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POOR
NEWS NETWORK PNN is a multi-media access project of POOR Magazine, dedicated to reframing the news, issues and solutions from low and no income communities, as well as providing society with a perspective usually not heard or seen within the mainstream media. POOR needs your help. For subscription/donation info. click here |
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1. A poverty hero is a man, woman or child who, in the words of Shakespeare, has suffered the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," i.e., has lived a life of desperation and/or crisis, related to poverty, and managed to overcome, prevail or survive, to create art, life, activism and/or their voice. POOR Magazine is honoring the heroism of survival, itself a triumph, through class and/or race oppression..... 2. A poverty hero is a person or persons who has dedicated their life to service, activism and/or the creativity of communities in poverty, who through their efforts has alleviated the suffering, promoted the creativity, organized the efforts, raised the consciousness, and/or aided and abetted the survival of people, suffering from race and class oppression. POOR welcomes your nominations for Poverty Hero. To qualify, they must fit one (or both) of the above definitions. Please send a picture and a one page description by US postal service to POOR Magazine, 255 9th Street, San Francisco, Ca 94103. Include a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope, your phone number and name. |
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| "Reverend Ed"- Poverty Hero By Gio Barela (In Sacramento, California's state capital, a 68-year-old pastor named
Edward R. Sherriff, or Rev. Ed, as some would call him, was found slain
- stabbed to death on Wednesday, October 20,1999, in the mobile home he
shared with his two dogs. A church deacon, who lives in the same trailer
park, found the pastor's body after he heard Sherriff's dachshunds
barking. Police are questioning whether are not this crime is connected
with a series of hate crimes that have taken place in the Sacramento Area,
for example, the murder of a gay couple and arson fires at three different
churches over the last four months). Edward R. Sherriff, was an associate
pastor at The Cathedral of Promise Metropolitan Community Church in Sacramento
a large gay congregation, which is associated with the Universal Fellowship
of Metropolitan Community Churches in West Hollywood. |
Some described Reverend
Ed as being jolly, full of energy, someone who devoted his time and finances
to people in need. Sheriff wore a white beard, glasses, and had a strapping
build - a working class Santa Claus, like the character he often played
during the Christmas holidays. Sherriff never thought twice to "open
his door to any and everyone in need." His joy, his life, his everything,
was Samaritan Center food bank, which he ran for 12 years. Alongside, the
projects of the Samaritan Center, is a set of thrift shops and a coffee
bar that serves coffee and donuts in the mornings, a favorite among the
whole community, but especially in and around the very low income neighborhood
of Oak Park, an area where lack of everyday necessities is extreme. During
the holidays, this same coffee house turns into a full scale free meal for
the homeless and hungry.
Ted Spaugy, a representative from Samaritan Center said, "How did one man do so much? Losing him is a great loss to the whole community. Pastor Ed did a wonderful, wonderful job, truly he did the work of Christ." (top of page) |
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POOR MAGAZINE IN THE NEWS:
Program teaches poor to publish, Monday Feb 07, 2000 Emily Gurnon, San Francisco Examiner What It Means To Be Poor , July 16, 1997 Nina Siegal, SF Bay Guardian, |