Month: January 2014

January Poetry of the Streets

Poetry
l asked the lord in prayer/ why people are/ begging for food/ I thought god’s goodness/ was for everyone/ and the lord answered me/ the poorest of the poor/ count on you and me/ to be their voice hands and feet/ and when we give until it hurts/ the poorest of the poor/ will be no more

The Poverty Line

Fiction
More enforcement droids were coming with their weapons readied. But people had taken enough. Those who had been waiting in the long line so that they could continue their meager existences were angry. They surged at the enforcement droids and collectively smashed them to bits in a process of spontaneous rebellion.

A Missing Mother: The Transfer

Fiction
“I remember staring at barbed wire and armed sentries,” Yuki said. “I remember being engulfed by scattering dust in the whirling wind. I remember laying in my bed at the Topaz internment camp wishing I could raise my voice and say people should not be mean to one another.”

Albany’s Inhumane and Irresponsible Eviction Plans

Features   Uncategorized
Even while Albany has refused to develop any housing, shelter beds or homeless services at all, for the past 14 years, homeless people have been camping on the Albany Landfill, taking care of the land, cleaning up construction debris, planting trees, creating works of art, and making it their home.

Nelson Mandela Always Focused on Building a Better World for All

Features
“As poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest... Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.” — Nelson Mandela

The Moral Beauty of Acts of Goodness and Justice

Opinion
Wherever we find love, courage, sacrifice, generosity of spirit, resistance to injustice and a faith kept with others — ah, it is there that beauty appears, shining forth. Many “ordinary” people manage, perhaps in lesser ways than did Mandela, but not unlike him, to bring the Good into the world through their courage and devotion.

St. Mary’s Center Honors the Countless Lives Lost on the Streets

Features
These reflections from the Homeless Memorial held at St. Mary’s Center in December 2013, are in honor of those who died on the streets of the East Bay. We must remember the people who died homeless and poor and reclaim our awareness of the sanctity and dignity of every human life.

How We Found a Safe Haven at the Albany Bulb

Features   Uncategorized
Once-respectable environmental activists have shown their preference for “parks over poor people” again and again. They refuse to acknowledge that pushing for the eviction of homeless people goes against their own environmental justice policy. And rather than using the “Housing First” model, the City Council has chosen the “eviction first” approach.