8 29 2012

Volume 9: Issue 21 August 29 - September 11, 2012

Street

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Art is also Therapy at McClendon Center

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Children’s Book Series Explores Homelessness pg 6

Street Sense aims to serve as a vehicle for elevating voices and public debate on issues relating to poverty while also creating economic opportunities for people who are experiencing homelessness in our community.

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International Network of Street Papers

Teaching adults to read ADDRESS 1317 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005 PHONE 202.347.2006 FAX 202.347.2166 E-MAIL info@streetsense.org WEB StreetSense.org

(Street Sense economics)

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What is a poet?

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Leaving a dying world

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Meet Kedist, our featured vendor!

COVER ART

Each vendor functions as a self-employed subcontractor for Street Sense. That means he or she re-invests in the organization with every purchase. Vendors purchase the paper for 35 cents/issue, which will then be sold to you for a suggested donation of $1.

35%

Supports production costs

VOLUNTEERS/WRITERS Jane Cave, Margaret Chapman, Brandon Caudill, Lilly Dymond, Ashley Edwards, Andrew Gena, Steve Gilberg, Jane Goforth, Roxanne Goldberg Roberta Haber, Jesse Helfrich, Maurice King, Sean Lishansky, Victoria Hatterman O’Banion, Ashley Perkins, David Piper, Mark Rose, Willie Schatz, David Sellers, Kate Sheppard, Ernie Smith, Lilly Smith, Kelly Stellrecht, Brett Topping, Charlotte Tucker, Marian Wiseman, Eugene Versluysen

ILLUSTRATION BY MADELINE GERSTEIN SIMON

@ STREETSENSE.ORG

/streetsense

65%

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@streetsensedc /streetsensedc OUR STORY Street Sense began in August 2003 after Laura Thompson Osuri and Ted Henson approached the National Coalition for the Homeless on separate occasions with the idea to start a street paper in Washington, D.C. Through the work of dedicated volunteers, Street Sense published its first issue in November 2003. In 2005, Street Sense achieved 501 ( c ) 3 status as a nonprofit organization, formed a board of directors and hired a full-time executive director.

Today, Street Sense is published every two weeks through the efforts of four salaried employees, more than 100 active vendors, and dozens of volunteers.

Nearly 30,000 copies are in circulation each month.

1. Street Sense will be distributed for a voluntary donation of $1. I agree not to ask for more than a dollar or solicit donations for Street Sense by any other means.

2. I will only purchase the paper from Street Sense staff and will not sell papers to other vendors (outside of the office volunteers).

3. I agree to treat all others – customers, staff, other vendors – respectfully, and I will not “hard sell.” (threaten or pressure customers) 4. I agree to stay off private property when selling Street Sense.

5. I understand that I am not a legal employee of Street Sense but a contracted worker responsible for my own well–being and income.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Brian Carome EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Mary Otto MANAGING EDITOR Eric Falquero VENDOR/VOLUNTEER MANAGER Allen Hoorn ADVERTISING & COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER Rebecca Stewart INTERNS Lauren Colegrove, Brandon Cooper, Tatiana Delgado, Natalie Devlin, Mariko Hewer, Brian Jones, Charmaine Miller, Faithful Okoye, Chris Trevino,

Voyage To Shelter Cover follows the story of undersea creatures left homeless after their habitat is lost.

A new issue comes out every two weeks, but you can stay connected to Street Sense every day!

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Yebegashet Alemayehn, Margaret Chapman, Kristal Dekleer, Lisa Estrada, Robin Heller, Sommer Mathis, Manas Mohapatra, Brad Scriber, Michael Stoops

6. I agree not to sell any additional goods or products when selling the paper.

7. I will not sell Street Sense under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

8. I agree to stay a block away from another vendor and respect the space of all vendors.

9. I understand that my badge is the property of Street Sense and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers and display my badge while selling papers.

10. I understand that Street Sense strives to produce a paper that covers homelessness and poverty issues while providing a source of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word.

VENDORS Gladys Akins, Orin Andrus, Charles Armstrong Glenn Artis, Jake Ashford, Lawrence Autry, Daniel Ball, Alan Bates, Grady Baxter, Roberta Bear, Kenneth Belkovsky, Tommy Bennett, Frosty Bibbee, Phillip Black, Reginald Black, Deana Black, Viktor Blokhine, Harmon Bracey, Debora Brantley, Andre Brinson, Kanon Brown, Reco Brown, Percy Carter, Sunny Chadwick, Conrad Cheek, Lea Ciochetti, Elena Cirpaci, Sarah Colin, Theresa Corbino, Anthony Crawford, Kwayera Dakari, Louise Davenport, Michael Davidson, James Davis, Charles Davis, Clifton Davis, Devon Dawkins, Chino Dean, David Denny, Janna Disraeli, Nema Dixon, Alvin Dixon-El, Charles Eatmon, Richard Embden, Pieus Ennels, Kristin Evald, Betty Everett, Joshua Faison, Patty Feris, Larry Garner, Anthony Gist-El, Marcus Green, Barron Hall, Dwight Harris, Dewayne Harrison, Lorrie Hayes, Patricia Henry, Shakaye Henry, Derian Hickman, Vennie Hill, Ibn Hipps, Jaamill Hipps, Anne Marie Holloway, Phillip Howard, James Hughes, Donald Johnson, Tavon Johnson, Mark Jones, Ryan Jones, Evanson Kamau, Tammy Karuza, Mike Leach, Ziang Lin, Anthony Lindsey, John Littlejohn, Michael Lyons, Kina Mathis, Authertimer Matthews, John Matthews, Charlie Mayfield, Marvin McFadden, Jermale McKnight, Jennifer McLaughlin, Jeffrey McNeil, Kenneth Middleton, Gary Minter, Anton Mitchell, L. Morrow, Jai Morton, Tyrone Murray, Darryl Neal, Charles Nelson, James Nelson, Sammy Ngatiri, Evelyn Nnam, Amen O’Jango, Moyo Onibuje, Douglas Pangburn, Ebony Pannell, Earl Parkin, Franklin Payne, Aida Peery, Michael Pennycook, Lucifer Potter, Frank Pruden, Ash-Shaheed Rabbil, Clifford Ringwald, Anthony Robinson, Andrell Robsinson, Lawrence Rogers, Melania Scott, Chris Shaw, Adira Sheinman, Veda Simpson, J. Simpson, Patty Smith, Gwynette Smith, Yvette Smith, Terron Solomon, Matt Southworth, Franklin Sterling, Warren Stevens, James Stewart, Billy Sullivan, Beverly Sutton, Sybil Taylor, Paul Taylor, Archie Thomas, Shernell Thomas, Victor Thompkins, Deborah Tibbs, Jacqueline Turner, Deborah Turner, Bada Umoja

STREET SENSE August 29 - September 11, 2012

Possibile Victory for Families Facing Welfare Cuts D.C. City Council Member Jim Graham is celebrating a possible victory in his long battle to buy more time for families facing cuts in their welfare benefits.

On Aug 23, Graham, who chairs the council’s human services committee congratulated Mayor Vincent Gray’s finding $11 million, enough money to buy a six month delay in a 25 percent reduction in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits. The cuts were scheduled to go into effect Oct 1 this fall for families who have exceeded a 60-month time limit on the program.

“The positive turn of events is the direct result of the success of my meeting with the mayor in July. During that dialogue, stakeholders, advocates and I persuaded the mayor that what was about to happen would be a draconian cut and he agreed,” said Graham.

The mayor’s office did not return a request for a comment.

The funds to delay the TANF cuts came from the District’s moving special education students back to city public schools from private placements, and from decreases in child and family services and public health insurance caseloads, according to Graham.

To affect the delay, the emergency

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NEWS IN BRIEF legislation needs to be passed by the City Council and signed by the mayor by Sept. 20. Last year, the District implemented a 60-month time limit on welfare benefits. More than 6,000 families who had been on the rolls for more than five years saw reductions in their checks as a result.

Further reductions set to go into place Oct. 1 would take another bite out of benefits, leaving some families with monthly checks of as little as $260.

The move to reduce benefits was intended to encourage welfare recipients to find work. But a redesigned TANF employment support program charged with assessing each family’s needs and problems and guiding parents into job training, education and job seeking activities has taken longer to get underway than was originally anticipated.

“This is the right course of action,” said Graham in his Aug 23 statement.

“The Department of Human Services has reviewed only 1,500 cases out of the more than 6,000 long term TANF recipients. Before we even think about cuts, every case has to be reviewed.”

-Mary Otto

Crisis: Binge Drinking in Africa Politicians from South Africa to Kenya and Zambia are facing increasing pres-

sure to tackle a problem that is adding to Africa’s burden of HIV, birth defects, road accidents and violent crime.

Africa has the world’s highest proportion of binge drinkers, even though its large populations of Muslims and evangelical Christians generally abstain from alcohol.

“It’s true that most people in Africa don’t drink for cultural, religious and economic reasons but those who drink, drink a lot,” Dr Vladimir Poznyak of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva told Reuters news service.

The continent has become a boom market for international brewers and distillers whose sales are often flagging in the wealthy world. If governments finally crack down effectively, the companies may find Africa no longer allows the spectacular sales growth they have achieved there in recent years.

In defending themselves, the brewers and distillers say Africans are better off consuming their products than popular but sometimes lethal home concoctions.

For years poor Africans were limited to home-brew sorghum or maize beer, sometimes made with dangerous ingredients such as battery acid to increase the potency.

Commercial alcohol is now widely available in most African states and premium brands such as Johnny Walker

whisky or Heineken beer are increasingly in reach of the average drinker.

And the continent’s thirst for beer and spirits is almost unquenchable: analysts estimate beer volumes rose around 7 percent last year. Some public health officials say regulation of alcohol consumption and education about its abuse have failed to keep pace.

“In parallel to this increase in c o m m e r c i a l a l c o h o l a v a i l a b i l i t y, the infrastructure and regulation for effective alcohol control have no strong tradition in many African countries,” said Poznyak.

New Methods to Advance Literacy in Washington 90,000 adults in DC are functionally illiterate

By Charmaine Miller Editorial Intern At the Thurgood Marshall Center at the District’s historic Twelfth Street YMCA, power tools are whirring, hammers are pounding, and students are learning. The adult students that step into Washington Literacy Center to learn to read don’t mind a little sawdust.

The literacy center, founded in 1963, has undergone a few changes in recent months to improve its program.

The center moved from a condominium basement to its current home last March. The renovation process was started soon after. The curriculum used to teach the students has also changed, said executive director Terry Algire.

After a thorough analysis of its program in 2010, the center adopted a new module of teaching called the Wilson Reading System. This year will be the center’s pilot year in trying the program.

The Wilson Reading System places a heavy focus on systematic and multisensory ways of teaching phonics and vocabulary. “[Reading] has to become automatic, and that’s what we’re trying to work on,” Algire said.

The Washington Literacy Center offers classes in the morning, afternoon and evening, two days a week. Enrollment numbers are up to 100. These students tend to be in their early 40s, English speakers often with dyslexia or other auditory or visual disorders. Algire said about 30 percent of the students have completed high school.

Most students take classes with the center for an average of three years.

Algire would like to push them through

the program in less than two years, before students’ priorities change and motivation wanes. According to Algire, 90,000 adults in D.C. are functionally illiterate, which means their reading skills are so low that they can’t complete a job application.

Some of the students identify themselves as homeless.

The Washington Literacy Center provides help to 100 students.

Algire said the center likes to focus PHOTO BY CHARMAINE MILLER its efforts on students with “not only the greatest literacy needs, but also employment challenges.”

The program has helped students find jobs or earn their General Educational Development (GED) diplomas, Algire said. She recounted the story of one graduate who had been raised in a home with books that no one could read. The student grew up and similarly filled her house with books she couldn’t read. Now through the program, she has been able to break the cycle and read those books to her children.

Many of the students are working, said program manager Bryan Verstegen.

The goal is to help them move up. “Our orientation is to keep people sustaining themselves,” Verstegen said.

The program has moved 53 graduates through in the last two years, since an official graduation program was instituted. The students move at different paces, but the center is seeing an increasing number of students sticking with and completing the program.

In the midst of the center’s various overhauls, Verstegen remarked how exciting it is to see the students adapting so well. “What I have seen has been very positive,” Verstegen said.

STREET SENSE August 29 - September 11, 2012

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NEWS

Center Encourages the Arts through Therapy Lauren Colegrove Editorial intern Sitting at a table toward the back of a large conference room, a man reads over his copy of the poem “A Dream” by Edgar Allen Poe and silently practices the words he is about to share with his peers. A lady to his left chats amiably with those sitting near her as men and women begin to take their seats in the circle of chairs placed so that one can’t help but feel the encouragement and support that the area provides.

The McClendon Center’s Friday morning showcase is about to begin.

The center, which is certified through the D.C. Department of Mental Health, has been providing the D.C. community with mental health programs and day services since 1980. It is located on the top floor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church near Metro Center.

Nine treatment teams, each serving between 75 to 85 patrons a day, are currently at work at the center.

Clients are offered the chance to participate in four different program tracks: consumer empowerment, clinical skills building, substance abuse recovery and expressive arts therapy.

Art, movement and drama classes are incorporated into the program as a fundamental part of the Center’s mission of holistic treatment.

Sean Favretto, a dance and movement psychotherapist and day program team leader at the McClendon Center, said he can often connect to people and understand their experiences through dance and other forms of non-verbal communication.

“The expressive therapies are powerful,” he said. Participation in the arts can provide insights into clients’ inner lives through the use of symbolism and movement. As a leader, Favretto said he strives to “[use] the creative process, the artistic process, to make a difference in people’s lives.”

Organizations in the D.C. area have taken notice of the expressive arts program’s success. The Center’s executive director Dennis Hobb said the center re-

Art is incorporated into many aspects of McClendon Center’s operation. The varied forms of expression are used as a form of therapy, allowing clients to communcate and develop in a supportive environment.

PHOTOS BY LARUEN COLEGROVE

cently received a grant from the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, a philanthropy that supports the humanities and art programs in Washington, D.C. The $30,000 grant will enable the center to study the correlation between expressive art therapy and the function level of the clients through the use of the Multnomah Community Ability Scale (MCAS). This assessment measures health, adaptation, social skills and behavior in order to evaluate the progress of treatment.

The morning showcase is only one of the creative outlets the McClendon Center offers each week. The showcase, which is held on Fridays, usually begins with a morning stretch led by one of the staff members. Clients shout out the characteristics they value and wish to cultivate within themselves — such as honesty, love and perseverance — as they lift their hands and breathe deeply, moving to the rhythm of the instrumental music.

Because the showcase is an opportunity for all clients to share their talents and passions, the program changes from week to week. The morning of July 13 featured poetry readings and a piano tune, along with a Tae Bo exercise taught by one of the clients, who said the routine is a good way to “get rid of stress” and is a chance to grow “strong spiritually and mentally.”

One man crooned a song as the crowd clapped along with the “ba-ba-doop-bado-ba” scat singing, reminiscent of Louis Armstrong, and patrons were encouraged to participate in a line of dance.

Along with group showcases, clients also have an opportunity to express themselves through the various dance, art and drama therapy programs offered throughout the week. Connor Dale, the drama therapist at the center, said that through the use of improvisational games in the drama class, clients are able to increase their awareness and experience different perspectives by interacting with one another. This provides the clients with the opportunity to see something outside of themselves while also encouraging individual mindfulness of personal identity.

The open art studio is another of the center’s programs that promotes socialization and involves clients coming together to create. The center proudly displays numerous writings, paintings and sketches that patrons have constructed, engendering an atmosphere of respect and support. Here, encouragement can be heard in place of criticism and individual development is valued over the mastery of artistic technique.

Brooke Baker, the Center’s art therapist, said that “seeing any kind of personal growth in a person, even if it means a person smiles a little more,” is one of the incredibly rewarding aspects

of the Center’s expressive arts programs.

“I’ve changed a lot since I’ve been here,” explained one patron, who said when he first entered the program a few years ago he only came in the mornings and was extremely shy.

Now he enjoys interacting with the other clients that the center serves.

He said he particularly looks forward to the dance and movement featured in the programs.

“We dance a lot,” he said. “They play a lot of Motown music.”

Chris, a former client of the center, said during his time in the program he liked sharing his artistic interests and love of New Orleans-style music with the other patrons.

“My creativity was an inspiration to [them],” he said, adding that he also had the opportunity to be a tutor in the literary group because of his experience with writing and screenplays. “[The center] gives a lot of Washington [residents] a chance to find their real self and real skills,” he said.

Favretto said the McClendon Center has an “ultimate goal of making clients as independent as possible.” In this supportive environment, patrons are given a chance to express themselves in a safe setting and know that their freedom of expression, shared through whatever medium they choose, is seen for its true worth.

NEWS

“Family Homelessness is a Children’s Issue”

By Lauren Colegrove Editorial Intern What if we can’t find anywhere else to live? What if we are homeless forever?

Questions like these are asked by members of the community every day-to politicians, social workers and society as a whole.

But in this case, a seahorse is asking the questions. And her dilemma is being presented to children.

The drama unfolds in a children’s book called Voyage to Shelter Cove.

The story follows a group of sea creatures who become homeless when their community is destroyed. The book is part of a series produced by the New York-based Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness (ICPH), an organization that researches the causes of family homelessness, the demographics of this growing population, the conditions that make it difficult for homeless families to become self-sufficient, and the programs that are most effective in helping them transition out of poverty.

Much of the research the organization

conducts and disseminates, with the goal of improving services and influencing public policy, is geared toward an adult audience.

Yet children too, need to understand homelessness. And animal characters help engage them, said Ralph da Costa Nunez who wrote Voyage to Shelter Cove, with Jesse Ellison. . “The main thing is… homelessness, family homelessness, is a children’s issue,” said Nunez, who is also the president of the ICPH. There are currently five books in the children’s book series published by White Tiger Press: Our Wish, Cooper’s Tale, Saily’s Journey, Voyage to Shelter Cove and Mango’s Quest.

Each volume uses a story to dramatize a different factor that can contribute to the loss of a family’s home. The stories do not end with the last page of the books. Lesson plans and discussion questions are also part of the learning experience. Through the use of coloring pages and activities, children learn the difference between such concepts as “need” and “want.” The are encouraged to talk about the emotions that might underlie difficult situations.

One of the institute’s websites, icphusa.org/homeatlast, offers resources for parents, teachers and community volunteers.

A new title, also by Nunez, “Ears Up, Ears Down,” is slated to be released in late October. According to Nunez, the story follows the life of a dog that lives in a junkyard. Because the dog is so well loved, his ears are always up-that is, until he faces foreclosure and becomes homeless. His “down” ears are now a reflection of his displacement, and he is forced to find shelter elsewhere. The dog meets a boy and a

girl who are living in a car, and eventually he comes to a tent city out West, where he finds a job with a food truck.

When asked what his name is, the dog replies, “Ears Up, Ears Down” to signify the positive as well as the unfortunate situations that he has experienced.

Used at home or in the classroom setting, Nunez said one of the reasons he has fostered this series is because of the need “to educate young children that their peers could be homeless.”

In the wake of the recession, homelessness has touched an increasing number of young lives. The statistics are grim.

Across the country, a total of 79,446 families were living in homelessness on a single night in 2010, up from 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In the DC region over the past four years, the number of homeless men, women and children living in families has risen about 23 percent, according to the findings of annual regional homeless counts. In 2012, homeless children, numbering 3,388, accounted for 29 percent of the region’s homeless population.

Nationwide, the number of homeless students increased 38 percent between 2006 to 2010, according to the National Center for Homeless Education.

The White Tiger Press book series is meant as a bridge so that educators and parents can talk to children about homelessness. And it serves as a reminder to children without direct experience of homelessness that not every child has a safe and healthy living situation.

As Nunez puts it: “That person next to you could be homeless.”

STREET SENSE August 29 - September 11, 2012

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VENDOR WRITING

“Dark Flower in the Melon Patch”

By Dr. DeMinto Vendor

Street Sense needs a Monitor!

(inspired by “Lone Lily Beside the Road” by Maxine Clair. written at Miriam’s Kitchen poetry group August 2012) She ambled up to me after the witching hour on a balmy summer night.

A day had passed since fireworks of freedom lit up the skies of our capital.

We talked on the bench at the crossroads of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. She had a room for rent. I needed a place to sleep.

We walked to her apartment, to view her vacancy.

We sat on her couch, talking.

Her hand drifted down, searching....

We have been blessed with the donations of a PC tower with mouse and keyboard for our interns and vendors to take advantage of, but are in need of a PC monitor to make this possible.

She whispered in my ear.

Dark Flower, at that moment I knew: your warm mouth is more dangerous than the South Carolina water moccasin; your moist lips, your wet tongue secrete honeyed poison.

IF YOU CAN HELP, PLEASE CALL: 202.347.2006 OR E-MAIL: info@streetsense.org

Dark Flower: your sweet nectar reeks of decay, yet it is so very sweet....

TERRON’S GAME #1: STREET SENSE

By Terron Solomon Vendor

The Reward of Just Being Clean STREET SENSE

By Veda Simpson Vendor

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VENDOR

Last Saturday, after I left my daily N.A. (Narcotics Anonymous) meeting, I caught the bus and got off at the Greyhound station. I observed a Spanish family, not speaking any English trying to catch a cab. I helped them hail one but when I tried to talk with the driver, he pulled away. Meanwhile, a Gypsy cab driver started hovering, trying to get the family into his car.

Speaking a little Spanish I found out a bit about the family’s story. They had a couple of hours before their bus left and they wanted to see the White House. The Gypsy cab driver wanted to charge them $60 to go to the White House. I felt bad because the cab was trying to get over on people who

didn’t know better.

At one time my addiction would have ticked in but now my mother’s words ticked in.

Treat others as you would want to be treated.

I took them to the bus stop.

Then I thought: ‘Heck I’m doing nothing, I’ll take them myself.’

I went along with them and I took them five different places.

They showed so much gratitude that I got an unbelievable high, like I was on Cloud Nine. I felt better now than in my addiction because I did it unconditionally.

It’s like getting a million dollars and not getting a dime.

My pockets were empty but my HEART WAS FULL. God is better to me than I have been to myself. Much peace and love to all of you because we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. Keep a smile on your face. Remember anything negative… this too shall PASS!!

Labor Day

By Evelyn Nnam Vendor Labor Day is the first Monday in September and it’s a celebration of the labor movement. It is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. This continues every year. Labor Day is a public holiday or day of festivities held in honor of working people in the United States and in Canada. Labor Day is often celebrated with parades and speeches as well as political ral-

lies. Labor Day can also be celebrated with parties, barbecues, sporting events or just with short vacations.

Labor Day was first celebrated on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City. A year later, the Central Labor Union held a second Labor Day event.

Labor Day started as a Canadian holiday and then was introduced to the United States by Peter J. McGuire, an American labor leader. This is the history of Labor Day and how it can be celebrated. Thank you and God bless.

Housing

By Robert Warren Vendor Housing for the houselessWould you believe it is a human right?

For all on this Earth The Lord of all gave us this as our home, to share and help each other, to shelter one another, for sleep at night.

Yes, the houseless on our home Earth travel to and fro, some with their young in tow.

Out on the streets, because of some misdeeds and greed, they have no house at night to go.

They have no house to hear that peaceful sound when their keys turn the locks on the door.

To know they’re home once more.

No threshold will the houseless cross and take a glance to see their things just where they’re supposed to be.

No place do some have that they can call “home base,” that place where you plan and daydream.

A home to rest your head.

Oh Lord, thank you for this home.

Housing for all is the best way to have that special place, a room in your house where you can sit and let your worries wear away, where they can listen to the beautiful sound of little people at play.

A place where they can sit back, with no worries about where they will lay when night falls this day.

Homes, housing, homesthe place where you pray, thanking the Lord for making it home safely another day.

The place where you call out to a loved one just to say, “Baby, I’m home. What’s for dinner today?”

Homes, housing, homestogether we can make it happen for all, one day.

Lord, give us the will to make housing a human right for all this day.

With those words said, I hope the Affordable Housing Act becomes a reality in your city soon.

Lord bless every one of you for all the great work you do.

Originally read at the Kennedy Center for the National Alliance to End Homelessness gala.

ILLUSTRATION BY EVELYN NNAM

Good Decisions

By Phillip Black Vendor, “The Cat in the Hat” Make sure you’re sure each and every day in your life, we have to be sure about every decision that we make. From the important issues and to the smallest issues, we have to be sure. Some of us say yes, when we really mean no, and some of us say no, when we really mean yes.

I remember when I was about thirteen and I went to a friend’s house. His mom said, “Phillip, do you want something to eat?” I said, “No, thank you...are you sure Phillip…and again, I said no thank you” …and no sooner then she went upstairs I said to my friend...”Hey, give me some of that. “Even though it happened a long time ago, the decisions that some of us are making today indicate a feeling of insecurity.

We have to be sure about each and every choice we make. If you are sitting in your office and you decide to go to McDonald’s…but some of your friends want to go Starbucks...make sure you are sure. Be you. Being sure of yourself is a very important part of your life.

We as a people must get more in touch with our lives, that every choice we make comes from being sure and mean it. We gain a little more self respect when we make good decisions…but we have to be sure. Think through your decisions.

STREET SENSE August 29 - September 11, 2012

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VENDOR WRITING

Of Wars and Wallpaper

By Chris Shaw The “Cowboy Poet” You step through a dust-cloaked plate glass door, stand in a postage-stamp shaped square of tile foyer, and it’s not 2010 anymore. Outside, the roar of modern D.C. has “Penn Quarterites” rushing to the Starbuck’s or Jaleo at the opposing corners of Seventh and E Streets. Little do they realize the “Twilight Zone” feel of standing inside that

cramped little entry to an entirely different universe-- that of Clara Barton’s Civil War era lodgings, up above bustling Seventh and E. A short step, and your gaze is directed sharply upward. Spreading to two landings and an unseen attic is the narrowest, spookiest stairway this side of the most forlorn story by O. Henry. Ex-

cept this is our city’s history, and as cocurator Karen Thomassen pointed out to a few of us gawking about (awestruck at the totally untouched 1850s atmosphere of this place), it’s likely these are the last authentic boarding-house rooms left anywhere in Washington, D.C.! As some more illustrious visitors murmured their wonderment and their thanks to the Clara Barton historical site’s sponsor-- the Museum of Civil War Medical History-- this writer wandered around dusty, dark and obscure corners of Miss Barton’s odd but important world.

What did I find? Well, the most weird and beautiful artifacts were probably undisturbed leafings from a ripped “Harper’s Weekly” from the year 1858; shiny-as-new pen nibs used for correspondence, and striped, flocked and blue-and-gold foot rails of Victorian wallpaper.

Yes, that’s right, you heard me the first time. Wallpaper-- a major interior design plus for rooming houses of the period around the time of the Civil War. Of course, it was helpful that some history buffs have ripped away some of the flocked plaster where the decorative paper was originally set.

Now, all can observe the crude “balloon frame” laths (thin strips of raw wood) that comprise the sections of wall. As I stumbled through a scrim of dust motes dating from Lord-knows-when, I kept my throat cool and clear with some decidedly refreshing and non-alcoholic version of ‘Granny’s apple cider punch,’ and a snickerdoodle cookie or two.

I may have jumped a couple of inches when a grizzled amateur historian with a rough looking grayish-yellow beard and a squashed leather visored cap

tapped me on the shoulder. “Whose side are ya on, Reb or Yank?”, I thought of posing the question, but I shut that thought off the better for asking this man, named Bill, “Say, sir-- did Clara Barton have any neighbors up here in this roost of hers?”

As I awaited Bill’s answer, I glommed on to a narrow, miniature door with an opaque glazed panel. Was this just an antique water closet, or perhaps the gateway to Alice In Wonderland’s mad tea party? Or did some Civil War spies turn their cryptic decoder wheel within this chamber? I started once again as Bill growled, “Say, boy, did you know her only adjacent lodger was a gent who worked as a reporter for the Pennsylvania Avenue-- on Newspaper Row!” Gadzooks, I mused. The Associated Press! AP! Up and running in Civil War days. With kindly Clara Barton listing the missing and gathering up supplies for the wounded! Naturally, the townhouse where Samuel F.B. Morse sent the first wire message has long been demolished. I believe Walt Whitman dwelt briefly in the same place, but isn’t it so that the chamber in the Old Tariff Building was diagonally across from the dark and drafty space where I now stood can be found to this day, though today it’s part of the HOTEL MONACO? The first words transmitted by Mr. Morse were, “WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT!!” And now we may hop, skip, jump and climb up to Clara Barton’s third-floor dispensary and apartments and utterly marvel at the frail magic of bona fide, un-varnished heritage of the real greatness so long hidden behind closed, peeling doors.

As co-curator Karen Thomassen pointed out to a few of us gawking about (awestruck at the totally untouched 1850s atmosphere of this place), it’s likely these are the last authentic boarding-house rooms left anywhere in Washington, D.C.!

As piece of history, Clara Barton’s house is a less known tourist attraction.

PHOTOS BY CHRIS SHAW

COMICS & GAMES

GLARPH THE POSTULATIN’ SHARK: GLARPH RETURNS HOME

KLEVER’S

By Chris Shaw “The Cowboy Poet”

s c mo i

Happy Birthday Chino! Labor Day Baby!

(September 1, 1973)

COMIC BY CHINO DEAN

c

STREET SENSE August 29 - September 11, 2012

111

OPINION

America Needs a Break

Poet

By Brian Burchette, Volunteer, Formerly Homeless Writer

By Jeffery McNeil Vendor Congressman Todd Akin’s comments about rape and abortion have offended the nation. It is funny to see Republicans condemn him and suggest he leave the stage. I never thought I’d see the day when women-basher Rush Limbaugh would call someone stupid when it comes to reproductive rights.

However, what amazes me is why are so many people appalled? The Republicans have been trying to ban abortion for 40 years.

The reason I think these comments struck a nerve is because the Olympics are over and professional football season is still a month away. This gives the heavily wooed Independent voters a chance to look at the alternative to President Obama.

While Independents are making a decision about who to elect, political junkies like myself aren’t shocked by what comes out of the mouths of Republicans. Watching the Republican primaries was like watching an Archie Bunker convention: It was a carpet bombing of contempt for anyone who wasn’t rich or a middle-aged white male. Spreading their hate from women to immigrants, they even attacked their own base, which is made up of seniors.

Newt Gingrich opened his South Carolina rally by telling voters that blacks need to get off food stamps and become janitors, and in one debate the crowd booed a soldier who was fighting in Afghanistan because he was gay. Presidential candidate Ron Paul said if you have no money for healthcare, tough luck, while Mitt Romney gave the audience red meat when he told immigrants to deport themselves. To me the Republican primary was an audition for who could be the biggest dick.

While it was entertaining to watch Rush Limbaugh dismiss Todd Akin, I believe we live in scary times because there is a segment of society which listens to and buy into all the hate the

crackpots spout. Once upon a time there were people who put aside their political views to denounce crazy talk.

In the 1960’s, the members of the John Birch Society were so far out of the mainstream that conservatives William Buckley and Barry Goldwater kicked them out of the Republican Party. Even Richard Nixon put aside his ideology to integrate school buses and create affirmative action.

But today people on the right are more reluctant to denounce nut-wingers for fear of being primaried and voted out.

It’s sad because Independents like myself don’t want to vote for either candidate. I don’t want to vote for Obama just because the Republicans are crazy.

I consider myself someone who is a religious conservative. I try to live according to the teachings of Jesus Christ which is to be a servant of others and to treat others like you want to be treated. Because of my faith I am opposed to gay marriage and abortion.

However I detest the perversion of Christianity that is preached by people such as Mike Huckabee and Michele Bachmann. Their views don’t reflect mine and they make me wonder who made them the moral czars of our country.

But I don’t support Democrats because I clash with liberalism and feel that many lefties are contemptuous toward God. Also I feel there are better ways to help the poor than social programs that don’t alleviate poverty but create dependency.

Socialism and collectivism are just as detestable as free markets. Both systems were tried and the results are apparent. You can go to any park in D.C. and see people who are homeless, depressed and addicted.

America is tired, because the people who can make change are staying out of politics, hunkered down in their own selfish interests.

After Obama gets reelected it’s time for the 99 percent to quit supporting political parties and form their own.

A poet dares to see the unfathomable.

The words are direct like a deadly spear piercing the flesh on the hunt.

The poet describes what he hasn’t got but what he wants.

I have dedicated much poetic prose to peace only to see death.

I have observed the rest of humanity wasting each day with petty hate.

I cannot relate to the cause.

I cannot support inhumane laws against the poor.

Instead, I give back by feeding a homeless person lunch.

I listen to those considered the least of society with voices silenced of speech.

My church door is nature and a lonely dream.

My song is the piercing scream of a peaceful revolution.

I do not believe in wasting the taxes.

I only wish we could all be at the same level without tax brackets.

I am a revolutionary of truth that is real.

I feel the pain of the wounded beast about to die.

I hear the lost as they cry.

I have been among the lost in economic holocausts.

I sail the seas of desperation with a sinking raft.

I watch setting suns and when it rains thunder claps.

Lightning and thunder rumble through my soul.

I am a poet of the modern beat.

I walk its streets in praise of the change to come.

I am numb to the lies offered as truth.

I distribute the word of power.

In this hour we take control.

We are the soul and nexus.

Only love connects us to our higher cause.

Cuts and Concerns Brandon Caudill Volunteer Shelter, Housing, and Real Change (SHARC) hosted a town hall meeting on Monday, August 27 to address ongoing concerns over proposed cuts to programs and shelters in the District for the 2013 Fiscal Year.

The cuts in question come as the result of a loss of over $7 million in federal funds from last year and could result in the closure of emergency shelters for single men and women during non-winter months.

Among topics discussed at the meeting, which was held at the Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV) Shelter, were plans for a pro-homeless services rally at City Hall on September 18.

The roughly 60 attendees of the event were provided with a free lunch, voter registration forms. Ad-

ditionally, attendees were asked to sign a petition addressed to the D.C. City Council demanding they “fully fund homeless programs and shelters… [make] housing affordable to all who are working full time… [and]work to address issues that homeless people have finding employment.”

SHARC hosted a similar event in July and vows to try and further raise public awareness of the issue. “I think the main reason we’re in this situation is participation from the homeless,” SHARC member O.B. Blake said during the meeting. “I think everyone here should go find five people to bring to the next meeting, then we can really put together a good plan.”

The DC City Council will continue to discuss the budget shortfall when they return to session on September 17.

The Street Sense Writers’ Group is led by two writing professionals and meets every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. The group’s goal is to develop ideas and colaborate on the next great issue of Street Sense.

Why are Women in Shelters?

By Adira Sheinman Vendor On a recent rainy Monday night as I was walking to wherever I can lay my head after a long day of selling Street Sense, I passed a McDonald’s. A lady asked me for some change. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I can’t help you because I’m homeless as well.” As I looked into her green-blue eyes, I saw a bit of myself.

She was a beautiful Italian-Native American. We spoke for a few moments.

She was an educated, good-hearted mother of one and a grandmother of two. When she showed me her scars from her ex-boyfriend, it reminded me of my abusive relationships. With great candor, she discussed how she was left for dead under a truck because the ex kicked out all her teeth. The wounds were so severe that her stomach was violently scarred. The next thing she

remembered was waking from a coma three days later.

With tears in her eyes, she told me she was dead inside. I told her emphatically that she was NOT dead. “Lady, if you have tears, you have life,” I said.

“Woman, you should not be ashamed of your scars. They are battle scars.

You are a survivor. Be proud. Keep your head up.”

I am telling this story because the same treatment can happen to any of us. I don’t know the numbers, but many women stay in abusive relationships out of fear--of being homeless, of being alone, of the unknown. The last category is particularly pernicious. Questions such as “what will happen to my children,” “what will my friends think,” and “what about my husband’s career” are hard to answer. However, the most difficult is “after all, I’m nothing without him.” When the abuser says that

WASHINGTON, DC

OD

911

HELP PREVENT OVERDOSE DEATHS IN DC

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN AFRAID TO CALL 911?

100 people die needlessly every year in DC from accidental drug overdoses. Friends and family are often afraid to call 911 for lifesaving assistance because they fear police involvement.

We are working to save lives by passing DC Council Bill B19-0754, the Good Samaritan Overdose Prevention Amendment Act of 2012.

This law would protect people from arrest for drug-related offenses when seeking medical assistance for someone who has overdosed.

Please share your overdose story with us to help build support for this urgently needed law that will help save lives in our community.

Call 320-634-6324 to leave a voicemail or email StopODinDC@gmail.com

Supported by the Public Service Grant Commission, a program of The George Washington University’s Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service.

phrase often enough, the person being abused begins to believe it.

Abuse comes in many forms: mental, physical, emotional, even an extramarital affair.

When President Bill Clinton cheated on his wife Hillary and President John F. Kennedy did likewise to his spouse Jackie, I believe it deeply hurt the women.

Adultery is mental abuse, which can be as damaging as physical abuse.

So, here I am homeless because of domestic violence. My wounds are so

Before the Rain Pt. 4: Welcome to the Projects

By Chris Shaw The “Cowboy Poet” “I have got nothin’ you need, bruh,” Loomis managed to expel from a somewhat bloodied upper lip. “I’m a, a music bum--” he winced but went on. “Have a heart, bruh...”

“Shoot. Mus’ be Mercy Day for me,” Craig spat out, as he abruptly let the tip of the broken aerial whistle dangerously past Loomis’ cheek. Close by were Oscar and Fish Head, passing a nubby blunt back and forth.

With a quick flick of his peanutshaped head, topped by squiggly dreads, Craig motioned his buddies back. Passing Loomis, Oscar perversely proffered the spliff to the downed man. Loomis not only ached all over; he also ached to blurt out “I’M IN RECOVERY,” but in a nanosecond squelched that impulse!

Instead, Loomis wiped at his fat upper lip (no broken teeth, thank God!), and gulped, taking one puff of the strong skunkweed. Coughing vigorously, he managed a weak sigh of “Yeah, smoke the peace pipe, bruh,” and sank back to the pavement as the thug trio faded from view. After a beat or two, Loomis, still sprawled horizontally on a stretch of sidewalk, stamped “Pierre Matine, Metarie Louisiana,” from long ago, and tried rotating his sore sprung neck. Ouch!

Then he pulled out his green paisley hankie, dabbing gingerly around his bruised mouth.

fresh that I am still uncomfortable discussing them. I am doing it because I want to help others avoid what happened to me and the friend I met outside that McDonald’s.

Just because a woman is on the streets does not mean she is a street walker. Would anyone want their siblings, their parents or their children treated as I have been?

Make no mistake: domestic violence occurs across gender, race and social class. IT IS NOT JUST A FEMALE ISSUE!

From his low gaze, Loomis dimly zeroed in on the streetlamp above him. Circling in a crazy halo endlessly was this cloud of huge insects, their rattling, leathery wings keeping them aloft. Dusk settled in lazily over Loomis and the big bugs. For the moment, everything else was still, silent, spooky. “Damn Formosan cockroaches,” Loomis groaned,”and the freighter they rode in on.”

He attempted to rise and glance around, but failed for now. “Guess I’ll hafta slightly change my plans,” he whispered harshly.

Loomis let things flash before his brainpan. He was definitely a loopy coolie from the Channel, a mongrel mix of French, Irish and god-knowswhat. So how were three rangy and braided cats from the rough side of Esplanade to know this! Craig, the lead man, was sharply brandishing a radio aerial aloft. “Yo dog. This ain’t this man’s block, huh Oscar?”

Loomis blinked on the time when, as a boy, he filched a snow globe from Maison Blanche. Segue to his more recent adulthood, sitting by the City Park Mermaid with Irene, his lovely Irene, heart girl from Upperline. “Goodnight, Irene,” he sighed, as the short and wiry Oscar grunted, and lunged for the hard tackle. Loomis spun backwards against Fish Head, the third of his aggressors.

Fish was a reddish young’un with quizzical furled eyebrows poking up over blue tinted shades.

“Now see here dog, Why’nt ya make it easy on you’self,” snarled Craig.

STREET SENSE August 29 - September 11, 2012

FICTION

Bob the Leather Sewer

By Ivory Wilson Vendor

Bob runs a small leather sewing shop in the Florida Everglades. One Sunday morning Bob was fishing, standing in water in his hip boots, casting his fishing line out and reeling it in. Bob knew the dangers of standing hip deep in water filled with hungry ‘gators, but he had fished these waters for over 10 years.

Monday through Friday you could always find Bob busy in his shop sewing leather products -- hand-made shoes, coats, belts and the like -- while Bob’s beautiful wife Ellen was in the house making lunch. Bob had never gone out and killed any ‘gators for their leather hides. The hides were always delivered to him by truck.

On this Sunday, way in the distance ahead of him, Bob can see ‘gators swimming, as he could always see them swimming out there when he was fishing. Then suddenly Bob looked down in the water and saw he was surrounded by two large, 20-foot gators with their mouths open, ready to eat him for lunch.

Bob thought, “Why is this going to happen to me?” Bob looked down at the ‘gators with their teeth showing and said, “Hey, Mr. Gator, I haven’t done you or your family any harm.”

To Bob’s surprise, the ‘gator looked up and answered back, saying, “No, but your friend Human has. We have seen him come to your shop, bringing dead ‘gator hides. You make shoes, coats, boots and stuff out of the ‘gator hides of our dead friends. People have been killing us for our hides by the billions, not for food but for our skins. Hu-

man lives in a houseboat on the water nearby. Human hunts ‘gators for our hides. Humans have killed an estimated 40,000 ‘gators. We’re going to use you for food -- that’s the only reason.”

Bob said, “Hold it. There is something we can work out here, guys.”

The ‘gator asked, “What do you have to offer to us better than yourself?”

The ‘gator behind him said, “We share our fish with people. In return, they kill us.”

They were pushing Bob out to sea.

But Bob, thinking quickly, said, “I can protect you from being hunted and skinned.”

The ‘gator in front of Bob asked, “How can you do this?”

Bob said, “I can write the governor of this state and get a law passed that will protect you from being hunted. I will go out and post signs saying, ‘No Hunting of ‘Gators -- This Is a Protected Area.’” Bob asked the ’gators, “Do y’all have names?”

The ‘gators closed their mouths. The ‘gator in front said, “My name is Snap.”

The ‘gator behind him said, “And my name is Bite.”

Snap asked, “Bob, can you stop Human?”

Bob said, “Once the law is passed, Human must stop hunting you also. And I’ll give you my word: I will never sew another piece of ‘gator hide again.”

So they let Bob out of the water.

Bob did what he promised and got the law passed that is in place today in the state of Florida protecting the ‘gator.

THE END

3 11

FICTION

PHOTO BY BRETT MOHAR

The Pinnacle

part 1

By Jane Goforth Volunteer He stood there on the edge, in the heavy robes necessitated by the changing climate of his dying world. As far as he knew, he was the last survivor.

Carved on what was once a distinguished face were the effects of these last few years. He was old now, even by the standards of his own society. The weight of his long leadership, his efforts to stop what he saw coming, and the stress created by a final, self-appointed task, had increased the burdens of his almost 2,000 years of life.

As he stood there, mental shadows from the long but distinct past sifted through his mind. No other being could imagine what he had seen or lived through, except those who were now millions of miles away, looking for a new home. None could imagine the futility he had felt in trying to preserve what they had created, believing that the destruction could be reversed. They told him the coming storm was inevitable.

He shook himself, hoping to rid his mind of those haunting thoughts, because as the hour of his departure

neared, he knew he could not, and should not, indulge in such thinking.

Furthermore, what did it matter now?

He summoned consolation from deep within; and a hope that in time a few of the lower life forms might again take hold and life might begin again.

But now he had no time to consider the past or its consequences.

He would be leaving soon. That had been planned for almost a century. He would be the last to leave because he had to be. His ship waited for him; a silent friend, hidden in the workshop beneath this castle, a natural cavernous formation that he had used for centuries as his place of creation. He recalled, momentarily, the compulsion he had felt to finish it once he had begun its transformation. He had puzzled, then, over the significance of that feeling. Now, he knew. He would need it, even though that need had been far in the future.

He looked out over this dark and dying world, scorched by the fires of weapons hastily and unconscionably re-

leased. They had left as their mark such a dreadful barrenness that the reality of absolute destruction spread throughout his soul like an all-consuming plague.

EVERY LIVING THING HAD CEASED TO BE. The only good to come from the totality of the destruction, of course, was that THEY were gone also.

The cold began to penetrate his ancient flesh. He knew he should go inside. Yet the urge to linger, along with a weariness in his soul, pulled at him, and he stood there a few moments longer.

Far off in the distance, a light caught his eye, but then just as suddenly was gone. His brow furrowed. How curious.

“GO INSIDE. GO. YOU’LL FREEZE TO DEATH.” “I’m dying anyway, what difference does it make,” he answered himself.

“GO INSIDE!” He knew it was time but still he stood there. He stared out across the bareness of his home.

He thought of the heights his race had reached, and now reflecting on the

depths to which it had fallen, he shuddered visibly. A feeling of such finality overcame him that a tear, almost imperceptible, formed, but just as quickly, was made to disappear.

Sad; so sad, he thought. Such a waste. But in that sadness was the solace of knowing that his ship would provide a haven for himself, for a while at least, and a safe storage facility for the Knowledge Tapes he had taken so long to collect and preserve. He would see that they were carefully prepared, long before his impending departure and demise. Even if he was to die before reaching the next inhabited world, this ship was totally self-sufficient. It could detect inhabited worlds, land and make contact. Once the next phase was reached and the others were contacted, the tapes began to “speak” and would continue to recycle for at least 10 years before stopping. The others would have to figure out how to re-start them and what they were about.

TO BE CONTINUED

Service Spotlight: Empowered Women International

By Natalie Devlin Editorial Intern Families from all over the world come to the D.C. area for refuge and opportunity. Unfortunately for many, those opportunities are often difficult to come by. Marga Fripp, the founder of Empowered Women International (EWI), felt that frustration firsthand when she came to the U.S. from Romania.

Fripp met other talented women through English classes at Montgomery College in Takoma Park, Maryland. In order to showcase their talents and their cultures, Fripp started EWI, a training center that helps women turn their creative talents into profitable businesses.

“Culture can be easily displayed through art,” said Teal Griffey, a nonprofit management intern at EWI. Ten years later, immigrant, refugee and low-income women come to EWI with ideas for businesses in

DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH ACCESS HOTLINE 1-888-7WE HELP (1-888-793-4357)

SHELTER Calvary Women’s Services 110 Maryland Avenue, NE (202) 289-0596 (office) (202) 289-2111 (shelter) www.calvaryservices.org Central Union Mission (Men) 1350 R Street, NW (202) 745–7118, www.missiondc.org Open Door Shelter (Women) 425 2nd Street, NW (202) 393–1909 www.newhopeministriesdc.org/id3.html Community of Hope (Family) 1413 Girard Street, NW (202) 232–7356,www.communityofhopedc.org Covenant House Washington (Youth) 2001 Mississippi Avenue, SE (202) 610–9600, www.covenanthousedc.org John Young Center (Women) 119 D Street, NW (202) 639–8469, www.catholiccharitiesdc.org

jewelry, catering, textiles, painting and many other creative industries.

For the first three months, women learn how to write resumes, create business plans and market their new ventures. They launch their businesses and for the next nine months EWI helps them succeed with mentoring and workshops.

“It started out as a group of women helping each other and has turned into almost a full-fledged business school,” Griffey said.

EWI is almost entirely run by volunteers and is always looking for people to teach classes or donate their time as mentors. It is also currently recruiting for the Fall business incubator, which is the first three months of the 12-month program. For information on how to qualify for or volunteer with the program, email info@ewint.org or call 571-312-4781.

My Sister’s Place PO Box 29596, Washington, DC 20017 (202) 529-5261 (office) (202) 529-5991 (24-hour hotline)

STREET SENSE August 29 - September 11, 2012

COMMUNITY SERVICES St. Stephens Parish Church 1525 Newton St, NW (202) 737–9311, www.thrivedc.org

Martha’s Table 2114 14th Street, NW (202) 328–6608, www.marthastable.org

Food and Friends 219 Riggs Road, NE (202) 269–2277, www.foodandfriends.org

Rachel’s Women’s Center 1222 11th Street, NW (202) 682–1005, www.ccdsd.org/howorwc.php

Miriam’s Kitchen 2401 Virginia Avenue, NW (202) 452–8089, www.miriamskitchen.org

Sasha Bruce Youthwork 741 8th Street, SE (202) 675–9340, www.sashabruce.org

The Welcome Table Church of the Epiphany 1317 G Street, NW (202) 347–2635, http://www.epiphanydc. org/ministry/welcometbl.htm

So Others Might Eat (SOME) 71 “O” Street, NW (202) 797–8806; www.some.org

MEDICAL RESOURCES

Academy of Hope GED Center 601 Edgewood Street, NE (202) 269-6623, www.aohdc.org

Christ House 1717 Columbia Road, NW (202) 328–1100, www.christhouse.org Unity Health Care, Inc. 3020 14th Street, NW (202) 745–4300,www.unityhealthcare.org Whitman–Walker Clinic 1407 S Street, NW (202) 797–3500, www.wwc.org

OUTREACH CENTERS N Street Village (Women) 1333 N Street, NW (202) 939–2060, www.nstreetvillage.org Samaritan Inns 2523 14th St., NW (202) 667 - 8831 http://www.samaritaninns.org/home/ New York Ave Shelter (Men 18+) 1355–57 New York Avenue, NE (202) 832–2359

FOOD

15

Bread for the City 1525 Seventh Street, NW (202) 265–2400 1640 Good Hope Road, SE (202) 561–8587, www.breadforthecity.org Community Council for the Homeless at Friendship Place 4713 Wisconsin Avenue NW (202) 364–1419, www.cchfp.org Bethany Women’s Center 1333 N Street, NW (202) 939–2060, www.nstreetvillage.org

Charlie’s Place 1830 Connecticut Avenue, NW (202) 232–3066 www.stmargaretsdc.org/charliesplac

Father McKenna Center 19 Eye Street, NW (202) 842–1112

Church of the Pilgrims (Sundays only) 2201 P Street, NW (202) 387–6612, www.churchofthepilgrims.org

Friendship House 619 D Street, SE (202) 675–9050, www.friendshiphouse.net

Thrive DC Breakfast served Mon.-Fri., 9:30-11 a.m.

Dinner for women and children, Mon.-Fri., 3-6 p.m.

Georgetown Ministry Center 1041 Wisconsin Avenue, NW (202) 338–8301 www.georgetownministrycenter.org

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Catholic Community Services 924 G Street, NW (202) 772–4300, www.ccs–dc.org D.C. Coalition for the Homeless 1234 Massachusetts Ave., NW (202) 347–8870, www.dccfh.org Community Family Life Services 305 E Street, NW (202) 347–0511, www.cflsdc.org Foundry Methodist Church 1500 16th Street, NW (202) 332–4010, www.foundryumc.org Gospel Rescue Ministries (Men) 810 5th Street, NW (202) 842–1731, www.grm.org Hermano Pedro Day Center 3211 Sacred Heart Way, NW (202) 332–2874 www.ccs–dc.org/find/services/ JHP, Inc. 425 2nd Street, NW (202) 544–9126, www.jobshavepriority.org Samaritan Ministry 1345 U Street, SE 1516 Hamilton Street, NW (202) 889–7702, www.samaritanministry.org

SHELTER HOTLINE: 1–800–535–7252

LAST WORD: AND THE SURVEY SAYS...!

VENDOR PROFILE: KEDIST GIRMA

By Allen Hoorn Vendor/Volunteer Manager

By Faithful Okoye Editorial Intern

Who reads Street Sense?

What do readers think about the newspaper? Why do they stop on the side of the street to buy a newspaper from someone they have probably never met before in their life? These are just a few of the questions Street Sense set out to answer with the 2012 Readership Survey conducted from July 18 to August 7.

Readers were invited to provide their feedback through the Survey Monkey website or by mailing a copy of the survey printed in the newspaper. By the end of the survey, 101 readers responded with their answers, comments, ideas, suggestions and insights.

Before getting into the numbers and statistics, we here at Street Sense would like to thank the readers who took the time to provide their feedback. We intend to use the data collected from this effort to better serve the community and to provide the highest quality newspaper possible. The better our product, the more it will help our vendors as they work diligently to overcome the challenges they face.

So then, what has Street Sense learned from this year’s survey?

Readers buy the newspaper to support the vendors. While large percentages want to learn about their community and get a different perspective on poverty and homelessness,

more than 80 percent of respondents indicated they want to provide support to vendors more than anything else.

Street Sense readers are loyal. More than 70 percent of those who responded to the survey indicate they purchase at least one copy of each issue with many purchasing multiple copies of each issue. And once a reader purchases a newspaper, responses to the survey indicate that the reader is likely to read the newspaper from cover-to-cover.

While some readers who responded to the survey would like to see more coverage of news and others would like to see more contributions from vendors on the pages of Street Sense, the majority of responses (65.35 percent ) indicate readers are happy with the overall blend of news and vendor contributions.

Of course, the survey did yield some insight into who buys the newspaper as well as their motivations and opinions. More than twice as many women responded to the survey as men. The largest group of respondents was between the ages of 46 and 65. More than a quarter reported an annual income of between $40,000 and $79,999 and more than half of the respondents indicated they have some form of advanced college degree. While Street Sense readers come from many walks of life, the bulk of our respondents came from the government and nonprofit sectors.

Again, the organization sincerely thanks all of the readers who took the time to respond to the survey.

August 29 - September 11, 2012 • Volume 9 • Issue 21

Street Sense 1317 G Street, NW

Nonprofit Org US Postage Paid Washington, DC

Washington, DC 20005

Mail To:

Permit #568

Remember, only buy from badged vendors and do not give to those panhandling with

For Kedist Girma, the road to homelessness started with an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint that she filed against the U.S. Department of State in 2004. Ever since, she said she has been stalked various times and harassed by the police. She also believes that the government might be using the U.S.A. Patriot Act against her.

Girma was hired for a three-month clerkship at the U.S. State Department.

While she was on the job, she felt she experienced ethnic and racial discrimination. She filed a complaint, but her case was dismissed. Her worries that the government is seeking retribution have haunted her ever since.

Girma’s claims against the U.S. government might fill several densely typed pages. She has pictures of helicopters and small airplanes flying overhead and police reports on stolen items including her U.S. passport, her social security card and other identification cards.

Still, it takes a leap of faith to join her in her version of the story.

Girma was born in Ethiopia and moved to America when she was about seven years old. She was reunited with her mother, who had left for America when Girma was a newborn. Girma eventually obtained U.S. citizenship and graduated from Howard University with a degree in history. While at Howard, she was offered the summer clerkship at the U.S. Department of State.

Her clerkship did not go well. In addition to the discrimination Girma said she experienced, she complained to superiors that her email messages had been tampered with. In response to her complaints, a U.S. State Department official named Richard M. Esper said in an email thread she has kept: “I advised her that the charge that her emails are being monitored and ed-

ited/changed is outrageous and that I will not pursue the matter.”

Girma’s suspicions of government surveillance have only been compounded since then. A man who she says was her brother, Brook T. Genet, 29, was killed in an armed standoff with the Prince George’s County police in August 2008. According to the press, he suffered from bipolar disorder.

Girma filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, claiming that under the Patriot Act, the government is using many means to spy on her, invade her privacy and violate her human and civil rights in retaliation against her for filing the EEOC complaint. She also claims her brother’s death was part of the larger scheme against her.

Her case was dismissed. When Girma appealed, the United States Court of Appeals responded, “The district court properly dismissed the complaint as frivolous pursuant to 28 U.S.C SS 1915 (e)(2)(B)(i).”

But Girma has not given up hope, she says.

“The judges have been seemingly understanding but not to the point to have someone prosecute the individuals who are perpetrating these hideous acts,” Girma says.

She has appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Girma is living with a relative since she was evicted from her apartment.

She is multilingual and enjoys studying, particularly reading about international affairs.

“I love seeking knowledge,” she says. She sells Street Sense, not only in the District but in the city’s suburbs in Maryland and Virginia.

Girma also has established a small business, KEDIST.LLC, to promote tourism and cultural events in Ethiopia and to assist orphans, nuns and mental patients in the country of her birth.

She would love to see the establishment of a iconic and historical museum in Addis Ababa that would attract tourists to the country.

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Chino Dean - September 1