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

Volume 17, No. 11 November 2011 $1.00

A publication of the American Friends Service Committee

Art by Eric Drooker

by David Hartsough

The Occupation in Freedom Plazain Washington, D.C., only twoblocks from the White House,and the occupations around the

country and the world have given memore hope than anything I have experi-enced since the civil rights and anti-warmovements in the 1960s.

Hundreds of thousands of people fromall walks of life and all ages, races andreligious backgrounds �— especiallyyoung people �— are waking up and say-ing, �“We aren�’t going to take it any more.We will not put up with a society wherethe government does not represent thepeople, but too often represents the corpo-rations and the wealthy.�”

The occupiers have proclaimed to the

whole world that they will no longer put upwith a government which spends hundredsof billions of dollars to fight foreign wars,create more nuclear weapons and buildmilitary bases around the world, whilemaking drastic cuts to education, healthcare and the welfare of the people.

People in this movement are willing toput their bodies on the line and committhemselves for the long haul to make suretheir voices are heard. The demonstratorshave found that there are many others outthere who share the same strong hope thatwe can make systemic change in our soci-ety, by acting together.

We are not alone. We are the 99%, andwith courage and a commitment to nonvi-olence, we shall overcome.

Stop the Machine andCreate a New WorldThe Occupation in Freedom Plaza, Washington, D.C.,unleashed a massive outcry against Wall Street, thePentagon, and �“a government run by corporations.�”

See Stop the Machine page 12

by Charles Burack

When I moved to the SanFrancisco Bay Area in1988, I was struck by thenumber of people living on

the streets in Berkeley and Oakland. I hadlived in other cities, including Chicagoand New York, where there were alsomany homeless people, but I�’d never seenso many needy individuals congregatingon sidewalks and asking for spare change.

Over the years, my relationship withhomeless people has changed dramaticallyas I have searched my heart and myJewish heritage for a caring way torespond.

At first I gave out spare change some-what randomly. Some days I gave to oneperson; other days I gave to several; andoccasionally I gave to no one. Theamounts ranged from a dime to a coupleof dollars, though usually I gave a quarter.

I felt both a desire and a resistance togiving. I could sense that some of theaskers genuinely needed help, and I felt areal desire to help them. But as a graduatestudent living off loans and part-timeteaching in the late 1980s, I knew I couldnot give to everyone I encountered. It was

obvious I had to make choices.Initially, my decision-making process

about whether and how much to give wasfairly complex and haphazard. It wasaffected by the mood I was in, how preoc-cupied or hurried I was, the way I wasasked, my sense of the person�’s economicand emotional neediness, and my feelingabout my own financial situation.

Often I felt guilty about not being ableto help everyone who asked. I usually feltdisturbed by those individuals who weregruff, demanding, or threatening. I won-dered how many individuals were trulyneedy and how many were just avoidingfinding work.

After a few years, I convinced myselfthat by giving money to homeless people,I was rewarding them for not seekingwork and was possibly enabling certainindividuals to buy drugs and alcohol. Idecided it was more prudent to give onlyto established charities. In that way, Icould be sure that the money would beused to good end.

I took this approach for a couple ofmonths but soon began to feel rathermean-spirited. It seemed hard-hearted to

See Spare Change page 11

Spare Change Leadsto Spiritual ChangeIt is the one who asks for assistance that creates the con-ditions for justice and compassion to enter the world.When we respond to that holy call to kindness, we bringblessing into our lives and into the lives of all we touch.

Surely, homeless people are entitled to our daily deeds ofjustice and compassion. Surely, they deserve to be treatedwith respect and kindness. Surely, they are to be thankedfor giving us the holy obligation to give and to receive.

�“Richie�” A homeless man silently appeals for spare change. Art by Tammy Grubbs

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

by Carol Denney�“If people have an exciting idea, certain-

ly we can try and show community supportso that we can encourage the property tomove forward,�” Worthington said. �“Havinga vacant lot sitting there is costing the city alot in terms of lost vitality to Telegraph.�” �—Daily Californian, 10/4/2011

This quotation from Berkeley CityCouncilmember Kriss Worthington was aprominent part of the most recent storyabout the vacant lot at the corner of Hasteand Telegraph in Berkeley, a space that iscurrently being demonized by public offi-

cials, press, residents, and students. Thearticle in the Daily Californian describesUniversity of California architecture stu-dents eagerly offering designs for projects-to-be in an atmosphere of urgency.

The article neglects to mention that thevacant lot at Haste and Telegraph waspreviously a single room occupancy(SRO) hotel which provided both retailspace and 77 units of crucial low-incomehousing. The building was the victim ofdeliberate arson, as the previous residentsknow who received warning the nightbefore one wing was set ablaze.

Berkeley has systematically destroyedits SRO housing, replacing it with high-end condos and �“affordable�” rental unitswhich are only affordable to the $80,000 ayear median income crowd. SRO units,which generally are the only option forthe lowest income and homeless groupsthey often shelter, are becoming an endan-gered species.

It should matter to us as a community,if we care about helping low-income peo-ple and homeless people get off thestreets, that we replace and protect suchhousing, which also offers importantalternatives for migrant workers, seasonalworkers, artists and musicians who cometo town for brief periods, and people whoneed a starting point before they can con-template saving the expensive first-month,last-month, and security deposit require-ments of more permanent housing.

The Daily Californian also neglectedto mention that current lot owner KenSarachan submitted a proposal for a com-bination retail and housing complexwhich was turned down by an earlier CityCouncil. Sarachan is not quoted at all,which implies that he is somehow anobstacle to the lot�’s development, despitethe fact that his earlier proposal includedaffordable units and proposed that it benamed for Bob Sparks, a beloved commu-

nity housing activist.A history-free story runs the risk of

greasing the wheels for a proposal whichmay not replace the crucial 77 units oflow-income housing Berkeley sorelyneeds. A vacant lot may be characterizedas contributing little to the avenue, but adevelopment there which precludes thereplacement housing Sarachan once triedto build is a theft of potential housingwhich is irreplaceable.

Beware the atmosphere of urgency sur-rounding potential development of the lotat the corner of Telegraph Avenue andHaste Street in Berkeley.

Putting up a building of some kind atthat corner might seem urgent from someperspectives. But the need for single roomoccupancy housing is much, much, moreurgent. Our community needs to insistthat all 77 units of SRO housing bereplaced as an integral part of any newdevelopment at Haste and Telegraph.

Preserve Affordable Housing at Haste and Telegraph A development at the vacant loton Telegraph Avenue that pre-cludes the replacement of 77lost units of SRO housing is atheft of irreplaceable housing.

by Ian Harris

October 2011 will mark a timein our history when the peopleof the United States, facinggreat economic peril, rose up

to demand economic justice. Since Sept,17, 2011, thousands of Americans havenonviolently occupied Wall Street.

People who have been laid off andmarginalized by economic hardship havebeen camping out in Zuccotti Park in NewYork City and waging nonviolent protestsaround this country. These protesters havebeen speaking out against unemploymentand economic injustice.

The rich have recovered and prosperedsince the recession two years ago. Stockshave gained back their losses, and thewealthiest one percent in this country stillhave tax breaks generously granted themby the previous Bush administration.Corporate profits have reached their high-est level since 1950.

Most recently, the federal governmentbailed out banking institutions while mil-lions of Americans lost their homesthrough foreclosures. Citigroup, a bankthat received bailout funds, had a record$3.8 billion in profits this quarter, up 74percent from last year.

Meanwhile, the middle class has beenground down by the loss of public ser-vices and public-sector jobs as localmunicipalities have had to lay off police,teachers, and social workers. Collegegraduates can�’t get secure jobs that willhelp them pay off their debts and allowthem to develop careers that would pro-vide financial stability.

Speculation in the housing market hascreated a foreclosure crisis that has haltednew construction and led to more lay offs.The poor continue to be ignored, as theywere earlier in the previous century whenMichael Harrington wrote The OtherAmerica, his groundbreaking study of theplight of the poor, in 1962. A record 46million Americans now live in poverty.Many students are homeless and millionsof people are hungry in the land of plenty.

Who is speaking for the poor thesedays? Nobody. Hence we are getting

spontaneous demonstrations in citiesaround the United States protesting eco-nomic injustice. Because tax revenueshave fallen off drastically and theRepublicans won�’t allow tax increases,the federal government is proposing cut-backs and lay offs that can only increaseunemployment lines.

The private sector is reluctant to investbecause of economic uncertainty aroundthe globe. President Obama has proposeda jobs bill that would invest in Greenenergy and rebuilding the nation�’s infra-structure. This laudable initiative willnever get out of a Republican-controlledHouse of Representatives.

These protests began in the heart of thecapitalist system, Wall Street, targeting astock market that has benefited the onepercent of Americans who have profitedfrom the economic hardship felt by themajority of Americans. The protesters callthemselves the 99 percent majority tohighlight the extreme economic inequalitythat exists in the United States right now.

The share of income held by the topone percent is 23 percent, the highestsince 1928 and more than double the 10percent level of the late 1970s.

Those demonstrating on Wall Streetand in other parts of the country havebeen criticized because they do not havespecific demands. Their goal is to createan awareness of the problems faced bysuch an unequal economic system. Theirjob is not to draft legislation but ratherbuild public support for programs andpolicies that would provide jobs andmeaningful careers for the growing ranksof unemployed.

The world is upside down. The presi-dent has bailed out Wall Street but leftmillions of Americans underwater, unableto pay their mortgages. Greed is trashingthe global economy and the natural world.

We are overfishing our oceans, pollut-ing our water with deepwater drilling, poi-soning our aquifers with fracking, andturning to the dirtiest forms of energy onthe planet, like the Alberta tar sands. Theatmosphere cannot absorb the amount ofcarbon we are putting into it, creating dan-gerous warming.

The new normal is serial economic andecological disasters. This is why weshould support these demonstrators. Theyare the canaries in the mine speaking outabout crises that threaten all of us, ourchildren, and grandchildren.

There are plenty of initiatives that canand should be put into place to addressthese crises. Instead of cutting Medicareand Social Security, we should be taxingthe rich. We should stop waging threewars. We should cut defense spending andincrease spending on education. TheUnited States spends $120 million a dayon nuclear weapons.

We can create jobs in both the privateand public sectors by rebuilding our out-dated physical infrastructure and our dete-riorating cities. We should develop and

invest in new technologies for a sustain-able energy future.

The demonstrators who are occupyingWall Street and protesting on many mainstreets across the United States are cryingout about this unjust economy. They areappealing to the majority of Americanswho are seeing economic security beingpulled away from them.

Hopefully, these demonstrations signalthe beginning of a movement by themajority of people seeking economic jus-tice in the United States. The people unit-ed will never be defeated.

Ian Harris is a Quaker and professor emeri-tus at the Department of Educational Policy andCommunity Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. This essay was inspired by his visitto Wall Street on Oct. 8, 2011.

Why We Should Supportthe Wall Street OccupationThe world is upside down. The president has bailed outWall Street but left millions of Americans underwater,and unable to pay their mortgages. Greed is trashing theglobal economy and desecrating the natural world.

�“General Strike! Liberate Oakland and shut down the 1%.�” www.occupyoakland.org

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

Editorial by Terry Messman

On Wednesday, November 2, Iwitnessed history being madeas more than 10,000 peoplemarched through Oakland in

an extraordinary display of nonviolentresistance to a government and an eco-nomic system that has been rigged againstthe poor, and in favor of the rich.

Occupy Oakland sent out a call for ageneral strike, a seemingly utopian goalthat would require the unswerving dedica-tion and massive commitment of thou-sands of people. At first glance, it seemednearly as impossible a proposal as DonQuixote battling the windmills. Yetagainst all the odds, they pulled off one ofthe most inspiring and successful nonvio-lent demonstrations in recent history.

Occupy Oakland galvanized countlessthousands of people to occupy downtownOakland, created a large tent city in thevery shadow of City Hall, and marchedthrough Oakland to shut down its majorbanks, and the Port of Oakland itself.

This virtually leaderless group ofdetermined activists organized a hugemarch all the way from Oakland City Hallto the Port of Oakland several miles away,where protesters triumphed in shuttingdown the entire port, an amazing accom-plishment that announced to the worldthat this movement was so bold anduncompromising as to challenge the glob-al reach of transnational corporations.

�‘THE MOST POWERFUL MOVEMENT�’As we marched to shut down the Port

of Oakland, a longtime friend of mine,David Hartsough, a co-founder of theNonviolent Peaceforce and the director ofPeaceworkers, told me that the march wasperhaps the most powerful and hope-filledmovement he had ever witnessed.

That is an extraordinary tribute toOccupy Oakland, given that Hartsoughhas been an activist for more than 50years, and has been a key participant inthe civil rights movement of the early1960s, the antiwar movement in theVietnam era, the huge anti-nuclear move-ment of the 1980s, and the Gulf Warpeace movement of the 1990s.

Those past movements preservedhuman rights, stopped wars, created socialchange, and are now enshrined in our his-tory as a people. Hartsough witnessed allthese movements at first hand and wasarrested for civil disobedience while takingpart in them. So it was nothing short ofastonishing to hear him say that OccupyOakland is the most powerful and promis-ing movement he has ever seen.

In less than two months, the OccupyWall Street and Occupy Oakland move-ments have unleashed an historic outpour-ing of people�’s power that may well rep-resent the best hope to radically transformour society we have seen in decades..

Activists began converging at FrankOgawa Plaza on the morning ofNovember 2 and were buoyed to see thatCity Hall �— the very symbol of govern-mental power �— had been taken over byoccupiers and converted into a people�’sencampment. More than 100 tents cov-ered nearly every square inch of land inthe plaza outside City Hall, and the entirearea bristled with signs defiantly announc-ing the movement�’s intent to shut down asystem that has become a servant of Wall

Street, the Pentagon, the banks and theglobal corporate elite.

A COUNTRY RUN BY THE BANKSAll afternoon, marches were launched

from the corner of 14th and Broadway todowntown Oakland�’s business district.This country is basically run by the banks,and that was perhaps never made moreclear than when the public was forced tohand over billions of tax dollars to bail outthe same corrupt financial institutions thathave foreclosed on countless thousands ofhomes, and have ransacked the U.S. econo-my like a den of thieves.

But in Oakland on November 2, thepeople were no longer the pawns of thebanks. Instead, protesters shut down suchwidely discredited symbols of financialpower and corruption as the Chase Bank,Wells Fargo and Bank of America.

Working without visible leadership,without offices and nearly without a bud-get, Occupy Oakland has succeeded inbuilding a genuine populist uprising. Ithas mobilized the kind of nonviolentinsurrection that Martin Luther King spentthe last months of his life building. Kingenvisioned a Poor People�’s Campaign thatwould build a grass-roots rebellion allover the country and resist militarism,imperialism, racism and the corporatecapitalism that forces millions into pover-ty. King and his dream of a massive upris-ing was assassinated in April 1968.

Many of us have long hoped for arebirth of this vision. How amazing it is tosee that this movement was reborn largelydue to the work of young activists whowere born decades after King�’s death.

Or, to cite a closer historic parallel,Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Oaklandhave begun to build the kind of grass-roots revolt that fueled the Arab Springand toppled one dictator after another.That accomplishment seemed beyondimagining until the first dictators weretoppled. Now, in our own country, we arewitnessing the first, hope-filled days of an�“American Autumn�” that has alreadybegun to change history.

U.S. activists have grown accustomed tothe media�’s biased coverage of socialchange movements, and the outright sup-pression of important stories. Three monthsago, on Aug. 5, 2011, homeless activistsfrom all over the West Coast held a massivemarch through San Francisco�’s financial

district to protest the union-busting HyattHotel and financier Charles Schwab, andshut down Wells Fargo Bank. Yet, the cor-porate media avoided reporting on thisundeniably newsworthy action organizedby Western Regional Advocacy Project.

In the case of Occupy Wall Street, themainstream media has been forced to coverthese events, given the enormous number ofoccupations and the coast-to-coast extent ofthe protests. But too often, the corporatemedia have downplayed the significance ofthe protests, undercounted the numbers, anddistorted the coverage.

DISTORTED MEDIA COVERAGEOn November 2, Occupy Oakland esti-

mated that up to 30,000 people took partin protests at some part of the day, andmore than 10,000 people peacefullymarched in a successful effort to shutdown the Port of Oakland. But the corpo-rate press devoted a disproportionateamount of coverage to the acts of a hand-ful of people who threw rocks at storewindows and spray-painted graffiti. Themedia pounced on these few instances andbreathlessly reported them as if unbeliev-ably terrible crimes had been committed.

What is wrong with this picture? First, the vast majority of demonstrators

in Occupy Oakland have been deeply com-mitted to nonviolence, even when facingextreme provocation by the police. TheGeneral Strike on November 2 was held ina city still dismayed at the violent raid byOakland police on October 25 that ended inmore than 100 people being arrested, tear-gassed and beaten by police. Flash grenadesand tear gas canisters were shot indiscrimi-nately at close range and many are still inshock over the life-threatening skull frac-ture sustained by Scott Olsen, an Iraq warveteran attacked by Oakland police.

Second, more than 99% of the peoplewho marched on the Port of Oakland werenonviolent. Did they receive 99% of thenews coverage for their principled andpeaceful actions? No. Instead, the mediagave coverage out of all proportion to thehandful of people who did not adhere tononviolence. The media always seemseager to sensationalize the acts of a few, nomatter how small, whose actions might beused to give the movement a black eye.

Many demonstrators have becomedeeply distrustful of the media, and consid-er them to be an integral part of the system

of corporate domination. At about 8 p.m. onNovember 2, many of us who wereblockading the entrances to the Port ofOakland were overjoyed to hear that thelongshoremen�’s union had just promisedthat the port would be closed all night. Itwas heartening to see hundreds of youngactivists respond as they realized they hadsucceeded in shutting down the port.

Right then, a lone driver dangerouslyrammed his truck into a crowd of protest-ers on the road. Some were struck by thetruck and everyone was appalled at thedriver�’s reckless actions. Many wereangry. Yet, even in this volatile moment,nearly everyone exhibited great restraintand nonviolent discipline. Hundredsbegan chanting, �“Peaceful! Peaceful!�”over and over again.

The young people who had conductedthemselves with such discipline, gentle-ness and restraint expressed great concernthat the media would smear the movementif they even learned of this incident, eventhough the truck driver had instigated it.

Activists come to understand that in ademonstration when 10,000 peopleuphold the code of nonviolence, if even ahandful of people ignore that code and doa few dollars worth of damage to a build-ing, the media will cover it obsessivelyand blow it up out of all proportion tomake it look like a major crime wave.

Yet, illegal acts of financial corruptionby giant corporations may haul in millionsor billions from outright theft, and receiveless coverage. Catastrophic environmentalcrimes are committed by companies thatendanger the lives of people, animals andthe entire ecosystem, yet they usually donot receive anything close to the breathlesscoverage of a few people unwisely breakinga window or setting a fire in a dumpster.

Mainstream newspapers and TV sta-tions often are owned by the same corpo-rations that dominate the global economy.If you analyze the financial interests ofthe corporations involved in reporting onthis movement, it is clear that their naturalalliance is with Wall Street, and notOccupy Wall Street. All their economicinterests, stock holdings and wealth makethem loyal to the 1%, not the 99%.

THE POWER OF NONVIOLENCEActivists should study the lessons of

past movements and realize how powerfuland transformative nonviolent resistancecan be. Nonviolent resistance has been atthe core of countless movements that haveoverthrown dictators, stopped humanrights violations, won labor struggles,resisted wars and overcome segregation.

Far from being a weak or passive formof activism, Mohandas Gandhi said thatnonviolent resistance enables a smallgroup to �“defy the whole might of anunjust empire.�”

Yet, even as we call for nonviolence inour protests, we must also remember thatGandhi said poverty is the worst form ofviolence. The U.S. economic system is toblame for systemic injustices that haveplunged millions of people into the hellishviolence of poverty and homelessness.

In a country that spends hundreds ofbillions of dollars every year on cruelwars and senseless nuclear arsenals, wemust not let the mainstream media detourus into thinking that graffiti and window-breaking are the worst dangers we face.

We need instead to pay attention to thededicated activists of Occupy Oakland andrealize that corporations have raided theeconomy, increased poverty and enrichedthe 1% at the expense of the 99%.

Occupy Oakland Shuts Down the Banks and the Port

�“We Are The 99%. The people are too big to fail.�” Poster from Occupy Oakland.

Shutting down the port is anamazing feat that announcesto the world that this move-ment is so bold it will evenchallenge the global reach oftransnational corporations.

See a full timeline of OccupyOakland�’s first weeks of mas-sive resistance �— page 7.

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

by Robert L. Terrell

The conservative elites who exer-cise definitive control over eco-nomic and political affairs in theUnited States may well be dan-

gerously overplaying their hand. Apparently uncaring and oblivious to

the needs of their less fortunate counter-parts huddled far below them in the work-ing classes, they are engaged in a full-scaleassault on the nation�’s tattered safety net.

These wealthy elites are opposed topaying higher taxes. They block all effortsto provide universal health care. Theyfight against the extension of unemploy-ment benefits and attack public employeeunions. Exercising �“let-them-eat-cake�”ignorance, and condescending disdain forcommon people, they have instructedtheir minions in the U.S. Congress to dotheir best to eliminate Social Security, andpossibly federal assistance to victims ofcatastrophic natural disasters such as hur-ricanes, earthquakes and floods.

Out of touch with the vast majority ofcitizens because of class-orientedapartheid, they are largely clueless regard-ing the problems, dreams, surging pas-sions, and emergent hostility of the tens ofmillions of the less fortunate citizens onthe bottom rungs of our vastly inequitablesocio-economic order.

The results of this profound disconnectcould prove disastrous for conservativeelites, who have been largely shielded upto this point by their mouthpieces inCongress, and the compliant mainstreamnews media. The disconnect may alsoprove to be the source of the largest, andmost important, demand for fundamentalreforms to emerge in the United States inmore than a generation via the rapidlyexpanding Occupy Wall Street movementcurrently roiling civic sensibilities in 150U.S. cities, with new occupations joiningon a daily basis.

INSPIRATION FROM �‘ARAB SPRING�’Although the Occupy Wall Street

movement is first and foremost a heartfeltresponse to domestic inequality, it is obvi-ously receiving inspiration from the revo-lutionary transformations fueling the so-called �“Arab Spring�” in North Africa andthe Middle East.

The major economic and cultural dif-ferences between the scene of the ArabSpring and the United States notwith-standing, there are several good reasons toconsider the possibility that revolutionaryactivities of the sort that are deposinglong-entrenched dictators and their elitecronies in North Africa and the MiddleEast might be launched on these shores.

Many of the economic and politicalproblems at the heart of the turmoil cur-rently under way in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya,Syria, Yemen and Bahrain exist here in theUnited States. Like those nations, theUnited States is dominated by remote,wealthy elites who consistently manipulatepolitics and economic affairs in ways thatundermine the best interests of the vastmajority of their fellow citizens.

For domestic and global reasons, poorpeople the world over are finding itincreasingly difficult to make ends meet.The cost of living is rising, jobs areincreasingly scarce, and comfortable liv-ing wages are as difficult to obtain as

assured avenues of upward mobility.One of the most important similarities

between the United States and the nationsin North Africa and the Middle East mostprominently engaged in fundamental eco-nomic and political transformationinvolves the social and economic condi-tions faced by young people.

In Africa, the Middle East, and muchof the rest of the Third World, large num-bers of young people are finding it diffi-cult to obtain employment commensuratewith their education and training. As aresult, many of them have concluded thatmajor societal reforms are in order.

The United States also has a largecohort of unemployed and underemployedcollege graduates. The current unemploy-ment rate for college graduates in thisnation is the highest since 1970, and it ison the rise. Some of those unemployedgraduates are prominent participants inthe Occupy Wall Street movement.

DISLODGING THE CONSERVATIVES

As protests have spread beyond NewYork to other cities around the nation, it isbecoming apparent that the nascent move-ment is potentially capable of producing amassive campaign of civil disobediencededicated to taking on, and dislodging, thenation�’s conservative elites.

Political spokespersons for conserva-tive elites are doing their best to inhibitdialogue about the profound economicdisconnect between their patrons and theother 99 percent of the population pur-portedly represented by the Occupy WallStreet movement. The conceptually primi-tive epithet they launch against those whodirectly, and coherently, address the issuein public is �“class warfare.�”

By making the accusatory allegation,they seem to be seeking support from thegeneral public via the terms of an unwrit-ten gentleman�’s agreement that it is for-bidden to discuss U.S. domestic problemsin such a manner.

Nonetheless, the truth of the matter isthat the common people in this country donot, and have never, accepted this particularmode of censorship. This fact is clearbeyond question for those familiar with

working-class culture. Any sampling of theliterature, music and daily gab of working-class people reveals a healthy preoccupa-tion with the great divide between the so-called haves and have-nots.

If the mainstream news media weremore closely associated with working-class people, they could serve as valuablevenues for facilitating dialogue betweenelites at the top, and the other 99 percentof the population. But that�’s not what themainstream news media are about, andthat�’s why they are tentative and confusedregarding the best way to report on theOccupy Wall Street movement.

The mainstream news organs could�“embed�” journalists with the demonstratorsin the same manner as they rushed to dowith U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.But there is little likelihood that any of themainstream press outlets will engage theprotesters in this manner. This is largelydue to recognition that accurate, intimate,unbiased reporting about the movementwill almost certainly help it become larger,and more influential.

Mainstream U.S. journalism aban-doned reporting from a working-class per-spective many decades ago. One of themost unfortunate results is that public dia-logue in this nation is unbalanced.

Fortunately, voices that have been longbanished from the public arena, dominat-ed as it has been for decades by the main-stream media, are now being distributedand shared via so-called New Media. Thisis as much the case in San Francisco,Chicago and New York as it is in Cairo,Damascus and Tripoli.

THE �‘CLASS WARFARE�’ EPITHET

Wherever in the world one encountersthe emergent dialogue regarding justice,human rights and peace, the inequitabledivision of wealth and income betweenelites and everyone else is a prominentpart of the agenda, and is virtually alwaysconsidered one of the most importantproblems. Those who address this issuedon�’t necessarily consider themselves tobe engaging in �“class warfare.�” They feelthey are addressing a structural economicproblem that is key to the future of every

kind of human society.THE BRUTALITY OF REAGANOMICSHere in the United States, few of those

who use the class warfare epithet to stifleserious public dialogue about structuraleconomic inequities are willing toacknowledge that the nation has been sub-jected to such warfare for several decades.One of the most popular terms used todescribe the process is �“Reaganomics.�”

Other than being hard-edged and heart-less regarding the needs and suffering ofthe defenseless, it is not a new philoso-phy. Rather, it is a form of brutal econom-ic Darwinism wherein a divide is severelydrawn between haves and have-nots.

Wealthy people do not need SocialSecurity, nor do they need worry aboutaffordable health care, or unemploymentbenefits. The fact that most citizens doneed such programs seems irrelevant tothe elites, and that�’s one of the reasonswhy their representatives in Congress aredoing everything they possibly can toeliminate them.

Thus, the political component ofReaganomics is probably best understoodvia the stealth effort to dismantle, or at thevery least, disable, the segments of gov-ernment capable of protecting the mutualbest interests of common citizens.

Social Security is clearly the last, bestmode of financial security available toaverage citizens. Without it, people willnecessarily be more accommodating, andpossibly subservient, to those with greatwealth and power. Those who doubt theaccuracy of this contention should proba-bly spend time in any large society thatdoes not have a system of social securityfor senior citizens.

The United States has been the sceneof an intense, class-oriented �“war�” forquite some time, and conservatives are theones who have been the most combativeparticipants. This has been the case atleast since Ronald Reagan�’s era.

Since that time, conservatives, in theservice of elite interests, have implement-ed numerous social, political, legal andeconomic policies that have handsomelycompensated the wealthy, while decimat-ing the middle and lower classes. As aresult, the wealthiest 10 percent of thenation�’s citizens currently possess a largerpercentage of total annual income than atany time since the 1920s. The top 10 per-cent of U.S. earners currently receivealmost 50 percent of the income producedin the nation on an annual basis.

Since the Reagan era, the top one per-cent of U.S. earners has enjoyed a six-foldincrease in income. Conversely, during thatperiod, the other 99 percent of the popula-tion has experienced long bouts of unem-ployment, skyrocketing rates of homeless-ness, catastrophic rates of mortgagedefault, rising food insecurity, decliningprospects for better employment and sag-ging home values.

The profound difference between thewindfall increase in wealth accruing toelites, and the anemic economic circum-stances of the tens of millions arrayedbelow them in the national economicpecking order, is clearly apparent in thedata pertinent to income growth.

While inflation-adjusted income formiddle-income earners rose 21 percentbetween 1979 and 2005, elites at the topexperienced a 480 percent increase inincome. Thus, economic inequality isundeniably at the root of the national eco-nomic crisis.

A recent report on income and povertyby the U.S. Census Bureau reinforces thepoint. Median household income in theUnited States in 2010 declined 2.3 percentfrom the year before, according to thereport. In addition, the nation�’s official

Occupy Wall Street: Elites Betrayed the Social Contract

See Elites Betrayed Social Contract page 10

�“Reagan comes home to roost �— mourning in America." Art by Jos Sances

This nation�’s economicelites are in for the fight oftheir lives �— a fight that acritical mass of the other 99percent of the populationhas come to believe it cannotafford to lose.

Under the brutal economic Darwinism of Reaganomics, thenation was subjected to class warfare between haves andhave-nots. Since the Reagan era, the top one percent ofU.S. earners has enjoyed a six-fold increase in income.

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

by Rocky Neptun

Handed a printed ultimatum lateafternoon on Thursday,October 13, to either removeall tents by midnight or be

arrested, the 150 Freedom Occupiers atthe San Diego Civic Center held a democ-ratic general assembly and decided topeacefully resist the assault on their rightsof free speech and assembly.

The occupiers, mostly youth, many ofthem people of color, had been campednear San Diego City Hall since the previ-ous Saturday to proclaim solidarity withthe Occupy Wall Street protests nation-wide and to begin a movement of youthfulconfrontation with local injustice.

By 9:30 p.m., a few hours after receiv-ing the ultimatum, protesters had movedmost of their tents and personal belong-ings to a park near the Embarcadero andhad symbolically set up about a dozentents of various sizes in front of the SanDiego Civic Center Plaza building.

Drawing a chalked line on the cementaround the tents, one young man namedDavid called it the borderline betweenFreedom Square and the police state. Theprotesting youth vowed to lock arms andprotect the tents with their bodies and bearrested en masse. Their occupation wasnow a symbol of liberation from greedand corporate servitude.

By 10 p.m., more than 300 people weremilling about. As the local media finishedup their �“News at 11�” live broadcasts, theCivic Center Concourse became a humanebb and flow under the full moon. Olderactivists began eyeing their watches andcell phones as midnight approached, thenslowly, quietly slipped away.

Meanwhile, ruckus teenagers and moreyouth of color arrived on skateboards, car-rying musical instruments and wearingbandanas over their faces. They had tunedin, seen through the media�’s propagandaand distortions, their crap detectors work-ing perfectly, as they looked into the facesof their peers on the screen �— sisters andbrothers challenging privilege, wealth andthe ugly specter of militarism on thestreets of San Diego.

By midnight, several hundred youthand a few seasoned activists stood readyto be arrested in the name of freedom. Thedeadline imposed by police came andwent, and the shivering, breezy hours onthe cold pavement passed slowly.

Theories skipped through the encamp-ment. One was that the police informantshad mistakenly told the brass that the groupwas separating, splitting into smallergroups because of the tactical move to theEmbarcadero. My theory is that San DiegoPolice Chief William Lansdowne, a hard,bitter man (whom I have interviewed in thepast) set the midnight deadline so that offi-cers could crush the city�’s burgeoningyouthful rebellion with full force and vio-lence, under cover of darkness and awayfrom television cameras.

But he may have been overruled byMayor Jerry Sanders, whose number-crunching accountant realized how muchit would cost to pay overtime for an armyof officers in the wee hours of the morn-ing. Sure enough, the police instead wait-ed for the early morning shift to deploy.

Moving into the concourse slightly

after 7 a.m., a pitiful number of 35 policeofficers began to inch into the encamp-ment, trying to target and arrest protestersone by one in an effort to frighten off therest. Utilizing almost-hilarious KeystoneCops antics, eight or nine officers tookmore than 20 minutes to arrest one youngman, their first pick of the day.

Maneuvering around the corporatemedia, alternative journalists and eventourists with their phone cameras, whilepushing against demonstrators and occu-pation supporters, �“San Diego�’s Finest�”stumbled, tripped and look very sweaty,fearful and foolish, dragging the youngman out of the crowd like a crowd ofbears pulling a single salmon out of astream. At that rate, it would have takenabout 20 hours to arrest all the demonstra-tors.

The gang of cops, now looking disori-ented and confused, retreated to the frontof Golden Hall. Lieutenants called cap-tains, captains called supervisors, supervi-sors called commanders and all of a sud-den, out of nowhere, Deputy Police ChiefBoyd Long appeared, almost dragging ahapless Police Chief Lansdowne behindhim.

Lansdowne appeared dazed, unsteady,as if he and his gun, flopping obscenely athis side, had been pulled reluctantly intothe OK Corral at Tombstone. DeputyPolice Chief Long was clearly in com-mand, as Lansdowne stood chewing hisfingernails and looking sheepishly at thecity�’s corporate television crews.

At that point, thick-booted motorcyclecops with heavy helmets arrived, pulledoff their beats to expel the occupation.The police force facing down the youngactivists had grown to about 75 officers.All the cops were rattled, and ChiefLansdowne watched in horror and disbe-

lief. This doesn�’t happen in San Diego! In the two decades I have been report-

ing in this city, I have witnessed youtharrested several times in the past, pickedoff at the end of a march or picked offindividually or in small groups in alleysand side-streets during protests.

In the past, San Diego police haveresorted to lethal force against youth. OnApril 4, 2005, Jacob Faust, a 25-year-oldactor and musician, was shot to death at atraffic stop by a San Diego police officerwith a grudge against the young man. Theofficer tried to justify the shooting by say-ing he was reacting to a toy gun in theback seat of the car. Jason often used thetoy gun in his puppet show, and it wasmarked as a prop. The officer was thenprotected by Lansdowne.

Given that history, it was remarkableto witness about 150 youth �— includingAfrican American, white, Latino, Asian,LGBT, Native Americans, and working-class students �— who were not intimidat-ed by the police. They had no politicalagenda, no list of demands, no leaders, nodogma, as they stood in Freedom Square.

Like their insurgent brothers and sis-ters of the �“Arab Spring,�” they willmutiny and, rather than tinker around withpiecemeal reforms Obama-style, they willattempt to change the very paradigm ofpower in this nation�’s �“AmericanAutumn.�”

Standing arm in arm, waiting for thecorporate state to send its armed agentsagainst them, they chanted, �“We are nothere to comply, we are here to occupy,�”and �“Arrest the corporate criminals, notthe protesters.�”

The steel in their eyes, the determina-tion in their voices, the beauty of theirsolidarity, their bodies and freedom on theline to defend the symbolism of a liberat-

ed space, if even for a few hours or days,brought tears to these eyes.

Stay tuned. As one young man told me,the war for Middle-Earth has begun.

Rocy Neptun is a Quasker and a longtimeactivist in the tenants rights and homelessmovements in San Diego.

San Diego�’s Freedom Square Attacked by Police

A young man in San Diego is arrested by police after hundreds of protesters set up tents in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street.

As one young man told me,the war for Middle-Earthhas begun. Like their insur-gent brothers and sisters ofthe �“Arab Spring,�” they willmutiny in an effort to changethe very paradigm of power.

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November 2011

Street SpiritStreet Spirit is published by AmericanFriends Service Committee. The ven-dor program is run by J.C. Orton.

Editor, Layout: Terry MessmanWeb designer: Ariel Messman-RuckerContributors: Claire J. Baker, CharlesBurack, Lynda Carson, Carol Denney,Eric Drooker, J. Fernandez, Lydia Gans,Tammy Grubbs, Ian Harris, MaureenHartmann, David Hartsough, PaigeHustead, Judy Jones, John Kelly, DaveKim, Tom Lowe, Ariel Messman-Rucker, Kisha Montgomery, RockyNeptun, Sue Ellen Pector, RyanRosenfeld, Jos Sances, Robert L.Terrell, George Wynn

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.

Contact: Terry MessmanStreet Spirit, 65 Ninth Street,San Francisco, CA 94103E-mail: spirit@afsc.orgWeb: http://www.thestreetspirit.org

See the creative newStreet Spirit website:http://www.thestreetspirit.org

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

by Paige Hustead

Even as protesters from OccupyOakland were marching throughthe streets downtown, anotherwing of the anti-poverty move-

ment had gathered to take a stand againsteconomic injustices. But instead ofmarching, they were drumming.

The community room at St. Mary�’sCenter in Oakland vibrated with the puls-ing beat of homemade drums. The loud,passionate voices of seniors from the cen-ter�’s Recovery 55 support group resound-ed off the walls. Audience membersclapped and stomped along with the beat.The energy was palpable.

This was a day of celebration held tohonor, not only the strides made to com-bat poverty, but also the commitment andspirit of low-income seniors who refusedto be destroyed even in the worst econom-ic times. In the words of one speaker, �“Wekeep making it despite the hardships. Ifyou here, you goin�’ through.�”

One senior, 61-year-old John B., is alltoo familiar with �“goin�’ through.�” He strug-gles to make ends meet each month. Hismeager income from SupplementalSecurity Income (SSI) is scarcely enough tocover his food, housing, and prescriptionmedication costs. One year shy of the �“62and older�” requirement for most senior-sub-sidized buildings, it is up to John to be cre-ative with his resources in order to keephimself housed, fed, and healthy.

John�’s story is more common than mostpeople realize. The extent of poverty andhomelessness among senior citizens inOakland is staggering, even though it ismostly unseen. The harsh reality of povertyand the lack of affordable housing, healthcare, and resources for those in need affectmore and more people each day.

St. Mary�’s Center Executive DirectorCarol Johnson exclaimed, �“We live in aworld where so many brothers and sisterslive in despair, in want, and in poverty.�”

Despite this upsetting reality, people atSt. Mary�’s Center manage to somehowfind hope amidst the struggle.

Johnson said, �“We�’re here to remem-ber the many women and men whorefused to give up hope. Our predecessorsbelieved that we can change this world.Today, we renew our collective commit-ment to stand in solidarity with all peopleliving in poverty and declare that develop-ment is only sustainable when it includeseveryone. We fight to ensure that thoserights should be restored.�”

Building a campaign to support thosebasic human rights was the initial motiva-

tion for this worldwide day of recognition.The observance of the International Dayfor the Eradication of Poverty can betraced back to October 17, 1987.

On that day, more than 100,000 peoplegathered in Paris, where the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights was signed in1948, to honor the victims of poverty, vio-lence, and hunger. They proclaimed thatpoverty is �“a violation of human rights andaffirmed the need to come together toensure that these rights are respected.�”

Since then, people of all backgrounds,beliefs, and social origins have gatheredevery year to renew their commitment anddisplay their solidarity with the poor.

The October 17th event is a time to�“acknowledge the effort and struggle ofpeople living in poverty, a chance for themto make their concerns heard, and amoment to recognize that poor people arethe first ones to fight against poverty.�”

St. Mary�’s community members hon-ored this struggle through their stories.Hope and Justice Coordinator ElenaBerman declared, �“Today our center rec-ognizes the community with the power oftestimony. Let us learn from our words.Let us speak our truths into action, con-nect our stories with one another, formbridges, and create connection so that ourstruggles are no longer individualized.�”

Kim, a local artist who volunteers at St.Mary�’s Center, also emphasized theimportance of sharing stories with oneanother. She said, �“When we listen toeach other�’s stories we move from alien-ation to solidarity because we see our-selves in one another. A bond is created.We are no longer separate or alone. Howwe live and who we are matters!�”

This sharing of truths took place inmany different forms on October 17.Collaboration with Scotland Yard, a non-profit agency that does technology andmedia work with foster youth, led to amoving film with senior perspectives onthe basic human rights and what it meansto live in poverty. Seniors also created art-work, skits, and poems to express theirword and their bond.

One senior, J. Fernandez, shared hispoem with the crowd. Fernandez came toSt. Mary�’s Center in 2008, at a time whenhe had hit rock bottom and was living onthe streets in Berkeley. Fernandez hadbeen crippled by the dehumanizing effectsof poverty, violence, homelessness, andabuse. He came to St. Mary�’s Center in afragile state. He described himself as�“shy, sad, and all alone.�” After staying in

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Juan Gonzales may have died a lonely death on the streets, butthrough this poem, his spirit lives on in all of us. In a breathtak-ing way, he is resurrected to take part in the struggle for justice.

A homeless man holds a brother who has fallen on the streets. Art by Dave Kim

Members of St. Mary�’s Center pound on their homemade drums. Tom Lowe photos

See International Day page 10

Even as protesters from Occupy Oakland were marchingthrough the streets, another wing of the anti-povertymovement gathered to take a stand against economicinjustices. But instead of marching, they were drumming.

A Real Poemby J. FernandezIn this sooty soupGrit gray rainI need to shareLet it all goAnd tell you about a real poemA poem made of flesh and bloodWith far seeing eyesand a deepand powerful grace.His name was Juan GonzalesJuan GonzalesI met him in the lineWaiting for a bowl of soup and apiece of breadAnd soon, within weeks, we wereinseparableHe became a brother to meWhere he walked, I walkedWhere he ate, I ateWhere he slept, I sleptWhen I was sick, he nursed meWhen he was sick, I nursed himSometimeswe even slept under the same blanketAt times, he reminded me of St. FrancisBecause he loved pigeons tooCalled them his little brothers.Then just when I was beginning to seeThat this manWho walked around with the wordsof Jesus in his pocketThat this man could teach me something realWhat we expect but never talked aboutEspecially on the street �— happened:One December night he fell asleepon a benchIn Old Man�’s ParkAnd never woke up again.His beautiful heart just stoppedThe streets had worked him too hardFor too longAnd now he was done.So remember:His name was Juan GonzalesAnd he died on a benchIn Old Man�’s ParkNot because he was a drunk, demented,or insaneNot because he was on heroin or crackNot because he didn�’t want to live.The truth is simpleHe wanted what we all want:

To love and be lovedin the peace of his own GodAnd something moreMore than anythingto be usefulto be usefulYes, the truth is simple:He died because And only becauseLike meMaybe like youHe was poorGritty gray poorAnd except for Sister Mary and herfew sisters, here and there.You tell meWho?Who gives a damn about the pooranymore?Stand or kneelBeg or cryWe are on our ownNo one knew that betterOr deeperThan my brother Juan Gonzales.And if he were here todayRight nowHe would say this:�“Let us not be stereotyped.Let us not be cast asideMarginalizedLet us not be victimizedLet us not be shamed into silenceWhatever your name isI am youWhatever language or culture youwere born intoI am youWhatever racial group you belong toI am youWhether you are man or womanI am youWhatever faith you hold onto I am youWhether you�’re in prison in New YorkOr a detention camp in the fieldsof NebraskaI am youWhether you�’re sleeping on a squareof cardboard in Oaklandor under a grid in PhiladelphiaI am youI�’m in every living pulsating cellthat hungers for justiceand the right to love.I am you.I am you.

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

Compiled by Ariel Messman-Rucker

Inspired by the Occupy Wall Streetencampment in New York City, peo-ple in cities all over the country arecoming together to occupy public

spaces in an effort to create real socialchange. These occupations are occurringin scores of cities across the country, asactivists build grass-roots movementsagainst greed and injustice.

Occupy Oakland is at the forefront ofthis groundbreaking movement, and itsmassive marches and encampments havegained national significance. Street Spiritis providing this chronology of events sothat people can read this �“first rough draftof history�” and have a record of the amaz-ing accomplishments of this people�’smovement for social justice.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2011 The Occupy Oakland movement began

with a demonstration at Oakland City Hallin solidarity with Occupy Wall Street andOccupy San Francisco. Several hundredprotesters marched into Frank Ogawa Plazain the late afternoon and began setting uptents in the grass in front of City Hall.Police said they would allow the encamp-ment to remain in place over night.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14Occupy Oakland protesters left the

plaza for a short, 45-minute march from14th Street to Oakland PoliceHeadquarters and then back to FrankOgawa Plaza. The group�’s only stop wasoutside the Glendire detention facility.Police set up barricades at key intersec-tions to �“avoid incidents.�”

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15Actor Danny Glover led a �“Jobs Not

Cuts�” march from Laney College and themarchers rallied at Frank Ogawa Plazawhere Glover spoke to the crowd.Organizers estimated that between 2,500and 3,000 people participated in themarch.[KTVU.com article. Glover�’s speechwas put on YouTube by KPNF News]

MONDAY, OCTOBER 17The three recently released American

hikers who were jailed in Iran �— two ofthem for 26 months and the third for 12months �— joined hundreds of protestersat the Occupy Oakland camp and spoke tothe crowd in front of City Hall.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18A new Occupy Oakland encampment

was established at Snow Park by abouttwo dozen people and a few tents were setup as well. Some protesters told ABC 7News they moved to the park becausethey wanted the protest to spread and oth-ers explained that it was becoming over-crowded at the plaza in front of City Hall.

Flyers were handed out by the cityexplaining there could be no activity orsleeping in the park after 10 p.m. but pro-testers stayed past the deadline and werenot forced to move by the police.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19Police Chief Howard Jordan and City

Administrator Deanna Santana decidedthe Occupy Oakland encampment must beforcibly evicted from Frank Ogawa Plaza.They started contacting neighboringpolice jurisdictions to ask for the hun-dreds of police officers they think they�’llneed to clear the camp.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20Oakland�’s City Administrator�’s Office

publishes a �“Notice to Vacate FrankOgawa Plaza�” at 8 p.m. �“We believe thatafter 10 days, the City can no longeruphold public health and safety,�” accord-ing to the official notice. �“In recent days,camp conditions and occupants�’ behaviorhave significantly deteriorated, and it isno longer manageable to maintain a pub-

lic health and safety plan.�” FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21

The City of Oakland issued another offi-cial notice, in part stating, �“You do not havepermission to lodge overnight in FrankOgawa Plaza. You must remove all tents,sleeping bags, tarps, cooking facilities andequipment and any other lodging materialfrom the Plaza immediately. Your contin-ued use of the Plaza for overnight lodgingwill subject you to arrest.�”

This same notice was issued to thepeople staying in Frank Ogawa Plaza onOctober 21, 22 and 24. On October 23,Oakland officials issued an almost identi-cal notice to people staying in Snow Park.

It is estimated that between 300 and400 protesters were living in the plazaencampment on October 21. There werefew police seen after the 10 p.m. deadlineto evacuate given by city officials andonly a few protesters were left. OccupyOakland supporters said the City ofOakland�’s concerns were unwarranted andthat the camp has its own kitchen, medictent, library and donated portable toilets.[San Francisco Chronicle, October 22.]

Mayor Jean Quan was quoted by theSan Francisco Chronicle as saying,�“We�’ve had three days now where we�’vehad incidents where people have beenhurt,�” she said. �“We really can�’t let theencampment keep going.�”

Mayor Quan abandoned her support ofthe Occupy Oakland protest and agreedwith Police Chief Howard Jordan andCity Administrator Deanna Santana thatthe encampment must be shut down. Theyplan to act Monday, October 24, at theearliest and �“the plan was to try to thin thecrowd by sending in social workers to lureaway some of the hard-core homeless whohad joined the campers.�” [Quoted in SFChronicle, October 26.]

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22Hundreds of Occupy Oakland protest-

ers marched from Oakland City Hall,through the downtown area and aroundLake Merritt, closing freeway ramps andthoroughfares. They marched past a WellsFargo branch, which closed its doors. Anestimated 75 protesters crammed them-selves inside of a Chase bank, whichstayed open. Protesters chanted, �“Banks

got bailed out; we got sold out.�”Protesters threw hundreds of bank depositslips in the air to land all over the floor.

TUESDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 25Shortly before 5 a.m., Oakland police

dressed in riot gear cleared demonstratorsfrom Frank Ogawa Plaza where the OccupyOakland protesters had been camped sinceOctober 10. Hundreds of police officersfrom multiple jurisdictions removedapproximately 300 people from the plazaand dismantled the encampment. Manypeople left on their own, but some werehandcuffed and taken away by police.

According to the Oakland Tribune,after the police raid was over, the plaza�“looked like a refugee camp that had beenstruck by a hurricane.�”

Police also raided the smaller encamp-ment in Snow Park approximately 30minutes later where six arrests weremade. According to the Oakland Tribune,Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan said102 people were arrested on October 25;the majority before dawn.

LATER TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25Following the raid, about 500 protest-

ers met at the main branch of the Oaklandlibrary at 4 p.m. where they decided toreclaim the plaza and rename it OscarGrant Plaza.

Around 5 p.m., protesters left thelibrary and began marching toward theplaza, which had been barricaded anddeclared closed for several days byOakland officials. Protesters faced offagainst police in riot gear as they tried toretake the plaza just 12 hours after theearly morning raid.

Police gave warnings for protesters todisperse from the entrance to the plaza at14th Street and Broadway. When protest-ers refused to leave, police began firingseveral canisters of tear gas and flash-bang grenades into the crowd at about7:45 p.m., causing the demonstrators toscatter. Police and protesters clashedagain at about 9:30 p.m. Some protestersreportedly began throwing bottles at thepolice who responded with more tear gasand shot bean bags and flash-banggrenades into the crowd. At its largest, thecrowd of protesters grew to more than1,000.

During the protest, Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old former Marine, was hit in thehead by a police projectile, which causeda fractured skull and brain swelling.Video footage of the event shows Olsenlying motionless in front of the police lineafter being hit. A group of about 10 pro-testers come to Olsen�’s aid, gatheringaround him. Police can then be seenthrowing an object into the group sur-rounding Olsen, which then explodes,causing the protesters to scatter.

Olsen was taken to Highland Hospitalby fellow protesters. A photo shows pro-testers caring him away, blood drippingdown his face from a head wound.

Olsen is an Iraq war veteran who didtwo tours of duty and came home unin-jured. He became a member of Veteransfor Peace and Iraq Veterans Against theWar. Olsen worked during the day, but

No Street Lightsby George Wynnthink of the rank smellof alleyways and chillyside streets without street lightsyour brothers and sistersrest and sleep

they should be walkednot just talked aboutto ingest a taste of the hell

Justice, Messiah-Likeby Sue Ellen PectorOf justice we poetizepraying for itsmiraculous arrival.

Of injustice we cry outburdened and bruised.

Some among us lostthe dream that justice,messiah-like, would find them.

Chaos all about,lost, they wander,through constellationssans hope.

Occupy Oakland: Timeline of a Resistance Movement

Occupy Oakland protesters march to the Port of Oakland during the general strike on November 2. Ariel Messman-Rucker photo

See Occupy Oakland: Timeline page 8

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

The Bearing Witness Chroniclesby Kisha Montgomery

Iwas sitting at a cafe watching theworld go by when I saw him. He car-ried the world on his shoulders as he

crossed the street with his dog. I saw aman greet him, ask him how things weregoing and pull money out of his pocketand give it to him.

I said, �“That is very nice of you.�” He said, �“I know him. I used to serve

food to the homeless at the church.�” I asked him, �“Are you a healer or a

holy man?�” An uncomfortable silence fell

between us and he looked down. After amoment he said, �“I�’m gay,�” and snappedhis rainbow-colored wrist band.

Confused, I nodded. He smiledthrough his pain when he said, �“I used tobe a priest. I was feeding homeless peo-ple and I loved it. I also had a prisonministry. I was visiting people in prisonwhen I met him. After months of pastoralcare visits where I would counsel him, itfinally came out that we both had fallenin love with each other.�” He moved hisbody uncomfortably and said, �“When thechurch found out, I was kicked out.�”

He flushed red and I said, �“I am sosorry.�” He tried to shake it off withwords from a former faith, �“I do believeeverything is for a reason.�” He chokedback tears, saying he missed serving thepoor and missed his ministry.

I said, �“You can still serve, maybe ina new way.�”

He found his grounding. �“Yes, It hastaken me a few years to figure that out.�”His face began to shine when he said,�“He will be out next year. We write toeach other every day and when he getsout, we will get married.�”

I said, �“That is great. Maybe some-how it was an answer to a prayer!�”

He shook his head in agreement.�“Yes, I believe it was.�” He describedhow outraged he was at the criminal jus-tice system, spitting statistics that spoketo racial and class injustice and he

clenched his fists in anger. He said, �“Ihad no idea before I started visiting him.�”

I said, �“Maybe when he gets out, youtwo will go on a national speaking tourand raise awareness.�”

He was struck silent as his eyes staredoff into the distance. His face was full ofa new idea when he turned to me andsaid, �“Huh, maybe we will.�” He asked,�“Wait, what about you, are you a healeror a holy person? What do you do?�”

I said, �“This �— bear witness.�” He said, �“I believe you are a holy per-

son.�”I smiled. �“Takes one to know one.�” He smiled and wiped away a tear. A

car pulled up and as he went to get in it,his hand with the gay band raised up andhe said, �“Bless you, Child.�”

I was watching him drive away whena homeless person who had been sittingnear us said, �“I believe in miracles.�”

I turned to him and said, �“Oh yeah?�” He said, �“One time, I prayed and

asked God to give me a dollar and I hadwalked away for a moment and when Icame back to my can, somebody hadgiven me two dollars!�”

I said, �“That is great! You are notalone.�” Full of joy, he walked across thestreet.

I was sitting at a cafe watching theworld go by when the world came to meand taught me about answered prayersand belonging.

Answers to Our Prayers

by Claire J. Baker

Leaders of my Unitarian-Universalist Church originated aproject for members and church

friends to create a Mosaic Tree fromshards of our lives. We created this tree sowe can blend our brokenness in a safecommunal setting over three sessions ofleaf-making, and thereby realize the com-monality of pain in our lives.

The broken pieces serve as symbols ofpain that remains or once was, that we canrevisit together and even rise above asneeded for healing. To assure success, aprofessional Mosaic Tree artist, Ms. KimLarson, provided blank leaf shapes whichwe covered with our shards, and with col-orful pieces Larson had provided.

Our completed Mosaic Tree is affixedto the kids�’ Skytown Building outsidewall at the right end of our building�’smain entrance. It fascinates as a reminderof what can be accomplished by a full-spectrum of people working togethertoward a worthwhile cause.

When it storms, this tree will hold fastto its roots. Raindrops can resemble tears.And like tears, they will one by one dry.

To see this communal creation at thetop of Moeser at Arlington in El Cerrito,

follow church signs to the Unitarian-Universalist parking lot, near the MosaicTree walkway and wall. You may behealed in wonder. This tree inspired thefollowing original poem, entitled �“Glue.�”

A Community Creation

THE GLUE(for our Mosaic Tree)by Claire J. BakerAll of us are damagedbut we can link togetherin our brokenness.In sorting shardsfingers may get cut.Blood, mutually shared,comes in terrific colors �—

vermilion for vulnerable,pink for possibility,red for scared, then sacred.

The glue that holds ustogether, as lightly applied,seeks rough edges,binds a brighter stonewith a darker one;holds leaves to limbs,limbs to our tree.

We Are Family.

�“Mosaic Tree.�” Tree of Life created by Unitarian church members. John Kelly photo

was so committed to Occupy Oakland, hewould sleep in the tent city at FrankOgawa Plaza at night.

A friend reported him as being in criti-cal, but stable condition at the hospital onTuesday night. Jay Finneburgh, an activistphotographer who was near Olsen whenhe was injured, told The Guardian that hefound a beanbag round near a pool ofblood at the site where Olsen had been hit.

On a KTVU news broadcast a protesterpulled up his shirt, showing a large darkbruise on the side of his lower back.Another protester showed the news cam-era three rubber bullets that he said wereused by the police.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26The Occupy Oakland General

Assembly met peacefully in the reclaimedOscar Grant Plaza to discuss the idea of ageneral strike. 1607 people voted, 1484 infavor of a resolution to have a generalstrike and mass day of action onNovember 2 in an attempt to shut downthe City of Oakland.

During a Wednesday news conference,Mayor Jean Quan told reporters she didauthorize the police to break up theencampment the previous day, but shesaid she didn�’t know it would take placeon Tuesday when she was in Washington,D.C. Quan has taken harsh criticism for

her absence during the early morning raidand the violent clashes between protestersand officers from more than a dozenpolice departments.

The National Lawyers Guild and theAmerican Civil Liberties Union sent apublic records request to the OaklandPolice Department about the use of forcethat occurred on Tuesday night. They arealso calling for a full investigation and ahalt to the use of force by the police.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27A candlelight vigil was held in honor

of injured veteran Scott Olsen. A crowdof about 1,000 people gathered, manyholding candles. Vigils for Olsen wereheld in other cities across the country aswell.

Occupy Oakland protesters reclaimedthe plaza by pitching about two dozentents in the evening. The group plans torebuild the encampment in the comingdays.

Mayor Jean Quan attempted to speakto the crowd at the Thursday nightOccupy Oakland General Assembly meet-ing, but she was booed off stage andended up retreating back to City Hall.Quan released a statement to protesterslater that night.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28Documentary filmmaker Michael

Moore addressed approximately 1,000protesters in front of City Hall. He toldOccupy Oakland protesters that they are

inspiring people across the nation.�“We�’ve killed despair across the countryand we�’ve killed apathy,�” he said..

Scott Olsen�’s condition was upgradedto �“fair.�” A hospital spokesperson said heis breathing on his own and communicat-ing through writing after being unrespon-sive Tuesday night and having to be intu-bated.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 31Mayor Quan had all medical supplies

that were taken during last Tuesday�’s raidof the encampments returned to OccupyOakland. This came in response to threatsby Occupy Oakland protesters that theywould occupy Quan�’s office on October31 if the supplies were not returned. Thepolice returned confiscated herbs, ban-dages, ibuprofen and thousands of dollarsworth of donated equipment.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2Occupy Oakland once again became

the center of the nationwide Occupymovement as activists held a generalstrike and mass day of action in anattempt to �“shut down�” the city. Therewere multiple marches through downtownOakland in the late morning and earlyafternoon. Large groups of protestermarched on banks to shut them down forthe day, including Wells Fargo, Chase andBank of America.

By the early evening, the crowd grewto upwards of 10,000 protesters and by 4p.m. the large swell of demonstratorsbegan their march towards the Port ofOakland, the nation�’s fifth-largest port, in

hopes of shutting down the night shift.The peaceful protesters filled the high-

ways leading into the Port of Oakland,successfully blocking the entrances so thatcars that drove up had to turn away andleave. By 8 p.m., port officials decided tocompletely shut the port down for thenight �— the exact goal Occupy Oaklandhad set out to achieve.

After a long day of peaceful protest, asmall group, not connected to the mainevent, broke windows, sprayed graffitiand set fires. Most of the thousands ofprotesters had gone home by the time agroup of about a dozen people took over avacant two-story building a couple ofblocks away from the main encampment.The group barricaded themselves into thebuilding, hung signs and blocked off bothends of the street.

While there were few cops present dur-ing the day�’s events, hundreds of policeofficers came into the area around mid-night to try to stop the small group�’sactions, including setting a large trash canfire. They clashed with police, throwingbottles and rocks, and police threw teargas and flash-bang grenades and arresteda dozen people.

The San Francisco Chronicle reportedthat some people thought the police hadunnecessarily escalated the situation. TheChronicle quoted Morgan Ress, anobserver for the National Lawyers Guild,as saying, �“Police formed lines on bothsides of us. I saw them beat anyone whoran and arrest anyone who stood still.�”

from page 7

Occupy Oakland: Timeline of a Movement

November 2011 ST R E E T SP I R I T 9

A Walk on the Dizzy Sideby George WynnHomelessness has dizziedthe chronic down-and-outHow do you go forwardwhen everyone is frightened of you or calls you useless or both?Trying to make it throughone more day seemslike an endless choreYou walk all day andyou're so damn soreand the company you keep has been battered as much as you or moreIf only you had a keyto your own door

Lepers of the USAby Judy Joy Joneswould you sit by meif I had no homeor have me colonized awaya �“leper�” of the USA

would you take mein your arms and weepif you foundan untouchable like memurdered on your streetswould you come to the city morgueto collect my no-name ashesone of society�’s throwaways

�“see i have carved youout of the palm of my handyou are precious to me�”

must have been writtenfor someone elsenot the lower caste like metonight if I�’m lucky I�’ll dieand won�’t be a pieceof garbage beneath your feetthat no one wants to seewould you sit by meif I had no homeor have me colonized awaya �“leper�” of the USA

untouchable

by Maureen Hartmann

George Balsbaugh, a retiredaccountant in his 80s who car-ries in his body the visibleeffects of a stroke, was out on

a walk last May with a group of fellowresidents of Westlake Christian Terrace, ahome for low-income seniors in Oakland.The walk took place near Valdez and 28thStreet, about a hundred feet east of theVolkswagen dealership on Broadway

Balsbaugh tripped and took a spill oversome shards of a broken, crumbling side-walk, evidently ruptured by the under-ground roots of a tree. He was injured inthe fall, and taken to a hospital by ambu-lance, where surgery was performed.

George Balsbaugh was moved to aconvalescent home in Oakland, and then,several weeks later, to Waters EdgeSkilled Nursing Facility in Alameda,where he is bedridden to this day.

When I visited George in the Oaklandfacility, he was very upset with Oaklandofficials, and so am I.

On September 20, I wrote to OaklandCity Councilmember Nancy Nadel, whorepresents District Three where Westlake

Christian Terrace is located. In my e-mailto Nadel, I noted that, even beforeBalsbaugh was injured, I had called theOakland department in charge of citysidewalks when I noticed the broken-uparea of the sidewalk.

I also noted in my e-mail that severalother residents beside Balsbaugh had beeninjured on the broken sidewalk, eventhough the injuries they sustained weremuch less severe than his. Nadel wroteme back: �“I am writing to acknowledgereceipt of your e-mail and to copy it toPublic Works leadership.�”

I wrote back to Nadel that this replywas unsatisfactory to me. I felt that shesimply was referring me and my concernto another department. I hoped in writingthat she had at least included in her e-mailto public works officials her full endorse-ment as council member.

The next response was at least tem-porarily more rewarding. Fred Loeserfrom the Department of Public Workscalled me the afternoon I received Nadel�’ssecond e-mail and assured me that wewould have a new sidewalk within two orthree weeks from that day. That wasOctober 5. On October 21, I called the

department and told them there was stillno sign of repair work being done, or thetrees being removed.

On October 24, I called the departmentagain and was told that the propertyowner of the Volkswagen dealership �“hasmade arrangements to have the treesremoved.�” (Public works officials hadmentioned to me that the offending treesmight be the property of Volkswagen.)

The next day, on October 25, I calledLee White, senior construction inspectorof the Department of Public Works, whohad spoken with Sr. Marie Taylor, presi-dent of the resident council at WCT,

about the sidewalk problem. I told Whitethat I was writing an article to be pub-lished in the November issue of StreetSpirit, about the delays in repairs, and thedangerous conditions that had resulted inan Oakland resident in his 80s being badlyinjured and hospitalized.

There is still no evidence of sidewalkrepair work two days later. That is howthe situation stands as of the writing ofthis article, October 27.

Telephone calls supportive of this arti-cle may be made to Nancy Nadel at 510-238-7003 and to Oakland sidewalk dam-age and repair, 510-615-5566.

Elderly Man Injured AfterFalling on Broken SidewalkOakland Public Works Department is faulted for ignoringthe dangerous conditions that resulted in an Oakland resident in his 80s being badly injured and hospitalized.

This ruptured, crumbling sidewalk in Oakland has caused the injuriesof several people, yet is still ignored by public works officials.

Lydia Gansphoto

by Lynda Carson

At 92 years of age, Katherine Smithis a frail, elderly woman who livesalone in North Oakland, in a house

that currently does not have any hot water.She is struggling against an eviction byRobert Rasheed, a wealthy Danville manwho is trying to evict her from her long-time home, and force her onto the cold,mean streets of Oakland.

Katherine Smith�’s eviction case goesto trial in a few weeks, and she is beingdefended by the Eviction Defense Centerof Oakland. According to the EvictionDefense Center, Smith was threatenedwith eviction by Rasheed after he accusedher of having a caregiver, an unauthorizedoccupant of her home.

Rasheed has hired Thomas Matthews,an attorney with the Danville law firm ofMerrill, Nomura & Molineux, to evictSmith from her home.

In an interview, Smith said, �“I am 92years old, and have lived around here fornearly 50 years, but life is hard for me nowever since my husband passed away, andthe house went into foreclosure. The housewas bought by Robert Rasheed and hiscompany Dover Investments, LLC.�”

After Rasheed�’s company bought thehome, her living conditions have gonefrom bad to worse, according to Smith.

She said, �“Since Rasheed has takenover, often there is no hot water any more.There was a period that there was no hotwater for around six whole months, andnow Rasheed wants to charge me to lightthe pilot light for the hot water heater,every time it goes out. I live in the bottomhalf of the house, and Rasheed has somestudents living above me now. I only haveSocial Security to live on, and cannot pos-sibly afford to pay Rasheed to light thepilot light every time it goes out, so that I

can have hot water again.�” She charged Rasheed with deliberately

making conditions intolerable in anattempt to drive her out of her home.

�“Rasheed wants to evict me, and he ismaking life very hard for me,�” Smith said.�“This is the second time that he is tryingto evict me, and now I am so worried thatI can barely sleep at night any more.

�“Already he has destroyed my garden,and removed a lot of my stuff from thegarage that I need. At least my health isstill good though I am a bit crippled, andthankfully my grandson stops by to helpme out. But Rasheed keeps asking me ifmy grandson stays here, and Rasheedkeeps telling me that no one can stay withme to help me out as my caregiver.�”

According to Smith, the landlord isusing her own age and frailty against herby cruelly seizing upon the elderlywoman�’s need for a caregiver as anexcuse to evict her.

�“Now that I am 92, Rasheed knowsthat I need help to survive, and he keepstrying to make life very hard on me,�” saidthe frightened, elderly woman. �“I neverbelieved that I would ever get this old. Ido not want to be evicted, and I am veryworried. I want to remain where I am at.�”

According to public records, Smith�’shome at 993 54th Street in Oakland wassold at a foreclosure auction for $257,400on Dec. 1, 2010. Its assessed value was list-ed at $374,500. SF.Blockshopper listsDover Investment, LLC, as the new owner.

During an interview on Oct. 29, 2011,Robert Rasheed of Dover Investments inDanville denied ever knowing a KatherineSmith at 993 54th Street in Oakland. Hesaid he did not know what I was talkingabout when I asked him directly why hewas evicting the frail, elderly, frightenedwoman from her longtime home.

Suddenly, in a state of evident panic,

Rasheed completely changed his story andsaid, �“We are not evicting her. I would notevict an old woman from her home. Weare just trying to get a resolution. I thinkthat you are harassing me. Please do notever call me at my home again.�”

Rochelle Owens of Oakland is thegranddaughter of Katherine Smith. Shesaid, �“Grandma was supposed to live inthat house until she died, according to thewishes of her husband when he passedaway. The house ended up with grand-ma�’s stepson after her husband passedaway, and it was her grandson who lostthe house in foreclosure, but grandma isstill entitled to remain in the house.�”

Owens described the inhumanity of thelandlord in deliberately making livingconditions intolerable for her 92-year-oldgrandmother in a heartless attempt tobreak the elderly woman�’s spirit and forceher to vacate her home.

Owens said, �“Robert Rasheed of DoverInvestments has been harassing my grand-ma ever since he bought the property, andthis is the second time that he is trying toevict her. My grandma is very weak, veryold, and can barely walk now.

�“This is cruel. They threw out much ofher stuff, destroyed her garden, and havebeen depriving her of hot water, as a wayto force her out of her home. My grandmawants to stay at home, and needs her ownspace to stay in.�”

Smith�’s eviction case goes to trial in afew weeks. She is being defended by theEviction Defense Center of Oakland.

Rochelle Owens may be reached at 510-692-5775. The Eviction Defense Center maybe reached at 510-452-4541.

Robert Rasheed may be reached at 925-383-4567. Rasheed�’s attorney ThomasMatthews may be reached at 925-833-1000.

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

Frail, Elderly Woman, Age 92, Lives inFear of Eviction by Wealthy Landlord

November 2011ST R E E T SP I R I T10

poverty rate last year was 15.1 percent, upfrom 14.3 percent the year before.

The Census Bureau report also notesthat the number of people living below thepoverty line in the nation increased from43.6 to 46.2 million, between 2009 and2010. That constituted the fourth consecu-tive annual increase in the number of poorpeople in the nation, and the largest onrecord during the 52 years during whichsuch statistics have been tallied.

Other reports from other agencies, pub-lic and private, provide similarly depress-ing statistics regarding the relatively rapiddecline in the standard of living for tensof millions of U. S. citizens.

As a result, underemployment, unem-ployment and underwater are terms thathave become synonymous with thisdeeply troubled period of middle-classdecline. They are shorthand terms used todescribe the social and economic carnageendured by those who are being slowly,but inexorably, pushed into desperate,degrading circumstances.

Those who lose their homes are some-times lucky enough in the aftermath tomove in with relatives or friends. But fartoo many end up homeless. Most often,the hapless thousands who have beenforced onto the streets because they canno longer afford to pay for any sort ofroof over their heads seek to survive asbest they can in absolutely miserable cir-cumstances via luck, guile, and the spo-radic kindness of strangers.

Members of every age group are nowexperiencing stress, and frequently bewil-dering confusion, which results in partfrom recognition that those who workhard and play by the proverbial rules areno more secure than those who do not.

The fact that the vast majority of eliteparticipants in the Wall Street excessesthat engendered the current economic cri-sis have not been prosecuted is not lost on

the tens of thousands of U.S. citizens fromthe lower classes who have relatives lan-guishing in prisons as a result of criminalactivities which pale in comparison withthe corrupt or illegal billion-dollarschemes commonly engaged in by mem-bers of the elite banking class.

Most important, the economic andpolitical crisis in which the nation is cur-rently enmeshed is undermining the long-held notion that we are a nation unifiedvia a commonly understood and supportedsocial contract. Inherent in any such socialcontract, no matter the nation involved, isthe basic agreement that members of soci-ety who support the law and engage inresponsible work can expect to live hon-orable, if not wealthy, lives.

Quite clearly, this nation�’s working-class people have kept their part of the bar-gain where our grand social contract is con-cerned. They have done the work, foughtthe wars, supported the political system,

and provided private and public support forthe halt, lame and indigent. Moreover, theyhave done this for generations.

In addition, they have embraced educa-tion at every level, and sought to improvethe social, cultural, spiritual, and yes,political quality of the nation in ways thatare primarily responsible for virtuallyeverything that is good where the UnitedStates of America is concerned.

Nonetheless, recent events suggest thata critical mass of people has concluded thatthe nation�’s elites are violating the socialcontract. This mode of thinking is frequent-ly expressed as anger at bankers, politi-cians, members of Congress, and, ofcourse, Wall Street �“fat cats.�” As indicated,the Occupy Wall Street movement is amanifestation of this sentiment.

The belief that the nation�’s social con-tract is being systematically violated, andthat the economic and political systems arerigged in favor of elites, has acquired

enhanced urgency and broadened credibili-ty in the past few years, primarily becauseof lingering effects from the recession.

The crippling financial burdens thathave become common among members ofthe middle class due to the recession maywell be the factor most responsible forlegitimizing, and mainstreaming, the broad-ly shared belief that major reforms are inorder. Many of those who share this beliefhad, up until recent times, considered them-selves solidly middle-class, and exemptfrom financial distress of the sort common-ly experienced by the poor.

They were undoubtedly influenced intheir thinking by the rhetoric of perma-nent success and prosperity inherent in themessages flowing from the mainstreamnews and entertainment media.

Thus, when the first victims of the cur-rent financial catastrophe were identifiedas largely blue-collar workers and typical-ly poor and ignored members of racial andethnic minority groups, the common con-sensus was that they were responsible fortheir plight because of assumed personalshortcomings. Once the misery spread tothe middle class in the form of job layoffs,depleted unemployment benefits, shortsales and depleted 401K accounts, peoplebegan to adopt more balanced and sophis-ticated critiques of the nation�’s economicand political systems.

This led to the surprisingly large numberof relatively comfortable, middle-class peo-ple participating in the Occupy Wall Streetmovement. Their emergent consensus isthat the nation�’s wealthy elites are system-atically violating the nation�’s social con-tract, and that major reforms of an unprece-dented nature need to be implemented inorder to set things right.

It is too soon to ascertain what the rec-ommended reforms will turn out to be,and whether they will have revolutionaryramifications. Nonetheless, it is alreadyabundantly apparent at this early stage inthe process that this nation�’s economicelites are in for the fight of their lives, afight that a critical mass of the other 99percent of the population has come tobelieve it cannot afford to lose.

�“End Corporate Dictatorship.�” This is one of the most widely proclaimed messages of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Robert L. Terrellphoto

from page 4

Elites Betrayed theU.S. Social Contract

the shelter for the winter, he eventuallymoved into the transitional house and theninto his own apartment.

Fernandez expressed gratitude for hiscommunity, noting that he experienced a�“powerful rebirth�” when he began to facehis own trauma. He now uses art andpoetry as a tool for personal expression,creative outlet, and healing. He shared �“AReal Poem�” at the Eradication of Povertyevent [see his poem in the sidebar].

His extraordinary poem was a deeplyfelt portrait of his friend, Juan Gonzales,who lived on the streets of Oakland untilhis final night came in Old Man�’s Park.

�“One December night he fell asleepon a benchIn Old Man�’s ParkAnd never woke up again.His beautiful heart just stoppedThe streets had worked him too hardFor too longAnd now he was done.�”It may seem that the death of Juan

Gonzales is simply one more tragedy tobefall the countless multitudes of name-less, faceless men and women who diefrom the hardships of homelessness on thestreets of Oakland. Yet through the mov-ing poem by J. Fernandez, Juan was givenback a name and a face that will live on inthe memories of those of us who heard

this eloquent remembrance.And through the deep insight of this

poem, Juan Gonzales also has been givenback a voice �— a voice so powerful it canstill speak out in resistance to the waypoor people are victimized in our culture.

In a remarkable passage, Fernandezenables his fallen friend to speak outagainst the persecution of the poor.

�“And if he were here todayRight nowHe would say this:�‘Let us not be stereotyped.Let us not be cast asideMarginalizedLet us not be victimizedLet us not be shamed into silence.�’�”Fernandez�’s poem has rescued his friend

Juan from the oblivion of poverty anddeath. And it has redeemed him from thedemeaning stereotypes that cloud our per-ception of the humanity of poor people.

Then the poem goes on to reveal thedeepest meaning of solidarity. Fernandezshows us in unforgettable images that weare all one with this homeless man. Hemay have died a lonely death on thestreets, but through this poem, his spiritlives on in all of us. In a breathtaking pas-sage, Juan Gonzales is resurrected to takepart in all our struggles against injustice.

�“Whether you�’re in prison in New YorkOr a detention camp in the fieldsof Nebraska

I am youWhether you�’re sleeping on a squareof cardboard in Oaklandor under a grid in PhiladelphiaI am youI�’m in every living pulsating cellthat hungers for justiceand the right to love.�”Just as J. Fernandez and his friend Juan

Gonzales struggled to survive, so do mil-lions struggle on a daily basis, in ournation and around the globe. The harsheconomic climate has led to more peoplefalling into poverty. Yet growing numbersof people are not just standing by, but areactively moving to rally against injustice.

On Oct. 17, 2011, the United NationsSecretary General said �“investing in peopleis the smartest way to eradicate poverty.�”

On this international day of recogni-tion, we stand united with our brothersand sisters all over the world who are giv-ing their lives and energy towards com-bating poverty.

We are one and the same. We are the99%. We are remembering those whohave gone before and we are joining therally cry of those who continue to speakout today, right now, in our midst.

Just as the Occupy Wall Street actionswere occurring all over the country, theEradication of Poverty day was also beinghonored in many cities, in the same spiritand with the same hope of creating change.

International Day for the Eradication of PovertyWe stand united with our brothers and sisters all over the world who are givingtheir lives towards combating poverty. We are one and the same. We are the 99%.from page 6

Povertyby Ryan RosenfeldMoaning, crying, shouting, begging.A man with rags;Children with scratchy, thin, worn-out blankets, infested with mold and lice.A baby, with nobody to hold her,

comfort her,or even feed her.

We can help.

SERENDIPITYby Claire J. BakerTo rescue a personfrom a slight mishapand later realizethat person savedyour whole life.

Surely, We Canby Claire J. BakerSurely, if sensitive communitiescan give out condomsand sterilized needlesin the tenderloin ghetto,provide priests, rabbis,reverends for prisonersto consult, surelycaring communities canprovide for the destituteif not food, then water;if not shelter, then safe areasin which to sleepwhere such a natural needis not named a crime.

November 2011 ST R E E T SP I R I T 11

pass dozens of homeless people every dayand not respond to their requests for help.Many individuals definitely looked needy.Some were ill-clad and ill-bathed, andothers clearly had mental and physicalhealth problems.

I asked myself: Why should I leave itto other people to help these individuals?What if everyone were to act as I do andjust walk by, saying �“sorry�” or �“no�” ornothing at all? So I returned to my formerpractice of giving in a somewhat arbitraryway. But to those I didn�’t give money, Istarted saying, �“not today,�” because Iknew I would eventually give them some-thing �— and indeed I usually did.

This approach seemed to be animprovement over the two previous ones,so I stayed with it for several years. But Iwas always aware I was still being ratherarbitrary about when and how much Igave. Too much depended on what I wasfeeling during the encounter, and I wasstill concerned about how the money wasbeing spent.

One day, I expressed my concerns to afriend who is a longtime resident ofBerkeley. He suggested that I buyBerkeley food coupons so that I�’d knowthe money was being spent on worthwhilethings. It seemed like a good idea. Butjust as I was about to buy some coupons, Irealized there was something controllingand paternalistic about only giving awaycoupons. The implicit message is: �“I don�’ttrust you. I�’ll give to you only if youspend your money on things I considerworthy.�”

I decided it wasn�’t right to be tacitlytelling another person, �“I know what isbest for you.�” So I decided not to buy thecoupons and to continue giving coins outrandomly. I still felt some unease aboutthis, but didn�’t know what else to do.

CHARITY IS A MITZVAHAround the turn of the millennium, I

developed a new approach to giving thatwas informed by my reconnection withmy Jewish roots. In my youth, I had lovedthe Jewish tradition and had even enteredOrthodox rabbinical school, but a crisis infaith compelled me to walk away fromboth the rabbinate and Judaism.

A decade later, I returned to Judaismthrough the Jewish Renewal movement,which weds mystical teachings and prac-tices with progressive thinking, socialengagement, and creative action. A cen-tral teaching from Jewish tradition is thatgiving charity (tzedekah) is a religiousobligation (mitzvah) and moral duty �—and not simply a matter of voluntary phil-anthropic desire. I had learned this teach-ing in Hebrew high school, but had evi-dently not fully appreciated its implica-tions for me.

Such a teaching runs counter to the con-temporary view that charity is giving fromthe heart. The modern view does not recog-nize our inherent responsibility to thosewho are less fortunate. In contrast, theJewish tradition considers charity to be aprescribed act of justice to ensure that thepoor and disadvantaged are taken care of.

Indeed, the Hebrew words for charity(tzedakah) and justice (tzedek) share thesame root. In Biblical times, the termtzedakah was �“often used synonymouslywith justice, truth, kindness, ethical con-duct, help and deliverance�” (Birnbaum noteon Maimonides�’ Mishneh Torah, p. 156).

The Talmud considers obligatory giv-ing to be on a higher spiritual level thanvoluntary giving. Why? Because when a

person gives out of a sense of obligationrather than just from the heart, he or she is�“not personally involved�” but is �“simplyacting as a conduit for the tzedakah�”(Cooper, God Is a Verb, p. 196).

GIVING WITH AN OPEN HANDOne of the most important texts sum-

marizing the Rabbinic view of tzedakah isthe Mishneh Torah, written by the greatmedieval Talmudist, philosopher, anddoctor, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, popu-larly known as Maimonides. After citingDeuteronomy 15:8 and Leviticus 25:35-36, which declare the religious duty to�“open your hand to�” and �“maintain�” thepoor, Maimonides explains that, �“You arecommanded to give the poor man whatev-er he needs�” and to give �“cheerfully andgladly, while sympathizing with him whois in trouble�” (pp. 155, 158).

A person is obliged to give not only toindigent community members but also toindigent strangers and sojourners.Moreover, if the person gives �“in a surlymanner and with a gloomy face,�” then themerit of the deed is �“nullified�” even if theperson gave �“a thousand gold pieces.�”

The precept to give charity is so impor-tant that the Talmud says it �“is equivalentto all the other religious precepts com-bined, as it says [in Isaiah 32:17], �‘Andthe work of tzedakah shall be peace, andthe effect of tzedakah quiet and confi-dence for ever�’�” (Baba Batra, 9a).

Echoing the Talmud�’s high valuationof charity, Maimonides says that �“wemust observe the precept of tsedakahmore carefully than any other affirmativecommand, because tsedakah is character-istic of an upright person, the offspring ofour father Abraham�” (Mishneh Torah, p.157).

In the Jewish mystical tradition,Abraham is the exemplar of the spiritualquality of lovingkindness (chesed). Thisquality is one of boundless generosity andunconditional love. Ultimately, love andcompassion are the basis of justice �— andin the highest acts of tzedakah, the ener-gies of love, compassion, and justice areall fully present.

The Jewish High Holiday prayerbookalso stresses the power and importance oftzedakah, saying that it, in combinationwith repentance and prayer, can mitigatethe consequences of prior misdeeds(ma�’avirin et roah ha-gizerah). In effect,tzedakah can rectify bad karma and set uson a new and better path.

Reflecting on these teachings, I real-ized that by allowing whim and mood todetermine my giving to people on thestreet, I was giving charity at a very lowlevel. Indeed, it would be a terrible worldif people only gave to the poor when theywere feeling generous.

In contrast, when we give out of asense of responsibility to our fellowhuman beings �— a sense that we are ulti-mately part of one human family �— webecome purer, less ego-involved channelsfor the flow of charitable energy.

One question I often wrestled with waswhether to give a large sum of money toone person or to divide up the money andgive it to many people. Maimonides rec-ommended giving multiple small sumsbecause it benefits more people and also�“multiplies�” the giver�’s �“spirit of generos-ity�” (commentary to Mishah Avot 3:15).

I realized that if I made the giving oftzedakah into a daily and frequent spiritu-al practice, I would not only be helpingmany others but would also be expandingmy own heart. The practice of tzedakahdeepens our compassion for and connec-

tion with others �— and that deepenedcompassionate connection enlarges ourfuture acts of tzedakah.

A surprising teaching from the Talmudsuggests that the one who asks for charityis actually more meritorious than the onewho gives charity! Why? Because �“Hewho causes others to do good things isgreater than the doer�” (Baba Batra 9a).

THE HOLY CALL TO KINDNESS

It is the one who asks for assistancethat creates the conditions for justice andcompassion to enter the world. When werespond to that opportunity, that holy callto kindness, we bring blessing into ourlives and into the lives of all we touch.Each act of generosity ripples outwardinto the universe, initiating new waves ofgoodness.

Maimonides advised that it is better togive without waiting to be asked. We areobligated to give according to our means,unless we know for sure that the person isreally well off and is just deceiving us. Idecided I didn�’t want to play the role ofjudge in determining who is really needy.Each person has the right to determine hisor her own needs.

The highest level of charity, accordingto Maimonides, is helping the poor tobecome self-supporting by offering thema gift or loan, entering into a partnershipwith them, or providing them with work.On a similar note, the Talmud says it isbetter to teach someone how to fish thanto give them a fish. A fish provides a mealfor a day, while fishing provides a life-long source of both food and income.

These teachings inspired me to altermy practice of giving to homeless people.Initially, I decided I could afford to give adollar a day. Generally, I gave a quarter tothe first four individuals I saw. When Ididn�’t see four homeless people, I gavelarger sums on the next day or gave tomore than four people.

Usually, I gave to individuals who didn�’teven ask; if I saw a cup or can, I just threwin a coin. Once a man was sitting on a busbench talking to a friend. His can wasbetween them, and he seemed to forget itsexistence as they spoke animatedly. Iwalked over and dropped a coin in, surpris-ing both him and his friend.

When my income increased, I begangiving a dollar to each person who wassoliciting spare change. I can say that eachday I look forward to giving away mydollars. Sometimes, I break my usualapproach and give more because I don�’twant to be bound too rigidly or compla-cently by my own rules. Charitable deedsshould not be rule-bound. Rules onlyestablish minimums, and open hearts arenever satisfied with minimums. Loveexceeds obligation, and kindness goesbeyond the requirements of justice.

The Talmud teaches that if a person �“is

anxious to give charity, the Holy One,blessed be He, furnishes him money withwhich to give it�” (Baba Batra, 9b).

GIVING IS A DAILY PRACTICE

Since beginning this daily practice adecade ago, my total giving has increasedsignificantly. I give more to the homelessand to charities and am more generouswith friends and family. The practice defi-nitely fosters the spirit of giving �— and itmakes giving feel necessary and natural.

Despite the progress I have made, I amalways aware that my tzedakah can beextended even further. Often, I pray for agreater sense of inner abundance so that Iwill give more joyfully and generously.

I have come to understand abundanceas more a state of mind than a financialsituation. There are wealthy people whoare plagued by a sense of scarcity, as wellas indigent people who are magnanimouswith their time and resources.

One extremely magnanimous personwas the Baal Shem Tov, the amazing18th-century mystic, healer, and founderof Chasidism. He grew up in poverty andwas orphaned at six, yet when he finallycame of age and started earning anincome, he made it a weekly practice togive all of his earnings to the poor exceptwhat was necessary to meet the basicneeds of his family (Buxbaum, Light andFire of the Baal Shem Tov, p. 157).

Numerous Chasidic stories tell of indi-viduals carrying out anonymous acts ofcharity. Sometimes, even the town miser issecretly giving large donations to orphansand widows! The Talmud says that whoev-er �“gives charity in secret is greater thanMoses our Teacher�”! (Baba Batra, 9b).

I am continually mindful that if I didn�’thave the good fortune of growing up in acaring family with decent financial means,I, too, could be on the streets. �“There go Ibut for the grace of God�” is a thought thatoften passes through my mind.

I am fortunate to have the peace ofmind of knowing that if I were down tomy last dollar, I could move in with lov-ing family or friends. Many homelesspeople don�’t have this option. They havebecome alienated and isolated, lost in themargins and alleyways of our society.

Surely, they are entitled to our dailydeeds of justice and compassion. Surely,they deserve to be treated with respect andkindness. Surely, they are to be thankedfor giving us the opportunity �— the holyobligation �— to give and to receive.

Charles Burack is a psychology professor atJohn F. Kennedy University who teaches inte-grative approaches to psychology, literatureand spirituality. He also has taught at UCBerkeley, St. Mary�’s College, Starr KingSchool of Ministry and Naropa University. Hisdeepening understanding of the Jewish tradi-tion has shaped his commitment to homelesspeople and others in need.

Spare Change and Spiritual ChangeA central teaching from the Jewish tradition is that givingcharity (tzedekah) is a religious obligation (mitzvah) andmoral duty �— not simply a matter of voluntary philanthropy.

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A man gives spare change to a woman sitting on a sidewalk. Such asimple act of kindness may be a holy act of overwhelming importance.

Lydia Gansphoto

November 2011ST R E E T SP I R I T12

I believe the majority of the Americanpeople support the agenda this movement ispromoting, including the following goals.

* Tax the rich and corporations.* End the war, bring the troops home,

and cut military spending.* Protect the safety net, strengthen

Social Security and provide housing andhealth care for all.

* End corporate welfare for oil compa-nies and other big business interests.

* Transition to a clean-energy economy,and reverse environmental degradation.

* Protect workers rights and collectivebargaining, create jobs and raise wages.

* Get money out of politics.What made this gathering in

Washington, D.C., different from manydemonstrations in the past was that this wasnot just a single protest lasting one after-noon, and then everyone goes home.Instead, people came prepared to stay untiltheir voices were heard. They were com-mitted to stopping the madness of the warsin Afghanistan and Iraq and bringing thehundreds of billions of dollars home tomeet needs here in the United States.

Indeed, according to a recent poll byTime magazine, if Occupy Wall Street werea candidate for president, it would defeatevery other candidate on the stage, includ-ing Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Fifty-four percent of Americans agree with theprotesters, versus 44 percent who thinkObama is doing a good job.

PROSECUTE WALL STREETOther numbers are even more reveal-

ing. Seventy-three percent of Americanswant prosecutions of Wall Street execu-tives for the financial crisis they havecaused. Seventy-nine percent think thegap between rich and poor is too large.

Eighty-six percent say Wall Street andits lobbyists have too much power inWashington. Sixty-eight percent think therich should pay more in taxes.

The courageous people of Egypt whooccupied Freedom Square in Cairo andforced their dictator to resign because hewas not listening to the Egyptian peoplewere our inspiration. So we came toFreedom Plaza to say with our bodies:Our government is not listening to us. Wewant to return to a democracy of, by andfor the people �— not of, by and for thecorporations and the wealthy.

My wife, Jan Hartsough, and I went toWashington, D.C., in early October for thefirst ten days of the occupation of FreedomPlaza. We were inspired that thousands ofpeople from all over the country had cometo help make history, save our democracyand stop the horrendous wars which are notonly killing thousands of people inAfghanistan and Iraq, but in the words ofMartin Luther King, are �“destroying theSoul of America.�”

This campaign was organized byVeterans for Peace, Vietnam VeteransAgainst the War, young people of manyraces, homeless people and peace and jus-tice activists from around the country.

Freedom Square blossomed with waveafter wave of creative signs and colorfulbanners. The signs spelled out the pas-sionate dissent of hundreds of thousandsof protesters, transforming FreedomSquare into a huge alternative newspaperwritten by and for the people.

Here�’s a sampling of the signs: �“Weare the 99%.�” �“Tax the Greedy, Help theNeedy.�” �“There is enough for everyone�’s

needs, but not for everyone�’s greed.�” Other signs declared: �“Support the

Troops, End the Wars.�” �“AffordableHousing is a human right.�” �“The militarybudget is killing us. Bring our BillionsHome.�” �“W.A.R. �— Wasted AmericanResources.�” �“I will believe corporationsare people when Georgia executes one!�”�“Guided missiles, misguided men.�”�“Windmills not oil spills.�” �“Separation ofCorporations and State.�”

Here is a taste of some of the people Imet at Freedom Plaza. A young, AfricanAmerican man in his late 20s told me,�“This is the most exciting moment of mylife. I�’ve been waiting my whole life forthis. I would have never dreamed it wouldbe possible. Our government representsthe rich and the corporations. We need anonviolent revolution to take back thiscountry for the people. We need a govern-ment of, by and for the people, not just therich and the corporations.�”

The young man expressed enthusiasmnot only for the massive size of the demon-stration, but for the spirit of community inFreedom Square. He said, �“I have found acommunity of people here who care and areready to commit our lives to changing oursociety to one where there is justice and weare at peace with the world. I am ready tostay here the rest of my life if necessary.We shall overcome!�”

A military veteran told me, �“What weare producing in Iraq and Afghanistan, inaddition to thousands of civilian deaths,are walking time bombs in our country, aspost-traumatic stress damages loved onesand communities.�”

A young man on active duty said, �“Thewars are based on lies, and our occupa-tions are exposing the military and WallStreet.�” A woman from Washington statesaid, �“I�’m fed up with the direction thiscountry is taking. I�’m here to rally forfuture generations. MARCHING ON THE MILITARY-INDUS-

TRIAL-WALL STREET COMPLEXWe walked each day to a different

manifestation of the military-industrial-Wall Street complex in Washington, D.C.,to speak truth to power, and share ourdetermination to change things.

We marched to the offices of GeneralAtomics which produces drones anddemanded an end to these long-distancedeath machines. We were chased out of thebuilding. We marched to the Air and SpaceMuseum to protest their exhibition ofdrones, and were tear-gassed. The museumwas closed for the rest of the day.

We marched to the Chamber ofCommerce building, with masses of peo-ple shouting, �“We want jobs!�”

We demonstrated in front of theConvention Center which was having aweaponry fair where corporations wereshowing off and selling tanks, armoredpersonnel carriers and every conceivabletype of military equipment to the U.S.Army. We called for an end to war profi-teering and an end to the senseless wars.

We filled the atrium of the Hart SenateOffice Building and hung banners fromthe balconies of all seven floors andchanted: �“Stop the Wars! Tax the Rich!�”Senate aides later told us they had heardour message.

We occupied the National SecurityAgency and 12 of us were arrested.

We marched to the White House whereIraq and Afghanistan veterans and militaryfamilies asked for a �“beer summit�” with thepresident to share their personal experi-

ences in the wars and the urgent need toend the wars and military occupations now.

PROTESTERS RESIST EVICTIONMost days, some of us would be arrest-

ed at these protests. On Sunday evening,October 9, hundreds prepared to be arrest-ed rather than be evicted from FreedomPlaza. The next morning, the Park Serviceoffered to extend our permit for fourmonths so we could continue our occupa-tion, and keep the tents set up to offer food,legal support and medical care.

Each night, we held a General Assemblywhere major decisions were made by con-sensus of the hundreds of people present.

We also had visits and heard inspira-tional talks by people like Ralph Nader,Dick Gregory and Patch Adams. DickGregory said, �“We need to be like a turtle�— hard on the outside, soft on the insideand willing to stick our neck out... We havealready won. We have given people hope.�”

Dennis Trainer, Jr., said, �“Americandemocracy is broken. We are here to fixit. We are here and we are in revolt. Weare the 99% and we can and must do thiswithout violence.�”

Ralph Nader called for liberty and jus-

tice for all, not just the few. He suggestedthat we surround the Congressionaloffices all over this country, or occupythem, �“until they agree to represent thepeople, not corporate interests.�”

Patch Adams reminded us that our revo-lution needs to be a �“revolution of love�” �—love for one another and for everything onthe planet. �“The revolution can be fun.�”

The Occupy Wall Street movement is abeacon of hope for not only the 99% ofAmerican people who want a return todemocracy, but for all the people of theworld who have suffered so much fromthe U.S. government acting as though theworld is our empire.

If we can keep our movement nonvio-lent, even in the face of provocation andviolence by the police or infiltrators, thereis no stopping this movement short of vic-tory. We shall overcome!

David Hartsough is a co-founder of theNonviolent Peaceforce and Director ofPEACEWORKERS, and a member of SanFrancisco Friends Meeting.

For more information on the Occupation atFreedom Plaza, see www.october2011.org andwww.occupytogether.org

Stop the Machine Now Thousands marched on the White House, theSenate, the Chamber of Commerce, weaponscontractors and the National Security Agency.

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Washington. D.C., came alive with colorful signs that spelled out thedissent of thousands of protesters, transforming Freedom Squareinto a huge alternative newspaper written by and for the people.

Photos by DavidHartsough