Howard Zinn speaking for Spare Change!

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Spare Change News -- June 19th

A David versus Goliath battle between corporate America and a freethinking counterculture is about to wage in cyberspace.

When internet auction giant eBay bought a minority stake in the homespun San Francisco Internet start-up craigslist - a company so modest they don’t even bother using an apostrophe or a capital letter - most observers expected the classified ads website would be quickly swallowed up.

eBay Inc. operates the world’s most popular e-commerce site, has a globally recognized brand, and is valued at over $40 billion. Its website is one of the most sophisticated around, with barely a square inch of it not covered by some sort of paid advert.

By contrast, craigslist is heavy on text and looks much as it did in 1996 when early enthusiasts would have looked at it on their black and white screened Apple PowerBooks.

The company grew out of an email of events listings Craig Newmark used to send friends, occupies an old fashioned timber house in San Francisco, has a staff of around twenty, and the only logo it uses is the peace sign.

Yet it has become part of the American way of life. Local newspaper groups cite it as responsible for ripping apart their industry’s business model and cops regularly trawl its pages looking for services as diverse as stolen goods and prostitution rings while it remains for many the first place to advertise a church fete.

The Cruelest Art:
Dr. Darius Rejali on Torture in Democratic Societies

Waterboarding. Hypothermia. Stress positions. Prolonged isolation. Sensory deprivation. These “clean” tortures leave deep psychological wounds but few physical scars — and they have been used for decades not only by dictatorships, but also by democratic governments, including the United States.

After 9/11, Americans used these techniques on so-called “enemy combatants” detained in a system of prisons from Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib and the Pentagon’s detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to numerous CIA black sites. And according to recent reports, officials at the highest levels of the Bush Administration, including Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, approved the use of “harsh interrogation techniques” in questioning detainees.

In his massive study, Torture and Democracy (Princeton, 2007), internationally renowned violence and torture expert Dr. Darius Rejali writes that these “clean” interrogation methods not only violate international law, but they radicalize enemies, undermine credibility, and yield unreliable intelligence. They do not strengthen national security, but instead make us less safe.

New Issue - May 8-21

China's Tibetian Frontiers Rekindle Tradition of Defiance
Reuters

Zhuoni, China, April 9 - Across China’s mountainous west, armed troops watch over the Tibetan monasteries and towns that have emerged as hotbeds of protest kindled by traditions of defiance and newer economic grievances.

More than the Tibet Autonomous Region itself, where the upsurge of anti-Chinese protests and riots erupted in March, the historically Tibetan parts of neighboring provinces have defied efforts to smother unrest with troop convoys, roadblocks and patrols, and warnings of harsh punishment to lawbreakers.

In Zhuoni, a county in the northwest province of Gansu, protesters in mid-March torched a school, set up their own roadblock and trashed officials’ cars, residents said.

A recent trip along its tightly guarded roads showed the protests had stopped. Smashed windows of the local police offices and Chinese-owned shops had been quickly repaired, and traders were returning to dusty streets.

But Tibetans here and across south Gansu spoke of anger with the government campaign against the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, and with economic shifts they said favored Han Chinese migrants and Hui Muslim merchants in nearby towns.

“There are more and more Han here, so we can’t develop,” said Tsairang, a herder and farmer. He rejected the government’s claim that the Dalai Lama’s supporters orchestrated the violence.
“It wasn’t the Dalai Lama. He’s like a member of our family who isn’t allowed to come home. You can’t blame him.”



An Act For Change
Meredith Walsh

Amid sunbathers and baseball players on the Boston Common, a group of Suffolk theater students gathered on April 23 to perform a play in an effort to promote social justice and awareness for the issue of homelessness.

The play, titled Infinity, was student written, produced, directed, and acted. Rachel Kelsey was inspired to write the play after working with Neighborhood Action, a group dedicated to serving Boston’s homeless.

“I met some people at Neighborhood Action and it got me examining how we look at each other,” said Kelsey.

Director Purima Baldwin was drawn to the project by Kelsey’s insightful writing. “We wanted to do a final show before we graduated, something that had a social impact,” said Baldwin.
Baldwin’s life has been directly affected by homelessness. Her older brother, Dan, has been homeless for nearly twenty years. “He’s spent probably half his life on the street,” said Baldwin.

“I’m hoping maybe my brother will stumble across the Common that day, but I doubt it,” continued Baldwin, during an interview before one of the cast’s final rehearsals.

Kelsey and Baldwin hoped the production would attract the attention of people who are not ordinarily attuned to issues of homelessness and poverty. By performing in a public space, they were trying to reach a broader audience. “I just hope people walking by will stop and watch us,” said Kelsey.


Voices from the Streets: Connecting the Dots
Marc Goldfinger

Unfortunately for the human species and all the others occupying this battered planet, the dots are bigger than we think, and as fast as they connect, we disconnect them. So much is happening I don’t know what to talk about first.

First. We have this Presidential primary going on where the top two Democratic contenders are in the 11th round of a 12-round boxing match, both battered having been on the canvas a number of times. Yes, I like Obama, but so what? I’m watching Hillary and Obama in a fight where, at the end, there will be no man (or woman) standing.

I trust John McCain. I believe John McCain. By listening to him I realize that if he wins the Presidency (and that’s all too possible now) wars will go on, fuel prices will continue to rise, which means food prices will continue to rise and the death toll will rise, ever higher, ever higher.

What’s happening here? Does every politician so desire winning that they don’t care the human species sits on a humungous playground slide where at the bottom waits death and destruction on a scale that we have never known before? No one tells the truth because they all want to win.

Actually, I don’t know what Hillary believes, and I’m not really sure what Barack Obama believes, but I know that Deval Patrick fooled me and dammit, like the Who said, “I don’t want to be fooled again.”

Spare Change News: 4/24-5/7

Right or Right?

Editorial: John McCain has been labeled a “Maverick” for his apparent middle of the road politics. Don’t let this cloak fool you. He is really a neo-conservative hawk. To be fair, he does support the implementation of green technologies and has spoken out against the use of torture as an interrogation technique. However, one should always be weary of labels granted to politicians by mainstream media. The former platform is merely a middle of the road policy change, which at this point ought to be a mainstream issue. The latter is something one would expect of a Vietnam POW who is, himself, a victim of torture.

In February the Washington Post reported that McCain knowingly broke Federal Election Commission law. When his campaign wasn’t doing too hot in the middle of the primary season, he signed up to receive public funding, which also made it easier to appear on the ballot in many states. However, the matching spending limit set by the FEC is $54 million and McCain had already spent more than $58 million without legally pulling out of the federal program. He broke the law under the same federal campaign finance program he helped create.



Homeless Children Population Growing Steadily

Studies have revealed that a homeless child under the age of six may experience the same mental trauma as a soldier coming back from war. When we talk about a generation afflicted by war, families torn apart, and children growing up without fathers and mothers, we don’t look to the war brewing on our own streets.

Today there are approximately one million homeless children nationwide and the fastest growing sector is younger than school aged. The average person believes homelessness affects middle age individuals, not entire families. In truth, the average age of a homeless person is only eight years old. In Cambridge, it’s nine.

“No one wants to believe children are homeless,” said Sue Heilman, executive director of the Roxbury-based Horizons for Homeless Children (HHC). To help combat this theory, HHC presented the Third Annual Young Children Without Homes National Conference, which took place April 15-17 at Hynes Convention Center in Boston. Five hundred people from 33 states registered and attended the event in hopes for what Heilman calls “a better tomorrow.” Cities across the country are bracing for the fallback of the mortgage crisis, and Boston is no exception. “It may get worse before it gets better,” Heilman explained before the conference kickoff.

The conference brought together case and social workers, volunteers and altruistic individuals dedicated to erasing homelessness across the country. Participants engaged in a variety of workshops aimed to raise awareness, and share strategies and information on the subject.

Tales from the Curb:
When Will it End?

The other day I was talking with a Spare Change News vendor, one who has really benefited from our organization. Spare Change News enabled him to be productive and opened doors that were once closed. He has made friends within this organization and with customers, and become an important member of Spare Change News. Best of all he was recently able to obtain housing.

So why is an advocate he works with telling him to leave our organization? That’s right, this advocate told him to find a “real job,” to forget about the friendships he made, forget about all his success here and leave Spare Change News. Why would someone openly discourage anyone from working with an organization where that person has succeeded?

Every Spare Change News anniversary, I can’t help but think of the advocates who tried to discourage us from creating the paper. Some advocates don’t always have the best interests of the homeless at heart, for them it’s nothing more than a job. But for most, including the general public, it’s a case of ignorance.
The other day I read a letter in the Metro addressed to Mayor Menino regarding homeless people on the Boston Common. I’ll spare you the gory details, but the letter was nothing more than a rant against homeless people, complete with the drunk/mentally ill speech. The writer even suggested that the Mayor rid the park of homeless people so taxpayers like him could eat lunch there. Well, Joe Taxpayer, I have news for you. The Common is in such rough shape not because of the homeless people who sleep there. It is because of people who refuse to use trashcans, who feed those annoying pigeons, who walk their dogs and don’t bother to clean up after them. It is because of the drug dealers who openly ply their trade while families are walk by. These things are ruining the Common, not the homeless. There is still a lot of ignorance when it comes to homelessness, but when will it end? Some say more education and compassion is necessary. Will that be enough?

Spare Change News 4/10/08

AIDS Action Committee

Today, two to three people in Mass. will become HIV positive. In one year, more than 900 new infections will afflict the state. Between 24,000 and 26,000 people currently live with HIV/AIDS, but what’s more disturbing is that a quarter of them do not know it, and risk passing the virus to others.

AIDS Action Committee of Mass. (AAC) is a community-based, non-profit organization focusing on the prevention of AIDS in the Mass. population. The general mission targets AIDS prevention through education and advocacy while supporting those already infected. In addition, the organization lobbies for substantial AIDS policies at all levels. AAC boasts a staff of 70 dedicated individuals along with hundreds of volunteers, all passionate about erasing this deadly virus.



How Well Does the Boston Healthcare System Treat its Homeless Constituents? An Interview with Spare Change Vendor and Healthcare Consumer, Ed Larsen.

HJ Pound: What is the easiest way for a homeless person to obtain health care?
Ed Larsen: Honestly? Get yourself put in the hospital. Hospitals are also businesses that need to get paid. You rack up a high enough bill and they will do whatever it takes to get you MassHealth so they can get their money.
HP: Do you believe that everyone should have health insurance?
EL: There are pros and cons. Everybody deserves basic care, but there are consequences to socialized medicine. If everyone gets basic care here [in the United States] you will end up having to wait a really long time for specialist services like in Canada and Europe. Except for the rich. Unless we move to a single-payer system the rich will always have private insurance and get care faster.
HP: How has being homeless effected your health care?
EL: Well, I am on MassHealth for now, and I am happy. I do eventually want to get a job aside from being a Spare Change vendor though. Subsidized housing won’t be there forever, besides, I am not a big fan of the government. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate everything the government has done for me, I just don’t want to be at their mercy forever. The problem is, I don’t want to lose MassHealth either. Private insurance is great in some ways, but it doesn’t cover everything. [Private health insurance] used to be impossible to get with pre-existing conditions, and even now it only covers certain necessary services to an extent, which is crazy because it is so expensive. Plus, it already costs so much to live here, between transportation, housing, and taxes. And now, if you don’t have insurance you will get fined.



Four Arrested in Bank Protest

Four young women who chained themselves to a Bank of America in Copley Plaza were arraigned April 2 on counts of trespassing, disturbing the peace, and resisting arrest.

Candace Bollinger, 27, of Hicksville, New York, Adrienne Naylor, 23, of Dorchester, Mass., Laila Murad, 17, of Brighton, Mass.; and Elise Ansel, 20, of Sanderlan, Mass. locked their arms together using large cylindrical tubes, while Bollinger locked her neck to the bank’s door with a bicycle lock in protest of Bank of America’s investment in the coal industry. Their protest yesterday was part of an international protest called Fossil Fool’s Day, according to Climate Justice Now (CJN) spokesman Evan Greer, 22. He claimed over fifty people protested.

Naylor decided radical protest was necessary because, she said, “Holding signs and sending letters doesn’t change shit.”

Ansel agreed, “You can’t change the system by working in it.”

The women said they hoped to raise awareness about damage they claim coal mining inflicts on the environment. Ansel said, “450 mountain tops in Appalachia were blown clear off.”

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New Issue - March 13-26

Election 2008: Camelot Lite?

The Kennedy’s were the closest to nobility this country could boast. With an infectious charisma and a lofty New England classiness that glossed over their playboy personas, they’re what America still wants. John Kennedy was a realist with a romantic streak and oozed authenticity – a combination that’s like walking a tightrope over troubled waters for politicians. His brother, Bobby, was grittier and unafraid of tackling the big guns on Capitol Hill. The dynasty was born with privilege and inevitable, prosperous political futures. Bobby, John and Ted adopted civil rights and urban poverty as their foundation, giving back to the other America they were lucky enough to have never lived in. The media has been painting Barack Obama and John Edwards as the next John and Bobby but it has fallen short – it’s like Camelot-lite.

In June of 1966 at the University of Cape Town, Robert Kennedy said, “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends out a tiny ripple of hope.” Forty-two years later, we may be seeing another drop in the pond, another ripple of hope.

Voices From the Street
Ending Homelessness: Part II

A couple issues ago this paper covered the State Commission’s Five Year Plan to End Homelessness. I thought, for the most part, it was a good plan. It had some teeth and it may actually work. However, I also said there would be obstacles to making this plan work, and wouldn’t you know it? One of those obstacles dropped in my lap.

A few days ago I read a Boston Globe article about Governor Deval Patrick’s $10 million proposal to fund the meat and potatoes part Housing First, which basically puts people into housing and provides them with the services they need to keep it. There were some positive parts of the story...but then the article seemed to take a negative tone, not towards the Governor, but towards the whole notion of making Housing First work. The recurring theme of the article seemed to be Why are we going to invest all this time and money for these people and When is this ever going to work?

I was more than a little shocked by the tone of this article, and I was a little surprised to find this in the Globe. When it comes to Homelessness they’re generally fair and objective. Not so much this time. I was so angered by this article that I wrote a letter to the editor (naturally they didn’t print it). But the beauty of having your own column is that you can still get your point across.

It’s Not Comcastic

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) held a controversial hearing in Austin Hall at the Harvard Law School Monday, February 25. The conference dealt with the Internet service provider, Comcast, and its attempts to block, or otherwise hinder “peer 2 peer” file sharing programs and whether or not corporations and government agencies, such as the FCC, should be able to regulate the web. Representatives from networks Comcast and Verizon, representatives from the file-sharing program, Bit Torrent, engineers and other experts in the industry presented their cases and answered questions from the FCC.

A major issue the conference attendees addressed was network (or net) neutrality. Net neutrality is the belief that the Internet should remain largely unregulated. According to Savetheinternet.com, a website dedicated to promoting freedom on the internet, net neutrality means that Internet Service Providers, such as Comcast, cannot discriminate against websites by slowing down or speeding up web content. The case caught the attention of the FCC when it was discovered that Comcast was deliberately slowing down content from the “peer 2 peer” file-sharing program Bit-Torrent. File-sharing programs like Bit Torrent allow users to trade large amounts of data, including copyrighted material such as movies and albums, at high rates of speed.

Diary of a Fallen Angel, A Novel by William Dean Collins

Chapter 3: The Renegade Lion of the Black Forest

So, here we have the spirit of Lord Gladismere, still contained inside of the Spirit Condenser, awaiting three things before the melding process is complete. The first thing he awaits is the sacrifice of the dreaded Renegade Lion. The second thing is the Spirit Splitting, (a very dangerous incantation, which if done incorrectly means annihilation for all involved). And finally, if all else goes well, the Enhancer Spell, which would enable to enhance the portion of Lord Gladismere’s Spirit that’s outside of the Spirit Condenser to a formidable degree, so it will function as a complete spirit! Also, the Enhancer Spell would work as an alleviator of pain for Lord Gladismere, both inside and outside of the Spirit Condenser. Being totally free from all pain will allow Lord Gladismere to think more clearly and function as a normal entity would function on the planet Earth.
Although the Three Witches of Fate have less powerful witches under their command to do a lot of their “dirty work,” the sacrifice and killing of the dreaded Renegade Lion of the Black Forest is far too important a task to leave in the hands of underlings. So the witches have decided that they themselves will take upon the task of finding the dreaded Renegade Lion of the Black Forest.
The first step of this most deadly assignment will be to locate the famed mythical creature. This alone will be a battle in itself, since the Lion’s main hunting ground is on the Labyrinth Path of the Black Forest.
Now the Labyrinth Path is one of the most dangerous locations in the Black Forest. It is by far the most dangerous path of the four major paths that lead to the Morbid Lake, a stagnant lake in the center of the Black Forest. It is an extremely large and deep basin filled with dead carcasses and other putrid matter. Creatures living in the Black Forest go there to die. It also just happens to be one of the favorite dining places in the Black Forest for the Three Witches of Fate.
The Labyrinth Path itself is a seldomly used path to get to the Morbid Lake, because of its many side roads, dead ends and caves. The Beaver Path (named because it was chiefly built by beavers gnawing down leaves) is the clearest and most frequently traveled path of the four major paths that lead to the Morbid Lake. The Eagle Path is a path that extends from the Morbid Lake all the way to the high grounds of the Evergreen Mountain, located some 28 to 30 miles north of the Morbid Lake. This jagged mountain range is home to a major portion of Zealots, a Christian Sect so named for their zeal for the Lord Jesus Christ. The Zealots journey daily all the way to the Wild Wood Cathedral, which is at least 10 miles southwest of the base of the Evergreen Mountains. All the members of the Wildwood Cathedral are devour Zealots and pray daily.
The Snake Path, which is the longest path of the four major paths, is about a hundred miles in length. The path begins in the deep south of he Black Forest, extends northward in a snake-like fashion and ends at the southern base of the Morbid Lake. The only other lake in Smalltown is the Fresh Water Lake, which is some 50 miles due south of the stagnant Morbid Lake. Out of the four major paths that lead to the Morbid Lake, only the Snake Path leads to both the Morbid Lake and the Fresh Water Lake.
So, who is this dreaded Renegade Lion of the Black Forest? And why is he a renegade?
The Renegade Lion of the Black Forest was actually born of normal parents. You could just call him a freak of nature! I mean, how many Lions do you know that have wings? This special attribute that the Renegade Lion has (wings) is the reason why he was branded an outcast amongst his own pride, and all the other prides in the Black Forest. The fear of being overcome by him in battle was the primary motivating factor of all the male lions, who were responsible for the ousting of this fantastic creature. Sentenced by the majority to spend the duration of the rest of his life on the Labyrinth Path is a severe reconciliation, even to a winged lion!
For the first seven years of his life, the dread lion was allowed to live among his peers, but he fact that he was twice the size, ten times as fast and could fly made him unlikable. He could make a kill quicker and more often than anyone else. Furthermore, all the lionesses objected to a male lion doing their duty better than them, so he had to go.
The male lions in the Black Forest have a sort of hierarchy among themselves. Law #1, Article 1: Never outdo a Lioness!!! This was the main breech of the law of the land that the dread lion transgressed. He thought he had been impressing all the lionesses by helping them kill their prey (it is the lioness’s job to do all the killing, not the lion’s), but in reality, all he had done was create resentment and dissent. But the truth of the matter is that the Renegade Lion is a superior hunter in every regards to any lion or any other known creature in the Black Forest.
The Renegade himself is majestically proportioned: standing on all fours he is exactly eight feet at the shoulders! His claws, (or talons, if you like) are a stealthy six inches in length on each claw. (That’s twenty-four inches of cutting power on each paw). While the average male lion tips the scales at about 800 lbs, the wings of the Renegade Lion alone weigh 400 lbs. Added to his body weight of 1600 lbs. For a total combined weight of 1 ton! He can run on his feet for up to 100 miles per hour, for a 30 second period at a time, needing only about a 10 minute resting period to repeat his performance. His wingspan is a good ten feet on each wing, and he can maintain a top flying speed of 200 miles per hour all day long.
Before the Renegade Lion had been ousted by the members of his family, his disposition was as any other lion. However, since that time, the Renegade Lion’s heart had grown colder and colder because of his lost inheritance. As time went by, he became meaner and meaner because he was loved by no one, not even his own.