AUSTIN ADVOCATE

Bridge the Economic Gap Day
By Richard Troxell

The first Bridge the Economic Gap Day was held on Tuesday, September 6th, the day after Labor Day. Community groups from across the nation were asked the fly banners that read, "Bridge the Economic Gap with a Universal Living Wage" on over passes during rush hour from 4:30-6:30pm. All 50 states were represented in this call for economic justice. The Universal Living Wage Campaing, a committee of House the Homeless, sponsored the event.

Austin activists staked out five bridges to fly banners from for the event. The Austin Central Labor Council ALF-CIO, TSEU Texas State Employee Union CWA 6186, the St. Edwards Universal Living Wage Warriors and Austin Musicians were some of the representatives joining the Universal Living Wage Campaing for the banner flying.

House the Homeless believes that there are three key areas that need to be addressed in ending homelessness; they are: afforable housing, living wages, and health care. The Universal Living Wage Campaing was designed to bring focus to the issue of a living wage. This concern is baded on the premise that every person who works forty hours a week should be able to afford housing and other basic needs in the community in which they work.

In the United States, nearly one out of every four workers earns a wage that is too low to support a family and reasearch indicates that today's winimum-wage workers earn one-third less than their counterparts did nearly thirty years ago. In terms of the real value of money in the year 2000, minimum-wage workers in 1968 earned $7.92 an hour, compared to today's federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour.

For more information:
Universal Living Wage
http://www.universallivingwage.org/
National Coalition for the Homeless http://www.nationalhomeless.org/

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Brazil Nears Anniversary of Brutal Killings of Homeless
Paula Mathieu

Nearly a year has passed since a brutal two-night spree of attacks on sleeping street people in Sao Paulo, Brazil, has left seven dead and eight more seriously wounded. Despite public outcry, mounting evidence of police involvement, and ongoing public demonstrations, no arrests have been made in the case.

It all began in the predawn hours of August 19, 2004. August is wintertime in Brazil, and although it’s not frigid, nighttime temperatures hover at a chilly, damp 16 degrees Celsius. Of the estimated 10,000 homeless people in Sao Paulo, roughly 3,000 routinely sleep under bridges, in doorways, and subway entrances, rolled in cheap blankets from head to toe. When the sun came up that morning, panic hit the street inhabitants of the city center as word spread that 10 people had been hit in the head while sleeping. Two had died; four were seriously injured.

Several nights later, six more homeless people sleeping in the downtown area of São Paulo were attacked; and in the end a total of seven died as a result of their injuries, The victims were women as well as men, ranging in age from 28 to 71 years old. All were struck once in the head with a blunt instrument while asleep.

“The criminal was a professional; he used an instrument and beat their heads just once to kill them. He knew what he wanted,” said Alderon Costa, director of Rede Rua, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that works with homeless people in São Paulo.

Medical examination of the victims supported this suspicion. Antonio Carlos Iron, of the Legal Medical Institute who performed the autopsies, described the attacks as “technically perfect,” the work of someone who wanted to kill exactly.

These attacks occurred shortly before elections in Brazil, and politicians spoke out vigorously in the weeks following, calling for justice. The Mayor of Sao Paulo, Marta Suplicy, declared that she was “horrified” at the attacks and requested a public moment of silence to remember the victims. On September 1st, 2004, Patrus Ananias, the Minister for Social Development and Combating Hunger, promised to create a forum of ministers to discuss public policies concerning homelessness in Brazil.

Once the elections came and went, however, media attention faded and few politicians followed through on their promises to investigate, said Luciano Rocco of Ocas, the street newspaper that gives employment and a media voice to the homeless in Sao Paulo. The Ministers forum was rescheduled several times, and soon politicians stopped discussing the issue entirely.

And despite police and governmental promises to seek justice in this case, evidence continues to increase suggesting that the police themselves might have been involved. In addition to the precise nature of the beatings, the attacks have all occurred downtown, an area once largely abandoned that is now slated for revitalization. This is an area usually patrolled heavily by police—one attack occurred just outside a police station—and security cameras record street events from several residential buildings nearby. In their investigation, the police have not requested any of the video recordings, and several individuals who live or work in nearby buildings have offered recordings to the police. No public statement about whether the police have viewed or even accepted the videos has been released.

One victim described his two attackers, which led to further suspicion of the police. According to local reports, on August 30, a policeman threatened one of the victims in his hospital room, pressing a gun against the victim during a discussion.

In October, two military policemen, Jayner Aurélio Porfírio, Martins Landmarks Garci'a, were taken into custody under suspicion in these attacks. A third military policeman, not directly involved in these cases was also detained. Despite the Sao Paulo police said that these men were commanders of private security and drug trafficking operations in the centre of the city, they were released after 30 days with no charges being filed.

While these attacks are unusual because of their consistency, brutality and execution within a short timeframe, local NGOs and church groups point out that violence is a common routine in the lives of the many people who are homeless in Brazil. While no official census attempts to count the number of individuals without housing in Brazil, a local research foundation estimated that there were roughly 10,000 homeless people living in the streets of São Paulo in 2003. Red Rua and Ocas believe the figure is much higher, perhaps double, and that violence is part of everyday life for many of these people. These crimes have a chilling similarity with Candelaria massacre of street kids by off-duty police in Rio de Janeiro in 1993. But even more recent events show the patter of violence:

One day before the attacks in São Paulo, a homeless person was beheaded in Sorocaba, in the countryside of São Paulo State. His head has not been found. A month earlier, six homeless people went to hospital after being poisoned, also in São Paulo. A homeless person was shot to death in Belo Horizonte (capital of Minas Gerais) on September 4.

In Rio de Janeiro, county guards systematically threaten homeless people. Policemen compel street dwellers to abandon wealthy neighborhoods and tourist sites by taking their few belongings and throwing them into trash collectors. Any resistance to this action meets with violence, according to Rocco. This policy, undertaken by the city’s mayor, is officially named “Urban Control Operation.”

Rocco believes that such widespread violence against the vulnerable and poor of Brazil results from a culture of fear and prejudice. “Most Brazilians see homeless people with prejudice, with a mixture of pity and fear. Many see homeless people as people who do not want to work or that are involved with some kind of illicit activity. Our mainstream media and governments contribute to this misperception,” said Rocco..

Citizens of Sao Paulo have taken to the streets to show their sympathy and solidarity with the victims, sleeping in the street and holding monthly vigils. Despite this continued show of support, little official progress is being made.

“We fear that this issue has been forgotten, that nothing will be done, despite monthly protests and vigils in our country.” said Rocco, “We have decided that on this anniversary, we need to internationalize these events, to inform people around the world about this miscarriage of justice. Citizens of foreign countries will help if they show their concern about the situation of homeless people in Brazil to public authorities, by writing to Brazilian embassies in their countries or to their own embassies in Brazil.”

Rocco believes that international readers of street papers can apply necessary pressure to investigate—and hopefully end—such brutal attacks of vulnerable people in Brazil. He said, “Please encourage your readers to write to the Brazilian embassy in the US or to the US embassy in Brazil. We should not let these lives be forgotten or let the criminals to go unpunished.”

The following lists contact information for government officials in Brazil to whom interested parties can write or call to urge justice in these matters.

Entity Authority Address Email
Secretaria Especial de Direitos Humanos

(Special Cabinet for Human Rights – Brazilian Federal Government) Ministro Dr. Nilmario Miranda
Esplanada dos Ministérios Edifício Sede, 4º andar s/420/418
CEP 70064.901
Brasília – DF
Brazil nilmario.miranda@mj.gov.br

Ministério da Justiça

(Ministry of Justice – Brazilian Federal Government) Ministro Márcio Thomás Bastos Esplanada dos Ministérios, Bloco T, Ed. sede, CEP 70064-900 Brasília-DF Fone: (0xx61) 429.3000 marcio.bastos@mj.gov.br

Governo do Estado de São Paulo

(São Paulo Estate Government)
Governador Geraldo Alckmin Palácio dos Bandeirantes
Av. Morumbi, 4500
CEP 05650-905
São Paulo / SP
Brazil saopaulo@sp.gov.br

Prefeitura do Município de São Paulo
Gabinete do Prefeito José Serra (Mayor)
Viaduto do Chá, 15 - 10º andar CEP 0100-020 - Centro - São Paulo - SP
Tel.: 3113-8000 / 3113-8004
gabinetedoprefeito@prefeitura.sp.gov.br

© Street News Service: www.street-papers.org

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North American Street Newspaper Conference 2005

NASNA Executive Committee: Rick Scott (Streat Feat, Halifax, NS, Canada), Michael Stoops (National Coalition for the Homeless), Nancy Roussy (Montreal, QC, Canada), Timothy Harris(Real Change, Seattle, WA), Isreal Bayer (Real Change), Joanne Zuhl (Street Roots, Portland, OR), Linda Dumont (Edmonton Street News, Edmonton, AB, Canada), Laura Thompson Osuri (Street Sense, Wahington D.C.). Not pictured: Viper Makay (Making Change, Santa Monica, CA), Jimmy Heath (Streetvibes, Cincinnati, OH).

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada was the site for this year’s North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA) Conference. It was a chance for street newspapers from across North America to come together and share ideas about what programs are working (or not) in their communities.

Major issues covered were strengthening the street newspaper movement in North America - there are currently just over 20 members.The relationship between NASNA and the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) was discussed. Becoming a member of the INSP would benefit all street papers by creating a truly global network.

INSP
www.street-papers.com/
NASNA
www.nasna.org/

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Cold Homecoming
Cydney Gillis

A dirty little secret is finally out: While George W. Bush has been waging war in Afghanistan and Iraq, he’s been cutting medical services for the veterans coming home.

Or, at least, grossly underestimating how many veterans would need — and be entitled to — medical services from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Last week, in a major blooper for the Bush Administration, the VA revealed it had budgeted for serving 23,553 returning veterans in fiscal 2005 — far short of the 103,000 now expected.

The VA said the number was based on figures from 2002, when the U.S. was supposed to be out of Iraq in six months. It’s an error that’s put the VA’s Health Administration $1 billion short this year — with estimates it will be $2.7 billion short in fiscal 2006.
Last week, led by Washington Democrat Patty Murray, the U.S. Senate voted an emergency supplement of $1.5 billion for VA. The House followed with a bill authorizing $975 million. While the two bills wait to be reconciled — Congress is in recess this week — Sheila Sebron and the veterans she works with continue to wait for services.

Sebron is a volunteer advocate with the National Association of Black Veterans. During her service in the Air Force between 1977 and 1984, she was injured in an auto accident — an event that left her knees permanently blown.
When she’s in pain, Sebron sometimes suffers flashbacks of the accident — a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder for which the mother of two says she had to fight the VA for treatment.

Like the Vietnam War, waves of combat vets are now returning home with PTSD, Sebron says — only to face long waits for help, if they can get any at all. At the Seattle VA, which is $11 million in the hole this year, Sebron says there are currently 18,000 people enrolled. Their wait for an appointment can range from five months to one year, depending on their disability rating. The higher the rating, the quicker the service.

Sebron, who’s lower on the list but suffering from depression in the wake of losing a loved one, has had an appointment for a mental consultation she needs bumped back twice in the past two months. And that’s for a veteran with a disability rating. Sebron says anyone not currently in the system is out of luck. A current hiring freeze at the Seattle VA, which is leaving vacant positions open for now, is only making the situation worse, she says.

“This is catastrophic. This is why I’m willing to come forward,” Sebron says. “When I have to wait two months for a mental-health appointment and I get bumped twice, there’s a problem.”
Sebron makes herself available to hear veterans’ problems or help them get the services they need. She says many of the Iraq veterans she has talked with are suffering from sleep disorder, uncontrollable memories, and severe depression over killing people.

“For many soldiers, even though it was a given they’d have to kill, it’s a horrible thing,” Sebron says. “The reality of an exploding body and the mistakes — that you intended to kill the bad guys and it turned out to be a family in a house. They didn’t have time to process it.”

The flashbacks, Sebron says, are like having images of memories superimposed over events happening in the here and now — something she describes as surreal.

So were the Bush Administration’s original estimates for how many veterans would need medical services, says Skip Dreps, government relations director for the Northwest chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of American. PVA is one of the veterans’ services organizations that has been demanding more funding, most recently in April, when Sen. Murray tried to get $1.2 billion for the VA tacked onto an $82 billion bill to continue funding the occupation in Iraq.

“As of May 17, we’ve had 360,674 [soldiers] come out of Iraq and Afghanistan,” Dreps says. “Twenty-four percent, or 85,857, have sought VA care. The administration figured two percent. You can see the diffierences.”

Of those, Dreps adds, 24 percent have sought mental health care, with the most prominent problems being adjustment disorder, psychosis and depressive reaction.
“As we model this out, it may represent a 50 percent casualty figure,” Dreps says. “That may mean one out of every two who serve will end up needing care.”

With Vietnam, Dreps says, it was one out of every 10. “We thought that was bad,” he says. “That’s why Vietnan veterans like myself and World War II veterans are outraged.”

The war in Iraq, Dreps says, “is the equivalent to the first two minutes of [the movie] Saving Private Ryan over and over and over again with no relief. We expect that everyone going through that would be a casualty.”

Despite the reports of long waits, Megan Streight, a spokeswoman for VA’s Northwest Health Network (which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska) says facilities in the region have actually had a drop in demand over the past few months — and that the VA is mostly meeting its guidelines of providing all eligible veterans with an appointment in 30 days.

Dreps warns, however, that the Bush Administration plans to drop the number of eligible veterans. Today, he says, six million of the nation’s 25 million veterans receive medical services, but the VA only budgeted for four million — and has stated it wants to pare that down to 2.2 million.

“They need to re-examine how they modeled [the numbers],” Dreps says. “Until they do that, they’re doing a disservice to the country and veterans.”

Reprinted from Real Change News
© Street News Service: www.street-papers.org

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Probation Reform
By Tom Jones

Recently the state legislature wrestled with the problem of probation reform. Very little was mentioned about deferred adjudication probation. This form of probation was designed for first time offenders. In theory it should give the offender a chance to rehabilitate, complete the program, and emerge without a criminal record. It does anything but that. Consider the following.

The offender is told that their criminal record will be clear if they successfully complete deferred adjudication. This is a lie. Deferred Adjudication is treated as a conviction for law enforcement purposes.

This deferred adjudication is public record and displayed on the Department of Public Safety web site, and at the County Courthouse. The information is then sold to Internet background search companies. This deferred adjudication information is available to anyone and everyone.

The person can and will be denied employment, housing, insurance, loans, and in some cases access to their own children and their activities because of this deferred adjudication. It is treated and looked upon as a conviction. Do not believe otherwise.

Sometimes the person can obtain an order of non-disclosure to “seal” their deferred adjudication records from the public. In some cases the person is not allowed an order of non-disclosure and this offense will follow them the rest of their life. For felonies they must wait 5 years from the day their probation ends to obtain this relief. Misdemeanors vary from immediate to 2 years.

No wonder the system is such a mess. This constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. These people are not legally convicted yet they are treated as such. The State of Texas needs to honor their commitment. Deferred Adjudication should result in a true dismissal.

For more information please visit
www.deferredadjudication.org

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Eternity
Trisha Yeager Menke

Just as the sun melts into the sea
We too shall slip into Eternity
One moment we’re here, and then we’re gone
To awaken refreshed in the splendid dawn
Of a world we had only imagined before
In rare moments on Earth as we sought to explore
Realms beyond reason where physicists play
And we are the masters of all we survey!

But Earth is not Heaven, in fact there’s a wall
That separates Heaven from those who would fall
For the lie that as humans our will should prevail.
Those who believe it will certainly fail
To enter God’s kingdom, no matter how good
They thought they were, when on Earth’s turf they stood.
The truth of the matter is that we must give
Our lives to the Lord so that we might live.

So, watch as the sun melts into the sea
And consider your own Eternity.
Will you be with the Lord on that splendid shore
Enjoying His Presence forever more?
That is the choice we all must make
Choose well my friend, for there’s much at stake!
Pray that He’ll guide you in all that you do
So that when the roll is called you’ll be there too.

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Too tired to stand up?
By Trisha Yeager Menke

What would you say
If offered today
The strength you need to cope
With the things of the world
Every day unfurled
Robbing you of all hope?

Would you roll your eyes
And say it’s all lies?
Life just isn’t fair!
Do you say to yourself
“No one can help!”
Then sit in your chair and stare?

That once was me!
I just couldn’t see
Beyond the nose on my face.
The world was cruel!
I had run out of fuel,
Unable to finish the race

“I’m weak,” I said
“And filled with dread,
A miserable soul at best.
I can’t seem to find
A way out of this bind,
So, I’ll sit right here and rest.”

I’d still be there
In my comfty chair
Watching the world go by
But God opened my eyes
He’d heard my cries!
And He didn’t want me to die!
I began that day
To study and pray,
And I joined the family of God.
My path was turned
As I slowly learned
To shed my earthly façade.

Humans had it all
Before the fall—
Riches beyond compare.
But we missed the mark
And the world grew dark
As we entered the enemy’s liar.

As captives there
We hadn’t a prayer
Of surviving through the night.
But God send His Son
And the battle was won
By His courage and His might.

I was compelled to revise
The countless lies
That I had accepted before
When God showed me
That the world I see
Is based on foolish lore.

Reality it seems
Can by shaped by our dreams.
Nothing is cast in stone!
But there’s one caveat
Forget it not!
The power is not out own.

God makes the rules
And unless we’re fools
We’ll let Him take the lead.
He’ll provide the power
At just the right hour
To meet our every need.

All you must do
To begin anew
Is reach out and take God’s hand
He’ll help you of course
Lending the force
That you need to get up and stand!

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At the end of the day?
Tumen Soliz

Incentive is wealth,
youth are told the world is theirs,
covet selfish view.

Audult fraud and graft
replaces teen excitement,
childish pranks grow up.

Don't blame the devil
for addiction to money,
it's been handed down.

Americanize
according to God's image
man 'fest' destiny.

Economic goals
obfuscate the solution,
devil takes his cut.

Wife and child abuse,
mothers killing their children,
unbalanced culture.

Drunk at youth fountain
and we keep looking for fun,
like God we laugh loud.

Where's the common sense?
Desalienation plants
should be free worldwide.

True peace will happen.
War culture self-destructing.
Just no more victims.

Free the thought current,
break the chains of selfish view,
learn less stressful ways.

With more subsidies
self-reliance disappears,
fix the living wage.

Expect tomarrow
joyful day, don't settle for
the end of the day.

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BROKEN IMAGE

Take a look around you,
Do you see what I see,
Our own country'
Living in poverty?

Or are your eyes closed
To that which surrounds you,
Can't find the time...
Think there's nothing you can do?

I try to find work,
But get turned away.
The same ole' thing
Day after day

It's always no I can't...
Leave me alone...
I don't have time...
Or get your own...

All I ask is
For a chance in life,
To be a mother, friend
Or a normal wife.

I once had a life.
We are not all the same.
I can change my ways,
But never my name.

I'm living in a battlefield
With nowhere to run,
I'm being chased,
By the loaded gun.

How would you like it,
If you were done the same way?
If people treated you the same
Every single day?

To be told that you're nothing
To be told that you don't matter,
And every day,
You watch your dreams scatter.

I hold my life's possessions
Within my two hands,
That does not make me
Less of a man.

You build your barriers
And put up your fences,
Not understanding
We deserve second chances.

Pure and perfect
As you may be,
My beautiful imperfections
Is what makes me.

You're better than thou...
Is what you say,
But when I wash my hands
The dirt goes away.

To love one another,
Is what we say...
But for decades
We've gone another way.

Duckee

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