Some
place to go. What shall we do with our
statue of Gandhi, which has been shoved into oblivion behind the
ferry building? Long forlornly ignored by bay crossers, the poor
fellow recently received a blow to the staff from vandals or
careless construction workers.
It’s a rather sweet unprepossessing figure,
wasted on the bustling pier. There has been talk of removing the
statue of Simon Bolivar from UN Plaza, its heft out of scale with
the low-lying shrubs and fences. Why not replace the large
equestrian with a life-sized man on foot, whose humble demeanor
might not be out of place there?
No place else to go. Sister
Bernie Galvin writes, “Since the closing of Mission Rock, which
sheltered about 600 people, two winters have passed and more than
300 people have died homeless in San Francisco. Many of these deaths
could have been prevented had there been adequate provision for
truly affordable housing and safe shelters. There are an estimated
15,000 homeless men, women, and children living on the streets of
San Francisco and fewer than 1,500 shelter beds. In the month of
August, almost 150 families were on a waiting list for shelter each
night.”
Religious Witness with Homeless People will
sponsor an assembly of religious leaders, homeless people, elected
officials, and civic leaders at City Hall September 23-24, seeking
the creation of emergency shelters “as the harsh reality of winter
approaches.” Scheduled events include a prayer service and rally
at 2:00 Sunday afternoon, followed by an overnight sleep-out on the
steps. A candlelight procession beginning at 7:15 p.m. Monday will
include the delivery of a formal appeal to city officials.
For more information: 415-929-0785
Going places. Al
Giordano, the usually reliable gadfly-publisher of the Narco News
Bulletin, writes that the daily Panamá América newspaper reported
on September 3 “that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell made a
secret visit to Panamá this week, including to the former Howard
Air Force Base.…Powell may have also made a similar trip to
Colombia.”
A translation of the report can be found at www.narconews.com
(scroll way down).
Watch where you’re going. If
you’re planning to wander around Europe in the next few months,
don’t be surprised if someone’s watching you. Following the
demonstrations in Genoa last month, the (London) Independent
reported on August 20, national leaders in the European Union have
ordered police and intelligence agencies to coordinate their
surveillance of the protestors. They rejected a proposal by German
Interior Minister Otto Schily to form a Europe-wide police force,
but “Europol, the EU police intelligence-sharing agency based in
The Hague that was set up to trap organised criminals and drug
traffickers, is likely to be given a key role.” Civil rights
activists’ hackles have risen at the prospect of legal actions by
demonstrators becoming fodder for criminal data banks.
There’ll always be an England. A
Hertfordshire psychologist named Richard Wiseman has issued a
serious call for jokes, according to an Associated Press story
forwarded by Rick Knee. Taking as his premise the observation that
humor heals, Wiseman would like to know why. His plan: to nail down
the nation’s funniest story and tell it to a fellow with wires
attached to the frontal lobe of his brain, so as to electronically
monitor his reactions. Kind of takes the fun out of fun. But maybe
it’ll be worth the effort: Wiseman promises to reveal the Miss
Universe of English jokes on his website next September.
B.C.
