New poem

Here is a new poem I just wrote:


NDAA

Don’t get it twisted
I’m a terrorist
I am someone to be feared
to be avoided
flee from me
when you face me
in the dark alleyways
at midnight

Yes please run from this crippled terrorist
Who puts thoughts in your head
Too awful to pronounce
like “What if I got around in a wheelchair like he does?”
or “What if I relied on an iPad to speak?”
“Heavens forbid if I drooled a little in public”

How dare I terrorize you
tonight in this club
you see me gig in the club
but this sight makes you uneasy
because I could get hurt
from the massing bodies around me

because really
isn’t there a place for me
in some nursing home
where I will be supervised 24/7
being fed industrial lime green jello
until I die

isn’t this what all terrorist deserved
to be locked away from public view
where we cannot harm or interact with
the innocent populace
so what if a prisoner from Guantanamo Bay gets water boarded
so what if a person in a nursing home gets to shower once a month
it is what we deserve

we should be locked away forever
without charge or trial
we with broken and proud bodies
that hold our heads high
so you can be safe
in the dark alleyways
at midnight
Lock us up
the other boogiemen
the black criminal
the illegal immigrant
the Muslim extremist
fill your jails and institutions
with our brown and black bodies
and force feed us that industrial jello
until we puke up that green sloppy mess

Even in our peaceful protest
you see danger
because if we prop up a tent in a park
in defiance
of our
stolen homes
stolen jobs
stolen wages
you send in the cops
to beat our heads with billy clubs
spray our eyes with mace
strangle our wrists with cuffs
because behind bars
you can’t hear our cries

You have to feel safe
from us
because see
if we started to converse
you might not see me as a terrorist
you might just see me as a man
who is a son
a brother
a friend
a lover
and that’s dangerous
because our society
counts on locking up
our sons
brothers
friends
lovers
to survive

So the next time
you see me
think is your patriotic duty
to clutch your purse
to walk the other way
when walking down the dark alleyway
at midnight
because I told you
I’m a terrorist

Occupy Oakland

On September 29th there was the demonstration of the Occupy Wall Street in San Francisco (http://my.calendars.net/occupyfdsf), which is solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street in New York (https://occupywallst.org/) that has been going on for thirty-for days now, where a mass of people are in the financial district to protest financial injustices that are going on in this country. The Occupy Wall Street Protests in New York City has inspired similar protests all over this country and all over the world. You can read more about the protest on the 29th here: (http://huff.to/sfwall). This demonstration is a vehicle for people to vent their frustrations about their communities and their own financial plight. I was able to interview one of my friends who stated that the crowd was a mixed group in terms of all kinds of ethnicities and an age range from twenty to seventy. The protesters had similar goals of raising awareness in this country of the inequality of our tax system and the unchecked political and economical power of this country’s financial institutions. Now is the time for the disability community to get on board with this protest, especially since the policies that these financial institutions are promoting has the potential to drastically harm people with disabilities. My friend said she did not see people with visible disabilities at the protest so we have to change that. The protests at San Francisco and Oakland are easily accessible by BART.
I had the opportunity to visit the Occupy Wall Street site (when it was still there) next to City Hall in Oakland when it was first constructed on Monday, October 10th, 2011. When I got there hundreds of people were milling around the Oscar Grant Plaza conversing with each other. Many people had signs that expressed the dissatisfaction they had with the financial institutions and the bank bailouts. There were no tents set up at the site yet, but there was a feeling that the people had reclaimed that ground for real public use. I was also able to visit the site on Monday, October 24th, a day before the horrendous police crackdown, and they constructed an intricate community on the site. Even though police have now dismantled the site, supporters of Occupy Oakland will meet at Oscar Grant Plaza 6 p.m. every day.
Everyone knows that financial institutions, banks and stock brokerage companies that are the main cause behind the economic recession we are now in. It should also be clear that low-income people with disabilities are taken the brunt of the governmental policies that are in reaction to this global recession. As a result, we as people with disabilities have a vested interest in participating in these protests going around the country. We can choose to divest our money from big banks and then invest in small banks and credit unions. We can also boycott corporations that unduly take advantage of us. To find out more information on investing in small banks and credit unions go to www.moveyourmoneyproject.org. Also for more information about Occupy Wall Street go to occupysf.com, michaelmoore.com, democracynow.org, or kpfa.org. We should be supporting these protestors in their cause because it is ultimately our cause as well.

My book is on Kindle

I just want to let people know that my poetry book is on Kindle. You can purchase a copy at this link: http://amzn.to/bodylovekindle. Also here is a poem I recently wrote. Comment back on what you think about it.

A Smile for Strange Fruit

What about his lifeless body
that made you smile
Was it his big, dark head
that drooped on his prison garbed chest
that gave you comfort
or was it his once firm, dark hands
swaying weightlessly
attached to arms dangling from the metal table
that put a grin on your face
Or was it the way he apologized
For the loss your father, brother, son
But still proclaimed his innocence
Still looked you in your eye and said
“I am not the one”
but still you smiled
as they strapped him on the table
and stuck that lethal injection in his vein

Or was it the fact that other people believed him
like those pesky protesters outside the prison
and the Pope
and the NAACP President
and thousand of people world wide
that wanted to halt this process
make sure you had the right guy

Or was it the fact that this process had been halted
three or four times before
with most of the witnesses recanting their story
and the two who didn’t, well...
One is dead
and the other
is suspected as the one who shot your family member
but this does not phrase you
you know you got the right guy

So what if all the evidence against him is shaky as best
you got the whole Georgian police force behind you
this will set precedent
you cannot one of them shoot of police
it will set an example
much like when one of them
stole a hen seventy years ago
a tree will soon have a strange hanging fruit

People will cry out for injustice
especially his family
because they too lost
a father, brother, son
but you will still smile
for you know
justice will be like always
in the good old South

BORP Bike Revolution this weekend.

Hi Friends and Family,

In less than two days I am bike riding ten miles to support my favorite disabled sports program, Bay Area Outreach and Recreational Program (BORP). Through this program I was able to play power soccer for the last two decades. You can sponsor my bike ride by going to the link below and donating money under my name. Every bit helps, thank you.

http://www.regathon.com/cgi-bin/regathon.cgi?projectid=revolution&action=pp1sponsorbuild

Best,
Lateef

My UCPGG Blog Address

In my last post I didn't give the blog address for my United Cerebral Palsy of the Golden Gate blog. Here it is: http://ucpgg.org/home/lateefs-view-of-the-bay/. Read it and tell me what you think.

Sponsor me for the BORP Rev

Hi Everyone,

This Saturday I am going on a bike ride fundraiser to benefit the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program (BORP) which provides disabled sports programs to the community like my beloved power soccer program, which I have been involved in for two decades. BORP has other programs like wheelchair basketball, track and field, and Goalball (a sport for people with visual impairments. So I encourage all of you that are on Facebook and or reading this blog to sponsor me on this ride. If all of you on Facebook give $1 I will exceed my goal of raising $350. Here is the link where you can find my name and sponsor me: http://www.regathon.com/revolution/sponsor-participant.htm. Thank you for your support!

New position as UCPGG blogger

Most of you know already that I am the new blogger for United Cerebral Palsy for the Golden Gate. It is a cool job, I get to write about cool stuff going on in the bay affecting people with disabilities for a living. Now I will use this blog for controversial stuff I would get fired for talking about at work.

Speaking of controversy, did you hear about American doctors did in Guatemala in the 1940's? Well in a prelude to the Tuskegee experiments these "good old boy" were involved in infecting Guatemalan prison and insane asylum inmates were intentionally infected with syphilis. Apparently these doctors had these men have sex with a prostitute already infected with the disease. As disgusting as this sounds there is more detail I will spare you on how these doctors went about ensuring that these men contracted the disease. You can read on how our president apologized for this heinous act here: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/01/us.guatemala.apology/index.html

What I can't get over is that these Guatemalan men didn't have any say on whether there was going to contract the disease or not. I keep thinking about maybe there was men with CP in that asylum. Now I need a shower. Well I leave you with that image of American doctors giving poor Guatemalan men with disabilities syphilis. Sweet dreams.