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inkHomeless10

Keywords:
County Lej meeting, Rochesterians Against
the Misuse of Pesticides, seven peace activists not guilty, People in Black, educating against misogynist violence

Homeless
revolution

Pause
now for a Michael Moore moment.

            Through a crowd of homeless and
their supporters at last week’s County
Lej meeting strolled Mrs. New York State, accessories — tiara and sash
— included. Melissa Ognibene received a proclamation from the Lej recognizing
her work on behalf of people suffering from depression.

            Meanwhile, three floors below —
outside the County Office Building — about 60 homeless and their advocates
chanted and cheered, demanding the county “stop the war against the poor.”

            The protest was organized by Poor
People United, made up of the poor and those “in solidarity with poor people’s
issues,” according to organizer Charles Kellum.

            The group’s immediate demand is for
an emergency hypothermia shelter. The larger issue is the treatment of the poor
in the county budget, Kellum says, citing cuts in social services.

            Around 35 speakers ate up more than
90 minutes of the Lej meeting, relaying stories of the homeless and suffering.

            “Schools are failing. Jobs are
gone,” one woman said. “You give a person a crumb and think you’ve done
something. You’ve done nothing.”

            Kellum chastised legislators for
failing to respond to his proposal for the emergency shelter.

            “Do you care that people are going
to freeze this winter?” he asked. “We cannot back down. We have nothing to
lose.”

            County Executive Jack Doyle was
present for the beginning of the meeting and scooted out a back door as soon as
it was announced that 35 people had signed up to speak.

Toxics thumbs up, down

Rochesterians
Against the Misuse of Pesticides — the group
that’s alerted communities to threats from things like arsenic-laden
pressured-treated wood — has issued its annual “Hall of Fame” and
“Hall of Shame” awards. This year, the Famers outnumber the Shamers.

            The
Hall of Fame has welcomed Paradigm Environmental Services, a lab that’s done
testing for RAMP; the City of Rochester and Parks-Rec staffer Jim Farr, for
cleaning up the contaminated Maplewood Park playground; activist Lila
Bluestone, who’s done much educational work on lawn pesticides and more; County
Legislator Lynda Garner Goldstein, who’s tried to get the Lej to pass a local
“neighborhood notification law” regarding toxic spraying; and Mitje
Raschi, who’s worked against the use of herbicides in Conesus Lake.

            The
Shamers? The Conesus Lake Association, for promoting the use of a herbicide to
control vegetation; Monroe County government, for tabling the neighborhood
notification law and continuing to spray herbicides on roadways; and the New
York State Department of Environmental Conservation, for allowing some
utilities to spray pesticides on wetlands.

Not guilty verdict

On October 16, City Court Judge Ann
Pfeiffer found seven peace activists not
guilty in connection with a gathering at the Federal Building last spring.
The “Ash Wednesday 13,” motivated by religious and ethical beliefs,
went there as a witness against the Iraq war. They were arrested for trespass
after declining to obey what turned out to be an improper order to leave.

            The
13 — two were convicted some time ago and paid fines, and four were scheduled
to appear in court later this year but now have been exonerated — have also
been addressing criminality. But their charges against the federal government
rest on better grounds than did the charges used against them.

            For
example, in a prepared statement to the court, Catholic Worker activist Tom
Malthaner said the nation is violating the UN Charter and the Nuremberg
principles by waging an aggressive war and killing innocent civilians. He
quoted Martin Luther King Jr.: “The choice today is no longer between
violence and nonviolence” but between “nonviolence and
nonexistence.”

            In
her written statement, defendant Jan Bezila said “liberated, whole people
exercise their right… to speak freely, congregate freely, and to proclaim
through their actions that ‘just war’ is a contradiction in terms, a euphemism
for a justified slaughter of their brothers and sisters.” She noted the
Iraq war violated even “traditional ‘just war’ standards” — that
is, it was not a legitimate war of defense, and so forth.

People in Black

The day after the Ash Wednesday 13
trial ended, a peace presence came to the Four Corners.

            In
the shadow of the office towers, a half-dozen men and women calling themselves “People in Black” witnessed
against the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Descended
from the “Women in Black” — Jewish and Palestinian citizens of
Israel who hold weekly Friday peace gatherings in Jerusalem — the local
People in Black say they’ll stick with the effort.

            The
weekly gatherings are “a symbol of a much larger resistance” to the
occupation, said local participant Ayala Emmett, a native Israeli who teaches
anthropology at UR and has written an important book on the Israeli-Palestinian
women’s peace movement.

            “They’re
still standing there,” said Emmett of her sisters in Jerusalem, who’ve
been at it consistently since 1988. She also expressed regret that discussion
of Middle East issues in this country is “completely shut to voices of
peace.”

Guys fight violence

Hank Shaw and Daniel Hoh, local
advertising professionals who’ve made a vocation of educating against misogynist violence, have done it again.

            Some
years back, the duo put out a short book, It’s
Time for Guys to Put an End to This, which told how men could help turn
things around. Now, with illustrator Ketchum, Shaw and Hoh have created a large
brochure, This World is Rated XXX for
Violence Against Women and Girls, which furthers the message.

            The
brochure quotes UNICEF: “Violence against women and girls is the most
pervasive violation of human rights in the world.” Say the authors, who’ve
done their work pro bono: “It’s time to end this crime wave.” For
information about the brochure, contact Shaw at 325-4772, or e-mail
Time4guys@aol.com.

This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2003.