Daily Lunch for our City's homeless, poor and hungry was served a little late today, at The St. Anthony's Dining Room on Jones Street (at corner of 121 Golden Gate, one block north of Market Street), which normally starts serving us at 11:30am, seven days a week, 365 days a year or so..
Today, lunch started serving about an hour late (line started moving for real at 12:25p) because today was a Special Day.
St. Anthony's Dining Room was honored by a visit from House Speaker Nancy Peolsi today, who was likewise honored to serve Meal Number 35,000,000 to a beautiful young lady named "Gigi" who was there to eat lunch with her Grandfather.
We sat down at Gigi's table, shortly after Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been there to chat with Gigi and grab some photo opportunities.
We were told that Ms. Pelosi had insisted on being here in San Francisco, at St. Anthony's Dining Room with our homeless.
Instead of back in Washington D.C., dealing with those so-called 'bail out' and 'stimulus packages' (which we all refer to as massive theft of tax money with ZERO oversight paid out to the same fat cats who caused this mess),
Nancy came back home which shows a measure of empathy and compassion while we are going through some very hard times here.
Our Mayor Newsom and various department and agency heads have not seen fit to increase the number of safe spaces and our people are being warehoused in sub-standard rooms for which the City pays market rates for.
We need help from outside of San Francisco in order to bypass a number of corrupted systems and programs here. Without federal intervention, funding and oversight our people cannot escape a closed and broken system.
Failed systems whereby all the decision and policy making is largely in the hands of service providers who have a financial stake in NOT seeing an end to homelessness and local officials who are NOT increasing safe spaces and services at a time in history when those things are vital for our public safety and national security.
Gigi was thrilled to be the 35 Millionth Diner today and was excited about meeting with Pelosi and having lunch with her.
Which was by the way, some kind of delicious chicken and mushroom entree, served over white rice with cut whole carrots and potatos on the side.
And to honor this special event, we were served little white or chocolate cupcakes with frosting and the word '35" swirled on the top in red icing.
We asked Gigi what she thought about Pelosi and what did they talk about during this special lunch together. Her and her Grandfather said that although Pelosi did not give specific details or make any promises, she said she supported having some $20 Billion Dollars worth of cash to fund the Food Stamp Program which is good news.
We asked Gigi if she could 'feel' Nancy Pelosi when she sat down to luch with her. 'Yes!', Gigi told us. She could feel that Ms. Pelosi had her heart in the right place and it seems like she truly cares about us here.
Gigi was so excited about the whole thing. St. Anthony's staff took her plastic serving tray and said they were going to mount it on a plaque to commemorate the serving of this 35 Millionth meal, since October 4th, 1950.
When she saw us text messaging part of this story to the blog, she ran away saying 'I have got to text message my friends about this..' and she left the basement cafeteria for higher ground, so she can get a signal on her cell phone.
Even though the staff wouldn't let her keep the tray, she was allowed to keep the little iced cupcake. She told us she's going to have it preserved as a sovenier of her meeting with the Honorable Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.
Gigi was touched by the fact that Ms. Pelosi made it a priority to come back home to San Francisco to 'be with the people' in hunger at St. Anthony's Dining Room.
MANY OF OUR SAN FRANCISCAN RESIDENTS ARE THANKFUL TO HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI FOR THIS EXAMPLE OF COMPASSION, LOCAL LOYALTY AND LEADERSHIP.
The bad news is that the people who systematically train wrecked our economy and defrauded our people of trillions over the past couple decades and have plunged our children into an abyss of astronomical BANK LOAN interest for what we are borrowing, to date.
These 'No Accountability' 'no promise to perform bailouts' are further eroding our people's confidence in both our 'Financial System' and Congress.
Trust is rapidly disappearing as these bastards make off with millions and billions of dollars worth of our tax money, and eat caviar and champagne while our homeless and foreclosure and sickness and premature death rates are doubling and tripling before our very eyes.
We do thank Ms. Pelosi for coming to visit us and voice support for us, our people here and around the nation and St. Anthony's Foundation for their unconditional love.
A BIG HEARTFELT THANKS TO OUR LOCAL POLITICIANS AND ACTIVISTS WITH PROVEN TRACK RECORDS OF HELPING OUR PEOPLE IN NEED IN SAN FRANCISCO AND AROUND THE COUNTRY...
If we can't get him to come back and be Mayor of San Francisco or even Governor of California, at least we can hope he rises higher in Washington, D.C., because he is an angel to many people in need, around the country.
Another bright ray of honest hope for us during what is and what has been, a very dark period of time for us, in our nation's history . . .
We guess this is John's way of getting ahead of the curve and preventing future problems by taking caring of our children NOW!
This approach reduces future costs and helps prevent at risk children from becoming a problem as an adult.
Giving our children a safe place and good care now prevents crime and reduces burdens on our community services.and resources.
Incidentally, the 'Burton Boys' are distant cousins to our own local homeless peer advocate, James Leonard, who's family is from Cincinnati, like the Burtons; and have lived in California and the San Francisco Bay Area most of their lives.
Mr. Leonard was helping us when he was on the San Francisco Shelter Monitoring Committee to build bridges between service providers and clients (while working on the recently passed homeless 'Shelter Standards Of Care Law' for the past year.
Recently, after being passed over for renomination by The Local Homeless Coordinating Board for their SMC Seat (which he held before as St. Anthony Foundation's Father Hardin's nominee) Mr. Leonard decided to step back and take more direct and free approaches, to helping our people in need.
He told us he got tired of fake town meetings and agency reports which basically totally distorted, lied about and covered up the horrendous conditions of our city's shelters. He was doing great until the SF Hot Team messed him up over Christmas. He said that some people keep putting spin and politics and future ambitions over the urgent needs of our people, today.
Now is a time of action, not more meetings and surveys which have been repeated ad nauseum in San Francisco, for the past 15 years.
NOW IS THE TIME FOR ACTION LIKE NEVER BEFORE.
Mr. Leonard is currently working on obtaining grants and funding in order to provide direct services to our homeless, elderly, poor, disabled and veterans.
He was recently kicked out of his SRO room after his case manager's supervisor gave him two weeks over Christmas to get a job or he'd be forced back into a shelter.
Which is a step backwards and made Mr. Leonard feel like the progress he made to overcome life traumas (he was beaten by abusive police officers twice as a teenager, when he was 13 years old and later 19 years old) and the trauma of being homeless and having to witness systematic abuse and inhumane conditions inside of shelters and on the streets here and in San Diego, (where he spent his first 40 days homeless, about 3 years ago) were all for nothing.
We saw him right before the SF Hot Team Christmas Dinner and he and so many other Hot Team Clients were looking so healthy and confident.
Mr. Leonard was actively seeking work for the first time, in a long time.
For the first time he felt he could trust others to help take care of him long enough for him to get a jhob and be self sufficient again, like he's been for the past 20 years of working for a living like everybody else.
He told us his case is currently being reviewed for appeal and hopes to be back into an SRO and off the streets soon. He is meeting with a lawyer to see if this has been happening to a lot of our people, being tossed out for bogus reasons.
IS THIS WHAT HARM REDUCTION REALLY LOOKS LIKE, ONCE YOU PEEL BACK THE GLOSSY PUBLIC RELATIONS IMAGERY ?
AT RISK RESIDENTS BEING TOSSED INTO THE STREET BY UNQUALIFIED CASE MANAGERS, WITH ZERO COMPASSION IN THEIR COLD HEARTS.
SHAME ON THOSE FEW PUBLIC SERVANTS WHO SUPPORT CAUSING HARM TO OUR PEOPLE, KNOWINGLY AND INTENTIONALLY.
THIS IS NEGLECT. THIS IS ABUSE OF POWER. THIS IS A VIOLATION OF THE PUBLIC TRUST.
WE PRAY FOR A COMPLETE REVIEW OF ALL OF OUR CITY'S HOMELESS AND HOUSING PROGRAMS, LIKE A MASTER AUDIT, TO SEE, ONCE AND FOR ALL -- JUST HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ROTATED AND HARMED BY THIS POVERTY PIMPIN' MERRY GO ROUND.
This time he says, he will insist on choosing his own Case Manager whom he can trust to follow through and not leae him hanging. Mr. Leonard did not even have a Case Manager for many months after being placed into his Hot Team SRO.
He made a point to remind us that most of the SF Hot Team Case Managers are good and fair and really care about us.
MOST OF THEIR STAFF ARE GOOD AND THEIR MEDICAL PEOPLE ARE FANTASTIC, BUT THE BAD ONES ON THE INSIDE, DO NOT VALUE THEIR PROFESSIONAL OPINIONS, LIKE THEY SHOULD. THEY SHOULD BE WORKING AS A TEAM TO MANAGE CASES.
The problem on the back end is that funding has been hampered and cut by Mayor Newsom and other Agency Heads and we have SRO rooms that are not being filled but the City is still paying for because they do not have enough Case Managers.
And, there are clients of programs like the SF Hot Team who have been in 'temporary transitional SRO rooms' for more than 12 to 16 months !!
This may be unintentional, but the pipelines are not working right when decisions are made based on one case manager's bias and a client's entire situation and circumstances are not reviewed with objectivity and good faith.
To make matters worse, Mr. Leonard tells us that too many SRO rooms are NOT up to an inhabitable standard.
This means that our City's Leaders made a decision that is was OKAY to put sick, tired, hungry and poor people into rooms that do not have a finished floor, with cracked windows, mice, bed bug infested carpeting and hot water that is barely lukewarm.
Overall, we'd say that many people in power here have been making money on the backs of our people and make a choice to put our people into miserable, unhealthy and unsafe conditions with our taxpayers (meaning us, even the homeless who pay taxes and have been for years!) footing the bill.
This is so wrong. People like James need our help because they deserve it.
We have a number of people in our systems that are 'milking it', faking illnesses, selling drugs and what not, but those people are only a small percentage of all the different kinds of people who are now homeless.
Throwing good people out into the streets is inhumane.
Any case manager or supervisor who endangers or forces clients to live in any unsafe place, should be fired and court ordered to 'be homeless' for six weeks and make them stay at our shelters.
THAT WOULD TEACH THEM TO STOP MOVING PEOPLE INTO PLACES THEY WOULD HATE TO BE IN, THEMSELVES.
We have spoken to other SF Hot Team Clients who told us they had severe illnesses (one had a terminal degererative disease) and were all being hassled and thrown out because of one or two bad case managers and a bad supervisor who thinks it's okay to throw at risk people and patients into the street.
IS THIS DUE PROCESS ?
THERE ISN'T EVEN AN ESTABLISHED APPEAL POLICY TO SAVE US FROM BAD CITY WORKERS !!
CITY WORKER'S WHOSE BIASED AND SUBJECTIVE DECISIONS ARE ACTUALLY CAUSING HARM TO OUR PEOPLE. IT'S DISGRACEFUL AND SAN FRANCISCO CAN DO MUCH BETTER THAN THIS.
THIS IS WHY WE WANT SOME FEDERAL OVERSIGHT INTO ALL OF
OUR CITY'S HOMELESS AND HOUSING PROGRAMS BECAUSE SOME BAD CITY WORKERS ARE IN FACT, VIOLATING THE ADA LAWS AND CAUSING HARM.
THESE ARE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH WORKERS WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO 'DO NO HARM'.
WE BELIEVE CORRUPTION AND BIAS AND POLITICS HAVE CREEPED UP INTO PROGRAMS LIKE THE SF HOT TEAM AND OTHER SERVICE PROVIDERS WHICH IS HAVING A DIRECT NEGATIVE IMPACT ON THE HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELFARE OF OUR PEOPLE IN NEED.
If we put our people into safe places and help them instead of hurting them, we all prosper and can use our resources to help more people, not less.
The last presidential regime we had and often times this City Hall we have has made it a habit to 'do much less than what is needed' which has compunded the waste, suffering and misery of our people and community resources.
It is shameful to put anyone into a place that YOU would not live in, yourself.
How can any Mayor or elected official stand by and let your own people be placed into substandard living conditions, at taxpayer's expense ?
AS GOOD OLD DOCTOR PHIL WOUILD SAY, 'WHAT WERE YOU THINKING !
If a man like John Burton was the Mayor of San Francisco or better still, Governor of California, you can bet he would be fighting FOR OUR PEOPLE to have MORE SHELTER BEDS and safe spaces and affordable housing, NOT LESS !!!
More about these old families from Ohio... who migrated to the West Coast...
James Leonard's oldest brother Joseph H. Leonard, III, and has been active in democratic politics in Washington and James' nephew Matt Leonard, has been active many grass roots stuff.
Matt has been an outstanding defender of people's rights and our environment. For example he's active in GreenPeace and has done a lot of work with IndyMedia in San Diego and has travelled all over to stand up for our Constitutional Rights.
James Leonard's mother Elizabeth Jane Leonard passed away last year, in her late '80's, while James was busy fighting to improve the shelter conditions.
He never got a chance to say goodbye to her. He was preoccupied with being homeless and struggling to improve shelter conditions for all of us.
Elizabeth was living in Washington with James' older sister Pat Leonard, US Army Colonel, retired, who had been kind enough to care for their Mother as she grew older and unable to care well for herself.
James and his Mother used to occasionally serve food together at Food Banks up in Snohomish County, Washington, when James was working as a crime victim advocate and abuse investigator in Seattle, Washington.
Elizabeth used to complain about people coming up and getting triple bags of food and then just dumping what they did not want on the ground and sold the rest on the street corners.
Just like they do here in San Francisco... some things never change !
What all these good people and families have in common are shared values of compassion, generosity and the courage to stand up for what is right, no matter what the cost is.
Maybe they share something some people would call 'midwestern values' since they all came from Cincinnati, Ohio.
A riverfront 'city of seven hills" renowned for lots of hills and lots of cows and one of the last major stops on the 'Underground Railroad' which was used to free the slaves from the South. That being the Mississippi River which runs up into the Ohio River, at Cincinnati, the border of the Mason-Dixon Line.
According to what Mr. Leonard has told us about his life before moving to California in 1975, he lived in a rural suburb and his father owned one of the country's oldest car dealerships, called Norwood Ford Auto Sales Company' at 5050 Montgomery Road, across from one of the first White Castle Hamburger Restaurants.
Mr. Leonard's family was very well off by the passing down of the car dealership from James' Greatgrandfather Joseph H. Leonard, I, to James father, Jospeph H. Leonard, II and it was supposed to be passed down to Jos. H. Leonard, III.
Each son had to work his way up from being a 'lot boy' and then into the sales and service departments long before they could rise up to take over the business over many years of hard work.
HELPING YOUR NEIGHBOR IN THE MIDWEST IS NOT JUST ABOUT BEING NEIGHBORLY.
IT'S ABOUT SURVIVAL.
TO MAKE IT THROUGH HARSH WINTERS AND HARSH TIMES PEOPLE MUST PUT THEIR PETTY DIFFERENCES ASIDE AND WORK TOGETHER TO BUILD UP EVERY MEMBER OF THEIR COMMUNITY AND LEAVE NOONE BEHIND OR LEFT OUT IN THE COLD.
There were no free rides in these hard working, midwestern families. Just to survive harsh winters, helping your neighbor was not a luxury or an option. It was mandatory to keep watch out for your neighbors, in order to survive.
The mexicans have an expression for this. "Hoy es para ti y' manana es para mi', which roughly translated means 'Today we will help you and tommorrow you may help us'.
So, the values of hard work and dedication to helping others is a way of life for many families in the U.S. But, not all families share this value.
Some think of others as an afterthought... that is, they think about you and your family only AFTER they have gotten more than they need.
Helping you and your family is what they call an afterthought for many people in power today.
Families and people who help others first, are the ones who deserve all of our support and praise because they have compassion. They feel what we feel. When we are hungry and suffer on the streets, they do not come by to harass us or tell us to move or put us in jail.
These special families give us what we need and as much as we need because THEY TRULY CARE ABOUT PEOPLE.
The Leonard Family, for example, had a lot of money made from hard work. Most of the boys in the Leonard family started working in their early teens on paper routes and car washing.
Their family experienced a fire, a bankruptcy and a divorce, all in a 2 year period.
Yet, on the night after Christmas IN 1971, when their farmhouse burnt down, Elizabeth Leonard (James' mother) was actually out at a sick friends house delivering a home baked 'crab apple' pie.
She returned home that evening To a lawn filled with a half dozen fire trucks. Her home burned down to the ground. That was the first time the Leonard Family became homeless and destitute.
REVENGE OF THE NAZI ENGINEERS IN AMERICA'S AUTO INDUSTRY AND FINANCE
This was back in 1970, when BANKS got into the car business using something called 'floor planning' and the major 3 auto makers, like Ford had been using techniques designed by German (read: smuggled Nazis vis a Operation Paperclip) Engineers to design cars, as cheap as possibole and calculate when they would fail so they could beef up their sales of parts and warranties.
This was the beginning of Planned Obsolesence.
Today, we are paying a very steep price for this 'consumable' and disposable society which was the brain child of slick engineering by very greedy banks, auto makers and oil producers. This was the time when the final traps of economic enslavement were foisted upon us all.
James' father told Ford Motor Company to 'stick it' because if he could not sell quality, long lasting automobiles to his customers he no longer wanted to be in the business.
His family was taught at an early age to not put any emotional attachment onto material objects (this is along the lines of the Maria Montessori Teachings, in which people need to learn to get back to using things and loveing people, instead of loving things and using people).
Joseph and his wife Elizabeth taught the Leonard family to always help others and not to trade off one's own soul, for the sake of the almighty dollar.
Always put people first and the money and material things will follow by themselves. Make a good living in business, but don't be greedy trying to make a killing. Many American familes have been taught these same things over generations.
So, after several generations of wealth, the Leonard Family kind of made peace with not being wealthy, instead of sucking up to the Ford Motor Company and the Banks, who have systematically moved us all away from the lands of our families and stuck us all into eternal debt.
They are all Traitors and the Ford Motor Company, as you all know we reported here, were right in there with the Bush, Harriman and other major industrial and banking families like J.P. Morgan, all helped finance the Nazi Army and sold them weapons, machines and products AFTER the United States entered World War II.
Hell, it was Prescott Bush and J. P. Morgan themselves, who already perfected the art of bankrupting nations when they both did Europe in the 20's and then robbed our nation blind in the 1930's.
Hell, they took away our gold in the 1930's (that was a scam which was unConstitutional).
They took away Congress' power to mint money (instead of borrowing it from loan sharking banks, like we are doing right now...) and instituted an Income Tax on workers, which was never even properly ratified.
And it was Congress' Intent for Income Tax to be applied only to large transactions of the rich and gains on investments and speculation activities (such as real estate, commodity and stock trading, buying and selling of goods and property and factories, etc.).
Income Tax was NEVER INTENDED by Congress and The People to be applied to WORKERS and small business owners. Common Wage Earners were not supposed to pay income tax because a person's existence cannot be taxed. Every person has the right in the United States to exchange their labor and time for the things and the currency required to SURVIVE. If they make profits on top of wages, then there is tax to be paid on the extra profits, but it is morally repugnant to take taxes from people who do not even have enough resources to SURVIVE.
Yet, most ot the major corporate farms, banks and people selling weapons, nuclear devices and oil overseas get to make like $250,000 a year, TAX FREE. They get subsidized on the front end from our taxes. Then, they get tax breaks while they ship our jobs overseas and import foreign labot (legally and illegally) and use federal powers to bust up our unions to protect the elite who are screwing all of our families, every day.
These elite gloabl families that forced us into being submissive to their PRIVATELY OWNED Federal Reserve Bank System have systematically gained near complete financial control over YOUR LIFE and YOUR FAMILY'S LIFE.
They intentionally have been deregulating and merging their holdings together until they have eliminated all competition and gained control over YOUR MONEY and YOUR HOUSE and YOUR CAR and YOUR CHILDREN !
These are not accidents or coincidence.
These are all the work of very greedy men who use the best minds of our community's colleges using sophisticated social engineering and manipulation techniques to increase their wealth, power and land holdings at Our Expense.
WHAT HOMELESSNESS IS LIKE TODAY IN 2009
Take our local homeless scene today.
Here it is a week into this month and the lines at St. Anthony's Dining Room and Glide Memorial have doubled over last month. Our needs are doubling and tripling as more families are pushed into poverty by the elite machines.
Yet, we have officials like Mayor Newsom and others trying to cut services to our people in the most need, in ways that do not keep us safe and healthy.
On the contrary, as Oprah Winfrey will attest to, that our people in need are NOT SAFE on the Streets of San Francisco.
We met an old lady last year who was in line with Oprah Winfrey, the day she dressed as a bag lady and got into the food line at Glide to see what it's like to 'hungry and homeless'.
Oprah was so mistreated and the staff was so unprofessional and the meals so meager, she got mad and went back into Glide the next day and pulled out something like $150,000 her or her foundation had donated.
MOST OF OUR SERVICE PROVIDERS DO A GOOD JOB BUT . . .
TOO MANY HAVE BAD EMPLOYEES WHO ARE DESTROYING LIVES AND SHOVING SICK PEOPLE INTO THE STREETS BECAUSE OF A COMPLETE LACK OF STANDARDS, PROCEDURES AND OBJECTIVE REVIEW AND FOLLOW THROUGH.
THIS IS A WASTE OF OUR TAX MONEY AND COMMUNITY RESOURCES.
THIS IS A WASTE OF HUMAN LIFE.
As we have explained before, our local service providers do an okay job, but too many of them are too stubborn or ignorant to change their ways.
GLIDE CHURCH HELPS US ALL A LOT, BUT STILL HAS SOME KINKS TO WORK OUT IN THEIR FOOD LINES TO PREVENT HARM AND REDUCE CONFLICT AND RACISM.
We were at Glide for lunch last week, and their staff still has not figured out how to properly pass out meal tickets and maintain their lines, consistently..
We can't figure it out !!
Every time we go to Glide, it's a big mystery as to who has the the tickets and where are they going to pass them out and where ?
This causes lots of problems because if the staff can't get it together to be consistent with the way the line runs, one can only wonder how messed up could their more complicated services be ?
Just like today when the food service at St. Anthony's was late by an hour ( to accomodate the Pelosi photo ops) it was a sign of disrespect to our people who are already starving and out of money and it's not even the second week of February yet !
Yes, it's nice to have Pelosi here but WE ARE HUNGRY! was the cry from the long lines outside of St. Anthony's Dining Room today.
When people are messed with in a food line it causes lots of problems.
That is how fights break out. Some people went hungry today and left the line in anger and frustration because they are being driven crazy by HUNGER AND SLEEP DEPRIVATION.
When we go to Glide and see staff running around without staying at the end of the line to pass out tickets, the whole line gets screwy.
Many people, especially our local latinos who are infamous for line cutting, do just that.
They walk up every day and ask "Oh, hey, did they pass out the tickets yet !!??? No. Okay, then I'm going to jump in line then....."
It's not just the latinos that do this... people from every race cut in line and cause problems only because the Glide line is NOT consistent.
Then, once the line cutting starts, then the crack dealers come around and mix into the line to hide their dealing and the Glide staff just stands there and does NOTHING unless they absolutely have to.
We have seen Glide Staff allow people (especially african americans) get away with verbally abusing transgender and gay men and women every day in their lines.
We have seen Glide Staff call people derogatory and hateful names and it looks like it all comes down to management or the lack thereof.
If you have pretty good people but have control freaks or neglectful or inexperienced or uncaring management, then even good people will pick up bad habits. For some reason, Glide and the staff we've spoken too all have some negative vibes running through their site.
We remember actually counting how many people coming from Church at Glide, looked us in the eyes, as they walked past us while we were in line waiting for a meal one day.
Out of about 140 people who came walking down Ellis from church services, only about TWO actually looked us in the eyes and gave us a smile or acknowledgement.
All of the remaining 138 Members of the Glide Church actually AVOIDED EYE CONTACT.
THEY ALL KEPT LOOKING OFF INTO THE STREET AS THEY WALKED PAST THE LINE OF 200 HUNGRY HOMELESS PEOPLE WAITING IN LINE TO EAT AT GLIDE.
We felt so low that day because we saw all these 'church people' walk right past us with these strange 'fake' or feigned looks on their faces. They looked GUILTY of being wealthy or materialistic or something... they COULD NOT BE REAL AND LOOK AT US.
Someone at Glide needs to put their ego aside, make a standard way of handling the line and train their people to follow the rules and stop engaging in racially charged comments against their clients and move on to being a better, safer and kinder place to go to for help and food.
ST. ANTHONY FOUNDATION'S DINING HALL AND REHAB PROGRAMS MUST BE ABOUT THE BEST IN THE WORLD BECAUSE WE ALREADY KNOW THEY ARE AMONG THE BEST IN SAN FRANCISCO.
Anyway, some service providers, like St. Anthony's Dining Room and Foundation, do an outstanding job considering they serve nearly 1,500 meals a day, every day with almost no fights or disorder in their food lines.
THEIR LOVE AND COMPASSION ARE A ROLE MODEL FOR US ALL.
Their Recovery Programs have helped thousands of our people get off the streets and improve the condition and quality of their lives. They SAVE LIVES, literally.
The Kennedys and the Burtons were all about peace and savng lives and ending corruption and helping to ease the suffering of our people who are most in need.
The Leonard family, in their own small way have always looked up to the Kennedys and the Burtons and Dr. King and many others because their ancestors grew up in those racially charged areas and with their own fire, bankruptcy and divorce intheir family, understand exactly what hardship, pain and suffering are all about.
James Leonard, in particular, has been honored to have helped save two or three lives since he moved back home here. We already reported this, but one elderly man was about to be stabbed on a Saturday morning, while he was sitting near the sidewalk in front of St. Anthony's The stabber was a man who had already attacked a woman staying at the Boyd, two months earlier.
The police at the prior incident were jaded and biased and refused to take the report and check the 'stabber' out because the victim was believed to be a crack user (who cares... a victim of violence is a victim of violence...).
Luckily, with this incident, two months later, James called the police and shot pictures of the entire assault. Officer Peachy of the SFPD Tenderloin Station pulled up with his gun drawn, just as the stabber was about to plunge a long kinfe into the elderly man's chest. All caught on film by James.
That man was on his Third Strike for violence and was imprisoned for life beause of this stabbing attack which was unprovoked, accordingly to James, who was there from the very beginning.
Another man who was going to committ suicide at a Faith Based, Tax Funded Homeless Shelter on Geary and Polk Street and the depressed man had asked the desk staff to call him a crisis line for help. The Supervisors name was Lloyd.
The Supervisor of the faith based shelter REFUSED and told the suicidal old man (with a lap bag full of prescription drugs to OD with) to 'go on back to bed, son and just have faith in God. He'll take care of you. You don't need to call no suicide crisis line....'
In that incident, James found the man who suffers from epileptic type attacks, in the smoking room of the shelter with his pill bottles in his hand, ready to take his own life because he was depressed about the death of his best friend "Robet the Piano Player' who used to wheel his grand piano around the streets of San Francisco until he died.
James went down to the front desk and forced the staff to call 9-1-1 to 51-50 the man into a hospital for suicide watch.
We just learned yesterday, that the same suicidial man became a client of one of our City's services and was placed into the Seneca Hotel SRO Room.
That place is a hell hole and it only took a couple months (with crack heads knocking on sick man's door day and night) in that nasty hotel room (paid for with our tax dollars) until his mental state of mind deteriorated and he could not stand being in a target for the crack vampires, so he left the SRO to go back to the street where he feels safer and less stressed out than that terrible SRO room.
The Seneca Hotel by the way, is that one SRO on Sixth Street, off of Market, where our friend has a video camera mounted and he has archived footage of the Hotel's Management (THC - Tenderloin Housing Clinic) 'rent collectors' using intimidation and threats of force against hotel tenants... tsk... tsk... tsk... SEARCH FOR THE SENECA HOTEL AND TENDERLOIN HOUSING CLINIC VIDEOS ON THE BLUOZ.COM BLOG SITE
WE HAVE ALMOST 30,000 PEOPLE LIVING IN 500 SRO HOTELS IN SAN FRANCISCO AND WE HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY OF THEM ARE LIVING IN SUB-STANDARD, UNHEALTHY ROOMS, PAID FOR BY OUR TAXES THROUGH THE MASTER LEASE PROGRAM.
WE DO NOT KNOW HOW MANY ROOMS ARE BEING PAID FOR, RIGHT NOW WITH TAX DOLLARS UNDER A CITY MASTER LEASE, THAT ARE -EMPTY-, MONTH AFTER MONTH WHILE WE HAVE MORE PEOPLE THAN EVER, ON OUR STREETS AND NEARLY 300 SHELTER BEDS LESS THAN WE HAD LAST YEAR.
THIS CITY, DESPITE THE HYPE & SPIN IS -NOT- FOLLOWING THROUGH ON ITS OBLIGATION AND DUTY TO KEEP -EVERY- RESIDENT SAFE AND SECURE.
ON THE CONTRARY, CITY WORKERS WHO DO WRONG ARE CAUSING HARM TO OUR PEOPLE AND PLACING THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO AT RISK FOR LAW SUIT BECAUSE THEY ARE LIABLE FOR THE HARM THEY CAUSE TO US ALL.
If you ask James or people like Hank Wilson (deceased) who led this City for years in struggles against the people and things that cause us to suffer, they will all deny being a hero.
They'll tell you about the fact that so many people (like Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy) in leadership positions and offices of power and from the streets (civil rights marchers who went down to the South to fight for voting rights) have shed their blood and sacrificed so much in the name of freedom, that the few times their lives are risked to save another, is the least they could do.
James says he never really intended to go out and help people, it's just a way of life because of the way in which he was raised.
He says that God just seems to put him into situations where someone is being abused or harmed and as he looks around for someone else to help, there never is anyone else around who can or is willing to step up, so he does it because noone else will.
CINCINNATI, OHIO - THE END OF THE UNDERGROUD RAILROAD THAT FREED SLAVES. A WILD MIX OF GERMAN, SWISS, IRISH, FREEMAN AND THE K.K.K.
Cincinnati was a major producer of munitions and heavy machinery. Cincinnati Milicron and others made nearly all of the pump handles at gas stations.
Heavy influence there by the Irish, the Germans and later many middle easterners moved there (likely a lot of engineering types with work immigrant visas... ). The Snow Family and the Leonard Family grew up near Moeller High School and All Saints Church, ran back then by Father Devitt.
There were lots of large, predominately Catholic families all around Cincinnati back then. Strong values of family first and the Irish influence brought about this attitude of 'people first' with almost no allegiance to neither 'Crown nor Church' which is that same 'tribe or clan first' mind set that was passed on to the writer's of the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence.
You see, the Irish (and the Scottish and others from that region) strongly believe in taking care of people in their local area (no matter where they live in the world) first and are very untrusting of government and the church.
Seperation of Church and State is a big deal in the history of people who were dominated by the English and Dutch Lords and the Vatican Church (whose Crusades and Inquisitions murdered and tortured people only because of their religous difference).
This is why you find many Irish and Scottish people around the world helping others in need, no matter what the color of their skin or their religion is. That is because they understand HUNGER, SUFFERING AND POVERTY.
Many immigrants; and especailly the Irish were mistreated terribly in Boston by the Blue Bloods (yes, the same families who now control GE, CHASE, JP MORGAN) who were The Elite who have no compassion. THEY FAKE IT !
You see, the Irish know the affects of slavery, persecution and indentured servitude, first hand from their ancestros who left Ireland for America, willingly and unwillingly to escape famine, hardship and The Crown and The Churches of Europe, who tried for centuries to beat them into submission.
President Obama's new Middle East Peace Envoy George Mitchell knows all about honor, integrity, peace making and The Irish.
IT'S ALL ABOUT TRANSPARENCY, SUBSTANCE, ACCOUNTABILITY AND EQUALITY FOR ALL OF US, NOT JUST THE RICH AND CORRUPTED....
This is why quality and substance and accountability are crucial to our nation's future.
We have been so badly ripped off by these elite families to the point where half of our homeless in San Francisco as NEWLY HOMELESS !
This is happening all over the nation which is why we all need to WORK TOGETHER and deal with our People's Needs, FIRST.
Money is supposed to flow from people to the creditors and banks and corporations, not vice versa.
But, This Congress were either conned or knew that the last few bail outs were a fraud and a fake. Instead of giving our people money and credit to pay the banks, our Congress gave these institutions OUR MONEY and they KEPT IT FOR THEMSELVES AND THEIR TOP CEO's.
THIS IS GRAND THEFT BY CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL !
Back To The Country Life In Cincinnati, Ohio
Norwood, Ohio, one of the suburbian towns of Cincinnati (where these Leonard, Burton and Snow Families started out, was a big GM town with a Fischer Body Plant located there.
A hot bed of racial tension too, because there were lots of KKK in Cincinnati (remember years before, the KKK Grand Drago Stephenson, Governor of the neighboring State of Indiana, was arrested for slashing his girlfriend, Madge Augustine Oberholtzer, to death, in Chicago.
Many in his administration and state legislators were all KKK. The former Mayor of Indianapolis was also indicted on other corruption charges. Indiana was a slave state and Ohio was a Free State with lots of safe houses and sympathizers risking their lives to help slaves fleeing the south.
The story goes, that during the Civil Rights Marches when the blacks marched down the main drag (Montgomery Road) also called the 3-C Highway (for linking Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland) from downtown Cincinnati on the riverfront and up through to the outer suburbs; the Norwood Police Department stuck a Tank and a Machine Gun Nest in the middle of Montgomery Road to the south and to the north.
This was done to block the marchers from entering Norwood. They were forced, at gun point, to detour their march through the upscale Swiss neighborhood of Mariemont Village and then back onto Montgomery Road, to avoid being shot by the Norwood/GM Racists.
Incidentally, Joseph Leonard's car dealership was routinely targeted for buckshot and rock throwing because he had these two top mechanics named John and Andy Amos who were two of the best mechanics east of the Mississippi who happened to be african american.
Joe Leonard, Sr. paid them top dollar because they could diagnose most Fords that came in, just by listening to them and watching them as they drove onto the lot. They did not have to use any diagnostic equipment.
Having two highly paid black mechanics in town really pissed off all of these 'good ol' boys' who were on the Norwood Police Department and who worked or made money off of the GM Fischer Body Plant.
As a matter of fact, talk about your six degrees of seperation, George Dub-Ya! Doh! Bush's front man (former White House Press Secretary) Tony Snow (who passed away recently) actually grew up a couple miles away from the Leonard Family, around the Cincy suburbs of Silverton and Kenwood. Tony Snow, we understand, came from a big family (something like 13 kids).
The younger Leonard children used to play with a few of the Snow kids.
We think they all attended St. Vincent Ferrer's Church in Kenwood, Ohio.
The Leonards had a large 14 room farmhouse and all the kids from the east side of Cincinnati (Madeira, Loveland, Montgomery, Kenwood, Silverton even upscale kids from Indian Hill and Hyde Park) were all welcome and kept well fed in their home.
This was back in the day when freeways were just being built and people left their doors open and everyone knew everyone.
This was rural suburban living. Lots of real family farms and horses nearby with lots of cool places to hike around. People looked out for one another and being in the midwest, money was not almighty like it has become on Wall Street or the East Coast.
As time went on these old families went on to meet their destinies. Some families went on to start companies so they could employ people. Others went into politics. The TRAITORS !
Every last one of them and their friends and family members are still here, littering the hallways of government offices and houses of legislation around the country.
We MUST rout them out and expose their frauds to save what's left of people's honor and wealth. We cannot let our children and grand children be born into debt to these fraudulent, greedy bastards who sold us all out for their own personal financial and political gains, at our expense and peril.
Good Families, like The Burtons have spent their entire lives helping others even at the risk of upsetting the status quo. They spent a lot of time with the Kennedys and have a lot of shared values. The People's needs come first over business.
We need more people like this to replace the people we now have in power, at the local, state and federal levels, who just can't seem to be accountable to the needs of our people.
They keep taking corporate money for their campaigns and screwing us all, at every turn.
OUR PEOPLE NEED HELP NOW.AND WILL NEED MUCH MORE HELP IN THESE NEXT FEW YEARS OF DEPRESSION.
PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES AND DEMAND THAT EVERY DOLLAR USED FOR STIMULUS AND BAIL OUTS COME WITH STRINGS ATTACHED.
WE DEMAND FULL ACCOUNTABILITY. FOR THE KATRINA VICTIMS, THREE YEARS LATER WHO ARE STILL WAITING....
WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR EVERYONE VICTIMIZED BY THE BANKSTERS AND LOAN SHARKS WHO HAVE DECIMATED OUR MIDDLE CLASS AND STOLE OUR AMERICAN DREAMS AND CAST OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN INTO INDENTURED SERVITUDE.
SHAME ON THEM ALL !
WE NEED PROSECUTION AND COMPENSATION FOR THEIR CRIMES AGAINST US ALL FOR THE PAST FEW DECADES NOW. SAME FAMILIES.
SAME MAJOR CORPORATE CEOS' AND THE SAME BANKING AND INDUSTRIAL FAMILIES THAT SCREWED US IN THE 1930'S.
We need more people like The Burtons and the Kennedys and even people like Chris Daly and Sister Bernie and Hank Wilson who are all ROLE MODELS for our people and for our public servants to follow and respect.
Please make it your goal this year to stay in touch with your local, state and federal servants and get involved in 'what's happening' here and around the nation to revamp our government and our programs and systems which are late for a complete makeover.
We cannot just jump into future prosperity and change without first taking a long hard look at every official and corporate entity who has harmed us over the past few generations.
We must look deep into their finances and activities to dismantle their global crime networks which have been carefully assembled in every major city since John was shot at the tip of the triangle that is the Daly Plaza in Dallas, Texas.
We must trace back all the dealings of the major weapons and banking firms and those contractors in Iraq, Afghanistan and Katrina (the private security firms, whom are largely ex-employees of security and intelligence firms.
Employees who were kicked out for bad behavior) who have stolen billions and likely caused the death of untold thousands due to their barbaric rendition and torture activities, which by the way, has made us all less safe, than before 9/11.
We must enforce the Intent and Letter of Our Laws and Treaties and Conventions upon everyone, no matter how rich or how seemingly powerful they may appear to be.
In reality, they are nothing more than greedy cockroaches and short little Wizards of Oz's who hide behind confusion, distraction, shock and awe while they rob us blind.
No pardon for Traitors.
No pardon for Liars and Thieves.
No pardon for the Torturers and Kidnappers.
No pardon for the Murderers.
No pardon for War Crimes Against Humanity.
Peace Out.
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