1,000 hoodies: Really against racism? Fight MA's Stand your Ground bill!

Proud of my community today:  A thousand of us rallied and walked in support of Trayvon Martin and against racial profiling.

Yet, even as we took a stand, Sen. Stephen Brewer, D-Barre, was promoting a bill to legalize, in Massachusetts, the same Stand Your Ground legislation that made Trayvon Martin's death possible in Florida.  Read Dan Ring's article about it in the Republican.

Rep. Ben Swan, D-Springfield, is against the legislation,  but the bill has 30 co-sponsors, including Angelo Puppolo from Springfield.  It's an election year, after all, which is why Gov. Patrick introduced the Three Strikes legislation, which we also have to fight against-- HARD!!

Tomeka and Maggie from Arise-- photo; John Morris

How is it that so many people don't know who's pulling the strings on this and other legislation around the country to limit people's rights-- to vote, to be free of incarceration, to breathe clean air, to attend decent public schools-- the Koch brothers, DBA the American Legislative Exchange Council, which provides sample legislation, including Stand Your Ground, to legislatures around the country.  See the Nation's series on ALEC.

Walking and rallying is a first step.  Now on to the more mundane work of calling your legislator and letting him or her know: you vote!  And you oppose Stand Your Ground and Three Strikes.

I Ain’t No Broken Window

Jenise Standfield from the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco posted this essay online today.  Springfield had its own Broken Window proponent, former police commissioner Edward Flynn, who would have his officers take pictures of homeless people, so this article struck home to me.

The person credited with coining the theory of Broken Windows policing died last month and people are starting to ask what Broken Windows are all about.  Those of us who have been identified as no more than a broken window are sick of it.

The Broken Window social theory holds that one poor person in a neighborhood (or, using social theorist James Q. Wilson words, “a vagrant or a drunk”) is like a first unrepaired broken window.  If the window is not immediately fixed, if the vagrant is not immediately removed, it is a signal that no one cares, disorder will flourish, and the community (warehouse) will go to hell in a hand basket.

For this theory to make sense, you first have to step far far away from thinking of people, or at least poor people, as human beings. You need to objectify them.  You need to see them as dusty broken windows in a vacant warehouse.

Wilson himself admits that his reasoning here seems unjust.  One drunk or vagrant suddenly becomes a score of drunks or a hundred vagrants.  They will destroy an entire community, and they will destroy an entire downtown business district and that is why we now have Business Improvement Districts with police enforcement to keep that neighborhood flourishing and poor unsightly people out of it. 

There are now over 1500 BIDs throughout the United States and Canada and their number are growing.

And we are right back to local laws we had under Jim Crow, Sundown laws, Ugly Laws and Anti Okie laws, local laws that profess to “uphold the locally accepted obligations of civility.” Such laws have always been used by people in power against those on the outside.   In other words, today’s Business Improvement District Broken Window policing is, at its core, a reincarnation of various phases of American history none of us are proud of.

Central to the argument is the need to adhere to “locally accepted obligations of civility.”   But who is setting these “locally accepted obligations of civility”?   Where is our “human civility”?

We have gone from the days where people could be told “you can’t sit at this lunch counter” to “you can’t sit on this sidewalk,” from “don’t let the sun set on you here” to “this public park closes at dusk” and from “you’re on the wrong side of the tracks” to “it is illegal to hang out” on this street or corner.

Of course a tired shopper can sit on the sidewalk to rest between stores and the people that lined up for two days waiting to get the new IPod can loiter and none of them will ever be ticketed, moved on or arrested. These are the civilized people, they are consumers. They are us.

The people these laws are enforced against are not us. They are them. And their mere presence makes us uncomfortable so therefore they are not civil and need to be replaced with someone more like those of us who set the locally accepted obligations of civility.

Jim Crow, Anti-Okie, Broken Window its all the same old wine just in a new bottle.
I guess history really does repeat itself and that’s sad.

The Right to Exist: Stand in solidarity with the most dispossessed on April 2

 Arise has been working with Fund Our Communities, Not War, and through them, all their connections with the Occupy Movement.  Yesterday, FOCNW sent out the following solidarity message, for which we are so grateful.  As we at Arise get more and more absorbed in the details of our rally, FOCNW took the time to step back and look at the big picture.  Thank you!

We have been inspired by the dramatic rise of the Occupy Wall Street
movement, and we are building this movement right here in Western
Massachusetts with the intention of overturning the grip of corporate
power on our lives.

The current economic crisis is affecting our region unevenly with the
city of Springfield one of the hardest hit. Among the most affected in
Springfield are people who either rent homes or who have been made
homeless. Springfield has been known as the "City of Homes" but
increasingly it is becoming the "City of the homeless" with the ongoing
economic crisis compounded by the loss of homes during the June 1, 2011
tornado.

 The housing crisis in Springfield is not only a local issue. Under the
present economic system there is a perverse incentive to push people
living in poverty out of cities by replacing their homes with housing
that they cannot afford. We see this happening in cities across the
country such as New York City, Washington D.C. and Chicago.

 One solution to the housing crisis is to transform vacant buildings
into homes, apartments and single room residences, but this is not what
is happening. Instead, we see priority given to attracting people from
the professional class and wealthy people to spur "economic development"
- a common code word for the drive to build expensive townhouses,
boutique shops, and office parks designed for short-term profit. This
approach ignores the immediate needs of current residents and long term
community needs.

 This inhumane economic system results in the uprooting of people,
overflowing shelters, and countless children, families and individuals
with no place to call home. Those in power make decisions based on what
will increase profits, ignoring people living in poverty because they
can't help further increase "the bottom line".

 Solving this housing crisis requires a movement to fight for decent
housing as a basic human right. Although some of us are affected much,
much more than others, the most strategic way to change this system,
which threatens all of us, is to stand alongside those hurt the most by
it. These dire times contain within them the possibility of having a
much greater positive impact than most people imagine, as more and more
of us are awakened to the need to change an economic and political
structure that only benefits the tiny few.



We think it is important to stand in solidarity with the people who have
been most dispossessed by this economic system in Springfield, and with
the organizations that are providing leadership in connecting struggles
over housing with broader demands for fundamental social change.

 Most prominent among these organizations are Arise for Social Justice,
which is calling for a mass rally and march in Springfield on April 2,
and Springfield No One Leaves, which has endorsed this action and which
fights for the rights of people who face losing their homes to the
unjust foreclosure practices of greedy banks.

We need each other in order to challenge the priorities and policies of
increasing corporate and military control and to create the world we
want to live in. We ask people to heed the call of our friends and
neighbors in Springfield to gather on April 2 at noon in Court Square in
Springfield to show solidarity with those leading the fight for housing
rights. Together we will take the next step toward the transformation we
need.

-       Ben Grosscup and Susan Theberge

DEMANDS ISSUED BY ARISE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE:

*       City: Replace the housing lost in the tornado!
*       State: Make shelters available to all in need!
*       Feds: Fund housing, not wars!

For more info, contact: Arise for Social Justice (413)734-4948

CARPOOLS BEING ORGANIZED FROM AMHERST AND FROM NORTHAMPTON TO
SPRINGFIELD. BRING YOUR CAR AND IF YOU CAN OFFER TO DRIVE, PLEASE DO.

Rides leaving from Amherst:

Meet at 10:45 AM; Depart at 11:00AM

LOCATION: Parking lot of First Congregational Church of Amherst on the
corner of Spring and Churchill Streets in Amherst
<http://maps.yahoo.com/#q=165+Main+St%2C+Amherst%2C+MA++01002-2333&conf=
1&start=1&lat=42.37521626833279&lon=-72.51652747392654&zoom=19&mvt=h&trf
=0> .

Contact: Susan at stheberg@keene.edu stheberg@keene.edu>

Rides leaving from Northampton:

Meet at 11:15 AM; Depart at 11:30AM

LOCATION: Parking lot of Daily Hampshire Gazette at 115 Conz Street,
Northampton
<http://maps.yahoo.com/#q=115+Conz+St%2C+Northampton%2C+MA++01060-4402&c
onf=1&start=1&lat=42.312294786750904&lon=-72.62720882892609&zoom=18&mvt=
h&trf=0>

Contact: Paki at pakiwieland@gmail.com pakiwieland@gmail.com>

Stop criminalizing poor people! Rally April 2

End the Criminalization of Homelessness & Poverty!  Join Us!

 Monday, April 2, 2012

In Solidarity with the

National Day of Action for the Right to Exist

 Court Square, Springfield

Noon: Gather; 12:30: Music, speakers, then MARCH to Governor’s Office, 436 Dwight St. & Mayor’s Office

      

Why are the shelters full, when everywhere we see empty homes and buildings?

Why is the City of Springfield ignoring the housing needs of half of its people?

OUR DEMANDS:

City: Replace the housing lost in the tornado!

State: Make shelters available to all in need!

Feds: Fund housing, not wars!

For more info, contact: Arise for Social Justice (413)734-4948

Cosponsors so far: Alliance for Peace and Justice, Anti-Racism Ministry Team of the First Congregational Church in Amherst, UCCWM American Friends Service Committee, PV Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Charles Hamilton Houston Inst. For Race & Justice , Community Labor Rebuilding Coalition, Craig’s Place, Fund Our Communities Not War, Grace Church Peace Fellowship, International Alliance of Inhabitants, Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants, Mass Coalition for the Homeless, Mass Law Reform Institute, Move On, Occupy Amherst, Occupy Western MA General Assembly, Out Now, Peace Pagoda, Picture the Homeless, Pioneer Valley Chapter of the Green/Rainbow Party, Springfield Bank Tenants Association, Springfield No One Leaves,Survivors Incorporated, UAW Local 2322, Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst Social Justice Committee, Western Mass Jobs with Justice, WRAP

¡Poner fin a la penalización por falta de vivienda y por pobreza!

Día Nacional de Acción por el Derecho a Existir:

Lunes, 2 de abril en Court Square, Springfield

(fecha en caso de lluvia: 4 de abril)

Mediodía:      inicio de la recolección

12:30:   música, altavoces

Marchar a la Oficina del Gobernador

Marchar a la Oficina del Alcalde

¡Sin vivienda, todos vamos a ser criminales!

Por qué están llenos los refugios para desamparados, cuando en toda parte hay casas y edificios vacíos?

Por qué ignora la ciudade de Springfield las necesidades de la mitad de sus habitantes?

Nuestros exigencias:

La ciudad: Reponga las viviendas perdidas en el tornado!

El estado: Haga que los refugios para desamparados sean disponibles a todos los necesitados!

El gobierno federal: Financie las viviendas, no las guerras!

Contactar Arise for Social Justice (Levántate por la Justicia Social), 413-734-4948

Stand againsr racism-- and poverty-- right here in Springfield, MA

Yesterday afternoon I saw a post in Facebook that the Alliance of Black Professionals is planning a "1,000 Hoodies Walk for Trayvon Martin" at Springfield's Court Square  on Saturday, March 31, at 10 am.  YES! I thought, and started forwarding the post.


At 6:45 last night, Jim Kinney at the Republican picked up the story, and if you want to see just how alive and well racism is in Springfield,  check out the article on MassLive and read the accompanying posts.  You will also, fortunately, see a few signs of hope.  

Now Arise is also planning a rally and march against the criminalization of poverty and homelessness only two days later, on April 2nd, same place-- we'll start gathering at noon and kick of the rally at 12:30.  We still have a lot to do, and we're working hard.


But if there is ever a time for solidarity, this is it.

In a span of 48 hours, you can stand against racism and also stand against poverty.  Actions make a difference. 

The speech most people didn't hear about

From All Out:  March 21, 2012. It's not every day that a major world figure speaks out forcefully in defense of equality. But earlier this month, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon did just that when he made an incredibly powerful speech at the U.N. in Geneva. But most people didn't even hear about it.

Why? After the speech, the media focused on a handful of delegates who stormed out of meeting in protest. Their story - that gay people should be denied human rights - is the one that dominated the day's news. But with your help, we're going to change that.

Our friends at the U.N. let us REMIX Ban Ki-moon, so we took his speech and created this video. We hope you like it! After you watch, please share with your friends and family, helping this inspiring message reach the audience it deserves.

Two good reasons to show up at Springfield City Council tomorrow

Rally at 5:30 on City Hall steps for An Act to Invest in Our Communities, a statewide effort to change our revenue structure so we have more income for our communities.  A resolution to support the effort will be taken up by the City Council. 

Also on the agenda: the Springfield Food Policy Council has been working on a Community Gardening ordinance for a couple of years, and it's finally going before the City Council.  The ordinance will make city-owned vacant property much more accessible to the community. About time!  Let the city grow!

Photo from Gardening the Community

Walk for a New Spring: thru Springfield & on to Vermont Yankee

 Springfield and Arise were blessed once again with the presence of the Walk for a New Spring: Remember Fukushima.  We had a wonderful potluck supper on Friday and learned much about nuclear power, including the beginning of the process, uranium mining in Australia, the United States and Canada, and its impact on indigenous peoples.  From us, the walkers learned about our struggles in Springfield to improve our environment and end homelessness and police brutality.

On Saturday morning, we walked to the Connecticut River and had a speaker from the Connecticut River Watershed Council,  President Chelsea Gwyther, where we learned that the thermal pollution from Vermont Yankee has reduced the shad population of the river by 99%!  You can sign a petition asking Vermont Yankee to use its cooling towers here. 

At Arise, in preparation for our river ceremony, we had written haikus, and at the river we passed them out and we each read one.  The haiku I was handed was one I had written:

Broken symmetry
yet the tree still live.  This spring,
green will bind her wounds.

Arise member Bill Gibson led us in some songs and finally we each drew a stone from a bag, imbued it with our best hopes for the river, and threw them in.  Then the Walk for a New Spring headed to its next destination in Holyoke.  Some Arise members walked with them for a while.

I want to thank Ellen Graves, our Peace and Anti-Violence organizer.  I finally understood, emotionally as well as intellectually, why she and other members of the SAGE Alliance are willing to be arrested again and again to shut Vermont Yankee down.

March 24th is a Day of Action to close Vermont Yankee.  Call Ellen at Arise for more information.

Challenging hate and homophobia in Springfield and Uganda - videos

Thanks to the Center for Constitutional Rights for making this possible, and to Joe Oliverio for creating the videos that documented the day CCR  filed a federal lawsuit against Abiding Truth Ministries President Scott Lively on behalf of Sexual Minorities Uganda, a non-profit umbrella organization for LGBT advocacy groups in Uganda.

Protest against Lively goes national: join us on Wednesday!

In December of 2010, WMA Jobs with Justice coordinator Jon Weissman sent an email to the Arise list-- did we know that the person who had opened a storefront church only a few doors from Arise was the notorious homophobe and hatemonger Scott Lively?  he has never been far from our minds since then, and we continue to organize against his messages of hate. 

“Stop the Hate and Homophobia Coalition” Organizes Nationwide Protest Calling for an End to Scott Lively’s Promotion of Hate against the Gay Community Worldwide

What:     Action/Rally

When:    March 14, 2012pm at 1:30pm

Where:   In front of the Federal Building, 300 State Street, Springfield

In early February 2012 the Ugandan government reintroduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill (AHB), a.k.a the ‘Kill the Gays’ bill, legislating draconian measures against its gay community, which continues to include the death penalty for homosexual acts.  One week following the reintroduction of this legislation the Ugandan government raided a peaceful gay rights conference causing the sponsor’s leader to go into hiding.  The LGBT community of Uganda is under increasing threats of violence, imprisonment and stigma.  American evangelical Christians played a role in stirring the anti-homosexual sentiment that culminated in the initial AHB legislation in Uganda and continues to heightened homophobia in that country today.

Scott Lively was one of three evangelical leaders who presented at a 2009 conference in Kampala, Uganda which resulted in the original Anti-Homosexuality Bill’s introduction just one month later.  Scott Lively likened his appearance to “a nuclear bomb against the gay agenda in Uganda.”  From his home base at the Abiding Truth Ministries housed in the Holy Grounds Coffee Shop at 455 State Street in Springfield MA, Scott Lively’s anti-gay message filled with lies, propaganda and pray-away-the-gay quack science fuels anti-homosexual sentiment worldwide.

The Stop The Hate & Homophobia Coalition had an action against Scott Lively on November 18, 2011 to help educate the people of Springfield, MA about just who Scott lively is.  The protest on March 14^th is a continuation of that action.  National solidarity actions also are scheduled for Kansas City, Washington DC, and Sacramento.  We will continue to advocate against the hate and homophobia Scott Lively and others promote until they stop.

The Stop the Hate and Homophobia Coalition was formed in January 2011 upon learning that Scott Lively was living and ministering in Springfield.  Lively is president of the Abiding Truth Ministries, which has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and he has been running the Holy Grounds Coffee House on State Street, right near Commerce High School.  The coalition deplores hateful messages and actions, and calls for community education about the impact of homophobia on our communities, as well as calling for community leaders, neighbors, co-workers, family members, etc. to speak out against homophobia whenever it is perpetrated.  The coalition involves a number of community-based organizations, local college professors and students, members of the faith community and individual community members. 

Three Strikes: Just do it: call your reps and senators now!

Stop 3-Strikes!  Actions & Updates

I.   Call / Email Your Rep & Senator Now! [all week]

II.  Conference Committee Meeting [Wednesday @ 11am]

III. Stop 3-Strikes Rally & Lobby Day [Thursday]

IV. Boston City Council Passes Resolution Against 3-Strikes Bill

www.BostonWorkersAlliance.org

I.  Call / Email Your Rep & Senator Now! 

Our state legislators are on the brink of passing a 3-strikes bill that would further overcrowd our prisons and cost our state millions.  Call or email your legislators today and tell them to Stop 3 Strikes and pass Smart Sentencing Reforms.  

Sample phone script - call / email both your State Rep and State Senator: 

"Hello, my name is [________].  I live in [Rep / Senator _______'s] District.  I'm calling today ask [Rep / Senator _______] to help Stop the 3-Strikes Bill and pass Smart Sentencing Reform.  

I am against 3-strikes sentencing and mandatory parole, but I do support  shrinking the school zones and ending mandatory minimums for non-violent offenses.  

The bills they are discussing would overcrowd our costly system.  While private prison contractors get rich, those funds should be used for jobs and programs that could make our communities safer.  Thank you."  

State House Operator (get any official): 617 722-2000

Find out who your Senate and Rep in General Court is: www.wheredoivotema.com 

Find their phone # and email: www.malegislature.gov/people/findmylegislator

Please have your friends, family, allies, staff and members make phone calls to their state officials this week!  You can also call Governor Patrick's public comment line and leave a message (617) 725 4005.   

Every call and email counts - be seen and be heard! 

II.  Conference Committee 

Notice from State Senator Cynthia Creem: 

There will be a Conference Committee meeting where the public is able to attend.  The Conference Committee is responsible for creating the final bill that will be sent to the Governor's Desk.  

Thursday, March 14, 11 am, State House, 4th Fl., Conference Room 413-E

For questions, Senator Creem's Office is: 617 722 1639

III.  RALLY TO STOP 3-STRIKES LAWS IN MASSACHUSETTS

Community Rally to Stop the 3-Strikes Bill
Urgent Action for Criminal Justice Reform

Rally & Lobby Day
State House Steps
Thursday, March 15
11-1pm

Please join us and help spread the word! 

 Tell your Reps and Senators to stop the 3-Strikes bill
 This dangerous bill will expand an overcrowded prison system
 It costs $48,000 a year to jail a prisoner; these funds could be used for jobs, schools, housing and transportation
 Incarceration breaks apart families but does not deal with the real causes of crime
 Stand up against mandatory sentencing and demand fairness in the criminal justice system

Help stop this costly and harmful bill before it is too late: the "Justice System" is Unjust and the time for action is now!  We will rally on the State House steps and then enter the building to visit our elected officials.

Support the Rally or for Questions contact: (617) 606-3580 / info@bostonworkersalliance.org / BostonWorkersAlliance.org

Learn More About Prison and Sentencing Reform:  Blackstonian.com / ChurchandPrison.org / CJPC.org / Exprisoners.org /  FAMM.org / MCLS.net
Endorsing Organizations*

Aid to Incarcerated Mothers, Alternatives for Community Environment (ACE), American Civil Liberties Union-MA, APIA Movement, Arise for Social Justice, Arlington Street Church (Social Committee), Artists for Humanity, Asian American Resource Workshop, Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts, Blackstonian, Boston Workers' Alliance, Cambridge Peace Commission, Center for Church and Prison, Chelsea Collaborative, City Life / Vida Urbana, Coalition Against Poverty / Coalition for Social Justice, Coalition for Effective Public Safety, Codman Square NDC, Community Change Inc., Community Church of Boston, Community Labor United, Criminal Justice Policy Coalition, Dorchester People for Peace, EPOCA - Ex Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, Gavin House, Grove Hall Neighborhood Development Corporation, Hyde Square Task Force, Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, Jobs With Justice, Lansing Workers Center, Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, Marcus Garvey House, Mass Alliance of Minority Law Enforcement Officers (MAMLEO), Mass Jobs with Justice, Massachusetts Communities Action Network, Mass Global Action, MassUniting, NAACP New England Area Conference, National Association of Social Workers-MA, National Lawyers Guild-MA, Neighbor to Neighbor MA, New England United for Justice, Nuestra Community Development Corporation, Occupy The Hood Boston, Oiste Latino Civic Engagement Organization, Partakers, Inc., Prisoners' Legal Services, Right to the City Alliance Boston, Rosie's Place, Roxbury Dorchester Labor Committee, SEIU 1199 Healthcare Workers, SEIU 615 Janitors and Security, Side-by-Side Community Circle, Sisters At Work, Social Workers for Peace and Justice, SPAN, STRIVE, Inc., Students for Sensible Drug Policy, TFCC-Boston, Northeastern University School of Law chapter, Survivor's Inc., The Real Cost of Prisons Project, Union of Minority Neighborhoods / MARC, Unite Here! New England Joint Board, Urban League of Eastern Mass, UU Mass Action, Voices of Liberation, Young Cape Verdean Club

*Partial list 

Please help protect the Quabbin forest

Please help protect the Quabbin forest!  (photo and post by Chris Matera)

This is the most important piece of undeveloped forest in Massachusetts that protects the drinking water for 2.2 million citizens, and the public owns it, but private logging companies want to start logging it again.

Environment Massachusetts is running an excellent campaign to permanently ban logging in the Quabbin and needs our help now.

Please go to this easy link to send a message:

https://secure3.convio.net/engage/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=317

For a reminder why we need to keep the private logging companies out of the quabbin, please see:

Quabbin Watershed Clearcutting - Ground & Aerial (15 MB):   www.maforests.org/QUABBIN.pdf

  

Quabbin Watershed Clearcutting - Google (5 MB): 

www.maforests.org/QUABBIN_Google_Earth.pdf

Please forward this message to friends and family!

thank you

Chris Matera

Massachusetts Forest Watch
www.maforests.org
www.maforests.org/MFWBmess.pdf
413-341-3878

NJ Gov goes undercover for homelessness

BTW-- we could sure use some folks to go undercover in Springfield's single shelters.  Any volunteers?

 

(Reuters) - A phony beard, a fake tattoo and clothes dragged through grass and stained with coffee were all it took to transform former New Jersey Governor Richard Codey into a homeless man looking for shelter on a frigid night this week.

His self-appointed undercover mission to spotlight what he calls discrimination against men by shelters took about three months of planning before Codey stood at the door of the Goodwill Rescue mission in Newark, New Jersey at 8 p.m. on Monday, asking to be let in.

Codey, 65, who is a state senator but disguised himself as a homeless man, had already been denied admission to about 25 other local shelters because he was not receiving welfare or other government assistance, he told Reuters on Wednesday.

"We called and I said, 'My uncle, he's homeless, we want to find him a place at night to sleep.' Each time I was told, 'Does he have SSI? Welfare? Disability?' When we said 'No,' we were told there was no room at the inn."

Codey, frequently mentioned as a possible Democratic candidate for governor, plans to take his findings to seek more federal money for the homeless. The National Alliance to End Homelessness said more than 636,000 people were homeless in the United States in 2011.

He is particularly concerned with single men and those with mental health issues, who he says are unfairly shut out of the shelter system. He said women and families have far greater access to emergency housing.

When Goodwill agreed to take him in, offering a thin bedroll, a blanket and a spot on a linoleum floor with 20 other men, he thought he'd finally found a haven.

Then came the shower call.

"I was terrified because I knew if I had a shower, my makeup was coming off," said Codey, whose undercover team included a makeup artist who spent nearly an hour transforming him, painting tobacco stains on his teeth and drawing broken blood vessels and dirt on his skin.

By avoiding eye contact with the worker rounding men up for showers, he managed to slip by.

Sitting on the hard floor, he eyed chairs that were stacked nearby but declared off-limits to men in the shelter.

"No one is allowed to sit in them. You are strictly there to lay down," Codey said.

WrestleMania blared on television for two hours until it was lights out at 10:30 p.m.

Codey said he drifted off for about an hour, his hip sore from sleeping on the uncomfortable floor. In the middle of the night, he struck up a conversation with another man and asked him what he would do when he left the shelter.

"He told me 'I'm really lucky' and explained that he had a bus pass so he could ride and keep warm," Codey said.

The man, better dressed than Codey, said he was out of work and had hoped to stay with a friend but it didn't pan out.

"I'm laying there, thinking about how good my life is and he says he's lucky. Wow. That really puts it in perspective," Codey said.

Codey, who served as acting governor of New Jersey for two years following the 2004 resignation of Gov. Jim McGreevey amid a sex scandal, has been a longtime advocate for the mentally ill. Government statistics show that a vast majority of homeless people suffer mental illness.

In 1987, in his early years in the state Senate, Codey went undercover to help expose flaws in care at a state-run psychiatric hospital.

This week, Codey said he was admitted to Goodwill shelter on the condition he register for federal assistance in the morning but he left early and avoided it.

Ron Schober, the shelter's executive director, said help signing up for benefits is offered to shelter residents but not mandatory. He also said residents are welcome to use the chairs before the shelter closes at 6:30 p.m. but since Codey was taken in after hours, the room was being prepared for sleeping.

On a wintry Tuesday morning, Codey stepped out of the shelter and headed back to his work at the New Jersey statehouse. He rejected any suggestion that his undercover mission was politically motivated.

"My goal is to get homeless people a room at night and to speak with the federal government about getting the money to do that," Codey said.

Asked whether he plans to run for governor, he said that was a decision he would make after the November presidential election. Political pundits say there could be a vacancy in the New Jersey governor's mansion as Governor Chris Christie is often mentioned as a potential vice presidential candidate.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Paul Thomasch)

 

Third World - 96 Degrees in the Shade

Stop the Hate and Homophobia!! Demonstration March 14 at Holy Grounds Coffeehouse

From Arise's President (and Out Now's coordinator) Holly Richardson:

It's that time again to turn out against the hate and homophobia that has been and is being perpetrated by Springfield’s own, Scott Lively.  See the attached (and pasted in the body of this email, below) press advisory.

The Stop the Hate and Homophobia Coalition is organizing a demonstration Wednesday, March 14^th at 1:30pm to speak out against Scott Lively (and Evangelical hate) and the re-introduction of the “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda last month.  There will be solidarity demonstrations also happening on this day from Kansas City, Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

We will meet at the Federal Courthouse at 300 State Street, where we will begin with a speak-out.  From there, we will march up the street to the front of Lively’s Coffee House/Church, 455 State Street.  This march will be a somber, silent march to commemorate those who have died as a result of homophobic violence in Uganda. 

Please join us in wearing all black, if you can.  We will have written messages for folks to carry that explain what we are doing and why, and that also include the names of 12 Ugandans killed.  We will also all be carrying flowers (that you will be provided with), and when we arrive to Lively’s coffee house, we will place them in front of the storefront.

Again, this will be a silent, more serious march as compared to the one organized last November.  Here is the link to the past march:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp8v_mTYrB8 

Please join us in a show of solidarity against hate and homophobia in Springfield and worldwide.

If you have questions please feel free to contact me at:  outnow@comcast.net or 413.348.8234

For Immediate Release:  March 7, 2012

Contact:

Holly Richardson                                                            Cathy Kristofferson                                               

Out Now, Arise for Social Justice                                      GetEQUAL MA

413.348.8234 (cell)                                                        cathy@getequalma.org

                       

“Stop the Hate and Homophobia Coalition” Organizes Nationwide Protest Calling for an End to Scott Lively’s Promotion of Hate against the Gay Community Worldwide

 What:      Action/Rally

When:    March 14, 2012pm at 1:30pm

Where:   In front of the Federal Building, 300 State Street, Springfield

In early February 2012 the Ugandan government reintroduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill (AHB), a.k.a the ‘Kill the Gays’ bill, legislating draconian measures against its gay community, which continues to include the death penalty for homosexual acts.  One week following the reintroduction of this legislation the Ugandan government raided a peaceful gay rights conference causing the sponsor’s leader to go into hiding.  The LGBT community of Uganda is under increasing threats of violence, imprisonment and stigma.  American evangelical Christians played a role in stirring the anti-homosexual sentiment that culminated in the initial AHB legislation in Uganda and continues to heightened homophobia in that country today.

Scott Lively was one of three evangelical leaders who presented at a 2009 conference in Kampala, Uganda which resulted in the original Anti-Homosexuality Bill’s introduction just one month later.  Scott Lively likened his appearance to “a nuclear bomb against the gay agenda in Uganda.”  From his home base at the Abiding Truth Ministries housed in the Holy Grounds Coffee Shop at 455 State Street in Springfield MA, Scott Lively’s anti-gay message filled with lies, propaganda and pray-away-the-gay quack science fuels anti-homosexual sentiment worldwide.

The Stop The Hate & Homophobia Coalition had an action against Scott Lively on November 18, 2011 to help educate the people of Springfield, MA about just who Scott lively is.  The protest on March 14^th is a continuation of that action.  National solidarity actions also are scheduled for Kansas City, Washington DC, and Sacramento.  We will continue to advocate against the hate and homophobia Scott Lively and others promote until they stop.

The Stop the Hate and Homophobia Coalition was formed in January 2011 upon learning that Scott Lively was living and ministering in Springfield.  Lively is president of the Abiding Truth Ministries, which has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and he has been running the Holy Grounds Coffee House on State Street, right near Commerce High School.  The coalition deplores hateful messages and actions, and calls for community education about the impact of homophobia on our communities, as well as calling for community leaders, neighbors, co-workers, family members, etc. to speak out against homophobia whenever it is perpetrated.  The coalition involves a number of community-based organizations, local college professors and students, members of the faith community and individual community members.   

Displaced? Homeless? Holyoke says, No Problem!

Two friends of mine (maybe more, who knows?) live at the 127-unit Lyman Terrace in Holyoke, the nations's oldest public housing project.  Residents just recently found out that the Housing Authority intends to demolish the project.  In comments the SHA submitted to HUD, HHA says there will be "No significant impact on the human enviroment."

This reminds me of the response I got from Springfield's chief Housing Code inspector, when I asked him where people displaced by condemnation were supposed to go.  "Relocate," was his answer.

Supposedly, the HHA will distribute Section 8 certificates to Lyman terrace tenants, but of course there's never any discussion as to whether suitable housing is actually available.

I had a long post planned but I couldn't do any better than the post already written by Pronoblem at H.U.S.H, which is also where this great photo comes from..  There are links that tell you how to submit a comment to the HHA.  MAKE SURE YOU GO THERE AND TAKE ACTION!

Two Lyman Terrace residents will be speaking at our Housing and Homelessness National Day of Action for the Right to Exist on April 2.  We just have to start standing up for ourselves!

Laugh, wince, think.... about racism: Sh*t white girls say

Thanks for the tip, Mass Slavery Apology!