AUSTIN ADVOCATE

Homeless Fight Back
By Richard Troxell

Photo by Sam Cole

Fighting back against an epidemic of hate crimes and hate language directed at our nation’s homeless citizens, forty members of House the Homeless took on Best Buy.

Best Buy, along with Amazon.com, Target, Birgin Mega Stores, Tower Records, FYE Entertainment, Barnes & Nobles, and Borders (all national retailers), have been selling hate videos that defile people experiencing homelessness. Best Buy failed to join other retailers in stopping these sales and meeting a June 1, 2004 deadline set by the National Coalition for the Homeless. This author followed up certified letters by making numerous phone calls to Best Buy both locally and nationally, but to no avail. On Tuesday, June 15th at 10:00 am House the Homeless held a full blown press conference and educational picket at the Best Buy at Highway 290 and MoPac.

The ranks of the picket line swelled to 40 picketers when youths from LifeWorks joined the growing number of protesters from House the Homeless. Media from channels 36, 24, 42, News 8 Austin, and the Austin American Statesman gave witness to the demonstration that resulted in the following statement just hours after the public outcry for justice began:

“Best Buy shares the community’s concern about issues related to violence against the homeless, and we understand our obligation to customers to monitor the products on our shelves. We will not be carrying (the videos or DVDs in the future.)”

Sweet Victory! As of this writing, FYE Entertainment is the only national retailer that continues to carry these debasing films.

Photo by Sam Cole

At the educational picket, House the Homeless in conjunction with the National Coalition for the Homeless, also released the fifth annual Hate Crimes Report citing 131 murders and 281 acts of violence committed against persons experiencing homelessness over the last five years. These hate crimes took place in 119 US cities. The crimes include: beatings with baseball bats, rapes, shootings, and immolations. The report was simultaneously released in Cleveland, OH. In Los Angeles, actor Mike Ferrell of *MASH* fame and Senator John Conyers in Washington, DC also released the report at the same time.

The Hate Crimes Report which shows hate crimes against homeless persons includes last June’s terrorist act when several young men drove around in a pickup for several days shooting homeless people in Austin, TX. James Clements taking blood thinners almost bled to death when he was struck several times with pellets.

Just one week prior to the release of the report and the educational picket, a hate video destined for retail sales was confiscated and four young American terrorists in Cleveland, OH were arrested. They were sneaking up on unsuspecting homeless people and stunning them with 50,000 volts of electricity in their groins and throats while they slept. (The perpetrators are under arrest and awaiting prosecution.)

Since the report, a homeless man has received third degree burns when he was doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire in Corpus Christi, TX.

Also since the report, a New York City homeless woman was stoned to death when gang “wanna-bes” left her blood on thirty bricks.

This is an abomination! These atrocities must be stopped now. This is very similar to the time just prior to World War II when Adolph Hitler started his “cleansing” practices. His efforts began with hate language such as calling a person a “transient.” This gives the impression that a person is just “passing through” and therefore is not a part of the community. Gypsies and people with disabilities were decried as weak, inferior, and somehow of a lesser human value. Jews were similarly targeted and eventually millions of people were exterminated in the Holocaust. History is repeating itself if we let it. Businesses are making money from the misery of others and gangs are beheading homeless people as part of initiation rights as happened in Denver, CO two years ago.

The next time you are standing at the water cooler and someone makes a joke about “some homeless bum” making a fortune by standing on a Texas street corner in 100 degree heat; or starts to tell an off-color joke about how “Welfare mothers make better lovers,” stop them right there. Tell them, “Hey, man that ain’t cool.”

Check out www.nationalhomeless.org/hatecrimes to see the entire report and learn what else you can do to stop the hate. House the Homeless and the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) recommend:

1. A public statement by the US Department of Justice that hate crimes against people experiencing homelessness is a serious national trend.

2. That the Department of Justice join NCH in keeping a national data base of these hate crimes.

3. Inclusion of “housing status” in the pending state and federal hate crimes legislation.

4. Passage of the Homeless Protected Class Resolution (www.HousetheHomeless.org)

5. Sensitivity and Awareness training at police academies and departments nationwide on proper interactions with persons experiencing homelessness.

6. A US General Accounting Office (GAO) investigation into the nature and scope of hate crimes committed against people experiencing homelessness.

In Unity there is strength. Let us come together and end the curse we call homelessness.

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Doing All They Can: Church Under the Bridge
By Emily DePrang

At first, they are a shady bunch. The morning is grey and they are huddled together, hoodies up, hands in pockets, not speaking. It is nine, cool, and the overpass at 7th and I-35 is like a wind tunnel. Our pants cling to our legs; cigarettes are hard to light. The only sign that I am in the right place is the white van that pulls up and parks. Out of it climb two men who set up a folding table with Styrofoam cups, coolers of water, condiments, coffee and pastries. This is, after all, church.

An orderly line forms. As churchgoers shuffle through, they share politely and in silence. The two men unload a black Roland synthesizer. Then they face each other, hold both hands, and pray. The larger man’s bleached blonde hair flaps in his face.

The smaller man, in jeans, a white tee shirt and a teal windbreaker, has a slight build and an anxious expression. After the prayer, he stands behind the synthesizer and begins to sing with his eyes shut. “It’s your kindness, Lord, that leads us to repentance…” Without a mike, his voice is carried off by the wind. The man with bleached hair sits in a plastic chair and noodles with a purple electric guitar. A bearded man all in black arrives wearing a cross necklace and fingerless gloves. He lies down on the concrete between them and drums along with one hand, his other hand pointing at the roof of the overpass. Church Under the Bridge has begun.

Church Under the Bridge is part of a Mission Possible!, described as “a non-denominational effort to mobilize Christians to share the hope of Christ with people in the inner city.” Begun in 1991 with only 40 attendees, this multi-church effort now serves as many as 550 homeless every Sunday with bilingual sermons, a hot meal, clothing, blankets, and sleeping bags.

Billed as happening “from nine to ten,” CUB is actually an old-school all-morning affair. Nine to ten is just the social hour. From the early risers waiting for the coffee van, the congregation grows steadily in numbers and vigor. People start chatting and joking, greeting one other as though they had only just arrived. A game of hackey-sack swells and diminishes. A second white van pulls up and distributes bacon and egg breakfast tacos.

Jaime leaps from his seat on a concrete divider, heads for the van and returns with two foil-wrapped tacos. He holds them up: “Lunch and dinner!” He is twenty-something, has a jaunty smile, a cherubic face and wavy black locks teased by the wind. His friends, Carmel and Daniel, grin. Carmel, blonde and demure, has come to Austin to be homeless because she heard the weather was temperate and the city less dangerous. Her friends affirm her choice. “Austin is one of the best places to be homeless,” says one man. “[People] do care about them. In Orlando, it’s illegal to be homeless. I dozed off waiting for a bus one day and got ten days in jail.”

Eighteen year-old Daniel nods. His lined face belies his age while his earnest, searching green eyes betray it. He watches me write this down. He points to the page and dictates to me, “Although they were young at heart, they have a great burden on their shoulders, because they are homeless,” he says. I write it down. He seems pleased.

The taco van departs and from the other side of the underpass, a massive bus pulls in. Its side reads, “Mission Possible! Reaching the inner city through the church.” It parks and lowers a wooden stage from its side on chains. The platform’s edges are papered in Christian bumper stickers in English and Spanish, and its plywood back is hung with coiled electrical cords. Jaime and Daniel dutifully run over to help set up rows of folding metal chairs.

A Hispanic man in a checked blue shirt and tie, blue jeans and work boots climbs onstage with a mike and points to the crowd milling just beyond the rows. “You are soldiers of the cross!” he barks happily. “Come over!”

Many do. His presence has a gravitational pull. As he paces the stage, he stops often to hunch over and beam into the crowd. His eyes sparkle above his high cheekbones in the middle of a wide, childlike face. He takes his time, repeating himself in English and Spanish, slowing down for emphasis and demanding regularly, “Lez geev another clap to the Lord! Hallelujah!”

“The government hated Jesus because He was a minority!” he says. His mike cuts in and out.

“Going to church everyday cannot save you. Haffing the biggest King James Bible under your arm cannot save you.” He mimes walking with a giant book, then wheels and points back into the crowd “Only Jesus can save you!” He throws his free hand in the air. “Geev another clap to the Lord! Hallelujah!”

His throng grows, filled out by a vanful of white teenagers from a local youth group that has come to help serve the day’s meal. They are mostly young women in shiny ponytails and Christian tee shirts, and when the preacher prays, they all lower their heads and raise both hands, palms uplifted. Intermingled with their Keds are dozens of pairs of ill-fitting shoes.

Jaime, Daniel, and Carmel do not join the crowd, but neither do they ignore it. They sit apart, leaning against a column of the overpass and talking quietly. The morning has warmed and the group has grown large and docile. Everyone is waiting for lunch. Daniel wiggles his eyebrows. “Catfish,” he says.

While some see charities like CUB in the simple terms of who is giving and receiving the catfish, Tim Pinson Sr., the pastor who started Church Under the Bridge, sees a more profound and complex equation. “What is the response to the people who we see on the streets? Why are they there and why are they trying to get something from us?” he asks, in an article entitled “The People or Their Problem: Replacing Condemnation with Compassion.” “Why does it seem like these people want to bother us, and why should we even respond to them at all?”

He answers himself, “God makes it clear throughout the whole of Scripture that He takes a special interest in these people and that His response to them is one of compassion. If we choose to distance ourselves from the disadvantaged, we also distance ourselves from the approval of God and His blessings (see Isaiah 58). In order for us to have this kind of response we need to understand why God has compassion on any of us.”

By building his ministry on this question—of why any of us are worthy of compassion—Pinson inverts the usual dynamic and creates a charity that is righteous without being self-righteous.

Bill Filipponi, the guitar player, is a huge fan of Pinson’s. “This is my church of choice,” he says “A lot of churches come and you never see them again. When Tim started, he said ‘Are you ready for the long haul? Because the Bible says the poor will be with us always.’ And he’s still here.”

While Pinson is not in physically attendance, his son, Tim Pinson, Jr., gives the second sermon of the day.

Mr. Filipponi, who joined the CUB volunteers a few months ago, was homeless for eight years after a 40-foot fall on a construction site left him unable to work. “A lot of people depend on [CUB] for the fellowship. When you’re down and out, you cry often on the inside, because you want someone to understand you.”

While homeless, Mr. Filipponi attended CUB meetings and found hope and assistance there. “Now, “he says, “I’m married. I’m off the streets, I’m a musician, I have a house. And all because I took a leap of faith. [God] fed me and took care of me until I was healed. Now I can come back and serve. “

He looks out at the crowd. “The homeless—it’s like another race. The faces are getting younger and younger all the time.”

The sermon concludes and the congregation circles for their final prayer. The circle is vast, almost reaching either side of the overpass. The preacher prays into his mike and then invites others to speak. One man accepts, and although his voice is inaudible to most of the crowd, they are silent and still. Another man’s prayer turns into a sweet coo of a capella gospel. As he sings, the drummer in black taps along on a back of a metal chair, spinning his sticks and nodding. A siren wails overhead.

As soon as folding tables full of food are set up, the line is hundreds long. It snakes from one end of the overpass to the other and out into the sun. Jaime, Daniel, and Carmel adjourn; the line is too long for them. They will find something else to eat. They will also be back next week.

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Globalization and Labor
By Rochard Troxell

This is our third and final installment in a 3 part series that is exploring the effects of the Universal Living Wage on business. We will explore savings and how the Universal Living Wage would look on a world scale.

Tax Savings

With 3.5 million people experiencing homelessness in the United Sates this year alone14 and with 42% of them working at some point15 (clearly the work ethic is there), it is conservatively estimated that no fewer than 1,000,000 people (one-third) will be able to work themselves off the streets of America with the passage of the Universal Living Wage.16

While we tend to think of minimum wage workers as individuals, we find that they often are attempting to sustain more than just themselves on the minimum wage. According to the collaborative work of Dr. Stephanie Luce (Living Wages/ Building a Fair Economy) and Economics Professor Robert Pollin (his fifth such writing) there exists a U.S. minimum wage family. This family comprises four people, two children, and two adults, one of whom is working at the minimum wage.17 This means a significant amount of government subsidies is currently required to minimally sustain this family. With the enactment of the ULW, it is conservatively estimated that a tax savings of $10.7 billion per year can be realized.($10.7 billion per year in food stamp and welfare savings based on: a four-person family- one minimum wage worker, one spouse, and two children.)

According to the 2000 census there are:

10.1 million minimum wage workers18 65% of these include one or more members who work and yet must be subsidized ($1,627 savings per family) with food stamps, EITC, and MediCal19

10.1 mil $1,627x .65 x Z (6.565)= Z = $10,681,255,000 Tax Savings with Passage of the ULW

According to Robert Pullin and Dr. Stephanie Luce in the analytical book The Living Wage:

* the family reliance on non health related subsidies will fall by 16.1%
* the family will become dramatically more credit worthy . . . thus being able to avail themselves of more goods and services which in turn will serve to stimulate the local economy.20

Furthermore, according to Beth Schulman, author of: The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans and Their Families, these minimum wage jobs are no longer the employment/economic stepping stones of the past but rather the economic job plateaus at which people/families are stagnating now for years.21

Note: It is universally agreed that earning a dollar of income is far superior to being given a dollar of government support in terms of one's self-image or attitude toward life and work. We are not suggesting the termination of programs such as food stamps, but rather that they revert to the transitional, emergency stop gap assistance programs they were initially intended to be by U.S. Congress in serving layed-off workers, battered women, natural disaster victims, etc. By conservative estimates, it is likely that the Universal Living Wage campaign will end homelessness for more than one million minimum wage workers, and it will prevent economic homelessness for all 10.1 million minimum wage workers. The result of which will generate millions of dollars in savings to tax payers.

General Effects- Regional Living Wage Campaigns

We find that there are serious concerns in the business community about local living wage campaigns. It has been suggested these local campaigns that draw circles around geographic areas are potentially damaging to small businesses. In fact, this was the basis of resistance to a living wage initiative in San Antonio, TX where it was feared that large business could and would pull up stakes and relocate just outside of the newly proposed wage boundary or that businesses would be drawn away from the region. The President of the San Antonio Restaurant Association was quoted as saying, "We need to work with businesses to get businesses in San Antonio. Let's say for instance that Houston does not have a living wage and San Antonio does, and the PGA (Professional Golf Association) says, ˜I can go to Houston and get these incentives to come, and I'm not forced to pay this living wage.' So what's going to happen? Where are they going to go? They're going to go to Houston. (On the other hand) the federal minimum wage establishes a balance. It's all industries. It's nationwide. So there's a balance . . . "

-As reported in the San Antonio Express News 9/29/02 by Michelle Koivin

What effect will ULW have on business locating to a region?

For the most part, minimum wage jobs are support jobs. These low paying jobs are found in businesses such as the restaurant industry, janitorial, construction labor, landscaping, laundry, and the like. These are support type businesses. They support "principle" businesses that pay well above the minimum wage. Even when we immediately enact the Universal Living Wage, it will not affect the wages paid by these principal businesses to their lowest paid employees because they already pay more than the wages proposed under the Universal Living Wage. These minimum wage businesses will employ and lay off people based on their need to meet the support/service requirements of the principal businesses. If Intel Corp. moves to town, it does not make the decision to do so based on minimum, wage salary scales in as much as it does not generally employ workers at that low wage level. On the other hand, when Intel builds its offices it may contract employees such as construction laborers and ultimately landscapers who are minimum wage "support" workers, and once the facility is built, its workers will also need laundry services and restaurants, etc.

*Note: These support businesses do not ordinarily relocate independently of the principal businesses that they support. Clearly, in times of recession employees will be laid off but remember, support businesses will maintain the number of employees necessary to satisfy the needs of the principal business.

No doubt, there are a few businesses that are minimum wage industries. In Los Angeles there are the coat hanger industry and the garment industry. However, there is evidence of strong support of living wage jobs among employers even here. For example, Sweat X, with 43 employees, a multimillion dollar business in the heart of the garment industry has endorsed the Universal Living Wage.23 They recognize the benefits of paying living wages in that a stabilized work force is part of the cost of doing business and in the long run will reduce overall costs. In addition to Sweat-X, which is making sweat shirt apparel for America college students, is American Apparel, which is also in the garment industry with more than 1,000 employees. It too is a multimillion dollar corporation and recognizes the benefits of paying living wages and has endorsed this initiative.24 The employees and the wages they are paid are of equal importance to that of any other budgetary consideration. Furthermore, these budgetary considerations must be valued in an appropriate fashion whether the business is for-profit or nonprofit such as a community development corporation (CDC).

By recognizing the critical importance to the overall stability of a business, (especially a new one), steps can be taken that will greatly reduce the high percentage of failed small business start-ups. Each year, 50% of all new business start-ups fail in the United Sates. Within five years, no less than 80% of all new business start-ups fail.25 Clearly, they need to start with the most solid financial footing possible.

When small businesses approach the U.S. Small Business Administration for loans, they must be encouraged to raise the level of budgeting for employee wages to the same level of importance as that of the manufacturing budget. It should be raised to the same level of as that of the advertising budget and to that of transportation, geographic location and that of product design, development and engineering. In so doing, we can dramatically increase the percentage of success of these start-up businesses; increase the overall profitability of existing businesses and stimulate the economy generally.

Economic Stimulus Package

According to statistical surveys, minimum wage workers spend almost 100% of past wage increases right back into the economy thus creating quick economic growth and job creation.26As seen with the passage of the U.S. Fair Labor Standard Act in 193827 in response to the Depression, establishing a "living" wage similarly stimulates the overall demand for goods and services in the economy. Again, the family will become dramatically more credit worthy thus being able to avail themselves of more goods and more services.28 And the overall demand for goods and services will, in and of itself, increase demand for low wage workers as industry responds to this demand and stimulation.29Additionally, it is important to recognize that the difference between the existing U.S. Federal Minimum Wage and the Universal Living Wage is a considerable sum of money when calculated across the US. This difference represents an incredible national resource in as much as minimum wage consumers all need the same thing . . . affordable housing. Presently, housing, at this economic level, does not exist.30 Therefore, the enactment of the Universal Living Wage Initiative creates an incredible opportunity for the local construction industry across America. By responding to this need, the local construction industry will be able to benefit economically while providing an immeasurable service to the entire country. HSR Construction, a national housing construction company, based out of Austin, TX has recognized this early on and eagerly endorsed the Universal Living Wage Campaign.31 Clearly, this presents a true Economic Stimulus Package of enormous proportions.

Inflation Effects

Concern has been raised about what possible inflationary effects passage of the Universal Living Wage will have on consumer purchasing. First it is clear that when looking at manufacturing, there are a large number of economic factors that comprise the budgetary costs of producing a product. Among these are manufacturing, transportation, design, marketing, geographic location, warehousing, profit taking, employee training and finally employee wages. We feel that employee wages should rank of equal importance to that of these other important components. There is room within any budget to absorb the payment of reasonable minimum wages. Beyond this, there may indeed be an inflationary component to the stabilization of our nation's businesses. Just as business will need to cut back on their profit taking, likewise consumers will be asked to pay just a little more for goods and services. However, reportedly consumers have expressed a willingness to pay their "fair share" to help house our nation's minimum wage workers meeting a similar pledge of many of our nation's businesses. There are now more than 1,100 businesses, unions, religious groups, and nonprofits endorsing this initiative representing more than forty-five million registered voters.32

Overseas Job Loss

Of grave concern to both American business and American workers is the ever increasing loss of jobs overseas. However, as stated previously, minimum wage jobs in most cases are support jobs. Restaurant jobs, dry cleaning, landscaping, maids, retail sales people, warehousemen, construction workers, and many others are all support positions. If principal businesses expand, the need for these support minimum wage workers increases. As the principal businesses contract, so does the need for these support positions. However, these jobs are not about to be exported. These are local jobs and will remain local.33The critical thing to recognize is that they are local worldwide. This will be the true challenge to unions and workers in the new millennium. At this time, there is a proposed settlement in the four and a half month strike of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union immediately affecting 70,000 workers. The union is faced with agreeing to a divisive two-tiered wage system for future employees who do not yet exist or losing health benefits for its current workers. These are the jobs that cannot be outsourced to India or China. These jobs will be saturated with applicants from overqualified workers whose original jobs have been outsourced. It will become the "last stand" of unions and workers to protect and secure living wages and health benefits for these jobs in every nation throughout the world.

Living wages are good for both business and taxpayers. With the passage of the Universal Living Wage the base of America's work force will become stabilized and motivated. More than one million minimum wage workers will be able to work themselves off the streets of America. All 10.1 million minimum wage earners will be able to avoid economic homelessness. The local construction industry will receive a true economic stimulus package nationwide. And finally, taxpayers will realize a financial windfall both from averted subsidies and from avoiding extensive retraining costs.

Globalization and Labor

We have explored here one pragmatic approach to taking the existing U.S. Federal Minimum Wage standard and adapting it to the most basic needs of the United States minimum wage worker. We have done this to show the intricate steps needed to set a new economic benchmark that compliments a high moral standard. We have chosen the United States because it already embraces the moral premise that anyone working a certain number of hours should be able to afford the basic necessities of life. We are suggesting that once the United States has established this ethical standard in a workable fashion, the moral standard and general tenets can and will be exported/ replicated and embraced throughout the industrial world by every nation. Once this occurs, every nation and their people will gladly invite these transnational companies to bring their employment opportunities. Clearly it will still be to the economic advantage of employers to seek workers in places where wages are lower, but with this approach, people will be left financially intact when the companies leave. While they are there, the workers will enjoy basic living standards. Worldwide poverty will be positively affected and immigration issues will be favorably impacted.

This concludes our three part series entitled Universal Living Wage as it relates to globalization. To view the text in its entirety, find credits, end notes, to learn more about the Universal Living Wage, and to endorse on-line go to www.UnvirsalLivingWage.org.

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***** (of five)
Stephen Harrigan
THE GATES OF THE ALAMO
fiction
577 pp.
Knopf

April 21st, 1911 : the ninty-one year old Terrell Mott, former mayor of San Antonio, survivor of the battle of the Alamo and last survivor of the battle of San Jacinto rides in the Battle of Flowers parade in an open Buick touring car. At his side is his widowed daughter Parthenia, who ineffectually frets and worries over her father, mostly in a bid to garner attention for herself. For his part, Terrell has already entered that hazy, golden contentment that comes at the end of a full life.

THE GATES OF THE ALAMO is the story of Mary Mott, a widow, her son Terrell, and Edmund McGowan, a naturalist whose character is based on the real life Jean Louis Berlandier. There too are well known players, Travis, Bowie, Crockett, Cos, Santa Anna, as well as Comanches, Karankawa, Texian rebels, the Mexican army, and settlers. To Edmund the indian Quehtenet says eary in the novel, "We'll have plenty of fighting after the war is over, no matter who wins. Mexicans are no different from Texians, and the Texians are no different from Americans. They all want what belongs to the people." This sentiment is repeated later on: "No matter who wins, Texas will never be free again". In this version of the Alamo story, there are no heroes. Mr. harrigan presents to us flawed flesh and blood struggling through daily adversity, subcumbing to vice and occasional virtue as history erupts.

There are no heroes. It would have been easy (in some quarters obligatory) to present the players in this tragedy as stereotypes - villainous Mexicans, noble Texians, or for that matter Texians portrayed as murderous white supremist criminals. Mr Harrigan eshews these temptations to magnificent effect: the reader is treated to the intimacies of the human condition against a panorama of crashing historical forces.

Mr. Harrigan appeared at the San Antonio Public Library to launch this novel, and in a brief talk elaborated on the difficulties of eight years of historical research. And what is the end result of all this research? It is this, and be forewarned. It sends the reader wandering through the Alamo, brings him to read the names on the cenotaph, causes him to call Commerce Street calle Potrero; he visits what once to him were merely tourist attractions but which suddenly have become Historical Landmarks, and it sets him to wondering about the old Military Plaza, the Veramendi Palace, and a hundred other plkaces now long vanished. This is OUR epic, once and for all, and as big as any ever written.

S.G.F.

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Modern Lynching*
By Stephen G. Frischmuth

When an ex convict says that he was innocent of the charges that he was convicted on, the usual reaction is one of doubt. But it turns out that there may be thousands of wrongly convicted citizens, people who have lost their reputations, their property, their families, their employability- and on average have lost eleven years of their lives behind bars waiting for exoneration. A University of Michigan study, which was based on DNA exonerations concluded, "Any plausible guess at the total number of miscarriages of justice in America in the last fifteen years must be in the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands." (www.law.umich.edu/NewsAndInfo/exonerations-in-us.pdf)

These miscarriages of justice should come as no surprise. Our laws are not democratically derived, they are imposed. We don't get to vote on the laws by which we are governed, not NAFTA, not traffic law, not drug policy, none of it. Our laws are written by special interests that range from the insurance industry to M.A.D.D. Mothers, and are written solely for the benefit of the writers of those laws. Even people who've never been charged of a crime are subject to drug tests, background checks, credit checks and workplace surveillance by entities who are neither official or elected.

The law is biased as written, and it certainly is biased in its enforcement. "Innocent until proven poor" is a phrase that is almost as popular as "Driving while black", and behind both sentiments there is a lot of truth and bitterness. While racial profiling seems temporarily out of fashion, the police and their cronies will, by natural instinct, resort to profiling by class. This will give them roughly the same results, but will be entirely legal because economic apartied is what this country stands for.

A good law (and we can only imagine such a thing) is remedial. It remedies things. It makes a crime either unnecessary or impossible, has popular support and bestows the greatest good on the greatest number. Wouldn't it be nice to see all those cops re-deployed so they could check on whether the elderly have enough to eat, or the sick have plenty of medication, or that the children are warm enough in their homes? Sadly, knocking on doors isn't as sexy as kicking them in.

By the same token, bad law is driven by punitive r3eflex and a discriminatory motive, is dictated to the public, and seeks the greatest good for the smallest number. Bad law makes crime unavoidable. Justice, for its part, has become interested in generating greater numbers of convictions regardless of the guilt or innocence of the defendants, because this allows for ever bigger budgets. For the justice system, it is imperative that crime be made unavoidable.

D.N.A. exonerations have called all the sacred beliefs about our legal system into doubt. We can no longer assume the infallibility of confessions, eyewitness testimony, police testimony, the jury system, the adversarial process or the rational and scientific basis of law. The verifiable existence of racial and class bias, quotas, and the legal system's budgetary profit motive refute any notion of impartiality, which is the very essence of justice. And let there be little doubt- it is almost certain the state has executed an innocent person.

The Amadou Diallo and Abner Luima cases, the Tulia false arrests, the Rampart Division scandal, the Dallas Fake Drug scandal, the recovered memory convictions, the Fred Zain frauds, the Houston P.D. crime lab debacle, the Miami River Cops case, the San Diego illegal alien brutality case, the Rodney King beating, ongoing police corruption and cases and prosecutorial malfeasance and judicial corruption that spans the nation, these can no longer be considered "isolated incidents". There is a pattern, if anyone has the courage to look for it. There are now two million people in prison or jail in this country, and some of them are slated to die. Too many of these people are innocent, almost all of them are poor, and an unconscionable number are insane or feeble minded. At what point is our law conceded to be a despotism?

Our legal system is a tyranny on the people; it is racist and class obsessed industry that is antithetical to order and freedom. It knows no restraint, has no popular endorsement or accountability, is corrupt and unscientific, and is now larger than the hated Soviet gulag of old. This system has at long last no decency left, and it must end.

*With all due respect to Clarence Thomas

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Looking Down On Me?

He never was anything to me -- just a drunk. Out of pity, Poppa brought him home. The drunk had cancer and hadn't long to live. There weren't enough beds, so the drunk slept on the floor. I felt like kicking him when I walked by. Was he human or just a mangy dog? The drunk cooked -- the best omelette I had in years. He cooked potato wedges that were delicious. The drunk kept me company. I didn't have much company -- idiot savant that I am. He cleaned. He cooked and he cleaned and he kept me company as the cancer ate him from the inside out. But he never was anything to me -- just a drunk. He died. The preacher says that all drunks go to hell; but I also hear that all dogs go to heaven -- even mangy dogs. I wonder what he thinks as he sits there in heaven looking down on me?

Russell Tate

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Dismantle the CIA mentality

Peace talks that include economic stimulation inevitably abused by few at the expense of many.

Peace base on "Cave man ethics of survival" continues the spectre of violence.

Low expectation blamed on the poor is the dogma of non peace negotiators.

True peace does not hide behind State Secrets.

True peace should not mean soothing of the inner soul while blood and sweat tax dollars used to perpetuate hate.

True peace will not allow international money mongers as caretakers of social norm.

True peace will not allow tax dollars against the wishes of the indigenous of the world.

True peace will allow wise use of energetic youth unlike Tiananmen Square, Mexico City and Kent State.

True peace would have allowed 150 m.p.g. in 1990.

True peace will allow lions and tigers and bears their space free from the destruction of man.

True peace allows work cooperatives whose products benefit the masses.

True peace will allow land, food, clinics and schools to those in need of land, food, clinics and schools.

True peace will allow graceful aging instead of catastrophic illness.

True peace allows material wealth on your merit not the misuse of your intelligence.

True peace will invest our tax dollars only into necessary function industry.

Reinvest our energies away from greed and happy parent will breed happy kids.

True peace does not rely on God and the devil as much as common sense.

True peace will allow my baby girl a safe walk to the park and back.

Tumen Soliz

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