I know it's going to be a little difficult for me to always know which blog to post on because a lot of the FNB issues and homeless issues and political issues do overlap.

"Social action must be animated by a vision of a future society."
--Professor Noam Chomsky,
from his essay Language and Freedom

Thank God for Mom! While the rest of y'all are arguing over ...

w-h-a-t-e-v-e-r

... Moms is actually DOING something! Do you people REALLY think those homeless folks in Circle Park give a three-legged rat's ass about the Fall of Peace Now or "egos and the idea of the individual"? Fuck dat shit! They want 'em somethin' ta EAT! Period!

In the future Gene Roddenberry envisioned, Earth rid itself of hunger ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_III_%28Star_Trek%29

Deanna Troi mentioned to Cochrane that fifty years after first contact in 2063, war, poverty, and disease had been eliminated from the Earth. Within 100 years of Zefram Cochrane making his first warp flight, humanity had solved most of the problems that had plagued them for centuries, and worked to become a full member of the interstellar community.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Federation_of_Planets

Economics
The Federation has largely been portrayed as a socialist utopia, a condition enabled by a state of abundance. On Earth, war and poverty have been eliminated. Individuals strive for self-betterment rather than fiscal remuneration. This condition probably doesn’t extend to the outer reaches of the Federation, where substances such as latinum are used as currency on a somewhat ad hoc basis.

... now juxtapose THAT onto what professor Howard Zinn said in his book, You Can't Remain Neutral on a Moving Train:

"The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

This means that Momma Sacco ain't waiting until after some great revolution or after something like Starfleet or the Federaton has come into being; she's ACTING as though they already exist in the here and now since a Starfleet officer would never stand by and argue over trivia while someone was starving! Live by example!!

In Captain Kirk's era, anyone can eat for free at any given time. In the savage, barbaric 21st century, one can eat for free if and whenever Momma Sacco can afford to be at Circle Park on behalf of Food Not Bombs. See the difference; note the contrast? Therein lies the "marvelous victory" professor Zinn spoke of that's "in defiance of all that is bad around us" ...

Deeds, not words--how hard is that concept to grasp?

The third printing of Battle Neverending ...

http://lasvegas.staughton.indypgh.org/news/2005/06/2486.php

... is now out (thanks to some modern day versions of Frederick Engels) and one store and one store only is carrying them:

Big B'S CDS & Records
4761 South Maryland Parkway (off Tropicana)
Las Vegas, NV 89119
(702) 732-4433

... and before the anarchist ego patrol can start in all over again, let me remind y'all that one can't share the wealth without there first being wealth to share (which is why oil puts Chavez in a better position to share than Castro, who's still reliant on cigars and sugar cane--UNTIL WE GO SOLAR/HEMP BUY CITGO GAS AT 7/11 ..!). The more successful I am, the more I can give to Food Not Bombs. I can't always be there at Circle Park, but I can continue to contribute IF motherfuckers take their sorry asses down to Big B's and pick up those copies of Battle Neverending before Big B's runs out of patience. The more copies that are picked up, the more Big B's will buy copies from me, which means I'll actually be able to give Food Not Bombs more than just "props". Again, deeds, NOT words ... unless, of course, words (as in the ones in a book) will in fact immediately lead to deeds ...

Thanks Saab for all the plugs. And thanks for that quote. I love it!

"The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

Aside from money and food being really tight right now, it's also a lot of "work" trying to listen and help people with non-food issues. (Say, like one of the homeless was cuffed and dragged off last week by Metro, not arrested and has not been seen since. Ah, gee, wonder what happened to him. Anyone care to help me with some advice or suggestions or some foot-work?)

I've learned a lot from the folks at the park. And I'm learning to separate the truth from the myths. I've also definitely learned not to let petty accusations and implications on here bother me. I don't usually use up my energy here defending myself when my energy can be better used elsewhere.

But specifically one thing I learned is that MOST homeless do NOT want to be or choose to be homeless. In past notes I've read stuff like ...IF they want help getting off the streets.

In my recent experiences, MOST homeless want off the streets and a SAFE place. And if they get to eat one hot meal idea they are "pleased" enough. And then (I think) they want to be warm or cool depending on the weather/season. And then they want a half-way decent job- not just the day jobs (day labor) that are not reliable and whenever.

So far (and this may of course change) there are only two people who I have met that "say" living on the "streets" and not contributing to the corporate world is a personal choice.

And I say more power to them if that is their choice!

Anyway, thanks again Saab and hope to see you soon. Sunday is a big day down there. Maybe we'll see you.

This is very hard for me because no one hates 2005 more than I, but I've got some unfinished business from last year ...

When I interviewed Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, I was so star struck; so awed by his pro-wrestling-esque charisma, I didn't get to finish a thought I should've at the time.

On my website saablofton.com under the professional section, Goodman's plan (something I wish wasn't just lip service on his part) to get title to boarded-up houses, fix them up and turn them over "to families who are on the verge of becoming homeless," as the mayor put it, is described.

Like an idiot, all I said in response was we need to make it a priority to contact the owners of these abandonned buildings before the 30-day deadline Goodman spoke of to claim said buildings could expire--without ALSO saying WHY*: My reasoning was I didn't want so much as a single, anal retentive libertarian (the kind who always wrote me hate mail) claiming that Goodman had Stalinistically appropriated the buildings. Therefore, I wanted to give these owners ample warning that the state was about to take them so they couldn't cry "Stalin", something Goodman was going to do anyway ...

Problem was, I only had so many words per column (850) and couldn't explain in detail what I was trying to convey*. As a result, it erroneously came across as if I actually gave a three-legged-rat's-ass whether or not anyone spoiled enough to own and abandon (a) boarded-up home(s) would feel as though it was the French Revolution all over again. I've always regretted not making myself clear back then, and I'm glad Indymedia can provide a means by which this skeleton in my closet can finally be purged--OK, it's a Stalin joke, "purged", bad pun ... bad pun ...

I bring this up not only to ease my soul but to state for the record that it should've been Gail Sacco on the front cover of the Las Vegas CityLife's recent Local Heroes issue--hence the unfinished business from last year.

While the punk rockers who comprised previous incarnations of Food Not Bombs were worrying about yet another concert, this frail, middle aged woman was damn near singlehandedly feeding the homeless like Jesus Himself. Instead, poet Keith Brantley was on the front cover, even though I know the man is both a homophobe and a black supremacist from years of talking to him.

Ask local organizers Joe Sacco and Jason Halprin about the night we tried to recruit the black folks in Brantley's Poet's Corner into the Peace Movement. First, I took the mike and said how tired I was of black folks caring more about parties at "da Club" and making their front teeth look like Cadillac grills than about corporate greed, Human rights violations and ecological damage. This old black woman then took the mike right after me and went on and ON about the all-too-vaunted civil liberty to bury your head in the sand and not care about world affairs--at which point, she got a standing ovation, because her spiel let all them party-goin' niggers off the hook ...

But that wasn't the worst part (close, though). The worst part was later on that night, when Keith Brantley--the "local hero" on the front cover the CityLife--ranted about how TV shows like Will & Grace and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy were signs that the gay community was taking over the planet like giant insects from some 1950s horror movie! I couldn't believe what I was hearing! I always knew Brantley had little use for whites (ask him about how some obscure scientific study of red ants and black ants supposedly proves that ANYthing lighter than jet black is somehow more inherently imperialistic), but this was too much!

So I took the mike right after him and said what I usually say about gays: That I believe God meant for there to be homosexuality since Humans ain't bound by natural mating cycles like animals are (fuck the Vegans, Humans AIN'T animals--to quote the Civil Rights Movement, I AM A MAN!), and therefore, God WANTS there to be gay people in order to prevent overpopulation a la Charlton Heston's Soylent Green.

Well, while I was on the mike, I noticed Brantley had grabbed the folding chair I had been sitting on, folded it, held it in mid air for a moment, and then unfolded it--as if he was contemplating hitting me with it or denying me the ability to sit back down. And just as I was finishing up, this cross between Mike Tyson and Shaq O'Neil named "La Blaque" jumped up and cried out at the top of his lungs, "You ain't gonna turn me into a fag, Saab!" At which point, he stormed across the West Side Arts Center with the intent of doing me some bodily harm. Never having backed down from a fight in my life, I then stormed towards him--taking my shirt off en route (again, ask Joe Sacco and Jason Halprin, they were both there) when this elderly security guard stepped between us--NOT Brantley, who evidently wouldn't have minded such a fight. He did cancel the Poet's Corner a half hour early that night, but it was clear which side he was on: LaBlaque's violent, homophobic ignorance.

Not much happened after that. Some of the blacks (who weren't much better off, intellectually speaking) then asked me afterwards was I gay--as if I had to be in order to defend gays, guess they never heard of SOLIDARITY.

Ironically, a couple of months later (I TOLD you 2005 sucked), I was gay bashed even though I'm straight by two black gangstah-gangstah types in South Central L.A. while I was on book tour. I was dressed in that superhero outfit of mine, and because B.E.T. only plays the same five gangstah videoes over and over and over and over and over and over and over--and NONE of them are the LEAST bit socially conscious--they simply couldn't grasp the concept of a black man in a cape and Spandex, so they split my lip open like a cabbage and left me in need of stitches. My costume still has spots of blood on it ...

The bottom line is homophobia is a HUGE problem in the black community, Keith "local hero" Brantley ain't no fucking help in that regard, and Gail "the heart and soul of Food Not Bombs" Sacco should've been on the front page of the CityLife--NOT Brantley. Then again, what do you expect with the Review-Journal/Stephens Media Whatever owning the paper ...