Life in the Slow Lane, An Old Man, A Van and His Dog
I have never seen him visited by a relative or friend. Although he is surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people, his is an extremely lonely existence.
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Bay Area Protesters Defend the Rights of Immigrants
"It’s no coincidence that Arizona has this outrageous law, because all the proposals from Washington on immigration reform encourage the same criminalization, racial profiling and discrimination. Immigrant communities are demanding an end to these policies and laws, including ‘Secure Communities’ and ‘E-Verify.’ We deserve a new direction from Washington, with real change, including legalization and workers’ rights.” — Renee Saucedo, La Raza Centro Legal
‘This Law Is Very Unjust!’
Teresa Mina was a San Francisco janitor, member of Service Employees Union Local 87, when she was fired because the company said she didn’t have legal immigration documents. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told her employer to fire 463 workers because they lacked legal immigration status. She told her story to David Bacon the day before she returned to Mexico.
The Message of Arnieville Lives On
The homeless people “really stood in solidarity with the disabled in this class action and took care of them — helped them get in their beds, helped them turn over at night, carried them in and out of their tents, stayed up all night with security.” — Dan McMullin
No Place at the Table
Across the nation, cities restrict charitable meal programs for the hungry and homeless. “As the recession and foreclosure crises drive dramatic
increases in poverty and homelessness, communities should
be embracing solutions to homelessness, rather than punishing
people for feeding those in need.” — Maria Foscarinis
PETRA Spells the Death of Public Housing
The privatization scheme threatens to displace hundreds of thousands of low-income families, elderly and the disabled from their public housing units, and future funding shortfalls in the Section 8 program would place the housing units at risk of bank foreclosure.
Electroshock: A Crime Against the Spirit
By Leonard Roy Frank on Electroshock robs people of their memories, their personality and their humanity. It reduces their capacity to lead full, meaningful lives. It crushes their spirits. Put simply, electroshock is a method for gutting the brain in order to control and punish people who fall or step out of line.
Shocked into Action: How Electroshock Created a Rebel
By Terry Messman on "Leonard Roy Frank is the Gandhi of the psychiatric survivors' movement. He's really helped bring a powerful spiritual discipline to this movement, similar to the work of Martin Luther King. Certainly in the 20th century, Leonard would be one of the foremost challengers of psychiatry, especially electroshock." -- David Oaks
The History of Psychiatric Mistreatment, Interview with Robert Whitaker
The New York Times, in reporting on the treatment of Soviet dissidents, said giving these neuroleptic drugs practically makes a person a vegetable. The Times said it was a form of a “spiritual gas chamber.” Then they’ll cover a trial about forced drug treatment of a mentally ill person in the U.S. and report the drugs are known to be widely efficacious.
Disturbing the Ghosts of the Albany Landfill
Where will the homeless people go? They will blend into the wave of humanity that live under bridges, in abandoned buildings, in doorways; they will sink deeper into invisibility
SEIU Union Holds Heated Debate Over the Sleeping Ban in Santa Cruz
"There is a law that makes sleeping illegal. There is a law that makes covering up against the elements at night illegal. This smacks of the old South, racism and a community in denial about the human rights violations going on to a certain class of people."
Disabled Bus Rider Faces Many Hardships
by Janny Castillo, BOSS
[dropcap]R[/dropcap]iding the bus is difficult enough if you are able-bodied and healthy; but for our disabled