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“We don’t sweep.” “We lead with compassion.” “We are One Seattle.” These are the words (and lies) of Bruce Harrell, mayor of so-called Seattle, the city named after the Suquamish and Duwamish Chief Si’ahl. In this podcast from Po People’s Radio, povertySkola Tiny-Gray Garcia speaks with Tye from the organization Stop the Sweeps Seattle about the violent reality of sweeps and nonprofiteering non-solutions to homelessness in Chief Si’ahl (Seattle). From Stop the Sweeps Seattle "We Don’t Sweep"- Erasing Visible Poverty Stop the Sweeps is a movement arising from the early days of the pandemic, when an increasing awareness of mutual aid drove folks from Seattle to Oregon to Austin, Texas to confront the violence faced by houseless people and to advocate for actual solutions. Tye tells us that in 2020, then-mayor Jenny Durkan had residents thinking the institutional violence was “the worse it could get.” Durkan had been sending police to terrorize Black Lives Matter protesters and ordering sweeps. Only COVID restrictions and recommendations from the CDC slowed down those sweeps, allowing a few “off-the-road” communities to exist in relative peace for three years, while major parks were still routinely swept. When Bruce Harrell became mayor in 2022, he proved able to continue and intensify Durkan’s legacy of violence, joining the likes of Eric Adams, mayor of New York, Lori Lightfoot, mayor of Chicago, and London Breed, mayor of San Francisco—all POC, liberal leadership. Tye says, “Like so many black liberal mayors, [Bruce Harrell is] extremely pro police, and we've seen an exaggerated increase in the number of deaths of people living outside in just the year that he's been in office, since January of this year. We've seen people's entire homes get demolished. They've been using construction equipment to completely clear out areas, so within 24 hours, you wouldn't even recognize that dozens, if not hundreds of people, lived in some of these encampments.” February 19, 2023. From Stop the Sweeps Seattle And yet, Mayor Bruce Harrell has said that “We do not sweep.” He says this even as Seattle approves almost 40 million more dollars to fund the government departments that enact sweeps—Seattle Public Utilities, the Department of Transportation, and the Parks and Rec Department. He says this even as his administration brags about their sweeping numbers and how encampments have been “resolved.” Instead of serving people, as these institutions are meant to do, they “turn their focus to erasing visible poverty,” says Tye. “Immediate notice sweep across from city hall. City workers throwing away someone’s home and mashing it in the garbage truck.” March 9, 2022. From Real Change News In the delusion that they have successfully elected a liberal politician to “solve problems,” much of the white, middle-class population of Seattle fails to see the lie of “leading with compassion” and “One Seattle” purported by the government. Like those in other liberal cities, instead of supporting poor people’s solutions and the needs of working-class people, many privileged residents donate to nonprofiteers and political candidates who will then enact their violence and non-solutions. At this point, Stop the Sweeps struggles to put up a huge resistance without the support of the larger community in Chief Si’ahl, but they do offer critical support on the ground—showing up to sweeps, helping people move their belongings, distributing supplies for survival, making homemade heaters, offering meals, and providing tents and sleeping bags. City workers dismantle a living structure in Woodland Park. Photo by Mark White. From Real Change News. May 18, 2022 Non-Solutions and Nonprofiteering While Harrell claims sweeps don’t happen and that the goal is to get people housed, Stop the Sweeps actively tracks those sweeps and helps bear witness to how meager the efforts are to give any meaningful support. At a recent sweep where at least 40 people were evicted, Stop the Sweeps noted there was only a single offer of a tiny house with seemingly little intention to follow through. The person offered the tiny house was not arranged a ride or given any sort of confirmation or referral information. The rest of those swept were offered congregate shelter. At sweeps during the beginning of the pandemic, many organizations offered hotel rooms, which were received well because people could have their own space. However, hotel money ran out for most organizations in 2021, and the same offers of congregate shelter returned. In some of these shelters, people are only allowed to bring a few of their belongings and are subject to lack of privacy and oppressive rules about behavior. Photo by Flickr user Prayitnophotography. From Real Change News Tye informs us that, similar to San Francisco, nonprofiteers also build tiny houses as a “solution.” The nonprofit LIHI (Low Income Housing Institute) has a monopoly on the tiny house industry in Chief Si’ahl as they’re able to get the millions of dollars needed to build and run tiny house villages. However, as seen in other cities with tiny houses, most villages are seen as transitional housing and run almost like jails, not a “home.” There are restrictive rules about belongings (how many and what kinds you can bring), substances, cleanliness, and how residents can interact with public spaces. Tiny houses may work well for some, but for many who do accept the offer of a tiny house, the oppressive nature of the management there pushes people back on the street where there is more freedom. Though many residents of LIHI’s tiny houses voice complaints, the government and philanthropimps still see them as a solution, or a tax break. LIHI is just one of the many nonprofits “washing the names of corporations” through donations. In Chief Si’ahl, a town dripping in money from tech and other industries, nonprofiteers vie for money from corporations like Amazon and Starbucks, or the Gates Foundation. Meanwhile, no meaningful changes are made to actually make housing affordable. While there are hundreds of nonprofit programs in Chief Si’ahl that offer rental or financial assistance, they can be difficult and complicated to apply for, and the waitlist can be miles long. Nonprofit-run affordable housing units are roughly $1,100 for a one-bedroom apartment, which is only affordable by Seattle standards, where a one bedroom is around $1,800 a month. Additionally, the limited number of affordable housing units available are often in terrible condition. Tye has seen some units owned by the Catholic Community Services that are $900 for moldy studio apartments on the 10th floor without working elevators. By continuing to sweep people without investing in solutions which poor people have, houseless people in Chief Si’ahl are being pushed further into more dangerous places around the city, such as freeways. The reality is that there haven’t been significant numbers of actual affordable housing units getting built, and encampments are being swept instead of sanctioned. March 18, 2023. From Stop the Sweeps Seattle Homefulness There is so much money being tossed around in the nonprofit industry and government institutions, but the terrifying truth is—even that amount is a fraction of the total wealth being hoarded by corporations and individuals in Chief Si’ahl. “Our dream… is that we could teach some of those wealth hoarders about radical redistribution and I know that there’s conscious people there [in Chief Si’ahl], says Tiny. Homefulness, a homeless people’s solution to homelessness, was mamafested in so-called Oakland through the visionary work of poverty scholars such as Tiny, along with those with privilege who chose to walk alongside them and radically redistribute their wealth. Homefulness UnSells the land and provides people with a permanent home—unlike sweeps, unlike congregate shelters, unlike tiny house villages, unlike nonprofit-run “affordable” housing. From March 24th-25th, Poor Magazine’s Po Poets and poverty Skolas will lead an “UnTour” in Chief Si’ahl with curriculum, workshops, film, poetry, performance, and prayer. We will be sharing the medicine of UnSelling Mama Earth, as well building the poor people’s solution to poverty and homelessness called Homefulness. Folks who live in Chief Si’ahl are invited to walk with us, and to speak on what is happening in their town, and learn more.

The Matrix (1999) Neo awakening scene Have you ever wondered when machines would take over? I do. All the time. As I type this story on my MacBook, listening to music through my wireless earbuds that are connected to an iPhone, I wonder how much more can be done by machines in my life? Every homework assignment I write and I take hours to finish, I wonder how technology could help me finish it faster. Every time I run, I see people flying by on the electric scooters and wonder if I should have gotten one. With AI the way it is, we soon won't have a choice as to how much technology is helping us, and we might not even know the difference between real life and technology. “You know, I know this steak doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss.” That's a quote from the 1999 fiction sci-fi film The Matrix. The Matrix was a simulation that AI bots created after they destroyed to keep humans docile to be able to continually leech off of them. That story from 24 years ago is not that far off from our current reality. We are already being mostly controlled by tech, relying on it for all of our daily basic needs. The only thing that is left is for that tech to no longer be controlled by human beings. When you heard about WhatsApp and Facebook information being released, how did you react? I was not surprised, because as long as human beings are controlling the tech that controls our lives they are controlling us. Did you ever wonder, after all of these data leaks that have happened and continue to happen, If only this information wasn’t being handled by greedy human beings! That’s a reasonable want, but the scary thing is that thinking can quickly lead to a reality like The Matrix. Because technology will quickly realize that the only thing it doesn’t need is us. So far, the only thing we are used for is being the bodies that operate the physical parts of the machines. The things that machines have not been able to do yet. Poor people all over the world are being paid less than they need to survive every day so they can work in factories that are mostly mechanized. We use these phones that are causing cancer in children as young as 10 in factories in countries that we don’t even have to think about, and technology continues to make progress at the expense of both of us. The only way we as people can prevent The Matrix from becoming our reality is disconnect from everything that makes us reliant on tech. It won’t be easy, because technology doesn’t want to disconnect from us. Your friends will wonder why they don’t see you like their posts on Instagram and Facebook. You will want to be able to not think about anything and kill an hour or two by scrolling. Everything will be less convenient, but the result will be a clearer mind, a more free soul. The result will be face to face interactions that don’t feel impossible, and meeting people and learning things that the internet could have never shown you no matter how far you searched.

The year is 1932 in an Australian wheat field, Slowly 20,000 emus start to appear in the horizon line, running towards the wheat fields. The Seventh Heavy Battery of the Royal Australian Artillery, started firing their Lewis Guns. The gun fired about 500–600 rounds per minute. It weighed 28 lb (12.7 kg), only about half as much as a typical medium machine gun of the era. The emus were not easy to defeat; they were able to get shot by even dum-dum bullets and still keep running. The bullets would explode upon contact, shreading their skin and they would slump onto the ground. Both sides called the other “Invader”, both sides fighting with empty stomachs. Australia is home to Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginal peoples, Of course that might not be so obvious in the current colonized Australia. Of course us humans aren't the only inhabitants on this earth and never have been. The Emu birds are another have dealt with the same oppression and violence the indigenous humans have. The land was stolen from the Aboriginal people and then “Gifted” to Discharged veterans from WW1 to build homes and farms. Around 1929 they were really pushed to start growing wheat especially with the great depression on the horizon. Emus are endemic to Australia, meaning they are “native and restricted to a certain place.”. They also have migration patterns; the West Australian emus have a bit more “predictable” patterns than the ones that live in the East but it is dictated by the weather, food and breeding season. So around 1932 while the emus were migrating they ran into a new wheat field and village that wasn't there before. All they knew is that there was a wheat field and they were hungry. They quickly overpowered the veteran farmers and started to eat all the crops. The farmers requested help from the Australian Government who ordered the Seventh Heavy Battery of the Royal Australian Artillery, led by Major Meredith who stated “If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world ... They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks. They are like Zulus whom even dum-dum bullets could not stop.” The soldiers armed with two lewis guns and over 10,000 rounds of ammunition went over to Campion (A now abandoned townsite where this took place) under the orders to collect 100 emu skins so that they could be made into hats for the calvary. A common tactic used in massacres and colonization, similar to the $25 a head and 25 cents a scalp order that was called on the native american people. The soldiers soon learned that the emus were not easy to kill. First off the operation was delayed due to rain which also split the massive hoard of emus into smaller groups. By 8 November, six days after the first engagement, 2,500 rounds of ammunition had been fired.The number of birds killed is uncertain: one account estimates that it was 50 birds,but other accounts range from 200 to 500, the latter figure being provided by the settlers. Meredith's official report noted that his men had suffered no casualties. Summarizing the event, ornithologist Dominic Serventy commented: “The machine-gunners' dreams of point blank fire into serried masses of Emus were soon dissipated. The Emu command had evidently ordered guerrilla tactics, and its unwieldy army soon split up into innumerable small units that made use of the military equipment uneconomic. A crestfallen field force therefore withdrew from the combat area after about a month.” After the massacre the humans left the town. Hundreds of Emus were killed but thousands survived. Nowadays it's an Emu town, humans might call it a ghost town. it's a part of earth left with a scar of this unnecessary event. Hundreds of Emus and People would have prospered if this land stayed in the care of the animals and indigenous people.

Homes of Our Ancestors Street Art Education Mural Art Project at Homefulness #2 A ComeUnity Mural Collaboration of POOR Magazine and Kiss My Black Arts All Ages Welcome Snack, Paint, Prayer, Love Shared Thursday March 23rd at 1:30pm 7600 BlackArthur (MacArthur Blvd) at 76th Street Casas de Nuestros Antepasados Proyecto de arte mural de educación de arte callejero en Homefulness # 2 Una colaboración mural comunitaria de POOR Magazine y Kiss My Black Arts Todas las edades bienvenida Bocadillos, pintura, oración, amor compartido Jueves 23 de marzo a la 1:30pm 7600 BlackArthur (MacArthur Blvd) en 76th Street

Miguel Muteado Silencio/P'urepecha/Migrante Skolar Cualli Tonalli Comunidad de Danza estaremos celebrando el Año Mexica 11 Carrizo en la Cuidad de Oakland,el Domingo Marzo 12,2023 de 8am a 9:45am Sera el Tlamanalli el levantamiento del Momoxtli la Chintotequiza empieza alas 10am todos están invitados y bienvenidos Good Day Danza community we will be celebrating our Mexica New year 11 Reed in the city of Oakland on March 12,2023 altars from 8am to 9:45am and Chintotequiza Danza will be at 10am Everyone is welcome and invited DÍAS NEMONTEMI Hoy 7 de marzo inicia el primero de los cinco días Nemontemi, un término que se puede traducir como "Completar lo vivido". En la cuenta del tiempo Tolteca ya pasaron las 18 ceremonias principales dedicadas a la madre tierra, cada una de ellas con una duración de 20 días, por lo tanto se completó un ciclo solar de 360 días. De esta forma para completar, llenar o cerrar el ciclo se dan cinco días que tienen como objetivo reflexionar, meditar y guardar para que por medio de la introspección hagamos un autoanálisis de aquello que hicimos durante el Xiuhpohualli o "año". Estos cinco días en los que no hay celebración son considerados días para retraerse de la cotidianidad y trabajar de manera personal con dos propósitos: el primero encaminado a agradecer por todo aquello recibido durante las 18 transiciones de la naturaleza (veintenas); y en segundo lugar elevar los rezos que posibiliten a la Madre Tierra y el Padre Sol generar la abundancia que alimenta a los seres vivos. Es importante considerar que los alimentos de los cuales nos nutrimos los seres humanos no son solo aquellos que provienen de plantas y animales sino también de aquellos alimentos que provienen de la cultura, por lo tanto decretar nuestras intenciones que han de llevarnos al trabajo en comunidad son fundamentales. En este sentido hacer oración por nuestro pueblo cobra un significado muy especial porque oramos para que nuestros abuelos nos nutran con sus conocimientos, los niños con su sonrisa, los jóvenes con su jovialidad, las madres con su amor incondicional, los guerreros con su fortaleza física y espiritual, etc. Estos días Nemontemi también nos adentran a un nuevo tiempo de responsabilidades porque iniciamos un nuevo ciclo de vida junto con la tierra al llegar la primavera. La naturaleza muestra sus flores así como nosotros tenemos que mostrar las que nacen de nuestro corazón; la naturaleza da frutos, los mismos que nosotros tenemos que compartir con nuestros semejantes, las montañas se mantienen en pie de la misma forma en que nosotros necesitamos firmeza con nuestros propósitos y el cauce del río se mantiene fluyendo de la misma forma en que debemos encausar nuestra vida. En síntesis estos días son imprescindibles para definir cómo será mi actuación en esta vuelta que acompañaremos a la Madre Tierra alrededor del Sol. Si nos reconocemos como actores de nuestra comunidad debemos cuestionarnos qué cosas aportaremos a este mundo y en específico a este año y así contribuyamos a que nuestra cultura florezca con dignidad. Deseo que en estos cinco días Nemontemi se abra el camino en tus pensamientos y en tu estado de conciencia. - Teyacanqui Xiuhtecoatl

En este año que apenas empieza y ya están atacando a nuestra gente indirectamente con la burocracia en las fronteras y no hay soluciones para nadie solo para sus bolsillos hay cosas mas importante que el dinero. Nuestra comunidad está uniéndose para nuevas generaciones para poder liberar la madre tierra siguiendo las ideas de nuestros antepasados que nos dejaron costumbres y hábitos que son más valiosos que el dinero. La gente que trabaja en cualquier gobierno está condenada a seguir los pasos del sistema de otra manera si no serán desplazados como lo hacen actualmente con nuestra gente indigena y pobre. Yo soy una de las miles y miles de personas que ha sido desplazada desde el lugar donde nací y en la busca de la supervivencia llegamos a las redes de USA las cuales solo nos degradan y no enseñan nada que no sea racismo y cómo ser cómo ellos sin embargo. Nuestra madre tierra nos enseñó que no nacimos en donde no hay que comer porque ella no lo provee y este gobierno solo no lo quiere vender. Así es como estando en los Estados Unidos poco a poco y cuando nos damos cuenta de sus estrategias que tienen para sus intereses o no eres seguidor de sus idealismo o tratas de salir del círculo es cuando empiezas mi pesadilla por que como no puedo pagar las cuentas que están controladas por corporación que solo emplean porque sus ideas colonizadas y racistas es como nuestras gentes indígenas fueron desplaza de sus tierras y actualmente las generaciones nuevas están siendo desplazadas de sus hogares por las mentiras del gobierno que tienes que pagar un precio para poder para que te consideren persona si no lo pagas estaras en las calles y te llarerran como basura como lo hace actualmente alrededor de todo los Estados Unidos. This year is just beginning and our people are already being attacked indirectly with bureaucracy at the borders and there are no solutions for anyone, only for their pockets- there are things more important than money. Our community is coming together for new generations to free Mother Earth following the ideas of our ancestors who left us customs and habits that are more valuable than money. People who work in any government are doomed to follow in the footsteps of the system differently if they are not displaced as they currently do with our indigenous and poor people. I am one of the thousands and thousands of people who have been displaced from the place where I was born and in search of survival we reach the USA networks which only degrade us and do not teach anything but racism and how to be like them. Our mother earth taught us that we were not born where we do not have to eat because she does not provide it and this government alone does not want to sell it. And so being in the United States, little by little, and when we realize their strategies and their interests or you are not a follower of their idealism or you try to get out of the circle is when you start my nightmare because how I can not pay the bills that are controlled by corporation they only employ because their colonized and racist ideas is how our indigenous people were displaced from their lands and currently the new generations are being displaced from their homes by the lies of the government that you have to pay a price to be able to be considered a person if not, you pay for it, you will be on the streets and you will get washed up like garbage as they currently do around all of the United States.

By Tony Robles Poet, servant of the people. How you served plates of rice and fish and poetry that stuck to the mind and nourished the heart in a place called Manilatown. Your love for the elders of our community was always true. You served the food of love and compassion amidst those who would come and pluck away at the bones, never compromising your love. Uncle Al--Filipino poet, Filipino-American poet who took a stand by sitting with our elders and talking with them, honoring their stories. Filipino ako, you wrote--I am Filipino. You never forgot the faces of your community, the sounds, the laughter, the pain, the suffering--the poetry of life. You said that as a poet, you'd much rather have the pain, the suffering--that you would not trade all the bad experiences for all the good ones. Uncle Al, y ou knew how to love, your poetry was love, your hands were love, your eyes were love as you walked the streets of our community, never forgetting the poor, the elders, those who suffer. We live in a society that doesn't know how to love. You were an example of this, an example of community. We need you, we need your love. You lived in poetry, poetry was your life. You captured the community in your poetry: I have lived so far so much knowing their lives living in the same rooms as small as tea pots in J-Town in Chinatown in Manilatown The old flats converted broken up into individual rooms tiny kitchens... concentrations camps after the war they come back home in the saddness of a thousand winter snows they can fill a hundred thousand snowcrane diaries Happy birthday Uncle Al. We love you. We need you, we need your love and your poetry. As you always said: Our poetry is the best part of our struggle, our struggle is the best part of our poetry.

Black Mirror: Season 1 Ep. 3 "The Entire History Of You" In 20 years, cloning may be possible. In 20 years, telepathy may be possible. We could watch movies in our head, we could be able to have photographic memory. But at what cost? This isn’t magic, and superpowers aren’t going to be suddenly developed. This is due to a new technology that has been worked on that puts computer chips in our brain. These chips can allow you to surpass every natural limit as a human being, but the corporations that create them are using them for a different purpose. In a world where iPhones are dominating our lives and we have a smart everything, smart watch, smart phone, smart speaker, and smart TV, the only thing that we have left are smart people. Regular people who are enhanced to be a part of an ecosystem that thrives on everything being connected. I am one of the people who has all of these smart devices, and wonder that when everyone has these brain chips and becomes smarter people, will I be the one left behind because I don’t want one? “There’s a little number fudging here because these are just rough calculations, but let’s say the total cost of the implant without insurance is $3,000.” said Elon Musk, the founder of Neuralink in an interview about the new chip. We see that this product is extremely high tech and immediately assume that there will be no way for us to afford it. That’s what we have been told in sci-fi movies and TV shows. What those shows leave out however, is the most money these companies will make will be from working class and poor people, because we are the 99%. If, like the iPhone, companies can find a way to get us on a payment plan for this chip, they can keep us in a cycle of debt like they are doing right now. However, this time the cycle will be different. Who is to say they won’t turn off your legs if you don’t make your monthly brain chip bill? What’s stopping them from taking away your ability to see if you miss 3 months? How will you prevent them from shutting you down completely if you aren’t able to pay at all? These questions and many more swirl through my head as I wonder how far this technology will take us, and how close to the present it really is.

Poor, Homeless, Indigenous, Black/Brown peoples go on an "UnTour' to share curriculum, workshops, film, poetry, performance, and prayer to promote an innovative model to solving homelessness called Homefulness.. Broke, Black, Brown and Disabled Book UnTour The Po Poets Project, a grassroots poetry project of thehouseless, poor and indigenous peoples led movement knownas POOR Magazine, will be in LA from May 5-7th because the short film When Mama and Me Lived Outside, has won an award in the LA international Children's Film festival. The Film is based on the bi-lingual children’s book of the same name written by tiny gray-garcia and focuses on tiny and her mother's journey through homelessness in LA and the SF Bay Area. All of the Po Poets, formerly houseless, Black, Brown revolutionary poets, will be reading from their books and promoting their publications. They will also be sharing the medicine of UnSElling Mama Earth and building poor andhouseless peoples’ solutions to poverty and homelessness, what they call Homefulness. These land liberators, from all four corners of Mama Earth, will be offering readings and workshops from their newest books: How to Not Call the Po'Lice Ever and Poverty Scholarship: Poor People-Led Theory, Art, Words, and Tears Across Mama Earth. They will also be leading a Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources Tourthrough wealth-hoarding neighborhoods of LA, coloniallandmarks (KlanMarks, as tiny from POOR Magazine callsthem), threatened forests, sacred sites, museums of Anthro-Wrongology, academia as well as spaces of indigenous sovereignty to share the urgent medicine of RadicalRedistribution, LandBack, and ComeUnity Reparations. In addition to the release of this powerful How to Book- Homefulness Handbook, which details how to do the powerful work POOR Magazine poverty skolaz are doing in Oakland right now. 7 of the core youth, mama and elder leaders of this work will be leading one of their herstoric StolenLand/Hoarded Resources Tour- a prayer walk thru some of the most wealth-hoarding neighborhoods in the US with the medicine of radical redistribution and ComeUnity Reparations- the innovative models that fund Homefulness - guided and informed by the innovative theory Poverty Scholarship- The Stolen Land/Hoarded Resources Tours were launched on MamaEarth Day in 2016 by indigenous, Houseless, Disabled Black, Brown and Poor Youth, adults and Elders who "Toured" through gated, poLiced, Guarded and protected neighborhoods of extreme wealth from Park Avenue to SillyCon Valley. The tours are loosely based on the Bhoodan Movement of India launched by Vinoba Bhave, who walked through India asking wealthy "land-owners" to gift their land back to landless peoples. POOR Magazine is a very grassroots, poor and indigenous people led movement creating media, art, culture, education and solutions since 1996 POOR press is the poor people-led publishing arm of POOR Magazine dedicated to publishing the books and art of very low, no-income, homeless and incarcerated youth, adults and elders.

Read the latest issue of Decolonewz here.

By Juju Angeles As Mama Tiny says, "You cannot just put a roof on our homelessness." You can't just pop a pill, either. From dealing with fractured bones to recovering from alcoholism, Pachamama has the antidote to our continued healing. A few months ago, Israel Muñoz quit drinking cold turkey. He wanted to change his life for himself and his son. He tried to quit drinking before, but it didn't work. As a community, we decided to send him to a detox program because we didn't know how his body would react to quitting abruptly. The detox program we could afford didn't offer alternative herbal support despite the bougie ones offering homeopathy. The one reserved for Medi-Cal folks or unhoused poor folks just provided drugs. Being a revolutionary yebera, I put him on Nux Vomica 200c. I instructed him to take the homeopathy herbs whenever he desired to drink. Homeopathy is a well-researched form of healing. It has been documented on its use. You can find countless scientific articles on the efficacy of homeopathy and drug abuse recovery. Initially, he took homeopathy 4-5 times a day. He started declining his use after 2-3 weeks, some days taking none and others taking a dose. As his intake began to decline, I gave him a lower strength. He went from 200c to 30c. After 3-4 weeks of taking Nux Vomica, he has not taken it anymore. He was in detox for five days and has not taken one sip of alcohol or any pharmaceuticals for ten weeks. Allopathic medicine is just a couple hundred years old, while traditional medicine is over 60,000 years old. According to the World Health Organization, about 70% of the world's population incorporates traditional healing modalities to treat chronic issues. That is evidence that traditional healing is something that helps. This makes sense because traditional healing contains the whole person. It looks at their needs, environment, mind, body, and soul. As folks dealing with medical trauma, freeing the land is also tied to our healing and wellness, our respective medicines, and being held in our healing community. Studies show that an integrated approach to healing from all ailments and life transitions shows quicker recovery and a decrease in addiction. Mama Tiny had a bike injury and was hospitalized because she sustained a fracture, bruising, and a minor head injury. Aside from taking conventional allopathic pain relief, she has also used Arnica, Comfrey, and bodywork from our community curandera. The community and the plants rallied around her. When she returned to her doctor's appointment, her provider was shocked at how rapid her recovery was. It is important to emphasize that healing is all about integration. Studies show that traditional healers like herbalists and allopathic doctors do not get along or even like each other. I find that to be so sad. We need meaningful opportunities to not only learn and grow from one another but also serve the full spectrum of severity in our community. We need a horizontal approach from all our healthcare workers, abuelos, and herbalists. We need our community and family to provide the support that healthcare cannot offer in the home. We need the land to do all of this.

by Juju Angeles/POORmagazine povertySkola Sharena Thomas, 49—trainer, organizer, and activist at the Peoples Community Medics and Moms 4 Housing—almost died from being given a fatal pill cocktail from her doctors. “It’s been a long journey,” Thomas says. “I broke both of my hips and it took a year to get help.” In March 2021, Thomas fell and when she went to the emergency room, “The hospital treated me like I was a drug addict.” They provided her a low, over the counter dose of ibuprofen and sent her home with two broken hips. Because of the lack of medical help with her hips, Thomas heavily relied on her hands to get around. She had to hold onto walls because she wasn’t given any walking devices for support. Medi-Cal didn’t kick in until June 2021 and that is when she started to receive treatment. In June 2021, “I started to experience hard pain in my hands. I felt numbing, tingling, and pain from my fingers to my elbows. My doctor sent me to a specialist, and I was diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. He ran a series of neurological test that made the pain worse.” She was prescribed Gabapentin. She was supposed to receive physical therapy for her hands, but never got it. The pain in her hands got increasingly worse and her doctor kept prescribing a higher dosage of the Gabapentin, but Thomas did not take it as prescribed because of the concerns she had when she took the drug. “It made me feel sleepy and weird,” she said. When I asked her if she shared the side effects with her doctor, she said yes, “But they just ignored me.” In December 2021, Thomas finally received a hip replacement and in February 2022, she started to receive physical therapy for her hips. She was told by her doctors that because of her insurance, Medi-Cal, she could not receive physical therapy for hands as well. “All of the strain I had to do from physical therapy impacted my hands more. All the exercises they had me do triggered my hands.” She took the pain medicine strategically when she had to do long car rides, when she had to do physical therapy, when she couldn’t sleep, and when the pain would go up to her chest. She told her doctor that she had sleeping problems, and they prescribed her sleeping pills. When she took the sleeping pills and the Gabapentin together, she describes, “I felt like a blanket of darkness came over me.” She was hallucinating, blurting out nonsense, social, paranoid, and insecure. “My kids were looking at me differently.” She went back to the doctors to tell them about her blackouts and “They acted like it was nothing. My character was altered. I was suicidal and blacked out.” Thomas started to do her own research and learned that she should have not been given a mixtures of Gabapentin and the sleep aid. She learned that that is a fatal cocktail. She could have died. “They are freely giving these medicines out to the community. A lot of odd stuff is happing with violence and mental health. People are being institutionalized and tracked.” Thomas is concerned by her treatment and the treatment of poor folks who do not have a voice. Who are being experimented on and abused by the lack of care and concern by their providers. On top of all of that, Thomas was misdiagnosed. She doesn’t have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. The doctors do not know what her current diagnosis is. Her hope is to get support so that she can get a second opinion outside of her insurance network. She needs help writing and typing a complaint. “I need help to articulate and advocate. It took me twenty five day [off of all medications] to stop crying.” Since then, she isn’t on any medicines. She needs relief and she wants answers as to why her doctors did this to her. She asked her doctor, “Why you did that to me? Don’t you know I’m somebody!” All her doctor could do was cry. She says, “I am lucky to be alive.”