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

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by Terry Messman

For almost 30 years, Peter Marin hasbeen fighting to protect the humanrights of homeless people from

never-ending attacks by politicians whoemploy every means at their disposal tobanish the poor with an oppressive arrayof segregation laws.

It has often been a solitary struggle.Marin’s steadfast opposition to the effortsto criminalize homelessness has made himsomewhat of an anathema to the merchantsand city officials who try to eliminate streetpeople from affluent seaside Santa Barbara.

Marin is an uncommonly intelligent ana-lyst of the cruel conditions endured byhomeless people in America. A former uni-versity professor, prolific author, poet, andjournalist for Harper’s Magazine, TheNation, and Psychology Today, Marin is thefounder of the Committee for Social Justicein Santa Barbara — and a man who hasstood in solidarity with homeless people, inseason and out. Above all, he is a gadflywho stings the consciences of conserva-tive and liberal lawmakers alike who tryto legislate the poor out of existence.

Marin first stumbled upon the hiddenlandscape of homelessness — an immenseand virtually unexplored subcontinent ofmultitudes cast out of mainstream society— after he graduated from SwarthmoreCollege and Columbia University with amaster’s degree in literature and anunquenchable case of wanderlust.

He soon enrolled in a new field of “post-graduate” study by hopping freight trainsrolling through the night, riding hundreds of

miles across the countryside while doingseasonal work as a crop-picker.

As a restless wanderer riding the rails,he came to greatly respect his companionsriding in midnight boxcars and sleeping inhobo jungles. Those days on the road endedup etched indelibly on his mind and heart.

Looking back on those nomadic days inhis recent article, “The Moral Beauty ofActs of Goodness and Justice” [StreetSpirit, January 2014], Marin wrote that he

witnessed acts of sharing and kindnessfrom the hungry and ragged men riding therails that contained more beauty than couldbe found in acclaimed art museums.

The men he met in hobo jungles were“quite willing to share with one anotherand with me their shelter and last bits offood and cared for each other in a waythat those with homes often do not.”

Most people don’t enter the encamp-ments of the poor to find beauty and truth,

but Marin saw extraordinary examples ofwhat he calls “moral beauty” in the livesof cast-aside people in hobo jungles.

A sort of moral inventory emergedwhen he began reflecting on a list of whathe has most loved in his lifetime: TheFreedom Riders of the segregated South,the generosity of men in hobo jungles, theresistance of Rosa Parks, unarmed andimpoverished peasants in Mexico and

by Rev. Phil Lawson

The National Council of Elders wasstarted in Oakland in 2009. I invitedDr. Vincent Harding, a historian who

worked with Dr. King and was a speech-writer for Martin Luther King, and I invitedmy brother, Rev. James Lawson, aMethodist minister who was a confidante ofMartin Luther King, to come to Oakland tospeak in 2009. Jim had trained Martin innonviolence and trained the SouthernChristian Leadership Conference (SCLC)and the Student Nonviolent CoordinatingCommittee (SNCC) in the philosophy andpractices of nonviolence.

Jim Lawson said that in the 20th centu-ry, the world witnessed the greatestadvancements in human freedom that hadever before been achieved in the history ofthe world. That century saw the greatestadvances in freedom and justice andhumanity, more than ever before in history.But many people were ignorant of this anddid not relish it or learn from it.

Out of that discussion in Oakland camethe concept that there should be a National

Council of Elders. Elders are, of course,persons of a certain age. But more impor-tantly, many elders are persons who for thelast 30, 40 or 50 years, have been workingfor justice and freedom and empowermentof people in the United States.

So we began to gather the names ofmen and women from the major move-ments of the 20th century: The labormovement, Dr. King’s movement, theyouth movement, the Free Speech move-ment, and the women’s movement. Webegan to talk with the individuals fromthose movements to see if they would be apart of the National Council of Elders forthe purpose of teaching the lessons of the20th century so that we might transferthose lessons to the young people of the21st century who are engaged in move-ments and engaged in being human beingsand struggling with that in our nation.

Out of that beginning, Jim and Vincentand I began to organize the NationalCouncil of Elders. Then, in 2012, inGreensboro, North Carolina, the National

“Depression Bread Line.” George Segal’s sculpture at the FDR Memorial in Washington, D.C., reveals the poverty of a nation.

Finding Moral Beauty in the Lives of the Poor

See Finding Moral Beauty page 8

Planting the Seeds of Freedom and JusticeRev. Phil Lawson and the National Council of Elders —A Lifelong Commitment to Peace, Justice and Freedom

Rev. Phil Lawson, a cofounder of the National Council of Elders,speaks at St. Mary’s Center in Oakland during Black History Month.

Janny CastillophotoSee National Council of Elders page 16

March 2014ST R E E T SP I R I T2

by Lynda Carson

Final passage of the $956 billion farmbill received bipartisan support in theSenate on February 4, and soon

afterwards, President Barack Obamasigned the bill into law. The passage of thebill includes massive cuts to the food stampprogram (Supplemental NutritionAssistance Program) that will affect about47 million people living in poverty acrossthe nation. Food stamp recipients willreceive 90 dollars less per month whenthe cuts take effect, and in Californiaalone, some 700,000 people in povertywill see their benefits shrink.

The major focus on inequality byPresident Obama and the Democratic Partyduring the recent State of the Union addressturned out to be short-lived, and laughable.Especially when considering that within aweek of the address, the Democrats happilyjoined the Republicans in passing the hugefarm bill that bludgeons the food stamp pro-gram, while at the same time locking inmassive subsidies for wealthy corporatefarmers in perpetuity.

Incredibly, in addition to the nearly $9billion in new cuts to the food stamp pro-gram during the next decade, the farm billincludes language that makes it unlawfulto use advertisements to let the poor knowthat the food stamp program even exists.

This is extremely bad news for poorpeople in Oakland who are already tryingto figure out where their next meal iscoming from. Based on the latest censusreport, Oakland has the highest povertyrate for children in the Bay Area, withmore than 27 percent residing in house-holds earning less than $23,000 annually.

With nearly $11 billion in cuts to thefood stamp program already in thepipeline, the additional $8.7 billion in cutsduring the next decade will make life verydifficult for people living in poverty.

The five-year farm bill known as theAgriculture Act of 2014 was passed in theHouse and the Senate with bipartisan sup-port. The bill states, “No funds authorizedto be appropriated under this Act shall beused by the Secretary of Agriculture forrecruitment activities designed to per-suade an individual to apply for supple-mental nutrition assistance program bene-fits (food stamps).”

Imagine that! During an enlightenedage when Viagra is advertised on prime-time TV for men who are having troublegetting an erection, the honorable mem-bers of Congress decided to pass new leg-islation that forbids the Department ofAgriculture from using advertisements toadvise poor people that they may be eligi-ble to join the food stamp program.

Senator Dick Durbin, D-Illinois,charged that many poor people receivingbenefits from the food stamp programmay be involved in fraud. Durbin said,“We think we have tightened it up so itwill not affect the payments to those whoare truly eligible and those who need thehelp, and yet it will make sure the taxpay-ers are treated fairly as well.”

Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, SenateAgriculture Committee Chairwoman andprincipal negotiator of the bill, said, “Thisis a new kind of farm bill designed tomeet new challenges of a changing world.We are also making major reforms, elimi-nating unnecessary and unjustified pro-grams to cut government spending and toincrease the integrity of farm programs.”

People in the East Bay are alreadyspeaking up in support of those living inpoverty, and in total disagreement withwhat many of the Democrats have to say.

Eleanor Walden, a former BerkeleyRent Board Commissioner, said, “This isabsolutely deplorable. When I wasyounger, very poor and was raising myfamily, the food stamp program was theonly program available that made it possi-ble to feed my family.”

Lydia Gans, a founding member ofEast Bay Food Not Bombs, said, “Wehave to do something about this. We havealready seen more and more people com-ing to our meals because of food insecuri-ty. Many of the people we serve arehomeless veterans, and clearly many ofthem are not receiving the services theyneed. The cuts to the food stamp programare only going to make matters worse foreveryone living in poverty.”

According to Gans, Food Not Bombsserves food to around 100 people a day inthe East Bay five days a week, and servesnearly as many people on Sundays.

Lori Kossowsky said, “I used foodstamps a very long time ago when I got

out of college and was in an internship. Ihad help staying in a house thanks to afriend of mine, but I did not have anyfood to eat during the internship. The foodstamp program helped keep me alive untilI could eventually find some work.”

A major split in the progressive com-munity occurred recently in the battleover food stamps when the Center onBudget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), aleft-wing policy group, supported the

Democrats who are in favor of massivecuts to the food stamp program. Last year,the same kind of split occurred in the pro-gressive community when CBPP andother so-called progressive groups sup-ported rental reforms, and cuts to thehousing subsidies of poor people in thenation’s federal housing programs.

To contact Lynda Carson, send an email totenantsrule@yahoo.com

Lawmakers Bludgeon the Food Stamp Program

Food Not Bombs serves a meal at People’s Park. Food stamps are being cut severely even as hunger is increasing. Lydia Gans photo

by Janny Castillo

YouTube has videos about mira-cles. I saw one recently. It wasabout an infant in Syria found

buried deeply in the rubble of a buildingthat collapsed after a blast.

The men, the child’s rescuers —sometimes four, sometimes as many assix — hear a small cry from a hole com-pletely covered with gravel, very muchunderground. They begin to dig frantical-ly with their hands to reach the child.They shout for the child to speak out, sothey can better determine where to dig.

They dig, they shout, they dig more,they shout even louder, and twice I hear acry from under the ground.

But where? Where was the baby? There is no evi-

dence of a structure, only rubble, and themore they dig, they only find more rub-ble. How can anyone, much less a child,be alive under there?

They dig some more. It was a long timebefore I see a sleeve. A red sleeve. The res-cuers begin screaming desperately, diggingaway the small stones and gravel. A smallhand appears, a baby’s hand.

Unbelievable, I thought. Unbelievable.

Many hands dig and dig, franticallyyelling to each other, and to the baby. Icouldn’t understand a word they weresaying, but I thought it must have been,“Hold on, we are coming, hold on.”

Finally, a small dusty head appears. Ababy, maybe six to nine months old, aperfect coating of dust in his eyes and onhis face, not moving, perfectly still. Ithink the unthinkable — that they foundhim but it was too late.

The men keep digging around the baby,uncovering more and more of his body.

Finally, I see the baby’s head flopback and his eyes open. Then I see himlift his hand to wipe the dust from hiseyes. Several of the men try to help him.They wipe his little chubby face. Thebaby lifts his arm again and wipes. Twoof the men help him wipe the dust and pathim on the chest to help him breath.

And still they dig. And there is stillmuch yelling going on. Frantic, desperateto get him out. He is only halfway outnow. The torso and his legs are wedgeddeep into the ground.

At one point, a metal bar is needed tomove a stubborn piece of concrete. Therescuer gently covers the baby to protect

him. The bottom half of the baby is hardto get out, so wedged in he is.

His rescuers do not give up.Finally, with many screams of joy,

one man lifts the baby free into the armsof another that holds him really close.

Amazing, I thought. That a baby couldsurvive under rubble, buried deep in theground. That he cried and someone heardhim. That they found him and were ableto save him. That he lived. Amazing.

Then I thought....What if Poverty is rubble and many

people are buried deep under it? What ifthey cried but no one heard, and no onecame to rescue them?

It feels like that, sometimes. Likethere is no way out, not enough money,not enough food, but plenty of despair,hurt, loneliness — and so little help.

Being buried deep under Poverty canfeel like being buried under rubble.

OK, I say. There are plenty of peoplewith me. Plenty of people, who if no onecomes to rescue us. Hell! We’ll just digourselves out.

Janny Castillo is Hope and JusticeCoordinator at St. Mary’s Center. Email: san-tana400@aol.com

Buried Deeply Under the Rubble

Democrats joined Republicansin passing a farm bill that cutsfood stamps, and locks in hugesubsidies for wealthy corporatefarmers in perpetuity.

Berkeley volunteers respond to the crisis of hunger and malnutrition. Lydia Gans photo

March 2014 ST R E E T SP I R I T 3

by Brian K. Woodson, Sr.

The fight for civil rights in the mid-dle of the 20th century was not anAmerican invention, nor was it the

preoccupation of domestic leaders alone.It was a worldwide phenomenon with anAmerican manifestation.

Even in the United States, it was multi-dimensional, with layers of language, expe-rience and expressions too vast and com-plex to unravel with any depth in the pre-cious few sentences of this article. Evenwith all the books that have been writtenand the records that have been revealed, wemust be wise enough to know that there isstill so much that we do not know.

Billie Holiday’s famous mournfulanthem, “Strange Fruit,” reminded us that“Southern trees bear strange fruit, bloodon the leaves and blood at the root...” Andthe countless martyrs whose stories willnever be told are also integral parts of themovement for freedom that historyrecords as the Civil Rights movement.

There are many tributaries and streamsto the river that became mighty enough tochange the face of American society. Ifthere were only one lesson to be garneredfrom the experience it would be that theoppressed, beleaguered and subjugatedwill only be delivered from the abuses ofinjustice when they themselves rise up tofight for justice.

Now, it is true that change is inevitableand constant, but progressive, positivechange that effectively confronts injusticeand inequities is no simple or evolution-ary thing. It requires courage, tenacity,wisdom, luck and a whole lot of other fac-tors introduced by the Divine at the pre-cise time and right moment. There are noguarantees of success that can be bought,sold, reasoned or otherwise procured.

Those who would challenge injusticeand fight for moral progress in animmoral context do so at their own peril.Still, history suggests that there is noother option for actual human sociologicaladvancement. And so let us engage tocontinue the process of progress.

I don’t know if there is a place where“we the people” can go to have unmoni-tored, unauthorized conversations aboutthe state. I am not sure that there is a placethat the dissidents can gather to dispute,disagree and discuss. But I do know thatthe creation of such a place is vital if weare to survive.

I do believe with all my heart that theparadigm of extant power must change inprogressive and sustainable directions ifthere is any hope for human survival onthis blue marble sailing through the uni-verse. And if that conversation is to beengaged, there is no better place than here

and no better time then now.

VILIFIED IN LIFE, IDOLIZED IN DEATH

Now, considering the struggle for CivilRights in America, perhaps the first per-son that comes to mind is the Rev. Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King is theicon of the American Civil Rights move-ment for many reasons. Some of them youmay find just and others unjust. I believehe stands as the icon of American CivilRights largely because he no longer canspeak his mind or move his body. It isentirely but not exclusively an Americanphenomenon to idealize, then idolize indeath, the one you vilified in life.

The Kingian principles, ethos andpraxis are essential if we are to progress insociety. If we are to critique empire andengage in the building up of a belovedcommunity, more and more of us mustembrace and understand the movementover which King stands iconically.

My thoughts are not intended to dimin-ish King at all but to contextualize him.For there is a danger of messianic hope ifthe only solution as seen in the kinds ofmisguided hopes placed on the Obamaelection, followed by a largely uncriticalview of his presidency.

For this reason, it is important tounderstand that King was not alone inbuilding the Civil Rights movement, andmore importantly, it is vital to suggestwhat a comparable movement would looklike in the present. For we must bring theKingian principles from the shadowed,dusty past to the relevant present.

The hammer of hatred and inhumanity

is as real today as it was in the mid-20thcentury. If there is to be any hope, it is inthe Fannie Lou Hamers, Bayard Rustins,Clay Evans, JoElla Stevensons — and allthose who gave their life energy to chang-ing this nation, but will never be honoredwith a statue or a book. Those whosenames will forever remain uncelebratedbut without which you and I would belynched or enslaved for the thoughts weshare and the lives we live.

MCDONALD’S AND MLKThe teenagers and children who are

growing up today are being presentedwith a view of the Civil Rights movementdistorted by the MLK of McDonald com-mercials. They must come to understandthat there is more to what happened thanthey are being shown. The uncriticalyoung adults who accept the governmentand corporations recording and inspectingtheir every thought, purchase and move-ment, must open their eyes to see the fullextent of oppression and injustice.

The poor and working class, the home-less and near-homeless citizens of theseUnited States are in dire straits and des-perate need of a movement similar to theone whose symbol is Martin Luther KingJr. But no such movement will occur ifour time is consumed looking for a Martininstead of working for a movement.

America has a penchant to forget andthen manufacture history in ways that suitmyths of her righteousness. But pleaseunderstand that the Rev. Dr. Martin Kingmodern American mythmakers wish us tosee is not the Rev. King American myth-

makers saw at the time. Today they wish us to see someone

whose hopes and dreams would have beenrealized in the election of the first presi-dent with African blood. They wish us tosee a Dr. King who would be elated to seeour integrated schools and buses. A Rev.King who would rejoice at the interracialmarriages and black pro quarterbacks andtelevision superstars. That is the Martinthey wish you to see towering over themall in our nation’s capital.

They want you to believe that the “IHave A Dream” speech epitomized thesevalues and ranks with the greatest oratoryof our nation. That is the Martin theAmerican image-makers want you to seeand believe they saw. But it wasn’t.

THE HATRED OF HOOVER

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover hated theRev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Historians say that Hoover was obsessedwith him. Hoover thought Martin was themost dangerous man in America. Heaccused King of being a communist andhad him followed and wiretapped andwho knows what else. The FBI devotedmore of its resources to the surveillance,disruption, persecution and destruction ofMartin King than it did to anything oranyone else.

Neither the Kennedy nor Johnsonadministration liked Dr. King. But bothopened the White House doors becauseDr. King and the movement left them noother tenable option. The American brandof democracy was on trial and the wholeworld was watching.

The cruel and unjust antipathy whichblacks suffered every day could no longerbe hidden and ignored. America’s win-dows were wide open and the world waswatching as Bull Connor’s dogs bit inno-cent children and church leaders inBirmingham, and as Alabama Gov.George Wallace vowed “segregation for-ever,” and a thousand other examples ofAmerican evil were being exposed.

The King America wants us to see nowwasn’t the King they saw then. Further,

Renewing the Struggle for Civil RightsPrayer: Dear Lord Jesus it comes to

me to speak again and I wish to do so onyour behalf and at your behest. Empowermy thoughts, enliven my words, breathelife into the moments these words are reador heard that the very world might changein honor and deference to your majesty.

— Rev. Brian K. Woodson

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-Rucker

Contributors: Brook Anderson, RogerBlackwell, Lynda Carson, JannyCastillo, Horace Cort, Maynard Dixon,Eve Fowler, Lydia Gans, Lola Hadley,Wade Lee Hudson, Rev. Phil Lawson,Peter Marin, James McGee, KimRierson, Amber Whitson, JohnaWilcoxen, Rev. Brian K. Woodson Sr.

All works copyrighted by the authors.The views expressed in Street Spirit arti-cles are those of the individual authors,not necessarily those of the AFSC.

Street Spirit welcomes submissions ofarticles, artwork, poems and photos. Contact: Terry MessmanStreet Spirit, 65 Ninth Street,San Francisco, CA 94103E-mail: spirit@afsc.orgWeb: http://www.thestreetspirit.org

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March 2014

Rev. Brian Woodson, an Oakland pastor, speaks at a “We Are One”rally organized by the Alameda Labor Council at Oakland City Hall.

Photo: BrookAnderson

See Renewed Civil Rights Struggle page 5

The planet is speaking andtoo few are listening. Thepoor are weeping and toofew are concerned. Thedespised and rejected ofmen are incarcerated,detained and deported.

March 2014ST R E E T SP I R I T4

by Lydia Gans

Hidden away from Albany’s streets,separated from the city by thefreeway, is an area where nature

and people have been allowed to flourishfor years. The Albany Waterfront Trailleads off from the end of Buchanan Streetover an area aptly named the Plateau,along a narrow Neck and ending on theAlbany Bulb, a bulb-shaped landfill thatwas created from construction debris andlandscaping materials.

The Albany Bulb lies at the heart ofthis story. Back in the 1990s, people whowere homeless created an encampment onthe Plateau and the Bulb. Then, in 1999,Albany city officials noticed them andproceeded to clear the area.

They ordered police to raid theencampment, dismantled all the tents andshacks, and evicted the campers. City offi-cials paid a nonprofit agency to set up atemporary shelter in a couple of trailers,but did nothing to provide permanenthousing for the people made homeless.

Albany officials brought in bulldozersand heavy equipment and tore downbroad swaths of the vegetation and dump-stered all the campers’ belongings.

After this mass eviction, the policepatrolled the area from time to time, butsoon everything went back to normal.Homeless people returned and settled onthe Bulb, for they had nowhere else to goin a city that has refused to build housingor shelters for their homeless citizens forthe last 20 years. People continued towalk their dogs and enjoy the art createdby the campers and their friends.

Now it’s all happening again, this timeon a much broader scale. In the summerof 2013, Albany began the process oftransferring the entire area to East BayRegional Park District (EBRPD). Signswere posted listing rules and regulationsfor what is now Albany Waterfront Park.

All the wild vegetation on the Plateauhas been removed, presumably to bereplaced by something appropriate,though in view of the drought conditions,who knows when it will become greenagain. The upper trail to the Bulb is being

widened for service vehicles, bushes arebeing chopped down and limbs cut offtrees along the way.

And the people who are living on theBulb have been warned that they will beevicted. Camping is not allowed in stateparks. The homes they have built forthemselves are being demolished.

The City contracted with OperationDignity to provide temporary shelter forsix months. City officials offered nothingbeyond that, even though Albany has nohomeless shelter and no housing for verylow-income people. There will benowhere for the evicted campers to go.

“It’s illegal to be homeless in Albany,”longtime camper and spokespersonAmber Whitson comments wryly. “It’sthe leaf blower effect. Blowing problemsonto somebody else’s sidewalk.”

Whitson points out that there are seri-ous issues concerning the City ofAlbany’s failure to comply with the hous-ing element, the law requiring a city “tomeet its share of the demand for marketrate and affordable housing in the region.”Housing advocates have filed suit againstAlbany officials to demand compliance.

Lawyers for the campers filed a secondlawsuit asserting that the shelter violatesthe Americans with Disabilities Actwhich requires accessibility for peoplewith disabilities. That litigation is stillgoing on.

City officials brought in the BerkeleyFood and Housing Project (BFHP) to helpthe campers find housing and connectwith social and community services. Theycall the program “Outreach andEngagement.” That program is proving to

be a dismal failure. And all this hasalready cost the city well over $250,000.

The shelter consists of two trailers, toi-lets, showers, dog kennel and a structurehousing a generator, and is set up at theentrance to the parking lot. The trailers area travesty, with no privacy, with rules andprotocols more like a detention facility.The shelters are only open at night, andare closed throughout the entire day.

“They’re horrendously abusive there,”Amber Whitson says.

In reporting on this story, I tried threedifferent times to speak with the sheltermanagers, but they refused to speak to me.Instead, I was told to talk to city officials.

It is hardly surprising that generallyonly two or three people have been stay-

Albany’s Shelter Program Is a Dismal Failure

by Amber Whitson

The Albany Bulb has been home to apopulation of otherwise homelessindividuals for more than 20 years.

I have been a resident of the Bulb forseven-plus years.

The City of Albany has had the landthat we live on earmarked for incorpora-tion into the state parks system for 30years. However, as the City has neveractually made any effort to “prepare” theland for the transfer (as is required), acommunity has formed on the AlbanyBulb where people are free from the usualharassment that homeless people typicallyendure while living on the streets.

Virtually all of us who live on theAlbany Landfill fit the HUD definition of“chronically homeless.” Some membersof our community are terminally ill. Not asingle one of us has an income thatexceeds $1,200 per month. I am personal-ly a recipient of SSI, based on variousphysical and mental disabilities.

Albany has never treated its homelessresidents as if we had any rights. Indeed,with the exception of the occasions whenone of the City’s attempts to displace us isbeing held at bay by civil rights lawyers,Albany prefers to act as if we don’t evenexist. Recently, Albany officials haveagain decided to take action to displace usfrom our longtime homes.

City officials set up two trailers in theparking lot at the Albany Bulb anddeclared them to be the “AlbanyTemporary Transition Shelter,” inresponse to public outrage at the fact thatAlbany has no permanent homeless shel-ter and was about to evict 90 percent of itshomeless population — with nowhere elsefor us to go except the next town over.

Albany officials had been repeatedlytold, by numerous individuals and onmultiple occasions, about the high per-centage of disabled individuals living onthe Albany Bulb. Many Bulb residentssuffer from various, complicated mentaland emotional issues, including PTSD,major depression, schizoid personalitydisorder and severe anxiety. Some of

those same people, and others, suffer fromHepatitis C, HIV and other physical dis-abilities. Also, two residents of theAlbany Bulb currently are pregnant.

Albany built the Temporary Shelterwith the intention of pressuring residentsof the Albany Bulb to move out of ourhomes on the Bulb and into the shelter.

Yet, the shelter was designed and con-structed to be very much like an institu-tion. As a result, many Bulb residents(who have experienced incarcerationthroughout their lives, instead of receivingthe appropriate treatment that they eachneeded) feel that the shelter is a verythreatening atmosphere. Also, there are noservices at the shelter, whatsoever.

The shelter is staffed by an organiza-tion called Operation Dignity. OperationDignity’s shelter staff have freely admit-ted that they are “not trained in anything”and this is evident in their incrediblyoffensive and hostile treatment of bothactual and prospective clients.

I stopped by the shelter on the day thatit opened and asked Alex McElree, thedirector of Operation Dignity, if the shel-ter was willing to accommodate the ser-vice animals of Bulb residents (as wehave two certified service dogs currentlyliving with their people on the Bulb). Hisanswer was that there were four kennels

Albany Officials Ignore the Needs of the Disabled

Amber Whitson has lived at the Albany Bulb since 2006. She has doneextensive clean-up, trash removal and natural restoration at the landfill.

Lydia Gansphoto

See Albany Ignores Disabled page 15

The trailers are bleak, claustrophobic boxes and have remained nearly empty, shunned by homeless people. Lydia Gans photo

See Albany Shelter Program page 15

Albany’s shelter program is proving to be a dismal failure that has alreadycost the city well over $250,000. The trailers are a travesty, set up in a parkinglot with no privacy, and with rules and protocols more like a detention facility.

March 2014 ST R E E T SP I R I T 5

Martin wasn’t loved and accepted by allblacks, and all except a few Americans ofEuropean descent rejected him. ManyAfrican Americans as well as white lead-ers in the Christian church shunned asso-ciation with Dr. King and declared hisethos, tactics and theology inappropriate,unwarranted and wrong.

But King was not alone. It must beunderstood when one looks to the past thatthe very world at the time was in motion.Africa, in particular, was alive with theenergy and action that threw off the colo-nial subjugation of European powers.

The world itself was undergoing drasticchange in that era. Global contests ques-tioning the validity of power and politicalconstruct were alive and engaged all overthe planet. Colonialism, with all its abuses,racism and violence, was being challengedworldwide. The melanin-kissed people ofAfrica led the world in throwing off theshackles of European domination. TheBritish, French and Belgian powers strainedand were capitulating.

Democracy was on trial and itscounter, Communism, sat at the prosecu-tor’s desk calling witness after witness tothe bar of world opinion.

MARTIN WAS NOT ALONE

Martin was not alone. The SouthernChristian Leadership Conference, whichhe led, and the Student Non-ViolentCoordinating Committee were not theonly voices in the struggle.

The streets of America were alive withcritique and Martin Luther King Jr. wasnot the only voice of dissent. James R.Lawson of the United African NationalistMovement, Roy Wilkins of the NAACP,and Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X ofthe Nation of Islam were very popularvoices in the struggle for alternatives tothe violent racist oppression in America.

Everyone knows of segregation’s waterfountains, lunch counters and bus stations,but what fueled the rebellion was not sofrivolous as these vanities would suggest.The whole of the American ethos, historyand praxis was exposed and threatened.

The continued rape of our women, sub-jugation of our humanity, mis-educationof our progeny, theft of our labor andfalse fabrication of our history were ontrail. America had been weighed in thebalance and been found wanting.

Meanwhile, white racists continued tobeat, bomb and batter Blacks at whim andwill. White supremacists lied, libeled andlynched us and Blacks were rising up indefense of their lives and deference totheir own people.

Martin was not alone and the Americanpolitical system was not on trial alone.Christianity was also on trial. It was seenas the White man’s religion. It waslabeled a slave religion. Christian clergywere seen more as part of the problemthan part of the solution.

And into this cauldron of chaos andchange Martin was thrown. We know ofthe speeches of Dr. King. We can hear hisvoice online, in the media and in ourminds, but there were other voices. Theywere loud and vociferous at the time. Likethe voice of John Davis preaching BlackNationalism in Harlem on the corner of125th Street and 7th Avenue in front ofthe Teresa Hotel, or the voice of theHonorable Elijah Muhammad declaringthat the white man was the devil personi-fied and that by 1970 the war against the

devil will have been waged and won. There were other voices as well, some

of which were chronicled by MikeWallace and Louis Lomax in their televi-sion production entitled “The Hate ThatHate Produced.”

The option offered to the love and peacethat Martin King espoused was retributivehatred and violence. Still, the options withwhich change would most quickly andsurely come must never be exchanged withthe common change that was sought; name-ly human dignity, opportunity and respectfor the poor and working women and menof America and the world.

The reality of the Civil RightsMovement is now a chapter in Americanhistory. The statue of Martin King standspeering over the Washington Mall as asuggestion that we believe that Americahas changed and now accepts him. But itmust also stand to remind us not of whomwe are told to believe he was, but toremember that the work he was a part ofremains woefully unfinished.

I would like to suggest that, at themoment, it is too quiet on the AmericanFront. The lens of history is of little use ifit is not used to focus and interpret thepresent. And it is only right readings ofthe present that future histories will recog-nize as valid. It falls to us to address thequestion of our age and engage the strug-gle of our time.

OBAMA WAS NEVER A KING

And although I believe that BarackObama is an American avatar, I do not lookto him — nor should you — for the solu-tions to the deep problems within or with-out our country and experience. Now, fiveyears into his administration, the truth ofAmerican intransigence is plain to see andopen for inspection. Obama was never aMartin King, except in the sense that myth-makers wish us to see him as such.

Under his presidency, much of theexcesses and abominations of the Bushadministrations prevail. He has deportedmillions and millions of people, therebydestroying families and increasing thefragility of our social construct. TheGuantanamo gulag still exists. Drone war-fare, emblematic of American imperial-ism, continues unabated. The economicdevastation caused by the uber-rich andpaid for by the struggling poor has mor-phed into more riches for the already richand a proliferation of poverty in Americaand all over the planet.

Perhaps Barack Obama would be asgood a president as he seems a man wereit not for the incessant attacks and demo-nization he suffers at the hands of a ubiq-uitous and militant right-wing media.Still, his policies, if given half a chance,would only be moderate modifications tothe American Imperial mess. And this wewill never know, because anything hesays or suggests is met with the most viru-lent torrent of disguised hatred.

Ever since Ronald Reagan fired the AirTraffic Controllers soon after his fabricat-ed election... (Let me take a sidebar at thispoint. I hope you do not believe that thefabrication of elections began with the2000 coup d’etat when the Bushes stoleFlorida from the Floridians and Ohio fromthe Buckeyes. I hope you understand thatto this very minute there is no verifiablemeans of certifying an election in theUnited States. We can electronically bankwith security and confidence, but there isneither security nor reliability in theAmerican voting process. Democracy

cannot exist without free and fair elec-tions, yet there is little reason to have con-fidence in the electoral process. To havefree and fair elections would result in themajority ruling and elevate the voice ofthe poor to audibility — and America hasalways preferred otherwise.)

Since Ronald Reagan fired the AirTraffic Controllers soon after his fabricat-ed election, a war on the civil rights gainshas been waged and largely won. Thereach of the NSA, CIA, FBI and their cor-porate clients into our lives, thoughts,computers and phone conversationswould make J. Edgar Hoover blush.

The incarceration rates and the evolu-tion of the prison-industrial complex havereplaced conversations about classroomdiversity and equity with the urgent needto combat a school-to-prison pipeline.

Carter G. Woodson stated that; “Whenyou control a man’s thinking you do nothave to worry about his actions.” Andshould we examine the actions of ouryouth, young adults or even our ownactions, we would blush at the utter lackof critical historical reflection alive today.We are lost in a sea of individualism,adrift in an ocean of information, clutch-ing the broken boards from the ship of ourhumanity. We are drowning in the putridwaters of personal identity and individual-ized worldviews.

OUR COMMON HUMANITY

If Noah saved the world two by two,we are destroying it one by one with thepreoccupation of our personal identity anddesires. What this America needs is notanother dozen self-actualized, encouragedindividuals, or even another million suchpeople. What is vital to our survival andcritical for the continuance of our cultureis to understand our common humanityand mutual destiny.

This is what King declared. There islittle profit in examining the flaws, fail-ures and future of Civil Rights in Americaif we are forced to view it through thefalse frame of a historical myth.

One can simply consider the views sur-rounding Edward Snowden and JulianAssange to assess where one is in the civilrights conversations of today. Yes therights of LBGT populations to marriageand full acceptance are valid, but I wouldargue that they are merely the water foun-tains, lunch counters and bus stations ofour day. The challenge now, as it wasthen, is bigger than that.

Today we must engage a critique andconfrontation over the aggregate wealth ofthe planet measured in access to and cor-ruption of resources, as well as the nakedopulence of the uber-rich.

For any who would look, the perils onhumanity’s horizon are plain to see. Fromthe eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountainsto the Western face of the Alleghenys,America has become a sea stained with thedecaying waste of a decomposed industrialage. Her factories, once alive with theclanking grind of subduing the earth, now

languish and rust in the still silence ofdeath. The workers who once fed her coaland sweat in order to feed their familiesnow sit idle and hungry.

American farms which once fed theworld are parched with drought and thenflash-flooded by a climate hell-bent onretaliatory strikes. Her crops are soiledwith genetically modified organisms inexperiments that would have made Dr.Frankenstein blush.

THE FATAL FLAW IN AMERICA —PREFERENCE FOR THE RICH

There has always been a fatal flaw inthe design of America — in the very ideaof America. This flaw is embedded in itsConstitution and its very Declaration ofIndependence. This flaw has been themidwife of all our laws, it is the mother ofour slavery and the father of our racism.

This flaw is the obscene, unbridled def-erence to and preference for the rich. It is anunsustainable paradox; one cannot extol thevirtue of the rapist. The uber-rich and thepolicies they espouse must be exposed thatall can see the darkness they promote. It istime to have a conversation about maximumwages. It is time to proportionally link theminimum wage to the maximum wage andthereby begin the process of rationalizingthe notion of work and embrace the sub-stantive equality of all humanity.

There is a further challenge. The age inwhich we exist has produced an idolizationof information, as if data was determina-tive. Information does not necessarilyinform. Decisions as well as destinies aredetermined by the state and size of one’sheart and not by the data at one’s disposal.Individualism and the religion of informa-tion are the dark forces at play in our world.They are the twin demons deluding us intothe trance of our destruction.

The planet is speaking and too few arelistening. The poor are weeping and toofew are concerned. The despised andrejected of men are incarcerated, detainedand deported.

There is no doubt as to whose interestsare served by our lethargy. We must takeup the struggle of our age with the tactics ofour history. We must engage to insure thatthe Commonwealth is employed for theCommon Good. If becoming involves thepain of being, and being requires the prac-tice of community, then the duty of ourtime is laid bare before us. We must turnour hearts, hands and help to the poor, hud-dled masses yearning to be free.

Like the Christ of the Gospels, we mustpreach the news of alternative economicpossibilities, heal the hopes of those who nolonger believe, empower paradigms ofpowerlessness, and release the unjustlyincarcerated. The Bible declares this to bethe acceptable work of the Lord. I wouldsuggest that the Lord has no other hands todo this work but our own.

Rev. Brian Woodson is an Oakland pastorand a staff organizer with EBASE, East BayAlliance for a Sustainable Economy.

Renewed Civil Rights StruggleThe Guantanamo gulag still exists. Drone warfare continuesunabated. The economic devastation caused by the uber-richand paid for by the struggling poor has morphed into moreriches for the already rich and more poverty everywhere.

from page 3

In 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. displays a poster for the Poor People’sCampaign led by SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference).

AP photo:Horace Cort

March 2014ST R E E T SP I R I T6

by Wade Lee Hudson

Two-thirds of the American peopleagree. As a society, we “ought tosee to it that everyone who wants

to work can find a job.” Most Americans also believe the mini-

mum wage should be high enough toenable workers to avoid poverty. We knowhow to guarantee every worker a living-wage job opportunity. We can do it easily.There is no good reason not to do it.

When we secure living-wage job oppor-tunities for all, everyone will benefit. Thepositive effects will ripple throughout soci-ety. Business owners will benefit from amore prosperous economy. Most workerswill benefit from higher wages, becauseemployers will pay more to keep trainedemployees. Many workers will be treatedwith more respect by employers, becauseworkers will have more choices.

People currently living in poverty willlift themselves out of poverty, and every-one will benefit from living in a more har-monious, safer society. We can take bettercare of the environment without worryingabout its impact on the economy.

It’s hard to imagine any quicklyachievable reform that would be morebeneficial. To gain that goal, we need tobuild the embryonic full employmentmovement. The seeds of that movementhave already been planted. Now we needto grow it and develop the grassroots pres-sure that is needed to be successful.

A full employment movement could bebased on the following principles.

A BROAD ALLIANCE

Assuring a living-wage job opportunityis a policy embraced by individuals withwidely different political views because itis a principle that blends valid beliefsfrom varied perspectives.

We can achieve full employment with-out increasing the size of the federalgovernment. Rather, the federal govern-ment can send money to local govern-ments (where citizens have more impact)to hire public-service workers to meetpressing social and environmental needs.

Full employment can be achieved pri-marily by creating private-sector jobs.Initial funding of public-service jobs willincrease consumer demand, which willboost the economy. Then, in the upwardspiral that follows, private businesses willsteadily hire more workers.

We can create the needed jobs withoutincreasing the deficit. A small tax onunproductive, dangerous Wall Street spec-ulation can generate the money needed tojump-start a federally funded jobs pro-gram. Thereafter, we can hire more work-ers with increased revenues resulting froma stronger economy, as well as savingsfrom reduced spending on unemploymentinsurance and food stamps.

We can’t guarantee a job, but we canguarantee a job opportunity withoutincreasing dependency on the govern-ment. Some will choose not to work andothers won’t show up on time and workhard (and will be fired). But those individ-uals are few, and they can make it on theirown or with other sources of support.

Full employment can be created with-out creating “make work” jobs. Almosteveryone wants to work and has someuseful skill. We can hire the unemployedand give them on-the-job training if need-ed to rebuild our infrastructure and meetneglected social and environmental needs.They can provide after-school recreation,make park improvements, help clean upthe environment, and serve as nursinghome staff, in-home caregivers, teacheraides, and substance abuse counselors.

Some ideologues always attack capital-ism and promote government programs.Others always attack the government and

promote capitalism. But most Americansrecognize that we need a mixed economy,with both a strong government and a vigor-ous free market. Sending federal money tohire workers to meet needs that the privatesector cannot meet (because there’s noprofit in it) is an example of the commonsense pragmatism we need.

COMPASSION

Most individuals could do more toimprove their situation. Self-improvementis valuable and needs to be supported. Butif every unemployed person redoubledtheir efforts to become more employable,there still wouldn’t be enough jobs to goaround. And most people can’t start a newbusiness on their own.

The jobs market is like a game ofmusical chairs. So long as there aren’tenough jobs, workers are going to beunjustifiably unemployed.

Some people believe that unskilledworkers 18 or over don’t deserve a livingwage (current law establishes a “youthminimum wage” that treats 16- and 17-year-old workers differently). They saythese workers need to gain experience andboost their skills before they can expect toearn more. And some believe that beingforced to work at poverty-level wages andface the threat of homelessness serves tomotivate people to strengthen their skills.

But opening this door is dangerous.Once opened, it can easily be opened everwider — as is happening now with ourshrinking middle class. And even with aminimal living wage, most workers willstill be motivated to improve their situa-tion by enhancing their skills.

Every adult who holds down a jobshould earn enough to make ends meet at aminimally decent level. No human beingshould be considered disposable and losethe freedom to fulfill their potential.Moreover, the threat of poverty constrainseveryone’s liberty, if only because whenwe see others being oppressed and we havea heart, we are compelled to try to helpeliminate that oppression. So long as oneof us is not free, none of us are free.

We don’t like to see homeless peopleand beggars on the street. It gnaws at our

conscience, making us wonder whetherwe should be doing more to help. Butlet’s not relieve our conscience by blam-ing the victims of our economy andyelling, “Go get a job.” With Jesus, let’slove our neighbor as we love ourselves.With Buddha, let’s avoid both self-sacri-fice and selfishness.

FOCUS ON MORALITY

Securing the human right to a living-wage job opportunity is a moral impera-tive. Achieving that goal should be thefundamental purpose of our economy.

If even one person can’t find a living-wage job quickly, it is a moral outrage.Activists in the full employment move-ment need to hammer home that messageconsistently. Most Americans are moralpeople. They want to do what is right.Let’s tap our deep moral sense andencourage one another to fulfill our truenature as compassionate human beings.

It’s easy to get wrapped in up facts,figures, history, policy debates, and spec-ulations about the future. But the eyes ofmost people glaze over when confrontedwith all those statistics and theoreticalarguments.

Let’s focus instead on the moral issue.We are obligated as a human communityto make sure that every adult among uswho is able and willing to work has theopportunity to earn enough to make endsmeet at a minimally decent level.

Let’s build strong, clear support forthat position and persuade those with theability to do so to achieve that goal. Wedon’t have to agree on exactly how to doit. What we ordinary people need to do ismonitor whether or not our society hassecured for everyone the human right to aliving-wage job opportunity. Until theydo, we need to keep pressuring key deci-sion-makers to do it.

Perhaps our nation will experience amoral renewal that will prompt businessesthat are already highly profitable to payhigher wages. Perhaps the wealthy willdecide to donate 10 percent of theirwealth to nonprofit organizations to hirepublic-service workers. Perhaps the econ-omy will grow to the point that anyone

can find a living-wage job.But until some miracle like that hap-

pens, the federal government has a moralobligation to step up and provide the nec-essary funds. We need to focus on thatmoral issue like a laser beam. If the gov-ernment can figure out how to rescueWall Street, they can figure out how torescue Main Street.

BUILD THE BASE

Those of us who are committed to thisgoal already have a great deal of support.In March 2013, based on a study fundedby the highly reputable Russell SageFoundation, three respected political sci-entists, Benjamin I. Page, Larry M.Bartels, and Jason Seawright, reportedthat two-thirds of the American peoplebelieve “the government in Washingtonought to see to it that everyone who wantsto work can find a job.”

The wording in that survey is impor-tant. As have other surveys, it did not askpeople if they support a guaranteed job.Rather, it used the phrase “can find a job.”As discussed above, that formulationimplies assuring a job opportunity. It doesnot assume that people who find a job cankeep it regardless of their effort. It doesnot guarantee a job unconditionally.

Polls indicate the importance of the dis-tinction. The Page/Bartels/Seawright studyfound lower support for “the federal gov-ernment should provide jobs for everyoneable and willing to work who cannot find ajob in private employment.” Barely morethan half supported that position.

A 2014 YouGov/Huffington Post pollasked, “Would you favor or oppose a lawguaranteeing a job to every Americanadult, with the government providing jobsfor people who can’t find employment inthe private sector?” In that poll, more peo-ple supported that proposition, 47 percent,than opposed it, 41 percent. But supportfor each of these positions was weakerthan with the “job opportunity” option.

Various methods are available to createjobs, including providing more support forthe private economy. But according to mostAmericans, the ultimate responsibility restsin the government in Washington, D.C.Other polls have shown strong support forfederal job creation programs. A March2013 Gallup poll, for example, found thatthree-fourths supported “a federal jobs cre-ation law that would spend governmentmoney for a program designed to createmore than 1 million new jobs.”

The Page/Bartels/Seawright study alsofound that three-fourths of the publicbelieve the minimum wage should be“high enough so that no family with afull-time worker falls below [the] officialpoverty line.” That response indicates thatan overwhelming majority of Americansbelieves that full-time workers shouldearn a “living wage” that enables them toavoid poverty.

Different elements of a full employ-ment movement could back various pro-posals for increasing the minimum wage.One option is to raise the minimum wageto a level that will enable single workersto avoid poverty and increase the EarnedIncome Tax credit for families to achievethe same goal.

A recent poll conducted by HartResearch Associates found 80 percent ofthe respondents agreed that the minimumwage should be raised to $10.10 an hour.A national meeting in Washington onApril 28, 2014, will be pushing for a $15per hour minimum wage.

Through vigorous public debate, wecan develop a consensus about how toconcretely ensure living-wage incomes,while at the same time building supportfor the proposition that as a society, one

Building a New Movement for Full Employment

See Movement for Full Employment page 7

The corner of Wall Street and Broadway in New York City. Photo credit: Fletcher6

The federal government has a moral obligation to step upand provide the necessary funds for living-wage jobs. If thegovernment can figure out how to rescue Wall Street, theycan figure out how to rescue Main Street.

March 2014 ST R E E T SP I R I T 7

way or the other, we must assure every-one a living-wage job opportunity.

We would not need total agreementwithin a full employment movement onall specific methods. Rather, we canrespect our differences and focus onbuilding broad support for our basic goal:guaranteeing all Americans a living-wagejob opportunity.

PROMOTE TRUE FULL EMPLOYMENT

In recent decades, most economistshave mistakenly redefined “full employ-ment” to mean something other than whatthe term used to mean and what most peo-ple understand it to mean — namely, thatanyone who wants to work can quicklyfind a job. Instead, they’ve tied fullemployment to a specific rate of unem-ployment that is supposedly necessary toprevent excessive inflation.

This new definition carries weight,because the economists behind it are highlyrespected by pundits and politicians whohelp shape public opinion. These econo-mists define full employment as the “non-accelerating inflation rate of unemploy-ment,” or NAIRU. Wikepedia says NAIRU“refers to a level of unemployment belowwhich inflation rises.” Investopedia definesit as “the specific level of unemploymentthat exists in an economy that does notcause inflation to increase.”

Thus, by definition, the NAIRU con-sists of an automatic cause-and-effectrelationship between some particular rateof unemployment and inflation. That’swhy economists give it so much weight.On the face of it, however, this concept isnonsense. There is no such simple cause-and-effect relationship. Reality is far morecomplicated than that.

The economists themselves can’t agreeon what that rate of unemployment is.And the most recent official predictionswere wrong. Decreasing unemploymentrates in the 1990s, for example, did notlead to any insignificant increase in “coreinflation,” which excludes oil prices. Yeteconomists still talk about the NAIRU asif it were Gospel truth.

Once you accept that no NAIRU hasmagical powers and you recognize thatother factors are extremely relevant, theonly logical conclusion is to accept that,given the political will, we can use mea-sures other than creating unemploymentto deal with any inflationary pressuresthat result from achieving true fullemployment. The NAIRU therefore is amyth. It does not hold the power it is sup-posed to have.

This conclusion is reinforced by ananalysis of the historical record. Forexample, age-setting practices in Swedenand Japan maintained a sustainable bal-ance between wage growth and productiv-ity growth into the 1980s.

Rapid worker productivity growth in

various countries have restrained wageand price increases. Price controls alsohave been used to restrain prices, andincreased global competition is limitingprice increases.

We should also bear in mind that we canfund public-service jobs without increasingthe deficit (which can be inflationary).Workers in a federally funded jobs programcan remain available to take jobs in the pri-vate sector, just as they do when they col-lect unemployment insurance. Also, theamount of money the federal governmentsends to each region can be based on thatregion’s unemployment rate: regions withmore unemployment can receive morefunding. Finally, we can reduce funding fordirect job creation as unemploymentdeclines. All these methods will minimizeinflationary pressures.

If wages and Social Security keeppace, a modest increase in prices is notproblematic (except for Wall Streettraders who did not anticipate theincrease). The gains from increasedemployment would be far greater than anypotential costs from higher inflation. Evenif prices did increase, the rise would begradual, allowing time for corrective mea-sures, if needed.

Once again, we need not get hung upon trying to reach agreement on exactmethods. Rather, we can stay focused onour goal and insist that if and when policymakers at some point in the future consid-er creating unemployment to restraininflation, they should do so openly withfull public debate.

The NAIRU with its alleged automaticcause-and-effect relationship is blatantlyfalse. There’s a good possibility we canachieve full employment without addingto inflationary pressures. Creating unem-ployment to control inflation should bethe absolute last resort.

We should not blindly trust economists(or any other technocrat). They’ve oftenbeen terribly wrong on many importantmatters in the past. They tend to ignoremorality and are too willing to sacrificethe unemployed and working poor on thealtar of “economic growth” that fails tolift all boats.

Instead, we should rely primarily on ourown common sense and clear logic, andstay grounded in the key moral issue: everyadult who is able and willing to workdeserves a living-wage job opportunity.

BUILDING THE MOVEMENT

Signs of a contemporary full employ-ment movement have been percolating fordecades. New Initiatives for FullEmployment (NIFE), an ethnically andracially diverse group of social activistsand academics began working together onthe East Coast in 1986 to develop a feasi-ble plan for full employment.

From April 1990 to March 1991, the SanFrancisco-based Solutions to PovertyWorkshop developed a concrete 10-point

National Program to Abolish InvoluntaryPoverty. The San Francisco AntipovertyCongress adopted that program in April1992, which led to the formation of theCampaign to Abolish Poverty (CAP) andthe introduction of the Living Wage Jobsfor All Act by Congressman Ron Dellums.

In June 1994, NIFE convened theNational Jobs for All Coalition, which wascommitted to building a new movement forfull employment at livable wages.

In the summer of 1994, an alliance oflabor and religious organizations inBaltimore began organizing for a localliving-wage ordinance, which was adopt-ed in December. In March 1995, theCampaign for Sustainable Milwaukeelaunched its campaign for a living-wagelaw using Baltimore as a model. In the fallof 1995, Chicago initiated its successful,similar effort.

In 1996, the Full EmploymentCoalition convened a Jobs for All Week,began organizing for a living-wage law inSan Francisco, and supported similarefforts in other cities. Scores of cities andcounties throughout the country now haveliving-wage laws.

More than 130,000 individuals havesigned the “OUR Walmart” petition ask-ing President Obama to support Walmartworkers who are risking their livelihoodby organizing fellow workers.

Fast-food workers organizing withRestaurant Opportunities Centers toincrease the minimum wage are askingconsumers to sign a petition declaring, “Iam willing to pay an extra dime a day formy food so that close to 8 million foodsystem workers and 21 million additionallow-wage workers can receive a muchdeserved raise to help them meet theirbasic needs.”

In 2013, Congressman John Conyers,Jr. introduced HR 1000, the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment and TrainingAct, which is being promoted by the Jobsfor All Campaign. The bill already has 57co-sponsors. In early 2014, Conyers andhis co-chair, Congresswoman FredericaWilson, launched the first-everCongressional Full Employment Caucusand convened a public forum on“Employment: A Human Right” thatattracted a standing-room-only crowd inthe House Office Building.

On March 22, 2014, a public forum onHR 1000 will be held at the University ofDC Law School, and plans are afoot for a

DC National Day of Action focused on HR1000 in late May or early June. And onApril 28 a national gathering will focus onestablishing a $15 per hour minimum wage,as was done in SeaTac, Washington.

The greatest obstacle to expanding anddeepening these efforts is cynicism and pas-sivity. Most Americans believe they can’thave much impact, so they remain inactive,thereby fulfilling their prophecy.Overcoming this circular dynamic is anurgent task. To achieve that goal, activistsneed to develop new organizing methods.

MORE EFFECTIVE METHODS

Like the rest of our society, most activistorganizations get wrapped up in facts andfigures and policy prescriptions, and fail toaffirm underlying moral values. They relyon tapping anger and fear, and neglectdeeper feelings of love and faith. They aimto score victories by defeating opponents,rather than seeking win-win solutions. Theyfocus on the outer world and ignore theinner world. They aim to change others andoverlook the need to change themselves.They overlook the need to empower people.

They lecture, often with a shrill tone,and try to “educate,” rather than engagingin authentic dialog. They function like animpersonal machine that uses people untilthey use them up. They tend to believe thatsome one person must always be in charge– that individuals must either dominate orsubmit – rather than collaborate as equals.

They have too many boring meetings.They don’t sing and dance enough. Theyare too serious. They don’t have enoughfun. They forget to love the universe andthe life force that energizes it.

These patterns drive away many poten-tial activists. If we want to build an effec-tive full employment movement, we needto develop new ways of organizing.

FULL EMPLOYMENT CLUBS

One method that could help is to grow anetwork of “full employment clubs” thatattract new members with contagious hap-piness. The members of these clubs couldshare meals, socialize informally, and sup-port one another in their personal growth,community building and political action.

These self-governing clubs wouldengage in a wide variety of activities.Different clubs would experiment withdifferent methods. Some members mightconvene support groups for unemployedworkers, or lobby their Congressperson.

OASIS Clinic and its allies are holding Hepatitis C Awareness Week in Oakland, from Saturday, March 8 through Saturday, March 15. OASIS is an Oakland-based, nonprofit clinic dedicated to eradicating Hepatitis C

through education, testing, and medical treatment. Hepatitis C has been a “silentkiller” for decades, affecting millions of people, including many unaware that theyhave this potentially life threatening disease. This year Hepatitis C Awareness Weekis more important than ever, because new medications have been approved. There arenew treatments that are saving lives. Hepatitis C is now curable.

The OASIS clinic, Oakland City Council, service providers and community stake-holders will join forces to raise awareness through public education, Hepatitis C test-ing, and a Hepatitis C Awareness Walk around Lake Merritt. Together we can makeOakland “Hep-C Free!!” Visit us on facebook at “Hep C Free Oakland” or by email athepcfreeoakland@gmail.com.

Hepatitis C Awareness Week in OaklandSaturday, March 8—Saturday, March 15

A concert in Snow Park celebrates Oasis Clinic’s work to eradicate Hepatitis C.

The Movement for Full Employment

from page 6

See Movement for Full Employment page 15

We need a new movement for full employment and living wages. Roger Blackwell photo

March 2014ST R E E T SP I R I T8

Peru who bravely stood up to armedtroops, black schoolchildren “who walkedinto white schools while people screamedat them on all sides,” and certain Vietnamvets “who fought in a war I hated,” butalso taught so much about courage, loveof comrades, and sacrifice.

When he looks back at these crucialmoments of inspiration, Marin can also seea small group of homeless friends march-ing slowly across the entire breadth of theNorth American continent. On MartinLuther King’s birthday in 1989, they setout on a cross-country march from SantaBarbara, California, to the massiveHousing Now! demonstration inWashington, D.C. It took the small band 10long months to walk 3,000 miles from theWest Coast to the nation’s capitol.

At some indefinable point, the marchbecame something more than a protest forhuman rights. It became a pilgrimage, aprocession that Marin found no less holythan the peace pilgrimages of Buddhistmonks marching for the sanctity of life.

At heart, it was all about soul. AsMarin wrote: “I believe now we crossed/not only the country/ but a far regioninside where/ the soul has its home.”

These experiences on the road werecrucial in the formation of his conscience,and his personal friendships with thehomeless friends he traveled with on thesejourneys helped give his later activism aprofoundly personal dimension.

PETER THE MARINER

As he reflects on his years of advocacy,the insights that emerge are rarely of thecomforting kind. They tend to be moreunsettling than inspiring, as if his thoughtshave taken shape in the dark night of thesoul, like the troubled dreams of a dead-tired traveler on a midnight train.

Marin is a poet, and during our inter-view, I involuntarily recall the ship-wrecked seafarer from Samuel TaylorColeridge’s epic poem, “The Rime of theAncient Mariner.” The Ancient Mariner isa haunted figure, shaken by his own con-science, who has been condemned to wan-der the earth as a penance for killing analbatross on his nearly ruinous voyage.

For the rest of his life, the Mariner iscompelled to teach the hard lessons helearned while adrift at sea — lessonsabout the darkness of the human heart andthe saving grace of kindness. The Marinercalls for love and compassion for allthings great and small.

He prayeth best, who loveth bestAll things both great and small;For the dear God who loveth us,He made and loveth all.I can’t help but realize how closely

Marin’s very name echoes that of theMariner, and how his life’s journey seemsreminiscent of the haunted seafarer: Peterthe Mariner. Both mariners saw the tragicsuffering and deaths of their friends. Bothcame to understand the central significanceof kindness. The key difference is that PeterMarin’s journey took place on land, ratherthan at sea. Or did it?

Marin’s narrative poem, “The Walkers,”described this 3,000-mile march in imagesthat make it seem like the experiences of asmall band of sailors lost at sea. In Marin’spoem, in the midst of the great Americanlandmass of prairies and mountains, wesuddenly see a disturbing echo of theAncient Mariner “shipwrecked, drivenwild by thirst,” and seeing “imagined res-cuers” on the horizon. This passage fromMarin’s “The Walkers” is strangelyevocative of the Ancient Mariner:

By the light of our fires we heard men speak of lost children or the pain of exile

with no hope of return. In sleep they cried out to us as do those shipwrecked driven wild by thirst who see on the horizon imagined rescuers.Just as Coleridge’s Mariner was com-

pelled ever after to warn about the urgentneed for love and kindness, Marin’s poet-ry and activism have become a lifelongcall for more compassion, more love.

Marin’s epic poem cycle on homeless-ness, “Margins,” is an odyssey through theback alleys and broken dreams of whatsociologist Michael Harrington once calledthe “Other America” — the hiddenAmerica of poverty. Marin’s poem cycle isjust as important as Harrington’s renownedindictment of economic inequality.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF LOSS

In every state of the nation, Marin andhis fellow marchers witnessed homelessmen arrested for sleeping on riverbanks,homeless women falling victim to hungerand illness and cruel weather, and parentsstruck down by the loss of their children.

In Marin’s unforgettable phrase, suchdaily tragedies formed “a geography ofloss” that encompasses an entire nation.

The grieved faces melt into onethe cities combine skies become a single huge roofabove a chamber of sorrows stretching from sea to shining sea.These hauntingly beautiful poems serve

as an elegy for the oppressed, a reminder oftheir humanity, and a shocking jolt to theconscience of a nation gone wrong.

THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL

The personal is political, as the sayinggoes. In the case of Marin, the personal ispoetical. Marin’s poetics and his politicalactivism both stem from his personal con-nections to homeless individuals.

In a land where homeless people areendlessly persecuted by every cop, politi-cian and businessman, it is almost a revolu-tionary act when a poet finds beauty intheir lives, and restores their stolen dignity.

After my own 30 years of homelessactivism, Marin’s poetry is one of the fewthings I have discovered that is of lastingvalue. His poems enable us to see thesacred beauty of people living on the

streets all around us. That is an amazingaccomplishment in a culture that hasalmost unanimously concluded that thelives of the poor have no value at all.

Renaissance artists often painted beau-tiful portraits of the nobility and royalty.Marin’s poetry turns that world upsidedown by portraying the lives of homelesspeople as sources of great artistic beauty.Marin sees nobility disguised under shabbyovercoats and finds beauty hidden insidecardboard shacks, in the people thatAmerica forgot. His poetry illuminates andtransfigures, so that we no longer see onlyvictims laid low by poverty. Rather, we seeinto the human soul — shining, sacred andsomehow everlasting.

That is not to say that his poem cycleromanticizes homelessness. His poemsoffer stark glimpses into the despair andugliness of poverty, the cruelty and vio-lence of the streets, the lonely men suffer-ing in hospital wards, the agony of parentswho have lost their children. Dante’sunderworld, with no hope for deliverance.

Yet, just as often, he portrays selflessacts of kindness because he has personallywitnessed this kind of moral beauty on thestreets, time after time.

SELL-OUT SOCIAL WORKERS

Marin condemns career-oriented socialworkers who sell out the interests of thepoor people they supposedly serve, andrefuse to oppose anti-poor laws so as not tojeopardize their careers.

“They don’t know any of the homelesspeople,” Marin said. “They know themonly because they sit across the desk fromthem as social workers and serviceproviders. They have a program to whichpeople have to apply and they have hoopsthrough which people have to jump. Butthey’re not out on the streets living withpeople or helping them day by day. Theyare good members of the privileged class.They don’t identify with the poor.”

The Freedom Riders who risked theirlives in the civil rights era found thestrength to continue because of their per-sonal bonds and friendships. Marin said,“What the Freedom Riders had on theirminds were their sisters and mothers andfathers and brothers. So I think true advo-cates are speaking for their friends. And Ithink service providers are the people who

sit across the desk from you, whether theywork for the state or a private agency.”

Marin’s words remind me of the impor-tance attached to love and friendship by theliberation theologian, Gustavo Gutierrez. InWe Drink From Our Own Wells, Gutierrezwrote: “It is a work of concrete, authenticlove for the poor that is not possible apartfrom bonds of real friendship with thosewho suffer despoliation and injustice. Thesolidarity is not with ‘the poor’ in theabstract but with human beings of flesh andbone. Without love and affection, with-out—why not say it?—tenderness, therecan be no true gesture of solidarity.”

Tenderness. Gutierrez, the tough-mindedliberation theologian who courageouslydenounces government repression in theslums of Lima, Peru, calls out for tender-ness. Tenderness is a trait that poets areoften accused of, almost as if it were anaffliction. Tenderness is exactly the word Iwould use to describe Marin’s poems aboutheartbroken and homesick wanderers.

Marin founded the Committee forSocial Justice to help represent peoplewho ran afoul of anti-homeless laws. TheCommittee also proposed innovative solu-tions to homelessness, including safecamping zones, legalized vehicular camp-ing, and a county loan program to enablehomeless people to purchase vehicles tolive in — a readily achievable approach tocreating the most low-cost housing of all.

Some of these solutions worked, otherswere turned down by county officials, butthey were all based on a practical commit-ment to helping neighbors in need, ratherthan brewed up in an academic study ofdemographics and sociological statistics.

After four people froze to death in a 10-day span a few winters ago in SantaBarbara County, Marin and a few activistssucceeded in opening emergency warmingcenters. The Board of Supervisors had beendebating the issue for three years until theactivists packed their chambers anddemanded the funding to open the centers.

Four years later, the emergency warm-ing centers are still operating — and stillsaving lives. The centers open when tem-peratures drop below 35 degrees at night,or when it is raining. With their emphasison giving life-saving help, the warming

Finding Moral Beauty in the Lives of the Poor

“Forgotten Man.” Painting by Maynard Dixon. Alone and forgotten, a desolate-looking man is avoided and ignored by passers-by.

from page 1

See Finding Moral Beauty page 9

March 2014 ST R E E T SP I R I T 9

centers are emblematic of the “tenderness”that Gutierrez valued so highly.

In 1987, the Homeless Coalition inSanta Barbara succeeded in forcing thecity to temporarily suspend its sweepinganti-camping laws after threatening toorganize a huge march with renownedactivist Mitch Snyder that “would makeSanta Barbara the Selma of the ‘80s.”

During that struggle, Marin’s seminalarticle, “Helping and Hating the Homeless:The Struggle at the Margins of America,”was published in Harper’s Magazine. Itwas then passed from hand to hand throughadvocacy circles all over the country.

I still remember how strongly his articleaffected me. It was almost clairvoyant in itsvision of what was ultimately at stake in thestruggle over human rights. Marin exposedthe officials who pretend to “help” home-less people by scouring away every lastvestige of their presence from tourist desti-nations and pleasant shopping malls, in amad effort to drive them out of sight andout of mind.

In describing how a woman namedAlice had become homeless in LosAngeles, he wrote that her life was destabi-lized by a series of catastrophic blows, fol-lowed by smaller traumatic events, “eachone deepening the original wound,” untilhomelessness became inevitable.

Marin also reported a deeper truth thatonly he saw with such clarity at the time —a truth of immeasurable importance about asociety that produces massive numbers ofhomeless people. He wrote: “You are struckcontinually, hearing these stories, by some-thing seemingly unique in American life,the absolute isolation involved. In whatother culture would there be such anabsence or failure of support from familial,social, or institutional sources?”

This is why Marin insists so stronglythat impersonal social workers with theirendless, dehumanizing regulations are notthe solution to homelessness. Rather, theyare only one more facet of the alienationand isolation in American society thatreduces vulnerable people to despair.

Peter Marin has been married to KathrynMarin for his entire life, and the couple hastwo children. He taught literature at HofstraUniversity and Los Angeles State College,and was a professor of journalism at USCin Los Angeles and at the University ofSanta Barbara. He was a fellow at the pres-tigious Center for the Study of DemocraticInstitutions, a think tank run by RobertHutchins that analyzed major social andpolitical questions in the light of Westernhistory and philosophy.

When he became the director of PacificHigh School, a radically experimentalhigh school in the Santa Cruz mountains,Marin believed in freedom and let the stu-dents make the rules for this “school ofthe world.” As a result of that experience,he wrote widely about education and waseven the keynote speaker at the NationalConvention of the PTA. An influentialessay he wrote for The Center Magazine,“The Open Truth and Fiery Vehemence ofYouth,” was sent all over the country andwas later published in his book of essays,Freedom and Its Discontents.

Later, Marin spent years writing aboutveterans and the war in Vietnam. His arti-cle in Harper’s, “Coming to Terms withVietnam,” made a big splash and drew alot of attention from veterans organiza-tions. Marin was one of the first writers toinvestigate the deep sources of guilt andremorse that plagued many veterans about

what they had seen and done in Vietnam. “People who had shot women and chil-

dren in the war, would come home andthink about what they had done during thewar, and would be extremely troubled.That’s something you can’t undo. Youcan’t bring the dead back. So I thought alot of what they hygienically call PTSDwas anger and guilt. People couldn’t livenot just with their relatives, they couldn’tlive with themselves.”

The Vietnam War not only causedcountless deaths, physical disabilities anddiseases from exposure to Agent Orange,but also resulted in many deeply troubledveterans ending up as homeless casualtiesof a war that is still not over.

After a lifetime of pondering the tragicvictims of war and working with those per-secuted as homeless outcasts, what givesMarin any hope for the human condition?

A poetic passage in his Street Spiritessay on “Moral Beauty” nearly singsabout the beauty of the human condition.There is a light that still shines in thedarkness, even on a midnight train.

“Wherever and in whomever we findlove, courage, sacrifice, generosity ofspirit, resistance to power and injustice,the telling of truth and a faith kept withothers — ah, it is there that beautyappears, shining forth.”

“Going Nowhere.” Maynard Dixon said his painting of a man walking down railroadtracks showed the “mood of a man over 50 who had slept too often in the rain.”

Once All of Them Boysby Peter MarinHere is the drunk man, here is the one-legged man, here is the man talking to himself in the voice of another, a master.Here is the drugged man,here is the man without legs —four wheels and leathered fists.Here is the naked man in a doorway,here is the huddled man in a womb,here is a bogey man, frightened.Here is a man adrift on a raft,here is a man marooned on an island, here is an infantry-man left to die here is an old man left on an ice floe. Here is a learned man, mindless. Here is a dancing man, lame. Here is a working man, idle.Here is a kind man, gone bad. Here are the men, once all of them boys hopeful of futures, anxious for joys, now asleep in a subway with its dirt and its noise.

Men in Blueby Peter MarinBe good, little darling, or the men in blue some cold night will come seeking you,

stamping out your fire, ripping down your tent, destroying all you own in the name of the State.

Be good, little darling, or the men in blue, some cold night will come seeking you,

trussing up your wrists, twisting back your arm, taking you to prison just for trying to stay warm.

Ark of Lonelinessby Peter MarinFiling in, one by one, as if into an ark of loneliness, out of the rain, the shelter, its gray emptiness anchored at the bottom by green cots arranged in rows, boots tucked under, men asleep, rocked on the surface of watery dreams by a great storm never to end.

GALLUP by Peter Marin

Where the town stops, my life begins. To the east, low twilit buttes. To the west, white snowy peaks. In my heart, a vacancy beyond belief.

San Diegoby Peter Marin

Bring my slippers, Mother, and let me sit in silence, tired of my wandering and sick to death of violence.

Bring my slippers, Mother, as darkness fills the treetops, and I will tell you stories as meaningful as Aesop’s.

Bring my slippers, Mother, and listen close beside me to how throughout my country men punished or reviled me.

Bring my slippers, Mother, and we’ll whisper close together, far from the cruelties of menand God’s cold winter weather.

Not Oneby Peter Marin

The poor line the hallon your way to the bathroom.They wait at the foot of the stairswhen you go for the mail.They’re in the backseatbacking out of the drivewayon your way to the store.And they dine beside youunspoken at the tablewaiting patiently for bread.They never put out their hands.They keep their eyes shut.They hold up no signs. But crossing the streetsyou will know them from dreamsthough their faces turn away.There is not one who does not see you:you must change your life.

Midnightby Peter MarinMidnight bought the farm, Stone Eddie cashed in, Red Sunshine is down —the word comes out along the grapevine like drums in the jungle or a card carried on a silver dish. Each time you hear it a tree crashes down — God’s hand laying low every man I ever knew. Whole towns have dried up with men the wild beasts pressed to barbed wire thirsty and spent —a cheap hotel torn down, a lunchroom boarded up, an old pawn-shop closed. What’s left for us, the zoo? Forty years on the road you get an elephant’s hide, but when last week I saw that down by the river they’d paved the jungle over I knelt on the bank and I cried.

Finding Moral BeautyPeter Marin’s hauntingly beautiful poems serve as an elegyfor the oppressed, a reminder of their humanity, and ashocking jolt to the conscience of a nation gone wrong.

from page 8

THE BABIESby Peter MarinIt’s the babies, the babies, the babies — the streets by day the shelter at night and the kids squabbling and no school and the five of us place to place hour by hour walking and sitting and waiting to eat. It’s what breaks your heart and your back aches and legs give out one in your arms another on your shoulders two of them tugging at your hands. It’s like a long march a forced journey the Israelites crossing the desert —so hot in the sun you think you’ll faint so cold at dusk you think you’ll die and the shelter miles awayand hours before it opens and no sweaters for the kids and all of them crying I want I want and you’re always saying no no no no no no no no so that it gets to be a kind of song one no for each time your foot comes downtrying for luck not to step on the cracks

The Shelterby Peter Marin

Women and kids to one side, men to the other, intake workers weeding out the drunks and bums —makes you think of the camps. You been here before? You promise to work? Can you prove who you are? It’s like crossing a border, it’s like entering heaven, as the keepers of the gate, with blank implacable eyes, decide who lives, who dies.

March 2014ST R E E T SP I R I T10

Interview by Terry Messman

Street Spirit: You have been involvedin homeless activism for nearly 30 years,ever since the massive increase in home-lessness in the 1980s. In your experience,is the current level of poverty unprece-dented in the United States? And what isyour understanding of the relationshipbetween homelessness and poverty?

Peter Marin: Yes, it is unprecedented.But I think homelessness is what happensto people when they fall out of poverty. Ithink it’s very hard for us to understandthat, because we do have certain socialmechanisms — certain programs like wel-fare, unemployment and disability insur-ance — which are actually, in a way, setup to keep people in poverty, right?

You know, welfare is never enough toget you out of poverty. It’s enough tokeep you continuously in poverty untilsomething goes wrong — and then youfall into homelessness. Homelessness usu-ally occurs when none of the other pro-grams have worked, or when you’vecome to their end, or when you’ve violat-ed whatever welfare rules there are, andwhen your money dries up.

Spirit: Do you expect that the rates ofhomelessness and poverty will lessen orincrease in the foreseeable future?

Marin: If anything, it’s going to getworse now than it was in the past fewyears, because the worst times to behomeless are in economic boom times.

Spirit: Why do boom times makethings worse for people living in poverty?

Marin: Because in boom times, rentsgo up, and gentrification occurs. Whennew buildings start going up, they starttearing down the old parts of cities. It’swhen people have more money to spendand invest that the little pockets where thehomeless people manage to survive beginto disappear.

Spirit: Newspapers carry cheerfularticles in the real estate sections abouthow rising housing prices are good newsfor upper-class homeowners and realtors.Yet, good news for the wealthy is very badnews for poor people who end up evicteddue to rising rents and gentrification.

Marin: That’s right! And this is a veryinteresting mechanism that I don’t thinkanybody, including the Obama people,have really started to confront face to face— and that is, as you start to make thingsbetter for the middle class, they becomeworse for the poorest of the poor.

Spirit: It’s counterintuitive becausepeople think a rising economy will lift allboats. Why is it that a rising economy forthe rich often sinks the poor?

Marin: Rents begin to go up and peo-ple have more money. This happenedmany years ago in San Francisco, in SantaBarbara, in Chicago and New York. Theskid row parts of the city become valuableas real estate because people are going tobuy the old buildings, tear them down,and put up housing for the well-to-do.And in good years, or boom times, thisprocess speeds up considerably.

People have more money and theyhave to invest it somewhere and housingand land are one of the best places toinvest it. So they begin to look to thoseareas for profits — and their profits arereally high. But in making those profits,you tear down the parts of the city which

belonged to the poor.Also, when people have more money,

they begin to move into buildings in thecity, they begin to build lofts, to buildapartments. Even in Harlem, in NewYork, that’s going on now. And what youfind is that the areas which once belongedto people of different nationalities or eth-nic backgrounds for long periods of time,are now subject to invasion from outside.

You can see that in New York, in SanFrancisco, and in other large cities. All of asudden, there are posh restaurants wherethere used to be rundown taverns andplaces where poor people used to eat ordrink, where they used to get haircuts,where they used to play pool, and wherethey used to live. All of these places vanishcompletely and cities are quite happy to seethem vanish. They encourage this process.

I suppose it’s also going on inOakland, right? This is great for the city,this is great for young people with money,and this is great for the businesses thatappeal to young people with money. Theonly ones who get injured are the poor.

Spirit: In Oakland, a writer called it“The Tale of Two Cities,” with one city forthe rich, and an entirely different city forthe poor. The wealthy enjoy an economicupswing and poor renters are evicted.

Marin: There are two economies —and this has happened in a way that Ithink has become almost permanent now.Theoretically, you once could use theschool system to rise up out of one classand into another, but that no longer worksvery well. Charles Murray has writtenabout “the Super Zips” — the zip codes inwhich the rich live. What happens inthose areas is that the rich subsidize theirschool system with music programs andarts programs and athletic programs. So itturns out, of course, that the children ofthe rich, when they go to public schools,are getting a totally different educationthan the children of the poor.

Spirit: Many people first becameinvolved in fighting against the hugeincrease in homelessness in the early1980s. It’s now 30 years later. Does itsurprise you that homelessness has per-sisted so stubbornly and has only grownlarger in the last three decades?

Marin: No, it is not surprising. Look,years ago, I would go out and lectureabout homelessness. People would askme: “What’s going to make it better?” Iwould say, “It’s not going to get better.”

Spirit: Why such a gloomy prediction?Marin: Because what it’s going to take

to make it better is so far outside the usualframes of American political and social ref-erence, that it’s just not likely to happen.

Spirit: What are these solutions tohomelessness that you feel will not happen?

Marin: Let’s start with this: disability.You know how much disability paymentsare — $800 to $900 a month, maybe, forthose who can even qualify. It was thatsame amount 20 years ago!

Twenty years ago, if you got disabled,the whole purpose of disability benefitswas to give you just enough to scrape byon your own because everyone knew youcouldn’t work. So you would rent a down-town hotel room for $500 a month, andthen you would have $300 to $400 left tospend on your needs. You could eatcheaply in diners, and get reasonablemedical care if you were impoverished.

But you could get by. Now, 20 yearslater, disability payments are exactly thesame amount that they were back then.But what is the cost of a room, if there areeven any rooms? What happened to allthe hotel rooms in the Bay Area?

Spirit: The rents skyrocketed in priceor the hotels were torn down and gentri-fied. We’ve seen a massive number of“evictions for profit.”

Marin. Exactly. Exactly. Now, haveyou heard a local or national politiciantalk even once about raising disabilitypayments?

Spirit: No, the battle recently has beento cut benefits even more. A few liberalsmay oppose cutting them too severely, butthat’s about it.

Marin: Right, and no one says that thepurpose of disability was to make it possi-ble for people to survive without being onthe streets, so let’s raise them to the levelit takes to survive.

Spirit: That’s right. If rents havetripled and quadrupled, let’s triple orquadruple the benefits, just so peoplehave a chance to remain housed.

Marin: Yeah, and this is for peoplewho we know cannot work through nofault of their own! This is for people whomay have worked 20 years, and are notable to work now! And also, it’s so muchharder to get disability because they’vetightened all the requirements. Now, evenwhen you deserve it, it’s hard to getbecause they have all these rules.

I have a friend who is a medical advis-er to the disability program, so I hearthese things all the time. The rules havetightened up, and what’s going on withdisability is going on everywhere. Youknow the welfare rules. If you have a manin the house, you don’t get welfare!

I don’t think anybody really under-stands that. The first thing I would do ischange the welfare rules so that couplescould get welfare. But welfare is stillmostly only for women. There are a fewexceptions in a few states where theyhave jiggled the system a little.

But does anybody understand that thewelfare rules destroy the black familybecause it drives men out of the house andonto the street just so the women can getmoney from the government? No, nobodyseems to understand that. These things areunconscionable.

When welfare was begun underFranklin Delano Roosevelt, the programwas welfare for women, work for men. So

we had the work programs of the CCCand the WPA. [The Civilian ConservationCorps and the Works ProgressAdministration were programs launchedunder Roosevelt’s New Deal to put menback to work during the Depression.]

All the work projects of the 1930swere for men and welfare was for womenwho they thought at that time should stayin the house. But we don’t have work pro-jects any more, even though we know wehave an infrastructure crisis going on inAmerica. But has Obama or anyone elsetalked about a new federal work programfor the unemployed and the homeless?No! So what do men get? They get gener-al relief, which is $90 a month.

Spirit: In many areas, they may getgeneral relief or general assistance foronly three months out of the year.

Marin: So that’s unconscionable! Butwho confronts any of this? It’s true wehave an argument about unemployment,but unemployment is not for people at thebottom of the system who have fallenthrough the cracks of the system.

I don’t usually like to use the wordhopeless, because I’m not without hopefor the future. But this situation is fuckinghopeless. And the politicians who are sup-posed to deal with it are hopeless.

Spirit: In the 1980s, Reagan drasticallyslashed federal housing programs. Sincethen, public housing has been cut by everynew administration until now it has beendecimated. Yet no one is calling for a mas-sive investment in low-income housing.

Marin: Let me give you a local exampleof that. In Santa Barbara, we have a little bitof affordable housing because they make anattempt to produce it, but I think the mini-mum it costs is $50,000 a unit. It’s not easyto put up affordable housing.

Now, we have countless people livingin vehicles and RVs. But we have lawsagainst living in your RV. We don’t say,“Well, we know we don’t have housingfor people, so we know that one of thethings poor people can do is live in RVs.”Instead, every law on the books says youcan’t sleep overnight in a vehicle. If youpark an RV within 500 feet of a church ora public building or a park, you get a tick-et, and if you can’t pay the ticket, theywill tow your vehicle away.

We build housing, yes, but we know wecan’t build enough housing for everybody.So now we have the problem of what to dowith everybody else, and yet when they say

The Street Spirit Interview with Peter Marin“The whole debate about housing is an absolute and totallie. It’s a lie because the people who are talking about itare not really interested in protecting the poor. Theyknow they’re supposed to protect them, but they’re not.”

Peter Marin, poet, author, journalist, teacher — and activist. Kim Rierson photo

“Am I surprised that homelessness is increasing? No. Thesad part is that we had Franklin Delano Roosevelt and theNew Deal, and then we’ve had crap and bullshit in the 80years since Roosevelt. That’s all it’s been.” — Peter Marin

See Interview with Peter Marin page 11

March 2014 ST R E E T SP I R I T 11

they’re going to buy a vehicle and live in it,we tell them they can’t.

So all the discussions seem to meabsolutely senseless and disingenuous,because we are not really concerned aboutpeople getting off the street and sleepinginside something. Because if we wereconcerned about that, we’d make lawsthat permit them to sleep in RVs, andwe’d make laws that permit them to put atent over their heads. So I live in a townwhere we build a small amount of afford-able housing, but we forbid people atnight from putting a cardboard box or atent over their heads. And if the policefind it, they rip it up or they tear it down.

Spirit: So even though it is not costingthe system anything, they won’t let peoplecrawl in a tent or sleep under a box. Thepolice raid and destroy every camp.

Marin: That means the whole debateabout housing is an absolute and total lie.It’s a lie because the people who are talk-ing about it are not really interested inprotecting the poor. They know they’resupposed to protect them, but they’re not.

We have maybe 4,000 to 6,000 home-less people in Santa Barbara County, andwe are happy when we manage to get 200or 300 people off the streets in a year. Butthat means all the thousands of others arebreaking the law every night they’re out-side on the street. Now, that’s not a ratio-nal system. That’s a crazy system.

So am I surprised that homelessness isincreasing? No. The sad part is that wehad Franklin Delano Roosevelt and theNew Deal, and then we’ve had crap andbullshit in the 80 years since Roosevelt.That’s all it’s been.

Spirit: What an indictment! Someoneneeded to say that! We need to begin here,by telling the truth about how federal offi-cials keep slashing public housing. Doyou think the U.S. government should playa massive role in subsidizing low-incomehousing, like it did during the New Deal?

Marin: Absolutely. One of the govern-ment’s first responsibilities would be tosee that there is adequate housing for allof its citizens. Just as one of the othermajor requirements would be to provideenough food, and adequate education toallow young people to find an appropriateplace in the world as adults.

No one should starve. We know that,right? This is what the government mustdo. Leave all the war stuff aside, leave theNSA stuff aside, and the billions spent onthis by the government. The first thing —the very first thing, beyond everythingelse — should be housing, damn it. Itgoes without question.

Spirit: Why is housing the very highestpriority of all?

Marin: Because it is so necessary forhuman survival. Remember back whenAbraham Maslow listed the hierarchy ofhuman needs? You begin with what isnecessary, and then what is preferable.

We know that food and housing are thenecessary things. If government has anyresponsibility, it’s either to see that peoplehave these necessities, or not to interferewith their creating them. In many places,the government has now made so manyrules about what kind of housing you canput up. One reason that housing for thepoor is so expensive is that it has to satis-fy zoning regulations everywhere.

Spirit: You said that almost no politi-cian today has enough courage to evenraise disability benefits. Are any politi-cians out there calling on the governmentto make a massive investment in housing?

Marin: Maybe Bernie Sanders, the

independent from Vermont, and maybeDennis Kucinich when he hopelessly ranfor the presidency, and there may be acouple more.

Spirit: So what is the prognosis for thefederal government creating a massivenew housing program?

Marin: Even Obama, who was sup-posedly a community organizer — howcan someone be a community organizerand not know that housing is absolutelyessential? How can he have been a com-munity organizer, and not now insist onhousing? I think housing is necessary, andcheap housing is even more necessary.People ought to bend the damn zoninglaws to enable cheap, temporary housing,and emergency housing.

Spirit: Along with our nation’s failureto house its citizens, it is also failing toeducate them. The second-class educationgiven to children in low-income areas oftenleads to second-rate job opportunities, sec-ond-rate colleges, or no colleges.

Marin: The drop-out rates are reallyscary, although it’s very hard to get legiti-mate figures. California, which used tohave a great school system, is now downtowards the bottom of the nation in termsof money spent per student, and in termsof results. These things are really scaryand we hear noises from politicians aboutpreschools and improving the schools, butI don’t think they’re getting any better. Ijust don’t see it.

Spirit: Society fails to invest in thelives of poor people at the very beginningwhen children enter school?

Marin: Yes. Yet, outside of noblesseoblige, why would anybody invest inthem? I mean we have enough workers togo around, so it is an interesting situation.We have enough people to go around tostaff our industries now. So, if you do acost-benefit analysis of what you get outof educating people, outside of keepingthe social peace, I don’t know why any-body would do it. You’d have to do itbecause you really believe in democracy.

Spirit: Yes, that would be the reason— to create an educated democracy, justas Thomas Jefferson envisioned.

Marin: That’s right. But I don’t knowwho believes in that now. People give it lipservice but that doesn’t count, as we know.

Spirit: Recent research has document-ed an alarming increase in the extent ofpoverty in this country. What effect so youthink that is having on our democracy?

Marin: We know that poverty isextensive and vast and I believe it’s prob-ably underestimated. Also, do we want tocount in the poverty rates those middle-class people who become poor as soon asthey lose their jobs? They’re not impover-ished yet, but they live right on its edge.

The question is: How many people feelas if they live in a society stable enoughto guarantee them, in some general way,long-term safety between now and death?I don’t think anybody has that anymore— outside of the one percent that every-body speaks of. And this is what’s scary.

It’s hard to imagine anybody evenproposing that we ought to have a societylike that. I’m not talking about cradle-to-grave social services. I’m just talkingabout a certain kind of economic andsocial stability where people can breathe alittle easier, and look down the road andthink that things will probably be OK.

The loss of that stability is a giganticloss. And it’s been lost now not just topeople who live in poverty, but to manypeople in the middle class. And how youcount that number, I don’t know.

If I go through my friends one by one, Ican see large numbers of them who are try-ing to save as much money as they can, notfor their own use, but to make sure thattheir children have a modicum of safety inthe future. Because I don’t think that anyof them really believe that 20 years fromnow, their children are going to be betteroff, or even safe. Now, living that way is areally scary thing and to have an entiresociety like that is really troublesome.

Spirit: Many people live with the con-stant anxiety of being a paycheck or two

away from eviction.Marin: I could start reeling them off,

the friends of mine who won’t read thenewspaper or look at the news any more,because if you do, you’re overcome with aset of worries about — not yourself, somuch — but the people you love, or thepeople who will be here after you’re deadand gone, and I don’t think many peopleknow how to deal with that.

Even when they organize into Occupyor a demonstration or a political move-ment of one kind or another, I don’t knowwho has the conviction these days thatthey know how to get us out of this fix.

Spirit: How would you explain to anew visitor to our country — someonewho knew nothing about us — why therichest nation in the world has a massiveproblem of poverty and homelessness?

Marin: You know, I think all of this isfairly explicable in terms of our nation’shistory, and in terms of the Protestantethic. It’s a country that has always beendominated by a particular elite which setsthe rules, and which has access to powerin a way that other people do not.

What if we looked at America as if itwere a Latin American country? There arecountries in which the upper class essential-ly trades back the presidency every four toeight years, and it makes no differencewhether the ruling party is in power, or oneof the rival parties. The rich are going to berich and the poor are going to be poorbecause it is kept that way intentionally. Ithink America is exactly like that.

Spirit: In what ways is modernAmerica exactly like that?

Marin: Because both political partiesare dominated by people with money. Bothparties are dominated by people educated incertain places — Yale, Harvard, theUniversity of Chicago. We have an educa-tion system that produces an elite. Whenthe elite people grow up, they may havepolitical differences with one another, andthey may argue about a few small things,but they don’t argue about turning the sys-tem upside down or really changing it.

You know, I taught at those schools as alecturer or a visitor or a teacher. Even whenpeople in poverty gain access to thoseschools, I’ve seen the way these schoolstake poor young students, and work veryhard at making them a part of a particularclass to which they’re going to belong inthe future. And that’s the class that main-tains power and doesn’t rock the boat.

I taught journalism at the University ofSouthern California, and a student wroteme a paper in her senior year that had todo with her father being a garbage collec-tor. She wrote in the paper, “This is thefirst time in my four years at USC thatI’ve been willing to tell anybody that myfather was a garbage collector.” Becauseeverybody knows what’s expected of youin that new class. And if you want tomake it into that class, then you behave.

Spirit: So you keep your father’semployment a hidden, shameful secret.

Marin: Absolutely. I ran into that atseveral colleges. I was teaching at a collegecalled Warren Wilson College, a little col-lege outside Asheville, North Carolina. Inthe middle of a talk I was giving — ofcourse, a talk about how the school neededto be changed — a young woman leapedup in tears and said, “I come from aroundhere and I want to tell you that in the threeyears I’ve been here, everyone has mademe feel like trailer trash.”

I think that’s one of the ways it feelswhen you are at one of those good schoolswithout the social background that isrequired to belong there. I think that goeson all the time in America and nobodynotices it. When I went to SwarthmoreCollege, I was led to believe that I wasbetter than other people. I knew we were

Homeless people marched from Santa Barbara, California, across theentire country to join the Housing Now protest in Washington, D.C.,in 1989. Pictured in back with the march sign is Peter Marin.

Eve Fowlerphoto

Street Spirit Interview with Peter Marinfrom page 10

See Interview with Peter Marin page 12

March 2014ST R E E T SP I R I T12

special, and special, of course, means bet-ter. And if you go directly into your pro-fession and become a lawyer or a doctoror a teacher, you become that knowingyou are helping people who are your infe-riors. No one will ever put it that way, butI don’t think you can avoid that feeling

That was back in the days when I got thestuffing knocked out of me because I tookfreight trains and I suddenly realized therewere plenty of people smarter and morecourageous than I was who didn’t have myeducation and maybe didn’t need it.

Spirit: What led you to begin ridingthe rails? And what did you learn fromthe travelers you met on those trains?

Marin: I’m not sure why, but a year ortwo after college, I started taking freighttrains, and rode on them out to California. Iwas out here in California when seasonallabor was done by marginal or transient orhomeless men. The crop-picking was doneby laborers who rode up and down theWest Coast on freight trains. It was harvestwork that was traditionally done by margin-al men who traveled on the trains, helpedwith the crops, and then moved east againfollowing the grain crops and ended up inChicago for the winter.

Spirit: Did you hop those trains out ofrestlessness?

Marin: It was restlessness, but therewas also something in me that never likedschooling at all. There are personalitytypes like mine where you don’t want tolearn anything from anyone except fromyour own direct experience. So that alleducation which is being translated foryou by intermediaries struck me as beingunpleasant and authoritarian. I wanted toovercome the sense of being enclosed, thesort of hothouse atmosphere that manyvery good colleges have.

Spirit: What did you begin learningfrom your fellow riders on the rails?

Marin: I learned that intelligence,courage, inventiveness, toughness, thecapacity to survive, the capacity to takerisks, had nothing to do with the class thatyou come from. Some people learn that inwar, of course, because we send our highschool students to war, and lo and behold,they turn out to be brave and courageous.

Spirit: In your article, “The MoralBeauty of Acts of Goodness and Justice,”you described meeting people in hobojungles who shared food and clothing.You said it was more inspiring than any-thing you’d found in great works of art.

Marin: Absolutely. It was de rigueur,right? It was what people did. You were inthe jungle with other people and whateverfood there was got shared. Whatever bottlethere was got passed around. There was noquestion of it. It was beyond argument. Itwas automatic. It was what people did.

Spirit: I’ve seen that exact same thing— the way people who have almost noth-ing will readily share what little they havewith one another, while upper-class peo-ple who could share so much, will sharevery little. Did you ever understand why?

Marin: Well, I will tell you one thing.I believe that people who are on the mar-gins of life or who have to exist hand-to-mouth, something of subsistence and trib-al nature persist and will come to the sur-face. It is natural to share. The question isnot why they do it, the question is why therest of us don’t. Somehow, they had

removed from themselves the talons ofbourgeois culture, and therefore the waythey naturally thought was different fromthe way the rest of us think because that’sthe way we’re taught to think.

Also, they had no destinies to protect.They weren’t like the rest of us who haveto put money in the bank against thefuture. It didn’t make any difference tothem what they had the next day, so theycould share what they have today. Theywere not acquisitive, and all hope ofacquiring enough or saving enough hadjust disappeared. Or maybe, they didn’thave that nature to start with — which iswhy they were on the road in the firstplace, and then sharing comes naturally.

Spirit: In every homeless encampmentI’ve ever witnessed, I’ve seen the samething — sharing comes naturally.

Marin: It’s very hard to take a freighttrain with someone, or to be in a hobo jun-gle with someone, and say, “Oh, I’m goingto eat my sandwich, and watch someoneelse go hungry.” People just naturally say,“Hey bud, do you want part of my sand-wich?” When you’re on the trains or in thehobo jungles and free of the oppressiveorder of society, some aspect of humannature, hitherto not put to use, comes up tothe surface. So this sharing is not special —it’s part of human nature.

That’s what I like to think. I havenever heard a report of a tribe where onlysome people died of hunger. They maykill an animal, and the chief gets the firstchoice, and then it goes down the line.But people at the end of the line still getsomething to eat. It’s sort of automatic.

That’s what people do when they’re insmall groups. They learn something aboutcommunity and they learn somethingabout freedom. They learn that you canfunction without authority. And that’swhat you see in the hobo jungles and onthe trains. You see people figuring outhow to function without authority.

Now, there are always sociopaths andthere are always drunks, and if you’re in agroup with two or three drunks, it’s a prob-lem because they get hostile and angry andout of control. But barring these excesses,people manage to live together.

Spirit: You could be describing thecommunity that has formed out on thelandfill at the Albany Bulb. Strangersmoved to a dumping ground, set up tentsand homes, and learned to live in commu-nity. They began looking out for each other— in freedom and without authority.

Marin: What we have to remember isthat just as violence probably comes natu-rally to us in certain circumstances, sodoes cooperation. That was the argumentthe anarchists like Kropotkin and Bakuninmade long ago. And there’s a lot of powerin those arguments. Now such thingswork best in small groups and relativelystress-free environments, maybe not sowell on the level of an entire nation.

Spirit: Cities cannot enact segregationlaws against any minority in our society,except one — homeless people. Why is itstill acceptable for politicians to banishpeople merely for being homeless?

Marin: First of all, you can see histori-cally that the definition of poverty and theattitude towards poverty is intrinsic to thereformist movement that you find inEngland and America at the end of the19th century. You see that the poor backthen were described as public nuisancesand dangers. Their living areas were seen

as breeding grounds for vice and disease.They are associated with everything thatbourgeois culture hopes to eradicate.

When I taught at the university here [UCSanta Barbara] and I would have my stu-dents go out and spend time with the home-less, they would return and talk about theway the homeless smelled, and how theyscared them. Remember, these are peoplewho are like outlaws. We look at them andwe know they are not living according toany of the rules the rest of us observe.

It’s very hard to get people to accepthomeless people as being “us” becausethey look differently and they live differ-ently. People are really afraid of them.They walk by them or they see themcamping in their neighborhood, andeverybody is nervous about them. Theyactually make us nervous because theyexist in a different reality. When peopleare reduced to living on the streets, theybecome “other.”

And it may just be visual. But there’salso this: The notion of homelessness as apunishment runs through Christianity.Adam and Eve violate the law and theyare kicked out of Eden. Same with Cainand Abel. The punishment for disobedi-ence is exile. And I think there is some-thing still deep in our psyches that associ-ates homelessness with the breaking oflaw and punishment. I don’t know whythat is, but it’s very difficult for people tounderstand the homeless as being of thesame race they come from.

If you go back to the 17th century andthe enclosure laws, when groups of peoplebegan to wander the countryside, lawswere posted not letting people come offthe roads into the towns. Wanderers hadhistorically and culturally been seen asinvaders and threats and for some reasonthat has never changed.

People who live in large cities begin tosee homeless people as nuisances.Merchants don’t like them. People don’tlike being asked for money. They don’tlike seeing people who are pulling cartsaround laden with their goods. It’s aes-thetically upsetting to people. I think theaesthetic response turns into a moralresponse. They just want people to go faraway so they don’t have to look at themanymore. That’s the sense that I get in mytown, Santa Barbara. The attempt to con-trol the homeless is really an attempt topreserve the aesthetic beauty of the town,to keep the town pretty and to keep them-selves safe. Yet it is deeply immoral.

Spirit: Why do you say it is deeplyimmoral?

Marin: Because if you look at it clear-ly, treating people as if they were exiles,worthless, and animals, is immoral. To nothelp them immediately is immoral. Frommy point of view, the deepest immorality isthat if you’re not going to help people, youhave absolutely no right to punish them forfinding their own way to live among us. Sowhen you talk about the Albany Bulb, thatis the lowest, the most immoral. The cru-elest thing you can do is to deprive peopleof the right to take care of themselveswhen you have already decided not to takecare of them on your own.

Spirit: Homeless people in Albany werepushed around and told by police theymust go live on a dumping ground. So theycreated a life for themselves with no helpfrom anyone. Now, Albany officials want toforbid them from taking care of themselvesand evict them altogether.

Marin: Yes, and this happens every-where. Everywhere there are sets of rulesthat make it impossible, or at least verydifficult for the homeless to care for them-selves. And that is outrageous. It is unfor-givable. As you know, I’ve seen thoselaws made by Republicans and byDemocrats. It doesn’t mater who is inpower. They make these stupid laws sothat people can’t take care of themselves.

Spirit: Politicians try to deny the classsystem in this country, yet it’s clearly visi-ble all around us. We’ve created a societywhere tens of millions are poor, but,instead of trying to reduce poverty, theeconomic elite continue to slash their ben-efits and criminalize the poor.

Marin: Where Marx was right wasabout class consciousness. I think it’s pret-ty clear that the class you come from deter-mines the way that you think. I think it’salmost built into the class system that peo-ple will be unable to think of the poor andthe homeless in different ways. I rememberasking my students at UCSB when was thelast time their families had been poor.Many of them had to go and ask their par-ents. But the fact is, none of these studentsknew they’d ever been poor. Do you seewhat a difference that makes?

The second part of what I found is thatthe people who were the most sympathet-ic to the homeless were Catholics. NotProtestants, but Catholics. The Catholicsoften came from very large families, andin the large families, they always had sin-ful, screw-up uncles, etc. So they knewpeople like the homeless, right? The otherkids came from tiny families, often justone parent and one or two siblings, andthey had no experience of human varia-tion, no knowledge of poverty, and no oneto tell them, “We were poor once.”

Street Spirit Interview with Peter Marin “Treating people as if they were exiles, worthless and animalsis immoral. To not help them immediately is immoral. Thedeepest immorality is that if you’re not going to help people,you have absolutely no right to punish them.”

from page 11

See Interview with Peter Marin page 13

SERENADEby Peter MarinNo theory! Only the act of compassion repeated again and againbrings God into the world. Here he is, his hand out, or badly playing a battered clarinet, bucket beside him on the street.Hey bud, ya gotta buck?It’s a ticket to the boneyard.It’s the price of living in America.It’s the last chance you haveto make it in the back doorof heaven. Hey, take it, bro!And the song he is playing,I’m Gonna Buy a Paper Doll,drifts over the empty streets.

The Coatsby Peter Marin

Let each man with two coats explain to the mirror why God should not punish him while others have none — freezing now, and snow falling, and those without coats huddled on city corners or crumpled in doorways or standing, hands out, at the concert-hall door. Didn’t they fight your wars? Didn’t they pave your roads? Didn’t they tend you gently when injured at the hospital you ached for human touch? Night after night, they die. Night after terrible night they sigh themselves away in dumpsters, in burnt buildings, in the back seats of junked cars on the far edge of your cities. They crowd your bedrooms in the dark, they huddle under your silk sheets,unseen, they bend over each sleeper and touch with bloodied palms this face, that breast, given the task by a god who wants no one to forget. When, at night, you examine yourself, there they are, in the mirror, their pale faces the sky, their tears the shimmering stars, their trembling arms extended — ah, you know whose arms those are!

March 2014 ST R E E T SP I R I T 13

This was a big thing if you were raisedJewish, as I was. This is what you heard allthe time: “We were poor, we were poor, wewere poor.” So be nice to poor people. Iknew I’d come from peasant stock, so Iknew the people on the street who hadnothing were not unlike my grandfather. Iknew that in my bones, so there was not anabyss between me and the poor.

Spirit: Well, that brings up a crucialpoint. Nearly all elected officials in theU.S. are well-off or outright rich. Do youthink that helps explain their lack of com-passion? Is it one reason why they passlaws that banish the poorest citizens?

Marin: What class consciousness real-ly means is that there is an abyss betweenyou and people unlike you.

There are several levels to this. One isthat there are people who don’t want ourhelp, or we think they don’t want ourhelp, because they are drunks and don’twant to be sober, or they are homeless andthey don’t want to apply for housing, orthey are ex-veterans who can’t talk tosocial workers because that schoolteachertone of voice which you sometimes hearfrom social workers drives them up thewall, so they stalk out of the office. Someveterans have seen too much of death toreally partake in the niggling, exhausting,bureaucratic rigmarole that you have to gothrough to get any kind of help.

One of the arguments is that they don’twant help and yet, if we just leave themalone, we will be encouraging them intheir bad behavior. So the argument is thatif we don’t destroy those homeless camps,we will be “enabling” them to go on beinghomeless. We should banish the word“enabling” from the language.

So let’s do everyone a favor, and if wedestroy their camps, then they will haveno place to go and they will have to comein and talk to social workers and go intorecovery programs. That’s one theory.

The second one is the aesthetic notion.In my town, the little town of SantaBarbara, the argument is that we can’tafford to have homeless people on thestreets because we don’t want them tofrighten the tourists away. We want to bethis perfect little shopping center of a townwhere people come for its ease and beauty.We don’t want anything of poverty or suf-fering or homelessness to be visiblebecause that will drive away the peoplefrom whom we’re going to make our living.And this concern overrides all others.

If I go talk to City Council members,even liberal City Council members, theywill tell me that they can’t do certainthings because they feel so much pressurefrom the merchants, and they don’t wantto jeopardize their own political careers.

Spirit: These laws are nearly alwaysdriven by merchants who use the aestheticargument to say the city must have aclean, attractive downtown with reallycool shops, but really it’s an anti-home-less crackdown for economic reasons.

Marin: Yes!

Spirit: Merchants want higher profits,and city managers want higher sales taxrevenues and a thriving business econo-my. Is that a major reason for anti-home-less crackdowns, in your experience?

Marin: I make this argument in mytown all the time, and I’m sort of ananathema to merchants. But I also want tobe fair, and I understand that on our mainstreet, we have a lot of small, local busi-

nesses, and they have genuinely had hardtimes the last five or ten years. Now, theyhaven’t had hard times because there arehomeless people in the streets.

But their own hard times, caused byother reasons, make them very nervousabout anything that might affect their busi-ness. I don’t think the homeless affect theirbusiness, but they are nervous about theirfutures and their livelihoods, because life isnot so easy for them either. They are smallbusinessmen. They are not giant corpora-tions. I don’t want to defend them, but mypoint is that it’s the politicians who give into them who are the distressing factor.

Merchants are always going to do whatthese merchants do. It comes with the ter-ritory. But what I don’t understand are theliberal politicians who are so politicallyambitious that they will not jeopardizetheir careers by taking any stand becauseit’s the right one to take. That’s the partthat drives me crazy, and I deal with thatall the time, and I’ve dealt with that for 25years. Mostly, it’s liberal politicians in mytown, not conservative politicians.

Spirit: Almost all the anti-homelesslaws in the Bay Area have been passed byliberals who want the public to vote themback into office. They believe the publicdisdains the homeless, so they go againstall their principles just to get re-elected.

Marin: That’s right. Even the liberalsare just unspeakably awful because theyworry more about their careers than theydo about the poor.

Spirit: These are the city officials whorefuse to bend zoning laws to build hous-ing, then they arrest and banish the poor.

Marin: In my town, we have, everytwo weeks, a big symposium or discus-sion or conference about homelessnessand how to fix it. And this is the scarypart. This is the part that really disturbsme as an advocate. I cannot get the afford-able housing people, or the recovery pro-gram people, to oppose the laws thatcriminalize sleeping in a tent or a park.Do you understand that?

Spirit: No, I can’t understand why ser-vice providers won’t oppose the anti-homeless laws. It’s exactly the same thinghere in the Bay Area. Most of the afford-able housing groups and recovery pro-grams would not take a stand with theactivists in fighting the Berkeley ballotmeasure to criminalize homeless peoplefor sitting on the sidewalk. It was such asell-out. How do you understand it?

Marin: Well, basically, they are nowgovernment-financed service providers.Here’s the distinction: They are againsthomelessness as a problem or a social cri-sis, but they are not for individual home-less people. Do you see the distinction?

Spirit: Why would service providersnot be more concerned about the realpeople on the streets whose rights aretrampled by discriminatory laws?

Marin: Because they don’t know anyof the homeless people. They know themonly because they sit across the desk fromthem as social workers and serviceproviders. They have a program to whichpeople have to apply and they have hoopsthrough which people have to jump. Butthey’re not out on the streets living withpeople or helping them day by day.They’re not advocates for the person;they’re advocates for the program, andthat’s a very different thing.

Spirit: But even so, why do they refuseto take a public stand against the inhu-

manity of laws that criminalize the poor? Marin: Because they’re part of the

class that we’re talking about, that’s why.They are good members of the privilegedclass. They don’t identify with the poor.That’s a different thing altogether.

Sometimes, you do run into greatsocial workers who identify with the poor.We have them in my town. Sometimesthey’re vets, and they see guys on thestreets who they fought with, and theyunderstand that these are guys just likethem. They were their buddies. And theyfight for them in a different way than theprofessional social workers.

We have, in my town, two or threepeople who work with homeless peopleon the street and bring them food andbring them clothes and help them as bestthey can survive in the way they are. Andthose are terrific people — they’re likesaints — but we only have two or three ofthem, and the others are gone now.

Spirit: It seems that the dedicatedactivists who cared about homeless per-sons, and worked with them as equals, arebeing replaced by a new breed of career-oriented social workers who lay downendless rules for the poor, with very littleunderstanding of their lives.

Marin: “Tough love” — that’s anotherphrase we should ban from the language. Ihave a story about this for you. We have ajail seven miles out of town, and becauseof budget problems and overcrowding, thejail releases about one-fourth of itsreleased prisoners after the buses stop run-ning for the night. My Committee forSocial Justice runs a ride program, so ifpeople call after they’re let out at 3:00 inthe morning, they don’t have to walkseven miles back to town through the rainand cold. They get a cab ride.

Now I have been trying to fund thisprogram for several years, because I can’tdo it myself forever. But when I go to myfellow advocates and say we need a rideprogram, they will say let’s give rides tothe drinkers who are willing to go into arecovery program, but not to the peoplewho won’t go into a program. These areadvocates saying this!

Spirit: Why would they be opposed tohelping someone stranded seven miles outof town in the middle of the night?

Marin: Because they want to force thedrinkers into recovery. Or they want topunish them for not going into recovery.

We have nights where it goes downbelow 30 degrees, and when you get cold,icy rains, people are forced to walk sevenmiles back to town. You know, you askcertain questions, like why they don’t sup-port this, and I don’t have an answer. InBrooklyn, we would have said, “Theydon’t do it because they’re assholes.”There isn’t another reason!

Spirit: The lives of the poor and ex-prisoners must be very cheap to them.

Marin: And drinkers especially — thelives of drunks are worthless to them.

Spirit: In your essay, “Helping andHating the Homeless,” you looked at whyso many homeless people cling strongly totheir freedom and their familiar outdoorspaces, and avoid the shelters that serviceproviders offer them. Most people do notunderstand why they have such a greatdislike for the shelter system.

Marin: They won’t go near sheltersbecause of the rules. In Santa BarbaraCounty, a few years ago, four people in a10-day span froze to death outside, We hadone guy die in a wheelchair. So at thatpoint, a doctor friend of mine and I went tothe Board of Supervisors, and for threeyears, they had been developing what theycalled a protocol for emergency warmingcenters. We said, “Look we know you’vebeen taking three years. We can do this in amonth and a half. Just give us the money.”

Two weeks later, we went back with

20 people, and two weeks after that, wewent back with 200 people. And theCounty gave us enough money to startthese emergency warming centers. Thatwas four years ago, and they’re still oper-ating. They’re allowed to open when it’sgoing to rain or when the temperature isgoing to drop below 35 degrees at night.We have mats and people provide food.They’re pretty nice operations.

What I found was that these warmingcenters were called, in social science par-lance, “low-demand shelters.” So peoplejust come in, and they can come in drunk.They can come in and go out and comeback in again. They don’t have the samerules as most shelters, and the rules arewhy people don’t go to those shelters.

What you see in shelters — and youknow this as well as I do — is a continu-

Street Spirit Interview with Peter Marin “The liberal politicians are just unspeakably awfulbecause they worry more about their careers thanthey do about the poor.”

See Interview with Peter Marin page 14

from page 12

DETROITby Peter Marin

May they blaze, golden in Jerusalem’s light, burning as if the hair on God’s beckoning arm had burst into wheat in whole fields aflame, as if time was theirs, as if the great fires of love repressed swept across thought, as if eyes were hands, as if need were touch, as if loss were gain, as if hope were have, as if from the loins of dream came truth —theirs the brute pain, theirs the bright sin, theirs the bent sign of love twisted and saved, theirs the land taken, theirs the soul given, theirs the coming and gone,the woods yellow and green, the fields open and full on the first and final days of the rest of their lives driven from exile into Eden. Bless them now, Father, in their loneliness; forgive them, Mother, in their sorrow. Set their sad tables, make their last beds, open the shut gates that all may come in. May the heavens be an ear for their stories untold; in times past and to come grant them justice and bread.

THE COPSby Peter Marin

Let the cops come, man, like the fuckin’ mad gestapo, tearin’ down our tents, rippin’ our cardboard houses, dumping our drum-fires into the midnight streets. Let the dumb fuckers come knockin’ heads, breakin’ ribs, pilin’ us into their vans and takin’ the shit we own straight out to the dump — where else does it belong? We started so many times buildin’ a world from scratch what the fuck difference if we gotta do it again —puttin’ up our tents, erectin’ cardboard houses, buildin’ our drum-fires to warm the midnight streets? We got nothin’ else to do. We got nowhere else to go. The god-damned earth belongs to us.

March 2014ST R E E T SP I R I T14

ous process of infantilization, which isimpossible for certain men, and especiallyveterans, to accommodate themselves to.So they won’t go near shelters becausethey are treated like orphans and children.

Spirit: They’re regimented like prison-ers in some of the shelters.

Marin: Absolutely. I used to stay inshelters when I traveled on freight trains.They take your clothes, give you pajamas,turn the lights out at 8 at night. At 6 in themorning, you get up and no matter whatthe weather is, you have to go back out-side for the day, even if it’s pouring downrain — and that’s it. So I know somethingabout those shelters and I would ratherhave slept under a tree than go to one ofthem, if I had a choice.

Spirit: So a large part of the resis-tance to living in shelters has to do withthe fear that they will lose their freedom?

Marin: We have a culture which haslargely lost any sense of the value of free-dom, or being left alone, or living life onyour own terms. People do not treat thisas if it is a good in itself. So they don’tunderstand that certain people, amongthem many of the homeless, actually fac-tor in the value of being left alone, or liv-ing life on your own terms, as opposed tohelp at the price of institutionalization.

It is astonishing that people don’tunderstand this need for freedom. That’sthe part that’s really strange to me. But,and here’s the key to it, the people whoare dealing with the homeless are peoplewho have probably thrived in institutions,loved institutions and never lived outsideof institutions since their childhood.Nowadays, if you’re a child, you live ininstitutions from the word go. You’renever on your own.

But these are guys who have a desire tobe on their own. And once you get a tasteof it, it is almost impossible to give it up.If you hang out with friends at the AlbanyBulb, and then they shut down the Bulb,and you start going to a social worker’soffice or to a shelter, and you’re sittingacross a desk from someone who is usingthat schoolteacher’s voice and tellingwhat you should do and should not do,you’re out of there!

Spirit: People who value their freedomcan’t stand the indignity of being talkeddown to and ordered around by socialworkers imposing rigid rules.

Marin: There are people who can’ttolerate that. And the people who can tol-erate it, and who even like it, have no wayof understanding the people who can’t tol-erate it. They have absolutely no way ofcrossing that divide and understandingthose who value freedom.

Almost everything in these shelter insti-tutions is artificial. The requirements areartificial. The distribution of power andsubmission is artificial. It’s not only artifi-cial, but it’s arbitrary. People with any min-imal sense of freedom or independence areright not to put up with it. They are in theright. They are preserving some human val-ues which all the rest of us should congratu-late them for preserving. But of course wedon’t. Because by preserving the values offreedom and independence, they’re a threatto the rest of us who want to lead simpleand institutional existences.

Spirit: It is strange that in a nation thatsupposedly enshrines freedom as the high-est value, there is such disdain for freedomin real life, and an unwillingness to acceptpeople who want to live in freedom.

Marin: Well, here’s the great irony.The people who defend freedom — Godhelp us! — are the weird, reactionary,gun-toting guys who want to live in themountains and kill their own food [laugh-

ing]. It’s very strange that there is an anar-chical streak in Americans, but this oftenmanifests itself as conservatism, becausethere’s a hatred of government and law.

Spirit: We’ve also lost the very idea of afrontier where people can still seek free-dom, like Thoreau at Walden pond or HuckFinn on the Mississippi. We’re eradicatingthe last few places where people can live infreedom — vacant lots, parks, hobo jungles,places like the Albany Bulb where peoplecan set up camps.

Marin: We are indeed eradicatingthese areas. We are eliminating allunmanaged space and behavior.

In the religious tradition, there is a con-templative tradition, which is an adventur-ous, inward tradition. I think that somehomeless people have more of that than werecognize. It’s one of the things you some-times find in their company. They may bea little strange and have a skewed way ofseeing things, but many of them see theworld on their own terms, as if they wereseeing it for the very first time.

The point is that they preserve some-thing that the rest of us don’t have andthere is something terrifying in the factthat the rest of us don’t understand that.They preserve life as it is freely lived, out-side of institutions.

But I don’t want to romanticize home-lessness. I think a lot of what we’re talkingabout is a part of a tremendous suffering, atremendous unhappiness where people arereduced, pushed out of society almost likeanimals. But part of our animal nature isthis attachment to being left alone.Wouldn’t it be ironic if some of the home-less people had preserved more of theirhumanity — just in terms of these reflexesfor freedom, and their capacity for cooper-ation — than the rest of us have?

Spirit: Even though all the economictrends and housing shortages lead nearlyeveryone to predict that homelessness willremain a massive problem, is there anysign of hope on the horizon, in terms ofmovements for change? We just saw anOccupy movement that did talk about eco-nomic justice in populist terms.

Marin: I think the Occupy movementwas a good effort, although they seem tobe hibernating now. But in terms ofhomelessness, maybe not so good. Wehad some homeless people who went totheir demonstrations and joined withthem, but in general, it seems sort of like athrowback to the 1960s with young peo-ple involved and engaged. But I don’tknow if it was sort of a spontaneous com-bustion that disappeared or whether it willcome back stronger than before.

My own feeling is that 20 years ago,the homeless people seemed to be betterorganized themselves than they are now,at least in the areas that I know about.

Spirit: There’s also been 20 years ofsocial decay, poverty and economicdownturns. That’s 20 years of people onthe streets being depressed and the econo-my being depressed.

Marin: And dying. Every spokesper-son in my town is gone. They lived downin the hobo jungle outside Santa Barbara,but of course we’ve destroyed the hobojungle so they have no place to live any-more. Leaving that aside, a lot of thedrinkers were guys who stood up andargued for their rights, alongside advo-cates who were arguing for human rights.

And now, every one of those guys Iknew, except for one, is dead. And theadvocates are retired and silent. Theirplace has been taken by service providers,which may be inevitable. They are alltalking about providing services and notprotecting rights — and there is a big dif-ference between them.

Spirit: What is the difference betweenprotecting rights and providing services?

Marin: Did you ever read the famousbook by Jacob Riis, How the Other HalfLives? He was an influence on TeddyRoosevelt, and he wrote a book about thehomeless where he describes them as vice-ridden immigrants who we have to get ridof by improving. We couldn’t kill them sowe had to educate them and clean them up.

Spirit: He must be the patron saint ofall social workers who are so judgmentalof the people who come to them for help.

Marin: I know! And when you readthe book, it’s like a racist tract. It’s aboutIrish immigrants and Jewish immigrantsand the way their apartments smell. It’sfascinating. It is sympathetic, but it’sdenunciatory at the same time, which isthe nature of the reformist tradition.

Spirit: So he really is the model for themodern professional service provider.

Marin: He is! The same people whobuilt the sewer systems were the ones whowanted to clean up the slums, and theywanted to do it for the same reasons: Itwas hygienic, it was modern and it wassensible. Whether they did it out of anyreal sympathy for the poor is anotherquestion entirely. I would say the distinc-tion between providing services and pro-tecting rights is this: Service providers aredealing with social problems and the free-dom-fighters are dealing with individuals.

Spirit: So the people trying to protecthuman rights are dealing with the individ-ual person — the soul, not just the statistics.

Marin: Yes, that’s just what I think. Ithink that’s always the case. I think thatwas the case with the Freedom Riders inthe South during the Civil Rights era.When they were doing the FreedomRides, what they had on their minds weretheir sisters and mothers and fathers andbrothers. They were thinking of people.

So I think true advocates are speakingfor their friends. And I think serviceproviders are the people who sit across thedesk from you, whether they work for thestate or a private agency.

Spirit: You warn against lumping mil-lions of people into the one catch-all cate-gory of homelessness because very differ-ent kinds of people run into entirely differ-ent kinds of problems. What are some ofthe main triggers of homelessness?

Marin: It’s one of the strangest thingsin the world to be in a room full of home-less people, and to see that whatever youare saying about homelessness applies atany point only to some of them. Forinstance, the people living at the AlbanyBulb are only a particular segment of thehomeless population — the freedom-lovers or whatever we want to call them.

First of all, there’s women with kids.The welfare rules are such that women withkids and immigrant families very often runafoul of the welfare rules and end up on thestreet. Or their housing is so tenuous thateven with welfare, they end up homeless,and have to go through the whole cycleagain of trying to find new housing —which gets harder all the time.

Second are the elderly, who find them-selves in old age left without sufficientmoney to pay what it costs to live. Theseare people with small pensions, these arewidows whose husband died, these arepeople on Social Security who can’tstretch it far enough to make ends meet,and others become disabled in old age andend up homeless.

So that brings us to the large numbers ofphysically disabled people, of all ages.Their disability payments are simply notsufficient to cover the cost of housingwhere they live. It increasingly takes morecompetence and tenacity to navigate thesystems required to get off the street andfind shelter. So you simply get large num-bers of people who are exhausted and help-

less so that they can’t do what they arerequired to do on their own. That’s whypeople miss welfare payments.

In Santa Barbara, we have a list forsubsidized housing that is now six yearslong, but if you don’t renew your applica-tion three times a year, they drop you offthe list. And they do that so that the listdoesn’t get even longer than it is. But howmany people who are on the street, or whoare old, or disabled or mentally chal-lenged, are going to be able to do that?

Then there are the mentally disabled.My county happens to have a particularlyunsuccessful and failed mental healthdepartment, so we have large numbers ofpeople on the street who don’t receive anykind of mental-health attention or aid. Asit is now, in my town, the budgets are sooverstressed that they will only respond toa call for help involving a person on thestreet if they are an immediate threat tothemselves or others. Otherwise, if they’rejust hungry or ill-clothed or destitute onthe streets, they don’t necessarily comewith assistance. So they’re on the streets,more and more.

Then, of course, we have military vet-erans, which is perhaps the biggest group.The number of vets on the streets variesfrom time to time depending where we arein relation to various wars. Also, they tendto die in their 50s, so all of the SecondWorld War vets are gone, many of theKorean vets are gone, and we’re begin-ning to lose some of the Vietnam vetsnow. Now, we’re beginning to get the vetscoming back from Iraq and some of themare ending up on the streets.

Spirit: That’s the point where the waroverseas becomes the war at home.

Marin: At one point, I remember see-ing the figures from our area that, in thegeneral population, one out of every ninemales has seen service in a war, and onthe streets, one out of every two men haveseen service in a war. So that’s rather anastonishing figure showing that wars, andwhat we now call post-traumatic stress,drive people into the streets.

We have many fewer services for menthan for women, and also the shelter ser-vices for men require such a level ofhumiliation that men just say, “screw it,”and don’t accept the help that they’reoffered because of the form in which itcomes. So we have men who receive lesshelp than women, men who come frombroken marriages, who have lost their jobs,who are no good at satisfying bosses, soyou get a lot of them on the streets.

These are guys who may be badlysocialized. Some are high school drop-outs, social drop-outs of all kinds, and acertain number of men for whom theGerman word “wanderlust” applies.That’s people who can’t stay in one placeor stick to one job for a long period oftime. I know a lot of guys like that. Theyare very hard workers, but they can workfor a week and that’s it. And they’re outthe door because they can’t do the samejob over and over again.

So there are those guys. And then thereare what in my town we call “the travelers.”The young kids who are still out there whojust sort of take off, and you see themdowntown near our City Hall in smallgroups, playing the guitar or asking formoney. They just move from town to town.

A lot of them are the result of the fos-ter care system, because they come out ofthat system and there’s no place to go andthey’re not fit for doing anything, andnobody really prepared them for anything.

And then there are the drunks, Godhelp them. The drunks sort of cut acrossall categories, but there are people whoare just alcoholic and they lose jobs, orcan’t get jobs, or don’t want jobs, and justend up alcoholics and addicts who live onthe street. There’s a sort of familiar curvewhich ends badly.

Street Spirit Interview with Peter Marinfrom page 13

March 2014 ST R E E T SP I R I T 15

ing in the trailers, often none at all. Andeven some of the very few who havestayed in the trailers are not Bulb resi-dents, but are from the city streets.

People are not even permitted to bringfood into the shelter. Kim, a youngwoman who has special dietary restric-tions, managed to bring in what she need-ed, but was forced to hide in a dark cornerto have her meal.

Two men were banned from the shelterafter urinating in a garbage can. One canhardly blame them. Anyone needing to goto the toilet has to be escorted by the man-ager who unlocks the door and waits untilthe person is ready to be escorted back in.

People admitted to the shelter arescreened. Their names must be on a list ofresidents provided by BFHP or, if they arefrom the streets, they need referrals fromthe city. Whitson, certainly well known tothe shelter operators, was greatly surprisedto be told she couldn’t be admitted to theshelter because her name is not on the list.

Their failure to even maintain an ade-quate list of Bulb residents is only a minorexample of the inefficiency and generallypoor performance of BFHP.

Their program is described as a“mobile outreach team” to connect with

the people on the Bulb and to “develophousing plans and provide housing loca-tions and placement.” It also includes“providing information on all availablesafety-net services provided by BFHP andother community organizations.”

In all these months, they have success-fully housed only four people. Two otherswere provided housing that they found sounlivable, dark and cramped, that theymoved back to the Bulb.

Attorney Osha Neumann expressedconsiderable disappointment with BFHP.He said, “They never delivered services ina way that’s actually designed to helppeople with disabilities. They’ve simplywritten off all those people who don’thave an income. They blame people outhere for their failure to find housing forthem. They’ve given all kinds of reasonswhy they failed — difficulty findinghousing for people with dogs, or theydon’t have income.

“When I talked to people out here, per-son after person tells me that theyapproached the Food and Housing Projectand said they wanted to go into housingand they never got a response. Somecases, they were simply told because theydon’t have an income they can’t behelped. Some cases, they were toldbecause they have dogs they can’t behelped. Some cases, they weren’t told

anything, just never got a response back.”Neumann has spent a great deal of time

at the Albany Bulb creating art, and he ison the team of attorneys representingBulb residents in their lawsuit against theCity of Albany. In his dual roles, hespends a lot of time building relationshipswith the people living at the Albany land-fill — and that is a major element that ismissing in BFHP’s work at the Bulb.

“It takes real work with people, build-ing trust, meeting them where they’re at,literally, physically where they’re at, goingto their shelters and sitting down withthem,” Neumann says. “It takes ingenuitycoming up with solutions. It takes a will-ingness to go an extra mile which is neededfor people who’ve been chronically home-less for many years. They haven’t donethat. They’ve gone through the motions,waited for people to come to them, ratherthan going out to where they’re at. Andwhen people have come to them, they’vevery often dropped the ball.”

As for information and help accessingservices, the BFHP has done little or noth-ing. On the other hand, much support hascome from the community.

Whitson reports that “Share the Bulb,East Bay Community Law Center(EBCLC), and Homeless Action Center(HAC) have formed an ad hoc coalition,along with various community membersthat got a little over a dozen Bulb resi-dents benefits, food stamps and/or GA.

They got them started on the process ofgetting disability benefits in a couple ofdays over three weeks. And BFHP has notgotten a single person, not even those theyhoused, anything. HAC and EBCLC, thetwo organizations that are suing the city,are the ones helping. BFHP never evenreferred people to them.

“And people from the communitycame out and helped people fill out theGA and food stamp applications with peo-ple living on the Bulb. And several peoplecame out here and drove people to theSocial Security office, sat with them andwaited to bring them back. People whoheard about it from the community, whoheard about it through the coalition.”

The City of Albany has not yet suc-ceeded with these plans for a mass evic-tion, but harassment of the campers inten-sifies. A 10 p.m. curfew was establishedwith citations being issued for violations,and people found to have police recordsare being arrested.

A police officer shot and killed acamper’s dog, claiming the animal threat-ened him. Now the city has announcedthat the eviction will proceed. But thecampers have not exhausted legal appeals.Community support for the campers isgrowing. Will the good citizens of Albanyconsent to their city officials putting 50people out on the streets of a city withutterly no shelter or housing for the poor?

in back for people’s dogs. When I men-tioned that such an accommodation wasrequired by the Fair Housing Act, hisresponse was that the shelter was “closequarters” and would not be able to accom-modate such a request.

In the same spirit, I knocked on the doorto the shelter the following day and askedthe shelter staff how one would go aboutfiling a Request for ReasonableAccommodation to be able to stay at theshelter. The staff asked me what type ofdisability the requested accommodationwould be for. I told them that people cur-rently living on the Bulb have a range ofdisabilities. “For instance,” I said, “there arepeople out there with schizophrenia andclaustrophobia. My boyfriend has schizoidpersonality disorder and cannot be forced

into enclosed social situations.” The shelter staff member responded,

“Well, we don’t have a special box hecould sleep in, or anything.” This is theabsolute height of discrimination.

I am one of several longtime Bulb resi-dents who was denied access at the doorto the shelter based on the fact that ournames weren’t on “the list” of Bulb resi-dents. I am not aware of a single Bulb res-ident who has been allowed entry.

I am a disabled, homeless individual,who also receives Supplemental SecurityIncome as a result of my disabilities.Albany opened its temporary homelessshelter supposedly for use by the populationof primarily disabled homeless individualswhose camps it intends to demolish.

I submitted a Request for ReasonableAccommodations (RRA) with the assis-tance of a local advocacy organization,

the East Bay Community Law Center, asdid 31 other disabled individuals whosecamps the City also plans to demolish.

All of our RRAs were denied, despiteeach one being accompanied by aVerification of Status as a Disabled Person,signed by a professional psychologist. Theseverity and truthfulness of every one ofour disabilities was questioned. The neces-sity of our accommodations were alsocalled into question, despite the fact thateach of our Verifications included an expla-nation of why we each needed the request-ed accommodations.

I was personally denied not only non-communal living quarters (as is needed, dueto my disability), but also the presence ofmy caretaker and my Emotional SupportAnimal (both of which my Verificationstated that I need). I was also denied theright to receive the services of the shelterprogram at an alternate site that couldaccommodate my needs.

My request was denied, and the 31other requests that were submitted at thesame time also were all denied, withoutany effort or willingness on the part of theCity of Albany to engage in an interactiveprocess to try to work out some way thatwe could utilize the shelter.

For City officials to deny us access tothe only shelter in Albany is devastatingto some of us.

The Fair Housing Act specificallymakes it unlawful to refuse to permit, atthe expense of the handicapped person,reasonable modifications to existingpremises to be occupied by such a personif such modifications are necessary toafford full enjoyment of the premises. TheAct also makes it unlawful to refuse tomake reasonable accommodations inrules, policies, practices, or services toafford a handicapped person equal oppor-tunity to use and enjoy a dwelling.

Albany Shelter Program A Dismal Failure

Albany Ignores Needs of the Disabled

from page 4

from page 4

Others might volunteer at a food bank, orhelp a new business prosper. Studygroups, public forums, and Internet out-reach are obvious options. The possibili-ties are unlimited. This diversificationwould encourage the growth of new struc-tures that foster social change.

Some minimal common groundthroughout the network could provide allmembers with a shared identity, a sense ofbelonging to the same community.Toward this end, the network’s missioncould be: to help assure everyone a living-wage job opportunity.

The network’s primary method couldbe: to encourage and cultivate the devel-opment of caring communities whosemembers support one another in theirpersonal growth, community building,and political action.

The network’s only specific require-ment, to which all clubs would agree,could be that the members of each clubwould meet at least once a month to sharea meal, socialize informally, report ontheir activities and plans (with regard topersonal growth, community building,and political action), and make decisionsconcerning future activities.

A club could be defined as a team ofthree or more individuals who affirm thenetwork’s mission, primary method, andspecific requirement. This commonalityamong all the clubs could nurture a senseof community, while allowing for maxi-mum flexibility and self-determination.

A commitment to work consistently ineach of the three areas addressed — thepersonal, the social, and the political — isimportant, because efforts in each area canstrengthen efforts in the other two.

With most people, our emphasis shiftsday by day. We may engage in politicalaction only occasionally. But it seems wecould reasonably ask others to dedicate atleast an hour or two each month to helpimprove public policies. We vote becausewe feel it is our duty, even though onevote is rarely decisive. I feel a similarobligation to be politically engagedbetween elections. It also seems reason-able to ask others to devote at least anhour or two each month to strengthen acommunity in their home town, therebyhelping to establish examples that canpoint the way to a better future.

Each day we can work on becoming abetter human being, if only by paying atten-tion to how we operate, acknowledgingmistakes, and resolving to avoid them in the

future. This honest self-evaluation enablesactivists to become more effective.

With efforts in these three areas, wecan fulfill our obligation to do our fairshare to secure for all people the humanright to a living-wage job opportunity.

These full employment clubs couldalso help combat growing social isolationby nurturing soulful, authentic, face-to-face relationships that help people fulfilltheir potential. Members could expandand deepen their circle of trusted friends.

Most people learn from and areinspired primarily by peers they know andtrust. To build a popular movement in thiscountry at this time, we need to learn howto reach out to our friends, enrich thosefriendships, provide meaningful opportu-nities for social engagement, and cultivatecompassionate communities.

IMMEDIATE OPTIONS

The full employment movement isbeginning to blossom. You can help buildthis movement in your hometown and onthe Internet. Your options include:

* Support the Jobs for All Campaign.* Donate to the National Jobs for All

Coalition.* Encourage your Congressperson and

Senators to join the Congressional FullEmployment Coalition.

* Sign the Guarantee Living-Wage JobOpportunities petition.

* Participate in a Jobs for AllCampaign planning meeting in DC in lateMarch.

* Participate in or watch a live streamof the public forum on HR 1000 to beheld March 22, 3-5 pm, at the Universityof DC Law School.

* Participate in the April 28 meeting topromote a $15 per hour minimum wage.

* Help plan a DC National Day ofAction to back HR 1000 in late May orearly June.

* Sign the Making Change at Walmartpetition.

* Sign the restaurant workers petitioncalling for a higher minimum wage.

* Experiment with a “full employmentclub” on your own, or perhaps come toSan Francisco August 15-18 to discusshow to foster a “full employment clubnetwork” as discussed above.

Let’s help the United States live up toits ideals. Let’s “promote the general wel-fare” and secure “life, liberty, and the pur-suit of happiness” for all, by building afull employment movement!

Wade Lee Hudson, a community organizerwho lives in San Francisco, is author of theGuarantee Living-Wage Job Opportunitiespetition (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-0wsHcIv20). To stay informed concerningefforts to secure living-wage job opportunitiesfor all, email wade@wadehudson.net

The Movement for Full Employmentfrom page 7

March 2014ST R E E T SP I R I T16

Council of Elders was instituted when 23 elders gatheredfrom all of these various movements — the farm workersmovement, the labor movement, the cultural movements ofthe 1960s and Dr. King’s movement.

We organized in Greensboro, North Carolina, and theNational Council of Elders made this statement as part ofthe Greensboro declaration: “We will undertake with youthe work that we have been called for, doing everything inour power to bring a greater measure of justice, equality,and peace to our country and to the world.”

The National Council of Elders will have hearing sessionsaround the nation this year, in 2014, wherever elders aregathered. Elders have formed themselves into an organizationto listen. We will listen to the community, listen to the criesof our people, to the concerns of our people, to the pains andaches and suffering of our people, so that we can get someunderstanding of how we can provide skills and tools for ouryoung people to manage in this world today. We elders havea very special responsibility.

I began my own personal journey as a young man back in1950, before the movement of Dr. King and Rosa Parks,when a group of young people, myself included, went toWashington, D.C., the summer after we graduated from highschool, and began to learn and practice nonviolence as wetried to desegregate Washington, D.C. In 1950, Washington,D.C., was segregated into white and black lunch counters andswimming pools and movie houses.

Recently, someone asked me what inspired me to getengaged in the work for justice. I answered that I was notinspired, I was propelled. I was compelled because I wasborn in 1932 in the midst of the Depression. I grew up in seg-regation in northern Ohio, with segregated white lunch coun-ters and black restaurants.

The very conditions under which I was born as a blackman in this nation made it necessary for me to get engaged infighting against the oppression that I saw. So all of us arecalled by the circumstances into which we were born in thisnation, to get engaged in making America a better place forourselves, and for our children and our grandchildren.

We did not ask for it. We did not start this struggle, butwe were born into it. And the only thing we can do now isto struggle against it, but also live in it and learn how to bea human being, a full child of God, at the same time we aretrying to change the racism, the sexism, the homophobia,the things that break us down and divide us and make usless of a people. I know I’m preaching to the choir!

So that’s our Council of Elders. It represents all of themajor movements of the 20th century, and people are com-ing together and beginning to learn.

I grew up in a town where we would go to church andhave Sunday dinner around the dinner table. My family,my sisters and brother, and my mother and my father,would count how many African Americans were lynchedthat week. As a boy, I remember in the black newspapers,they would publish every week how many of us gotlynched across the United States.

So we started the hearing panels to listen to the cries ofthe people. Trayvon Martin had something to do with ourunderstanding that to be born and to be a young black man,it is dangerous for them to walk around the street and sim-ply be a human being because they are liable to run intosomebody who is afraid for their life and who will shootthem, much like the lynchings when I grew up.

We have to do something about the attitude of the majori-ty of people in the United States who are EuropeanAmericans, about their fear of people of color, if they believethat they have the right to shoot if they are fearful. That’s amentality, sisters and brothers, that we have to do somethingabout. We have to change it because it threatens my grand-son, a 20-year-old. It threatens his ability to walk around andbe a full human being, because there are some people whoare afraid of him and might kill him. There is much we haveto do as elders. Because in the little time that I have left — Iam 82 now — I want to make the world a little bit safer formy grandson than it is today, and that means you and I have alot of work to do in our nation.

I believe strongly that the way we must learn justice inour land is by following the way of nonviolence, the wayof Dr. King and Mahatma Gandhi, the way of love.

My great-grandfather was named Henry DangerfieldLawson. He was a slave in Hagerstown, Maryland. At 16years of age, he escaped and went up to Philadelphia andgot on the Underground Railroad. He met a young womanwho was the wife of the conductor of the UndergroundRailroad and they traveled up the Underground Railroadthrough Pennsylvania and New York State and theycrossed over into Canada, where my Dad was later born.

It is that spirit that causes us to say that we have to con-tinue to fight to make this nation what it ought to be. Ourgrandfathers and grandmothers who were slaves, who wereoppressed, decided that once they got free, they were goingto stay in this country and make it what it ought to be.

And they decided that the way they were going to dothat was through nonviolent Christian love, even winningover slave owners so that those slave owners and their chil-dren would become sisters and brothers of former slavesand the former children of slaves.

We decided that this was our nation and no one wasgoing to run us out of it through their racism or their vio-lence or their fears. I’d say we have that battle still to win.

The Book of Hebrews has these words: “Therefore, sur-rounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay asideevery weight and sin that clings so closely to us and let usrun with perseverance, the race that is set before us.”

I suggest to you that this race is still going on. We didnot choose the race. Most likely, we will not end the race.But we have to run it. We have to run that race.

There is a flower in Africa that blooms every 80 years.Imagine that, a flower that blooms every 80 years! Imagineyourself watering that flower and planting the seeds of thatflower. That’s a seed that may not bloom in your lifetimeor in my lifetime. But continue to water it, continue toplant that seed, even if it does not bloom in your lifetime.

from page 1

The National Council of Elders

Americaby James E. McGee

We call it America, the beautiful.Beauty it is, but things that have happened in the past are definitely not beautiful.

How many men have fallen because of their color and their beliefs?We think of Martin Luther King, Malcom X, John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and many others who died because they wereBlack or because of their beliefs.

Martin Luther King and Malcom X championed the cause for Racial Justice.And the Kennedy brothers were killed because of their supportive stands.

Rosa Parks supported Equal Rights in riding a public bus. And Marilyn Monroe died because of her association with the Kennedy brothers.

Many more Black men, women and children died because of the color of their skin.And we ask Why they DIED!!!

You and We get our Heaven and Hell Right here on Earth. God Bless Us All.

In His Stepsby Johna Wilcoxen

The single criterion for judgment offered by Jesus in his account of the World’s Final judgment is our behavior toward the poor, the hungry, the imprisoned, the homeless, the sick.

Jesus we pray for this frail, elderly woman, age 92, who lives in fear of eviction by a wealthy landlord. As we pray that the path to prosperity is not the highway to homelessness, Remember they too have dreams. Let us all share the M.L.K. Jr. dream because although we have a River of Tears let us not have another year of darkness, homelessness, or hunger.

The Eye of God is Watching. What Will He See?

I Got Tiredby Lola Hadley

I’m tired.I’m ready to go through my past, empty my suitcase, to have a future.And people don’t know, don’t want to hear,what it was like for Blacks to live in the South. I watched my parents scrape to provide for the family. They worked several jobs just for us. They hid what we had from the social service case workers.

I know what it was like, it wasn’t nice for us at all.It wasn’t right or pretty, it wasn’t fair at all. I had my auntie to talk to, she’d listen and I’d feel better. She went through it too. You’ve got to live it to understand.

“I believe strongly that the way wemust learn justice in our land is byfollowing the way of nonviolence,the way of Dr. King and MahatmaGandhi, the way of love.”

— Rev. Phil Lawson, speaking at St. Mary’sCenter during Black History Month

St. Mary’s Center CelebratesBlack History Month

Senior members of St. Mary’s Center inOakland honored Black History Month by dedi-cating themselves to working for Freedom andJustice. Rev. Phil Lawson gave an eloquent pre-sentation about the National Council of Elders.

Lola Hadley, Johna Wilcoxen and JamesMcGee, senior members of St. Mary’s commu-nity, presented their own original reflections onwhat it means to face racism and injustice, andto search for a better tomorrow of equality andjustice and freedom for all people.

Civil rights leaders announce the founding of The National Council of Elders in Greensboro, North Carolina,seated in front of the massive statue honoring the Greensboro Four civil rights activists.