having an oppor­ tunity to have that job. There are blanket scenarios that prohibit people from going to work, and the health care industry is a perfect example. If you have a retail theft, you can’t go to work in direct patient care in a health care facility. When that law first came about, we had many people coming to us asking for help. One particular nurse had been on her job for 20 years and they let her go. To help bridge the gap between the behavior that landed someone in prison and the reality of their behavior after conviction, some states are using “certificates of good conduct” issued by parole board or courts. These official documents tell a potential employer that the individual has “cleaned up” her/his act. With tens of thousands of people leaving prison every year, this makes re-entry into the workforce more likely… B. Diane Williams: We work with probably about 300 employers, but we have 10,000 people com­ ing to us who want jobs. The last three years we placed 2,500 to 3,100 people each year. Not everybody who comes to see us is ready to go to work, but we could certainly place more people if we have more opportunities. There is a word called “hope” that is often deemed as hokey. I will tell you that, if people don’t have hope, they don’t try. So one of the things we have to do is that we have to prove to people that opportunities do exist. I believe that the American people at large are people with good hearts who want to do the right thing, and this is the right thing. To hold somebody accountable for bad decisions for the rest of their lives is not the premise for this country. And yet it is the behavior of this country today. The people that we serve are their brothers, their sisters, their nieces, their nephews or their next-door neighbors. These are ordinary people who want to have ordinary lives but have made some bad deci­ sions or have been put into some bad situations. While they are not perfect, neither is anyone else on this planet perfect. But we can have a higher level of productivity in this country if we support these people in living their lives in the way they way they really want to live them. The American myth of individualism tells people who are struggling with addiction, abuse, mental illness or poverty to simply pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. In reality, specially designed services and other kinds of support are essential to the process of transformation. This column is the third in an occasional series that will explore what it takes to Forget the Bootstraps in order to live a better life. �STREETVIBES October 1-14, 2010 Office Window By Rick Stansberger Fallen leaves are just leaves when they don’t have toddlers to throw them around, watch them twist down, grab handfuls and flap them like wings. “Come away from there!” says the teacher to the little ones “That is a professor!” as if naming a caged bear or a piece of road machinery. “No, they’re beautiful!” I walk to the glass and say, at a loss to tell her how they’ve transformed the day. Re-Assessing Shirley By Rick Stansberger One day her life went from You’re so gifted! If only you’d apply yourself! to There was an error in the way your test was scored and so she went into the general student population the gifted program got rid of a statistical anomaly and whatever happened after that wasn’t the program’s fault. My Father’s House By Willa D. Jones In my father’s house there are many mansions Many mansions, with many rooms to rest and pray in In good times, in bad times, day, night, sleep or wake times All the time I spend in my father’s house cause his house is mines When I was homeless, a drunkard, a drug addict and all alone I found much comfort and peace just praising in song When I was hungry, hair nappy, dirty and smelling really bad I held onto my sanity, when my belief in pray was all I had As in any house with rules, my father has commandments of ten Even though I would make mistakes, I’d always repent of my sins And ask for forgiveness with the understanding to make a change A change for the best so there would be no more fear or pain Taking what each day brings in pray and always believe Having faith to know that my father’s will is best for me While searching for God’s love, wisdom and understand­ ing I come into the realization of just what my heart was demanding I began to go to church to learn more about my father’s house I found peace and my soul was saved I could finally an­ nounce I learn that there is a place in my father’s house for every­ one The young, the old, the lost and the sick at heart and mind I learned the mistakes I’d made were all of one kind I understand today that we must learn from the mistakes we’ve made And know only by the grace of God can our souls be saved So won’t you come visit in the house of my father Learn the bible and know that with my father there is no other Take your time and search you soul to truly find yourself An understand that in our fathers house is where we’ll be forever safe with plenty of help Art by Anthony Williams Poetry Art & Literature 9 �10 Art STREETVIBES October 1-14, 2010 Cartoon by Anne Skove ­ Love writing? Or is taking photos your thing? Volunteer at Streetvibes and you could see your stuff in print! Contact Greg Flannery at 513-4217803 x 12 or by e-mail at streetvibes2@yahoo. com �STREETVIBES October 1-14, 2010 11 International News Development Aid in Recession By Samantha Bailie Street News Service I n times of eco­ nomic downturn, development aid often becomes an issue low on the agenda. With the deadline for the Mil­ lennium Development Goals approaching in 2015, some countries fail to keep their promises. Back in the 1970s the United Nations (UN) passed a resolution rec­ ommending that wealthy countries donate annu­ ally 0.7 percent Gross Na­ tional Income (GNI) to developing countries in Official Development As­ sistance in order to help the fight against poverty. This is still the target today, and every year the club of wealthy nations, the Organization for Eco­ nomic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), produces figures show­ ing how much each rich country gives in Official Development Assistance and what percentage of its GNI that figure repre­ sents. Dochas (the Irish As­ sociation of Non-Gov­ ernmental Development Organizations) recently warned of a significant aid shortfall to reach Mil­ lennium Development Goals. Ireland is well off track to deliver on its own projected aid lev­ els for 2010, even if still within European Union targets. Ireland had set itself the goal of being leader on international development; instead, however, the island has been continually cutting its overseas aid budget and breaking its promise to reach the 0.7 percent target by 2012, essentially affecting millions of the poorest people in devel­ oping countries. The aid figures do show an increase in the five years since the Mil­ lennium Development Goals were established, but a big shortfall in what donors initially stated they would provide. Ire­ land had been on track to achieve its aid targets un­ til 2008, when it reached 0.59 percent of national income. Last year, how­ ever, it cut the aid bud­ get by 224 million euro and this year has seen a further cut. Therefore the island is well off its own target for this year, being back to approximately 0.52 percent. The gov­ ernment has effectively given up on the 2012 deadline and has now moved its commitment to the 0.7 percent target by 2015. A recent opinion poll by Ipsos MRBI, commis­ sioned by Dochas, sug­ gested that Irish people believe that the govern­ ment should deliver on its aid promises to main­ tain its international reputation. The survey found that 81 percent of respondents agreed it was important for Ire­ land’s reputation that the government delivered on its aid promises of spending 0.7 percent of national income on overseas aid by 2015 at the latest. In the survey, respondents were asked if Ireland should con­ tinue to support overseas Where did the green go? Irish foreign aid (in millions) Ireland ponders its commitment 1500 1200 900 600 300 0 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Source: http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Data.aspx aid even with its current economic difficulties. The results showed a massive support for over­ seas aid, with 84 percent of respondents agreeing that it should continue, even in economic down­ turns. Dochas Director Hans Zomer says, “Public support for investing in overseas aid – even in an economic downturn – continues to be strong. This shows that people in Ireland believe in a just and fair world, and that the economic crisis shouldn’t be a reason for us to turn our back on the world’s poorest peo­ ple. The figures remind the government that people in Ireland feel strongly about our tradi­ tion and our obligations towards those less fortu­ nate than ourselves.” Irish people might be of the opinion that the government needs to follow through on promises; however, when it comes to personally giving to charity, a dif­ ferent problem is uncov­ ered. Trevor Anderson, Oxfam Ireland’s Head of Retail and chair of the Irish Charity Shops Association, says, “Ox­ fam Ireland experienced continued like-for-like growth every year for the past 10 years since our conception, and so this is the first time we have not seen the development we achieved in previous years. … We are currently 5 percent down on bud­ get and 4 percent down on last year.” When it comes to physically giving to char­ ities people are keep­ ing their hands firmly in their pockets, many claiming that “charity begins at home.” Let us remember however, that in 1847, in the time of great poverty and famine in Ireland, the Choctaw Indians, a poor, margin­ alized community them­ selves, collected $710, a small fortune, and sent it to help the starving and needy. Despite their own poverty, they did their best, something that Ire­ land should do now. As Dochas states with regards to contributing during a recession: “Aid is now not less afford­ able than before. The aid target is set in percent­ age of national income, meaning the aid budget goes up and down in line with the economy. In other words, it is equally difficult in good times as in bad to adhere to the target; in both cases it’s not a case of affordability, but of courage of convic­ tion.” © www.streetnewsser­ vice.org Want more Streetvibes? Check out the StreetvibeS blog at: http://streetvibes.wordpress.com �12 Column STREETVIBES October 1-14, 2010 A New Life Means a New Challenge ‘Streetvibes’ vendor turns a new page By Riccardo Taylor Staff writer Not often do we have the opportunity to start life over – that is to say, have a new begin­ ning. I am more than pleased to say that I have had just such an oppor­ tunity. I guess every new story should start at the beginning, so shall we began there. For more than a decade I have been involved with the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. This in itself is a milestone, for I generally don’t have time to be involved with anything for more then a brief period. Yet I find myself, with more than a decade with this entity. “Streetvibes: Show a little support!” If you have ever seen me on the street, that’s my familiar cry. Just imagine. For over 10 years that has been a part of my world, selling a street paper. Of course, you have to figure that that is not the only thing I do in order to live. I often have to find ways to survive – hus­ tling to eat or finding a place Say to sleep. One can become very accustomed to that life style, and in fact find oneself without any other options but to hustle in order to survive. The reality is that it can be such away of life that one starts to believe that there is no other way to exist. We all understand success is not what you do but how well you do it. Therefore, the ques­ tion is: To whose expense do we chalk this move? Like a game of chess, the objective is to capture the position of the other players. It’s not as calculated as “dog eat dog,” but you surely have to be willing to go the distance. As Malcolm X has said, “By any means neces­ sary.” Now just imagine. The real­ ity hits you that it doesn’t have to be this way. I can be differ­ ent, the world can be different, and all I need to do is put forth a little effort. Shockingly good fortune has reared its lovely head, oppor­ tunity has knocked, alas some relief, but not without effort on my part. Too often we don’t give ourselves the chance to engage change. No, it’s “I got to do what I do.” In reality we made that up. Stuck in your head – that it cannot be differ­ ent – you just keep the same old actuality, nothing based on reality. So we put some effort into alleviating our hardship, and the next thing you know an opportunity opens. Not to pat myself on the back, but I can declare some credit for the recent changes in my status. If you haven’t noticed (for those who know me) I have not been on the corner with Streetvibes. The fact is that I have moved up a step, if you will, and I am presently holding a position with the coalition that just might be the key to my future. Well, I guess, nothing ventured, nothing gained. The question might be what to do with the opportunity when it comes. This is perhaps the greatest challenge: learning and then understanding what it is I need to do. Actually, if you take that as a question rather than a state­ ment, then you find the answer is more complex then you’d think. Yes a challenge, know­ ing just what I need to do and what needs to be done. So often the opportunity comes, and with our inexperi­ ence, we allow our confidence to slack because we haven’t the self-belief that we can com­ plete the task. “Oh, it’s much easier to just do nothing and accept it like it is.” Yet opportunity is rare in the life of the streets. There is no change until you make that challenge that calls for you to do something about your situation. Again, it is not often ! ? t a h W “It is clear that, if we look only to retributive justice, we could just as well close up shop. Forgiveness is not some nebulous thing. It is practical politics. Without forgiveness, there is no future.” ____________ - Bishop Desmond Tutu, quoted in The Sunflower Riccardo Taylor, longtime Streetvibes vendor, has a new job. Aimie Willhoite. that we have the opportunity to start life over. I have had that opportunity dawn on my day, and now I have to take on the challenge which I have created for my own life, as it were. A new beginning! Now, for those of you who know me, my voice will not have that old familiar cry, “Streetvibes: Show a little support.” My voice will have to turn to action, and I will have to meet all challenges as they come. To the future, thanks for your good will. Riccardo Taylor, a former Streetvibes vendor, is now civilrights outreach coordinator for the Homeless Coalition. �Poetry STREETVIBES October 1-14, 2010 13 Ode to Washington Park by the Common People MAYOR MALLORY AND 3CDC It happened on your watch Mayor Mallory during your election our vote counted Will our voice count now? My friends and neighbors have felt ignored In so-called “community meetings” As you work to make a “new” attraction in our city Please consider the sacrifice you are asking of this place The more you take away the more misery will happen There is a culture and spirit here That is the people, the trees, the history Reconsider the disenfranchisement of the homeless and forgotten Listen to the people of Washington Park Not the corporate backers I am disgusted by the city’s blatant disrespect For the voices of the people without financial power To build a park that serves only to support the aesthetic beauty Determined by those who are passing through or own property is an injustice How dare you steal this from the community? We will say a prayer for you WASHINGTON PARK This is where it is This park is a public square to be used by all the people Friends, loved ones, family It’s a place to come to rest This park is home for me I see a lot of cool people It holds many memories It’s not right to destroy our history We are losing our community park. It’s a gathering place I’ve met people here who have given up, And most who are getting up Walking through the park on my way to Kroger’s I stumble on the most entertaining events Gospel music, community events, resources and outreach Are you still capable of hearing the voices of the forgotten? We are united in our need for peace and refuge We have made our wishes known A deep-water pool Breeze blowing through the ancient trees Sweet singing lullaby of the wind When I had no friend in the world Who could keep my deepest secrets? The trees have been my friends I watch the birds and squirrels here It’s my pleasure spot The old Linden deserves to live Save the trees they give us shade We want a USABLE recreation spot Including a basketball court Replant the buddy tree We need jobs Can you open the pool up? It’s hot and kids want to go swimming Many folks down here don’t have air conditioning I miss playing sharks and minnows with a pool full of kids I turned my first back flip inside this park I won several ribbons and felt good about myself Please give my child that same opportunity If you can find funding for all of your renovations You can find money to keep a pool open Wha t wil l we tell t he c hildr en? Jon Hugh es/P hoto pres I want the park fun with swings se. and a cleaner slide And older kids stuff It’s unsafe to have unsupervised water system Stories of the past connect in this sacred space Mama Look! Washington Park can be fixed for less than By Elisa Hill 48M I think the total budget for Social Services is I thought you were looking. about 2 million I thought you were looking. Where are our priorities? I thought you were looking out the corner of your eyes. 3CDC’s plans are anti-green and anti- I thought you were looking at my pain in the night’s sky. sustainable I thought you were looking when he tore off my clothes. Tradition is the heartbeat of a City I thought you were looking when he put that rag Skyline, Graeters, Grippos and over my nose. WASHINGTON PARK I thought you were looking when he kept walking past The poor and the homeless are a part of this our house. town I thought you were looking when he came in and sat We must be protected down on our couch. I walk through the park to get my kids I thought you were looking when he said, “Hello! I like Let’s keep the park for the people of Over­ your little dress.” the-Rhine I thought you were looking when I kept on getting Make the park accessible to ALL the upset. residents I thought you were looking but, I guess you were not. House the people of the park I thought you were looking when I felt my heart stopped. It should not be about money but about I thought you. people I thought you were. People is what makes this city I thought you were looking. Take care of the people I – Mama, look! And the people will take care of the city Why does change have to be bad for To all of the children we’ve lost to undeserving violence: residents that still live here? “Babies, we are looking. We will make a change!” Listen to the residents please Where is the low income housing, the weekly rental rooms Most Favored Nation The blue-collar housing around the park? We all cannot buy condos Gentrification needs to stop now For Tom Romano How did the city planners forget To plan for the community needs By Rick Stansberger This is absurd to have to wash clothes in a bathtub Here comes Claude We need a Laundromat desperately clutching his quiz. This is too much with only a little to work He’ll fight you two hours with over half a point. What did the children do to deserve to have “His Dad’s an MD, their school, a PhD, Swimming pool and basketball court taken and an MBA,” away? laughs Justin. What do you suggest we tell the children? “The only way he can beat that Lines taken directly from letters written by is to get himself named residents of Over-the-Rhine and concerned Most Favored Nation.” citizens at a rally July 2h to raise issue with Yes. the renovation plans of Washington Park. And right now Compiled by Bonnie Neumeier. you’re in his way. �14 Q&As with VIPs STREETVIBES October 1-14, 2010 Interview with Champ Dog of the late Rev. Mark Schmieder By Vickie Cimprich Contributing Writer Interviewer: Some of Mark’s many friends will be surprised to know that you are a poet. What about that? Champ: I don’t make poems as a rule, but when Mark’s friends held the roast for him, they asked me to come up with a little something. Interviewer: How do you account for the special friendship that Mark and you enjoyed? Champ: Well, as all who knew him knew well, Mark would give anyone the shirt off his back. And from the get-go, we both sensed that I had no use for the shirt off his back. So that was never an issue for us. Also, there was the riverboat. Early on it was understood that if I became Mark’s dog, I would be mascot of the Marco Polo and get to navigate a good part of the Ohio with him and his brother Carl. Interviewer: Is there any truth to the rumor that you’ve been seen sniffing around bushes on any church or civil property in Greater Cincinnati or Northern Kentucky? Champ: Not me. Interviewer: What about the scuttlebutt that you’ve been offered positions as visiting professor at the Athenaeum, the Pontifical Institute of the Josephinum or the Franciscan University at Steubenville lecturing on Great Dogs of the Bible? Champ: Ditto. Interviewer: What are your plans? Champ: I have a great home, keep well fed and well groomed. It’d be good to see service on the Marco Polo again. Long days drifting down the green Ohio, napping while Carl read the charts. Sometimes I dream of being a wolf in Umbria, in Italy. St. Francis and I talk over how things are, how different people see things. When I put my paw in his hand, St. Francis’s face is Mark’s face. Other dreams, I taste somebody’s sores. They taste like salt, like sweat or tears. Mark tells me that the person who tastes like this is Lazarus. Interviewer: Do you miss Mark a lot? Champ: Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen him since the last time he went out the door. Does seem like an awful long time since. The late Rev. Mark Schmieder. Clarissa Peppers ‘Let’s Go Somewhere Primitive’ ­ Seth Ewing Huff wants to think about it By Ariana Shahandeh Contributing Writer Seth Ewing Huff, one-fourth of the band The Retros, started by lead singer Mia Carruthers, began his solo music project, Archer’s Paradox, while still in high school. “Diamonds in the City,” a song from that album, was re-recorded with The Retros for their EP, We Will Grow, among the most revered songs on the EP. Huff spoke with Streetvibes about his hope for the band’s upcoming album, originality in lyricism and fame. Q: Another band member expressed an interest in working with a different producer for each song in the next album. Is this something you also want to pursue? A: Yeah, I would like to do that also. Maybe not every song, but definitely have a few different ideas going on throughout the entire (album). Q: Are there any producers you’d like to work with specifically? A: Is this a fantasy world? Can I pick anyone? Q: Yes. A: Kanye West, Dangermouse, etc. But with this next CD, I’d like to work with someone who doesn’t really have a “sound” but figures out what sounds best for the group really well. Like a Rick Rubin kind of guy: you can never really tell, “Rick Rubin produced this because it has a certain swag to it,” but he always makes a quality record. Q: I think you guys should produce “Above All the Sound” (originally produced by Archer’s Paradox and now being reproduced in an upcoming Retros album) with John Mayer. A: I tell you what, I wish we could get that. That would add to my dream for the band. We just play musical chairs with the instruments. I’ll go to drums for a song, Mia (Carruthers) will go to bass and keyboard, Stefan (Wright) will go to keyboard. I want to get that Beatles thing back, where it’s cool for everyone in the band to be a front man. I want it to be OK again to do that. I think producing with a bunch of different people on this album would be a step in that direction. I make hip hop beats for fun. I rapped on a song. Right now it’s not a healthy thing for a musician to be doing because (an artist) needs to be very “what you are: I’m this.” I’d like to break that. Producing with a bunch of different people would be another thing that would help us in (that) sporadic kind of movement. Q: What’s your favorite lyric off the Vampire Weekend album? A: It’s probably in the song “Run.” The one lyric – “So lead my feet away, ’cause all they do is stay, and I don’t think your eyes have ever looked surprised.” It’s the perfect reason to run away and find something else. That whole song is good; it’s got such a simple meaning: you and I, let’s go somewhere else and leave all this behind – let’s go somewhere primitive. I would love to do a big stunt like that someday to write an album to just go out in the middle of nowhere – just disappear – and then just come back with this product. It’s a little cliché’ now. Q: What are some other cliché’s musically? A: I’m tired of everybody talking about taking their clothes off. It’s not an original thought. Ever since clothes have been around, you can take them off. Just quit. Vampire Weekend uses very specific words in the song “Campus” about waking up and putting on a sweater. That’s a cool way of being literal. That’s like using that imagery to paint a picture. The not-cool way of being literal is when Kesha says, “There’s a hole in the wall, it’s a dirty free-for-all.” We know exactly what (she) is talking about; (she’s) laying it on way too thick. Pop music right now has found a way of making it literal and up front and make it not cool at all. You don’t even have to think about it. I want to think about it. Q: What’s the most original way you’ve heard love portrayed in a song recently? A: In music, love is always there somewhere. It’s like a story. There’s always got to be some sort of hint of love there. I was just listening to a new Kanye (West) song called “Monster.” Jay Z is rapping. He is talking about all these horrible things he does because he is a monster: (“Murder murder in black convertibles, I kill a block I murder avenues, Rape and pillage a village, women and children, Everybody wanna know what my Achilles heel is, Love - I don’t get enough of it.”) You are talking about doing all these horrible things that have nothing to do with love, and the reason you do it is because you don’t get enough love. That’s such a classic sob story but it was a cool way of portraying it. Yeah, Jay Z, I get what you mean there. I know you don’t actually do those things, but you are just making a statement. It’s the reason for a lot of people doing horrible things. It was just a cool way of putting love into a song called “Monster.” It was a cool way of just oozing it in there. Q: How do you feel about the idea of fame, both the destructive and exciting part of it? A: I honestly love every aspect of it and completely want to be engulfed in it. It’s one of my dreams. I could sit here and (say) “I want to do it all for the music – and I do – but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to be famous. I want as many people as possible to connect with some sort of art form that I produce, whether it’s music, or literature, or movies or some sort of visual (content). Q: You’re interested in other creative outlets? A: Oh yeah. Musicals, writing, movies. Entertainment in general just … baffles me with its awesomeness. I just love the way that stuff can make you feel. It’s hard to explain. I get so inspired when I see some sort of art form being accepted by a large group of people. Like when Avatar came out, everybody loved it. And I loved it so much more because everybody loved it. Q: You’re like the antithesis of a hipster. A: Ha! Exactly. It’s not because I’m trying to follow the pack or anything. I love it because it’s so cool that everybody likes this one thing; everybody came together to see this one thing. This reached out to many people. That’s awesome. That’s most inspiring to me. �15 Resources STREETVIBES October 1-14, 2010 Need Help or Want to Help? ­ Shelter: Women and Children Central Access Point Cincinnati Union Bethel St. Francis Soup Kitchen Churches Active in Northside 381-SAFE 768-6907 FreeStore/FoodBank 557-2873 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 300 Lytle Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Bethany House 4230 Hamilton Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45223 241-1064 112 E. Liberty Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 1841 Fairmount Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45214 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 762-5660 271-5501 4600 Erie Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 St. Vincent de Paul 6037 Cary Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45224 Salvation Army 535-2719 591-2246 562-8841 872-9259 381-2247 5 E. Liberty St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 Health Resource Center Homeless Mobile Health Van McMicken Dental Clinic 357-4602 352-2902 352-6363 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mental Health Access Point Mercy Franciscan at St. John 558-8888 981-5800 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 NAMI of Hamilton County PATH Outreach 1125 Bank Street, Cinti, Ohio 45214 131 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter Crossroad Health Center 458-6670 977-4489 Treatment: Men Other Resources Shelter: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 2121 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Prospect House 241-0490 381-4941 Starting Over 1419 Elm Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 682 Hawthorne Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45205 Justice Watch St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 961-4663 Treatment: Both 761-1480 1821 Summit Road, Cinti, Ohio 45237 Drop Inn Center 721-0643 Interfaith Hospitality Network Lighthouse Youth Center (Youth) 471-1100 221-3350 3330 Jefferson, Cinti, Ohio 45220 Housing: CMHA Excel Development OTR Community Housing 721-4580 632-7149 381-1171 114 W. 14th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tender Mercies 721-8666 27 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tom Geiger House Dana Transitional Bridge Services Volunteers of America Anna Louise Inn 961-4555 751-0643 381-1954 421-5211 621-5300 961-1983 OTR: 1620 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert, Cinti, Ohio 45206 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 1730 Race Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 351-0422 381-6672 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. Cinti, Ohio 45214 Goodwill industries Healing Connections Mary Magdalen House 771-4800 751-0600 721-4811 241-2965 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 1522 Republic Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Hamilton County ADAS Board 946-4888 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 641-4300 Advocacy Catholic Social Action Community Action Agency Contact Center 421-3131 569-1840 381-4242 1227 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Food/Clothing Lord’s Pantry OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry AA Hotline CCAT Joseph House (Veterans) 217 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 381-0111 1223 Main St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 2728 Glendora Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45209 Caracole (HIV/AIDS) 621-5514 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 961-4080 Peaslee Neighborhood Center Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart First Step Home Anthony House (Youth) 241-2600 241-2563 214 E. 14th St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 661-4620 Shelter: Both Center Independent Living Options Emmanuel Community Center 1308 Race St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 961-2256 Treatment: Women 1437 Walnut Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mt. Airy Shelter 921-1613 St. Raephaels Salvation Army Serenity House Day Center Open Door Pantry 863-3184 863-1445 422-8555 868-3276 Northern Kentucky Brighton Center 859-491-8303 799 Ann St. Newport, KY Franciscan JPIC Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 721-4700 421-7803 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. Legal Aid Society Ohio Justice & Policy Center Faces Without Places Stop AIDS 579-8547 241-9400 421-1108 363-3300 421-2437 Health Center for Respite Care Hamilton/Middletown ECHO/Hosea House 859-261-5857 Fairhaven Resuce Mission 859-491-1027 Homeward Bound Youth 859-581-1111 Mathews House 859-261-8009 Homeless & Housing Coalition 859-727-0926 Parish Kitchen 859-581-7745 Pike St. Clinic 859-291-9321 Transitions, Inc 859-491-4435 Welcome House of NKY 859-431-8717 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 621-1868 3550 Washington Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45229 Women’s Crisis Center VA Domiciliary VA Homeless 859-491-3335 859-559-5011 859-572-6226 www.facebook. com/streetvibes cincinnati twitter.com/ streetvibesnews streetvibes. wordpress.com �16 Artists as Activists STREETVIBES October 1-14, 2010 Exploring her ‘Two-ness’ Ellen Price finds unity in art A rtists ctivists af·ford·abil·i·ty By Saad GhoSn Contributing WritEr A s the light-skinned child of a bi-racial marriage – mother white and father AfricanAmerican – the subject of race always proved both non-existent and ever present in Ellen Price’s life. The first question she remembers being asked in kindergarten by other African-American children was whether she was black or white. “I do not know,” was her answer,” later supplemented, after having queried her mother, by “I am colored, but fair … and nice” Price, a local artist and professor of art at Miami University, Oxford, grew up in a residential neighborhood of Queens, New York, mostly inhabited by well-off, middle-class, AfricanAmerican families. Raised by progressive, politically left-leaning and non-churchgoer parents, she was from an early age sheltered from the habitual societal interactions and class integration. Her home was her sanctuary, and she had a happy childhood, spending time drawing and playing with her sister, often visiting New York City, its parks and its wonderful museums with her mother, a former art teacher. When graduating a semester early from high school, she joined open life classes at the Art Students League in New York City, where she was really taken by drawing – the challenge, concentration, professionalism and sense of achievement it imparted. She decided to become an artist and a few years later obtained a bachelor’s degree in arts from Brooklyn College, then a master of fine arts degree in printmaking at Indiana University, Bloomington. All along, questions of race, ethnicity and identity were embedded in her mind. In her teens, obsessed with fitting in, she smoked mentholated Newport cigarettes to emulate other African-American girls of her school and befriended those who had an afro hairdo. She also unconsciously adopted a more southern accent. In college, finding herself in a mostly white world, she was quite sensitive to racist remarks she would occasionally hear, attributing them to ignorance and fear. These questions, however, did not clearly permeate her art until many years later. In college, Price’s paintings and prints were mostly based on the figure and sketches of people in the subway, reflection of urban life. In graduate school, many of her etchings were of cows, a possible link to their maternal character. Her subsequent artwork dealt with lawn ornaments, landscapes and trees – ornaments and trees often depicted lonely and isolated, as if stating their uniqueness, their somewhat disconnected identity. In 1993, more than a decade after the death of both her parents, Price lost her paternal uncle, the last link to her father’s family. She inherited from his estate a collection of photographs of relatives, many of whom she had never met before; all represented, however, her connection to the black side of her family. Reflecting on these images, on what they meant to her and to her history, she decided to use them in her art and make a statement. Instead of working with the full image and the entire portrait, Price decided to crop the face and feature only parts of it in her prints, thus alluding to both the incompleteness of information, and the often hidden and unknown side of reality. She did a series of these prints titled, So Many Why’s. Representing only fragments of the faces of her relatives, such as isolated lips, eyes, hair, semiprofiles, they indirectly and subtly raised many questions she had been having throughout her life about herself, her origin and her family. “Issues of identity and fragmentation have followed me everywhere,” she says. “As an individual whose African-American descent is not obvious, the space between what is revealed and what is hidden had become a familiar psychic territory. I made this indistinct zone inhabit my prints, and by using cropped elements of speech and hearing implied my incomplete knowledge of the subjects bearing my surname – as if at once I desired to know, connect and understand and at the same time acknowledged what I could never know.” Her print, By Halves, from the same series represents the half face of one of her relatives. Smiling, it elegantly challenges the viewer to discover its other side, weighing at one edge of the image as if pulling the past to unveil itself into the present, the unknown to merge into the known. It was also Price’s dealing with the dual aspect of her own personality. “In his 1903 book, The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois writes about the double consciousness, the ‘two-ness’ of African-Americans,” Price says. “My portrait series is my search to resolve my own ‘two­ ness’, to locate my identity in history.” Price keeps coming back to her portrait series, adding new prints as if in a permanent dialogue with her questioning of race and identity, with preconceptions of family and history. Her prints serve as a confrontation of prejudices regarding who is black. She would like people to connect to them and think about the issues they raise. She recognizes, however, that they are only the expression of her own experience that she wants to share – not impose. More recently, Price created prints based on war imagery: helmets, armors, military hardware. Her monotypes, Two of Each and Royale, juxtapose images of a crown with artifacts of European military history, thus highlighting the relationship between political power and war. Her etchings, Armor Study and Bassinet, examine humankind’s long history of organized warfare. Her latest monotypes depict explosions based on the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill. When not doing her own art, Price teaches printmaking. In her teaching. She always tries to Top: Ellen Price in her studio. Tom Featherstone. Above: By Halves. Print and photo by Ellen Price shake students out of their complacency – provoke thinking and discussions about issues, encourage empathy, looking at the world differently. Price likes to quote Arthur Miller, who said: “That which is not made into art is lost.” Making art, showing it, communicating through it, is very important to her. “Art is what makes us human beings,” she says. “It brings the sublime, the spiritual; it transcends immobility. Art has been central to my life; it helped me claim my history and assert my identity. It keeps my questioning alive, and hopefully it triggers the same in the viewer.” Artists as Activists is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati artists who use art as a vehicle for change. Saad Ghosn is the founder of SOS Art. Ghosn can be contacted at saad.ghosn@uc.edu. � 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 2010 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 October 1-14, 2010 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Cost of Justice: $42,000 and Hour- Serving the Ministry of Irritation Pg 2: Street Wise Pg 3: Eight Minutes Using the V-Word Pg 4: Study Backs Federal Eviction Aid Pg 5: Justice Continued Priests Continued Pg 6: Time to Build a ‘Reverent Fear’ Pg 7: CS13 Finds a New Way of Doing Art Pg 8: Invisible Punishment Lasts a Lifetime Pg 9: Arts & Poetry Pg 10: Arts & Poetry Continued Pg 11: Development Aid in Recession Pg 12: A New Life Means a New Challenge Pg 13: Arts & Poetry Continued Pg 14: Interview with Champ ‘Let’s Go Somewhere Primitive’ Pg 15: Resources Pg 16: Exploring her ‘Two-ness’ 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 October 1-14, 2010 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Gregory Flannery Joseph Szydlowski Georgia Bohannon Michelle Dillingham Samantha Groark Margo Pierce Paul Kopp Jeremy Flannery Michael Henson David Heitfield Corey Gibson Jeni Jenkins Saad Ghosn Lew Moores Larry Gross Eli Braun Jesse Call Michael Fanning B. Clifton Burke Aimie Willhoite Lynne Ausman Anne Skove Vinit Murthy Jon Hughes Brad Foster Jeremy Flanner Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Aimie Willhoite Anne Skove Arts & Poetry B. Clifton Burke Brad Foster Corey Gibson CS13 David Heitfield Eli Braun Ellen Price eviction Georgia Bohannon Gregory Flannery Immigrants Ireland Jeni Jenkins Jeremy Flanner Jeremy Flannery Jesse Call Jon Hughes Joseph Szydlowski Larry Gross Lew Moores Lynne Ausman Margo Pierce Michael Fanning Michael Henson Michelle Dillingham Ohio Paul Kopp Prisoners Recession Rev. Mark Schmieder Saad Ghosn Samantha Groark Seth Ewing Huff Vinit Murthy https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/627dab65b83f60058f4d3a63baa7e2a8.pdf c855e3c1a3b82f161d86f604e9b446f2 PDF Text Text Hate crime hearing One Nation gathers to protest in D.C. - See page 3 - See Page 8 Oct. 15-31, 2010 • Issue 186 • One Dollar ADVOCATING JUSTICE • BUILDING COMMUNITY Union Gets Slaughtered in Vote ­ Intimidation at meat plant or lack of interest? By Carly Tamborski Contributing Writer E Ellen Dienger, organizer with UFCW Local 75, led a Sept. 29 rally of about 40 persons in support of workers at Tri-State Beef. Jon Hughes/ Photopresse. mployees of Tri-State Beef, one of the last major slaughterhouses in Cincinnati, voted Oct. 1 to reject union membership. The vote was 38-to-9 against being represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 75. There was one void ballot in the election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board. Workers voted from 9 to 10:30 a.m. on whether they wanted Local 75 as their agent for collective bargaining with Tri-State Beef. “We feel like workers just aren’t ready at this time,” said Ellen Dienger, an organizer with Local 75. “They’ve been through a lot. There’s a lot of intimidation that’s been going on – people were afraid. When your employer is threatening to shut your plant down if you vote against the union and they have the police walking through there, that creates fear. They told the workers things like, ‘Well, you can vote for the union, but if you do, you’re not going to have a job anymore. A lot of them believed that and just weren’t ready. Owners say that in lots of plants, but the workers didn’t see that it was kind of a tactic of their employer to keep them from joining the union.” Robert Runtz Sr., owner of the company, denied that any threats were made. He said the company treats employees well. It was the union, not the company, that was heavy-handed during the campaign, according to Runtz Sr. The microwave dispute Two days before the election, on Sept. 29, Runtz Sr. and his son, Bobby, an employee, stood outside the slaughterhouse as Local 75 held an outdoor rally in support of the workers. “I don’t think my people even want this,” Runtz Sr. said. “It’s the union that keeps pushing them and harassing them – going over to their houses at 7, 10, 11 o’clock at night. They come here and bribe them with T-shirts, pop, potato chips, pretzels. On Monday morning, that woman (Dienger) was here at 4:30 a.m. giving out T-shirts.” But the union simply tried to communicate with employees as best it could, Dienger said. “We did our best to explain how unions worked to everyone we possibly could,” she said. “We weren’t always able to contact all the workers because we didn’t know how to get a hold of them, but we sent information and tried to talk to as many people as we could.” Local 75 filed petitions in August asking the National Labor Relations Board to conduct an election. Microwave ovens for heating workers’ lunches seem to have been a flashpoint at the plant. The first set of microwaves was brought in by the workers, according to Dienger. Runtz Sr. said he provided them, which wasn’t something he had to do, but he considered them a small luxury for his employees. See Union, P. 13 Environmentalism through Art and Design ZeroLandfill turns scraps into new art By Corey Gibson Contributing Writer T he United States generated nearly 246 million tons of trash in 2005, according to the latest estimate by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The highest point in Hamilton County is “Mount Rumpke,” a mountain of trash at a Colerain Township landfill standing at an astounding height of 1,045 feet above sea level. A 2006 survey of municipal solid waste management in the United States revealed that Ohio contributed over 15 million tons of trash to the ever-growing piles of waste in the United States. The numbers become even more staggering when one realizes that, on average, each person in Ohio generates over one ton of garbage every year, recycling only 26 percent and throwing 74 percent into the dump. Although Ohio beats out many other states when it comes to the number of curbside recycling programs – some states have none – Ohio still ranks high among other states when comparing average amount of trash thrown away each year, according to the study. ZeroLandfill, a program dedicated to keeping the amount of trash thrown into landfills at a bare minimum, is working to change those statistics. ZeroLandfill “fills the gaps for educators’ material needs and creates behavior change for architects and interior designers, as what was formally considered waste is redirected into the community,” according to its website. Jeff Krejci, co-founder of the company, began picking personally to take that stuff. Landfill employees began to up expired carpet specificaJeff used to take it to his invite artists and arts education books during sales calls garage, and him and his kids tors to pick up the material to in 2004. He took the books, would separate the stuff and use for their own projects or removed the carpet samples find places to take it to.” and recycled them. The carRealizing he needed a See Landfill, P. 7 pet, the cardboard books and simpler way to recycle all the the pages themselves were material he was picking up, sent to different recycling staKrejci, Dungan and tions to be broken down and other fellow Zeroreused. “The very early origins of it started because I work for a company called InterfaceFLOR,” says Susan Margraf, co-chair of ZeroLandfill Cincinnati. “Jeff Krejci, who is the representative for Cleveland, started with Mike Dungan. They starting going around and noticing in design firms as they were in there, calling on these firms, piles and piles of stuff loaded up and ready to go in the trashcan. They took it upon themselves Photo by Tyler Macko. Illustration by Joseph Szydlowski �2 The Vibe ­ Streetwise By The Numbers ­ 30 The maximum percentage of a person’s income spent on housing defined as “affordable” (see page 7). 60 The number of years the family of Ahmad Al’Azzah has lived in a Palestinian refugee camp (see page 4). 52x82 The size, in inches, of Judging Me by Albert Andrew Fausz Jr. (see page 16). 43 The number of homeless people killed in hate crimes in the United States in 2009 (see page 3). 1-10 The rating system for judging candidates in “range voting” (see page 11). 200,000 The number of vendors distributing street papers around the world (see page 9). 25 The length, in feet, of a rope Republicans would throw a person drowning 50 feet from shore (see page 6). 210 The number of cows slaughtered at Tri-State Beef every day (see page 1). 2 The date in October when tens of thousands rallied in Washington, D.C. (see page 8). 400,000 The amount of decorating scraps, in pounds, repurposed by ZeroLandfill (see page 1). By Gregory Flannery Editor Of Forked Tongues and Bedbugs Electoral politics is essentially a popularity contest, and successful politicians know that they can often succeed by appealing to the least common denominator. It is no surprise, therefore, that Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory went to the trouble of coming out in favor of the local professional baseball team: “All year long, the Reds have given us great moments to celebrate, and they won the division in the most dramatic fashion. That was the perfect way to win the division and head to the playoffs. Cincinnati has Reds-fever and we’re going to ride it through October.” Unfortunately, Mallory was wrong. October isn’t yet finished, but the Reds are. The Philadelphia Phillies beat them in a three-game sweep. U.S. Rep. Jeanne Schmidt (R-Miami Township) at least has the courage to take on a more troubling issue: “Ohio is at the epicenter of a growing national bedbug problem,” she says. After due consideration, she has publicly stated her position. Schmidt opposes bedbugs. More surprising is the endorsement that former state legislator Tom Brinkman Jr., candidate for Hamilton County Auditor, received from what he called “Cincinnati’s Progressive Weekly.” Brinkman is co-chair of Citizens Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST), a group that few would consider progressive. Nor do many consider CityBeat progressive any longer. But that’s the publication Brinkman was citing. In the paper’s Oct. 6 edition, the “Porkopolis” column written by Kevin Osborne carried this headline: “It’s Not a Misprint: Vote for COAST Leader.” After accusing incumbent County Auditor Dusty Rhodes of duplicity, Osborne makes this statement: “Although I certainly don’t agree with Brinkman on some issues, he is exactly as he sells himself to voters.” That, however, is the opposite of what Osborne said in the same column 18 months ago. The Jan. 21, 2009, edition of “Porkopolis” opened with this headline: “COAST Speaks with Forked Tongue.” Jeff Berding’s Latest Monstrosity Consistency isn’t the highest good in public affairs, of course – and it’s a good thing, too, or we’d have seen a whole lot of earnest voters and activists cited to court a few weeks ago. In order to encourage people to take advantage of Ohio’s opportunity for early voting, Christopher Smitherman, president of the Cincinnati Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), camped with supporters outside the Hamilton County Board of Elections. The Sept. 27 stunt included tents on the sidewalk. Fortunately, none of the campers held signs saying, “Homeless – Please Help.” The Cincinnati Police Department, ever vigilant about public safety, has been issuing citations to panhandlers who dare sit down on the sidewalk while asking for alms. The charge? Obstructing the sidewalk. That charge apparently applies only to people so desperate that they have to beg for sustenance. This is not to say that the NAACP supports the city’s cruelty toward poor people. A few days later the organization blasted a new restriction on panhandling. The proposal came, of course, from City Councilman Jeff Berding, who has distinguished himself in office by working hard to make the lives of poor people even more difficult. Last year he proposed taxing the nickels and dimes given to panhandlers. He dropped that idea but has now succeeded in getting council to forbid asking for money from people feeding parking meters. Smitherman blasted the new ordinance. “Only a monster would propose legislation that criminalizes the poor in the middle of an economic great depression,” he said. “Council does not know what it is like to be poor and engage in class warfare instead of teaching citizens how to say no.” Dangerous Drawings by Children But then, saying no can get citizens in big trouble. Witness the Sept. 24 raids by the FBI, targeting anti-war protesters. Agents entered eight homes and offices of union and anti-war activists in Minneapolis and Chicago. They seized computers, books, documents, notebooks, cell phones, passports, children’s drawings, photos of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, videos and personal belongings. The FBI also raided offices of the Twin Cities Anti-war Committee, seizing computers; served federal grand-jury subpoenas to activists in Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan; and paid visits to others in Wisconsin, California and North Carolina. The majority of those targeted by the raids had participated in anti-war protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. Harassment of peace activists is not exactly new in the United States. President Richard Nixon was notorious for his heavy-handed suppression of opposition to the Vietnam War. But what makes this latest round of harassment all the more disheartening is that it was conducted by the FBI under a Democratic administration. STREETVIBES October 15-31, 2010 Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by people who are or once were homeless, in exchange for a $1 donation, Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Address: 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Phone: 513.421.7803 x 12 Fax: 513.421.7813 Email: streetvibes2@yahoo. com Website: www. cincihomeless.org Blog: streetvibes.wordpress. com Streetvibes Staff Editor Gregory Flannery Art Director Joseph Szydlowski Vendor Coordinator Georgia Bohannon Contributing Writers Michelle Dillingham, Samantha Groark, Margo Pierce, Carly Tamborski, Jeremy Flannery, Michael Henson, David Heitfield, Corey Gibson, Jeni Jenkins, Saad Ghosn, Lew Moores, Larry Gross, Eli Braun, Jesse Call, Michael Fanning, B. Clifton Burke Photography/Artwork Aimie Willhoite, Lynne Ausman, Anne Skove, Vinit Murthy, Jon Hughes, Brad Foster Proofreaders Jeremy Flannery The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati through coordination of services, public education, grassroots advocacy and Streetvibes. We are proud members of: �STREETVIBES October 15-31, 2010 3 National News ­ Counting Hate is the First Step Congress considers “Hunt for homeless. Kill one for fun. We’re 87 percent sure it’s legal.” tracking attacks on homeless people ‘Protect all Americans equally’ By Margo Pierce Contributing Writer “W hen I hear the horrific stories about murders, assault and rapes committed against our nation’s homeless, I ask myself, ‘Is this really America?’ When I hear the story of Norris Gaynor being beaten to death by baseball bats while sleeping on a park bench. I ask myself, ‘Where’s all this violence coming from?’ When I hear about John Mc Graham being doused with gasoline and set ablaze, I was shocked and horrified this could happen to a fellow human being and just wonder where we are heading.” This was part of the opening statement by U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Maryland), a member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs. The statement was part of a Sept .29 hearing, “Crimes Against America’s Homeless: Is the Violence Growing?” A five-person panel presented testimony regarding the Hate Crimes Against the Homeless Statistics Act (S.B. 1765). Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is a co-sponsor of the bill, which would require the FBI to add attacks on homeless people to the data it collects on hate crimes. The Hate Crimes Statistic Acts of 1990 requires the Justice Department to track crimes motivated by race, religion, sexual orientation and ethnicity. Disability was added in 1994 and gender or gender identity were included later. The new bill does not add additional punishments for hate crimes against the homeless. “I want the federal government to track how many crimes are being committed against homeless just because they are homeless,” Cardin said. “The best way to develop a strategy to deal with a problem is to make sure that you have accurate information in order to be able to act.” Pointing to the limited statistics collected by the National Coalition for the Homeless over the past 11 years, Cardin characterized hate crimes against the homeless as “pervasive and growing.” The report indicates that 43 homeless people were killed as a result of hate crimes in 2009, making it the deadliest year to date. During that same year approximately 640,000 people were homeless on any given night, according to the latest report to Congress by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. “Here’s what we do know: violence is occurring against this population. We know that the un-housed population is growing. One could make an educated guess that these two facts may lead to more victims,” Cardin said. “I don’t want to guess – I want to get the facts.” ‘Hunt for homeless’ The effort to clarify what hate crimes are and the importance of this legislation fell to Erik Luna, a professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. Quoting the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, A protester holds an anti-hate sign at a rally in Denver. REUTERS/Gary Caskey. which establishes the guidelines and procedures necessary for collecting data, Luna began by defining the crime itself. “The UCR guidelines describe a hate crime as a ‘criminal offense committed against a person or property which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender‘s bias.’ In turn, bias is defined as a ‘preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons based on their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or ethnicity/national origin.’ The guidelines then provide a series of criteria that might support a finding of bias,” Luna said. “All told, the guidelines attempt to provide some type of standards for data collection and a basis for subsequent scrutiny of this information.” He took issue with some of the reporting by the National Coalition for the Homeless in its latest annual report, “Hate Crimes Against the Homeless: America’s Growing Tide of Violence,” published in August. Luna said that some of the 43 deaths reported were unsubstantiated, as the report itself acknowledges. The methodology for the data collection is inconsistent and therefore unreliable, he said. These facts support the need for data gathering by the FBI, according to Luna. Cardin introduced U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) as “the voice of many people who otherwise would not be heard in the chambers of Congress.” She spoke in favor of the legislation. “Between 1999 and 2010 there were more than 1,000 bias-motivated attacks committed against the homeless; 291 of these attacks were homicides,” Johnson said. “This is more than twice the number of homicides committed in all other hate-group categories combined. A misconception is that these attacks happen to belligerent bums. However, many of these individuals were sought out by their attackers. Some victims never even spoke to their attacker before they were killed.” Johnson gave two examples of hate crimes committed in 2009, including a wheelchair-bound homeless woman in Seattle who was repeatedly raped by an attacker who said, “I can rape you and get away with it. …You’re homeless? No one cares about you.” Near the University of Texas at El Paso, four unknown men set a 41-year-old homeless man on fire. He survived the attack but “lives with serious burns.” “The federal government has fallen behind the states on this issue,” Johnson said. “Currently, there are four states who already recognize homelessness as a category of hate crime. Several more have legislation pending. These are not simply Democratically run states. Florida had a Republicanelected governor and legislature at the time their homeless hate crimes bill was signed into law. “If Congress continues to not take a stance on this issue, we send the message that we are willing to look the other way. Treating homeless individuals rudely or inhumanely is seen as acceptable by far too many Americans. It is the one group where it is still acceptable in most circles to disparage. How do we end that if even Congress is unwilling to treat these individuals equally?” Before going onto the next round of testimony, Cardin quoted an advertisement in “a popular men’s magazine”: Law enforcement officers are used to seeing the worst of human behavior. While they can be perceived as hardened by the constant barrage of violence in their work, they are also the most well-informed about criminal activity and how to develop strategies to deal with it. Richard Wierzbicki, commander of the Hate Crimes/AntiBias Task Force of the Broward County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office in Florida, testified that data is the best place to begin. “I am a longstanding member of the nation’s law enforcement community with over 32 years of public service and can attest to our profession’s interest in advancing strategies that enhance the prevention, investigation and prosecution of crimes committed against the homeless population, including crimes motivated by bias,” Wierzbicki said. “Rigorous and widespread collection, reporting and analysis of bias-motivated crime data is one such solution. … That is why the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, the largest accredited sheriff’s office in the United States, supports the legislation.” Wierzbicki also gave examples of homeless people who have been attacked in his community, including one that was videotaped and posted on YouTube. “The availability of data about biasmotivated crimes is instrumental in inspiring community action to protect various population groups subjected to bias and is critical to law-enforcement agencies for developing plans of action, deploying resources and measuring our progress,” he said. “Take our experience in Broward. I lead the Hate Crimes/ Anti-Bias Task Force created in 2008 … as a direct response to data in the Florida Attorney General’s annual hatecrimes report, which indicated that our county – Broward County – led the state in reported hate crimes. “The data told us where the crimes were occurring, who was being targeted, and why they were being attacked. Based on the data, we were then able to decide how and where to deploy resources to combat hate. Regrettably, our attorney general’s hate-crimes report – no different than similar reports in other states – did not tell us anything about bias-motivated crimes against the homeless population because such data is not collected as part of uniform crime reporting, even though those of us who have worked the beat know full well that such crimes occur. By lacking such data, our task force simply could not plan a meaningful response to bias-motivated crimes against our large homeless population.” Wierzbicki said that the legislation will not create an “undue burden” on law enforcement and that the data collection is critical for ensuring public safety. “It is my strong conviction that it must become standard practice for all law-enforcement agencies to vigorously collect data on the number and types of incidents of bias-motivated crimes against homeless victims,” he said. “When the homeless population is left out of national hate-crime data col- See Crime, P. 12 �4 International ­ STREETVIBES October 15-31, 2010 Three Wise Men in an Occupied Land It’s not the Bethlehem of Sunday school By Carly Tamborski Contributing Writer Most people in Western culture aren’t very familiar with the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Ask which lands are fighting or why, and most will respond with vague stories about terrorism or suicide bombs they overheard on the evening news; and, of course, most assume the conflict is over religion. Little Town of Bethlehem, a powerful, eye-opening documentary, explores all sides by telling the stories of three men with distinctive identities in the conflict: One is a Palestinian Muslim, another a Palestinian Christian and the third an Israeli Jew. All three grew up in the cycle of hate and went against their societies’ norms to encourage the two lands to resolve issues peacefully, willing to risk everything to end the violence. Most viewers can connect with one of the faiths represented in the film, but different religious traditions are not what’s causing suicide bombs, air raids or discrimination – fear is the root of the problem. The movie doesn’t talk against Israel or Palestine, but rather against the Israeli occupation, focusing on the negative effects often distorted by the media. Little Town of Bethlehem was screened Sept. 30, free of charge, at the University of Cincinnati by Howard Tolley, professor of political science and director of the UC International Human Rights Certificate Program. The film referenced both the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, connecting the Israeli/ Palestinian struggle with other historical movements that resulted in the expansion of human rights. Home is a prison The three main characters speak English, with Arabic subtitles at the bottom of the screen. After the three characters are introduced, the film’s title is shown as urban rap music plays and scenes of modern Palestine are shown: people playing volleyball on the beach and lounging in bikinis, armed men, checkpoints, riots and burning flags; people playing cards, smoking a hookah, sharing a family dinner, woodworking and drinking wine. Sami Awad is a Palestinian Christian whose grandparents lived in Palestine. When the oldest was 12 and the youngest was 2, the family lived in a village shared by Muslims, Christians and Jews. In 1948, Israeli forces came and tried to kick the family out of Jerusalem. As Awad’s grandfather tried to save his family and escape, a sniper’s bullet killed him, leaving Awad’s grandmother alone with her seven children. In 1967, four years before Awad was born, war broke out between Israel, Egypt, Syria and Jordan. This resulted in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and parts of eastern Syria being occupied by Israeli forces. Awad’s parents fled to the United States. Awad was born in Kansas City, Kansas. His family moved to Bethlehem when he was 6 months old. Ahmad Al’Azzah is a Palestinian Muslim. Before the conflict, his grandparents lived in a village where Jews were considered neighbors and friends. When Israeli forces came to their village in 1948, his grandparents escaped. His mother was 1 year old at the time, and they lived in caves until 1949. After that year, they were told to live in a Bethlehem refugee camp for 10 days, but those 10 days became 60 years. Al’Azzah has lived his entire life in the Azzah refugee camp, where he now lives with his wife, three children and mother. In 1949 the refugee camp had about 900 people. The area is small – 200 meters by 150 meters – so the ability to expand as a community is limited. Since then the camp has grown to more than 2,026 people. Approximately 48 percent are children. Refugees are allowed to come and go during the day, but must return at night to the “prison,” as Al’Azzah referred to it. “I live in a place where violence could be on a daily basis,” he said. Yonatan Shapira is an Israeli Jew and former Israeli fighter pilot. His grandparents, Zionist settlers, moved from Eastern Europe to Palestine in 1933. Most of the Zionist activists who went to Palestine in the beginning of the 20th century weren’t religious, he said. The immigration was a nationalist movement of people who had enough of anti-Semitism in their old communities. Fifteen years after settling, his parents witnessed the establishment of Israel. Shapira was born on an Israeli Air Force base in 1972; his father was also a fighter pilot. ‘Cry with them’ Each of the three main characters discussed what it was like to grow up in their environments, sharing some of the moments that hit them hardest. As their number of violent experiences increased, they came to believe that peace is not achieved through violence. Awad was greatly influenced by his uncle, who moved to Jerusalem in the 1980s and created the Palestinian Center for the Study of Non-Violence. “Many people went to my uncle’s center with Palestinians in non-violent actions against the occupation, so that opened my eyes to a different world that existed. Israelis came who were neither soldiers nor settlers. I started to hear Israelis say, ‘We understand.’ I heard Israelis say, ‘Forgive us. We don’t know.’ That was powerful. It reached the point where my uncle was actually seen as a threat to the security of Israel and led to him being arrested, put on trial and deported.” His father soon sent him to the United States to finish his education. Awad moved back to Palestine, settling in Bethlehem, in 1996. He Courtesy of Ethnographic Media and his future wife worked at an organization that tried to bring back the concept of non-violence to Palestine. He describes his community as so interconnected that friends from first grade are still his best friends. Some of his friends chose to engage in acts of violence and armed resistance, but Awad did not. “I’m still friends with those people, and I’ve seen many of them reach the point where they said violence was a wrong choice,” he said. “I’ve had friends who’ve had members of their families in prison or killed, so it’s not easy. When people are in pain, you have to feel their pain. When they cry, you have to cry with them. When they’re angry, you have to be angry.” Al’Azzah recalled Israeli soldiers surrounding Bethlehem and shooting at houses. When they started shooting at his house, Al’Azzah’s father, mother and some neighbors escaped to the basement. Al’Azzah went back upstairs to save a valuable appliance. “I wanted to save the TV because we paid a lot of money for it, and we need TV,” he said, laughing. He carried it to a back room, but soldiers noticed him and started shooting. He laid flat on the floor for 10 minutes – the longest 10 minutes of his life, he recalled. “I made it down, and everyone was crying because they thought I had turned into a martyr, but I saved the TV, and we still have it,” Al’Azzah said. In 1996, after studying abroad, Al’Azzah moved back to Bethlehem and opened Holy Land Trust, where he was reintroduced to the woman who became his wife. Shapira said his high school years included classes in a variety of interesting subjects and a great social life. He loved to hang-glide. At that time he wanted to be an Israeli fighter pilot in the air force like his father, but knew little about Palestinian perspectives. “When I was in high school, to me, the Palestine Liberation Organization was a group of Palestinians who were very angry and didn’t like us,” Shapira said. “Israel was supporting the peace, but very, very militarist, encouraging you to enroll in the army and be a good soldier.” ‘Every child born’ The increase in violence after the creation of Israel created a snowball effect, as more and more problems created an even greater need to address the issue. In 2002 all the leaders of Arab nations made a peace offer to Israel in what was called the Arab Peace Initiative in Beirut. Within a day or two a suicide attack in Israel sparked a massive military raid in many Palestinian cities, including the siege of the Church of Nativity. During the arrangements for the peace process, the Israeli government Continued on next page �STREETVIBES October 15-31, 2010 tightened its occupation of Palestine, creating more distress for the three men. Permits became necessary to travel between the West Bank and Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza or the West Bank and Israel. Roads were created only for Jews. Checkpoints were established on roadways and access points to borders. One of Al’Azzah’s children has a low immunity and he knocked on every doctor’s door and every hospital he could, looking for a treatment in Palestine. He gives his son shots to raise his immunity, but his condition isn’t improving. When he realized he had exhausted all the local resources and the Palestinian doctors couldn’t help him, the Israelis gave Al’Azzah and his wife a one-time permit to take his son to an Israeli hospital. During the massive military raid in Palestine shortly after the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, Awad’s wife went into labor during a night of fighting, screaming and gunshots. Two of his Spanish journalist friends helped the couple. At a checkpoint, Awad presented his U.S. passport, and his friends presented their Spanish passports. The Israeli guards would allow the three of them through, but not the pregnant woman. That was not an option. “Then we went on a dirt road that only settlers used and snuck into Jerusalem,” Awad said. “The next day our daughter was born in a hospital. We snuck into Bethlehem to be with our family, and on coming from our house, we see the tanks and hear the shooting and shelling and sirens. It was incredible – in the midst of all of this there was such peace in our family. Every child born on this earth is a gift of God. Every child born is born in the image of God.” As a young man, Shapira looked up to his father as a hero, loved his country and was proud to call the Israeli Air Force a key part of his identity. “The air force directed me to fly helicopters, and I remember saying to everyone, ‘They found the best job for me because I’m willing to risk my life to save other people’s lives,” Shapira said. “The Israeli society is very militaristic. The way we’re being educated and told about the army is an amazing example of a society that worships power, military strength and growing this nation.” ‘I can’t be silent’ Of course, violence is not a new method of resolving conflict. Wars in the 20th century, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and studying peaceful leaders impacted each man in his own way. “I was exposed to Martin Luther King, who had a very strong, very powerful presence,” Awad said. “He always had the attention of everyone around him when he spoke. To be strong is not something to be ashamed of, but the message that you bring out is more important. For Martin Luther King, it was a message of non-violence, a message of equality.” The Holocaust influenced both Awad and Shapira, who visited former concentration camps during their ethical journeys. “I went to Birkenau to witness what really happened in the Holocaust,” Awad said. “To be in such a place, International where so many people were killed, seeing the wall of death where thousands were shot, the ovens where people were burned, the ponds where their remains where thrown in – it was horrifying. “I witnessed busloads of Israeli children with Israeli guards come off the bus and they would walk into Birkenau through the railroad singing the Israeli national anthem. The shocking part was to hear the language this guide was using. Not to explain this violent act as an act that happened against the Jewish community, but humanity in general, and shouldn’t happen to anyone in the world – but presenting this act as ‘what the Arabs and the Palestinians want to do to us now.’ These children are experiencing one of the most traumatic episodes of their life, and many of them probably had family killed in these places. That planted fear in their hearts. They hear, ‘Fear the Palestinians, don’t trust them, don’t make peace with them.’ ” In the film, eerie scenery of Auschwitz-Birkenau is paralleled with modern Palestine. “In high school, I went to Poland to see the concentration camps,” Shapira said. “I remember standing next to this huge pile of human ashes and the notion of knowing that I am the son of a fighter pilot and exsquadrant in the Israeli army, I was so proud that we made it, and I am proof of that fact, and I’m standing there.” The world kept silent while Israeli families were executed in concentration camps, as Shapira’s family constantly reminded him. “Because I’m an Israeli, I can’t be silent,” he said. He grew increasingly uneasy about the occupation of Palestine. “It was after they dropped a bomb on a house that killed 15 innocents, including nine children, that left me with a feeling that I’m one of the children’s killer,” he said. It was at this time that Shapira questioned his ability to identify with his country or the motives of the air force. “My older brother called me and said after what he saw and what he experienced, he would not go back,” Shapira said. “My younger brother was traumatized by what he was told to do. He told me he has constant nightmares, that he sees the eyes of the Palestinian girl trapped in the car they shot. ‘No way back’ Each of the three men had his own method for promoting peace and non-violence. Shapira participated in a retreat where Israelis and Palestinians lived together for a weekend and promoted dialogue between the two groups. “The man next to me said his young sister was paralyzed after an Apache Israeli helicopter shot a missile on their neighbor’s house,” he said. “For the whole weekend, I was very active – talking, organizing things, playing. We sang together, ate together. But I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t tell anyone that I was a pilot in the air force, and something that was so much a part of my pride I couldn’t mention, because I was ashamed.” He also went to a meeting for Courage to Refuse, a group of soldiers, reservists and ex-soldiers who had the courage to say no to their commanders. He watched as people like him stood on a stage and proudly shared their stories. “I looked at them with admiration and envied their wholeness,” Shapira said. That meeting inspired him to bring a few pilot friends to another meeting, and he got the idea to join even more pilots with similar beliefs and drafted a letter to the air force. He joined the group Courage to Say No, which refuses to hunt innocent civilians. “We were raised to love the state of Israel and to contribute to the Zionist enterprise, but we refuse to take part in the attacks in the air force in the concentrations of civilians,” the pilots’ letter said. “We are of the idea that the air force is an inseparable part of us, but we refuse to hunt innocent civilians. These actions are illegal and immoral, and are the direct result of growing occupation, which corrupts Israeli society as a whole.” The next morning’s newspaper criticized the pilots’ letter in an article titled, “Rebellion of the Pilots,” in which the air force commander referred them as traitors. A few days after the article was published, Shapira’s father ran into a friend while grocery shopping. The friend didn’t know Shapira was one of the organizers. “He said to my father they should put us all against the wall and put bullets in our heads,” Shapira said. “The air force commander referred to us as traitors. To say, ‘No, I’m not going to obey this order or participate in something illegal or immoral,’ is very important. But it’s just the first step. The second step that is maybe more important is to now reach out to your enemy and to try to correct the wrongdoing on your part.” The first meeting for the group Shapira created, Combatants for Peace, was held in Bethlehem and had 25 Israeli ex-fighters, 25 Palestinian ex-fighters, both men and women, and some had even spent time in prison for fighting against the Israeli occupation. “The meeting was very, very charged, with people who literally wanted to kill you,” Shapira said. “Many of us Israelis were afraid that we’d be kidnapped or killed, and many of (the Palestinians) were afraid that we were collaborating with Israeli intelligence. … We know there’s no way back from here because the ‘we’ and ‘them’ cannot exist anymore, and we felt as Israelis we are actually joining the Palestinian non-violent struggle for liberation.” Most of the Palestinians in the group are Muslim. Some are very religious, just as some of the Israeli members are very religious. “If we who fought against each other and killed each other struggled together in non-violence, anything is possible,” Shapira said. ‘Fear takes you over’ What makes these people brave is that they’re purposefully standing out in a sea of violence to get their message across. People who don’t flow with the traditional rules of society tend to get noticed faster, which has definitely been the case for these men. “I was accused by other Palestinian 5 political factions of being a collaborator, an agent to the Israelis,” Awad said. “It has happened many times that people who are accused of being collaborators were killed. My determination always came and continues to come from seeing how the Palestinian community reacts to non-violence and in turn engages in nonviolence. All three men had the opportunity to choose a better life in other countries multiple times, but all three refused. “I’ve been given many opportunities to live in the U.S.,” Awad said. “As difficult as it is, as there is so much pressure here, I feel there’s a calling, and you can do something to make the situation better for millions of people. When Jesus talked about loving your enemy, no longer will there be two of them. No longer is there an ‘us’ and ‘them.’ As humans, we are one.” Today Al’Azzah trains people in the methods of peaceful activism at the non-violence program at Holy Land Trust, which he heads. He’s still unable to take his son to an Israeli hospital. Because the three main characters in the film are men, gender is somewhat skewed in the film, but women from both Palestine and Israel have been active in the nonviolent movement and side for peace. Some were seen in the film at the checkpoints, and Shapira’s mother goes to Palestinian villages every week to give aid and support. A discussion followed the screening. Each of three panelists representing the three religious viewpoints in the film gave a fiveminute statement. Zeinab Schwen is founder of the Cincinnati Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). “The situation is distorted by the media,” Schwen said. “Even before 1948, Palestinians have used nonviolent-like strikes. Even now there are weekly peace demonstrations: Every week people gather together and march against violence. Some have lost their lives to bullets doing so.” The second panelist, Susan Einbinder, a professor at Hebrew Union College, was ordained as a reformed rabbi in 1983. She’s also a member of the Refusal Solidarity Network. “I really want to say that it touched me that no one in the film made the conflict about religion, which is what Western culture typically thinks,” she said. “The second part is that all participants describe the militarism of their society.” The power of fear caught the attention of Sister Alice Gerdeman of the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center. “One of the things that struck me was the emphasis of the power of fear and what can happen when fear takes over,” she said. “Fear takes you over, and when it takes you over, you don’t do rational things. When we allow fear to permeate society, we give up the ability to make rational or kind decisions. There’s something wrong in a society when fear of a person or probable event dictates how we’re going to react. This film shows how fear can lead people to put up a wall.” �6 Issues STREETVIBES October 15-31, 2010 City Backing for Affordable Housing Cincinnati must have an inclusionary ordinance By Michelle Dillingham Contributing Writer A s downtown Cincinnati sees major redevelopment projects, most of which receive assistance from the city in one form or another, Affordable Housing Advocates (AHA) continues its quest to ensure there are affordable housing options for all of Cincinnati’s citizens. Of course, “affordable” is relative if one ascribes to the definition that housing cost is affordable if it costs no more than 30 percent of one’s income. Using this definition, for someone making $100,000 a year, “affordable” means something very different from what it means for someone making $20,000 a year. Typically, when you hear people talk about “affordable housing,” they are generally referring to housing for those who live at or below the federal poverty line. For us in Cincinnati, this means a full one-quarter of us. One strategy that advocates use to ensure these individuals and families are able to afford housing in new developments is to promote required inclusionary language for those projects that receive city funding. Last year the Housing Committee of the Cincinnati Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) drafted a proposal for a local inclusionary ordinance, which was endorsed by AHA. If passed, it would require that any market-rate housing development receiving city assistance include some affordable housing. Specifically, developments that receive city assistance would have to have no less than 20 percent of all rental units in each development affordable by households with incomes under 50 percent of area median income, and no less than 20 percent of all residential units for sale in each development would have to be affordable by households with incomes under 80 percent of area median income. This proposal defines “city assistance,” showing the variety of ways a developer can (and often does) receive help from the city: • A developer can receive tax increment financing. • A developer can receive land acquired through eminent domain. • A developer can buy land sold to it by the city at a price less than fair-market value. • A developer can use a city-funded housing or economic development loan or grant program, including the Community Development Block Grant Program, the federal HOME Program and funds from the general fund or from the capital fund. As development deals pass through City Hall day in and day out, many of which include city assistance, the time is ripe to resurrect this discussion once again and keep the focus on how to promote access to affordable housing for all Cincinnatians. It takes a majority – five votes of the city’s legislative body, city council – to pass an ordinance. One way to keep up on recently passed ordinances is to read the City Bulletin, which includes all legislation passed by city council. The City Bulletin is published by the clerk of council, and anyone can go to the clerk’s office on the third floor of City Hall to pick up a free copy. Democracy is Not a Spectator Sport ­ Get involved or get screwed 1 By Nicholas Hoesl Guest Columnist www.facebook.com/street­ vibes cincinnati ­ twitter.com/streetvibesnews ­ streetvibes.wordpress.com ­ T hank God we still have the print media. Don’t you get a little tired of all those TV commercials (excuse me – infomercials) in which candidates tell you all their good points in 30 seconds? Then there are the “attack ads,” which send the message, “Why should you vote for me? Well, because my opponent is a bum.” This year we are told that one party might stay home because the other party is angry but enthusiastic at its chances, sucking most of the electricity out of the TV set. Whatever happened to one’s civic duty to vote? Show me a no-show and I’ll show you a nerd (for lack of a better four-letter word). Even Plato had a message for them: “Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” Television has changed politics. Woe to the contender who abhors make-up, comes across as wooden, stiff, or has a smirk on his face. When the late Daniel Schorr asked a producer what it took to be a success on TV, the answer was, “If you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it made.” The turnout among young no-show voters, the worst age group, is expected to be dismally low this year. Would it suit them if they could vote on-line or from their cell phones? How about giving them a chance on a new car? Would declaring Election Day a holiday help? It’s harder to run for office today. You have to be thick-skinned or be skinned. When President William Howard Taft was campaigning, someone threw a cabbage at him. It rolled to Taft’s feet. He was quick to re-act: “I see that one of my adversaries has just lost his head.” Another politician answered an unrelenting heckler, “If I ever need a brain transplant, I’ll ask for yours. I want one that hasn’t been used.” There are pundits who try to make politics simpler. Political satirist P.J. O’Rourke says, “God is a Republican, and Santa Claus is a Democrat.” Here’s another definition of the two parties: If a man were drowning 50 feet from shore, a Republican would throw him a 25-foot rope and tell him to swim to the other end of the rope because it would be good for his character. A Democrat would throw him a 100-foot rope and run off for others to save. Then there was the “come on” want ad: Young Republican woman would like to marry young Democrat. Object? Third party. To be sure, politics can be fun. Will Rogers told us, “Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and their politicians as a joke.” Who couldn’t agree more when he added, “Politics has gotten so expensive that it takes lots of money just to get beat with.” What would he say today? Jay Leno likes to tell his young audiences, “If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.” Political promises can go in one year and out the other. When candidates waffle, have they seen the light or just felt the heat? Democracy is not a spectator sport. Use it or lose it. Vote often. �EPIC Win Elderly Persons in Community is about to celebrate its 21st anniversary. Courtesy of EPIC. An EPIC Community Asks for Your help Best kept secret in housing for the elderly By Ruth Ravenna Contributing Writer E lderly Persons in Community (EPIC), 910 York Street, has been a home to elderly, low-income men and women for 21 years. The house was renovated to accommodate nine residents at a time. Each has his or her own bedroom with a private bath, community living and dining rooms, three meals a day, laundry facilities and an attendant on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is not a nursing home. It is a shared living facility for the elderly who cannot live alone, but who do not need the restrictions or expensive care provided in a nursing home. The residents call EPIC their home and the other residents their family. Most of the residents have no living family to look out for their best interests. EPIC Home is really their home. It looks like a home and feels like a home. The residents will tell you the home-cooked food is good, almost like their mothers cooked. We all know that “ 7 Local News ­ STREETVIBES October 15-31, 2010 no one cooks like Mom did, so this is a great compliment to those who prepare the meals. EPIC is celebrating its 21st Anniversary Dinner at 6:15 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 21 in the undercroft at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral. Dinner reservations are $35 per person. Send your reservation check to Monika Cure-Shahid, 703 Ezzard Charles Dr., Cincinnati, Ohio 45203. Like other small non-profit organizations, EPIC has need of financial assistance. Approximately 65 percent of its funding comes from Residential State Supplement, which is capped at $877 per month per resident. The actual cost per resident is $1,350 per month. In order to meet expenses, $4,257 per month has to come from outside sources. The difference in funding is made up from grants, corporate and private donations and fundraising events. Unfortunately, all sources of funding are less this year than ever before. Donations can be in the form of a check; goods such as paper products, cleaning supplies, food or storm doors for the four outside doors. There is always a need for volunteers to help with the grocery shopping or to take residents to their medical appointments. To help, contact Marlene Hamilton at 513241-7979 or mail your donation to EPIC, 910 York St., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45214. Donations are tax-deductible. EPIC is celebrating its 21st Anniversary Dinner at 6:15 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 21 in the undercroft at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral.” Landfill Continued from page 1 as educational materials for students. In the back parking lot of a Cleveland, Ohio, furniture store in 2006, ZeroLandfill was founded. ZeroLandfill says it has repurposed over 400,000 pounds of expired samples since its founding. With ZeroLandfill programs in Cleveland, Cincinnati, the Twin Cities, Indianapolis, Boston and other cities on the way, this newfound way to think of discarded items has been catching on around the country. “It started from one guy putting stuff in his garage, and now it has almost grew to a nation-wide thing,” Margraf says. ZeroLandfill Cincinnati alone has kept nearly 80,000 pounds of trash out of the landfills since 2008. In 2009 a man from Brown County came in a large truck and hauled away thousands of pounds of tile for a project, according to Margraf. The total last year was around 70,000 pounds of material, including large amounts of tile and rubber flooring that were donated. “You can take as much as you want,” Margraf says. “We just weigh it before they leave, and we record how many pounds of each category of material gets diverted and we total it up at the end,” says Carrie Harms, co-chair of ZeroLandfill Cincinnati. “Architect and interior design libraries are filled with this kind of material,” Margraf says. “They gather it for projects and then it just becomes overwhelming in terms of the amount of materials they have, so this is an outlet for them to provide the stuff they don’t want or need to be used in a different way.” The program distributed material to artists and educators on three days last month. “We’re probably close to 10,000 pounds, and it is our last day,” said Carrie Harms, co-chair of ZeroLandfill Cincinnati. They expected the number to rise by the end of the day. The small Norwood building that operated as distribution headquarters contained small mounds of material along three walls: metal scraps; uniquely shaped and colored pieces of square and rectangle tiles; a long row of huge binders filled with little squares of carpet, each a different color and texture; piles of fabric in hundreds of different prints and styles. A sign-in sheet showed the diversity of participants. Some people identified their occupations as student or art teacher; others wrote, “Grandmother.” People with a variety of interests pick up the material. “We get a lot of art teachers, day care centers, artists and just people who are crafty,” Harms says. “Anyone can come.” �8 National News ­ STREETVIBES October 15-31, 2010 One Cause, Many Voices:Why We Went Progressives try to gather strength Editor’s note: Tens of thousands went to Washington, D.C., Oct. 2 for the One Nation Working Together rally. More than 200 people from Greater Cincinnati participated in the rally, including union members, peace activists and members of faith-based groups. Katy Heins collected the following statements from local participants, explaining their reasons. “I so wanted to attend President Obama’s inauguration but was simply unable to make the trip. This trip is a unique opportunity for me to show support for our president at a time when the media seems full of negative information about him and the programs he is putting forward. I have faith that Obama is the best person for the job of bringing this country back to a place that we all can be proud of, so I’m presenting myself in honor of what he’s doing and what we might be able to do, as a nation, to live up to our creed.” – Sarah Davis “I’m going first of all because I believe President Obama is doing a good job. I agree with the direction of his policies and believe they will make for a stronger country in the 21st century. My other reasons are more personal. My father (who is deceased) marched in Selma. My parents were members of NAACP. My Dad was an activist in Harold Washington’s mayoral campaign. My husband (also deceased) was an activist in the West End. I believe I am representing them and my granddaughters in standing up for justice for those less privileged.” – Margie Wells-Davis class, or a massive counterattack by the ultra right that will sweep everything we have fought for, away. I’m going to Washington to join the broadest coalition possible to stop this right wing counterattack on working people in this country. I recognize, with no illusions, the Democrats are not, nor have ever been in my lifetime, ‘my party.’ But I also recognize that the current Republican Party is at this time in history my most dangerous enemy. I do not exaggerate. Losing my health care, with as many shortcomings as it has, losing my union contract, losing my disability benefits, in my view is what is at stake. I hope October 2 can be part of the strategy of defeating the ultra right in the November elections and preventing them from re-taking Congress and putting into effect their antiworking class agenda.” – Phil Amadon “The only cushion I have in my life at this time is the solidarity of my union and the century of progress that made it possible for me to have disability benefits. This is a time where there can be a little bit of progress, a reversal of decline for the working “I’m attending this trip to represent a government that stands for change from the old status quo. This climate of status quo has eroded this country for years and should not be allowed to resurface. We must unite and stand in support of our present administration that vows through democratic means a nation finally at peace in all fronts. This trip adds representation from all those interested in eliminating the fundamental prejudices and misconceptions made by the disruptive force that is intent on dividing this nation and to create chaos where there wasn’t. In the words of the great Martin Luther King, ‘We shall overcome.’ And this dream should live on through our efforts. And I want to be a part of that effort.” – Mike Austine “The reason I’m going to the One Nation March is because I have three boys that I have to take care of, and I want them to know that, if we all stick together in this world, we as a nation can keep moving ahead. We have had too many leaders who have come before us to make this way already, like Dr. King and Malcolm X. These men died fighting to make this world a better place for us. But if we let the Tea Party people get their way, we will all have more problems than we have now. We can’t let that happen. My kids need a better life just as well as their kids will.” – Dina Smith Top: Dan La Botz (gesturing), an Ohio candidate for U.S. Senate, led supporters to Washington for the One Nation rally. Paul Davis. Above: The One Nation rally drew progressives from across the United States. Paul Davis. “It means a chance for us as a country to stand up again to rise above the hate for our country, our president and even ourselves. Since Dr. Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a Dream’ speech, when have you seen plenty or anyone have a successful march of people of many colors? You have not. Well, today marks a new beginning, a better tomorrow and a goodbye to yesterday. Yes, we are in a recession. Yes, we are losing jobs left to right. But if it took eight years to mess up how, can we clean it up in two? What this march means to me is a chance to listen, a chance to be heard, a chance to live, a chance to rise again and a chance to not ‘take back America’ but to move America forward. Let’s be like Rosa Parks: Refuse to let our freedom go.” – Rob Richardson, SEUI Local 1 �STREETVIBES October 15-31, 2010 An open letter to President Obama... Fighting Poverty a Single Page at a Time Homeless people change their lives by selling street papers least I’m earning an income selling The Big Issue. If I’m having a tough day at work, I go to the park and take a spin on the playground roundabout. When I have cleared my mind, I go back to my pitch and get on with the business of selling the magazine. My dream is to have a place of my own. Danielle Batist I’d like to set up a small Street News Service Editor home-based business, as I am now a good salesman. uying a paper at I tell other vendors to keep cost price and sell- pushing forward with the skills that they have and to ing it for the cover never give up.” price – keeping the proMore than 100 street ceeds. It sounds like a very papers across the globe, simple business model, and it is. But providing an in cities like London, Cape income is only the first tool Town, Chicago, Oslo, Tokyo street papers use to tackle and in between, share that homelessness and exclusame vision: to provide the sion. means and opportunity for Every day, street paper homeless people to help vendors around the world themselves. hit the streets with the latVendors with street est edition of their paper or papers can access a range magazine. They sell from of other services, includtheir designated pitch in ing sales training, drug and busy shopalcohol ping streets, counseloutside malls ing and or in front of housing office buildsupport. ings, hospiSeveral tals, universistreet-paties, sports per projects grounds or also run train stations. savings They are programs there, come and art and rain or shine, literacy working to classes or earn their organize own living in rehabilitaan increasingtive sports ly challenging activities. climate. “Street Street papers from around They are papers are the world. INSP. people like a hand up, Steven Robnot a hand ert, a vendor in Cape Town, out,” says Lisa Maclean, South Africa, who like so executive director of the many people moved to the International Network of city as a teenager with big Street Papers (INSP). dreams. But without money An international charity or a job, he roamed the organization, INSP unites streets, struggling to meet and supports 110 street pahis basic needs. When two pers, including Streetvibes, of his close relatives passed in 40 countries. The netaway, loneliness kicked in work was founded in 1994 even harder. It was through with a handful of street the street paper that he papers and a few hundred found back purpose in his vendors. Today more than life. 200,000 homeless vendors “Life is still not easy for me,” Robert says. “I live in See Street, P. 14 a homeless shelter, but at B 9 National News ­ Streetvibes wants to interview President Obama. REUTERS/Larry Downing. Streetvibes also doesn’t pay its writers and Volunteer requests photographers. We are all volunteers. Many street paper vendors in the Unitinterview for street ed States are veterans, so this is a senvenue to talk about your agenda to newspapers worldwide sible broaden support for veterans with PTSD. D ear President Obama, I volunteer as a contributing writer for Streetvibes, the award-winning street paper from Cincinnati, Ohio. Streetvibes, published by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, is part of the International Network of Street Papers, reaching millions of readers around the world. Vendors, who are financially struggling, homeless or formally homeless individuals, go through training and become certified distributors of a street paper. At Streetvibes, vendors distribute the paper throughout the community for a profit of 75 cents per copy, which serves as a supplemental income. I am reaching out to you to request an interview for Streetvibes on behalf of street papers, our vendors and the international community. Streetvibes is non-profit and grassroots. It does not take government money. Should you grant this request, Streetvibes will collaborate with our vendors to include their questions. Street papers aim to be the voice of homeless individuals and homeless or poverty-stricken families, who are often left voiceless in the public discourse. The interview would be published in street papers worldwide, so by granting an interview to the street-paper community, you would be recognizing a legitimate source of grassroots journalism, positively reaching out to the international community and getting in touch with the roots of how your campaign started. There is no amount of partisanship that can undo that. No president has yet granted an interview to a street paper, so this is an historic and long overdue request. Sincerely, Ariana Shahandeh �10 Poetry Corner The Welcome Tour: Camp Smedley Butler, Okinawa STREETVIBES October 15-31, 2010 In My Heart “Homeless and Alone” By Booger Love By Elisa Hill They got into my heart over the years When other people tried I walked away From them and left but when it come to I may be homeless and alone, but that doesn’t mean I’m any less important. I too have a heart and a reason to be alive. It just may take me longer. With a greater will to survive. I’ve endured all the stairs and the questions of why I don’t have a home. I sleep in the grass like I am one of many sheep being tended to in a flock. We fall in tune and the loneliness never seems to stop. I pray nightly hoping for a better tomorrow. Hoping for a place to stay. A decent meal to eat. A nice warm shower to clean my feet. But my reality is that I am homeless and alone. I come from a big family with plenty to spare. Only problem is I was too far gone in my addiction. To understand all the hurt I had caused. So I do not hold any blame unto my family. For me, I did this to myself. Each day now I do go to counseling and seek help. I go to groups and while I wait, I listen. To others’ stories of despair and hurt, of how hard it is to allow yourself the right to be better. Have a drug free life. I just feel so grateful to be alive. Many nights I thought it would be my last. There are times at night I relive my deadly past. Of smoking crack and selling my body. To being beaten and thrown out like trash. I managed to make it through to see another day of life. At this time I may be struggling, but I know things will get better. As long as I continue to pray. Seek help for my addiction. Most of all stay true to myself. No one can do this for me. I must fight for my own life and health. So today I am homeless and alone. Tomorrow I will struggle to fight on. See, I am important and worthy of life. So when you walk by and see me sitting on the grass, Please don’t pity me. I accept my mistakes and will regain my composure. God is my blessing. My life can be renewed. I start today while you’re there sitting reading the news. Homeless and alone, we’re important too. By David S. Pointer The dead Marine’s mother Is being escorted around Okinawa, she arrives at The Provost Marshal’s Office with the officer of the day fairly early in the morning, and an incarcerated prisoner elects to bombard her with his fresh feces. The desk sergeant has me trade my blackgear and .45 for a mop and bucket high blocking prisoner haymakers while helping him to hold his new mop and conduct unbecoming becomes a clean black tile floor Your kids, there’s no walking out on you all I have a lot of little sisters and a lot Of little brothers that love me So much they are a lovely family and They won’t give up on you and I Tried to walk out on a lot of them But they put Jesus on me and He Opened my heart up so they could get In and now they are indeed in my heart I love my younger family with All my heart and they are deep in My heart forever and ever always This is my story about my young Family I can’t walk out on Hope to see all of you soon Love you all with all my heart �STREETVIBES October 15-31, 2010 11 Issues Women Flee, and White Men Just Can’t Think A modest proposal to end electile dysfunction By David Heitfield Contributing Writer M y secret high-school crush was a beautiful, intelligent woman who was way out of my league. She was my little red-haired girl (although blond), so I couldn’t actually talk to her; we would flirt by ringing the landline phone once to let the other know s/he was being thought about, and the occasional anonymous prank phone call. As soon as she got the chance, she got the hell out of Ohio. Times have not changed. Attractive, intelligent women do not think about riches, or landing the man of their dreams; they simply think about getting out of Ohio. All the time. When they get up, when they go to sleep, when they eat, when they poop, when they make love. The few who manage to stick around, usually because they have a family or they’ve lobotomized themselves with alcohol or religion, still dream about leaving Ohio and berate themselves for never doing so. And the latest Quinnipiac University poll gives good evidence that while the weather might be cited as the reason our women want to leave, the real reason is that Ohio men are the most selfabsorbed idiots on the planet. How else to explain the overwhelming desire of Ohio men (63 percent to 30 percent) to send President George W. Bush’s former budget director to the U.S. Senate, all in the name of “change”? “It would seem that Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher’s best shot at victory might be finding a way to stop men from voting,” opined Peter Brown, polling assistant director. I’d take it further: The only way to save democracy, our economy, our country is to stop white men from voting. Let ‘em spit and scream and scratch their nuts on the radio and cable news and in the bars. Just don’t let them near a voting booth. Now, I have many white male friends, being one myself; even so, I must admit that, as a group, Ohio white males are incapable of complex thinking outside sports or the occasional stray thought, “I wonder if that penis enlargement pill really works.” And while taking away their right to vote is probably not feasible, at least until China takes over in 30 years or so, we could tweak the voting process itself in a way that will promote true democracy, decentralize the two-party system, and confuse the poor Ohio white male in a way that he’ll need a pill just to have an Election. But first we need to understand the source of the problem, and for that I’ll turn to the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, who understood the basis of whitemale thought better than anyone. Life is paradox and uncertainty, stupid First, let’s acknowledge that any attempt to encapsulate Kierkegaard in a few paragraphs is itself banality. But when the argument is to take away the white male’s voting power – and you’re probably one of three people reading this in a newspaper you bought to help some homeless person – it’s best not to take ourselves too seriously here. For Kierkegaard, the essence of human life is anxiety, and the fully realized life courageously embraces this fact. Any attempt to “let go” or relieve oneself of such angst is cowardly and always results in self-deception and despair. Anxiety comes from the existential angst resulting from a self that is a synthesis of elements that will always remain in opposition to each other: the human vs. the “natural” realm, self-assertion vs. relating to others, finite vs. infinite, subjective vs. objective, necessity vs. possibility, temporal vs. eternal. The anxiety of human life only goes away when one ceases to be a complete person – basically through death, insanity or self-deception. In his seminal work, Either/Or, Kierkegaard presents two distinct ways of living: The first is that of the romantic idealist, and the response is from the “ethicist” (a Christian judge) who argues for an enlightened ethical life. Many college students who read the work mistakenly see it as a progression – that is, that the “ethical” life is a higher state of being than the romantic non-conformist. Kierkegaard actually preferred a third option – his infamous “leap of faith” – but of the two, he was clearly partial to the former, because the romantic at least tried to make life “interesting.” For all his reasoned sense of social obligation, the ethicist merely turns his life into an abortion. (See Limbaugh, Rush.) For our purposes, Kierkegaard saw the basis of white male thinking – bourgeois life – as personification of the Hegelian dialectic: That is, all conflicts that are the paradox of human life should be synthesized and “resolved” for some “greater good.” Since Kierkegaard believed such synthesis to be impossible, the white-male way of thinking is nothing more than cowardly selfdeception. Easy money, easy life, easy religion, finding the path of least resistance – all come at the price of one’s humanity. You gain a little peace, you go to sleep thinking you are always right, and you lose your integrity in the process. And that’s how the white men of Ohio end up sending George W. Bush’s budget director to the U.S. Senate. The results of the Quinnipiac poll are filled with hysterically self-deceptive paradox: 37 percent of voters say they are angry at the federal government; and of those, 81 percent support sending George W. Bush’s former budget director back to Washington. Fortyfive percent of Ohio voters say the economy is getting worse, and so 79 percent of those voters favor sending George W. Bush’s former budget director back to Washington. “ Nader running for president. You like Nader, but you don’t want to “throw your vote away” by voting for him, thus helping Bush. With range voting, no problem: Give Nader a 10, since you like him best; give Clinton a 6, since you like him better than Bush; and give Bush a 1, since you think he sucks. Instead of making a “false” choice based on some self-deceptive resolution for the “greater good,” you vote in accord with how you feel about each candidate. You have an authentic vote, rather than a cowardly vote. Cincinnati has a history of trying to change the voting system, given its brief try at proportional representation in the 1950s and subsequent attempts to put proportional representation on the ballot. There is good evidence that range voting is superior to proportional representation and would appeal to a wider political spectrum of voters. For more information, you can go to RangeVoting.org. I’d also recommend an interesting read from William Poundstone, Gaming the Vote, although I believe it might be out of print now, even though it only came out two years ago. At the very least, maybe angry voters who hate the federal government and think the economy sucks will evaluate their vote a little more closely before sending George W. Bush’s budget director back to Washington. And maybe, just maybe, we can keep some of those intelligent, attractive women in Ohio. Until January, anyway. The only way to save democracy, our economy, our country is to stop white men from voting.” Home on the range Range voting is the best answer I know. Both major parties hate it, and for good reason: It invites paradox and uncertainty into the results. Third-party candidates would actually have a chance to gain power and influence. Pollsters would hate it, moneyed interests on both sides would hate it. No longer would the Democratic Party run on the “We suck less than they do” platform. Political ads couldn’t just attack one candidate, but would have to attack several; and in doing so, negative ads would be much less effective. Studies have shown that the real winners in range voting are the voters themselves: They come out of the voting booth with a much greater sense of satisfaction. It’s so simple, and it so reflects our own vox populi culture that the only reason this isn’t getting more press and acceptance is that it scares the hell out of the established order. Instead of voting for a single candidate, you vote for each candidate based on a “range” of scores, say, 1-10. For example, say you have Bush, Clinton and �12 Crime Local News STREETVIBES October 15-31, 2010 Continued from page 3 The Size of the Problem lection and reporting, we fail in our responsibility to protect all Americans equally.” “With 43 known deaths, 2009 was the deadliest year for attacks on homeless people in a decade and the second highest since NCH (National Coalition for the Homeless) began tracking the violence in 1999. NCH has found startling data in the number and severity of attacks. However, the reports also acknowledge that since the homeless community is treated so poorly in our society, many more attacks go unreported. ‘Almost a sport’ But not everyone was in agreement during the hearing. David B. Muhlhausen introduced himself as a research fellow in empirical policy analysis with the Heritage Foundation but immediately distanced himself from his credentials, stating “The views I express in this testimony are my own and should not be construed as representing any official position of the Heritage Foundation.” “While every case of a violent act committed against homeless person is tragic and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, the prevalence of these crimes do not rise to a level that requires formal data collection by the federal government,” Muhlhausen said. He cited the conclusion – “deadliest year in a decade” – in the annual report by the National Coalition for the Homeless. “By the collation’s own count there were only 43 … homicides in 2009. To properly understand the prevalence of these murders as a percentage of all murders reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation: In 2009 the FBI counted 15,241 murders in the United States,” Muhlhausen said. “The 43 murders counted by the National Coalition for the Homeless represents 0.28 percent of all murders reported by the FBI. Conversely, all other murders accounted for 99.72 percent of the total. Needless to say, the number of murders of homeless by domiciled individuals is a minuscule fraction of total murders.” Muhlhausen challenged the need for collecting data related to “perceived social problems.” “When Congress considers the need for collecting data on any social phenomena, the nature of the evidence presented to Congress should be instrumental to the decision-making process,” he said. “A wrong assessment of the evidence can lead Congress to waste valuable resources. An objective and fair analysis of the data presented in the collation simply does not provide support for the need for the Hate Crimes Against the Homeless Statistics Act. “While some may argue that the lack the of reliable and objective data on the number of crimes committed against the homeless by domiciled individuals is justification enough for federal intervention, such logic leads the federal government down the unending road of collecting data on any perceived social problem, whether the problem warrants attention by the Federal government. The Hate Crimes against the Homeless Statistics Act of 2009 is unnecessary.” Cardin was surprised that Muhlhausen testified against the bill – he said he was expecting to hear testimony in support – and responded by turning Muhlhausen’s point back on him. “I appreciate you mentioning the statistics of the advocacy community,” Cardin said. “The issue is whether we have the same numbers as to the number of people who are victimized because they’re homeless versus the other statistical information we have about violent crime, which is collected in a different manner. It seems to me we’re comparing apples to oranges. “The debate today … is to decide whether we have adequate information to make judgments.” Cardin pointed to the ease with which this data could be collected: Wierzbicki said it would be as simple as adding a check box with “homeless” as a category, in the same way that law enforcement already identifies hate crimes against religious, ethnic, gender and other protected groups. “I applaud your efforts with the Hate Crimes/AntiBias Task Force,” Cardin said. “You have recognized that you have an issue that you need to deal with in Broward County. … I take it that you are seeing crimes, violent crimes committed against individuals solely because they’re homeless.” “Correct,” Wierzbicki said. “They’re not being targeted for robbery,” Cardin said. “ They’re not being targeted for an anger assault. They’re being targeted because they are being perceived by the attacker as a worthy victim because they are homeless.” “The beatings in Broward County … it was almost a sport and the attacks were very violent,” Wierzbicki said. “The research shows that the attacks on home- • 1,074 reported acts of bias motivated violence have been committed against homeless individuals between 1999-2010. • 291 homeless individuals lost their lives as a result of the attacks. • Reported violence has occurred in 47 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. Michael Hesson of Norwood has been charged in the brutal beating of a homeless man in Cincinnati. Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office. less are more violent because the attackers view them as sub-human. They have no place to retreat.” Cardin returned to Muhlhausen and asked if he’d object to having “uniform national information” on status crimes related to race, religion or homelessness that goes beyond types of crimes. Muhlhausen said he agrees that data collection is a good idea but doubts that the report by the National Coalition for the Homeless “rises to the level” of “requiring national legislation.” “I do not oppose collecting the basic information,” he said. “What I’m concerned about is that the data presented in a way to suggest that there’s a rising tide of violence and in fact there is no tide.” “We don’t know that,” Cardin said. “Based on the evidence that we have,” Muhlhausen said. “If you base it on the evidence of the advocacy community, then we do have a rising tide,” Cardin countered. “We do have a problem, that there has been an increased amount of violence. It reminds me of people who say we shouldn’t try to stop war because we can’t stop all wars. We can’t fight for human rights because we can’t end all human rights abuses.” “The fact is that there are other segments of society that are probably far more victimized,” Muhlhausen said. “Burglars target people with homes; we’re not concerned about that. What about crimes about people with homes? We’re not collecting statistics on that as a hate crime.” “But we do have uniform statistics on that,” Cardin said. “I take issue with you. We do have good information on burglaries in this country. We don’t on attacks against the homeless. You say you don’t object to having good information. You say you don’t object to having it isolated into protected classes. I interpret from your comments that you want to be opposed to this bill – and it’s your right to do that – but I don’t see any rational support for it.” Like a smoke alarm Cardin then turned to Brian Levin, director of the nonpartisan Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, where he teaches in the Department of Criminal Justice, and asked him to address one of the reasons for addressing homeless statistics – ending homelessness in this country. Cardin wanted to know if this data collection could ultimately help military veterans, victims of domestic violence, addicts and others get off the streets and prevent people from losing housing. “With unemployment at over 9 percent, the housing situation, which has been well documented … it’s important to recognize that many people who never thought they would be homeless have in fact become homeless,” Levin said. “It would be nice to have some common sense prevail here. “As Professor James Weinstein from Arizona said, Kristallnacht was more than the sum of assault and arson that took place on the evening of November 8, 1938. These are offenses are against a pluralistic democracy.” Kristallnacht, German for “Night of Broken Glass,” “Our data also suggests that the perpetrators of these attacks tend to be young men and teenaged boys. In the 11-year history of our hate-crime reports, the vast majority of the attacks against homeless people have been committed by youth as young as 10 years old. In 2009: • 80 percent of the attacks were committed by people under 30 years of age. • 98 percent of perpetrators were men. • Nearly one in three attacks ended in death. Source: National Coalition for the Homeless Annual Report – Hate Crimes Against the Homeless: America’s Growing Tide of Violence, published August, 2010. For the full report, visit http://www. nationalhomeless.org/publications/hatecrimes/ hatecrimes2009.pdf. For more information on the Senate hearing, visit http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing. cfm?id=4815. was a Nazi pogrom in which 91 Jews were murdered, between 25,000 and 30,000 were placed in concentration camps, more than 1,000 synagogues were destroyed and tens of thousands of Jewish businesses and homes were looted. It is widely considered the prelude to the Holocaust. “The criminal law consistently looks at the context, the target, the timing, the occasion and the motive of offenses. …The U.S. Supreme Court held … motive is something that the government can punish by statutes, not just with regard to sentencing,” Levin said. “For example, burning a church in a pluralistic society such as ours is different than burning a barn. And we have to look at the fact that many of the homicides that take place are due to things we would call routine, personal relationships – bar fights, intimate. These are horrible crimes, but the notion of random attacks by people who select others because the status characteristic is egregious. “In the same way a smoke alarm sends out a message that something is wrong, I believe that we have enough data to indicate that there’s an additional problem. … The homeless are regarded as a socially acceptable target for aggression.” In written testimony, Levin addressed the issue of devaluing homeless people. He quoted President Barack Obama at the signing of hate-crime legislation in 2009: “At root, this isn’t just about our laws; this is about who we are as a people. This is about whether we value one another.” And he went on to say explain how gathering data – an apparently clinical activity – is essential to the valuation of human life. “One of the hallmarks of our civilized society is our national commitment to the transparent collection and analysis of official data that impact the public’s health, safety and welfare. … Advancements in computer-aided crime data collection … will significantly enhance our knowledge to combat a terrible evil scourge that is killing and maiming some of the most vulnerable souls in our society,” Levin wrote. Reviewing the arguments against adding the bill, Levin chose to focus significant attention on the question of “choosing to be homeless.” “Perhaps the least impressive argument relates Continued on next page �to the mutability of homeless status,” he wrote. “The argument states that homelessness, unlike race, is a changeable condition that most people would not want, so why offer to count it or protect on the basis of that condition? As a practical matter, mutability is a diversion from proper analysis of whether a group characteristic should be covered in hate crime laws, because many currently covered categories are in fact mutable. “Hate-crime categories like religion, nationality, gender, age or disability are either mutable or potentially so. The fact that one’s religion can be altered does not make it less worthy of statutory recognition, and for that reason it is covered in both federal law and by virtually every state statute. Furthermore, the fact that a particular status characteristic, like disability, is one that many would not choose has not precluded its inclusion in many statutes either.” ‘That’s not America’ Cardin pointed out that Simone Manning-Moon Union 13 Local News STREETVIBES October 15-31, 2010 eloquently explained how some people find the only way to manage life obstacles is to live on the street. Her brother, Norris Jay Gaynor, was a man with mental disabilities, who was beaten to death in Florida in 2006 for being homeless. “Your brother, Norris Jay Gaynor … was proud that he was taking care of himself on the streets,” Cardin said. “I’m impressed by the fact that he didn’t want to take government benefits because he thought he could take care himself. He didn’t ask much of this country.” “He didn’t,” Manning-Moon said. “If he did realize on some days that he needed help, his innate notion that he shouldn’t rely on the government or anyone … took over and won out. It is ironic that his killers … actually had many of, if not more of, the problems my brother had in his younger years, but they somehow never carried the accompanying notion that they were to man-up and try to take care of themselves.” Cardin told Manning-Moon that is was reasonable for her brother to expect this country – which promotes and defends freedom and diversity – to address hate crimes. “The local newspaper described one of the convicted killers of my brother and the attacker of two others that night as ‘someone whose friends said routinely went out seeking homeless people to beat and attack.’ If we think about what the value would be of having legislation would actually help law enforcement … track, understand, have on their radar this type of behavior – imagine what the possibilities if that tracking had happened earlier and Brian Hooks would have been identified earlier as someone who is prone to this type of behavior,” Manning-Moon said. Closing the hearing, Cardin thanked the panelists for their testimony and putting a face on the broad concepts being discussed. In what could have been rhetoric for supporting a foreign war and fighting terrorism, he summarized the argument for passage of the Hate Crimes Against the Homeless Statistics Act. “The nation’s first priority is to protect its citizens,” he said. “When someone is brutally attacked or put in harm’s way solely because they don’t have a roof over their head – that’s not America.” Continued from page 1 Over time, workers began to complain about how dirty the microwaves had become. Runtz Sr. said that, because the workers were the ones who used them, it was their responsibility to clean them. “I kept telling them to clean them, and finally I threw them out because of the roaches,” Runtz Sr. said. Workers told their churches about the loss of the microwaves, then brought in new microwaves that had been donated, according to Runtz Sr. Dienger says Runtz Sr.’s version isn’t true. “Part of the issue with the microwaves was that they belonged to the workers, but the owners threw them away,” she said. Runtz Sr. doesn’t consider himself a difficult employer. “We don’t enforce the rules we’re supposed to enforce,” he said. “We’re pretty lenient.” Employees are supposed to go through a 90-day training period, when they’re paid $8-8.50 an hour, but TriState Beef only makes employees go through a 30-day training period, after which they’re paid at least $9 an hour, Runtz Sr. said. Some workers arrive around 5 a.m., but most arrive at around 6:30 a.m. and leave at 4:30 p.m. They have 15-minute breaks in the morning and afternoon. Dienger acknowledged that the workers like Runtz’s lenient attitude about scheduling, and thinks some might have voted against the union because they were afraid they would lose that flexibility. “We told them that they’d still be able to have that type of freedom, but like I said, it was just the sheer intimidation and fear of not having a job or the fear that things were going to change,” Dienger said. A bloody mess A tour of the plant showed the environment to be disgusting, of course – it’s a slaughterhouse. The company and its employees would be out of work if they didn’t cut up cows everyday. The company processes 210-220 cows a day. The smell was wretched. Inside and outside the building, flies periodically landed on arms, legs and faces. Runtz Sr. led the tour. He walked to the microwaves, three stacked on top of each other on a shelf. Speckles of old, dry food stuck on the inside from lunch breaks past. He turned and stopped at a doorway, of- fering a peek inside but warning about what lurked beyond it. The slaughter room was large and open. Blood flowed and settled in pools on the gray floor before being washed down a drain. Carcasses of cows hung upside-down from a track that danced around the perimeter of the room. Some of the bodies still had heads, while others were decapitated and skinned. Others were cut down the middle, and the innards had become outtards. Employees seemed upbeat, joking and laughing. Granted, the owner had just walked through the door, but friendly shouting, joking and conversations between workers echoed through the building. Runtz Sr. only allowed a few steps into the slaughter room. Walking further could contaminate the process. White aprons soiled with blood were a staple of every employee in the room, and walking just a few steps closer would’ve gotten a visitor spattered with blood as well. Before leaving the slaughter room, Runtz Sr. thanked the workers and asked if they were happy, to which they replied with laughs and “Oh yeah.” After showing the freezer room, walking upstairs to a hallway off the entryway, Runtz Sr. stopped a worker who was cleaning his equipment. “Hey, Jose, do we treat you bad? Yell at you or anything?” Runtz Sr. said. The employee smiled and shook his head, saying “No.” That response isn’t surprising, according to Dienger. “When the owners are standing outside the building with the workers, of course the workers feel like they have to say they love their jobs,” she said. In a press release prior to the rally, Dienger gave a less cheery picture of Tri-State Beef. “The plant owner and his family have been continuing intimidating and trying to divide the workers with continued threats of shutting the plant down, surveillance of workers as they talk to union organizers and forcing workers to remove union stickers that they have the right to wear,” she wrote. “The plant is approximately 70 percent Latino and the rest split between white and black Americans. Some of the reasons workers have been trying to organize is to stop discrimination in their pay and the way they are treated, to obtain living wages and fair wage increases, and to improve safety conditions at the plant. “At least one out of every five workers The union rally attracted more support than the union election did. Jon Hughes/Photopresse. have been injured on the job, and recently Tri-State Beef received a serious offense and fine from OSHA (Occupational Safety and health Administration) for not having a guard placed over the trough where the entrails are disposed without which workers could fall into and be seriously injured.” Runtz Sr. dismissed the allegations. “We’ve never had any problems or complaints before,” he said. “All I know is, one day a church tried to call OSHA, but I don’t care. Let them. None of what those people are saying is true.” Like it or leave it Recent union organizing campaigns in Greater Cincinnati have had mixed success. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 75 won an election to represent workers at American Food Group. But workers at Champion Windows turned down a bid to join the Iron Workers Shopmen’s Union. Unions enable employees to collectively negotiate their wages and working conditions, potentially obtaining benefits they wouldn’t have received on their own. Also, union-sanctioned strikes are legal, so workers can’t be fired for striking. The possibility of strikes makes employers realize that downtime will hurt productivity, and a negotiated solution might be better for both owner and employee. Unions can offer training courses for workers to advance in their fields, encourage teamwork, give legal protection and keep workers from being exploited by their employers. Others, however, argue that unions could raise wages and benefits to unrealistically high levels above what the market can sustain. This causes the owner to raise the costs of goods, making them unattractive to customers. Some believe unions pit employees against employers, instead of bringing the two together to create quality products. Unions also require members to pay dues. The reason workers at Tri-State Beef rejected union membership is clear, according to Runtz Sr. “These people are happy with what they’re doing,” he said. “I don’t know why they’d be afraid of me. I’m the easiest going guy in the world.” But Dienger sees it differently. When working conditions are poor in any company, it’s easy for workers to complain to each other or talk to one another about it, but not many workers are OK with being the whistle-blower about the company’s anti-union campaign, she said. “It’s definitely illegal to say they’re going to shut the plant down, but it’s hard to find employees who are willing to go and be a witness in front of their boss, in front of the labor board, and say, ‘Yes, I heard that,’ ” Dienger said. “So, if and when people are willing to do that, that’s when they could make more progress.” But Roy Runtz, another of the owner’s sons, said the company’s workers have other choices. “If you don’t like how you’re treated, go work somewhere else like McDonald’s or White Castle and see if they pay you more,” he said. �14 Extras STREETVIBES October 15-31, 2010 Cartoon by Anne Skove ­ One Street Paper at a Time around the world have improved their lives through selling INSP street papers. Maclean’s aim is to increase that figure over the next few years. “In the 16 years of our existence, the INSP network has grown immensely,” she says. “The number of existing papers on all continents has expanded and we have helped to launch new ones, particularly in Africa. “The 200,000 figure is a landmark for us, but we always look at the road ahead. Street papers provide an opportunity unlike any other charity, giving Continued from page 9 homeless and marginalized people a chance to speak out, earn a living and change their lives. Our job is to unite these papers and support them in their fight against homelessness, poverty and social exclusion around the world.” Coinciding with the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on October 17, INSP released the outcome of its latest study into the impact of street papers on poverty and homelessness elimination. The research shows that, in 2009, 71 per cent of street papers helped their vendor force to get out of their homeless situation and move on. In addition to providing an income, 84 per cent said they improved their vendors’ well-being and almost 90 per cent said they increased their confidence. A quarter of papers were involved in creating policy change on housing and homelessness in their city or region. As part of an international campaign on the UN’s anti-poverty day, street papers on all continents will run an advertisement (see page 10). The poster slogan, “The Future is in Your Hands,” urges read- ers around the world to get involved in the streetpaper movement, regularly buy a copy from their local vendors and help to tackle poverty in a manageable way. The relationship between readers and their papers is unique. As the 2009 INSP study shows, 80 per cent of street papers engaged their readership through interaction with vendors and the content of the magazines. Articles on social injustice and tackling homelessness appeared in North American and European street papers, while taboo-breaking issues such as HIV/ Say AIDS and women’s and gay rights helped to break down barriers in societies across Africa. Interviews with celebrities and other public figures boosted street-paper sales from Australia to Latin America. Articles written by any of INSP’s 110 member papers are made available through its independent news agency, the Street News Service. Street papers can republish all material free of charge. At the same time, readers around the world can access the best of international street paper journalism online via www. streetnewsservice.org. ! ? t a h W “There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart, is our temple. My philosophy is kindness.” – Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dala Lama __________ �Shelter: Women and Children Central Access Point Cincinnati Union Bethel St. Francis Soup Kitchen Churches Active in Northside FreeStore/FoodBank 557-2873 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 4230 Hamilton Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45223 241-1064 112 E. Liberty Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 1841 Fairmount Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45214 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 6037 Cary Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45224 Salvation Army 535-2719 591-2246 381-SAFE 768-6907 300 Lytle Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Bethany House 762-5660 131 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 Shelter: Men 271-5501 4600 Erie Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 St. Vincent de Paul 562-8841 1125 Bank Street, Cinti, Ohio 45214 Treatment: Men 784-1853 2121 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 241-5525 Prospect House 241-0490 381-4941 Starting Over 1419 Elm Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 1437 Walnut Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mt. Airy Shelter 661-4620 Shelter: Both Anthony House (Youth) 921-1613 682 Hawthorne Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45205 Justice Watch St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 761-1480 1821 Summit Road, Cinti, Ohio 45237 Drop Inn Center 721-0643 217 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Interfaith Hospitality Network Lighthouse Youth Center (Youth) 471-1100 221-3350 3330 Jefferson, Cinti, Ohio 45220 Housing: CMHA Excel Development OTR Community Housing 721-4580 632-7149 381-1171 114 W. 14th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tender Mercies 721-8666 27 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tom Geiger House Dana Transitional Bridge Services Volunteers of America Anna Louise Inn Treatment: Women Food/Clothing Lord’s Pantry OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry 621-5300 961-1983 OTR: 1620 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert, Cinti, Ohio 45206 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 1730 Race Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 357-4602 352-2902 352-6363 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mental Health Access Point Mercy Franciscan at St. John 558-8888 981-5800 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 NAMI of Hamilton County PATH Outreach 458-6670 977-4489 Center Independent Living Options Emmanuel Community Center Peaslee Neighborhood Center 241-2600 241-2563 621-5514 Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart 381-0111 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 First Step Home 961-4663 Treatment: Both AA Hotline CCAT 351-0422 381-6672 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. Cinti, Ohio 45214 Joseph House (Veterans) 241-2965 1522 Republic Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Hamilton County ADAS Board 946-4888 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 641-4300 Advocacy Catholic Social Action Community Action Agency Contact Center 421-3131 569-1840 381-4242 771-4800 751-0600 721-4811 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 Hamilton/Middletown St. Raephaels Salvation Army Serenity House Day Center Open Door Pantry 863-3184 863-1445 422-8555 868-3276 Northern Kentucky Brighton Center 859-491-8303 799 Ann St. Newport, KY Franciscan JPIC Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 721-4700 421-7803 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. Legal Aid Society Ohio Justice & Policy Center Faces Without Places Stop AIDS 579-8547 241-9400 421-1108 363-3300 421-2437 Health Center for Respite Care Goodwill industries Healing Connections Mary Magdalen House 1223 Main St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 1227 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 961-4555 751-0643 381-1954 421-5211 Health Resource Center Homeless Mobile Health Van McMicken Dental Clinic 214 E. 14th St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 2728 Glendora Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45209 Caracole (HIV/AIDS) 381-2247 5 E. Liberty St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 1308 Race St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 961-2256 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 961-4080 Crossroad Health Center Other Resources Charlie’s 3/4 House City Gospel Mission 15 Resources STREETVIBES October 15-31, 2010 ECHO/Hosea House 859-261-5857 Fairhaven Resuce Mission 859-491-1027 Homeward Bound Youth 859-581-1111 Mathews House 859-261-8009 Homeless & Housing Coalition 859-727-0926 Parish Kitchen 859-581-7745 Pike St. Clinic 859-291-9321 Transitions, Inc 859-491-4435 Welcome House of NKY 859-431-8717 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 621-1868 3550 Washington Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45229 Women’s Crisis Center VA Domiciliary VA Homeless 859-491-3335 859-559-5011 859-572-6226 �16 Column STREETVIBES October 15-31, 2010 A Father’s Fight, a Father’s Art ­ Andy Fausz’s struggle for justice A rtists as ctivists By Saad GhoSn Contributing Writer “A rt is a part of me,” says Albert Andrew Fausz Jr., also known as Andy. “It is like the heart that beats to keep me alive or the brain that activates my body. I cannot live without it; and when I make it, I am fulfilled.” Art is also Fausz’s conversation, his way to communicate with others, to convey what he thinks and believes, what preoccupies him. Raised by principled, highly ethical and religious parents, since his childhood Fausz has been very sensitive to evil in the world and to the potential power in each individual to make a difference. He uses art as a guiding light to interpellate the viewer and trigger a better change. “Our world has a lot of pain, destruction, problems,” he says. “We need to work out our differences, make earth a better place for all. Art is a potent tool in this respect. It can get the word out on various issues, create communication, lead to answers and favor transformation.” Fausz, a visual artist born and raised in Northern Kentucky, attended Grandview Elementary School and Bellevue High School; he excelled in art all along. After high school he took a break for few years, exploring life, working different jobs, then entered Northern Kentucky University to study drawing, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in fine art. Even before art school Fausz drew all the time and exhibited his work; it consisted mostly of images out of his head, many related to rock and roll, popular at the time. In college, his art became more personal both in imagery and content. It was often religious-based, questioning the reason for evil when we’re all given the ability to be good spirits and well-doers; it was dark, reflecting the darkness in the world, but also always included elements of hope and beauty. “I was being an activist, speaking to the world of what I felt was wrong,” he says, “but also pointing to the beauty available, to the fact that we can share and help each other.” In college, Fausz started a relationship that brought him a daughter; unfortunately the relationship soon derailed and he had to fight in court for the right to see and spend time with his child. From that moment on all his work focused on the pain caused by a broken relationship, his longing and concerns for his daughter, his dealing with a judicial system often insensitive to the needs of fathers. “Our family-court system is failing fathers,” he says. “I had to prove I was the father of my child, that I was drug- and alcoholfree, that what I was being accused of was wrong – and this despite an impeccable past. I had to hire lawyers and lost all my life savings. Most important, I wasted precious time I could have spent with my baby.” Sweet V, a large mixed-media painting Fausz “ created around the time he split up with his child’s mother, shows in its center a big, ominous head representing the mother, a dominating, powerful and controlling force in this instance. In its left lower corner is a small portrait of himself being pushed out of the page; in the background is a fading, ghost-like image of his daughter as he remembered her the night before, sleeping peacefully. He depicted the mother’s face with eyes and mouth closed, as if unwilling to see or talk, thus unresponsive to his helpless and hurt feelings. In Judging Me, a very large 52”x82” mixed-media painting on paper, Fausz shares his experience battling the court to gain the right to see his daughter. He drew the judges as skeleton referees surrounding him and accusing him. He is in the middle of the picture, his mouth wide open, screaming to defend himself. In the right half is the mother of his child, her head upside down, radiating thick lines of aggression; on one side of the painting are knives being thrown at him. To add hope to his situation, Fausz also incorporated a little house, flowers floating in the background, a Sacred Heart, allusion to himself, a good person wanting a good relationship. In Protecting our Eggs, also a very large painting on paper, he states that even when one is the father, the rightful provider of the “egg,” the current family court system often denies him all rights, as if only mothers matter for a child’s healthy development. Fausz’s recent paintings have all included self-portraits, portraits of his daughter, of her mother, images of good and evil, all interacting in different fields of color, line work and stylistic imagery, to reinforce emotions and feelings. They contain both beauty and pain and incorporate stories, poems, conversations, They can be hard to see, uplifting at times, but always trigger conversations with the viewers and an opportunity for Fausz to talk about his struggles and the family court system he has been experiencing, thus clarifying his message. “Artists and art shows provide a vehicle for conversations, for people to meet and talk,” he says. “They get thoughts and exchanges started, vital to any change. My work right now focuses on my situation as an estranged father, also at shedding light on our family court system in order My work right now focuses on my situation as an estranged father, also at shedding light on our family court system in order to make it more humane.” Top: Andy Fausz stands in front of one of his paintings. Saad Ghosn. Above: Sweet V, mixed-media painting and photo by Andy Fausz. to make it more humane. It will always deal with the pain I see and feel around me, thriving for a better world.” Now that he is able to spend more time with his daughter, Fausz hopes that the beauty of their relationship will start to transpire into his art. He would like to continue addressing religion and its good values, the power of love, ongoing social issues such as fighting greed, food and famine, the futility of wars. “For me, the best aspect of art is sharing it and sharing myself and my feelings through it,” Fausz says. “My images come naturally and subconsciously; they reflect what I had lived, thought, experienced. My art breathes on its own; it urges me to partake in the goodness of life.” Artists as Activists is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati artists who use art as a vehicle for change. Saad Ghosn is the founder of SOS Art. Ghosn can be contacted at saad.ghosn@ uc.edu. � 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 2010 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 October 15-31, 2010 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Union Gets Slaughtered in Vote Environmentalism Through Art and Design Pg 2: Street Wise Pg 3: Counting Hate Is the First Step Pg 4: Three Wise Men in an Occupied Land Pg 5: Three Wise Men in an Occupied Land Continued Pg 6: City Backing for Affordable Housing Democracy is Not a Spectacular Sport Pg 7: An EPIC Community Asks for Your Help Pg 8: One Cause, Many Voices: Why We Went Pg 9: Fighting Poverty a Single Page at a Time Pg 10: Arts & Poetry Pg 11: Women Flee, and White Men Just Can’t Think Pg 12: Crime Continued Pg 13: Union Continued Pg 14: Arts & Poetry Continued Pg 15: Resources Pg 16: A Father’s Fight, a Father’s Art 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 October 15-31, 2010 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Gregory Flannery Joseph Szydlowski Georgia Bohannon Michelle Dillingham Samantha Groark Margo Pierce Carly Tamborski Jeremy Flannery Michael Henson David Heitfield Corey Gibson Jeni Jenkins Saad Ghosn Lew Moores Larry Gross Eli Braun Jesse Call Michael Fanning B. Clifton Burke Aimie Willhoite Lynne Ausman Anne Skove Vinit Murthy Jon Hughes Brad Foster Jeremy Flannery Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Aimie Willhoite Andy Fausz Anne Skove B. Clifton Burke Barack Obama Bethlehem Brad Foster Carly Tamborski Cincinnati Congress Corey Gibson David Heitfield Democracy Eli Braun Environmentalism EPIC Georgia Bohannon Gregory Flannery Hate International news Jeni Jenkins Jeremy Flannery Jesse Call Jon Hughes Joseph Szydlowski Larry Gross Lew Moores Lynne Ausman Margo Pierce Michael Fanning Michael Henson Michelle Dillingham Protests Saad Ghosn Samantha Groark Vinit Murthy Women https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/e0874e0b6106503172fc8f078f61a10a.pdf aec2fba13b2fb4d2d2826780a7e23b7a PDF Text Text Get to ‘Get Low’ Prisoner Wins Nobel page 10 page 4 Nov. 1-14, 2010 • Issue 187 • One Dollar ADVOCATING JUSTICE • BUILDING COMMUNITY Homeless Awareness Week in Cincinnati By Carly Tamborski Contributing Writer C itizens marched Oct. 16 through downtown Cincin­ nati and Over-the-Rhine to demand an end to homeless­ ness, a positive resolution for gentrification and reason­ able wages. The march, part of Home­ less Awareness Week, Oct. 15-23, kicked off from Buddy’s Place on Vine Street, where marchers rallied. The marchers stopped at points highlighting places where, homeless advocates say, unjust acts against homeless people occurred, including places where the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC) and the city have displaced people from low-income housing and public spaces. “This march is for justice, Joanne Burton, public-con­ trolled government, living wages, the end of homeSupporters march through downtown Cincinnati in support of homeless people. About 150 people participated in the Oct. 16 demonstration. Aimee Willhoite. See March, P. 9 How I Snuck in on the Dalai Lama ­ Even mystical security has its weaknesses By Gregory Flannery Editor T he “self” is an illusion, according to the Dalai Lama, so it’s fitting that I saw him under false pretenses, passing the security checkpoint under an assumed name. The U.S. State Department had ordered me kept out, but I got in. The security process for screening journalists for the Dalai Lama’s visit Oct. 21 was almost as obscure and com- plex as Tibetan Buddhism itself. I was in, then I was out, then I was back in. Finally, on the day of his appearance, a university staffer handed me a press badge and said, “Here. You’re Eric Frisbee.” Eric Frisbee is a photographer for WHIO (Channel 7) in Dayton, Ohio. I am not Frisbee, but I felt like one, my media credentials tossed back and forth from Oxford, Ohio, to Washington, D.C., and back again. In the end, the security apparatus was ridiculously flawed. At the security checkpoint, no one even asked for my ID. The badge said I was Eric Frisbee, and I got in. ‘You are not allowed’ I submitted my application for media credentials – includ­ ing date of birth and socialsecurity number – Sept. 20. An Oct. 12 e-mail from Miami University notified me of ap­ proval for the Dalai Lama’s pri­ vate morning session at Hall Auditorium. A staffer even let me in on a parking secret that prevented my having to walk or catch a shuttle across campus. But three days later my credentials were revoked – and by a player I didn’t even know was involved. Claire Wagner, director of Miami’s News and Public Information Office, called Streetvibes and left a phone message. “I’m calling with bad news,” she said. “We received an e-mail from the State Department, who is in charge of security for the day. We had supplied all of the personal information about the media. They have sent back a note saying you are not allowed to be in the venue that day. No details. I’m very sorry.” An essential part of Tibetan Buddhism is the notion of impermanence – everything changes. This was to prove true in this case. I phoned Wagner to ask for clarification. I requested the e-mail from the State Depart­ ment and the name of the person who said I couldn’t cover the Dalai Lama’s visit. That person’s name, it seems, is off-limits. Wagner sent this e-mail: See Dalai, P. 6 �2 Editorial ­ Streetwise By The Numbers ­ 72 The percentage of residents of Section 8 housing assistance who are employed or retired (see page 5). 12 The tallest building, in number of stories, that Steven Paul Lansky can comfortably enter (see page 11). 11 The length, in number of years, of Liu Xiaobo’s prison sentence in the People’s Republic of China (see page 4). 1976 The year Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation was founded (see page 3). 2 The number of people initially barred by the U.S. State Department from a visit by the Dalai Lama (see page 1). 150 The size, in number of participants, of the Homeless Awareness March (see page 1). 1,000 The average distance, in miles, between farm field and U.S. grocery store (see page 6). 1930 The year in which Get Low is set (see page 10). 31 The number of NFL teams that don’t seem to need problem players (see page 7). 10 The approximate number of police officers outside Music Hall during Sleeping Beauty (see page 10). By Gregory Flannery Editor Don’t Tread on Other People A conservative friend of mine has been critical of the Tea Party movement. “Anger,” he says, “is not a good organizing principle.” My friend and I disagree on almost every political issue; but on this point, he is correct. He doesn’t mean there is no place for anger in politics but rather that a movement primarily fueled by anger is unlikely to advance. Shared ideas and principles are far more effective. The Tea Party isn’t a movement at all, of course; it’s a mob. In the last few weeks of the 2010 election campaign I heard a radio commentator express concern that the Tea Party was beginning to resemble the brown-shirted thugs who stirred German rage to the point that the Nazi Party won office and ruled for 12 years. I thought the warning farfetched, and then came the attack last month on a woman at debate between candidates for a U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky. Lauren Valle, an activist with the progressive movement MoveOn.org, tried to approach Republican candidate Rand Paul to give him a fake award for promoting the domination of GOP policies by big business. Paul’s supporters pulled a wig off Valle’s head and knocked her to the ground. In a horrifying scene played on video throughout the world, a campaign coordinator for Paul held her down by putting his foot on her neck. The symbolism is perfect. Some Tea Party members have tried to paint Valle’s behavior as suspicious. Why was she wearing a wig? But their awareness of history is lacking. Participants in the original Boston Tea Party dressed as American Indians as they seized and destroyed crates of British tea. They didn’t, by the way, attack the crew of the ship. Tea Party gatherings often fly the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag from the American Revolution. Tea Party activists seem perfectly willing, however, to tread on others. Fortunately, Valle wasn’t seriously injured, though she reported swelling in her face and soreness in her neck and shoulders. As if the assault she suffered weren’t bad enough, the chief perpetrator, Tim Profitt, demanded an apology from Valle. In a local TV interview, Profitt said, “She’s a professional at what she does. When all the facts come out, people will see that she’s the one who initiated the whole thing.” And there you have the Tea Party at its essence: Approaching one of its candidates at a public event in order to make a dissenting statement is perceived as an act of provocation, something to be stopped at the cost of violence. Valle had sought to give Paul the Employee of the Month Award from RepubliCorp. – a make-believe group created by MoveOn.org in an act of political satire. The fact that the man who attacked Valle is named Profitt made the satire complete. The problem, of course, is that satire is lost on thugs. The lasting damage from this kind of incident isn’t the minor injuries visited upon Lauren Valle but the damage inflicted on the body politic. Political violence is always and everywhere to be condemned. The Paul campaign fired Profitt – as it knew it must. “The Paul for Senate campaign is extremely disappointed in and condemns the actions of a supporter last night outside the KET debate,” said a statement by Paul’s staff. “Whatever the perceived provocation, any level of aggression or violence is deplorable, and will not be tolerated by our campaign. The Paul campaign has disassociated itself from the volunteer who took part in this incident, and once again urges all activists – on both sides – to remember that their political passions should never manifest themselves in physical altercations of any kind.” That’s rather craven, all in all. “Both sides” weren’t involved in violence. Paul’s side was. Even so, it’s better than the statement by the campaign for Jack Conway, Democratic candidate for the Senate: “We can disagree on issues, and I don’t know what preceded the incident, but physical violence by a man against a woman must never be tolerated.” Agreed: Men shouldn’t assault women. Furthermore, women shouldn’t assault women. Nor should men assault men or women assault men. But Conway missed both the opportunity and the point. What happened at that debate is a harbinger of things to come. Tensions have been unloosed in this country that, if not calmed, will lead to far greater violence. It is increasingly becoming acceptable to make scapegoats of minorities – undocumented workers and Muslims are especially in vogue as targets these days. We must reclaim our ability to disagree without vilifying our opponents. U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), in an act of glorious civic virtue, showed in 2008 what leadership is about in a republic. At a town hall meeting toward the end of McCain’s failed presidential campaign, a woman in the audience denounced then-Sen. Barack Obama as a Muslim – as if being one were some kind of ignominy. McCain took the microphone and firmly corrected the woman, his own supporter. “No, ma’am,” he said. “You’re wrong.” My conservative friend once told me that the chief value of democracy isn’t that it leads to the selection of the most qualified candidates or that it is the fairest way to govern. The chief value of democracy, he said, is that it provides a non-violent means for a change in power. He makes a good point. It’s important that we all remember that. Unbridled political passions are dangerous. STREETVIBES November 1-14, 2010 Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by people who are or once were homeless, in exchange for a $1 donation, Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Address: 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Phone: 513.421.7803 x 12 Fax: 513.421.7813 Email: streetvibes2@yahoo. com Website: www. cincihomeless.org Blog: streetvibes.wordpress. com Streetvibes Staff Editor Gregory Flannery Art Director Joseph Szydlowski Vendor Coordinator Georgia Bohannon Contributing Writers Michelle Dillingham, Samantha Groark, Margo Pierce, Jeremy Flannery, Michael Henson, David Heitfield, Corey Gibson, Jeni Jenkins, Saad Ghosn, Lew Moores, Larry Gross, Eli Braun, Jesse Call, Michael Fanning, B. Clifton Burke, Carly Tamborski Photography/Artwork Aimie Willhoite, Lynne Ausman, Anne Skove, Vinit Murthy, Jon Hughes, Brad Foster Proofreader Jeremy Flannery The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati through coordination of services, public education, grassroots advocacy and Streetvibes. �8 STREETVIBES November 1-14, 2010 Column 3 M I N U T E S Considering Advocacy By Margo Pierce Contributing Writer A dvocacy frequently gets a bad rap. Trying to get a specific idea, group of people or posi­ tion heard above the barrage of information flooding our daily lives can appear to be “special treatment” and therefore dismissed as “biased.” This negative label appears to be applied most frequently when an idea, group or position doesn’t have popu­ lar support or challenges the currently accepted norm. The problem is that people are fickle and often contradictory in their tastes, so the accepted stan­ dard frequently changes. There are some long standing – some might say hard-core – beliefs in the United States that leave al­ ternative perspectives fighting hard to be heard and seriously considered. The first that comes to mind is the value of human life. Millions of dollars will be spent to rescue a few dozen people from a mine, a baby who fell down a well or people displaced by a tsunami. We invest a huge amount of money on having fire departments, hospitals, Coast Guard rescues and other emergency responses – available at a moment’s notice – even though the proportion of people served is small. A house fire might involve a few people; and even though car crashes occur every day, the number of people served per crash is usually that large. Why are these people considered worth the effort? It doesn’t matter if the house on fire is a crack house and the people trapped inside are drug deal­ ers – the fire department will respond. It doesn’t matter if human traffickers drive the overturned van on the freeway – law enforcement will still attempt to rescue the driver and the “cargo” of slaves. At the same time, we have a system of laws that punishes some people with the death penalty. We spend an unimaginable amount of money to preserve life and yet we’ve created a system of laws that selectively destroys other lives. This dichotomy isn’t a simple one to unravel but the arbitrary way in which we value and devalue life is an excellent test case for the role of advocacy. Some families who have lost a member as the result of murder – the people closest to the victims, the people who have the most legitimate argument for revenge – are trying to get the death penalty abolished. An argument could be made that they didn’t really care about the victim if they don’t seek revenge, but these families contend the opposite is true. It is because of their love for the life lost that they don’t want to see another life end. The act of forgiveness makes it possible for them to reinforce their belief that the life of their murdered child, par­ ent, aunt or grandmother is valuable. Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation (http://www.mvfr.org/) is an example of a minor­ ity voice trying to be heard and actively seeking to change a popular notion – state-sanctioned murder is OK, even necessary. Founded in 1976, Murder Vic­ tims’ Families for Reconciliation (MVFR) describes itself as “a national organization of family members of victims of both homicide and executions who op­ pose the death penalty in all cases. MVFR includes people of many different perspectives. Because violent crime cuts across a broad spectrum of so­ ciety, our members are geographically, racially and economically diverse.” Another groups that’s advocating for change is the Death Penalty Information Center (www.deathpen- Editor Gregory Flannery presents Margo Pierce the Streetvibes Contributor of the Year Award. Bradley Foster. altyinfo.org). This group sums up its argument with two simple sentences: “Vindication for victims and closure for victims’ families are often held out as primary reasons for supporting the death penalty. However, many people in this community believe that another killing would not bring closure and that the death penalty is a disservice to victims.” In Cincinnati, the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center (www.ijpc-cincinnati.org/) is a long­ standing advocacy group working to abolish the death penalty. The group lobbies elected officials, supports the families of people on Death Row through the Families That Matter program, coordi­ nates a chapter of Ohioans to Stop Executions and leads Murder Victims’ Family Members, a program to help people “search for healing and a restored life.” For 25 years the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center has served the role of bringing together like-minded people to combine efforts to change the conversation about the death penalty, to take a rational look at the effects of violence perpetrated by government against its own people. It could be argued that their efforts and those of others advocating abolition aren’t very effective. Ac­ cording to the 2009 Gallup Crime Survey, conducted annually, 65 percent of Americans “support the use of the death penalty for persons convicted of mur­ der,” and only 31 percent oppose the death penalty. These numbers have been fairly constant over time. Challenging such an ingrained notion appears to be an uphill effort for such a small number of people, so why bother? Advocacy is a means by which people can bring to light ideas and opportunities for change that might never be considered in the rush to conform. It is through considering challenges to what is popular or assumed to be true that we can examine the valid­ ity of our position, behavior, thinking, etc. Being imperfect beings, we make mistakes but we have the ability to change our thinking, actions and laws. Complacency is easy. It requires no effort. How­ ever, the act of thoughtfully considering an issue, researching it from as many angles as possible (there are always more than two sides to any argument, despite the polarization presented by most news programs), making a decision to act in support of that position and staying open to new information to test your position is the difficult role of advocacy. The next time you dig in your heels and dismiss a view the conflicts with your own, pause long enough to consider how you would respond if your position were the minority and dismissed out of hand. You might not be tempted to pick up a picket sign or even write a check, but if you’re willing to consider alternatives, then the advocate you listened to ac­ complished something important – opening a mind. Many people work hard to make a difference for the less privileged in the Queen City; “Eight Minutes” is an opportunity to learn who those people are and what motivates them to be a positive influence. �4 International News ­ STREETVIBES November 1-14, 2010 Nobel Prize for Chinese Freedom Fighter Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08 demand human rights By Andrew Anderson Contributing Writer N ews headlines were brief­ ly alight a couple weeks ago about the recipients of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08. To many Americans, it was noth­ ing more than a curious item to be quickly forgotten. What interest does a Chinese dissident hold in our lives? His name is spelled funny – who would even try to pronounce it? Who has heard of Charter 08, and who cares? President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. We know that name and we celebrated and debated that announcement for weeks. If our consciousness ever recorded the name of this year’s Noble Peace Prize winner, the memory is quickly fading. This is unfortunate, for Liu Xiaobo and what he repre­ sents has arguably more signifi­ cance to human rights and peace than President Obama. “Liu Xiaobo” is three syllables: “LEE-OWE” (pronounced as one syllable) “SHE-OW” (pronounced as one syllable) “BO” (like “boy” with the “y” lopped off ). Chinese names always have the family name or surname first, followed by the given name. Liu is an intellectual, writer, literary critic and human-rights activist. He advocates demo­ cratic reforms and the end of one-party rule in China. Until recently he was better known outside China than inside. The Chinese govern­ ment considers his writing subversive, and his name is censored. Born in 1955, he has a Ph.D. from Beijing Normal Uni­ versity, where he has also taught, and was a visiting scholar between 1988 and 1989 at Columbia University, the University of Oslo and the University of Hawaii, among others. “ ing students to leave, saving hun­ dreds of lives. (“Junzi” was a term coined by the Chinese philosopher Confucius to describe his ideal hu­ man.) Liu was imprisoned for over 18 months in maximum-security Qincheng Prison and released after signing a “letter of repentance” for his involvement in the Tiananmen Square protests. Since 1989 Liu has been ar­ rested four times and when not in prison has been under constant government “monitoring.” This has included building a sentry station next to his home and tapping his phone calls and Internet communi­ cations. Liu’s wife, Xia, once complained to guards in the sentry station, who had blocked her best friend bring­ ing two bottles of wine and a deliv­ ery person bringing a birthday cake for her husband. The guards said, “It is for the sake of your security. It has happened many bomb attacks in these days.” Liu Xiaobo has been arrested for his ideas and words. He has never been violent. He has not threat­ ened to harm anyone or destroy any property. He has criticized the Chinese political system and advocated democracy. He was most recently arrested for helping write “Charter 08.” He was sentenced to 11 years in prison and deprived of political rights for two years. He is serving that sentence in Jinzhou Prison in Liaoning Province. Charter 08 is a manifesto pro­ moting political reform and democ­ ratization in the People’s Republic of China. It was written by “China Human Rights Defenders,” including Liu Xiaobo. Charter 08 es­ pouses six fundamental principles: freedom, human rights, equality, republican­ ism, democracy and constitutional rule. Charter 08 advo­ cates fulfilling these principles by creat­ ing a new constitu­ tion that provides separation of power, legislative democ­ racy, an independent judiciary, public con­ trol of public servants, the guarantee of human rights, election of public officials, rural-urban equal­ ity, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, civ­ ic education, protection of private property, financial and tax reform, social security, protection of the environment, a federated republic and truth in reconciliation. The ideas in Charter 08 are not new. Charter 08 takes its name from Charter 77, a key document writ­ ten by intellectuals and activists in the former Czechoslovakia and part Liu was sentenced on Christmas Day in hopes that Western democracies would be too preoccupied to care.” A new constitution Liu was visiting universities in the United States in 1989 when the Tiananmen Square protests erupted. He returned to China to join the movement and was later named one of the “Four junzis of Tiananmen Square” for persuad­ of the democracy movement led by Vaclav Havel in the late 1970s. Charter 08 draws on Charter 77 as well as the U.S. Constitution, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, the Universal Declaration Human Rights of the United Nations, South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. ‘Root out the organizers’ The China Human Rights De­ fenders started discussing and drafting Charter 08 in late spring 2008. Chinese authorities did not pay much attention at that time. Things quickly changed, however, days before the charter was pub­ lished. On Dec. 6, 2008, police in eastern China detained Wen Kejian, a writer who signed the charter, questioned him for about an hour. Police told Wen that Charter 08 was “differ­ ent” from other dissident writings. They considered it “a fairly grave matter” and promised an aggres­ sive investigation to “root out the organizers.” They pressed Wen to remove his name from the charter. He declined, citing his belief that the charter was a turning point in history. On Dec. 8, in the far south of China, police called Zhao Dagong, a writer who had signed the char­ ter, for a “chat.” They asked if he were the organizer for signatures gathered in southern China. At ap­ proximately 11 p.m. about 20 police officers entered the home of Zhang Zuhua, another of the charter’s main drafters. Zhang was taken to the police station and questioned for over 12 hours. Zhang’s wife watched the po­ lice search their home, confiscate books, notebooks, Zhang’s pass­ port, all four of the family’s com­ puters and all their cash and credit cards. Later Zhang learned that his family’s bank accounts, including those of both his and his wife’s par­ ents, had been emptied. Late that day, Liu Xiaobo was taken to jail. The next morning one of the charter’s signers, Pu Zhiqiang, a Beijing lawyer, was called in for a police “chat.” In the evening, physi­ cist and philosopher Jiang Qisheng was called into the police station. Both had signed the charter and were friends of its authors. Charter 08 was published Dec. 10, 2008, the 60th anniversary of the United Nation’s Universal Dec­ laration of Human Rights. Police returned to Wen Kejian’s home of and threatened him with imprisonment if he wrote about Charter 08 or Liu Xiaobo’s arrest. They asked, “Do you want three years in prison – or four?” Liu, detained in December 2008, was not formally arrested until June Liu Xiaobo is serving 11 years in prison for “subversion.” Courtesy of Amnesty International. 23, 2009. Police released a state­ ment: “Liu has been engaged in agitation activities, such as spread­ ing of rumors and defaming of the government, aimed at subversion of the state and overthrowing the socialism system, in recent years.” On Dec. 23, 2009, Liu was tried for two hours in a closed court­ room. His wife, Xia, was not allowed to be present, though his brotherin-law was. Diplomats from more than a dozen nations, including the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand, were denied access and stood outside the courtroom wait­ ing for the verdict. Liu was sentenced on Christmas Day in hopes that Western democ­ racies would be too preoccupied to care. The Chinese government convicted him of “subversion”; but as Liu said, “Opposition is not equivalent to subversion.” ‘This must change’ Dissidents asking for reform in China are nothing new. China’s one-party political system of “democratic dictatorship” is one of the more repressive modern states. So why did Charter 08 have such a strong response from Chinese authorities? While it is impossible to know for sure, there are a few things that make Charter 08 different: • The language of the charter is simple and eloquent in its expres­ sion of noble ideas. • It has broad appeal, coalesc­ ing what many Chinese have been thinking. It appeals equally to peas­ ants and former party members and has been signed by Chinese citizens from all walks of life. • Intellectuals within the society, not politicians or young radicals, are putting it forth. • Internet use and infrastructure have grown enough within China that copies of Charter 08 are avail­ able and discussion about it is pos­ sible, though difficult due to cen­ sorship. The primary site hosting the charter and associated discus­ sions was “attacked” via computer and shut down Oct. 14 and is still See Nobel, P. 6 �5 Columns STREETVIBES November 1-14, 2010 Meeting the Bible Verse Man ­ Thinking about being homeless By Larry Gross Guest Columnist I ’m in downtown Cincinnati on most mornings now, going to a freelance job in Northern Kentucky; and on most mornings, I see him while I’m waiting at the bus stop. You can tell he’s probably homeless; that’s the way he appears to me. His black hair is uncombed, his white face badly in need of a shave and his clothes are basically rags. His shoes used to be shoes. Now I’d consider them heavy, dirty socks. He doesn’t smell good and his eyes look a little crazy – not mean, just a little off. There is something else different about him, something that makes you take notice when you see him. Pinned to his rag of a shirt, with safety pins, are small index cards with handwritten Bible verses on them. The verses are in black – I think with a marker – and he’s wearing six to 10 of them on most mornings. No, I don’t read the Bible verses he has pinned to himself. I don’t want him to think I’m paying attention to him. He approaches people for money, but so far not me. Every time I see him – and I’m not sure why – my mind turns to myself. I wonder what my approach would be to being homeless and living on the street. This man wears Bible verses pinned to himself. Others sit on corners with cardboard signs asking for help. Some simply have a paper cup, assuming you know they need money. Some take it to the streets, preaching the word of God to anybody who will listen. A few sing to get a few coins. More than a few ask for a cigarette, perhaps to test the water before asking for money. Some offer Streetvibes for a donation of a dollar. I don’t know what my approach would be, but I think about being homeless more than I care to admit. Sometimes I look in my wallet on a Monday morning and see 20 bucks, realizing it’s going to have to last me until Friday when that freelance check should come in the mail. So often it doesn’t. Often I think to myself that family and friends would never let me live on the street but I take little comfort in that. Living off handouts doesn’t appeal to me, especially from people I love. Maybe it’s easier to ask strangers. Maybe someday I’ll be forced to find out. While I don’t know how I could handle being homeless, all I know for sure is that I’d be scared, actually scared to death. I don’t know if I could survive and don’t know if I would want to. I don’t know what would keep me strong and want to carry on. Maybe the man with the Bible verses pinned to his shirt has found a way to find strength through them. Maybe for him it’s important to write those verses. Maybe it’s encouraging to wear them and think about their meaning. I mean, when you’re homeless, few people are on your side. Perhaps to him, if no one else is in your corner, God is. I’m thinking when he wears those Bible verses pinned to his shirt, it’s probably comforting to look up at the heavens instead of looking down at a cold, lonely sidewalk. Those Darned Facts Trump Section 8 Myths ­ The ‘projects’ aren’t what you think By Michelle Dillingham Contributing Writer A t my neighborhood’s com­ munity council meeting last week I had the oppor­ tunity to provide some affordablehousing advocacy. Our neighborhood police officer was updating the group about a multi-family property in our neigh­ borhood that had been recently vacated and is now undergoing ren­ ovation. The officer reported there had been residents who had lived there for over 20 years, but recently a new group of younger renters had moved in and created problems. The building also suffered a bedbug infestation. The officer said there was a lot of “Section 8” there and now the landlord hopes to rent to “working families” instead. When he finished, I addressed the group and said, “I noticed the officer made a distinction between ‘Section 8’ and ‘working families,’ yet many people who use Section 8 vouchers ARE working families. Sometimes there are problems, but they can be attributed to a number of factors. It is important to not just blame it on people who use Sec­ tion 8. I just wanted to let everyone know that.” I got a nice nod from a couple of the residents and one of the fire­ men from the local firehouse. I felt pretty good about myself for a moment, then regretted that I did not have more solid numbers at the tip of my tongue to make my point more persuasive. Fortunately, Elizabeth Brown, president of Affordable Housing Advocates (AHA), recently shared a link on the AHA Listserv to the U.S. Department of Housing (HUD) website, which includes detailed information on Housing Choice Voucher programs. If you go to this link, you can view information on all of Ohio’s public housing authori­ ties all the way down to the project level. The information includes race, ethnicity, income and source of income, household size and length of stay. The Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) is the largest landlord of affordable hous­ ing in Cincinnati. In fact, CMHA has such an important role in our local affordable-housing landscape that AHA has included it as one of the five areas of focus in its Policy Agenda for 2010. It is worthwhile to note AHA’s specific advocacy goals in relation to CMHA, many of which are being actively worked on by AHA’s members: • CMHA will increase public and other affordable rental hous­ ing throughout Hamilton County, including increasing the number of accessible units to better meet the need. • CMHA will fully utilize its cur­ rent funds for the Housing Choice Voucher program, obtain additional funds from HUD, and assist pro­ gram participants obtain housing in neighborhoods of their choice. • CMHA will improve the effec­ tiveness, efficiency and safety of the Housing Choice Voucher program to make it work better for tenants and landlords. • CMHA will begin to redevelop the English Woods site with mixedincome rental and homeowner housing. • CMHA will select an executive director committed to and capable of accomplishing CMHA’s mission. • Local Government appoint­ ing authorities will appoint CMHA board members who are dedicated to CMHA’s mission. There are many assumptions made about people who live in sub­ sidized housing, and a data source such as the one HUD provides can help to bring some reality to the discussion of the Section 8 program and the site-based voucher users (i.e., “projects”). For example, you can find out that in the Millvale housing project, 38 percent of the residents have been there less than one year, 32 percent of the residents work and 16 percent have Social Security or a pension. Here are the usual negative comments I have heard about the CMHA program or about people who live in CMHA units, followed by data available on the HUD web­ site: • “There is too much Section 8” or “There are too many ‘projects’ in Cincinnati.” Reality? CMHA man­ ages a total of 4,628 units. • “People who have Section 8 or live in projects don’t work.” Real­ ity? 28 percent work and 44 percent receive Social Security or a pension – meaning they worked at one time, enough to earn credits to be able to receive Social Security or a pension. • “The people who live in CMHA housing are just lazy young people with too many kids.” Reality? Fourteen percent are elderly, and 21 percent are disabled. A full 47 percent of CMHA units have a single occupant, meaning they have no children. Another 22 percent of all units have only two household members. This means 69 percent of CMHA households have two or fewer members in their household. • “Once someone moves into CMHA, they never move out.” Real­ ity? 43 percent of households have lived in a CMHA unit for less than two years, while 22 percent have lived in a CMHA unit for two to five years. The main staple of effective advocacy is accurate data to help combat stereotypes and misinfor­ mation. I encourage housing advo­ cates to utilize this information as you sit in your community council meetings, work lunches and even at the kitchen table. Knowledge is power. For more information, visit https://pic.hud.gov/pic/RCRPub­ lic/rcrmain.asp. To join AHA or its listserv, write mdmswlsw@hotmail. com. �6 Issues STREETVIBES November 1-14, 2010 Eat Your Food Where it’s Grown ­ The value of buying local By Sarah Robinson Contributing Writer T here has been some considerable buzz the past few years about “local food movements” and “buy local” campaigns. The First Lady has an organic garden, Michael Pollan has appeared on Oprah and you might have seen some “Ohio Proud” stickers at the grocery store. Why is this important? Buying local means reduced petroleum consumption. The Dalai food you buy at the grocery store, on average, travels 1,000 miles from where it is produced and processed to where it shows up on the shelf. All that transportation, not to mention refrigeration, has contributed to the food system’s accounting for onefifth of total energy use in America. Buying local is good for your neighborhood’s economy. Money spent on local products at locally owned businesses is re-circulated into the community. Local farmers tend to hire local workers and to buy most of their supplies and equipment at other local businesses, so what is spent in Road-trip produce is picked for its ease of transport and its appearance, not its genetic diversity, nutrition or taste. Because of the prevalence of this kind of produce in our markets, the seeds of thousands of different kinds of individual vegetables and fruits have been lost. Farmers can only grow a select few species, hybridized, genetically modified and selectively bred to withstand the transport. Buying local is not just for produce. It can impact everything you eat, even your cereal and potato chips. They not only have been shipped a thousand miles after being processed, but all the individual ingredients that make up that box of cereal or that bag of chips have to get to the factory first. That can add another couple hundred or thousand miles, considering how many ingredients make up the final product. These factors are not going unnoticed by people all over this country. When food is bought locally, it has a positive impact on the whole community. The environment, the food itself, the economy and most of all people themselves all benefit. Continued from page 1 “I did ask the State Dept. if I could forward contact info. to you and they declined. This is the short e-mail I first got: ‘The criminal history checks revealed the two following people will NOT be allowed to access any venue: “(One other name) “Greg Flannery (Media/Press List).’ ” This was partly useful. I now knew that I wasn’t alone: Someone else had also been denied entry. I phoned Wagner again. She told me only that the second person is “not a media person.” “I hope you understand I’m just the conduit on this,” she said. Streetvibes has filed a public-records request for the uncensored e-mail, containing both the name of the sec­ ond person who was banned and the name of the State Department official who sent it. With less than a week before the Da­ lai Lama’s appearance, I called Wagner to ask if Streetvibes could send a differ­ ent writer. The answer was no. “The State Dept. deadline will not allow any changes/additions of me­ dia,” she wrote. Getting nowhere with Miami Uni­ versity, I called the U.S. State Depart­ ment. I reached James J. Finkle, public affairs officer for the Bureau of Diplo­ matic Security, on Mon., Oct. 18. He promised to look into it. Nobel your town stays in your town. Buying local means that your produce is more likely to be picked when it is fresh – especially if you go to your local farmers market – which means it is more nutritious and better for you. Produce is often fragile when ripe and is susceptible to bruising and rotting, which makes 1,000­ mile road trips very difficult. Fruits and vegetables are picked before they are ripe and then sprayed with ethylene, a chemical that forces ripening, so, for example, that roadweary tomato is nice and red when you go to buy it. Buying local means farmers can grow more diverse crops. This yielded some improvement. Wagner left a phone message later that day. “I just got off the phone with the State Department,” she said. “They’re willing to take another reporter for Streetvibes.” ‘Are you going to demonstrate?’ Still unresolved, of course, was the reason behind all this: Why did the Diplomatic Security Bureau of the U.S. State Department want me kept away from the Dalai Lama? In 2009 I wrote an article in which some Buddhists criticized him for violating other Bud­ dhists’ freedom of religion (see “Rejoic­ ing Against Oppression,” issue of Sept. 15-30, 2009). Could that be it? My only criminal conviction is for trespassing, the result of a non-violent anti-war demonstration in 2006. Could that be it? A call Tuesday, Oct. 19, from Special Agent Ken Jones seemed to leave both possibilities open. “Have you ever had any police trouble?” Jones asked. I told him about my trespassing conviction. “Are you going to demonstrate against the Dalai Lama?” he asked. “No,” I said. “I just want to report on his speech.” “Demonstrations are fine, but a press pass isn’t the best way to go about that,” he said. “I just want to report on the Dalai Lama’s speech,” I said. “As far as demonstrations go, we’re ordinarily not in the business of discouraging them, but a press pass would put someone much closer to the Dalai Lama, and you can under­ stand why a security person would be concerned,” Jones said. “I just want to report on the Dalai Lama’s speech,” I said. Jones then asked if Streetvibes could send another reporter. I told him we could. “Someone will get back to you soon,” he said. I asked the reason I had been banned. “I don’t know the specifics of that, and very frankly, if I did, I would prob­ ably not be allowed to tell you that,” Jones said. I don’t know what changed the State Department’s mind, but that night I received a phone message and e-mail from Wagner. She forwarded the fol­ lowing e-mail from the State Depart­ ment: “Claire, Headquarters has ap­ proved Mr. Flannery for a media press pass for Wednesday’s events. Please contact him to let him know.” Thus I reported, as instructed, at 8 Continued from page 3 down as of this writing. Liu and Charter 08 have become symbols of the struggle for a more humane and democratic China. The authorities quickly recognized this and acted to squelch the movement. In doing so, they ironically made sure the cry was heard. The Nobel Committee made the world at large aware of Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08 this year. The committee stated, “(We have) decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010 to Liu Xiaobo for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and peace. Such rights are a prerequisite for the ‘fraternity between nations’ of which Alfred Nobel wrote in his will.” We should not quickly forget Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08. They represent a move toward a freer and more humane life for the nation with the largest population on earth. They need our help to succeed. Liu Xiaobo and the authors of Charter 08 summarize the situation this way: “Unfortunately, we stand today as the only country among the major nations that remains mired in authoritarian politics. Our political system continues to produce human-rights disasters and social crises, thereby not only constricting China’s own development but also limiting the progress of all of human civilization. This must change, truly it must. The democratization of Chinese politics can be put off no longer.” To view the full text of Charter 08, sign a copy of the charter and learn more about Liu Xiaobo and the human rights movement in China, visit www.charter08. com. a.m. Thursday, Oct. 21, to attend the private session with the 14th Dalai Lama, at Hall Auditorium at Miami University. I was told to arrive 90 minutes early for the 9:30 a.m. session in order to pass security. Police officers were everywhere in sight. So was a metal detector. When it came time to enter, there was no press badge for me. One of Wagner’s staff handed me a badge and said, “Here. You’re Eric Frisbee.” And that’s how I got in. You’ll want to know what the Dalai Lama had to say, and I wish I could tell you. After the president of the univer­ sity presented an honorary doctorate of laws, the chief of the Miami Tribe in Oklahoma spoke, followed by a chorus singing the tribe’s welcome song, fol­ lowed by a presentation by three pro­ fessors touting the university’s efforts to preserve Tibetan culture, including a digital sand mandala, a Web page teaching the Tibetan language and a Web page containing important Ti­ betan texts. At that point I had to leave in order to hurry to a noon meeting in Cincinnati. But I heard the Dalai Lama say this much: “Have a compassionate attitude – openness.” I’m trying. Openness remains the is­ sue. I’m still waiting for Miami Univer­ sity to comply with our public-records request. �7 Sports STREETVIBES November 1-14, 2010 The Death Watch is All the Bengals Have Mike Brown has to go at some point By B. Clifton Burke Contributing Writer M y optimism has faded, my apologies run dry, my hopes dashed. What was once a blooming plant of excitement and pride is now wilted, browned and angrily tossed near the compost heap. I would set it atop the rest of the rotting vegetation, but following after it simply isn’t worth the effort. In his recent press conference, Marvin Lewis has once more invoked the spirit of the metaphorical shovel – the layman’s tool that represents a hardworking and unglamorous lifestyle for his players – but the only thing I can imagine worth using a shovel for these days is to fling out the bullshit stacked in and around Paul Brown Stadium. After carelessly handing away the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Oct. 10, there is no more defense for the various tiers of helpless leadership within the Bengals organization. At the very top sits the head villain himself, Mike Brown. Here is a man who has made it clear he is unwavering in the way he runs his business even as it persists to perform in unremarkable fashion. He has also proven he cares little about Cincinnati and eagerly awaits the day that he can once more threaten the townspeople into paying him even more of their tax money. He hides behind a shroud of redemption, pointing to the careers he’s resuscitated as feel-good tales of second chances and marginal wins. In reality, the people he has helped come at bargain prices, and that is the real motivation behind all the signings of troubled young men. When it works – and admittedly it has in many cases – he is touted as some kind of humanitarian, but what is conveniently overlooked is that 31 other teams need not stoop to problem children in order to win. There will come a day when I can no longer root for a Mike Brown team with a good conscience, knowing how unjustly he has served the city in which I reside. I expect that day to present itself once the current stadium lease ends or Brown sues Hamilton County for not paying him the promised money it simply doesn’t have. He will not back down because he simply doesn’t care. He is out for himself. Subhead: Short satisfaction Next in the pecking order is the team’s president and general manager. Oh, wait, there isn’t one. This unorthodox approach saves Brown money and allows his ego to think he has lived up to the standard of his father, who was able to successfully work as both team owner and general manager simultaneously. If there’s one “ thing Brown seems unable to grasp, it is that he does not have his father’s football instinct; and this delusion has kept the team from being serious contenders. One can only hope that that number is soon coming to an end. Somewhere in the flowchart is his daughter and her husband, Katie and Troy Blackburn, who hammer out details over contracts with player agents and end up either missing out on high-profile free agents (Warren Sapp) or prolonging rookie holdouts (seemingly everyone except Carson Palmer). The value of both of their positions remains something of a mystery, and the likelihood of this tandem turning around the team for the better once Brown finally dies seems overly optimistic. The fact that they are younger is the only hope for a brighter Bengals future, but considering the family lineage, sometimes you just have to call a scrooge a scrooge. Next up is a person with some football sense, Coach Marvin Lewis. During the Mike Brown era, there have been two distinct time periods: before Marvin and after Marvin. There’s no point on rehashing the dark ages of Dave Shula, Bruce Coslet and Dick LeBeau. But since Marvin has been in Cincinnati, the Bengals have gone from inept to competitive. That alone is a feat when examining the misery that came before him. That feat has a fairly quick expiration of satisfaction. Once fans see a team become competitive, they want more right away, and that is what Lewis has struggled to attain. Marvin has a good eye for talent and runs a pretty sound operation. He knows what an NFL team should look like, and most of his men seem to buy into it as well. However, the man is an inadequate game manager on the sidelines and doesn’t seem to have the ability to instruct players well enough individually to produce much of an improvement in their development. Once a player joins the Bengals, he typically remains that kind of player until he leaves the team. They rarely get worse, but they also don’t get better. Putting Marvin upstairs next to Brown and making him a general manager makes sense, but I don’t think that will happen. Lewis wants more personnel decision-making power and an indoor practice facility; that would mean Brown would have to concede some of his ego and more of his money. I think this might be the last of Marvin Lewis in this town once the 2010 season wraps up, and that’s a shame. Subhead: Continuing sting Who’s next then? Most Bengal fans point to Mike Zimmer. Not only is Zim At the very top sits the head villain himself, Mike Brown. Here is a man who has made it clear he is unwavering in the way he runs his business even as it persists to perform in unremarkable fashion.” * Monday, Nov. 8, 2010, 8:30 p.m. vs Pittsburgh Steelers * Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010, 1 p.m. at Indianapolis Colts * Sun, Nov. 21 at 1 p.m. vs Buffalo Bills * Thursday, Nov. 25, 2010, 8:20 p.m. at New York Jets at Jets * Sunday, Dec. 5, 2010, 1 p.m. vs New Orleans Saints * Sunday, Dec. 12, 2010, 1 p.m. at Pittsburgh Steelers at Steelers * Sunday, Dec. 19, 2010, 1 p.m. vs Cleveland Browns * Sunday, Dec. 26, 2010, 8:20 p.m. vs San Diego Chargers * Sunday, Jan. 02, 2011, 1 p.m. at Baltimore Ravens a fan favorite, thanks to his turning around a bad defense in a short time and persevering through the unexpected death of his wife last year; he also has the undying loyalty of his men. That isn’t as pervasive a sentiment in the NFL as maybe it should be these days. With mediocre players performing for him at overachieving levels, it makes sense that fans would want that to translate into the whole team. The problem, though, is that it would mean removing Zimmer from what he’s best at – coaching defense. Let’s not forget the examples of LeBeau and even Marvin, making a great coordinator into a poor or average head coach. With today’s game, the head coach can be more of an overseeing cheerleader who manages the game and the clock well and need not worry about the X’s and O’s as much – that’s what coordinators are for. Of course, it isn’t that simple, but not every great position coach makes a good head coach, so caution is in order. The longest-standing figurehead with the Bengals is the offensive coordinator, Bob Bratkowski, who, after the evil emperor himself, has earned the title of least-liked sports figure in Cincinnati. Between squandering loads of offensive talent and constant bewildered play-calling, Brat should be thankful he coaches here, because in every other part of the world he would have been fired. In the loss to the Buccaneers, and even some of the wins this year, he has demonstrated further ineptitude in leading this offense to the heights it’s capable of. Bashing this man has become too easy, but somehow he keeps it from happening nearly each and every week. His star pupil and gem of a talent for the past eight seasons has been the golden boy, Quarterback Carson Palmer. Despite convincing the world otherwise thanks to one great season, Palmer should be labeled as nothing more than average. The comparisons to Drew Bledsoe continue to hold up. Carson has been insulated with numerous excuses as to why he hasn’t performed the way he did in 2005. It seems that the majority of the world would rather find any other reason than to admit that maybe he just isn’t that good. Yes, he has suffered some injuries, but other great quarterbacks have as well, only to return as greats. Yes, he at times has lacked explosive weapons, but the same response goes for the great ones again. There aren’t better quarterbacks on the street right now that should supplant No. 9 this week or even this season; but if this franchise continues to pretend he is as good as it gets, they will fall further and further behind. Perhaps he has become complacent with no quarterback to compete for his job, perhaps he feels his average play still justifies his immense contract; but the fact is he has slid each and every year away from that once heralded “elite” plateau. Thinking there is still room for improvement in his skills is naïve. I want the Bengals to succeed. I want to know what it feels like to have my team win the Super Bowl. I want to feel satisfied for six whole months; but with these men currently in their places, I am dubious that will ever happen. This franchise has reached its critical mass, and unless a major change in the power structure takes place, I think we will continue to feel the sting. I can feel it all slipping away. Mojokong – somebody’s got to say it, and since I don’t get paid for this, allow me to be the one. �I 22~..fNUAL PIN~~~~~@~~ @LTD{}~®[?)~ . - For questions orto becottte a sponsor Greater Cincinnati _______ co_ ma _ct _~_ vn_n_ e A_us_ttt_ an_(_ Sl_ ~J~6_ 5_ -6_ 95_ 8 _ __,,,C.._o__ __.alition _. Eor �STREETVIBES November 1-14, 2010 March 9 Local News ­ Continued from page 1 stealing, low-income afford­ able housing and people power,” said Josh Spring, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. “We want more than just awareness. We demand change. This march gives the opportunity to demand change and oth­ ers the opportunity to learn why we need change.” Burton, who was home­ less, died after a police cruis­ er ran over her as she lay in the grass in Washington Park. No charges were filed against the officer who killed her. Each night in Cincinnati 1,200 to 1,500 people are homeless or staying in emer­ gency shelters, according to Spring, who estimates that at least 25,000 sleep in home­ less shelters in Cincinnati every year. The 150 marchers in­ cluded low-income fami­ lies, high-income families, suburban residents, Over­ the-Rhine residents, college students, disabled young adults, able-bodied elders and people from several eth­ nic backgrounds. Handmade signs, T-shirts and sheets carried messages such as, “Stop the war on the poor,” “End the 3CDC occupation,” “Living wage jobs,” “Gentri­ fication is a crime,” “Homes not hotels” and “I’m home­ less. If I sleep on the grass, will you kill me, too?” Rebecca Davis, who works at the temporary service CFA, brought her daughter and granddaughter to the march. “I’m not homeless, but I’m like one paycheck away from being homeless,” she said. “I’m marching today because I believe that homeless people don’t have a chance. I don’t want my daughter or granddaughter to grow up and be homeless. It’s that I actually see the homeless people sleep­ ing outside. I wake up at 3:30 in the morning, the bus picks me up and people are just sleeping outside at the Shell station.” “ Josh Spring, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, addresses a rally before the Homeless Awareness March. Vinit Murthy. ture Gateway Quarter office. Gateway Quarter is the new name for the “revitalized” parts of Over-the-Rhine, the Fountain Square District and the central business district that feature new or reno­ vated storefronts, condos or lofts. Spectators and passersby reacted to the march with cheers, claps and whistles. Shop owners went onto the sidewalks to shout words of encouragement. The third stop, the future 3CDC headquarters at 1400 Race St., brought attention to the company that many believe is behind the gentri­ fication of Over-the-Rhine. The fourth stop on the march, Washington Park, might just be the most af­ fordable “housing” in the city. With shady trees and benches aplenty, the park is a commonplace for homeless people to socialize and sleep. 3CDC is renovating the park at a cost of $47 million. The overhaul disregards the wishes of the neigh­ borhood and will make the park inhospitable to home­ less people, according to the Homeless Coalition. Clark, a homeless man who declined to give his last name, sat on the steps of the gazebo, which was being used as a makeshift clothes line, and watched the marchers move through the park. He declined to go into detail about the cause of his homelessness. “I’ve been homeless for about 16 years now,” he said. “The only history I got is a criminal history. Why I’m marching today because I believe that homeless people don’t have a chance.” ‘Whatever you can do’ Buddy’s Place, the start­ ing line, provides permanent supportive housing for 20 people who are coming out of homelessness. The sec­ ond stop was 1428 Republic St., an apartment building offering affordable hous­ ing, where tenants recently received notice to move out for the building’s renovation. Ironically, this building is across the street from the fu­ are these people acting like homelessness has just become an issue? The same thing they’re fighting for now we fought for 16 years ago, but now that they’re moving people out of the park and Over-the-Rhine, it’s like it’s only just become important now. … “To get by, some people cell cigs for a quarter. There are only two ways of get­ ting paid in this world: the legal way and the illegal way, but Washington Park is still harmony; it’s the only place in the city you can come that won’t make you feel bad for having nothing. You steal, rob, whatever you can do to survive or make a livin’. ” Other stops included the Drop Inn Center; the former site of the Milner Hotel, 151 W. Seventh St., an affordable housing complex that once provided overflow for public shelters, now the location of upscale condos; and the Dennison Hotel, which has 150 units of single-room occupancy. Model Manage­ ment, which recently pur­ chased the building, plans to remove all the tenants and convert the building into 60 units of permanent sup­ portive housing. That kind of housing is beneficial, but 90 units of affordable housing will be lost, Spring said. Why couldn’t Model Management develop these 60 units in one of the many buildings already vacant downtown? The march then proceed­ ed to the Metropole Apart­ ments, notable for two rea­ sons. 3CDC has purchased the Metropole and is forcing out residents of the feder­ ally subsidized apartments in order to build a boutique hotel (see “3CDC Accused of Racial Conspiracy,” issue of Sept. 1-14). In addition, just steps from the Metropole entrance, Robert Meehan was beaten so badly that doctors had to place him in a medically induced coma – one of a series of hate crimes against homeless people in Cincinnati in the past year. ‘All I got’ As the march moved toward Fountain Square, reactions from onlookers changed from cheers to stares. Outdoor diners were curious about the approach­ ing mass, and stood up to read the signs. At Cadillac Ranch, a man read the signs aloud to a young boy, who asked what was going on. Organizers of the march hoped their actions might provoke a reaction from 3CDC, Gateway Quarter and other downtown interests, but they seemed to ignore the event, unresponsive to the demonstration and phone calls. At Fountain Square, Spring asked for volunteers to dis­ tribute copies of Streetvibes, risking arrest in an act of non-violent civil disobedi­ ence. A city ordinance and rules established by 3CDC, which has the manage­ ment contract for Fountain Square, forbid regular dis­ tribution of the newspaper there. About three dozen volun­ teers distributed copies of Streetvibes. No police officers or 3CDC security personnel were on the square, even though – or because – 3CDC had been informed of the plan in advance. “We intend to continue challenging the unjust laws and rules that prevent our vendors from distribut­ ing Streetvibes on Fountain Square,” said Gregory Flan­ nery, editor of the paper and a participant in the march. The only people who seemed to mind the stunt on Fountain Square were a wed­ ding party that arrived at the same time for photos. Kenny Bussell said he hopes this is the first step in eliminating the ban. Bussell now stays at his brother’s house. He became a Streetvibes vendor about a year ago, when he was homeless. “It helps me every day, gives me a few bucks so I don’t have to ask for some­ thing to eat,” he said. Bussell, who turned 50 on Oct. 25, distributes Streetvibes for four to five hours a day. From 8-10 a.m. he is usually be spotted outside the Kenton County Court­ house in Covington, then stands by the Walgreens store on Madison Avenue for a couple hours. He rode his bike throughout the march. “I try to take care of my myself on my own, without friends or family,” Bussell said. “I raise tomatoes, and they are $2 a pound. My tomatoes ran out about three weeks ago, and people even started stealing them, so Streetvibes is really all I got right now.” 3CDC, Model Manage­ ment and the people be­ hind Gateway Quarter do have imaginative ideas to bring money to downtown, and they create beautiful structures. But should a city reflect what one company wants? What type of people will make up the “new” down­ town? Clark, the homeless man in the park, thinks he knows. “The future people of downtown are the ones with money,” he said. “You got to have money. The schools, buildings, shops – all that stuff is multi-million dol­ lar things in the works. You gotta have money in the park now.” �10 Arts STREETVIBES November 1-14, 2010 The Dance of Class Consciousness ­ ‘Sleeping Beauty’ in the hood By Lea Ottenheimer Contributing Writer I n 2004 I became hooked on a reality show, like so many oth­ ers in the United States. I felt a certain amount of guilt about buying in to the American craze for this genre, but I think that this show, So You Think You Can Dance, had a redeeming qual­ ity that the other reality shows did not: it made experiencing the art form of dance something the general public could enjoy. Now, there are many people who seek out dance performances who would not have done so before the show aired. I am one of those people. Unfortunately, tickets to most dance performances remain out of my fi­ nancial range, especially tickets to the ballet. I can honestly say that I didn’t think I liked ballet before I watched my first pas de deux on the show, but because So You Think You Can Dance sparked my interest in this classic art form, I decided to seek out local dance performances to attend. I attended my very first ballet Oct. 23. It was Sleeping Beauty, performed by the Cincinnati Ballet Company. As I had so little experience going to the ballet, I brought a friend who had been to a number of performances so I could compare my observations to the performances she has seen. It was my friend, Jen, who had first introduced me to So You Think You Can Dance, so as a fellow dance lover , she seemed the perfect choice for my evening’s companion. The performance was at Cincin­ nati’s Music Hall, a massive and ornate 19th-century building which is across an old cobbled street from Washing­ ton Park, which the city is attempting to reclaim from the Over-the-Rhine residents for the type of people with whom I would be watching the ballet – those who can afford tickets to perfor­ mances at Music Hall. Music Hall still sits in the center of what many would term a “ghetto.” Jen and I walked two blocks through Over-the-Rhine from a parking meter on Central Avenue to Music Hall. It was a warm, dry night, and many people were out sitting outside on stoops. I felt I had been transported to Dickens’s London, where the wealthy picked their way through dirty streets and dirty faces, trying to pretend not to see any of it, as they headed for a type of entertainment those around them could never afford to enjoy. Even my friend clutched my arm and stuck close to me, afraid of all the scary poor people we were walking past. Much to her relief, we made it to the upperclass sanctuary without loss of life and limb, and she hurried up the steps with me following more slowly and painfully as I had borrowed a pair of high-heeled shoes so I could try and look like I belonged to the group of people who frequent Music Hall. I’ve learned from experience how hard it is to remain an incognito ob­ server at an upper-class function when wearing sneakers or combat boots. We had very good seats, right up close to the stage in the second row, and I had every expectation of being swept away by the performance – like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, when Richard Gere takes her to the opera for the first time. Of course, since reality always ends up being different from fantasy, I wasn’t swept away, though I did enjoy the performance. It’s slightly embarrassing, but I found myself fighting to stay awake a couple times. I think the problem was that I love stories; and in a ballet, much of the performance has very little to do with the progression of the narrative. In the last act, the wedding scene, where we were promised a pas de deux from Sleeping Beauty and her prince, I was very much surprised by four of the wedding guests. First a pair of cats, a female dancer dressed as a white Persian and a male dancer dressed as a cat I can only assume was meant to be Puss in Boots, danced a very funny routine that made everyone laugh. Then Little Red Riding Hood was chased around the stage by her Big Bad Wolf. When I asked Jen what she thought about the other fairy tale char­ acter’s crashing Sleeping Beauty’s wed­ ding, she said, “Well they had to figure out something to fill up the fourth act since the wedding scene took only five minutes.” I thought that was very fine reasoning. The other thing that puzzled me was that, after a dancer or couple or group of dancers finished their solo or dance, the audience would clap and the dancer/dancers would bow to the audience. They would sometimes even go off the stage and then come back on just to take their bows. Jen told me she hadn’t seen that in other ballets and was also puzzled by it. However, the audience seemed to know when they were supposed to applaud. Some even applauded after particularly brilliant or astounding dance moves. Every now and then it made me think I was at a tennis match. The performance as a whole was re­ ally wonderful. The skill level of those dancers, especially Sleeping Beauty and her Prince, was astonishing. I was blown away by what those dancers could do; and it is much to their credit that I paid more attention to what was happening on stage than to the type of people who made up the audience, which is where my interest usually lies at this type of function. Much to my surprise, after all the pains and care I took putting together my ensemble for the evening, there were a few people in the audience not dressed up. There were even a few faces of color present, though all belonged to well-dressed people. Of those few wearing jeans, I supposed that there were some who felt secure about their wealth and status and so felt free to show up looking however they wanted, while those of us who felt less secure, or who knew just how out of place we were, made much more of an effort to appear as though we belonged. I am glad I was inspired to seek out a local dance performance and do my part to show support for the art form. However, the experience as a whole only served to remind me of the class war going on downtown. Jen and I went out to smoke a cigarette during intermission with many other audience members, and I felt utterly ridiculous standing on the steps in my borrowed feathers watching fellow members of the audience look out nervously past the 10 or so police of­ ficers providing an armed guard to the shadowy figures moving around in the park across the street or sitting on the stoops down the block. I was amazed that the Cincinnati Police Department could spare so many officers to stand in front of Music Hall for four hours to make sure no “unsavory characters” got too close. It made me wonder if they would even have allowed me to ascend the stairs if I were wearing my usual street clothes. As much as I enjoyed the perfor­ mance of the Cincinnati Ballet Com­ pany, I don’t think I’ll be attending an­ other ballet any time soon, at least in this city. There are quite a few people, I know, who can enjoy themselves even if their enjoyment is bought at the cost of the comfort and liberty of others. The British Empire was forged by just such people, as were the Roman and Greek empires before that. I, however, am not one of those types of people, and I’m OK with that. When the Crazy Old Man Talks ­ See ‘Get Low’ for the acting By Brian O’Donnell Contributing Writer W ith a cast of headlin­ ers, Get Low relies on the shine of its star power to move an otherwise slug­ gish tale. Set in the 193’s during the Great Depression, Get Low is the story of a hermit viewed by his town as a cantankerous curmudgeon. It seems everyone in this town has a story to tell about Robert Duvall’s character; the gossip from towns­ folk paints a picture of him that matches his grizzled visage. Part comedy, part mystery and part drama, a folk-tale story is driven by its cast, who convinc­ ingly guide the audience through the ethereal events that create Duvall’s character, the infamous Felix Bush. A lifelong resident of a town who knows him not as the hand­ some and eccentric youth he once was, but as the local weirdo incessantly harassed by neighbor­ hood children, Duvall leads the cast in a performance as good as any of the roles that made him a legend. Waiting to die, guilt-ridden and alone, Duvall’s Bush plans what he terms a “funeral party” that he can attend while still living. This prospect pushes him from his selfimposed imprisonment back into the lives of the townspeople, who fear him for the numerous tall tales spread about him, the same yarns he wants retold at his party. The strengths of Get Low aren’t in the story of this hermit and his funeral party, but in the power of its ensemble cast, including Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek. Solid performances by everyone involved keep the plot fresh. Duvall’s character enlists the help of Frank Quinn, a shady funeral-home director played by Murray, who is convincing rather than distracting. With liquor almost always in hand, Murray’s character is responsible for creat­ ing the funeral party. Through his lighthearted performance as an untrustworthy mortician with myriad past careers, the story of Felix Bush slowly unravels, with Spacek a central part of his tumul­ tuous past. Despite the slowness of the story, the film is strong in the tal­ ents of its actors who bring life to an otherwise short-lived premise. Perfectly cast, subtle characteris­ tics bring the story’s players out of myth into the realm of the very real. From Duvall’s labored breath­ ing throughout as a frail old man to Spacek’s gentle sentimentalism as the one person who remembers Bush as a charming enigma, Get Low is a period piece about for­ giveness and community catharsis that ultimately allows for a peace­ ful resolution. Don’t expect an intense sto­ ryline relying on Murray to soothe the tension. Well-developed characters drive an otherwise short story. The actors’ flawless execution easily holds a high spot on a list of best performances for everyone involved. �STREETVIBES November 1-14, 2010 Story 11 Into Steady Meditations ­ By Steven Paul Lansky T hey woke me early. I washed my bearded face in the tile bathroom and dressed in my light yellow button-down shirt, black gabardines, and slipped on the beige linen and silk jacket. I had my last look at this faded, light-green­ walled dormitory with its gritty tile floor. I followed the final instructions, received my meds (still on Geodon), my wallet with credit cards, business cards and IDs, my cash in the money clip, the extra cash they had given me for the trip and the train ticket. The whole place seemed familiar. A flash of memory that was eerie as all hell swept through me. Every time I had been asked during treatment if I had “been here” before, I had a sense that I was lying when I said, “No.” I think a part of me believed they would catch me in this lie, as they had records, but they never let on. It was a question that always came in a series of questions, and the answers never led to any concrete conclusion on my part, except for the sure knowledge that while I was being questioned the questioner was always, each and every time, weighing the length of my stay and the state of my recovery. The drug and alcohol counselor had been the least helpful. He had light brown hair that looked unwashed, tattoos on both forearms, looked like he might have had a facelift, and talked in an uneducated drawl. I told him I was clean and sober over 12 years, and I missed my local meetings. He told me that I was too well to attend meetings on the ward. The only treatment available was for current users, who were required to go to a six-month residential program. He could not recommend that for me. I think I made a mistake when I asked if he was a veteran. He was. I wonder if there was something in my file about my aversion to the military. So, that last morning I was sure that my release was planned but could be aborted if I showed signs of abnormality. I got my breakfast on the fly. Two staff that I had never seen before took me to a van. I had my pack and the acid burn of the stolen green cotton button-down shirt. My hairbrush had broken and been replaced with a better one. (The staff member who had procured the plastic replacement referred to it as a Cadillac, a typical slang for the best of its class.) But the shirt was a total loss. I recalled bitter moments when one staff helped search the ward, looking in fellow patients’ hampers and wardrobes for the J. Peterman, forest green, button-down shirt. We searched without accusing anyone, an awkward exercise, but no one took visible affront; I suspected a young fellow who wore a makeshift turban he’d crafted by tearing a pillowcase. He often used the bathroom next to my room even though he lived in another room that had its own bathroom. He was bearded, thin and often practiced some awkward martial arts in the outdoor smoking area, flailing his arms and legs like a gigantic, dizzy, daddy longlegs. This thin man also was Arabic and was a regular target of derision from Do th the other patients ep D ownin sycholog and the male staff. g. ical r ecord He had been s rev eal m in one fistfight. We y ave rsion never recovered the stolen in to th e mil shirt. As the van sped through hand and itary? REUT the morning streets, I opened noted in the margins ERS/ Larry the envelopes with aftercare where the story most piqued instructions and my discharge my imagination. One of the wonderfully plan. I scarfed a bagel and psychiatrist’s techniques for modern and full of drank a juice after peeling opening up the dialogue with people who looked so different passing through the back the foil seal. I watched the alleged murderess in the from the people with whom I university campus. I struck out the windows trying to novel was to give her a piece had lived for three weeks. up a conversation with the figure out where I had been. of fruit or a vegetable to hold Now, reflecting back on man. Awkwardly at first, but We arrived at the train while he questioned her. In those weeks I feel an odd with growing patience, we station. All I ever saw of one instance he shared an sense of privilege. As an took to one another. I think it Trenton, New Jersey, was the apple, in another a yam. I educated, middle-class, white started when he offered me a train station and the interior wondered as I read about the schizophrenic, the time spent newspaper. of the Drake facility where I relative sizes of the produce with the mixture of young “See those steps?” he asked. had been held. I figured out and then began to think about and old, black, Asian, African, “Yes,” I said as the train which ticket and which train the size of the character’s Puerto Rican and white, pulled through a kind of I needed without help from hands. downtrodden and unique outdoor theater with grass and the staff. They would have My brother lives in Vermont seemed so worth the time. I concrete steps. screwed it up, from the advice and he is knowledgeable about know few people are able to “There was a photo,” he they gave. The two of them produce, gardening and pest cross worlds of such diversity stopped talking, turned to a didn’t spend much time on control. He is a statistician as I do, and it is something corrugated cardboard trashcan me, preferring to talk to one who researches methods both soothing and frightening. and rummaged through another. Both were black, to develop more successful There is a sense of humility, it, pulling out yesterday’s the woman was heavy-set techniques for growing food. somewhat forced, but totally Washington Post. He flipped and spoke in a British accent. I wondered about his young real, that I resonate to. through the paper and handed They seemed impressed that daughter and her sexual I changed trains in me the section folded back. I could read the schedule and fantasies as I read about this Washington. In the station, “A girl from Texas my knew that I couldn’t get on the teenage woman who was I found a pharmacy, got granddaughter’s age with first Washington, D.C., train, accused of such a horrible some suppositories for my cancer.” because it was an express crime. My niece was years hemorrhoids and a fiber His voice was low, obviously commuter train. Then I said from being a teen. I wondered, supplement. I browsed a moved by the article. goodbye to them and walked though, if my brother would bookstore, walked outside and “What kind of cancer?” I onto Amtrak, a free man. find this historical novel as checked out a fountain on a asked. I felt my body change; I compelling as I did. There was traffic island. The train station I read and looked at the walked freely, a new bounce this sense of my life moving was quite grand, with the photo, been taken just days in my gait. I had a time finding on to free ideas, into steady tile floors, the tall pillars, the before. The young woman an empty seat, eventually meditations. railings and the high ceilings was pictured in the outdoor sitting next to a young woman. The books I had read during with skylights. On the way to theater. She had traveled with I pulled out Alias Grace by the hospital stay included New York, I had stayed in the her family to Virginia for an Margaret Atwood and began one about a college professor waiting area and never saw experimental treatment. to read. The book was on my traveling to India, one about what the station had to offer. “Are you a doctor?” he reading list and I harbored a Greek shipping family I was on the same train I asked. thoughts of meeting the (probably the Onassis clan), had ridden east. I recognized “No,” I said, “but my mother author in Toronto later in the one about black women in a the porters, the only blacks on has cancer.” summer. Miami University, variety of sexual relationships, the train. Soon I settled into an “I’m sorry,” he said. “I have where I was finishing my one about an Egyptian king observation car. A man with leukemia but it is in total MA, had included this text and his harem, and a couple a khaki multi-pocketed vest remission.” in the first-year curriculum, of others that were such doing a crossword on a tiny I looked at him again. so I hoped to teach it to quick reads that they slipped clipboard caught my attention. He was fairly thin, well put undergraduates in the fall. unnoticed from my memory. He had close-cropped gray together, with workman’s Given my interest in creativity I looked up from my reading. hair, a good tan, and was shoes, blue jeans. and primary sources, as I read Before long the young woman working the puzzle in ink, “The way you asked, and I realized that in the 1970s I had disembarked at her stop. peering with red-edged eyes your appearance, I thought had cycled on my 10-speed I moved to the window seat. through wire-rimmed reading maybe you were a physician.” through the very region where A Japanese businessman lenses. The train the book was set. I had a pencil sat next to me. The train felt was in Virginia, See Meditations, P. 12 �Story 12 STREETVIBES November 1-14, 2010 Meditations Continued from page 11 “No, I’m a writer and a teacher.” I noticed a bullet hole in the glass of the observation car above us. My paranoia did not flare at the sight of the bullet hole, but it registered for a moment. Something about this man in this setting seemed to work with the bullet hole, adding a slightly fearful dimension to the conversation. There was some open land with a huge house in the distance on a hill, hidden by foliage. He noticed my attention to the landscape. “Do you know what that is?” he asked. “No.” “It’s Monticello.” I looked again. “I’ve taken this trip many times. I’m on my way to my granddaughter’s high school graduation in West Virginia. I live in Baltimore. It’s easy to drive to D.C. and take the train from there. Too short a distance to fly, anyway the airport is two hours from the town.” I had a sense that I had connected with a raconteur. Easing back into the seat, I wondered if I could keep this civil. A heavyset balding fellow in blue jeans and a crimson sweater with a mustache and bushy eyebrows moved through the car followed by his son. The man noticed the pins on my new companion’s vest and commented, slowing his hike through the train car. “Are you a Boy Scout leader?” the man asked. “These are military decorations.” He frowned in disapproval, and a sense of feeling offended hung in his tone. “It’s Flag Day.” The man lowered his head and moved by without apology. After a moment, I asked, “Where did you serve?” “In Vietnam.” “What branch?” “Marines.” He paused. “That was rude of him.” From the look on his face I knew he had seen combat and it had taken a lot out of him. “What do you do now?” “Semi-retired. But I was an equine photographer.” This explained the many-pocketed vest. A niche so specific. My curiosity was piqued. “In the sporting sense? You photographed race horses?” I asked. “Yes, for magazines and newspapers.” “Did you write articles, too?” “No, not usually. Sometimes I would write captions, but usually I worked with a writer. There were times where the writer would have photo ideas, or I might have a story angle connected with a series of photos.” “My ex-wife is a racing buff. Did you photograph The Derby?” “Yes. I covered some of the major stories, but mostly I worked for a Baltimore daily doing human-interest pieces that sometimes got picked up for syndicated use. I did a piece about a girl that cleaned stables at Churchill Downs. She was the granddaughter of a famous jockey. Those photos ended up everywhere. My editor helped me get pictures of a trainer’s family that had ancestors with connections to Irish royalty. I worked with some great editors over the years.” “I heard on NPR about this new book on Seabiscuit.” “Great book,” he said. “I just sent the author a drawing of Seabiscuit that hung in my office for years.” “You know her?” He took a breath. “My editor contacted her publicist. The publicist wouldn’t give my editor contact information, but passed word on to the author. She’s real protective. A famous equine artist who is dead now did the drawing. It’s a valuable piece and she didn’t understand my generosity. I think she thought I was trying to sell it. But it hung in my office for years, and I had had enough of it. You know, I just felt like she would get more out of it than I would. I had enjoyed it, but it seemed the thing to do. So, she accepted it. I shipped it to her and got a nice thank you note. That was worth it.” Now, knowing he was a Vietnam veteran, I wanted to talk about his war experience; I sensed he had something to share. I wanted to ask him: Do we study Vietnam to do better in the next conflict, to avoid being in conflict, to understand better how different people, cultures and races can thrive mutually and convivially with open trade, free communication and welfare for all? What about a universal doctrine encouraging pursuit of happiness? But this conversation wasn’t ready for such directed dialogue. Am I too paranoid to suggest that what must be learned is to move away from war toward meditation? Is art a solution to a peaceful time? Does war come and go like the wind? Can I be a warrior without taking up a weapon against an unknown assailant? Is joining an army the first wrong step? Even conscription can be circumvented. There must be an alternative if one believes in honest individuality and nonviolence. Civility. I cannot move out of the civil discourse. Civil disobedience is only understood as a mass movement while individual anarchic acts are seen as behavioral deviance or mental instability. The state reacts to aberrant behavior by trapping dissenters and medicating them, creating the therapeutic state. Who could disagree with that? Am I a dissenter or ill? Maybe both. The photographer spoke in a quiet way. “My brother-in-law, Ola, was a famous Danish contemporary writer. I talked to him often about his writing when I visited my sister. What do you write about?” “I collect moments,” I said. “Lately, the ones that have stirred me have been in performance when I was playing harmonica with a folk group in Cincinnati called Jake Speed and the Freddies. Playing the harmonica involves a set of complex breathing techniques. The breathing calls to mind meditation, and when I think of moments, I feel the breathing that stays calm within them. In writing, I try to capture moments where some situation and combination of ideas meld to generate a story.” He let me finish and let the words stay in the air. “Ola used to talk about moments. He would get the same tone of voice, the same thrill I hear in you.” “A spiritual advisor of mine tells me that what is real is what perceives the breath, the knower, the presence that is life itself.” He listened intently, nodding his head up and down. I think we both saw what would come next in this conversation, a deeper degree of intimacy. I wondered if we talked about Vietnam and war if I would boil with anger. He had no idea that I had been in a Trenton State Mental Hospital for three weeks. The Geodon appeared to be holding me now. All that had changed with the new medication was the schedule. I took it in the mornings 20 minutes after a full breakfast instead of at bedtime. The Did t he re train moved, swaying from tir REUT ERS/ ed railroa side to side, through sunny, Marc d per elo d wooded, Virginia hills. el Po sonnel ta zo. ke th “My favorite Vietnam novel e trai n bec is Going After Cacciato by Tim ause they O’Brien. His The Things They feare d flyi ng? Carried is powerful, too.” Before he could respond I let my thoughts lead me into a meditation: Vietnam Era literature by survivors of the conflict is a necessary result of war. Ideas about courage and conflict contrast with the depersonalization of death. Ideological conflicts that lead to war have a millenarian history. What future utopia might be possible if everyone on the planet could learn from the Vietnam War? But each war presents differently to theorists. It’s not like men and women in orange jumpsuits and scrubs could just come and sterilize the remains and bury them with dark steel spades in wet earth. The whole thing seems never to go away nor should it. Is it ignorance that causes conflicts? Are they premeditated? Why should tolerance be so necessary with each breath? I was caught in this field of attachment. What I needed to remember is that there have always been wars, there will always be wars, and to just watch and take the perspective of George Carlin, who says something like, “If people want to kill each other, let ’em. I can’t control other people; I can just watch and enjoy the ride. I know that my role is just to point out what’s funny about it, follow on the legacy of Lenny Bruce.” I think I said something like that to this new acquaintance on the train as I was finding another side of myself. I wanted to listen to him, to hear his pain. “Tim O’Brien is good. The Things They Carried is amazing. There is a new Vietnam Reader that I’ve seen. Do you have any interest in teaching a course on Vietnam literature?” “No. Not that I’m not interested, but my focus has been on homeless literature. The connection to Vietnam tends to be when the homeless veteran enters my field. Miss America has taken the homeless-veteran problem as her issue, but I don’t know of any literature that connects the Vietnam veteran and homelessness. Most of the veterans I’ve come across have been socially and economically integrated into society.” “When you teach homeless literature what texts do you use?” “There are many, ranging from personal accounts like Lars Eighner’s to George Orwell’s novel from the ’30s. I include a counter-culture classic by Gurney Norman from the seventies and the Buddhist perspective by essayist Gary Snyder. I’m still developing the course idea and I hope to teach after I finish my degree. Currently I don’t have a teaching job; I’m finishing my thesis memoir.” I think I was beginning to bore him. I was losing interest in conversation. “I think I’ll take a smoke,” he said, excusing himself and heading for the smoking car. I had passed by it before. It was a half a car with ashtrays and haze. It reminded me of smoking rooms in mental institutions. I’m going to change the way this chapter is constructed for a few lines to attend to some details that now aren’t clear in memory. The photographer talked passionately about the author Sherwood Anderson and his book Winesburg, Ohio. He reported that a developer had demolished the author’s house. To the town’s credit, his office was preserved in a museum or library, but the structure that originally housed it no longer exists. This story held my interest only marginally and See Meditations , P. 13 �STREETVIBES November 1-14, 2010 Story & Poetry Corner I don’t know why it slips from detailed account to summary other than my ignorance about Anderson and his text. Later in the summer I picked up a used paperback copy and read much of it until I discovered insects living in the binding. After that I just tossed it onto the tile porch; only partially hidden from the elements, the pages quickly yellowed and turned to leaves. Before I cast the novel aside I was struck by how much the characters reminded me of people in my own neighborhood, especially the undertone of dysfunction. I was coming to understand the story of mental illness is not unusual or rare; it appears in small towns and large cities, in women and men, young and old, of all backgrounds. It does not even respect religious or economic differences. I wonder now how much this traveling acquaintance inferred about me from our dialogue. Community paranoia exists in the coffeehouses where I write these narratives, the therapeutic state is talked about as a government that controls its population by medicating them. Imagine how much George Carlin would enjoy watching a U.S.A. where the pharmacies no longer had psychoactive drugs. I think of one of my favorite films from my adolescence, King of Hearts. In it a French town is occupied by Germans in World War I while the insane asylum’s inmates are accidentally let loose to populate the village, instead of the villagers, who fled when warned. It is touching and humorous, and the conclusion seems to indicate that the insane are gentler and healthier than the sane. I wonder sometimes about this but my counselor assures me that I am truly out of balance and at risk of being killed when I am off my medication. I couldn’t bring all this into the conversation on the train with anyone. And I was still out of balance while precariously managing to stay out of trouble for now. My anxiety continued as my companion said goodbye. I went to the dining car for dinner. I sat with three others and introduced myself. I felt a bit of self-loathing as a middle-aged woman with short, mousy, brown hair and a small, straight nose introduced herself as a retired prison guard from Oregon. She left her job to travel around America by Amtrak and now was returning to face finding another job. I don’t remember much about her traveling companion except that she was heavier and they seemed to be a lesbian couple, conservatively dressed and trying to fit into the background. Then in a burst, the man across from me, who was balding, thin, in a pale blue, button-down sweater took off his horn-rim glasses and while wiping them on a white handkerchief told about the rolling White House on this track and the WWII hidden bunkers on this train’s run. As I listened, I wondered if the current government has an official train and if the retired officers who travel by Amtrak are in service still, or if they ride the train because they are frightened of air travel. It came as a flash of conspiracy theory discomforting and setting my paranoid thoughts afire for a few minutes. Then I ate my steak and potato without saying much about myself. I sensed that if I did disclose who I was, I’d be just like them; and that might have been better than feeling what I felt, but I wasn’t capable of being a healthy member of this society with its necessary right wing hypocrisy. My anxiety now kept me from riding elevators in buildings taller than 12 stories. I would always ask, when entering a modern skyscraper, is there a way to do this by stairs? After dining with these three and never learning what the bald man did for a living, I paced back through the rocking train cars to my seat, where I returned to reading Margaret Atwood and dozing. As it got dark it got harder to read. The lights kept failing when the train stopped for fuel and water and other reasons that were never explained. I talked briefly with a couple across the aisle. The man was a bit of a long hair, and turned out to be a composer returning to make his dissertation defense at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. His wife had an eastern European accent. We talked until we tired of things to say. With a mutual sigh, we all sat still as the train bumped slowly along that final turn over the dark Ohio River. It had been nearly 20 years since I had had a stay in a facility as rough as this one had been. I had told myself then that. if faced with a state facility again, I’d rather take my own life. Here I was, not thinking such thoughts at all. Relieved that Dr. Nuñez had had the courage to keep me on Geodon. It was just a matter of adjustment. I would see my counselor in Cincinnati. I would finish the reading list, take my oral exam for my master’s degree and then get a teaching job. A sense of relief swept through me when the train stopped at Union Terminal. In the dark Cincinnati morning my gray Toyota shone in the amber streetlight of the empty parking lot. I keyed the door after flipping my brown pack into the cluttered trunk. As I sat down I saw the dead daisy fallen, withered and stuck to the side of the clear Stewart’s Orange Creamsicle bottle standing in the drink holder between the seats. Poetry ­ Meditations Continued from page 11 13 My Friends and Me By Willa Denise Jones In today’s world it’s hard to be able to call anyone a true friend But I was blessed with two in my life and that’s the way it’s always been I was blessed in grade school with these two people who never left my side In good times, bad times, sad or happy times my friends they didn’t mind We became close by sharing our differences about people, places and things Before long we invented a club called “Ladies Only” in our hearts we sang We recruited a few to the club but their friendship only lasted for a little while Ten years later the club is still open, my friends and me are in for long the mile We began to trust, believe and share our belief only to each other from our heart Never knowing that God had our friendship, God had us three right from the start Today we still come together periodically for club meetings “Ladies Only” And it’s open to only us for to be without the club we’d truly be lonely So we keep in touch and we talk about men, stress and all kinds of attitudes We talk about what’s the right way, the wrong way and how to stop the blues Being older now with the understanding of women’s needs are everyday So have someone you can confide in is a God sent all of the way Yes, I have been blessed with two friends and to God I will always thank you Thank you for your so many blessing, thank you for me, Vee and Bratty too! What Am I By Elisa Hill I am a dove flying in a sky of bluish gray. I am a rock lying at the end of the driveway just sitting idly by, while the wind plays. I am the tension in your mind that causes you to scream. I am the electrical current that brings you the energy. I am taller than the Empire State Building in the fantasy of your mind. I am the sweetness in the cake that gets finished in just the nick of time. I am the conductor to the train that is running softly but, internally through your soul. I am the puncture wound that left a scar upon your nose. I am the seeker of just who you need to be. I am the redeemer of your life encased in a sweet dream. I am the postcard they forget to write before they go. I am the government protecting all that you conceive to be real and untold. I am the past time that keeps you still in the moments of calm. I am not reality with the clearness of your mind. I am the thing that causes satisfaction to your soul to unwind. I am a daydream, a silly thought that yet unfolds. Still you ask, “What are you, this thing in my mind?” What I am is just a moment in time to see unclearly and have a distorted view. I am the sensitivity to light that you seem to hold on to. So with every blink of your wondering eye, I am something different floating aimlessly in your mind. ?! t a h ay W S They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. – Andy Warhol _____________ �14 Games & Extras Crossword ­ Cartoon By Anne Skove www.facebook.com/streetvibes cincinnati ­ twitter.com/ streetvibesnews ­ streetvibes. wordpress.com ­ STREETVIBES November 1-14, 2010 �Shelter: Women and Children Central Access Point Cincinnati Union Bethel St. Francis Soup Kitchen Churches Active in Northside FreeStore/FoodBank 557-2873 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 4230 Hamilton Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45223 241-1064 112 E. Liberty Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 1841 Fairmount Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45214 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 762-5660 271-5501 4600 Erie Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 St. Vincent de Paul 6037 Cary Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45224 Salvation Army 535-2719 591-2246 381-SAFE 768-6907 300 Lytle Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Bethany House 562-8841 872-9259 Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 5 E. Liberty St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 Health Resource Center Homeless Mobile Health Van McMicken Dental Clinic 357-4602 352-2902 352-6363 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mental Health Access Point Mercy Franciscan at St. John 558-8888 981-5800 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 NAMI of Hamilton County PATH Outreach 1125 Bank Street, Cinti, Ohio 45214 131 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 15 Resources STREETVIBES November 1-14, 2010 458-6670 977-4489 Treatment: Men Other Resources Shelter: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 2121 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Prospect House 241-0490 381-4941 Starting Over 1419 Elm Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 682 Hawthorne Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45205 Justice Watch St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 961-4663 Treatment: Both 761-1480 1821 Summit Road, Cinti, Ohio 45237 Drop Inn Center 721-0643 Interfaith Hospitality Network Lighthouse Youth Center (Youth) 471-1100 221-3350 3330 Jefferson, Cinti, Ohio 45220 Housing: CMHA Excel Development OTR Community Housing 721-4580 632-7149 381-1171 114 W. 14th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tender Mercies 721-8666 27 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tom Geiger House Dana Transitional Bridge Services Volunteers of America Anna Louise Inn 961-4555 751-0643 381-1954 421-5211 621-5300 961-1983 OTR: 1620 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert, Cinti, Ohio 45206 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 1730 Race Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 351-0422 381-6672 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. Cinti, Ohio 45214 Goodwill industries Healing Connections Mary Magdalen House 771-4800 751-0600 721-4811 241-2965 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 1522 Republic Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Hamilton County ADAS Board 946-4888 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 641-4300 Advocacy Catholic Social Action Community Action Agency Contact Center 421-3131 569-1840 381-4242 1227 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Food/Clothing Lord’s Pantry OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry AA Hotline CCAT Joseph House (Veterans) 217 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 381-0111 1223 Main St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 2728 Glendora Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45209 Caracole (HIV/AIDS) 621-5514 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 961-4080 Peaslee Neighborhood Center Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart First Step Home Anthony House (Youth) 241-2600 241-2563 214 E. 14th St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 661-4620 Shelter: Both Center Independent Living Options Emmanuel Community Center 1308 Race St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 961-2256 Treatment: Women 1437 Walnut Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mt. Airy Shelter 921-1613 St. Raephaels Salvation Army Serenity House Day Center Open Door Pantry 863-3184 863-1445 422-8555 868-3276 Northern Kentucky Brighton Center 859-491-8303 799 Ann St. Newport, KY Franciscan JPIC Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 721-4700 421-7803 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. Legal Aid Society Ohio Justice & Policy Center Faces Without Places Stop AIDS 579-8547 241-9400 421-1108 363-3300 421-2437 Health Center for Respite Care Hamilton/Middletown ECHO/Hosea House 859-261-5857 Fairhaven Resuce Mission 859-491-1027 Homeward Bound Youth 859-581-1111 Mathews House 859-261-8009 Homeless & Housing Coalition 859-727-0926 Parish Kitchen 859-581-7745 Pike St. Clinic 859-291-9321 Transitions, Inc 859-491-4435 Welcome House of NKY 859-431-8717 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 621-1868 3550 Washington Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45229 Women’s Crisis Center VA Domiciliary VA Homeless 859-491-3335 859-559-5011 859-572-6226 �16 Column STREETVIBES November 1-14, 2010 Art Inspired by Race, Riots and Rap ­ A rtists ctivists as By Saad GhoSn Contributing Writer Terence Hammonds’s sub-cultural view I n his first year of college, Terence Ham­ monds was asked to do a cultural portrait of himself; he did not know what to do. The assignment, however, stayed with him and raised many questions in his mind about cultural identity and belonging, questions that have since then determined the content and direction of his art. Hammonds, an African-American artist born and raised in Over-the-Rhine, always drew as a child. Recognizing his artistic inclinations, his mother enrolled him in the School for the Creative and Performing Arts. There he met two teachers who greatly influenced him. Kathleen Carothers, a drama teacher, regularly took him to the museum, asking him each time to write a paper on an art piece of his choosing, triggering early on his critical thinking about visual images. John Brengelman, an English teacher and musi­ cian, gave him records and books, introducing him to underground art and the subculture of music. Throughout school, Hammonds got good exposure to various art media and developed skills in many of them. He was then obsessed with John Lennon and many times drew the Dakota Hotel where Lennon died. Hammonds also painted homeless people and alcoholics in his neighborhood, connecting to city life and its social ills. After graduating from high school, Ham­ monds received a full scholarship to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston at Tufts Univer­ sity, where he later earned a bachelor of fine arts degree. His college years helped him refine his visual language; they also made him think cultur­ ally about the world and where he fits. Rap music was very popular at the time and somewhat synonymous with black urban youth; Hammonds listened to it all the time. He did a series of silkscreen prints, titled Temporary Tattoos, representing tattoos of famous rap stars; the prints could be temporarily transferred onto someone’s skin. It was also his take on the idea of original and real, a tenet of the hip hop culture. Along the same line, he made fancy-looking, fake Certificates of Provenance for commonly used slang terms, pointing to ownership. “I was very interested in what mainstream culture thought of differing subcultures, of their relation to race and class in history,” he says. Questioning the fixed and framed identity one might give a diverse subculture, in this case asso­ ciating rap music to black race, Hammonds cov­ ered his studio floor with subway tiles on which he printed the first reproduced image of a break dancer. By not cleaning the screen between print­ ings, the images became intentionally blurred. They served as his commentary on the change the hip hop movement underwent, progressing from the Bronx in New York City to other parts of the United States and also on the various multiethnic influences it incorporated. In his last year of college Hammonds did a large installation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It consisted of silhouettes of rap danc­ ers and images of the first 250 rap artists to record music, all silkscreened on a wall paper patterned after the plantation in Gone With the Above: Terence Hammonds stands in front of his silkscreen print, Nina Simone. Saad Ghosn. Left: Get Up on the Down Stroke, 4’x4’ wood dance floor with graphite drawings and silkscreened images by Terence Hammonds. Tony Walsh. Wind. Exhibited at the same time, displayed in a broken antique cabinet, were old Haviland Limoges plates on which he printed images of the first break dancers. The cabinet had a bro­ ken leg, propped up by first-edition books from the Civil Rights Movement, books of slave songs containing coded messages, books by Leroy Jones and Langston Hughes. It was his reference to the origin of hip hop culture, fed at its base by the cultural history of the African-American people, also an allusion to it being a precious, yet poorly handled, gift. Returning to Cincinnati after six years in Boston, Hammonds continued to examine in his art the identity and history of subcultures in the United States, the role of protest and rebellion in the Civil Rights Movement and its importance for freedom and democracy. “I am reaping the benefit of the Civil Rights Movement, of the fight so many undertook, at the expense of their own lives, to allow each of us freedom in this country,” he says. “I went to an Ivy League school with full scholarship just based on merit; I can freely express myself. … This was unheard of 50 years ago for African Americans.” Quiet Riot, his first show in Cincinnati, was based on a real story that followed the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Fearing riots, the mayor of Boston invited all residents to protest King’s assassination and mourn together by watching a concert by James Brown, the “Godfa­ ther of Soul,” on TV. Boston remained riot-free, with popular music a factor. In his show, Hammonds played a video of the concert on a 1960-era TV. He printed images of the riots that happened in Cincinnati and all over America on a set of Russel Wright dinner plates called “American Modern” and displayed two miniature dance floors, each 4’x4’, covered with silkscreened images of riots. Further illustrating the Civil Rights Movement and its influence on American life, Hammonds later did four additional dance floors. One of them, Get Up on the Down Stroke, is titled after a line from a folk song. It consists of a wood board decorated with graphite drawings and prints of images from the ’60s and ’70s counter-cultural movements, riots, draft-card burnings, scenes from the Rolling Stones concert in Altamont and from the Kent State massacre. “My images meant to evoke an era now gone, a time when youth was idealistic, not afraid to change the world,” he says. “The dance floors (are) spaces where cultures are exchanged.” In his work, Hammonds will persevere, ad­ dressing subcultures, protest and authority. He views his art as monuments celebrating the activist movements of the past and hopefully the present. “I want my artwork to remind of a time when people fought for the better good of the entire humanity,” he says. “I want the youth to look back, realize that history existed and that it can be reinvented. Raising me, my mother always stressed the duty to give to society, to contribute positively to life. It is a lesson I will never forget.” Artists as Activists is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnnati artists who use art as a vehicle for change. Saad Ghosn is the founder of SOS Art. Ghosn can be contacted at saad.ghosn@ uc.edu. � 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 2010 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 November 1-14, 2010 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Marching, Remember, Demanding How I Snuck in on the Dalai Lama Pg 2: Street Wise Pg 3: 8 Minutes Considering Advocacy Pg 4: Nobel Prize for Chinese Freedom Fighter Pg 5: Meeting the Bible Verse Man Those Darned Facts Trump Section 8 Myths Pg 6: Eat Your Food Where It’s Grown Pg 7: The Death Watch is All the Bengals Have Pg 8: Annual Dinner Pg 9: March Continued Pg 10: The Dance of Class Consciousness Pg 11: Into Steady Meditations Pg 12: Meditations Continued Pg 13: Meditations Continued Pg 14: Games & Extras Pg 15: Resources Pg 16: Art Inspired by Race, Riots and Rap 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 November 1-14, 2010 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Gregory Flannery Joseph Szydlowski Georgia Bohannon Michelle Dillingham Samantha Groark Margo Pierce Jeremy Flannery Michael Henson David Heitfield Jeni Jenkins Saad Ghosn Lew Moores Larry Gross Eli Braun Jesse Call Michael Fanning B. Clifton Burke Carly Tamborski Aimie Willhoite Lynne Ausman Anne Skove Vinit Murthy Jon Hughes Brad Foster Jeremy Flannery Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Aimie Willhoite Anne Skove B. Clifton Burke Bengals Brad Foster Carly Tamborski David Heitfield Eli Braun Georgia Bohannon Gregory Flannery Jeni Jenkins Jeremy Flannery Jesse Call Jon Hughes Joseph Szydlowski Larry Gross Lew Moores Liu Xiaobo Lynne Ausman March Margo Pierce Michael Fanning Michael Henson Michelle Dillingham Mike Brown Nobel Prize Protests Saad Ghosn Samantha Groark Section 8 Terence Hammonds Vinit Murthy https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/324abb8dc1f2d230eaa59669113dca38.pdf c6ad727357da2d1352805be93ed90d65 PDF Text Text An AffordAble Confronting the School for Terrorists Housing SucceSS Story Page 8 Page 12 Nov. 1-14, 2010 • Issue 187 • One Dollar ADVOCATING JUSTICE • BUILDING COMMUNITY Blankets,Water and Other Bad Ideas Helping homeless people isn’t so simple By GreGory Flannery Editor P People in homeless camps often need basic necessities. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson. eople are living in tents and shacks in isolated pockets of urban Cincinnati. They generate trash, as we all do, but they don’t have an easy way to dispose of it. Last month a religious group decided to help, visit­ ing homeless camps and removing trash. The camps were cleaner for a while. The volunteers were proud of their work. But does this kind of volun­ teering, helpful in the short term, make the problem worse? The consequences of charity aren’t always posi­ tive. That’s why some people donate to large non-profit organizations but spurn pan­ handlers. Charity can have political implications (see “On the Left Side of God,” below). For some people, charity is first and foremost a religious act. To social workers engaged in the complex business of helping people living an almost feral life, simple acts of charity sometimes can be an impediment to bring­ ing them indoors, making it easier for them to stay on the outside. Enabling homelessness Members of John 15:12 Ministries visited home­ less camps Oct. 9 after first distributing trash bags to residents who wanted their assistance. Rumpke, a trashdisposal company, sent a garbage truck for the volun­ teers to fill. John 15:12 Ministries takes its name from this state­ ment by Jesus of Nazareth in the New Testament: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” The organization’s goal went beyond tidying up homeless people’s quarters, according to an announcement dis­ tributed the week before the event. “The most important part of this event is to show them we love and care about them, just as Jesus loves all of us,” the announcement said. “To learn from them and about them, and to just be good neighbors. … This is an awesome opportunity to get out on the front line and truly see what homelessness See Blankets, P. 9 On the Left Side of God Politics in the world of charity By Joanne Zuhl Portland, Ore. – A 4-inch­ square, 96-page booklet once was considered the embodi­ ment of social justice and empowerment of the poor, and for years its publisher attracted financial backing from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) through the Archdiocese of Portland. The local Catholic Campaign – a private nonprofit foundation operated by the United States Conference of Conservative Catholics are working to end funding for poverty-alleviation programs. REUTERS/Tony Gentile. Catholic Bishops – helped launch the booklet with a $5,000 grant in 2008, making sure information on health care, shelter, employment and supportive services was in the hands of people experiencing homelessness and poverty. That was until this spring, when a call to the office of Justice and Peace of the Archdiocese of Portland pointed out the offense on page 25. There, under the category of health care, was a listing for Planned Parenthood, which in a half- inch space included a description of the various basic ser­ vices, including contraception that the organization provides to low- or no-income custom­ ers seeking health care. The message from CCHD managers at the Portland Archdiocese, although supportive of the booklet’s overall mission, was made clear in terms of funding: If Planned Parenthood remained in the booklet, CCHD, in keeping with Catholic teaching, could no longer fund Street Roots, the publisher of the Rose City Resource guide. Street Roots decided to keep the listing. But what was behind the call? Why now? What changed after five years of CCHD support for Street Roots? How did a piece of information sud­ denly morph into a theological offense? Starting in autumn 2009, other groups began asking the same questions. The Chinese Progressive Association in San Francisco was among the first to get the call: CCHD, one of the founding funders for the 38-year-old Association, had to cut ties with the work­ ers’ rights program. Also in California, the Young Workers United was told it was being cut from funding as well, as was the Rebecca Project for Human Rights, which helps homeless and disadvantaged women who have children. L.A. Community Action Net­ work was “defunded” at its See On the Left, P. 6 �2 Editorial BY ThE ­ NUMBErS ­ 3.92 The amount, in billions of dollars, of Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds approved by Congress in 2008 (see page X). 25,000 The number of AfricanAmerican and Hispanic students Steve Sunderland helped integrate at City University of New York (see page 16). 32 The length of time, in years, that “Michael” has been “a sober drunk” (see page 3). 1 The number of record labels The Retros have talked to so far (see page x). Twice The number of times the Ugandan vice president’s husband admitted hitting her (see page X). 27 The number, in millions, of Americans who take anti­ depressants (see page X). 25 The page number of the ad in the Rose City guide that cost Street Roots its grant from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (see page 1). 15:12 The chapter and verse of the Gospel of John that gives one homeless ministry its name (see page 1. 98.5 The combined prison sentences, in years, served by non-violent protesters at the School of the Americas (see page x). STREETVIBES November 15-30, 2010 Streetwise By GreGory Flannery Editor You Are One of the Reasons We’re So Odd This is a funny business, putting together a street newspaper. By way of giving thanks, I’d like to tell you some of what’s involved. Our cartoonist, Anne Skove, has a job in the legal profession that involves lots of travel. In addition to drawing for Streetvibes, she recruits new writers and sends postage stamps for our use. Our arts columnist, Saad Ghosn, is a physician. He wrote this week’s column (“Artists as Activists”) and two others prior to leaving the country for a month to care for a dying relative. One of our photographers, Jon Hughes, is chair of the Journalism Department at the University of Cincinnati. Another, Vinit Murthy, is a particle engineer at Procter and Gamble. Another, Aimee Willhoite, is a full-time college student. Our proofreader, Jeremy Flannery, examines the entire edition at night, after getting off work. One of our writers, Margo Pierce, is a freelance journalist who has won national awards. She is also a busy volunteer and board member of a local non-profit organization. Yet she has spent hundreds of hours consulting with the paper on design, planning and fundraising. Our new graphic designer, Elizabeth Schulenberg, lays out the pages after she’s finished with her full-time graphics job. Our social critic and film critic, David Heitfield, has worked as editor of two daily newspapers, as a defense attorney and as an assistant prosecutor. Our printing costs are covered in part by the generosity of United Nations Appeals Judge Mark Painter and by the Sisters of Charity. Many of our writers, such as Carly Tamborski, Corey Gibson, Samantha Groark and Brian O’Donnell, are fulltime college students with part-time jobs who make time to interview people, research issues and write news stories about what they learn. Our poets include Bonnie Neumeier, director of the Peaslee Neighborhood Center; Spencer Ledyard, stationed in Afghanistan with the U.S. Air Force; Rick Stansberger, a teacher; and homeless people who struggle just to survive. Stephen Paul Lansky, a professor at Miami University, shares short stories and an occasional painting with us. Reuters, the international news syndicate, lets us publish its photographs. Some of our vendors, such as Lee McCoy and George Herrell, write essays about their experiences. Other vendors, such as Willa Davis, write poetry. Another vendor, Anthony Williams, contributes his drawings. Our food writer, Jeni Jenkins, creates new dishes and photographs them – after her day job as education coordinator for the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. One of our writers, Ariana Shahandeh, makes Persian delicacies and delivers them to our office for our vendors and other homeless people to enjoy. I’m sometimes invited to talk to students and other groups about Streetvibes. I always tell them, “Streetvibes is the oddest newspaper you’ll find in Cincinnati.” That’s true on a variety of levels: First, everyone but the editor is a volunteer, yet we’ve received both national and international journalism awards. Second, the quality of our content is wildly inconsistent – and that’s by design. We want a broad range of voices, including professional writers, students trying to hone their skills and homeless people who lack formal training but have had the most expensive education available, the kind acquired by living on the streets. Third, ours is a newspaper with a mission – two missions, actually. Our first mission is providing the opportunity for homeless and other low-income people to earn a small living by distributing Streetvibes. The vendors are the reason for the paper’s existence, as one of our volunteers reminds us whenever we seem to forget. Our second mission is advocacy journalism. Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice, building community. We are here to rattle people’s consciences, to urge them to act, to make them pound the table, to prod them into asking questions – and sometimes to make them laugh. We especially like to make people laugh at Cincinnati City Council and the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC), two of the most ridiculous, reckless and hurtful institutions in this city – and the reason Cincinnati is thought of as a place that is cruel to poor people. One of the reason Streetvibes is so odd is we’re a community paper, which means the weird, eclectic and eccentric get all jumbled in with the mainstream, minority and other elements that make Cincinnati unique – the very uniqueness that city council and 3CDC are actively trying to suppress in favor of a packaged homogeneity that just isn’t real. Finally, ours is an odd newspaper because of you. With newspapers across the United States cutting staff, shrinking news coverage and going out of business altogether, Streetvibes has enjoyed dramatic growth in circulation since 2008. By supporting our vendors, you directly help to fight poverty. As the nation prepares to celebrate Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for all the volunteers who make this feisty little street paper come together. I’m grateful for our donors. I’m grateful for our readers. Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by people who are or once were homeless, in exchange for a $1 donation, Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Address: 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Phone: 513.421.7803 x 12 Fax 513.421.7813 Email: streetvibes2@yahoo.com Website: www.cincihomeless.org Blog: streetvibes.wordpress.com Streetvibes Staff Editor Gregory Flannery Art Director Joseph Szydlowski Vendor Coordinator Georgia Bohannon Contributing Writers Michelle Dillingham, Samantha Groark, Margo Pierce, Jeremy Flannery, Michael Henson, David Heitfield, Corey Gibson, Jeni Jenkins, Saad Ghosn, Lew Moores, Larry Gross, Eli Braun, Jesse Call, Michael Fanning, B. Clifton Burke, Carly Tamborski Photography/Artwork Aimie Willhoite, Lynne Ausman, Anne Skove, Vinit Murthy, Jon Hughes, Brad Foster Proofreader Jeremy Flannery The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati through coordination of services, public education, grassroots advocacy and Streetvibes. �STREETVIBES November 15-30, 2010 Column 3 Beyond the bootstraps Long-Term Success Begins with Compassion By MarGo Pierce/www.writerdiva.coM Contributing writEr The first time I remember taking a drink was when I was about 12 or 13 and I got a little glass of Mogen David wine at Thanksgiving to have a toast. And it was the most magical moment I’d ever had in my life. When I took that drink, it hit the back of my throat, it went down and it was like a bomb exploding inside me and it was just this warm rush feeling. What I remember from that— and it seems like it was just yesterday—for the first time in my life I felt OK. I just felt OK. I don’t know another word to describe it. Everything just went whhhhheeeeww. For the next 11 years I chased that high. That’s all I ever wanted. I always wanted to feel like that, and when I wasn’t doing it I was thinking about it, planning on how I was gonna get it. I don’t know how fast it progressed or anything else, it’s kind of hard to remember. Michael (not his real name) looks off into the distance as he talks about being a “sober drunk” for 32 years. His voice is even, calm but not devoid of emotion. With smiles and laughter, he describes his childhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, as “typical middle class.” Alcohol—at least for people like me that I know—sets up this craving. … I don’t know how to describe it unless you’ve experienced it. People talk about it as being a lack of willpower. The line about willpower: The line about willpower is, “The next time you have a bad case of diarrhea, just use a little willpower on it and see how far it gets ya.” You’ll end up with a runny leg. It’s just not that simple. I think it’s critical for anyone dealing with alco­ holism that they are entitled to – if I can use that word—be told what their problem is. And I don’t just mean somebody yellin’ and screamin’ at ’em and sayin’ “You’re a drunk and you better sober up.” I’m talking about professional people telling them, “You have alcoholism. This is what it’s doing to you. This is the only solution and this is what we think you ought to do.” And help you starting some kind of plan to get sober. It’s a great mantra of every drunk, “It’ll be differ­ ent this time. It won’t be as bad this time, I won’t do ‘this’ this time, I won’t do ‘that’ this time.” And every time you do it over and over again. Insanity and alcoholism is absolutely doing the same thing over again and expecting different results. Every day after day after day after day. I talk to multiple DUI offenders and I’ll tell them, “Anyone can get a DUI. A social drinker can get a DUI – they have a bad night, they make a bad decision, they get into a car and they get arrested and they get a DUI. They will go to jail, they will pay the fine and they will tell themselves, ‘I am never, ever, ever going to do that again, and they will never, ever do that again. And we drunks say the same vow and we’ll be drinking and driving the next day.” We just have this amazing ability to block out all the consequences. And the reason we block it out is because we’re scared to death. We’re scared to death because we don’t know how to not drink. He says what it takes to get sober is different for each person. He describes the intervention he par­ ticipated in with his mother. Michael was 10-years sober at the time. We had Mom in the room. It was me and my brother and two sisters and this professional lady. I knew Mom was in trouble because my little sister had called me and told me what was going on. We were hitting Mom with everything we had, and she was like Superman – she was deflecting everything. Finally my little sister said, “Mom, I know you’re drinking a lot of vodka.” She got real indignant and she looked at her and said, “How can you possibly know that?” And Tammy (not her real name) said, “Because I see you walk into the bathroom with an empty glass, and then you come out with a full glass but I haven’t heard the faucet run.” There was dead silence and Mom said, “OK.” And that’s all there was. That’s what got to her. Her finally realizing that, yeah, people know … if this little 8-year-old kid knows I’m doing it. Sometimes what helps a drunk is the power of a memory. There’s different things in my life that kind of stick out. I went into a bar in downtown and I’d been working downtown at the time, went there every day and the barmaid knew us. So she started getting me something to drink. … I always drank it in a glass. And I told her, “No, just give it to me in the can.” The reason I wanted it in a can was because I knew I was shaking so bad that it was going to be really, really hard to get that glass to my lips without spillin’. At this time I had just turned 23. When I was drinking that can I had a flashback, just a moment in time when I was 18 and sitting in this bar. A guy walked in. … This guy was probably in his sixties. He just looked disheveled and tired and old. He got this double-double with the beer chaser and he had to put his head all the way down to the bar to get his lips on the drink so he could put it back because he was shaking so bad that if he didn’t he was going to spill it. Then he did the same thing with the beer chaser and he ordered another one. … And after the sec­ ond one he just kind of went sssssshhhhheeeww­ www and he was OK then, he got a fix. Sometimes what helps a drunk is the power of stories. I heard a guy say one time – he lived in a card­ board box in the Bowery of New York, that’s where he ended up. That was his home. And after he sobered up, he lived there for another two years. I knew him when he was 36 or 37 years sober and he died over 50 years sober. And he said, “A lot of yi’z never made it down in the gutter with me and livin’ in a box. A lot of yi’z picked the gutter up and took it home and put it in your living room for your wives and kids to live in. I din’ hurt nobody livin’ in that box.” Everybody has moments when we see ourselves for the way we really are—and when he said that I knew exactly what I was. And what it triggered was the thought, “Instead of being so damn full of selfpity and anger about where you’re at, you ought to be a little grateful for where you didn’t end up.” What every drunk needs is his pain, according to Michael. When I was 22 booze started not doing the same thing, and that’s what happens with alcoholics. There’s a lot of reasons why drunks quit drinking. One of them is because it quits working – and for me, it quit working. No matter how much I drank – in search of the ever-lasting buzz – I couldn’t get it no matter what happened. I woke up every morn­ ing and I was just this miserable human who was living to drink, and I could no longer even get that little buzz from when I was 13. The old saying is first the man takes a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes the man. That’s what happened – I was drinking to live. What brings people to their knees, for lack of a better term, to a point where they’re able to get some help—if help’s available to them – is they have to reach a point of pain so bad that they want to get out. They have to. So every time we rescue people – there’s a difference between rescuing and helping – every time we rescue someone from their pain, we’re denying them their pain, we’re denying them the chance to get sober. And the support of people willing to teach and learn is imperative. Dad drove me to the treatment center, and this is kind of a good picture of people who don’t understand alcoholism. I had a can of beer in my hand all the way up to walking into the emergency room. My dad said, “I don’t get it. You want to quit drinking and you’re walking into this place with a can of beer.” And I said, “Dad, if I knew how to quit drinking, I wouldn’t have to go into this place.” What happened when I called this treatment center – the reason I stayed – was because I found people who knew what my problem was. Not only that they knew what my problem was, they also knew what the solution was. Before I was gonna be able to get better, number one, I had to get detoxed, I had to get off of it and I knew I couldn’t do it on my own. I had been physically addicted for a long time. I had a guy tell me one time, “If you want to learn how to be sober, you ought to hang around sober people. If you’re trying to learn how to drink, I guess you hang around drinking people.” So that’s what I did. Out of this treatment center was a huge social organization out of all the people who were graduates of this treatment center. We did a lot of stuff together. We learned how to be sober together. The American myth of individualism tells people who are struggling with addiction, abuse, mental illness or poverty to simply pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. In reality, specially designed services and other kinds of support are essential to the process of transformation. This column one in an occasional series that will explore what it takes to Forget the Bootstraps in order to live a better life. I was basically socially stonewalled from the time I was about 14. I had absolutely no social skills whatsoever. For somebody who thinks al­ cohol is the best friend they’ve evenr had in their life, then all of a sudden it gets stripped away from him. I had nothing to lean on. It was very scary, very scary. What’s totally useless is ordering alcoholics to “quit drinking so much,” because they simply don’t know how to do that. I absolutely think you can pull up on all your bootstraps all you want, but until you have a solu­ tion to your problem, you’re going to keep doing the same thing you’ve been doing because you don’t know of any other way to do it. Everything you’re telling him he already knows. He already knows his drinking is a problem – he’s not stupid. He knows that there’s a problem. The problem is that he doesn’t know what the solution is. Don’t forget a sense of humor…. Want to hear a good drunk joke? A guy walks into work one morning and he’s got his arm all bandaged up and in a sling and his face is all scratched up. His buddy said, “Jesus! What hap­ pened to you?” And he said, “Man, I started drink­ ing yesterday and decided to go horseback riding. So I get on this horse and I’m so drunk I can’t sit on him. I fall off, my foot gets caught in the stirrup and he just keeps on going.” And the guys said, “Man, you’re really lucky. How’d you finally get off?” and he said, “My wife came out of K-Mart and unplugged him.” You gotta be able to laugh, you really do. A version of this column, reprinted with permis­ sion, was first published in the Denver VOICE. �4 International News STREETVIBES November 15-30, 2010 Despair Takes a Young Man’s Life ­ Kevin Goodreau’s final warning By JereMy Flannery Contributing writEr P hiladelphia, Penn. – An estimated 27 million Americans were taking antidepressant medications in 2005 in the United States, according to the U.S. Cen­ ters for Disease Control. The medication works for many patients, while others suffer side effects that outweigh the benefits. For Kevin Goodreau, a medical techni­ cian and musician, the side effects were fatal. “In November of 2009 I was under extreme stress,” Goodreau said in late Sep­ tember. “I had a few life changing events happen. In retrospect, it was nothing that major, but thoughtprovoking enough to make me realize that something needed to change substan­ tially. I did a few things on my own to help my problem. I had quit smoking for two months and started exercis­ ing regularly. “In early January things started looking pretty good. I was optimistic about my future. I had a new sexual relationship. It had been four full years before I had any kind of physical relationship with a woman, and I was ex­ tremely excited. So, in short, I had made the resolution that 2010 was going to be the first year in a new life of selfactualization and somewhat healthy living. And I was doing a pretty good job of helping myself. Unfortunately for me, I had previously made an appointment with a psy­ Kevin Goodreau blamed medicinal side effects for destroying his life. Courtesy of Smoker and the Rollers. chiatrist back in November ‘09. So I went to see her on or quite close to Dec. 30, 2009.” Goodreau’s psychiatrist diagnosed him with mild schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, he said. She prescribed Goodreau with the antipsychotic medications Lamictal and Abilify. “Within one week of consuming these medications I began to experience what is known as tardive dyskinesia,” Goodreau said. “The symptoms were excruciating. I would find myself incapable of sitting still and would have, on numerous occasions, uncontrollable and long lasting seizure-like episodes. These symptoms were very frightening for me. But, to be honest, they pale in comparison to the devastation that the antidepres- sant Lexapro has brought to my life.” Goodreau quit taking Lamictal and Abilify, and returned to his psychiatrist in January, he said. Goodreau requested Lexapro by name. “I took it upon myself to quit the antipsychotics,” Goodreau said. “And the side effects went away. Two weeks into January I went back to the (psychiatrist) and she prescribed the Lexapro. I was happy. It had literally, with the very first dose, begun to take effect. In fact, I remember there was a feeling like I was tripping on LSD while I took the medication. The medicine worked, and it worked well. “I took it for only two weeks before I quit cold turkey. Within one week of using the Lexapro, I began to notice incredible physiological changes: chronic fatigue, complete impotence, loss of libido and a lack of ability to recognize my own basic emotions. I was literally stunned.” Lexapro is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), a prescription-only antidepressant medication used to treat major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, according to the manufacturer. Fatigue, insomnia, decreased libido and anorgasmia (difficulty achieving orgasm) are among the side effects listed on Lexapro’s label. Goodreau insisted that Lexapro had physically damaged his nervous system, and he thought the side effects he was suffering with were irreversible. Those side effects from the medication affected Goodreau for the rest of the nine months in his life. He chose to end his life at age 28 on Oct. 20, 2010 because he thought he would never be a whole person again. Goodreau left behind a suicide note to explain his decision. “I love life (friends, family, doing stuff ) very much … and this has been very hard on everyone,” he wrote. “I cannot express how sorry I am about this decision. I am too scared to live a life in impotence and disability. And you can’t help me with that. I will not forfeit the life that should have been for the one where I live in my parents’ basement in shame and weakness. “It is very important to have someone that you can love and who loves you back, on real human terms. I had that once, so my life was not meaningless. But I cannot “Feed Me, Seymour, ­ Feed Me All Night Long…” ­ By Jeni Jenkins Serving Size: 4-5 bellies Autumn Squash Casserole 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 yellow squash, diced in large chunks 2 zucchini squash, diced in large chunks 1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped 3 cloves fresh garlic, diced 2 tablespoons butter or butter substitute for vegans 2 packages crushed Ritz (butter) crackers Salt and pepper (Optional for vegans) 1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese Trying to find a tasty way to enjoy that summer squash? This recipe I threw together to take to a weekly neighborhood potluck. I was trying to find a creative way to get some more vegetables into the mix, and this was definitely a crowd pleaser. Enjoy! Heat oven to 350 degrees • Sauté squash in olive oil over medium high heat for 5-7 minutes. Pour squash in 9”x12” baking dish. • Sauté onion and garlic in butter over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, remove from heat. • Mix the onion/garlic mixture with the crushed crackers and Parmesan cheese. • Evenly pour the mixture over the top of the squash as a cracker topping. • Bake uncovered in oven for 15-20 minutes or until cracker topping is browned Voila, FEED! feel that feeling anymore. Whatsoever happened to my brain is not my fault. It is the Lexapro. I will not concede this fact to the simplicity of ignorance and the ‘you’re just depressed’ argument. My dick doesn’t work anymore. I have no libido. I can barely remember why I liked things like music. … Do not let them convince you that this is just depression. That is the easy way out of trying to understand a real prob­ lem. These drugs are the problem. End of the story.” Goodreau hoped his story would warn others about the risks of antidepressant medications. “There was a very real feeling that something had permanently changed within my nervous system,” Goodreau said in an interview. “The sexual symptoms are terrible, but the core of this disease called PSSD (post­ SSRI sexual dysfunction) is something far more frightening. It is difficult to describe if you don’t experience it. I believe the answer lies in widespread neurological damage which, most likely, cannot be reversed. “I am more than willing to share with anyone the reality of PSSD. Many people don’t even realize that the drugs are the problem. If I can help people to understand the truth behind the psychiatric death machine while preventing them from undergoing a lifetime of needless suffering, I would be somewhat happy. I would like to work with my support group called SSRIsex@yahoo. com to get the word out as much as possible.” �STREETVIBES November 15-30, 2010 5 News Domestic Violence in high Office ­ A blemish on a record of women’s rights By Joseph Opio It was the soap opera that gripped an entire nation. A distinguished engineer, challenging his wife’s divorce petition, argued that he had “slapped her only twice, for insubordination.” On the face of it, it seemed like your average case of an abusive husband justifying wife battery. Prob­ lem is, the wife in question was none other than Specioza Wandira Kazibwe, Uganda’s vice presi­ dent at the time. Kazibwe had shot to global prominence in 1994 when President Yoweri Museveni had named her to the second most powerful office in the land. Kazibwe’s new position had made her the firstever female vice president in Africa. It also earned Uganda universal acclaim for its pro-women politics. became a source of national embarrassment. Some congratulated her for speaking out against domestic violence. But others criticized Kazibwe, a surgeon and mother of five, for “en­ couraging rebelliousness in marriages.” One cabinet colleague of Kazibwe’s was later quoted arguing that the entire matter illustrated why women are ill suited for politics in the first place. To women activists, it was sufficient evidence that Kazibwe’s elevation to the vice-presidency had all been a cosmetic service to the cause of women’s emancipation. “When Kazibwe became vice-president, we all celebrated the dawn of a new era,” said Sylvia Ta­ male, a leading law professor at Makerere Univer­ sity. “But after she confessed that her husband had been battering her all along, it proves that women Vice President Specioza Wandira Kazibwe shocked Uganda by revealing she was a victim of domestic violence. Joseph Opio. Married to a successful engineer, Kazibwe was perceived as an inspiration for women, her stint as vice president marked by her relentless promo­ tion of women’s rights. Yet in 2002 a nation was shocked when Kazibwe confessed that she was seeking divorce from her husband. She cited an abusive marriage and infidelity as her reasons. “Enough is enough,” Kazibwe told a gathering on International Women’s Day. “How can you beat a whole vice president? I’m very sorry.” Kazibwe’s confession might have been inspired by the theme for that year’s celebrations, which was “Break The Silence. Stop Domestic Violence.” But it triggered mass consternation. Charles Kazibwe, it turned out, had routinely battered his wife of 28 years, philandered and fathered two children by another woman. That a woman so powerful had been trapped in the sort of abusive marriage that’s so common all over Uganda was shocking enough. That a woman so powerful had proved so powerless in her own household throughout her entire vice-presidency can’t be emancipated fully unless they are liber­ ated in all aspects of life. It’s no use emancipating a woman in public yet she remains at the mercy of an abusive husband at home.” Kazibwe’s predicament inspired women activ­ ists to renew their fight to have a law regulating domestic relations. “Kazibwe was the example,” says Jackie Asiimwe of the Uganda Women’s Network, an NGO crusad­ ing to promote women’s rights. “She was a power­ ful vice president, but in private her husband was hitting her.” But although the Domestic Relations Bill was drafted over 10 years ago, it still is yet to be passed into law. The bill aims to outlaw marital rape, ease divorce for women, grant property rights to wives and regulate polygamy. Sadly, it has been op­ posed at each and every turn by conservatives and religious leaders fearful that “it will grant women so many rights and lead to the disintegration of families and African family values.” Nsubuga Nsambu, a senior parliamentarian and vocal opponent of the Domestic Relations Bill, even went on record to brand it “a conspiracy on the part of single and highly learned women to take over the country.” The failure to convert the Domestic Relations Bill into law thus far remains the sole blemish on Uganda’s otherwise immaculate crusade to pro­ mote gender equality and empower its women. It’s a crusade that was initiated and spear­ headed by president Museveni long before the UN signed its Millennium Declaration in September 2000. Kazibwe’s elevation was Museveni’s most celebrated “affirmative act” but it has not been the only one. The president’s pro-women policies have seen women gain positions of influence in public office and increased girls’ access to education and eco­ nomic opportunities. Women now form 40 percent of Parliament, up from 18 percent in 1993, according to statistics from the Ministry of Gender. There are also eight women in the 24-member cabinet. Elsewhere, women occupy top-most positions at the Uganda Revenue Authority, the Uganda Hu­ man Rights Commission, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament and the deputy heads of the Judiciary, Civil Service and Electoral Commission. Such gains are expected to be consolidated, thanks to the government’s twin policies of Uni­ versal Primary Education and Universal Second­ ary Education. Both policies put special emphasis on girls; and with such free education, families have been weaned off the age-old practice where­ by scarce financial resources were spent educating boys while the girls got married off instead. As a result, Ministry of Education figures have shown that the number of girls is equal to that of boys all the way through primary and second­ ary school. Statistics of girls accessing university education have also spiked, inspired in no small part by the government’s affirmative decision back in 1990 to grant 1.5 bonus points to female appli­ cants. The proportion of female students has since risen from about 20 percent to 35 percent in 1998 and to 51 percent in 2008. Not that women’s rights crusaders are resting on their laurels. The failure to pass the Domestic Relations Bill remains a thorny issue, as does the nonexistence of an Equal Opportunities Commis­ sion. Article 32 (2) of the 1995 Ugandan Constitu­ tion committed Parliament to make laws for the establishment of such a commission, a brief that remains unfulfilled. Tamale argues that the absence of the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Domestic Re­ lations Bill failure betray a strategic lack of politi­ cal will, lamenting that “women are in positions of power without power.” Tamale is among the top decision-makers at Uganda’s leading university. But her concerns aren’t entirely elitist, as her detractors have been known to claim. At the zenith of Kazibwe’s divorce, radio phone-in debates were flooded by ordinary women who expressed concerns and deep-seated fears about their own positions “in a country where the nation’s highest-ranking woman could be so flagrantly abused by her own husband.” And unless Uganda promulgates a domestic-re­ lations law between now and 2015, such concerns are bound to remain, ensuring that despite its sparkling successes in all other spheres of women empowerment, Uganda will still have fallen pain­ fully short of achieving this particular goal. © www.streetnewsservice.org �6 Issues STREETVIBES November 15-30, 2010 On the Left Side of God Continued from page 1 own request after CCHD tried to censor its newspa­ per. Women in Transition in Louisville, Ky., had its grant rescinded, and Preble Resource Center, which serves homeless youths in Portland, Maine, was ordered to return to CCHD funds for its Homeless Voices for Justice program. In Oregon, Children First for Oregon, a child advocacy group for vulnerable children, was culled from the list of grantees earlier this year. Besides CCHD’s support, and beyond the com­ monality of their missions, these groups share something else: They were all targeted, investigated and determined unfit by a campaign of Catholic con­ servative groups that, via the prolific capacity of the Internet, have formed a nationwide coalition calling for the defunding of more than 50 poverty-alleviation organizations, and a radical overhaul – and even disbandment – of CCHD. To date, 10 U.S. bishops, an unprecedented num­ ber by Catholic news reports, have publicly sus­ pended their annual, mandatory collection among parishioners for CCHD because of claims that CCHD funded “anti-Catholic” organizations. The allegations by the group Reform CCHD Now against grantees begin as crimes against the Catholic Church for sup­ porting abortion and gay-rights issues and extend to direct attacks on community organizing and social empowerment. It could be dismissed as a fringe ele­ ment, if not for the use of the campaign by politically vested parties to discredit, disrupt and defund the work of community organizing groups long-support­ ed and heralded by U.S. bishops. This year Catholic Campaign for Human Devel­ opment celebrated 40 years of funding community programs that address the root causes of homeless­ ness and poverty. Nationwide, it has distributed more than $400 million in self-help grants to 8,000 agencies across the United States, making it the na­ tion’s largest private funder of self-help groups for the poor. CCHD is a rarity in the world of charitable invest­ ment in that it does not fund direct services like its faith-based counterparts, Catholic Charities or St. Vincent DePaul. Instead, recipients of CCHD’s grants are organizations that work to foster systemic change through partnering with common-cause groups and community organizing. Because of its role in com­ munity organizing projects, the Portland Archdio­ cese is considered a core funder of poverty-allevi­ ation and empowerment projects in Oregon and a voice among faith-based efforts to shape policy around social-service needs in Multnomah County. The attacks by Reform CCHD Now and its fol­ lowers are prompting a “review and renewal” pro­ cess by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. What the bishops decide could have major consequences for the thousands of cash-strapped nonprofits that CCHD supports, and the millions of poor and disenfranchised people who rely on these programs that today serve as proxy to government initiatives. ‘Eternal vigilance’ In summer 2009, the Texas-based Bellarmine Veri­ tas Ministry, an opaque “Catholic grassroots orga­ nizing ministry” traceable to one man, Rob Gasper, released an investigation into recipients of CCHD’s grants. This June the Virginia-based American Life League released a report echoing Bellarmine’s conclusions: that CCHD was funding what it called “anti-Catholic organizations” based upon the orga­ nizations’ actions and the actions of their partners and affiliates. These groups called on parishioners to boycott their donations to CCHD until the bishops revise the granting oversight. The groups specifi­ cally target 50 organizations they are demanding the CCHD stops funding. These reports surfaced during the thick of the health-care reform debate, a flagship in President Obama’s agenda, which the bishops opposed over abortion issues. In fact, the reformers singled out the bill and demanded that any grantees that supported the health care reform legislation “must state clearly and publicly that they will not promote any piece of legislation which gives federal support to abortion or family planning.” Bellarmine, American Life League and Human Life International, also based in Virginia, are the three primary organizations behind Reform CCHD Now, although Reform CCHD Now claims more than 20 organizations working on behalf of the nationwide campaign. These three groups have driven the re­ form movement to viral levels online with blogs and video and through the multitude of online Catholic and pro-life news services, including LifeNews.com and LifeSiteNews.com. “We started forming the coalition when we found very anti-Catholic things being funded by Catholics,” says Stephen Phelan, communications manager with Human Life International. “Michael Hitchborn (with American Life League) wanted to meet and they refused, and Bellarmine also tried and didn’t a get a response. So everybody went public with it.” “Because of the Internet, we’ve been able to get the information out to much more people in a much shorter period of time,” says Michael Hitchborn, a researcher with the pro-life organization American Life League. ‘Which is why the CCHD is finding it much harder to hide with their tactics they’ve been using.” Those tactics, according to Hitchborn, are to fund groups that do not conform to Catholic teaching, deny that they are “anti-Catholic” groups and then continue funding with the complications essen­ tially swept under the rug. Many of the organiza­ tions already defunded this past year were longtime recipients of CCHD funding, and praised for their work in building cross-community partnerships and networks to fight the causes of poverty. However, it’s those partnerships that factor into nearly all of the groups singled out by the reform movement. In fact, more than 30 groups reformers want defunded are listed because they are members of the Center for Community Change, a D.C.-based cross-community organizing movement that stopped receiving CCHD funding in 2001. “That’s a problem because there’s no account­ ability,” Hitchborn says. “The groups that are receiv­ ing CCHD money are getting trained by (Center for Community Change), which means they are being trained in cross-issues advocacy. And that’s a prob­ lem. So what we called for is an immediate disasso­ ciation from (Center for Community Change) for any group receiving CCHD money.” Hitchborn says he will continue investigating organizations to weed out the recipients of CCHD’s grants and says he’s working on a new report for release soon. “Because of the long history of CCHD funding errant organizations, there’s no way that we could let up,” Hitchborn says. “Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. And if we are going to make sure that an organization that claims to be Catholic remains Catholic, they need to adhere to Catholic teaching.” Subhead: ‘We didn’t even do anything wrong’ For nearly four decades the San Francisco-based Chinese Progressive Association organized the Chinese and Asian immigrant community, including thousands of restaurant workers who received less than minimum wage or were living in the margins. With the support of CCHD, the organization en­ gaged workers to successfully raise San Francisco’s minimum wage from $6.75 to $8.50, and in 2006, helped lead the charge for all workers in the city to receive paid sick leave. This work, along with its housing program, youths and environmental justice work, and its workers center, was funded by CCHD for years. But by September the local CCHD said the relationship was over. It was pulling the plug on $30,000 it had granted to the organization’s worker center. “They called me and they said they needed to talk,” says Alex T. Tom, the Chinese Progressive Association’s executive director, “that people were getting ready for the bishops meeting in the fall and they were fanning the flames and pushing CCHD to resolve the issue.” The issue was the Association’s publication of a voter pamphlet that opposed California’s Proposi­ tions 8 and 4, which banned same-sex marriages and required parental notification for some abortions. It was an effort that had nothing to do with the CCHD’s funding, which was specifically allocated for the organization’s Worker Center. “It was right when the economic crisis happened,” Tom says. “It was really poor form, poor taste and very bad timing when they decided to revoke the funding. “In general, worker centers don’t have the easi­ est time. Anti-poverty work is not something that is heavily supported. It helped us build a movement. And now we have to find a consistent revenue stream that doesn’t rely on support that we used to receive from CCHD.” Preble Street in Portland, Maine, received CCHD grants for 13 years for its work in empowering the homeless, most recently a $30,000 grant in 2009. However, it was defunded at the end of 2009 and asked to return unspent grant money to CCHD be­ cause the organization joined the campaign against a measure to overturn the state’s same-sex marriage law. For Preble Street, it was an extension of their advocacy for rights and opportunities for the home­ less youths within the GBLT the organization cares for and supports. The CCHD grant, however, actually was awarded to Preble Street’s project called Home­ less Voices for Justice, which works for social change on behalf of – and with the leadership of – people in poverty and homelessness. Homeless Voices did not participate in the campaign on the law. However, as Homeless Voices’ fiscal agent, Preble Street was called to return funding, and did so with a $2,400 check. In a letter to CCHD Director Ralph McCloud, Preble Street Executive Director Mark Swann defend­ ed his group’s position: “Throughout our history, when Preble Street and Homeless Voices for Justice have taken differing posi­ tions, there has never been any effort to force or stifle the opinion of the other. Indeed, regardless of Preble Street’s point of view, we have chosen to facilitate the expressions of opposing positions such as those of (Homeless Voices) by the support we offer them – embodying the principles of CCHD social justice teachings. “Punishing Homeless Voices by demanding the return of much-needed funds because of Preble Street’s advocacy around issues of social justice is deeply troubling,” Swann wrote. “It is unfortunate that the CCHD and the local diocese is choosing not to be part of these important efforts.” Women in Transition in Louisville, Ky., is but a shadow of its former self after CCHD rescinded a $25,000 grant at the end of 2009. Women in Transi­ tion runs skill-building programs for at-risk women and organizes on issues of affordable housing and health care. CCHD was a sponsor of the organiza­ tion since 2005, until this past year when it received a letter from someone pointing out Women in Tran­ sition’s relationship with Wench Self-Care Collec­ tive, a local women’s health organization. Wench is pro-choice, and has helped escort women to and from the city’s abortion clinic, but it also focuses on women’s nutrition and education around healthy eating habits, which is where Women in Transition and Wench crossed paths. Women in Transition says it never worked with Wench on reproductive rights, just healthy eating, cooking classes and health fairs. Khalilah Collins, Women in Transition’s executive director, says her organization had received CCHD grants for $20,000 and $25,000 each year since 2005. The 2009 fall grant for $25,000 had been approved and the check in the hands of their fiscal spon­ sor, Catholic Charities, but it was never delivered. Collins says she was told by Catholic Charities that unless she signed a letter saying that her organiza­ tion regretted the situation and would not work with the Wench group or any other group whose mission contradicted Catholic teaching, the money was in jeopardy. It was more than a third of the organiza­ tion’s budget, and money they had counted on. “The more I thought about it, the more upset I got,” Collins says. “We didn’t even do anything wrong.” (Collins says there were also questions about the agency’s 501(c)3 status, but that had not disrupted funding before.) Collins didn’t write the letter. “I felt that our integrity was questioned as an organization, and all we have is our integrity and our voice, and you’re questioning that,” she says. “We can’t be a part of that.” Collins says she never knew who wrote the letter about Wench, and that the relationship is not even traceable through Women in Transition’s website. However, by November, just before the 2009 collec­ tion for CCHD, Women in Transition and others were singled out in a press release by the American Life League and others within Reform CCHD Now for ties to Planned Parenthood, which led a workshop at an event the organization-co-sponsored with Spalding University. “It’s not about WIT and Wenches,” Collins says. “We’ve never done any work on choice at all. We steer clear of that number one thing because we know we could lose our funding.” But the funding is gone. “We have no money right now. None. I didn’t get paid last week, the rent hasn’t been paid, because we’re out of money,” Collins says. Subhead: ‘It’s taking away care from those who need it’ “These are politically motivated attacks,” says Chris Korzen, executive director of D.C.-based Catholics United, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organiza­ tion doing online advocacy and education programs around the Catholic Social Tradition. “And they fit into this broader narrative that we’re unfortunately seeing in our system now, where social change is limited to charity and not actually fixing social struc­ tures that cause poverty and other problems.” The intent of these attacks, Korzen says, is to demonize community organizing behind the argu- See On the Left, P. 7 �STREETVIBES November 15-30, 2010 Continued from page 6 ments against abortion and same-sex marriage. “That’s the end result of what this campaign is doing,” Korzen says. “It’s taking away care from those who need it.” Korzen, a Catholic, says Catholic social teaching is being hijacked by political agendas. “This hyper-individualism that some are pushing in a political context does not have a lot of support in Catholic social teaching,” Korzen says. “So essentially what we’re seeing is groups who are using Catholic teaching to promote what really is a secular agenda.” It’s not a new thing, Korzen says. Indeed, CCHD for decades has had its critics. But today it gets the added boost of leveraging political gains with a galvanized voting block, further inflamed by the personalities parading through our ever-expanding media options. “For sure, we’ve seen a movement to the right in Catholic institutional settings, and I’d even go as far to say there are some elements of the Catholic institutions and some parts of the (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) that have essentially been taken over by the Republican Party. That sounds like a strong statement, but it’s the truth. Over the years the conservative movement has worked very hard to cultivate support in the Catholic churches.” Case in point, Korzen says, is the U.S. bishops’ opposition to the health-care reform bill, which was singled out as a defundable offense by the reform­ ers, “even though the Catholic Church believes that health care is a human right,” Korzen says. “That never would have happened in the 1980s.” In response to the reformers’ investigations and allegations, bishops across the country have issued statements in defense of CCHD’s operations, includ­ ing Archbishop John Vlazny of the Portland Diocese. Vlazny wrote on the issue in the Catholic Sentinel in late 2009, prior to Street Roots being defunded. “Once again this year objections have been raised to the Campaign because some CCHD-funded groups have taken actions in conflict with CCHD guidelines after they were funded,” Vlazny writes. “… When the facts were confirmed, the groups were defunded. Other allegations were raised, but the charges proved to be inaccurate or a misunder­ standing had occurred. Mistakes are made, they are quickly corrected. But the negative voices drone on, and I suspect their problems are more political than religious.” Ralph McCloud, the executive director of CCHD based in Washington D.C., says CCHD isn’t beholden to the partisan arguments behind the attacks. “We go to where poor people are, where nobody else wants to go, to let them speak boldly. I think we’re somewhere boldly embedded between the right and the left, and neither one of them can have a claim on it,” he says. McCloud says he cannot go into details on the upcoming review and renewal of CCHD, which will be conducted by the bishops, but that it will look at ways CCHD’s funding process can be more “respon­ sive to the needs of the contemporary current reali­ ties,” he says. “I think where it gets murky sometimes is when people are in coalitions with a group where their main focus is somewhere else,” McCloud says. ‘That’s one of the things hoping to come out of the review and renewal process. We’re securing assistance from folks who are theologians and ethicists to find where the line is so we’re not arbitrary in our decisions.” Just as the reform campaign proliferated on the blogosphere last summer, Matt Cato was hired to head the Portland Archdiocese Office of Justice and Peace, which administers the local CCHD funding process. With his appointment in August 2009, the office merged with the archdiocese’s Respect Life Activities Office. By early December, CCHD informed Children First for Oregon that it would not be con­ sidered for future grants because of its 2006 opposi­ tion of a measure to require parental notification for minors seeking abortion. Cato said Children First has the support of the Archdiocese, but that the group could not receive CCHD funds. Children’s First advocates on behalf of children in foster care, living in poverty, those who need health care and those suffering from abuse or neglect. Children First declined to talk on the record about the situation, but Cato said it could not longer be funded by CCHD because of its opposition to the measure, even in cases of incest or abuse. “The bishops do not recognize any exception to abortion,” Cato says. Those are doctrinal objections for the Catholic Church. Cato says he has no contact with the groups attacking CCHD, but that he is familiar with the more political ideologies behind their motivation. “I’m not speaking for these organizations, but I do know that plenty of people are uncomfortable Issues when a group of low-income or poor persons have power,” Cato says. “So you have the power of money, which corporations have, and you have the power of people, which is what community organizing is. The power of people which needs to balance the power of money, and that’s what community organizing is about, and a lot of people are uncomfortable with the poor having the voice.” Subhead: ‘I’m not attacking social justice’ Stephen Phelan, communications manager with Human Life International, denies any political agenda to the reform movement. “It’s easy to confuse what we’re saying with a polit­ ical message,” he says “We’re not out to get anybody. We want to see real Catholic teaching take hold.” Phelan says that what has changed, from groups receiving years of funding from CCHD to being con­ sidered inappropriate and defunded, is the political backdrop. “I think when (CCHD) first started, it made more sense for Catholics to align with the more liberal (groups),” Phelan says. “The Democratic side of the coin was doing good work back then. It wasn’t all these other things - anti-marriage, abortion, and Marxism. So what’s happened in the last 40 years is the same groups that were once pretty cool to work with have gotten more radically political, and the CCHD has continued to work with them, and been opposed to the church on a lot of these issues. After a couple of decades, it’s like, really? What are you guys thinking?” Regardless of Phelan’s intentions or viewpoint, the criticism and condemnation of CCHD has for decades been framed by politics. In the 1980s and ’90s, former political appointees from the Nixon and Reagan administrations painted CCHD as a political arm of the liberal agenda. One appointee distrib­ uted a paper saying CCHD used Catholic money to prop up “leftist political activists plotting to destroy our economic system” and told Catholics to instead give their money to direct services. Others have said CCHD promotes a “political agenda far to the left of mainstream America.” Repeated attacks conclude that people should not give money to CCHD because its mission is not charity, but rather social justice. “I have gotten a lot of feedback from people who are both excited and angry about the research that I’ve done,” American Life League’s Hitchborn says. “It’s interesting. The people who write me that are angry say I can’t believe that you are arguing against the bishops. They don’t address the concerns. They say, ‘Why are you doing this? Why are you attacking social justice?’ I’m not attacking social justice.” A more recent voice to the opposition to CCHD has been Deal W. Hudson, the former director of Catholic outreach for George W. Bush’s 2000 and 2004 campaigns, and now the director of InsideCatholic. com. He has advanced the Reform CCHD Now, citing its defunding campaign in his writings online, and added among those to be defunded the attendees to the U.S. Social Forum 2010 that included workshops on reproductive and gay rights. “One criticism leveled at the CCHD Reform Now research is that it was alleging ‘guilt by association.’ But that misses the point completely,” Hudson writes. “The presence of 21 CCHD grantees at U.S. Social Forum isn’t problematic because grantees are keeping company with the wrong people, but because they’re actively participating in a forum designed ‘to set a national action agenda.’ Looking at the program, it’s safe to assume that the agenda includes the right to abortion and gay marriage, as well as a larger ideological commitment to various forms of Marxism – an ideology condemned by the Catholic Church.” The Catholic Media Coalition, another Catholic news source, for years has pushed to revamp CCHD, and calls for Catholics to boycott giving money to the charity because “the good groups funded by CCHD are not sufficient to balance the many evil groups supported, groups working for socialism by electing liberal politicians. CCHD helped to give us the radi­ cal, left-wing Congress we have today.” Compare that to celebrity pundit Glenn Beck, who told followers earlier this year that that if they find the words “social justice” or “economic justice” on their church website, to “run as fast as you can.” “Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes! … If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish,” Beck said. “One of the effects of this, too, is essentially these folks are saying to a new generation of Catholics who still believe in social justice that you’re not wel­ come here anymore,” Korzen says. “It’’ going to shift demographics, where folks who still believe in social justice are just not considering themselves Catholic anymore. I saw that growing up as an altar boy in Rhode Island. From the perspective of the Catholic community, which should be a diverse community across racial and cultural lines; I don’t want to be a part of a church that builds itself as an exclusive club. 7 It’s damaging to the church, as is any attempts to use Catholic teaching as a political battering ram. And we just see more of that every day.” Subhead: ‘You’ve got to draw a line’ Matt Cato with the Portland Archdiocese office of Justice and Peace and Respect for Life, says that the reform movement’s attacks on CCHD have not changed how they consider grantees. However, Cato says he has added a line to the local CCHD grant ap­ plication. “We still look at the same criteria,” he says. “It’s always been on the application do you act in accor­ dance of the teachings of the Catholic Church. I just added to that, ‘Can you tell me the ballot measures that you or your executive director has supported in the last five years?’ That was an easy one to have missed. It’s usually not on someone’s Web site.” The decision came after learning of Children First For Oregon’s position on Measuren 43. Still, Cato maintains that there are differences be­ tween material and proximate relationships between organizations that would determine if a group is eligible for funding. “There’s a point where you’ve got to draw a line. Just because the organization does this here or is as­ sociated with another organization, it doesn’t mean this organization is tainted,” Cato says. Planned Parenthood, however, is the exception. Since 2005 Street Roots has received $40,000 from CCHD for the newspaper, the Rose City Resource guide and for the eastside expansion to open a remote office for vendors. In all those years Planned Parenthood has been a part of its listings (prior to 2008, the Rose City Resource was included as a part of the newspaper). Likewise, Street Roots has always included information on organizations helping atrisk gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual youths and adults. Planned Parenthood is a “nuclear” red flag in the Catholic Church, Cato says. It is simply too hot to handle. “I’m not going to tell you how to run your busi­ ness. You guys do great work,” he says. “You make the decision in future resource guides to include that information or not, and if you include (Planned Parenthood), we can’t give you a CCHD grant.” Cato says there is room for working together, re­ gardless of whether CCHD is funding a program. “Jesus had dinner with the tax collectors, prosti­ tutes and sinners,” he says. “You just can’t completely separate your self with those you completely dis­ agree with. As Catholics, we’re called to evangelize, not preach to the choir.” (Street Roots has not been asked to return any funding from CCHD) “It’s disturbing that a small group of right-wing fringe elements within the Catholic Church are being successful at undermining the Catholic Campaign for Human Development’s work to address the root causes of poverty through promotion and support of community-controlled, self-help organizations and through transformative education,” says Street Roots Executive Director Israel Bayer. “At the end of the day, a witch hunt is a witch hunt, and that’s exactly what Street Roots and dozens of community organizations working to fight poverty in the United States are facing, a witch hunt born out of fear and intolerance. And let’s be clear, this is far from over. Every group that currently receives funds from CCHD is being asked to not take part in activities, or align themselves with the very groups it will take to dismantle poverty in this country. In our case, the very tool is the Rose City Resource guide. The guide gives people experiencing homelessness and poverty a chance to become their own advocates through education, and now it’s being used against us because we have chosen to deliver to people, without judgment, the resources that are available to them in our community. “Saying that, we’re not defeated,” Bayer says. “Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that one of the groups defunded in this fiasco was a community newspaper like Street Roots that takes its journalism seriously enough to tell the whole story, and get it out to the broader public for a larger debate.” For years the Catholic Campaign for Human De­ velopment supported the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, ACORN. However allegations against various ACORN franchises in 2008 and 2009 turned the nationwide communityorganizing group into a pariah, and CCHD cut off all funding for ACORN organizations, locally and na­ tionally. ACORN was recently acquitted in New York of any wrongdoing surrounding the pimp/prostitu­ tion videotape scandal, the most salacious accusa­ tions against an ACORN franchise. Originally published by Street Roots, USA. © www. streetnewsservice.org �8 News STREETVIBES November 15-30, 2010 Confronting the School for Terrorists ­ Thousands killed with U.S. help By Janice sevre-dusZynska Contributing writEr N ovember is an important month for people of faith who observe Nov. 1 as All Saints Day and Nov. 2 as All Souls Day. November is also an important month for the grassroots effort to challenge our government to realign its priorities to the needs of the people: Reduce the $864 billion now spent annually for the U.S. military budget and the 1,500 U.S. military bases throughout the world. November is a busy month for those with peace and justice ministries. The weekend before Thanksgiving, Nov. 18-21, thousands of people of all ages and walks of life from across the country and world will gather at the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus, Ga. The annual witness is a transformational expe­ rience as we chant a litany of our Latin American brother and sister saints: the infants, toddlers, children, teenagers, the mothers and fathers, grandmas and grandpas who were slaughtered during the El Mozote massacre by those trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA). Holding high our white crosses, which stand for the life and death of another human being, we re­ member them as we sing “Presente.” We recognize the blood on our own hands and join in solidarity to vigil in prayer, witness by our presence and do nonviolent civil disobedience to close this school for terrorists in our own backyard. ning Road. The School of the Americas (in 2001 renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) has trained over 65,000 Latin Ameri­ can soldiers. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders and others who work for the rights of the poor. The cost to U.S. taxpayers: millions of dollars. In 2000 alone the figure was more than $22 million. “There is an atrocious history of colonial­ ism, slavery, war, racism and exploitation in the Americas,” Bourgeois says. “Five hundred years ago, colonial powers depended on the brutal military repression of the conquistadors to ex­ ploit the wealth of Latin America. The conquest continues today as the region’s highly profitable natural resources are extracted by multinational corporations with little or no benefit returning to the people in the surrounding communities. And, as in the colonial era, military force is still used to control the people of Latin America.” Examples abound. They include Columbia, Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicara­ in Bogota, Pope Paul VI made the first papal visit to the New World and addressed the landowning audience, calling them to conversion: “What can I say to you, men of the ruling class?” he said. “What is required of you is generosity. This means the ability to detach yourselves from the stability of your position, which is a position of privilege, in order to serve those who need your worth, your culture, your authority ... “You, lords of this world and sons of the Church, you must have the genius for virtue that society requires. Your ears and your hearts must be sensi­ tive to the voices crying out for bread, concern, justice and a more active participation in the direction of society.” In their final message, the bishops activated a “Church of the Poor,” committed to social jus­ tice in Latin American communities: “In many places in Latin America there exists a situation of injustice that must be recognized as institutional violence, because the existing structures violate people’s basic rights: a situation which calls for far-reaching, daring, urgent and profoundly in­ novative change.” The gathering at Medellin gave rise to a “Theol­ ogy of Liberation.”In base communities, campesi­ ‘Theft from the poor’ As of February, 322 acts of nonviolent civil dis­ obedience have been committed by U.S. citizens to close the SOA. So far 297 people have served a total of 98.5 years in prison for “crossing the line at Fort Benning.” First-timers have been sentenced to three months in federal prison and fined. The second time it’s six months and a steeper fine. Activists have also served a total of 53.5 years of probation and home confinement. “The SOA is a symbol of death and suffering,” says the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, a Maryknoll priest of 38 years, former U.S. Naval Officer during the Vietnam War and Purple Heart recipient. “The school should not exist. It is a scandal, a theft from the poor. The millions of dollars of our taxpayer money to run the school should be directed to our schools for children.” In 1990 Bourgeois founded the School of the Americas Watch. He had worked with the poor in Bolivia for five years. There he learned how U.S. foreign policy supported military dictators in Latin America who have protected the interests of the wealthy and multinational global corporations – at the expense of the poor. He barely escaped the country with his life. This year is the 30th anniversary of modern-day saints and martyrs: Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who was gunned down while presid­ ing at Mass; the beatings, rapes and killings of the four American churchwomen in El Salvador, Maryknoll sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel of Cleveland and lay missionary Jean Donovan. It is also the fifth anni­ versary of the vicious murder in Amazonian Brazil of Dorothy Stang of Dayton, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Ford and Clarke were friends of Bourgeois. “These women and Romero are such an inspi­ ration to people of faith,” he says. “Adding to the pain of their deaths, it hurts even more to know that the guns used to kill them were given by the U.S. and that those responsible for their killings were trained by the SOA.” In many ways Romero and the women repre­ sent the thousands upon thousands of innocents – unnamed saints and martyrs we will never know, yet who are remembered as we vigil on Fort Ben­ SOA Watch has been calling for the closing of the school of Americas for the past 20 years. Robert Pohowsky. gua and El Salvador. ‘Lords of this world’ During the 1980-1992 conflict in El Salvador, more than 75,000 peasant campesinos were tor­ tured, mutilated and assassinated by the armed forces funded by the United States. government. Under presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Rea­ gan, the U.S. government’s foreign policy spent millions of dollars to supply weapons to the brutal Salvadoran military, which protected the few rich and powerful landowners at the expense of the majority of the peasants. The latter were labeled “communists” by the wealthy ruling class because they sought agrarian and economic reform. The people were led by Jesuit priests who abandoned their comfortable lives as intellectuals and went into the countryside to share the lives of the peasants. The first to do so was Rutilio Grande, a Salvadoran Jesuit whose life was altered by the Conference of Medellin. The bishops of Latin America gathered in Me­ dellin, Columbia, in 1968 and did a dramatic turn­ around. For centuries they had supported the un­ just and deplorable status quo – which included the conquest and enslavement of the Indians. At Medellin, they changed their loyalty from oppres­ sor to the oppressed. As the conference opened nos studied Scriptures to help them name their suffering and oppression and to connect the deaths of their children from hunger with eco­ nomic injustice. Ana Carrigan described the situation in Salva­ dor Witness: The Life and Calling of Jean Donovan. “Priests who spoke out for the poor were tor­ tured and brutally murdered,” she wrote. “When Oscar Romero was appointed archbishop and head of the Salvadoran Church, those in power believed the triple alliance of the rich, the mili­ tary and the Church would return. Romero was perceived as a timid man and a traditionalist. However, as one after another of his priests were murdered, he underwent a conversion. When the body of his priest friend, Rutilio Grande, was found, he excommunicated the killers and held a funeral Mass in the Metropolitan Cathedral for the first Salvadoran martyr. A bond and a solidar­ ity evolved between the peasants and their church and their new national leader, whom they called Monsignor.” ‘Kingdom of violence’ “These days I have to walk the roads gather­ ing up dead friends, listening to the anguish of See Confronting, P. 10 �STREETVIBES November 15-30, 2010 9 Local News Blankets,Water and Other Bad Ideas Continued from page 1 is about.” But homeless camps are not the place to “see what homelessness is about,” ac­ cording to homeless advo­ cates, who point out that the great majority of homeless people don’t live outdoors. They stay in shelters or double up with family or friends. Moreover, some advo­ cates for homeless people are uncomfortable with the religious thrust of this kind of volunteering. But Annette Melk, who organized the Oct. 9 cleanup, said her group doesn’t push religion on homeless people. “We build personal rela­ tionships with the homeless, encourage them and build friendships with them,” she said. “We don’t push church on them. If they want to pray with us, we pray with them.” John 15:12 Ministries visits homeless camps to provide rides to church for those who want to attend. The volun­ teers provide a variety of other services as well. “John 15:12 Ministries is heavily involved with the homeless,” Melk said. “Our founder is down at the homeless camps several times a week. We do wa­ ter runs numerous times a week, and they give us the jugs back. We take firewood in winter. Someone just donated 72 blankets. I just got off the phone with a guy who has 12 tents.” That is the problem, according to some people who work to get homeless people out of camps and into treatment and housing. While firewood and blankets have obvious benefits for people living outdoors, what’s really needed is housing. Some homeless people have addictions, and others have mental illnesses. If they are comfortable outside, the argument goes, the incentive to get treatment and housing might be lessened. “I want people to continue helping,” says Lea Drury, an outreach worker with Lighthouse youth Services. “However, there is a fine line between helping and enabling, and we all need to work toward being on the same page.” Lighthouse, Programs to Assist in the Transition from Homelessness (PATH) and other programs in Cincinnati send trained outreach workers to find people staying outdoors and connect them to professional services. Religious volunteers would be more helpful if they collaborated with the professionals, according to Josh Spring, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. When homeless people set up camps, they are sometimes treated as criminals. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier. “We want to see collaboration between the people who are doing this every day and volunteers that feel a call to do this,” he says. “If a group is going out and visits a camp and one of their new friends says, ‘I have this issue, and I’m ready to do something,’ we want those volunteers to call PATH. We want everyone working together, having their own role, getting everyone connected to the bigger picture.” ‘We don’t ask’ That kind of collabora­ tion hasn’t been achieved yet. Earlier this year Melk attended a meeting of the Homeless Outreach Group, made up of social workers, advocates and police officers who specialize in working with homeless people who live outdoors. The meeting didn’t go as planned. Melk said John 15:12 Ministries protects the locations of homeless camps, knowing that publicity can lead to hate crimes, vandalism and assaults on the people who live there. She declined to tell Streetvibes the locations her group planned to visit Oct. 9. “We are going to the camps prior and let them know what we’re doing and ask if it’s OK to bring guests,” Melk said. “We definitely are going to respect their wishes and get their permission.” Having asked residents’ permission, Melk later invited a reporter to join the volunteers, but Streetvibes declined. Thee kinds of precautions Melk described only go so far. After the Oct. 9 cleanup, John 15:12 Ministries posted photographs of its project on Facebook. Several of the photos make the location of homeless camps easy to identify. Melk said the volunteers don’t ask homeless people about any criminal records they might have. “We just go out and hang out with them,” she said. “We are more concerned with being a friend – not judging them, not holding anything in their past against them.” Open-mindedness can lead to unexpected trouble, however. When Melk met with the Homeless Outreach Group, she showed slides of her group’s work. She told the social workers that some camp residents have visited the homes of volunteers. That elicited concern from the social workers. One told Melk that a photo showed her client and asked if Melk knew the person is a former sex offender. “We don’t ask about that,” Melk reportedly said. “We just trust God.” Faith is generally considered a virtue. But without knowing a person’s behavioral or mental-health problems, are the church volunteers putting people at risk? Melk left the outreach meeting in tears, according to several people who were present. Spring and Drury say they both welcome the assistance of religious people and other volunteers but want to make sure the assistance is actually helpful. “I value all people with a passion for helping homeless folks in Cincinnati,” Drury says. “On a monthly basis homeless outreach service providers come together to discuss what’s working and what’s not. We are trying to ensure our efforts are focused on guiding a person out of homelessness when that is their goal. That being said, I’m concerned that going into camps and removing trash may be less than helpful to our struggle. I would like to see faith-based outreach groups in collabo­ ration with us in an effort to end homelessness.” Caroling at the camps Its work with homeless people has given John 15:12 Ministries a certain kind of street sense. Organizers warn volunteers, for example, to be wary of the kind of help they give. In an e-mail, Kathy Casper, the group’s founder, described a request that was not granted. “There is a fine line between helping and en­ abling,” Casper wrote. “We want to help and be good stewards of God, but yet not enabling. That is a hard one to explain and comes with experience. Just keep in mind, when visiting with the camps, you do not need to give them everything that is asked of you (and they will ask). Example: this week­ end one asked someone in my group for a ride to the store. He said, ‘Sure! Annette will take you.’ … When I asked what was needed, she wanted beer. I then told her no, we do not do beer runs.” The proof of the ministry’s value is in the lives that have changed, according to Melk. “We have several transfor- mation stories of people who have moved on and are now leading productive lives,” she said. Casper raved about the good that was done Oct. 9. “The impact of what took place that day cannot be put into words,” she wrote. “People who have never been to the camps or even around the homeless were out socializing in the camps as well as picking up trash. The experience was greater than just picking up trash. It provided those our society deem unworthy with dignity, a sense of self-worth and the knowledge that people do care.” Spring, however, says the problem of homelessness is more complicated than untrained volunteers appre­ ciate. “The complicating factor for me is we’re taught to do all this in a professional format,” he says. “Then what is the role for people who want to do something but don’t have that training? At the coalition, our position is they should be on the front lines, advocating for change. But some people prefer to work with individuals. “Each has a role. That’s why we need to figure out how these go together. It doesn’t make sense for both groups to work with the same people and have no connection. That just causes more confusion for the people we’re all trying to help.” Meanwhile John 15:12 Ministries is preparing for another visit to homeless camps – this time to sing Christmas carols. �10 News STREETVIBES November 15-30, 2010 Confronting the School for Terrorists ­ Continued from page 8 widows and orphans and trying to spread hope, “ Romero said. In his weekly homilies, which were broadcast on radio throughout the country, he named what he saw as the root of evil of Salvadoran brutality. “Among us there are those who would sell the just man for money and the poor man for a pair of sandals; those who, in their mansions, prac­ tice violence and accumulate plunder; those who crush the poor; those who bring the kingdom of violence closer while they lie upon their beds of ivory; those who take over house upon house and field upon field until they appropriate the whole territory, and remain sole owners of the country. “That is why we have denounced what in our country has become the idolatry of wealth, of the absolute right, within the capitalist system, of private property, of political power in the national security regimes, in the name of which the inse­ curity of the individual is itself institutionalized. No matter how tragic it may appear, the Church, through its entrance into the socio-political world, has learned how to recognize, how to deepen its understanding of the essence of sin. The fun­ damental essence of sin in this world of ours is revealed as the death of Salvadorans; and the worst offense against God is to turn the children of God, temples of the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ in history, into victims of oppression and injus­ tice, into slaves to economic greed, into fodder for political repression.” Romero urged journalists to be clear and objec­ tive about what was happening in the country, as he had heard reports from abroad that gave a false picture of the truth. In his weekly broad­ casts he read the names of those who had been slaughtered that week, their villages and where their body pieces were found. Once “disappeared,” they never existed, according to the military, who threatened to kill anyone who came near the newly tortured and decaying bodies found every morning in the streets. Applauded by the poor wherever he went, he was the only dissenting voice willing to name and clear up the confusion, willing to release the anguish of the widowed and orphaned. He also learned he was on the death squads’ hit list. A singularly brave and prophetic dissenting voice despised by the military, Romero’s words ring true today: “Because the Church has opted for the real and not for the fictitious poor, because it has opted for those who really are oppressed and repressed, the Church lives in a political world, and it fulfills itself as Church also through politics. It cannot be otherwise if the Church, like Jesus, is to turn itself toward the poor.” ‘Stop the repression’ In February 1980 Romero wrote to President Jimmy Carter and read the letter from the pulpit: “Mr. President: “In recent days, a report has appeared in the national press which has greatly disturbed me. Marchers carry symbolic caskets, memorializing victims of U.S. foreign policy. Robert Pohowsky. According to the article, your administration is studying the possibility of backing the present government junta and giving it economic and military aid. “Because you are a Christian and have said that you want to defend human rights, I take the liberty of expressing my pastoral point of view on this matter and of making a specific request. “The information that the United States govern­ ment is studying ways in which to build up the armaments of El Salvador greatly disturbs me. Re­ portedly, you plan to send military equipment and consultants to train three Salvadoran battalions in logistics, communication and intelligence. If in fact this information is correct, the contribution of your government will do nothing to support greater justice and peace in El Salvador. Without doubt, it will intensify injustice and the repression of the organized people who have fought, so many times, for their fundamental rights. … As a Salva­ doran, and as the archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador, I have the obligation to see to it that faith and justice reign in my country. There­ fore, if you truly want to defend human rights, I urge you: “– To prohibit the sending of military aid to the Salvadoran government. “– To guarantee that your government will not intervene, directly or indirectly, with military, economic, diplomatic or other pressure, to try to determine the destiny of the Salvadoran nation. “It would be a deplorable injustice if, through the introduction of foreign weapons and forces, the development of the Salvadoran nation was frustrated. Foreign intervention would suppress and impede the autonomous decision-making process already begun along appropriate econom­ ic and political lines.” The letter apparently had little effect, as the money was given. On March 23, 1980, the night before he was gunned down, Romero appealed to the conscience of the ordinary young peasant sol­ diers, the rank and file of the Salvadoran security forces. It is a famous homily that is known world­ wide and often quoted: “I would like to make a special appeal to the members of the army and specifically to the ranks of the National Guard, the police and the military. Brothers, each one of you is one of us. We are the same people. The peasants you kill are your own brothers and sisters. When you hear the voice of a man commanding you to kill, remember instead the voice of God: ‘Thou shalt not kill!’ God’s law must prevail. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. There is still time for you to obey your own conscience, even in the face of a sinful command to kill. “The Church, defender of the rights of God, of the law of God, and of the dignity of each human being, cannot remain silent in the presence of such abominations. “The government must understand that re­ forms, steeped in so much blood, are worthless. In the name of God, in the name of our tormented people whose cries rise up to Heaven, I beseech you, I beg you, I command you, stop the repres­ sion!” Janice Sevre-Duszynska is an ordained Roman Catholic woman priest and a former prisoner of conscience for School of the Americas Watch. For information on the School of the Americas Watch, visit www.soaw.org. �// I t2~.iNUAL PIN~~~[3~®[3~ @lfCTD~ ®[f)~ execxmve DIReCTORI OF OHO JUBTIOe a. POI.JOY oeNTeRI TIC~T PRilce: tso.oo t40 FORI MeMBeRS call PUJWHase ONUNe BT: www.mNmHOMeL.es8.0RG caN'T arreND? RaeRIVe a TaBLe FORI SPONSORI a HOMeLess INDMDUaL YOURI ORGaNIZaTION FORI IM386RIVaTIONS ORI ORI STRtJe1VIBeS veNDORI tso.oo DONaTION 1400.00 (IO Bem) &OLD LEVEL: •2500 ou!!~~~::!o~Rs. Investment Management. Anancial Planning. Since 1898. SILVER LEVEL: •1500 f ~2t!E~~2s~ COMMUNITY LEVEL: •500 XavleRI UNIVeRBrTY BILL & suzaNNe JOINeRI DOl«3eN QUINN TOM & CaTHY CRialN JOHN & FRiaNCle PePPeRI For questions or to become a sponsor contact Lynne Ausman (5 1s\'I 365-6958• 117 E• 121H St• CINCINNAfl~ OH 45202 Greater Cincinnati Coalition For The Homeless �12 Story STREETVIBES November 15-30, 2010 An Affordable housing Success Story ­ From Valley Homes to Villas of the Valley By Michelle dillinGhaM Contributing writEr O ne of the policy goals Affordable Hous­ ing Advocates (AHA) set for 2010 was to increase the amount of affordable housing. Un­ fortunately, we have found many of our advocacy efforts have been directed simply towards trying to preserve the affordable units we have. Kelan Craig of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio chairs a recently created Preservation Subcommittee for AHA, which meets to discuss affordable-housing preservation issues, specific buildings of interest and strategies for preserving at-risk properties. He recently posted an article on the AHA Listserv called “Neighbor­ hood Stabilization Program (NSP): Innovative Development Strategies for Very Low-Income Housing,” published by the National Housing Law Project. Based in Oakland, Calif., the National Housing Law Project was established in 1968. It publishes research on housing law and policy is­ sues, and its mission is to advance housing justice for low-income people. The article highlights the Valley Homes Housing in Lincoln Heights as an example of innovative uses of Neighborhood Sta­ bilization Program funds. In response to the nation’s foreclosure crisis, Congress signed into law the Housing and Eco­ nomic Recovery Act in 2008. Title III of that act created the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) and granted $3.92 billion dollars for emer­ gency assistance to states to redevelop abandoned and foreclosed homes. The Recovery Act added an additional $2 billion in NSP funds, known as NSP2, which was allocated using a competitive grant process. One rule of using NSP funding is that grant recipients must put 25 percent of their funds into uses that actually result in housing units to be occupied by very low-income households. When I worked at City Hall, a member of Cincinnati City Council suggested NSP funds be used to build a new police station in Price Hill. Of course, the ad­ ministration informed him this was not an allow­ able use of the money. Hamilton County is using NSP funds for the demolition and re-development of Valley Homes Housing in Lincoln Heights. The new housing de­ velopment will be named, “Villas of the Valley.” Valley Homes was built as a temporary home for African-American workers at the Wrights Aero­ nautical Plant during World War II and was only meant to house families for six years. Fifty build­ ings were built in townhouses made up of four to eight units, which totaled about 300 homes. In 1953 a residents’ cooperative purchased Valley Homes from the federal government. The National Housing Law Project publication provides a very informative and detailed account of the Valley Homes history and the subsequent events leading to the NSP funding to re-build Valley Homes. I found this history intriguing and I encourage Streetvibes readers to read the full report. For brevity’s sake, we fast-forward to 2005, when the cooperative owed more than $200,000 in utility bills and the complex’s garbage service was cut off for non-payment. With the help of the Le­ gal Aid Society, a low-income developer took over management and worked with the Model Group, which agreed to redevelop Valley Homes by utiliz­ ing NSP funds to provide critical gap-funding. When Phase I is completed, Villas of the Val­ ley will be 42 two-bedroom cottages for seniors. Thirteen of these will be for very low-income households. Phase II will be 35 townhomes with no age limits, five multi-family units and three or four single-family homes that will be available for purchase. Interestingly the article notes the original design included more units that would have included 65 senior accessible cottages. This new configuration required the approval of the zoning commission, but two of the seven members of the zoning commission refused to meet to approve this plan, so the developer was forced to move forward with a reduced plan of 42 accessible units. Again political resistance to the development of low-income housing development rears its ugly head. Success in the case of Valley Homes is attributed to the developer’s initiating a series of community meetings and showing integrity throughout the process, thereby earning public trust. It also dem­ onstrates the incredible tenacity needed. In order for this all to work, the developer had to pull to­ gether NSP funding along with a half-dozen other funding sources. Cobbling together enough fund­ ing to support affordable housing development can be extremely complicated, but it is possible. For more information, visit the National Hous­ ing Law Project at www.nhlp.org. For a link to the NSP article, contact Michelle Dillingham, AHA project coordinator, at mdmswlsw@hotmail.com. Cartoon by AnnE SkovE facebook.com/streetvibes cincinnati twitter.com/ street­ vibesnews streetvibes.wordpress.com �13 Columns STREETVIBES November 15-30, 2010 The World’s Common Bond ­ Alex Carruthers reveals the coolest thing ever By ariana shahandeh Contributing writEr Alex Carruthers is a Cincinnati solo musician, along with being a fourth of the band The Retros, founded by Mia Carruthers, a graduate of the School for the Creative and Performing Arts and member of the cast of MTV’s Taking the Stage. He spoke with Streetvibes about the band’s search for a label, his love for music and Cincin­ nati. Has the band spoken to a label? “We’ve only talked to one. We’ve only talked to Univer­ sal. Right now we are get­ ting our electronic press kit together, and then we’ll send it out to masses and see what we get back from that. We are just basically trying to get someone to fund our next record because we did the first one by ourselves and we can’t afford to do it again. “When we talked to Uni­ versal – they function to do whatever the artist needs them to do. So if we said, ‘Hey we need a producer, and we want you to handle everything. We just want to play the songs. We don’t even care if we write them.” Or (we) could be like Jack Johnson – he just sends them a master copy and says, ‘Here is my masterpiece.’ And (Universal will) just do it. That’s what we’re looking for.” Crosstalk about Cincin­ nati being “boring” … “People always say that, but I disagree. Cincinnati is a cool town. There’s always stuff going on around town. I have so much passion for Cincinnati. When people move, they miss their Skyline, their Graeter’s. When I was gone for two years, I would just mention to a random person, ‘Oh what I would do for a coney right now.’ They would say, ‘We’ve got the cans.’ But it’s not the same. I love Cincinnati. It’s where I grew up. “I call it a bite-size city. It’s small, especially compared Alex Carruthers at the Mad Hatter. James Zanoni. to big cities. The music scene is decent for the size of the city that we have. There is lots of (music) going on, different genres. It’s not like Chicago, where there are lots of bands that sound like they are from Chicago. I don’t think there is a Cincinnati sound, which is cool. And that’s also something that is still up for grabs, which is interesting to me as well.” I’m sensing some competi­ tiveness. “Oh there is always competition, and I’m very competitive in nature. But that’s the thing I love about music: There is no competi­ tion, there is only collabora­ tion. How can you be better than another band? There is no scale or judging, you can’t win a championship for being in a band. It’s either you create great music and you entertain people or you don’t. You get to that level where you get paid to do it, and then that’s it. “It’s all about doing what you love. I’ve gotten a lot of comments about that. I play in a ballgame with Seth and a couple of my friends. Some guys I went to high school with are on the team, and I haven’t seen them in years. They are like, ‘What are you doing?’ ‘I’m playing music.’ And they (say,) ‘I’m work­ ing at AT&T’ or whatever. During one of our games, (someone says,) ‘Nobody gets to do what they want at this age, except for Alex.’ I was like, ‘What?’ ‘Yeah, you are the only one that gets to do what they love.’ That’s cool, that’s really special. I think I don’t have as much money as I’d like to have and everything set up ideally. But the fact that I can get up every day and come to work and absolutely love it. When I play (solo, acoustic) gigs, I just people-watch the whole time – pick up on what songs they might like just by looking at them. With time, you get good at that. You learn a lot about people without ever talking to them. Having them listen to my music, I understand a little bit about them.” What is something you have the most doubt over? “That’s a tough question. You put me on the spot. I don’t know … maybe time? In that, this is a young man’s game. I’m not old by any stretch of the word, but I look at my band, like Mia (Carruthers) and Seth (Ewing Huff ), and they are three or four years younger than me. I fear and doubt that I’ll WANT MORE STREETVIBES? get too old before something may happen.” How old is too old? Your dad (Dan Carruthers is also a musician and the band’s manager) is gong to be pissed when he hears that. “My dad still says the same thing. He’ll (say,) ‘Aw, I’m too old.’ I know that he’s not. That’s the thing that’s cool about music, that you can never be too old, as long as your fingers can move and your voice can sing and your brain can think in a musical way. It’s based on old hearing; you can be deaf and still play music. That’s why I have on the back of my business card, ‘Music is the world’s common bond.’ ” Coincidentally, I can agree. “I truly believe that. I can go anywhere in the entire world and play a song that has rhythm and that has a refrain, and anybody that has heard anything like that can understand: ‘Oh, I understand that he is playing music, by the rhythm and the beat.’ Or by the sound of the guitar, or whatever they might be able to understand and recognize, and I think that is the coolest thing ever.”  | CHECK OUT THE STREETVIBES BLOG http://streetvibes.wordpress.com �Story & Poetry Corner 14 I Am Elisa STREETVIBES November 15-30, 2010 Anthony Williams Art By elisa hill I am Elisa! But, in my family I’m known as the darkest grape on the vine. I am the one who is always willing to forgive all the unkind. They refuse to see me as being dark and truly lovely. They just don’t know that I am one of Gods special angels, yes one of many. I am Elisa! I have survived the hurt, pain, rape and despair. My God has blessed me with this poetry light so beware. I am thriving because of the unconditional love in my heart. I am Elisa! The precious one who after attempting suicide God gave me a second start. I know in this life that I am the one to take this stance. I am Elisa! Yes! I may be called crazy but I am beautifully cool with a great style just by chance. I want to be today’s Mya walking that mile with Gods hand. So who do I think I am, you ask? I am Elisa, a poet here and now! So joyfully I can smile and say with a great strength and determination. World, I am Elisa and my time is now! Believe It By willa d. Jones Believe it when you see someone bundle up sleeping in the street Believe it when you see someone looking in the garbage for food to eat Believe it cause all of these things are real and none are made up Believe that there are many men, women and children who are down on their luck Believe that with the economy all twisted and headed straight to hell Believe that there are many who just give up, commit suicide or take leave for a jail cell Believe that, to the homeless, jail with three hot meals, cell buddies for friends and a cot Believe to some may mean nothing but to the homeless means one hell of a lot Believe with faith all things are possible for all including you and me Believe in God, have faith and pray then change will come all you have to do is believe Achilles heel By Josh Mcconnell Love, is my Achilles’ heel. Another night of lonely glow of sorrow that breaks my spirits shine. Like a poisonous arrow to the foot, I take a tender heart into a whirlwind of oblivion, Round and round it goes as the hole of agonizing pain settles in and grows wider and Deeper as I sink deeper into the core like clock-work. I can’t go backwards, can’t go forward and I cannot stay in neutral, I am in a dilemma, a state of discombobulation. They say love is blind, beautiful, strong and forever, but never did they say that love is Also hard work, stressful, frightening and sometimes torture. When you know in your heart the love you feel is the love that’s real, love can save you Make you strong and righteous, love can at the same time make you weak, Love can destroy you and love can also be your Achilles’ heel too! Reclaim Your Dignity… Reclaim Your Voice A HUMAN RELATIONS SUMMIT 5:30 – 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18 at Cincinnati City Hall, 3rd floor Featured speaker: Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow Panel discussion Sponsored by Cincinnati Human Relations Commission, the Amos Project, Faith Community Alliance of Greater Cincinnati and the Ohio Justice and Policy Center Cleo’s Joke Corner A preacher and his son were walking by a gravestone. The gravestone said, “Where you are, I once was. Where I am, you’re going to be.” The preacher took a crayon from his son and wrote on the gravestone, “To follow you, I am content. But I don’t think I will, because I don’t know where you went.” �Shelter: Women and Children Central Access Point Cincinnati Union Bethel St. Francis Soup Kitchen Churches Active in Northside FreeStore/FoodBank 557-2873 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 4230 Hamilton Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45223 241-1064 112 E. Liberty Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 1841 Fairmount Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45214 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 762-5660 271-5501 4600 Erie Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 St. Vincent de Paul 6037 Cary Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45224 Salvation Army 535-2719 591-2246 381-SAFE 768-6907 300 Lytle Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Bethany House 562-8841 872-9259 Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 5 E. Liberty St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 Health Resource Center Homeless Mobile Health Van McMicken Dental Clinic 357-4602 352-2902 352-6363 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mental Health Access Point Mercy Franciscan at St. John 558-8888 981-5800 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 NAMI of Hamilton County PATH Outreach 1125 Bank Street, Cinti, Ohio 45214 131 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 15 resources STREETVIBES November 15-30, 2010 458-6670 977-4489 Treatment: Men Other Resources Shelter: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 2121 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Prospect House 241-0490 381-4941 Starting Over 1419 Elm Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 682 Hawthorne Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45205 Justice Watch St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 961-4663 Treatment: Both 761-1480 1821 Summit Road, Cinti, Ohio 45237 Drop Inn Center 721-0643 Interfaith Hospitality Network Lighthouse Youth Center (Youth) 471-1100 221-3350 3330 Jefferson, Cinti, Ohio 45220 Housing: CMHA Excel Development OTR Community Housing 721-4580 632-7149 381-1171 114 W. 14th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tender Mercies 721-8666 27 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tom Geiger House Dana Transitional Bridge Services Volunteers of America Anna Louise Inn 961-4555 751-0643 381-1954 421-5211 621-5300 961-1983 OTR: 1620 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert, Cinti, Ohio 45206 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 1730 Race Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 351-0422 381-6672 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. Cinti, Ohio 45214 Goodwill industries Healing Connections Mary Magdalen House 771-4800 751-0600 721-4811 241-2965 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 1522 Republic Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Hamilton County ADAS Board 946-4888 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 641-4300 Advocacy Catholic Social Action Community Action Agency Contact Center 421-3131 569-1840 381-4242 1227 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Food/Clothing Lord’s Pantry OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry AA Hotline CCAT Joseph House (Veterans) 217 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 381-0111 1223 Main St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 2728 Glendora Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45209 Caracole (HIV/AIDS) 621-5514 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 961-4080 Peaslee Neighborhood Center Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart First Step Home Anthony House (Youth) 241-2600 241-2563 214 E. 14th St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 661-4620 Shelter: Both Center Independent Living Options Emmanuel Community Center 1308 Race St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 961-2256 Treatment: Women 1437 Walnut Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mt. Airy Shelter 921-1613 St. Raephaels Salvation Army Serenity House Day Center Open Door Pantry 863-3184 863-1445 422-8555 868-3276 Northern Kentucky Brighton Center 859-491-8303 799 Ann St. Newport, KY Franciscan JPIC Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 721-4700 421-7803 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. Legal Aid Society Ohio Justice & Policy Center Faces Without Places Stop AIDS 579-8547 241-9400 421-1108 363-3300 421-2437 Health Center for Respite Care Hamilton/Middletown ECHO/Hosea House 859-261-5857 Fairhaven Resuce Mission 859-491-1027 Homeward Bound Youth 859-581-1111 Mathews House 859-261-8009 Homeless & Housing Coalition 859-727-0926 Parish Kitchen 859-581-7745 Pike St. Clinic 859-291-9321 Transitions, Inc 859-491-4435 Welcome House of NKY 859-431-8717 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 621-1868 3550 Washington Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45229 Women’s Crisis Center VA Domiciliary VA Homeless 859-491-3335 859-559-5011 859-572-6226 �16 Column STREETVIBES November 15-30, 2010 Drawing for Peace ­ Steve Sunderland’s artistic vocabulary By saad Ghosn Contributing writEr “A question always haunts me: What am I doing for peace?” says Steve Sunderland, an artist, writer and professor of social work at the University of Cincinnati (UC). Sunderland is the director of “Peace Village,” a healing educational organization he founded after the 2001 Cincinnati riots and the 9/11Trade Center attack; it uses art, music, conferences and various creative means to heal from violence and promote inner and social peace. Sunderland actually has done and daily does a lot for peace. Growing up in New York City in the 1950s and ’60s, early on he developed good organizing skills that found him an important player in many social justice and liberation movements. As a college student he was actively involved in the hunger program for Mississippi, the Civil Rights Movement in Washington, D.C., desegregation and setting up a union for graduate students at Indiana University/ Bloomington, promotion of student academic freedom of speech under the American Students Organization and development of compassionate and inclusive means to fight anti-Semitism as part of the National Training Laboratories. After graduating from Case Western Reserve University with a Ph.D. in organizational behavior and administration, his energy focused on desegregating higher education. He functioned as vice president of the Master Plan at City University in New York City, helping integrate 25,000 African-American and Hispanic students based on open-admissions policy. Then, until the 1977 recession, he was head of a small college for African-American and underprivileged individuals in New York, pulling them out of welfare and enrolling them into a master’s degree program that combined study and work. This is when he moved to Cincinnati to join UC, initially as dean of the College of Community Services, then as a professor at the School of Social Work and lately at the School of Education. At UC he continued his activist work toward the integration of higher education. As an organizer, Sunderland followed in the steps of his father, a British im­ migrant, labor organizer and communist leader in New York City in the late 1930s. As an artist, Sunderland took his inspiration from his maternal aunt, a mentally handicapped artist whose beautiful paintings adorned the walls of his family house. For two years he attended the first public High School of Music and Art in the country, in the center of Har­ lem. Students of all ethnic backgrounds populated it, his first experience with real diversity. Sunderland, however, did not do art until he was in his sixties. Art came back into his life with the 2001 Cincinnati riots and the 9/11 attacks of the same year. Inspired by Jacob Lawrence’s documentation of Harriet Tubman’s and Frederick Douglass’s life stories on particleboards, he decided to use cardboards to document and reflect the events going on at the time. Armed with cardboards, markers and crayons, he mingled with the rioting crowds, watched, listened and drew mostly the faces and emotions of those present. He also involved his UC students, enrolled in a class on conflict resolution, to do the same. Witnessing the events through the faces and feelings of participants rendered on cardboard grew in scope and intensity, and Posters4Peace was born. Sunderland has since been using the technique non-stop. He drew people’s reactions to the 9/11 attacks. For the past nine years he has drawn the feelings of participants in a yearly Vietnam peace conference led by Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn; the conference includes Vietnam War vets, anti-war protesters and Vietnamese people, all gathered for healing and reconciliation. With students, Sunderland Steve Sunderland stands in front of Dreaming of College, his cardboard pastel drawing. (above) Photo by Saad Ghosn. What Is Inclusion, cardboard pastel drawing, by Steve Sunderland. (left) Photo by Saad Ghosn. draws scenes of hunger. With children, he draws events that affect them. He also draws themes of inclusion in the classroom, natural disasters such as the tsunami in Indonesia and earthquake in Haiti, wars and the misery of death. “I draw about the pain I encounter or experience, pain of those who want social justice, fairness, pain caused by poverty, loss of hope, no jobs, racism,” he says. “I draw mostly faces of people I meet. I draw them myself; also invite them, if willing, to partake in the activity. Afterwards we all share the images, discuss feelings and messages.” After the 2001 Cincin­ nati riots, when the city hired a consultant to mediate between police and the community, Sunderland was invited to join in to elicit police officers’ and citizens’ feelings about the violence. Drawing on cardboard, he prompted participants with two questions: “How do you feel about the riots? And what would your drawing of a healthy city be?” He obtained hundreds of response drawings that served as conversation starters to address the issues; they eventually contributed to a peace treaty with the police. After the 9/11attacks, drawings were reactions to the events, to the sense of impotence generated and to how to respond to the trag­ edy. With the Vietnam vets, they were about feelings of hurt, regret and anger. In all instances, Sunderland uses the drawings as vehicles for an immediate reflection on the problem addressed, an expression of his own reaction and feelings and those of others involved, everyone empowered and engaged in a dialogue for a peaceful resolution. “Art provides a vocabulary; it is a liberating activity,” he says. “It is also a communi­ cation tool that allows ex­ change of ideas, feelings. Art can plant a seed of compas­ sion and function as an in­ strument for peace. Drawing images and feelings, sharing and discussing them, break down artificial boundaries between individuals, lead them to a deeper apprecia­ tion of their humaneness.” Through Peace Village and with his students at UC, Sunderland has recently focused on inclusion, hunger and Islam. His drawing, What is In­ clusion, created in response to a conference of dis­ abled individuals, ponders whether there is room in our hearts for mixing people despite their disability – or only room for segregation. Dreaming of College is about the disabled student wanting to be in college but not in an isolated corner. Sunderland is also a writer who authors a regular col­ umn on peace in the month­ ly online Metro newspaper. “I want both my art and writing to be at the human level,” he says. “My work illuminates peace in some fashion, catching a look on the face of a person, a word or expression that throws light on justice – sketches of hope and compassion in a world that struggles to keep peace alive. I want my drawings to heighten reflec­ tion and action for and with others. Through art and con­ versation, I aim to rebuild the world of people caught in tsunamis of violence and despair, to signal the power­ ful inner spirit of love.” Artists as Activists is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati artists who use art as a vehicle for social change. Saad Ghosn is the founder of SOS Art. Ghosn can be reached at saad. ghosn@uc.edu. � 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 2010 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 November 1-14, 2010 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Blankets, Water and Other Bad Ideas On the Left Side of God Pg 2: Street Wise Pg 3: Beyond the Bootstraps Pg 4: Despair Takes a Young Man’s Life Pg 5: Domestic Violence in High Office Pg 6: On the Left Side of God Continued Pg 7: On the Left Side of God Continued Pg 8: Confronting the School for Terrorists Pg 9: Blankets, Water and Other Bad Ideas Continued Pg 10: Confronting the School for Terrorists Continued Pg 11: Annual Dinner Pg 12: An Affordable Housing Success Story Pg 13: The World’s Common Bond Pg 14: Arts & Poetry Pg 15: Resources Pg 16: Drawing for Peace 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 November 1-14, 2010 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Gregory Flannery Joseph Szydlowski Georgia Bohannon Michelle Dillingham Samantha Groark Margo Pierce Jeremy Flannery Michael Henson David Heitfield Corey Gibson Jeni Jenkins Saad Ghosn Lew Moores Larry Gross Eli Braun Jesse Call Michael Fanning B. Clifton Burke Carly Tamborski Aimie Willhoite Lynne Ausman Anne Skove Vinit Murthy Jon Hughes Brad Foster Jeremy Flannery Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Aimie Willhoite Alex Carruthers Anne Skove Arts & Poetry B. Clifton Burke Brad Foster Carly Tamborski Corey Gibson David Heitfield domestic violence Eli Braun Georgia Bohannon Gregory Flannery Jeni Jenkins Jeremy Flannery Jesse Call Jon Hughes Joseph Szydlowski Kevin Goodreau Larry Gross Lew Moores Lynne Ausman Margo Pierce Michael Fanning Michael Henson Michelle Dillingham politics Saad Ghosn Samantha Groark Schools Steve Sunderland Terrorists Valley Homes Vinit Murthy https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/9acc241b48ef67d24743fddae133f79d.pdf 6ef5f0fb2d238d321b1afc6f56da9e64 PDF Text Text Van Jones: Pg 8 An intimate conversation with a visionary for change Prison System Overhaul Pg 5 Feb. 15-28, 2011 • ADVOCATING JUSTICE Issue 193 • • One Dollar BUILDING COMMUNITY To so many African Americans, Cincinnati was a symbol of freedom, a place that once they reached their voices may finally be heard. We honor those who came before us; the brave men and women who made their ideas reality, who fought in the face of adversity, and those who dedicated their lives to equality. A Look at “the greatest local and political pioneer of race relations in the 20th century” Remembering the Legacy of Theodore Berry (1905-2000) By: Dr. Michael Washington Professor of history & Director of afro-aMerican stuDies, northern KentucKy university D uring the month of February, citizens of Cincinnati should take the time to honor and commemorate the extraordinary accomplishments of the greatest local and political pioneer of race relations in the 20th century, the Honorable Theodore M. Berry. After graduating class valedictorian from Woodward High School in 1924, Berry went to enroll in the University of Cincinnati, where he earned a law degree in 1931. A year later he was admitted to Ohio Bar and became the head of the Cincinnati Branch of the NAACP serving in that capacity until 1946.  In 1938 he was appointed the first black assistant prosecuting attorney for Hamilton County. His political career began in 1947, with an unsuccessful bid for City Council. Redemption came in 1949 when he won a Council seat and became chairman of the finance committee. From that position he led a controversial battle to create a city income tax.  In 1955, he was elected Vice Mayor of Cincinnati, which created fears among whites that he would become the first African American mayor to lead the city. That fear became real when almost two decades later in 1972, he was elected mayor of the city and served for four years. It is important for local citizens not to forget that Mayor Berry’s contributions to society are not restricted to the Cincinnati area but include the nation.  In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Berry to head the Office of Economic Opportunity’s Community Action Programs that included Head Start, Job Corps and Legal Services. Berry’s initiatives proved to be some of the most successful victories in President Johnson’s war on poverty. Source: www.libraries.uc.edu African American Achievements ­ B lack History Month originated in 1926 by Carter Godwin Woodson as Negro History Week. The month of February was chosen in honor of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, who were both born in that month. • C.B. Brooks invented the street sweeper in 1896. It was a truck equipped with brooms. • Henry Brown created what is now known as a “strongbox”, a metal container to store money and important papers that could be locked with a key. • Mark Dean along with his co-inventor Dennis Moelle created a microcomputer system with bus control means for peripheral processing devices. This invention allows the use of computer plug-ins like disk drives, speakers, scanners, etc... • African-American surgeon Charles R. Drew is often credited with the invention of the first large-scale blood bank. • Sarah E. Goode invented a bed that folded up into a cabinet in 1885. Contrary to popular belief, she was not the first African-American woman to receive a patent, but the second. • In 1899, African-American golf fan Dr. George Franklin Grant received a patent for the world’s first golf tee. Grant, however, never marketed his invention, instead giving the tees away to friends and fellow golfers. • Thomas L. Jennings was the first AfricanAmerican to receive a patent in 1821. It was for a dry-cleaning process in 1821. He used the money earned from the patent to purchase relatives out of slavery and support abolitionist causes. • Frederick Jones held over 60 patents, with most of them pertaining to refrigeration. His portable air conditioner was used in World War II to preserve medicine and blood serum. • Dr. Maulana Karenga created the AfricanAmerican holiday, Kwanzaa, in 1966. • History has credited Thomas Edison with the invention of the light bulb, but fewer people know about Lewis Latimer’s innovations toward its development. Until Latimer’s process for making carbon filament, Edison’s light bulbs would only burn for a few minutes. Latimer’s filament burned for several hours. • Joseph Lee invented a bread-making machine that mixed the ingredients and kneaded the dough in 1895. • John Love invented the pencil sharpener in 1897. • Thomas J. Martin patented a fire extinguisher in 1872. • Bridget “Biddy” Mason founded the First African Methodist Episcopalian church in Los Angeles. • Alexander Miles of Duluth, Minnesota patented an electric elevator in 1887 with automatic doors that would close off the shaft way, thus making elevators safer. • George T. Sampson invented a clothes dryer that used heat from a stove in 1892. • Radio personalities Hal Jackson and Percy Sutton co-founded the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation (ICBC). They also acquired WLIB, which became the first African-American owned and operated station in New York. • Joseph Winters invented a fire escape ladder in 1878. • Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall said he was punished for misbehavior in school by being forced to write copies of the Constitution. He said this later piqued his interest in politics. • Buffalo Soldiers is the name given to the allblack regiments of the U.S. Army started in 1866. More than 20 Buffalo Soldiers received the highest Medal of Honor for their service—the highest number of any U.S. military unit. The oldest living Buffalo Soldier, Mark Matthews, died at the age of 111 in 2005. • For a time during his youth, future politician Barack Obamareferred to himself as “Barry.” Barack Obama won Best Spoken Word Album at the Grammy Awards for the abridged audio book of his autobiography Dreams from My Father and the nonfiction work, The Audacity of Hope. • In addition to her career in Washington D.C., Condoleezza Rice is an accomplished pianist See Achievements, P. 3 �2 Editorial ­ BY ThE ­ NUMBERS ­ 1969 The year “Die Nigger, Die” was published. This was a powerful auto biography by H. Rap Brown who was a revolutionary in the Black Power Movement as chairman of SNCC and ex- officio member of the Black Panther Party. (Page 5) 7-4-2011 The national campaign called 1Voice. It is aimed at uniting communities and working towards lifting people out of poverty. (Page 8) 23 The numbers of years Caracole has been involved in the HIV/AIDS Community in Ohio. (Page 6) 14 Years to life, the sentence for being convicted of a homosexual act in Uganda. (Page 10) 16 The amount of years Thomas and Mary Chapman have been playing music in Over the Rhine on Sundays. (Page 14) 14 The age Martin Zeinway came to the United States from Liberia. (Page 16) Streetwise I tried several times to sit down and write an editorial. I had a bunch of ideas though none could justify the celebration of this month. As a white girl in my twenties I can respect the struggle but my words can never truly justify the emotions of a people who had to fight tooth and nail for equality. I received a submission from one of our distributors; I will let him give his opinion on Black History Month as my editorial. Love, Peace, Equality Jen Martin, Editor My Salute to Black history Month ­ lee Mccoy streetviBes DistriButor anD contriButing Writer Mom and Dad: I wish you could have been there to see it, a historic moment. I remember when I was a little boy, ya’ll used to tell me “A black man will never be president”, and you had me believing that I would never see this happen in my lifetime. You didn’t get to see it, but I did. January 20, 2007, I saw what you thought would never happen, it was unbelievable. I remember back in 1968, I was a teenager and Cincinnati was on fire after the assassinationof MLK. I believe the term was “burn, baby burn!” Word spread, no pun intended, like wild fire. They had killed our greatest leader, MLK. All of Avondale was on fire. You see back then it wasn’t black men, it was a nigger. Here was a man who was preaching a simple beliefthat one day a man will be judged not by the color of his skin and we will be free at last, free at last. And even as you read this, there is so much prejudice today. In any city there is a Justice Center. Or as anyone in any hood calls it, the “Just for us” Center. Our founding fathers came here with a constitution, even today it’s a joke. There is a different set of laws and it’snot justice for all. Those who can pay, they will go free. I don’t have the actual number but common sense will tell you that all across the greatcountry there are more black people locked up than whites. I gave you the law of the land, you do the math. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out. 2 + 2 is still 4, or is it? Only in America it could be something else. Let’s look at something, in my mind the greatest heroeswere the slaves captured by their own brothers for some promise and then imprisoned by the very ones they helped. Hauled away in the belly of ships, where so many died and became shark food, all in the pursuit of this ‘Great America’. Where their sweat blood and tears on their backs. I don’t have to tell you who I am talking about, even Stevie Wonder can see this. They came to a new country where they had to learn a new language and they were taught greed through one simple response, “Yes Master”. The greatest of these people were the black women, fareand fine. The master would take them and the women had no say in the matter. This countrypromised 40 acres and a mule, big shit. Did ithappen? I think not. One thing I don’t understand, Black History month is in the shortest month of the year. Come on America, don’t you know that Black people celebrate when it’s hot…when we can barbeque, fixin; greens, and corn bread. Where the scent of food is everywhere, I love that smell. While I am talking about love, I have to remember February is also the month of Valentine’s Day. Love is supposed to be in the air, cupid shooting his arrow. I hope he is a good match maker and not just shooting happy. STREETVIBES February 15-28, 2011 Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by people who are or once were homeless, in exchange for a $1 donation, Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Address: 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Phone: 513.421.7803 x 12 Fax 513.421.7813 Email: streetvibes2@yahoo.com Website: www.cincihomeless.org Blog: streetvibes.wordpress.com Streetvibes Staff Editor Jen Martin, jenmartin@cincihomeless.org Art Director Elizabeth Schulenberg Contributing Writers Jeni Jenkins, Saad Ghosn, Lee McCoy, Jen Martin, Jim Luken, Josh Spring, Willa Jones, Corey Gibson, Laura Osborn-Coffey, Catie Dargue, Malcolm O. Varner, Riccardo Taylor, Justin Jeffre, Joe Opio, Dr. Michael Washington Photography/Artwork Aimie Willhoite, Jeni Jenkins, Jim Luken, Saad Ghosn, Rob Vinit Murthy, Martin Zeinway The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati through coordination of services, public education, grassroots advocacy and Streetvibes. �3 Local Issue ­ STREETVIBES February 15-28, 2011 African American Achievements ­ Continued from page 1 who has accompanied cellist Yo-Yo Ma, played with soul singer Aretha Franklin, and performed for Queen Elizabeth II. A serious student, Condoleezza Rice entered college at the age of 15, and was an assistant professor at Stanford by age 26. • Before Branch Rickey offered future hallof-famer Jackie Robinson the contract that integrated professional baseball, he personally tested Robinson’s calm reactions to the racial slurs and insults he knew the player would have to endure. • After retiring from baseball, hall-of-famer Jackie Robinson helped establish the African-American owned and controlled Freedom Bank. • Reverend Al Sharpton preached his first sermon at the age of four, and toured with world-famous gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson. • Upon her death in 2003, singer Nina Simone’s ashes were spread across the continent of Africa, per her last request. • Phillis Wheatley was the first published AfricanAmerican poet with her 1774 collection, Poems on Various Subjects. In order to prove she was the author, she had to submit her work to examination by a group of Boston intellectuals, and defend her literary ability in court. • Before Forest Whitaker was a film star, he was accepted to the Music Conservatory at the University Of Southern California (USC) to study opera as a tenor. • NFL player John Williams competed in two Super Bowls before he quit the league to become a dentist. • Lewis and Clark were accompanied by York, a black slave, when they made their 1804 expedition from Missouri to Oregon. York’s presence aided in their interactions with the Native Americans they encountered. • The first major black super-hero, the Black Panther, made his debut in Fantastic Four No. 52 in July of 1966. • The banjo originated in Africa and up until the 1800s was considered an instrument only played by blacks. • According to the American Community Survey, in 2005 there were 2.4 million black military veterans in the United States -the highest of any minority group. • The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon honored Ira Aldridge with a bronze plaque. He is the only AfricanAmerican actor to receive this tribute. • BET was the first African-American controlled company to sell shares on the New York Stock Exchange. • In 1993, Maya Angelou recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration. She was the first poet to do an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost spoke for President John F. Kennedy in 1961. • Two years after she played the role of Dorothy Dandridge, the first African-American woman to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, Halle Berry actually became the first African-American woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress. • Dominique Dawes was the first AfricanAmerican to win an individual event medal in gymnastics. • In 1989, African-American David Dinkins, became the first non-white Mayor of New York City. • Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five became the first rap group to earn induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. • The first African-American woman to make it into the U.S. Cabinet was Patricia Roberts Harris, the 1977 Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. • Thurgood Marshall was the first AfricanAmerican to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. • Robert Robinson Taylor was the first professionally-educated black architect in the United States. • Booker T. Washington was the first AfricanAmerican invited to the White House. • On April 7, 1940, educator and author Booker T. Washington became the first African-American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp. • Oprah Winfrey became the first female U.S. billionaire in 2003. Street Life A Way of Life riccarDo taylor contriButing Writer h oW often Do We finD ourselves in a DileMMa, in Which We have no reaDy ansWers to correct or otherWise relieve ourselves froM? i WoulD suggest that in Most cases it is soMething that We never thinK aBout, yet there is a reality to its occurrence. often We encounter oBsta­ cles, or again DileMMas in our lives, anD We Put theM either asiDe, or on the BacK Burner, never seeKing relief or a reMeDy for the ProBleM, anD i WoulD suggest that it is inDeeD a ProBleM in Most instances. yet i finD it to Be in accorDance With the nature of Man to not vieW these occur­ rences as such. insteaD We looK uPon theM as just a MoMentary Delay, or MoMentary set BacK. hoWever, i realize that it is Much More than that, esPecially When the occurrence haPPens over anD over again! it BecoMes a Way to hanDle life’s situations, anD our Way of Dealing With aD­ versity. hoW easy is it for us to say that Was just one of the MoMents that We have to Deal With, insteaD of vieWing it for What it really is? Well, it’s just a way of life! Counting the up and downs as if they are equal. Taking everything in stride, as if the good and the bad are all one and the same. Some say it is what it is. Others just shrug and keep the step. Yet, for the majority of us it comes back to haunt us. Accepting things the way they are, when it’s not healthy or productive we tend to chalk it to the game. It becomes a way of life. To walk that walk or talk that talk, never looking ahead, or behind for that matter we tell ourselves, that’s life. Our reality is put on hold until the obscure takes its place and the whole thing is turned upside down. Life’s circumstances become a challenge beyond our ability to cope, so we just forge ahead with what ever comes along. It’s a way of life. So, in a Kafkvian way of thinking, does it appeal to the senses? The answer again lies in our perception. Is it a way of life, or perhaps the life of our ways? The unquestionable reality says that it is! As our perception goes so does our reality. Often we believe a thing, and it is our reality, yet there is another reality that says different. Knowing and respecting the difference is the key for understanding “a way of life”. The idea that our perceptions are different, and that our realities will be different is the crossroad that intercepts our contracts of community engagement. How easy is it for me to see that you are out of touch with the happenings, when you are thinking the exact same thing about me! So, as we both sulk in our own realities we search for ways and means to dislodge each other’s position. At odds with our ideas, concepts and realities we become unspoken enemies viewed with distrust and ambience towards one another we continue the charade of acceptance. It’s a way of life! Standing on one’s own principal, playing by one’s own rules giving no ground to the outsider, fraught with the suspicions, pressing the exclusion while giving that everlasting sneer concealed by a bright smile which says all are welcomed, but please don’t come. Riccardo Taylor Source: Aimie Willhoite �4 Local News ­ STREETVIBES February 15-28, 2011 Die Nigger Die! ­ Excerpts from the 1969 autobiography, Die Nigger Die! By h. raP BroWn M y first contact with white america was marked by her violence, for when a white doctor pulled me from between my mother’s legs and slapped my wet ass, I, as every other negro in america, reacted to this man-inflicted pain with a cry. A cry that america has never allowed to cease; a cry that gets louder and more intense with age; a cry that can only be heard and understood by others who live behind the color curtain. A cry? Or was it a scream? Whatever it was, we accepted it. I had been born in “america, the land of the free.” To insure my country’s freedom, my father was somewhere fighting, for this was a year of the second war to end all wars — World War II. This was October 4, 1943, and victory was in the air. The world would now be safe for democracy. But who would insure my freedom? Who would make democracy safe for Black people? America recognized long ago what negroes now examine in disbelief: every Black birth in america is political. With each new birth comes a potential challenge to the existing order. Each new generation brings forth untested militancy. America’s ruling class now experiences what Herod must have at the birth of “Christ”: “Go and search . . . and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.” America doesn’t know which Black birth is going to be the birth that will overthrow this country. The threat to america, however, does not exist in negro america, but rather as a result of negro america. If one examines the structure of this country closely he will note that there are three basic categories: they are white america, negro america, and Black america. The threat to the existing structure comes from Black america, which exists in contradiction to both white and negro america. It is the evolution of these contradictions that has given rise to the present revolutionary conditions. Revolution is indeed inevitable, and, as the cycle of change closes around america’s racist environment, the issue of color becomes more pertinent. Color is the first thing Black people in america become aware of. You are born into a world that has given color meaning and color becomes the single most determining factor of your existence. Color determines where you live, how you live and, under certain circumstances, if you will live. Color determines your friends, your education, your mother’s and father’s jobs, where you play, what you play and, more importantly, what you think of yourself. (Al-Amin, J., excerpt from chapter one). In and of itself, color has no meaning. But the white world has given it meaning — political, social, economic, historical, physiological and philosophical. Once color has been given meaning, an order is thereby established. If you are born Black in america, you are the last of that order. The biggest difference between being known as a Black man or a negro is that if you’re Black, then you do everything you can to fight white folks. If you’re negro, you do everything you can to appease them. If you’re Black, you’re constantly in and out of trouble, because you’re always messing with “the man.” If white folks say it’s more cultured to whisper, you talk loud. If white folks say gray suits are fashionable, you go buy a pink one. If they say america is great, you say america ain’t shit. Chairman Mao says, “Whatever the enemy supports, we oppose. Whatever the enemy opposes, we support.” I hadn’t read Chairman Mao when I was in high school, but I already understood that fundamental revolutionary principle. I knew white folks couldn’t do wrong right, so whatever they thought was good, I knew wasn’t. A lot of people, Black and white, have the impression that those of us who got involved in the Movement, when it started in 1960, were fighting for integration. That’s the way the white press interpreted the sit-ins and freedom rides and all that. But what they didn’t understand was that none of us was concerned about sitting down next to a white man and eating a hamburger. Anybody who thinks that is reflecting white nationalism. That’s that white supremacist attitude. Nothing is good unless it can be done in the company of white people. We would’ve been some kind of fools to get beaten up, spat on and jailed the way a lot of folks did just to sit down at a lunch counter beside a white person. Integration was never our concern. In fact, integration is impractical. You cannot legislate an attitude and integration is based upon an attitude of mutual acceptance and respect between two racial or cultural groups in the society. A law can govern behavior, but attitudes cannot be forced or enforced, and what the Civil Rights Movement was concerned with was controlling the animalistic behavior of white people. I resented somebody telling me I couldn’t eat at a certain place. It wasn’t that I wanted to eat there. Hell no! I always knew we had the best food anyway. But as part of that constant battle waged by Black people against white america, if white folks didn’t want me to eat there, in the door I went. If I had a free choice, I’d sit in the back of the bus. That’s where the heater is. We weren’t fighting for integration. We were letting white folks know that they could no longer legislate where we went or what we did. Every Black person belongs to the Movement, whether he’s been on a demonstration or not. The lives of Black people are political, because Black people carry on a constant war against “the man.” So I was political, even before I knew the word, but it wasn’t until I got into high school that I became involved in more overt political activities. (Al-Amin, J., excerpt from chapter five). SNCC, as an organization, had come into Alabama after the summer of 1964… People were sent in to organize Black voters. I went to work in the state in the fall of ‘66. The election was coming up… We had candidates running in Lowndes County, Dallas County, and potentially, Greene County, where I was working. However, in Greene County we would have to fight just to get the candidates on the ballot… At first, we just spent our time going to meetings and getting to know the people, just basic organizing. As it got closer to election time, we found out that the power structure didn’t have any intention of putting the Black candidates’ names on the ballot. So we began to talk about a “Freedom Election,” which would create a parallel government; Black people are 87% of the country. We were trying to get people to see that people are the real government. Establish your own government in opposition to this corrupt government and if it calls for a confrontation, be prepared for that… People began to dig the idea. So I drafted a letter to Johnson, the Attorney General, the Governor and the Attorney General of Alabama. And I told them that we, the Black Panther Party, were gonna hold freedom elections and boycott the regular election, because our candidates’ names would not appear on the ballot. It was surprising what started to develop then. The oldline negro leadership, the ministers, and even Mr. Gilmore, didn’t want to be labeled the Black Panther Party. Gilmore had some experience working with SCLC and he was still in that integration bag and he liked to take trips up north to talk to white folks and shit like that. But we were working with the poor people out in the community and were developing a base. We were gonna hold our own election and let the people decide who they wanted. One day, a week before the election, George Greene and I went downtown… While we were there they accused us of trying to steal a gun and arrested us for grand larceny. …It was just a way to get us out of action until after the election. They held us on $1,000 bond. While we were in jail, we saw in the newspapers that they had postponed the election as a result of the pressure that we had mounted in the community. They were claiming that the Freedom candidates had been nominated illegally, although Alabama has a law which says that they can be nominated by mass meeting. Getting the elections postponed was a victory for us. When we got back to Greene County, we found out that George Wallace said his wife had won every county but one — Greene County. No greater tribute could have been paid to our work than that. Wallace said that his wife lost Greene County because of the Black Power niggers over there. (Al-Amin, J., excerpt from chapter nine). Al-Amin, J. (1969, 2002). Die, Nigger, Die!. Lawrence Hill Books. These excerpts are drawn directly from chapters one, five and nine of Die Nigger Die!, an autobiography by H. Rap Brown who was a powerful revolutionary in the Black Power Movement as chairman of SNCC and ex-officio member of the Black Panther Party. Rap later changed his name to Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin and for years lead more than twenty-five Muslim groups in Atlanta, Georgia. He is now serving a life-sentence in prison after being convicted of murdering a sheriff’s deputy, a crime many believe he never committed and was in fact falsely convicted of as a means to imprison him. �STREETVIBES February 15-28, 2011 5 Local Issue Prison System Overhaul With a prison population that is housing 33% more inmates than it is designed to, legislators have taken it into their own hands to change the prison system. By corey giBson contriButing Writer A n overhaul of the Ohio prison system was set out earlier this month. The main goal of the new legislation is to manage the growth of the prison population, reduce spending on corrections, and improve the cost-effectiveness of existing criminal justice system resources and reinvest in strategies that can increase public safety. The new proposal contains elements, such as shortened sentences for inmates who complete certain programs. These new terms housing 33% more inmates than it is designed to, legislators have taken it into their own hands to change the prison system. Stephen JohnsonGrove, an attorney at the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, said the new legislation is going to increase safety, reduce prison overcrowding and saving the state over $42 million. “It saves money by reducing the ability of judges to put people in prison for low-level nonviolent offenses,” said JohnsonGrove. “Those include drug offenses, property offenses and reduce those offenses in varying ways.” State Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, who was enthusiastic about the new reform, spoke at a Statehouse news conference in the beginning of the month and introduced the legislation. “My mother used to tell me you can’t fit 10 pounds in a 5-pound bag. That’s what we’re trying to do in Ohio,” Seitz said. “The time for talk is over. No more sticking our heads in the sand.” Sen. Seitz previously tried to get the legislation passed last year but was turned down by the democrats. That legislation, called Senate Bill 22, sought to use state taxpayer dollars in a more efficient way. Some of the provision he set forth were “Locking up more and more people was not helping the problem. Incarceration was a bad choice.” would allow inmates time off their sentences and diverting first time property and drug offenders to probation or treatment and not prison. Proposals like this were rejected by voters in the past. By following the blueprint crafted by the Council of State Government’s Justice Center, the state is going to be able to cut back on the $8 billion deficit and start sending more money to education and medical priorities and out of the prison system. Two different ballots in the past 10 years that petitioned for prisoners to be given time off their sentence and treatment for incarceration, have been turned down by voters. But with a prison population that is raising the felony theft threshold from $500 to $1,000, increasing the potential number of credit days inmates can earn based on the type of offense, and give the Director of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation the authority to petition for an inmate to be released based on good behavior if the inmate has served at least 85% of the prison term. These provisions are going to be rolled in with the new legislation. Some of the key points in the new proposal are toughening sentences for the most serious and violent crimes, studying better methods of restitution payment to victims, and offering counties $2,000 for each person on felony probation who does not go to prison. “For so long the lock-em-up mentality has been cavalier in costs,” said JohnsonGrove. “It was ‘we don’t care, we have to lock them up because that is good and tough on crime.” JohnsonGrove said this mentality turned out to be a bad idea and not just because it was a waste of money. “When you start to throw people into jail all will-nilly, you are more likely to make them rescind,” said JohnsonGrove. “Low level non­ violent offenders get put into prison and they learn more and they become more hardened. Locking up more and more people was not helping the problem. Incarceration was a bad choice.” And with this new legislation less people will be put into the prison system and more people will be put into treatment programs. JohnsonGrove said that locking up a drug addict is not helping them treat the addiction. By putting these people into treatment the addicts can get help with their addiction and be less likely to commit drug related crimes again. “A mental and health oriented perspective on drug abuse is far more productive than any corrections oriented perspective on drug abuse,” said JohnsonGrove. Another big change to the prison system is going to be the way probation is handled. As of right now more than 254,000 people are under some form of probation by 187 different agencies. Since there is no coordination between the agencies, no standards for what type of probation should be joined with certain crimes and no studies that show the effectiveness of probation, people can easily be lost in the probation system. “No one knows what is going on in probation,” said JohnsonGrove. “Sometimes they are putting low-risk offenders in intensive probation, which means more hoops to jump through. When you do this you damage that person and give them more of a chance to rescind.” The legislation has received backing from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Buckeye Institute and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. It has also received bipartisan support, in which both parties want to stop the revolving door system; a system that gives short prison sentences, releases the criminal back into society unsupervised and then allows the person to be put back into prison. Seitz described such inmates as getting “a short course in Crime University.” The legislation is expected to be reintroduced in the 129th General Assembly. Great Books! visit www.cincybooks.com facebook.com/streetvibes cincinnati twitter.com/ streetvibesnews streetvibes. wordpress.com �6 Issue ­ STREETVIBES February 15-28, 2011 My Life at Caracole ­ Hope for Those Who Need it most anonyMous Let me start with a little about myself and why I am here. I have always had a good life with top paying jobs and could do just about anything I wanted. I was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS about five years ago. In April 2010 I became ill with pneumonia and my health started to go down hill from that point, also the company I was working for went out of business around the same time. The company was paying me cash and that meant no benefits and no more money when the company closed. I left the life I was so accustom to and ended up in the Cincinnati area homeless. My case manager at Stop AIDS told me about Caracole and how they provide housing for homeless people living with HIV/AIDS. Caracole has a recovery and a traditional housing program. The recovery program is for people living with drug addictions that need housing. The traditional program is for people who just need housing. Both programs have the same goal, to help each resident accomplish their goals and independence. When you move in to Caracole, you share a threebedroom apartment with up to two other people. You don’t only have the support and knowledge of all the staff, but also the other residents in the program are going through the same things you are. The apartments are fully furnished and secure. There is staff on the premises at all times. Caracole provides you with just about everything you need to succeed. You are provided a home atmosphere with your own bedroom, food, personal hygiene products and a bus card when you need transportation for appointments. All the case managers and staff are very supportive and willing to help you with any problems or things you may need. Caracole is committed to keeping you safe and your information confidential. One thing I truly believe is that you could try your entire life and never be able to assemble a top-notch team like you have working for you at Caracole. As a resident of Caracole I feel fortunate to be in the program and working to get my independence. I have had the experience of trying to enroll in programs…setting appointments…and being told they don’t have any openings. Then my case manager would call and accomplish all I needed. Living at the Caracole house is a comfortable situation with no discrimination toward anyone. I believe there is no shame in having HIV/AIDS or being homeless. The shame is when you do nothing to improve your condition and quality of your life. I have been in Caracole for less than three months and I’m in the process of getting my GED, having necessary dental work, and I have started to look into permanent housing. I don’t think I would be even close to any of this if it wasn’t for Caracole. Caracole: 23 Years of Service to the HIV/AIDS Community Caracole’s mission is to provide safe, affordable housing and supportive services for individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS. Founded in 1987, Caracole House was the first licensed adult care facility in Ohio for people living with HIV/AIDS. Today, Caracole provides direct care services and housing to people with HIV/AIDS and their families along a continuum of care. More than 1,200 people have been housed through Caracole’s programs. For more information please call 513.761.1480 or visit www.caracole.orgv A Shooting at Tucker’s:The Follow Up In the previous issue, Streetvibes published a lengthy story dealing with reactions in Over-the-Rhine to the violent crime at Tucker’s Restaurant, a favorite eatery in the neighborhood. On Tuesday, February 1, exactly two weeks after the shooting, I visited the diner one more time to check on the situation. jiM luKen contriButing Writer tJoe Tucker seemed in a good mood as he prepared hamburgers and Tucker’s famous pancakes on the grill. Carla, Joe’s wife— injured in the shooting—was still not back to work. The telephone rang, and Rick, the waiter, told Joe that Fox News was coming in to shoot a segment and that Channel Twelve was on the way. I asked Joe what was the occasion, and he informed me that the police had apprehended a suspect whom they were convinced was responsible for the shooting. Information available at the time indicated that each of the two intruders has used shotguns, but Joe said that only one had carried a gun, which was a combination shotgun and .22 caliber rifle. The gunman fired using each side of his weapon, Joe said, hitting Carla with birdshot from the shotgun, and, apparently, paralyzing 18 year-old Ranisha Burgin with a .22 round. I asked Tucker how everyone was doing, physically and emotionally at this point. “We’re all going to get better, but it will take time.  The whole thing was terrifying,” he said. “You don’t get over that kind of thing easily.” According to Joe, the good thing is that, contrary to his expectations, business at the restaurant has been better that it was before the shooting.  Loyalty seems to be one of the virtues in Over-the-Rhine. The Enquirer (Feb 1) reported that the suspect was living in the neighborhood on McMicken Street.  According to the police report, the 21 year-old man had finally come out of hiding in order to sell some drugs, at which point they were able to apprehend him. He was charged with two counts of felonious assault as well as a number of other charges.  His bail was set at $382,000. Streetvibes apologizes for last issue’s caption under its front-page picture from Tucker’s Restaurant. The woman in the photo was Maynie Tucker, mother of the owner, not Carla Tucker, the wife. �STREETVIBES February 15-28, 2011 7 Local Bye Bye Berding! ­ “They handed out tens of millions as they diligently worked to slash funding for basic human services, swimming pools, health clinics and battered women’s shelters.” Jeff Berding’s Shameful Legacy justin jeffre Is Berding quitting because he can’t get the job done? Berding doesn’t seem to want to clearly explain himself to the voters.  While there does certainly nothing wrong with a person who wants to spend more time with his family, what if it’s just a lie to try and save face? Sen. Chris Dodd graciously said at his recent retirement announcement, “There’s nothing more pathetic, in my view, than a politician who announces they’re only leaving public life to spend more time with their family.” Like Dodd, Berding’s chances of being reelected looked slim after he pissed off everyone from his own Democratic Party to the Fraternal Order of Police by saying one thing and doing the exact opposite. Jeff Berding will leave office because his job with Mike Brown’s Bengals is in trouble. Berding’s job entails selling high end boxes which have becoming increasingly vacant and even hard core fans have had enough. According to one unhappy box owner, who wished to remain anonymous, “Not only does the team suck, they treat the people that waste tons of money on their over-priced boxes like crap.” He wasn’t hesitant to give a disappointing example how. According to our source, his company asked the team if they could get two on-field tickets so they could bring two terminally ill children on the field. The Jeff Berding Source: The Cincinnati Beacon team said yes, but once they got to the game Jeff Berding said they weren’t going to give them the tickets for the terminally ill kids because their company wasn’t renewing their boxes next year. This kind of behavior is Jeff Berding’s legacy. Even before his stint on council, Berding helped Mike Brown sell Hamilton County voters on a scandalous stadium deal that, at the time, must have made even the biggest corporate Welfare Kings blush. The Bengals lied in these shady negotiations—which have left the county with budget problems that continue to get worse and worse. And Mike Brown doesn’t even have the decency to field a respectable NFL team. Berding—along with his corporate owned cabal made up of Chris Bortz, Leslie Ghiz, and Chris Monzel—have been referred to as “fiscally responsible”, but they have consistently handed out corporate welfare like drunken sailors. They handed out tens of millions as they diligently worked to slash funding for basic human services, swimming pools, health clinics and battered women’s shelters. They had the “courage” to do that despite the fact that they told human services advocates they supported human services on the campaign trail. They had the “courage” to hurt our community’s most vulnerable despite the fact that a 2007 poll showed overwhelming support for funding human services. What else can we count towards this bird­ brained legacy? How about City Hall’s “Hurry Up Offense”?  Berding heralded in a set of rules that allowed every council item to get rushed through as an “Emergency Ordinance.”  This hurry-up strategy frustrates any attempt by interested citizens to get organized and to represent the people’s interests before council.  Perhaps we should also count the useless “strong mayor” form of government, an initiative for which Berding had an instrumental role before joining council.  It was the brainchild of the Cincinnati business community.  This system has done nothing to improve government, unless you count adding ceremonial positions and full staffs with high price tags. How could anyone forget the panhandling tax?  Trying to criminalize homelessness wasn’t enough for Berding.  He went so far as to try and tax the spare change thrown into a homeless vet’s cup! Taken as a whole, it’s clear the trajectory of Berding’s career:  a shill for corporate interests, an enemy of the poor and downtrodden, and an activist working to pervert democracy in an attempt to jam legislation through without public input.  The only thing worse than Berding’s legacy is the fact that his “brother” Chris Bortz gets to pick someone just like him as a replacement. 2011 �8 Local ­ STREETVIBES February 15-28, 2011 Van Jones: ­ An intimate conversation with a visionary for change Prominent leader provides OTR Community with a message of optimism jeni jenKins staff Writer In 1976 President Ford told the public to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” The US and Canada continues to celebrate the lives and achievements of great African American leaders during Black History Month every February. While it’s necessary to remember prominent African Americans from our past, it’s equally important to distinguish the contributions of our contemporary leaders who are making a difference today. Van Jones is one such leader and a visionary for change. As the co-founder of three non-profit organizations centered on empowering the disadvantaged (The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change and Green for All) Jones has already achieved admirable status; still his list of accomplishments runs even deeper. The author of the New York Times bestseller The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Solve Our Two Biggest Problems, Jones offers an insightful framework for stimulating our economy while simultaneously tackling global warming and environmental degradation. This scholarship led him to positions as special adviser on green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality in 2009 and as a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. Additionally, Jones’ received special recognition in several publications including Essence Magazine’s 25 most inspiring African Americans in 2008 and in 2009, Ebony Magazine’s “Power 150,” as well as one of Time magazine’s 100 people who most affect our world. On January 20, this Yale-educated civil rights attorney and professor at Princeton, paid a special visit to Miami University to speak on, “Environmental Justice and the Green-Collar Economy.” Prior to his larger presentation, a small group of around 20 Over-the-Rhine community members participated in an intimate luncheon at the Miami Center for Community Engagement, where Jones spoke openly about his perspective on the economy and how small grassroots groups can come together and make a difference. According to Thomas Dutton, Director of the center, “Jones visited Over-the-Rhine to learn about the struggles that continue in urban areas for human rights.  The conversation was powerful as community residents, students, and construction workers met to discuss his uplifting and visionary message.” After hearing from voices around the room about the major concerns facing our community including poverty, joblessness, homelessness Van Jones’ Visit to GCCH Source: GCCH and gentrification, Jones offered a macro-level explanation of the complexities of our current energy situation and its connection to the local economy. As you fly into Cincinnati, Jones explains, “you see rooftop after rooftop and every one of those could have solar panels on them generating clean free electricity and that could be entrepreneurial opportunities. We have a lot of good carpenters here, you are already 80% trained just based off that. If we have the right policies in place you can start powering America with clean abundant energy that could democratize the grid.” According to Jones, one barrier to improving our economic situation is that those who control energy sources spent millions of dollars de-railing President Obama’s green agenda to prevent clean energy programs from taking off. The reason these companies can do this is because “they make 62 million dollars a day in profit, every day… these big oil companies are the most profitable companies in the history of the world.” And with energy as “the big money maker and job producer globally” some of us will likely live on a planet with 10 billion people—and all of them are going to want to have access to products that use energy. While human civilization has been powered on non-renewable resources the question Jones poses is “how are we going to keep powering human civilization?” Jones says we must recognize that the demand for energy is going to go up while the supply for fossil fuels is going to go down, leaving a big gap. As a result, we have to either bring our demand for energy down or fill that gap with new energy sources. The creation of new energy sources will create a tremendous set of opportunities to launch new businesses, hire people and make the country less dependent on foreign oil sources. Unfortunately, standing in the way are corporate interests who don’t want to see successful green policies in place because “one of the key struggles with democracy right now,[is] who is going to control the energy future of America and therefore the world.” Jones draws parallels to those corporate interests standing in the way of making the Over-theRhine neighborhood good for the people who live here instead of for those who don’t. As Indiana, Michigan and Ohio are starting to shed populations due to the economic situation, this could be circumvented if we found a way of turning the “rust belt” into a “green belt.” Jones was tasked with figuring out how to do make his ideas a reality, “I can tell you right now it’s doable. The thing about green products, wind turbines, solar panels—they don’t make themselves, they don’t put themselves up, and they don’t distribute themselves around the world. That’s all labor, that’s all jobs.” With successful green policies in place we can “put all your auto workers back to work, and all your steel workers back to work” and “you don’t have to wait for any new technology, you don’t have to wait for any workers, if you can make a car you can make a wind turbine.” At the same time we have carpenters out of work and while “we may not be building a lot of new houses…we are going to have to re-build and re-green all this existing housing stock and while we are doing it throw a solar panel on top.” For Jones it’s important for Americans to understand that both political parties signed off on legislation that sent our jobs overseas, created the housing crisis and led to the decline of our education system and while the people are divided as a result, we need to know that “it’s a puppet show, and at the end of the day it’s going to come down to people like me and you. We changed history when we elected president Obama… but we sat down and now we need to stand back up.” According to Jones, in all of these little struggling communities “we have to unite... America is going down the drain because we are not united.” Jones’ talk with the small group was just one of hundreds of talks he is having in the coming months as he travels around the country talking to people from disadvantaged backgrounds, advocates and “ordinary people” getting them on the same page making his proposal for a clean energy economy a little more real. For Catie Dargue of the Coalition for the Homeless, Jones’ talk made a real impact “It’s an inspiration to Cincinnati and our country that someone cares enough about the future of Americans that he would sit down and learn about our community.  Being able to communicate his vision for our country while listening to our successes as well as concerns, gives me hope.” On July 4th of this year, we will see the launch of a nationwide campaign called 1Voice. This campaign is aimed at uniting communities and working towards lifting people out of poverty. For more information about Van Jones and his 1Voice Campaign visit www. vanjones.net. �STREETVIBES February 15-28, 2011 Continued ­ 9 �10 International News STREETVIBES February 15-28, 2011 Kato murder re-ignites gay rights debate ­ It’s often said that the first casualty of war is truth. That time-honored truism has gathered more weight in Uganda over the past week as conservatives and human rights campaigners exchange conflicting theories over the demise of prominent gay activist, David Kisuule Kato. joe oPio  WWW.streetneWsservice.org F or the government of Uganda, the timing of Kato’s death couldn’t have been more unfortunate. Kato was killed on January 26, a national holiday perennially reserved to commemorate the ascent to power of the ruling National Resistance Movement party. Kato was the face of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), an advocacy group actively campaigning against the controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill. It’s a story that has proved enduring ever since, forcing the government on the defensive. The international press, foreign governments and gay rights activists have cast Kato’s death as the inevitable result of the prevailing climate of homophobia in Uganda; a charge the government refutes. Kale Kayihura, the Inspector General of Police, insists that Kato’s murder had nothing to do with his activism, adding that he was just a victim of a private disagreement. “The circumstances surrounding this incident have no indication regarding Kato’s campaign against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill before Parliament,” Kayihura said days after the murder became public. Human rights activists, though, beg to differ. They maintain that it’s no coincidence that Kato got killed a mere month after his face appeared in a local tabloid that published pictures  and addresses of Uganda’s “Top 100 Homosexuals” under the screaming front-page headline, “Hang Them!” In a press release soon after the police’s statement, the activists wrote: “The Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) and the entire Ugandan Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex Community stand together to condemn the killing of David Kato and call for the Ugandan Government, Civil Society, and Local Communities to protect sexual minorities across Uganda. David has been receiving death threats since his face was put on the front page of Rolling Stone Magazine, which called for his death and the death of all homosexuals.” Kato’s lawyer claims that the activist had feared for his safety prior to his death, even alerting police. But the government and conservatives believe that by condemning the Kato’s murder as homophobia-driven, the local gay rights movement and its foreign supporters are intent on pushing their agenda by converting a victim of random violence into a martyr. The heated war of words between the conservatives and human rights activists has cooled down a notch since police arrested Enock Nsubuga, who confessed to perpetrating the murder. But the two sides continue to exchange harsh rhetoric. “The killing was an act of thuggery,” Information and National Guidance Minister Kabakumba Masiko stated at a recent press conference. “It was not organised because of what he was. Much as homosexuality is prohibited by the Constitution, his death was a (private) mission gone bad. The government is doing whatever it takes to ensure that those who killed Kato are brought to book.” Val Kalende, the Chairperson of the Board at Freedom and Roam Uganda however asserts that the government can’t wash its hands clean of its culpability. Human Rights activist Sarah Mukasa talks to the media during a press conference organized by gay rights campaigners in uganda. Source: Joe Opio “David’s death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by US Evangelicals in 2009. The Ugandan Government and the so-called U.S Evangelicals must take responsibility for David’s blood!” But who exactly is telling the truth? Gay activists remain bitter that soon after Kato’s death, local police tried to dismiss the murder as just the latest in a spate of crimes orchestrated by iron-bar wielding thugs. The police maintains that its initial position was a logical assumption, given that Kato was a resident of the same Mukono area which has seen over a dozen people clobbered to death using iron-bars in the last two months. The police has since changed its stand, especially after arresting Nsubuga, an ex-convict. Nsubuga admitted guilt over Kato’s murder in an extra-judicial statement he recorded at Mukono magistrate’s court. The 22-year old Nsubuga revealed that he killed Kato for enticing him into homosexual practices with material and financial promises that never materialized. “The suspect was working in Kato’s garden at the time of the activist’s death,” revealed Police chief Kayihura. “According to the suspect, Kato, 46, promised to pay him money for having sex with him. But Kato never fulfilled his promise. The suspect then took a hammer from the bathroom and fatally beat Kato. The attack was not a hate crime, as has been widely reported, but rather stemmed primarily from the suspect’s desire to get money from Kato.” Kayihura nevertheless cautioned the public and anti-homosexuality pastors against being insensitive to the gay community in the country. “You must be sensitive. You should stop engaging in extremist campaigns that can be interpreted differently.” If the police had hoped that Nsubuga’s confession would put the matter to rest, they must have been monumentally disappointed. Gay rights activists have questioned the veracity of Nsubuga’s confession, stating that, if anything, the latter’s claims are designed to further portray gay people in unflattering light. “Nsubuga’s reasons for murdering Kato depict Kato as a deceitful human being,” a SMUG official said. “He’s also portrayed as someone who used promises to make Nsubuga do things the latter didn’t want to do. This is consistent with messages from homophobes who have accused the gay rights movement of using gifts and money to entrap and entice young students into homosexuality. This is wrong. It’s also a calculated attempt to smear Kato’s name even in death and to further depict the gay rights movement in Uganda in negative light. By showing that Nsubuga murdered Kato because of lies, the police might even be trying to send out a message that all gay relationships are bound to end this way; in cold-blooded murder.” Some activists have gone on to express fear that Nsubuga might just be a fall guy, as the government strives to deflect the international scrutiny that could fall upon Uganda were Kato’s death to be proven to have been motivated by bias toward gays. It’s an understandable, if not verifiable suspicion, seeing as Uganda’s sodomy laws that punish homosexual acts by 14 years to life in prison and the 2009 Anti-Homosexuality Bill that seeks the death penalty have already foisted an unforgiving international spotlight upon this land-locked East African nation of 30 million inhabitants. WANT MORE STREETVIBES? | CHECk OuT THE STREETVIBES BLOG http://streetvibes.wordpress.com �11 STREETVIBES February 15-28, 2011 Egypt in Crisis Human Rights Activists and Journalists Endangered laura osBorn-coffey, aMnesty international usa grouP 86 coorDinator The government says the protests are illegal and has launched a crackdown, reportedly arresting up to 1,000 people. Source: AFP/Getty Images. Imagine that you go into work on an ordinary morning. Only this morning, you are arrested and pulled out of your ordinary office, just for doing what you have always done - working towards ending human rights abuses. Not many of us have had this happen - but on Thursday February 3rd, in Cairo Egypt, an Amnesty International staff person, and a Human Rights watch staff were both taken from their office and arrested. Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty USA reported to the Amnesty USA membership on Thursday February 3rd: “Our hearts nearly stopped this morning when we heard the news… one of our own, a member of the Amnesty International staff, was detained by police in Cairo after the Hisham Mubarak Law Center was taken over by military police. Our colleague was taken along with at least three others, including a delegate from Human Rights Watch. We do not know their current whereabouts.” He pleaded with the American activists to step up to the table and take action. Many people ask, “Why should Americans be concerned with the human rights abuses occurring in the wake of the protests and violence in Egypt?” Amnesty’s simple response is: because violence to the human rights of people in one country is violence to human rights anywhere around the globe. It always seems that the first people targeted in any such protests are the journalists, for this is the group of people who make sure that the rest of the world knows what is going on and the human rights defenders, who report on abuses by governments. We have seen pattern this recently in such other countries such as Myanmar, Sri Lanka and China. Amnesty’s stance is that human rights monitors, including journalists, be allowed the freedom to do their crucial work at this time of crisis, in whatever country the crisis may be occurring. A second and more immediate reason is that any disruption in the Middle East usually causes an immediate rise in our national gas prices, which then increases the prices of all of our goods, which we see at the groceries and other stores. Leading up to the present conflict in Egypt was the parliamentary elections in November 2010, which were marred by violence and irregularities. Eight people were reported to have died, scores more were wounded across the country, and Amnesty International called for Egyptian authorities to open independent investigations into the deaths. The organization is also concerned that the election violence bodes poorly for expected presidential elections later in 2011. On Jan. 1, 2011, a bombing of a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria killed 23 and injured many others. Amnesty condemned the attack, and noted that the government had failed to protect Copts and other religious minorities. In addition, government security forces harassed and intimidated people who were engaged in public displays of support for victims of the bombing. Amnesty International has called on the Egyptian Vice President, Omar Suleiman, to stop the violence unleashed by pro-government supporters in Cairo and across the country amid fresh reports of a renewed crackdown on journalists and activists. Journalists were reportedly detained, and activists harassed by security forces following recent violence that saw at least five killed and several hundred wounded in the fighting between pro- and anti-government supporters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. One of the most pressing human rights concerns that Amnesty International has documented is the use of emergency legislation to arrest and detain people without charge or trial; especially after the protests. Last week these concerns were made very real with the arrests of our fellow human rights workers in Egypt. Larry Cox pleaded with our American membership: “Please, we need you to speak up with the voice of the international human rights movement. Tell Egyptian officials to release Amnesty International’s staff member and all human rights monitors.” And they and Amnesty members worldwide did so. On February 5th, in Cairo, the Amnesty International staffs were reunited with their missing colleagues. They stated, “While we were incredibly relieved by the news of their release after 32 painful and sleepless hours of anxiety, and excited by our few quick phone conversations with them, we could not rest until they were in a place of safety and were able to get a much needed meal, shower and clean beds. Our anxiety was heightened by the fact that they were released some four hours after the curfew began. We weren’t sure where they were being dropped off by the military police who had detained them, without any proof of identity, taken from them at the time of arrest. “Luckily, there was a happy resolution and a happier reunion not too long after in front of a hotel. We were incredibly proud of our colleagues, who despite their fatigue and clearly difficult ordeal, were joking about parts of their experience in detention. A foreign photographer held with them who had been surprised that when told “five minutes” in Egypt this did not actually mean five minutes.” There are still many other people who remain arrested or detained in Egypt, and many people worldwide are watching with great interest to see what will occur in neighboring countries, such as Syria and Jordan. Go to www.amnesty-usa.org to take immediate action on the human rights crisis in Egypt. Whether in a high-profile conflict or a forgotten corner of the globe, Amnesty International, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, campaigns for justice, freedom and dignity for all. Laura Osborn-Coffey, MSW, LISW-S Laura has been dedicated to the field of social work for the last 25 years. She graduated from the Salem International University with a Bachelors of Science in Equestrian Studies, then attended and graduated from the University of Cincinnati, School of Social Work in 1986. Experienced in a variety of fields including mental health, alcohol/ drug, and the aging populations, she recently worked at Bethany House Services, a non-profit homeless service agency in Hamilton County, OH. Laura has been an active member of Amnesty International, on the local and Mid-west levels over the last 25 years. She is the coordinator of the Cincinnati Local Group 86 – the community based chapter of Amnesty International USA. She is also Amnesty’s ‘Area Coordinator’ for the state of Ohio, a role in which she stays in touch with the Amnesty groups statewide. She has been a ‘trainer’ within Amnesty, has done workshops at the local, regional and national level; and she has assisted with coordinating three Midwest Regional Amnesty conferences in Cincinnati since 1989. Within Group 86, Laura and the local volunteers have organized events over the years to bring the plight of worldwide human rights abuses to the attention of the greater Cincinnati community. In her spare time, Laura does spinning, weaving, quilting, writing, and gardening; she has five cats and two horses, a husband and two grandchildren (not in that order). �12 Interest ­ STREETVIBES February 15-28, 2011 Aliens with Extraordinary Skills ­ A review about illegal immigrants not E.T. catie Dargue staff Writer F ive minutes into the play and I’m still waiting for the UFO to land and these so-called Aliens to emerge. Instead I’m watching a Moldovan Clown make balloon animals and wondering if I’m in the right play. Oh, I get it. You’ll have to excuse me, I was thinking space aliens. The Know Theatre’s production of Saviana Stanescu’s play is full of all sorts of hidden surprises,making you think twice about what you’re seeing. The play starts with Nadia from Moldova and her Russian clowning pal Borat (yes like the movie), running away to New York to attempt to blend in the crowd, escape from a couple of agents that are chasing them for their fake circus Visas, and maybe even find happiness or a Green card. However, Nadia (who refers to herself as Ginger), finds it more difficult than expected to come up with the $750 rent to sleep on her roommate and budding friend, Lupita’scouch. Meanwhile, Borat gets stuck working as a cab driver and feels exhausted by the work hours as well as the people of the city. It’s your basic story of boy and girl go separate directions, boy stalks girl’s roommate, random guy from Craigslist stalks both girls, and everybodyends up okay in the end. Or something likethat. The play has a fun and light atmosphere magnetically pushingagainst the very real problem that the two immigrants face. The INS agents (played by two women: Beth Harris and MJ Jurgensen) provide a very haunting reality for Nadia along her journey, however, their characters are so ‘clownish’ in many ways that they come across as comic relief and less of a threat. Almost unnecessary to the script,they are the most confusing of characters. Liz Vosmeier’s balances her naturally comic Ginger with therealities that face Nadia. That said, Kaitlin Becker’s performance of the aspiring actress roommate Lupita is close to stealing the show from Nadia. Matthew Lewis Johnson has some very touching moments as his character Borat struggles to find if it’s love or if it’s a Green card he’s after. My favorite line had to be, “That Mexican Pizza guy was really hot for you and he just got his Visa.” Bob, played by George Alexander, captures the annoying guy you learn to love. My only observation about the character’s situation is that as someone who is personally married to a Green card holder, I know it’s not as easy as just getting married to stay in the country and I questioned the Liz Vosmeier and Matthew Lewis Johnson clown around in Aliens with Extraordinary Skills. Credit: Deogracias Lerma. playwright’s research on the subject which becomes one of the major themes of the show. Besides that, my biggest criticism was probably of the set. The idea was creative enough but perhaps didn’t translate as well from the design board to the construction. Three movable walls form the various locations for the actionand set pieces can be moved in and out through holes in the walls. The entire wall is lined with 8.5 x 11in paper immigration forms;however I couldn’t see this until after the show when I ventured on set to see what I had been staring at for the last couple of hours. The holes in the setare covered by paper too but only in long rows which allow for items to be rolled in or out. Think those big floppy clothsyou drive under to enter a car wash. My first thought was, ‘will this set last for the whole run of the show?’ An interesting concept but the construction didn’t translate well and in places the assembly looked a bit messy. Some inspired designs with video recording and projection were produced thatdidn’t distract from the play but rather enhanced the scene. My favorite was a car driving through New York for Borat’s cab. The costumes are fun and there’s an effective use of staying with a theme for each character. Nadia in a giant hamburger suit saying, ‘Everything is possible’ is one of those perfect ephemeral moments enhanced by the costuming. All and all, it’s worth the wonderfully priced tickets at Know Theatre and is a very unique way of looking at a current hot topic and political event from the point of view of the people most affected. I’ll even forgive the playwright for suddenly breaking the forth wall at the end to catch the audience up on what transpired. Just be ready for anything in this play as nothing is too farfetched. Except for UFOs and space Aliens, don’t get your hopes up as they are not in this play. Jan 29th – Feb 26th 2011. You can purchase tickets online at www.knowtheatre.com or call the Know Theatre box office at (513) 300-KNOW (5669). �STREETVIBES February 15-28, 2011 Excerpts from Looking Beyond the Storm: Selections of Poetry By MalcolM o. varner Beyond the Storm True Love Reverberate When Art gave birth to Writing, May the melodies of my words echo hope across hopeless hearts. she had no idea how deeply for her daughter I’d fall. A belle dame is she, so pure in every way, upon each occasion we meet is sure to brighten up my day. Of her I dream at work and likewise why I come home running. Her body is filled with sounds that titillate my ears, the rhythm of her movements brings me to tears. Let me soar on high like an eagle, and while gliding in this here great sky, let me look below and marvel, knowing how far I’ve come. And when we’re apart, Let me soar on high like an eagle, and while flying high in the air, let me look beyond the storm, and prepare my wings to get me there. But then, when we become intertwined as one, Let me soar on high like an eagle, and while gaining new heights above storm clouds, let me use adverse winds to propel me toward my goal. and I will live to show her beauty as long as I can. Let me soar on high like an eagle, and while floating with turbulent winds to my back, let me look far ahead, flying gracefully into blue skies. 13 Story & Poetry Corner I contend with a void where empty echoes live in my heart. the consummation of our love shall not be undone. As a woman, she will complete me as a man, May the sounds of my words pierce peace into minds in misery like darts. May the rhythm and grace of her dance inspire an incessant will to win. May the style of her steps propel impoverished feet towards prosperity. May the slender lines of his smooth sculpture give awe to opportunities. May the depth of details in his design help discover hidden potential. May the cheery chirps of birds at dawn energize eyes to see newness. May the consistency of their calls inspire positive mantras to be muttered. May the light of the symphonic morning sun radiate daily delight. May the warmth of its rays renew commitment to compassion. May the acts of inhaling and exhaling give reason to fight and prevail. May the essence of life justify the act of completely playing one’s part. My Fathers house Willa D jones In my Father’s house there are many mansions Many mansions, with many rooms to rest and pray in In good times, in bad times, day, night, sleep or wake times All the time I spend in my Father’s house because his house is mines When I was homeless, a drunkard, a drug addict and all alone I found much comfort and peace just praising in song When I was hungry, hair nappy, dirty and smelling really bad I held onto my sanity, when my belief in pray was all I had As in any house with rules, my Father has commandments of ten Even though I would make mistakes, I’d always repent of my sins And ask for forgiveness with the understanding to make a change A change for the best so there would be no more fear or pain Taking what each day brings in pray and always believe Having faith to know that my Father’s will is best for me While searching for God’s love, wisdom and understanding I come into the realization of just what my heart was demanding I began to go to church to learn more about my Father’s house I found peace and my soul was saved I could finally announce I learn that there is a place in my Father’s house for everyone The young, the old, the lost and the sick at heart and mind I learned the mistakes I’d made were all of one kind I understand today that we must learn from the mistakes we’ve made And know only by the grace of God can our souls be saved So won’t you come visit in the house of my Father Learn the bible and know that with my Father there is no other Take your time and search you soul to truly find yourself An understand that in our Father’s house is where we’ll be forever safe with plenty of help �14 Sightings ­ STREETVIBES February 15-28, 2011 Beautiful Music, Come Rain, Snow, or Shine Thomas and Mary Chapman have been visiting Over-the-Rhine every Sunday afternoon for the last 16 years, come rain, snow or shine. They sing songs of hope and worship which lifts the spirits and gives hope to people living in this part of town. Here is a true act of social service. �Shelter: Women and Children Central Access Point Cincinnati union Bethel St. Francis Soup kitchen Churches Active in Northside FreeStore/FoodBank 557-2873 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 4230 Hamilton Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45223 241-1064 112 E. Liberty Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 1841 Fairmount Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45214 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 762-5660 271-5501 4600 Erie Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 St. Vincent de Paul 6037 Cary Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45224 Salvation Army 535-2719 591-2246 381-SAFE 768-6907 300 Lytle Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Bethany House 562-8841 872-9259 Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 5 E. Liberty St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 Health Resource Center Homeless Mobile Health Van McMicken Dental Clinic 357-4602 352-2902 352-6363 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mental Health Access Point Mercy Franciscan at St. John 558-8888 981-5800 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 NAMI of Hamilton County PATH Outreach 1125 Bank Street, Cinti, Ohio 45214 131 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 15 Resources ­ STREETVIBES February 15-28, 2011 458-6670 977-4489 Treatment: Men Other Resources Shelter: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 2121 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Prospect House 241-0490 381-4941 Starting Over 1419 Elm Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 682 Hawthorne Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45205 Justice Watch St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 961-4663 Treatment: Both 761-1480 1821 Summit Road, Cinti, Ohio 45237 Drop Inn Center 721-0643 Interfaith Hospitality Network Lighthouse Youth Center (Youth) 471-1100 221-3350 3330 Jefferson, Cinti, Ohio 45220 Housing: CMHA Excel Development OTR Community Housing 721-4580 632-7149 381-1171 114 W. 14th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tender Mercies 721-8666 27 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tom Geiger House Dana Transitional Bridge Services Volunteers of America Anna Louise Inn 961-4555 751-0643 381-1954 421-5211 621-5300 961-1983 OTR: 1620 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert, Cinti, Ohio 45206 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 1730 Race Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 351-0422 381-6672 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. Cinti, Ohio 45214 Goodwill industries Healing Connections Mary Magdalen House 771-4800 751-0600 721-4811 241-2965 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 united Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 1522 Republic Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Hamilton County ADAS Board 946-4888 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 641-4300 Advocacy Catholic Social Action Community Action Agency Contact Center 421-3131 569-1840 381-4242 1227 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Food/Clothing Lord’s Pantry OTR/Walnut Hills kitchen & Pantry AA Hotline CCAT Joseph House (Veterans) 217 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 381-0111 1223 Main St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 2728 Glendora Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45209 Caracole (HIV/AIDS) 621-5514 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 961-4080 Peaslee Neighborhood Center Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart First Step Home Anthony House (Youth) 241-2600 241-2563 214 E. 14th St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 661-4620 Shelter: Both Center Independent Living Options Emmanuel Community Center 1308 Race St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 961-2256 Treatment: Women 1437 Walnut Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mt. Airy Shelter 921-1613 St. Raephaels Salvation Army Serenity House Day Center Open Door Pantry 863-3184 863-1445 422-8555 868-3276 Northern kentucky Brighton Center 859-491-8303 799 Ann St. Newport, KY Franciscan JPIC Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 721-4700 421-7803 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. Legal Aid Society Ohio Justice & Policy Center Faces Without Places Stop AIDS 579-8547 241-9400 421-1108 363-3300 421-2437 Health Center for Respite Care Hamilton/Middletown ECHO/Hosea House 859-261-5857 Fairhaven Resuce Mission 859-491-1027 Homeward Bound Youth 859-581-1111 Mathews House 859-261-8009 Homeless & Housing Coalition 859-727-0926 Parish kitchen 859-581-7745 Pike St. Clinic 859-291-9321 Transitions, Inc 859-491-4435 Welcome House of NkY 859-431-8717 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 621-1868 3550 Washington Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45229 Women’s Crisis Center VA Domiciliary VA Homeless 859-491-3335 859-559-5011 859-572-6226 �16 Column ­ STREETVIBES February 15-28, 2011 Forging the Universal human ­ Martin Zeinway rebels against war and divisive identities “My artwork is a commentary on my war-torn origins and on the search for my identity”, says Martin Zeinway. “As a child I had to leave Liberia, my country of origin, devastated by an ongoing civil war, and resettle as a refugee in the USA. Before moving here I never considered myself By saaD ghosn contriButing Writer to be ‘Black’. I was Liberian, then African. To Americans, however, I am first Black, then African, then Liberian; and to Black Americans, an African, who is Black, from Liberia. Who am I in reality?” Zeinway, a Cincinnati visual artist, arrived to Alliance Academy, a Cincinnati charter school. In undergrad, Zeinway mostly developed technique, acquired skills and learned the academic side of art. Preparing for his Master in Art Education, he started questioning himself, remembering his past experiences, allowing them to emerge. Painful memories, silenced until then, resurfaced. The war he lived as a child and the damages it caused and that he experienced when visiting back his country, had never left him. Images of violence, desolation, destruction, human loss and suffering, dormant for many years, started reappearing in his drawings. “I found myself sketching bodies without limbs, exploded bleeding heads, crying individuals, displaced families…” he says. “I knew where they were coming from.” Encouraged by his professors to explore his feelings and concerns, he decided to create works about himself and his past and inform the viewer. War, violence and their negative effects, the destruction of his country and of its culture, the loss of life, disintegration of communities, became all part of his painted works. They spoke of the ugliness of armed conflicts and of the need to abolish them. A Mother’s Cry, represents an African woman crying, her sons gone, recruited to be soldiers, her daughter forced to become a sex slave. Nothing is left to her, not even food depicted as fruit in the painting, alluding to both starvation and loss of her children, essential ingredients of her life. Zeinway was also indirectly referring to his own mother, sad, separated form her son she sent away not to be killed. In Decisions, a young pregnant lady stands next to writing that says: “All I wanted is some food, and now I carry the baby of the rebels,” illustrating the unjust and inhuman pressures war places on individuals, especially women, for survival. The Peace Keeper, points to the irony of war; it shows a soccer ball next to 2 groups of fighters laying down their arms. During the war, fighters would often reunite and stop fighting just the time of a football game, the ball, thus, an elusive symbol of peace. The Role Reversal addresses the changes arm power inflicts on the traditional functioning of a community. It shows elders and elderly, in time of peace wise decision-makers of the tribe, silenced and replaced by powerful young gun-carrying fighters. Who Am I, lithographic print with watercolor. Print and Photo by Martin Zeinway the United States, with his uncle’s family, at age 14. He lived originally in Cleveland, OH, received a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from Central State University, Wilberforce, OH, a Master’s degree in Art Education form Miami University, Oxford, OH, and a Master in Fine Art degree from the University of Cincinnati (UC). He currently teaches art at Central State University and at In The Future Is Dead, an image of a man holding a gun and shooting overlaps silhouettes of kids. It refers to all the kids who lost their future becoming children fighters or who were, as well as their culture, killed due to war. Zeinway did many more paintings in his series, all focused on war, its detrimental effects on his country and life in general. In addition to his visual art, he also started writing down the outline of his life and experiences from the moment he was born. This led him to introspective analysis, to questioning about his identity, his role in a country different from his birth one, his future. It Martin Zeinway in his studio. Photo by Saad Ghosn also coincided with the beginning of his graduate school at UC. “Being at UC was challenging and frustrating at the same time,” he says. “I wanted to do something different but did not know what. I felt unable to define myself, asking constantly: Who am I? Am I an artist, an educator, a student, a Liberian, a Black, an African, an American…? I felt lost with so many layers of identity.” This is when Zeinway resorted again to his artwork for help, visualizing his dilemmas and, in the process, working towards their resolution. To emphasize his African identity he included in his new drawings and paintings Adinkra symbols from West Africa, representing popular proverbs and maxims. He also delved into the world of fashion, applying African fabrics and designs to western cloth and garments he would wear, thus pointing to the intricate stitched-up duality of his being. Who Am I?, a lithographic print with watercolor, displays the ongoing conflict between the 2 sides of his personality, the African Liberian and the American. It consists of 2 of his portraits shown back to back, one dressed in a western suit, the other in a suit layered with African fabric. In the background is the image of a child holding an AK47 gun, sitting in a classroom. Red, white and blue refer to the American flag and in the center is the Adinkra symbol of knowledge. Zeinway thus incorporated references to his African origin, his past as a child in a warring country, his experience in the West, his educated status wearing a suit, his search for knowledge… all sharing the surface of the same page, overlapping, yet coexisting in harmony. “Liberia created me and showed me how to love and care for humanity; America taught me how to live and work,” he says. “I am a man of the world, rich of many experiences; I do not want to choose. The more categories we draw, the more divisiveness we generate.” Zeinway will continue to use his art to oppose war and fight racial and social classifications. He wants his work to educate on the issues of identity, race, discrimination, and motivate for equality, peace and justice. He hopes one day to build an art school in his native Liberia to give children the opportunity to develop their creative talents at the service of a better world. Artists as Activists is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati artists who use art as a vehicle for change. Saad Ghosn is the founder of SOS Art. Ghosn can be reached at saad.ghosn@uc.edu. � 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 2011 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 15-28, 2011 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: African American Achievements Pg 2: Street Wise Pg 3: African American Achievements Continued Pg 4: Die N-Word Die! Excerpts from the 1969 Autobiography Pg 5: Prison System Overhaul Pg 6: My Life at Caracole Pg 7: Bye Bye Berding! Pg 8: Van Jones: An Intimate Conversation with a Visionary for Change Pg 9: Continued Pg 10: Kato Murder Re0Ignites Gay Rights Debate Pg 11: Egypt in Crisis Pg 12: Aliens with Extraordinary Skills Pg 13: Poetry Pg 14: Poetry Continued Pg 15: Resources Pg 16: Forging the Universal Human 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 15-28, 2011 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jen Martin Elizabeth Schulenberg Jeni Jenkins Saad Ghosn Lee McCoy Jim Luken Josh Spring Willa Jones Corey Gibson Laura Osborn-Coffey Catie Dargue Malcolm O. Varner Riccardo Taylor Justin Jeffre Joe Opio Dr. Michael Washington Aimie Willhoite Jim Luken Saad Ghosn, Rob Vinit Murthy Martin Zeinway Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Activists African American Aimie Willhoite Black History Month Catie Dargue Corey Gibson David Kisuule Kato Dr. Michael Washington Egypt Elizabeth Schulenberg Gay Human Rights Immigrants Inmates Jeff Berding Jen Martin Jeni Jenkins Jim Luken Joe Opio Josh Spring Journalists Justin Jeffre Laura Osborn-Coffey Lee McCoy Malcolm O. Varner Martin Zeinway Poetry Prison Riccardo Taylor Rob Vinit Murthy Saad Ghosn Van Jones Willa Jones https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/542c8bdb86adb30963d95b90b792b9d1.pdf e6916b874b065f3a2ba980d7070e4c0c PDF Text Text Move Ahead or Get Left Behind Congratulations Pg 8 March 1-14, 2011 Pg 14 • ADVOCATING JUSTICE Pearla Kinne,The inspiring story of an Argentinian Immigrant who followed her dream to save lives, one companion animal at a time By: Pearla Kinne A civil engineer by trade, at the time Perla Medina, an immigrant from Argentina, married Michael Kinne in 1990; she knew that animals would be an important part of her life. As other people their age were settling down and starting families, the Kinnes opted to adopt and rescue animals that needed special care and attention. Perla knew she had a knack for it. She thrived on providing critical and intensive care to her pets. For years the Kinnes adopted the old, terminally ill, black, and those that for whatever reason, would be a challenge to adopt out to forever homes. But every animal that others saw as a challenge, they viewed as a Judge Painter welcome addition. “The reward for us was in watching them flourish and become beloved members of our family”, she states. And that is how Angel’s Rest Animal Sanctuary got its start, unknowingly at the time by the founder. So in 2009, the Kinnes decided to make it official. “We wanted to help animals on a larger scale”, Perla says. Now Angel’s Rest Animal Sanctuary located in New Richmond, Ohio, is doing just that, helping the unadoptable live as full and happy a life as they can possibly have. Angel’s Rest, whose mission is SAVING LIVES, ONE COMPANION ANIMAL AT A TIME, strives to help unwanted animals who have no place to go other than a kill-shelter to face euthanasia, die alone in the streets or abandoned at the end of a chain. Its goal is to take animals out of situations where they would be facing imminent danger and provide them with a comfortable place to spend the remainder of their lives, no matter how long it may be. They strive to provide everyone that enters their doors with the care they need and deserve to ensure that they live the rest Issue 194 • • One Dollar BUILDING COMMUNITY of their lives in peace, comfort, well fed and loved. While they deal mostly with older residents that will reside in the sanctuary for the remainder of their days, they actively rescue, rehabilitate and have pets for adoption. Of the animals rescued, some will be entering ELDER PAWS™, a program designed to match older shelter animals with senior citizens, as long as their temperament matches with program requirements. “Angel’s Rest has been a life-long dream of mine. It is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time and the time is finally here,” says Perla. “Our sanctuary is growing a lot slower than I would prefer mostly due to limited funds and lack of a steady income stream. “ Angel’s Rest currently houses 6 dogs and 10 cats. Of the 16 current sanctuary residents, only one is healthy and is up for adoption. The rest are life-long residents who are facing a terminal illness, have a disability or exhibit some sort of behavioral issue which makes them “unadoptable”. “It has been a challenge starting a not-for-profit sanctuary during these difficult financial times, especially when donations are down across the board.” Adding to the difficulty has been not having a facility where animals can be housed and where people can come to see how their hard-earned money is being put to good use. Currently, Angel’s Rest houses animals at the founders’ home as well as two family members’ homes. “I find it very difficult conducting business without the benefit of having a building. You are not always taken seriously, especially when you are forced to hold meetings or interviews at the local coffee shop.” Another downside of their current situation is the limitation not having a facility places on the number of animals they can help. “I get calls and e-mails constantly wanting us to take animals that fit our criteria and we cannot help them. We just cannot take any more in without jeopardizing the well being of the ones we are committed to. It is very hard to accept that as a no-kill sanctuary you may be responsible for an animal’s death, all because you just cannot offer it a home immediately.” Angel’s Rest is planning on opening their first facility next month. “I am hopeful that the opening of Cat Village in March will help us move forward and grow a bit faster”, says Perla. Cat Village will enable the dogs and cats to be housed separately. Having both species under the same roof has been a huge problem for us with the recent addition of Dixie, an 11-year old, threelegged bull mastiff that sees cats as prey. “Our cats are older and some have life-long ailments. They need a peaceful environment.” Along with Cat Village’s opening, Angel’s Rest will be opening a thrift store as well as a bingo operation in New Richmond in the near future to fund the sanctuary’s operation and expansion. “The faster we can get these sources of income in place, the sooner we can start saving the lives of more animals. And, in the end, that is all that matters.” Angel’s Rest relies solely on donations and the kindness of others. They are a 501(c)(3) organization. All donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. For more information or to make a donation, please visit www. angelsrestanimalsanctuary.org Stacey Smith recently changed her name to “Sun” after almost losing her mother to an illness in September. Jeni JenKins. staff Writer She felt like she was re-born with a spiritual motivation that woke her up from a complacent place and now she lives each day as a new opportunity to make herself better. Her new name represents the light that shines inside of her – “it was always there but it has definitely been rejuvenated since September.” This born and raised Cincinnatian draws inspiration from her mother who made tremendous sacrifices to raise her and her three siblings working as a domestic worker. Her mother’s strength drives Sun to work extra hard so she can take care of her as she gets older. Sun’s greatest accomplishment came when her mother witnessed her graduate from Northern Kentucky University with her Bachelors in Journalism and a minor in Sociology. As a first generation college student, having never walked for graduation in high school, this was a huge feat. One of Sun Smith’s designs from her SoapBoxTees Clothing line. See Women’s Herstory, P. 4 �2 Editorial ­ BY ThE NUMBERS 75.5 Cents The amount of money an American woman makes for every dollar that men earn (Page 2) 3.3 Billion The amount of women in the world (Page 2) 3-10-11 The next meeting of the Homeless Congress (Page 3) 32 The years Patti Marshall, Operations Manager for Q102, B105, Rewind, and The Wolf has worked in radio. (Page 4) 1,528 The miles the Japanese light rail transportation system Shinkansen, reaches (Page 8) 60 The percentage of Zimbabweans that have HIV and are female (Page 11) 27 The years Judge Painter has been elected a trial and appellate judge (Page 14) 18 The age Kim Shifflett left her home in New Mexico to pursue her artistic goals. (Page 16) Streetwise “What if Prince Charming never showed up? Would Snow White have slept in that glass coffin forever? Or would she have eventually woken up, spit out the apple, gotten a job, a health care package, and a baby from her local neighborhood sperm bank?” Jen Martin Editor I never really thought of myself as a feminist. I was walking into work the other day and Jeni Jenkins, our fabulous Education Director, asked me how I walk in my shoes. Anyone who knows me knows I love my shoes. Most are heels that raise me up 3 or more inches. There are probably tons of people who think I am a giant. I am about 5’7 without them so most days I appear about 6 feet tall. I don’t have trouble walking in them, I actually feel weird and less confident without them. I don’t wear them to look more attractive, I wear them because they are beautiful and they make me feel that way. When I started working with a friend of mine, he made the movie poster ‘Attack of the 50 Foot Woman’ his screen saver as a nod to my height illusion. Illusion, the word I often use when people ask how tall I am. I typically explain that I am not this tall, it is just an illusion. Or as Chris Rock says, it’s just a lie. Women are visual liars. And yes, Mr. Rock, we are. Being a modern American woman is not an easy task. I believe men tend to think women can control the way feel sometimes. I am not saying we are completely incapable, saying that would mean a woman couldn’t be president because she would… oh what is the quote? I think it’s something like “A woman can’t be president because she’ll get her period and declare war.” That is just silly but the fact remains that women are more emotional due to these insane hormones we have. Add those hormones to pregnancy, motherhood, the day in day out life of being subjected to men’s advances (even when we don’t want to hear them), and Mother Nature’s cruel joke called menstruation; and it is truly amazing that women are right on par with men these days. In fact, modern women need men for practically nothing. Women can make just as much money (even though we have to work harder since women make only 75.5 cents for every dollar that men earn, according to a report by the U.S. Census Bureau). And if there is one thing I have learned in my life, only one thing I could pass on to any girl who hopes to achieve their dreams; it would be to simply make your own money, to have your own plan. If you do count on a man, chances are likely there will come a day you may have to reevaluate and start from scratch. Which it seems many women in the US don’t have a problem doing. And it’s damn hard when you go it alone without a backup plan; such has been my life for the past year. And I am not nearly alone in my plight. In 2010, 46% of first marriages in the US ended in divorce. It isn’t a crazy statistic when you consider that money is the top reason for arguments within a marriage. We have learned that marriages of financial obligation are just that, obligation. Women these days don’t have to settle for that. It makes you wonder…and in the words of the great Sex and the City writers, “What if Prince Charming never showed up? Would Snow White have slept in that glass coffin forever? Or would she have eventually woken up, spit out the apple, gotten a job, a health care package, and a baby from her local neighborhood sperm bank?” Even though we typically make less money, have more daily commitments, and deal with all those aforementioned hormones; we are still making strides daily in the fight for feminine equality. Each woman has a daily struggle that no man truly understands. And with that, I am just referring to American women. Let’s not forget that there are still areas of the globe, even today, where it is not only acceptable but completely normal for women to experience oppression, illiteracy, rape, poor health care, not to mention physical and mental abuse. In Afghanistan, domestic violence is common, 87% of women said they had experienced it. In oil rich Saudi Arabia, women live their entire life under the guardianship of a male relative. They are not allowed to interact with men publicly, drive a car, and they must live strictly segregated lives. Breaking any of these rules would expose them to sever punishment. In areas of Pakistan, women are gang-raped as punishment for men’s crimes. Killing women as a means of honor in these areas has become wider spread with a renewed wave of religious extremism that targets female politicians, human rights workers, and lawyers. When I think of those women and what they must experience, I feel so privileged to live where I live with the rights so many brave women fought for. Of the 3.3 billion women that occupy this planet, I am one of the lucky ones and if you’re reading this, you probably are too. I was told from day one that I could be whatever I wanted to be. Despite dealing with men in my life who have treated me much less than ‘good’, I always had the right and the means to get away from them. By the means, I mean the resources. And they are there ladies, resources in Cincinnati for women and their issues are abundant. See our resources page if you or someone you know is in need. And again, I feel privileged to live where I live. I am hardly a traditional feminist. I wear heels; make up, a push up bra, and Spanx when I feel a little chubby. While married, I loved the role of playing house and having dinner on the table by six. All of these things though, I did and still do by choice. I believe a qualified woman should make as much as their male counterpart. I believe in a woman’s’ right to choose (and with the insane over population of the world, you should too). I believe women can achieve anything, I mean anything they want. I believe that in my lifetime, we will see a woman president. I believe that women will likely rule this world eventually. If we can manage high powered careers, motherhood, relationships and our monthly visitor…I think we can and we will conquer. I have seen a man with a cold (and recent studies show men do complain an abnormal amount when sick), I am convinced if a man got a menstrual period they would be on the couch in a fetal position. Sorry guys, you would. So ladies, this is my salute to us…to the brave women who paved the way for us to speak our overactive minds, and the fabulous local women featured in this issue. As my mom still says, you go girl. STREETVIBES March 01-14, 2011 Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by people who are or once were homeless, in exchange for a $1 donation, Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Address: 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Phone: 513.421.7803 x 12 Fax 513.421.7813 Email: streetvibes2@yahoo.com Website: www.cincihomeless.org STREETVIBES March 01-14, 2011 3 Local Issue homeless Congress ­ February Meeting riccardo taylor Before giving the spiel and elaboration of the particulars of the second Homeless Congress session it is my pleasure to relate our sincere appreciation and gratitude to Pastor Fred Cook and his wife Leslie Cook for their support and generosity in providing for us the space and allotment of time to conduct our meetings. We would also like to give thanks to all other staff and program directors at the First Lutheran Church of Race St. The second meeting of the Homeless Congress, which was held on February 10/2011, was what I consider to be a success. Our membership count for the day was at eight down from the ten original members who started with me in January. My reason for viewing this meeting as a success is not because of the decline in the number of attendees, but the simple reality that we as a group did meet again as scheduled with the majority of the first meetings attendees returning. The fact that these individuals, all who I might add are under some stress of the conditions of homelessness/poverty, did find the time and as well provided their energy through participation during the meeting is deserving of recognition and appreciation from myself and those who may receive some future benefit. For the most part the only real difference between the first and second meeting as far as attendance and participation goes is that our first meeting held in January was attended by a group of individuals, whom I had the pleasure of convincing that our convening for the particular task of creating a voice for those of us living in the circumstance homelessness was both a worthy cause and a great opportunity for us too air the issues which effect us most. Though not all the original members were present at the second meeting some did follow protocol for missing a session and we look for their return for future meetings. Further, I have convinced myself that a project such as the creation and substantiation of such an entity will take some trial and error as well as some weeding out of potential membership. Armed with all the possibilities of failure and success, I can say with a sense of pride and respect for our member body that we are convinced of our mission and we are pushing forwarded! At our latest meeting we went over the introduction of our pilot project that we hope to institute at the Drop Inn Center. The particulars and duties to be performed by the selected Congress members were set in place and the volunteers for the project are in agreement for contractual assistance with the Drop Inn Center’s staff. Our next step will be the introduction to the Drop Inn center and hopeful partnership with that agency. The remaining time spent in session was a review of some of the immediate issues with winter sheltering, and other issues that might be available for us as a group to engage in within community/resources agencies where we might be of assistance or available for volunteering. We ended the meeting on a positive note and with high hopes of becoming an asset to our community we set our next meeting date for March 10, 2011. In giving appreciation for the individuals who have come forth to help make a difference and who are instrumental in making the Congress a reality below are listed the members of Cincinnati’s Homeless Congress. James De Mario Brown Dennis Saker Keith Eutsey Jerry Davis Constance Walton Stephen Snow Gentry Lee McCoy Deerrick Prophet Walter Washington Booger Love Blog: streetvibes.wordpress.com Street Life Streetvibes Staff Editor Jen Martin, Keeping score jenmartin@cincihomeless.org Art Director Elizabeth Schulenberg Contributing Writers Jennifer Martin, Donald Whitehead, B. Clifton Burke, Pearla Kinne, Jordan Antoine Wilson, Riccardo Taylor, Saad Ghosn, Jeni Jenkins, Willa Denise Jones, Fungai Machirori Photography/Artwork Anthony Williams, Amiee Willhoite, Saad Ghosn, Pearla Kinne, Colleen Lowe Morna, Eddie Sun, GCCH Staff The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati through coordination of services, public education, grassroots advocacy and Streetvibes. Riccardo Taylor Source: GCCH riccardo taylor The whirl-wind reality of life in the streets lacks in options, and more conclusively has only two types of players. Addressed by any other name they still come out the same. Winners, and losers; a simple formula, at least to the common ear, yet the reality is so much more varied. Everybody knows that someone has to win at the expense of someone losing, but it is so much more then that! You see, you cannot make a loser out of a winner or visa versa, each has its own position. Keeping score, it’s a count that all street people use, large or minute it’s important that you know, the tally, it allows you to get an edge, or when needed or too play catch up. The employment of hard work or the leisure of kicking back is all generated from the count. Pleasure when you are up misery when you are down! Even with such a simple formula, there is still that sense of doubt that creeps in from time to time. Is this where I want to be? Do I have enough or too little? Let me count again, I have to be sure that the score is right! Often times it’s hard to determine where we stand, no winner thinks he’s a loser and no loser thinks he’s not winning. However, there is the reality that someone has to win and someone has to lose. The only difference is that there is only one reality. “Winners make things happen and losers let things happen.” So let us see how this works. The winner. This is the person who goes out, and regardless of the odds or the circumstance, they put forth their full effort. Using everything at their immediate disposal they create the situation/circumstance that best fits the desired result. They are fearless of the outcome, and only concern themselves with the rewards that are to be gained from their endeavor. Taking a chance is the engine of motive for success, having the confidence that only a winner can have, they step headlong into the project, always expecting the most but resolved too accept what comes. The winners know that with just a bit more effort it can be remedied. “Go to where life takes you.” Now the loser, true to his/her disposition, at the first setback or difficulty they throw up their hands in defeat. That common motto, “I did my best”, always seems to be the answer. They tend to have satisfaction from their least bit of effort, and refuse to see things in any other light. Not having the willingness or the fortitude to press on, they allow things to be where they are and to just let it happen. There is an excuse for everything! It is what it is, or, so they say. Taking things for granted we would expect everyone to be satisfied where they are, if you are satisfied with the outcome of your efforts then your OK. However, I beg the difference, actually if we are satisfied with where we are then that makes us somewhat of a loser! One should never be content, with just where they are, there is always room for improvement, and striving for that improvement is the mark of a true winner. Therefore, the keeping of the score is much more then just a count, it’s a calculation of where one wants to be, and not just an idea of the moment. Winners are never completely content and so they are in search of more. Losers are staid and a moment of contentment is their desire. The scorekeeper is the true winner and the keeper of the score! �4 Women Making herstory Patti Marshall, a Journey from Marilyn Monroe to Mogul Continued from P. 1 At 33, Sun is on a path she feels proud of. As Case Manager with Lighthouse Youth Services she spends her days working with at-risk teens between the ages of 13 and 17. She assists youth with mental health and behavior issues, connecting them with community resources to keep them away from negative influences. In her work, Sun co-facilitates a substance abuse prevention support group once a week in addition to individually counseling teens to keep them away from drugs and their negative effects. Sun sees herself as a visionary and as a teacher but is also learning through others and enjoys the fresh insight the youth give on how the world works. “I think that keeps me youthful and helps me keep my ideas flowing and keeps me from being complacent- they energize me. Our youth can provide new solutions to old problems and that is inspiring to me.” Sun recognizes she is making a positive difference when she sees a kid she is working with start to believe in themselves more- and she sees their confidence grow. “When I see a person moving away from where they were from the time we have spent together- breaking people away from the cycle of poverty and impoverished mindset that sometimes comes along with it.” Sun says she pushes youth to think outside of themselves and their norms and explore the world with new eyes. Through her mentoring she exposes youth to art museums, the planetarium and cooking classes as well as teaching them how to apply for jobs, and reserve a library bookall of which she says are “sustainable skills and resources to be able to become independent.” “Many kids don’t have a strong support system and I help them increase their social supports.” When Sun isn’t working with at-risk youth she volunteers for the Cincinnati Association for the Blind as an on air radio reader. Additionally, she’s an advocate for immigration reform, recently volunteering for the Immigration Reform Movement on the local campaign with the Interfaith Worker’s Center to establish workers rights for low wage works and immigrants. Since 2007 Sun has also owned and operated a small business, Soap Box Tees, a creative, urban and socially conscious lifestyle clothing company. Sun designs clothing that are a reflection of her environment and passions. Her work as an activist, writer, and volunteer fuels her drive for promoting social responsibility. STREETVIBES March 01-14, 2011 Hmmm in the beginning I was too young (15) to recognize it, then it started with what management thought was “acceptable” for a female role. Only midday or nights, a sidekick in the morning (never lead and few are now)..... nor were you considered for the program director position. In the early 90’s one boss told me I sounded too much like Marilyn Monroe to be real...something I’ve never forgotten. I took that to mean ‘dumb blond’ by the way he said it. Later I turned it into a challenge, hung her picture on my wall and celebrated. Marilyn had a lot more going on than everyone thought too. I think it’s always in the wind....assumptions are made because you’re female that you’re too emotional, that you won’t work well with other women, the list goes on and on. I guess the best defense is to be damn good at your job and help your company make money .... results are hard to argue with. I am humbled and privileged by the opportunity to document the lives these extraordinary Cincinnati women. -Jeni Jenkins. Staff Writer Continued from P. 4 Julie Evans, Up and Coming Radio Management Giving an Inspiring Take on Being a Gay Woman in a Man’s World author: intervieW By Jennifer Martin An Interview with Patti Marshall You have so many titles…what are they? Operation and Marketing manager of WYGY 97.3 fm “The Wolf”, WUBE 105.1 “B-105” , WKRQ 101.9 fm “Q102”, WREW 94.9 fm “Rewind”, and Program Director for Q102. How long have you been in radio and what made you start? I have been in the radio business for 32 years; I started in radio because I love music. In 1979 I was signed up for an Easter seals dance a thon... about hour 6 of a 24 hour event I started to drive I am truly blessed with the women I work with. Q102 has more full time on air female hosts than any Cincinnati station and most stations in the country. Add to that Kim Carson, Amy Tobin and Jennifer Martin who all contribute to the station’s weekend programming. Jenn Jordan (Jeff and Jenn, Mornings), Laura Powell (Afternoons with Brian Douglas), Jennifer Fritsch (Morning Show Producer) and Holly Morgan (Middays) are the most talented women I’ve ever worked with. Each has a distinctly different personality and their lives reflect our audience. Moms, wives, single, divorced they share it all on the air. We have a lot of women here at the stations...from Angie Mitchell our business manager, sales, traffic, new media to Katie Walters our Q Promotions Coordinator, we never run of a woman’s opinion and influence. See Women’s Herstory, P. 5 Great Books! visit facebook.com/streetvibes cincinnati twitter.com/streetvibesnwes streetvibes.wordpress.com www.cincybooks.com I’ve been in Radio 11 years. 10 years paid! Got into radio because I love music but I have no talent (as far as playing an instrument or singing) so I thought radio would be the next best thing. Throughout your time in radio have you found being a woman has worked for against you? As Operations Manager of the four station cluster, how important is giving back to the community, and how do you decide which charities you partner with? Tell me about the thought process behind Q102’s programming and talent. How long have you been in radio and what made you get in the business in the first place? Amy Lind Educating and Empowering to Change Lives Work directly with the sales department to organize client needs through promotions. Also, schedule all the music you hear on the station. Work hard, learn all facets of the job, and surround yourself with people who are supportive, stay true to your value system, and look for a company that appreciates your talent…and seek a mentor who helps you develop. When you start...consider all of the above as your true salary, don’t measure your worth by the number on your paycheck until you have the experience to demand it...and even then weigh quality over quantity. I feel a strong need to use the power we have to help. Our charity events reflect the needs and life experiences of the listener for each station. With Q102’s large female audience we focus on breast cancer, heart disease, and children. Everyone woman has a friend or family member who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Heart disease is the number one killer of women. B105 and 97.3 The Wolf have strong patriotic initiatives....the Marine Corps Toys for Tots, the USO. Rewind 94.9 has a broader approach, helping local charities with its support of the Rusty Ball and so many other organizations. Our listeners guide us. A good station is a mirror of its audience. An Interview with Julie Evans, Promotions Director/ Assistant Program Director for “Rewind” 94.9 fm What do you technically do each day? What advice do you have for young women who want to break into the radio/ media world? When I thought about powerful women in Cincinnati, the first person that came to mind is Patti Marshall. I started working with Patti about 6 years ago when I was hired at the old alternative rock station, 97.3. The first time I saw Patti, I was scared to death. When Patti walks in a room, people shut up. I was just a radio baby and seeing Patti walk the halls, commanding respect from everyone, was a frightening and inspiring thing. When I explain Patti Marshall to anyone I usually sum it up by saying, “…she is basically everything I would like to eventually be.” When she asked me to be a part of Q102’s weekend programming, it was a surreal moment for me. A lot of radio people would laugh at that because weekends aren’t usually a huge deal, but the fact that Patti had confidence in me…that was a great feeling. Patti has managed to become one of the biggest radio players in the town by being a woman who fights for what is right and never backing down from a male counterpart. She has managed to put together a radio station that seems to greatly understand and relate to the women of Cincinnati. The one thing that I believe sets her aside from any other Program Director is the simple fact that she never loses sight of who is listening to the radio she puts on the air. When she talks about her listeners, she refers to them as ‘My Girls’. Understanding women and being able to outsmart the men has made Patti Marshall a figure that I think any girl who has ever been judged as a ‘dumb blond’ should look up to. 5 Women Making herstory the DJ crazy with questions. I asked him how I could get a job in the business, he told me to go home and record myself reading advertisements out of the newspaper. I did and dropped off the tape and he hired me to run the board for ‘Kasey Kasem’s Top 40 Countdown’. What has your experience been, being a woman in mainly male dominated industry? intErviEw by JEnnifEr Martin STREETVIBES March 01-14, 2011 Like Patti said, the building that all four of her radio stations call home is full of talented, thoughtful women. The second person that came to mind as being an inspiring female figure was the woman who gave me my first shot on the air, after just ‘liking my voice’. Julie Evans is the Promotions genius of the building. I have never met someone more organized and focused on her career while still being the person everyone loves. Julie is outspoken, true to her heart, and most importantly one of those people you just enjoy being around. She doesn’t play the typical ‘radio game’ of being shady and backstabbing. She is honest with her staff and the people she reports to. Her office over the years was a hangout for everyone in the building, almost “the cool place” to be. Everyone has had their favorite radio station flip formats or fire people. I have been through these 3 times now with Julie being the one to break the news to everyone. What sets Julie apart as a manager is that these events break her heart too. I remember when 97.3 (it was ‘Everything Alternative’ 97.3 at the end) was disbanded and flipped to create “94.9 The Sound”. Despite keeping her job, Julie may have taken the flip the hardest. A lot of radio managers act as though they are upset when a whole staff is fired but with Julie, you feel it. To meet Julie is to love her. I’m honored to have her as my friend. I have never thought I have been treated different based on the fact that I’m a woman. I knew right away when coming in the building that there was way more men than women working here but this environment here has never been anything that made me feel that I was treated any different. In fact, being a woman has worked to my benefit. For the first 9 years of my radio career I worked at a station that targeted men, and being one of veryfew women at the station I thought I gave a different perspective on the way to think of creative ideas to reach men. As of now and the last 2 years I have worked for s station that targets female and being I am the only full time women on the staff, the men pay attention when I have an idea. What projects are you working on? Currently I am involved in the Adopt-A-Class program, where we are “pen pals” with students from an underprivileged neighborhood. I guess that really doesn’t have anything to do with me being a female but does give me a ton of joy to see these kids and have them experience things they have never gotten the opportunity to do before. You speak often and openly about being a lesbian, do you feel like this has ever hurt your career or maybe helped you? I think my work place is way more openminded most. When I started here I wasn’t “out”, I even dated a couple guys from work. I think when I finally came “out” people weren’t really shocked. If anything it made me become closers to a lot of my co-workers. I have never had a problem talking about being gay (at work or on the radio). In fact, I’m super proud to be gay. I just always thought that if you were one of those people that didn’t like gay people… meet me and I bet you change your mind. What advice do you have for young women who want to break into the radio/ media world? Don’t …just kidding. Radio is so cut throat. So if you aren’t willing to make little to no money for awhile and beat doors down for a couple years… I would pick something else. Women or not, radio is one of those businesses that really isn’t hiring any “new blood”. So if someone is really interested in radio, I would say they need to maybe job shadow to see if this is really want they want Amy Lind sees herself as a survivor and someone who effects social change even if it’s one tiny step at a time. As a survivor of violence, oppression and discrimination, she wants to pass the awareness of how she survived onto others through teaching. Lind, who holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University and a dual BA in Women’s Studies and Latin American Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz wears many hats including researcher, published author, mentor, and Associate Professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati. In her life she has achieved numerous fellowships, grants and honors for her work on economic and sexual justice. Born in Galesburg, Illinois and raised in Southern California, her mother was a big influence in her life as an advocate for different kinds of rights. One of her earliest forms of inspiration came from her aunt Amy Conger, an Art History Professor who while living in Chile in the early 1970s survived the torture of the Chilean military under Pinochet’s rule. While Lind was still in elementary school at the time, her aunt’s story sparked a lifelong passion for social justice issues in Latin America. Since college, Lind has taught and lectured around the globe on topics ranging from gender, sexuality, reproductive rights, violence, globalization and development in America and Latin America. As a teacher her end goal is to help students acquire knowledge that validates their own experiences and identities, “which in this world, unless you are a white, heterosexual male is hard to find validation for.” Much of her work is about teaching students how to think differently then how they have been socialized, “if I can help my students find and create that knowledge for themselves that’s the most important thing I can do.” See Women’s Herstory, P. 6 �6 Women Making herstory Continued from P. 5 Lind’s work is about seeking equality and justice and ending oppression which is inspired by all the people protesting and defending workers rights across the country and “all the people who are fighting against corporate greed and neo-liberal restructuring.” She recognizes a recent change in the political climate: “it feels like something is shifting in the universe. The greed and the inequalities between the rich and the poor are getting worse, which is motivating more people to get involved.” Cover of Lind’s 2005 book Gendered Paradoxes Through her scholarship Lind believes she is making a positive difference in people’s lives: “If I can help change the lives of one or two of my students, that keeps me going, and transforms me in the process as well.” Lind’s most current work is looking at how to combine sexual and reproductive rights with economic justice, “I don’t think we can talk about one without the other.” She recently edited Development, Sexual Rights and Global Governance in 2010 as well as authored Gendered Paradoxes in 2005. In addition, she recently received the prestigious Taft Center Fellowship which will give her the opportunity to work on her a new book entitled Governing Sexuality: Development, Family Norms and the Struggle for Sexual Rights in Ecuador. When Lind is not lecturing, writing or researching, she often serves as an expert witness for women and gay and lesbian immigrants from Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru who are seeking political asylum in the US and the UK. And while her work takes her across the globe, one of her personal goals is to continue to travel to countries she has yet to see. As an educator, author and volunteer Lind has dedicated herself to making a difference. Each day she continues her work changing as many people’s lives that she can. Couple Marjorie Bledsoe’s passion for community with her zeal for teaching and making art and music and the result is distinction. Marjorie, or “Miss Marjorie” as her friends call her, is a wild fire, sprinkling her artistic flame throughout the community. Born and raised in Oxford, Ohio, Marjorie’s mother encouraged her from a young age to be artistic. Beginning lessons at the age of 8 her studies included voice, piano, advanced music theory, flute, oboe, baritone horn, trombone and guitar. Her enthusiasm for the arts continued in high school when she first started making ceramic art. This interest led her to pursue academic studies at Hocking College in Athens, Ohio where she studied Music Production and Visual Design and eventually opened her first gallery Half Way Sun in Nelsonville, Ohio which focused on indigenous and ethnic art. Now, as a Studio Technician, Marjorie teaches classes and works collaboratively with her partner Dustin Lee to make “FaceWare” out of Funk Fired Arts Studios in Hyde Park, where she has been employed since 2009. Funk Fired Arts, one of the largest public studios in the country, is a gallery and teaching studio with classes for everyone from beginners to advanced ceramic artists. According to Marjorie, ceramics are a lost African American cultural tradition and she wants to bring it back into those communities. For Marjorie, her art is not limited to what she makes “my art is my life.” “By teaching people something new, as part of the process of learning ceramics, you have to pay attention to yourself a lot. It’s a reflective process. I give people the opportunity to have a dialogue with themselves and to pay attention to things they wouldn’t normally pay attention to. It’s about making connections and becoming more self-aware.” STREETVIBES ­ March 01-14, 2011 ­ In addition to teaching and doing studio work, Marjorie is currently a junior working on her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts in the University of Cincinnati’s DAAP program. In the near future, Marjorie will be doing more community based art with an emphasis on social justice- making a connection through art with social awareness, self awareness and making things more apparent. Marjorie sees a clear connection between art and social justice. Marjorie’s passion for social justice naturally led to her extensive involvement with UC’s RAPP (Racial Awareness Program) which she describes as a “dialogue about race, gender, sexuality, orientation, intersectionality and socialization.” According to Marjorie, “the end goal is to provide people with identity awareness whether it is social awareness or other people’s identities. It’s a forum for people to discover their own identities and how they may impact other people’s lives.” In 2010, Marjorie received the Terrence L. Jones Diversity Award for her involvement with RAPP. Marjorie in the studio on her potter’s wheel Marjorie is a visionary. In the future she would like to run a cooperative gallery and currently she is working on stating a local time bank, which is a group of people who exchange services and skills for time dollars. The time dollars earned can be spent within the collective, on any member participating. Marjorie envisions living in a more equitable world where people aren’t necessarily valued with dollar signs. She wants people to realize how valuable community is and that they may have talents that aren’t valued from a traditional capitalist viewpoint. One of her end goals is to help people put more value on their given talents because we as a society don’t always pay attention to them. Marjorie believes that people are good in general, that they aren’t inherently bad. “Even people who are misguided or bad in some way, that’s not part of them- they learned it. Everyone can change and everything can change. We all have the power to do that.” See Women’s Herstory, P. 7 STREETVIBES March 01-14, 2011 Women Making herstory ­ 7 Continued from P. 6 Cleveland native and 20 year resident of Cincinnati, Bet Stewart has worked to craft her living as a performing artist and teaching artist for over 30 years. Bet Stewart with Andy Hopkins & Amos Hopkins (her sons), playing on the Alaska Queen, a steamboat near Ketchikan Alaska Bet holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Cincinnati and has studied theatre with people all over the world. Bet’s motivated each day because she is doing what she loves and she’s “very lucky to be doing what I love.” Her contribution to the world is “giving a lot of people a voice that would not normally have a voice.” In addition to writing, directing and performing plays, Bet recently began writing and performing her own songs which she plans to continue to focus on as her career progresses. Her lifelong dream is to one day perform in Europe and Australia. Self employed as the Artistic Director with Intuition Theatre- a local touring theatre group founded in 1981; she found her niche with the group in 1983. Bet’s work with the theatre group includes writing, producing and directing a variety of plays for both youth and adults throughout the region. Her plays are a mix of art forms including “drama, comedy, music, miming and stilt walking.” One of her more recent plays produced through the Kentucky Humanities Council as a Kentucky Chautauqua Performer, is based on the life and legend of Rosemary Clooney, internationally known American actress and singer who struggled with addiction. This one woman show highlights the many obstacles Clooney faced and how she overcame them through song. Another of Bet’s plays “Stand in My Shoes” is a justice play focusing on conflict resolution and how people need to stand in other peoples shoes - starting with kids on the playground on up to international foreign politics. She performs “Stand in My Shoes” at area schools teaching children the importance of seeing other perspectives by wearing someone else’s shoes. Bet believes that theater is created to make change and that it helps open people’s minds. In her work Bet strives to “help people see something in a new light, in a new way.” She carries this philosophy on in her work at Rivercity Correctional Center, a rehabilitative prison where she teaches and directs with Inside/Outside, a program designed to build inter-personal and life-management skills through the visual, literary and performing arts. Bet teaches movement, storytelling, improv, music, and songwriting in a series of creative workshops with women prisoners dealing with substance abuse issues. Her goal is to “teach them and help them express themselves. We give them a voice so that they have skills and ways to express themselves, so that when they get out they can have a rich life.” Inside/Outside is a “therapeutic community of people qualified to change thinking and behavior.” The teaching artists provide accessible lesson plans that are challenging yet help people with self esteem so they “believe they can do something and be someone.” In her work, Bet finds inspiration from a variety of artists including comedienne Lily Tomlin, singer song-writer Peggy Seeger, jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, the political theatre troupe SanFrancisco Mime Troupe and Augusto Boal, the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, a theatrical form originally used in radical popular education movements. Bet’s influences and interests guided her down a rich path of experiences including 13 years as a stilt walker with roles ranging from a giant Statute of Liberty singing “Do Wop” and an 8 foot tall one woman band; working with homeless women at Welcome House Shelter in Kentucky to create poerty, movement, dance and storytelling; directing Karen Brody’s play “Birth” a critically acclaimed play about childbirth, women’s vulnerability when they are giving birth and the need for change in the healthcare profession; singing and performing with Cincinnati’s Muse Choir; as well as conducting research and writing scripts for 19 original plays about social and historical issues. �8 Opinion ­ STREETVIBES March 01-14, 2011 Move Ahead or Get Left Behind. ­ A look at what life could be like without a car The notion of an American society abandoning their cars often is often dismissed with a polite laugh. People love their cars, is what I’m told; they enjoy driving them. If that is true or not doesn’t matter. What does matter is that people currently need their cars whether they like driving them or not. The following rant is a sort of grandiose and fantastic vision of what many urban areas could look and feel like if more people gave up their cars for public transit. B. clifton BurKe For most people, having a car is a survival tool. It makes having a job, getting food, and seeking out entertainment much easier. The United States is still quite wide with lots of space and privacy, which adds even more reason to own a car. Child care becomes infinitesimally more difficult without a car. Non­ emergency health visits require personal ownership of cars, shopping is harder to accomplish without one, holiday travel becomes more of a pain. I get it! There will always be reasons to own cars, but the more society works to eliminate those reasons, the more empowered many urban-dwelling individuals and families could become. It seems to me that, as time goes by and resources dry up, people will migrate back to the cities and rely on another for survival. Some of this trend of repopulating rundown urban areas can already be seen in Cincinnati. A resurgence of money and development has taken place in local wastelands like the West End. A wave of displacement is occurring where yuppies are moving into the new stylish apartment complexes, while lower-income people scramble mainly West to nearby affordable neighborhoods. On one hand, the shift is good for resuscitating one of Cincinnati’s oldest and most historical neighborhoods, preserving the centuries-old architecture there that has been left to die a neglectful and sorry death, and for bringing both money and a safer nightlife closer to the city’s core in the process. On the other hand, though, there seems to be no tactful plan in place to assist those citizens who will, in a short time if not already, be economically forced from their homes, and that seems like a lack of civic responsibility from our elected leadership. Digressions aside, the fact is, cities are planning for more people to remain closer to the financial hubs of the areas where they reside, and a place to keep themselves and their car will come at a premium in such a scenario. That space will be needed for more logistical living arrangements that satisfy the basic requirements of city-people, like more sidewalks, more utility lines and more plumbing, not to mention the accessibility to repair and upkeep these services. The city must still flow, even with a swell of inhabitants; therefore too many cars would slow down progress, which is both wasteful and avoidable. A serviceable and effective public-transit system and an encouragement toward a pedestrian lifestyle are necessary for a city’s future growth and sustainability. STREETVIBES March 01-14, 2011 9 Local Feed me Seymour... Feed me all night long. By the Taco Tuesday Brigade. out of sovereign waters. Rather than simply wait to be caught slipping up and pay your fine for participating in a driving society, you get to move about largely obstructed from the ever-watchful eye of law-enforcement. While that isn’t a license to engage in sneaky illegal practices, it should help you understand the void of worry and stress that drivers have to live with every time they get behind the wheel. Work Equals Public Transit By this point, you should start to wonder how you’re going to get around without a car. Saving money is great and all, but that stops mattering if you can’t get to work to make more of it. The only way is public transit. Some of us have been lucky enough to walk to work or school every day, but that is typically a pleasant coincidence rather than a strategic result. Limiting your job prospects to the small circumference we might consider “walking distance” is not only a bad idea, it’s downright irresponsible. As jobs are wrung out more and more from the giant employment dishtowel, and the percentage of jobless American people continues to grow, the most successful of us will be the ones who are willing to go anywhere for work. Most times, in order to apply your trained skills and maximize your full potential, you must have the ability to travel. Yet, if you’re without a car, the impossibilities of realistic employment crash upon you right away. In 2002, Cincinnati shot down a light-rail proposal that would have sprawled across the metro area in a sort of jagged asterisk-like design. It’s a tough populace around here to convince of anything that could be described as “progressive”. So instead, Cincinnati lumbers along with a shoddy bus system that is organizationally flawed from top to bottom. Trying to get across town to the job that normally takes 20 minutes in your car, would take nearly an hour each way on the bus. For a moment though, let’s pretend that Cincinnati does build the light-rail. Now it takes 20 minutes on the train and another 12 or so on the transfer bus. The whole process takes no longer than 40 minutes each way. If you live near the center of the asterisk, you’re able to get anywhere in the greater Cincinnati area in roughly this amount of time. Your job prospects now effectively match those of when you still had your car. Still dubious? Let’s take the idea even further and talk about bullet trains to Saving Money and Burden The first thing someone—let’s just go second-person and say you—benefit from by not driving is avoiding car insurance. That monthly payment can now go toward a public-transit pass which is hopefully cheaper and therefore saves you money. Not requiring car insurance also relieves you of one less thing you can be arrested for, which can’t be bad and will be visited again later in this piece. If you’re not in a car, and your cell phone vibrates in your pocket, you can safely stop what you’re doing to answer it, where as before, you would do the same while driving and hit a guard rail. That incident raised your insurance, but nothing you can do walking or taking the bus, could ever raise any kind of premium (unless you’re impossibly clumsy or dangerously rude). The next cost you would cut would be gas. As if the insurance and often times the car payment aren’t enough, there’s always the gas. We all know gas is an environmental issue. It comes from oil which we’re told we should use less of, and now it’s coming from corn which not everyone is convinced is a satisfactory replacement for oil but isn’t going away any time soon. Setting the environment aside (which is a big reason why it’s become such a problem to begin with, I guess), not filling your tank twice a month or more now gives you money in your pocket for perhaps a fancier six-pack or a decent pair of snow boots—you will need both over the winter, trust me. Less gas, in theory, would mean less dependence on foreign oil which right-wing blowhards can’t stand, and, reduce greenhouse emissions which left-wing blowhards can’t stand. Of course, this idea of less gas would rankle the big-oil and ethanol dragons of the world and would be met with fearsome resistance. Cutting into their profit margins are dangerous and murky waters to wander around in, I’m sure. Nonetheless, the idea reads well on paper, and seems like a generally pleasing one to consider. The next benefit to your life is a double bonus. Not only does not driving eliminate your chances of having to pay for speeding tickets, parking tickets, tickets for old tags or burnt-out tail lights, it practically removes the police from your life altogether—assuming your daily life consists of legal activity, that is. In your car, a police officer’s judgment over you is all powerful. Since cars are large and potentially lethal objects, our legal system has given law-enforcement wide latitude of insisting on safe-driving measures, which I wholeheartedly applaud. Drive safely and you won’t be pulled over, is the thinking there. Yet, it is uncommon for any person to drive a car throughout their lives and remain unscathed by the police. Drive long enough, and you will be in violation of something or other at some point and you will likely receive a ticket or worse for your mishap. Not driving allows you to never be fined, or even jailed for the way you traverse along the planet—assuming you respect cross-walks, and stay PainterTeam:Layout 1 1/10/2011 3:45 PM Page 1 Buying or selling . . . nearby cities. The Japanese system Shinkansen, is 1,528 miles long and reaches speeds over 180 mph. Imagine the entire Midwest connected by something similar: Cincinnati, Louisville, Lexington, Indianapolis, Columbus, and Dayton. If you live in Cincinnati, you could work at any of these cities and your entire commute might take only one hour. You would take the local light-rail to the bullet-train downtown, and then take the other city’s light-rail to your job wherever that may be. That sounds like a daunting amount of commuting, no? More than two hours every day on public transit? Then work on top of that? No way, you say. Well, depending on your job, there’s a chance you can work on the train itself— in this vision, they are wireless-ready. If not, you can read, sleep, write your own manifesto, and get to know someone else on the train, or just gaze out of the window at the passing landscape. What you aren’t is stuck in traffic, road-raging and cramming down a hurried breakfast, all while trying to arrange a conferencecall to get a jump on the day’s workload. If your job in Louisville is losing its luster and there’s a tempting position open in Columbus, with bullet-trains and light-rail you don’t have to move your home to go after it. Satellite Grocery Stores The whole idea of work is to secure food and shelter, everything else we have is bonus. That’s why the car, when it comes all the way down to it, is a hunting tool used to procure food. Not only do we use it to get the funds used for food, See Move Ahead, P. 10 The Painter Team - For all your real estate needs, call: Michael D. Painter, e-Pro, REOS, SFR 513.348.7999 Candace Kadivnik Painter, CRS, ABR 513.266.1025 - Painting the town sold . . . �10 Opinion STREETVIBES March 01-14, 2011 Move Ahead or Get Left Behind. ­ Continued from P. 8 we also actually “hunt” with it by bringing food back to our caves. Without a car, obtaining food becomes a little trickier. With a car culture…one where every adult is expected to drive a car, the giant box-stores with hundreds of parking spaces and thousands of products inside make sense. If people need to drive to get things, why make them drive all over when they can get all of their stuff in one place? Fine, but that’s about the only thing that makes sense about them. First off, if more people are moving back to the city, it means they’re moving away from the big stores. The problem with big stores in denser urban areas is that they take up too much space, so companies can’t just tear down whatever is in the way to build new ones. Yet, if less people are driving to and from work, than grocery shopping would need to happen in some other way than hitting up the superstore on the way home. We all know how our library system works. In Cincinnati, there are 42 branches that all belong to the same entity, but most of the collection resides at the Main Branch downtown. If you live miles away from the book you want, the library will put someone in a truck and deliver your book to you. This can work with groceries too. With an improved public-transit system comes more stops. These stops can become small-business hubs as foot-traffic would exponentially increase in the area. If a major grocery chain, like Cincinnati’s own local giant Kroger, were to set up small satellite stores designed to facilitate previously ordered grocery bundles, then a person could order their groceries online before noon and have their stuff waiting for them as the exit their train at the end of the day. These orders would be smaller, enough food for only a day or two for the whole family, but could be repeated multiple times a week. Not only would it make grocery shopping doable for the permanent or even occasional pedestrian, it has hidden added benefits like purchasing, cooking and eating fresher foods, which assists with a healthy diet, promotes learning to cook for one’s self, and, in theory, supports local produce growers. If the grocery sector found success with this kind of model, then other everyday-need businesses like pharmacies, liquor and hardware stores might try and prop themselves upon this idea and move closer to transit stops too. Eventually, with enough people passing buy, preexisting small-businesses in the area would benefit as well, and suddenly, there are enough birthdays between the major holidays to keep little gift shops above water and even allow small bakeries and florists to stay alive. From what I’ve seen, the longest-standing smallbusinesses succeed thanks to foot traffic and the best way to increase that traffic is to get people out of their cars. Quality-of-Life Benefits Walking is good for you. If you live eight blocks from the closest stop, then that means you’re walking 16 blocks a day and that’s healthier than walking from house to car to work to car to house every day. Not to mention that the average American misses out on an abundance of sunshine because of this kind of reclusive existence. Some people may think they are safer in their cars than on public transit or walking the streets, but that philosophy is predicated on fear. To assume that something bad will happen to you outside of your car, is assuming you are a victim who is only waiting to meet your assailant. If there were more people walking the streets, with all those eye-witnesses everywhere, wouldn’t the public be safer? The truth is, not everyone walking the streets wants to kill you. In fact, most don’t. People in cars, though, sure are in a hurry to do some kind of personal damage on one another. Once in their cars, many people are in a dreadful hurry to the point where they perform dangerous, potentially lethal maneuvers to get where ever they’re going faster. For some reason, the average person has constructed this facade of impervious safety while in their cars and regularly insists on testing the boundaries of their invincible egg by paying attention to so many things other than driving. If the generations of Americans continue to hurdle toward ADHD ruination, how good of an idea is it to insist they operate heavy machinery? None at all, which is why they’re making cars that drive themselves. Remove the idiot without removing the idiot’s wallet, in a sense. The fact that humanity is able to pilot themselves around in cars with somewhat minimal carnage and misery often astonishes me. Human beings are more famous for their mistakes than of their triumphs, yet highways and parkways hum along fairly unimpeded. So that proves that people can make a sport of it and still survive to some degree, but it also means that they willfully undergo heaping spoonfuls of stress and anger too. Road rage is a strange animal. I have seen the most sane, mild-mannered individual become a frothing storm of threats and profanity toward his fellow drivers when hoisted behind the wheel. Many times, drivers are all too eager to intimidate while in the “safety” of their cars. Everybody is a tough guy on the road, but those same people would not say a peep if someone cut them off while walking. Perhaps that’s because no one gets too hurt if two people bump into one another while walking, but that’s exactly my point. On a bus, or a train, everyone travels together at the same speed heading in the same direction. There is no competition and few ways to accidentally kill yourself or others while riding public transit. Rather than individuals floating along in their reclusive bubbles of steel and speed, masses of people, strangers, are forced to pack close together and, in some way, interact with one another. That sounds more like a society to me; one where a person is forced to admit that other people live in his or her country too. The other nice thing about not driving is, of course, not driving. The physical act, I mean. Not only do you not need to pay close attention to anything for too long, you can do fun stuff like read a book, or text everyone you know or explain to your kid how the moon lights up at night. Or, look out the window to enjoy the scenery rather than look through it to avoid crashing. Every now and again on public transit, someone gets really annoying and distracts you from the fun stuff, but being occasionally annoyed without any truly harmful affect is probably a valuable lesson in cultivating patience in this world. Maybe not, but the point is, nobody gets hurt, or seldom do. The Cost This little utopia is far from a reality, and in fact, the US is still a very conservative place. The first thing everybody wants to know is how a new form of public transportation gets paid for, and when I tell them taxes, most quit listening. The idea that a taxpayer funds the greater good is one only found in storybooks and Europe. The word socialism smells bad in this country and any collective government-funded projects are met with fierce resistance and furious criticism typically from the right-wing. Most Americans are short-sighted in that they only care what their next paycheck reads. Take away from that number without giving them something they can own and not share, and they panic. If you’re a person with a job, congratulations, you’re doing better than nine percent of the population. If you’re among that nine percent, a big ambitious infrastructure-improvement program like a radically renewed rail system could spell out work for you. Though mismanaged funding can often lead to abandonment before any ground-breaking ceremony. It’s true that the government can be the biggest bum of them all and that politicians do little else than comfort themselves and their “positions” and “interests”, and that a big project like this becomes the property of big government—a phrase that is these days typically murmured with a strong dose of venom behind it. And I share, to some degree; these concerns with those Americans who feel that too many good ideas are needlessly wasted away in the administrative phases of a project, but that can’t end the ambition. We, as citizens and tax-payers, should demand more transparency and have the intentionally complicated legal jargon clearly explained so that third-graders can understand the concepts behind government reasoning. We should insist that the public be updated in a forthright manner on all the happenings in Washington and all the way down to the smallest of city halls. It’s up to us, however, to care. Not only care for ourselves and family, but for our neighbors and their families. Helping everyone, in turn helps us. I feel we’ve lost sight of that. Conclusion If it’s true that more young people in the future will rather stay close to the city and resist the temptation of urban flight, then those cities who prepare for such a lifestyle choice will be the survivors. I know that Cincinnati isn’t often called progressive and that there exists a large populace who bristle at the idea of change, but this fair town will become even harder to prosper if it doesn’t get onboard to some kind of public-transit system in the next decade or so. A century or so ago, Cincinnati built subway tunnels only to run out of money after eight miles of track and those tunnels have been vacant ever since. The city was a burgeoning metropolis then ready to explode with commerce and population, but after the subway debacle, Chicago became the crown jewel of the Midwest instead. I feel the Queen City has never fully recovered from that blunder and that the seed of the failure still resonates in the minds of its citizens. Seeing the tunnels left to rot has made these people gun-shy of similar risks that could propel Cincinnati toward the top or sink them farther behind. The right-wing thinkers and doers of the area have ridden this wave of momentum to effectively shoot down nearly any and all public-transit initiatives that would benefit the city. Finding employment isn’t likely to get much easier in the years to come and more and more companies will continue to cut back on payroll. To make our city, even our nation, a more viable place to prosper and find happiness, a large, collective effort of public-transportation must get underway soon. In a future with less natural resource and less commodities, we will need to rely more on one another and that means more sharing. Soon, joblessness and poverty won’t be just your problem or my problem, it will be our problem, and the later we recognize this social phenomena, the harder it will be to catch up to the cities with systems already in place. Just this time, let’s be a proactive city rather than a reactionary one. As a group, let’s acknowledge that some changes will be required for a better future and that some of these changes will be expensive and sweeping. By shifting the way we move around our planet, we have the chance of being the frontrunners of a new way of life, an alternative with endless benefit. A new system that works would bring more people to the area, including more business, and, in turn, lower the public cost to taxpayers. Not only would it help the local wealthy business moguls by bringing in more money to the area, it would also greatly help the disenfranchised people of our city by providing them a larger sphere of job possibilities. Lower-income families could live with just one car per household and give them the means to take more day-trips and other family vacations. Teens and the elderly could navigate themselves around more safely and lower medical costs associated with auto-accidents and other health ailments that come with driving. If this is to ever happen, you and I, the skin and bones that make our city a city, need to start warming up to the idea. We cannot sit on our hands and watch the world get out of their cars and pass us by. A new dawn is on the horizon. This can either be an era of innovation and alternative thinking, or one of stubborn resistance and financial bleakness. So I beg of you: get out of your cars and get on board, because the world is moving that way even if you aren’t. It can be scary plunging headfirst into the unknown future, but it seems far more miserable sitting around and waiting for the lights to shut off. So far as I know, you get one life on one planet, might as well seize it with both hands. Move ahead or get left behind. WANT MORE STREETVIBES? | CHECK OuT THE STREETVIBES BLOG http://streetvibes.wordpress.com STREETVIBES March 01-14, 2011 11 International News Rape in Zimbabwe: Perspectives and realities A woman is meant to fulfill all of her husband’s desires, even when she doesn’t feel like it,” said Primrose Mukumba, a vendor at a Harare flea market. She believes there is no such thing as rape within marriage. fungai Machirori The belief is widespread in Zimbabwe, according to the Musasa Project, an NGO providing support to survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), and is a serious deterrent to women accessing their services. “Unfortunately, most married women do not perceive it as rape,” said Musasa Project Executive Director Netty Musanhu. “They will just talk about the consequences of the incident, for example contracting HIV. It’s only when you explore further how they got the virus that they then say that their husbands forced themselves onto them. That’s when you realize that they have been raped.” Medical journal PLoS Medicine recently reported that Zimbabwe’s HIV epidemic had almost been halved in the past several years, a huge success in a region of mostly bad news when it comes to HIV and AIDS. However, in what is already a feminized epidemic (In 2009 UNAIDS estimated that 60 percent of HIV-positive Zimbabweans were female), rape puts more Zimbabwean women at risk of contracting the virus. Centres such as the Adult Rape Clinic (ARC) in Harare provide rape survivors with services that include medical examinations, HIV counseling and testing, emergency contraceptives (ECP), post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). ARC also collects forensic evidence and fills out medical affidavits for use in criminal investigations. ARC saw more than 450 rape survivors between March 2009, when it opened its doors, and mid-2010. It is the only such centre for adult rape survivors (16 years and above) in Harare. Statistics from ARC showed that 70 percent of survivors who visited the clinic were females in the 17-25 age bracket, one of the most vulnerable age groups to HIV infection. Overall, one in ten clients seen by ARC tests positive for HIV. The majority (two-thirds) of ARC’s rape cases are committed by a partner or relative; known as acquaintance rape. The challenge with reporting this type of rape is that women face physical and social stigma and face being disowned or abused by their family if they do speak up. “It would be much easier to mobilize help for rape victims if the majority of Zimbabweans believed that the victim is not to blame,” observed marketing consultant Tafadzwa Dihwa. “Our conservative attitude to taboo subjects is very wrong.” “At times, our culture extenuates rape. Just think of chiramu and how a husband nowadays can fondle the breasts of his wife’s sister. That’s criminal!” said Anesu Katere, a former teacher. Traditionally, chiramu refers to Gender links_ popular perspectives on rape Source: Colleen Lowe Morna, Gender Links the goodwill expressed between a man and the relatives of his wife. The man may take to playfully calling his wife’s younger sister his second wife. But this goodwill can be abused and a man may sexually harass the woman in the belief that he is entitled to her body since she is the “other” wife. The blame debate extends into the role that provocative attire plays in precipitating rape. “She’s showing the men a sign about what she’s come for,” said Nobert Zhuwao, a cell phone credit vendor, when asked about what he thought of women who visit bars in miniskirts. “Men are visual and are easily excited. And in a bar where there is alcohol and drugs, a woman must know that!” Zhuwao’s friend, Harmony Savanhu, added that in a state of sexual stimulation a man could not be held responsible for his actions. “If we’ve decided to have sex and the girl changes her mind at the last minute, then she’s wrong,” said Savanhu. When it’s up (the penis), its ready!” Originally published by Gender Links opinion and commentary service © Street News Service �STREETVIBES March 01-14, 2011 Most Unlikely to Succeed ­ Chapter One donald Whitehead L ooking back, I suppose I should have been nervous. In fact, I guess I should have been very nervous. I should have figured that what was about to happen shouldn’t have been happening at all. I should have assumed I was dreaming, hallucinating, or having an extreme bout of wishful thinking. I should have reasoned that the Donald Whitehead I had always been, the Donald Whitehead that I knew so well, would have had no business at such a place at such a time. That Donald Whitehead would have been an interloper or kitchen help; that Donald Whitehead would have been approached by security or the police and given only seconds to explain why he was there and what he had in mind. But the truth is, I was there; I was there legitimately, and people were treating me as if I had every right to be there. Donald Whitehead was, as I came to learn, “on the list.” And, of course, I really was nervous. Not in the sense of panic or having my knees knock, but of that inner apprehension as to what might happen that day; that sooner rather than later, someone in authority would come up to me with an expression of superiority on his or her face and I would immediately be out the door, booted as the fraud I really was. Even though I knew that that was not to be the case, old habits and old self-doubts really do die hard. The photographer was a surprise, though. I had hardly expected that anyone would want any sort of a visual record or even that I might have the chance to request such a record. But there the photographer was, explaining to me how many shots he would be taking, assessing what problems I might present, and then disappearing, not to have any interaction with me until I saw the event’s photographs some weeks later and wanted to order pictures. Following the photographer, a young staffer approached to check that the information they had for me was correct, including the pronunciation of my name, which I would have thought to be obvious. Satisfied, he headed for the next guest, and his place was taken by another staffer (apparently half the people in Washington D.C. are on someone’s staff ), who put his hand on my shoulder and begin gently guiding me into an appropriate position, as well as giving me the protocol for what was about to happen – “please, don’t reach for anything, and keep your hands out of your pocket,” and telling me how long I could expect to wait. And I did wait. Waiting is a way of life in Washington, much like in the military, and you learn rather quickly that Washington is a city where important things really do happen, and the necessity of dealing with important matters trumps everything and – almost – everybody. And, because of that, you learn to wait; you learn to master the art of small talk, the art of simply having something to say to pass the time. I talked to the people next to me; they were from the Department of Labor, and so we talked about jobs and poverty, about what programs might work and how, and why and what could realistically be done regarding legislative needs. I talked to someone behind me; she was new in DC, but had come from Kentucky, right across the river from my home in Cincinnati, where I had lived almost all my life. She asked about a constant topic in Washington for any new person: housing. Not housing for the poor, but rather, potential apartments, places to live, locations, traffic patterns, and above all the horrible, horrible rent rates that make life in the nation’s capital often seem beyond financial hope. After about twenty minutes, a more senior staffer (you learn to recognize not only who’s who, but at what level people work) came out and said we would be looking at approximately thirty to forty minutes still more, and that we should make ourselves comfortable and we were not to leave. The lady from Kentucky made a joke as to who would ever consider leaving, and I laughed, but not too much for I would have been determined to wait out the whole night if I had had to. Strangely enough, the call came sooner rather than later. Yet another staffer walked out, holding a clipboard, much like a quarterback on a sideline. He motioned us forward, with the two Labor people leading the way, and me following the lady from Kentucky. The room would probably have been best described as a small greeting room, attached to a larger office, and that office attached to the remaining areas of the home itself. As we entered, I saw the four men in dark suits move quickly but smoothly, in what was obviously a practiced pattern, heading for, and then opening a second door across from where we had entered. The staffer with the clipboard put his hand on the elbow of the first of the Department of Labor people and gently maneuvered him more to the center of the room. We followed and stood waiting. There were no chairs, although various pieces of furniture did line the left wall of the room, under a huge mirror. I remember licking my lips as we waited, and I remember rubbing my hands together. But it was only a minute before the men in the dark suits fanned out to flank the opposite door just as yet another staffer, obviously an even more senior person, entered through that door. He quickly stepped to the side, as yet another man walked in. This man stood still for only an instant before he began what must have been for him a long-perfected litany: “Lady and gentlemen, please give your attention…. The last man to enter was pretty much exactly as I had seen on the television and in the hundreds of pictures, although a bit taller and a bit heavier than I had guessed. He thanked us briefly for coming, and then began what struck me as a fairly impassioned series of quick comments on the shame that America had to feel given that so many of its citizens were poor, homeless, unemployed, or all three. He promised that he would personally see to it that something was done about this disgrace. When he finished speaking, the two Department of Labor people were introduced to him and he spoke with them for at least a couple of minutes; the lady from Kentucky (I later learned she was with HUD) received slightly less time, and then it was my turn. I stepped forward, smiled, and suddenly had only one thought in my mind: again, that this could not possibly be true, that this could not possibly be happening. Not to Donald Whitehead, not to the man who had lain on the floor of an emergency shelter in Cincinnati, Ohio, not to the man who had been so desperate and homeless. But it was happening. I stepped forward, smiled, and put out my hand. “Mr. President,” the staffer said, “let me introduce to you, Mr. Donald Whitehead, the Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.” And I stepped forward and shook the hand of President William Jefferson Clinton, and we began to speak, as if we were old friends, about homelessness in the United States of America. Later in the evening, I had a chance to speak with Hilary Clinton as well, and I was tremendously impressed at how knowledgeable she was about homelessness. We talked and I was astonished as she really seemed to listen to what I was saying. Listening to Donald Whitehead, listening far more attentively than others had listened to me when I had been a homeless addict in the gutters of Cincinnati. When I left the Clinton Home that evening, I felt as if I had become somehow a different person; I felt as if the Donald Whitehead who had left the office of the National Coalition on Homelessness to go to the Clinton Home had been transformed; had become someone who was different in some new and invigorating way. I felt somehow raised up, somehow changed. And yet, I knew in the deepest recesses of both my heart and my mind, that that was not the truth. For I realized then, as I do now, that I was the very same Donald Whitehead as I had ever been. I realized, in fact, that I was the same Donald Whitehead, who had lain on the floor of the DropInn Center, on 12th Street, in Cincinnati, completely drunk, unable to get up, and unable to take care of himself. And it had not been that many years earlier. That had been in 1995, six years before I went to the home of Bill and Hilary Clinton as Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. Six years before I was invited to the home of a former President and his wife, the sitting United States Senator from New York, I had needed to sleep on the floor of an emergency shelter and had awakened with the knowledge that I remembered little if anything of the night before and that my life was a complete and devastating shambles. Looking back, as I walked away from my evening with Bill and Hilary Clinton, the one point that came to me again and again was thinking about those terrible nights in the Drop-Inn Center, and above all thinking about the path that the years had set me on between the Drop Inn Shelter and the Clinton Household. How was it --- indeed, how could it have been – that the very same Donald Whitehead who had slept with alcohol on his breath and on his clothing in an emergency shelter could be the Donald Whitehead invited to the home of a President and Senator? Was it the hand of God that had reached out and, in some strange way, chosen me for the position I had reached? Or was it something that I had done myself? Had I found inside of me some inner strength, some inner will? Or was it the kindness and support of others? Was it an attitude and a commitment I had made? Or was it simply good fortune, being in the right spot at the right time? Was it fate? Was it Providence? Was it strength? In the years that have passed, I’ve had time to think about such things over and over and consider not only what my answer was that night, but how that answer has changed with the years, and with the new tasks and challenges I’ve undertaken. I’ve had time to look closely at myself and to examine the steps that I took and the steps others pushed me to take; I’ve thought about the things that I did for myself and the events that I could never have predicted. And, above all, I feel that I’ve learned a few things, not only about Donald Whitehead, but about struggle, challenge, and desperation and the ways that I and other individuals have faced up to these foes. I’ve learned about opportunity, and I have things I want to say about the opportunities that each man or woman has in their lives, and the roll that recognizing opportunity plays in each person’s success. I’ve learned about fear and hopelessness, too; and I have a number of things I want to say about those two enemies of the human spirit as well. And so, I’ve written this book. I’ve written it not only to tell people about Donald Whitehead (although I do hope you will find my story an interesting one), but also to tell people a little something about themselves. I want my story to be an uplifting one. I want my story to describe truthfully what I once was, and I want people to see what I became, not so that I should seem important, but rather that the possibilities for other men and women should seem important. We are all people of different skills, people of different fears, different beliefs. We are all people with many problems, and in the lowest of our moments, we are people who believe we have few solution to those problems. I want to address those lowest moments in the light of what Donald Whitehead once was, in the Drop Inn Center. I want to address those fears in light of the terror I felt when I woke up night after night in an emergency shelter on a cold floor, surrounded by our society’s outcasts. And I want to address opportunity in light of the positions I have held. But above all, I want to address hope. Above all, I want anyone who reads this book to know that there is always hope. I want everyone who reads this book to take away from these pages a genuine belief that with determination and a lot of courage, a great many great things are indeed possible. No one’s life is ever totally hopeless. And that is what this book is really about. About The Author: Donald Whitehead spent five years between various relatives and the streets of Cincinnati. Due to the disease of addiction he found himself trapped in the terrible realities of homelessness. In August of 1995 he made his way to the Drop Inn Center where he entered the center’s six-month treatment program. After completing the program, Whitehead was hired as the outreach coordinator he created a public radio program, a community access cable television show and a newspaper all focused on homelessness. He served for two years as the outreach coordinator of that organization. Whitehead worked to get people experiencing homelessness involved in local planning processes. Whitehead created the “Homeless Think Tank” to help the city of Cincinnati develop its strategy for providing services to the homeless population. The homeless think tank model is now officially incorporated in the Continuum of Care process in the city of Cincinnati and has been used as a best practice example in communities across the United States. Whitehead created innovative models for service provision including a program that provides transportation for family transitioning out of homeless. Whitehead served for two years as the Executive Director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Under Whitehead’s leadership the Greater Cincinnati Coalition membership grew from twenty members to over seventy active members. STREETVIBES March 01-14, 2011 Story & Poetry Corner 13 A Peaceful Place Intel Willa d. Jones Jordan antoine Wilson There’s a place I go to on different days of every week The hate crimes against my intelligence are growing intolerable I live in a land of one billion sheep Who’s wool is constantly trying to be pulled Over my eyes There are none so blind as those who will not see There are those who create the curriculum And the criteria for a passing grade However, these same disregard the very scale On which they grade when the work is completed And turned in The only thing worse is that one can still feel The need to perform for such ringmasters But alas I will forever keep my head on a swivel Or at least try And I will keep something dear to me on a pedestal. That something is my intelligence, for it is my umbrella On a rainy day 4-6-10 Where I can learn about making things that all kinds of l people seek I learn to make jewelry; I learn how to knit and to even play with clay I learn all sorts of things and if I want, I can stay and learn all day This place is open to women from all walks of everyday life In this place you can find peace of mind from the world’s toils and strife We come together and talk to find solutions for so many different problems As we knit and make jewelry we pray for God’s help with our problems to be able to solve them This place is called the Sarah Center here in downtown Vine Street Who would ever believe this place of peace would be located right off the downtown beat I have been blessed to find the Sarah Center and meet all the Sarah Center Girls I just wish that there were more places of this statue all over the world So I hope I can just pass the blessing on to those who may be lonely and bored And be able to open the door to those lost souls who feel their being ignored Come into the Sarah Center and meet all the many women of different cultures and pray That your day may be fulfilled by the grace of God in the Sarah Center each and everyday The Poet’s Justice Jordan antoine Wilson If justice can be poetic, Then where is my play? All the pretty face followers, Who swoon at the words I say? Let it trickle down from the mountains. Let it rise from the gutter. Let my tongue stay untangled, So my mouth will never stutter. Roll it up in your palm. Pack it up well. Let my words be a story, You won’t hesitate to tell. I need a bank for these thoughts, Because the pennies come in rolls. A nickel for a sandwich, And a few dollars for me to fold. 1-28-11 a 12 Interest S Y WHAT?! Gloria Steinem at news conference, Women's Action Alliance, 1972 In Honor Of Women’s History Month “I have met brave women who are exploring the outer edge of human possibility, with no history to guide them, and with a courage to make themselves vulnerable that I find moving.” -Gloria Steinem �14 Sightings ­ STREETVIBES March 01-14, 2011 ­ Congratulations Judge Painter! Shelter: Women and Children Cincinnati judge holds court at United Nations Bethany House Press release froM the ohio Bar association Judge Mark Painter of Cincinnati is one of seven judges, and the only American, to serve on a new internal justice system within the United Nations. Painter says the position came about after he answered a want ad for the new U.N. Appeals Tribunal. “I sent my resume to an e-mail listed in the ad, thinking, ‘They want seven people from the whole world and I’ll never hear anything more from this.’” To his surprise, Judge Painter was contacted. The vetting process ended with a vote by the U.N. General Assembly. Judge Painter is preparing to attend the fourth session of the court, to be held Feb. 28-March 11 in New York City. The inaugural session was held last spring in Geneva, Switzerland, and two other sessions were held during 2010 in New York. Cases have included disputes over promotions, discipline, and pensions. The court is internationally diverse, with judicial representatives from France, Argentina, Ghana, India, Uruguay and Ireland. Judge Painter says the judges get along quite well. “At first, there was a concern because four of us are from common law countries and three are from civil law countries. But we haven’t had any problem harmonizing and coming to the right conclusions on the cases.” He adds that out of the first 100 cases decided last year, there have been only two dissents. The judges will have nonrenewable seven-year terms, but because Judge Painter is among those appointed for an initial term of three years, he may be re-appointed for seven more years when the current term concludes next year. Judge Painter was an elected trial and appellate judge for 27 years. He currently serves as an adjunct professor at the University Of Cincinnati College Of Law, where he earned his law degree in 1973. He has also been a speaker for Ohio State Bar Association continuing legal education courses on the art of legal writing. The Ohio State Bar Association, founded in 1880, is a voluntary association representing approximately 25,000 members of the bench and bar of Ohio as well as nearly 4,000 legal assistants and law students. Through its activities and the activities of its related organizations, the OSBA serves both its members and the public by promoting the highest standards in the practice of law and the administration of justice. A video interview with Judge Painter is available on the Ohio State Bar Association’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/ohiobar. Central Access Point Cincinnati union Bethel St. Francis Soup Kitchen Churches Active in Northside 535-2719 591-2246 381-SAFE 768-6907 FreeStore/FoodBank 557-2873 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 300 Lytle Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 4230 Hamilton Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45223 241-1064 112 E. Liberty Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 1841 Fairmount Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45214 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 762-5660 271-5501 4600 Erie Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 St. Vincent de Paul 6037 Cary Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45224 Salvation Army 562-8841 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 5 E. Liberty St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 Health Resource Center Homeless Mobile Health Van McMicken Dental Clinic 357-4602 352-2902 352-6363 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mental Health Access Point Mercy Franciscan at St. John 558-8888 981-5800 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 NAMI of Hamilton County PATH Outreach 1125 Bank Street, Cinti, Ohio 45214 131 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 458-6670 977-4489 Treatment: Men Other Resources Shelter: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 2121 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Prospect House 241-0490 381-4941 Starting Over 1419 Elm Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 961-4663 Treatment: Both 761-1480 1821 Summit Road, Cinti, Ohio 45237 721-0643 Interfaith Hospitality Network Lighthouse Youth Center (Youth) 471-1100 221-3350 3330 Jefferson, Cinti, Ohio 45220 Housing: CMHA Excel Development OTR Community Housing 721-4580 632-7149 381-1171 114 W. 14th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tender Mercies 721-8666 27 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 351-0422 381-6672 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. Cinti, Ohio 45214 961-4555 751-0643 381-1954 421-5211 Food/Clothing Lord’s Pantry OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry 621-5300 961-1983 OTR: 1620 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert, Cinti, Ohio 45206 621-6364 1730 Race Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Goodwill industries Healing Connections Mary Magdalen House 771-4800 751-0600 721-4811 241-2965 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 united Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 1522 Republic Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Hamilton County ADAS Board 946-4888 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 641-4300 Advocacy Catholic Social Action Community Action Agency Contact Center 421-3131 569-1840 381-4242 1227 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tom Geiger House Dana Transitional Bridge Services Volunteers of America Anna Louise Inn Our Daily Bread AA Hotline CCAT Joseph House (Veterans) 217 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 381-0111 1223 Main St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 2728 Glendora Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45209 Caracole (HIV/AIDS) 621-5514 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 961-4080 Peaslee Neighborhood Center Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart First Step Home Anthony House (Youth) 241-2600 241-2563 214 E. 14th St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 661-4620 Shelter: Both Center Independent Living Options Emmanuel Community Center 1308 Race St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 961-2256 Treatment: Women 1437 Walnut Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mt. Airy Shelter 921-1613 682 Hawthorne Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45205 Justice Watch St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House Drop Inn Center Franciscan JPIC Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 721-4700 421-7803 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. Legal Aid Society Ohio Justice & Policy Center Faces Without Places Stop AIDS 579-8547 241-9400 421-1108 363-3300 421-2437 Health Center for Respite Care Hamilton/Middletown St. Raephaels Salvation Army Serenity House Day Center Open Door Pantry 863-3184 863-1445 422-8555 868-3276 Northern Kentucky Brighton Center 859-491-8303 799 Ann St. Newport, KY ECHO/Hosea House 859-261-5857 Fairhaven Resuce Mission 859-491-1027 Homeward Bound Youth 859-581-1111 Mathews House 859-261-8009 Homeless & Housing Coalition 859-727-0926 Parish Kitchen 859-581-7745 Pike St. Clinic 859-291-9321 Transitions, Inc 859-491-4435 Welcome House of NKY 859-431-8717 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 621-1868 3550 Washington Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45229 Street410x:Layout 1 5/7/2010 2:47 PM Page 1 Compliments of � Judge Mark Painter United Nations Appeals Tribunal, 2009– # Ohio Court of Appeals, 1995–2009 # Hamilton County Municipal Court, 1982–1995 # Judging strictly on merit for 29 years � www.judgepainter.org Paid for by the Judge Painter Cte., Paul Gaffney, CPA, Treas., 5086 Wooster Road · Cincinnati, OH 45226 Cartoon: Washington “Park” By: Eddie Sun 15 Resources ­ STREETVIBES March 01-14, 2011 Women’s Crisis Center VA Domiciliary VA Homeless 859-491-3335 859-559-5011 859-572-6226 �16 Column STREETVIBES March 01-14, 2011 Who Decides What Is Good or Equal ­ In her art, Kim Shifflett questions arbitrary boundaries In undergrad, older that most of her classmates, she felt less free, having to juggle her role as wife and mother with her study demands and aspirations for a professional career. A recurrent theme in Kim Shifflett’s artwork is that of boundaries. They range from boundaries imposed by societal rules and expectations, delineating roles and behaviors in such matters as gender, relationships, families, deciding good from bad, to actual physical borders that separate and isolate people, leading to poverty, violence and conflict. “At home I was always expected to do the ‘women chores’, cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kids, tending to everyone else’s needs,” she says. “I always came last. People would even make me feel selfish for wanting to be in school.” In a traditional society built mostly around men’s convenience, she found herself fighting for her Kim Shifflett in her studio. Photo by Saad Ghosn interests, having constantly to redefine She did colorful paintings of black-eyed and assert who she was. The theme of Susan, corn flowers, other ‘weed’ flowers she had By saad ghosn feminism then permeated her work. encountered, one painting for each month from Contributing writEr She did a series of semi-abstract spring to early winter. She used on purpose very paintings on relationships, women in large canvasses to draw in the viewer and give the family, all the push-and-pull they added importance to their subject. Born in Champaign, IL, Shifflett grew up in daily experience. The images were based on round Halfway through grad school, Shifflett went Las Cruces, NM, near Ciudad Juarez on the other balls, one of them representing her; they would back to visit her parents in Las Cruces. Wanting side of the Mexican divide. It was at a time when also be accompanied by statements to clarify her to return like in the old good times to Ciudad flow between the 2 countries was welcome and message. Juarez she was strongly discouraged by her sister safe and when crossing the border was a daily In Tomato Soup Family, for instance, she is a who shared with her the ongoing violence in the enjoyable adventure; she often accompanied her big red ball at the bottom, pushed away by 2 other border town, the hundreds of working women friends and mother to party or shop on Mexican balls on the top, one being her husband, the other found dead for no reason, the daily killings due to soil. Shifflett was also interested in art very early her daughter. the drug wars, the desperate prevailing poverty. on, drawing constantly, her talents encouraged by She was appalled not to have heard about it on the She later expanded her series to address more teachers and family. news. Doing her research she discovered the truth specifically her relationship of the new reality and embarked on a new series of with her teenage daughter. paintings, Borderlands. They were both struggling for independence, yet her daughter Her large and somber painting Trash Town is a demanding, needy and commentary on the effect of NAFTA on the lives rebellious at the same time. The of hundreds of thousands of Mexicans who, in abstract paintings in the series order to find better paying jobs, relocated to the were done using Elmer’s glue border cities where new factories had opened. and graphite, Elmer’s glue in her Unfortunately they were met with inexistent mind associated with the school infrastructure, no electricity, water or sewage, and classroom, thus connected to ended up living among trash in shanty towns, the her daughter. for-profit companies not concerned with their well-being. In I Hate You Mom but Can You Please Take Me and My The killing Field was based on the massacre of Friends to the Mall, she reflects 73 to-be illegal immigrants who, before reaching on the expectations and tasks the USA, were kidnapped by drug cartels, held for she’s supposed to meet just ransom and killed, their families not able to pay. for being a mother; and in Trapped is in response to the escalating violence Stony Silence because I Said in bordering towns, people becoming prisoners No, related to not letting her in their own homes, trapped and squeezed 14 year old daughter go to between an obstructive border fence, terrorizing a slumber party at a 16 year drug lords, daily danger, and poverty. It was also old boy’s house, on how these related to similar imagery and background she expectations were only used had experienced on a recent trip to the West Bank, when they suited her child. Palestinians impeded in their daily living by a big Between undergrad and grad dividing wall, numerous checkpoints, long lines school, Shifflett worked on and queues, omnipresent occupation. Shifflett another series related to flowers had travelled to the Middle East to help Bedouin usually considered weeds. women improve their weaving technique and find Travelling down the interstate opportunities to better market their product. to get to her studio she would ‘We’re all alike,” says Shifflett. “Women, often admire along the way Trapped, oil painting. Painting and Photo by Kim Shifflett environment, border conflicts, are universal large patches of beautiful and issues that touch all of us. When I disagree with colorful flowers jut to find them the following day something, I use my art to raise awareness, start At the age of 18 she left New Mexico, settled for mowed away. and facilitate a dialogue, hopefully promote few years in Tucson, AZ, moved to Lexington, KY, “I felt every time violated,” she says, “like if change. My art is compassionate. I strongly and then finally to Cincinnati, OH. Along the way someone was deliberately destroying my favorite identify with immigrants who leave their country she married twice, bore children, learned to weave garden. Why would a flower in a certain setting wanting better chance, education and living; with and knit, started a needlework design business, has value and beauty and in others not. Who burdened women and mothers; with devalued pursued her art education. She earned a BFA decides what is good or equal? Unfortunately ‘weed’ flowers; with ‘invisible’, victimized degree from the Art Academy of Cincinnati and by drawing arbitrary lines, our society often individuals in our society.” a MFA degree in painting from the University of contributes to abusive control and prejudice.” Cincinnati. Artists as Activists is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati artists who use art as a vehicle for change. Saad Ghosn is the founder of SOS Art. Ghosn can be reached at saad.ghosn@uc.edu. � 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 2011 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 March 1-14, 2011 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Cincinnati Women Making Her Story Pg 2: Street Wise Pg 3: Homeless Congress Pg 4: Cincinnati Women Making Her Story Continued Pg 5: Cincinnati Women Making Her Story Continued Pg 6: Cincinnati Women Making Her Story Continued Pg 7: Cincinnati Women Making Her Story Continued Pg 8: Move Ahead or Get Left Behind Pg 9: Feed Me Seymour Pg 10: Move Ahead or Get Left Behind Continued Pg 11: Rape in Zimbabwe: Perspectives and Realities Pg 12: Most Likely to Succeed Pg 13: Poetry Pg 14: Congratulations Judge Painter! Pg 15: Resources Pg 16: Who Decides What is Good or Equal? 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 March 1-14, 2011 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jen Martin Elizabeth Schulenberg Donald Whitehead B. Clifton Burke Pearla Kinne Jordan Antoine Wilson Riccardo Taylor Saad Ghosn Jeni Jenkins Willa Denise Jones Fungai Machirori Anthony Williams Amiee Willhoite Saad Ghosn Pearla Kinne Colleen Lowe Morna Eddie Sun GCCH Staff Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Amiee Willhoite Anthony Williams B. Clifton Burke Cincinnati Colleen Lowe Morna Donald Whitehead Eddie Sun Elizabeth Schulenberg Fungai Machirori GCCH Staff Herstory Jen Martin Jeni Jenkins Jordan Antoine Wilson Judge Painter Kim Shifflett Pearla Kinne Rape Riccardo Taylor Saad Ghosn United Nations Willa Denise Jones Women Zimbabwe https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/b2b7bfedb5277cef09020feab6cdf0c4.pdf 35259738bcea18df3ec635cf9e583955 PDF Text Text San Francisco S t r e e t v ibeS Homelessness March 15- 3 1 , 2 0 1 1 UC Students Skip the Beach to Give Back During Spring Break PG 14 PG 6 March 15-31, 2011 A D V O C A T I N G Barb Wolf Jeni Jenkins Staff Writer For over 40 years Barb Wolf has worked to craft her career as a documentary activist or, as she refers to herself, a “documentarist”. What began as an enduring curiosity in a 1960’s Grailville bookstore, spurred on by members of the Catholic women’s movement, ripened into a deep love for documenting human and civil rights transgressions and the people who fight them. According to Barb, in the 60’s “Grailville was made up of powerful women who would watch what you were interested in” and incite your creative potential. These women, part of the international Grail movement which was established in Loveland in 1944, were committed to “the release of women’s creative energy throughout the world” (grailville. org) and came together strictly “to change the world.” Upon recognizing Barb’s interest, the women of Grailville asked her to make a slide show on the “changing role of women” and that is when she first learned about the women’s movement. Barb had been involved in the anti-war movement and the civil rights movement almost from the beginning. In fact the civil rights march on Washington, D.C., in August 1963 was the first march she ever participated in. The Grailville slide show peaked her interest in the women’s movement because “if women could begin to understand how they had been mistreated, they might begin to understand or expand their understanding to others who had been mistreated.” Wolf ’s involvement with the 1960’s movements had a huge 1 ISSUE 265 J U S T I C E impact on her life and work, leading her to make slide shows and films about other social issues including race and poverty. “To be part of that- it was a freeing time. One of the things that I learned is to be open to change, because change is not bad. Look at the possibilities of change as opposed to fearing change.“ Barb estimates that she has made 6-8 films a year for at least 40 years, resulting in 100’s of films. Her work evolved and expanded in various directions over the years. In the early 70’s she went to work for Cincinnati’s Urban Appalachian Council and began teaching kids how to tape and edit shows on Appalachian culture. Word of mouth about her talents grew and each project led to other projects focused on giving people a voice. In the late 70’s, for example, she did a training film for an organization working on establishing home health care providers for people who were wheelchair bound. Then with the 1980’s AIDS epidemic, Wolf began making funeral videos for friends who had died after contracting the disease. Barb worked on a number of projects with activist buddy gray, founder of Over-the­ Rhine People’s movement, including “These Old Buildings Raised Our Many Children” about “people who were moved around and used like pawns and placeholders in OTR when the gentrification was just beginning.” Barb also worked with gray on a documentary on the history of the Drop Inn Center that was never completed due to buddy’s untimely death in 1996. As a champion for the rights of the oppressed, Barb has continually participated in demonstrations, rallies and marches. In 2000 Barb participated in the Trans- • B U I L D I N G Atlantic Business Dialogue conference demonstrations at Fountain Square where protestors peacefully rallied against corporate wealth and the decreasing wealth of the poor. Barb watched the protests with a camera so that “if something went wrong we could have it on tape” a tactic that has helped her fight the arrests of people who have been falsely accused. She also taped the 2001 Cincinnati riots and documented the civil unrest, which prompted her to tape virtually every demonstration that happened afterwards. In September 2001, Barb united with thousands of anti-war protestors across the country as they demonstrated against in the impending invasion of Afghanistan. Barb was arrested for standing in the street and blocking traffic as she and others were “trying not to have that war happen because it was just so wrong.” She says, “People literally poured out into the streets to say ‘stop this’, ‘don’t do it’. We had done everything else we possibly could have-and that’s what we did and we got arrested and spent the night in jail.” Barb was found guilty for disorderly conduct, despite the fact that she was calm, polite and non-violent. The appeals courts later threw out the case. More recently, in September 2006, Barb was arrested in Steve Chabot’s office as part of a nationwide movement calling on representatives to sign the declaration of peace. A judge found her guilty of criminal trespassing and sentenced her to 30 hours of community service, a sentence that she then protested because she didn’t believe doing community service, which is often a life choice, should be made equivalent to punishment. Her refusal landed her 10 days in jail, an experience that she found fascinating and “wouldn’t take it back for the world.” While in jail she was able to speak with and interview dozens of good people who had done something wrong, people she says “shouldn’t be there for a variety of reasons.” Barb describes her work as a “tool for understanding.” When she documents people she attempts to “represent people in a positive fashion” so they can “see themselves and feel proud, once they see themselves it will empower them.” She follows the philosophy of “We become what we behold” and believes “If someone sees themselves with dignity and respect they become that. That’s what I do in $1 C O M M U N I T Y my work- and then of course I try to get arrested every once in awhile.” One video project she produced, Degrees of Shame, is on the exploitation of adjunct professors in higher institutions, modeled after Edward R. Murrow’s film Harvest of Shame, a documentary on the exploitation of migrant farm workers. Barb sought to draw parallels between migrant workers and part-time professors in the “hope that they [professors] would look at migrant farmers and realize they are allies and they would try to help their cause.” Barb’s current projects include creating a training video from the Streetvibes Distributors as well as a film documenting the lives of speaker’s from the Coalition for the Homeless’ Voice of the Homeless Speaker’s Bureau. She is also making a Barb Wolf’s arrest during the local demonstration of the international protests against the 2001 War in Afghanistan. source: Unknown film on Mr. K’s Math Camp in Cincinnati and is in conversation with Ohioans for Health, See Women, Pg. 3 �editorial 2 1964 The year Barbara Wolf first marched on Washington DC, in an anti war protest (Page 1) 1984 The year Jen Martin, the Editor of Streetvibes was born (Page 2) 8 The years Lea Drury has been in Cincinnati, committed to social work (Page 4) 2-25-2011 The day The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless lead people in a rally to protest 3CDC’s recent ‘improvements’ to Washington Park (Page 8) 26,000 The amount of messages that were sent by Amnesty activists to the Iranian government demanding the release of Roxana Saberi (Page 11) 88 How much beloved Mojo, a German Shepard-Rottweiler weighed (Page 12) 17 The age Cedric Cox began playing bass in a hard rock band, Morticite (Page 16) I Jennifer Martin Editor have decided that ‘Streetwise’ may not be the best name for this editorial. When I came on as Editor for Streetvibes that was the Editorial’s name, so I just kept it; however after consideration I have decided it is a wrong fit for me. At the risk of this offending anyone, let me just be the first to say I am probably not what one would consider ‘Streetwise’. Therefore, since I haven’t come up with a new title yet, the name will just be untitled for a bit. I look forward to sharing my opinions with you through this piece. I also thought it may be a good time to let you know what I am here to do, much like a company or group’s mission statement, this is kind of mine… I came to Streetvibes because I believed in the cause which it supports, my mission as Editor, is to simply advocate for the cause and use this newspaper as a means to get the message out there. I believe Streetvibes is an avenue to awareness. I want it to be something that someone donates a dollar for, and they actually get something out of. My intention is to continue the message of the community within and to make people outside of our core know the name Streetvibes. While I understand my point of view and my ways may be unusual to others, they make perfect sense to me and I think in time others will see where I am coming from. In an effort for transparency, you should know I don’t think doom and gloom are always the way to go if you want someone to listen to your message. This is why now and in the future, especially in my Editorials, I may sometimes go for the lighter side of an issue. Again, this is all in an effort to simply keep people turning the page. I believe strongly I can bring different sets of eyes to thispaper and as long as I do that, our message as a Coalition can only become louder. In the mean time, I encourage your thoughts, critiques, and comments on the paper. When it comes to me as Editor, I want to be transparent. I don’t aim to be charming or cute, I aim to simply produce a good product, and my opinions are secondary to that. The things I write within an Editorial aren’t to be taken as fact unless specifically stated, my opinions may not always reflect those of the Coalition and its staff, and what I do write may mean something very different to everyone as individuals. This is the reason I want your opinion on issues not necessarily about who I am. Really, with all the hate we deal with on a daily basis just watching the news…I am pretty spent on it, so you’ll understand if the things I say from now on may be on a lighter and more positive note. Those thoughts will be relegated only to this box and it is called an Editorial. And aside from that I am completely aware of who I am and the fact that I know nothing in the grand scheme of things, I assure you I do not need to be told. I am also completely aware of my shortcomings and I think most would describe me as abrasive, loud, and blunt… and I tend to agree. I am all of those things. I was once given the back handed compliment that I was like a “pretty Kathy Bates” and trust me that was the nicest compliment that person could muster at the time, hardlycute or charming. I am however honest and I truly try my hardest not to judge others (as difficult as that can be sometimes), it isn’t my style. I try not to judge and within the perimeters of my job, I try to listen and be fair. I always want to hear what you have to say. I will always respond to a thought or concern if sent to me in a respectful way, so that a dialogue could start from differences. This is something that is important to me since I have not always been a member of this community or it’s very strong core of nonprofit advocates. My email is printed to the right of this Editorial, so please if you do have something to say, send it my way. I always want the reader’s voice to be as loud as mine. StreetvibeS M a rc h 15-31, 2011 Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by people who are or once were homeless, in exchange for a $1 donation, Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Address: 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Phone: 513.421.7803 x 12 Fax 513.421.7813 Email: streetvibes2@yahoo.com Website: www.cincihomeless.org Blog: streetvibes.wordpress.com Streetvibes Staff Editor Jen Martin, jenmartin@cincihomeless.org Art Director Elizabeth Schulenberg Contributing Writers Jim Luken, Riccardo Taylor, Saad Ghosn, Catie Dargue, Jeni Jenkins, Willa Denise Jones, Jennifer Martin, Laura Osborne-Coffey, James Brown, Lee McCoy, Dawn Fuller, Elisa Hill, B. Clifton Burke, Jimmie Gipson, Elles van Gelder, Beth GriffithNiemann Photography/Artwork Amiee Willhoite, Saad Ghosn, Mikki Schaffner, Bill Howes, Suzanne Chouteau, Bill Howes, Cedric Cox, Dawn Fuller, B. Clifton Burke, Sarah Hager, Elles van Gelder, Catie Dargue, Laura OsborneCoffey The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati through coordination of services, public education, grassroots advocacy and Streetvibes. �3 S t r e e t v ibeS March 15- 3 1 , 2 0 1 1 Women Making Herstory Laura OsbornCoffey Continued from Pg. 1 Environment and Justice on creating a film about the environmental effects of Fracking (hydraulic fracturing) in Ohio, and working on documenting the opening of the co-op coffee shop opening in Norwood in Fall 2011. While Barb has never had an interest in film festivals and contests as the rewards that she gets are not from awards “it’s when they [films] make a change,” she received a videography award from the Contact Center in 1997 as well as the Maurice McCracken Peace & Justice Award in 2002. She continues her work after all these years because she is “ridiculously hopeful.” While she acknowledges she can’t fix everything, she is optimistic about continually working for solutions to social issues. While she considers herself a “persistent follower… and rarely the spokesperson” she did lead and organize a project called Artists for the Drop Inn Center. Barb initiated the project as a response to a comment she documented while filming a meeting of residents at the Drop Inn Center. The residents were asked to give input about Erich Kunzel’s push to move the Drop out of OTR. One of the residents said, “Why do artists hate us so?” She thought it was so awful that they felt that, so she got together with a couple of other artists who pulled together 40 or 50 artists who supported the Drop and put on a concert together at Southgate House. This visionary to be reckoned with was born in Wisconsin and raised in New Jersey and Michigan. She originally moved to Cincinnati in 1963 to pursue a BA in Math from Mt. St. Joseph College. She lives with her partner of 35 years, Michael Burnham, a Professor of Drama at the University of Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music. Barb’s films and videos tell many stories and document the struggles of our people over the last 4 decades. She plans on gifting her life’s work to the historical society, to preserve this history. “You can write a letter, you can save a life. Take Action Now.” Laura grew up in Clinton County, Ohio, a Quaker stronghold. She credits this for her background in an activist life. As a teen she was involved in a 4-H horse club in Clinton County, and once she grew out of the club she volunteered as an advisor for a few years afterwards. The day she completed her Master’s degree in Social Work at the University of Cincinnati in 1986, she and her fiancé watched “A Conspiracy of Hope” tour on TV. This rock concert was a benefit for Amnesty International, and featured artists such as Sting, Peter Gabriel, Brian Adams and U2. The show also carried the message in info-mercialsby actors such as Robin Williams, Danny Glover and Whoopi Goldberg: You can write a letter, you can save a life. Take Action Now. This concert incited Laura to send in her membership, and three months later she got in touch with the Local Group 86 in Cincinnati. In the mid 80’s, Local Groups were also called ‘Adoption Groups’ as they would take on a Prisoner of Conscience case and work on it until the case was closed – either through a release,or due to the prisoner’s death. “The first case we worked on was Mohamed Mghagha in Ethopia. The group had his case when I joined, and we must’ve worked for at least 6 or 7 more years for him, until he was freed. When Mohammed was released, we had a big party with cake. We were so excited!” Laura remembers. In 1987, Laura became the coordinator for the Cincinnati Local Group 86. The group was very active, and was in constant contact with the Amnesty office in Chicago, and later in 1987 she became the Area Coordinator for Ohio. This role was a natural extension, as there were four active Amnesty International Local Groups in the state. In 1987 and 1988, she helped two new Amnesty Local groups to start in Dayton OH and Covington KY. In 1989 she began attending the ‘Training of Trainer’ program within Amnesty, which provided a training program to members to facilitate presentations and outreach for Amnesty to grow the movement. After going to through this process, she did trainings at the local, regional and national levels, including workshops at their Annual General Meetings. Three years ago, Laura was asked to join the Area Coordinator Steering Committee (ACSC) – a group consisting of one representative Area Coordinator from each of Amnesty’s five regions, plus a Board member and staff. In this group, she has worked closely with the other representatives to award a national level award to the Amnesty Local Groups, called the Sister Laola Hironaka Award. The ACSC also works to develop workshops at the annual meeting for the Local Groups and the Area Coordinators, and adds strength to Amnesty’s work with local groups and membership. Laura is also a volunteer at the Maple Creek Artisan Center in Moscow Ohio (Clermont County) – she’s done spinning and weaving demonstrations for their festivals over the past year, and she will be doing quilting workshops with them this year – for a change of pace. Maple Creek is a center for revitalizing the older arts, including pottery, blacksmithing, and other crafts. She is still very involved in the Cincinnati Local Group and is the coordinator. “We do a lot of work for the Prisoners of Conscience – our current case is Dhondup Wangchen, a film-maker in China who was arrested after he made a video of Tibetanstalking about how they felt about the Dalai Lama. Dhondup is like the ‘Indiana Jones’ of China – he was imprisoned for making the video, then somehow he managed to escape from the Chinese Police for a short while, andmanaged to smuggle the video to a relative before he was again arrested and imprisoned. Who does that in China these days?” The Cincinnati group shares this case with a Local Group in Massachusetts, and last year the two groups collected over 2000 signatures on petitions on his behalf, with some help from the concert tabling worldwide. She’s also in touch with student groups in the area, and is impressed with their energy and dedication. “Amnesty volunteers don’t stop, and we don’t go away. 2011 is Amnesty’s 50thanniversary. Our goal is to make the governments of the world realize that people around the world are watching when they arrest someone, torture someone, or execute someone, or even if they condone this behavior. The culture of human rights worldwide is growing and I am proud to be a part of that movement.” Great Books! visit facebook.com/streetvibes cincinnati twitter.com/streetvibesnwes streetvibes.wordpress.com www.cincybooks.com �4 StreetvibeS M a rc h 15-31, 2011 Women Making Herstory Melissa Lea Drury Bennett Jeni Jenkins Staff Writer In recent years our nation’s streets have become home to thousands of homeless youth. The Queen City is no exception. While these individuals find their way to the streets for a myriad of reasons, from the lack of employment opportunities to running from troubled families, the bottom line is they are struggling to survive. Yet, there is some reprieve through the efforts of street outreach worker Lea Drury. As a Case Manager for Lighthouse Youth Services, Lea provides compassion, hope and support. In her work, she engages people on the streets and when they are ready for services “I make it happen as quickly as I can and I get the barriers out of the way once they are in a position to use their own resources.” Lea provides outreach to anyone living on the streets and case management for those up to the age of 24. Each day Lea and fellow Case Manager Rashida Pearson scout Downtown, Over the Rhine, Camp Washington and surrounding neighborhoods. As they encounter people they offer water, food, blankets and condoms. In her work, Lea’s gift is her patience. When she meets people she doesn’t rush them through the system, instead she takes the time to “develop relationships with people” earning their trust. With a passion for helping people help themselves, Lea believes this is her life’s work—“it’s somewhat of a calling” and she doesn’t think she would be happy doing anything else. Lea sees herself as a positive entity, as part of a community and as a small part of a larger whole. She is someone who tries to contribute to solutions to making things better for the community as a whole. In 2009 she received the Literacy Center West Partnership Award, as a result of her commitment to her work and the strong working relationship she has developed with the center. In the future Lea intends to design and implement re-education programs within the prison system “so people have more to work with when they get out.” This vision was prompted by countless experiences with ex-prisoners on the streets. She cites a recent encounter with a 30-year-old man who had been in prison for 11years. After serving his time “he was released and literally standing on the same corner he got picked up on.” Lea sat down with him and did her best to refer him to community resources, “If he had been given a trade or a college education, he would have had the whole world. If he had received more tools, he could have worked.” Lea desires more “compassion for all people” within our culture. She recognizes that in our society homeless people are seen as unfavorable and “they are objectified and de-humanized.” For Lea, a larger structural issue in our culture is that “there is a disconnect between the chain of command for funding- where the money starts and where the money ends up- because of poor communication.” Each day Lea wakes up and continues her work because she receives considerable gratification from helping people, “I feel like I have a purpose. There is something more important than me past my front door.” Originally from California, Lea moved here for family 8 years ago. She will receive her Bachelors degree in Social Work from the University of Cincinnati in December. She plans to immediately begin work on her Masters in Social Work. When she completes her degrees she will continue to work for Lighthouse, as she believes strongly in their mission. thank you! For the past few months, Elizabeth Schulenberg has donated her time and design to Streetvibes, as Art Director. Elizabeth works as a graphic designer in Montgomery, Ohio. Born and raised in Cincinnati, she earned her Bachelor of Design from the University of Cincinnati’s school of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. She now lives in a 103 year old Covington home with her husband (David), bulldog (Lily, pictured), and cat (Obie). “ We are out exploring whenever possible, whether it is around town on bikes, or camping/backpacking around the country. I love this area and being able to contribute to Streetvibes, and makeCincinnati even greater, is an amazing feeling. I have met a few Streetvibes vendors, and look forward to getting to know more of you! ” intervieW by Catie DargUe Melissa Bennett behind the scenes The best way to describe Melissa is that she is everywhere, a part of everything, all the time; but no one necessarily knows it. “I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life,” she says. What exactly does she do? Well to be honest, everything. Melissa is a Cincinnati native who has worked everywhere from a bank to horse ranches to Target but is now mostly known for her work in the theatre. If you don’t recognize her from the stage it may be because Melissa spends the bulk of her time behind the scenes. A trained actress, she graduated with a degree in theatre from Bowling Green State University. A plethora of careers and opportunities took her to Colorado, Connecticut, Vermont, Las Vegas and even Ireland but she’s always ended back in Cincinnati doing what she’s best at: working in the theatre. She is now in her third season as New Edgecliff Theatre’s Technical Director with a responsibility for building the sets and managing all technical aspects of the plays. Additionally, she teaches at the School for Creative and Performing Arts(SPCA), specializing in stage combat. As a woman teaching stage combat she has developed a number of specialty classes “Fight like a girl” and “Broad swords for broads” taking a physiological and physical look at the way in which women use their bodies differently in a fight and applying that to the stage. “Women move differently than men and they fight differently too.” By studying how women act in a fight, stage combat can be completely altered to fit a character that is fighting and not just be taught to overlying tradition of male combat. In the technical world Melissa notices the subtle way in which certain men try to steer her away from heavy lifting and manual labor, though she is a very able and willing carpenter, and towards more detail orientated tasks. But she doesn’t let this affect her as she knows she’s a capable stage hand, designer, teacher, actress, technical director, etc. Like many creative types she has a degree of dyslexia which can always be a challenge when working on a stage and when teaching students but she says she doesn’t let it affect her work. Inspired by such people as her parents, Aunt Lauri, Gina Kleesattel at SCPA, Michael Schooner at New Edgecliff Theatre and the Showbiz Players, where she got her theatre start, Melissa is a true asset to this community. The enthusiasm to spread her love of theatre and her professional presence are some of her strongest qualities making her a natural leader. However, she is humble in her accomplishments and claims that her proudest moments have been shared with the Film Outside the Lines project where she works with people of varying disabilities to write, act and film movies. “There’s no politics or stress, it’s just enjoyable and it reminds me how fun this can be”. While she admits to wanting a little more security in her job, which the theatre world rarely offers, she says she believes in ‘Karma jobs’ and seems to always land on her feet. She loves theatre, the children she teaches and of course instructing someone to do a proper choke hold on stage. �street life S t r e e t v ibeS March 15- 3 1 , 2 0 1 1 the Homeless Congress Member Biographies Jerry Davis I am currently unemployed but hope to attend Cincinnati State College this coming Fall Season. I am a member of the Garden St Transition Housing Board and believe that I can help in making a difference in our community by being apart of the Homeless Congress. Keith Eutsey As a member of the Homeless Congress I hope to be instrumental in the lives of others who have lived under homeless circumstances and who have suffered its disparagement. I would like to see more affordable housing and job training, as a result of my involvement with the Congress, being created. James Brown As a member of the Homeless Congress I would like to impact others in making changes in their lives. As a formally homeless person I feel my experiences can be useful in directing others through the difficulty, which is a part of that life style. The struggles that we face are hard and often seemingly impossible to burden. Our mindsets are often in disarray and we find ourselves in a dilemma. We resort to self-medicating with drugs or alcohol at time to relieve our sorrows and often find ourselves in more difficulty then we can manage. The displacement of individuals in our neighborhood, resulting from the recent rehabilitation of the buildings, is responsible for much conflict within agencies that otherwise support those in need. In our struggles I have one particular agency that I appreciate and support. The Drop Inn Center is in my opinion the “greatest”, and all other like agencies are the immediate solution to some of the problems which so many people face. It is for this reason that I commit my time and effort as a member of the Homeless Congress. Stephen Gentry Riccardo Taylor....source: amy Willhoite Lee McCoy I have been homeless off and on many times over the years. As of late I have been living in my own apartment, to date it has been 13 month’s. I have had my stint with drug addiction and have been fighting substance abuse for the greater part of my life. Today I am clean and looking for a new start on life. Working with the Homeless Congress I have picked my peeve, which is to see more being done with help in sheltering individuals during the cold months. The idea that a person is at least 75% water and that water freezes at 32 degrees puts a lot of people at risk. I believe that working with the congress in trying to convince the city and county authorities to create a winter shelter plan is an important obligation, and therefore I that being a part of the congress is a great way for me to have some influence. March Madness What we are losing in Over the Rhine lee MCCoy riCCarDo taylor The Homeless Congress of Cincinnati was created in January 2011, its mission, to become a voice for those who have the least in the way of a voice in our community. As an entity striving to work in the community for the purpose of change, the members of the Homeless Congress wishes to introduce themselves too the community as a whole. Below are listed the Bio’s of our current members. We would hope that our Streetvibes readers take note of their participation in community building and improvement as we engage in the revamping of our status as viable members of the community. As listed, the following Congress members are the initial enrollment members and the core of what we feel will be a lasting and productive resource for our homeless population. Our members have given a short bio of whom they are and what they would like to accomplish as members of the Homeless Congress. 5 I am a native Cincinnatian and product of the Cincinnati Public Schools with three years of college. I have had a varied career in the service and production industries. I am currently disabled and have found meaningful and fulfilling satisfaction through Homeless Advocacy because of a volunteer position at the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and membership in the Homeless Congress. Due to the circumstance, which I would suggest goes with the territory; I find that it is necessary to install the Bio’s from our members in segments. Our members have very full lives for the most part, and given that circumstance they are usually quite busy and coupled with the provision of space bios of the rest of our membership will be posted in future editions. The Homeless Congress is made up of individuals who for the most part are struggling with poverty issues and find themselves under pressure financially and the Homeless Coalition offers some relief for that. It is therefore that some of our Congress members are also involved with the coalition through their participation with the Streetvibes paper program; their involvement with the propagation of issues, which affect those most at risk due to poverty, is plus for membership with the congress. It’s that time of the year again and 65 teams are scrambling to see who going to be number one. The fans will be cheering, some may be crying but with the way this game is played it won’t be a basketball team that winds up the winner. It will undoubtedly be the bookies. This time of year seems to make people do crazy things…like we got a little spring in the air to bring out the madness in us all. That said, let’s another walk through my neighborhood. And I guess I should say that my hood is no longer my hoodwith the renovation of Washington Park. We are watching all of this construction to the tune of 47 million dollars, but the when I look at the park I just trees being dug up. 47 million can’t replace those…to me they are priceless. And while we’reon the subject of digging up priceless things let’s just call to light that they dug up people buried in my hood, they moved them or put them in a new hole in the earth all together. I always thought it was sacrilegious to disturb the final resting place of someone who has passed on, but apparently 47 million dollars and the greedy promise of more revenue must make all spiritual guidance go out the window. I suppose if you are 3CDC you can pretty much get with anything, right? The scariest part of all is watching groups like City Gospel Mission get bumped out of the community. And now because of it close location to The Performing Arts School; I fear the writing is on the wall for the Drop Inn Center. Whatever happened to love thy neighbor? I guess greed really will make that moral compass and spiritual guidance dissipate. I am sorry 3CDC but just because a person is down on their luck doesn’t make them a nuisance, they are still human. You came into Over the Rhine on a mission of greed. You have taken buildings and made them into your fancy ‘flats’. Your fancy condos that no one who has lived here their whole life could afford. And you mean to tell us you aren’t forcing people out of this community? These fancy apartments will likely run $800 to $900 a month for a one bedroom. Bear in mind, one of these buildings I am referring to used to rent a one bedroom for $200 a month. It’s been my experience that you come upon your real estate ventures in a shady way like telling a landlord that in order for them to purchase the building they must evict or relocate the tenants already there. You don’t even pretend to give people a chance. That’s cold. I’m pretty sure it is all about the Benjaminsfor you people. You have your casino coming in and the bigger picture is becoming clear for Cincinnati. You can just take a look at Vine Street and see that this isn’t Over the Rhine anymore. It is also clear that they will do anything they can to move us out…but why? So the rich can get richer by saving gas money getting to and from their Downtown work places? And don’t get me wrong, with the price of gas I totally understand that argument but really, what happens to the rest of us? What happens to the people who gas isn’t a problem for because they don’t have a car to put it in? And now I hear they are going to have to pay a Guard to patrol Washington Park. Why is that, so you can keep certain people out? It just doesn’t sound right to me. I have never heard of a public park with an armed guard. What’s more is that we could be losing some of the oldest social service agencies, essentially fixtures in Over the Rhine for nearly a century. These organizations literally put food in the mouths of the community’s homeless and poor. I know that when I was homeless I was damn glad to 6:15 because I knew that I could have a hot meal and then spiritual services following that fed my soul and enriched my spirit. When you homeless and down on your luck, sometimes that spirituality is all you need to pick your chin up and go through another day. You see the one thing about Over the Rhine is that as a community, we cared about each other. You can hardly name another place in the tri state that will feed those in need, clothe those in need, or give you a shower when you need it.Places like The Free Store, Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services, The Salvation Army…these places are priceless without greed. I know God will look after His own, but I for one will truly miss the Gospel Mission. I wish them all the blessings in the new move but I know they will be greatly missed in Over the Rhine. �6 Column StreetvibeS M a rc h 15-31, 2011 san francisco Homelessness A look at the same issue by the Bay JiM lUken Ahh. San Francisco…the romantic City by the Bay. I spent two weeks there in mid-February, and like so Tony Bennett (and many others), I left my heart there. The biggest part of my heart went out to the city’s homeless population, which is one of the largest in the country. One might think that homelessness is homelessness no matter where it occurs. But what I observed in San Francisco had a very different look and feel to it than it does here in Cincinnati. While the city has twice our population, there are many more homeless people there than here, and these homeless are quite visible, almost everywhere throughout the cosmopolitan city. Surprisingly to me, most of the homeless are white and in their 40s and 50s. Many push shopping carts around wherein they store their belongings. I saw several men with wheel chairs hooked up to their carts and small bicycles strapped on top. In the famous “Haight/Asbury” neighborhood, the homeless population is mostly young and white kids from all over the country. Many of these—I was told— are runaways. Often they are unwelcome in their family homes, by reason of their LGBT identities. The accepted (politically-correct) name for them is “queer kids.” Call it a form of reverse prejudice, but I had problems dealing with healthy looking white kids panhandling all over town. There are many reasons for the high numbers of homeless in SF. The city is a kind of magnet, due to its (relatively) warm weather all year long, and its massive transit system, and perhaps mostly due to its being in a traditionally “liberal” city in a state (California) that is famous for its free-wheeling lifestyle. Although San Francisco is technically in Northern California, its climate borders on temperate. The Pacific Ocean currents bring generally mild temperatures. One evening there was a smattering of snow. After leaving a bar, I gathered a small snowball from the windshield of a car. My buddy was amazed, because snow almost never happens there. Many days the temperature was in the low sixties, with the sky a postcard blue. What this means is that chronically homeless people (95% male) can sleep outside all year long without endangering their lives. The huge finger of Golden Gate Park runs four miles from the ocean to the heart of the city, incredibly green and wonderful to walk in. On several of my walks, I followed narrow paths through the grass, only to find a homeless encampment tucked away, tarp covered, 4’X 6’, a shopping cart often holding up one end of the tarp. My buddy told me that there are men who have lived out in the park for years and years. San Francisco’s equivalent to Over the Rhine is called the “Tenderloin District,” nestled downtown very close to the major business district. Imagine OTR situated between Central Parkway and the library. There, on Turk Street, I found the office of the “Coalition on Homelessness” which publishes of the newspaper, called “Street Sheet” You press an intercom button and someone rings you in. Then you climb a long flight of shabbily carpeted stairs to the offices. According to Bob Offer-Westort, the editor of Street Sheet, people flock to San Francisco in the hope of getting a better shake from the city’s support network. He says they are mistaken in this belief, describing the city laws and authorities as “punitive.” Perhaps “punitive” can be best illustrated by referring to the infamous “Sit/lie” law which was enacted this past November. Bob says that their “Coalition on Homelessness” campaigned vigorously against the law, which empowers the police to arrest/harass homeless people for sitting on (or sleeping on)the pavement. There have already been two demonstrations against the law since its passage. Fortunately, the law is not currently being enforced, although Bob says that may change with the installation of a new police chief in March. No doubt the homeless population is anxious about enforcement. I saw hundreds of people all over town sitting on curbs and sidewalks. And at night, I would walk around the homeless sleeping under blankets in doorways and alcoves. I was pleased to hear Editor Bob Offer-Westort praise our own newspaper during my interview with him. to see that Benni was reading my recent story on the “Shooting at Tucker’s” in Streetvibes, which is mailed to SF’s homeless coalition office each month. Benni described homelessness in his home town as “a bad situation. And it ain’t getting any better.” On Market Street, the main downtown artery, I walked up to a man pushing a shopping cart. The temperature was in the low forties that day. The first thing I noticed was that he was wearing flip flops with no socks. Handing him a dollar, I asked if I could interview him for Streetvibes. He said, “Sure.” His name was Terry Adale, white, age 56. Tall, thin Under his hooded sweatshirt, I could see that Terry was movie-star handsome, with clear blue eyes. He chewed on butt of a cigarette that hung from his lower lip. He had been out on the streets of San Francisco for twenty years now, a transplant from Chicago. He said he had had a typical childhood there, had done well at school, and had even done some college work. “When I lost my job there, I decided that—if I was going to be homeless—there were better places to be than Chicago.” I was surprised to learn that he never sleeps in any of the city’s shelters. [There are 1100 beds in the SF shelter system]. He said he usually slept in the same doorway several blocks east on Market Street. He never begs, and supports himself by recycling. He said he can generally make $10 or more each day. “Food is easy to find,” he said. “You mean, like, at soup kitchens?” I asked. “No, I mean on the street, in trash receptacles. You wouldn’t believe some of the food people throw away in this city.” When I inquired about the flip flops, he complained that he had gone to the hospital recently and they had taken some of his clothes, including his shoes and socks Sharon Randle Pamela gerard He described Streetvibes as among the “first tier” of homeless newspapers. Street Sheet prints 16,000 (12 page) newspapers in San Francisco, compared to Streetvibes’ 3,500 (16 page). They have around 230 vendors (40 regulars) compared to our 35 vendors. Bob expressed envy at the fact that Streetvibes vendors now wear vests. His San Francisco vendors are not even provided with identification badges. As I left the editor’s office, I met the Street Sheet circulation manager, Benni Clyburn, who works with the vendors. I looked down on his desk, and was amazed without ever returning them. “Didn’t you ask about them?” “I guess I should have,” he responded. He said he was “relatively” satisfied with his style of street life. “The lottery is my principle means of hope,” he ventured. I asked Terry if he had anything to say to our readers in Cincinnati. “I urge people to be friendly and healthy, as well as they are able.” Then he padded off in his flip flops. �S t r e e t v ibeS March 15- 3 1 , 2 0 1 1 Column 7 the struggle for Doing good JaMes DeMario broWn My name is James DeMarioBrown. I am one of the members of the Homeless Congress. I’m trying to impact the lives of those who are homeless in our community. From personal experience, I know being homeless is hard. It is truly an everyday struggle just to meet basic needs and it is so hard to keep the right mind set while doing so. Some people give up, fall into drugs and alcohol for comfort when nobody else is there to rely on. This I know, and my message is that there is a way out. One of the best resources in the community by far is The Drop Inn Center. It is a place where you feel comfort and supported in your hardest of times. Lately, with the closing and relocation of The City Gospel Missionit has me wondering if 3CDC’s development in Over the Rhine has just put the writing on the wall for The Drop Inn Center. Where will all these people who are genuinely helped by The Drop, I wonder where they will go, who will they turn to for help? This kind of desperation can only breed more outrage and violence. Pushing the people out is not the answer. The people in this community need a boost, not an eviction notice. Where’s our bail out? Where is our development? Where are our jobs? We need the support of others. We need resources like The Drop Inn Center. With the recently formed Homeless Congress, we intend to work on the issues. Ultimately, we hope to get in front of Cincinnati’s City Council because right now it seems like there is no one there playing on our team. My struggle for doing good continues and yours should too. Speak out whenever you can, help whoever you can, and maybe together we can get our voices heard. �local 8 StreetvibeS M a rc h 15-31, 2011 fighting Poverty: the impact and future of the ameriCorps Program Current Legislation betH griffitH-nieMann Faces without Places AmeriCorps VISTA AmeriCorps members make a yearlong, full-time commitment to serve non-profits or public agencies, while living in poverty themselves, but prosed budget cuts are threatening this program. On February 19th, the House of Representatives passed legislation that would completely eliminate AmeriCorps and all other service programs supported through the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). The House Appropriations Committee compiled a Continuing resolution totaling $4 billion dollars in cuts over two weeks, keeping the government operating, preceding a vote on the budget cuts in the Senate, until a long term bill can be agreed upon. The Senate is set to vote on the issue on March 18th; however, it seems likely that the budget will not be resolved and that the current fiscal year may function with a series of continuing resolutions until the end of the fiscal year in September. It is unclear what the final outcome will be for AmeriCorps and CNCS. Current Impacts AmeriCorps is comprised of AmeriCorps State & National, AmeriCorps VISTA, and AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) totaling over 75,000 individuals each year who pledge to serve their country through national service. AmeriCorps is one of many organizations that receive funding from CNCS; other organizations include Senior Corps, Learn and Serve America, Nonprofit Capacity Building Program, the Social Innovation Fund, and Volunteer Generation Fund. All of the programs provide an outlet to serve the nation for over 1.5 million individuals across the nation. AmeriCorps members work hard to serve the needs of the poor, help create lasting change, lead and manage volunteer projects, and help others obtain education, as well as many other services that impact their community. In our country’s time of economic need, some explain their service is even more vital. “I can’t think of a bigger bang for our government’s buck. I hope the cuts don’t fall there [on AmeriCorps]” explains Diana McVey Wood of the American Red Cross. My first rally Musings of an outsider looking in Catie DargUe My mom and dad were hippies. There’s no better way to describe them. In fact, growing up, all of my friend’s parents were hippies, we just never really thought of them like that- or if we did it was in a past life, somewhere off before we were born. I’ve never seen my parents protest or rally for something they believe in, but it seems like the sort of thing they would do. Fist in the air, yelling at “the Man” – it just seems appropriate Barbara Wallace of UC Clermont states that AmeriCorps members, “provide an invaluable service to our organization; they are highly educated, skilled professionals.” The AmeriCorps program allows non-profits and government agencies to focus on their services to clients rather than staffing specific programs. By having an AmeriCorps member working at the non-profit, the budget is opened and money can be provided to other parts of the organization because CNCS provides a living stipend (in lieu of salary) to the AmeriCorps member. There is no cost to the non-profit organization. Local Impacts There are over 1,400 AmeriCorps members working to better their communities through service in Ohio. These members are working to meet educational, environmental, health and economic needs of the state. AmeriCorps VISTAS work to increase the capacity of non-profits by recruiting volunteers, fund raising, expanding the services provided, as well as creating sustainable programs. Tracy Power, President of Faces without Places, a Greater Cincinnati non-profit that My first rally source: Catie Dargue works to raise awareness and funds for children and youth experiencing homelessness explains how their Future Impacts AmeriCorps VISTA has helped their organization. The impact of an AmeriCorps member’s service outlives “Because the Faces without Places Board of Trustees is volunteer based, our VISTA’s efforts have been invaluable that of an individual’s time within AmeriCorps. A 2008 study by CNCS found that AmeriCorps Alumni are to our organization, which is dedicated to removing the barriers to education for children and youth experiencing more engaged in their community and are more likely to continue a life of public service. The report explains, homelessness. It is essential to maintain our VISTA “Not only does AmeriCorps provide individuals with in order to continue promoting the mission of Faces opportunities to help address their communities’ most without Places in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern pressing needs, but the program also spurs individuals to Kentucky area. As the critical need for awareness, be agents of positive change in their communities long services, advocacy and funding have increased due to the after their AmeriCorps service”. economic instability facing many families; our VISTA Shelley Werner, an AmeriCorps Alum explains that has made great strides by engaging a constituency of donors and community supporters. Our VISTA has been even now, years after her service, that she “cannot see the ‘good life’ without volunteering; it an essential part of my very successful with her efforts to educate stakeholders life after AmeriCorps.” and community interest groups about the plight of the The life of an AmeriCorps member is far from ‘homeless child’ by visiting board rooms, classrooms, glamorous, as members live and work in poverty; but evening meetings, and church groups. Building capacity payment is not the goal or the reward for AmeriCorps while educating the general public about the issues and members; serving their community and country is long-term impact to the community as a whole is a payment enough. vital component of the work our VISTA has dedicated time, resources and energy. Discontinuing the national Voice your opinion, contact your representatives: AmeriCorps program and losing our VISTA will impede Sherrod Brown (Senate) (202) 224-2315 efforts for a ‘call to action’ in the Greater Cincinnati area Rob Portman (Senate) (202) 224-3353 that is bringing this devastating issue to the forefront.” Steve Chabot (House, District 1) (202) 225-2216 Jean Schmidt (House, District 2) (202) 225-3164 Michael Turner (House, District 3) (202) 225-6465 for my parents. For me, it’s never been something I’ve done, but something I’ve always felt compelled to do. It must be in my blood and that’s why in 1999 and later in 2001 when riots in Seattle broke out I felt compelled to ‘join the people’. It was an overwhelming sense that I needed to have my voice heard and my presence felt to send support to my fellow protestors. I never did get a chance to go to Seattle during that time and until Friday February 25th I had never been to a rally. On February 25th the Coalition for the Homeless led the people in a rally in front of 3DCD’s offices in Over-the-Rhine to have our community voice heard. The mission: to make people aware of 3CDC’s resistance to work with the community on a number of issues surrounding their recent ‘improvements’to Washington Park Having lived in London where it seemed like there is a protest weekly or perhaps being inspired by the recent events taking place in Egypt and Wisconsin, I felt in the mood to rally. It was a great turn-out with 40-50 people in attendance. Media was poised with cameras and microphones while the police and 3CDC looked on in the background. It was everything I imagined. Chanting in chorus in support of the common belief See Rally Pg. 9 Vanessa Sparks Speaks Out for Washington Park Photo by: Catie Dargue �local S t r e e t v ibeS March 15- 3 1 , 2 0 1 1 marketing ploys designated to distract the public’s attention from the real issues and the amount of hurt they are causing in Over-the-Rhine simply by turning their backs on the very vibrant yet impoverished culture that already inhabits this neighborhood. This rally, this coming together of people of all racial and financial backgrounds, was a truly beautiful and moving experience. To fight for simple rights like a place for the people “We want to see development, but we don’t want to be pushed out.”—Nannie Hinkston (1995) 1. We want neighborhoods where all citizens are respected and appreciated for who they are. We don’t want to be overpowered by corporate interests. We believe healthy neighborhoods have real democratic decision-making power. We believe empathy and the quest for understanding are core values for social life. We live in a time marked by extremes and suffering, where city and corporate practices too often reduce human beings to deficits and end up punishing, demonizing, criminalizing, and making people disappear. 2. We want full employment for our people with meaningful jobs and livable wages. Millions upon millions of public and private dollars are being invested in Cincinnati’s urban neighborhoods, resulting in new jobs. A reasonable percentage of these jobs must come to local residents. 3. We want policies, legislation, and development projects to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor. We believe that wealth and power are now mobilized to keep our most vulnerable citizens at arm’s length, and not for the purposes of ensuring basic human rights. Too many city policies treat these excluded citizens as threats and take strides to: * criminalize panhandlers and people who are homeless; * push them into the prison-industrial complex; * remove them from sight and displace the Drop Inn Center (see point #6 below); * enact police sweeps and invasive surveillance; * regulate public spaces (no Streetvibes distributors on Fountain Square); * impose a gentrified culture on the marginalized. Under this system those citizens among us made most vulnerable must fend for themselves. 4. We want the renovation of Washington Park to welcome all citizens and to be maintained as a genuine public space. The current plan demolishes the deep-water pool and basketball court—recreational facilities that neighborhood people wanted to keep. Who is the park for, exactly? We don’t want public spaces turned into private assets. 5. We want the assault on Metropole residents to stop. Over the last 20 years, downtown Cincinnati has lost a significant number of afforda able housing units. We want those units restored. The Metropole has 224 such units. Metropole residents have put up a valiant effort to save their homes. If relocation must occur, we demand residents be relocated in the downtown core—in their own neighborhood—and receive full relocation benefits. construction site soon to house a parking lot and ‘Dog park’. Broken promises and a cold shoulder to the community have provoked us to rally. My first rally was a short one, a productive one, a powerful one. My first rally was one that my aging hippy parents would be proud of to know that, “We the people” have not lost our voice to a corporate sold out America. My first rally was and eye opener and by no means will my first rally be my last. 6. We want the assault on the Drop Inn Center to immediately stop. The City/3CDC alliance continues to pressure the Drop Inn Center to relocate out of the neighborhood. This pressure puts the city in violation of its own Over-the-Rhine Comprehensive Plan (2002) to protect all current residents from displacement. Our homeless brothers and sisters have a right to be fully integrated into our neighborhoods and not to be used as pawns by development schemes. 7. We want commercial development that serves existing neighborhood residents. Mixed-income neighborhoods need to have shopping opportunities for all income levels. In neighborhoods like Over-the-Rhine, for example, not all new commercial development should cater to people with higher incomes. This is not an argument against high-end boutiques and bars, but a challenge to attract neighborhood-serving businesses to meet the needs of lower-income residents as well. rm People�s Platform for Equality and Justice of the neighborhood to use the bathroom with dignity, despite what 3CDC claim about there not being the space, location or wanting to maintain such a space, is our right. It’s our right to ask why none of the supposed 900 jobs are easily accessible to the people in this neighborhood who need them most. We chant, “Washington Park is the people’s park, not just your park”. We fight for the last open park in this area which now has been reduced to a, treeless, fenced off 8. We want our urban core neighborhoods to be racially and economically integrated with housing options affordable to all income levels. When low- to moderate-income areas experience upper-income development, benefits to the poor are few. In fact, often low-income individuals are displaced. The market alone does not create economic mix. We want to see a greater multiplicity of housing options that can serve lower-income people such as cooperatives, multi-generational housing, renter equity, housing for the elderly, shared-function housing, and land trusts. fo that “We the people” of OTR will not silently sit by and watch as our park slowly disappears. One of my favorite moments was when a local passer-by on bike stopped to see what all the action was about and ended up staying for about 10 minutes to help support the cause. People left and right seemed moved by our cause, cars honked and we said our piece. The speakers were elegant and to the point; an overall great success. As tensions have grown, 3CDC has made several attempts to appear as if they support “the little guy” by sponsoring such events as the Cinciditarod, which benefited the Freestore Foodbank and helping to finance the completion of the Jimmy Heath House, which helps homeless individuals recover from addiction by providing them with a safe home and supportive environment. To me these resemble clever 9. We want an auditing system in place to make sure that the mixture of household incomes called for by participatory neighborhood plans are on track. New upscale development is picking up in Over-the-Rhine, West End, Lower Price Hill, and Walnut Hills. The market left to its own devices will not produce balance. Low- and moderate-income housing needs to be diligently secured and protected with incentives, policies, and legislation. at Continued from Pg. 8 10. We want “Shared Equity.” As neighborhood developments attract more and more investment, both private and public, an enormous hike in property value will likely result. We want an innovative system that uses that increased property value to benefit low-income residents and the non-profits in our neighborhoods. Pl My first rally 9 We need new narratives in Cincinnati about how life can be lived differently, supported by values of empathy, community, solidarity, and inclusivity. We remain steadfast that conversations across borders are life-transforming. Social change happens when the included come to see and truly understand the excluded, when the haves come to understand the have-nots, and when the centers of power come to understand the margins. Change occurs when those with privilege come to see and understand those who are disadvantaged, to walk with us, and to learn from us, because when this happens, power is not coercive. Rather, power is used to mutually benefit everyone. www.cincihomeless.org Call 513.716.7455 �10 national news StreetvibeS M a rc h 15-31, 2011 no Quiet old age for south africa’s grannies Grannies are indispensable in South Africa. They may have been hoping for a restful old age, but the AIDS epidemic has seen them taking on motherhood for a second time, caring for grandchildren whose parents have died of the disease. elles van gelDer Despite her aching joints, 76-year-old Thandiwe Matzinga moves swiftly through the small corrugated iron home she now shares with three of her grandchildren: twin boys (15) and a seven-year-old girl whose mothers died of AIDS. Matzinga supports them and herself on government grants of 300 euro per month. Matzinga raised nine kids of her own, three of whom have died of AIDS. She’s one of South Africa’s many grannies who care for their grandchildren. South Africa has been hit hard by the HIV/Aids pandemic; 5.5 million people, around 18 percent of its population are infected. According to UN figures for 2007, there are 1.4 million aids orphans in the country, 64 percent of them being raised by their grandparents, usually single grannies. In a community centre near her home in the township Khayelitsha outside Cape Town, Matzinga takes her place in a circle of wrinkled faces. Talking in the Xhosa language, the women share stories about how it has been for them to lose their children. They are part of the organization Grannies Against Poverty and AIDS (GAPA) that has around 500 members. All these ladies thought their kids would take care of them when they would be old, but instead the tables have turned. “A lot of these grannies have five to ten mouths to feed from their old age pension,” says Vivienne Budaza, director of the organisation. “Their kids are dying like flies,” she sighs. Granny Nothemba Mdaka in front of her small home in the township Khayelitsha, near Cape Town. She has lost two children to HIV/AIDS and a third one is dying. Mdaka raised five grandchildren and is now raising five great grandchildren. source: elles van gelder The grannies get together regularly in the GAPA offices for mutual support; there they discuss their burdens and the disease that is destroying their families. “The grandmothers know that you contract HIV/Aids via sex”, says Mrs Budaza. “But there are still myths and misunderstandings. A lot of grannies for example, don’t understand that there are kids who are HIV-positive. How can they have the disease if they never had sex? Granny Thandiwe Matzinga together with the three of her grandchildren she takes care of in her shack in a township near Cape Town. She’s one of South Africa’s many grannies who care for their grandchildren. source: elles van gelder We then need to explain that a kid can contract the virus while in the womb.” It’s both a social as well as a financial struggle for the grannies to make ends meet. HIV/Aids is still stigmatized in South Africa. “When my neighbors heard that kids of mine died of the disease, they didn’t dare to use the same communal toilet as me,” Matzinga says. But slowly, she feels, this is changing. “More and more families around me are hit by HIV/Aids. There are more and more grannies in the same situation asking for my help.” Another granny taking care of lots of children is 71-year-old Nothemba Mdaka. But her small home is temporarily quiet. She has sent her grandkids and great grandkids away because one of her daughters is dying of HIV/Aids in the back bedroom. She doesn’t want the children to see the suffering. It is her third daughter who will die of the disease. Mdaka raised five grandchildren and is now raising five great grandchildren while her grandchildren are looking for work. Bringing up teenagers has been difficult for her. “A lot of youngsters in the townships use alcohol and drugs and there is a lot of crime,” says Budaza of GAPA. “And the number of teenage pregnancies is so high.” One of Mdaka’s grandchildren had her first child when she was 15. She is 20 now and has three kids. “She says she wants to have healthy children before she gets HIVpositive,” says Mdaka. At first she didn’t dare talk to her grandchildren about sex, but now she even hands out condoms. “We need to be open about this. Otherwise this killing disease will never stop.” © www.streetnewsservice.org The Street News Service (SNS) is an innovative online news agency that brings together the best of street paper journalism from around the world. INSP also works with media partners Reuters and Inter Press Service (IPS) who support the Street News Service by providing supplemental news features and photographs. �national news S t r e e t v ibeS March 15- 3 1 , 2 0 1 1 11 Women and Human rights laUra osborne-Coffey Amnesty International celebrates Women’s Rights day on March 8thannually. Amnesty members worldwide often celebrate by activities such as rallies, letter writing activities, and demonstrations for women’s rights worldwide. When people today think of women and human rights, they often think of historical figures such as Dorothy Day, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Or perhaps they think of more recent prominent women – Wilma Mankiller, past chief of the Cherokee tribe. Winnie Mandela, wife of Nelson Mandela. Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, who had key roles in the Civil Rights battle. Amnesty works on behalf of women’s rights worldwide, and has called for the United States to become signatory to CEDAW (Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination AgainstWomen), along with the rest of the western world. Amnesty also has a campaign to ‘End Maternal Mortality’ as a part of their current ‘Demand Dignity!’ campaign. Amnesty International knows that there are currently many women worldwide who carry the strength and dignity of their beliefs and their work with them on a daily basis, as they work towards their own goals – and the goals of their family and their community. Some of these women are people whom Amnesty members have worked for and are now released; some are currently in prison and are a focus of ongoinghuman rights work. These women are featured below: Successes: Roxana Saberi, Iran Ma Khin Khin Leh, Burma After serving nearly 10 years of a life sentence in Myanmar (Burma), prisoner of conscience and long-time AIUSA priority case Ma Khin Khin Leh was also freed in 2009. Ma Khin Khin Leh is a school teacher and young mother, who served a life sentence because her husband helped plan a demonstration to be held in Bago on July 19, 1999, to show support for the National League for Democracy (NLD), a pro-democracy political party that sought to counter the military junta that had reigned over Myanmar since 1962. Days before the demonstrations were to take place, authorities took action to halt it. Failing to find her husband, security agents arrested Ma Khin Khin Leh and the couple’s three-year-old daughter instead. Although her daughter was released after spending five days in detention, Ma Khin Khin Leh - then age 33 - was eventually transferred to Insein Prison. In December 1999, the Insein Special Court sentenced her to life imprisonment under vaguely-worded security legislation. Even by the normally harsh standards of “justice” meted out by Myanmar’s military government, the life sentence given to Ma Khin Khin Leh was extreme. Mah Khin Khin Le was the AIUSA Midwest Region’s Special Focus Case since 2005 Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma Human rights activists in Cincinnati and worldwide were thrilled and grateful for the release on November 13, 2010 of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar (Burma)! The government released her after seven and a half years of house arrest. Aung San was the nationally elected leader of Burmain 1989, and has been under house arrest by the Burmese government for most of the time since then. Amnesty volunteers worldwide worked on her a Amnesty was happy to report in 2009 that American-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi was freed from prison in Iran! Roxana had originally been given an eight year prison sentence on trumped up charges of “espionage,” following a brief closed-door trial in Tehran. Amnesty International had issued an urgent action calling for her release. When an urgent action is posted by Amnesty on its website, members worldwide take immediate letter writing action. Over 26,000 messages were sent by Amnesty activists to the Iranian government demanding her release. S Y WHAT?! case many times, the most recent being over the last seven years. James Roberts, Amnesty international Co-group chair for Myanmar stated up on her release: “Will she re-form the National League for Democracy? Will she continue to advocate for democracy? Will her release be for good this time, or will the government find another reason for imprisoning her yet again? Only time will tell.” What is known is that there are over 2,200 other political prisoners who are still behind bars in China. IMPRISONED: The women discussed below have been arrested or detained as recently as last week. One has been an Amnesty concern for years and the other only recently arrested, both are in China; and WOZA has been a subject of harassment in Zimbabwe for years. WOZA, Zimbabwe Women of Zimbabwe Arise marching in Harare, Zimbabwe “WOZA” On March 1st, 2011, members of civil rights organization WOZA were targeted and arrested by police in Zimbabwe. Seven members of WOZA and MOZA (Men of Zimbabwe Arise) were arrested at their own homes. One of the women arrested was a nursing mother who has been denied access to her child. When visited by their family, several of those arrested indicated they were subjected to beatings on the soles of their feet. This is a torture method called ‘falanga’ and is a common instrument in the torture arsenal of Zimbabwe police. Fourteen more women were arrested on March 2nd. Four are WOZA members, the other 10 are not. They were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. The wrong place was a meeting to contribute $1 to a burial society fund. At this time, not all of these women are accounted for as they have been taken to several different police stations. According to WOZA “police officers, some in full riot gear, visited the homes of another 6 members but they were not home.” Mao Hengfeng, China Activists worldwide were originally pleased to hear of the release of Mao Hengfeng, a Shanghai-based human rights defender. She was released from Re-education Through Labor (RTL) on medical parole on 22 February 2011, as she had suffered from the effects of torture while imprisoned since March 2010. She has high blood pressure and had evidence of bleeding in her brain, due to torture. The relief was short-lived however, as on February 24 she was sent back to RTL on the grounds of having violated the terms for medical parole. According to her husband, Shanghai Yangpu district police came to their house on 24 February 2011 and said they wanted to talk with Mao Hengfeng, and she was informed by the police that she had committed activities which violated the terms of her medical parole, andwas being sent back to RTL. Mao was not allowed to change her clothes or pack anything she needed before being taken away. She is again at risk of torture. Since 2004, Mao Hengfeng has been repeatedly detained for her work defending women’s reproductive rights and victims of forced evictions, and her support of human rights defenders. Often her family has not been allowed to visit her and they have since found out that it was at these times that she has been tortured. The human rights situation around the world continues to change rapidly. One constant is Amnesty’s 50 year commitment to upholding human rights. Jenni Williams of WOZA said this about Amnesty: “I am alive today after 33 arrests because members of Amnesty International sent … text messages, they phoned;they faxed the Zimbabwe Republic police. They made a huge difference. It caused those police to say – let me not torture them today, let me not rape them today, let me not beat them today because they have friends in Boston.” In Honor Of Women’s History Month “The work of the political activist inevitably involves a certain tension between the requirement that position be taken on current issues as they arise and the desire that one's contributions will somehow survive the ravages of time. ” -Angela Davis, radical black activist. educator & philosopher �interest 12 StreetvibeS M a rc h 15-31, 2011 Mojo the great b. Clifton bUrke “There might be stronger dogs and faster dogs in the world, and many of these will have decent ball skills themselves, but to find another dog with the combination that Mojo possessed is damn-near impossible. That dog could play.” Not an ordinary dog, Mojo had the strength of many men and could crash through drywall for a tennis ball. In his prime, he was a beast with a hemi V8/400 horsepower engine. His playing weight was around 88 pounds, but he could hang with the fastest dogs on the block no matter what the size. Obstacles? Over or through them. Objection? The ball. Nothing stopped him and his career lasted a solid eight years or so of high-caliber play and an unmatched tenacity to make catches. He is, without question, the greatest I’ve ever seen and my all-time favorite. He was a German Shepardrottweiler puppy, six-weeks old, on the east side of town and he was handed to me by a man I had never met before or since. The man wanted him to go to a good home and I gave him my word. Once Mojo grew out of his fluffy, awkward puppiness, he almost right away became the legend we remember him as today. The routine trips to the park weren’t much of an option for me. A day without going meant a day of him blasting around the apartment being too big and too excited to ignore. So we went. Every day for years and years and years. There he turned his haunches into muscly pistons, his front legs into those of a race horse’s, and would thrash the turf between himself and the ball with supernatural force. Our areas quickly became either swampy mud islands or clouds of dust from his powerful running style. And, during his athletic peak, I could never wear him out. Never. I could throw the ball until my arm fell off and he would be back with it at my feet smiling up at me with his obscenely large tongue, waiting for the next throw. He was never a frisbee dog; he didn’t have the patience to wait around for it to land. And he would chase the kong, but didn’t like the unpredictable bounces it took—even though I did. The tennis ball was his obsession and he went through hundreds of them. The sport was that I throw it and he’d catch it on a bounce. For a long time I couldn’t over throw him, he was a bullet. A large black bullet. It wasn’t just at the park either; Mojo also had an indoor finesse game that he constantly tricked human beings into playing. His placement on people’s laps, on armrests, on the very ledge of an end table, was most impressive. Once the ball had been expertly placed, the human would be distracted by conversation or television or whatever and lightly toss the ball to Mojo. He was a master at getting his way in this regard. He tricked me a million times or more. There were a couple of ways he played indoor. If it were a close range toss right at him he would snatch it with no problem. In fact, you could put a little heat on your throw, and release it as close as a foot from his face, and he would envelop the ball like a first-baseman’s mitt. If it were a lob intended to lead him into a certain direction, that too was no problem, as he could make over the shoulder snags, shoe-string catches and leaping grabs (but only when he had to). He was respectful of wires and electric fans but disregarded everything else around him. Many, many spilled drinks and other disasters came about because of Mojo’s recklessness, but it was part of who he was and I rarely stopped him. If the game was a kicking one, he showed excellent blocking technique by moving his broad chest low to the ground and spreading his legs out wide. He was especially good at using his paws to deflect kicks attempted to go past him. I also enjoyed watching him roll the ball around on the ground for a while with his paw; smash the balls into the floor until it squirted out and then collect it on the backspin he anticipated. It reminded me of a skateboard trick, or spinning a basketball on your finger—pointless, but cool. Eventually, he slowed down some in the twilight of his life, taking things easier but never giving up all the way. Up to the very end, he played ball at the park and still loved it. There might be stronger dogs and faster dogs in the world, and many of these will have decent ball skills themselves, but to find another dog with the combination that Mojo possessed is damn-near impossible. That dog could play. The best of all time. He stays in my heart. The Sandwich Man Jeffery Hass by: JiMMie giPson Jeffery Hass has been giving back to the community for years. He doesn’t volunteer at a local shelter or work for a nonprofit, he gives back in the simplest but most appreciated way; by bringing vending machine sandwiches, cakes, pops, and milks down to the Lord Gym, Lord Pantry, Washington Park, and The Drop Inn Center. He faithfully does this every day, gathering food from local vending machines and bringing them down into the community and simply handing them out to those who need it. And those who need it, well they will be there…waiting patiently for their treats. It is truly heartwarming to see the love and genuine gratitude on their faces when The Sandwich Man arrives. This is a blessing in our community that he will do this day after day and year after year. So I would like to salute The Sandwich Man. Please don’t stop giving your time and generosityto the community. What you do is incredible and we LOVE you for it. You remind me of the Candy Man, only better. MY ODE TO THE SANDWICH MAN Who can make you happy? And fill your tummy too? The Sandwich Man can Who? The Sandwich Man can Cause he mixes it with love, So everyone can be full Yeah, the Sandwich Man Can �S t r e e t v ibeS March 15- 3 1 , 2 0 1 1 story & Poetry Corner 13 i am eve and Woman for you Do i Cry! aUtHor: elisa Hill “Feel it falling off like clothing. Taste it rolling on your tongue. See the lights above you glowing. Oh and breathe them deep into your lungs. It was always simple, not hidden hard. You've been pulling at the strings, Playing puppeteer for kings. And you've had enough. But the search ends here, where the night is totally clear. And your heart is fierce, so now you finally know, That you control where you go. You can steer. Taken from His rib, I am Eve! Because I was the first to eat the apple, I am forever in sin, diseased. I give birth in pain and fire. I am beaten when ever men desire. I am stone when he needs a wall to cry. I am alone in this world and to kneel is to survive. I am Eve, the first of many. I am the one who disobeyed. You should not suffer for the mistakes I have made. I am Eve, queen to Adams throne. I am the one to whom, they all should throw stones. I am Eve unto each new day. I am Eve and my soul craves the shade. You should have peace and tranquility to guide your way home. With honor and wisdom to know that you women are not alone. I accept my faults to which I lie. I accept my results that in this world today, I too am still alive. To suffer for the rights I made wrong, to ask for forgiveness through the Son. Where forgiveness bleeds long, I am your retribution and their revenge. I am Eve and yes I am still a woman. God, forgive me for falling prey. Please reach down and deliver me from this hell to which I lay. I am Eve and woman for you, do I cry! So hold this feeling like a newborn. All the freedom surging through your veins. You have opened up a new door. So bring on the wind, fire and rain.” -Missy Higgins “Steer” If you would like to submit lyrics that have spoken to you or helped you through a difficult time, please send them to jenmartin@cincihomeless.org Can yoU Willa Denise Jones Can you shut ‘emdown? Does the world believe that this is the world’s solution Can you shut ‘emdown? Keeping factory’s open with no work, now that’s pollution Can you shut ‘emdown? The free clinics, people homeless, no more Drop Inn Center ... G! MOUR Y E S T LON E H M G I D N E FE E ALL JENKINS I FEED M BY JEN Can you shut ‘emdown? Washington Park, the sanitation workers, I can’t help but litter Can you shut ‘em down? Over the Rhine was white then it was black, I thought we were all together The title of this column is taken from the 1986 film “Little Shop of Horrors,” where a plant keeper must meet the demands of a ravenous plant that feeds on humans. Instead of plants that feed on people, this column is for people who feed on plants!! Can you shut’ emdown? I’m confused so tell congress I really thought they knew better ZESTY MEXICAN RICE I’m a sucker for Mexican food, have been for years. Unfortunately, since turning vegetarian almost 5 years ago I have struggled finding a Mexican restaurant that serves authentic VEGETARIAN Mexican cuisine and I had my suspicions as to why this was. My suspicions were confirmed on a recent vacation to Mexico. While in Cozumel my girlfriends and I sought out a place to dine for lunch and discovered this cozy little Mexican eatery. To my dismay the restaurant had only 1 vegetar­ ian option, stuffed peppers, which I disappointingly ate, while they savored their meaty options. Sadly, I may never get to enjoy the “real” flavors of Mexico unless I decide to eat meat again. Lucky for me, a few years back I started exploring how to make a quick and easy Mexican rice dish and came up with this. I hope you enjoy! Serving size, as a main dish 5-6 bellies. Ingredients: Cost at Kroger: 1 11oz container garden fresh gourmet salsa 3.99 2 cups water 3 cups instant rice 1.64 (½ box) 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil .60 LOREM Aliquam blandit Praesent molestie lorem 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced .20 ½ white or yellow onion, chopped IPSUM Ante magna vehicula.50 Sed turpis 16 oz. shredded Mexican style cheese 1.67 1 (15 oz) can Mexican style diced tomatoes with chiles, .75 undrained 1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained 1.05 1 (15 oz) can whole kernel corn, rinsed and drained .70 1 cup crushed tortilla chips .50 Approximate Cost: 11.60         Mix water and salsa in a sauce pan- bring to boil. Add instant rice, stir, cover and remove from heat. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium low heat and sauté the onion and garlic 3-4 minutes until the onions turn translucent. Add tomatoes, beans and corn and cook an additional 3-4 minutes or until heated through, remove from heat and combine with the cooked rice. In a bowl, toss the remaining oil with the crushed tortilla chips. In 9" x 13" baking dish coated with cooking spray, layer the tortilla chips and then the rice mixture. Sprinkle with cheese. Heat in 350 oven for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melty. Voila, FEED! Etiam ac libero Can you believe in your heart that the decisions of our country are either republican or democratic? Can you believe that out of all the people in the world two simple parties be worthy of so much static? Can you close your eyes to the reality of the fear that has such a tight grip on our nation today? Can you keep living shut down and shut up? I’m baffled but not lost for words I can honestly say For me, learning to live without doubt or fear in my life and keeping God so close to my heart I have no doubt that without God’s blessings this world is doomed to fall completely apart With much faith and without any regards for the republicans or democrats controlling my being Without any doubt what so ever today I know that almighty God is the only real thing So can you shut ‘em down? Now slow down and take the time to think, what do you really understand? You need to come back into the days of Adam and Eve and remember when only God ruled the land! �14 StreetvibeS M a rc h 15-31, 2011 University of Cincinnati students skip the beach this spring break UC’s Spring Break Takes Students Around the World, Including Service in Haiti DaWn fUller Dawn.Fuller@uc.edu An adventure blending sun and fun over spring break is a longtime college tradition. But dozens of University of Cincinnati students are planning trips to destinations affected by earthquakes, hurricanes and mudslides, including two trips to the devastation in Haiti. UC’s spring break is the week of March 21. Students in several courses will continue their academic study beyond the classroom and around the world. Others are looking ahead to some hard physical labor as they offer service in areas that are struggling to recover from natural disasters. “I’ve never been on the typical spring break trip, but I feel like I’ve experienced so much more through my trips with Serve Beyond Cincinnati (SBC) and through helping people,” says Lindsay Long, co-president of the student service organization. Long will be leading SBC’s first trip to Haiti over spring break. “I love being on these ‘first’ trips, because we never know what to expect.” Here’s a roundup of where UC students will be serving, studying and traveling over spring break. Here are some of the places UC students will be serving, studying, and traveling over spring break. To see a complete list of the destinations go to: www.uc.edu UC Alternative Spring Break Trips Serve Beyond Cincinnati Trips Serve Beyond Cincinnati (SBC) is a UC student organization that strives to build an emerging, civic-minded generation by providing national and international service experiences for UC students. The organization founded by UC students is planning five service trips over spring break. Balan, Haiti Ten UC students will be working with the Fuller Center for Housing in a town just east of the capital of Port­ au-Prince. “We will be building the first house in this village, a home for a family displaced by the earthquake,” says Lindsay Long, UC senior biological sciences major and SBC co-president, who are leading the trip with fellow co-president Lane Hart, a UC junior who is majoring in information systems and finance. The cost of the trip per student is approximately $1,600. Students will be departing Cincinnati on March 18 and returning on March 26. “Service and academic study will have UC students pursuing adventures around the nation and the world as they plan their spring break.” San Luis Talpa, El Salvador Ten UC students will continue their three-year relationship of working with the Fuller Center for Housing, a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry dedicated to eliminating poverty housing worldwide . The team will be building a home for a family in a developing community – a project they also tackled on their first trip to the region. On this trip, they are also planning a two-day adventure involving surfing lessons and exploring the village markets. The trip runs $1,500 per student. They’ll depart Cincinnati on March 18 and return on March 26. Service in Haiti source: serve beyond Cincinnati Webster Parish, La. Twelve SBC members will be working in partnership with the Fuller Center for Housing as part of a threeyear tradition of taking service-centered trips to this region. The cost of the trip is $300 per student. They’ll depart Cincinnati on March 19 and return on March 26. Kansas City, Mo. As SBC takes its first trip to Missouri, 12 UC students will work with the Fuller Center for Housing and a local affiliate to build a home for a family. The cost of the trip is approximately $300 per student. They’ll depart Cincinnati on March 19 and return on March 26. St. Louis du Nord, Haiti This UC service learning experience is themed, “Restoring Hope in Haiti.” Twenty-four students will travel to the region as part of a trip in partnership with the Northwest Haiti Mission. Students will take part in three areas of outreach: volunteering with children’s educational and athletics programs, assisting a clinic, and supporting community development. As part of their planning, a drive for everyday medical supplies is being led by trip coordinator Cheri Westmoreland – director of the McNair Scholars Program under Student Affairs and Services. The drive is collecting children’s Tylenol and Ibuprofen, anti-fungal cream, antacids and vitamins. “Even the most common everyday over-the-counter medications are lifesaving in Haiti,” says Westmoreland. The supplies are being collected at Swift Hall, Room 700. The cost of the trip per student is $1,800. Students will depart Cincinnati on March 17 and return on March 24. Rabinal, Guatemala The UC College of Business and McMicken College of Arts & Sciences Romance Languages Department lead this service learning course in partnership with Habitat for Humanity Guatemala. As 20 students build a home for a family in Guatemala, they’ll practice and improve their skills in speaking Spanish while observing issues of culture, social issues and the economy. The cost per student is $1,700, which includes a $500 individual donation to Habitat for Humanity International. Students were encouraged to apply for grants from UC International and the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center to offset travel costs. Students will depart Cincinnati on March 18 and return on March 27. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching names UC among 115 American colleges and universities for its 2010 Community Engagement Classification. The foundation issued the announcement earlier this year, naming UC among 35 research intensive universities to receive the classification. �15 S t r e e t v ibeS March 15- 3 1 , 2 0 1 1 Shelter: Women and Children Central Access Point Cincinnati Union Bethel St. Francis Soup Kitchen Churches Active in Northside 381-SAFE 768-6907 FreeStore/FoodBank 557-2873 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 300 Lytle Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Bethany House 4230 Hamilton Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45223 241-1064 112 E. Liberty Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 1841 Fairmount Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45214 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 762-5660 271-5501 4600 Erie Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 St. Vincent de Paul 6037 Cary Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45224 Salvation Army 535-2719 591-2246 562-8841 872-9259 381-2247 5 E. Liberty St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 Health Resource Center Homeless Mobile Health Van McMicken Dental Clinic 357-4602 352-2902 352-6363 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mental Health Access Point Mercy Franciscan at St. John 558-8888 981-5800 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 NAMI of Hamilton County PATH Outreach 1125 Bank Street, Cinti, Ohio 45214 131 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter Crossroad Health Center 458-6670 977-4489 Treatment: Men Other Resources Shelter: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 2121 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Prospect House 241-0490 381-4941 Starting Over 1419 Elm Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 682 Hawthorne Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45205 Justice Watch St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 961-4663 Treatment: Both 761-1480 1821 Summit Road, Cinti, Ohio 45237 Drop Inn Center 721-0643 Interfaith Hospitality Network Lighthouse Youth Center (Youth) 471-1100 221-3350 3330 Jefferson, Cinti, Ohio 45220 Housing: CMHA Excel Development OTR Community Housing 721-4580 632-7149 381-1171 114 W. 14th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tender Mercies 721-8666 27 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tom Geiger House Dana Transitional Bridge Services Volunteers of America Anna Louise Inn 961-4555 751-0643 381-1954 421-5211 621-5300 961-1983 OTR: 1620 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert, Cinti, Ohio 45206 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 1730 Race Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 351-0422 381-6672 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. Cinti, Ohio 45214 Goodwill industries Healing Connections Mary Magdalen House 771-4800 751-0600 721-4811 241-2965 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 1522 Republic Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Hamilton County ADAS Board 946-4888 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 641-4300 Advocacy Catholic Social Action Community Action Agency Contact Center 421-3131 569-1840 381-4242 1227 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Food/Clothing Lord’s Pantry OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry AA Hotline CCAT Joseph House (Veterans) 217 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 381-0111 1223 Main St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 2728 Glendora Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45209 Caracole (HIV/AIDS) 621-5514 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 961-4080 Peaslee Neighborhood Center Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart First Step Home Anthony House (Youth) 241-2600 241-2563 214 E. 14th St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 661-4620 Shelter: Both Center Independent Living Options Emmanuel Community Center 1308 Race St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 961-2256 Treatment: Women 1437 Walnut Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mt. Airy Shelter 921-1613 St. Raephaels Salvation Army Serenity House Day Center Open Door Pantry 863-3184 863-1445 422-8555 868-3276 Northern Kentucky Brighton Center 859-491-8303 799 Ann St. Newport, KY Franciscan JPIC Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 721-4700 421-7803 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. Legal Aid Society Ohio Justice & Policy Center Faces Without Places Stop AIDS 579-8547 241-9400 421-1108 363-3300 421-2437 Health Center for Respite Care Hamilton/Middletown ECHO/Hosea House 859-261-5857 Fairhaven Resuce Mission 859-491-1027 Homeward Bound Youth 859-581-1111 Mathews House 859-261-8009 Homeless & Housing Coalition 859-727-0926 Parish Kitchen 859-581-7745 Pike St. Clinic 859-291-9321 Transitions, Inc 859-491-4435 Welcome House of NKY 859-431-8717 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 621-1868 3550 Washington Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45229 Women’s Crisis Center VA Domiciliary VA Homeless 859-491-3335 859-559-5011 859-572-6226 �16 StreetvibeS M a rc h 15-31, 2011 art to empower Cedric Cox’s work celebrates the positive “The more personal you make your work the more universal it becomes, and the more it will resonate in others,” is what Terrence Corbin, then professor at the University of Cincinnati (UC), told once Cedric Michael Cox studying under him. Cox never forgot this advice and all of his artwork since has been a genuine reflection of his life, of who he is, of what he believes in, of what he would like to achieve in this world. By Saad GhoSn Contributing Writer Born in Dayton, OH, Cox, an African American visual artist, lived most of his life in Cincinnati. He attended Indian Hill Schools from first grade on and later UC, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, majoring in painting and drawing. Art from the beginning was his refuge, his mode of expression and of self-assertion. Growing up as a minority individual in a predominantly white community made him often feel estranged and somewhat out of place. He responded to the challenge by using his creative energy White Oak on Elm, acrylic painting on canvas. Painting and Photo by Cedric Cox. to communicate, meet others and go beyond divisive prejudices. During art school he produced work related to the African American experience and culture; he felt an obligation to do so. He was, however, at the same time constantly questioning how he could use his art to speak of himself, of his history, to become empowered, and empower others. He discovered his own voice studying internal anatomy, looking from the inside out, his anatomical drawings helping him answer who he was and where he fits. But his real artistic direction took shape only after he graduated and moved to Over The Rhine (OTR), downtown Cincinnati, to live. “Coming from the suburbs I was mesmerized by the graffiti on the sidewalks, on the buildings, by the coexistence of boarded up vacant houses side by side with palatial architecture,” he says. “Some buildings were being rehabbed, others not, still wearing their history. There was a rhythm to the Cedric Cox in his studio. Photo by bill Howes. neighborhood, a dynamic pattern of creation myth of the ancient Yoruba cultures of West shapes and forms, all like in a jazz symphony.” Africa, he emphasized the role every individual plays in the creation act, in the betterment of this world, in his Cox, a musician himself, playing bass in a hard rock case, constructive contributions to OTR. band, Morticite, since the age of 17, had been using music His painting White Oak on Elm shows in its center a tree and songs all along to reflect on himself and his views. overlapping and espousing various architectural details “In the band we write songs about injustice and from OTR, columns, church windows, rooftops… He prejudice, what affects us,” he says, “also about human meant it as a symbol of rebirth and hope, a source of struggles, love, doing the right thing to other fellows, continual inspiration and faith. By its organic form making this world a better place…” contrasting with the linear geometric elements of He decided to put his visual art at the same service, architecture, the tree brought a human quality to the to produce works painting, connecting to Cox’s feelings, experience and that speak of his new emotions about the neighborhood. neighborhood, its architecture, its beauty, In addition to his art, Cox has also contributed to OTR its rich potential, as an organizer and an educator. With Robin Harrison, emphasizing its a filmmaker who had directed a documentary on the positive, the goodness civil unrest of 2001, they produced The Blast Urban of its people, not only Arts and Cultural Festivals, bringing to the area events the bad that media that showcased themed art exhibitions, popular art usually portrays. By collections, films and music; they all intended to depict deconstructing and the local culture in a reputable, respectable way, making reinventing architectonic people aware of the richness of their heritage and configurations he created diversity. At the same time he created Art Shapes Us, an densely fragmented art teaching program for high school and middle school abstract drawings and students from various institutions and backgrounds; paintings that forced he also taught after-school art classes at the YMCA, the viewer to step in, served as a studio coordinator for Visionaries and Voices, connect with their spirit volunteered as guest speaker at various elementary and reexamine material schools, participated in educational art projects at the culture. Public Library, Art Museum, Contemporary Arts Center… His series Underground “I try to provide outlets and services to others, to lead juxtaposes horizontally them to positive change,” Cox says. “Working with kids, the 2 worlds of uptown I encourage them to follow their dream, reminding and downtown OTR, them that it can be achieved. I share with them my own uptown represented struggles, my fears, my bad experiences, but also that by the distant and with commitment, hard work and honesty, I am being somewhat cold cityscape, rewarded, that good prevails, that inner beauty grows downtown by the even in the midst of ugliness.” boiling underground visceral reality of the Cox perceives art as a tool of empowerment for himself neighborhood with its and others. It helps him become a better person, rich history and vibrant persevere through difficulty, assert himself. His art comes soul. from his heart, at the service of his life. “I wanted my paintings to pay tribute to the area, to “My art is about beauty from within,” he says. “It allows show what it is really about, its guts, its beauty, away me to be the best I can be, to project my fullest human from the stereotyped images of violence and decay usually associated with it,” he says. “It was my attempt to potential and share it with others in positive ways. I hope it can move others to realize their own dream. When I empower it, also its inhabitants.” hear a song I like I always envision myself performing In Horizon, he connected directly with the urban it on stage and sharing it with people I love so they too architectural landscape of the place and its inner spiritual may be touched by it. I would like my art to resonate the dimension. In his Mud Cloth drawings, related to the same with the viewer.” creation story and to Obatala, a deity central to the Artists as Activists is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati artists who use art as a vehicle for change. Saad Ghosn is the founder of SOS Art. Ghosn can be reached at saad.ghosn@uc.edu. � 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 2011 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 March 15-31, 2011 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Cincinnati Women Making Her Story Pg 2: Editorial Pg 3: Women Making History Pg 4: Women Making History Pg 5: The Homeless Congress Pg 6: San Francisco Homelessness Pg 7: The Struggle for Doing Good Pg 8: Fighting Poverty My First Rally Pg 9: My First Rally Continued Pg 10: No Quiet Old Age for South Africa’s Grannies Pg 11: Women and Human Rights Pg 12: Majo The Great Pg 13: Arts & Poetry Pg 14: University of Cincinnati Students Skip the Beach this Spring Break Pg 15: Resources Pg 16: Art to Empower 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 March 15-31, 2011 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jen Martin Elizabeth Schulenberg Jim Luken Riccardo Taylor Saad Ghosn Catie Dargue Jeni Jenkins Willa Denise Jones Laura Osborne-Coffey James Brown Lee McCoy Dawn Fuller Elisa Hill B. Clifton Burke Jimmie Gipson Elles van Gelder Beth Griffith- Niemann Amiee Willhoite Saad Ghosn Mikki Schaffner Bill Howes Suzanne Chouteau Bill Howes Cedric Cox Dawn Fuller Sarah Hager Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Americorps Amiee Willhoite Arts & Poetry B. Clifton Burke Beth Griffith- Niemann Bill Howes Catie Dargue Cedric Cox civil rights Dawn Fuller Elisa Hill Elizabeth Schulenberg Elles van Gelder Haiti Human Rights James Brown Jen Martin Jeni Jenkins Jim Luken Jimmie Gipson Laura Osborne-Coffey Lee McCoy Mikki Schaffner Over-the-Rhine Protests Rallies Riccardo Taylor Saad Ghosn San Francisco Sarah Hager South Africa Spring Break Suzanne Chouteau University of Cincinnati Willa Denise Jones Women https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/a06be7487d217e471715183e7d9d59f1.pdf ecd1e7125f967b55e9db23da43663c5a PDF Text Text A Rally for Peace Autism S t r e e t vibeS Awareness april 1-14, 2 0 1 1 Month PG 5 Stories from 2001, Cincinnati Riots and Unrest PG 6 PG 4 MARCH 15-31, 2011 A D V O C AT I N G J U S T I C E 1 ISSUE 196 • BUILDING COMMUNITY $1 Streetvibes Remembers... We would like to dedicate this issue of Streetvibes to those we lost ten years ago, to those who lived through the unrest and carried on, and those who are still effected by it today. Jimmy HeatH Former Streetvibes Editor These photos were taken during the unrest by Jimmy Heath. J immy Heath was a photographer and community activist living and working in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. Jimmy came to Over-the- Rhine nine years ago as a homeless person, eventually finding his way to the Drop Inn Center homeless shelter. He had hit rock bottom in his life and career, and had turned to alcohol and drugs for solace. At the Drop Inn Center, Jimmy Heath found hope and recovery and a new direction for his life and inspiration for his photography as a community activist and documentarian. He was a successful editor of GCCH’s Streetvibes and was active with the Coalition for many years. Jimmy passed away in December 2007. Race Relations 101 Jim Luken Contributing Writer W hen the riots occurred in 2001, I was living in a small town in Northern Vermont, which was about as far away from Cincinnati and its problems as a person could be,and still be living in the “belly of the beast” (the USA). I was managing a low-income housing facility (all white) in the middle of the town. Knowing I haled from Cincinnati, several of my old-lady residents brought the news of the riots to me on April 10th. I remember one of the ladies asking, “What kind of city do you come from, anyway?” As a white man who had lived for several years in heart of Over the Rhine during the ‘90s, I had a pretty good sense of the “kind of city” where I had been born. Politically republican. Socially conservative. And, like most municipalities in the Northern states, in a huge state of denial about the racist atmosphere that prevailed, and that “colored” so many interactions between black folks and white folks. But, being so far removed from it, I found myself surprised that these attitudes, and this atmosphere, had spawned what NBC News described as “the most devastating riots since Watts(1992).” I had been aware of police problems in/ with the African-American community, that there had been several shootings of black men by white police officers prior to 19 year-old Timothy Thomas’s death. But I was, to repeat, white. I didn’t record, on the walls of my imagination (or my soul), the deaths of each of 15 other young black men (all under 40) that had occurred between 1995 and April 7, 2001. Nor did I know much about the four police officers killed (or wounded) during those deadly interactions. But, on both sides in Cincinnati, other people were running tallies, and—after young Thomas’s shooting on April 7—one side had obviously had enough. On April 9, the race riots—this time exclusive to Cincinnati—exploded locally and nationally, and even internationally. An old friend of mine, 63- year-old (white) Mike Henson, now a clinical counselor for Paths to Recovery in OTR, was contacted by a journalist in Rome who interviewed him for an Italian Newspaper, Il Manifesto. He remembers being on the West Side and stopping to help an African American couple whose car had broken down. He gave them a ride home. However, there was a strange atmosphere in the car. “Black and white people weren’t talking much at the time. It was an odd time for us to be holding a conversation.” Mike had been working for the Urban Appalachian Council at the time, and recounted, in his interview, several stories of police over-reaction that had occurred among Appalachian whites in Lower Price Hill at the time. Then he added (translated from the Italian newspaper): “I know that the police have a hard life and a difficult job, especially when tasked with the daily battle against the [drug] pushers in my community. I know there are police who themselves worry gravely See Race Relations Pg. 3 about their relationships with the people.” Long time OTR resident Georgia Keith, 65, lives on Republic Street, a block from where Timothy Thomas was shot. She remembers the time vividly. “It was terrible,” she says, “and I think it could have been avoided.” Keith says there were problems on both sides, but remembers that there was almost “hysteria” on the part of the police. “Then, as now” she believes, “a lot of the problems were brought into our neighborhood from outside.” One inequality she vividly recalls is that “the businesses was treated unfairly.” Black businesses were forced to close Jones while many white businesses remained open. That was not fair.” “Pray for the dead but fight like hell for the living” - mother �editorial 2 10 the number of years since the unrest in Cincinnati. pages 1, 3, & 4 19 the age timothy thomas was when he was killed, sparking riots in Cincinnati in 2001. page 1 1 in 110 the number of children diagnosed with autism. page 5 4-1-2001 the day Dan Moore’s excerpt from his cartoon Mark twain Was right: Stories from the 2001 Cincinnati riots and Unrest page 4 I am sure you were on pins and needles (I am kidding, really) but I have decided on a new name for this editorial. ‘In My Shoes’, is a nod to the tall shoes I walk in most days. You can call me a stupid girl for it but I love my shoes…and about five and a half feet above them resides my brain…a big, smart brain that I do in fact have…you’ll find it right beneath my highlighted hair. Yes, I am way more Elle Woods than Streetwise. This editorial is my opinion, and my time here at Streetvibes is also my education as much as it is a job. And I thank the people who are my teachers here in every instance. Because again, more Legally Blonde than Streetwise. But I think that may be a good thing. It means I will do anything and everything for what I believe is right. And it means I am honest and I’ll have your back if you have mine. I am learning this is the way I need to be in this job, this community, and in life. My education here has taught me so much about the stories you’ll read in this issue of Streetvibes. I am proud to share these stories. I am honored with the duty of sharing what people in this community have felt in the ten years since the unrest. I was only 16 when Timothy Thomas was killed. I was a Sophomore in high school and I lived in Lakeside Park, Kentucky. So clearly, I do not have the raw emotions and thoughts of what happened in this community. But that is where my education at Streetvibes comes in. People have shared their feelings and thoughts in this issue. The passionate, passionate feelings that this community still has. My goal with this issue was to honor those emotions by giving them a voice. My goals is to reflect on the events of ten years ago during the unrest, and allow the raw concerns that still plague this community even today, to be heard. I can hardly imagine the fear and uncertainty that surrounded that time. The community has come so far, but the pain is still very real. So to the community… I honor you, each and everyone who was effected. I honor you for living through it and carrying on. This community has done that and will continue to do that. This community must believe in itself. It just must. And it will. Believing in yourself never goes out of style. On a side note, a memorial has been announced for Bruce Morris who recently passed. Tuesday April 5th @12 pm at the Jimmy Heath House. From the Director the day the rally for peace took place on Fountain Square to mark the 8th anniversary of the iraq War, and to promote peace and civility. page 6 5 to 1 the staff to student ratio at lighthouse Community School. page 7 3 the number of years local artist rod Northcutt has taught traditional, non-electric, woodworking skills through a making-based traveling course, Unplugged. page 16 a p ril 1-14, 2011 Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by people who are or once were homeless, in exchange for a $1 donation, Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Address: 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Phone: 513.421.7803 x 12 Fax 513.421.7813 Email: streetvibes2@yahoo.com Website: www.cincihomeless.org Blog: streetvibes.wordpress.com Streetvibes Staff We Are At WAR in Cincinnati Editor Jen Martin, jenmartin@cincihomeless.org JosH spRing 3-19-2011 StreetvibeS W ar! At the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless we like to deal in Truth. Not everyone likes to hear or see Truth, but we believe that the Truth must be proclaimed loudly, must be respected and ultimately should change us. So let’s talk about some Truth. The Truth is that the united states of america not only is a brutal country now, but has always been a brutal country; in fact our roots are founded in brutality. Prior to the landing of white people upon these shores this land held the nations of many people that had been here for an unknown span of time. We did not establish this country based on some Godly ideals. We established this country through mass lying, theft, coercion, hate, occupation and murder. We not only thought ourselves better than those here, but also capable and worthy of deciding that they should not be here and millions of them should die for our destined right to be here. This country was created through war, and not in the sense of some sacred revolutionary war, but the forced death of generations of people. Far too often in this country, both people and organizations who call themselves either conservative or liberal, attempt to maintain that at its core, the united states of america is about freedom and humanity and that we should therefore get back to our core. To stand by such a belief is to stand by a lie and to disrespect the untold numbers of people that have died at the hands of this country. In fact, the belief that the usa is inherently about freedom and humanity is such an absurdity that many of those that stand by this belief, will also say that in order to keep freedom, we must at times have war- that somehow war leads to freedom and humanity, and war especially keeps those of us in the usa free. This lying mantra is what launched us into both the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq. We have been at war in Afghanistan since October 7, 2001- over nine years and five months. We have been at war in Iraq since March 20, 2003- now over eight years. We tend to use words that allow us to feel okay about the injustices we are committing. For example, we leapt into these wars with the label of “The War on Terror.” Obviously terror is a bad thing, and inherently going to war against “Terror” would be good and upright.“Terror” should in fact be ended. These wars, however, have not been on “Terror.” These wars have been on people. We are purposefully distracted from the fact that we are at war on people by thinking we are waging a “War on Terror” The term “war” itself has become mundane and has little affect upon many. Do most of us really feel the wars daily or do we even know when we do feel the wars? No, we don’t. “War” has become just another word and we have become so used to the word, that it barely affects the usa psyche. War is not real to us. This is another case in which we must begin to deal in the Truth. The Truth is that war means lying, theft, occupation, rape, mass bloodshed and murder, not of “Terror,” but of people. War is murder- horribly and simply. We have been murdering people and being murdered in these wars for going on ten years now (not to mention all the other below-the-radar murdering we are involved in). Next, when we talk about war, especially if we are against it, we like to talk about the usa going to war or the president going to war or congress or any host of people, but again, we must deal in Truth. The Truth is that WE are engaged in war. WE are engaged in murder. Our tax-dollars pay for the bullets and bombs that rip apart the hearts and heads of people in other parts of the World. Our (regular people) compliancy allows these wars to murder countless people. This is Truth. We may be against it, we may even protest, march, rally, write letters, vote and do all of See From the Director Pg. 12 Art Director Elizabeth Schulenberg Contributing Writers Jim Luken, Riccardo Taylor, Saad Ghosn, Catie Dargue, Jeni Jenkins, Willa Denise Jones, Jennifer Martin, Laura Osborne-Coffey, James Brown, Lee McCoy, Dawn Fuller, Elisa Hill, B. Clifton Burke, Jimmie Gipson, Elles van Gelder, Beth GriffithNiemann Photography/Artwork Amiee Willhoite, Saad Ghosn, Mikki Schaffner, Bill Howes, Suzanne Chouteau, Bill Howes, Cedric Cox, Dawn Fuller, B. Clifton Burke, Sarah Hager, Elles van Gelder, Catie Dargue, Laura OsborneCoffey The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati through coordination of services, public education, grassroots advocacy and Streetvibes. �3 S t r e e t vibeS april 1-14, 2 0 1 1 Race Relations 101 Continued from Pg. 1 Asked if she was frightened at the time, Keith says, “No, I was cautious. I’m still cautious.” She feels that some things are better now than in that tumultuous period, but that there could be a stronger ongoing effort from both sides. “We need to be creative in trying to improve the situation. The same goes for the city officials as well as the citizens. Sometimes I don’t think that they appreciate that we understand what the city needs to do.” Don Cargile, a 52 year-old union electrician who now calls Las Vegas home, says he was living in Colerain Of the situation in Over the Rhine today, Don Cargile is reflective. “The situation is complex,” he says. “I think there are well meaning people who wish it would just… go away.” Twenty-five year-old, Rodney Beamon is the Community Outreach Coordinator for Elements, a youth hip-hop venue on Central Parkway that focuses on “rap and respect.” His take on things, then and now, has a different slant than the other, older folks who were interviewed for this story. Obviously, Beamon was just fifteen at the time of the Thomas shooting, but he was a very vocal young man, who literally got swept up in Unrest source: Jimmy Heath Township at the time of the riots, but that he came downtown often “to support the demonstrations, and the work of pastor [Damon] Lynch.” Many downtown people I have talked to say that Reverend Lynch [of New Prospect Baptist Church near Findley Market] was hugely important in helping to calm tensions and bring the two sides to some kind of mutual understanding. According to Cargile, “Damon Lynch was concerned with a fair investigation of the facts [about Timothy Thomas’s death and some of the other questionable police shootings].” It was obvious to Cargile that the leaders of the black community were strongly discouraging the rioting and the “disrespectful conduct.” “As I saw things go on,” Don Cargile says, “I think people confused the peaceful protests with those who came out to wreak violence. I don’t know if this was visible to people from the outside, but to me it was.” Cargile lays part of the blame on the media’s coverage of the events of those fateful days. “I think that the rioters and those who misbehaved got more of the press. And I think that the better cops got discouraged, just as there seemed to be the possibility of a settlement between the city and the protesters.” Carlisle has been living back in the city and the neighborhood for the past several years. He has taken a strong interest in understanding the dynamics of Over the Rhine and downtown Cincinnati. He reflected on what has seen since returning from Nevada. “I feel like, to a degree, the neighborhood has morally deteriorated, and that a lot of decent people are somewhat tired. I think that the answer may lie within the community and within the family to a great degree “This may not be liked, but I’m gonna say it anyway. The answer lies in how we [in the African American community] handle our households, how we teach our children, how we treat each other. That was one of the messages of the original Black Panthers’ Party. Self accountability.” the pain and the power of what came down during, and immediately after, the riots of ‘01. In the African American Community, “Speak-Outs” were held in various local churches, so that the people would have a chance to express their fears, their frustrations, their hopes. Young Beamon attended one of these events at the New Freedom Baptist Church in Avondale. There, he says, he focused on one of the other disputed shootings. He recounted for me the gist of what he told the gathered people. “I talked about a man named Lorenzo Collins, a mental patient. He left the hospital, no shoes and socks, dressed in a hospital gown. Someone reported that he was carrying a brick. The cops came, They maced him once. Then a second time. The man was unstable! They said he charged at them with his brick. Hit one of them with the only swing he took. Caused a concussion. The police shot him nine times. Later, during the riots, they used bean-bag guns and rubber bullets on rioters. I asked my audience where were the bean bag guns? Where were the rubber bullets, when they were dealing with this mental patient?” Rodney Beamon’s eloquent words at that Speak-Out thrust him almost immediately into the national spotlight. Everyone apparently wanted to know about the Cincinnati riots. He participated in other SpeakOuts. One in Newark, called B-CAP (Black Cops Against Police Brutality). He spoke at the State of the World Black Conference along with Danny Glover and Dick Gregory. “I guess they were looking for a young black American man who was able to articulate the issue,” he now says, almost modestly. Beamon frames the whole situation of the riots from the point of view of the young people. “The city was in turmoil,” he says, “and the youth thought they didn’t have the chance to express themselves. They found it dangerous to live in their own community. It seemed like every other day there were deaths. The same people you think you would call to protect you, are the same people who are killing young black males. The city got to the point it couldn’t take any more.” The rioters, Rodney Beamon claims, amounted to about eight to ten people who were fed up, “and the only thing they knew how to do was to express themselves in destructive way, to tear things up, and set things on fire.” Beamon believes that because of all the national attention, and the boycott of the city that came in the wake of the riots, a certain amount of accountability came to the police department. But after most of the dust had settled, he believes the police simply “ignored the Over the Rhine community and allowed it to selfdestruct.” As the 10th “anniversary” of the riots approaches, Beamon is refusing most invitations to talk to the Media. “I’ve known Curtis Fuller for years, and I just don’t want to be pulled into all that media stuff.” He says the only reason he did my interview was because it was Streetvibes, and because he and I had a mutual good friend in Mary Burke, director of Over the Rhine Community Housing. Ten years after the riots, Rodney Beamon states emphatically, “A whole lot ain’t changed.” And he repeats the statement to make sure I understand his conclusion. Now, he believes, the local powers-that-be are “dragging people out of the community, forcing them to live away from the bus lines, all for their own personal gratification.” It was almost as if he didn’t want the anger to come out, but—once started—there seemed to be no stopping him. “They’ve got money to buy street cars, but they don’t have money to feed homeless people. And they don’t have money to help youth groups, like Elements.” Rodney Beamon doesn’t feel the city or the police are willing to support organizations like his, that are helping, on a daily, basis to prevent what happened in 2001 from happening again. “Our solution was this. We created a Hip-Hop Center where the kids can express themselves in a more creative and positive way.” By the time I returned to Cincinnati from Vermont, in the summer of 2004, the after-effects from the riots were, by and large, gone. The national boycott seemed to have had a sobering effect on at least part of the city. I found an apartment near 14th and Race. The ghetto, at that time, was a different place than the one I had left seven years earlier. It felt like a lethal arcade game, a shooting gallery, and a killing machine. Four people were shot and killed on the street within a block of my apartment in less than 8 months. I would hear gunshots in the middle of the night, often three or four times a week. I developed an almost eerie intuition as to when those shots were just the “drug boys” showing off, and when their bullets had found human flesh. In those days, as most neighborhood residents recall, the drug boys were on almost every street corner. The police had backed off, usually arriving for the clean-up, but little else. Cincinnati became another kind of spectacle. Many law-abiding people living in the ghetto believed that the police had basically abandoned the neighborhood to the dealers and their (often brutalized) suburban clients. The cops, I was told, felt they had taken the blame for causing the riots. What came next—as all of us folks who live in OTR know—is still in process. And it involves wrecking balls and bulldozers and off-street parking. The purging of entire blocks of poor people from their long-time homes. “Gated” dwelling-places. Yuppie shops. Gentrification. We have even been fenced out of our park. As things stand now, it appears, racial and class problems will simply resolve themselves… in a more civilized way. Civilized, that is, from the point of view of the gentrifiers, the city bigwigs, the big money folks who funnel in millions through 3CDC. Instead of ignoring the problems, instead of doing battle with the problems, it appears that the main problem, i.e., the poor (whom Jesus said “will always be with us”) are simply being pushed further and further out of this last corner of Over the Rhine, which some of us still call “our beloved community.” Maybe Jesus had it wrong. P.S. The Cincinnati police were contacted numerous times in order that they might express their own ideas about the city then and now. Apparently,they chose not to respond. As the reader can tell, from many of the comments above,” the poor people kindly stuck up for them. �4 StreetvibeS a p ril 1-14, 2011 mark twain Was Right: stories from the 2001 Cincinnati Riots and unrest Dan mooRe Author and Illustrator M ark Twain Was Right: Stories from the 2001 Cincinnati Riots and Unrest is a soon to be released graphic novel about United States’ first urban uprising in the 21st century. The following excerpt is during the daytime on Tuesday, April 10 2001, after protests in Over-The-Rhine continue into their second day and the police begin to respond to the growing uprising. The story is told in a series of first-person perspectives from people who became intimately involved, from community leaders to random bystanders. Tying these narratives together is commentary by the author himself, then a budding radical teenager who finds the urban unrest influencing his life. Drawing on interviews and primary resources, a picture is painted of how one kid’s solitary death in a ghetto alley grows to impact every resident of the region. Mark Twain Was Right follows the sometimes contradictory and hard-to-comprehend developments from the day of the killing to Thomas’s funeral six days later, including the marches, posturing, organizing, brutality, looting, prayer, curfews and analysis that commanded international attention, inspiring ghetto residents and tormenting city leaders. For more information about the complete graphic novel Mark Twain Was Right, email cincinnatiriotsbook@gmail.com for information and updates about the release of the completed novel. Dan P. Moore was born and raised in Cincinnati and received his bachelor’s degree in Community Development at Portland State University. He first got involved in organizing during high school, founding the Cincinnati Radical Youth and has never stopped since then working on a variety of issues that engages marginalized communities at the base level. Currently, he is an organizer at the Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center, organizing low-wage and immigrant workers. Aside from self-publishing two comic zines, One of those Beautiful Days, and A Guide to Relationships during a Recession, this is his first graphic novel. �S t r e e t vibeS april 1-14, 2 0 1 1 autism awareness month 5 Chocolate Lockets and yellow pillows: an autism story sanDRa knoLLman W hen most people think of autism, they think of Dustin Hoffman’s character in Rain Man, someone locked away in an institution who could spout off mathematical facts and figures at the drop of a hat. Or even the “stereotypical” child walking around with a helmet on their head in order to prevent injury while banging their heads on a wall or some other surface. What people don’t realize is that autism is more than some part in a movie, and that no two people with autism are alike. I have two daughters, one officially diagnosed with autism, and one who has severe receptive language disorder and disruptive behavior disorder. This pretty much means there aren’t too many dull or quiet moments in my household. Especially not for the past year since my oldest daughter was unexpectedly kicked out of her autism program. I always thought of myself as fearless and bulletproof, that is until the day my daughter got kicked out of her autism program. I thought I was going to school for a typical meeting, and ended up taking my daughter home from that school for the last time. I was told she was “no longer a good fit”; “causing anxiety in other kids” (not true!); and that she was “no longer welcome” at that school. I had just settled into a job I loved at a local nonprofit doing foreclosure counseling for clients who were past due on their mortgages. I helped them try to get loan modifications from their lenders. I also taught foreclosure prevention classes, as well as budget and credit classes and counseling. I had only been there five months when my daughter got kicked out. I had to quit that job because I hadn’t been there long enough to take family leave. So where did that leave my family? It left us with one income and no school for my daughter. It took a whole month to find her a new school. Once I found her a new school, the only job I could find was working as med tech and nurse aide at a local assisted living facility making half of my previous salary. It’s been a year now, and I finally feel like my life is somewhat back to normal. My daughter is in a school she loves, though she really misses her old friends. I’m at a different job that I love working in an adult day training program for adults who have developmental disabilities. I’m hoping that working here will help prepare for life as the future parent of an adult with developmental disabilities. Some people have told me they’d be bitter if they had to go through what my family has in the past year. I say no. As I tuck my oldest in at night and tell her I love her all the way to the moon and back to a yellow pillow, and all the way to the moon and back to a chocolate locket for my youngest daughter, I realize that life could be much worse. As the mother of an individual with autism, the daughter, the sister, and the aunt of an individual with autism, I see the potential in all. Every one of them has something unique to offer this world. Rising stars By BRenDa ZeCHmeisteR, CooRDinatoR Rising Star Studios, Edgewood, KY A ccording to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recent findings revealed as many as one in 110 children in the United States are now diagnosed with autism. It’s the fastest-growing developmental disability; according to the Autism Society, the annual growth is 10 - 17%. April is Autism Awareness Month. Several activities are planned locally in conjunction with this, from advocacy - with the Autism Society of Ohio partnering with the Ohio Developmental Disabilities Network on a Legislative Advocacy Day at the Statehouse - to raising awareness - with an Autism Awareness Game on April Nancy Cooper source: Brenda Zechmeister 20th in partnership with the Cincinnati Reds. In addition, organizations such as New Perceptions’ or e-mail info@risingstarstudios.org. Interested program, Rising Star Studios, will provide additional participants must reserve their spot by April 7. support for the autistic community with a special outreach sampler program, Monday, April 11 – More Rising Star Studios Thursday, April 14. Rising Star Studios will offer Although there are many centers that offer complimentary classes for autistic youth from 4-7 p.m. rehabilitative services such as occupational, speech and in art, photography, music, computers, life skills, cooking, behavioral therapy, the Rising Star Studios program is and yoga. All classes will be held at New Perceptions, distinctive. This program makes an incredible difference One Sperti Drive in Edgewood, Kentucky. in the lives of young people with autism and other special needs in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern For more information, call 859-344-9322, ext. 15, Betsty and Alex source: Brenda Zechmeister Kentucky area through unique arts and life skills classes. Art, music, and dance are more than a valuable leisure skill through which young people with autism and special needs can learn to express themselves. The overall quality of their lives is improved as they learn to function more independently. Students learn and improve upon social skills, academics, communication skills, motor skills, and activities of daily living. The skills they learn through the fine arts, in addition to life skills classes such as cooking and computers, stay with them for a lifetime. Great Books! visit facebook.com/streetvibes cincinnati twitter.com/streetvibesnwes streetvibes.wordpress.com www.cincybooks.com �6 Rally for peace StreetvibeS a p ril 1-14, 2011 Coffee party sponsors peace Rally on Fountain square Coffee Party Cincinnati and friends held their first annual “Patriotic American Peace Rally” on Fountain Square, Saturday March 19. This rally was held to mark the 8th anniversary of the Iraq War, and to promote peace and civility. Coffee Party Cincinnati hopes that this rally will encourage people to take a stand against war, violence, and hate. Approximately 100-200 people attended the rally. sHeLi DeLaney T he national Coffee Party Movement established itself in January 2010 as a non-partisan grassroots political organization, and Coffee Party Cincinnati is one of its many local chapters that have sprung up across the state of Ohio and the US since its inception.The Coffee Party was created to be a venue for people who are disenchanted with two-party politics and want to work toward positive solutions, government accountability, removing corporate influence from politics, and making government a true expression of our collective will. When it comes to political discourse, Coffee Party wants candidates and elected officials who will quit wasting time slinging mud, disagree without being disagreeable, stick to the facts, and never EVER use rhetoric that deliberately incites hatred and violence toward other groups of people. The Coffee Party formed last year in response to the bitter hateful rhetoric surrounding the healthcare reform bill about this time last year, and also in response to the non-stop media coverage of the Tea Party. Over the last year, it local chapters have organized in nearly every major city across the US, and have taken on a wide range of political causes. At our rally we presented speakers from different organizations around Cincinnati that are in support of ending the wars. The speakers we featured included: Don Rucknagel, Green Party; Josh Spring, Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless; Professor Mark Lause, University of Cincinnati Department of History; John Waltz, Veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; Robert “Buck” Clay, Veteran of the Iraq War; Donna Park, Citizens for Global Solutions, Elizabeth Ampthor, International Socialists Organization, and Fariba Nourian, Coffee Party Cincinnati. Throughout the rally, we circulated a letter to our US Representatives in Ohio for you to sign which states that we want them to stop supporting funding for the wars and to fight for money for social services, education, healthcare, libraries, public radio, infrastructure, job creation, and all that other good stuff that we love that we believe the government should be providing for us. A total of 65 signatures were collected. We organized this rally because we know that it is wrong for the US to wage war and occupy foreign countries. We know that it costs enormous amounts of tax payer money to sustain such efforts, while other much-needed photo by sheli DeLaney programs go unfunded or underfunded. We know that contractors and corporations are able to make huge amounts of money from war profiteering, while our economy slumps and our middle class and our poor struggle to recover from a recession. And more than the monetary cost of the war is the loss of life that results from it; thousands of soldiers, and many times more civilians, that could have otherwise lived out their lives and made a positive contribution to society, are lost to us forever. Many of us have lived through several periods of war, violence, and political unrest, and enough is enough. Ironically, at the same time we were holding our rally Saturday, a coalition of armed forces from Britain, France and the US began attacking the Libyan military in order to stop them from killing protestors and rebels. While we agree that the people of Libya must be protected, we hope in the future that regimes like Gadhaffi’s are never put in power in the first place. We also wish that coalition forces would not pick and choose whose people they are going to protect, because while they may be stopping the attacks on the people of Libya, the people of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Yemen are still being killed by their own government. Finally, several of our supporters have spoken out against the name Patriotic American Peace Rally, saying that it is misleading, delusional, and even offensive, since nationalism and patriotism in the US is associated with a long history of imperialism and national superiority. While those are fair and well-intentioned critiques, we believe that as Frederick Douglas once said “a patriot is a lover of one’s country that rebukes it and does not excuse its sins.” We at Coffee Party Cincinnatireject the framing of what some call patriotism, and we want to challenge these definitions. Being against the wars and the military machine is patriotic. Of course, we know our title is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but we sincerely hope the rally attracts some from the right who oppose the empire. They exist and should be reached out to. With them we are a majority. And we feel that we can love our country and the world at the same time. Making change starts at home at the local level. photo by sheli DeLaney �Community S t r e e t vibeS april 1-14, 2 0 1 1 7 Lighthouse Community school CoRey giBson G rowing up can be tough, but growing up in the child welfare system can be even tougher. With hundreds of thousands of children growing up with out a home, essentially living under the care of the government, education can be a difficult step in these children’s lives. But for the children in the Greater Cincinnati area living in foster care or in the welfare system, they can turn to the Lighthouse Community School. a library with a student staff ratio of 5 to 1, Lighthouse Community School is like any other school in the neighborhood. David Rosenthal, owner of Prairie Gallery in Northside, is one of the many volunteers at the school. He has been working in the community for years doing photography programs. “Basically {the programs} introduce photography as a way to learn about art making,” said Rosenthal. “And also learn about how art works in the world.” He began working with the Lighthouse Community School a year ago when he did a graphic novel project with the students. The graphic novels vary heavily from student to student. One tells the story of growing up with an alcoholic family member, while another tells the story of a prince. The writings are accompanied by astounding photos taken by the students that show how they see the world around them. The creativity and sharp photography make the stories extremely intriguing. “They were autobiographical, fictional, fantastical things,” said Rosenthal. This year he is teaching a class at the school once a week that combines the art of photography with the creative stylings of fashion designs. One of Kayla Bentlay’s wardrobe designs Her country is Ireland. Lighthouse Community School is a highly specialized school for high school age students that stresses “individualized, flexible and intensive strategies to meet the educational needs of youth in the child welfare system.” The school does all it can to accommodate the students. The school is sponsored by the Cincinnati Public Schools, meaning no tuition for the students; “The goal of the class is to engage the students with developing creative concepts based on research about the world,” said Rosenthal. The students are studying specific countries of their choose and translating those into fashion designs. The students also document their projects throughout the process by taking photographs of the things that inspire their clothing. Rosenthal started the students out by having them look at fashion magazines and research about different countries. He Marvin Binford working on one of his wardrobe designs. His country is Mexico. Next, he asked the students to take photos of things, anything. He wanted the students to get used to using a camera. “Our first couple of photo shoots we were just asking them to experiment with the camera, just to see what a camera can do,” said Rosenthal. “They looked at things close up, at extreme angles, what happens when you over or under expose a picture. Just looking at the possibilities of the medium.” Since Rosenthal has a limited time with the students each week, the students are using available clothing instead of fabricating their own. To make up for not being able to sew the outfits, he took the students to Goodwill to find clothing for their outfits. “I think it is an important part of the whole thing,” said Rosenthal. “Part of my bigger mission in life is to find creative ways to involve artists in the world.” He wants the world to acknowledge the work these students have accomplished. the school works with local districts to provide transportation and community volunteers from all around help to keep the school running. With a basketball team, volleyball team, computer lab and instructed the students to find colors they want to use, shapes they can incorporate into an outfit and textures that could be manipulated and copied onto the clothing. Rosenthal raises the bar for his students. He challenges them to do amazing things with not just art but with their lives. He treats these students just as he would treat graduate students he has taught in the past. After taking pictures for inspiration, the students began thinking about clothing they wanted to use. Rosenthal introduced the idea of styling to the students. The students took clothing and accessories and began using them in unconventional ways to what the outcome would be. The students would dress the mannequins and photograph the outfits, using lighting to change the “mood of the garment.” The end goal of the project is an exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center on May 6, which showcases the student’s work. The exhibition will include the fashion designs, the photographs taken along the way, collage work and the conceptual photos taken for inspiration. A student working on styling their mannequin. to college students who at an advanced level still have difficulty with the projects. Rosenthal said he wants the students to learn about creative expression and what it can mean to them. Since many of the students in the school have never had a chance to take a photography or fashion class, Rosenthal wants to give them an outlet for expressing themselves. Yet what he is really instilling in the students is a passion to succeed when they are challenged. Rosenthal gives the students problems that he has presented One of Dasheka Edward’s wardrobe designs. Her country is Bolivia. She transformed a scarf into a top and a button up t-shirt into a blouse. The yellow and green stripes are taken from a wind sock’s streamers. “Part of the reason I really like this work is because these kids are hardly ever challenged,” said Rosenthal. “They go through life, starting at a very early age, with the bar being automatically lowered. If someone walks into a situation knowing the exceptions are low, that is how they are going to perform.” �Local 8 StreetvibeS a p ril 1-14, 2011 Rally at Fountain square keLissa HieBeR Contributing Writer T uesday March 14th, was a chilly raining day, however these less than ideal weather conditions did not stop large numbers from coming out to the rally at Fountain Square. Participants of this rally, arrived in solidarity against the massive proposed budget cuts, outlined by Governor John Kasich and the proposed Ohio Senate Bill 5. Bill 5 is similar to the bill in Wisconsin, which received massive debate causing the democrats to literally flee the state to delay the vote on the bill. Bill 5 would eliminate collective bargaining rights for an estimated 350,00 police officers, teachers and a large array of other public workers. These large numbers of workers would be unable to bargain for fair wages or improved working conditions. Also strikes would be disbanded and unions would essentially be destroyed, leaving thousands of workers silenced. Kasich’s proposed budget cuts for the next two years would issue many of it’s cuts to public schools ranging from the primary to the university level, cut programs for the poor, massively cut the resources and funding for local governments and reorganize Medicare. At the rally on Tuesday, groups ranging from large unions such as AFSCME, CFT-AFT, other groups such as Jobs for Justice joined with various representatives from the inner-faith community. Also present were various undergraduate and graduate students and all types of university employees, from local colleges such as Miami University and the University of Cincinnati. Many Cincinnati City Council members such Rally Photos By Chris kromer as Mayor Mallory also spoke out in solidarity with the assembly. Mallory spoke to the crowd, saying that one of the primary reasons why public workers are being targeted is because those proposing the budget don’t understand what these worker go through and how important they are to our community. Mallory said: “They are committed to public service and to making our lives better.” Speakers from AFSCME and AFT spoke to the crowd about the importance to fighting this battle together and that in order to kill this bill; everyone was going to have to go to work. Representatives from the faith based groups AIMOS and Su Casa, voiced their support in this battle and spoke out against such bills and budget cuts, which punish those who hold the foundation of the community together. The spokesperson for AFT started her address by saying quite bluntly about Kasich: “What is wrong with this man?” Part of his questioning of the governors character came from the fact that only 9% of the budget is designated for public workers, yet they would received some of the most severe cuts and restrictions. A mother from Lakota expressed her concerns of what will happen to her daughter’s education and opportunities for things such as sports and other extra-curricular activities. She like many others asked the question of why everyday workers and public schools were suffering the most, when they claimed that these are not the people who created the budget crisis in the first place. They urged that the corporations who through unequal, unfair business practices let the economy spin out of control, should be the ones to pay, not innocent public workers. City Council member Cecil Thomas, illustrated the disconnect between government officials like Kasich and public workers by quoting something that Kasich had said to lobbyists back in November. “If you think that I’m going in the wrong direction, stop me. I don’t want to drive over a cliff. I just want to be a good governor.” Thomas said that is all well and good, but then directly after this invitation for public debate and participation, Kasich said in order for people to help build a better Ohio: “You need to get on the bus. If you’re not on the bus, we’ll run over you with the bus and I’m not kidding.” Everyone in the crowd at this rally knows that we are in a very difficult time in our country and difficult decisions do have to be made. However, those who helped to create this economic catastrophe should be held accountable and the rights and voices of essential workers need to be upheld. Is perfectly balancing the budget worth jeopardizing the livelihood of so many? And when did things such as education, suddenly become expendable and extraneous? Everyone in the crowd knew that sacrifices are ahead, however Kasich’s attitude of excluding so many from the discussions on how to deal with this situation is unacceptable. Equally intolerable are his callous remarks such as saying he will run people over if they don’t agree with him. This seems to represent a complete disregard for the people that he is suppose to be representing. If whole groups in society have no voice or rights, then this goes against the very fabric of what is supposed to define America, that of the right to freedom and participation and inclusion in democracy, which represents the ideals of the masses not just the rich. �S t r e e t vibeS april 1-14, 2 0 1 1 Local 9 �10 national news StreetvibeS a p ril 1-14, 2011 Japanese street paper: ‘We are not defeated’ Vendors are back on the streets of Tokyo selling copies of The Big Issue Japan, as staff vowed to support all street paper vendors affected by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami. Translated by Mayuko Hida, and Yushin Toda (University of Glasgow) Originally published by The Big Issue in Scotland Additional reporting by The Big Issue Japan www.streetnewsservice.org In Sendai, capital of Miyagi - one of the north-east regions worst hit by the tsunami - all Big Issue Japan vendors are alive and accounted for. Sadly, damage to infrastructure means there has been no delivery of magazines to Sendai, Sapporo, or any of the cities in the north. Miku Sano, managing director of The Big Issue Japan’s Tokyo office, said: “In Sendai the vendors survived but do not know when they can start selling the magazines again. The vendors and people in Northern cities are fighting for their lives and (to find) loved ones. We are trying the best we can to support them. Things are not easy and will not be the same, but we are not defeated.” “We are also trying to start our football practice in Tokyo as soon as possible,” she added. “All the scheduled matches were cancelled but many of our vendors said that they want to play football to feel better.” Diary of a disaster The Big Issue Japan works with the Sendai Night Patrol Group to help the homeless in Sendai City, one of the worst hit by the March 11 tsunami. Tireless staff members have been providing free meals for anyone sleeping rough as the city attempts to recover from the disaster. Aoki San, head of the patrol team and magazine distribution in Sendai, allowed us to publish extracts from his diary about the relief effort: 14 March In Sendai, the supply of water and electricity was restored in some parts, but it will take more than a month to restore gas supply. In the Wakabayashi area, the worst affected area within Sendai city, I saw a very long queue of people trying to get half rotten oranges and only one banana. A thousand dead bodies are left unattended in a gymnasium, and there is no information Caption: People ride bicycles past houses destroyed by an earthquake and a tsunami as snow falls in Natori City, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan March 17, 2011. ReuteRs/kyodo about those unaccounted for. We are planning to provide free meals of curry rice for everyone from 11am. The death toll is too big to comprehend, and many people seem to know nothing about what to do. 15 March Roads, airlines and trains are not allowed to run except for emergency vehicles, and there is the dire prospect of a shortage of goods. More than 1,000 people queued for a motorway bus. I joined a queue for Daiei Supermarket before its opening at 10am, but 30 minutes after the opening, major goods had already gone. There is a shortage of gas cylinders, noodles, tinned food, batteries, and rice. Public administration is completely paralysed. Sendai City Council opened a help desk today, four days after the earthquake. Hospitals in the city are only able to provide a partial service due to electricity shortages. Without a battery-powered radio, people are getting no information at all. Many citizens don’t know about the accidents at Fukushima nuclear plant. People are ‘information refugees’. Local radio stations function to help people to find out about missing persons. Strong aftershocks at 3am and again at 4am. A woman cries after her mother’s body was found in Onagawa, Miyagi prefecture March 18, 2011. The area was devastated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11. ReuteRs/kyodo 16 March This morning started with rain in Sendai. Today the local radio announced about the food at Wakabayashi city hall, so we had to make 1,000 meals. At lunchtime we gave out curry, miso soup and rice for about 800 people and it was gone in a second. Some hadn’t eaten for three days and queued for the food in the rain. I am worried because there’s no information about what’s going on at the nuclear power plant. I am worried about the radioactive contamination for the north Kanto region because of the north winds. There are thousands of people sleeping in the elementary schools, city halls and public halls. I will do my best to provide free meals tomorrow, although we may run out of stock if we do so. UPDATE from Miku Sano, Monday 21st March: We organised a football training session with vendors this weekend. Vendors and many volunteers participated (see images on the Big Issue Japan blog: http:// ameblo.jp/one-goal-one-step. Most of our street paper vendors are doing OK, but the ones who are in the worst hit areas face a lot of challenges. At first, many of us were surprised at how strong and unaffected most vendors seem. However, when you think about it, most of our vendors always sleep outside- which means, in many ways, the “emergency situation” that we are facing now is the kind of life they live on a daily basis. I hope this crisis will bring us together and that it will give us a chance to think more about the people who have to live in such harsh conditions not only after this earth quake, but every day. In the mean time, the latest edition of The Big Issue Japan has arrived in Sapporo. Hokkaido five days behind schedule. We still have earthquakes on a scale of M5 to M6 every day in the coastal areas around Tokyo and the north. There is a shortage of electricity and gas in Tokyo and the northern cities. People in Tokyo were panic buying food initially, but that slowly becomes less. Things are still unsettled but everyone is trying to help each other. �S t r e e t vibeS april 1-14, 2 0 1 1 national news 11 Bearcats Better Be Better BRyan CLiFton BuRke Now that the city’s teams have been eliminated from the Big Dance, many of its citizens have wiped basketball clean from the list of things they normally think about. After all, with the misery surrounding the Bengals and the promise of a quality Reds season, it doesn’t make much sense to dwell on local teams that lose. However, before you return the sport back to its shelf for the summer, know this: the Bearcats will soon be legit and should generate some realistic excitement this time next year. How much excitement? I don’t know; come on, fortune telling? Why do I think they will be better? Namely Yancy Gates. The legacy of this man is shaping up as a sort of tragic one. A local cat with a huge following, Gates has not manifested into the beast many of us anointed him as he left Withrow High so many years back. His NBA-ready body at the age of 18, mixed with an interesting shooting touch for a big guy, allowed some to speculate that he would be wooed by the pros before graduating. Three underwhelming seasons later, complete with a punitive benching and vigorous boos from the UC faithful, hearing Yancy confirm his desire to return seems unnecessary. Of course he’s coming back; he needs more time to maximize his draft potential which can still become quite high if he works hard and plays his cards right. Gates, though, primarily wants to graduate, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that—for all the ways universities use their high-profile athletes, snaking a degree out of them is the least he could do to even the score. Fans, however, want to see him become the local legend he seemed so destined to be. Next year is the last chance for greatness, and before the pros whisk him away to another land with another life, we want to see him spread his wings right here in his hometown. To do that, though, his game needs an injection of urgency. Yancy, like almost every one else, is a rhythm player. Those majestic 18-footers he occasionally flashes only come when he catches and shoots in rhythm. His post moves, including his stillimproving passing game, succeed when in rhythm. The problem is, he often holds the ball too long and appears to over-think himself. If he made quicker decisions, the offense could run through him easier and roles would be more clearly defined. I believe he has the raw materials to become an excellent offensive player, but he must put in the work this offseason. His defense is toughening up and his rebounding continues to get meaner, but a polished array of post moves and a sharpened sense of urgency could make him the aircraft-carrier the Bearcats will need to make their run next year. The good news is that even if Gates improves from marginally to not at all, he will still be surrounded with more size and more talent around him. Gone are the silly bigs, Andre McClaine and Ibrahim Thomas. These men were good for fouls only and didn’t even do that well. Back is the pogo forward Justin Jackson whose length and athleticism make him an outrageous transition player, along with redshirt freshman, Kelvin Gaines. The 6’10’’ Gaines looked a tad out of sorts in the Deveroes Summer League last summer, but he is large and plays angry which will help him in the burly Big East. Then there is the incoming freshman, Octavius Ellis, who sounds like a lanky power-forward enshrined in Greek mythology, but instead is one only from Memphis. Ellis’ scouting report talks of a shot-blocking European-type of forward who is comfortable scoring from the wing. Also expected to arrive on the scene next fall is a skinny Floridian named Shaquille Thomas. The nephew of NBA veteran Tim Thomas, Shaquille is raw but has lotterypick tools and could become an immediate impact player for the ‘Cats. More of a small-forward, Thomas is ranked in the ESPN’s top-100 list of high-school players and is worth keeping an eye on. The development of the back court will obviously be key as well. Cashmere Wright, Sean Kilpatrick and Dion Dixon all must raise their game throughout the summer to fulfill my expectation of each of them. One weakness coach Mick Cronin must address is a suitable backup point guard. Once it became clear Wright was not totally healthy against Connecticut in the second round, it became equally clear that there was no one better in that spot off of the bench. Either Dixon needs to learn to run the point more effectively, or incoming player, Ge’Lawn Guyn, needs to show his Division I chops right away. Wright is a man who has not been able to remain fully healthy with this team, so it seems impractical to assume that he can be depended on another full season next year. He is a fine player when he is feeling good, but a contingency plan at the point can’t be a total waste of time. All in all, this program is headed in the right direction. Mick Cronin has met hostile criticism in his five years here, perhaps due to the negative public perception that shorter people face on a daily basis, I don’t know, but his team has improved every year under his guidance. He is finally getting his recruits in place and developing them to some degree of success. True, their brainless decision-making often astounds the observer, but I’m hoping that the dumbest players on the roster are the ones graduating this summer. With a proper trimming of the unwanted dead weight and a new flock of athletic prospects slatted to arrive this fall, these Bearcats can move into the Sweet 16 and beyond in the very near future. Here’s to next year. �interest 12 ten years-not enough to get over Death in over-the-Rhine! Just how much time is enough time, to get over the death of a Family Member? JuDge LesLie isaiaH gaines Contributing Writer It’s been ten years since that April day in 1001 when Timothy Thomas’s blood soaked that tiny dead-in ally, and rad down That Gutter in Over-the-Rhine. Timothy Thomas, a member of our Cincinnati, Ohio family was gunned down by a bullet in the back; while unharmed and running from a Cincinnati Police officer; down an Over-The-Rhine ally. The entire Cincinnati Family, regardless of race or economic condition was impacted by Timothy Thomas’s sudden, premature and violent death. Burning, Looting, violence and bloodshed washed over the inner city neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine like a tsunami following an earth quake. I was on the riot ravaged streets of Overthe Rhine within a half hour of the first StreetvibeS a p ril 1-14, 2011 fire being set and the first window being smashed. I immediately joined a group of citizens who grieved and mourned the death of Timothy Thomas; in the midst of trying to restore peace and stop the violence. I did not read about the riot or watch the revolution on TV. Following the dictates of fate and destiny I was drawn to the forefront of the battle; as if by a giant magnet. I was there with the residents of Over­ the-Rhine when we were choked by smoke and blinded by tear gas, as we dodged bean bags fired upon us by police officers in Washington Park. I volunteered to serve on “The Stop Squad;” A group of concerned Citizens who walked every street and ally in Over-the-Rhine trying to stop the violence. We stopped the blood-shed and performed CPR on the Findley Market; the historic market in heart of Over-theRhine. Had been strangled and entangled by the giant tentacles of violence that engulfed the city. We blew fresh breath into Findlay Marker and today ten years later it is on the road of rehab to recovery. Yes April 2011 marks ten years, many citizens of Over-the-Rhine and Cincinnati are still in a state of shock and post-traumatic grief. To those who say, “It’s been ten years, get over it!” I ask; is ten years enough time for you to get over the death of one of your loved ones? Some deaths we never get over. The death of unarmed Timothy Thomas is one of them. We never get over them. We pray for the strength to carry on. The danger in getting over, is in the fact that we may forget. If we forget history we are doomed to repeat it. Dr. King’s assassination on April 4th 1968 and President Kennedy’s assassination on November 23 1963 will never be forgotten. Timothy Thomas was not a famous person or world Leader. You don’t have to be to be loved and missed. Purchase: Over -the -Rhine a Positive Look; book by Judge Leslie Isaiah Gaines and Doctor Jennifer p. Gaines. On sale at Findley Market: Over-The-Rhine, Cincinnati Ohio. Partial proceeds to benefit the Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. ReadJudge Gaines Briefs: Weekly Brief short stories of life and Law, Yahoo Associated Content, Face Book. Judge@judgegaines.com From the Director Continued from Pg. 2 this against it, but at the end of the day, all of us in the usa are engaged in war against people in other lands. Now that we have dealt with some Truth, let’s deal with some more. War and homelessness are connected. In fact, homelessness is connected to nearly every ill in the usa. Homelessness very likely may be the ultimate symptom of our collective ills. And yes, we are all responsible for homelessness and it’s continuation. With that stated, we must take hold of the Truth that we continue to repeat the same ills and crimes over and over and over again. This is the case in a broad sense in that this country was founded through war and continues to function with a foundation of war. But, lets narrow this down a bit, war does not just take place across borders, war is very much taking place here. bottom or at the bottom never see it. It does not in fact trickle down. During this time homelessness went from being in the hundreds of thousands of people in a given year to millions of people in a given year. This is when we created modern-day homelessness. No longer were just predominately middle aged, addicted men homeless. Anyone could become homeless. This is why so many of our organizations are currently somewhere near their 25th anniversary. Obviously, the money did not trickle down, but something did. In fact what trickled down was nothing new, it had been trickling down for many years. It trickled down all the way to Cincinnati. For the past 25 to 30 years in this country we have continued to deplete our stock of low-income affordable housing and living-wage jobs. Not only have we depleted the stock of both, we have taken it a bit “ We are told nationally that we are at war on “terror” and creating freedom, and locally that we are fighting blight and de-investment and crime and creating progress and an economic base- But the Truth is that there is a war raging in our streets against those in Cincinnati that are financially poor.” In the 1980’s the Ronald Reagan administration pushed his “trickle-down theory” economics or Reganomics. In this period, the Reagan administration slashed and cut spending on safety-net services and especially housing (by the billions of dollars) and put this money into big business and military. All this was done with the promise that the big-whigs at the tops of the tall buildings would buy more cars and hamburgers that the rest of us make, we would then get their money, we would spend it, and the money would continue to work it’s way down. The problem with this theory is that for the most part the people at the tops of the tall buildings horde the money, so the people near the further. We have allowed (perhaps some of us have even supported) large companies, politicians and developers as they have wedged their way into our downtown-core neighborhood and forced people with low-incomes from their homes and businesses, taken over and given the land to whom the large companies, politicians and developers see fit- to those deemed worthy and destined to take the land. Sound familiar?-. The term for this is gentrification. Another term could be occupation, displacement, forced removal or war. War forces one group’s life upon another group’s life through the methodic erasing of those deemed undesirable. This is what gentrification does. Gentrification is war on people with low-incomes. Gentrification is war that creates homelessness. On a broad scale of stealing from one group to give to another, gentrification is why we have modern day homelessness. We currently have a war raging in our own streets- right here in cincinnati. We are at war with each other, and it is sad. People have been forced from their homes for other people to move in to the urban core. Companies, at the backing and pushing of the city, are occupying urban core neighborhoods. The lives of people with low-incomes are being threatened on a continual basis. Homes are being stolen, schools have been closed, public restrooms have been torn down, parks have been either closed or taken over by private interest, money is being hoarded up by big business, lies are being told, people are being criminalized for being financially poor and / or homeless, occupation is happening- what else can you call it but war. And by the way, the argument that sometimes you just have to have war in order to create “freedom” or in this case “progress”- is a lie. It is a lie told by those that want to steal the land and resources of another group. It is a lie that is allowed to continue because, once again, others get duped and believe the lie. Still others may not believe the lie, but stand by and allow it to happen. And lest we forget, war is murderous to the lives of people. We are told nationally that we are at war on “terror” and creating freedom, and locally that we are fighting blight and de-investment and crime and creating progress and an economic base- But the Truth is that there is a war raging in our streets against those in Cincinnati that are financially poor. The other Truth is that True freedom murders nobody and True progress hinders no life. We have a choice, do we believe we can all live together, or do we believe that some of us must not exist so that everyone else can reach their manifest destiny? �S t r e e t vibeS april 1-14, 2 0 1 1 story & poetry Corner Have a Laugh CLeo WomBLes A man walks into a bar and asks the bartender is he can drink free all day if he can make him laugh 13 Can you WiLLa Denise Jones Can you shut ‘emdown? Does the world believe that this is the world’s solution The Bartender agrees, so the man pulls a mouse, a small piano, and a frog out of his pocket. Can you shut ‘emdown? Keeping factory’s open with no work, now that’s pollution The mouse begins to play the piano and the frog sings opera. Can you shut ‘emdown? The free clinics, people homeless, no more Drop Inn Center One man seeing this approaches the man and offers him $500,000 for the talented frog. Can you shut ‘emdown? Washington Park, the sanitation workers, I can’t help but litter “SOLD!” He says. After the proud new owner leaves the bar with the frog, the bartender asks the man why he wouldn’t have tried to sell the frog for a million. Can you shut ‘em down? Over the Rhine was white then it was black, I thought we were all together He responds, mouse and piano in hand, that the mouse is actually a ventriloquist. Can you shut’ emdown? I’m confused so tell congress I really thought they knew better Can you believe in your heart that the decisions of our country are either republican or democratic? Can you believe that out of all the people in the world two simple parties be worthy of so much static? Can you close your eyes to the reality of the fear that has such a tight grip on our nation today? Can you keep living shut down and shut up? I’m baffled but not lost for words I can honestly say For me, learning to live without doubt or fear in my life and keeping God so close to my heart I have no doubt that without God’s blessings this world is doomed to fall completely apart With much faith and without any regards for the republicans or democrats controlling my being Without any doubt what so ever today I know that almighty God is the only real thing So can you shut ‘em down? Now slow down and take the time to think, what do you really understand? You need to come back into the days of Adam and Eve and remember when only God ruled the land! �14 StreetvibeS a p ril 1-14, 2011 CmHa’s Housing Choice Voucher program opens april 4 keLLy kRameR Streetvibes contributor The Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) will open the waiting list for its Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program April 4-8, 2011. The application will be available exclusively online at HYPERLINK “http://www.hcvwaitlist.com” www. hcvwaitlist.com. This is the first time the application will be available solely online. For those with limited access to a computer, CMHA has identified resources throughout Hamilton County that will offer free computer access to fill out the online application. For a full list of free resources, applicants can call 513-977-5757, visit HYPERLINK “http://www. cinitmha.com” www.cinitmha.com. The HCV program makes safe, quality, affordable housing more accessible to those who need it most – very low-income families, the elderly and the disabled. Under the federal program, qualifying families receive a subsidy from CMHA that covers the gap between what the family can afford for rental housing, and what a private landlord charges. The participating family or individual pays the difference between the actual rent charged by the landlord, and the amount subsidized by the program. If you plan to apply: Applications will only be accepted online at HYPERLINK “http://www.hcvwaitlist.com” www.hcvwaitlist.com from 12:01 a.m. on Monday, April, 4 through 11:59 p.m. on Friday, April 8. Only one application per person will be accepted. You will need a pen and paper to write down you confirmation number. What you need to apply: Individuals who apply for the waiting list will need to know information such as birthdates and social security numbers of everyone living in the household; asset information (checking and savings accounts, real estate owned); a current mailing address; and an emergency contact address. Individuals must also verify their annual household income, including: Pre-tax gross employment wages All Social Security, SSI, OWF/TANF/Welfare benefits – including minor children. All cash received on a regular basis from family, friends or others All amounts received for child support Net income received from self employment All monies received from any pension plan All monies received from assets, (i.e. rental income, interest from a Certificate of Deposit (CD), annuity, savings account, Investment Retirement Account (IRA), etc.) What happens after you apply: An application does not guarantee that you will be added to the waiting list. Those who apply for the waiting list will be randomly selected for the HCV database by lottery system, regardless of the day or time the application is submitted. If a family or individual is selected for the waiting list, they will be informed by CMHA in writing. Those who are interested in applying for the HCV April Fools in Over the Rhine A resident’s perspective on ‘change’ and why it can be seen as a joke Lee mCCoy Coming to a neighborhood near you…no it’s not a movie, it is something worse. It’s a move against any resident of Over the Rhine. It is scary, it is creepy, and it should be against the law. “Oh let me shut my mouth now!” I am talking about 3CDC…you is a bad mother…but on the real, will someone stand up to the bull shit? When an injustice has been done…will someone stand up? Years ago before any one had ever heard of a 3CDC, there was one realtor who owned most of the buildings in OTR. The rich and the poor lived side by side and rent was affordable. Now the same place has little renovation but a different view of the “improved” Washington Park and comes with a much different price tag. That apartment…actually, let me do this right, the same ‘condo’ or ‘loft’ now would cost $500 to a grand per month. Now that is April Fool’s Day. These places that we used to call home are now specifically designed and priced for anyone but the low income. Which is still insane to program waiting list should visit HYPERLINK “http:// www.cintimha.com” www.cintimha.com for more information, or speak with a case worker at local social services agencies. me with the major dollars being pumped into transportation forms in and out of the area for the “low income”. There are still so many buildingsin the area that are boarded up. Why can’t we take some of them and actually make them available and affordable for everyone? This way we could all live side by side, the rich and the poor. Remember what the good book says about ‘love thy neighbor’? I guess this doesn’t apply to 3CDC. The ‘Take Back the Neighborhood’ Rally should have sent them a clear message. Hopefully God will have a April Fools prank to play on 3CDC. Here is my hope…these moves you have been making in OTR will come to an end. You’re crooked, you’re bad boys. So answer me this 3CDC, what’cha gonnado when they come for you? Bad boys, bad boys. Even the good you’ve done here like the work with the Jimmy Heath House comes with the stench of a rat. I was walking around the other day and I was amazed at the buildings that had been destroyed downtown for this casino. The Family Dollar is gone, it seems the bus station will be next. Can you imagine how full the Justice Center would be then? I guess Simon Leis will get his April Fools if that happened. Now let me tell you something about me…in 1968 I was in the US Navy. I was a Navy Seals Officeron a submarine called the USS Enterprise. We were four thousand feet under the sea when the sub blew up. I was in an air bubble and I fought my way to the top. On the way up I ran into a mermaid and we made love. Nine months later she gave birth to twins…out came Charlie Tuna of the sea and on his fin was Bumble Bee. April Fools! �S t r e e t vibeS april 1-14, 2 0 1 1 15 �16 StreetvibeS a p ril 1-14, 2011 Challenging problematic systems to improve Relationships Rod Northcutt uses animals and nature to reference social concerns “Once your eyes are open and awakened to social reality, you cannot escape it anymore,” says Rod Northcutt. “It stays with you and your innocence is gone.” Northcutt became acutely aware of social issues when he moved to Chicago for graduate school. He was confronted for the first time with poverty, homelessness, By Saad GhoSn Contributing Writer crowded housing, environmental decay, the many human and physical problems of a large city. They remained with him ever since and found their way into his art. A visual artist, he teaches sculpture at Miami University, Oxford, OH. He has a BFA degree in drawing and painting from the University of North Texas and a MFA degree in sculpture from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Northcutt grew up in rural Texas, intimately connected to the land and to animals he raised and tended to. It triggered in him a lifelong interest in biological and He also resorts to nature-related metaphors to raise awareness of the various societal ills. Initially destined to become a medical illustrator, Northcutt soon realized he was in reality a maker and that he liked to craft and create things; also that he enjoyed setting his art in nature, interacting with its environment, doing sculptural installations. His work, as a result, grew along these lines. In his interior gallery work, he functions like a fiction story teller, combining animals with study of the sciences or humanities. This allows him to empower the animals, understand them, especially understand human resemblance to them and what humans owe them; also to apply his meticulous craftsmanship skills to his projects. Northcutt would design an imaginary tale, halfway between truth and lies, connecting animals to human history and to real events. He would then craft related physical objects, “relics” that look real and legitimate to give support and validity to his story. He would display all in a natural history museum-like setting, thus playing with the line between fact and fiction. “I consider myself a ‘writer’ of historical fiction,” Northcutt says. “The events I cite are grounded in history yet diverge humorously from known archives by combining with current social concerns, such as outsourcing of labor... My work is carefully hand-crafted and often suggests a ‘backwater’ answer to difficult social questions.” He used for instance native woodworkers and builders such as beavers, woodpeckers, and termites, to devise an alternate history of building and manufacturing in the United States, pointing to their inherent problems. His displays have variably included relics and tools from beaver lodge architecture in the 1950’s, dioramas illustrating a 19th century American Luddite movement among beavers, Dutchstyle shoes supposedly carved by woodpeckers and beavers… At times, he also featured natural ceramic workers such as potter wasps and barn swallows. Northcutt quickly realized, however, that his conceptual gallery work did not reach common individuals who, confronted with real daily problems, could not afford the luxury of frequenting galleries. He felt the need for a different venue to touch them and resorted to outdoor installations, easily seen and experienced, and good vehicles for his social concerns. He would research a site specific area for his work, become familiar Near-Shore Fish and Flotsam of New York City, mixed media sculptural with its environmental installation with annotated diagram problems (for instance installation and photo by Rod northcutt diseases affecting its trees, gypsy moths, predator insects…), and propose a piece that speaks to its social systems that he explored, compared, and illustrated ecological or social issues. Nature and its elements would in his work using analogs between humans and the thus become proxy for humans and their life. natural world. “My sculptures, drawings, paintings, all speak of human relationships,” he says. “I use animals as surrogates to construct allegorical tales referencing social history, philosophy, labor movements, manufacturing, revolution…” In his installation Arborvention (a composite of arbor and intervention), he placed orthopedic braces around damaged dying trees. He was calling attention to the scarred trees and their condition, but also indirectly to the care needed for vulnerable, diseased, possibly disabled and neglected individuals in society. Rod Northcutt carving photo by scott allison In Near-shore Fish and Flotsam of New York City, an installation he did on the shore of East River in Brooklyn, he made, out of floating garbage collected from the site (Styrofoam, wood, plastic…), model sculptures of the various fish that live in the river. He accompanied his sculptural installation with a didactic display that included, in addition to pictures of the indigenous fish, pictures of the discarded elements and information about their constituent chemicals. The toxic chemicals we throw away became like the new fish of the battered environment. To raise awareness about consumption and recycling, and working collaboratively with Material Exchange, a green/sustainable collective, he built with materials recovered from various Chicago dumpsters, a temporary miniature golf course on which passer-bys played for 2 weeks. In one of his pieces he used bird watching as a metaphor for racial prejudice in selection and categorization, birds sought after being usually the only bright colored ones; and in another one, bird migratory pathways to reflect on Mexican migrants, natural migration patterns, in his mind, all similar and legitimate. “In my art I try to facilitate conversations that challenge habitual, often destructive, ways of thinking and living,” he says. “I want my art to make an enabling and ennobling change in both the artist and the viewer.” In addition to his art, Northcutt uses his teaching to convey his concerns. In the classroom he discusses social and environmental questions, how to research them and express them. He involved his students in developing a material resource data base to understand materials being discarded into the land, differentiating, according to the environmental theory ‘cradle by cradle’, the naturally degraded biological from the technological needing recycling. For the past 3 years he has also taught traditional, non-electric, woodworking skills through a making-based traveling course, Unplugged. He would like to offer the course, free of charge, to kids in various parts of the country, giving them access, opportunity, and ability to become creators, the creative act, according to him, “allowing unfolding and reaching the spiritual.” “With my work, lectures, and teaching, I always challenge problematic systems,” Northcutt says. “I would like my work to improve relationships between people, animals and the earth. I want to get into people’s heads; I try to do it through humor, beautiful craft, an active experience. “ Artists as Activists is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati artists who use art as a vehicle for change. Saad Ghosn is the founder of SOS Art. Ghosn can be reached at saad.ghosn@uc.edu. � 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 2011 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 March 15-31, 2011 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Streetvibes Remembers… Pg 2: Race Relations 101 Pg 3: Race Relations 101 Pg 4: Mark Twain Was Right Pg 5: Chocolate Lockets and Yellow Pillows Pg 6: Coffee Party Sponsors Peace and Rally on Fountain Square Pg 7: Lighthouse Community School Pg 8: Rally at Fountain Square Pg 9: Local Pg 10: Japanese Street Paper Pg 11: Bearcats Better Be Better Pg 12: Ten Years-Not Enough to Get Over Death in Over-the-Rhine Pg 13: Arts & Poetry Pg 14: CMHA’s Housing Choice Voucher Program Opens April 4 Pg 15: Housing Choice Voucher Pg 16: Challenging Problematic Systems to Improve Relationships 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 March 15-31, 2011 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jen Martin Elizabeth Schulenberg Jim Luken Riccardo Taylor Saad Ghosn Catie Dargue Jeni Jenkins Willa Denise Jones Laura Osborne-Coffey James Brown Lee McCoy Dawn Fuller Elisa Hill B. Clifton Burke Jimmie Gipson Elles van Gelder Beth Griffith- Niemann Amiee Willhoite Saad Ghosn Mikki Schaffner Bill Howes Suzanne Chouteau Bill Howes Cedric Cox Sarah Hager Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Amiee Willhoite Autism B. Clifton Burke Bearcats Beth Griffith- Niemann Bill Howes Catie Dargue Cedric Cox Cincinnati CMHA Dawn Fuller Elisa Hill Elizabeth Schulenberg Elles van Gelder Fountain Square James Brown Japanese Jen Martin Jeni Jenkins Jim Luken Jimmie Gipson Laura Osborne-Coffey Lee McCoy Mark Twain Mikki Schaffner Over-the-Rhine protest Race Rally Riccardo Taylor Riots Saad Ghosn Sarah Hager Street Paper Suzanne Chouteau University of Cincinnati Willa Denise Jones https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/b427575ca76493140f2e89f29b69844d.pdf fe68fdc2b9e080318e6b92a7887591e0 PDF Text Text One Ohio Now Street vibeS a p r i l 15, 20 1 1 PG 7 april 15, 2011 Prostitution: Crime or controversial career? 1 PG 11 iSSUe 197 ADVOCATING JUSTICE • BUILDING COMMUNIT Y $1 Health Care For the Homeless program is a Mobile Marvel The Cincinnati Health Network is in charge of the Health Care for the Homeless Program, and the medical van and the Elm Street Clinic are parts of the Health Care for the Homeless Program. The Cincinnati Health Department provides the medical staff, support team, laboratory and pharmaceutical services and other important aspects of the programs. The clinic opened on November 15, 2010. CArLY TAMBOrSkI Contributing Writer O n a cold, brisk afternoon, light snow falls from the sky onto downtown Cincinnati, prompting a steady flow of people to make the walk to the Drop Inn Center on 12th Street. Not only do these people hope to seek shelter from the weather, they know that it’s Wednesday: the medical van will be there today. Every Monday and Wednesday, the McMicken Health Collaborative’s medical van visits the Drop Inn Center at 2 p.m. to offer medical care to residents who can’t afford it themselves, and it doesn’t cost them a dime. When it’s not at the Drop Inn Center, the van also visits shelters, transitional housing and other area locations where the homeless congregate, as sometimes the homeless are reluctant to come to the Elm Street Clinic. On this particular afternoon, Stephanie Blackwell, a medical assistant, walks into the Drop Inn Center and across the open cafeteria to a small room, where she unlocks Med Van. Vinit Murthy, Streetvibes Photographer ­ a door. About 15 homeless people are sitting at tables surrounding the room, waiting patiently to sign up to see the doctor. Some rest their heads in their folded arms on the tables, looking too tired for words, while others energetically look around the room. Sometimes, people may wait for 2-3 hours to see the doctor on the medical van, who sees about 25-30 patients during one visit. Blackwell has worked with the collaborative for about six months, so she’s familiar with the procedures of the care system. “We basically provide medical care to the homeless, today for people that are in the Drop Inn Center.,” Blackwell said. “We can give injections, EKGs -- anything that we do in a doctor’s office we do in here on the van. We can do minor things like IUDs, incision and drainage, staple removals; we can do pap smears here. It’s like primary care for the homeless.” The van also provides pregnancy tests, blood draws, strep screens, urine analyses, blood sugar tests and HBA1c and INR tests. Patients needing radiology, referrals and Med Van. The Mobile Marvel, providing care to those in need Vinit Murthy, Streetvibes Photographer other special tests are referred to University Hospital and given an order signed by a Health Care for the Homeless physician. While Blackwell’s coworker gets the van ready, she uses the small room to triage the patients. She passes around a sign in sheet and light paperwork for the patients, who are required to provide their name, social security number and contact information, if they have any. They are also required to sign a declaration of their homelessness. Blackwell takes their vital signs and asks what prompted the patient to seek help. She assesses the type of care they may need and then individually sends the patients outside to see the doctor on the van. There’s usually one doctor and two medical assistants -- like Blackwell -- present during the van’s operating hours. The vehicle has two exam rooms on either side of it, and in the middle, has a sink, file cabinets, supplies and patient files, truly making it a doctor’s office on wheels. To summarize the nuts and bolts of the operation, the Cincinnati Health Network is in charge of the Health Care for the Homeless Program, and the medical van and the Elm Street Clinic are parts of the Health Care for the Homeless Program. The Cincinnati Health Department provides the medical staff, support team, laboratory and pharmaceutical services and other important aspects of the programs. The clinic opened on November 15, 2010. According to the network’s 2009 data, the Health Care for the Homeless Program helped approximately 7,035 patients, and the van assisted 4,502 of those people. The program sees the types of patients one might expect to see in the underprivileged urban setting: primarily adult males and few children, with 69 percent of patients being males. Children living in poverty in Ohio qualify for other types of coverage that adults do not, which reflects why only about 6 percent of patients were under the age of 19. “The largest group of people we see are African American men, which I think is what you typically see in a shelter as well,” said Jackie Campbell, program manager for the Health Care for the Homeless Program. “Fifty-six percent of patients are African American men and 2 percent are Hispanic/Latino.” Campbell, who has a Master’s in public health, has been the program manager for about a year and a half but has always worked in non-profit healthcare. A van existed in the early 90s, but a revamped one was introduced in 2006. The Cincinnati Health Network purchased the van but leases it to the Cincinnati Health Department. The services offered on the van and in the clinic differ somewhat. The clinic offers dental, behavioral and primary care services, while the van mainly offers primary care. The van works with doctors and medical assistants, but the clinic has doctors, nurses, a nurse manager, a practice manager, a dental team, medical and dental students, volunteers and two mental health counselors, among other staff members. “With the clinic, we’re trying to provide a ‘medical home’ for homeless people instead of going to the ER every time where they’d see a different person,” Campbell said. While the services performed are at no cost to the patient, running the program (the clinic and van) is quite expensive and does require funding from multiple sources. Some support comes from federal funding and the American Recovery Act, as well as donations and grants. Even though the services are no cost to patients if a patient is homeless but has some sort of income, they may be asked to pay a small amount. “The cost of operating the van is fairly expensive,” Campbell said. “We have to pay doctors, pay for equipment, pay for medication. Less than 10 percent of our patients have any form of insurance to pay with.” See Health Care for the Homeless Pg. 4 �Editorial 2 150 The percentage homelessness has increased in Cincinnati in the past 15 years. ‘Health care for the homeless program is a mobile marvel’ Page 1 Every 2 …minutes in the United States that someone is sexually assaulted. ‘Editorial’ Page 2 25 The number of years now local, published author of the book ‘Sworn Not To Betray’battled with the legal system before completely turning his life around with his paroled release in 2005. ‘Sworn Not to Betray’ Page 3 120 The number of members performing with SCPA’s Primary Strings. ‘Building Bridges with Neighbors’ Page 4 1,300 The number of people who attended the 50th Anniversary General Meeting for Amnesty International in San Francisco on March 18th. ‘Shine A Light on Human Rights!’ Page 5 25 The percentage of African Americans nationwide that do not have a government-issued photo ID. ‘An Article from the Free Press: Ohio Republicans pass new Jim Crow bill disenfranchising 900,000 voters’ Page 6 4-5-2011 The date The People’s Empowerment Coalition, GCCH Staff, and volunteers went to the Columbus Statehouse to fight for health care and Ohio Social Programs that are in danger of being cut. ‘One Ohio Now’ Page 7 5 The number of poetry books that Elisa Hill has written. ‘By the Grace of God, A Story of Survival and Strength’ Page 8 1972 The year New York Times columnist Gail Collins founded The Connecticut State News Bureau. ‘Q&A with New York Times columnist Gail Collins’ Page 10 Street vibeS april 15, 2011 A quick production note to the readers: After careful consideration, we have decided to change the production and distribution schedule for Streetvibes to every other Friday instead of the twice-monthly printing on the first and fifteenth. There are many reasons behind this but the one I find most important is that this gives our distributors a solid, standing date and time that they can receive their papers. This is to let you know and of course, this will allow for two extra issues of Streetvibes per year! You will also notice a change in the way Streetvibes looks. This is due to our incredible lay out artist Liz. Elizabeth Schulenberg put together the amazing new changes to the look and feel of the paper. She works tirelessly as a volunteer, in her spare time, for free to literally map out the entire paper. For that, I cannot thank her enough. It is because of her that our paper is taking its next steps to being the best looking street paper in print. Now about this issue: I am really proud of one particular feature we have in this issue, an inspiring story by a local woman named Elisa. I met Elisa Hill a few months ago. She came into my office to ask if I had received her work. “Nope.” I said. “Never saw it.” I had just come in as Editor, and the transition especially right at Christmas was difficult. She explained to me that she wrote poetry and had even put together an autobiographical piece about her life. She went further into detail and asked for my advice and if I would be interested in the story. I expressed my attention and encouraged her to be honest in her writing, as honest as she could despite how hard it may be. Looking at her, I could see a strong woman, a fighter. I saw me. She is beautiful but you can see she has had to kick, climb, and struggle to survive. When we did the March Women’s Herstory Issues, I asked Elisa to write a piece for it. After I got all the stories from our writers and the other features as much as I did not like it, there was just no room for Elisa’s story. I am so pleased to share her story in this issue of Streetvibes. I cried when I read it through the first time. Elisa suffered like so many others silently at the hands of another who assaulted her. Every 2 minutes someone in our country is sexually assaulted.* Here is the math. According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey -- the country’s largest and most reliable crime study -- there were 248,300 sexual assaults in 2007 (the most recent data available). Moreover, 15 out 16 rapists will never spend a day in jail for their crime. I am honored to share a story of hope and bravery with the other women in Elisa’s own words. You can read her story on page 8. Bravery and hope are nothing new to this community of Over the Rhine. This is a community that fights day after day to just live, to survive. The day I write this is April 7th. This afternoon I attended the remembrance of Timothy Thomas at the corner of 13th and Race. The strength this community has to overcome is beyond anything I have ever seen. The people here in this core are stronger than most. 10 years after the Civil Unrest and this community still stands tall despite people and groups that come in trying to take it apart. I wanted to share with you something so beautiful and profound written by our Education Coordinator Jeni Jenkins. These are her thoughts on the Ten Year Remembrance of the Unrest. “When a community is replete with the belief that certain individuals are inherently superior to other individuals and when a belief becomes institutionalized and drives discrimination, hatred and violence, eventually it becomes necessary for the victims to come together, rise up and speak out. Those who have been taught to hate difference must decide to analyze where that hate comes from. They must decide to listen. They must decide to walk in the shoes of difference. If those who speak out are not heard they will rise.” *Statistics courtesy of www.rainn.org Everyone Poops (and pees)! From the Director JoSH Spring Executive Director So it seems to finally be getting warm. For a while it seemed like winter might just continue forever. But after so long to see and even feel a ray of sun is a welcomed gift. Thoughts of spring and summer conjure visions of people. It is in these months that folks emerge from wherever they have been taking winter-refuge and begin to once again interact with one another. As a result, these are months to cherish. As more people come out to enjoy the warmth, parks will begin to become active. It seems that most folks enjoy a nice rest in a neighborhood park or a conversation with a friend on the edge of a park. Perhaps the conversation is about the latest proposals coming from congress or the attempts to stop the proposals. Perhaps the conversation is about the most recent sports game, or a mutual friend down the block. Some people may be talking about things they see eye to eye on or subjects they completely disagree on. However after some time out in the community, everyone is brought together by one common denominator. Eventually, if one spends enough time out, she or he will have to go to the bathroomto take care of the necessities. That’s right, I’m talking about it. Eventually, after enough time out everyone is going to have to pee and/or poop. Relieving oneself is a simple fact of life. If we can agree on nothing else, we can agree on this. The other thing we can agree on is that most people prefer to take care of the necessities with a certain level of privacy. And finally, with these two commonalities behind us, we can probably also agree that most people do not want to step in another person’s necessities or watch another person complete her or his necessities. Over-the-Rhine and the Central Business District are about to become stinky places. This is because our common denominator in Over-the-Rhine has been torn down. 3CDC has torn down the public restroom in Washington Park and despite promises to establish temporary port-o-lets, has now said they will do no such thing. Normally these restrooms would re-open in mid-April after a winter hiatus. What happens when a highly relied upon public restroom is removed with no temporary replacement? Do people stop having the need to evacuate waste from their bodies? Certainly not. Again, everybody poops (and pees). So when a highly used public restroom is removed with no temporary replacement, many people use the bathroom outside. And if you are in an urban setting like Over-the-Rhine and the Central Business District, using the bathroom outside probably does not mean behind a tree or in a grassy field. At best using the bathroom outside means using an See Everyone Poops Pg. 3 Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by people who are or once were homeless, in exchange for a $1 donation, Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Address: 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Phone: 513.421.7803 x 12 Fax 513.421.7813 Email: jenmatrin@cincihomeless.org Website: www.cincihomeless.org Blog: streetvibes.wordpress.com Streetvibes Staff Editor Jen Martin, jenmartin@cincihomeless.org Art Director Elizabeth Schulenberg Contributing Writers Jim Luken, Saad Ghosn, Jeni Jenkins, Willa Denise Jones, Jennifer Martin, Josh Spring, Sheli DeLaney, Lee McCoy, Corey Gibson, B. Clifton Burke, Cleo Wombles, Mayuko Hida, Yushin Toda, Dan Moore, Kelissa Hieber, Sandra Knollman, Brenda Zechmeister, Judge Leslie Isaiah Gaines Photography/Artwork Chris Kromer, Sheli DeLaney, Amiee Willhoite, Rico Green, Saad Ghosn, Corey Gibson, Dan Moore, Brenda Zechmeister, Jimmy Heath The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati through coordination of services, public education, grassroots advocacy and Streetvibes. �Local ­ Street vibeS 3 a p r i l 15, 20 1 1 Sworn Not to Betray ­ Local Cincinnati man Darryl Owens made it through incarceration and addiction to pursue his passion for writing. DArrYL OwENS/TESS SUEThOLz Streetvibes Contributors Darryl Owens. Darryl proudly shows his finished product tess Suetholz I, Darryl Owens, born and raised in the West end Community of Cincinnati, Ohio, am the youngest of eight boys. I’ve lived in almost every neighborhood of the City. At forty nine years of age, I am the proud father of a very beautiful daughter and the grandfather of an equally beautiful grandson. Abandoned by my mother at an early age and raised by a father, whom the State determined to be incapable of supporting our family, I was placed in the home of a family friend. At the age of thirteen, I returned home to live with my family in the Laurel Homes housing project. With a tumultuous life-beginning and an unstable foundation, I was soon forced into a life of petty crime by friends of one of my seven brothers. Over a period of years, I couldn’t seem to escape the life of crime that had become my way of life. It soon became my gateway to a life of drug and alcohol abuse. Eventually, a Thirteenmonth parole became a twenty-five year battle with the judicial system. I was finally a free man and released from parole in 2005. During the 23 years of recidivism, the desire to write became a passion, which soon grew into an obsession. My addictive personality manifested itself in many ways. The irony of it all is that my obsession, help me to overcome another obsession, my crack-cocaine drug addiction. On days when I felt like ending my life, the yearning to commit my thoughts to writing would overrule my thoughts of hopelessness. Despair was counterbalanced by my imbedded thought of not wanting to leave this earth without having done something meaningful with my life and face my God on the Day of Judgment. During my many periods of incarceration, support from family and friends waned. I supported myself by writing letters for my fellow inmates. I was self-inspired by the realization of how creative my mind could be. I became very fascinated and intrigued by how great authors, like Sidney Sheldon, Jackie Collins, Harold Robbins and John Gresham, all of whom were great inspirations, could take a totally fictitious story and make it appear real. This became my quest and how I came to write my first novel, “Sworn Not To Betray”. As the years went by, Cincinnati began to feel less like home. To escape the city that imprisoned me both behind bars and on the streets, I moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, in search of a new life and a home with an address. Homelessness is my new prison. Today I live in a Minneapolis shelter. I long for the day when God will bless me with a place of my own. God has surrounded me “During the 23 years of recidivism, the desire to write became a passion, which soon grew into an obsession. My addictive personality manifested itself in many ways. The irony of it all is that my obsession, help me to overcome another obsession, my crack-cocaine drug addiction.” with beautiful people. I can’t thank or praise him enough for the letting my supportive angels come into my life and aid me in fulfilling my life-long endeavor -to share with everyone the gift that he has bestowed upon me. I pray that everyone who takes the time to read “Sworn Not To Betray” will be completely content at the book’s conclusion. Everyone Poops (and pees)! Continued from Pg. 2 alley-way. But because the alley’s are also being gated off by 3CDC, using the bathroom outside more likely means using the sides of buildings, doorways and the privacy behind parked cars as a restroom. Again, this is not because anyone necessarily wants to use the restroom in these places, but because the accepted option has been torn down without replacement. What will this change mean for our community? Of course it will mean that things will be stinky and less healthy. More importantly what will this change mean on a very basic human level? People will be forced to use the bathroom in degrading ways and will therefore feel disrespected. People will have to watch others using the bathroom in this manner or step through the waste from another person and feel disrespected. In the end everyone will walk away feeling disrespected. Even still the greater problem is that not everyone will simply walk away. This unnecessary change will create tension, arguments and potentially violence in our neighborhoods. Can you imagine people on the sidewalk corner arguing because person one peed on person two’s front stoop and person two saw it happen. Person two says hurtful things because she or he feels disrespected because her or his property has been urinated on and person one feels disrespected at being told they are not accepted anywhere; they don’t even have somewhere to carry out the most necessary task. Now these two folks are fighting and growing to dislike one another and making assumptions about one another despite the fact that neither of them created the actual problemneither of them tore down the public restroom. Now imagine that after this scenario plays out a couple of times, person two calls the police and now the police spend time citing the first person with public indecency. Not only are tax-dollars being wasted on a run of this manner, but there is conflict between the first person and the police. Person one is charged with a crime that she or he must go to court to take care of. Here again at court we have more contention. If the person comes out with a final charge it could be as bad a sex-offense, because yes, one can get a sex-offense charge for going to the bathroom outside. I know to some this scenario may sound extreme. However, when you consider the number of people that use a public restroom like the one in Washington Park and the number of months it needs to be open and the already existing contentions over issues like these, the situations painted above are not extreme. Without temporary public port-o-lets we will without doubt see increased contention, arguing, and less peace, not to mention the expenditure of more tax-dollars to squelch the fighting. The frustrating factor in this situation is that all of this is preventable. 3CDC has been planning the work in Washington Park for years. 3CDC has been told for more than a year that temporary bathrooms will be a necessity. They have even at times said they will follow through in providing temporary bathrooms. Despite all of this, 3CDC currently refuses to simply make up for the necessity that they have removed. Here at the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless we hope that the City of Cincinnati, the Park Board and 3CDC hear from Citizens demanding that they provide temporary bathrooms before we hear arguments between neighbors and see media reports of more police runs to site people for public urination. Why would we create an ill that we have plenty of time to prevent? “Based on two major crimes which take place within six months of each other, on the same exact date, after the first crime is committed. Cincinnati police commissioner Jake Thorn and F.B.I. head Ryan Schaffer have reason to believe a beautiful blond orchestrated the first crime, but that’s all they have is their suspicions until six months later, when the second crime is committed on Tuesday morning February 8th, and a particular individual becomes the victim of the second crime, this event corroborates both Thorn’s and Schaffer’s suspicions, but still they have no actual proof this beautiful blond is the mastermind of both crimes, so to gather the actual physical evidence they need to prove she is the mastermind, Thorn assigns his three lead detectives, to lead the investigation of the second crime, which is just an extension from the ongoing investigation of the first crime, in the middle of the investigation, Thorn learns one of the three detectives, is possibly working with the woman an her small group of friends, trying to keep them informed of what steps state and federal authorities are planning next, to capture those who committed both crimes. This investigation eventually culminates into one of the biggest crime investigations, to ever take place in the state of Ohio. The police are turning up the heat with everything at their disposal, while an anonymous caller is trying to help the suspects stay one step ahead of the law.” Sworn not to be­ tray By Darryl Owens available now: ­ hotbooksale.com, Barnes&Nobel.com, Borders.com, and �Local 4 Street vibeS april 15, 2011 Building Bridges with Neighbors ­ JENI JENkINS Staff Writer O n Thursday March 17, 2011, 5 elementary students from the School of Creative and Performing Arts performed for an active audience at the Drop Inn Center shelter. Music teacher Steve Mason led the students on piano as a group of residents leaned back and listened to the beautiful violins. The students are part of a 120-member group of K-3 violin students in SCPA’s Select Primary Strings. In addition to performing at the Drop Inn Center, students from the same group performed “This particular project is the product of efforts to build a relationship between the Drop Inn Center and SCPA.” for residents of Tender Mercies, another neighboring shelter, earlier in the month. The concerts are part of a larger effort of a local committee determined to build bridges and a solid relationship between SCPA and the Over the Rhine Community as a whole. Since SCPA opened at the new location in August, many people were concerned with its proximity to the Drop Inn Center, Cincinnati’s largest homeless shelter, as well as other social service agencies in the community. Since September, the committee has worked actively with SCPA’s Principal Stanley Flower to initiate educational opportunities as well as service learning and community engagement projects. The members of the committee include invested parents, SCPA alumni, artists and Over the Rhine community members. This particular project is the product of efforts to build a relationship between the Drop Inn Center and SCPA. Joe Wilmers, SCPA social worker and advisor to the committee helped to set up the concerts. Wilmers and the committee also helped to set up educational tours of the Drop Inn Center for staff and faculty of SCPA, an effort that has already changed perceptions. In addition to the concerts and the tours, the committee has helped educate the SCPA community by providing an opportunity for the entire high school to hear from Lauren Lovette, a formerly homeless 20 year old in the Voice of the Homeless Speaker’s Bureau program at the Coaltion for the Homeless. The Speaker’s Bureau is designed to educate students about the realities Health Care For the Homeless program is a Mobile Marvel Continued from Pg. 1 Campbell estimates that the whole program costs about $1.5 million a year just for the medical aspect, for the clinic and van. As Blackwell triages patients, Gregory McIntosh quietly fills out his paperwork. McIntosh has been a resident for three days (WILL CHANGE DEPENDING ON PRINT DATE) and heard about the medical van services from the staff at the Drop Inn Center’s front desk. His hands shake as he holds the pen, spelling out his name, but that’s why he’s here. “I had surgery on my right arm and I wanted to talk to the doctor about my hands swellin’ up and shakin’,” McIntosh said. “When I sleep my arms go numb and stuff, and when I carry stuff or pick up stuff my hands cramp up. My left arm goes numb, too. I had the surgery a long time ago because I had a bone infection. I don’t know what caused it, but for the last 20 or 30 years I’ve been going through this.” The services provided in both the van and the clinic may play a major role in the lives of the homeless who receive their services. Having a good health care center impacts the ability of the homeless to keep jobs and housing. “People who are homeless tend to have a lot of health issues,” Campbell said. “They have no control over their diet. They may over or under eat at times. A lot of them have diabetes. They have injuries and get hypothermia. A fair amount have mental illness or substance abuse problems. We see a lot of cold and flu patients. We also see a lot of people with HIV and hepatitis, and sometimes people with serious cardiac problems.” One of those cold and flu patients is La’Shae Parker, who’s been a resident at the Drop Inn Center since February 8th. Parker walks out of the triage room with a bag of cough drops in hand. Receiving them doesn’t require an examination in the van, but she has been on it before. SCPA Concert. Students take stage leslie Hurst of homelessness and combat harmful stereotypes. Committee member David Rosenthal, director of Prairie Inc., a non-profit arts education organization, is also working with high school students of SCPA creative writing teacher Dr. Joy Fowler, in a photography and writing project called “I usually use the services every time they come, you know, just to get cough drops,” Parker said. “I get cough drops a lot. You get sick in here a lot. I mean I’ve been to the van. I was having back pains and they gave me a script for some muscle relaxers, and then I took it down to the clinic.” The issues of McIntosh and Parker are mainly physical, but not all of the residents hoping to see the doctor suffer from physical pain or the symptoms of cold weather. “Mental health issues are very common among the homeless, and providing behavioral health services is a very important part of our program,” said Campbell. Behavioral health counselors are not present on the van, but it does have a list of phone numbers and other resources available, and guidance is given to patients who express a concern with their mental health. Behavioral health counselors do work at the clinic, which has two mental health counselors. They provide counseling and treatment to those with anxiety and mild to moderate depression. One person who knows just how important that service is Joe Valencik. Valencik was on his way from Arizona to see his brother in Pennsylvania when he stopped at the Drop Inn Center. He’s been a resident there for a few weeks. “I’m here to get my medication. I got a little issue with depression and anxiety, and around here this place can build up so much depression and anxiety, you know what I mean?” Valencik said with a light laugh, as he motioned to the room around him. “It sounds like they provide an awesome service. From what I’ve been told, they will give me an analysis and they will prescribe me what’s needed, and then I can take it down to the clinic. I was told that with the issues I have, I need to see [the mental health counselor], and talk to him, so, especially being this far away from home and having nowhere to go, that’s a lot of anxiety. Today I’m gonna give him my ex-doctor’s number.” The medical van provides common prescription and over-the-counter drugs, but does not prescribe controlled substances. If a patient at the medical van needs a certain prescription filled, the van will provide a script but does not fill it there. Patients need to take the prescription to the Elm Street Clinic, along with a special Cincinnati Health Department form that must be signed by a Health Care for the Homeless medical van physician. According to the Cincinnati Health Network, the homeless population in Cincinnati has increased 150 percent in the past 15 years. New Voices. New Voices gives SCPA students an opportunity to learn and voice their opinions about the community of Over-the-Rhine. Through out the project the students are teaming up with residents of Over the Rhine Community Housing, another SCPA neighbor. Great Books! visit www.cincybooks.com �Autism Awareness Month Street vibeS 5 a p r i l 15, 20 1 1 Shine a Light on human rights! Amnesty International kicked off its 50th Anniversary year with a record breaking crowd at its annual meeting. Held in San Francisco on March 18th through the 20th 2011, a record-breaking crowd of over 1,300 people attended this Annual General Meeting. Over the course of our historic weekend, Amnesty International members, friends and visitors enjoyed the variety of workshops and speakers, which was held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, CA – the same hotel where the delegates gathered for the International Conference which led to the birth of the United Nations, in the late 1940’s. LAUrA OSBOrN-COffEY Contributing Writer Amnesty International USA Group #86 Coordinator T he program was packed with many activities. Friday was a day for the membership teams to meet – which included everything from ‘Human rights educators for social justice,’ to a town hall meeting with Amnesty’s Board of Directors. That evening the opening ceremonies included an inspirational speech from Larry Cox, current Executive Director of Amnesty International. He exhorted conference goers to not only participate during the weekend – but also to commit to continued participation in human rights events over the next year, as Amnesty begins its 50th anniversary year. Special entertainers that evening included music from Saul Hernandez of the Jaguares, who spends much time working on behalf of the women of Atenco, Mexico. Steve Earle – activist, author and musician – was the next guest, and he wowed the crowd with his usual appropriate music. Finally Joan Baez came on stage to share some of her own stories of her activism and of joining forces with Amnesty’s work back in the 1960’s – long before half of the conference goers were born! She told one particularly funny story about herself and another woman, who were trying to smuggle money into a ‘un-named’ prisoner in an ‘un-named’ country. Her friend packed the money into her hosiery, while Joan hid it in a more discreet area. As they were on a bus and trying to get through what passed for custom’s back then, her friend’s hose broke and the money was all over the floor of the bus. The crowd thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Baez’ story and her singing song’s she’s made famous, plus joining with Steve Earle to sing his tunes. Saturday started with a large presentation by many people – including a video message from former President Jimmy Carter, and an introduction to the Conference Goers Pose with Larry Cox Laura Osborne-Coffey is an annual award given to the Amnesty Local or community group who did terrific human rights work in 2010. Workshops which were presented during the weekend included topics such as: A Mother lost every 90 seconds – Maternal Health around the World, Unimpeachable Voices Against the Death Penalty, Hi-Tech Activism, Human Rights Defenders at Risk, Holding Oil Companies Accountable, Caught in the Dragnet: Migrants in America, and Security with Human Rights. I attended a workshop titled: Muzzling the Watchdogs – Journalists and Freedom of “The energy and passion that was brought to the conference was awe-inspiring. The members and friends of Amnesty who attended the 2011 Annual General Meeting walked away with a renewed confidence, and the commitment to carry it forward for the rest of the year with passion and energy for the human rights movement.” day by Larry Cox. The keynote speech was given by Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Salil Shetty, who highlighted the importance of building the movement and recruiting new members to become an even louder voice for human dignity. The leadership awards for Amnesty USA were also presented to local groups and student activists – including our own Cincinnati Group 86! Our group was one of the runner’s up for the Sister Laola Hironaka Award, which Expression under Fire. The speakers in this workshop were Lydia Cacho, Roxana Saberi, and J.S. Tissasanayagam (‘Tissa’). They each made very poignant speeches on their arrest and release, mainly due to Amnesty’s efforts. I was touched, as our Cincinnati group had worked on the case of Tissa, and he has been a feature of a previous article in Street Vibes. Roxana was also a case featured in the March edition of Street Vibes. The height of the weekend occurred at the Saturday afternoon Plenary session. Michael O’Reilly of the Atlanta Amnesty office promised us a ‘very special guest’. This guest was Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, released Prisoner of Conscience from Burma! A call was arranged for her to address the Annual General meeting, and Daw Suu Kyi thanked the conferencegoers for their unceasing efforts on her behalf over the last fifteen years of her house arrest, in Myanmar (Burma). She made a point to ask that we not forget the other 2000 people still in jail in Myanmar today. When O’Reilly asked her “What gave you strength?” her answer was clear, over the thousand mile call: “Because of people like you. Little Actions all add up to a lot.” She also told the gathered activists that “Your biggest challenge is to let people around the world know that they have human rights. I would like to urge everybody to make a change, to get where we want to with security and freedom.” When the room stood to applaud her call, O’Reilly told Daw Suu Kyi – “That’s what a standing ovation sounds like.” The energy and passion that was brought to the conference was aweinspiring. The members and friends of Amnesty who attended the 2011 Annual General Meeting walked away with a renewed confidence, and the commitment to carry it forward for the rest of the year with passion and energy for the human rights movement. An Article from the free Press Ohio republicans pass new Jim Crow bill disenfranchising 900,000 voters ­ The only IDs that will be accepted to vote in Ohio if this bill passes the overwhelming Republican State Senate are a U.S. passport, a U.S. military ID, an Ohio driver’s license, or an Ohio state ID. This is the most restrictive standard in the nation. Dr. BOB fITrAkIS Editor & Publisher of The free Press (freepress.org), which first published this article. March 23, 2011 W hile Ohio public employees’ rights to bargain collectively are under siege, the Ohio Republican Party executed a perfect sleight of hand by disenfranchising nearly 900,000 Ohio voters. In the most vicious and direct attack on voting rights since Bull Connor ran amok in the deep South, Ohio House Republicans passed HB 159 that requires Ohio voters to produce one of four state photo IDs at the polls. The only IDs that will be accepted in Ohio if this bill passes the overwhelming Republican State Senate are a U.S. passport, a U.S. military ID, an Ohio driver’s license, or an Ohio state ID. This is the most restrictive standard in the nation. The Republican Party’s target is obvious. Studies indicate that 25% of African Americans nationwide do not have a government-issued photo ID, 18% of voters over age 65 do not have a photo ID, and 15% of voters with incomes under $35,000 lack the ID as well. Besides going after blacks, the elderly and the poor, the bill also sets its sights on college students. What do these people have in common? They tend to vote Democratic. The Republicans refuse to discuss an amendment that would have accepted a college student ID with a photo from their own state-funded university, including The Ohio State University, one of the nation’s largest institutions of higher education. Usually cautious critics like Dan Tokaji, Professor of Law at Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law, offered dire assessments: “’Disenfranchisement’ isn’t a word to be used lightly. But it is necessary to capture this bill’s purpose and impact. Passage of this bill would restore our state’s unfortunate reputation as our nation’s capital of vote suppression.” See Free Press Pg. 6 �6 interest Street vibeS april 15, 2011 Mark Twain was right: Stories from the 2001 Cincinnati riots and Unrest ­ DAN MOOrE Author and Illustrator M ark Twain Was Right: Stories from the 2001 Cincinnati Riots and Unrest is a soon to be released graphic novel about United States’ first urban uprising in the 21st century. The following excerpts depict events that occurred during the day on Tuesday and Wednesday April 10th and 11th, 2001, just days after the killing of Timothy Thomas. Of all of the 10-year reflections of the civil unrest, one piece that few people have mentioned was the broad involvement from community members in Over-The-Rhine. While the majority of the media focused on property destruction perpetrated by very small groups or community leaders, hundreds and hundreds of people of all ages and races were consistently involved in marching through the community, shoulder-to­ shoulder, demanding justice. It was not uncommon to see people abandon their car on the sidewalk to join a march that they saw marching by, nor uncommon to see eager community members pouring out of the side streets as a march passed. I believe the broad base of the movement made City Hall realize that this was not a movement that could just be stamped out without any political change. This was not a movement that could just be marginalized as a few trouble-makers. This was a movement that represented the very fabric of the community, where some of the poorest members of Cincinnati’s voices were propelled to the forefront. An Article from the free Press ­ Continued From Pg. 5 The Republicans are justifying their assault on the most basic and fundamental right by invoking the myth of “voter fraud.” Not only have academics like Lori Minnite documented in detail the absence of voter fraud in U.S. politics, Tokaji addressed the issue in Ohio: “The only documented case of impersonation I could find in recent Ohio elections involved absentee voting by a mother pretending to be her daughter. This isn’t surprising. The few people who attempt voter impersonation aren’t likely to risk criminal prosecution by showing up at the polling place; they are much more likely to vote by mail. The bill won’t do anything about mail voting fraud.” Ohio Republicans have frequently cried “voter fraud” while at the same time they’ve hired their political allies like Triad, ES&S and Premier voting systems (formerly Diebold) to secretly count Ohio’s vote with proprietary computer hardware and software. The only way to understand House Bill 159 is to acknowledge its historical significance as the new Jim Crow, which is an even more insidious form of apartheid. This new apartheid encompasses African Americans, and also fits into a deliberate attempt by Ohio Republicans to wage class war against the Buckeye State’s most vulnerable citizens. What the Republican Party did first with Senate Bill 5 by attacking the pensions, health care and collective bargaining rights of public employees was to establish the shock doctrine, outlined by Naomi Klein. The Ohio Republicans are using the state’s projected $8 billion debt as an excuse to destroy the political base of the Democratic Party. First they destroy the public unions and now they’re going after those constituencies who are likely to support the progressive programs of the New Deal and Great Society. Another way to look at the recent activity in Ohio is to see how closely it parallels what the CIA calls “economic destabilization” in the Third World. This tactic throws economies into crisis in order to achieve regime change. Since Ohio is one of the nation’s most important swing states, and no Republican has ever won the presidency without winning Ohio, both Senate Bill 5 and House Bill 159 are the obvious opening shots in the Republican presidential campaign. The Republicans are astute students of numbers and demographics. They understand that they can’t beat Barack Obama in 2012 unless they cheat by restricting voting rights. Sadly, the history of Ohio’s Democratic Party is to roll over and allow the Republicans to do whatever despicable racist and undemocratic acts they wish. �State issues Street vibeS a p r i l 15, 20 1 1 7 one ohio now On April 5th, 2011 The People’s Empowerment Coalition, GCCH Staff, and volunteers took a road trip to the Columbus Statehouse for a very important reason… to rally for health care and other important social programs in Ohio that are in danger of being cut. rICCArDO TAYLOr Civil rights Outreach Coordinator A trip to the Capital, I had the pleasure of going to Columbus to address some of the concerns of the people of the great state of Ohio, Tuesday April 5th 2011. Our objective was to meet with some of the representatives to voice the concerns of their constituents. The ride in the Charter bus was pleasant, as the excitement of opportunity gripped us all. A more determined group of people likely could not have been found for this particular venture, and although we knew not what to expect we traveled with confidence in our mission. To get to the heart of the occasion, we broke into small groups each with an appointment with representatives to air our concerns. My group leader Ron was up to the task, as he was armed with the letter of introduction and grievances we were presenting. Meandering through a crowd of several hundred people from all points of the state we found our way to the office of Representative Ron Maag the fact that we did not have the chance to address Mr. Maag personally was not lost on me, it was understood that being a Standing United for Ohioans rights Matthew huff ­ facebook.com/streetvibes cincinnati twitter.com/streetvibesnwes streetvibes.wordpress.com the Statehouse Matthew huff person of his standing, that he had many other important things to do in his job description, so we were interviewed by his aide. With a pleasant smile and direct attention Samantha, (the aide) heard our grievances and noted every detail. The young lady left us with the confidence that everything we presented would be forwarded to her employer and we left with a feeling of accomplishment. Of course the budget cuts were the theme of the day and again, I believe we have started the first phase of voicing the peoples concerns. On to our next stop, we entered the office of Representative Shannon Jones, and being prepared from our first stop we met with the aides of his office. Again the pleasantness of their audience was appreciated and it allowed some ease of tension, when the reality came that we were relying our concern by way word. Of course the aides could not give us definitive answers, but we were assured that our concerns would properly be channeled. All in all, I feel that we made a good impression and again, this I believe was only the beginning of our march to unite a voice for all Ohioans and bring about the fairness in distribution of wealth and equality. �8 Local ­ Street vibeS april 15, 2011 By the Grace of God, A Story of Survival and Strength ­ A true and inspiring story of one Cincinnati woman and her struggle to raise her children despite abuse and fear eliSa Hill Contributing Writer My name is Elisa Hill. I was born and raised in Cincinnati Ohio. I am a mother of three handsome sons, who live with me full time. Christopher is 19, Christian is 17 and Jamar is 13. However, I started out as a young mom giving birth to my first son at age 17. I still had the determination in me to make sure that I graduated high school. So after my son was a few months old, I attended The Cincinnati Job Corps, to receive my GED and to try to master a trade while I was in school. I got my GED when my son was six months old and then received my certification as a Receptionist and a Clerical typist. Two years after my first son I gave birth to my second son, this made things difficult. I had signed up to go to school for my degree in Medical Record Management at Cincinnati State, but ended up quitting school. I had my son in a daycare provided by Hamilton County at the time when he came home one day with bruises on his arm I was told were caused by the daycare provider hitting him with a switch. I had no choice; I removed him from the program and called the police. I filed charges against the woman in question and thankfully she was found guilty and her Child Care Provider license taken away. I tried to continue to work and use other babysitters but it seemed like something would always come up and I did not feel comfortable leaving them. Eventually I had no choice but to stop working just to make sure my children would be safe. Eventually I got a job that allowed me to get my CNA certification so that I could work in nursing home facilities all over. This allowed me to provide for my kids the best I could. After having my third son, I applied to Queen City Vocational School of Nursing LPN Program; I was accepted and began the program in 1998. elisa Hill elisa Hill This was a tough task for me and many other mothers in the program to try to maintain a balance between being mothers, providers for our children as well as nursing students. This made things hard, so hard in fact that I had failed my second term in school, but I did not give up. I audited the remainder of the term, then returned in the new term and continued my nursing education. I graduated in 1999. I received my nursing license in 2000. Then began working as a nurse I had done work in facilities on staff in addition to doing other agency work when I was not on staff just to keep working. Throughout pushing myself through hard times and through the trials and tribulations called life, I was living with a secret that was so embarrassing it made it hard to just get up in the morning and take care of myself, I was truly suffering inside. One day had changed the way I saw myself. One boy’s vicious actions permanently switched my mindset. Many times it made it hard to keep a job because of the depression I suffered, the Elisa hill and sons Christopher, 19 Christian, 17 and Jamar, 13 elisa Hill anxiety that plagued my made it difficult to even get out of my car to go into a job. This secret had been inside me since I was little and it is so hard to think or talk about it. It was just a day, just a normal day. I was out in the neighborhood, hanging out with two of my cousins. When one of my older cousin’s had seen a guy she knew, we decided to ride around with him for a while. Well we ended up at one of his friend’s houses somewhere I had been before or I just could not recognize it at that time. Now I know it was in Skyline Acres. We went into this house down into the basement where these two brothers were hanging out. We sat down them my older cousin got up to go outside with her friend and me and my other cousin stayed in the basement with the other two guys. I was young so I was trying to act mature, talking to one of the guys about music. He asked me if I wanted to go to his room with him and just listen to some music and talk. I said yes. Dumb me. I was not in the room with him a minute before he was barricading us in by blocking the entrance to the room with the door from the closet. In my mind I thought, ‘oh my God no.’ I got a sinking feeling in my stomach so I asked him again if we were just going to listen to some music and chill. He replied, “Yeah, it’s cool…were just going to talk.” He turned on a radio next to his bed, called me over to sit on the bed next to him. I went over to sit next to him then he immediately started trying to kiss my neck. I was trying to pull away I told him I wanted to go back down to the basement. He said he was not going to do anything else; he just wanted to kiss me. I was still pushing him off me, I could tell he was starting to tired of it, he seemed to get mad. I said I wanted to go back down to the basement. He told me that even if I screamed cousin and the rest would not hear me because they were in the basement and the music was loud. He stood up in front of me and started taking his clothes off. I was so scared, I started to cry and say no. He told me either I take my clothes off or he was going to do it for me. Damn, I was so scared I did not know if he would beat me or hurt me so I did what he had said. Then he pulled me over to the bed and lay on top of me. I was crying, panicking inside. I had never had never had sex. I was just a young girl. When he first tried, I pushed at him again. I felt numb with fear. My mind kind of lost its way for a moment I think because I felt like I was in a dream. I heard no music…I did not even feel him on top of me. In my head I was sitting in my mother’s arms with a smile on my face happier than I had ever been before. Then just as quickly, I was back in the room trying to push him away and then there was a knock at his door. Damn it was his father he was in the next room sleeping and heard what was going on. He yelled, ‘God damn girl out of my house now!” He jumped off me. I got up and put on my clothes. He opened the door, the father was standing where I could not see his face but again he instructed his son to get me out of there. I hurried down the steps to the basement where my other cousin was still sitting down and the other guy watching TV. I told her we needed to go. She asked me what happened but I could not even speak. Her friend was driving us away. I started crying hysterically, she was asking me what happened but I just kept crying then I told her I feel like I had peed on myself, that my clothes were soaked. We went into another house so I could use the bathroom; the guy there said we had to be quiet because his mom was home. When I got to the privacy of the bathroom I looked at myself, ‘Oh my God’ I thought. My panties, my pants were full of blood. I started to feel extreme pain. I screamed and cried and her friend told to get me that we had to leave before I woke up his mom. I could not stop crying. Shit, by then everybody was scared. I had to tell her that one of the guys tried to rape me. Everyone was scared; I even got blood on the car seat too. Well we were too afraid to go back to my grandmother’s house where we were staying the weekend. We did not want to get in trouble so we waited outside until one for our friends mothers went to work so we could lie and say that we had been there all night. My friend and my cousin’s ran bath water so I could wash myself and they put my clothes in the washer. I remembered it for a minute and suddenly, I was lost, back in that moment of being in the room with him. I could now feel the pain of him trying to get inside of me but he could not, I was a virgin and biologically it just did not work. All it did was hurt and make me bleed. I believe that if his father would not have said something he may have forcefully raped me. Thank God. Nevertheless, he did enough damage that I will never forget his face. I never pressed charges, I was simply too ashamed. Two years ago, I found out his name, Hank. The bastard. I saw him in a bar and he kept staring at me as if he wanted to talk to me. I figured he did remember me and was scared that I would say something. I felt like he was acting as if he was going to come over and talk to me. Again, I paralyzed by fear. I asked the guy I was seeing what his name was. I explained that he was the guy who tied to rape me when I was younger. I was amazed by his response. He just said that Hank never seemed like that type of guy to him. What type of guy is a rapist? How do we know? I guess unless you are the victim it is hard to say for sure. I know it was not my fault, but there is still a part of me that feels like I should have been smarter, stronger. Like I should not have gone to his room or I should have fought harder. I carried this pain with me every day. I could barley take care of myself; I felt I was not worth it. However, my children were a different story. I always managed to make sure my kids were clean, healthy and happy like kids should be. Even though that is all I would have the strength to do. I was raised a proud black woman. My family would not accept mental illness, they thought you just had to work harder and in time, the depression would fade. I believe they thought, ‘if you just stop making yourself depressed you could be alright. You have a weak mind and you need to be harder, do not let things or people hurt you feelings.’ Being the sensitive person I have always been that was impossible for me. I felt so much hurt, pain, rejection, fear, and disgust for myself that I had no clue what love was for me. I allowed people to hurt me, use me, abuse me, and talk about me like I was less than trash; after all that’s the way I also felt inside. I have had many years of calling the suicide hotline, because I was just so down that I could not see any way that I would survive the night sometimes. I felt I deserved to die. I diluted myself into thinking I could not sufficiently care for my kids. I had two baby fathers who were not helping the way I needed them to. I was just so lost. My children and I had been in three homeless shelters and one battered women’s shelter. I went to the battered women’s shelter because I was so lost that I figured marrying a man who would help me care for a home and my children so that we could live better would help me. That turned out to be one of my greatest nightmares. We were not even married a month before he began to verbally abuse me then he physically me. For me, it just took that one time and I did not go back to him. I left town and went to shelter in Louisville KY. While in the shelter and being in a new city, I felt still so lost and alone that I told my husband that I wanted to work things out maybe get some counseling to work through our problems so that we could keep our marriage together. That lasted a few weeks then I had to have him removed from my home by the police. Not only was he verbally abusing me he was jealous See By the Grace of God Pg. 12 �Street vibeS a p r i l 15, 20 1 1 Local ­ 9 �10 national news Street vibeS april 15, 2011 Q&A with New York Times columnist Gail Collins ­ OrIGINALLY PUBLIShED BY SPArE ChANGE ­ NEwS © www.STrEETNEwSSErVICE.OrG ­ a lot of them having to do with just how you balance work and family, which is a huge issue that I run into all the time wherever I go. And also, often at work things will be complicated; they might feel that the whole place is run by men and that the men don’t quite get them, but it’s not like the men are running around like they did back in the day saying, “Oh, we don’t hire women for this job,” or anything like that. It’s all kind of complicated, and to deal with stuff like that is much harder than to deal with the stuff that we dealt with, which was just so completely out in the open. But I know that young women today are incredibly strong. They don’t generally like the word feminist, but nobody’s ever liked the word feminist. It was popular for only about three seconds in the entire history of the world. So, I always say if they just had another name for it, like Fred or something, it would work out better. Sennott: What are some of the things that you think may have stalled the women’s movement, or may have had a negative impact on it? New York Times columnist Gail Collins: “I’d love to see conservative women who really thought things through in a serious way taking the lead.” Photo: courtesy of Spare Change News Adam Sennott: You’ve had an illustrious career; along with writing four books, you founded the Connecticut State News Bureau in 1972 and have written for the New York Daily News and Newsday - and you were even editor of the New York Times Editorial Section. When did you first discover your passion for writing, and did you ever imagine it would take you where it has? Gail Collins: No, I was in school in the 60’s and I remember very clearly having to talk to somebody one day about what we wanted to do with our lives and somebody said, ‘Oh maybe we can work for the New York Times.’ and we all said, ‘Oh no, mainstream media. Sell out, oh no. We would never do such a thing. ‘ That was a long time ago. So no, I never envisioned it working out like this, but it’s been a great ride. Sennott:When did you first discover your passion for writing? Gail Collins: I did that when I was really young. My mother had always wanted to be a writer and she had to drop out of college and get married and stuff. So it was kind of in the air from the time I was really young. Sennott: So you grew up around writing? Collins: Yeah. If you’re a kid you can just tell what really knocks your parents out. Whenever I did something that involved writing, it was really special for my mother. Sennott: In your book Scorpion Tongues you discussed a rumor that Hillary Clinton had thrown a lamp at her husband, President Bill Clinton, shortly after he was elected. You also wrote that “by passing along the rumor that Hillary had physically attacked Bill Clinton, people were expressing their secret fears that she (and maybe by implication all women) would try and push her husband aside and run things herself.” Though 18 years have passed, do you think America has gotten over its fear? Collins: Yeah, that was written a while ago. To some degree, sure. It was much heavier back then, and that was right when they were first coming into the White House and they were doing the whole thing about “you buy one, you get two,” and people were not used to that. It was a new thing. But I do really think that often, if you’ve got these sort of rumors at large that don’t seem to come from anywhere in particular, that it often has to do with some kind of trauma that people have, a worry that people have. Sennott: Two of your books, America’s Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines, and When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present covers nearly 450 years of women’s history in the United States. Where do you think feminism is now, and what direction is it headed? Gail Collins: Older women always say to me, “younger women don’t appreciate what we went through” and yada yada yada. It’s almost like, “we’ve walked many miles and we weren’t allowed to wear slacks, and we were in the snow, and it was so terrible, and we were suffering.” But I always think that we were very lucky, and that young women today face a much more complicated challenge then we did. I mean, it’s the most wonderful thing in the world to be out on a picket line, or protesting, and not only knowing what you’re doing is right but knowing everybody knows it’s right, including the people you’re protesting and that it’s going to be changed. You really did feel, back then, that the wind was at your back and that this was going to work out, mostly because of the success of the civil rights movement. But young women today, it’s all very complicated. They have all kinds of problems, Collins: Well, I don’t know that anything stalled it. I don’t really think it’s stalled. The biggest problem for women, and I think that it sort of leaps off into everything, is that work/ family thing - and that’s something that doesn’t have a simple solution. The most important thing, if you want a really serious career and a family, is to make sure you’ve got a partner who wants to take half the responsibility, or more. Other than that, it’s not clear how you deal with these things. It’s very complicated, particularly for single mothers. The source of most of the poverty in the United States is women who are trying to raise families all by themselves. Sennott: Do you think the public has a better understanding in this day and age of how difficult it is to be a single mother? Collins: Yeah, they do. The interesting problem is that the response is different from different places. At least when we did the end of welfare and entitlement there was a very clear (it seemed to me at the time) agreement that meant that there was going to be quality childcare available to everybody who needed it who was going to go out and work. That promise really hasn’t been kept. So that’s just a huge, huge problem for working women. Also, there are many people who think that the answer is that you should just tell people not to have sex unless they are married. That doesn’t work. Preventing teenage pregnancy is really important, but there’s a lot of states in which they’re teaching abstinence only sex education, which isn’t helping stuff any. So it’s a very complicated issue. Sennott: In When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present, you tell the stories of women such as Lois Rabinowitz, who in 1960 was thrown out of a New York court room for wearing slacks as she tried to pay her bosses speeding ticket. How did you go about finding these stories, and which one impacted you the most? Collins: Well, Lois was not hard. It was such a huge subject, and when I first started doing the book I was just sort of like, ‘Oh my God, where do I go? Where do I start? What do I do?’ So I just went through the Times in 1960 and looked for every reference to women, and there were surprisingly few actually, but one of them was Lois in her great day being tossed out of motor vehicle court. So her story popped right up the first week I was working on this sort of thing. One of the women that I just really loved was Lorena Weeks. She was this very simple woman in Georgia back in the 60s who had grown up very poor, had always worked, and who was married with children and worked for the phone company and just desperately, desperately wanted to send her kids to college - and was prepared to do anything for that. She wound up, because she applied for a promotion for a job that they said only men could do, she wound up at the end as being sort of the critical, Seminal court case that made it possible for women all over America for the next generation of two, to not be discriminated against in this way. What they used to do was always say, “Oh yeah, that’s open to anybody but you’ve got to be able to lift thirty pounds, otherwise you can’t do it.” And these poor women who had been lifting their babies and stuff forever were all sort of blocked off. Lorena had been lifting a thirty-five pound typewriter every day at her job; they said that didn’t count either. She was in semi-rural Georgia, and nobody thought the suit was a good idea. I think even her family was even embarrassed by the fact that she was out there doing this, and her coworkers hated it. She said one of the ministers in her town preached against it. And she just kept on going because she thought it was the right thing to do. I grew up in a time when we were so supportive of women and we do all these meetings and we say “You go girl” and do the whole thing. These women from the past, who just did it even though nobody thought it was a good idea and they got no support, they just went ahead and did it. They just knock me out, and they’re my favorites by far. Sennott: Were there any stories that you had to take out in the editorial process that you wish could have been told? Collins: I had researchers, and they were mostly college students who went out and interviewed many of the average women that I have in the book. I didn’t want to skew what they were doing so I generally just told them to go and find me a woman who worked in the 1960’s and had children at home or something like that. They would often find their relatives which turned out to be great because I think they were a little bit more open than they might have been if some stranger had come in and talked to them. And that was the hardest part of the book: you can’t put them all in. There were just a trillion of them, and weeding them down was the hardest thing to do. There were amazing, wonderful women who never got in the book at all just because I didn’t have room for all of the stories. Sennott: During your recent speech at Bunker Hill Community College, someone suggested that both America’s Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present could be used as textbooks in colleges. How do you think women are currently portrayed in history books? Collins: Well, actually, my book is used some places. I am thrilled to have people get up and suggest it should be used in more, but it does get around. Right now, it’s a good time for that kind of stuff. Everybody sort of goes out of their way to try and make this telling of America’s story more expansive than it used to be and include more kinds of people, so that’s all great. Sennott: You were the first women to ever be named editor of the New York Times Editorial Section. What was it like to have earned that position and to set a milestone similar many of the other great women you have written about? Collins: The nice thing was that you could just tell when they named me that everybody was happy. They weren’t particularly happy about me as a particular person, but everybody in the building was just really happy that that was going to happen - that there was going to be a woman doing that. You could just kind of feel that. That’s kind of the way the Times is and that’s why I love working here so much. It was really a great adventure. I had never really thought about being an editor on that level, but it was a great time. I was really thrilled to do it. Sennott: Did you expect it at all? Collins: Oh God, no. Sennott: You’ve written columns about both Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton. Though they are both on opposite ends of the political spectrum, what do you think their success says about how far women have come politically? Do you think you will see a female president in your lifetime? Collins: Yeah, and whenever I say that people say, “Well if it’s not going to be Hillary who else could it be?” Which is not really fair. I mean, name me what guy out there who you think is going to be President in the future. We don’t tend to have long running successions that’s going on here. So yeah, I think probably there will be one in my lifetime. As for Sarah Palin, I wrote once during the campaign that she really is a product of the women’s movement. She’s a person who, whatever else you think of her, is not constrained by her gender. I really doubt that there was ever a moment in her life where she thought, “Well I can’t do that because I am a girl.” That’s just not the way she is. So in that sense she really is a product of the women’s movement herself. I wrote that once and Gloria Steinem called me and said, “Okay, I am shooting myself now.” But I still think it’s true. Sennott: Both Palin and Clinton have been able to climb the ladder in their respective parties. What do you think it says about how far each political party has come that they are willing to accept women in leadership positions? Collins: It’s an interesting thing. I think you have to take very seriously the fact that the Republican Party has managed to produce all of these very high-profile female leaders. I find it worrisome that they all seem to be A-hot. It’s very weird that you seem to have all of these very good looking women, I am kind of wondering what the role is for a normal looking women in the Republican Party right now. We’re not seeing quite as many of them. And as far as Sarah Palin is concerned, it’s very troubling for me as a woman who roots for women of both parties that she’s not better prepared. I’d love to see conservative women who really thought things through in a serious way taking the lead. Sennott: In April 12, 2009 the New York Times published an article about street newspapers across the country. As someone who understands the power of written word, how important do you think it is for the homeless and economically disadvantaged to be able to get their opinions and voices out there? Collins: It’s important for everybody to get their voices out there, particularly people who don’t have many kinds of outlets because they are homeless or disadvantaged.  �Street vibeS international news 11 a p r i l 15, 20 1 1 Prostitution: Crime or controversial career? ­ Last September, Ontarian prostitutes Terri-Jean Bedford, Valerie Scott and Amy Lebovich cried out in victory. The judge at the Supreme Court in Ontario declared the criminal code articles that condemn prostitution as unconstitutional. Far from rallying everyone together, Himel’s trial urges Canadians to voice their opinion in the debate on the decriminalization of the oldest job in the world. L’ITINérAIrE (CANADA) 29/03/2010 Translated into English by Bouchra Mojtahid, editing by Amanda fortier. Originally published by L’Itineraire © streetnewsservice.org For a majority of organizations that work with sex workers, this trial is considered a blessing - real progress for the safety of prostitutes. Judge Susan Himel denounced the articles that prohibit the solicitation of prostitution. Making a living from prostitution is under the jurisdiction of brothels. The trial is currently awaiting a final decision by the conservative government. If the law is passed, it will apply to all of Canada.  According to its supporters, this judgment will allow prostitutes to organize themselves against the aggressions they face. While some have supported the decision of the Supreme Court, the “Concertation des Lutes Contre l’Exploitation Sexuelle” (CLES) has voiced its opposition: “we are in favor of the decriminalization of prostitute women, but we don’t think that it’s in their interest to decriminalize pimps” said Diane Matte, a spokeswoman for the organization. Some groups say they must encourage women to speak out and admit that many get involved in prostitutions by choice. However, opponents of decriminalization remain steadfast. According to Diane Matte, the inequality between sexes forces women into prostitution. “In fact, we can talk about choice; it’s like when talking about those women who, despite being beaten by their husbands, want to stay with them anyway. What is important is that regardless of personal choice, society says that men do not have the right to beat women”. However, according to Emilie Laliberté, general coordinator of Stella, prostitutes support the organization. “It’s like assuming that making a living from prostitution means forcing yourself to do so. It’s not true,” argues Mrs Laliberté. It’s difficult to know the numbers of prostitutes working in Quebec, as an indiscriminate number are in Canada without their legal paperwork in order. This makes it difficult to identify those who are suffering from different addictions, or from psychological distress. “The only numbers we have are those we were given by the police when girls were arrested,” says Maria Nengeh, a professor of social work At the University of Quebec a Montreal (UQAM). The data show only a minute image of those who have had problems, and this is not significant”. The two opposing views rely on facts and figures that support their cause and rely on particular experiences that draw out specific conclusions. Within the framework of her research, Maria Nengeh Mensah frequently met with prostitutes. For her, the majority has made conscious decisions. “For instance, they explained that they are better able to manage their time than I am as a professor at University and who is often up late correcting papers,” she said with a laugh. For the professor who is doing her research on prostitution, once decriminalized, it’s these girls who will be able to help other prostitutes who are caught up in vicious circles of addictions. According to Robert Rousseau, director of Rézo, the only organization that supports male city prostitutes, “it’s criminalization and oppression that may lead to drug addiction.” Prostitutes are forced to stay in illegal networks. At one point, we wonder what causes what…” he wonders. He sees in decriminalization an opportunity for the organizations and health sectors to work hand in hand to install a viable and healthy culture in the prostitution field. However, organizations speak with one voice and claim that the current legislation regarding prostitution causes more harm than good. The CLES suggests instead a Swedish example (read “Elsewhere in the world…”), which criminalized customers and pimps and aims to change mentalities with the ultimate goal of stopping prostitution. “Changes made to the criminal code must be accompanied by an awareness regarding the inequalities between men and women and the result that this may bear in the sex industry”, insists Diane Matte, who wants a thorough investigation and who criticizes those who affirm that the oldest job in the world is here to stay. As for the organization Stella, ignoring reports that criminalize prostitution is fine. However, prostitution should not be bound to any particular regulations. This is how the legalization of prostitution in Switzerland works. “The government creates a permit system, but people who do not comply with this find themselves in the black market”, warns Emilie Laliberté. But, Maria Nengeh rather believes in the necessity of adding some rules in the labor code concerning the sex industry. Some restrictions that include, for instance, safety standards or the right to unionize. According to Lucie Lemonde, professor at the department of juridical sciences at UQAM, it’s impossible to decriminalize without supervising. “There is no job in the world which has no regulations! Supervision must be installed, if we want to acknowledge that it’s indeed a job like any other one,” she affirms and further states if it does happen and the Supreme Court rules in favor, each province will create its own legal measures. Sex workers and their supporters protest in front of City hall in celebration of International Sex workers’ rights Day in San francisco, California March 3, 2008 Photo: rEUTErS/kimberly white For those who support decriminalization, it’s still far from reach. “I have always thought that decriminalization issue is a dream, especially now with our conservative government”, says Maria Nengeh Mensah. Lucie Lemonde also sees that the government has a tendency to make legislations on moral issues. “The Harper government uses the criminal law to promote moral purposes, she said. This is juridical populism.” Elsewhere in the world • Switzerland legalized prostitution in 1992, and though prostitutes must hold permits and pay taxes, there is still a black market and there are sex workers coming from abroad to work in the Swiss brothels. - Sweden prosecutes hundred of clients per year; pimps can also be tried. The country has succeeded to reduce the number of prostitutes without criminalizing them. It has therefore been blamed for transferring the problem to its neighbors who have, on average, three times as many sex workers as Sweden. The Swedish example does not acknowledge the fact that a man or woman has the choice to make a living out of prostitution. • New Zealand decriminalized prostitution in 1991. It is the only country to have done so. Authorities have not seen any increase of the number of prostitutes. �interest 12 Street vibeS april 15, 2011 Meet Up ­ A look at the life of a proud Streetvibes Distributor JIM LUkEN Contributing Writer M eet Ronnie Phillips. Age 37. And proud to be a Streetvibes distributor. Ronnie is also very proud and happy to be living in his own apartment in Westwood, since February. Before that, he lived for a year and a half at the Drop Inn Center, as part of its “Step Up” dorm program, working with staff and social workers to prepare him for being on the “outside” once again. In spite of the difficult turn his life had taken, Ronnie Phillips looked at it positively, “When I realized I was going to homeless,” he says, “I knew it was gonna be good.” He seems very clear on this. “You gotta be strong to work in the Drop Inn Center. I used my experience as a homeless man to make me stronger.” He loves his new apartment, and the independence it provides. “My first memory of being in my own apartment was of not being able to sleep. It was so quiet, compared to the Drop. Now I have my own radio and can listen to my own music.” When he wants to watch TV, he goes to visit his mother. For a time the apartment will be provided for him as a transitional home. For now, he gets by on food stamps and on the money he makes selling everyone’s favorite Cincinnati newspaper. “Last week,” Ronnie says, almost excitedly, “I made thirty dollars.” Phillips grew up in Millville, the only child of single mother. He describes himself as bi-racial. He can see that growing up without brothers and sisters may not have been always been the best thing for him. “I was a spoiled brat,” he says, “but I got over that as soon as I got not respecting me.” The responsible job brought Phillips various benefits. He was able to live in his own apartment, pay his bills, and even keep a bank account. But in 2006, Ronnie got fired for, as he describes, “Something Ronnie didn’t do.” One day, some money was missing from the shift receipts. It took three weeks for the boss to determine who was responsible. But Phillips had already been let go. “Phillips remembers his work history as well as his various living situations with incredible accuracy, recalling to the month, and sometimes to the day, when he moved from one apartment to another, or lost a job only to find another.” my first job. “ That job came while he was a student at Western Hills High School. He worked as a janitor’s assistant, then, in his senior year found work doing maintenance with Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing. He graduated from West High in 1993, with a B average, on the honor role. He also received an American Citizenship Award. Ronnie had a number of entry level jobs until, he says, he began working for Taco Bell. His goal was to become a shift manager. His friends were dubious. At times Ronnie talks of himself in the third person. “There were some doubters. They thought Ronnie be too nice a guy. But he became a certified shift manager.” Then he adds. “I proved them wrong. Sometimes I had to send people home for Instead of looking immediately for work, Ronnie lived for a year on his savings. “I was lucky,” he says. I had one thousand, two hundred, and forty-six dollars in my bank account.” But that was a good thing and a bad thing. “I got lazy,” he says, “I didn’t look for as many jobs as I should have.” Phillips remembers his work history as well as his various living situations with incredible accuracy, recalling to the month, and sometimes to the day, when he moved from one apartment to another, or lost a job only to find another. He especially remembers the three times he lived in the Evanston Neighborhood. In Phillips’s estimation, Evanston seems to come as close to hell as he ever wants to be. “Ronnie was an individual who was known to work hard. He makes some mistakes. He would not be able to make it in Evanston.” The final time he “stayed” in Evanston almost did him in. One day in 2008, he got into an argument with his landlord. “I had a bad day,” he says. “I guess I took it out on her.” She called the police, who wound up tazing him the back. He went to the hospital, but no charges were filed. “The cops said it was best I get out of Evanston.” That’s when he knew he needed help and placed himself in the competent hands at the Drop Inn Center. Life on the streets is tough. He recalls all the fights that happened around him while he stayed at the Drop and at other times in his life. Fir the most part, he stayed away from them. “I always remember, a real man will walk away from a fight. If you don’t, you suffer the consequences.” Phillips immediate plan is to find part time evening work, while he continues to distribute Streetvibes. At some point, he hopes to find a full-time job and put himself back into the workplace. After that? “Eventually I’d like to settle down with the right girl. If she was the marrying type, I’d settle down with her.” In the meantime, he says, “I’m just thankful I got my own apartment. And I appreciate doing Streetvibes.” And there’s one more thing, Ronnie Phillips says, shaking his head, “I got something I call peace.” By the Grace of God ­ Continued from Pg. 8 and did not trust me at all. Even though I never gave him reason not to trust me. After we separated, I came back to Cincinnati, in less than a year and tried to work and care for my children. By 2002, I was in the second shelter because my employer just up closed down and our work checks bounced. Then when I went to pick up my first check of the New Year in “03”, the job had closed its doors and none of the employees were paid for the work we did over Christmas and new years. We had nothing. I could not believe this I had enough troubles on my own trying to make it month to month. The way this economy had been, forced my employer to shut their doors and not pay its employees. I had no money, no way to even buy food. I was beside myself in agony and fear. I was so angry that I put all my effort into a job and they treated me this way. I called Channel Nine Newscaster Brian Patrick and told him what happened with my job. He immediately came to talk to me and helped me with my situation. He got my story out and volunteers called into the news station saying they wanted to help my children and me. I am so grateful to Brian Patrick for that help. He also prayed with me in my house for my children and me to make it through that tough time. I remember saying to him that I needed to get out of Cincinnati. I had no help from family or my children’s fathers. I still had not gotten the help I needed for my severe depression and anxiety. Needless to say I had put my children through a lot in there short lives. Despite the help we received, it just was not enough, back to the homeless shelter I went for the third time. This time in Lexington, because again at that time that was the only way I could keep my kids and me together. There was not a shelter in Cincinnati at that time that would take my older sons, just my baby and me. I had tried to stay with family but it never seemed to work out long enough for me to get on my feet and get going again. My only option was the homeless shelter. I stayed in the shelter in Lexington two times. Then back to Cincinnati, again. I had to come back because while in the shelter I had problems with my blood pressure and I was so tired and sick that I could not see myself even surviving much longer. I was scared that after all those times of feeling I should die and wanting to die. Shit now I though it’s not my choice now I just may die. I was actually calling both of my children’s fathers to see who would keep all my children together if I would pass away. It was crazy…I was preparing to die. Well God sure did show me that I had no clue what he actually had in store for my life. Now I was about to see. I came back to Cincinnati in 2005, I worked until March then I had lost my job and my depression was at and all time high. I needed help. After talking to a suicide hotline worker one night, she told me that I needed to get some help for myself. Finally, I saw no way out and agreed. She referred me to Mental Health Access Point in Cincinnati where they evaluated me and set me up with a case manager and Psychiatrist. This was what I needed to start to understand what happened to me. It was what opened my eyes to see that it was not my fault and I am worthy of life and all its blessings. Since my therapy, counseling, and case management I have been maintaining a better life for my children and me. It has been tough not being able to work but I understand that if I don’t take care of my myself I may not always be there for my children. Now we are stable and I have been writing poetry for a few years. It has been my saving grace, helping me get through these tough years. I thank God that when I first wanted to take my life as a young girl at 14 that He sent me an angel to save my life. While standing in the bathroom I was about to cut my wrist I heard a voice say. “Elisa your story has not yet been written.” I swear this voice showed me my own funeral and said, “They will only cry for you for only one day. Then you will never be spoken of again. If you would just choose to live, God will bless you. You just need to believe in Him.” Therefore, I did choose to live and believe that God had a greater purpose for me. However, I still struggled with my depression and not truly feeling worthy of life. Somehow, I am still here by the grace of God. I have been sexually assaulted, abused, had nine bladder surgeries, a reconstructive surgery to put my bladder back in the correct place, a lump removed from my breast (non cancerous, thank God), I have high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, and recently lost my sight in my right eye due to a blood clot. I tell you these things not for pity; I share this because I still refuse to give up. I believe that God has a special plan for my life and my story will be a great one. I had an ex once tell me that my many health problems and emotional troubles were too much for him to deal with. Well I say to him, “That’s bullshit!” We as woman are supposed to stand by our men through whatever the struggles and men are only supposed to stand with a woman if it is what he can bare. Ladies we are not valued as the precious people that we are. I may not have found one man who could stand with me, but God sent me three young men who loved me through the struggles, hurt, pain, being poor and never once did they decide it was too much. They could have done what so many other young black men do… they could have just walked away and sought out what they could on the streets. God gave me these children to show me there is a man who will love me, care for me and be with me through whatever and He is my Father God! Now five poetry books later, two certifications for my first two books as an Author of poetry in the Library of Congress, and a stable home my children I am doing well. So are my kids, they are good students and good people. Yes! I could complain that life has dealt me a very rough hand to play. However, I know now that it was to build me up to be what God had planned for me all along. His precious glory right here on earth. So what would I say to the next young girl who maybe going through some of the same challenges in life today? “Never give up!” You are worthy to live through your struggle and be the blessing God has made you to be. I know it may seem that no one else could ever understand your pain, but I do. Just know that like me, God loves you too. I had to take life minute by minute, which turned in to day after day then year after year and I am still here today. Do for your life what you need to, to survive. Do not try to live your life through another person’s eyes. My name is Elisa and I truly love me. I hope you find it your on heart to love yourself too. �Street vibeS Story & Poetry Corner ­ a p r i l 15, 20 1 1 Believe It Intoxication Willa DeniSe JoneS Contributing writer and Streetvibes Distributor Willa DeniSe JoneS Contributing writer and Streetvibes Distributor Believe it when you see someone bundle up sleeping in the street Believe it when you see someone looking in the garbage for food to eat Believe it because all of these things are real and none are made up Believe that there are many men, women and children who are down on their luck Believe that with the economy all twisted and headed straight to hell Believe that there are many who just give up, commit suicide or take leave for a jail cell Believe that to the homeless, jail with three hot meals, cell buddies for friends and a cot Believe to some may mean nothing but to the homeless means one hell of a lot Believe with faith all things are possible for all including you and me Believe in God, have faith, and pray then change will come all you have to do is believe I’m Just a Man! eliSa Hill Contributing Writer Can you hear me moaning with a drunk and cowardly call? Can you see me hunched down vomiting, my demeanor so small? Do you know me by the tears and redness in my eyes? The alcohol controls me, can’t you see the fear and sadness in my eyes. I’m deeply in debt with misery and pain. I am severely unkept with chaos in my brain. I try to sustain myself with a drink in the day. I try to sustain myself with a drink in the noon. I try to sustain myself with a drink in the night. Unsobering for myself, I know that I have no life. Pretty as a picture, some days you could capture my smile. I portray silly like a child, in my drunken stupor, for I live in denial. Thought it may be blurred, I can see that I have no real future. My true and sobering fact is that my life is in ruins. I fill a lonely tomb with mountains of my destructive past and a broken soul brewing. Yes! I keep these memories hostage as a captor of my own damn fear. I do the alcohols bidding without a care in the world. See, I am the one sitting with hell on one hand and mental instability on the other. I am your neighbor, brother, father and on a good day your friend. I am the coward living endlessly, while the real man wants to live. Yes! Yes! I have prostituted your love and care for my life. Hell, if you’re not paying then get out of my site. To many times I have given into compassion and loves will. To be the one left homeless and ash end by hatred and abuses fill. It has left me burnt in my soul and taunted in my ear. My only peace is drowned now in good Ole’ beer. Here now is where I float above the torture and sail above the rains. You may call me a drunken bum. Well I call myself a man. You should not judge me with and outside view. Inside I am tortured and living in a tomb, filled with abuse, hatred, chaos and fear. Of loneliness, hurt and needing my Father’s love, oh how I have cried so many tears. So, though you view me by the horror in my eyes. You still need to have love for me with the faith of the most high. No matter what I am still, just a man, don’t you see the tears in my eyes. Intoxication is being drunk if only for a little while Intoxication can become a bad habit with a crooked smile Being high and drunk all alone really makes no sense Being homeless, a panhandler and a drunk can be a bad defense The fear of not knowing what your next move can possibly be Can be intoxicating without a drink, please believe me The fear of failure constantly day in and day out Can be a eye opener to a drunk to make a change, no doubt Once you realize that there is another way to live everyday To work, maintain your money and eventually find a place to stay Things start to fall in order for you surely but slowly As you start to make a change in your life ever so boldly Intoxicating thoughts will no longer be able to hold you back Understanding that with the help of God you can get your life on track So don’t stay intoxicated by the fears of the world today Go to church, read the bible and get on your knees and pray! Now I Give to Thee! eliSa Hill Contributing Writer Damn, I have a space in my throat that just won’t let me scream. I try to weep to keep myself from going fucking insane. Most times I don’t even know what is going on in everybody else’s life. Yet and still, I am always treated as the outcast, now pass the pipe. I’ve tried to give of myself in and unselfish way. Only to be torn down and treated like less than a damn slave. It makes you lose your self esteem. That anything that you could be in this life, is nothing in there site. I have tried hoping that there is one damn person who feels me worthy to be alive. Only to look the fuck around and see that there is no one sitting by my side. Cry tears, for what? They only make it worse, now I feel that I am forever cursed. I feel like I have no love, no life, no hope and no real plight. God please save me! What am I doing here just filling in for empty space. Even he regrets my presence because; I just seem to get in his way. How can this be when I am especially made? I am a blessing that you my God gave to this life! I am a bright star burning throughout the verses. I flow demolishing misconceptions and misunderstood purposes. Lord, I do have a great will to live and I know what it takes to survive. I won’t let them to continue to do this to me. I will believe in myself and know that soon, you my father, will provide. Then like a surprise snow ball to the side of my face. I hear my God say, “now I give to thee!” You and I Willa DeniSe JoneS Contributing writer and Streetvibes Distributor You and I must make a pact To be mindful of how we act Toward each other no matter what And not hold hatred down in our gut We must understand that everyone is unique And know that a change is what everyone seeks With time and patience, with help from up above We can conquer the hatred we feel and replace it with God’s love For only with God’s guidance and his so many blessings Will we understand living life together without ever guessing? We’ll finally know what it is to live on this planet together To love each other for who we are and not what we are for now and forever!!! 13 �14 the Signing of Senate bill 5 What it really means for You COrEY GIBSON Contributing Writer Signed Into Law While signing the bill into law at the statehouse early this month Gov. John Kasich said “This bill ... does not cut anybody’s salary ... does not take away anybody’s pension ... does not destroy anybody’s health care. And anybody who’s been out there saying that is just factually wrong.” Yet it seems most people disagree with Kasich. Many people know the bill has been signed into law, a law that takes place immediately, yet hardly have any clear indication of what it means for this particular bill to be signed into law. As people already know, Senate Bill 5 has a major impact on unions, specifically taking away their rights to collective bargaining, their right to strike and many other bargaining rights unions had in the past. However, many people do not know about the Street vibeS april 15, 2011 many other implications the bill will have. Although the bill will eliminate the ability of unions to negotiate wages, it will still allow them the right to negotiate health care, sick time and pension benefits. The bill will also eliminate automatic pay increases. Teachers For teachers Senate Bill 5 may take away tenure for many teachers. Instead of taking into account the length of teacher’s service at a school, administrators could point out one flaw in the teachers past and have them fired on the spot. The bill will also affect the way teachers receive a raise. Instead of the old way of giving a teacher a raise based on the degree he or she has, Senate Bill 5 will force teachers to gain raises based on merit and performance, although Senate Bill 5 gives no methodology of how to determine either. In other words, one teacher may get a significant raise because he or she received a reward, while another teacher, in another district, who won the same reward, could receive no raise at all. Possibly the worst repercussion for the teachers is the dismantling of the cap size on classrooms. Senate Bill 5 will do away with the classroom cap of 25 students to every one teacher. Firefighters and Police Officers As for firefighters and police officers, Senate Bill 5 may take away much of the budget they have for training, buying new equipment and other necessities that are paid for partially through unions. Senate Bill 5 will mean fewer police officers, at less pay, with fewer benefits, according to the Marietta Times. Police and firefighters will not be able to bargain with cities over the number of people required to be on duty at one time. Senate Bill 5 will eliminate their ability to negotiate the number of police or firefighters allowed in police cars and fire trucks. Steve Loomis, president of Cleveland’s local police union, told CBS News “one of the biggest worries is one-man patrol cars.” As of now, Cleveland police are required to have more than one officer in the car in certain neighborhoods. However, state lawmakers did make a last-minute change in the bill that allowed police and fire fighters to bargain for vests, shields and other safety gear, according to CBS News. It could be Council’s Decision Senate Bill 5 will also, essentially give city councils in Ohio more power over police and firefighters. The bill will allow city council to make the final decisions on any bargaining that is still allowed by the bill. As of now, if there is a stalemate between police and firefighters and a city, an arbitrator and a fact finder would be hired to investigate the most reasonable way for the issue to be dealt with. If Senate Bill 5 is not repealed, the issue is handed over to city council to decide. Opponents of Senate Bill 5 are trying to get the bill repealed and put on the November ballot for voting. They need to collect over 230,000 signatures in over half the counties in Ohio to have the bill put on the ballot. For a full review of the bill, please go to http://www. legislature.state.oh.us/BillText129/129_SB_5_EN_N Street papers battle against illegal sales Over the bitter cold Christmas and New Year period, all official Hus Forbi vendors have also been equipped with brand new and easily recognizable vendor uniforms with Hus Forbi’s logo in yellow on the jackets as well as trousers. Street papers are a winning formula and many want a share of it. Problems with fake vendor IDs and even organized crime have been reported, but street papers are fighting back. A new, hard line approach is proving successful in Denmark. In conjunction with the vendor ID card system and the introduction of the new uniforms, Hus Forbi has tightened the rules for homeless shelters who distributing the paper across the country. Mass sales are no longer allowed, and a maximum of 50 papers per vendor per day has been imposed. Staff at the shelters have been instructed to carefully check vendor badges and only distribute copies to vendors with an official badge. “We will be very strict on imposing the rules”, says Skou. “If distributors do not follow them at all times, we will stop working with them immediately and shut down the distribution point.” Vendors of the street paper have applauded the hard line approach. Martin Mogensen, vendor representative at Hus Forbi, says: “If we do not clamp down on organized illegal sales now, I fear that it will spiral out of control. I fully welcome the measures taken, like the new IDs, new uniforms and the tougher rules for distributors. It is crucial to eliminate illegal sales for the benefit of the legal vendors, both Danish and foreigners.” hUS fOrBI (DENMArk) ­ Translated into English by Jesper Bach ­ Originally published by hus forbi © www. ­ streetnewsservice.org ­ At the start of this year, Danish street paper Hus Forbi introduced new, more foolproof vendor identification badges. At the same time, the organization has tightened its existing rules for selling and distributing the street paper. It is an effort to crack down on the illegal sales of the street paper. Ole Skou, board chairman of Hus Forbi, says: “We have encountered problems with illegal vendors, who amongst other things use fake vendor ID badges to sell Hus Forbi. We discovered that these vendors get hold of the paper through vendors with legal IDs, who -contrary to the rules- buy the paper for redistribution. Other vendors managed to get magazines from a distribution point without a valid ID.” Organized crime Unfortunately, the Danish street paper has also Strict rules Vendors of Danish street paper Hus Forbi showing off their new uniforms. Source: forbi/Simon Ankjaergaard discovered a more organized form of illegal sales. Skou explains: “We have discovered a network of ‘middle men’, who -on a regular basis- bring people from poorer European countries to Denmark. Upon arrival, they provide them with ready-made fake street paper vendor ID cards. They even give them a list of good areas and pitches to sell the magazine.” Skou is appalled by the way in which the ‘middle men’ take advantage of the vulnerable position of the people involved. “As EU citizens, the targeted individuals can stay in Denmark for three months, after which the middle men organize them transport home. These people arrive home just as poor as they left. They become the victims of organized crime, which we neither can nor will support.” As a result, the board of Hus Forbi has decided to change all vendor IDs to new ones, which are harder to copy. Skou emphasizes that there are also many foreign vendors who legally sell the street paper. “All foreign vendors in the possession of a legal vendor ID card also have had their ID exchanged and can of course perfectly legally continue to sell Hus Forbi”, he states. Vendors of Danish street paper hus forbi showing off their new uniforms. Source: forbi/Simon Ankjaergaard �15 Street vibeS a p r i l 15, 20 1 1 Summer Internship Program The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) is currently accepting applications for 5 part-time unpaid summer interns. Each intern will create an individual work plan and be assigned a specific project or provide general support for a particular program during the specified time period. ABOUT: GCCH located in Over-the-Rhine is a non-profit social action agency established in 1984 with the solitary mission of eradicating homelessness. GCCH works towards this mission by coordinating services, educating the public, grassroots organizing and advocacy and publishing and distributing the Streetvibes newspaper. Homeless and formerly homeless individuals are incorporated into all programs and initiatives at GCCH. PrOGrAM DATES: Summer internships range from a 2-3 month commitment which is negotiated on an individual level and flexible between May and September (dependent on university summer term). TIME COMMITMENT: Flexible hours, approx. 15-20 hours per week; must be able to attend weekly staff meetings. Summer interns typically attend school and/or work part-time jobs as long as they do not interfere with the internship commitment. INTErNShIPS AVAILABLE: Development Intern- reports directly to the Director of Development and Operations Education & Outreach Intern- reports directly to the Director of Education & Outreach Statistics Intern- reports directly to the Director of Education & Outreach Information Technology Intern- reports directly to the Executive Director Journalism, Media & Public Relations Intern- reports directly to the Editor of Streetvibes GENErAL QUALIfICATIONS: Hard working and have the ability to work independently with limited supervision. Creative and willing to bring fresh ideas to the table and a positive attitude. Have a minimum of one year of undergraduate work completed Must be able to use a computer Good written and oral communication skills and diligence about checking work for spelling and grammar mistakes Familiarity with Microsoft Office including Excel and Word Interest in learning about local area nonprofit agencies A commitment to serving those in poverty Comfortable working with and speaking to homeless individuals Good interpersonal skills and an ability to communicate with a wide range of individuals Dependable TO APPLY: If interested please send a cover letter and resume with desired internship title (e.g. Development Intern) in the subject line to hYPErLINk “mailto:gcch. intern@gmail.com” gcch.intern@gmail.com by noon on April 22nd. Interviews will be held in early May. Direct any questions to the email listed above. INTErNShIP DESCrIPTIONS: Development Intern: Intern currently studying or interested in: Non-profit business development, administration, fundraising, marketing, individual giving, grant writing and pursuing donors. Intern will assist and report to the Director of Development and Operations. Key tasks: Maintain and improve development plan Coordinate and acquire In-kind donations Research and apply for grants Lead an individual giving campaign Work on Summer fundraiser as well as prepare for Winter Annual Dinner Communicate with donors via phone and letters Attend development committee meetings Streamline fundraising database Other tasks TBD. Education & Outreach Intern: Intern currently studying or interested in: education (teaching and curriculum development), sociology, social justice, social work, program coordination & development, service learning and working with youth. Intern will assist and report to the Director of Education and Outreach. Key tasks: Main project: develop a plan for the implementation of the 2011 City-Wide Shantytown program during Homeless Awareness Month. Assist with improvements to the educational and service outreach plan Research and update list of schools and social service agencies throughout the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area Assist with the facilitation of educational and service learning activities as needed Assist as a receptionist as needed Other tasks TBD. Statistics Intern: Intern currently studying or interested in: research, statistical analysis, math, social science research, computer science, engineering or related field. Intern will assist and report to the Director of Education and Outreach. Key tasks: Main project: Work independently to assess GCCH’s programs; compile, review and analyze data; develop a plan for tracking data and analyzing outcomes; track and analyze outcomes for a specified time period and create a final report. Gather, collect, record, track and verify data and information. Uses software to compile and generate reports, statistics, timelines, tables, graphs, correspondence and presentations. Assist with the development of a database for tracking and analyzing program data. Assist with compiling updated statistical data related to homelessness and poverty with a focus on Ohio and links to national statistics. Other tasks TBD. Information Technology Intern: Intern currently studying or interested in: information technology, networking, managing software and hardware, computer science or related field. Intern will assist and report to the Executive Director. Key tasks: Main project: Work independently to assess GCCH’s stock of computers, swipe old computers of data and recycle; assess and update computer software on computers in use; determine networking capabilities and develop and implement a plan to put all computer data on a server. Other duties related to computer management including: assessing security risks and updating anti-virus software. Assist with the development of a database for tracking and analyzing program data. Assist with the launch of GCCH’s new website. Other tasks TBD. Journalism, Media & Public Relations Intern: Intern currently studying or interested in: Journalism, public relations, social networking, advertising, marketing or related field. Intern will assist and report to the Editor of Streetvibes. Key tasks: Main project: Work independently to upload articles and pictures from old Streetvibes editions to the Streetvibes online blog as well as GCCH’s website. Develop a viable newspaper recycling plan. Build up readership and support of Streetvibes and GCCH’s via social networking sites. Assist with reporting, photojournalism, production, copy editing and advertising as needed. Other tasks TBD. �16 Street vibeS april 15, 2011 women helping women ­ Barbara Houghton’s photographs are about her as a woman and about women in general. “ I am a person alive who looks at and questions our humanity,” says Barbara Houghton. “I do not see the people in my photographs as other but as people who could be me. In the beginning all my work was about me, who I was and my place in the world. Later, it naturally expanded into addressing womanhood and women’s role in society.” By Saad GhoSn ContriButinG Writer Houghton, an artist photographer and art professor at Northern Kentucky University (NKU), grew up in Chicago, the 2nd child in a family of 12, many with strong artistic talents. Always creative herself, drawing and painting as a kid, and enrolled in all art classes in her high school, she was destined to become a commercial artist. In undergrad at the University of Illinois, she When she 1st got to NKU she did a series of photographs on the unknown, Terra Incognita, examining boundaries and where she fit in the world, using images of navigation instruments as metaphors. It was followed by Journey, a combination of photographs and objects about one’s personal experiences, revelations, interactions, relationships in life. Dancing with Galileo, a multimedia installation including modified photographs, objects, text, music, dance, video, was about her affinity and love for a brilliant scientist, a man who like her was free-spirited, unconventional, and willing to fight for the truth. Galileo, raised Catholic, did not hesitate to battle the ignorance and hypocrisy of the church, supporting on the other hand its principled spiritual teachings. To document and create her works, Houghton traveled throughout Italy, visiting places where Galileo lived, his house, the institutions where he made his discoveries and taught, the convent where resided his beloved daughter. She took many photographs that she later manipulated; adding to them researched elements from books, text and images, composing the all like a montage. When confronted with political upheaval and violence, Houghton witnessed and reflected through her photographs. In her Popular Culture series she used images about the war in Iraq and the Abu Ghraib case, popular images she noticed or reacted to wandering the streets, thus using her camera to speak not only for herself, but also for the common individual, stating what she felt both would condone or condemn. In Learning the Sport/ Unsportsmanlike Conduct, she commented Barbara houghton in her studio holding one of her photographs of an Indian woman. bill Howes networks to connect local and global markets, social security networks for maternity needs, health care and life insurance. Houghton wanted to travel to India to experience first hand their work, meet the women members and document in her photographs their various supportive activities. After seeing the movie Water by director Deepa Mehta, she had also learned about the abused situation of widows in India, often chased from their husband’s house after his death, forced into poverty and left begging on the streets. Researching the matter, she came across the work of Dr V. Mohini Giri, a social activist and leader in the Indian women’s movement; her organization Guild of Service which helps the displaced widows; and the new shelter Ma Dham she had built in Vrindavan to lodge, feed, train the destitute widows, and help them lead a healthy dignified life. Houghton contacted Dr Giri and headed to India, traveling many places, photographing women: mothers, wives, workers, widows… depicting their condition, yet their beauty, their potential power. Her photographs gave birth to her series Changing India, One Woman at a Time, which she exhibited in 2010 at NKU. Widows of Ma Dham, a photo from the series, represents widows rejoicing, singing and swaying at the news that they will be finally receiving their government’s pension, now that they had a home and not considered homeless anymore. “I wanted to photograph women helping women, and empower them in the process,” says Houghton. “India was a good place as women there are often ignored. But this was also true of America where women are frequently valued mostly based on their looks. As a middle age woman, I recognize myself the feeling; when I leave my hair grey, I become almost invisible…” widows of Ma Dham barbara Houghton discovered, however, her love for photography and ended up graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a MFA degree in photo. She taught photography for 18 years at Metro State College in Denver, CO, then came in 1992 to NKU as Chair of the Art department, and more recently as art faculty professor. Houghton’s photos have always been personal, initially self-portraits and pictures of people from her family, allowing her to explore and be who she wanted to be. While in Denver, she did a series of self-portraits in infrared, then a series of large photograms of her clothes, of old and ripped underwear. “I was putting myself out on paper,” she says, “also wanting people to think and laugh.” on the intricate relationship between sports, sex and violence, on how sports had become religion-like in our country. All along Houghton had also been concerned by the unequal condition and neglected role of women in many parts of the world. She became very interested in SEWA, Self-Employed Women’s Association, a trade union of poor, self-employed women in India, started in 1972 by Ela Bhatt. Bhatt, a young female Indian lawyer, had experienced the economic exploitation and lack of power of working Indian women and wanted to organize them so they would become protected by labor laws and self-reliant. SEWA, essentially a women helping women organization, grew quickly to form its own banks, build trade cooperatives, trade facilitation Houghton also brings her concern to liberate and empower women to her classroom. She strongly associates with her young girl students who frequently are lost trying to figure out who they are. They remind her of herself, of how she metamorphosed from a weak woman to a more assertive one; and she does all she can to help them, guide them, teach them how to be strong. “All trajectories of my works are connected,” says Houghton. “They all fall in the broader context of the human; from the questioning about myself, a woman, an artist, what I wear, where and how I fit in the world, my journey; to the free-thinking and rebellious Galileo, the image of a man I fell in love with; to the oppressed and exploited women of India; to women in general… When I make art it empowers me, helps me find my way; it has changed my life. I want to share it with others hoping it might achieve the same. Artists as Activists is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati artists who use art as a vehicle for change. Saad Ghosn is the founder of SOS Art. Ghosn can be reached at saad.ghosn@uc.edu. � 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 2011 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 April 15, 2011 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Health Care for the Homeless Program is a Mobile Marvel Pg 2: In My Shoes Pg 3: Sworn Not to Betray Pg 4: Building Bridges with Neighbors Health Care for the Homeless Program is a Mobile Marvel Continued Pg 5: Shine a Light on human Rights! Pg 6: Mark Twain was Right Pg 7: One Ohio Now Pg 8: By the Grace of God, A Story of Survival and Strength Pg 9: Local Pg 10: Q&A with New York Times Columnist Gail Collins Pg 11: Prostitution: Crime or Controversial Career? Pg 12: Meet Up Pg 13: Poetry Pg 14: The Signing of Senate Bill 5 Pg 15: Summer Internship Program Pg 16: Women Helping Women 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 April 15, 2011 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jen Martin Elizabeth Schulenberg Jim Luken Saad Ghosn Jeni Jenkins Willa Denise Jones Josh Spring Sheli DeLaney Lee McCoy Corey Gibson B. Clifton Burke Cleo Wombles Mayuko Hida Yushin Toda Dan Moore Kelissa Hieber Sandra Knollman Brenda Zechmeister Judge Leslie Isaiah Gaines Chris Kromer Sheli DeLaney Amiee Willhoite Rico Green Jimmy Heath Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Amiee Willhoite B. Clifton Burke Brenda Zechmeister Chris Kromer Cincinnati Cleo Wombles Corey Gibson Crime Dan Moore Elizabeth Schulenberg GCCH health care Human Rights Internship Isaiah Gaines Jen Martin Jeni Jenkins Jim Luken Jimmy Heath Josh Spring Judge Leslie Kelissa Hieber Lee McCoy Mark Twain Mayuko Hida New York Times Ohio Photography Poetry Prostitution Protests Rico Green Riots Saad Ghosn Sandra Knollman Senate Sheli DeLaney street papers Willa Denise Jones Women Yushin Toda https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/86220612ff92b629def7b9dacf7e4116.pdf aff9dbd6bc7f475f0b24a2c1493df630 PDF Text Text Sophia bush gives onS St rher ee ttake v ib e women’s rights A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 PG 8 Momentum Grows in Call for the Legalization of Hemp in South Africa PG 12 A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 Coalition summer internship program 1 PG 14 iSSUe 198 ADVOCATING JUSTICE • BUILDING COMMUNITY Transformation: Seeing Our Community From A Different Perspective For the past five years, Over-the-Rhine has been graced for four months by the presence of college students eager to serve and eager to learn. Each fall, the Miami University Center for Community Engagement, lead by Professors Tom Dutton and John Blake and housed at buddy’s place at 13th and Vine is the hub for new connections, new mindsets, new ideas and new passions. Fall 2010 was no different. Twelve students left the college-life at Miami University to gain perspective a rest from their work at buddy’s place, 1300 Vine. Back to Front, Left to Right: Jose Gutierrez; Gonzalo Martinez; on real-life in Over-the-Rhine. Taking Ashley Kincaid; John Blake; Natalie Otrembiak; Danielle Musselman; Ellen Crawford; Kathleen Roosen; JoePaul Luikart. Through internships with Natalie Otrembiak, Student Photographer neighborhood-organizations, students completed practicums in architecture and interior design, anthropology, art education and business, while taking thought- provoking classes about society, justice, economics, etc. Perhaps more importantly, students entered the classroom of community, politics, love, hate, embrace and fear, as well as positive and negative change. Students struggled, listened, watched, took part and grew. Here we present six reflections from students involved in this project. Sounds ELLEN CRAWFORD Architecture Student n the city, everything relates. there are walls of brick and narrow alleyways and the screeching of the bus stopping on its route. There are four-floor walk-ups and street-level stores, boarded up buildings and those newly renovated. Sirens pierce the night. Arguments are often public and occur at all hours. they brew in the street under our windows at 5 am. Yelling from Washington Park almost always puts me to bed. Hot August nights teach lessons in how public the city can be. Noise becomes powerful, a springboard which sparks my curiosity. the volume has been turned up, a volume that cannot be turned down, no matter if i am surrounded by silence. in September, the volume is created. i am still an outsider. everything becomes routine, wake up, go to studio and get your hands dirty, go to another class and talk, eat dinner, study. At glance, routine i is not exciting, but it is powerful. it allows you to soak into your surroundings as everything becomes more comfortable. the smells and faces here are becoming familiar. the volume is just starting. A new vocabulary is emerging: gentrification, mixed-income, suburbia, poor, community. thinking has reached a new level, which becomes more intertwined as weeks pass. each week brings a new issue: homelessness, affordable housing, capitalism, education, globalization, jobs, and gap. reading, analysis, and reflection consumes my life. Gently, routine submits to complete acceptance of my surroundings and an ever-increasing volume inside. Soon the howls of summer slowly vanish. residents start anticipating the uncontrollable, cold months of the year. the community braces for what is ahead. the controversial developments of Washington Park come with screams of the people who want to be heard. Where will the homeless go this winter? Who will this community cater to in the future? Over-the-rhine is on the brink of combustion. balanced by those who care and fight for its future. October awakens to the history of the people, scarred by their struggles, and weary of their future. Sidewalks are familiar. November becomes numb. the volume is overwhelming. So many people are at a disadvantage. they do not fit in to the typical picture of America. they live with standards far below those of others. Society criminalizes, judges, and casts out people; denies them of their rights, blames them, and sets the system against them. Compassion exists, yet, dedication to true social change remains a threshold, talked about but not crossed. People help the poor and the homeless, but this is just a temporary solution. More permanent changes remain in the dreams of those who fight for Overthe-rhine’s residents. the community has embraced and shared its stories with us. it has called us to think of its people and what they stand for. thanksgiving comes with many blessings and many thanks for those who care for the well-being of others. the sharp air of December has breached the community. the snow falls early this year. Our bodies are forced to adjust to the cold months. Our experience is almost over, but the volume will never be gone. The final push to complete our academic work is made, while talk of adjustment back into our past and future lives is spoken. belongings start to be placed in boxes, to be moved to a new place with new experiences, but the community that is Over-the-rhine remains in our minds. Public to those who walk its sidewalks, know its streets, and talk to their neighbors. Private to those who fear its boundaries, exclude themselves from its people, and develop buildings without consciousness. Over-the-rhine is a community full of front stoop dwellers, sidewalk conversations, and strategic development meetings, one full of the beauty of people, their acceptance, and their sharing. See Transformation Pg. 11 �2 5 the number of years that college students have taken internships with neighborhoodorganizations, students completed practicums in architecture and interior design, anthropology, art education and business, while taking thought- provoking classes about society, justice, economics, etc. Reflections Pages 1,11, 12, and 13 5-8-2011 Mother’s Day! editorial Page 2 0 “…is not a size.” Sophia bush’s character, Fashion designer brooke Davis on One tree Hill started this fictional campaign to raise body image awareness and call attention to women’s rights. Page 8 5-7-2011 the date of the Southern Ohio Amnesty Meeting at UC School of Law. Page 11 50,000 the number of recorded uses for hemp, including clothing, eco-friendly building materials and paper. Momentum grows in call for hemp to be legalized in South Africa Page 12 Editorial St r eet vibeS A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 Spring Cleaning My Life, Mother’s Day it is certainly spring in Cincinnati. For me this means the nagging feeling that i need to clean and make a fresh start. it reminds me of how painfully pale i have become over the winter and how i must get to a tanning bed asap. it makes me yearn for the new floral dresses they’re showing at H&M. All of these things that spring makes me feel are so shallow. So stupid. Unfortunately i know i am hardly alone in these feelings. So many people in our area feel the fresh air of spring roll in and want a fresh start but tend to ignore that they could be using this time of year for something incredible. So this year my spring cleaning will be in my life. While I may go get that floral dress from H&M when I make room in my closet for it I will make sure the stuff I take out goes somewhere, to someone who needs it. i ask you kindly to do the same. When there is a nice spring day, maybe consider volunteering at a local organization. remember that even though it is nice outside there are still so many people that don’t have the luxury of enjoying it the way you do. take the time to evaluate your life, clean up the messes that have piled up over the winter months. For me, i intend to start saving money. Doing this will obviously give me more stability but will also start to relieve some of my anxiety and in generally allow me to be happier and become the person i want to be. it seems like every time i go anywhere cash just seems to fly out of my wallet. I made a list of things I need be more aware of or just plain cut out of my life to start me on the road to a fuller pocket book. Maybe it will help you too. -Pick me up purchases. i constantly try to make myself feel better when i am down in the dumps by buying a new outfit, shoes, purse…whatever. And those impulse purchases rarely are something i want in the long run or are practical. When i am in a crappy mood now, i am going to try to hit the gym…not the mall. Moreover, when i get down in the dumps i cannot justify martinis at a trendy bar to myself. i tend to do this too. -ATM Fees. this is just simply planning and not being lazy. i looked at my bank statement once, i spent an extra $30 that month on fees. it is just silly. -Those ‘friends’ that always tend to stick me with the bill when we go out. these people get on my last nerve. they are the ones who will drop a $20 on a $200 bill and then bolt. they are the ones who don’t understand that when the check comes even though the other person does the customary “i’ve got this” when the bill comes, that they should offer something. i am just going to resolve to stop hanging out with these people or if i do, i am going to ask for separate bills up front. -Take out, fast food, delivery. i spend so much money on this. i have to just resolve to go to the grocery store and stick to eating what’s in the fridge. eating out every week for me probably adds up to an extra $60. -My daily Starbucks or Coffee Emporium. this one is hard for me. i need to either make my coffee at home or simply only buy regular coffee for a buck instead of the four-dollar Starbucks. Caramel Macchiato, i will miss you. -Impulse purchases. i have literally spent over a hundred dollars on a painting i saw and just had to have. At the time it seemed so abstract and beautiful, i couldn’t not have it. Silly Jen. That painting didn’t exactly fit with the country-chic décor in my home. that beautiful painting i couldn’t live without now resides in my basement. Now that i am aware of the ways i can ‘Spring Clean’ my life i feel i can move forward into being more stable and happy. Maybe if i do these things i can also stop needing to ‘borrow’ money from my mom and dad. i had the luxury of wonderful parents who would bail me out of any situation i got myself into. especially my mom, which reminds me….it’s almost Mother’s Day. As I said, I do have a mother who has been able to financially back me up. This is something i know many people have not had and there are literally not enough words to describe how thankful i am for that safety net. in the last couple of years, i split up with my husband and making ends meet to support myself has been hard. it has been difficult financially and emotionally. Yet, my mom is always there. In every day and every step, mistake or triumph she is in my corner. i can tell her anything and no matter what she will listen and help me make the best of it. When i was growing up she was the one who drove me from town to town, swim meets and practice… she would drive me and my friends to the mall or parties. Anything i ever wanted, she would break her back to get it for me. Not to mention the fact that if anyone ever did anything wrong to me, her mama bear instincts would come out and she would take them down. While i am not a mother, i have the utmost respect for moms, those women who will literally fight and destroy anything that threatens their child. I see women every day struggling, working multiple jobs to put food on the table and give their children everything they can while sometimes going without for themselves. You women…. you’re incredible. the gifts you give this world are inspiring. You inspire me. Mama, you’re amazing. Happy Mother’s Day. Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by people who are or once were homeless, in exchange for a $1 donation, Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Address: 117 east 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Phone: 513.421.7803 x 12 Fax 513.421.7813 Email: jenmatrin@cincihomeless. org Website: www.cincihomeless.org Blog: streetvibes.wordpress.com Streetvibes Staff Editor Jen Martin jenmartin@cincihomeless.org Contributing Writers : Josh Spring, Jeni Jenkins, Laura Osborn-Coffey, riccardo taylor, elisa Hill, Willa Denise Jones, Jim Luken, Contributing Writer, Spare Change Staff, Saad Ghosn, Jennifer Martin, reuters, the big issue South Africa Staff, buddy Gray, Western regional Advocacy Project, Michael Henson, Natalie OtrembiakAshley Kincaid, Kat roosen, Molly brazier, ellen Crawford Photography/Artwork: Jen Martin, Aimie Willhoite, rueters, Jeni Jenkins, elisa Hill, Natalie Otrembiak, ellen Crawford, Pippa ehrlich, Keith bedford, Phil McCarten, Leigh Waltz, Miki Waltz the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati through coordination of services, public education, grassroots advocacy and Streetvibes. �St r ee t v ib e S From The Director 3 A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 Light in Our Heads JOSH SPRING Executive Director M ost people enjoy the light. in fact i would say that most people prefer light to darkness. As humans, we tend to get depressed or saddened when exposed to long periods of darkness or shadows or clouds. this is why people typically feel more down in the winter- the sun is less visible and has less affect on our lives. the light has a way of bearing reality. in darkness, images are fuzzy or perhaps cannot be seen at all. vision is distorted in the dark. even in low lighting, we often incorrectly see what is going on around us. With this in mind it is interesting that in the english language the word light is closely associated with something else most of us value- truth and honesty. We say, if you are proud of it, do it out in the open, not under the cover of night. We talk about evildoers stepping from darkness into light. Why is this concept of light so important to us? Some might say it is because we ultimately do not trust those around us; therefore, we want to see and understand what they are doing- or what they might be doing to us. Others might say it is because we ultimately value each other and therefore we want to be able to see and understand each other in order to better enjoy our human contact. i would submit that in fact, we value light for a mixture of these two reasons. i believe there is probably something within all of us that causes feelings of distrust of many around us while at the same time feelings of trust of those around us. i realize this sounds like a foolish statement. How can one both trust and distrust people? the answer to this conundrum is in the quantity of trust versus distrust and more importantly the reason behind both trust and distrust. i am going to assert that neither predominantly trusting almost everyone nor predominantly distrusting almost everyone is positive. the reason why we trust or distrust some people is the most important factor in determining if our trust or distrust is healthy. Often people will distrust others based solely on things they have heard or read from a source they have no personal contact with. Many people distrust others based on common stereotypes and the common belief in occurrences they have had no personal experience with. Still others will distrust people or an area based on physical appearance, again with no real personal interaction. trust can work the same way. Some will trust others based purely on something they have heard from a distance, seen from a distance or based on stereotypes. For instance, some will automatically trust the businessman developer in a suite walking into his brand new, hip office, but will automatically distrust the businessman dealer in jeans and a t-shirt standing on the street-corner. We assume that one is working hard; making positive progress and that we could generally trust his intentions. We assume that the other is an opportunist, dragging people downward and that we could generally trust none of his intentions. Many of us it is also true to law to hike the rent beyond what each of those tenants can pay and then evict them for non-payment. it is true to law to then purchase the building and change it into condos. All of this true to law and one could say, “We are breaking no laws we are being truthful “We must not only stay in the light we before the legal system.” but must dig deeper. All of now have, but we must seek out more we this may be true to law, but light. We must continually be striving to none of it is true to morality. the fact that the law says it is bring others into the same light. Light okay, does not make it okay, because ultimately moral truth (truth) breeds life.” outweighs lawful truth. there is another saying that automatically believe all of these things without speaks to “light”. We often speak of the “light” ever having spoken with either man. or never coming on inside of one’s head. that eureka even spoken with anyone that knows about moment if you will. What does this mean- “light either man. in one’s head.” Clearly, we are referring to in this world it is necessary that we have a one suddenly realizing truth. We are referring healthy amount of trust and a health amount to all of the clouds, misunderstandings, wool, of distrust, but we must base both our trust stereotypes and smoke screens being pulled and distrust on solid foundations. to trust or back and one finally seeing the truth. Often distrust another we don’t necessarily need to these moments of clarity lead to greater change know the person (though this is certainly the in one’s life. Often these times of “light” lead to healthiest option), but at least we should base new perspectives on many topics and lead to our decision on the understanding of someone other eureka moments. we do know (and trust) that knows the person it is these moments that i enjoy the most. in question. We should also study the actions the moments when a high school student, a of the person in question. We should trust or college student, an adult worker, etc. finally distrust her or him based on what she or he has understands the truth. the moment when done, is doing or plans to do- barring that she speaking to a big group you can see t people or he has not repented of past ill-doings and finally get it- and you can literally see their has made a positive change. eyes get brighter. the moment when a person We should also consider what people say comes into the office and says I used to think and often more importantly, what they don’t people chose to be homeless, but now i want say. Most people that are really good at looking to fight to end homelessness. The moment good while doing bad things don’t go around that an adult says, i used to hate your paper lying in a way that most people would realize or your organization, now i want to volunteer they are lying. Most people that are most for your organization. the moment a person unworthy of our trust say things that sound finally finds their calling. The moment a good, and these claims may even be true, but person with low-income says enough is these people purposely do not include the rest enough and I believe I can fight back to save of the truth. they purposely do not include the my housing from those that want to take it. truth that will shine light upon their ill deeds. Or the moment a person with high-income We must dig deeper always. We should not says enough is enough, i have too much, i and cannot trust the surface of anything. We need to spread out what i have and i realize should question, study, dissect and challenge. that not everyone has been gifted the same We should ask hard questions. We should opportunities as me. the moment a group of take note when they are not fully answered. people decides to keep pushing forward despite We should not let simple, basic answers about hardship, criticism and continued oppression. important topics suit us. We should demand i especially cherish the moments that we full, deep, comprehensive- and fully truthful realize that the businessperson dealer on the answers. (you should bold this…it is the best corner is probably more trustworthy than the part so far.) businessperson developer politician behind the lifted seat or at the top of the tall building Furthermore, we must consider more than downtown. We must not only stay in the light just simple, literal truth. We must demand we now have, but we must seek out more light. moral truth as well. For example, it is true to We must continually be striving to bring others law to offer to purchase a building in exchange into the same light. Light (truth) breeds life. for the removal of all tenants who live there. �Local Issue 4 St r eet vibeS A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 Street Life Springtime RICCARDO TAYLOR Civil Rights Outreach Coordinator i t’s in the air! the coming of the spring season, like, the dawning of a day brings about many new hopes and dreams for those who have survived the long winter. When the burrs turn into laughter and shouting, the Riccardo Taylor, Civil Rights Outreach Coordinator. Aimie Willhoite Photography streets take on a different tint, the color of life’s metaphors, as all of nature rejuvenates itself. From the conversations, to the actions, which fill the streets, the coming of spring brings a sense of relief as well as new challenges for which the street person must prepare. that sense of a new start is one of joy and anticipation. Or perhaps one of anticipation that can lead to joy, yet, there is always the reality that things are not going to be easy, and this is the way of life on the streets. A fresh start, perhaps one can get some work, it’s always easier when the weather is mild. Lining up at the temporary work hall is easier when you don’t have to be subjected to the extremes of nature! Still there is no guarantee that you will get work today! Yet, one feels much better when they are left out in warmth as opposed to the cold. then as the life of the street person goes there are always those traps that tend to keep the individual in their dilemma. A fresh start, given the new opportunity and all the advantages of the weather there is that veracity of give and take. there will be opportunities for both honesty and immorality of actions. that is to say, a chance to get what one earns or what one can obtain by whatever means. the life of the street is an ever changing and altering world, with the interest of those who live the lifestyle at stake. each individual has to make a choice; by what rules to play, to enhance chances of survival. Oftentimes the easiest way through that is dishonesty or deceit, yet there are those whose hopes and integrity keep them moderate in their decisions, allowing them to have little, yet feeling grateful for what they have. With so much at stake, and the beauty of the season, there are hopes for those who struggle the most. it’s as if this time of year is made specifically for new expectations! A job, somewhere to live perhaps a new relationship all these things have a new meaning at this time of the year. Getting to the reality of such dreams can be as rewarding as actually realizing them. the mere thought that everything is changing for the better can be the very first step in life altering events, which may set the individual on the course for re-establishing their lives. So, we start our journey, looking for the next chapter of our lives, armed with the graces of nature we set our course for the most, never forgetting where we come from, mindful of the cold days of winters past we seek our fortunes in the brightness of the hope that the Spring brings. Congressional Meeting RICCARDO TAYLOR Civil Rights Outreach Coordinator O ur appreciation goes out to Pastor Cook and his very generous wife Leslie Cook, for helping us to realize our obligation and opportunities to become a voice for the community of which we belong. the space provided for us at the First Lutheran Church is a blessing, if you will, for our prospect of fulfilling such obligations, and we are grateful for having two very loving and caring people to assist us in this endeavor. Our fourth meeting was for me a great success, in that we have become established as a group with a purpose and a direction. though i personally had no doubts from the very beginning that we could and would be successful there have been times in the last four months that i felt a bit overwhelmed due to our membership being stymied by individuals leaving the rolls to tend to their lives. the truth is that i thought it would be as simple as one, two, three. All i had to do was bring the opportunity and everyone would jump in board. Well, it is a bit more complicated than that! i have found that it takes a special type of person to give an obligation when they are in a quagmire of life’s requirements. Simply put, it is hard to be responsible when we are at our lowest. the Homeless Congress, in order to have any validity has to be made up of individuals who live in, and understand poverty and homelessness. it has to be consistent with the rules of survival and struggle. to date we have a very solid group of individuals who have those experiences, and i believe, it is for that reason that i can say that i am having a sense of pride for what we have accomplished thus far. So, what exactly have we accomplished? Well, we have organized to the extent that we can act as an independent body, previewing matters that affect those who live the lifestyle, and learning to deduce ideas and suggestions that might make the difference in those lives, and a way to implement those ideas and suggestions. We have proposed two projects that we believe would benefit those living in shelters, and perhaps allow them to start retaking control of their lives. Our first proposal, The Shelter assistant project that would assist new residents with finding and utilizing area resources was put on hold due to conflict of interest but is being revamped. Our second project, the creation of a self- actualization group has but to be proposed (details at a later date). Our idea is to have a round table type of discussion group to bring about exposure for individuals living in shelters. Least i not mention, our target for both projects is the Drop inn Center, it being the areas largest shelter. Well, as not to place the horse before the cart (we have not submitted the proposal yet) i will not detail the particulars of that proposal here. Still, we have hopes for our projects and will keep our readers informed of our progress. the latest of news, again which adds to my feelings of success is the fact that at this meeting we had guests! Five students from the University of Kentucky and two students from the University Of Cincinnati, all of which gave us great reviews. We were very pleased to have them come and sit-in on our meeting and would like to invite the public to join us. “the Homeless Congress again has become a reality and we intend to make a difference.” I would like to finish here by giving all my appreciation to our members for their hard work and dedication. Members • Stephen Gentry • Lee McCoy • James brown • Keith eutsey • Jerry Davis • Pomona White • Susan Lakes • Derrick Prophet You may contact riccardo taylor for information at below listed contact information. riccardo taylor riccardo.taylor@cincihomeless.org (513) 421-7803 facebook.com/streetvibes cincinnati twitter.com/ streetvibesnwes streetvibes.wordpress. com Great Books! visit www.cincybooks.com �St r ee t v ib e S Column 5 A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 Suggested as a program of recovery “Hammered: Essays on Poverty and Addiction” MICHAEL HENSON Contributing Writer i am not enough of an economist to have any concrete suggestions to solve this nation’s poverty problem, though taxing the rich at a rate commensurate with justice and common sense would be, i believe, a place to start. but i do have an idea on what could help break the link between poverty and addiction, a link by which each reinforces the pain of the other. these are simple steps, using what we already know. We’re not a nation that does a good job of using what we know. For example, we’ve known for years that we are running out of fossil fuels, but we have put a move to renewable energy on the backest burner we can find. The planet might die, but the US Chamber of Commerce won’t stand for a dent in the profits of the companies that pay its dues. but i wander . . . i think there are some simple steps we could take which would ease the pain of each, though they would not eliminate either one. We’re not likely to take any of these steps, so the only point in this exercise is to record my despair. the good Christians who run this country seem to think . . . Do i sound bitter? i have to admit i don’t really know what they think. So i’ll leave the ranting alone for the time and tell you what i think. First, and most importantly, treatment must be free or at low cost. i suppose it is inevitable that we will have a two- (or three- or four-) tier system of treatment, one for those who can afford the Hazelden/betty Ford system, one for the poor, and whatever other levels we can fit in between. I don’t really care as long as what we provide for the poor is decent and the workers who serve them are competent. too much of what is available to the low-income addict or alcoholic now is provided by the criminal justice system or religious affiliated organizations. there are stellar examples of competent treatment in each, but they are not enough. Next, treatment must be available on demand. Many alcoholics and addicts have windows of openness during which treatment can have an impact. if you can’t get them through the hoops and into treatment while that window is open, the window closes. the addict makes whatever adjustment he or she needs to make, the walls go back up, and they turn their interest back to the needs of daily survival. For many in the treatment community, the rigors and complications (and sometimes humiliations) of the intake process are proof of readiness and worthiness so that getting into treatment requires a sort of moral test. We say we don’t believe that addition is a moral issue, but the practice belies our words. if the addict can’t collect the three pieces the agency requires or doesn’t return the phone call at the right time. we say, “He’s not ready.” We don’t say this of the cancer patient. We make treatment available whenever they show up. this is how we should treat the addict/alcoholic. it follows from this that there should be no limit on the number of treatment episodes for any individual. Prior to entering the field, a former supervisor of mine was in treatment nine times! And the last one was a ninety-day in-patient program. i’ve lost track of him, but at last report, he was at the head of a major health care network. What if someone had said, “Sorry, you’ve used up your eight treatment chances.”? What if and twenty dollars. Now, to keep all this together is sometimes simply beyond the capacity of some street alcoholics, who are prey to theft, loss, confiscation by the police. Up to the point of detox, any dollar the street addict can hustle up will usually go for maintenance, to keep from going into detoxification prematurely. A person can get around this by presenting a homeless certificate, which an addict can get by staying in a shelter or working with a homeless outreach worker. then there is the weeklong (or more) game of phone tag in which the individual has to call at precisely the right moment, and if the right moment arrives, has to have his or her three items right at hand. the last time i worked to get an addict into treatment, we had to just about case manage him 24/7, during which time we had a team to help him keep his materials together and his behavior on track. He’s due to graduate from treatment, and looking healthy, but there were a lot of hoops to jump through. Not everyone has such support and not everyone gets the chance to graduate and look good. the important thing to remember is that these are administrative needs, not clinical needs. And they are impediments that do not arise in the treatment of other diseases and other modes of treatment. i have taken heart patients and people with possible pneumonia to hospital emergency rooms with none of these demands. they simply serve the patients. Again, we put a moralistic readiness expectation on the poor addict that se do not put on a traditional medical patient. because this disease is so disruptive of all aspects of life and because poverty depletes the individual of resources to deal with the devastation, the addict or alcoholic entering treatment will need wraparound case management and support services. He or she will need help with employment, getting into school, accessing social security, and accessing housing and medical care and so on. New addicts are being created faster than we can treat those we already have. therefore, we need to implement serious, community-based, prevention and community education programs based on best practices. We need to throw away the old drug boards that “…we need to support community organizations to develop healthy, empowered communities.” someone had said, “You’re not ready.” He might still be helplessly ensnared in addiction. Yet, that is exactly what most insurance policies and hospitals do. One local hospital, for example, recently got out of the detoxification business altogether. but before they did, the rule was three episodes. there is a major misunderstanding of the nature of addiction. it is another way of placing a moral judgment rather than a clinical assessment on the addict. that person who goes to treatment eight times may not take on the ninth time either. but we can’t know unless we try it. We also need to insure that access to services is simple and uncomplicated by unnecessary impediments. to get into detox, an addict typically needs a photo iD issued by the state, a piece of mail with that individual’s name on it, have been shown to actually increase drug and alcohol use. instead, we need to turn to the science-based risk and protective e factor programs that develop genuine relationships and supportive communities. it follows on that that we need to support community organizations to develop healthy, empowered communities. to make all this happen, we need training, so that everyone is on the same page and that page is evidence-based practice. Finally, we need to support the supporters. the people who make all this happen need adequate compensation in the form of wages and benefits. And they need to be able to negotiate the terms of their work. Unlike teachers, we are rarely represented by unions and our wages and benefits reflect this. (And by the way, in this time when public service unions are under attack, did you know that those states whose teachers are represented by unions are also the states whose children score the highest on national tests?) So, how, in a time of tightening budgets, do we pay for all this? For one thing, there is a huge, untaxed economy right under our noses. We could start by legalizing marijuana, taxing it, and using the money for treatment. And then we could tax the rich.Simple justice calls for it, but it’s not likely to happen any time soon. None of the proposals outlined here is liable to happen soon. in fact, the current trend is to cut programs, jobs, and opportunities for treatment. times are about to get tougher for the addict in poverty. As if they weren’t already. Note to Streetvibes Readers: This is the final “Hammered: Essays on Poverty and Addiction” installment. With this column, i will have said what i wanted to say on the issue and i’m ready to sum it up and put it into book form. (Any suggestions for an agent? A publisher?”) but it’s not the end of my writing for StreetVibes. i plan to shift my attention to a series of reviews of books (and maybe films or music) on poverty and homelessness. i’ll look at some new books, but some old books as well. (Wasn’t Odysseus just another homeless veteran?) i hope to start with a new release from bottom Dog Press of the poetry of Daniel thompson. Any other suggestions? You can reach me at michaelhenson642@ gmail.com �Social Justice 6 St r eet vibeS A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 RIGHT to the City The plan to push people from the city because they are homeless and/ or financially poor. WESTERN REGIONAL ADVOCACY PROJECT i n recent years, Henri Lefebvre’s concept of the “right to the City” has been adopted by a growing movement of human rights oriented organizations, policy makers, and activists around the globe (tides 2007; David 2003; Lefebvre 1996; Ortiz 2006). the initial drafts of a World Charter on the right to the City was first elaborated by global social movement actors at the Social Forum of the Americas in July 2004 and the World Urban Forum in September 2004. this document declares the right of all people to the city, not only as an economic location, but as a social, cultural, and democratic space. the charter claims that “the core element of [the right to the city] is the equitable usufruct of the cities considering the principles of sustainability and social justice” (Charter 2004). reinforcing this World Charter on the right to the City have been a series of other official statements such as the European Charter for Safeguarding Human rights in the City, the european Charter for equality of Women and Men in local life, and the City Statute of brazil. in addition campaigns of global social movement organizations such as the Habitat international Coalition have been formed to advance the right to the City framework (HiC 2008) Since 2005, UNeSCO and UN-HAbitAt have also held a series of international convenings oriented around the right to the City. in a joint statement explaining the objectives of their rightto the City initiative, UNeSCO and UN-HAbitAt (2005) declared that “the time has now come for governments to shift from a needs-based approach to a rights-based approach. in a rapidly urbanizing world, such an approach means that all citizens should benefit from what cities have to offer in terms of access to income generating opportunities, land and housing, water and sanitation, education and health care. recognition of this right in national policies and legislation is critical to bringing about a fundamental change in our approach to sustainable development. A rights-based approach can help generate the political will and to create a culture of resource allocation that places the needs of the poor on an equal footing with the interests of those that are better off.” in January 2007, the right to the City movement found footing in the United States. base building community organizations from across the country came together to form a national right to the City Alliance (Perera 2008). bound together in the struggle for economic, social, and racial justice, the alliance seeks to connect urban “fights against gentrification and displacement to other local and international struggles for human rights, land, and democracy” (RTC 2008). The alliance has identified a number of principles of unity including: freeing land from market speculation, public ownership of urban territory, economic justice, indigenous justice, environmental justice, freedom from police and state harassment, immigrant justice, sufficient services and infrastructure, democratic planning and governance, reparations for exploitation, international solidarity, and justice for rural people. in addition to this international movements advancing the right to the City, throughout the last two decades urban scholars have demonstrated how neoliberal cities have increasingly turned to repressive measures to keep urban poor and homeless people out of view in public space (Smith 1998,1996; roy 2003; Mitchell 1997, 1998, 2003; Hackworth 2007). they have examined both how the rights and public presence of poor people have been diminished in urban centers, as well as poor people’s struggles and organizations which have emerged to fight this situation. the most recent and full scale assessment in this literature was Don Mitchell’s recent book, which also following Lefebvre was titled, “the right to the City” (Mitchell 2003). the archetypical example of homeless people being removed from public space in the United States was in Giuliani’s New York. However, the displacement of homeless people from public urban spaces, especially downtown areas, has occurred throughout the country over the last couple of neoliberal decades. in addition to the academic literature capturing this reality, grassroots homeless advocacy organizations and Washington policy groups have also documented attempts by city leaders and business interests to sweep homeless people out of public spaces through anti-homeless legislation, police sweeps, and so-called “quality-of-life laws” (NLCHP 1996; NCH 2004, 2007; WrAP 2008). However, one crucial issue has generally been missed by the urban literature examining the relationship between homeless people and urban public space: the business improvement District model. indeed, in the last 20 years, there is perhaps no other single innovation in the governance of urban space that has had as substantial an effect on the management of downtown areas than business improvement Districts (biDs). through an examination of the relationship between biDs and homeless people in the contemporary United States, this paper will draw together the growing global social movement promoting the right to the City and the urban studies literature examining struggles over the presence of homeless people in urban public space… Sweeping Homeless People From Public Spaces to understand contemporary battles over the presence of homeless people in public space in the United States, it is useful to quick- ly recount the rise of the contemporary wave of massive homelessness in the United States. in the 1980s, homelessness re-emerged in the nation at levels not seen since the Great Depression (burt 1992; Kusmer 2003; Jencks 1994). by the late 1990s it was estimated that each night at least 840,000 men, women, and children across the nation were without a home (NLCHP 2004). All together, between 2.3 and 3.5 million people, including 1.35 million children, were likely to experience homelessness in a given year (institute 2000). this contemporary wave of homelessness resulted in part from broad processes of capitalist reconfiguration, deindustrialization, and urban transformation (bluestone and bennett 1982; Noy Forthcoming). the primary political context for this resurgence of homelessness was the rise of extreme free-market rhetoric, supply side economics, and anti-welfare ideology initiated under reagan and continued through the Clinton presidency and into the present (Lyoncallo 2004; WrAP 2006). reagan decimated public housing construction and subsidization programs, and these programs have never regained their pre-1980 strength (Dolbeare, Saraf, and Crowley 2004). reagan also seriously undermined other important safety net programs, such as community mental health centers – the system which was supposed to replace mental hospitals after deinstitutionalization (beigel 1982; Cutler, bevilacqua, and McFarland 2003; Scherl and Schmetzer 1989). Despite a number of efforts made to address homelessness on the local and national level, these efforts were never more than a drop in the bucket compared to the social welfare cuts initiated by reagan (Noy Forthcoming). Homelessness remained steady and even became a sort of normalized backdrop of everyday life (Hopper 1998; Marcuse 1988; Penner and Penner 1994). However, although normalized, homelessness was not accepted by those who felt that the presence of homeless people in urban areas, and especially downtown districts, was hurting the quality of life and inhibiting business. in cities throughout the United States, as the federal government failed to adequately address homelessness nationally since the 1980s, the visibility of homeless people increasingly became an See Right to the City Pg. 7 �St r ee t v ib e S Social Justice 7 A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 RIGHT To The City Continued from page 6 important concern for business and political elites (Sommer 2000; Noy Forthcoming). the turn to neoliberal policies and neoliberal economic restructuring also served as a primary context that shaped the response to the increased visibility of homeless people in urban areas (Mitchell 2003; Gibson 2004; roy 2003; Smith 1996; Sassen 1990). in the deindustrialized, post-Fordist economy, cities face tremendous pressure to create clean and shiny locales which will attract hyper-mobile capital and wealthy tourists – and homeless people are seen as standing in the way of that (Mitchell 1997, 1998, 2003). At the same time, cities are under ideological pressure to adopt an approach to governance framed by neoliberal principles and controlled by external agencies, such as bond rating institutions (Hackworth 2007). As a result cities have sought to turn urban space into a commodified spectacle for the wealthy and the privileged, and to exclude the visible signs of poverty from view (Smith 1996; Mitchell 2003). Cities have employed a number of strategies to try to sanitize public spaces from homeless presence – quality of life laws, anti-panhandling ordinances, banning soup kitchens and other public feeding programs, police sweeps, homeless courts, anti-camping, sitting, and lying ordinances to name a few (NCH 2007; Smith 1998; WrAP 2008). However, one important institution for controlling public space that has often been overlooked in analysis both of the public presence of homelessness and more generally by the right to the City literature is the business improvement District. Overview of BIDS business improvement Districts (biDs) are a marriage of two redevelopment approaches –the financing authority of a redevelopment agency and the targeted efforts of an enterprise zone. An authoritative definition of BIDs has yet to be accepted by academics, planners, and business people. Generally, however, a biD is a legally-recognized territorial subdivision within a city in which all property owners or businesses are subject to an additional tax assessment that is collected by the city and reallocated to the biD operating agency. the agency then uses the funds to provide services and capital improvements within the district (Garodnick 2000). biDs often represent a city’s downtown region and vary greatly in size. A 1995 survey of 23 biDs found the size of a biD to be approximately 20 square blocks on average and range from 1 square block to 300 square blocks (Partnership 1995). biDs provide services to supplement those delivered by the municipal government. Specific services vary from one BID to another, but standard functions include: Capital Improvements: installing pedestrian-scale lighting and street furniture; planting trees and shrubbery. Consumer Marketing: producing festivals and events; coordinating sales promotions; producing maps and newsletters. Economic Development: offering incentives (such as tax abatements or loans) to new and expanding businesses. Maintenance: collecting rubbish; removing litter and graffiti; washing sidewalks; shoveling snow; trimming trees. Parking and Transportation: managing a public parking system; maintaining transit shelters. Policy Advocacy: promoting public policies to the community; lobbying government on behalf of business interests. Public Space Regulation: managing sidewalk vending; discouraging panhandling; controlling vehicle loading. Security: providing supplementary security guards; buying and installing electronic security systems; working with the city police force. Social Services: aiding homeless people; providing job training; supplying youth services. A primary appeal of biDs to commercial merchants is that the biD property tax ensures that all property owners are locked into a payment scheme, avoiding the classic worry about free-riding in which only a few pay for the improvement projects and programs that create benefit for all in the area. Created by state legislatures, biDs claim to solve problems of urban blight and safety, and to promote business in downtown cores, in ways that local government cannot (Leigh 2003). they are classic neo-liberal public-private partnerships (Goode 2006). Usually run by a community board representing the area, power within biDs is generally tilted towards corporate interests. Most biD governance structures weight the votes of business and property owners more heavily than those of residential tenants. District decisions are therefore generally skewed in favor of business and property owners even when outnumbered by residential tenants. For example, a 1995 court case involving a New York city biD revealed that only one biD board member represented 930 residential tenants while 242 property owners had 31 representatives (Garodnick 2000) While some people credit biDs with the revival of urban centers, their prevalence has provoked controversy. Critics accuse biDs of exacerbating the divide between those with money and those without by allowing the secession of wealthy areas from the overall city governance (Davies 1997). Michael Sandel (1996: 311) argues, “as municipal services decline in urban areas, residents and businesses in upscale districts manage to insulate themselves from the effects by assessing themselves surtaxes to provide private garbage collection, street cleaning, and police protection unavailable to the city as a whole.” Others criticize biDs as patrolling public space on behalf of merchants and wealthy residents, while excluding poor and homeless people from their area (MacDonald 1996). Still others criticize biDs as fundamentally anti-democratic institutions which replace local government and community oversight with rule by businesses on behalf of their interests (WrAP 2008). BIDs and Homeless People A primary focus of biDs is public safety and the deterrence of crime. business owners see area improvements undertaken by biDs as conveying the message to visitors, potential residents and potential businesses that the district is “clean and safe.” they therefore see biDs as reducing crime in accordance with the “broken Windows” theory (Hoyt 2005). the broken Windows theory posits that allowing indications of disorder to remain unaddressed, such as a broken window or trash in an alley, demonstrates a loss of social control in a neighborhood (Wilson and Kelling 1982; Skogan 1999). this then fosters crime, especially as criminals actively seek out such neglected areas as a place to engage in deviant activities (Hoyt 2005). biDs, therefore, seek to reduce crime by making cosmetic and capital improvements to their districts. in addition to these cosmetic improvements, biDs also seek to reduce crime by engage in direct private security patrols over their areas. Private security has been a rapidly growing industry in the United States. the last thirty years have seen a per capita decline in public police officers and, at the same time, a substantial per capita increase in private security guards. A 1995 estimate claimed that there were roughly 3 private security guards for every public police officer in the United States (Greene, Seamon, and Levy 1995). Private security is generally much cheaper than sworn police officers. Private security guards are under less public regulation and oversight, and are less well trained. Correspondingly, they also possess less authority. the primary function of private biD security is to uphold the public perception of safety in their area by having a noticeable policing force on the streets. Private biD security generally takes on one of two forms. The first form of security is a team of “ambassadors.” Ambassadors usually roam the area wearing brightly-colored uniforms and are supposed to provide a welcoming smile (Hoyt 2005). Sometimes, the word “security” is printed on the back of the uniform to convey authority. While the role of ambassadors will vary from one biD to the next, it generally involves assisting visitors and looking out for suspect behavior. the second form of private biD security is the more traditional-looking security guard. Often times, security guard uniforms are intentionally designed to closely resemble that of the local police force, emitting a stronger sense of authority. the legal authority of ambassadors and security guards is the same. in public spaces, private security has no more authority in securing an environment than does a private citizen. For example, the only kind of arrest they can perform is a citizen’s arrest, which can be made only when the arresting citizen personally witnesses a felony. everyday citizens may be unaware that a biD’s private security lacks legal authority. regardless of whether a biD relies on private security or police officers, it likely maintains a close relationship with the local police department – possibly even providing a storefront out of which the police department operates a substation. in the absence of private security, biD members will call the police dispatch directly to report suspicious activities. even with a private biD security force, these employees are generally not trained or equipped to handle difficult or potentially dangerous situations, and therefore must rely on local police in such circumstances. Homeless advocacy groups accuse biD private security of intimidating, bullying, and abusing homeless people. Some have gone so far as to accuse biDs of primarily existing in order to remove homeless people from visibility, and to enforce restrictions on public space (WrAP 2008). in 2005, the Los Angeles Community Action Network created a campaign “to take direct action to end fast-growing patterns of abuse [perpetrated] against poor and homeless residents by…biD security guards” (LAGC 2005). the campaign included videotaping and private patrols to monitor the excessive use of force and violation of civil rights by biDs. in Los Angeles County, several homeless people also filed law suits against See Right to the City Pg. 15 �National News 8 St r eet vibeS A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 One Tree Hill star Sophia Bush talks about women’s rights and the environment Sophia Bush has long been famous for her role as Brooke Davis in the long running US television show One Tree Hill. Yet, Bush has done much more; she’s an icon for women’s rights and fights to change young girls’ body image . She also used her stardom to bring attention to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the lack Sophia Bush attends the 17th annual Race to Erase MS gala in Los Angeles May 7, 2010. REUTERS/ Phil McCarten of clean drinking water around the world. Time for an interview. on in their national politics, to the news, most beautiful, they have that quality - people DANIELLE OLSEN Spare Change News (USA) www.streetnewsservice.org r ecently you put together a CD, Gasoline rainbows, in which the proceeds will go to the clean-up efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. What was it like putting together that compilation? SOPHiA bUSH: We sort of had a revelation, like “Why do just one song? Why not do an album?” You see celebrity playlists on itunes and you see how well soundtracks do when they’re great. People love albums when they are filled with great artists. So we thought, why not make an album that benefits? It’s so simple to distribute music digitally, there’s no carbon footprint, we’re not using any plastic, any paper. We’re not creating any waste, we’re just getting people great music and raising great money all the while. it was a really incredible experience and then to see all the bands who got so passionate about it. to have bands that don’t need to give music away, like black eyed Peas and vampire Weekend say, ‘Oh, yeah, you can totally have songs,’ and then to have Damien rice give us an unreleased track, and to have City and Colour write us a song that is so haunting and so beautiful about what happened when the rig exploded - i mean, it’s kind of an out of body experience to have it all happen. before i forget, we’re very, very lucky to have been able to partner with Dine Alone records. None of us know anything about putting an album together and Dine Alone was such an amazing champion for our cause and really just helped us make it happen. Without them i think we wouldn’t have made it. DANieLLe OLSeN: You are not just involved in issues in the Gulf; what are some other foundations or causes you are passionate about? SOPHiA bUSH: Oh, god, you know, it’s interesting because i think it all relates. i’m very passionate about what’s going on with women’s rights around the world, and once you start looking at statistics you start getting educated. You find that when women are educated it impacts their communities, it impacts their children, it impacts their family, it impacts their environment. i think anyone who is concerned with the development of the world and protecting females should read Kristof’s book, Half the Sky. it will absolutely blow your mind. i spend a lot of time looking at what’s going on with women and also looking at what’s going on with young people. i think i’ve had a really incredible year connecting with youth in America, and around the world, and really tried to start a movement getting kids encouraged to take care of their environment no matter where they are and to pay attention to what’s going to take care of themselves and to be aware of what they’re putting in their bodies. When you watch new things and you start researching factory farming it’s just all interconnected. it seems so incredibly important when you’re discussing what it is that we are putting in our bodies and putting into our environment. With our food industries, water is so crucial and important and it’s been really wonderful to do some work with Charity Water and you take it for granted living in the US, being able to get clean water out of your tap at any moment, any day, and there are people around the world who have to walk miles and miles at risk of physical harm and death just to get water that isn’t even clean to begin with. So i think it’s a really eyeopening process when you start to look at the world around you and take your blinders off. DANieLLe OLSeN: Do you have any plans to get involved in aiding Japan? SOPHiA bUSH: i’ve been doing a lot of tweeting and sending out every donation link that I can find. We’ve all been donating to the red Cross and i think it’s just going to be incredibly important. it’s very simple, very easy rather, when the sort of initial shock of something like this wanes for people to not stay involved but it’s going to take some time as that country starts to get itself back together to even see what they need. i think it’s incredibly important to stay active and to stay on top of it because, maybe, i don’t know if it’s going to be a food drive. i don’t know if it’s going to be donations. i don’t know if it’s going to be clothing drives. What is it going to be that we can do? i really think that we need to keep on top of the situation, and as we get information, continue donating and continue staying active and showing our support. they are really going to need it for a long time. DANieLLe OLSeN: You recently spoke out against a pro-anorexia Urban Outfitters t-shirt. As a woman and fashion icon many young girls look up to, why do you think it was so important for you to say something to your fans? SOHPiA bUSH: i think it’s an absolutely ludicrous idea that beauty only fits in one box. You look at history; look at who are our most beautiful, iconic women in the world and they’re all different shapes and sizes and colors and heights. There is no one definition and yet I get that everyone, most everyone in the world, looks at Giselle and goes, ‘Oh my god, she’s so amazing.’ there are also people who look at her and don’t get it. So why her? there are people who love that body type but there are people who look at that body type and go, ‘eh,’ and who look at a super curvy, short girl and go, ‘That’s what I like.’ There is no one definition of beauty. You know the people that are the say she has “it.” the French say that it’s ‘je ne sais quoi,’ - it’s something special and it’s confidence. It’s a sort of ownership of self. It doesn’t matter what measurement is around our thigh, it matters what you put out into the world. it matters how many times a day you smile; and are you good to the people in your life. Are you good to the people you work with; are you good to your family and your friends? Are you good to your community? those are the things that make a person beautiful. So, yeah, I find it outrageous that a company that caters particularly to young women would say, ‘Hey, eat less. You’ll feel better about yourself.’ Absolutely not. DANieLLe OLSeN: March was international Woman’s Month; how far do you think women’s rights have come? SOHPiA bUSH: i think in some areas we’re doing a great job but i also think that we haven’t come quite as far as we think we have when you still look at the difference between paychecks for men and women in the same field. People kind of roll their eyes and say, ‘Oh, that’s so feminist of you.’ but i find it really irritating when guys are teasing their guy friends and they’re saying, ‘C’mon, man up, don’t be a pussy.’ it’s like, really? it’s a vulgar, pornographic term out there for a women’s anatomy, and that’s what you call a guy who isn’t man enough? Why? Where did that come from? it seems like not a big deal at the end of the day; i hear it all the time and i understand that it’s not. but when you really start to think about what the subtext of it means, it’s interesting. i see it every day. i’m a woman who works at a job that is mostly populated by men. Most of the film set is made up of men and i watch the way that the people relate to each other, i watch the way that they make comments about women on the set and i work with lovely people and i pick up on things that i don’t think are 100 percent awesome all the time. i think it’s important to really make sure that we’re reinforcing, especially from a young age, respect for women. When you think that one of the most powerful things that men can do is put us down, that’s obviously because we’re incredibly powerful if we’re built up. it’s something we need to know and women need to own. if you’re going to get called a bitch for standing up for yourself, for being educated, for having opinions and for using your voice, then fine, let them call you a bitch. If a man was doing any of those things he would be complimented and they’d say, ‘Oh you know, he’s really got balls, he’s really strong, he’s really assertive.’ but a woman who’s assertive immediately gets sort of categorized as difficult. i don’t agree, i say go ahead, be loud, make See Sophia Bush Pg. 9 �National News St r ee t v ib e S A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 9 Sophia Bush Continued from Page 8 them listen to you. DANieLLe OLSeN: Your character on One tree Hill, fashion designer brooke Davis started a campaign called ‘Zero is Not A Size.’ Do you believe fashion such as this can have a positive impact on the world? SOPHiA bUSH: i do, and part of what i really appreciated about that, and part of the reason i still appreciate the message behind ‘zero is not a size,’ is that it doesn’t make any sense. there’s no universal size chart. i own clothes that are a range of sizes. it’s like “Well, okay, this company has these sizes, that company has those sizes. Oh for this designer i can wear a sample but for that one I could never fit into a sample.” It’s like, “Well my body is not changing every time i put on a different dress, for sure. it’s the way that they are cut.” So what does it even mean? What does it mean to be a size zero? What does it mean to be a size four, a size ten? it doesn’t mean anything. Again, i don’t believe that beauty fits into one box and I don’t think that it matters. I think that if you’re healthy, if you take care of yourself and enjoy your life, that the number on the tag in your sweater should not be what defines you. DANieLLe OLSeN: On your blog you often talk about products that help to make a difference. What is your favorite that you’ve talked about that you think everyone should be using? SOPHiA bUSH: i think it’s incredibly important to look at the little things in your home. People don’t consider that the same water that goes down the sink when you do the dishes is the water that you filter, that then comes out of your faucet, that you’re drinking. So think about it, what kind of detergent you use and what kind of dish soap are you using? What kind of chemicals are you pouring down the drain that then have to be filtered in order for you to drink that water? How well are they really filtered? It’s an important thing to look at. So for me, it’s really about using eco-friendly, clean products in my house that don’t make me nervous going down the drain. Again, really eliminating bottled water waste. i mean god, the amount of plastic they use that’s totally unnecessary. bottled water is not as regulated as tap water. So in thinking about all the things that could be in your tap, those are all the things that can be in your bottled water and they say it’s from an exotic locale when it isn’t. Why are you paying all this money? Why are you wasting all this plastic? it is part of the reason i blogged about the Water bobble. i love the idea of that so very much. So often people say, ‘Oh well you know i’m using my brita at home and yes of course i’ll drink tap water but if i have to go somewhere and use a water fountain, i don’t know if that’s filtered. I’ll just go buy a bottle of water.’ Well, take your filter with you. Take your filter, take your bottle and never use a plastic bottle again. DANieLLe OLSeN: Do you feel a duty to use your celebrity to spread word about important issues? SOPHiA bUSH: A duty? No. No, i mean, i think there are plenty of people who don’t care to use their platforms. For me, it’s just a no brainer. it’s something i’ve always cared about, something that mattered to me and for a long time i didn’t want to open up that box. You really don’t know what’s going to come out at you; it is a bit of a Pandora’s box, this whole world of social media and personal exposure. Particularly when you do what i do, which is go to work and you play someone else everyday. I wonder if I’m finally starting to put too much of myself out there will people be able to believe the character that i play? i really believe that we can change things. i really believe that all our little voices can build up into something enormous and powerful and I just figure, “You know, screw it.” i have to do this. it’s in my heart and it’s what matters to me more than my career. it is what matters to me more than anything. FEED ME SEYMOUR, FEED ME ALL NIGHT LONG! Jeni Jenkins, Staff Writer The title of this column is taken from the 1986 film “Little Shop of Horrors,” where a plant keeper must meet the demands of a ravenous plant that feeds on humans. Instead of plants that feed on people, this column is for people who feed on plants!! WALNUT BROCCOLI STIRFRY Don’t miss this delish dish ! 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 cup walnuts 2 cloves garlic, minced 3 cups broccoli florets 1 cup carrots 3 packages ramen noodles 1/2 cup sweet chili sauce 1 cup of veggie broth 2 tablespoons soy sauce LOREM Aliquam blandit Praesent molestie lorem IPSUM Ante magna vehicula Sed turpis 1 20oz can pineapple chunks in pineapple juice un-drained 2 teaspoons ground ginger •Sauté garlic and walnuts in oil over medium high heat, about 2 minutes •Add the broccoli and carrots •Cook on medium heat until tender, about 4-5 minutes •In a bowl mix together the veggie broth, chili sauce, soy sauce and ginger •Add mixture and pineapple chunks with juice to veggies and bring to a boil. •Break ramen noodles in half and mix into the veggies. •Cook on medium heat about 4 minutes or until noodles are tender. •Voila, FEED! Etiam ac libero �10 Story and Poetry Now I Give to Thee! eLiSA HiLL Contributing Writer and Streetvibes Distributor Damn, I have a space in my throat that just won’t let me scream. I try to weep to keep myself from going fucking insane. Most times I don’t even know what is going on in everybody else’s life. Yet and still, I am always treated as the outcast, now pass the pipe. I’ve tried to give of myself in and unselfish way. Only to be torn down and treated like less than a damn slave. It makes you lose your self esteem. That anything that you could be in this life, is nothing in there site. I have tried hoping that there is one damn person who feels me worthy to be alive. Only to look the fuck around and see that there is no one sitting by my side. Cry tears, for what? They only make it worse, now I feel that I am forever cursed. I feel like I have no love, no life, no hope and no real plight. God please save me! What am I doing here just filling in for empty space. Even he regrets my presence because; I just seem to get in his way. How can this be when I am especially made? I am a blessing that you my God gave to this life! I am a bright star burning throughout the verses. I flow demolishing misconceptions and misunderstood purposes. Lord, I do have a great will to live and I know what it takes to survive. I won’t let them to continue to do this to me. I will believe in myself and know that soon, you my father, will provide. Then like a surprise snow ball to the side of my face. I hear my God say, “now I give to thee!” The Prediction WiLLA DeNiSe JONeS Contributing Writer and Streetvibes Distributor What would you do if you could predict your every tomorrow? Remembering that tomorrow never comes it’s always today, now that can bring some sorrow Thinking of the changes that the people of the world are being subjected too Remembering the day of the past is what I’ll always cherish for thinking today can be awe so cruel Today there is a complete new set of words we as a people must learn Words like: Shut em down, unemployment rising, evictions and homelessness, now I’m concerned So do you believe that we could make a change in this world If we could predict our future? Believe me being a democrat, a republican or a socialist we all come up a loser Believe that this is God’s world; somehow, the world seems to have forgotten Believe if we as mankind don’t come back to God we’ll all be lost, burned up and then turn rotten To be able to predict tomorrow or for me to be a psychic honestly is not my choice Now predict the readings of the bible about God’s return I believe it’s time for the politicians to heed to God’s voice!!! St r eet vibeS A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 Where Do Your Children Eat? buddy gray Excellent work crew today Spring Street Republic Street 13th Street Peete Street. I brought in 2 children, boy 13, girl 10 who helped on work crew… boy cut his foot, so we carried him “home” to DIC to patch up minor cut. We invited them to eat lunch. They ate coffee with one inch of sugar in cup and 4 creams… He said it helps them “keep going” because they don’t eat every day at their house. The girl’s (his cousin) family had doubled up with his family 8-10 people in two rooms. He said he’s used to it. He gave up his bead for his Aunt and her kids. He was not nasty, angry or bitter. The girl (age 10) said her family had moved away from Millvale because of drug dealers and shootings she had seen. The boy (age 13) said he could make it, he had learned how to go often 3 days without food. She asked me “where my children eat.” He and she were not bitter about sharing their little with too many others. What kind of Country do we live in? We just lost 79 American soldiers lives to conduct an aerial bombing of a small, under developed country – killing 500,000 to 750,000 people, many as retreating soldiers and making several million people homeless and starving, dying of polluted water, disease. What kind of Country spends $200 B to annihilate another tiny nation of people, men, women and children while one of its own children, going hungry regularly for 2 or 3 days asks a homeless shelter worker the fundamental, simple, honest question: March 30, 1991--Written 20 years ago, yet the problem is not better, it is worse. More children without homes and more money spent on war. We steal life all around us. �Reflections St r ee t v ib e S 11 A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 Continued From Page 1 Questions Matter MOLLY BRAZIER Anthropology t his semester has been emotionally challenging, academically lax, and intellectually expansive. I learned how to barter over fish and asparagus at Findlay market. i have practiced the art of declining cat calls, navigating one-ways, saying no to cocaine, and i like to think i have done my part in helping out a small non-profit. i have been given the time to grapple with some Back to Front: Nathan DeVore; Molly Brazier; Jose Gutierrez. Natalie Otrembiak, Student Photographer Why? KAT ROOSEN Architecture came to Over-the-rhine with culturally experienced eyes, but a very rudimentary understanding of the social, economic and political forces that act on urban society. i have travelled to many countries around the world, have seen all types of poverty and excessive wealth, and political, economic and social systems. being from Detroit, i know how destitute some inner cities have become. because of these factors i cannot honestly say that i was really shocked by anything i encountered on the streets of Over-the-rhine. What really got me this semester, though, was learning about why things are the way they are and how the community has come together to combat those forces. Over the course of the semester, i learned more than i have ever learned about the creation of the ghetto, welfare, poverty, the interconnectivity of race and class, gentrification, mixed-income housing and lastly, community. I was baffled by how much had been going on in these realms of which i had simply never heard, to which i had never been exposed. I find this incredibly disturbing because i have come to realize how invaluable this knowledge is, how important it is to understand the urban core, especially if you want to work or live there, which is what i want to do i hope to eventually return to Detroit and work in the innercity. the semester has become irreplaceable in that it has taught i big issues that–while generally aware of–i have never been able to tackle face-to-face. i have single handedly witnessed the complexities and emotions of what people call “gentrification.” I have re-evaluated my own career path as my understanding of American economics has expanded and i have processed and reprocessed my ability to cope with the realities of the world while negotiating my own place within it. What has really gone on here has been a process of growth. it came, i think, in different moments of inspiration, of depression, of hopelessness, of stubbornness, and reflection. Never before have i helped a homeless woman—drunk and laying in her own pee—off of the sidewalk and given her something to eat and rush off to class in the hope that she would recover. Never before have i felt threatened by the presence of a group of men walking behind me, their taunts growing louder and more vulgar as i clenched a key between my knuckles and sped up. Never before has my whiteness or class been called out on a daily basis, marking me as an outsider, as a minority, or as a threat to a community feeling the pressure of change. there were times this semester i felt overwhelmed with a growing sense of emotional overload followed by a personal distancing of myself from the need i was consistently exposed to. Coming home from the Contact Center, which has no money and yet continues to fight against poverty, only to go to class and learn about the injustices our world faces and then walk home through a neighborhood filled with need was at times difficult. there were days when i spent all my intern time interviewing people who were in desperate need of healthcare or could not afford to take care of their families. Then, when finally having the spare time to grapple with these issues, i was so overwhelmed with emotion i felt like all i wanted to do was take me many of the skills i will eventually need when i return to my hometown. it has taught me the importance of true community, meaning the value of loving your neighbors and allowing community to flourish within and out of its own self. it is as if trying too hard to create a community ruins it and tends to end in the exclusion of certain people, something i have witnessed here in Over-the-rhine. i hope to never forget this and use this knowledge to foster community in my own life. the interview i had with Al rohs taught me how valuable it is to connect with people. He has become such an influential figure in Over-The-Rhine for the simple fact that he listens and helps everyone. As i leave this place, i hope to never forget the things i have learned here. i plan on returning from time to time, so that i may witness how Over-the-rhine continues to grow and change and how true community continues to thrive in the streets of Over-therhine. in every way imaginable, including random encounters, new friendships, and an abundance of information, this semester has made me confident in my ability to create change. i am now overloaded with information about the city, which has forced me to create my own opinions about the information we have discussed. i am now confident and capable of having an intellectual conversation with others about urban society and providing support for my arguments when challenged. My understanding of the world has grown substantially and i credit this residency Program with pushing me to the edge of my beliefs. See Reflictions Pg. 13 myself away from it. How do you tell a generation of children suffering from poor school systems, who have never been told they have the ability to go to college, that education is the key to their success? How do you reach out to the political powers of our State from the office of a place that cannot afford to buy computer paper? Is gentrification really the only solution to a community crippled by high poverty? Who defines when a community is of mixed-income? Will mixed-income, in and of itself, save the poor from their poorness? in a world where capital is king, should we be fighting gentrification or the deeper systematic injustices that have worked to fuel it? Where does one begin, and in what capacity, to take a stand? i do not have all of the answers to these questions. but by living here and experiencing life here, i have expanded my understanding of just how the solutions to these problems may be procured. Sitting at the fundraising dinner for the Coalition for the Homeless, surrounded by the faces of people i have worked with throughout the neighborhood, i saw in a moment what change looks like. Here in a room filled with long-time community activists, grant writers, sponsors, donors, college students, and a myriad of others in between, i was in the midst of community development. through these people, words become actions. ideas become movement. energy becomes change. i am very thankful for my time here. i will forever remain connected in an attempt to live beyond my own individual existence. i will continue to tell others the important lessons that i have learned here. And wherever my career path leads, i will maintain awareness and a connectedness to those less fortunate so that i may forever be humbled by the bigness of the world. the people i have met have been truly inspiring, challenging, and moving.  |        �12 International News St r eet vibeS A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 Momentum grows in call for hemp to be legalized in South Africa An increasing number of South Africans are throwing their weight behind a call for hemp to be made legal in the country, which supporters say will help create jobs and provide housing for South Africa’s poor. tOM riCHeLL The Big Issue (South Africa) www.streetnewsservice.org S upport for an online petition entitled “Hemp Now”, calling for the immediate legalization of industrial hemp, has snowballed with more than 300 signatories and more signing on by the day. the Hemp Now campaign wants hemp - a type of cannabis plant that does not have the intoxicating tHC compound found in cannabis that is smoked or ingested to “get high” - to be legalized for its 50,000 recorded uses, including clothing, eco-friendly building materials and paper. Hemp seed and oil is also rich in vitamins and the Omega 3 and 6 essential Hemp Now spokesperson, Tony Budden, dressed in a hemp material shirt, against a “hempcrete” wall fatty acids, leading advocates to label it a “super food”. holding hemp hurds (housing insulation). The Big Issue South Africa/Pippa Ehrlich tony budden, spokesperson for Hemp Now and a partner in Hemporium, which imports hemp for use in across South Africa to join the 28 countries worldwide that have already South Africa, said: “As a company that has been manufacturing and legalized the growth of the plant for industrial purposes. selling hemp products for 15 years, Hemporium is tired of having to the campaign also emphasizes that it wants to put an end to “botaniimport our raw material and supporting the industry in other countries, cal racism”, arguing that hemp is unfairly viewed as a drug whereas it when we can see how it has the potential to provide jobs, houses has no intoxicating effects and its legalization would and nutrition to create a more sustainable economy and a “Hemporium is tired of having to import our help - three very green future for South Africa. necessary and raw material and supporting the industry in the clout the petition will have is still unknown, but under-supplied is hoping for long-term positive results: “the other countries, when we can see how it has the budden components petition is part of a larger movement that is currently of our society. potential to provide jobs, houses and nutrition” building a lot of momentum with regards to hemp in Hemp can do South Africa. it is effective in giving a voice to supthis in a way porters of hemp who often feel frustrated by the stagthat benefits the environment too, and we feel South Africa has the ponation of hemp research and don’t have a way of communicating their tential to become a world leader in the ethical and environmental hemp opinions regarding this valuable resource.” industry.” For more information, visit: www.hempnow.co.za the Hemp Now petition calls for hemp to be legalized immediately Reflections Continued from pages 1 and 11 Becoming Myself ASHLeY KiNCAiD Architecture i am not the person i was when i swung open the gate at 1324 race St. in August. that girl was quiet, scared, and certain she knew what she wasn’t. i could never let anyone see this. i was eternally fearful of saying, doing, or believing the wrong things. i never wanted to offend or make anyone feel uncomfortable. but something happened. i was uncomfortable. My domes of Oakwood and Oxford had been lifted, but it felt as if they had been violently ripped away from me. I smiled on the sidewalk and floated through classes with an air of intention and belonging, but once i was safely alone, i was broken. i was not experiencing what i was supposed to. On the surface, everyone else assimilated into this community flawlessly. They felt comfortable. they loved this place and wanted to stay. i couldn’t let anyone see that i felt differently. then, in a moment of weakness i had a realization: i am not anyone but myself. it was silly to think i was meant to experience this semester the same way as others. in that moment, everything changed. i let myself experience and mourn the pain around me, the homelessness, the hopelessness, the hurt. this place they call Over-the-rhine is more than beautiful architecture; it is more than politics and policy. this place is community; it is people and children, lives and mistakes. There are people who are fighting through everyday, and then there are those that have given in and given up. i have to admit, sometimes it was very hard to walk into studio and feel that i was making a difference. the only things evident and tangible were the calluses, scabs, and aches. In a very selfish way, I wanted people to know what i was doing and why i was doing it. every time i was asked what i was doing down in Over-the-rhine, my answer was automatic and technical: living down here, architecture credit, construction, service-learning. these things were not what i was experiencing or feeling, but they were the easiest to verbalize. What was i doing in Over-the-rhine? i was breaking out of my comfort zone, slowly and painfully. i was helping, with every swing of the hammer and every piece of flooring. In the end, I was a small part of something beautiful. Not just the obvious, visual beauty of the space at 1300 vine. but the beauty of the effect that this Program had in its short run. As students we were stretched. We were challenged, we were taught, we were changed. i will never forget Over-the-rhine. i will never forget the faces and stories that i passed in my paint-covered yoga pants everyday. i will never forget the professors that showed their raw passion for the untold tragedies of this place. i will never forget the family that we formed, with our inside jokes that make no sense and our ability to say a thousand words with a glance. When i started this semester, i was always open to listening to others beliefs and problems, but i don’t think i ever let them affect me. i was set in my ways.if i had to choose one word to describe my semester it would be: affected. i am affected to my very core and i hope that even the smallest piece of this community is affected because of my presence. See Reflections Page 13 �St r ee t v ib e S A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 Reflections 13 Reflections Continued from Page 12 New Lands NATALIE OTREMBIAK Architecture Student i grew up in Northern Kentucky hearing about Over-the-Rhine and the “horrific” things that happen there and the “dangerous people” that live there. People are described as poor, black, homeless, drug addicts, and dealers. From the newspapers, media, and adults around me, Over-the-rhine seemed to be a far-away evil place that should never be encountered. I was intrigued to find that Miami University had a Program that assisted this local community with the skills and time of their students. i wanted to partake in this engagement. i was curious about this place and its people just across the river from me but has always felt like a distant land. i wanted to use my time and energy to assist an underprivileged community all the while learning something in my field of interest. And I did learn, especially from my interaction with the community. Here in Over-the-rhine, i have learned that people are powerful through their voices, ideas, and community. What drives change in our world is determined by ideas. the communication of ideas is powerful. the ability to listen and be open to understanding when someone speaks are crucial. through the Over-the-rhine Program i have encountered several challenges in communication. For example, i was part of a communitybased team, sponsored by the Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, to draft a “People’s Platform for equality and Justice.” We were trying to communicate issues relevant to the neighborhood to get people involved with the Coalition and to advance a movement of people. these issues are very complex, and we had to put the message across in a few images and words. it was fascinating to see how something seemingly so simple could be so complicated. Simple editing went for weeks. i experienced a vast variety of people and their opinions. these experiences are what i value from Over-the-rhine. these people are not evil deviants that must be expunged. they are trying to gain a voice, people that want to be listened to and understood. they are trying to change the stereotypes placed on the area and its people. Over-the rhine is a place that is friendly in its own culture. When i walk down the streets people ask me how i am doing, and say “God bless you.” People here are always interacting with one another—walking side by side on the streets, having public places nearby to go to, and sitting out on the front stoops socializing. the community is very close spatially and in its relationships and experiences. this is an environment different from the secluded suburbs where people are either at work or cooped up in their homes. Over-the-rhine welcomed me and i’ve learned so much from the genuine human interaction and the experiences with communication. It Takes Time GONZALO MArtiNeZ Architecture Student specifically chose to take part in the Overthe-rhine residency Program because i wanted to broaden my perspective on life and shatter preconceptions i have had about inner-city life. the Program presented a unique opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and immerse myself in a foreign world. At the time i had only a fuzzy idea of what the Program was about, and honestly, i came to Over-the-rhine not knowing what to expect. Having spent most of my life growing up in middle-class suburbia outside of Washington D.C., my perception of impoverished inner-city neighborhoods was vague at best. bearing this in mind, i decided i would move in to Over-the- i rhine and try to be as objective as possible. Over-therhine fostered an incredible transformative process in me. i didn’t realize it at the moment, but now it is plain to see that i am not the same person i was at the beginning of the semester. My perspectives have changed. During this semester, more than any other of my college career, i was able to learn as much, if not Left to Right: Natalie Otrembiak; Danielle Musselman. Ellen Crawford. more outside of class as i did during class time. My Now that we see the world more clearly, we alternative education took the form of talking to can help others clear their eyes as well. neighborhood residents, engaging the comI never thought I would find myself interactmunity through volunteer service, as well as by ing with homeless folks or ex-felons. Now, living with a vibrant group of peers who shared however, whatever barriers might have prea variety of diverse experiences with me. vented me from interacting with them are At the start of the semester, i was foolish to gone, for i have learned that they are no differthink that the service work we were doing was ent than me; they have simply grown up under going to make changes manifest themselves different circumstances. No one is inherently immediately in the neighborhood. through inferior, flawed, or evil. We are all just people the course of this semester i learned that real living out our lives as best as we can, given change takes time—more than a semester at what we have. it can be incredibly depressing least. Yet, in that process of learning, it beto hear the stories of some of the residents of came easy to feel defeated. i started to think Over-the-rhine. they have dealt with situathat our presence in the neighborhood was not tions i cannot even begin to relate to. Couple producing positive results, especially when pit- that with our classes, where we studied the ted against the physical transformation occurstructural problems that have led to such dire ring all around us. the renovation of Washing- situations for some people while others profton Park became symbolic of our frustrations. ited from their misery and all of the sudden i How could we ever alter the direction of progbegan to feel negative. i was not sure if i felt ress? Although it was difficult to see at times, I guilt, anger, anguish, or a combination of all am now certain the work we did this semester three. How come i have such a privileged life has undoubtedly made a difference. No matter when others have nothing? Why the heck do how small our contribution was in the grand we have such extensive abject poverty in the scheme of things, what’s important is that we richest nation of the world? these questions made a positive impact on the community infuriated me. However, negativity never leads that exists in Over-the-rhine. the beauty of to good things and i learned that maintaining it is that in trying to make that change in the a positive attitude throughout my experience community, the community changed us for the was not only the best way to cope with the better. depressing reality of some people’s lives but Whether it was discussing plans for Peaslee also a vehicle for ideas on how to change the Neighborhood Center with our clients, Jenn status quo and Kathy, helping neighborhood children with Ultimately, i couldn’t have picked a better their art projects at the Children’s Creative way to end my undergraduate career. the Corner, sitting down at Canticle Café and hav- multitude of diverse experiences that i was ing a chat with the patrons, cleaning up abanable to get out of this Program far outweigh doned houses with the OtrCH work crew on anything i could have learned in Oxford. i the weekends, exploring Cincinnati with my came to Over-the-rhine seeking immersion peers, reflecting and sharing our experiences and to broaden my perspective and it did not in bonnie’s journaling sessions, or just the disappoint. Preconceptions have been shatcamaraderie present at our Sunday Potlucks, tered while awareness has gone way up. Yet, the richness of such diverse experiences now i realize that this is only the beginning of combined with the multidisciplinary education a new stage in my life where doors have been offered by the residency Program made this opened and barriers cleared away. Wherever semester such a transformative experience for life takes me from here, i know that i will have me. in learning more about what was going the wisdom gained from this semester in the around us, we learned more about ourselves. Over-the-rhine residency Program guiding And that became a valuable asset to helping the decisions that i take. us become better citizens. Citizens who are These students also took part in commuaware of the injustices at play in our capitalnity engagement this past fall: ist society. Citizens who are not afraid to step Nathan Devore, Anthropology out of their comfort zone and become active Kayla evans, Art Education participants in their community. Citizens who Jose Gutierrez, Architecture refuse to subscribe to the same old stereotypes that group the poor, the blacks, and JoePaul Luikart, Architecture the homeless into homogenous categories of Danielle Musselman, Architecture deviant minorities. i could go on, but the point robert Weyreter, Business is this has been an eye-opening experience. �Opportunities 14 St r eet vibeS A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 Summer Internship Program The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) is currently accepting applications for 5 part-time unpaid summer interns. Each intern will create an individual work plan and be assigned a specific project or provide general support for a particular program during the specified time period. ABOUT: GCCH located in Over-the-Rhine is a non-profit social action agency established in 1984 with the solitary mission of eradicating homelessness. GCCH works towards this mission by coordinating services, educating the public, grassroots organizing and advocacy and publishing and distributing the Streetvibes newspaper. Homeless and formerly homeless individuals are incorporated into all programs and initiatives at GCCH. PROGRAM DATES: Summer internships range from a 2-3 month commitment which is negotiated on an individual level and flexible between May and September (dependent on university summer term). TIME COMMITMENT: Flexible hours, approx. 15-20 hours per week; must be able to attend weekly staff meetings. Summer interns typically attend school and/or work part-time jobs as long as they do not interfere with the internship commitment. INTERNSHIPS AVAILABLE: Development intern- reports directly to the Director of Development and Operations Education & Outreach Intern- reports directly to the Director of Education & Outreach Statistics Intern- reports directly to the Director of Education & Outreach information technology intern- reports directly to the executive Director Journalism, Media & Public Relations Intern- reports directly to the Editor of Streetvibes GENERAL QUALIFICATIONS: Hard working and have the ability to work independently with limited supervision. Creative and willing to bring fresh ideas to the table and a positive attitude. Have a minimum of one year of undergraduate work completed Must be able to use a computer Good written and oral communication skills and diligence about checking work for spelling and grammar mistakes Familiarity with Microsoft Office including Excel and Word Interest in learning about local area nonprofit agencies A commitment to serving those in poverty Comfortable working with and speaking to homeless individuals Good interpersonal skills and an ability to communicate with a wide range of individuals Dependable TO APPLY: If interested please send a cover letter and resume with desired internship title (e.g. Development Intern) in the subject line to HYPERLINK “mailto:gcch. intern@gmail.com” gcch.intern@gmail.com. Interviews will be held in early May. Direct any questions to the email listed above. INTERNSHIP DESCRIPTIONS: Development intern: Intern currently studying or interested in: Non-profit business development, administration, fundraising, marketing, individual giving, grant writing and pursuing donors. intern will assist and report to the Director of Development and Operations. Key tasks: Maintain and improve development plan Coordinate and acquire in-kind donations research and apply for grants Lead an individual giving campaign Work on Summer fundraiser as well as prepare for Winter Annual Dinner Communicate with donors via phone and letters Attend development committee meetings Streamline fundraising database Other tasks TBD. Education & Outreach Intern: intern currently studying or interested in: education (teaching and curriculum development), sociology, social justice, social work, program coordination & development, service learning and working with youth. intern will assist and report to the Director of education and Outreach. Key tasks: Main project: develop a plan for the implementation of the 2011 City-Wide Shantytown program during Homeless Awareness Month. Assist with improvements to the educational and service outreach plan research and update list of schools and social service agencies throughout the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area Assist with the facilitation of educational and service learning activities as needed Assist as a receptionist as needed Other tasks tbD. Statistics intern: intern currently studying or interested in: research, statistical analysis, math, social science research, computer science, engineering or related field. Intern will assist and report to the Director of education and Outreach. Key tasks: Main project: Work independently to assess GCCH’s programs; compile, review and analyze data; develop a plan for tracking data and analyzing outcomes; track and analyze outcomes for a specified time period and create a final report. Gather, collect, record, track and verify data and information. Uses software to compile and generate reports, statistics, timelines, tables, graphs, correspondence and presentations. Assist with the development of a database for tracking and analyzing program data. Assist with compiling updated statistical data related to homelessness and poverty with a focus on Ohio and links to national statistics. Other tasks TBD. information technology intern: intern currently studying or interested in: information technology, networking, managing software and hardware, computer science or related field. Intern will assist and report to the executive Director. Key tasks: Main project: Work independently to assess GCCH’s stock of computers, swipe old computers of data and recycle; assess and update computer software on computers in use; determine networking capabilities and develop and implement a plan to put all computer data on a server. Other duties related to computer management including: assessing security risks and updating anti-virus software. Assist with the development of a database for tracking and analyzing program data. Assist with the launch of GCCH’s new website. Other tasks tbD. Journalism, Media & Public Relations Intern: intern currently studying or interested in: Journalism, public relations, social networking, advertising, marketing or related field. Intern will assist and report to the editor of Streetvibes. Key tasks: Main project: Work independently to upload articles and pictures from old Streetvibes editions to the Streetvibes online blog as well as GCCH’s website. Develop a viable newspaper recycling plan. build up readership and support of Streetvibes and GCCH’s via social networking sites. Assist with reporting, photojournalism, production, copy editing and advertising as needed. Other tasks TBD. �Resources St r ee t v ib e S 15 A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 Shelter: Women and Children Central Access Point Cincinnati Union Bethel St. Francis Soup Kitchen Churches Active in Northside 381-SAFe 768-6907 FreeStore/FoodBank 557-2873 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 300 Lytle Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Bethany House 4230 Hamilton Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45223 241-1064 112 e. Liberty Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 1841 Fairmount Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45214 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 762-5660 271-5501 4600 erie Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 St. Vincent de Paul 6037 Cary Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45224 Salvation Army 535-2719 591-2246 562-8841 872-9259 381-2247 5 e. Liberty St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 Health Resource Center Homeless Mobile Health Van McMicken Dental Clinic 357-4602 352-2902 352-6363 40 e. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mental Health Access Point Mercy Franciscan at St. John 558-8888 981-5800 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 NAMI of Hamilton County PATH Outreach 1125 bank Street, Cinti, Ohio 45214 131 e. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter Crossroad Health Center 458-6670 977-4489 Treatment: Men Other Resources Shelter: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 2121 vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Prospect House 241-0490 381-4941 Starting Over 1419 elm Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 682 Hawthorne Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45205 Justice Watch St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 961-4663 Treatment: Both 761-1480 1821 Summit road, Cinti, Ohio 45237 Drop Inn Center 721-0643 Interfaith Hospitality Network Lighthouse Youth Center (Youth) 471-1100 221-3350 3330 Jefferson, Cinti, Ohio 45220 Housing: CMHA Excel Development OTR Community Housing 721-4580 632-7149 381-1171 114 W. 14th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tender Mercies 721-8666 27 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tom Geiger House Dana Transitional Bridge Services Volunteers of America Anna Louise Inn 961-4555 751-0643 381-1954 421-5211 621-5300 961-1983 Otr: 1620 vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert, Cinti, Ohio 45206 Our Daily Bread 351-0422 381-6672 830 ezzard Charles Dr. Cinti, Ohio 45214 621-6364 1730 race Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 RIGHT To The City Continued from Pages 6 and 7 four biDs claiming harassment (Ailworth and Wan 2004). Similar complaints were levied at New York biDs, a decade earlier, in the 1990s (Lambert 1995). in April 1995, the New York times ran an article which included confessions of abusing homeless people by employees of the New York biD, the Grand Central Partnership (Lambert 1995). The article began: “bubba, big black, Kizer and red are the street names of four men who have said they served on squads that beat up the homeless. they said that in recent years, while working for the Grand Central Partnership, they and others threatened, bullied and attacked homeless people to force them from doorways, bank vestibules, plazas and sidewalks all over Manhattan. “We beat people at Sixth and Waverly,” said ernest Montgomery, a 6-foot 4-inch amateur boxer known as bubba. “We beat people at tudor City. We beat people at 51st and third. We beat people at 86th and third. We beat people at Herald Square and Gree- Goodwill industries Healing Connections Mary Magdalen House 771-4800 751-0600 721-4811 241-2965 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 1522 republic Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Hamilton County ADAS Board 946-4888 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 641-4300 Advocacy Catholic Social Action Community Action Agency Contact Center 421-3131 569-1840 381-4242 1227 vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Food/Clothing Lord’s Pantry OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry AA Hotline CCAT Joseph House (veterans) 217 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 381-0111 1223 Main St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 2728 Glendora Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45209 Caracole (Hiv/AiDS) 621-5514 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 961-4080 Peaslee Neighborhood Center Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart First Step Home Anthony House (Youth) 241-2600 241-2563 214 e. 14th St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 661-4620 Shelter: Both Center Independent Living Options Emmanuel Community Center 1308 race St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 961-2256 Treatment: Women 1437 Walnut Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mt. Airy Shelter 921-1613 St. Raephaels Salvation Army Serenity House Day Center Open Door Pantry 863-3184 863-1445 422-8555 868-3276 Northern Kentucky Brighton Center 859-491-8303 799 Ann St. Newport, KY Franciscan JPIC Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 721-4700 421-7803 117 e. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. Legal Aid Society Ohio Justice & Policy Center Faces Without Places Stop AIDS 579-8547 241-9400 421-1108 363-3300 421-2437 Health Center for Respite Care Hamilton/Middletown ECHO/Hosea House 859-261-5857 Fairhaven Resuce Mission 859-491-1027 Homeward Bound Youth 859-581-1111 Mathews House 859-261-8009 Homeless & Housing Coalition 859-727-0926 Parish Kitchen 859-581-7745 Pike St. Clinic 859-291-9321 Transitions, Inc 859-491-4435 Welcome House of NKY 859-431-8717 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 621-1868 3550 Washington Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45229 ley Square. We beat people at the roosevelt Hotel.” the men, former outreach workers in a program intended to help the homeless, said they carried out the attacks at the behest of an administrator of the Grand Central Partnership.” in general, there is minimal recognition by biDs that homeless people are part of the community and share a right to public space. to the contrary, homeless people are often viewed as part of the “community blight” and “broken windows” that must be removed by biDs in order to reduce crime. biD websites regularly list homelessness under the dropdown menu for “Safety.” in reality, however, homeless people are just as likely to be victims of crime, and private security has little effect on more serious crimes such as armed robbery (Scott 2003; Hoyt 2005). Moreover, although some homeless people are transient, most have been a part of their community for a long time (Scott 2003). the use of biD private security to remove homeless people from public space, however, is more than just about reducing crime. it is, more importantly, about increasing shopping. the presence of homeless people is seen by many business leaders as an important deterrent to shopping and tourism Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 VA Domiciliary 859-559-5011 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 in downtown urban areas (Noy Forthcoming). the prime function of biDs is to encourage such activities. Thus, a fundamental conflict often exists between homeless people and biDs. However, as mentioned above, biDs vary greatly in terms of their formation and functions. it is theoretically possible to create a biD which does not displace homeless people, and even one that assists homeless people. Some biDs do indeed include social service programs for homeless people within their operations. Understanding the range of forms that biDs may possibly take is crucial for thinking strategically about how to address, reform, collaborate with, or oppose biDs as part of campaigns for the “right to the City.” This excerpt has been taken from pages 2 thru 14 of “Strategizing the Right to the City: Business Improvement Districts and Homeless People,” a working paper published by the Western Regional Advocacy Project. WRAP is an organizing body in the western United States fighting to end homelessness. Please check out their website for the rest of this report, other publications, art for organizing, etc. www.wraphome.org �Column 16 St r eet vibeS A P r i L 2 9 - M AY 1 2 , 2 0 11 When the Greed for Oil Ignores Peak Oil Leigh Waltz’s recent art is public “emergency” art Cerebral and detached until then, Waltz’s art became more personal and “We can’t decide on our destination, we can only try engaged, reflecting his to decide on our journey,” says Leigh Waltz; and Waltz’s experiences, what he journey took him into many directions and to many parts had witnessed. After of the world. From a happy and art-filled childhood in returning from Iraq, Dayton, OH, he went as a high school exchange student he had a solo show, to Malaysia, lived in Europe studying languages and linguistics, enrolled in the Navy and served during Desert Taking Exception, at Storm, the Bosnian Theatre and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Dayton Convention Center, exposing raw studied movie and fine arts, taught photography, drawing his feelings, the brutal and sculpture. reality he had lived, his As a result, Waltz travelled to 34 countries and critical thoughts as a developed a universal sensibility and culture. He speaks result. It included large5 languages, holds a BA degree in cinema studies from scale white and black Columbia College, Hollywood, CA, an MFA degree in mixed media prints printmaking from the University of Cincinnati, and is with images of a cruise Adjunct Professor of art at Sinclair Community College, missile next to altered texts from the New Testament referring to war profiteers; Leigh Waltz in his studio in front of his 2 foam core carvings, Death and the Maiden pictures of Arab and Death and the Child. By Miki Waltz women with rocket propelled grenade launchers and dead civilians demands in oil would not be met after 2015. They had alluding to the destruction of life in a country; the predicted, as a result, catastrophic implications, unless attacked twin towers smoking with writing above Saad GhoSn the world transitioned from a highly industrial society to saying: “We believe everything”, thus reflecting Contributing Writer a sustainable one, from a society relying heavily on a on the 9/11 attacks as pretext for a greedy non fossil-fuel-based economy to one more organically and justifiable war; translated quotes from the Hadith more community-driven. Rob Hopkins had even started pointing to the highly moral and charitable teachings of Dayton, OH. He is a prolific artist who works across a Transition movement to get from a high to low energy Islam, in contrast to the prevailing preconceptions of a photography, video, printmaking, sculpture, performance consumption culture, favoring local organic gardening and violent and intolerant religion; images of sheep and knives community connectedness, thus adapting and surviving in and installation. Waltz’s awareness of violence, prejudice and intoler- - metaphors for the misinformed, naïve believers, blind the absence of oil. followers and media-victims most Americans had become. ance came first at age 11 when he saw a 200-year-old Convinced by the theory, Waltz started using his art “I was still coming back from Iraq,” says Waltz, “still copy of Dr. Southwell’s New Book of Martyrs; it contained to tackle the issue and educate others about peak oil. He living daily and at home my traumatized memories. I engravings depicting public executions and various acts received an individual artist grant to create an informationof torture. When he asked his father why people were kill- wanted my show to provide first-hand witnessed inforal booklet of wood engravings, poetry and writing, he titled mation, to compel viewers, make them think beyond ing other people, he was told because they had different Dans Macabre, implying that by doing nothing we’re dancreligions. This was complemented later by his awakening the routine brainwashing. I hoped it would also serve ing with death. He disseminated the book widely, posted as a step across cultural barriers, beyond prejudice and to the “haves and have-nots” in America and other counit on the Internet, raising awareness about its content. He preconceived ideas.” accompanied it by 2 large carvings, Death and the Maiden At the same and Death and the Child, depicting Death as a skeleton, time Waltz discov- taking by the arm a young girl using her cell phone, and ered the power of inviting a child to dance, each saying that, unless prelive performance pared, once fuel scarcity strikes, death will also come. art, when the artist To expand his target audience, Waltz worked recently could say, in front on Let’s Talk about Peak Oil, a combination of visual art of an audience, display, street art and performances. He designed a die things not said with the image of a skeleton pumping oil at a gas station; otherwise in news- he intends to use it to stamp aluminum sheets recovered papers, on radio or from discarded cans. Next to the stamped image of the TV. He organized skeleton, he would type aphorisms and quotes relating yearly in Dayton to peak oil, collected from www.theoilage.com. One for such festivals, instance would mention the second law of thermodynamopen to artists ics, which states that energy dissipates unless constantly from all over the replenished; another would list states and cities with peak world, and used oil legislation; etc. Waltz plans on nailing these aluminum the venue to conart pieces on telephone poles, street display boards, and tinue expressing to accompany them with street performances. his own concerns. “I want to get the word out so people would confront This allowed him the reality and take action,” he says. “I view it as necesto also apply for sary ‘emergency art’, trying to avert catastrophe.” grants, get funded, and video-docuWaltz’s interest in peak oil is directly connected to ment the events. his other concerns, in particular the “greed, lies, injustice, “I was lucky to poverty, pollution…” he sees everywhere. His deployment meet Mark Siemer in Iraq woke him up to the important role oil plays in our Let’s Talk about Peak Oil, stamped image and text on recycled aluminum. By Leigh Waltz, who worked on world; also to how truths are often silenced in our domiour video,” says Miki Waltz. nant media-controlled culture. His art has since become Waltz. “Mark was his voice and presence in a society where public distries he visited; and most recently, after his deployment in working at the same time on another documentary, The course and public forums are increasingly unavailable. Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil. the Iraq war, by discovering its real oil-based motives. I had never heard of peak oil before and thus became “Talking to army personnel in Northern Iraq, I found educated on the topic. I quickly realized it was essential out that their main responsibility on arrival was to sefor our survival.” cure the oil fields,” he says. “My unit in Qayyarah was In fact, scientists had observed for a while that close also helping build the largest fuel depot in the country. I to 50% of the planetary oil resources had already been learned quickly that our so-called liberation war was in used and that, due to the diminishing reserve, world fact all about oil, money and control.” Artists as Activists is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati artists who use art as a vehicle for change. Saad Ghosn is the founder of SOS Art. Ghosn can be reached at saad.ghosn@uc.edu. � 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 2011 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 April 29-May 12, 2011 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Transformation Pg 2: In My Shoes Pg 3: Light in Our Heads Pg 4: Street Life Springtime Congressional Meeting Pg 5: Suggested as a Program of Recovery Pg 6: Right to the City Pg 7: Right to the City Continued Pg 8: One Tree Hill Star Sophia Bush Talks About Women’s Rights and the Environment Pg 9: Sophia Bush Continued Pg 10: Arts & Poetry Pg 11: Questions Matter Pg 12: Momentum Grows in Call for Hemp to be Legalized in South Africa Pg 13: New Lands Pg 14: Summer Internship Program Pg 15: Housing Choice Voucher Pg 16: When the Greed for Oil Ignores Peak Oil 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 April 29-May 12, 2011 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jen Martin Sarah Hager Josh Spring Jeni Jenkins Laura Osborn-Coffey Riccardo Taylor Elisa Hill Willa Denise Jones Jim Luken Saad Ghosn The big issue South Africa Staff Buddy Gray Western regional Advocacy Project Michael Henson Natalie Otrembiak Ashley Kincaid Kat Roosen Molly Brazier Ellen Crawford Aimie Willhoite Rueters Pippa Ehrlich Keith Bedford Phil McCarten Leigh Waltz Miki Waltz Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Aimie Willhoite Ashley Kincaid buddy gray civil rights Elisa Hill Ellen Crawford Hemp Internships Jen Martin Jeni Jenkins Jim Luken Josh Spring Kat Roosen Keith Bedford Kentucky Laura Osborn-Coffey Leigh Waltz Michael Henson Miki Waltz Molly Brazier Natalie Otrembiak Oil Phil McCarten Pippa Ehrlich recovery Riccardo Taylor Rueters Saad Ghosn Sarah Hager Sophia Bush South Africa Street Life The big issue South Africa Staff Western regional Advocacy Project Willa Denise Jones Women’s Rights