There are two harmful ethics afoot in the United States, the greed ethic and the elitist ethic. The greed ethic goes by the idea that there are not enough necessities to go around for everyone, so some people will have to go without basic necessities, such as food, shelter, clothes, transportation, etc. The elitist ethic declares that some people are more deserving of those necessities than others. People who are often seen as deserving less of them tend to be old people,
Vending Street Sheet
Hi my name is Mary.
The best part of my morning is jumping up at 7AM go to the Street Sheet program to make coffee, listen in at meetings, learn the power of good speech, manners, and choice of words to influence people and have an effect to get a message across and hopefully best convey the point. They might just seem to be poor but in many ways are wealthy and prosperous with hopes for the future and a team,
Trump Work Requirements Don’t Work
In an attack on essential government services that provide much needed aid to millions of Americans, President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this month laying the groundwork for a fundamental change in welfare administration that would require certain recipients of welfare to work in order to access government services like health-care and public housing.
The order, titled “Reducing Poverty in America by Promoting Opportunity and Economic Mobility”,
The Gorilla Outside of a Room
The night I found myself sleeping in the rain outside of a Subway sandwich shop in San Francisco any pretense I’d built my life on up until that point instantly vanished.
Outside of Subway that night I asked myself how I had gotten to that point. I asked myself was there any hope or was where I lay the next phase of my life, again to occupy such a lowly state? The question itself so overwhelmed me I could find no satisfying answer.
Moments in Tenderloin Food Justice History
San Francisco Food not Bombs
Food not Bombs is an international network that uses otherwise wasted food to cook and publically serve food, to whoever is hungry. The group considers its work to be a form of protest against the military-industrial complex and in support of universal access to food, regardless of ability to pay.
In August of 1988, San Francisco Police arrested 9 Food not Bombs activists for serving food without a permit at the Stanyan Street entrance of Golden Gate Park.
Mary Ann Wright — Saint Of The Poor
Mother Mary Ann Wright
Saint of the Poor
slept sitting up all night
so she could feel
the suffering
of the homeless
all over earth’s shores
Hearing God’s call
to take blankets
food and clothes
to the homeless
on the streets
in the darkest nights
Mary Ann Wright did go
How many souls
she fed and clothed
the world will never know
but her love for the poor
lives on through eternity
and her saint’s halo
forever glows
Mother Mary Ann Wright
Saint of the Poor
sheltering the homeless
in her loving arms
she was the mother
they had never known
sent by God alone
An Aggressive Turn in Encampment Sweeps
Mark Farrell’s abbreviated term as mayor will apparently be defined by one thing — the removal of tent dwellings from homeless San Franciscans. If so, that definitive moment came April 25, when otherwise unhoused people who have erected tents and other improvised shelters were swept out of an area under the U.S. Highway 101 overpass in the latest of street evictions.
Under orders from Farrell, police and public works crews appeared in full force and began breaking down an encampment on Division Street around 6 a.m.
Against SB 827, Against Gentrification
San Francisco, CA — On Tuesday, April 3rd, community groups from around San Francisco hosted a rally against SB 827 outside City Hall, with dozens of people of color sharing stories of their own housing struggles in the city as well as their fears at the gentrifying impact the pro-development measure would have on their neighborhoods. But their voices were repeatedly drowned out by chants from a young, largely white group of YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) affiliates,
F Yes: Fulfilling SF’s Right to Counsel Promise
1.
This June, San Franciscans will have an opportunity to vote on a ballot measure – Proposition F – which, if passed, would guarantee free legal counsel to any tenant served an eviction notice. This program, which would be the first of its kind in California, would represent a commitment to confronting the city’s housing crunch in a real and immediate way.
In the past few years, we have seen displacement in San Francisco continue to accelerate.
Prop H: SFPD Does Not Need Electroshock Weapons (Tasers)
San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is known both locally, and nationally for killing unarmed people of color. Discourse about arming SFPD with tasers has been filled with persistent battles between affected communities and SFPD for the past 13 years. Despite decades of protests, the San Francisco police association has written an initiative to arm San Francisco police with tasers. This initiative is Proposition H, which will be put on the ballot in the June election.
