La Chanson Nightwatch Person et des Guardes de Securite

So, another May Day has passed, and there were no real demonstrations or acts of workers exemplifying their dedication to the concept of WORK, LABOR, UNITY and CARING.  But May Day week has been great otherwise!!



On Democracy Now! on May 1, 2020, the brave and socially conscious acts of UCSF Medical Staff and supporters were highlighted on today's program!  On Wednesday April 29, 2020 these UCSF workers and supporters 'staged' a 'die in' in the street and sidewalk directly facing the dwelling of the mayor of San Francisco, Ms. Breed.  They were recreating a scenario that is too frequent every day and every night on San Francisco streets; the danger that unhoused people in San Francisco not only face from being unhoused and having no possessions or shelter, to the fact that unhoused people could be housed in vacant hotel rooms in San Francisco.



If the governor of California, Mr. Newsom, is dictating that all Californians remain sheltered in place, how can unhoused people who are unsheltered comply with this rule from humble little Sacramento??  And, since UCSF provides the resources and laboratories for engaging in research to combat the Covid-19 virus, how could their reasonable and honorable demands be unheeded and unrecognized?



The best news is that the city of San Francisco seems to be waking up.  Tonight I spoke with someone who is unhoused, someone, when I was living in the upper Haight five years ago, was unhoused then, and when he would walk by The Love of Ganesha, my place of spiritual and moral urgency, we would talk with him and perhaps look at whatever piece of art he was working on.  So, tonight when I saw him in my neighborhood, and he told me his tent had been stolen, I was overjoyed to hear that the city had promised him a room.  He said he would be in the same place night and day where the city workers from the department that handles the unhoused crisis had told him to be so that they could transport him to his new shelter.



I asked him what he wanted from the store.  He said either a roast beef or turkey sandwich, and I asked him what specific drink he wanted.  I got them for him, and I was thankful to Lakshmi and all the goddesses that I could afford to buy him something.  In the beginning of the quarantine I had donated money through Safeway to mothers with children who were struggling to feed their families.  I asked the cashier if she knew whether Safeway were actually putting the money where it was claiming to do  so.  She said, :That's a good question,'



Now, I can say that I am still disappointed in the city and its handling of the 'artist grants' it claimed to be able to give.  I know, and I know, and I know that I have served the city as one of its recognized public television hosts and content creators.  I'm also a painter, a singer, songwriter, guitar player, and tabla player.  Even Dick Cavett back in the day switched to public television!!  Anyway, I know, and I know, and I know who these 'artists' are in San Francisco who receive money from the city with regard to housing and art studios and other support who are just getting off on themselves and have nothing to say.  I am not one of them, so I suppose I'm not deserving of an 'artist grant,' because I have a very deep education from UC Berkeley, I was a PhD student for two years and an undergrad, and I can read and comment on dense philosophical writing and literary criticism, but since San Francisco awards posers and people with little or nothing to say on the whole, I would rather not receive an 'artist grant,'



I know, and I know, and I know that I am an asset to the language and to other languages I read, speak and write, and therefore, if I had been given a little money from an 'artist grant,' who knows, a lot of it would have gone to feeding my unhoused neighbors on the street.  I hope when they are given rooms that they can also eat.  I also hope that humble little Sacramento defers to San Francisco and Los Angeles in deciding the next steps for handling the Covid-19 virus pandemic and its affect on the livelihood, stomachs, physical and mental health of the populace, particularly those of us who are not housed in large apartments or expensive houses.  Of course, the rest of the state should have a say as well, but the world knows two cities in California, and one of them is not Sacramento.  And, when I say San Francisco, I mean my city and the rest of the little cities around it: Oakland, Berkeley, South Bay, North Bay and the rest of the East Bay, and of course, San Jose.