To Be A Poet

 

to be a poet is to be a waiter

you wait for inspiration

you wait for that ray of sun

that illuminates,

explains some piece of life

that eluded you before:

a casual kiss of a child to its mother

a smile, a laugh -

you looking on: grateful for a happy glimpse of humanity

glad to leave the dark side

hungry for the light

a chance blessing that you grab up and put in a poem

a recipe for life:

some hope mixed in with the despair

the light on the horizon

the hope sensed only sometimes

that everything is going to be alright

that you came through the horror and the pain

and found joy

and can hear the angels calling your name

to tell you, you are blessed, you are safe

and everything is going to be alright

that you are protected and glorious

and every day your light can shine

if you let it

and someone can see your light

and be changed by it and let their light shine too

to be a poet is to wait.

- Mary Getlein

Dedicated to my daughter, Susan Getlein, who is stronger than she knows.

Little Free Library

If you walk around Venice, you might notice little boxes in front of houses. On closer examination, it says “Little Free Library – Take a book, leave a book.” Apparently this is part of a nation wide effort to put books in peoples’ hands. It’s a library that is free, with no supervision and no fines. There is a box in front of Venice High School, and another in back of the school. I’ve seen another one on Walnut and Superba, and on Amoroso.

This is a great idea, and it’s part of the “Pay It Forward” movement. I’ve gotten a lot of books and taken a lot back. It’s a great way to get books in the hands of people who love books and aren’t ready to surrender to “Kindle”. It’s hard to lay in bed, holding your laptop and reading a book electronically. This is an idea perfect for Venice, with its reputation of taking things into their own hands. It’s such a nice surprise, to be walking along and find these little book boxes, full of books waiting to be explored. Thank you to all the book lovers. – Mary Getlein

www.littlefreelibrary.org

The Killings in Connecticut

By Mary Getlein

Michael Moore (of Bowling For Columbine) told the story of a crazy man who went to a school and tried to kill some children, but it was in China and he only had a knife. No kids killed that day. The same day as the attack in Connecticut. Twenty children killed by the greed of the NRA. The NRA spent so much money for Republicans to get in office, but didn’t get them in office. The NRA, who have remained silent – in “respect of the mourning of the families”. The NRA, the most powerful gun lobby in the world. Twenty children killed who will never come back. Twenty children of America, living in a beautiful suburb, going to a school that was supposed to be safe.

Now all the other crazies are coming out of the closet. Some total idiot is saying to arm the teachers. Yeah, a horrible act of violence happens, let’s throw some more violence at it.

Michael Moore: “Isn’t eviction a violent act?” “Throwing people out of their homes, isn’t that a violent act?” “Closing down factories and jobs? And cities? Isn’t that a violent act?” “Our country creates wars and keeps them going with the young people of our country, isn’t that a violent act?” “We sell arms to our citizens and arms to other countries, who use them to kill other women’s children, isn’t that a violent act?” “The side effect of war on our soldiers, PTSD and suicide, isn’t that a violent act?”

Pundits on the radio, trying to figure out a way to have gun control – and keep their guns at the same time – propose taking assault weapons off the market, making it illegal to own an assault rifle, like the one the shooter used on those children. Even Senators who love hunting, even they are saying enough is enough.

But there are no guarantees. Three hundred million guns are already out there in gun owners’ hands. How do you make a law retroactive … can you demand people to give up their guns? What about just their assault rifles? You can get an AR15, which is equal to an M16, for $500 to $1,000. Just in time for Christmas! What better way to celebrate Peace on Earth than to buy an assault rifle?

The thing is, the best time to sell them is when they are threatening to take them off the market. The gun factories are manufacturing assault rifles right now, so there were plenty for Christmas shoppers. This guy on the radio was telling the announcer what a “cool” gun it was. She said, “Excuse me, but you are referring to the gun that the shooter used to kill 27 people, including 20 little children.” He tried to backtrack, and said that people would want the assault weapon to protect themselves from being mowed down by a similar murderer as the shooter.

Who do we blame for this? Well, first off, the shooter. Of course we need to have background checks, and change the laws that govern mentally ill people. Meanwhile, one of the first things that have been cut from state and federal budgets is money for mental health facilities. When someone turns 18, they are considered an adult and if they are mentally ill and refuse treatment, there is nothing you can do. You have to wait, in most states, for them to commit a crime before they can be apprehended. A lot of mentally ill people wind up in jail who should be in a mental hospital, getting treatment. If someone is threatening to kill someone, or blow up a school, there should  be a place to get help for that person, before that act is committed. A lot of people are in prison who should be in a mental health facility.

But you can’t get away from the violent world of gun owners. The “gun culture” of the United States. No other country in the world has as many homicides as we have. There is a huge link between gun ownership and gun deaths. Every gun sale should have a background check, but they do not. New gun sales require a background check, but guns sold at gun shows, second hand guns, and guns sold at yard sales are private and are not regulated by the state or federal government.

They should make possession of assault rifles a felony, and gun trafficking a felony.

In studying other countries, they have found the same violence rates, and the same depression rates. The difference? We have more guns. If we enact stricter gun laws, we will have fewer murders.

We are living in a violent country that seems to worship violent acts. The sales of violent video games is through the roof. There are videos that kids watch to re-enact what soldiers do. The children kill people on screen and congratulate themselves. Many movies out there are violent, twisted, stories, involving mass murders. It doesn’t take that much imagination to see the link between watching violent movies and video games and actually doing it in real life. If you are depressed and suicidal and filled with rage, it might look like a good way to “go out”. Who the f knows?

All I know is this is not the kind of world I want to live in. We have let this go on for too long. I lived in Venice during the gang war and it was truly horrible. People in cars would drive by our house and would shoot into the yards. They would come by early in the morning and shoot into apartment buildings. It was absolutely terrifying. We have got to come to an agreement that this is no way to live. It is about gun control, but it’s also about how we treat each other. Right now we are not doing well on either count. Things have to to change.

What Have They Done to the Rain?

By Mary Getlein

What Have They Done To The Rain? was written by Malvina Reynolds. Malvina’s song was protesting nuclear testing on the people and livestock of Utah in the 1950s. Most of the people and the livestock got cancers, and died. Malvina’s emphasis was on children and families – to protect our world, our planet  from our own greed. Our greed cuts down the old-growth forests. Our greed is killing our children! We sell arms, we sell video games that train young boys how to kill. We kill our children – we feed them horrible food, food that will make them sick and give them life-long diseases. We kill our children – we quickly diagnose them and put them on psycho-tropic drugs, whose side effects might manifest as homicide, suicide, or both.

We kill our children – we lock them up for false charges to ensure we have a huge population of prisoners. California’s cash crop is prisons. California is free-falling right now. They can’t pick up the trash on Venice Beach, but they can put thousands of brown, black and low-income whites in jail. We kill our children. Every one of the corporations related to this is making a “killing” on killing our children.

The real point of Occupy for me is taking off the every day glasses of “I’m ok, screw everybody else.” The notion that if you’re “ok”, then things are really “ok” for the rest of us. They’re not. Unemployment is high, rents are high, people are living in their cars, if they have cars. Poor people are being discriminated against and harassed, while rich people who commit REAL crimes are let off the hook.

Occupy is calling a pig a “pig”. (Sorry to all the real pigs). How many houses do you need? Seriously. How much wealth does one person need, when he can go out in the streets and see people sleeping on the sidewalk? And these are not all young run-aways. A lot of these people are old. They spend their days going to food pantries, or begging on the Boardwalk, and finally going to sleep on the sidewalk at night.

Since when did the notion of having a Third World country inside the United States become a good one? This is a frightening scenario. More and more people living in the street, while the rich people drive around in limos, fly around in helicopters, and generally have  a good time.

So what happens when all the people in the streets get sick? All the people in the streets are stricken by small pox, bubonic plague, cholera, typhoid, measles … Pick one, any one. All are highly contagious diseases and ALL the poor people are sick. Not just a little sick – FRIGHTENING sick, with big huge boils forming all over their bodies. Where their bodies collapse and they die with blood exploding from every orifice. “Highly contagious” – which means everybody gets it. Then what? Then you would see a mass exodus  from wherever the rich people live – oh yeah, they’ll be on the first plane out of here (remember Katrina?). Then all the poor people DIE, then years later, when the government has finally decided it’s safe to go back, they let the rich people back.

I have no problem believing in the real history of this country which was based on greed, taking all the land, killing all the Native Americans, destroying their language, their customs, their belief system.

Today on Reservations there are huge amounts of alcohol and drug abuse. You can’t tell me this is not deliberate. This is deliberate. This is just as deliberate as the amount of liquor stores in South Central L.A. More liquor stores than grocery stores. Genocide! The first thing the Army did when they got out West, was to give liquor to Native Americans. So they got strung out on alcohol. They never had alcohol, or sugar, in their lives until the white armies showed up. When your culture is destroyed, and they give you alcohol – you drink. And watch your culture, your life, go down the tubes.

The psych drugs they give us don’t work. 70% of people taking anti-depressants say they don’t work. We’re basically guinea pigs for their edification, and their profit motive. They have convinced us we need all these drugs, and we have to pay accordingly. It’s  the capitalist system at its best! They are the doctors, your are the patient, and you do what they say. But if these drugs don’t work, or end up killing the patient, all the doctors can say is “I’m sorry.”

If we were healthy, if we didn’t spend most of our lives on the freeway … what kind of life would that be? If you knew your neighbors and talked to them, what kind of life would that be? If you could realize that everything you do has an impact on the planet, and we are losing eco-systems and animals so fast, could we change? Could we hear the cries of other people in our country, can we hear the cries of the poor? Can we hear the cry of the tree that got cut down? Can we hear the cry of the seagulls over the polluted sound? Can we hear anything, except the relentless beating of our hearts, and our own selfish needs?

We have to care again. We have to really love each other, because if we can love each other, maybe we can love someone else. Hating each other is not working. We have to find a common ground, and that is this – we need to help our planet. To survive our time upon the Earth.

We have to have respect for our children and not lock them up at the first offense. Do you really want a future population of young adults to come out into society after spending most of their lives in the prison system? This is a scheme to serve only the rich billionaires who proposed it in the first place. By arresting someone, you automatically condemn them to the criminal caste. Why should anyone care about a criminal? So prisons get away with solitary confinement, overcrowding, and many ways to put your life in danger while you are locked up. This is just an eerie reminder of the way society treated black people in slavery. They viewed them with a dollar sign over their heads . If they treated them halfway decent, it was only to increase their profit margin.

The white owners would rape their female slaves and then sell their own children down the river, to avoid the “disgrace”. The way we sell our own children down the river is buying killer video games and letting our child play them. They desensify in a devastating way, and they basically train your kid in Army situations. Do you want a trained killer, age 14 – at the height of hormonal hatred for their parents – living in your house? Do you really believe violent video games had nothing to do with all those young adolescents  going to school and killing other adolescents?

Now a new way to kill your female adolescent child is opening up – Republicans running for office want to repeal Roe v. Wade. Remove the legality of abortion and open the door to criminal, back-alley abortions for the poor. Many patients who are requesting abortions are in their teens, and already have two or three babies. If  a young mother, living in poverty, requests an abortion, I would say give it to her. And provide her with help with the children she is already raising.

The Republicans are going after women. People want to know why women aren’t fighting back. Maybe women are trying to keep their job in these times of no jobs, or part-time jobs. Unemployment has run out, people can’t pay their rent, they are evicted, and suddenly another family has hit the streets. So yeah, maybe that’s one reason women are not fighting back.

Maybe they are tired. Maybe doing something requires too much energy, when you are raising your daughter’s kids, because your daughter is in jail.

Maybe you are scrambling for a place to live before you lose everything and are left on the curb. When you’re on the curb, it’s pretty hard to fight back.

Maybe you don’t understand what feminism is. I have heard a lot of women say ” I don’t really feel like I’m a feminist, because I have nothing to rebel against. I don’t feel like I’ve ever been discriminated against.” Most of the women saying that were young, full of energy, health  and beauty. But try looking for a job in this job market, when you’re over 60 and you’re not young, cute and healthy. You’re “old”, your back hurts a lot, your hands are starting to swell up with arthritis, and you’re scared. Who is going to hire you? As what? A greeter at WalMart, or the guy who hands your your coffee at McDonald’s? All day on your feet, at age 65, is this what you thought it would be?

Maybe we already know who the enemy is, and we don’t have to go to policy meetings to figure this out. Republican men in $6,000 suits are trying to reduce women to a secret? “Oh, did you hear so and so’s daughter had an abortion?” This is not the question. The question is when are these guys going to get a clue?

They are suffering from the Messiah complex and they actually believe they are working for Christ. What would Jesus do? Well, he always said stuff like love each other, and be kind to each other. Love should be the center of your life. These people are haters and they hate anything they can’t control. They are against reproductive rights for women and have a totalitarian approach to a medical episode in the life of a woman. They should stay out of a woman’s womb. If they hate women, they hate themselves, because they came from a woman. Or is it because they were raised by women, and women were viewed as subservient?

The Republicans need to look over on their side of the street – what have they done to sell the country out?

We are not stupid people. We do not believe the lies and the stupidity coming out of the ruling class. Democrats … Republicans … they’re all the same. Rich men in expensive suits, plotting new ways to dehumanize the planet. And kill your kids.

They don’t care. Remember Katrina? Remember George W. Bush – quite possibly the stupidest President we ever had – drained all the money out of the US budget to pay for two horrible wars? The guy had a big grinning face all the time. George Bush Senior had a great partnership with the Sheiks of Saudi Arabia. After 9/11, when all the planes were grounded, they were given secure passage out of this country (George Bush – Head of the CIA! Get it?)

Remember? Don’t forget your brain while you go vote. Don’t vote for Republicans – because they actually do want to kill your kids. Prison or war, who cares?

The motto of the ruling class has always been “Keep the poor people down.” Which means all of us who ain’t rich, and ain’t on the other side of the line drawn in the sand.

1% or 99%? Which side are you on?

Venice is a Poem

By Mary Getlein

I walked on the beach, the sun was shining brightly, sweet winds blew over our heads. We looked up: sea gulls riding wind currents over our heads! I was so astonished! It was so beautiful!

I was so glad I finally got to California. My boyfriend came back from a summer in Santa Cruz ranting about how he had to go back and did I want to go, too? Did I want to go? Leave Richmond, Virginia, where at 3:00 am it was 101 degrees? HELL, YES!

We ended up in Venice in October, 1971. October days were so warm and beautiful. The ocean was a deep blue and the sunsets were magnificent. The place was swarming with hippies. Everywhere you looked, you saw hippies. People smoked dope openly in front of the cops. I walked around with my mouth hanging open – there was so much to see! It was like an every day carnival. There were belly dancers, and snake people that would dance with huge pythons. There was an incredible mix of talented artists and musicians. People here were so friendly and FUNNY – probably because the majority of the population was HIGH at any given time.

In 1971 people had not heard of “political correctness” yet, so things could get ugly very fast. Police were called pigs openly, and a lot of people challenged the police on a daily basis.

My second apartment in Venice was at 17 Ozone Avenue, and there was a head shop right at the end of Ozone. It was there that I picked up my first copy of The Beachhead. It was very radical and printed all sorts of rants and raves about the political mess we were in at the time.

Its politics reflected the view of the Venice community. We wanted to save this oasis of beauty and warmth for ourselves. Why not? Not many people wanted to live in Venice then, too “dangerous”. It was perfect for hippies. Low, low rent and barters and exchanges made it possible to live a happy life and not spend too  much time working. A giant hippie playground, with cute little restaurants and eating places to hang out in. Another thing we had then was benches. Lots and lots of benches along Ocean Front Walk. Also, the old pagodas were built of wood, so you could sleep on them. The city purposely replaced the old, homey pagodas, with new ones built with concrete benches to sit on, which are not very comfortable.

On the Ozone side of the Boardwalk, there lived a lot of Jewish survivors of concentration camps from World War II. They were fun to hang out with and hear stories of their lives.

There was Harold’s Bakery, where you could get a loaf of bread for 25 cents. Ruthie, who worked at Harold’s Bakery, was so sweet and kind to all of us crazy hippies. You could get a potato knish and it would fill you up all day.

We all loved The Beachhead and looked forward to the new issue coming out. I liked the fact that they published so many poems and promoted so many radical views. The idea of Venice Cityhood was really strong then. If you go back and read the old issues, you see the problems and you see the solutions.

The ‘70s was the emergence of free clinics, free legal services, domestic violence shelters, Women’s rights, Chicano rights, the Black Panthers, The Grey Panthers, Vietnam Vets Against The War – it was a time of self-discovery, and a back to nature movement. The Environmental Movement was approached on a crisis level – Save the planet right now!

The rents in Venice were  incredibly cheap, so for $100 a month you could live in a tiny apartment right on the Boardwalk, where you could listen to the ocean day and night. There is nothing like seeing a harvest full moon hang in the sky at 3 o’clock in the morning.  This place splashes us with beauty every time we turn around.

It was very beautiful in the ‘70s, but there was also a lot of drug abuse, battered women, and lost or forgotten people ending up on the streets. There was a free box on Brooks Avenue, and you could go there and leave clothes, or food, or even joints, and pick up what you needed.

There was a lot of violence that happened on the Boardwalk. A lot of street gangs fought over drug territories, just as they do now. I always say, “It’s still Venice”. Just because all these yuppies have moved in here and jacked the rents up and turned Abbot Kinney into Melrose Ave, doesn’t mean the drug/gang problem has gone away. There are still victims of shootings in Oakwood and other parts of Venice. In the ‘70s, people would beat each other up, or a gang would beat up one guy, and the police were never there. And in the 1992-94 gang war in Venice, the police response was nil.

Now it’s the year 2012, and The Beachhead is still in front of the issues, taking them on, again and again. “Support Your Local Artists” used to be a slogan that was used a lot here. If you claim to love this community, then spend your money here. Put up, or shut up. Artists can’t live on dreams. They need to pay bills and eat, too. This place is crawling with artists, poets, musicians and lovely, tolerant people. It’s also becoming global – you can’t even eavesdrop on tourists anymore, because they are speaking in German, French, Japanese, etc. Venetians who have lived here for years are usually very tolerant with a highly developed sense of humor. You have to have a sense of humor when you live in a carnival.

Venice has always been a party place, a bohemian place, a runaway oasis, for far too long to change now. We will always be a place for people to run to, even if all you can do is sit at the edge of the world and stare at the water.

You move here and you become a sun worshiper and an ocean worshiper, and all the other things leave your mind. A slogan of The Beachhead is “This paper is a poem”. Well, this place can be a poem too.

“Make all those poor people go away, Daddy!”

By Mary Getlein

Well, sweetness, we are doing the best we can – we’ve made it illegal to sit in the sand after midnight – that probably gets rid of a bunch right there. It’s illegal to feed them. It’s illegal to give them money. It’s illegal to talk to them. We have to isolate them – it’s the only chance we have. We don’t want to end up like them, do we?

So we turn people invisible. All you have to do is be poor, and people can’t see you.

Sometimes I hang on the beach and there is this big mound of bread delivered to the poor. What’s sad is, there are so many older people who rely on this. At the end of the month, when everyone has spent all their money, the bread goes very quickly. And many older people are disappointed, and don’t get any bread. Google and other companies notwithstanding, there are still hidden “pockets of poverty” all through Venice. It would be nice if we could help people in- stead of trying to get rid of them.

You might miss out on a great friendship with someone you wouldn’t ordinarily meet. The poor have a lot to tell you, but you don’t want to hear how it feels at the bottom rung of society, right before they come and take you away, for being crazy in public. Not eating regularly, not having enough water to drink, living on the streets, in a car, or in an alley, that life takes its toll on you. It’s hard to stay sober when you’re trying to “make it through another day.”

This country has so much money, wouldn’t you agree? We need shelter for our citizens. We need to stop criminalizing people for being poor. We need our beach back. Our beach was ripped off by the L.A. City Council and “closed” from 12 am to 5 am. The Coastal Commission says every Californian has 24 hour, 7 days a week access to the beach. What is Ven- ice Beach without the beach?

Criminalizing people and throwing them in jail only creates money for the prison system. Every time

they move a prisoner (from jail to court and back again), the State gets charged. It should not be a crime to be homeless. The real criminals are the banks, which led a lot of people down a pretty path to economic ruin. And yet our country bailed the banks out. They need to bail our citizens out of poverty, persecution, and fear. We have a caste system in place and we don’t really care what we do with the “Un- touchables,” as long as we don’t have to look at them or see their reality.

Venice needs to have more input with the deci- sions that affect Venice. Most of the citizens of Ven- ice are not on the side of the “homeless haters.” Most people are able to put their prejudices aside and see the person there, not the cartoon figure they have in their mind of what a homeless person is supposed to be. 

Book Review: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in The Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander

Reviewed by Mary Getlein

Once upon a time there was slavery in this country. Jim Crow laws were laws put in place during the reconstruction of the South, for the management and regulation of freed black slaves.

Ladies, when you’re walking down a street and it’s dark, and you see a Black man following you, does your heart accelerate and you start moving faster down the street? That reaction proves that racism is not dead.

The Jim Crow laws got Black men lynched. In 1954 Emmett Till went to Mississippi to visit a cousin. He was fourteen years old. He supposedly whistled at a white woman, which you did not do in Mississippi. A small crowd of white men forced their way into his cousin’s house, took him away, and beat him until he died. They wrapped him with barbed wire and chained him to a car motor and threw him into the river. When they found his body, his face was mutilated beyond description. His mother got his body back to Chicago and had an open casket funeral. White America got to see what happens to a young black man in their country. Most whites were horrified beyond belief. That happened in 1954.

Michelle Alexander and her book, The New Jim Crow – Mass Incarceration in The Age of Colorblindness, documents what is happening to millions of Black and Latino people today. Instead of lynching, we have the “War on Drugs,” which started with the Nixon White House. President Nixon said to Haldeman: “Face the facts! The whole problem is the Blacks. We have to devise a system to keep them in check.” Voila! the War on Drugs was born, designed specifically with the goal of locking up an incredible number of people with Draconian drug laws.

Black people are set up for a crime, are harasse and intimidated into accepting a “lesser charge,” but it’s still a felony conviction. Now they have a felony drug conviction in their records, and thus do not qualify for any federal aid such as food stamps, federal housing, any federal education grants, or anything else. You have no food and no place to live, yet you’re supposed to get a job and have a place to live in order to stay on parole. Most people will not hire anyone with a felony conviction.

Our country leads the world in locking up its citizens. For a drug offense in England, for example, you might get six months. In the United States, because of mandatory drug sentencing laws, a person might get five to ten years. The three strikes law gives you 25 years to life for your third strike. This year in the US there are over 50,000 in solitary confinement. This is “cruel and unusual” punishment. These people are locked in a cell twenty – four hours a day. Their food is shoved into the room. There is no contact with another human being. Humans are social animals. We need to be around other people. This is a prescription for mental illness, and it comes true.

This is a prison system that is cruel beyond belief. Who profits? The criminal “justice” system starts with juvenile hall and goes all the way up. They make money on the entire imprisoned population, which is often put in jail illegally. People do not know their rights and are easily persuaded to take a “lesser charge.” What they should have done was to stay in jail and fight it. If you fight it, they will usually drop it. Once you have a felony drug conviction, your life gets less and less your own. You are busy trying to get a job, trying to find a place to live, trying to reconnect with your kids, trying to live down the shame and stigma of a felony drug conviction.

Criminals are the one social group that we have permission to hate. They are entitled to no respect. They have our collective scorn and contempt. They are routinely treated as less than human.

What can we do? We can fight for new laws on drugs. In the Senate there is bill 1506, which would make posession a misdemeanor and not a felony. Marijuana is socially acceptable in most of the US, yet the drug laws do not reflect this. If they were reduced to misdemeanor charges, they would pay a fine and go home.

If you feel no compassion for the prisoners, you might care about this issue just on the cost to taxpayers. This is a 100 billion dollar issue. That’s how much California’s budget pays their criminal “justice” system. The jails and prisons are overcrowded as it is.

Michelle Alexander has written a brilliant book about this apartheid has come to be. While most white Americans think that racism is over: the fact is that we lock up mostly Blacks and Latinos. Why is that? She details the process extensively.

Alexander: “Rather than shaming and condemning an already deeply stigmatized group, we collectively can embrace them – not necessarily their behavior, but them – their humaness.”

People think that people in jail are in there because of their own fault. Mass incarceration is based on the belief that all these people have freely chosen a life of crime and that they deserve to be in prison. It’s exactly like when people believe that homeless people have freely chosen to be homeless. Losing a job, being evicted, having no money and no place to live – that has “nothing” to do with people being homeless. Those that are trapped at the bottom actually “chose” their fate.

Alexander ends the book by saying, “I was never a believer in conspiracy theories, now I am. Now I am a believer.”

Plantations of Prisons – California’s Biggest Crop

By Mary Getlein

Jason stood before us, a 30-year-old Latino man. He was here to tell his story of growing up in East L.A. and how he met Javier Stauring, who changed his life. Javier supervises the Catholic detention ministry programs at all juvenile halls and probation camps in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. He also oversees three other restorative justice programs: Ministry to Victims of Crimes, Ministry to Families of the Incarcerated, and Ministry to Formerly Incarcerated.

Jason was raised in the neighborhood around USC. His father died when he was nine and his mother had to work two jobs. Jason’s 16-year old brother was given the responsibility of raising him. He grew up in the streets. His mother’s method of childrearing was physical beatings. He described brutal beatings by his mother and older brother. He started using drugs to numb the pain.

He joined a gang and got involved in an armed robbery. He robbed people and shot people. He wanted to hurt people the way he had been hurt. When he committed an act of violence, he felt like people paid attention to him, he felt powerful.

He related that as a 13-year old, his mother bought a goat and tied it up behind the house. For three days Jason watched the goat. It was a young goat, and Jason’s mother was going to cook it for a family event. So she told Jason to go get his gun and go kill the goat. He couldn’t kill the goat.

Javier asked him why he couldn’t kill the goat, but he could kill a kid on the street. Jason’s response was: “That goat didn’t do nothing to me. It was just a goat, so cute I couldn’t kill it.” But he was accused of killing another boy his age, in retaliation for the killing of his brother. So inside, there was still part of the child left in him.

Jason was in and out of juvenile halls. He got involved with a girl, and had a baby son. This brought up all the pain he had tried to bury with drugs. The pain of being a beaten child, the pain of being molested as a young child, the pain of growing up in the streets. He had to learn to sit with the pain and truly forgive himself, in order to begin to love himself.

How did Javier help him do this? By “listening to Jason’s stories, accepting his stories, finding God in the stories and accepting the person.” If enough people who are affected by this could come together, they could change the juvenile justice system.

Jason now goes around bringing poetry and writing classes to incarcerated teen-agers. By getting them to write their stories, they can release the pain and anger inside. This is a system of broken kids.

The United States is the only country in the world that tries teenagers as adults. Teenagers are given life sentences in prison, which are really death sentences. The United States has five percent of the world’s population, but it has 25 percent of the incarcerated people of the world. Ten billion dollars a year are used to maintain the prison industrial complex only in California. If only one percent of that budget could be redirected toward prevention, then that money could be used for youth programs so less young people will be drawn to criminal activity.

We need programs to help our youth. There is no infrastructure to fund programs at the present time.

The California prison system is the largest “cash crop” of the state. The prison guard union is one of the strongest unions in the state, with a lot of strength in Sacramento. We need bills in the California legislature addressing these concerns. We need to adopt a culture where we value our youth. There was a bill in Sacramento protesting the practice of shakling women inmates to the gourney while they are giving birth. That bill did not pass. These policies are having a “colonizing effect” on the prisoners in custody. Many of them are more familiar with prison life than life on the outside. This is equivalent to the conditions of slavery, when slavery was legal in most states of the country. In 2012 we have more Blacks in prison then there were slaves in 1850. Blacks are six times more likely to be in prison than whites.

This article is based on a talk given by Javier Stauring, who is co-director of the Office of Restorative Justice. Javier is also Policy Director for the Healing Justice Coalition, a diverse coalition of faith-based organizations in California. They seek to support restorative justice for juveniles instead of divisive, punative measures that further fracture families and communities. The talk was held on March 11 at the Church in Ocean Park, in Santa Monica. For more information, visit www.restorejustice.com, email jharper@cacatholic.org, or call 916-313-4024.

Venice Artist Diane Butler

• Memorial Tribute: Venice Artist Diane Butler – Mary Getlein
• Song: There’s a ghost at every corner – Diane Buter
• Poem: To Diane Butler – Suzanne Verdal
• Poem: My Humble Ode to Diane – Tina Catalina Corcoran
• Poem: For Diane – Mary Getlein

————————————————-

By Mary Getlein

The Venice community lost a valuable member when Diane Butler, 59, died on February 11. She died from an aneurysm and two strokes.

Diane was a central figure in the struggles of the homeless and RV dwellers in Venice. She was a community activist, artist, singer and drummer in Ibrahim’s Drum Orchestra.

Diane and Ibrahim were instrumental in the Venice art scene, with their bi-annual Solstice gatherings, called The Circle of Color. It was held at Sponto Gallery, from 2001 to 2009. Diane participated in all 93 weekly Venice Peace Walks down Ocean Front Walk after the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Ibrahim organized a celebration of Diane’s life on February 19th. A big shrine dedicated to Diane was erected by people who knew her. There were lots of candles, teddy bears, flowers and paintings. People left offerings all through the day. It was a wonderful send-off for Diane – many old friends showed up and played amazing music for Diane, and for us.

The music was great and lots of people danced. Diane always encouraged people to dance with her. Throughout the afternoon, people would spontaneously shout Diane’s name. Diane’s mother, Virginia, and Ibrahim’s father, Daniel, sat in special chairs in the drum circle. Daniel Butler talked about how Diane was up in Heaven, hanging out with his wife. Many people talked of Diane’s warmth and generosity. She gave of her time and her heart. She was a wonderful artist, singer, activist, mother, wife, daughter and friend.

Diane is survived by her husband, Ibrahim Butler; her mother, Virginia Ruffolo; her daughter, Lani Ware; son-in-law, Caan Hamlet.

 ————

Song by Diane Butler

 

There’s a ghost on every corner

 

As I walk through this town 

In the softness on the night

There’s a ghost on every corner

calling out my name

Telling me that is where, I belong

 

(Chorus) There’s a ghost in every corner

Calling out my name

There’s a ghost on every corner

Calling out my name

Telling me that this is where I belong

Telling me that this is where I belong

 

My name is written on the sidewalk

My tears have spilled onto the ground 

Friends call out to me

That long since passed away

Filling the nite air with the mysteries

of life

 

(Repeat Chorus)

 

My spirit rests in every tree

I’m a mermaid in the sea

a child on the shore

a dancer in the sand

Flying with the gulls 

drifting overhead.

 

———–

To Diane Butler

Oh Diane!

I’ve seen the unraveling

Of your heart’s desire

For Peace …

Not just for you

But all of Earth’s inhabitants.

The undue stress

Left you undone.

By the L.A.P.D.,

By the sins of Babylon.

For some, this is a culture.

But now your paintbrush

Sings lighter

Across the canvas

Testimonies to

The Venice Dance.

I said Goodbye,

And saw your angel

Hover over

Our smiles and tears.

Sleep sweetly, my Sister.

With much love,

-Suzanne Verdal

———–

My Humble Ode To Diane

“Mary” said it ALL:

     (…alive and NOT well …)

     In Paradise…

Now — It hurts like hell –

A hole, in the heart–

     Of Paradise…

(Oh, Diane — Oh, Diane)

So OUT THERE — for ALL –

To see, Know, Love, BE, 

     In Paradise…

“Give Me Liberty” or “Give Me Freedom”

     “Give Me Life After Death”

       Where The Pain Meets The Sea — In Paradise…

 

With Deep Love, 

–Tina Catalina Corcoran

 

————

 

For Diane

 

Diane

you made me laugh, so much

we both saw the crazy humor

in all the madness

all around us 

you were so magical

you know you are – not were

you –

I can see you dancing

in the clouds

adding a little more pink to the sunset

the Blessed sunset of Venice

I’d go down there and sit

and all my friends came by

all the spirits of Venice

are here –

That’s a secret –

don’t tell anyone

anyway, we all know who’s 

supposed to know

Philomene certainly did –

watch the flickering films of Venice

you will see scraps of

wizards, witches, healers, artists,

clowns, magicians, and musicians

we need all we can get

plus the endless sea of humanity

that descends every weekend

and drives the residents crazy.

Diane –

I love you!

Thank you for sharing yourself with me

you taught me so much

your big wide open smile

that embraced everybody.

Babies – you love babies

baby birds, baby humans, dogs

seagulls, pigeons, especially pigeons –

gypsy music in your soul

the same relentless thing that drives

any artist –

you have to do it –

it’s not a choice –

it’s a gift that’s been given to you

and you gotta play with it –

so –

you embrace holy poverty as well as any monk

but your poverty

was backed by drums and drummers

dancers drawn to the drums

dance, dance, dance – 

how cool is that?

there were no dry eyes in the orchestra –

they played their hearts our at your memorial

we danced – like crazy gypsies!!!

The old and the young, all the homeless of Venice

and the housed of Venice

came too –

your smile embraced everyone –

you are our dancing flower-child

This old Black man was drunk

and this guy was buggin’ him –

and he said:

“Go away, don’t bother me –

I lost my home girl today and

I’m hurting.”

That’s how I feel –

she is going home to a golden pure place

that she’s been dreaming of for years

and put down in her paintings –

enter the world of Diane’s art –

beautiful wishes of mothers, children,

Martin Luther King, Native Americans –

angels, birds, people – all floating by, in Diane’s world.

Anyway –

you are my home girl and

I miss you with an ache –

but I know

you’re home, just like you were home here.

This is your home,

Venice, CA 90291 – 

and you will always be here

dancing all around us, 

that smile that appears and disappears –

that will be you, Diane –

telling us to get up off our butts –

and DANCE!!!

Thank you for your example

of a Beautiful heart, soul and mind

and the Best Friend anyone could have –

She loved you with a direct love –

a direct line to your heart –

She was so encouraging –

never a discouraging word –

that was Diane –

She was – she is – she always will be.

Love, Mary.

–Mary Getlein

 

The Meeting to Close the Boardwalk

By Mary Getlien

I arrived early to the VNC Meeting. The room was filling up with well-dressed people. Marc Saltzberg told everyone the Police would be there soon and they were going to explain the new curfew for the Venice Boardwalk. Between the hours of 12 am and 5 am, the Boardwalk will be closed. They explained that the ordinance was written into law in 1989, but had never been enforced. Then Arturo Pina, Bill Rosendahl’s Deputy, explained that the law had actually been on the books since the 1920’s. Lt. Paola Kreefft explained that residents would have to carry ID’s in case they were stopped on the Boardwalk after 12 am.

Lt. Kreefft said the reason for this is the problem of homelessness on the Boardwalk. The Police explained that this law would give them the legal power to kick people off the Boardwalk. So then where would they go? The walkways, of course. That is not really a solution, because it essentially moves homeless people closer to the residents’ houses.

The Police also said no one would be permitted to walk on OFW. The closed part of the Boardwalk  extends from OFW all the way down to the water. That essentially denies a resident of Venice access to the ocean and the coast. LAPD was telling these worried residents that they would have to get in their houses by the back entrance. People objected to this because it is more dangerous for a single woman to open her door in the dark, than on OFW, which has a lot of lights.

Denying people access to the coast is denying part of your inheritance of this country. This is the problem of closed beaches – they fence off the ocean (which is your birthright) from poor people. And they think they can get away with this.

I couldn’t believe I was hearing what I was hearing. Venetians were meekly accepting the plan to lock down the Boardwalk!

Members of the audience asked Lt. Kreefft a lot of questions about the homeless problem, several related experiences of being threatened by the homeless, and were scared in their own homes. Lt. Kreefft said, “Our hands are tied.” They don’t want to be sued, so they don’t arrest the homeless. The residents seemed very worried and afraid of the homeless situation.

Some of the public comments were:

- “Now people will have to walk on Speedway, at night, now homeless people will be in peoples’ back yards. You’re moving them from OFW to walkways, where we live. How is that going to help us?”

- “OFW is a treasure. We need to preserve it for residents and visitors.”

- “Homeless people are not accessing services. It’s a lifestyle choice. They stay out on the street, drunk – they like it. Meanwhile, my wife is afraid to walk on OFW anymore. They have destroyed the Boardwalk and made it a homeless encampment.”

One man got up and said, “Look what they are telling you. They are telling you they cannot deal with this unless they kick everyone off the Boardwalk, including residents. The Boardwalk has only been closed once in its history – during the L.A. Riots.”

An older woman said, “This is a battle between the rich and the poor. The Boardwalk is out of control. I do not feel safe down there anymore.”

The feeling in the room was very tense. The Police did nothing to reassure people that things would improve. A woman asked Lt. Kreefft, “If you can’t enforce the laws now, how do you think you will enforce this new law?”

Steve Clare brought up the fact that the Jones Act is on the books, which states that people can sleep on the streets of L.A. because not enough shelter beds are available. LAPD maintains that the Boardwalk of Venice does not qualify as a “Street of L.A.”, which is illegal and just plain stupid.

You have to have equal protection under the law. There can’t be a law banning people from their own addresses, can there? How absurd.

Marc Saltzberg asked for a straw poll on this ordinance. By a show of hands, 63 people voted for closing the Boardwalk from 12 am to 5 am. Eighteen people felt the issues were not clear enough to discuss. Eighteen people believed that there are other ways to deal with the homeless.

This meeting was called at the last minute, and so many people were left out. Lisa Green, an advocate for the homeless, urged residents to have some compassion for homeless people. The problems of the homeless are many: alcoholism, drug addiction, mental illness, to name a few. The situation on the Boardwalk at night is scary. The Police say they can’t enforce laws at this time, that “Their hands are tied.” I can understand that some residents are afraid, and no one should have to live in fear.

One woman told Lt. Kreefft that someone was in her back yard and wouldn’t leave. She called the Police and they wouldn’t come out and help her. At the meeting, they told her to post “No Trespassing” signs on her property, which would make prosecution easier.

This is one more example of how the L.A. City Council rolls over the residents of Venice. No one in Venice had a chance to vote on this, LAPD simply announced that this new law is going to happen. They are denying people access to the coast, which is illegal, according to the Coastal Commission. There are a lot of residents of Venice that go jogging, swimming or surfing in the early hours of the morning, or late at night.

I don’t see this as a solution to the homeless problem on the Boardwalk. They are talking about shoving people off the Boardwalk, onto Speedway. The only place next are the walkways. This is a bullshit attempt by the LAPD to cater to the population of homeowners and take away our civil rights at the same time. This is a total lie by the LAPD that this will solve the homeless problem.

George Orwell said, “Through times of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”