AUSTIN ADVOCATE

By Lindsay Dalmoline

St. Edward’s University sophomore Kacy McCoig had what every college student dreams of for spring break; a free plane ticket to Cancun, paid in full by her own mother. McCoig declined. She and four other St. Edward’s students had already made their own Spring Break plans. They wanted to be homeless for five days on the streets in Austin.

McCoig joined Shyda Hogue, Robby Haddad, Paul Hagey, and Stephanie Daniel on the streets through Urban Plunge, a program St. Edward’s Campus Ministry offers students as an alternative spring break. Anna Aldave, the programs founder and director, also accompanied the students for their five days on the streets. From 5am till late evening, they learned how to cope as a homeless man or woman would. The group ate at soup kitchens and churches, tried panhandling, attended “church under the bridge” (a worship service beneath I-35), built friendships with others living on the streets, and slept at Central Presbyterian Church downtown at night.

“Slowly you start to realize the rhythm of the homeless life,” Hagey said. “The food, being out all day and not having a place to really sit down and relax, it wears you out. You get caught in the rhythm, and it’s hard to get out because you’re tired and you’re hungry.”

The experience was made more trying by citizens of Austin and some of the homeless themselves. On the streets, they received dirty looks and rude comments from people in passing. When panhandling, they felt worthless and ignored. Some of the homeless felt that the urban plungers were usurping resources devoted to them.

But not all of homeless felt that way about the two year-old program. Most of the men and women living on the streets they met were extremely friendly and helpful and understood why the group was out on the streets.

McCoig was overwhelmed by the advice from the homeless. “They would tell us which churches and soup kitchens offered the best meals.”

The non-housed even shared personal stories from their lives. When walking downtown back to the Presbyterian Church, a fifty-something year old homeless man named Mark runs up to the group. He’d seen them on the news earlier that morning and wanted to share his story with them. He was homeless because his medical bills had escalated out of control. As a veteran, he was unable to pay for housing on top of his treatments for cancer, as he had just recently been diagnosed. He was college-educated, a Christian, and trying to get off the streets.

“These guys (the homeless) are the best spiritual teachers I have ever seen,” commented Aldave. “I feel so very loved and accepted by these people. That’s the thing that my mind cannot even comprehend, and that’s the thing that will have me doing this as a spiritual discipline probably for the rest of my life.”

Aldave started the Urban Plunge program a year ago at St. Edward’s. The idea stemmed from a 1-day street retreat she attended that was hosted by a group called the Faithful Fools from San Francisco. Aldave, a campus minister, was so blown away by the experience she brought a similar program to the Austin area. The goal of the program is to build a bridge between the housed and non-housed and to show compassion for those without homes.

Recruiting students to apply for the Urban Plunge program is not easy. Most of the students who apply are the ones who really have a desire to do it. McCoig wanted to do it to get away from the mundane day-today life, and she knew that Urban Plunge was her opportunity. She might not have had the sunny white beach and beautiful ocean, but her time on the streets have given her more perspective than a pretty little island ever could.

“I thought it would be a lifechanging experience, and that’s what it has been,” said McCoig

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The Capitol Area Food Bank of Texas
By Christopher Shea

Bank of Texas (CAFB) has been providing food and other grocery products for its central Texas partners for over twenty years. Now in its 23rd year, CAFB has over 340 partner agencies in 21 central Texas counties and there are over 150 in Travis County alone. The food bank, located at 8201 South Congress, just north of Slaughter Lane, serves as a clearinghouse by receiving truckloads of donated food and other grocery products. It is at that location where members of the CAFB staff inspect and sort all products they receive. After that, the products are shipped out to soup kitchens, church food pantries, homeless shelters, and other similar social service agencies in manageable quantities for distribution to people in need of a little help.

Every week, the Capital Area Food Bank distributes more than 240,000 pounds of food and grocery products to neighbors in need throughout Central Texas. The CAFB Foundation can help ensure that its member agencies and their clients never have a lack of access to high-quality food and grocery products. That’s over 15 million pounds a year!!

Organizations such as Fresh Food For Families distributes large quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, bread, juice and other perishable foods at pre-set times each month at neighborhood centers and housing projects in low-income neighborhoods.

Many Fresh Food For Families participants are elderly neighbors living on a fixed income. The Foundation can help ensure that a variety of fresh produce is available at all Fresh Food For Families sites.

The Healthy Options Program for the Elderly, or HOPE, provides senior citizens living on a fixed income with supplemental staple groceries on a monthly basis. These groceries help combat hunger and malnutrition for our elderly neighbors.

Kids Cafe partners with existing after school tutoring or mentoring programs to provide a hot, nourishing evening meal several nights a week for children from poor families. The Foundation can help keep existing sites operating while also providing for potential expansion of Kids Cafe to additional sites.

Each week the Rural Food Delivery program transports 80,000 - 100,000 pounds of perishable and packaged foods to centrally located sites in rural communities that are easily accessible for the more remote member agencies.

How does the food bank work?

Each partner agency places its order from a shopping list of available products and then picks up the food at the Food Bank Distribution Center or at a Rural Food Delivery location.

The agency stocks its pantry shelves with food from the Food Bank and then provides the food directly to individuals and families, either in the form of bags of groceries to take home or prepared meals served on-site at the agency.

In addition to food and grocery products, the Food Bank provides training in safe food handling and sanitation for partner agency staff and volunteers. They also furnish nutrition information through a newsletter and classes in menu planning.

The CAFB delivers the food orders to agencies in outlying communities to assure the freshness of perishable products and they continuously monitor and inform the agencies about legislation that may affect their programs.

What does all this cost?

The agencies pay a handling fee, called shared maintenance, of no more than 12¢ per pound for the amount of food they receive.

All perishable foods, like fresh produce, bread, and dairy goods are free.

Shared maintenance covers 31% of the Food Bank’s budget and helps defray the costs of transporting food and running freezers and coolers. All other services (training, delivery, nutrition information) are free to partner agencies.

Each year, CAFB partner agencies save millions of dollars by getting their food at the Food Bank. That’s money that these agencies can use to shelter, treat, train, counsel, intervene, protect, educate, rehabilitate, house and comfort more individuals and families than they would have been able to if they had to use their limited resources to buy food.

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The Police Monitor's Office
By Brenda Curran

Austin went for a long time without having a Police Monitor. But finally in February of 2002 the OPM was opened. Before there was a Police Monitor, there was a Police Oversight Focus Group established to examine the issue of civilian oversight of the Austin Police Department. This Group issued its final report in April 2000 and recommended that a Police Monitor be hired by the City Manager and that a Police (Citizen) Review Panel be appointed by the Austin City Council.

The City negotiated with the Austin Police Association over a new contract, which would include a civilian oversight process. The decision to include the union was based on a desire to give police officers a stake in the outcome and make them more willing to support the success of civilian oversight.

The result of the negotiation between the City of Austin and the Austin Police Association was Exhibit “B” to the Agreement Between the City of Austin and the Austin Police Association, March 25, 2001 to September 26, 2003. It stated, in pertinent part that: “The City of Austin and the Austin Police Department have agreed that a role and process for civilian oversight of the Austin Police Department is desirable and will enhance effective law enforcement in the community.”

After negotiations were completed, the City set out to hire Austin’s first Police Monitor. After nearly a year-long process, City Manager Jesus Garza announced the appointment of Iris Jones on January 16, 2002. Ms. Jones worked diligently from the day she was appointed until the office officially opened developing complaint forms, logs, a record keeping process and numerous other procedures for the effective operation of the office which was consistent with and in compliance with Exhibit “B” of the contract.

The Police Monitor, Iris J. Jones, opened the doors to the Monitor’s Office on February 11, 2002, with a newly developed complaint form, clipboard and pen, at the temporary offices in Two Commodore Plaza. The first complaint was received the next day. Ms. Jones was interviewed by several television stations in order to let the public know that the Police Monitor’s office was now open. Ms. Jones immediately began her Internal Affairs training, police academy training and her ride-alongs with police officers in each of Austin’s seven sectors. Her first hire was Elizabeth Pugliese as a Compliance Specialist. Ms. Pugliese began work on March 25, 2002.

Internal Affairs and Police Academy Training for some of the Citizen Review Panel members and Ms. Pugliese commenced in May which included certain issues likely to give rise to citizen complaints. The Police Academy training and all subsequent required trainings were videotaped to make it easier to train future staff and panel members.

Flynn Lee, a member of the Citizen Review Panel resigned in order to take a full-time position as a Compliance Specialist. He officially began work on June 3, 2002.

During the first year, the OPM worked on the Sophia King shooting which took place on June 11, 2002. In October of 2002, Chief Stan Knee accepted the recommendation that the Sophia King shooting case be referred to an Independent Investigator.

Drafting of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) for the conduct of an Independent Investigation began immediately. By the end of the week, an RFP (request for proposal) was issued requesting interested law firms to submit proposals. On November 8, the firm of Bellinger & DeWolf was hired.

The law firm announced its intention to re-interview the officers at the scene on November 14, 2002; the APA filed a request for a temporary restraining order on that same day. It was granted, halting the Independent Investigation. A hearing on the APA’s request for a temporary injunction was held on November 25, 2002, in Judge Paul Davis’ courtroom. The next day, the judge granted the temporary injunction and set a trial on the matter for February 18, 2003 (the trial was subsequently continued).

On February 12, 2004 APD released the records pertaining to the King shooting. This record contained about 200 pages of witness statements, diagrams and a videotape of King’s East Austin apartment.

The records did not include the internal affairs investigation or an independent investigation into King’s death. The independent investigation, conducted by Dallas lawyer Steve DeWolf, appears to exonerate police officer John Coffey, but it could not be released because of the city’s contract with the police union.

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Godson
Fiction by Gabe Greer

Have you smelled Godlately? All I can smell is myself. The acrid scent of cheap tobacco wafting through yellowed whiskers reminiscent of cool fall days with plenty of smoke. The impurities left over from last night’s fiasco seep through my dingy shirt reminding me why my head is pounding, why the steaming coffee tastes so good. The Baptists brew a decent cup of instant, nothing compared to the high dollar blends the starched shirts are drinking, but as the steam drifts away from my murky cup I am content.

It is fascinating to me how God flows with the seasons. My buddy Harold does not mention Jesus, Mary or the Holy Ghost, April through October. As soon as the temperature drops below fifty degrees he begins to suffer from hyper religiosity. I would almost feel sorry for his case if it did not go right together with the coming of winter. Soon as he feels a chill on his neck here they come. Joseph, Peter, Jacob, Paul, Mathew, John and Jesus back from two millenniums of slumber to speak through Harold. Bequeathing only him the sound mind of a religious fanatic. Methodist Monday, Presbyterian Tuesday, a Unitarian on Wednesday as long as the roof is solid and the meals hot he can preach a gospel to scare the pants off any doomsday preacher. Hell, fire, and brimstones cannot compare to Harold’s demons of delirium sent down by God on high to strike down the humbled man who has led himself away from the righteous path. Tattered and cold Harold’s congregations would crowd around with intensity in their eyes ready to catch a warm draft from the flames that Harold spat like an angry furnace. Straight through the November winds, the December chills and the January rains, Harold would preach. Reaching out to God’s cold children, giving them each a brief warm instant of light to hold, to cherish to bathe in. Sometimes in late February a warm week or two might take Harold from his religious hovel back to his favorite spot in the park. There you could see him basking in glorious rays of sunshine, sipping a cool beverage so as not to become too overwhelmed by the heat so soon after a harsh winter. Early March never failing to drop some cool rain on Harold’s parade would send him packing right back to his congregations at the Army or on Nueces. Who with open arms welcome back his eccentrics if only for a few weeks to lose him again to a shade tree in the park and a cool drink wrapped in paper for insulator purposes of course. The tobaccos smoke wafting away as Harold’s demons change from icy fiends to warm winds and cool breezes off the water.

As for myself, I do not follow Harold’s trail. The shelters are crowded, people are sick. My bedrolls warm enough. There is nothing illegal about building a fire in one of the park pits to stay warm. A nip here a nip there to fend off the cold and sickness. I stick to my ways. There are plenty of places that stay dry year round. I do not mind sharing my space. A few extra bodies make it seem warmer anyway. And when the sun does peek out in December it makes you realize why you chose to be this way. The bonfires under the bridge in Travis Heights, snuggling into the bamboo at Pease, gabbing at the Sunken Gardens until the sun goes down listening to someone’s sad guitar. It all comes together for me. I want nothing more. The sick feeling I get when I think about the family that I had the rent and the bills. Stretching everything out to make the most. Conserve the money. F**k the money. Of course I want it, but I see too many people everyday in their luxury cars, phones stuck to their well-groomed heads and frowns creasing their brow. Is that what they wanted? Was that their dreams? Misery surrounded by taxable luxury items. I prefer my happiness surrounded by people who share my viewpoints. Not that I do not envy the folks in Hawaii with their 365 days of sun and tourists throwing away whole foods and drink. But I hear you go crazy out there. Least that is what my buddy from Cali says. So for now I am content to face the Texas winter which on the grand scale of things is a far cry from the Grand Pooh-Bah of chilliness. Content to watch Harold slip back and forth from spring reveler to winter messiah.

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No Apocalypse

Who will buy the next presidency? Will it be another four years in favor of privileged freedom or will there be democracy based on military prowess. Either way, both Republicans and Democrats interpret social needs as a reflection of trends and culture.

Trends and culture, are and have been manipulation tools by past and would be gods on Earth. The majority of rational people believe in some form of spiritual entity. A minority of very opportunistic individuals abuse that belief. Those petty would be gods use conventional education to gain material excess. They turn around and confuse the opportunity to succeed by inserting money as the only means to harmonious living.

Religion is another “Rally the Troops and Circle the Wagons” tool. A war mentality based on fear, grounded in ancient fight or flight response, is easily manipulated to commit atrocities. The Knowledge tree was demonized to disrespect the fruits of the Earth. The Cain and Able parable is classic patriarchal control. Cain’s knowledge of plants was marginalized by the male God in favor of husbandry (the care and feeding of livestock). I am the road to heaven, do not smite me or I will strike you down.

Trends and Culture must be revamped to deny War mentality and enhance cohabitation with all there is. We must demonstrate to our impressionable youth that their future will be peaceful and healthy. The left and right hemispheres must learn balance and acceptance of one another.

Tumen Soliz

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Things We Can Learn from a Dog
Submitted by our Number One Vendor - Alfred Mendiola

1. Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joy ride
2. Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstacy
3. When loved ones come home, always run to greet them
4. When it’s in your best, always practice obedience
5. Let others know when theyve invaded your territory
6. Take naps and always strech before rising
7. Run, romp and play daily
8. Eat with gusto and enthusiasm
9. Be loyal
10. Never pretend to be something your’re not
11. If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it
12. When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently
13. Delight in the simple joy of a long walk
14. Thrive on attention and let people touch you
15. Avoid biting when a simple growl will do
16. On hot days, drink lots of wter and lie under a shady tree
17. When you are happy, dance around and wag your entire body
18. No matter how often you are criticized, don’t buy into the guilt thing and pout. Run right back and make friends

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It Could Be Me

I sit here in my comfy chair
And think of all I have to share
I have a roof over my head
I get to sleep my nights in bed

Many there are who don’t have much
A bedroll, bag and other such
Things they carry as they go
From place to place, they never know

From day to day where home might be
Under a bridge or on the street
They eat a hot meal when they can
A soup and sandwich for every man

Just take a ticket at the door
This drill is well known to the poor
Who knows how things get this way
Without a home, a place to stay

He once was working just like us
He drove a car, he rode the bus
He paid his bills and had a life
Then there came a hill of strife

Now he’s a man who totes his things
A paycheck home he does not bring
Who knows how things get this way
Without a home, a place to stay

Makes me think it could be me
Without a schedule but not free
Who knows how things get this way
Without a home, a place to stay

Donia Caspersen Crouch

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