Putting poor people to good use

Today Liz and I went to a hearing held by the Dept. of Housing and Community Development on the new HomeBASE program, which is supposed to help eligible families avoid homelessness.  The hearing focused on the regulations themselves, and how they might be fine tuned; we were there mostly to talk about the implementation end.

To put that in human terms, when a young woman with a baby (apartment lost in the tornado, didn't know about FEMA, staying for 2 months with a friend in subsidized housing whose own housing is now at risk because of her presence) goes down to the Dept. of Transitional Assistance to apply for Emergency Assistance (necessary before you can apply for HomeBASE) and is twice told she is not eligible and turned away with no written explanation, then something is wrong with the implementation picture.  It was not until she came to Arise with her story and we gave her a flyer (thanks, Mass Law Reform) about HomeBASE, with certain key parts highlighted, and sent her back down to DTA, that she was able to get help.

The hearing today wasn't huge.  Some advocates came, and some agencies charged with administering some aspect of the program, and a couple of poor people.

One of the testifiers (this was an official hearing) is the head of a local housing agency.  Among other things, he spoke about how the housing rate is set too low, and may, through the law of unintended consequences, concentrate poverty in particular areas.  I've heard him speak about the need to have our neighborhoods economically diverse before; and while I agree with some of his analysis in theory, it's really a much more  complicated scenario.  So i thought i knew where he was going.  But I was wrong.

"Poor people should be able to live in more affluent neighborhoods," he stated, "because they need people to hire for the low wage jobs."

My mouth fell open.  I could not believe what I was hearing.  And he went on later to speak about how many homeless families are coming from out of state, and shouldn't these scarce benefits be preserved for the people on his long housing waiting list, a point nicely countered later by someone else who said that studies show a statistically insignificant difference between the needy families who come to our state and our needy families that go some somebody else's state, which also has long waiting lists., etc.

I've been pondering  his remarks all evening.  Let me get this straight: at least a few of us (not too many, mind you) should live in affluent neighborhoods so we can do their dirty work?  Can we all get hired to become maids and gardeners?  Can we wander their snowy neighborhoods with shovels?  (Actually, we do that already.) Work in the convenience  and mega-drug stores?  (We do that already, too.) And wouldn't affluent people really prefer we commute rather than live next door?

As classist, serf-like and  preposterous as his idea is, it also belongs to an era long gone, never to come again.  This isn't the Fifties. Most people's fortunes have been rolling downhill for decades. Sure, we still have a few affluent neighborhoods in Springfield, but they're ragged around the edges, and in a city where nearly thirty percent of us live below the poverty level, there just aren't enough affluent people to go around-- not here, not anywhere.  

Even the HomeBASE program, rotten with good intentions and riddled with  regulations, is predicated on the belief that, starting basically from zero, a homeless family can turn its life around in just one year.Do these policy makers and administrators read the same news that I do?  Is anybody predicting the economy will recover in just one more year?

I have a lot more I could say about we what we, as poor people, need to do, but that's another post.

Yesterday's preliminary election

City Council Biomass Hearing

Why, when people go out to vote, do they not bring the knowledge that they have about councilors' positions with them into the voting booth?

The vast majority of people in Springfield support ward representation and oppose a biomass plant being built in the city.  But four out of five of the top vote getters in the city council race oppose ward representation and support the biomass incinerator!-- Timothy Rooke, Kateri Walsh, Bud Williams and James Ferrera.

The scary thing about this, of course, is that the message councilors are likely to take from this disconnect of councilors from issues is that they can act with impunity.  Councilors should ponder, however, the first place finish of first term At Large Councilor Tom Ashe, the only at large councilor to vote to revoke the special permit for biomass developer Palmer Renewable Energy.  At 6885 votes, Ashe came in more than 900 votes of second place Tim Rooke, and a whopping 1,800 votes ahead of fifth place Jimmy Ferrera.  I think it's fair to assume that were Jose Tosado still running for city council instead of mayor, Ferrera would not have been among the top five.

While one tends to think that primary results dictate the outcome of the general election, the potential of stay-at-home voters can be tapped.  In 2008, 60% of all registered Springfield voters managed to get themselves out of the house and to the polls to vote their passion. Most candidates for office are not only unable to generate that kind of passion, most of them would prefer the blandest possible persona: lifelong residents, I graduated here, my wife works there, kids go to school here, etc. etc. Smooth, bland, and (until ward representation) colorless.  Don't let voters develop strong opinions about you.  Go along to get along. Be happy to get the votes of the folks who always vote.

I do think there are a couple of candidates this year who haven't shied away from taking strong opinions.  I know who's on my list, who's on yours?

 

Weather, climate, my cousin and I

Oceasn breaks thru from the bay side on Hattaras Island

Hurricane Irene created more damage in Western Mass and Vermont than it did on the Cape, but that's where I was-- in Wellfleet-- when the storm hit.  Although little rain fell, on Sunday we had sustained winds of 30 miles an hour and gusts up to 70 miles an hour.  But a couple of days before that, I knew Irene had been battering the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where my cousin and her partner lived. Turned out that she's OK, and her house stood, with minor damage.  Hattaras Island, however, was hit hard.

Wellfleet's Mayo Beach --on the bay side!- sea foam in foreground

 This year I've found myself tallying a lifetime of weather.  Probably my list isn't much different from other New Englanders-- flooding, blizzards, heat waves, hurricanes-- but I've experienced blizzards and floods while living alone in the woods, when I had moments of wondering if I'd make it through.  I didn't, however, ever expect to be looking at a tornado barreling up State Street straight toward me.  

I hope never to know a forest fire, a major earthquake or a tsunami.  I hope New England never suffers a drought as lengthy as what Texas is experiencing.  But I have a feeling that I'll have a few more major weather events to add to my tally in the next few years.

Here's quick explanation of the relationship between weather and climate change 

Blogging

Puppy imitates wolves

Protecting tigers

From the Animal Legal Defense Fund: (and a poem from me): While the disturbing circumstances surrounding Tony the truck stop tiger have received enormous attention, there are an estimated 5,000 -- 10,000 additional captive tigers throughout the U.S. The majority of these big cats are classified by the federal government as "generic" tigers -- tigers that are not purebred and are not in the same classification as endangered tigers in zoos (Tony, for example, is a Siberian-Bengal mix). Most of these tigers are kept as exotic "pets" and are virtually unregulated by the federal government due to a 1998 United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) rule that exempted "generic" tigers from the permit and reporting requirements that normally apply to endangered species. Due to the current lack of regulation by the federal government, there is not an accurate count of how many thousands of these tigers are living in the country, or whether they live in potentially abusive -- and dangerous -- conditions.

After years of pressure by tiger advocates, the USFWS, on August 22, published a proposed rule that would eliminate this generic tiger exemption. Should it be adopted, all tigers in the country, regardless of their lineage, would be better tracked and regulated by the federal government. People who own these tigers would be required to report annually on the number of tigers they have in captivity and on activities involving the tigers. Until this information becomes available, there is only anecdotal knowledge about the extent and whereabouts of the tiger population in this country. Such critical information could play a vital role in advancing laws that acknowledge and protect these currently "invisible" animals.

The USFWS is accepting comments on this proposed change through September 21, 2011 and your help is crucially needed! Please submit a comment in support of the proposal to eliminate the exemption for "generic" tigers today. Your support will help demonstrate to the USFWS that Americans are deeply concerned about better protections and oversight for captive tigers.

tigers pace the golden cage

     (to tame is to embitter

dreaming deep of jungle days,

the reign of dapple summer.

when rarely I pursued you, man,

I smelled you as an equal.

now fiery hoop, your whip and chain

daily make you smaller.

dust rises from the circus floor;

a tiger coughs politely.

the red and empty human roar

hollows her heart and frightens.

bars are built by weaker men

     (to tame evokes compassion

bones too fragile to withstand

the tigers’ jaws are clapping.

tigers have no love of pain

but know the need of killing,

whether as captor or enslaved

the tigers could be willing.

stripes of yellow, stripes of steel:

survival throws a shadow

that vigils in the tigers’ hearts

and sniffs the air for wild.

truth is water in a pool

now still and growing clear.

when tigers next leap thru the hoop

they will not reappear.

Photo from Cliff1066's photostream at Flickr.

What's the Verizon strike all about?

Why We Are Picketing Here Today

Verizon Workers Are on Strike to Protect Middle-Class Jobs

We’re picketing today because we are on strike at Verizon and Verizon Wireless. A Verizon manager or replacement employee is doing a job here that would normally be done by a union-represented worker.

Verizon is hugely profitable. In the past four years alone, the company made more than $19.5 billion in profits—and paid its top five executives over a quarter of a billion dollars.

Yet this highly profitable company has demanded $1 billion in take-backs from 45,000 workers—$20,000 for every one of our families. Verizon wants to:

§     freeze pensions for current workers and eliminate them for new hires;

§     continue sending our jobs to Mexico and the Phillipines;

§     slash sick leave and benefits for workers injured on the job;

§     force current and retired workers to pay thousands of dollars for health care; and

§     slash paid holidays, including eliminating MLK’s Birthday and Veterans Day as holidays.

Verizon’s attack on us is part of a massive problem that affects virtually all Americans: Corporate profits are eating up more and more of our national income, leaving less and less for the rest of us.

Instead of killing the American Dream for 45,000 Verizon workers, Verizon should be treating its workers fairly, investing in the middle class, and helping to build a better future.

Corporate Greed is out of control in America. The rich are getting richer. We need good jobs that support families, neighborhoods, and communities. We need good, middle-class jobs to end the recession.

We are sorry for any inconvenience that may  occur, but we feel we have to stand up to protect our middle class jobs. We ask you to support the 45,000 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) who are on strike to protect the American dream.

Please sign our online petition at www.cwa-union.org/verizongreed to demand that Verizon stop attacking the middle class and share the company’s success with those who made it possible.

The last speech from the Great Dictator

Probably not more than two of my readers will watch this video, but for those two: did you have goosebumps by the end?  This 1940 film, The Great Dictator, was the first film in which Charlie Chaplin spoke.  He plays two roles in this comedy/drama, the Dictator Hynkel and the Jewish baker who looks just like him. 

Relocatable houses: one adaptation to climate change

One coastal section of Australia is saying, you can't build a house by the sea unless you can move it if need be.  of course this is adaptation to climate change, not a solution, but  we're going to need both.




Photo from Aldseley's photostream at Flickr.

More to do on ward representation in Springfield

Today Arise had a press conference with some of the Springfield's most stalwart warriors for ward representation, to talk about what's gone right so far with the new system and what still needs to be done.

Successes:

• We now have geographic representation.  In the 10 years previous to changing to ward representation, an astounding 89% of at-large candidates came from only three of the city's eight wards.  Now every ward has a councilor.
• We have increased racial diversity.  In the 45 years previous to ward representation, only four African-Americans and one Latino had ever been elected to city council-- in fact, Jose Tosado got his first seat on the council when a councilor resigned and he moved up from 10th place. Now we have three Latino/as and two African-Americans in ward seat.

Still to be done:

• Increase voter turn-out.  Voter participation has been declining for decades, and ward representation is not going to turn that around in just two years.  However, in the 2008 election when ward representation was on the ballot, an astounding 74.2% of those who voted said YES to ward representation.
• Get more candidates running.  2009 was a truly competitive year for ward seats, but 2011 has only one ward with a contested race.  But instead of considering that a failure, it may very well be that people in each ward are pleased the with performance of their representative!

In the "fair and balanced" category, Pete Goonan of the Springfield Republican got comments from the two people who voted against placing ward representation on the ballot-- Tim Rooke, still currently serving in an at-large seat, and Bud Williams, who hopes to regain an at-large seat this November.  Bud gives ward representation a "C+."  I wonder if he enjoyed the good old days of the at-large system, when he got to be the only African-American on city council?

Yesterday's press conference featured some of the real heroes of ward representation.  Frank Buntin and Gumersindo Gomez, Exec. Dir. of the Puerto Rican Veterans Center, started meeting about ward rep in 1992, and we built on their experience.  Both stayed involved for the long haul.  Joe Fountain tried to file a lawsuit against the at-large system in 1996, but was denied standing as a white person.  He brought the lawsuit to Arise and we recruited the NAACP and the Spanish American Union (now sadly defunct) to join with us in the first federal lawsuit.  Rev. Talbert Swan II was a plaintiff in the second lawsuit, and involved his network in pushing the work forward.  Council president Jose Tosado, a long-time supporter of ward rep, got the city council to approve placing the ward rep question on the 2008 ballot.  And there were so many more that if I get started, I'll be bound to forget important people, but I do have to give a shout-out to E. Henry Twiggs, Min. Yusuf Muhammad, Nick Camerota, Norm Oliver, Alan Howard and Mable Sharif, to name a few, and, within Arise, most especially Joe Oliverio, Tory Field and Liz Bewsee.

We have a lot more to do to make sure democracy really works in Springfield.  I called the Election Office last week to see if there were any community groups leading the charge on voter registration, and sadly, there were not-- not even, to date, Arise.  But we're going to turn that around.  We need a new coalition in Springfield that focuses on voter education and participation, that helps identify potential leaders and that mentors them through the electoral process.  The Springfield Institute and MassVOTE have already offered support.  Who else would like to join us?



Photo from the Springfield Institute.

Obama's failure, a truth-telling tour, and a march on Washington, D.C.

This morning I read an opinion piece by Drew Westen that completely summed up the deep disappointment I feel in our president, Barack Obama.  I urge you to read all of it, but these two paragraphs frame Obama's failure.

When Dr. King spoke of the great arc bending toward justice, he did not  mean that we should wait for it to bend. He exhorted others to put their  full weight behind it, and he gave his life speaking with a voice that  cut through the blistering force of water cannons and the gnashing teeth  of police dogs. He preached the gospel of nonviolence, but he knew that  whether a bully hid behind a club or a poll tax, the only effective  response was to face the bully down, and to make the bully show his true  and repugnant face in public. 

IN contrast, when faced with the greatest economic crisis, the greatest  levels of economic inequality, and the greatest levels of corporate  influence on politics since the Depression, Barack Obama stared into the  eyes of history and chose to avert his gaze. Instead of indicting the  people whose recklessness wrecked the economy, he put them in charge of  it. He never explained that decision to the public — a failure in  storytelling as extraordinary as the failure in judgment behind it. Had  the president chosen to bend the arc of history, he would have told the  public the story of the destruction wrought by the dismantling of the  New Deal regulations that had protected them for more than half a  century. He would have offered them a counternarrative of how to fix the  problem other than the politics of appeasement, one that emphasized  creating economic demand and consumer confidence by putting consumers  back to work. He would have had to stare down those who had wrecked the  economy, and he would have had to tolerate their hatred if not welcome  it. But the arc of his temperament just didn’t bend that far.

 Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West believe that Barack Obama is ignoring the plight of poor people.  They have launched The Poverty Tour: A Call to Conscience, to help wake this country up to what poor people have to go through every day, how their lives and the lives of their children have been stunted and cast aside.  Their inspiration also comes from Dr. Martin Luther King: "I choose to identify with the underprivileged, I choose to identify with  the poor, I choose to give my life for the hungry, I choose to give my  life for those who have been left out of the sunlight of opportunity. .  .This is the way I’m going.  If it means suffering a little bit, I’m  going that way.  If it means sacrificing, I’m going that way.  If it  means dying for them, I’m going that way, because I heard a voice saying  “DO SOMETHING FOR OTHERS.”

Poor people are organizing on our own behalf, too-- not just in the small ways we do every day, but for major mobilizations.  The Assembly to End Poverty, which was formed from the poverty resolution at the 2010 United States Social Forum, is calling for a march on Washington, D.C. on June 30, 2012. I don't know yet how we're going to do it, but Arise, and poor people from all over Western Massachusetts, will be there.

We are fighting for our lives.

Photo from Racole's photostream from Flickr.

Cut the military budget FIRST!

 If you don't know about the website Just Foreign Policy, you need to--  if you're sick of the 30 second sound bites that don't really tell you anything about U.S. foreign and military budget, then this is a site that reports objectively on issues progressives care about.  I subscribe to a daily newsletter that starts with a summary and follows with more in-depth reporting if you have time. 


 Here's two tidbits from today's summary.  So it would be better to cut Social Security and Medicaid than the military budget?

 1) Defense Secretary Panetta effectively told Congress to raise taxes and cut Social Security and Medicare before taking another swipe at the Pentagon budget beyond defense cuts already called for in the [first round of] the debt-ceiling deal, the New York Times reports. Panetta took the position that the joint committee created by the debt ceiling legislation should make no further defense cuts. The White House, however, has not ruled out further defense reductions. The committee, to be composed of six Democrats and six Republicans, would also be unlikely to take them off the table, the New York Times notes.

2) Also reporting on Panetta's statement that Congress should cut Social Security and Medicare and raise taxes rather than further cut the military budget, the Washington Post notes that defense spending represents about half of the federal government's discretionary spending, and the military's budget has increased by more than 70 percent since 2001. Although the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the Pentagon upward of $1 trillion, nearly half of the growth in defense spending in the past decade has been unrelated to the wars.

Photo from Brave New Worlds photostream at Flickr.

Yes-- we're appealing Dept. of Environmental Protection's air permit for PRE.

In today's Republican, Pete Goonan has a story about the next steps in fighting to keep Palmer Renewable Energy's biomass incinerator out of Springfield.  The Conservation Law Foundation and Toxics Action Center have both filed appeals to the Department of Environmental Protection's issuance of an air permit. CLF is filing on behalf of its members, which includes many people from Springfield, and Arise for Social Justice.  I want to say thank you to both CLF and the Toxics Action Center, which have provided us with invaluable support the last two years, for taking up this battle.

Check out the new advertisement from the American Lung Association.  It reminds me of when one of our Stop Toxic Incineration in Springfield members used the bulk of her two minutes before the Springfield City Council playing a recording of a child having an asthma attack.  Our city council did the right thing and revoked the local permit, but, not unexpectedly, PRE is now suing the city.  So the battle goes on.

I wrote on Monday about why local control may be the only control we can count on in the short term.  But even local control  is hard-won!  We have a lot of community education and mobilization still to do.  Want to help?  Get in touch.

Apologizing

From VisualizeUs.com

Rebuild Springfield Advisory Committee: listening is not necessarily hearing

On behalf of Arise, :Liz and I went to the first Rebuild Springfield Advisory Committee meeting last night at Milton Bradley Elementary School.  The listening sessions are designed for the four sections of the city hardest hit by the June 1 Tornado; this one was for residents and businesses in the South End.

Other than advisory committee members and public officials, only about 20 people attended-- not surprising given that the dates for the four meetings were announced on Friday, July 29 and last night's meeting was Tuesday, August 2.  In addition, only 6 of the 15 advisory committee members actually attended the session (a tally kept by a man-- a renter-- in the back of the room).  I will be curious to see if advisory board members make a better showing in the primarily homeowner neighborhoods .

Health and Human Services Director Helen Caulton-Harris, who I believe described herself as the liaison between the community and the advisory board, and Parks, Buildings and Recreation Management Director Patrick Sullivan, another liaison, talked about the length of the tornado and the damage done.  They also talked about the development of a Master Plan.  i admit my heart sunk a bit there, not that I hadn't heard that before.  Whose Master Plan?  How much will that plan really include the desires and needs of Springfield residents?  And how can it include them if thery're not sufficiently invited?


Most South End residents talked about the need to have their housing rebuilt.  One woman, from 15 Park St., said, "OK, you wanted us to live downtown, and we did.  Now help us come back!"  Rico Daniele of Mom and Rico's wanted to see the South End Community Center built deeper into the South End.  Someone else spoke about the need for a market.  (By the way, check out Mike Dobb's editorial in the Reminder about the same need in a different place-- should be online tomorrow.)

I'm going to try to keep an open mind about the whole process, although I know most decisions are made behind the curtain.  Still, as the organizer's axoim goes, use what you've got to get what you need.
August 5th       6:00 – 8:00 p.m.      JC Williams Comm. Cntr         116 Florence St.
August 11th     6:00 – 8:00 p.m.      Greenleaf Comm. Center         1188 ½ Parker St.
August 16th     6:00 – 8:00 p.m.      Holy Cross Church                    221 Plumtree Rd.


Photo by Don Treeger, Republican staff photographer

Life will find a way