By Katelyn Lusher It was a sweltering, humid day when I shadowed Karen on the corner of 5th and Walnut Street in late June. I arrived around 11 am and downtown was bustling with people getting on buses and walking from work on their lunch break in suits and high heels. For Karen, the people are the best part of selling Streetvibes even when it’s unbearably hot out. She’s been selling papers since July 8th, 2008 and has several regular customers who frequent her spot. Her corner is close by a Currito downtown and the employees always make sure she stays hydrated with cups of water in the summer. While I shadowed her, one of the employees came out to chat with Karen and make sure she was doing okay and they joked around with each other. Other customers regularly see her on certain days of the week and give her generous donations for an issue of Streetvibes, which she always appreciates. One aspect of the job that Karen loves best is that she’s able to take care of her family and her two cats that need extra care in their old age. A regular customer even gives her cat food or kitty litter to help take care of the cats! We talked a lot about kids and animals, which we both loved to see pass by on the street. Babies are her favorite when they come by in their strollers with their tiny feet and hands and dogs are always fun to watch too. Karen is the mother of five children and proud to have a grand baby on the way as well, which she talked about often. Because of Streetvibes, she’s able to help out her family when she can. Selling street papers isn’t always easy, however. Health problems have plagued Karen in the past and sometimes that makes it difficult to sell papers on the street. Days can be long and some people hardly look at her. People even looked at me funny because I was standing close by Karen as she sold papers. For the most part though, people are polite and will talk to Karen about her family or compliment her on her bright blue eyes, which are impossible not to notice. If you see Karen after reading this, make sure to say hello and purchase an issue from Streetvibes from her on the corner of Walnut and 5th!

By Liz Priestle All Saints School donated over 3,400 books to the Literacy Network of Greater Cincinnati (LNGC). Students and employees at All Saints School took part in a book drive from March 19-March 29, 2019. Students at All Saints School were encouraged to bring in their gently used children’s books to donate to the Literacy Network. This is the fourth year for the All Saints Book Drive. Collectively All Saints has donated 11,447 books to the Literacy Network for their literacy programs! The Literacy Network was grateful to have a group of volunteers from United Parcel Service (UPS) assisting with this generous donation. The UPS team joined the Literacy Network to load, transport, and sort this mammoth book donation. The Literacy Network participates in numerous book drives throughout the year with partners from various schools and companies. They then distribute the books to over 50 Little Free Libraries, Boys & Girls Clubs, local elementary schools and to LNGC volunteers to give to the students they tutor. Literacy Network President Michelle Otten Guenther stated, “I am deeply grateful to the families, students and staff at All Saints and the incredible team at UPS for their generous support of our mission. Today was a wonderful example of the great things that can happen when our community pulls together.” About The Literacy Network The Literacy Network champions the development of literacy in the individual, the family, the workplace, the school and the community by raising awareness, improving access and serving as a catalyst for literacy efforts. The Literacy Network is also the home of Winners Walk Tall, a character building program for youth. All of the programs offered to adults and children are free and funded from private grants, donations and fundraising efforts.

I was standing outside of myself in a dream. Whispers from ancient feminine wisdom bombed my ears with, “listen, watch, feel, and be.” Art Deco geometrics and jewel tones dripping from the opulence of the decor in the train car. The sounds of train wheels clacking over miles of wealth and greed; furs and gems, while the alluring comfort beckoned, come stay and see. Women, older than time; fat, brown-Black in their maid’s and caretaker’s uniforms conversing about the One they were preparing for the throne. A scene reminiscent of old Hollywood movies. The darkened Mammies adoring and adorning the white beauty was all--and is all--too familiar in movies and in life. But this “dressing” was different!. After all of the idolizing and goddesfying the silken veil fell from the mirrors and the women (in chorus) sang “Look,” Their hands like a great raging river pulling their jetsam to a great body, stood proud, hopefully beaming in their own radiance. They trumpeted once more, “LOOK!” My spectator self moved forward with the woman. Slowing time, we walked towards the trinity of mirrors and saw. We saw--no! I saw Me. And so begin my spiritual conception: The prayers which would call forth this Great Body. This conception was violent, hateful, and curel. Unspeakable acts done to a young girl at the hands of the men who were supposed to educate and protect her. Men whose skin color mimicked her own. Touching, taking, keeping her in her place as their slave masters did to them. But somehow this was worse-- they looked like and were supposed to be, her--my fathers and uncles; my brothers. They were supposed to be my shield from the racist, from the white privilege hell bent on systematic corruption of my mind, body, and spirit--but my brothers got there first. And the betrayal of my mothers and my aunts and my sisters--”men will be men." ; “boys will be boys” was the only answers slaves could give. So now I had to be Diana, hunting alone, The prize..myself. A lone warrior, fighting the battles inside and outside my house. No allies, I prayed to the great parents, “Hear me. Send one to stand with me.” And the prayer was answer. Not just one took up the call, but many. Not just human, but packs, prides, flocks, and hordes. Even a murder of crows lead by Bastet paved the way for Her. At first, I was afraid of Her. She coiled around me, she slithered beside my bed, she whispered, “First, stop listening to your oppressors. You belong to all that’s Holy! Be uplifted, we have not forsaken you .Isis will guide you with all the creature-spirits sent long before to make way for your birthing. And my sister, Athena will give you knowledge of the ancients.” And so begin my spiritual conception: “Sheba, hold your head up. Stay awake. Before the truth was ever spoken to a human it’s seeds were planted in the Earth; Pangea we so affectionately call her. The Venus herself both safe and dangerous, joyful and sorrowful. You are fire and air; water and earth. Yin and Yang. Winter and Summer; Spring and Fall; Life and Death; Love and Balance. Only in your sacrifices will you be born whole!” And with that, my fate was sealed. As ordered by the great Mother, death and birth comes hand in hand. During the time when the ancestral mothers were gathering; coming with my own mother’s sweet chariot my mother taught me lessons she was too afraid to teach while in here own slavery. Now, freed of society, she and all my ancestors guided me to my chrysalis, my next womb, my sarcophagus. So it is done! Time flooded me with images of my rape, my exile, bullying, mental illness, homelessness and the new threat of malicious women and molesting men trying to turn my soul as septic as my illness turned my body. And my nightmares which traveled with me from shelter to shelter. Screaming night terrors of children running from monsters and demons. And my desperate attempt to save these children ...to save me. Saving me from the racism, the sexism, the sizeism, the homophobia, others’ phobia of my being humane even to my enemies; the classism and the invisible and just plain unwanted; the you too black, you ain't black enough; to hide your talents under a bushel because it makes the men uncomfortable, it scares the white people, it angers the black women, it blasphemes the religious, or why live the truth when living a lie will make you rich. And finally, the passing and masking until there is no color left in your Soul. Stop, stop. Stop, stop! “ Please, I don’t want this. Don’t make me in your image. I want to only love the neighbors I agree with. I want a religion that supports my hate. Drench me in apathy. At least teach me to hate myself.” Prayer not answered. Infact, every breath I took ushered in the voices, the prayers of the forgotten. Spirits of dead babies and the enslavement of their minds reaching out to me like hollowed shells of misery beggin me not to forget them. While stranger after stranger spoke to me. ”You run from God.” “Don’t hide sister, tell the truth. Walk the truth. Live the truth.” Numbness Guite surrender Next, the fire of dragons warmed my bath. The birds dipped me in this new and inviting womb. All the while, from north, south, east, and west; high and low and beyond the soldiers of wolves vowed to protect me. The She, the pig presided over my wrapping, she spoke of my body being made for healing. You are to carry the ancestors voices into a new Eden She answered questions I had pondered so long. “Why?” she read from my soul.“You cry”, she said, “because others can’t. You feast because others can’t.You love because others won’t. You are the presence of all color. Only drums could beat this drowning; this sounding. I thought I had felt pain before. Nothing is as painful as seeing your own transgressions and their consequences. Now, couple that pain with Empathy. Every growing inch of my wings silently screamed with horrifying stories of our hatred for each other. I could feel the painful annihilation of our children’s minds, bodies and spirits. Stripped over and over by monopolies’ and tyrants’ greedy nationalism. I was tortured by the people’s mistrust and despair. Betrayed by those they elected to protect and to serve. Betrayed by religious leaders who made God in their image.The image of selfishness, elitism and only their pursuit of happiness. I said this was how I came into myself...I should have said how I am coming into myself. My wings are not yet strong enough. Once I am fully impassioned with all the hopes of my peoples...all of my peoples and even the creatures’ pains will be my amour! And when at last , I am called forth from this cocoon Babylon will fall! With the songs of multitudes Babylon’s days are numbered in these words ”I am proud to free slaves, I am proud to be “sick and tired”, I am proud to be called sister, mother, daughter, child, wife, lover, healer, visionary, crazy, truth teller, advocate, preacher, protector of the innocent, teacher, wisdom, witch… I am proud to be called Woman! By June Alexander

By Gabriela Godinez Feregrino When we talk about homelessness in America it is easy to go into the stereotype of a man, likely a veteran, on the streets panhandling since he doesn’t have a job. While that narrative of homelessness if far too common and can be true, it is not the only experience. Though there are people living on the streets, we have to recognize the other versions of homelessness that are not immediately visible. Many people experiencing homelessness do in fact have jobs, but don’t have their own place because of a surplus of luxury apartments and lack of affordable housing. This can lead to people doubling up, meaning two families live in one home where they would otherwise be living separately. Similarly, some people experiencing homelessness might be couch surfing, where a person might have a place to stay with friends or family but not have a permanent home to call their own. It is important to identify the different stories that come from experiencing homelessness in America, and being able to see how they manifest in our society. People experiencing homelessness can be and are of all genders, races, sexualities, etc. Ignoring the intersectionality within homelessness will only hurt the issue further. Homelessness is a race issue. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, “African Americans make up more than 40% of the homeless population, but represent 13% of the general population.” Since the United States is still largely segregated, people of color are more likely to live in areas that have fewer resources including proper education and job opportunities. Institutionalized racism still affecting our American society causes people of color from under-resourced areas to end up experiencing homelessness at some point in their lives. Homelessness is an LGBTQ issue. According to the UCLA School of Law, about 40% of youth experiencing homelessness is LGBTQ. Children who come out as queer, or are outed against their will, are likely to either be kicked out of their homes or run away if they live in a homophobic community. Many communities in America still don’t largely accept the LGBTQ community, which results in a lower life expectancy and a higher risk of experiencing homelessness for LGTBQ folks. Homelessness is an accessibility and health issue. The National Alliance to End Homelessness reported that “on a given night in 2017, 20 percent of the homeless population reported having a serious mental illness, 16 percent conditions related to chronic substance abuse, and more than 10,000 people had HIV/AIDS.” They also reference the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reporting, “People living in shelters are more than twice as likely to have a disability compared to the general population.” Homelessness is a complex, multifaceted issue. Unfortunately, the list goes on and on. When we stick to only one version of a story, we only attempt to mend that version. People of privilege, whether inadvertently or not, end up putting folks into easy to understand boxes that all look exactly the same. That not only makes it difficult for us as a society to address the issue, but also strips people of their identity. To tackle the issue of homelessness we have to tackle all social justice issues. While this might sound exhausting, it is necessary. Homelessness does not come at the fault of a single person, but at the fault of a society made up of individuals that would rather look away when others get knocked down.

By Bill Woods With Trump's "national emergency," the Mueller Report, and other horrendous news swirling around Washington, D.C., one positive action that took place in the nation's capital this spring received very little attention. On March 8th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1- the For the People Act. This piece of legislation sets the gold standard for political reform in this country. It includes reforms on voting rights, gerrymandering, and "big money" in campaigns. The bad news is Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s declaration that the "For the People Act" won't even get a hearing in the Senate. The Senator from Kentucky's commentary on this bill makes it sound like any genuine effort to renew the health of democracy represents a political attack on the Republican Party. Nevertheless, this comprehensive reform deserves a great deal more attention than it has yet received in order to make people aware of its potential for improving the current political process. First of all, H.R. 1 is not just a political ploy to insure the election of Democrats. Traditional reform groups such as the League of Women Voters and Common Cause strongly support it. In fact, Common Cause worked behind the scenes with the drafters of the bill to insure that certain reforms were included in the final version. When it came up for review in the House, Karen Hobert Flynn, President of Common Cause, testified for H.R.- 1 before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. What is in the bill? Protecting and enhancing voting rights certainly remain a focus of the proposed legislation. Election Day would become a national holiday, and a variety of steps are put forward to make it easier for people to register and vote. For Federal elections, the proposed law attempts to minimize the impediments that states often adopt to make it more difficult for some groups to vote. It calls for the availability of Internet registration, and an automatic registration process. It revitalizes the Voting Rights Act that had been weakened in recent years, and it calls for all states to restore the right to vote for ex-offenders who have been released from prison. A redistricting reform that would essentially eliminate gerrymandering is included in the House Bill. It proposes to establish non-partisan state commissions to draw Congressional district lines every ten years. This method would do away with the highly partisan process that currently exists in many states, and such a citizen commission would also improve Ohio's new plan adopted by the voters in 2018. H.R. 1- even tackles the major problem of "big money" as a dominant factor in today's political campaigns. It calls for disclosure of major donations to candidates for Congress. Although certainly not a cure, disclosure at least gives public exposure to "Fat Cat" efforts to influence elections. The bill also provides limited public financing for campaigns. A certain number of small donations will trigger a percentage of public dollars to aid candidates who are not receiving huge PAC contributions. However, Supreme Court rulings such as the Citizens United Case still make it extremely difficult to diminish the influence of "big money" on the political process. H.R.1- also establishes reforms for administering elections. It seeks to protect the voting process from any tampering by domestic or foreign organizations, and it lays out guidelines for preventing hacking and other forms of fraud. It also mandates sufficient funding to pay for administrative improvements. In conclusion, reformers need to call attention to the many needed changes that would occur if the For the People Act became the law of the land. For those who believe that a renewed democracy is critical to addressing other growing problems such as income inequality, poverty, health care, racism, and climate change, the passage of H.R. 1- would be a major step in the right direction. Who knows? If reformers make enough noise and the news media picks up the message, Republicans in the Senate might feel pressured to at least give this bill a hearing.

By Josh Spring As Jeff Berding and FC Cincinnati try to kick seven households out of their homes, they are also asking our City for yet another benefit. Jeff Berding and FC Cincinnati are trying to steal the homes of people from ages 99 to 5 and simultaneously are asking our city to change the zoning rules for them. Already they have the City Planning Commission and City Council approving a major zoning change, which allows them much more leeway in construction. Now, they are asking for approval of a major amendment to the original zoning benefit they received. This means, if approved, it would include 421 Wade Street. This is where they are trying to force people from their homes. Sitting close by is 1559 Central Avenue where they are also trying to remove people. Perhaps they thought the many people who care about basic human rights would not notice this, but we do. There is one more important meetings about this coming up and we need everyone to come out and demand that our City not provide another benefit to FCC Cincinnati if they still plan to displace people from their homes. A city planning commission hearing will be held Friday, May 10, 2019 at 9 am in Two Centennial Plaza on the 7th floor. On Tuesday April 30th, 2019, FightBack Cincinnati and the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition attended the Public City Planning Staff conference about Fc Cincinnati’s request for the zoning change. We still ask people to support our cause and loudly demand that FC Cincinnati agree that they will not tell any of the residents at Wade Street & Central Avenue to leave or threaten evictions. A meeting between the tenants and FC Cincinnati has to be held to be able to reach an agreement. Tenants are also asking that FC Cincinnati renovate 1559 Central Avenue and give ownership to Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses, allowing those currently residing in 1559 to stay there. We know that this would still displace those in 421 over to 1559 Central Avenue, but in an effort to reach a resolution, the tenants are offering this compromise. In order for this to happen, FC Cincinnati will have to pay any associated moving costs and financial compensation to each tenant. Last year, Jeff Berding and FC Cincinnati publicly told everyone they would not displace anybody. Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME), the region’s fair housing watchdog, told FC Cincinnati they have significant concerns that FCC is acting in violation of federal fair housing law. Federal fair housing law prohibits discrimination of people of specific races or color and people who are differently abled. The tenants say, “we are all either Black and/ or have handicaps.” Jef Berding and FC Cincinnati have not responded to HOME. As of now, even after a brief meeting with Jeff and FC Cincinnati on Friday April 26th, FC Cincinnati is still telling the tenants to leave their homes.

By Dr. Mark Mussman “Why don’t the people with too much money help the people who are struggling to get out of poverty?” This is the question that a middle-schooler asked me after an Over-the-Rhine People’s Movement Walking Tour this week. The student had just been exposed to the real history of our neighborhood and was noticing the stark contrasts between the rich and the rest of us. Noting the number of BMW’s that were parked on each block, the student was confused as to how people would just ignore suffering around them as they sauntered into bars and restaurants, trying to ignore the people holding signs and asking for help. The middle school student pointed it out on every block between 12th and 14th Streets, along Vine Street. Wealth and income inequality are so pervasive in the United States right now, that some have said it hasn’t been this bad since before the Great Depression. Our walking tours provide people with a perspective that is purposefully left out of the other walking tours in the neighborhood. After yesterday’s tour with the middle school students, one of the chaperones pulled me aside to thank me for starting off with the Native American presence in the area. She told me that “most people just don’t even care about the destruction of Native American communities… they just act like they never existed.” While this is something that I understand to be true, it made me connect the dots between the person who is denial about wealth inequality who just parked his BMW and scuttled into a boutique on Vine Street and the people who believe the earth is flat, or that vaccines cause autism, or that climate change is not the fault of humans. All of these people have one thing in common - their inability to look directly at facts and accept them. But the facts behind wealth inequality reveal something even deeper about the American psyche. Wealth inequality has been an obvious characteristic of American from day one, when the wealthiest man in America was elected our first President and the people who were tabulated as his wealth, people from Africa who were enslaved, had absolutely nothing other than some fictionalized debt to pay to America’s founding. African Americans have always been held back by white people in this country through laws and practices. The laws, or de jure, have been crafted to keep African American people from obtaining and retaining wealth. Laws such as slavery in the south, and the Black Codes in the north, gave way to a legal process in which African American people are exploited for their labor, ideas, innovations, and companion shop. Black Codes in Ohio required all African American people who desired to live in Ohio to have two white people vouch for them at a courthouse and pay a large sum of money. The state of Ohio was literally built using these funds, as the law went into effect within a year of statehood. Other northern states, such as Illinois, also used laws to make it legal to sell the labor of African Americans who were otherwise residing in a “free state.” These laws continued through the end of slavery and into the Jim Crow era. Jim Crow was marked by segregation and laws that kept African Americans out of the housing market and forced them into segregated communities that were disinvested in for decades. The ability to create generational wealth that was given by federal policies to white people was forbidden by law for Black people. These laws didn’t end with the era of Jim Crow, they were just replaced by the era of mass incarceration, in which we currently reside. America has never been meritocracy, and we have never had a level playing field. At a speaking engagement this week, we heard from Melissa M. who shares her story of homelessness, that basically lasted the first 50 years of her life. She discusses her journey to her first apartment, including times of isolation and loneliness that come from homelessness. With the rise of criminalization of homelessness, we are indeed seeing more de jure implications for people experiencing homelessness. When Melissa slept on the sidewalk before she found housing, it wasn’t illegal to do so, but today it is different. Last year, Mayor John Cranley and County Prosecutor Joe Deters made it illegal to experience homelessness in all of Hamilton County, on public or private land. When the police and sheriff started to enforce this law, real people were hurt. One man had a heart-attack when they came to sweep his tent off of Third Street. Another man jumped off a bridge into the Ohio River. A young woman was interrogated by the police at the encampment near the Casino and walked off before her ride to the youth shelter arrived. She had no shoes, and was possibly being sex-trafficked, but the network of people that was assembled to help her had not arrived before she was scared off by the police, never to be seen again. These laws have had direct impact on the lives of people who are struggling to get help in a city where most people are turned away from shelter and the lack of affordable housing is literally sending more than 100 people to an early grave each year. Another kind of discrimination that occurs without the direct application of laws, is what is called de facto, which occurs because of market and social trends. When real estate agents direct potential buyers into certain neighborhoods, this is a form of de facto segregation. When parents choose specific schools based upon their racial makeup, or when people choose churches with people who are of their “own race,” these are forms of social control that advocate for segregation, for a social hierarchy. De facto segregation is occurring every day. I need to be clear that while blockbusting was used to lower prices in white segregated communities, there is a new type of blockbusting occurring in our inner-ring neighborhoods, where African American people are simultaneously seeing their property taxes go up, yet the sale value of their homes going down. It is not a success when a neighborhood becomes more “diverse” if the power of the minority groups is non-existent. Melissa also spoke to the group about how she is housing insecure because of the proposed FC Cincinnati soccer stadium project. She has been living in the West End for a couple of years now, becoming more active in the community. She sees her friends receiving eviction notices directly from FC Cincinnati’s property manager, and she is worried that her home will be next. FC Cincinnati commissioned a housing report to be released this summer that already shows that 53% of the West End residents are likely to lose their housing in the next 5 years. Imagine if someone told you that half of your neighbors would be gone in 5 years, how would you feel about your neighborhood? The forces of displacement have been ignited by the proposed soccer stadium, yet the team refuses to take responsibility for it, as Jeff Berding, team spokesperson, claims that they have not committed any crimes. Well, that’s a low bar, don’t you think? When we know that de facto segregation, discrimination, racism, etc., occurs on a daily basis, we’d hope to have higher standards for a project that is receiving millions in city tax-payer subsidy. When we think about the middle-school perspective of what is right and just, it’s hard to understand why we allow the millionaire class to make the laws, enforce the laws, feel they are above the law, while everyone else suffers under the law. Criminalizing homelessness is not the answer, but perhaps we should criminalize those who make people homeless, like the real estate lobby, the landlords, the developers who through entire communities out on the street, the bankers who still redline, the politicians who allow for the illegal funding of our schools, the healthcare systems that function for profit, the polluters and carbon emitters who are at fault for global warming, and the fossil fuel industry that killed public transportation. Let’s first start by taking away the subsidies for luxury development and soccer stadiums, and focus our budget on the lack of affordable housing in our county and city. We will never have enough money to satiate the rich, but we do have enough to ensure everyone has a safe and affordable place to live.

By Martha Stephens Friends, I’m writing about an event of a few weeks ago at the Clifton Mosque. I expect very few of us who read this paper are indifferent to the sufferings of the Palestinian people. The two Palestinian women who led the event at the Mosque are still living in the camps in Lebanon where many families fled when they were evicted from their village in Palestine. The Mosque hosted a marvelous gathering for these two women on March 27. Food and talk and good history and information was the program. A black solidarity group was a co-sponsor. The two women are traveling the country with the Nakba Tour. You may recall that “nakba” is the Arabic term for the long march into exile when much of Palestinian land was given over to the State of Israel back in 1948. The younger speaker gave us an interesting history of all that happened before and during those early years of exile, and then she sat down by the older woman and helped her tell exactly what it had been like for her and her family. The intruding forces, along with many other men, killed her husband. They didn’t want any men to survive. Since ancient times, this community had a rich life in their village on the coast. They farmed, fished, and were able to other towns with their catch and their produce. When the women had suddenly to pack up and get out, they could take very little with them as they fled across the border into Lebanon. The older woman we met, Um Akram, told us about her long life in the camps with what was left of her family. They had to walk quite a ways, for instance, just to visit the toilets near the fences of the camp. We can read more online about the Nakba Tour, and of course all the details of the Palestinian struggle can be studied at length through other media sites. Many in the U.S. want our government to stand by the Palestinian people in their attempts to resist their confinement in the virtual prisons of Gaza and the West Bank. A few weeks after this event at the Clifton Mosque, a leader of the Mosque, Karen Dabdoub, whose husband is Palestinian, was the speaker on April 9 at the Tuesday forum of Progressive Democrats. She gave a splendid talk about Muslim beliefs and the pain many Muslims abroad experience when being unable even to visit here for weddings and funerals. The stories these women have to say are important and need to be heard. Humanizing a crisis makes it easier to understand, deconstruct, and therefore attempt to fix. These are topics that the Progressive Democrats discuss at our weekly meetings. Readers of Streetvibes might be interested in joining the weekly forums of Progressive Democrats. We meet every Tuesday at 12:00 for lunch and good talk at the Blue Gibbon Restaurant on Sherman Avenue.

By Alexandra Monaco For a moment, let’s imagine that you have just been sentenced to 10 years in jail. You serve your time and are then released. Being a formerly incarcerated individual, you lack strong social ties or relationships, cannot find a job due to your record or label as an “ex-convict”, often cannot return to formal education (high school, college, professional education), you are now barred from financial aid, often experience homelessness, and have the criminal justice system breathing down your neck through your parole or probation officer. Now, let’s consider that your charge was for a sex offense. In addition to the above, you also have to register as a sex offender, which often leads to more challenges. What exactly does this entail, though? You are bound by Sex Offender Registration and Notification (SORN) Laws, which require you to publicly register as a sex offender, restrict where you can live and work, require that you notify your neighbors that you have a sex offense charge, and control who you can and cannot interact with (including your family and sometimes your children). According to Dayton Daily News, you and 17,000 other people in the state of Ohio are affected by these SORN laws. SORN laws are controversial and difficult to understand. These laws were created to help keep the public informed and safe. While this goal is important and admirable, we must think critically about the effectiveness and impact of these laws. Is the public actually safer because of these laws? Do they truly help curb repeat offending? Do the benefits outweigh the costs? Or, are they helping to perpetuate the barriers discussed above? To put it simply, no. There is a vast body of research about the effectiveness and consequences of SORN laws that suggest that the public is minimally affected by these laws. There is little evidence that there are any lasting positive effects of these laws. In fact, some scholars suggest that communities experience a false sense of security because they focus on “stranger danger”, which accounts for a very small percentage of sex offenses. Thus, communities are prepared for a crime that will likely not occur in their neighborhoods. Further, according to one study published in 2018 by Jill Levenson, there is no evidence that residence restrictions prevent sex crimes, or that registered sex offenders who live closer to child-oriented locations (e.g., schools, playgrounds, or bus stops) are more likely to reoffend than those who live farther away. In fact, another study from a researcher at Barry University stated that few people seem to search registries on a regular basis. When they do, even fewer take preventative measures after viewing a registration website—even if they find someone who is registered in their neighborhood. Not only are these laws largely ineffective, it seems people are not taking advantage of them or taking them very seriously. All of these research findings suggest that SORN laws are largely ineffective at “protecting the public” and do not prevent repeat offending, either. The general public is often afraid of the idea that people labeled as “sex offenders” are more likely to become repeat offenders than other types of offenders. However, according to a researcher at Barry University, research has consistently determined that “sex offense recidivism rates are lower than generally assumed, averaging between 5% and 15% across studies.” This is lower than most other types of offenses. In addition to being largely ineffective, these laws make it incredibly difficult for formerly incarcerated individuals to become reintegrated into society after their incarceration. The limitations placed on people that have to register as a sex offender are vast. Finding a job after incarceration is even more difficult for this population, as they are required to maintain a certain distance from schools, playgrounds, bus stops, and other child-oriented places. Housing restrictions and limited employment opportunities often push this population into homelessness. One man was even prohibited from living with his own children due to his criminal history. For the population of people that were charged with sex offenses, their imprisonment does not end once they are released from jail or prison. Knowing that SORN laws are largely ineffective and create a lasting negative impact for those intertwined in them, it is time for these laws to be redrafted to become more efficient, effective, and considerate. To learn more about the laws in your state, and to help change them, please call or local officials and state legislators. Changes in laws and practices like these begin with individuals and communities. Unfortunately, these are conversations that most people feel uncomfortable having. Let’s get comfortable with the uncomfortable and make a change.

By Raya In What Is To Be Done?, Lenin argued that a socialist party must be a “tribune of the people” that “is able to react to every manifestation of tyranny and oppression, no matter where it appears” and “is able to generalize all these manifestations and produce a single picture of police violence and capitalist exploitation.” For such a party, there can be no single-issue movements, only one totalistic struggle that unites all the oppressed and exploited groups in society. Whether one begins with the question of trans liberation or combatting climate change, it immediately become obvious that the fundamental question is one of overthrowing the capitalist system. Likewise, anyone who wishes to seriously challenge capitalism and the economic inequality it generates, must necessarily develop a program for the liberation of those groups uniquely oppressed impacted by it. Homelessness, for instance, cannot be meaningfully addressed as an economic issue without engaging with the racist, homophobic, and transphobic systems that lead to people of color and queer people to experience it disproportionately. Nor can queer or black homelessness be addressed without raising the question of why homelessness exists at all in a society that has more than empty homes to shelter everyone experiencing homelessness at the present time and developing a program of struggle against the capitalist system that produces such absurdities. This understanding and totalistic commitment is the foundation for the solidarity of individual revolutionaries with all movements of the oppressed and exploited people, and upholding this solidarity is foremost among the duties that a revolutionary party imposes on its members. Marxists begin from interconnection of all types of oppression within capitalist society and seek to overturn it. As Malcolm X put it “you can’t have capitalism without racism,” and as socialist feminists have always emphasized “There will be no women's liberation without revolution. There will be no revolution without women's liberation.” The struggle against every type of oppression and explication is linked to the struggle against every other type and the victims of any one type of oppression are harmed by existence of every other type. Marxists are not allies of any oppressed group, standing separately from and unaffected by the struggles of that group but choosing to lend their support to it, but are part and parcel of every oppressed group and every movement that arises from the initiative of the oppressed and exploited. The liberation of each oppressed group is the precondition for the liberation of any one oppressed group. Those organizations that base themselves on single-issue reformist programs, as well as those supposedly revolutionary organizations that postpone radical ends to distant future in favor of a moderate practice in the present, become safety valves of the prevailing world order. Through a million unnoticed and unplanned actions their sense of political possibility and imagination is lost, their purpose is narrowed to the point were discussion of their original goals can seem almost heretical, and they turn on their most militant and committed members. They co-opt and contain the spontaneous dissent of the oppressed and exploited masses, becoming barriers to the end of oppression and exploitation. Worse, those organizations which merely propose a program of limited reforms or of ameliorating some of the evils of the system within the system can often become directly involved in perpetuating oppression. The task of revolutionaries must be, therefore, to ensure the closest possible unity between educating and organizing on behalf of radical goals and everyday political practice. The struggle for reforms within the context of the present world order should take the form of transitional demands that leads to the questioning of that order and expose the oppressive nature of prevailing power relations. When activists are attacked by police for protesting against white supremacy, or even for demanding the preservation of local libraries, they receive an unforgettable lesson on the institutional function of law enforcement agencies in class societies. For its part, the revolutionary party gains the confidence of the masses through its participation in the spontaneous movements that emerge from them and in the struggle for the demands raised by these movements. Members of a revolutionary party are distinguished from individuals spontaneously drawn into ongoing struggles only by their theoretical understanding of the situation and their commitment to the international revolutionary movement as a whole.

I was born in Cincinnati in 1950 into a first generation German family named Beck. My nana, grandpa, momma and our extended second-‐generation family of aunts and uncles all lived together in a historic Ohio farmhouse. The home was one of the first built in the Ohio Valley by an English family surnamed Edwards. It was reputed to be part of the Underground Railroad, sheltering runaway slaves in the coal cellar. Cincinnati was settled in 1788 on the banks of the Ohio River across from Kentucky. At the end of the Civil War in 1865, free Blacks and runaway slaves came across the river seeking better lives and less prejudice. After the Great Depression of the 1930s Appalachian families from rural Kentucky hills crossed the Ohio with new dreams. Cincinnati was an immigrant crucible of Germans, Jews, and the Irish. In reward for their hope, the city gave many immigrants small opportunity and large restrictions, The 50’s were a conservative era in segregated Cincinnati. Our white family visited the neighborhood of Over–the-‐Rhine once a year just before Christmas to shop at Findley Market, the oldest operating food market in Ohio. That’s where Aunt Martha would buy a goose for Christmas dinner, like straight out of Charles Dickens. Going to the market was like going to another world for me; I loved it! Over-the-Rhine got its name from working-class German immigrants who lived on one side of the Erie Canal and laughingly referred to it as the Rhine River. A historic urban area that has undergone recent gentrification, I have come back home to “Cincy” to explore the trendy, now predominately white neighborhood called “OTR”. My first stop is the old location of The School for Creative and Performing Arts on Sycamore Street. The history of the magnet school involved a mandate to integrate. When I taught Theatre at SCPA, directors double cast all black and white actors, singers and dancers with “non-traditional casting” based on talent, not race. The school has now been converted into pricey condominiums for ex-suburbanites. The newly built arts school near Music Hall admits talented students grades K-12. It is tuition free for kids from all of Cincinnati’s neighborhoods based upon potential. Eric Kunzel helped establish the funding for the new SCPA near historic Music Hall. Maestro Kunzel conducted the Cincinnati Pops in its hay day and invited the SCPA children’s choir to perform at Music Hall on many occasions. The kids dreamed big. Today I listen proudly to the young female vocal group called “The Baby Grands” singing in the renovated Music Hall. It is a mixed group of twelve young women with individual artistic dreams, singing their hearts out on that hallowed stage in Over-the-Rhine. As I embrace their dreams of finding fame through the arts, I remember the reality of Harry Belafonte’s statement about racism made in October of 2002: “If you walk into South Central Los Angeles, into Watts, or if you walk into Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati, you’ll find people who live lives that are as degrading as anything that slavery had ever produced, They live in economic oppression. They live in a disenfranchised way.” Over-the-Rhine is now franchised. There’s a Graeter’s Ice Cream parlor, and an upscale Taste of Belgium restaurant in the same block as the millennia’s’ favorite soul food restaurant The Eagle. I go to The Eagle for lunch, and sit next to a couple of white businessmen in suits, eating free-range fried chicken with collard greens. I can’t help but wonder, “Where have all the black neighborhood street folks gone? Where are the poor, white Appalachians living in the fringes of Over-the-Rhine? As I leave The Eagle, I run into an African American in a wheelchair selling the newspaper Streetvibes. In an article titled Disappearing Communities, Dr. Mark Mussman states that Over-the-Rhine has been drastically changed by outside forces. People who live in the rich white neighborhood, have come into our small neighborhood and stood for one thing: displacement. Dr. Mussen’s research mentions that at least 2400 units of housing have been lost to gentrification, “never to return. Cincinnati still has no possibility of upward mobility for most African American residents today, Most of the buildings in Over-the-Rhine are owned by out-of-state landlords or local white people who are out to make a buck.” Understanding economic displacement is complex. I scan the Cincinnati Enquirer for a few quick headlines: “Cincinnati’s poverty rate among five highest for US cities.” The city’s poverty rate grew faster than the nation as a whole in 2002 to 2017. In the Cincinnati Public Schools, 81.9 percent of students qualify for meal assistance. Median household income has not recovered from the 2008 recession in seven of Greater Cincinnati’s fifteen counties. Poverty is worse in 1/3 of those counties. Statistics in Cincinnati show that the Great Recession stole wealth. Some jobs came back after the recession but financial security didn’t. Family medical expenses keep rising. When forced to leave Over-‐the-‐Rhine, the only place to go may be to public housing, which is so tight as to be considered realistically unavailable. There are only 43 affordable rental units for every 100 extremely low-‐income households. The alternative is living on the streets with the rest of the local homeless population. “On the streets” in reality means staying in a homeless shelter with 86% of the homeless population in Hamilton County. According to the 2017 census, 1,692 of the homeless are children. And that number is on the rise in Over-‐ the-‐Rhine. I think of the talented neighborhood children at the School for Creative and Performing Arts. And I think of the beautiful play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, which opens with the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. The first line of the poem begins: “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” The dreams of displaced people from Over-the-Rhine are not just detoured. They seem to be dead. But I can’t end my Cincinnati homecoming journey with such negativity. I know that it is time to recognize that our differences shared become our personal riches. We have to move heaven and earth to find homes and finally come home. I have read about the work that the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church has done to provide warm beds for the homeless when the temperatures drop. It isn’t a home. On Sunday I go to Quaker meeting. As I study the bulletin of the Cincinnati Friends Congregation, I discover their organization called “Tender Mercies” with the mission to provide “Security, Dignity, and Community” to homeless adults in Over-‐the-‐Rhine. Security means a housing environment where residents’ safety is priority. Dignity means housing that allows residents to develop economic strengths. Community is housing that offers family while affirming the individual. I learn: “The Quaker congregation achieves its mission by maintaining 134 units of permanent housing in six buildings in Over-‐the-‐Rhine. Our model of housing addresses the root causes of homelessness by providing community supportive services through Bethany House. Bethany House empowers homeless and at-risk families with solutions to achieve housing stability and long-term self sufficiency.” And so the dream is renewed: to respect our differences by helping others, as we would like to be helped. Respectfully, I quote: ”There but for the grace of God, go I”. By Melissa Lilly

After all i been threw being homeless i live to be a part of history to live to see a black president and a white women nominated what's the mystery it seems like god has a plan for people to come together and be at peace and know we all live and we all die so why the racism doesn't cease still it matters what color , religion and what creed you are things matter today whether you work or find a place to live so who's scared i believe we as a human race teach our children what to believe in and how i believe if we don’t show our children love with understanding we dead now all lives matter knowing that all lives end, life being so short what is the fight let people be blessed in who they are rich or poor just give respect that's right so whether you support the homeless or not pray it won’t be you someday By Willa Denise Jones