From jdav@mcs.comMon Jan 30 10:57:02 1995 Date: Sun, 11 Dec 94 21:04 CST From: James Davis To: pt.dist@umich.edu Subject: People's Tribune (12-12-94) Online Edition ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 50 / December 12, 1994 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: jdav@igc.org ****************************************************************** INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 50 / December 12, 1994 FRONT PAGE STORY FOLLOWS INDEX Editorial 1. 'PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY' OF THE CAPITALIST CLASS: GINGRICH PREACHES WHILE POOR STARVE News 2. SAN FRANCISCO STUDENTS MARCH AGAINST ANTI-IMMIGRANT MEASURE 3. WHAT'S NEXT IN THE FIGHT AGAINST PROPOSITION 187? 4. THE SPIRIT OF FRED HAMPTON LIVES, THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES 5. CALIFORNIANS FIGHT FOR NEEDLE EXCHANGE AS A WAY TO FIGHT AIDS Focus on THE AFTERMATH OF THE ELECTIONS (Readers' comments) 6. WHAT PRICE FREEDOM? 7. IT'S UP TO US! 8. IT'S STILL THE ECONOMY, STUPID! 9. MINNESOTA WELFARE RIGHTS LEADER: 'FIGHT EVERY ATTACK' FROM GINGRICH AND THE DEMOCRATS Welfare for the Rich 10. THE $18 MILLION CHRISTMAS TREE American Lockdown 11. BOGUS CLASSIFICATION HURTS / PRISONER DENIED PAROLE Deadly Force 12. POET LOOKS AT PROPOSITION 184: 'A DOOR INTO MY PAST' Culture Under Fire 13. CHICAGO HUMANITIES FESTIVAL V: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT Announcements, Events, etc. 14. SHOP WITH THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE! 15. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE +----------------------------------------------------------------+ PAGE 1 STORY PETE WILSON'S PROP. 187 KILLS 12-YEAR-OLD BOY Julio died of acute leukemia, the most common form of childhood cancer. Unfortunately, the diagnosis came too late for the 12- year-old boy. Julio, whose parents are undocumented immigrants from Mexico living in Orange County, fell ill early on the week of November 13, complaining of a cough that sent pain shooting through his bowels. Julio's father told the Los Angeles Times that he and his wife delayed seeking hospital treatment for Julio because they feared deportation under Proposition 187. They waited until they could raise the $60 needed to take their son to a private doctor on Friday, November 18. The doctor gave the boy an antibiotic, but his condition worsened. Julio died at home on the morning of the 19th. News reports said preliminary tests showed Julio's body was weakened by the leukemia and may have been wracked with a bacterial infection. Proposition 187 called for denial of state services to undocumented immigrants in California. It would put teachers, doctors and others into the role of cops and spies, putting documentation and punishment ahead of providing basic human needs. As such, this issue concerned everyone. In response, calls to resist this initiative have been widespread. Proposition 187 also is another sign of the direction the ruling class wants to turn this country as the economic crisis deepens. As victims of this crisis turn to fighting to meet their needs for food, clothing, housing and health care, the rulers who control this government turn to repression, force and violence to defend themselves. Pete Wilson's "Save Our State" initiative saved his political career. He was as much as 25 points down in the polls before he found this issue. His unpopularity was not surprising. He has presided over the destruction of the economy in California and the loss of nearly half a million jobs since 1990. Taking up Proposition 187 helped draw attention and discussion away from Wilson's role in the economic crisis. Wilson and his "Save Our State" initiative did not save Julio Cano. It killed him. Is this the kind of country we want, where a few millionaires and billionaires are the only ones who never worry about taking their kids to the doctor? Or do we want a society that sees to it that no more children meet the same fate as Julio Cano? +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: 'PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY' OF THE CAPITALIST CLASS: GINGRICH PREACHES WHILE POOR STARVE The "Personal Responsibility Act," a major component of the Republican Party's "Contract With America," if passed, would virtually destroy the federal food stamp, child nutrition, school lunch and other programs by consolidating them into a single grant administered by the states. Single mothers under 18 years old would be immediately denied public assistance and everyone else would lose all benefits after two years. The primary architect of this plan is Georgia Congressman Newt Gingrich, whose name (if you say it fast enough) sounds a lot like "getting rich." And that is exactly what the privileged elite across this country will do when and if these measures are enacted. That's because while gutting assistance to the poor, Gingrich's plan will leave intact billions of dollars in public aid to the wealthy. Take, for example, those who are wolfing down their share of the "mansion subsidy," a mortgage interest deduction for wealthy homeowners worth $41 billion annually. Fully 35 percent of those enjoying this little welfare program earn over $100,000 a year! Meanwhile, for every 850 taxpayer-subsidized luxury homes in this country, 1,000 Americans are completely homeless and another 1,600 either live in substandard slums or give up half their income just to keep a roof over their heads. "We'll give them a helping hand up the ladder of responsibility, but there is no escalator," says Gingrich, pretending that 5 million American families on public assistance don't want to work. Gingrich and his pals should practice a little personal responsibility themselves. They can start by telling the truth. According to a recent study by Women Employed, not only do the vast majority of welfare recipients want to work, but 83 percent of them already do! The only problem is, their wages are so low and the layoffs so frequent, they've no choice but to turn to public aid. A helping hand? Drive into the big cities and the backwoods of Georgia where a quarter of a million children are barely surviving on a welfare allotment of $90.59 a month. The only hand they're getting is a shove into the grave from the ruling class. And what about that escalator? There isn't one if you're an unemployed or disabled worker. But if you belong to the capitalist class, then you're holding onto that rail all the way to the bank. This proposal by Gingrich and his crowd not only threatens those who already are unemployed or receive public aid. More and more, those who are still employed but increasingly less economically secure are asking themselves what will happen to them after they're laid off and the safety net is gone. The Personal Responsibility Act is a cheap propaganda ploy to mask the continuing robbery of the people of this country by the ruling elite, and Gingrich knows it. Before they start preaching to those of us who built this country, these "contractors for an impoverished America" better take a little personal responsibility for the damage they've already done. ****************************************************************** 2. SAN FRANCISCO STUDENTS MARCH AGAINST ANTI-IMMIGRANT MEASURE By Sarah Menefee SAN FRANCISCO -- Outraged at the passage of immigrant-bashing California ballot measure Proposition 187, about 1,000 high school students, many from San Francisco's Mission High, took to the streets on the morning of November 9. After a fiery rally at Yerba Buena Gardens, they marched through the South of Market district, down Market Street and through the downtown financial district, chanting "The students united will never be defeated" and "aqui estamos y no los vamos." After stopping in front of the INS building (protected by a line of federal police), vowing "Raza Si, Migra No!" they continued through a cold, steady rain on to another rally in front of the State Building, to the School Board offices on Van Ness Avenue, then to 24th and Mission streets, the heart of the neighborhood. With them marched teachers, administrators, and members of such groups as the American Indian Movement, La Resistencia, the National Organizing Committee and STORM (Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement). Already that morning, the San Francisco Unified School District had filed an injunction (which has since been granted) to stop implementation of Proposition 187 until the courts can rule on its legality. And statewide, educators and health care workers vowed to refuse to become fascists and cops by going along with this illegal and inhumane law. But most of all, it is these young people, united and ready to organize, who will fight for and shape a future that puts human rights, education and life itself before greed and exploitation. They understand that if they don't, no one but the wealthy and powerful few will have a decent life or a future at all. A beautiful sight -- the future as it must be, based on justice, shared knowledge and abundance, brother and sisterhood, already on the move! ****************************************************************** 3. WHAT'S NEXT IN THE FIGHT AGAINST PROPOSITION 187? Editor's note: The campaign to pass Proposition 187 in California led to massive student protests against an initiative which would deny health care and education to undocumented immigrants and their children. But with Proposition 187 now tied up in the courts, people are asking, "What do we do now?" Below we reprint excerpts from comments given to People's Tribune correspondent Steven Miller in Oakland, California. He asked residents of the East Bay what needs to be done now to stop Proposition 187. XOCHITL CORTEZ, Raza In Search of Equality: If we wish to end this continuous cycle, we must put our forces together and defeat our opponent. Our opponent knows nothing about our struggles and only has a political agenda of profit. JUAN JOSE CERVANTES, Raza In Search of Equality: We are at war. This is the time that we must unite as people. Capitalism is a dream that cannot continue any longer. So, we must educate -- because with the right education, people develop the correct opinion and a correct opinion can result in action. We are forced to believe that there is no alternative but to follow. We all need to stick together and control our destiny. Society has an agenda: to keep the rich getting richer and the poor and middle-class poor. This is the only way capitalism can exist in the near future. With all these new jails, we will be forced to work or go to jail. What freedom! We call this place "the land of the free." It's better said, "The land with a fee." Fight! The future holds nothing but confrontations. RUBEN GONZALEZ, La Raza Student Union, Laney College: The [pro-Proposition] 187 people are going national. We are talking about organizing now to make a plan for a nationwide demonstration against 187 for this coming Easter. We need to keep building ties, talking about the real issues and clarifying the politics. In February, we will be hosting a Northern California Chicano Student Leadership Conference at Laney [College] for all the community colleges. It will be a chance to bring together Raza from different communities and get together to see what's up with the different issues affecting us today. Want to be involved? Contact the La Raza Student Union, care of Laney College, 900 Fallon Street, Oakland, California 94606. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ PROTEST PROP. 187 ON HUMAN RIGHTS DAY! In commemoration of International Human Rights Day, a broad network of forces is sponsoring marches on December 10 to oppose Proposition 187, the anti-immigrant measure recently approved by California voters. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the Immigrant Rights Movement -- a broad network of organizations ranging from social service agency advocates to political groups -- has called for a rally on December 10 in San Francisco. The rally will start at 11 a.m. at 24th and Mission streets at the BART station area. There will be a march in Chicago on December 10, organized by Casa Aztlan in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, to protest the effects of Proposition 187. A rally in Philadelphia is tentatively scheduled for December 10 from 1-4 p.m. at Liberty Place across from the Liberty Bell. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 4. THE SPIRIT OF FRED HAMPTON LIVES, THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES By Jon Rice CHICAGO -- We heard it on the streets on the morning of December 4, 1969, "Chairman Fred is dead, man!" He came into a world of political double talk, where politicians, black and white, said something -- and unsaid it in the next sentence. He entered a world of poverty and police oppression where a displaced people, migrants from Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and Southern Illinois, were struggling to achieve liberty as a community. That world was the West Side of Chicago in 1969. The 20-year-old man was Fred Hampton, president of the youth chapter of the Maywood NAACP. Fred Hampton was brave and bold, tough and intelligent, charming and honest. He had those qualities which seldom all end up in one person. That is why he was so successful in uniting young people in Chicago -- black, white and Latino -- around a radical cause, the overthrow of a political/economic system which did not respect and routinely abused the poor. He challenged the oppressive forces of the city and they were unable to defeat him, break him or buy him off. So on December 4, 1969, twenty-five years ago, they sent the police to his apartment who shot him while he slept -- two shots in the face. So confident were the powers that be that the death of this lone, poor individual, leader of the Illinois Black Panther Party, would not be remembered, they failed to even cover their tracks. They were exposed for doing what the politicians had been doing for years: destroying lives. Only this death was so arrogant, so blatant, we remember it still, as a sign of the type of rule we are under -- arrogant, insensitive rule. We fight them at the risk of our own well-being. Still, Fred's life reminds us, "dying young is hard to take, [but] selling out is harder." Chairman Fred was killed, but the spirit of Chairman Fred lives, and the struggle continues. [Jon Rice is the author of "Up on Madison, Down on 75th," an account of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party.] ****************************************************************** 5. CALIFORNIANS FIGHT FOR NEEDLE EXCHANGE AS A WAY TO FIGHT AIDS [Editor's note: Below we print excerpts from a statement issued by the San Joaquin Valley Exchange Works in California.] Prevention is our only weapon against HIV until a cure is found. Recent research proves needle exchange is effective as an HIV prevention measure. Thirty-four percent of the nation's AIDS cases are among injection drug users. The majority of new cases of reported AIDS are related to injection drug use, either through direct use or infection by a partner or a parent who was infected as a result of drug use. HIV/AIDS is a threat to the health of the community and injection drug use can result in the spread of the disease. This is a public health problem and not a criminal justice problem. This is evidenced by the numerous California counties and cities that have recently declared local states of emergency. The most recent declaration was signed in September in Los Angeles by Mayor Richard Riordan. In every instance where local states of emergency have been declared, needle exchange programs have been mandated to be made part of a comprehensive AIDS education and prevention effort. Needle exchange will have an impact not just on drug use (as a bridge to treatment) and HIV, but may also affect local crime rates, enhance public health and improve the community. More and more California communities are recognizing harm reduction and establishing needle exchange programs as a public health response to an epidemic. It is clearly time to decriminalize legislation on needle exchange and drug paraphernalia. Every Californian is at risk of addiction to alcohol and other drugs. We are also at risk to the threat of HIV/AIDS. Three times in the past three years Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed legislation that would have empowered interested communities to participate in a needle exchange program. This issue is a matter of life and death. A fourth veto next year would constitute a message of death, a program of genocide. The San Joaquin Valley Exchange Works (a few volunteers working collectively) is making the long-term commitment toward addressing this issue locally. We need your help. There is work to do from the closet all the way to the front line. No one works more than an hour or two per week (unless they want to) and we will train you. But the first step involves sharing information and getting ourselves educated to the degree that we are comfortable. We have volumes of information available for readers. Regular informational meetings are another way to get started. Please join us. Call 209-276-0101. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ DAVID'S STORY By Geoffrey W. Sackett Editor's note: The following article is excerpted from a presentation given to a meeting of the California Community Prevention Working Group in Redding, California on August 31. Recently, I received a phone call that made me very angry and immensely sad. A father died a year and a half ago. He was an intravenous drug user who shared syringes in a shooting gallery. His wife died in January. The cause of the wife's death was sexually transmitted HIV which progressed rapidly to end-stage AIDS. Thirty months ago, this couple had a son. They named him David. At 11:30 p.m., August 30, 1994, David died. He was infected with HIV before birth. These three deaths may have been prevented if legal needle exchange programs had been authorized when they first were proposed. Except for California Gov. Pete Wilson, David might have had a future. Like Moses before Ramses, we must appear before our governor to remind him of the deaths of these three people. Our message will not be "let our people go," but instead, "let our people live." I ask and plead with you "Let there be no more Davids." The state Senate is slated to reconsider needle exchange legislation. Please call your state senator. Tell him or her about David. Demand that he or she vote to ensure that truly there shall be no more Davids. Please remember David. Geoffrey W. Sackett is co-director of the needle exchange program of Marin County and of the California Safety Education Network. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 6. WHAT PRICE FREEDOM? By Jackie Gage LONG BEACH, California -- We pay taxes. City taxes, state taxes, taxes for electricity, gas and telephone service -- even if we are unemployed or on welfare or Social Security and we are registered voters. Yet California Gov. Pete Wilson continues only to refer to the "working class" and omits the rest of us in his speeches to the media as if we're not important. As if some of us (citizens or not) are disposable. Yet he was re-elected anyway. I wonder exactly what it cost Pete Wilson per vote? What price will Wilson's supporters have to pay mentally, emotionally and morally when the reality of the ruling class sets in and modern technology plummets them into the new class of people Wilson ignores and would rather exterminate? Will his supporters admit how cheaply they sold themselves and their children as well as all the people of California? Or will they close their eyes and hope it is all a bad dream? Not! We all know what price must be paid to live in California as well as in the United States, however we also know that in order to survive, no price is too high. The need to survive is a natural instinct that the Pete Wilsons of the world have no control over, so they build more prisons, hire more police, manufacture more guns, distribute more drugs and continually place the blame on the new class of this country. Rich and privileged Californians (and everywhere else) can thank the Pete Wilsons of the world for the price they will have to pay for poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, crime, death and, yes, even freedom. Freedom of, by and for real people (not robots) because all men, and women, were created different but equal! If you want to have a voice in the future of our country, please feel free to contact your local chapter of the National Organizing Committee listed in your People's Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo. ****************************************************************** 7. IT'S UP TO US! By Chicago [Chicago is a member of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union.] PHILADELPHIA -- In this country, the citizens are tired of the way things are and they desire change more than anything and in this November election they showed how much. For the longest time the Democrats held the majority of power in Washington, but now the Republicans do. And the people are right about one thing -- they will change things. They will now go from bad to worse. It is time for people to stop depending upon others to make a difference, and start doing it themselves or contribute to the process of change and not be a part of the problem. As the old saying goes, "If you want anything done right, you have to do it yourself." To make a change for the better, the people have to do it. ****************************************************************** 8. IT'S STILL THE ECONOMY, STUPID! By John Slaughter ATLANTA -- Bill Clinton and a whole lot of other Democrats didn't know what hit them on November 8. The problem is that he and they believed their own rhetoric. Clinton was heralding the economic "expansion" and stressing that American citizens are "better off than they were two years ago." Democratic Gov. Jim Folsom in Alabama also stressed how much better things were -- and lost to Republican Fob James. The working and poor people in this country knew better, even as they became more outraged at the gridlock in Washington. A reality check will show: * Over 15 percent live in poverty, the highest rate in more than a decade. * The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Income disparity is now greater than at any time since World War II. * The number of poor people grew by 1.3 million last year. * Average family incomes fell by 2 percent last year. Mr. Clinton, it is still a jobless recovery. It is still an expansion of profits only. It is still the economic crisis that drives all other issues. Newt Gingrich proclaimed the election a "sea change," an event of revolutionary consequences. He is claiming that the current crisis of Western civilization demands "deep change." We could not agree more. But here are some of the deep changes that Gingrich and his fellow Republicrats have in mind: * Cut the capital gains tax. (More money for the rich). * Take the children of young mothers on welfare away from them and place them in orphanages. * Abolish the welfare system. Deny the right to vote to welfare recipients. * Fight the notion that equality of education has any place in the educational system (Fob James' idea). * And of course, get even tougher on crime. Build more prisons, lock them up and throw away the key. Does this sound like revolution to you? No, these "revolutionists" are really playing fast and loose with the term. Their program represents change all right, but it is a big step backwards. It worsens the crisis, rather than solves it. It is the politics of reaction. No revolution is worth its salt that does not fundamentally alter the relations of property. That is, a revolution redefines who owns and controls the wealth. A real revolution would mean that a new class of the have-nots would become the new owners of America, and would redistribute the wealth according to need. Come to think of it, that is not a bad idea. If they want revolution, let's give it to them. ****************************************************************** 9. MINNESOTA WELFARE RIGHTS LEADER: 'FIGHT EVERY ATTACK' FROM GINGRICH AND THE DEMOCRATS By Leslie Willis The People's Tribune asked Deb Konechne for her reaction to the "Personal Responsibility Act" proposed by Representative Newt Gingrich. Konechne is a leader in the fight for welfare rights. She is a member of the Welfare Rights Committee of Up & Out of Poverty Now! in Minneapolis/St. Paul. The Personal Responsibility Act and the Republican Party's "Contract With America" call for welfare reform which cuts off teen-age mothers and cuts out food stamps, child nutrition programs and emergency food assistance. Deb Konechne: "We don't think anyone should be surprised by the ideas coming out from Republicans. We've been out fighting against these attacks for two years. It's nothing new. It's just more extreme. It's an extension of what the Democrats have been allowed to get away with. It's an extension of the attacks on the poor, especially women and children. "What it means for us is that we need to get even more organized and expose the criminality of these ideas about welfare coming from the politicians. We need to fight every attack that's coming down." ****************************************************************** 10. WELFARE FOR THE RICH: THE $18 MILLION CHRISTMAS TREE By Leslie Willis 'Tis the season, it seems, for welfare cuts, food stamp cuts and orphanages for the poor. Congress, however, still feels the spirit of giving, and forgiving, when it comes to the timber industry. Since the mid-1980s, this industry has not paid for contracts owed to the U.S. Treasury totaling $135.6 million. Take the case of the Hampton Tree Farms, Inc. in Portland, Oregon. It was given 11 government contracts worth $18 million. Guess what? A federal court has "forgiven" their debt for nine of those contracts. This little ol' tree farm is owned by Hampton Resources, one of the largest wood products companies in Oregon. They own 66,000 acres of timberland. Believing that the U.S. Forest Service was set up to protect and preserve our national parks and forests, taxpayers have allowed $4 billion to go to this department in the last decade. Most of that money is "welfare" for the timber industry instead. We have built 360,000 miles of roads just for logging trucks to drive away with our national treasure for their own profit, sticking us with unpaid, but forgiven, debts. At this time of year, you see how expensive trees can be. But what you don't see is the hidden cost. This Christmas, millions of Americans will go without, while the Hampton Tree Farm goes back for second and third helpings of our tax money. ****************************************************************** 11. AMERICAN LOCKDOWN #1: BOGUS CLASSIFICATION HURTS By Francisco Borjas, #N-01840 Menard Correctional Center MENARD, Illinois -- I've just read Volume 21, Issue Number 45, page 7 [of the People's Tribune] where you printed an article about the "Mentally ill mistreated in prisons." I've been kept in "segregation" since March 22, 1984 and since September 10, 1985, I have been transferred up and down the state's medium- and minimum-security prisons under a bogus maximum-security classification. My rights have been extremely denied and psychologists and psychiatrists seem only to be interested in their jobs. I can't do legal work and my time is impossible! They've transferred me approximately 49 times. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ AMERICAN LOCKDOWN #1: PRISONER DENIED PAROLE Ñ TAXPAYERS WILL PAY A PRICE By Duane Maulding, #N-07970 Joliet Correctional Center JOLIET, Illinois -- I received a copy of your newspaper in September and I wish to applaud you for printing the truth and not covering it up or "whitewashing" it the way most journalists and news media do. I'm a 33-year-old white male. I've been incarcerated for nine years. My crime was that I stole a tank of gasoline and $11 cash during a burglary. While in prison, my mother suffered three major heart attacks, then underwent bypass surgery. My father was diagnosed with emphysema, which was a result of his job. My wife and I divorced and in 1987 I walked away from a minimum- security facility. I was apprehended 26 hours later and received an additional 10-year sentence to the five I was already serving. Here in Illinois, with the day-for-day good time enacted by state law, my sentences were served as of October 9, 1993. However, the Department of Corrections took 51 months and 20 days good time, pushing back my release date to January 1998. Early last year, I filed a petition for executive clemency with Gov. Jim Edgar. A public hearing was held in Chicago which my parents were able to attend. At this hearing, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board was notified that I have a place to live, I have a family that cares about me and that I have a job awaiting me. No one showed up to oppose my petition or my release, though several newspapers had printed notices of my hearing, and it costs Illinois taxpayers close to $30,000 per year to incarcerate one inmate. Furthermore, since my sentences were served already, all that I was asking Gov. Edgar and the Prisoner Review Board to do was reinstate the good time that the Department of Corrections had taken. My petition was denied. I have been warehoused in the four maximum security prisons in Illinois for more than seven years. I have been jumped and stabbed by an inmate with a homemade knife for no other reason than the stress of prison overcrowding. I had never committed nor had even seen a violent act until I came to prison. Since I've been in prison, I've studied and become a jail house lawyer, filing federal lawsuits and court actions for myself as well as other inmates, to try to change prison conditions, this world we are forced to live in. The writer would appreciate receiving letters from readers. Write to Duane Maulding, #N-07970, Joliet Correctional Center, P.O. Box 515, Joliet, Illinois 60432. ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "Deadly Force" is a weekly column dedicated to exposing the scope of police terror in the United States. We open our pages to you, the front line fighters against brutality and deadly force. Send us eyewitness accounts, clippings, press releases, appeals for support, letters, photos, opinions and all other information relating to this life and death fight. Send them to People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Ill. 60654, or call (312) 486- 3551. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 12. POET LOOKS AT PROPOSITION 184: 'A DOOR INTO MY PAST' By Dino Lewis LOS ANGELES -- Upon entering the city of Los Angeles on my way to Philadelphia by way of the Los Angeles County Department of Parole, I walked through a door into my past. I was pushed back through time into the streets from which I came. Skid Row! There, nothing had changed, not even the faces. There were the same drug dealers on every corner, but wait a minute -- something had changed. There were more drug dealers and fewer food lines. Now that I look back, this whole month has been like a scene from "The Twilight Zone." On November 3, I went from a dark, quiet road in the Del Paso Heights area of Sacramento to D.V.I. State Prison in the space of a heartbeat. This was a true wake-up call, where the "three strikes" law became real. It was no longer words on paper but alive and working. I've seen strong young men who have already struck out. I've seen one with 485 years and Pete Wilson wants 80 percent of it. We must break the blackout and let the world know what Proposition 184 means, not just to the poor of California, but to the whole United States of America. In your heart, you know if it works in California, the rest of the nation will follow. Pete Wilson has already made plans in our state for 12 new prisons and Proposition 184 is how he plans to fill them. The rest of the nation had better take a good look and think about what you see happening in California today because it will be America tomorrow. Then you will see a whole new list of unemployed. Yes, the keepers of the poor will begin to go from the checkout line in Safeway to the unemployment line and then to the food line. Then they will be ready for the new homes that Pete Wilson has built for them. By then "three strikes" will be one strike and America will have struck out. [Dino Lewis is a poet, writer and organizer of the homeless and poor. He is a founding member of the Homeless Writers Coalition. He is available to speak through the People's Tribune Speakers Bureau.] ****************************************************************** 13. CHICAGO HUMANITIES FESTIVAL V: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT HUNDREDS ATTEND CONFERENCE, DEBATE AMERICA'S FUTURE By Andy Willis CHICAGO -- The chandelier-lit grand ballroom of Orchestra Hall with its grand piano was the last place I expected to see two fine rap groups struggle to be heard over a whack sound system, or to hear poet Luis Rodriguez announce that the topic of the day was the war being carried out by the government on inner-city youth. Hundreds of people came to that unlikely setting on November 12 to share experiences and struggle with the direction this country is taking. They came from all walks of life and represented those who won't let the despair of this society be blamed on the youth. The November 12 event was one of numerous events held in 10 different locations in Chicago on November 11-13 as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival V. The theme of the festival was "crime and punishment." We got People's Tribunes and Tribuno del Pueblos into a lot of hands and saw strong signs that people won't settle for the lie that our youth are the problem. If you can hold "edu-tainment" forums like this in your area, you'll be glad you did! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ HIGH MARKS FOR CHICAGO CONFERENCE CHICAGO -- "I was not surprised at how positively the group responded due to the growth of all our common problems and how this unjust system is no longer able to support the illusions of the American Dream. People are in search of something more than what is being offered as solutions -- simply because they don't work. The rap groups did a great job of representin': 180's "Let the crime fit the punishment" echoed through Orchestra Hall and also in the minds of the people. Luis Rodriguez was great. He was clear and to the point. His comments were powerful and moving. All in all, the event (except the sound system) was really on hit." -- Ruben Martinez "The event was interesting and motivating. Lots of positivity came out of the discussion. I liked the fact that there was no looking down on the kids. The children are not to blame. There was a realization of the crowd that we all have to unite. And from that, people were looking for an organization that did just that: organize on the common problems that we all face in today's society. "D.O.P.E. Mob was able to express reality of life through their positive lyrics. "I also liked the fact that there were lots of children there to see we haven't given up on them and that there is still hope, 'cause we do care." --Rocio Restrepo, youth worker at Casa Aztlan, member of Youth Struggling for Survival ****************************************************************** 14. SHOP WITH THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE! For subscriptions, make checks payable to the People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654. Circle the type of sub you want and list the name and address below each item you check. We will send a card with the subscription. Let us know how you would like it signed. ___ Send a gift subscription to the People's Tribune. (____ $25 for one year or ____ $4 for 2 months) ___ Send a gift subscription to the Tribuno del Pueblo. (___ $13 for one year or ___ $4 for 2 months) ___ Send a gift subscription to Rally, Comrades! ($15 for one year). Make checks payable to Rally, Comrades! ___ I want to order an original People's Tribune cartoon by Andy Willis. Cartoons are available on a full range of topics. "Time Stepper" cartoons still available. $35 each. Send my gift subscription to: Name ____________________________________________________________ Address _________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip __________________________________________________ Send order with payment enclosed to: People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo, P.O. 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