[Iowa-dx] Poor Peoples' Economic Human Rights Conference - Minneapolis MN - Part One

[GreenParty Ron]

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Poor Peoples' Economic Human Rights Conference - Minneapolis MN - Part
One

This is a transcription of my attendance as the lone Iowa delegate
for Iowans For Economic Human Rights Organization. I took eleven
double-sided note pages of information, some of which I will
transcribe here for our record.

Megan Felt was scheduled to be our other co-delegate, but illness
forced her to cancel. In some ways, that was a fortunate thing for
all of the problems I had once I arrived at Minneapolis, a twelve
hour ordeal that I will leave out of this posting, but it would
have been nice to have her at the conference, too.

At 9:24 AM on Sunday, February 17, 2008, due to snow travel
problems shutting down "O'Hair" Airport in Chicago, were only 24
people present in the meeting room of the La Quinta ("la keen-ta")
motel, which was a very nice motel but which had a meeting room
WAY too small for this size and kind of a conference.

INTRODUCTIONS (many people left out of these notes)
Gaylan Tyler (I hope I have his name spelled correctly) very
graciously welcomed us, and said more people were on the way. He
talks fast, but he said "It isn't often we can get together so we
can all talk about issues..."

He said that PPEHR is based in Philidelphia to obtain food, housing,
and health for poor people and the homeless in any way that they
can. He said the H.U.D. abandoned housing take-over caused the
landlords and government to learn how to stop their group from
publically organizing and educating the public, so they had to
resort to other methods.

Anne of Minnesota PPEHR said they are just starting up their local
organization in addition to hosting the conference this year.

Jen said that she wears a lot of different hats while still working
through KRWU radio. This meeting is incredibly
important, she just got back from Europe, where they think
it is important for people in our USA to form from within a
movement to counter what is going on in our nation, they
cannot believe that the world's richest nation so mistreats
its poor people!

Larry Bessler, of Cleveland OH said he has been a director
of Organize Ohio, and his chief endeavor has been to get
utilities to the poor, to get a grass-roots campaign started
so there is no utility shut-off to the poor during the
winter months due to non-payment. He is transitioning to
being a full-time staff of PPEHR, and he wants to mount a
demonstration to the presidential debate to be held on
February 26 in Cleveland. He extends an invitation to as
many people as can attend to join the rally at the debate.

Debra Johnson really impressed me. She is a homeless person
like I was and that got her involved since only the past
month in Chicago!

Wendy came into PPEHR as a homeless person with Gaylin and
she said she does some volunteering work with PPEHR. Gaylin
then said that Wendy does a whole lot more than she gives
herself credit for: this is a growing movement in this
country without any blue-print, a lot of people contribute
a lot of things that no one would ever expect, and Wendy has
been doing just that.

Matt said his Chicago group is working on legal issues of
the city building a sports olympic complex on public housing
land, where they want to evict the residents to tear down
the public housing buildings, they are working on shutting
down the construction project before it starts!

I think her name is "Heaven Kendall", although I wrote down
"Heather", of Cleveland OH, who stated that the "deaf and
dumb and blind" {note: I do not use the term 'dumb' because
it is a stereotype for handicapped - RWK} are not having
access to health care due to their inability to communicate,
she advocates that they must have their health care needs
met the minute they walk in the door, and not have to wait
an hour or two hours after entering the medical clinic to
find out what their health problem is.

A guy named B. Henry said the Chicago Housing Authority
tried to take away their office space because the Authority
people did not like their activities, but after a few
months in court, the Authority decided they were too much
trouble and relented.

My turn came to introduce myself. I said I was from Iowans
For Economic Humaan Rights Organization, a hybrid student
and community organization of the University of Iowa and
Iowa City and Johnson County, Iowa. I told them that at the
present time, we only formed a few weeks ago, so we are less
than a month old, so we are focusing on three main goals:
1) organizing and publicizing our presence in the community
to attract more members, and in forming our organization
structure and choosing our future activities
2) focusing our efforts on obtaining as much information as
we can on the laws and regulations that affect poor and
homeless people in our city and county and state, so we
know how to best represent ourselves to government agencies.
This entails researching laws that affect poor people and
the homeless because we view the laws as being a huge cage
that prevents the poor from obtaining their rights to a
decent life beyond mere existence. We will create an
archive of local, county, state and federal laws and
regulations so that we will know how and where to present
our best efforts in representing the poor, and, perhaps we
will become an authority within our state for such effective
expertise.
3) we are analyzing the survey interview form because we see
a couple questions we would like to see be added to the
official national PPEHR survey, but I said that we caution
ourselves and PPEHR that we must maintain our questionaires
so that we do not have differing questions on the national
and local levels; data will become meaningless at both ends
of the survey if our questions do not generate the same
information, so we would like to communicate with the
national PPEHR to discuss any differences we have, and we
can have a uniform database that shares the same information.

I said that we need to focus first on educating the public
about these issues, because education is the key to solving
these problems due to the government not wanting to address
these issues. Then we need to focus on the legal aspects,
of how we can represent the poor. Then we can be effective.

VIDEO
The very excellent video At The River I Stand was shown,
about the 1968 Memphis Tennessee labor issue of the strike
begun by their sanitation workers, which ultimately involved
Doctor Martin Luther King and later his murder at the
Lorraine Motel.

The Mississippi region is and was the poorest location in
our USA. Underpaid African-Americans were the underpinning
basis of their economy, and the waste management workers
had a form of occupation (trash collection) that was closed
to caucasians: it was low wage, no health benefits or any
insurance, injuries resulted in employment terminations, and
although they had a union, unionization was illegal!

The strike started when a short in a trash truck's compactor
trapped and killed two sanitation workers. 47 years ago,
Dr. Martin Luther King mentioned even back then that in our
richest country in the world it is a crime to pay municipal
workers more than poverty wages and for the municiapl
government to declare union activities illegal! This started
the Poor People's Campaign, and Dr. Martin Luther King said
the illegal unConstitutional injunctions must be ignored, be
true to what you put on paper in the Constitution, stop
interfering with and start supporting freedom of assembly,
freedom of speech, freedom to protest is a right!

POST VIDEO COMMENTARY
I mentioned that the short billy-club in the video is not
wood, it is full of lead. The only effect of a short billy-
club is the weight of the lead inside of it. I also
commented on Dr. King's statement 47 years ago that this
richest nation even back then had a problem with paying a
living wage to people, and I both asked the question about
and mentioned the statistic of the 1990s that the ceiling
for poverty was $8.21 per hour for a forty hour work week
over 50 weeks of steady employment -- earn just one penny
more per hour at $8.22 per hour, and the worker is then
considered out of poverty. But in this age of inflation,
so many people are only earning $6 to $8 per hour UNDER
the ceiling for poverty, not enough to live on.

The lady with the electronic notebook said about my comment
that one thing that has changed since then is the level
that poverty has taken today. Now we have a new class of
poor people that is multi-racial, not only African-Americans
and indigenous people, it now includes poor caucasians and
is much larger and more diverse. Health care has been taken
away from people who had that 40 years ago -- far more
people cannot survive today of every nationality background
and educational level.

I think Ann said that there are a number of tactical lessons
that are good for our marches -- there are divisive tactics
to discredit Dr. King and the mysteriously-caused violence
that relate to the New York 2004 march, where it was proven
that provocateurs sponsored by the police disrupted the
march, in the same ways that what happened to Dr. King and
what is happening to our leaders: i.e. the permit in
Mongomery Alabama being prohibited for the march and the
march being banned -- in our USA why does anyone need a
permit to march? But they knew they had to march even with
threats and bans against them.

The other thing is what Matt was saying about the Housing
Authority struggle to stop PPEHR and the tenants association
from organizing and taking legal actions: any victory we
have won has come with great sacrifice and great risk. The
pressure to being loyal to family and to maintain a well-
paying job to the sacrifice to create the human rights group
is a major conflict, Dr. King chose to not be safe and
comfortable, and he risked going to prison and on a daily
basis like us, spending money we don't even have. When
history changes, that is when people have stood up to make
changes at great risk to themselves!

I then commented on the little shops in the video. All up
and down the street in the video where the marchers were
marching, did anyone notice those little small-business
owner shops, all up and down the streets where the marchers
marched? That is Democracy we were looking at, hundreds of
little shop-owners selling things people find interest in,
things those little shop owners liked enough to offer to
the public because those products are interesting and very
good quality, things the shop owners often would like to
own! It used to be that no matter how small the town, you
could find about four small-business shoe stores that each
sold unique and interesting different kinds of shoes: one
shoe store sold work shoes and boots, another imported
shoes from Europe, another athletic shoes, and so on. You
could always find something different and unique and very
interesting in a wide variety of products that interested
you, and products which the shop owner him or her self
would like to own or does use, and each shop employed two
or three people at decent community wages.

We don't see that any more with Wal-Mart and their huge
40-acre parking lot big box stores! When a Wal-Mart comes
into town and builds with public subsidy and tax breaks, it
runs 200 small business owners out of business and their
two or three employees and hires 40 low-wage workers who have
to sing and dance when they go on duty, and if those Wal-Mart
employees do not show enthusiasm, they get fired! Rather
than offering the varieties of interesting products that the
small shop owners sold, we buy what Wal-Mart wants to sell
to us and they bankrupt their suppliers who do not want to
sell products to Wal-Mart at below cost! And most of what
Wal-Mart is junk, just like what poor people are saying
about what "K-Mart" sells in trying to compete with
Wal-Mart's below cost prices: "Fall-apart Mart".

That is a sign about what is happening in our society with
regard to how we treat the poor of our nation, the way we
treat the poor is exactly like the way we tolerate the
replacement of our human society with economic prostitutes
in the work place and how we have become consumer slaves.
This treatment is transfered over to the people we have less
use for. And the view of those little shops all up and
down the street that are no longer in business, that is the
sign of what once was, the human element thriving within
our communities. The loss of 400 people's occupations for
Wal-Mart's big box store run by 75 people at low wages is
exactly the cause of our national poverty and homelessness.

DISCUSSION: WHAT WE ARE UP AGAINST
Jen: Events are transitioning us -- look around the room,
we are an amazing diversity of race, of region, of culture,
and there are a gazillion different issues and problems
that we each bring here to discuss.

Gaylin: We need a panal from different groups to discuss a
variety of issues that confront us.

"Kayla" ? Our group is very active in the community. We
need to involve ourselves directly with the people:
1) Education of the families about their rights
2) Form a posse -- who goes out and helps with whatever it
is they need most urgently - if it is cleaning up their
apartment, getting on Section 8 listing, getting food,
getting clothing, help with utilities, whatever they need
3. Political legislation, working on bills -- it's not just
a problem in her state, it's in Florida, Alabama, it is
everywhere.

People do not know there is a time limit to getting on their
feet -- or they take the kids away! Social Action Welfare
Alliance and "CORROC" (Claiming Our Rights, Reclaiming Our
Children ?)... tearing families apart is the modus operandi
of the authorities.

Ann said that when a person has unlawful detainer eviction
on their record, they cannot get rent assistance or an
apartment, and all-day counceling prevents a mother from
looking for a job.

"Kayla" said they put all of these barriers and obstacles
in front of you -- they put so much money into the foster
care and adoption programs rather than giving the funding
to the famiilies so the families can stay together in the
first place: one foster mother with a special needs child
could not get subsistence funding so she could get child
care to be able to go to work, so they took her child away
from her. There is so much abuse that is caused by the
state that it's crazy! The parents can't feed them they
say, so well, if you can't feed them then don't breed them!
But it was not always the way things were back then when
they became pregnant! Mothers should always be with their
children, what is best for the child is not always what is
best for the family! They do not focus on the family which
is the best thing for the children! The system can take a
perfectly good person and then tear them down! If the
family's problem is financial, or health, then that is the
solution! One of the biggest problems today is health;
medical neglect is a cultural problem to most extent, and
it is a matter of economic human rights.

Kayla also later said that they want to pay foster families
more than they want to pay to assist the mother to take care
of her own child -- do you want to pay for it up-front (to
the mother) and give the children a chance in their own home
with their mother, or pay for it in the end when those
children become older and go to prison?

We then broke for lunch.


__._,_.___

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<DIV><BR>Poor Peoples' Economic Human Rights Conference - Minneapolis MN - =
Part One <BR><BR>This is a transcription of my attendance as the lone Iowa =
delegate <BR>for Iowans For Economic Human Rights Organization. I took elev=
en <BR>double-sided note pages of information, some of which I will <BR>tra=
nscribe here for our record. <BR><BR>Megan Felt was scheduled to be our oth=
er co-delegate, but illness <BR>forced her to cancel. In some ways, that wa=
s a fortunate thing for <BR>all of the problems I had once I arrived at Min=
neapolis, a twelve <BR>hour ordeal that I will leave out of this posting, b=
ut it would <BR>have been nice to have her at the conference, too. <BR><BR>=
At 9:24 AM on Sunday, February 17, 2008, due to snow travel <BR>problems sh=
utting down "O'Hair" Airport in Chicago, were only 24 <BR>people present in=
 the meeting room of the La Quinta ("la keen-ta") <BR>motel, which was a ve=
ry nice motel but which had a meeting room <BR>WAY too small for this size =
and kind of a conference. <BR><BR>INTRODUCTIONS (many people left out of th=
ese notes) <BR>Gaylan Tyler (I hope I have his name spelled correctly) very=
 <BR>graciously welcomed us, and said more people were on the way. He <BR>t=
alks fast, but he said "It isn't often we can get together so we <BR>can al=
l talk about issues..." <BR><BR>He said that PPEHR is based in Philidelphia=
 to obtain food, housing, <BR>and health for poor people and the homeless i=
n any way that they <BR>can. He said the H.U.D. abandoned housing take-over=
 caused the <BR>landlords and government to learn how to stop their group f=
rom <BR>publically organizing and educating the public, so they had to <BR>=
resort to other methods. <BR><BR>Anne of Minnesota PPEHR said they are just=
 starting up their local <BR>organization in addition to hosting the confer=
ence this year. <BR><BR>Jen said that she wears a lot of different hats whi=
le still working <BR>through KRWU radio. This meeting is incredibly <BR>imp=
ortant, she just got back from Europe, where they think <BR>it is important=
 for people in our USA to form from within a <BR>movement to counter what i=
s going on in our nation, they <BR>cannot believe that the world's richest =
nation so mistreats <BR>its poor people! <BR><BR>Larry Bessler, of Clevelan=
d OH said he has been a director <BR>of Organize Ohio, and his chief endeav=
or has been to get <BR>utilities to the poor, to get a grass-roots campaign=
 started <BR>so there is no utility shut-off to the poor during the <BR>win=
ter months due to non-payment. He is transitioning to <BR>being a full-time=
 staff of PPEHR, and he wants to mount a <BR>demonstration to the president=
ial debate to be held on <BR>February 26 in Cleveland. He extends an invita=
tion to as <BR>many people as can attend to join the rally at the debate. <=
BR><BR>Debra Johnson really impressed me. She is a homeless person <BR>like=
 I was and that got her involved since only the past <BR>month in Chicago! =
<BR><BR>Wendy came into PPEHR as a homeless person with Gaylin and <BR>she =
said she does some volunteering work with PPEHR. Gaylin <BR>then said that =
Wendy does a whole lot more than she gives <BR>herself credit for: this is =
a growing movement in this <BR>country without any blue-print, a lot of peo=
ple contribute <BR>a lot of things that no one would ever expect, and Wendy=
 has <BR>been doing just that. <BR><BR>Matt said his Chicago group is worki=
ng on legal issues of <BR>the city building a sports olympic complex on pub=
lic housing <BR>land, where they want to evict the residents to tear down <=
BR>the public housing buildings, they are working on shutting <BR>down the =
construction project before it starts! <BR><BR>I think her name is "Heaven =
Kendall", although I wrote down <BR>"Heather", of Cleveland OH, who stated =
that the "deaf and <BR>dumb and blind" {note: I do not use the term 'dumb' =
because <BR>it is a stereotype for handicapped - RWK} are not having <BR>ac=
cess to health care due to their inability to communicate, <BR>she advocate=
s that they must have their health care needs <BR>met the minute they walk =
in the door, and not have to wait <BR>an hour or two hours after entering t=
he medical clinic to <BR>find out what their health problem is. <BR><BR>A g=
uy named B. Henry said the Chicago Housing Authority <BR>tried to take away=
 their office space because the Authority <BR>people did not like their act=
ivities, but after a few <BR>months in court, the Authority decided they we=
re too much <BR>trouble and relented. <BR><BR>My turn came to introduce mys=
elf. I said I was from Iowans <BR>For Economic Humaan Rights Organization, =
a hybrid student <BR>and community organization of the University of Iowa a=
nd <BR>Iowa City and Johnson County, Iowa. I told them that at the <BR>pres=
ent time, we only formed a few weeks ago, so we are less <BR>than a month o=
ld, so we are focusing on three main goals: <BR>1) organizing and publicizi=
ng our presence in the community <BR>to attract more members, and in formin=
g our organization <BR>structure and choosing our future activities <BR>2) =
focusing our efforts on obtaining as much information as <BR>we can on the =
laws and regulations that affect poor and <BR>homeless people in our city a=
nd county and state, so we <BR>know how to best represent ourselves to gove=
rnment agencies. <BR>This entails researching laws that affect poor people =
and <BR>the homeless because we view the laws as being a huge cage <BR>that=
 prevents the poor from obtaining their rights to a <BR>decent life beyond =
mere existence. We will create an <BR>archive of local, county, state and f=
ederal laws and <BR>regulations so that we will know how and where to prese=
nt <BR>our best efforts in representing the poor, and, perhaps we <BR>will =
become an authority within our state for such effective <BR>expertise. <BR>=
3) we are analyzing the survey interview form because we see <BR>a couple q=
uestions we would like to see be added to the <BR>official national PPEHR s=
urvey, but I said that we caution <BR>ourselves and PPEHR that we must main=
tain our questionaires <BR>so that we do not have differing questions on th=
e national <BR>and local levels; data will become meaningless at both ends =
<BR>of the survey if our questions do not generate the same <BR>information=
, so we would like to communicate with the <BR>national PPEHR to discuss an=
y differences we have, and we <BR>can have a uniform database that shares t=
he same information. <BR><BR>I said that we need to focus first on educatin=
g the public <BR>about these issues, because education is the key to solvin=
g <BR>these problems due to the government not wanting to address <BR>these=
 issues. Then we need to focus on the legal aspects, <BR>of how we can repr=
esent the poor. Then we can be effective. <BR><BR>VIDEO <BR>The very excell=
ent video At The River I Stand was shown, <BR>about the 1968 Memphis Tennes=
see labor issue of the strike <BR>begun by their sanitation workers, which =
ultimately involved <BR>Doctor Martin Luther King and later his murder at t=
he <BR>Lorraine Motel. <BR><BR>The Mississippi region is and was the poores=
t location in <BR>our USA. Underpaid African-Americans were the underpinnin=
g <BR>basis of their economy, and the waste management workers <BR>had a fo=
rm of occupation (trash collection) that was closed <BR>to caucasians: it w=
as low wage, no health benefits or any <BR>insurance, injuries resulted in =
employment terminations, and <BR>although they had a union, unionization wa=
s illegal! <BR><BR>The strike started when a short in a trash truck's compa=
ctor <BR>trapped and killed two sanitation workers. 47 years ago, <BR>Dr. M=
artin Luther King mentioned even back then that in our <BR>richest country =
in the world it is a crime to pay municipal <BR>workers more than poverty w=
ages and for the municiapl <BR>government to declare union activities illeg=
al! This started <BR>the Poor People's Campaign, and Dr. Martin Luther King=
 said <BR>the illegal unConstitutional injunctions must be ignored, be <BR>=
true to what you put on paper in the Constitution, stop <BR>interfering wit=
h and start supporting freedom of assembly, <BR>freedom of speech, freedom =
to protest is a right! <BR><BR>POST VIDEO COMMENTARY <BR>I mentioned that t=
he short billy-club in the video is not <BR>wood, it is full of lead. The o=
nly effect of a short billy- <BR>club is the weight of the lead inside of i=
t. I also <BR>commented on Dr. King's statement 47 years ago that this <BR>=
richest nation even back then had a problem with paying a <BR>living wage t=
o people, and I both asked the question about <BR>and mentioned the statist=
ic of the 1990s that the ceiling <BR>for poverty was $8.21 per hour for a f=
orty hour work week <BR>over 50 weeks of steady employment -- earn just one=
 penny <BR>more per hour at $8.22 per hour, and the worker is then <BR>cons=
idered out of poverty. But in this age of inflation, <BR>so many people are=
 only earning $6 to $8 per hour UNDER <BR>the ceiling for poverty, not enou=
gh to live on. <BR><BR>The lady with the electronic notebook said about my =
comment <BR>that one thing that has changed since then is the level <BR>tha=
t poverty has taken today. Now we have a new class of <BR>poor people that =
is multi-racial, not only African-Americans <BR>and indigenous people, it n=
ow includes poor caucasians and <BR>is much larger and more diverse. Health=
 care has been taken <BR>away from people who had that 40 years ago -- far =
more <BR>people cannot survive today of every nationality background <BR>an=
d educational level. <BR><BR>I think Ann said that there are a number of ta=
ctical lessons <BR>that are good for our marches -- there are divisive tact=
ics <BR>to discredit Dr. King and the mysteriously-caused violence <BR>that=
 relate to the New York 2004 march, where it was proven <BR>that provocateu=
rs sponsored by the police disrupted the <BR>march, in the same ways that w=
hat happened to Dr. King and <BR>what is happening to our leaders: i.e. the=
 permit in <BR>Mongomery Alabama being prohibited for the march and the <BR=
>march being banned -- in our USA why does anyone need a <BR>permit to marc=
h? But they knew they had to march even with <BR>threats and bans against t=
hem. <BR><BR>The other thing is what Matt was saying about the Housing <BR>=
Authority struggle to stop PPEHR and the tenants association <BR>from organ=
izing and taking legal actions: any victory we <BR>have won has come with g=
reat sacrifice and great risk. The <BR>pressure to being loyal to family an=
d to maintain a well- <BR>paying job to the sacrifice to create the human r=
ights group <BR>is a major conflict, Dr. King chose to not be safe and <BR>=
comfortable, and he risked going to prison and on a daily <BR>basis like us=
, spending money we don't even have. When <BR>history changes, that is when=
 people have stood up to make <BR>changes at great risk to themselves! <BR>=
<BR>I then commented on the little shops in the video. All up <BR>and down =
the street in the video where the marchers were <BR>marching, did anyone no=
tice those little small-business <BR>owner shops, all up and down the stree=
ts where the marchers <BR>marched? That is Democracy we were looking at, hu=
ndreds of <BR>little shop-owners selling things people find interest in, <B=
R>things those little shop owners liked enough to offer to <BR>the public b=
ecause those products are interesting and very <BR>good quality, things the=
 shop owners often would like to <BR>own! It used to be that no matter how =
small the town, you <BR>could find about four small-business shoe stores th=
at each <BR>sold unique and interesting different kinds of shoes: one <BR>s=
hoe store sold work shoes and boots, another imported <BR>shoes from Europe=
, another athletic shoes, and so on. You <BR>could always find something di=
fferent and unique and very <BR>interesting in a wide variety of products t=
hat interested <BR>you, and products which the shop owner him or her self <=
BR>would like to own or does use, and each shop employed two <BR>or three p=
eople at decent community wages. <BR><BR>We don't see that any more with Wa=
l-Mart and their huge <BR>40-acre parking lot big box stores! When a Wal-Ma=
rt comes <BR>into town and builds with public subsidy and tax breaks, it <B=
R>runs 200 small business owners out of business and their <BR>two or three=
 employees and hires 40 low-wage workers who have <BR>to sing and dance whe=
n they go on duty, and if those Wal-Mart <BR>employees do not show enthusia=
sm, they get fired! Rather <BR>than offering the varieties of interesting p=
roducts that the <BR>small shop owners sold, we buy what Wal-Mart wants to =
sell <BR>to us and they bankrupt their suppliers who do not want to <BR>sel=
l products to Wal-Mart at below cost! And most of what <BR>Wal-Mart is junk=
, just like what poor people are saying <BR>about what "K-Mart" sells in tr=
ying to compete with <BR>Wal-Mart's below cost prices: "Fall-apart Mart". <=
BR><BR>That is a sign about what is happening in our society with <BR>regar=
d to how we treat the poor of our nation, the way we <BR>treat the poor is =
exactly like the way we tolerate the <BR>replacement of our human society w=
ith economic prostitutes <BR>in the work place and how we have become consu=
mer slaves. <BR>This treatment is transfered over to the people we have les=
s <BR>use for. And the view of those little shops all up and <BR>down the s=
treet that are no longer in business, that is the <BR>sign of what once was=
, the human element thriving within <BR>our communities. The loss of 400 pe=
ople's occupations for <BR>Wal-Mart's big box store run by 75 people at low=
 wages is <BR>exactly the cause of our national poverty and homelessness. <=
BR><BR>DISCUSSION: WHAT WE ARE UP AGAINST <BR>Jen: Events are transitioning=
 us -- look around the room, <BR>we are an amazing diversity of race, of re=
gion, of culture, <BR>and there are a gazillion different issues and proble=
ms <BR>that we each bring here to discuss. <BR><BR>Gaylin: We need a panal =
from different groups to discuss a <BR>variety of issues that confront us. =
<BR><BR>"Kayla" ? Our group is very active in the community. We <BR>need to=
 involve ourselves directly with the people: <BR>1) Education of the famili=
es about their rights <BR>2) Form a posse -- who goes out and helps with wh=
atever it <BR>is they need most urgently - if it is cleaning up their <BR>a=
partment, getting on Section 8 listing, getting food, <BR>getting clothing,=
 help with utilities, whatever they need <BR>3. Political legislation, work=
ing on bills -- it's not just <BR>a problem in her state, it's in Florida, =
Alabama, it is <BR>everywhere. <BR><BR>People do not know there is a time l=
imit to getting on their <BR>feet -- or they take the kids away! Social Act=
ion Welfare <BR>Alliance and "CORROC" (Claiming Our Rights, Reclaiming Our =
<BR>Children ?)... tearing families apart is the modus operandi <BR>of the =
authorities. <BR><BR>Ann said that when a person has unlawful detainer evic=
tion <BR>on their record, they cannot get rent assistance or an <BR>apartme=
nt, and all-day counceling prevents a mother from <BR>looking for a job. <B=
R><BR>"Kayla" said they put all of these barriers and obstacles <BR>in fron=
t of you -- they put so much money into the foster <BR>care and adoption pr=
ograms rather than giving the funding <BR>to the famiilies so the families =
can stay together in the <BR>first place: one foster mother with a special =
needs child <BR>could not get subsistence funding so she could get child <B=
R>care to be able to go to work, so they took her child away <BR>from her. =
There is so much abuse that is caused by the <BR>state that it's crazy! The=
 parents can't feed them they <BR>say, so well, if you can't feed them then=
 don't breed them! <BR>But it was not always the way things were back then =
when <BR>they became pregnant! Mothers should always be with their <BR>chil=
dren, what is best for the child is not always what is <BR>best for the fam=
ily! They do not focus on the family which <BR>is the best thing for the ch=
ildren! The system can take a <BR>perfectly good person and then tear them =
down! If the <BR>family's problem is financial, or health, then that is the=
 <BR>solution! One of the biggest problems today is health; <BR>medical neg=
lect is a cultural problem to most extent, and <BR>it is a matter of econom=
ic human rights. <BR><BR>Kayla also later said that they want to pay foster=
 families <BR>more than they want to pay to assist the mother to take care =
<BR>of her own child -- do you want to pay for it up-front (to <BR>the moth=
er) and give the children a chance in their own home <BR>with their mother,=
 or pay for it in the end when those <BR>children become older and go to pr=
ison? <BR><BR>We then broke for lunch. <BR><BR><BR>__._,_.___ <BR><BR></DIV=
><BR>

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