Street SpiritJ U S T I C E N E W S & H O M E L E S S B L U E S I N T H E B A Y A R E A

Volume 17, No. 12 December 2011 $1.00

A publication of the American Friends Service Committee

by Pastor Brian K. Woodson

Wednesday, November 2, I spentthe day among millions.Wednesday, the day of the

General Strike called by Occupy Oakland,I found myself floating in a sea of human-ity whose river flowed, guided by aninvisible hand through the streets ofOakland. I believe I felt the presence ofGod moving or the voice of God speak-ing, but not in any way that I have beforeexperienced the Divine.

Certainly, the power and peace of Godwas present, but that presence was so farout of the box that holds my theology, soci-ology and psychology that I am not sure Ican understand it yet. I do not have anumbrella scripture that can encompass theexperience or a Bible story that can mirrorit. I know deeply that God wishes to speakto me through this experience because theOccupy Movement and those moments inthe streets of my city connect so verydirectly to a lifetime of my prayers andpreaching. So, I awakened early on themorning the day after to prayerfully beginto search for meaning.

That Wednesday marked a week andone day after the tragic attempt to disbandthe Oakland encampment of the OccupyMovement. The attempt turned almostdeadly violent. Early that Tuesday morn-ing, October 25, a police force with offi-cers from 17 different police departments,and led by the Oakland Police Department,came to order the campers to leave theplaza in front of City Hall where they hadoccupied for more than a month.

The police met with resistance. That isto say that there were those who stood to

deliberately and determinedly defy theorders of the police. Oakland Police ChiefHoward Jordan said his officers were vio-lently attacked and responded. Othersreport that the police were aggressive andwere unprovoked by demonstrators.Whatever the provocation, there ensuedthat morning an armed police responsethat included teargas, rubber bullets, beanbags and other so-called �“non-lethal�”forms of weaponry.

Live reports from the police actionrecorded moments that sound like a warzone. In the mêlée, a two-tour veteran ofthe Iraq war, Scott Olsen, was criticallywounded when he was hit in the head bywhat was reported as a teargas canistershot directly at him.

On Wednesday, October 26, the dayafter the plaza had been cleared, cleanedand sanitized, there was a mass meeting infront of Oakland City Hall. It lasted late

into the night. I was there. I was there as anonviolent clergy person with other non-violent clergy persons to do whatever wecould to prevent any further violence.

A lot of people were out that night. Wewere shoulder to shoulder and filled thesquare. During the general assembly, itwas decided that there would be a GeneralStrike on Wednesday the following week.

Oakland Pastor Reflects on the Occupy Movement

by Ellen Danchik

On November 15, a demonstra-tion was held at the StateBuilding in Oakland to protestimpending �“trigger cuts�” in the

California legislature that will cut hun-dreds of millions of dollars from essentialservices. The rally was organized by theCalifornia Partnership, along with ParentVoices, BOSS, St. Mary�’s Center, and theCenter for Independent Living.

In the period from 2008 through 2011,the State of California slashed social ser-vices drastically, cutting a total of $15 bil-lion from In Home Supportive Services,education, childcare, programs for seniorsand the disabled, and medical care forlow-income people. All these programshave already suffered severe, sometimes

ruinous budget reductions.Schools have closed, Medi-Cal recipi-

ents no longer have dental or optical care,the Brown Bag nutrition program hasbeen eliminated, SSI benefits for disabledpeople have been reduced to below thefederal poverty level, and In HomeSupportive Services (IHHS) have been cutby $128.3 million.

When the state budget was passed inJune 2011, it was with the contingencythat automatic �“trigger cuts�” would gointo effect in January 2012 if not enoughrevenue was generated in the six-monthperiod from June until December 2011.

The exact budgetary figures will berevealed on December 15, but based onpreliminary reports from Controller John

See A Pastor Reflects page 5

During the General Strike, many thousands marched several miles to shut down the Port of Oakland. Ariel Messman-Rucker photo

We, like 99% of the people marching in Oakland, were unified by the desperate conditionof our world, our families and our future. We were the cry of the lost oak trees that oncelived here, as well as the moans of the Ohlone people who once thrived here.

Poor Women Will Be FirstVictims of State Cutbacks�“Even if we have to come out in our wheelchairs, even ifwe have to come out with our guide dogs, even if we haveto bring our children, even if we have to come out limp-ing, we will be heard!�” �— LaTanya Wolf, St. Mary�’s Center

Clarissa Doutherd and her four-year-old child at the Oakland rally.She described the destructive effects of the cuts on her own family.

Photo by JannyCastillo

See Oakland Protest page 8

December 2011ST R E E T SP I R I T2

by Lynda Carson

Tens of thousands of protestersfrom the Occupy movement arehitting the streets in Oakland,San Francisco, New York, Los

Angeles and cities all across the nation,demonstrating against brutal budget cutsand the social inequality that pushes fami-lies into poverty and hunger. Yet even asthese protests against economic inequalitysweep the nation, massive budget cutscontinue to devastate public housing andsocial programs that serve the poor.

The attacks on poor people, workersand students are being carried out on twolevels at once, in the form of economicinjustice that shreds the social safety netand police repression that brutalizes thedemonstrators.

Protesters from Occupy Oakland havebeen clubbed, tear-gassed, arrested, andshot by police. Peaceful students havebeen pepper-sprayed at U.C. Davis, andstudents at U.C. Berkeley have beenviciously beaten in violent and unjustifiedpolice attacks. In the midst of this highlyvisible repression, public housing pro-grams are undergoing a less visible, yetequally serious assault that will result inenormous suffering for poor families.

Our nation�’s 1.2 million public housingunits are already in need of more than $25billion in repairs, and waiting lists forpublic housing are so long that millions oflow-income families who qualify for pub-lic housing are forced to wait for yearsjust to get on the waiting list.

Despite this crisis, on November 17,Congress passed legislation that imposedmassive budget cuts amounting to $3.7billion to our nation�’s housing programs,cuts that were signed into law byPresident Obama a day later. Public hous-ing is being drastically underfunded, andis now 22 percent less than Obama�’s orig-inal request for FY 2012.

Tens of thousands of public housingunits may be lost as a result. And whilethousands of families in public housingare placed at risk of living in substandardconditions or becoming homeless, theBerkeley Housing Authority (BHA) hasrecently entered into an exclusive negoti-ating rights agreement to sell Berkeley�’s75 occupied public housing units to bil-lionaire Stephen M. Ross, and The

Related Companies of California. Public housing residents will be placed

at risk of displacement and homelessness ifthe billionaire owner of The RelatedCompanies and Miami Dolphins gets hishands on Berkeley�’s 75 townhouse publichousing units. Billionaire Ross is alreadyinvolved in a housing project in Oaklandthat displaced 178 poor families from theirpubic housing at the former ColiseumGardens Public Housing Project, nowcalled Lion Creek Crossings.

Anne Marie Dent is disabled andresides in Berkeley�’s public housing. �“Ido not like what I am hearing about thetakeover of our public housing,�” she said.

�“I am afraid of being displaced. I believethat it should remain as public housing. I donot think that billionaires should be allowedto grab our public housing. It is not fair.There are too many poor people in needcurrently, and public housing was nevermeant to be for billionaires.�”

Public housing resident Anna Smithsaid, �“All I know is that the rumors aregoing around that the building I reside in isbeing sold to a billionaire that owns a foot-ball team. I heard that I would learn moredetails from the BHA sometime in March.�”

Smith said the plan to sell public hous-ing would jeopardize her family�’s verysurvival, adding that the prospect of beingdisplaced from her longtime home hasalready created great insecurity and fearfor her children and grandchildren.

�“I have lived here in public housingsince 1992,�” Smith said, �“and I was toldthat this was my home to raise a family in.Now I am being told that I will have tomove. I have grandchildren living withme that are teenagers in school, and I donot know where I am going to go. I keephearing about affordable housing projects.But what does that mean? Many people,including myself, cannot afford to residein affordable housing projects, and thereis no place left to go for poor people onceall of our public housing is gone.�”

When asked what is planned next if thenegotiations fail, BHA Project ManagerKathleen Sims said, �“The BHA is innegotiation with The Related Companiesof California, and until those negotiationsare over, I cannot say more about the nextstep the BHA will pursue with its publichousing units.�”

According to the Center on Budget

Policy and Priorities, the nation�’s Section 8voucher program has a shortfall in fundingof $130 million, and that may result in aloss of 12,000 to 24,000 vouchers. Also,among other programs facing budget cuts,the Home Program was cut by $600,000,and housing for the elderly was cut by 51percent more than Obama requested.

As federal and state budget cuts contin-ue to decimate communities all across thenation, Republicans and Democrats in

Congress continue to allow the rich andthe super rich to avoid paying their fairshare of taxes. This may well result in theloss of irreplaceable public housing unitsat the very moment that the nation is inthe midst of a foreclosure crisis and anexplosive increase in homelessness,hunger and desperation.

Lynda Carson may be reached at ten-antsrule@yahoo.com

�“The Hand That Takes.�” Tenants displayed by the powers that be. Art by Eric Drooker

by Holly Sklar

Lobbyists are storming Capitol Hill,pushing a tax holiday that wouldgive billions of dollars in tax

breaks to less than 1 percent of Americanbusinesses - and stick the other 99 percentwith the bill. But of course, they can�’t saythat. So tax holiday advocates are using ahigh-powered version of the e-mail conknown as the �“Nigerian scam.�”

You�’re probably familiar with it: aprince, business executive or governmentofficial promises rich rewards for yoururgently needed assistance to move�“funds which are presently trapped inNigeria�” or some other country into theUnited States. �“The con works by blind-ing the victim with promises of anunimaginable fortune,�” the myth-bustingSnopes.com explains. �“He fails to realizeduring the sting that he�’s never going toget the promised fortune.�” Instead, he�’sgoing to lose his shirt.

�“Currently, there is over $1 trillionearned by American businesses trappedoverseas that could be brought back andinvested here at home,�” the WIN Americacampaign for a tax holiday on �“repatriat-ed�” corporate profits says in its mission

statement. �“There is no time to waste, oureconomy needs all the help it can get.�”

Never mind that the money �“trapped�”overseas was moved by U.S. corporationsto their subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands,Switzerland and other tax-haven countriesin order to avoid taxes. As former TreasuryDepartment economist Martin Sullivan toldBloomberg, �“A lot of what companiesreport as foreign profit is really U.S. profitthat should be subject to U.S. tax.�”

For example, �“Cisco transfers a portionof the patent rights to technology devel-oped in the U.S. to a Dutch unit, whichsells some of the resulting products backto its parent for eventual distribution inthe U.S.,�” Bloomberg reported. �“Ciscocredits about $5 billion in U.S. sales annu-ally to the Netherlands.�”

Cisco, Google, Pfizer and other big busi-nesses in the WIN America campaign havedeployed more than 160 lobbyists to con-vince Congress to let U.S. multinationalspay a �“repatriation�” tax rate as low as 5.25percent. It would tilt the playing field evenfurther against small businesses.

Most tax holiday legislation co-spon-sors have received campaign donationsfrom WIN America-affiliated companies,reports the Center for Public Integrity.

Congress already fell for this scamwith a �“one-time�” tax holiday passed in2004. But companies didn�’t create thejobs or investment they promised �— lay-offs actually increased.

Instead, they boosted CEO pay, stockbuybacks and shareholder dividends, andstockpiled even more money offshore toavoid taxes, according to reports by theSenate Permanent Subcommittee onInvestigations, Congressional ResearchService, National Bureau of EconomicResearch and others. Since 2004, theamount of earnings by U.S. corporationsheld offshore has more than tripled.

�“Another temporary holiday may con-dition U.S. multinationals to never rou-tinely repatriate any foreign profitsbecause, eventually, Congress can beexpected to pass another �‘temporary�’ taxholiday,�” said a Goldman Sachs report.

As more people understand that anoth-er tax holiday would be bad for the U.S.economy, advocates are pitching a varia-tion on the �“I�’ve got a bridge to sell you�”scam that notorious con men like GeorgeC. Parker foisted on gullible buyers.

You can use our tax holiday to fund aninfrastructure bank to buy bridges, roadsand other public works, the hucksters

pitch. In this crazy math, a tax holidaythat the Congressional Joint Committeeon Taxation says will cost the U.S.Treasury $42 billion to $79 billion is sup-posed to finance an infrastructure bank.

If you believe that, I�’ve got a bridge tosell you.

Here�’s a real way to fund an infrastruc-ture bank with a tax haven link: enact theStop Tax Haven Abuse Act. That wouldput $100 billion a year into the U.S.Treasury that is now being lost to taxdodging through tax havens. That wouldmean real money for rebuilding our infra-structure and other national priorities,which would strengthen Main Street busi-ness, job creation and our economy.

�“We can�’t afford the waste of anothermassive corporate tax break that rewardsthose who have made an art form ofavoiding their tax responsibility throughtax havens and other accounting manipu-lation,�” says Dean Cycon, owner ofDean�’s Beans coffee company.

America has suffered enough from cor-porate con artists.

Holly Sklar is director of Business forShared Prosperity (www.businessforshared-prosperity.org). She can be reached athsklar.writer@gmail.com.

Berkeley May Sell Its Public Housing to a Billionaire

Corporate Con Games: Tax Holiday or Gigantic Scam?

December 2011 ST R E E T SP I R I T 3

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December 2011

by Paul Boden, Western RegionalAdvocacy Project (WRAP)

The criminal justice system hasdisplaced the mental health sys-tem as the main institution fordealing with poor people with

psychiatric disabilities in the UnitedStates. Federal cuts to mental health andaffordable housing programs are responsi-ble for this shameful reality.

During his tenure as president, RonaldReagan instituted sweeping changes indomestic policy. The housing budget forthe Department of Housing and UrbanDevelopment (HUD) was cut from $77billion in 1978 to $18 billion in 1983 andthe number of beds available in publicmental hospitals dropped by 40 percentbetween 1970 and 1984.

This divestment has put millions ofpeople on the street, many of whom arementally ill and whose conditions worsenby having to live on the street. The dangerand degradation of homelessness can alsocreate psychiatric disorders such as PostTraumatic Stress Disorder.

Many local governments reacted to thevery visible upsurge in those living on thestreets with public space restrictions andordinances that criminalize activities likesitting or lying on sidewalks, panhandling,and sleeping outside. These punitive poli-cies are largely driven by the concerns ofbusiness interests, and go hand in handwith the increasing privatization of publicspaces and services.

All of this has a particularly dramaticimpact on people who have difficulty nav-igating the complex legal system. Oncecited by police, a person who does not goto court or pay the fine ends up with abench warrant permitting arrest on sight.

Arrest records can block access to hous-ing services and benefits urgently needed tohelp stabilize someone who is homeless anddisabled. Whether intentional or not, thebottom-line is that these laws are disenfran-chising tens of thousands of mentally dis-abled homeless people.

BEEN HERE BEFORE

Mentally ill people have long beenstigmatized by society. Often considereddefective, they have been met with pityand revulsion, sometimes with reluctantcharity, their �“treatment�” often horrific.People labeled insane have also beenremoved from public view, be it in attics,asylums, or jails.

Today, it is common knowledge thatRiker�’s Island Jail in New York City, CookCounty Jail in Chicago, and Los AngelesCounty Jail are the three largest �“psychi-atric facilities�” in the United States, eventhough there is rarely any real treatmentoccurring in these jails. The situation is sodire at Chicago�’s Cook County Jail that thesheriff has threatened to file a lawsuitagainst the State of Illinois for allowing hisjail to become a �“dumping ground�” formentally disabled people.

It is less known that in every countyacross the country there are more mentallydisabled persons in the county jail thanthere are in the psychiatric unit of thecounty hospital. Nationally, a severelymentally ill person is three times morelikely to be in jail or prison than in a statemental hospital. The problem is evenworse in states like California, Florida,Texas, and Nevada where a mentally illperson is four to ten times more likely tobe in jail or prison than in a hospital.

There is a disturbing historic precedentfor locking up mentally ill people at thecurrent alarming rates. In the middle ofthe 19th century, jails were filled withindigent mentally ill people criminalizedunder so-called poor laws. �“Poor laws�”were imported from England during colo-nial times and used to control the move-ment of the poor and to distinguish thoseconsidered �“deserving�” from thosedeemed �“undeserving�” of aid. The �“unde-serving poor�” were punished in jails andworkhouses.

Our mental health and criminal justicepolicies are not all that different from thepoor laws of the 1850s: poor mentally illpeople are languishing in jails untreateddue to discriminatory �“quality of life�” or�“nuisance crime�” laws. Instead of increas-ing treatment and housing options in thecommunity, we are shutting down pro-grams and substituting them with costlyjails and prisons.

Despite reports ad nauseam about thehuman, financial, and social toll of thisapproach, the overriding social policiesremain aimed at simply getting mentallyill people out of sight.

TAKING IT TO THE STREETSThe voices of those most impacted by

these punitive measures �— mentally illhomeless people themselves �— are cur-rently nowhere to be found in policydebates. To better understand the realityof those caught in the vicious cycle ofinsufficient treatment, homelessness, andjail at the street level, the WesternRegional Advocacy Project (WRAP) and

our partners conducted surveys with 336self-identified mentally ill homeless peo-ple in seven cities �— San Francisco, LosAngeles, Berkeley, and Oakland,California; Portland, Oregon; Denver,Colorado; Worcester, Massachusetts; andHouston, Texas. We also conducted asmall online survey with 48 front-line ser-vice providers in San Francisco, LosAngeles, and Portland.

The findings from the two sets of sur-veys build on other recent data from theDepartment of Justice and mental healthresearchers. The findings reveal a dis-criminatory pattern that deserves closerpublic scrutiny.

Results from the street outreach found:" 80 percent reported being stopped,

arrested, or cited due to �“quality of life�”offenses.

" 52 percent reported being harassedby private security (usually from privateBusiness Improvement Districts).

" 48 percent reported having ignoredtickets issued against them.

" 57 percent reported having benchwarrants issued for their arrest.

" 22 percent reported having outstand-ing warrants at the time of the survey.

" 31 percent reported having beenincarcerated.

" 30 percent reported having lost theirhousing or being discharged from a pro-gram due to incarceration, while only 5percent reported having been referred to aprogram when brought before court.

This closely mirrors the experiences ofservice providers in various cities. Thesurvey found that 74 percent of serviceproviders reported that at least 70 percentof their clients had been arrested due to�“quality of life�” offenses.INEFFECTIVE, EXPENSIVE, AND CRUEL

Money is being spent on jails ratherthan services. Municipalities, businessdistricts, and downtown tourist centerssupport �“quality of life�” or �“nuisancecrime�” laws because they are deemedeffective at ridding homeless people from

sight and lead to more lucrative and lessvisibly impoverished downtowns. Butenforcing these laws has become an enor-mously expensive process.

In 2009, a California jail bed rangedfrom $25,000 to $55,000 per year and a bedfor acute mental health care in a psychiatricunit in a California jail cost $1,350 a day. AUniversity of Pennsylvania study in 2002found that homeless people with mental ill-ness who were placed in permanent hous-ing cost the public $16,282 less per personper year compared to their previous costsfor mental health, corrections, Medicaid,and public institutions and shelters.

A report issued in 2009 by theEconomic Roundtable found that the typi-cal public costs for a homeless person inLos Angeles is five times greater than fora similar person in supportive housing($2,897 per month vs. $605 per month)largely due to emergency room and crimi-nal justice expenses.

The scale of this issue is enormous andthe cruelty, disregard, and medical neglectsuffered by poor and homeless mentallyill people is unacceptable. According tothe Bureau of Justice statistics, as many as64 percent of people in jails nationwidehave mental health problems. In the 1980sand early 1990s, people with severe men-tal illness made up 6-7 percent of the jailpopulation. In the last five years, this per-centage has climbed to 16-30 percent.

Nationwide, there are three times asmany people with mental illness in jailsand prisons as there are in hospitals; 40percent of people with severe mental ill-ness have been imprisoned at some pointin their lives; and 90 percent of thoseincarcerated with a mental illness havebeen incarcerated more than once.

We deal with this national shame as weso often deal with personal shame: Wepretend it isn�’t there and we try to hide it.It is time to bring it into daylight. Theobvious answer is, of course, affordablehousing and residential treatment, andongoing outpatient treatment with practi-cal social supports. None of this is on ourcurrent national agenda. But as a country,we must wake up to the reality that wetreat mentally ill homeless people the waythey were treated 150 years ago. Ignoringthat truth is the real shame.

See Street Spirit�’s website:http://www.thestreetspirit.org

Street SpiritStreet Spirit is published by AmericanFriends Service Committee. The ven-dor program is run by J.C. Orton.Editor, Layout: Terry MessmanWeb designer: Ariel Messman-RuckerContributors: David Bacon, Paul Boden,Jack Bragen, Joanna Bragen, BufordBuntin, Lynda Carson, Janny Casillo,Robert Christophel, Ellen Danchik,Maynard Dixon, Eric Drooker, MichaelJoseph, Elizabeth King, Paul Loeb, ArielMessman-Rucker, Christa Occhiogrosso,J.C. Orton, Holly Sklar, Todd Tarselli,Brian K. WoodsonAll works copyrighted by the authors.The views expressed in Street Spirit arethose of the individual authors alone, notnecessarily those of the AFSC.Street Spirit welcomes submissions ofarticles, poems, photos and art. Contact: Terry MessmanStreet Spirit, 65 Ninth Street,San Francisco, CA 94103E-mail: spirit@afsc.orgWeb: http://www.thestreetspirit.org

National Scandal of Using Jails as Psychiatric Wards

�“Captive�” Drawing by Todd Tarselli

The cruelty, disregard, andmedical neglect suffered bypoor and homeless mentallyill people is unacceptable.

December 2011ST R E E T SP I R I T4

by Paul Rogat Loeb

The Occupy movement has donesomething amazing by gettingAmericans to start questioning our

economic divides. It has created spacesfor people to come together, voice theirdiscontents and dreams, and creativelychallenge destructive greed. It has createdpowerful political theater, engaged thecommunity, and provided an alternative tosilence and powerlessness.

But it also faces major challenges. I�’mfine that this new public commons isn�’t,as yet, offering detailed platforms forchange. Instead, the movement has high-lighted the destructive polarization ofwealth while voicing what one youngwoman called �“a cry for something bet-ter.�” And that�’s a major contribution.

The movement and its allies now needto keep spreading this message to thatmajority of Americans who are sympa-thetic but have given up on the possibilityof change. The Occupy movement alsoneeds to reach those more resistant, whomight respond if seriously engaged.

It needs to make the physical occupa-tions not just ends in themselves, butbases where more and more people canparticipate, and find ways to publicly act.To keep momentum building even in thewinter cold, and when media coveragefades. To find continuing ways for peopleto act without dissipating their energy inan array of fragmented efforts. And,although some participants would dis-agree, to become part of a broader move-ment that, without muting its voice, helpsbring about a better electoral outcome in2012 than the disaster of 2010, when cor-porate interests prevailed again and againbecause those who would have rejectedtheir lies stayed home.

One solution, which is beginning to hap-pen, is for the movement to move to theneighborhoods, building on its existingefforts in hundreds of cities and towns. Thisdoesn�’t mean abandoning the currentencampments. At their best, these occupa-tions have created powerful new centers forconversation, reflection, and creativeaction. People talk, brainstorm ideas, makeposters and banners, and draw in the curi-ous, including those just passing by. InSeattle, even tourists riding the amphibioustour buses broke into cheers as they drovepast the encampment.

Participants tell stories of lost jobs,medical bills, and student debt, putting ahuman face on how they and so many oth-

ers have been made expendable by acountry that seems to care only for thewealthiest.

Self-organized committees plan cre-ative tactics, handle donations of food,address medical needs, create innovativeart projects, clean the occupation grounds,and ensure physical security. Commonmeals become a form of communion.

The gatherings also convey a sense offestival, inviting in those not yet involvedwith puppets, colorful banners, drum cir-cles, radical marching bands and signssaying, �“I�’ll believe corporations are peo-ple when Texas executes one.�” Peopledress up as predatory billionaires, LadyLiberty and dollar-spewing zombies whochant, �“I smell money, I smell money.�”

The spirit of play echoes the defiantfolk and hip hop music of Tahir Squareand the Gandhi-meets-Monty-Pythonapproaches of the Serbian youth move-ment Otpur, who helped train the initialTahir Square occupiers.

But for all the value of creating visibleprotest communities in the centers of ourcities, for all the powerful stories andDadaist humor, most Americans are stillwatching from a distance as passive spec-tators. Tthose who care about these issuesbut aren�’t ready to sleep on the hard, coldground, could build on the opening thatthis movement has created to reach out tothe rest of America.

It is a victory that the occupations haveled the media to even briefly questionAmerica�’s economic divisions. But it�’snot one that we can count on indefinitely.So we need to find creative ways to takethe key issues that the movement hasplaced on the agenda to every neighbor-hood, workplace and campus, even thosethat don�’t seem natural hotbeds of change.

This could mean extending the existingprotests to places they haven�’t yet reached.Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo andCitibank branches are everywhere. So areExxon/Mobil stations, symbols to challengethat corporation�’s avoidance of taxes andmassive funding of climate-change denial.So are the offices of regressive elected offi-cials and candidates.

Harlem residents met at a local churchto launch Occupy Harlem. In a Seattleneighborhood, activists criss-cross amajor intersection every weekend holdingbanners and talking about the Iraq warand unaccountable corporate power.Seattle�’s main Occupy encampmentrecently shifted from a downtown plaza toa community college a dozen blocks

away, where their presence has grown to150 tents and they�’ve coexisted amicablywith classes, campus events, and a week-end farmers market.

For the movement to make progress,it�’s going to have to do more along theselines �— not just hope that if they buildenough tent cities and hold creativeenough marches, change will come.

The people camping don�’t have to bethe same ones working in the neighbor-hoods. That may be a task best suited forlong-standing activist organizations,whose participants have deeper local roots�— organizations that might also help findresources to shelter the Occupiers in visi-ble sympathetic churches or union halls aswe head into winter.

If we�’re to build on the powerfulmomentum that the occupations have creat-ed, we�’re going to need to take the issuesthey�’ve raised into face-to-face communi-ties, like local businesses and churches,soccer leagues and Rotary clubs.

The occupations have played a power-ful role in highlighting America�’s pro-found economic disparities. But it�’s up tous to take this message to all the diversecommunities we ultimately need to reach.

We can�’t trust capricious and compro-mised media outlets to adequately trans-

late it, and relying on our own socialmedia gives us far too narrow a reach.Fortunately, models exist for the kind ofsystematic grassroots outreach that couldfuel the movement�’s next stage. Here area few models that might offer lessons:

Many of us went door-to-door duringthe 2008 Obama campaign. Most whoparticipated soon lapsed into becomingpassive spectators, and then retreated stillfurther as cycles of disillusionment grew.Whatever Obama�’s flaws, the one-to-oneconversations people had while workingto elect him were powerful, and we couldbegin to replicate them for a movementwith goals larger than the platforms of anyindividual political leader or candidate.

One ongoing network to plug into is theAFL-CIO community organizing affiliate,Working America. Drawing on a mix ofvolunteers and paid canvassers, they�’vebeen reaching out in culturally conserva-tive, working-class neighborhoods for thepast eight years, focusing particularly onthe unemployed. They talk with peopleabout core economic issues, offer practicalresource information and give ways to acton issues like unemployment benefits andinvestment in job-creating infrastructure.

By connecting previously isolated indi-

From Occupy Wall Street toOccupy the NeighborhoodsThe occupations have exposed America�’s economic divide.Now we need to find creative ways to take the movement�’skey issues to every neighborhood, workplace and campus.

See Occupy the Neighborhoodse page 7

On November 11, thousands of University of California studentswalked out of their classes to protest economic inequality, budget cuts,rising tuition �— and to support the Occupy Wall Street movement.

David Baconphoto

An Occupy Cal activist refutes the trickle-down economic theory. David Bacon photo

UC students have a solution to the fiscal crisis: �“Make Banks Pay.�” David Bacon photo

December 2011 ST R E E T SP I R I T 5

For a week there was this buzz aboutthe General Strike. I was invited to a cler-gy meeting which ended up at ourOakland church because it outgrew thescheduled meeting place. The meetingwent on for three hours as a diverse groupof 30 clergy persons met to lend theirpresence and plan for a peaceful outcometo the planned marches. There were to beprayers and peace rituals a half an hourbefore the morning events, which beganat 9 a.m., the noon rally, and the 5 p.m.march to shut down the Port of Oakland.

Valerie and I arrived before 11 a.m. Wearrived at something big, something huge.As we drove into town there was an unusu-al calm. Even the unusually quiet trafficseemed serene. There seemed to be some-thing different about our city. We parkedthe car at the church, four blocks from thecity center, and began walking to City Hall.As we turned the corner on 14th Street, wesaw a huge crowd filling the intersection of14th and Broadway.

As we walked closer, we saw a blacksign stretching across the street withlarge, silver-painted words announcing:�“Death to Capitalism.�” The crowd wasmassive. There were people everywhere.If there were thousands at the rally theweek before, there were tens of thousandsthere on November 2.

We moved toward the Interfaith tent andfound our friends there, already singing to agathered crowd within the crowd. Myfriend Francisco was playing the guitar andsinging. My new friend and Unitarian pas-tor Nickles was holding the mike and bull-horn. We all sang together with a gatheredcrowd of about 100 people.

After the song, Rabbi Michael Lernerdeputized those listening to go tell the mes-sage of the movement. He addressed thecritics and explained that the OccupyMovement is about building a CaringSociety. He said, �“We are a network ofpeople who share the common idea that theworld can and must be based on love, gen-erosity, caring for one another and caringfor our planet.�” He called for anEnvironmental and Social ResponsibilityAmendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The amendment would overturnCitizen�’s United and declare that corpora-tions are not entitled to the same rights ashuman beings; eliminate private and corpo-rate funding of elections; and, finally,require periodic assessments of corporateconduct. His was a cry for a society inwhich people are valued more than profitsand the earth is respected as a living organ-ism requiring deliberate attention and care.

The time came for the noon marches. Achildren�’s march was leaving from theOakland Library at noon; some of myfriends and co-workers were headed thatway. Other marches were simultaneouslyon the move. Valerie and I joined a massof people moving down 14th Street towardthe library. We were among a multitudefilling all four lanes of the street for as faras one could see. The crowd was dense andheaded north toward the place where sev-eral bank branches were clustered.

Neither Valerie nor I knew where wewere headed, nor what route we would takeor who was leading us, but we knew whywe were there. We, like 99% of the peoplemarching in Oakland, moving with andamong unorganized masses, were unifiedby the desperate condition of our world, ourfamilies and our collective future.

We were the cry of the lost oak treesthat once lived here, as well as the moans

of the Ohlone people who once thrivedhere. But most of all, we were the prayersent to the God of the universe, pleadingfor substantive change to the dark anddevolutionary path on which we are cur-rently traveling with increasing speed.

Valerie and I were joined by one of ourchurch members as we walked alongFranklin Street. The three of us finished thatnoon march together. Throughout the day, Isaw several members of our congregationmarching in different contingents.

We paused to watch a man and a womanexpertly climb lampposts across WebsterStreet and unfurl a banner that read,�“Occupy the Banks.�” I noted that therewere some who knew exactly where wewere going and had plans for the route. Wepaused briefly at the large Bank of Americaon Harrison Street and then went back toBroadway for the march back to the citycenter. The crowd was innumerable. Thesense of peace and hope was immeasurable.The sense of community and common des-tiny was palatable.

I began these thoughts stating that onNovember 2, I was among millions. Ibelieve that this is true, not because I wishto exaggerate the number of those whopeacefully possessed the city yesterday,nor to engage in poetic hyperbole.

My wife, fellow congregants and Iwere among millions on November 2because along with the tens of thousandsthat were in the streets of Oakland thatday, there are hundreds of thousands inCalifornia whose hearts and hopes we car-ried with us. And around the world, thereare literally millions, who from TirhirSquare to right here in Oakland, resonate

with the need for change, the willingnessto be a part of that change and the inex-plicable sense that this is the moment inwhich change must occur.

There is one troubling part of theGeneral Strike. I did not see many AfricanAmerican clergy, other than myself and afew students. I was asked by a reporterwhy that was the case and what did Ithink African Americans think about theOccupy Movement. Well, the secondquestion was the easiest to answer. I toldthe reporter that I could not speak forAfrican Americans nor accurately reflectany imaginary consensus they may hold.

The first question, however, does giveme pause. I am a part of several clergy

groups and all except one have ignoredthe movement. None have yet engaged inany theological reflection on the dynamicof our time or how it is embodied in theOccupy Movement, but it is time.

We who would like to think of our-selves as progressives or as followers ofChrist should shout �“Hosana!�” with thecrowd or be counted as the modern-dayPharisees too foolish to follow the currentmovement of God.

Brian K. Woodson is the senior pastor ofthe Bay Area Christian Connection, an inner-city church in Oakland with a women�’s treat-ment program and a food program that dis-tributed more than 435,000 pounds of foodthis year to inner-city residents.

Oakland PastorReflects on theGeneral Strike

Demonstrators climbed on top of big rig trucks stranded when the Port of Oakland was shut down. Ariel Messman-Rucker photo

Occupy Oakland held one of the largest demonstrations in history on the day of the General Strike. Ariel Messman-Rucker photo

from page 1

by Pastor Brian K. Woodson

Wall Street thugs and pinstripegangsters have stolen ourhomes with credit default

swaps. They have pilfered our pensionswith their over-leveraged, undercapitalizedpositions. And for all their larceny, theyget bailed out and we get bailed on. Themoney we need is sitting useless in theirbank accounts. Tax the rich!

The American military budget is over$800 billion that we can count. ThePentagon budget is largely unknown andunquestionably out of control. If we needmoney, cut the defense budget. Americais like a home whose parents are spend-ing so much money on burglar alarmsand security systems there is no money

to feed the children. We don�’t need any more bombs. We

need books. We don�’t need any morebullets. We need butter and bread. Wedon�’t need any more foreign horrors tofear. We need homes and good jobs. Weneed the decency of living wages andhope in return for our hard labor.

For the past 30 years, the top 1 per-cent have engorged themselves inobscene wealth and it is time for them topay their fair share. We who work for aliving demand to be able to live from ourwork. Put some billionaires behind barsand they�’ll stop stealing so much. Andput American workers back to work.

From Tahrir Square to right here! Theworkers of the world must unite, �‘less allof us be defeated!

The Obscene Wealth of the 1%

December 2011ST R E E T SP I R I T6

Commentary by Buford Buntin

In her San Francisco Examiner columnon Nov. 8, 2011, Melissa Griffin claimsthat tourists are being driven away from

the Bay Area because of �“homelessness andpanhandling,�” which is why, in her estima-tion, Conde Nast Traveler Magazine nowranks San Francisco as the nation�’s num-ber-two destination, instead of its 18-yearrun as number one in tourist attraction.

Out of Griffin�’s full-page analysis ofeverything San Francisco, about one-quar-ter of the page is devoted to a photo andarticle featuring a man holding a sign andcup, while a woman with what appears tobe a designer shopping bag looks on at theman�’s unfortunate dilemma.

Griffin writes that a CityBeat poll con-ducted by the San Francisco Chamber ofCommerce shows that when 500 localswere asked to list the major issues facingSan Francisco, 32 percent of respondentssaid �“homelessness and panhandling.�”

In a display of analytical acumen �— atleast as much as can be crammed into a

small portion of one newspaper page �—Griffin writes that, �“some speculate thatthe unfriendly folks listed by one-third ofthe respondents were panhandlers.�”

�“Maybe we are all less friendlybecause we must be bundled up in layersof stoicism just to walk down the street,�”Griffin claims. For a concluding point,she says, �“And nobody seems to care.�”

I�’ll agree with the last statement in hermini-article. No one does seem to care,except for those advocating for the home-less and poor citizens of San Francisco. Ican�’t make up my mind if she does ordoes not care herself, given the conserva-tive nature of most of her columns in theoverwhelmingly conservative SanFrancisco Examiner. She seems empa-thetic only with the mainstream citizens.

The angst expressed by Griffin, and bytourists and stout, hard-working citizens,stems from the reality that they cannotalways avoid walking where poor peopleare trying to survive on the streets wherethey are not getting the help they need.

The fact that many fancy hotels are

crammed into the crowded TenderloinDistrict and other low-income districts inthe city is not the poor people�’s fault.They�’re just there because they have to besomewhere. They would, I�’m sure, be liv-ing in a fancier neighborhood withoutcrime or grime, if they could.

Virtually everything about capitalismsays that only the one percent upper-income really counts, while the 99% whostruggle for everything don�’t deserve toeven survive. The Occupy movement istrying to point out this flaw in a very con-crete way by camping out and protestingon the front lines of the United States.

The last truly Democratic president,Jimmy Carter, carried out a good employ-

ment training program before we entereda depressing period of United States histo-ry, economically and psychologically, fora large portion of the population. RonaldReagan and George Bush Senior champi-oned the rich and tried to completelydestroy the poor, instead of providingthem jobs and low-cost housing, some-thing, of course, which continues to be adevastating problem today.

Our city�’s vaunted status as numberone is gone as a tourist fantasy for themiddle and upper classes coming to SanFrancisco to enjoy the breath-taking viewson the cable car of their dreams.

Now let�’s get down to reality andhouse and feed the poor.

A Modest Proposal toDrive Away the Poor forthe Sake of the Tourists

Art by Michael Joseph

by Joanna Bragen

As I sit in my chair in my two-bed-room, Section 8 apartment look-ing at my sweet dog asleep on my

couch, I can�’t believe how far I havecome. My past housing, as a person withmental illness, has changed 180 degrees.

When I first came out of my first hos-pital stay, I was still married to my ex-husband, but stayed with my parents sothat they could help take care of me whilehe worked. I suffered from akathisia, withphysical agitation and intense anxiety, andspent half the night walking circles insidetheir house. Eventually, I moved back toEl Cerrito with my (then) husband.

I underwent many hospitalizations and

ended up in many �“board and care�”homes. Even the name is a misnomer. Toooften, the people who ran these homesreally couldn�’t care less about their resi-dents. Board and cares are the biggestracket I have ever seen.

I experienced endless abuses there:substandard housing, lack of food, andnearly no nutritious food. In only oneboard and care, where the workers werereally mean, did I ever have fresh fruitsand vegetables. The board and care tookalmost all of my paycheck and barelyexpended any money on the residents. Ihad to buy my own toilet paper.

I have been forced to throw out a sand-wich I was going to eat, because I wasfive minutes past �“curfew.�” At one place,it was so bad I tried to find other places tosleep, and when my mother came to visit,the owner tried to say I was a �“slut.�” Imoved out that day. At this same place, aman (who no one could identify, strange-ly) tried to enter my room at night. Also,the owner�’s daughter stole my shoes.

Even a board and care that was run by

a pretty reputable mental health company,was a very negative experience. Thisfacility was the best place I stayed, butstaff members were often cruel and con-descending. Also, you had to be gonemost of the day, forbidden to remain inyour �“home�” during the daytime hours.

When I graduated from the Spirit pro-gram in Contra Costa County, I looked fora job in mental health. I did not go to anoutpatient program any more, so did nothave plans every day. Because of this, thevery arrogant director said I was beingmanipulative.

At the board and care in Richmond, Imet a boyfriend who finally found me abetter place to live, in Concord. Fromthere, I met my husband, moved to a low-rent apartment at Riverhouse in Martinez,and then got a Section 8 housing subsidy.

I am thankful for the great place I havenow, with gardens all around it. I willalways remember the horrors at board andcares. I especially enjoy locking my door,and knowing I can control who and whatgoes on in my own home.

Surviving Uncaring Board and Cares

Art by Christa Occhiogrosso

Even the name �“board andcare�” is a misnomer. Often, the people who ran thesehomes couldn�’t care less about their residents.

by Jack Bragen

Astereotype of persons with mentalillness promulgated by mentalhealth professionals is that we are

of lesser competence, lesser ability andlesser intelligence than they. This servesas a prior assumption so that the conde-scension from treatment professionals isapparent from the very start of contact.

The idea that we are �“less�” than normalis often not accurate, but may eventuallybecome part of someone�’s belief systemafter it has been drummed constantly intotheir psyche for years or decades.

Mental health caregivers commonlybelieve that we ought to be in protectedsituations because we are not ready for�“the real deal�” in life. This attitude of car-ing for persons with mental illness and notletting them do things on their own pro-duces children in the bodies of adults.

Most of the popular models of mental

health treatment espouse �“sheltered�” situa-tions in which the disabled person is pro-tected from the harsh realities of main-stream existence. I object to this. This typeof �“protection�” only prepares the disabledperson for a lifetime of being dependent oninstitutionalization. This is no life.

The belief that someone with mentalillness is incapable of surviving in �“reallife situations�” is belittling and harmful.Despite having a disability, many personswith mental illness are up to the challengeof surviving in society.

Of course, public benefits should beoffered. The �“survival�” I am talking aboutis where a person handles their own finan-cial, medical and social affairs, lives in asituation in which they have real interac-tions with real people, and is the guide intheir own existence.

This may include dealing with a super-visor, business associate, or landlord whois private and is not part of the mental

health treatment system, and paying one�’sown bills and rent with one�’s own check-ing account. A mental health consumerneeds to be involved in shopping for one�’sown groceries, being responsible for one�’sown meals, putting gas in one�’s own carand seeing that it is maintained, even if aparent is helping financially with afford-ing the car.

The survival I am talking about, then, isnot a situation of going off disability andother assistance. It is merely no longer liv-ing as a child for whom someone else mustmake all the decisions. I am not talkingabout pretending there is no disability. I amsaying that persons with mental illness canand should be encouraged to live as peoplewho are competent.

The clubhouse approach of most men-tal health agencies doesn�’t prepare peoplefor this. Their assumption is that most ofthe people walking through their doorsmust have everything done for them.

I�’ve dealt with handling my own affairssince the time I was 18 and diagnosed withschizophrenia. I have also dealt with threat-ening situations of standing up to crimi-nals, and of refusing to be a victim. I havedealt with relationships, and I have beenmarried for 15 years.

I deal with driving and with publictransportation. I deal with the budgetingof my meager income on a continuousbasis. I take care of pets and I take themto a veterinarian when they are sick.Under no circumstances should I bedeemed �“incompetent.�” Other personswith mental illness can do the same.

You are not doing a disabled personany favors when you attempt to protectthem from life. It perpetuates the myththat we are made of lesser material thanthat of a �“normal person�” and it makes usunprepared for life�’s difficult truths thatwe all must someday face.

The Disservice of Treating Disabled Persons as Children

December 2011 ST R E E T SP I R I T 7

viduals with a broader engaged community,they both give them a voice and leave themfar more resistant to greed-driven lies.

Since the economic crisis hit, theBoston community group City Life VidaUrbana began using official foreclosurelists to engage people at risk of losingtheir homes or apartments. They offer freelegal advice as a way to encourage peopleto come to their meetings, then invite par-ticipants to join their protests at foreclo-sure auctions and at mortgage-holdingbanks, mustering enough public pressureto repeatedly force these institutions towrite down loans that people owe.

Another fertile approach comes fromSeattle peace activists. Shortly before theIraq war, people from all over the regionmet in a large sympathetic church anddivided themselves up by neighborhoods,including those in far-flung suburbs andsmaller outlying cities. The local groupsthen met together to find ways to act intheir specific communities, under theumbrella of what they called The SnowCoalition. Eight years later, many of thesegroups continue raising issues in contextswhere people are more likely to knowthem as neighbors, coworkers, or friends.

The movements that brought us the NewDeal in the Depression had a mix of localactions, intense community building

(including powerful mutual aid institu-tions), and engagement in local and nationalpolitics �— even as they remained indepen-dent enough to push Franklin Roosevelt totake his most powerful stands.

The civil rights movement mixed coura-geous direct action with door-to-door com-munity organizing and voter registration,pushing an initially sympathetic but resis-tant Lyndon Johnson to put all his politicalskill into passing the Voting Rights andCivil Rights acts, even as he acknowledgedthat the Democrats would consequently�“lose the South for a generation.�”

The anti-Vietnam War movementsstarted with small groups of people hav-ing the audacity to challenge their govern-ment, then began to make an impact whenpeople in every community began to par-ticipate. All these past movements wereable to successfully meld protest and wit-ness with organizing.

If the Occupy movement is going tofind a similarly fertile path as these move-ments, it�’s going to have to let go ofgrandiose revolutionary dreams like thesentiments of a student who told me, �“Ifwe�’re following the Arab Spring modelwe have to demand that all the politiciansstep down. Then Americans can meet anddecide what to do.�” Except that Egyptdidn�’t have real elections and we do, how-ever compromised by wealth-driven lies.

So while the Occupiers need to main-

tain their independent voice, many of uswill have to engage in messy electoralwork to overcome the millions of dollarsthat will be pumped in for anonymousattack ads by people like Karl Rove, theKoch Brothers, the predatory banks, andoil and coal companies. If the Occupierssteer people away from electoral partici-pation, they risk helping those at the topprevail even more.

That�’s a real possibility, given theblanket dismissal of voting by far toomany of the Occupy participants I�’ve spo-ken with, or at least of voting within thetwo party system. The constantly repeatedphrase �“they�’re all corrupt,�” has its truths,but it also slams the courageous alongwith the compromised, and masks themajor difference between politicians whodisappoint us because we haven�’t pressedthem hard enough, and ones who�’ve beendoing their best to make the entire countryand planet available for plunder.

If we want to avoid permanentlyenshrining the reign of the one percent,we might remember the Citizen�’s Uniteddecision, where five Republican justicesopened the floodgates for money to domi-nate politics as never before. If any of thecurrent Republican candidates get toappoint one more justice, we�’ll lock insimilar decisions for the next 30 years.

We might also remember the DiscloseAct, which would have at least requiredcorporations and wealthy individuals tovisibly put their names on ads and mailersthat they funded. Every Democratic sena-tor voted for it, even those most compro-mised with corporate dollars, but it fellone vote short when it couldn�’t get a sin-gle Republican backer.

The result, combined with a massivedrop-off from a disillusioned Democraticbase, was a wave of anonymously funded

attack ads that swung election after elec-tion, from legislative, Congressional andSenate seats to electing governors likeScott Walker, Rick Scott and JohnKasich, who promptly disenfranchisedvoters, gutted education and social ser-vices, busted unions, stripped away envi-ronmental protections, and handed outever-more massive tax breaks to the rich.

I�’m not suggesting the Occupy move-ment subordinate itself to Obama, theDemocrats, or any other party. Part of thetragedy of the past three years is that wedidn�’t have vital independent movementspushing both parties to deal with unem-ployment, foreclosures, and America�’smassive economic divides. But nothingstops the Occupy movement from raisingtheir key issues as clearly and powerfullyas possible, while reminding people thatshowing up at the polls still matters.

The alternative is a revolutionarypurism, where instead of registering vot-ers like the Tea Party did, and reachingout to engage those on the fence, Occupyparticipants and their supporters stayhome and hand the 2012 election to peo-ple who represent everything they loathe.

Like participants in previous move-ments for justice, the Occupiers need toavoid the false choices between protestand organizing, community building andelectoral involvement, surrealist theaterand the grunt work of change.

The criticisms they raise go beyondany single election, bill, or policy. Theyneed to keep raising them, but in waysthat keep spiraling out. If they can triggerenough conversations in communities asyet untouched by their voices, they have achance to prevail. But they have to recog-nize that the powerful public presencethey�’ve created is just a beginning.

Occupy the NeighborhoodsPart of the tragedy of the past three years is that wedidn�’t have vital independent movements pushing bothparties to deal with unemployment, foreclosures, andAmerica�’s massive economic divides.

from page 4

ARREST THE HOMELESSby Robert Christophel

�“Arrest the homeless,�” they do cry. Complete the economic genocide. Fromsea to shinning sea, there is no place for him to pea.

Arrest him for vagrancy, arrest him for loitering, but just insure there is notolerance. No shelter from rain, no shower to wash away the pain.

Arrest these crazy, lazy men; how they do offend. Take the tax dollar they gladly spend, to lock these people in a pen. Thirty thousand dollars they will spend to fill them with fear and bring to

tears. No place to call home �— left only to Rome. �“Arrest the homeless,�” they do cry, for you can see it in their eyes. No food, no

job and now a criminal record; the probation officer won�’t get the message. Not a teepee or a tent shall be lent, for that�’s not what their God meant. They

teach them in jail how to fail and fear, fill them with violence and demand theirsilence. Arrest the homeless where they stand, for the drug war is at hand, Theywill not stand to share this land.

Arrest the homeless; they must cease, even if a man of peace. They don�’t prayin our church but play in the dirt. Look �— she has no skirt!

It�’s the moral thing to do, to keep them to our rule. The goodness of natureand God�’s natural goodness must be denied, for these they criminalize.

Arrest the homeless for they must; for it�’s only in their god they trust.Arrest the homeless till he dies, for he�’s only a paycheck away from you or I.

�“Forgotten Man.�” A destitute man is ignored by passers-by. Art by Maynard Dixon

I Am Lovedby JC OrtonWhen you cover me �– and place a blanket over me when I am cold.When I hunger for your touch �— and you reach out and embrace my heart.When I am afraid and lonely �— and you comfort me with your presence.When my body is tired and I ache �—you are there and your touch is the balms that heals me.My stomach growls �—You hear my need and that of my brothers and sistersand share your food and drink with us.I am without �— And find myself in the presence of friends who care.I sleep in the cold �— And you awaken me and invite me to share your humble dwelling.The warmth of Spirit and care is an essence which is ever-present in this house �—because I am loved.

J.C. Orton is the new coordinator of the Street Spirit vendor prgram. He also is the director of the Night on the Streets Cahtolic Worker in the East Bay.

�“Warmth in Giving 4�” In this painting by Elizabeth King, acompassionate person covers a homeless man with a blanket.

Painting byElizabeth King

December 2011ST R E E T SP I R I T8

Chiang, the state budget has a shortfall of$1.5 billion, a far cry from the $4 billionin additional revenue required to avoid thetrigger cuts.

After the budget numbers are certifiedon Dec. 15, 2011, the decision will bemade to impose these trigger cuts thatwould then go into effect on Jan. 1, 2012.

If the trigger cuts occur, the followingare only some of the disastrous reductionsthat are expected:

1. In Home Supportive Services willbe cut by another $100 million.

2. Childcare funding will be cut by $23million.

3. Medi-Cal Managed Care will be cutby $10 million.

4. The Departmental of DevelopmentalServices will be cut by $100 million.

At the Oakland demonstration onNovember 15, boona cheema, executivedirector of BOSS (Building Opportunitiesfor Self-Sufficiency) warned that thesesevere cuts would destroy countless lives.

�“I wanted to share that there is no sun-shine in the California budget,�” cheemasaid. �“There is no sunshine in the homesof people whose services have been cut.There is no sunshine in the homes of folkswho have lost their jobs. All across thecountry, we call that balancing the budget.We don�’t call that destroying lives.

�“What is happening in our communi-ties is that we are destroying lives. We arehurting children. We are having to lookinto refrigerators that have no food inthem. This absolutely cannot continue.�”

Cheema, the moderator of the rally,urged the demonstrators to keep showingup at protests, saying that people�’s livesdepend on their courage and perseverance.

She said, �“Join with me in saying,�‘Taxes, not triggers.�’ We are part ofbringing the sunshine back with ourcourage �— by showing up. We need toshow up in Sacramento on December 15when these cuts may go through. Half ofthe struggle is showing up �— and lettingpeople hear the stories that we have to tellfrom our communities.�”

DEEP CUTS TO IN-HOME SUPPORTLauren Steinberg, Systems Change

Advocate at the Center for IndependentLiving, sounded a warning about the mas-sive damage that will be caused by reduc-tions to disabled adults needing In HomeSupport Services. The California legisla-ture should not expect low-income peoplewith disabilities to bear the burden of anyfurther cutbacks, she said. Instead, shechallenged the legislature to bring in moretax revenue, �“particularly from corpora-tions and higher-income brackets.�”

According to Steinberg, if the triggercuts are imposed, a large percentage of thedisabled people that depend upon InHome Supportive Services will see a 20percent reduction in the number of hoursof assistance they are allotted for personalassistance each month. �“This will make itvery difficult for people to live indepen-dently,�” she said.

ENDING UP IN A NURSING HOMEMichelle Rousey, a disabled woman in

a wheelchair, lives in Oakland andreceives In Home Support Services(IHHS). She told the rally she is facing a20 percent reduction in her hours of IHHSassistance because of the trigger cuts.

She said, �“With my IHHS services, Ihave a caregiver that comes into my hometo provide care for me, and this meansshe�’ll be in my home 20 percent lessoften. For me, that means I will possibly

end up in a nursing home. I don�’t getenough hours now. I want the state toknow they should not be cutting IHHSagain. We�’ve already had serious cuts,and another 20 percent cut is not good.�”

Seniors already have suffered the devas-tating loss of many essential, life-sustain-ing programs. On Dec. 1, 2011, seniorswere threatened with yet another calami-tous setback, with 35,000 seniors facingthe closure of Adult Day Health Care facil-ities due to a Medi-Cal cutback.

Disability Rights California filed a fed-eral class-action lawsuit that was settledon Nov. 17, 2011. The suit will delay clo-sure of senior centers in California while anew system is being created. It is yet to beseen how the new system will work, butin the meantime, the planned closure ofthe centers has been postponed.

This was a hard-fought struggle just topreserve part of the existing services forseniors. It takes unrelenting vigilance toprotect the rights of seniors and disabledpeople, and every small victory requires aconstant struggle.

Yet, other Medi-Cal cuts have alreadyoccurred. Recipients have lost the right todental services and optical care and theupcoming trigger cuts will slash another$15 million from state medical coverage.

�‘LOOMING TERROR�’ FACES SENIORS

Karen Smulevitz from United Seniors ofOakland powerfully expressed the fearfulinsecurity and the sense of being aban-doned that consumes seniors facing whatshe called the �“looming terror�” of cuts thatwill damage or eliminate programs theydepend on for their very survival.

Smulevitz said, �“We all are sufferingalready from budget cuts that have beenmade and the looming terror before us ofmore cuts. It�’s just unimaginable. You�’veheard so many stories about how peopleare suffering now, trying to get doctor�’sappointments, trying to get care. Whatwill happen with even more cuts?�”

Smulevitz went straight to the heart ofwhat has gone wrong in a society that bal-ances its budget by reducing poor people,children and seniors to desperate poverty.

She said, �“The situation we are in isimmoral, when the wealthy are thewealthiest in history and have everything�— more than they need. They want to bal-ance the budget on us, on children, on dis-abled people, on the elderly. People whohave nothing left to give and they want to

take more from us. It�’s just immoral.�“If they did a fair tax, there would be

enough revenue to take care of everyone�’sneeds. What kind of a society are we livingin where people can suffer and other peoplejust ignore that and refuse to pay their fairshare of taxes? It�’s not right. It�’s scary. Weneed to make sure it doesn�’t happen.�”

�‘EVEN IF WE HAVE TO COME OUT INOUR WHEELCHAIRS!�’

LaTanya Wolf, a senior advocate fromthe Hope and Justice Committee at St.Mary�’s Center in Oakland, told the rallyhow the cuts affected her own family,especially her children and grandchildren.

Wolf said, �“I am a senior citizen, agrandmother and great-grandmother. I havea sister that uses In Home Support Services�— which will be cut. She has a serious dis-ease and is withering away. Recent cutshave already devastated the social safetynets and resulted in job losses.�”

Wolf spoke very poignantly to a rallyfilled with seniors, many people in wheel-chairs, and parents with children. She said,�“This affects everybody. We need to keeptalking and chanting and keep marching.Even if we have to come out in our wheel-chairs, even if we have to come out withour guide dogs, even if we have to bringour children, even if we have to come outlimping, we will be heard!�”

Wolf was on target in warning abouthow the trigger cuts may jeopardize fami-lies and children. Low-income families inCalifornia who need subsidized childcarewill be profoundly affected.

Patty Siegel, executive director of theCalifornia Child Care Research andReferral Network, said that the June bud-get imposed a $300 million reduction tochildcare programs. Now, if the projectedshortfall is $4 billion, then the trigger cutto childcare is anticipated at $23 million.Siegel said, �“We have a childcare systemright now in California that is more fragilethan I�’ve ever known it in the 40 yearsthat I have worked in the childcare arena.�”

WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRSTSiegel said it is a cruel reality that

women will end up facing the greater partof these extremely damaging cuts.

�“The people who are the most affectedare primarily very low-income women �—either working parents, childcareproviders, In Home Support Serviceworkers,�” Siegel said. �“It�’s sad to me thatwhen the decisions were made about who

would be affected in the first level of cuts,it�’s women and children first. The numberof women and children affected is quitedisproportionate.�”

Clarissa Doutherd is a mother of afour-year-old child and a member ofParent Voices, a parent-led, grassrootsorganization that fights to make childcareaffordable for all families. She has alreadyexperienced the destructive effects of thebudget cuts in her own family.

�“In June of this year, I lost my childcaredue to budget cuts,�” she told the rally. �“Wecannot allow this to happen to other fami-lies. I am here today not only to share mystory but to speak on behalf of the 200,000families without childcare who desperatelyneed it. And to speak on behalf of the thou-sands of children who will lose the oppor-tunity to learn, and their parents who willlose their jobs because there is no one tocare for their children.

�“Limiting access to childcare for work-ing families is not a way to stabilize oureconomy or create a better California. Bycutting childcare, everyone loses. We aresending the wrong message when ourgovernment provides subsidies and taxbreaks for corporations, yet cannot edu-cate and care for our most vulnerable.�”

SPEAKING OUT FOR THE VOICELESSA spirit was in the air at the rally �— a

deeply felt sense that we gathered togetherto speak out for the voiceless, and for thechildren too young to attend, for theseniors who are housebound, for thoseincapacitated by illness who cannot leavetheir beds, for disabled people who needin-home attendants.

All of these people need more than themeager levels of assistance that is left tothem. With all the cuts they�’ve alreadysuffered, it is deeply unjust for the gov-ernment to take any more away.

The poor and the disabled, the sick andthe elderly have already taken the brunt ofour nation�’s economic problems. Why isall of the burden placed on the shouldersof the poorest of the poor?

A society that cares so little about chil-dren, seniors and the disabled is a societythat is becoming merciless. The constanterosion of the safety net cannot be tolerat-ed. We must listen to these voices and actfor justice for everyone.

�“Trigger cuts.�” We must not let thattrigger be pulled on the children, seniorsand disabled members of our community.

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Oakland ProtestAgainst State Budget Cuts

Disabled people, mothers with children and seniors rallied in Oakland to protest state budget cutbacks. Janny Castillo photo

�“The people who are the most affected are primarily very low-income women �— eitherworking parents, childcare providers, In Home Support Service workers. It�’s sad to methat when the decisions were made about who would be affected in the first level of cuts,it�’s women and children first.�” �— Patty Siegel, California Child Care Research and Referral Network