Quote of the Day

Should this be the first sign we see after we're born? On a sidewalk vendor's kiosk: "If you're in a hurry, you are in the wrong place."

Vote Occupy

The paper Metro is polling its readers on the Person of the Year. You can vote from a shortlist of Occupy, Steve Jobs, and Gabrielle Giffords by emailing mwoty@metro.us.

Oops!

Scratch that last post -- it doesn't quite work. I was only half awake when I thought of it.

A Riddle

What's a palindrome to caption a painting of the Virgin Mary? Post your answer as a comment. Solution in one week.

Second Date

We're seeing _Martha Marcy May Marlene_ Thursday.

I recently met a woman whose family was illegally evicted from their home at the behest of a landlord who'd refused to make repairs. An article about their situation and their struggle to regain the home follows.

Occupy Home: The Mason Family’s Eviction and Occupy Philly's Pledge to Help

by Suzy Subways 

Fri, 11/25

When Florence Mason and her children were evicted from their Mount Airy home on October 15th, after multiple evictions in the previous two months resulted in their return to the house on legal grounds still knowing it might happen again, she found herself with nowhere to turn—except for Occupy Philly. On November 17th, Mason came to the General Assembly and began telling her story: the police assault on her children, the landlady who trashed her home and stole her furniture, her own steadfast litigation. The General Assembly of more than 200 people that night unanimously passed a proposal to help the Mason family get their home back and defend it.

On the inside of the Masons’ front door is an ugly, fluorescent orange poster stuck on with glue and half torn off, declaring the home unfit for human habitation. Beginning in 2004, when the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) found dangerous levels of lead paint, through February of this year, when the notice was posted on the door due to lack of heat, Mason says, “PHA told [the owners] the house was in ill repairs.” The owners’ Section 8 housing assistance payments contract was terminated in June 2010, according to a letter Mason obtained.

“When the landlord has an L&I violation, they cannot do an eviction. It’s illegal. The tenant has the right to abate rent until they fix any problems in the house,” she says. “They failed to do the work, and they kept failing the inspection. Then they decided to go into municipal court and say that I stopped paying the rent.”

When Mason attempted to get a Section 8 voucher to relocate, she says, PHA told her that because her husband’s name is on the lease, she wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place – despite his granting her power of attorney when he moved out. A Court of Common Pleas decision in July tossed out the landlady’s case, but the family’s troubles had only just begun.

“I still have nightmares about that day”

On the morning of September 1st, the police arrived, then left shortly afterward. This was not uncommon, Florence Mason’s 13-year-old son Clifton says. “It’s been a lot of times they came and harassed us, and every time we had our papers.” But that day, Florence Mason left the house to go to court, and the police returned.

“My brother [20-year-old Vincent, Jr.] was like, ‘What are you trying to do? Why are you here again?’ so they said to get off the porch,” Clifton Mason says. “So we all got off the porch, and they started to put handcuffs on us. My brother Vincent said if they were to take him, he was going to go by himself – and just leave us alone. After that, they hit him, they slammed him in the car, and they started beating him. He wasn’t doing anything.”

A neighbor, Lillian Smith, asked the police to let her take the two youngest children until their mother could get home. “They were going to take them to juvenile hall—that was what the captain said, because they were loud. They were upset.”

Smith was also concerned for Vincent, Jr: “I witnessed that the cuffs were a little bit tight, and when they were putting the young man in the van, his head got hit. I just don’t like to see anybody’s head get hit, because that’s where – he’s going to be a doctor or a lawyer or something, and you hurt that child.”

“They were just slamming him against the car,” says Smith’s granddaughter, Lisa Bailey, 15. “The older girl, Crystal [who is 18], got really upset, because they were throwing her older brother in there, so she started to flip out also. So they threw her on the floor and handcuffed her ankles and her arms.”

“The police were very rough with them,” adds a third neighbor, who does not want her name to be used. “Just like you see with Occupy Wall Street, you know, they were very rough with these kids.”

“The lady [cop] came over and tripped my sister, so she’s on the ground,” Clifton Mason says. “My 11-year-old sister [Sherriah]. She was crying. They were saying they were going to call the Department of Human Services DHS.”

“They threw the young girl [Sherriah] down in the street and handcuffed her,” the third neighbor says. “I got a paper towel to wipe her face off, and they told me to get back. She was so traumatized. She was just staring off into space with tears running down her face. They also got a moving van to take the stuff out of the house. The street was filled with cops. Everybody up and down the street was upset. One neighbor at the end of the block came out of the shower with shampoo in her hair. The police were out here constantly. They would always intimidate these kids, and they always come when the mother’s not there.”

Before police allowed Lillian Smith to take Sherriah and Clifton into her home, Clifton was sitting handcuffed in a police car. “I was like, ‘Why you all got me in here?” he says. “[The police officer] was like, ‘I’ll take off my badge and fight you.’” Clifton asked what would happen to the family dog, a German Shepherd named Sam, and the police told him not to worry—they would take care of her, he says.

Meanwhile, Florence Mason rushed home after receiving a call from Crystal. “Just imagine being on the phone and hearing your kids screaming, and you can’t do anything to help,” she says. “It still hurts me. I have nightmares about that day, hearing my children hollering, ‘Mommy, they’re arresting us!’ and my daughter’s heart-wrenching scream."

Two days later, while the family was trying to locate Sam, the police Animal Control Unit put the dog to sleep.

“They ransacked everything”

Crystal and Vincent were released, their charges were dropped, and the Masons returned to their family home. But on October 14th, they were evicted again—and this time, the family sought refuge with relatives.

On October 14th, Clifton Mason says, “there were moving trucks. They took the TVs and beds to make it very uncomfortable, because they knew that we were going to come back in the house. They sawed off the pipe inside the house so we couldn’t have water. They unplugged the gas wires and everything. They made it impossible for us to live inside the house.”

Florence Mason says, “When the chief or captain was out here, he let the landlord go through the basement, and while he was standing out there fussing with me, they were cutting the pipes and pulling out the wires to the heaters and the hot water heater. They just ransacked everything, and they took TVs, my laptops, my dishes, and my dining room set. They took my dresser drawers and threw them on the floor, and now there’s mice stuff all in there.

“We were out in the pouring rain that day. Half of us had no jackets on. And we were directly across the street. The car was right there and the police officer was just sitting there, and I went over to her to show my paperwork. She said, ‘You ain’t showing me nothing.’ So as I was walking back, the landlady comes over to her, and the guys from the moving trucks are sitting in the truck, and she’s talking to her. While I’m turning my back, my son and them start screaming, ‘Oh no, we ain’t see that! How many denominations is that?’

“I said, ‘What do you mean, denomination?’ So he’s like, ‘Mom, she just gave the cop money.’ Then all of them jumped in the car and pulled off.”

Clifton Mason says, “After they took our stuff, the owner of the house went to the front of the car, and she walked over to the window, and she came out with money out of her pocket, and she gave it to her. The cop lady rolled down the window, and she gave it to her. In front of neighbors—we all saw her. She gave the cop the money. And the cop was like, ‘I didn’t see anything. Nobody told me to do anything.’”

He adds, “If you’re going to bribe somebody, why would you do it in front of everybody?”

“This happened on October 14th, and we got back in the house, and we stayed until that morning, the 15th,” Florence Mason says. “And then the cops came, because I reported the bribe on a 911 call.”

And then, Florence Mason was arrested. She spent two weeks in the county jail.

A fourth neighbor, who didn’t want his name to be used, says that he has since seen signs of life in the house—unfortunately, however, not signs the Masons had anything to do with.

“About a week ago, while I’m out cleaning the leaves up in the back, I notice a ladder and a window open to this house,” he says. “A couple nights, I come home from work, it’s dark, and I could see a TV set or something, through the blinds. I said, ‘Wait a minute, nobody’s supposed to be there, as far as I know.’

“They’re a quiet family,” he adds. “They cause no trouble around the neighborhood. They’re a happy family.”

Florence Mason expects her next court date, in December, to confirm her right to keep her home, but until then, she doesn’t believe the house is a safe place for her children to stay—not just because it is unfit for habitation until repairs are made, but also because of the police. “I don’t want my children to go through that again,” she says. “I don’t care how many walks I have to do to county, but I don’t want them experiencing that in their young life at all.”

But she’s proud of the example she’s made for her children by advocating for her rights and theirs. And she’s determined to return to her family’s only home, despite everything she has been through. “I don’t care how much you do to me, I’m going to eventually, one way or another, find a way back.”

Someone should do a spoof of _Inspire_. It could be more honestly titled "Expire." Only problem: whoever did it would probably become their next target :-(

YEAH! I just heard on the radio that DA Seth Williams won't seek to have radical journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal's death sentence reinstated. He suggested his motive was "closure" for Daniel Faulkner's family, rather than admit he couldn't win the appeal after all the evidence of innocence and of frame-up that's come out. And WHYY never mentioned that Mumia maintains his innocence, yet did quote Maureen Faulkner accusing federal judges of being "corrupt." I'm going to send them a note about this biased coverage.

Flame of Cthulhu!

The plaque in front of this stories-high sculpture, which dominates National Liberty Museum, calls it "Flame of Liberty." But I think we know who the model really was...

Well, they've done it again: painted my building'sonly stairs, both sides at once. This time they didn't bother fencing off the unavoidable with yellow tape. They just put a sign saying "FRESH PAINT" on the steps -- just so we'd have warning before stepping on them, I guess.

En-Gendering Absurdity

When I bought a weekly Transpass Monday, the cashier put an "F for female" sticker on it. This seems to start happening whenever I let my hair grow past a certain length. I don't even bother pointing it out any longer. Why should I help them enforce gender norms, especiallywhen they can't even get it "right" themselves? It just shows how ridiculousthe gender sticker policy is.

Moved All Over Again

I just finished seeing Secretary again. I hadn't realized how long it had been -- over 8 1/2 years since the last time, and I think that was only the second. Powerful to see it again -- I couldn't bear to miss a second, and didn't leave the theater until the credits were over. I also noticed this time that the music is by Angelo Badalamenti, which doubtless adds to the quality of the experience. It's my second favorite movie, after Contact. My favorite line from the movie is "Why not?" My favorite line from Contact is "That's a good answer."

http://www.secretarythemovie.co.uk/

Study: Left, Right Equally Prone to Confirmation Bias

Here's an interesting story from this week's On the Media: http://www.onthemedia.org/2011/nov/25/everyone-rejects-inconvenient-facts/

An Unsurprising Story

Interesting news discovered belatedly, and I'm not surprised. I had an encounter with his group in 1996. The way he led the meeting was domineering verging on bullying, as well as homophobic. And he made no apologies for having been running mate to Lyndon LaRouche, stacks of whose cult literature stood near the entrance of the "community center" where the meeting took place.

http://mojoey.blogspot.com/2007/06/hero-falls.html

A woman who also attended -- perhaps the only other person there who wasn't in the cult -- told me afterward that she didn't have the right to criticize him because of his history with the Civil Rights movement (he was one of MLK's "field generals"). I said if she thought he was wrong, it was not only her right but her duty to say so. But doubtless that background did deter a lot of scrutiny he'd otherwise have gotten.

Wednesday evening I came home to find yellow tape blocking the stairs. I tried a side door but found, in accord with past experience, that none of my keys work in it. As it was after hours I had no alternative but to stoop under the tape so I could get to my apartment, even though the new paint on the stairs was still sticky.

Yesterday a neighbor told me she has a key that lets her in the side door. She said she'd show me the trick when she sees me again, but I don't know when that will be as I'm not even sure where she lives.

Meanwhile another neighbor had pointed out that the usual procedure is to paint stairs one side at a time, so that residents don't have to look for alternate routes.

I seemingly had a paranormal experience about half an hour ago, in which I saw a statue move. Unfortunately it was just a dream. But I was so excited at the time that, in my attempts to get others to see it too, I apparently vocalized (indistincty) through my sleep paralysis, much as I've done during certain nightmares. After I'd failed at that the statue, which looked like a mixed-media sculpture of an African goddess resembling Whoopi Goldberg, apported and tossed me a red and white umbrella. As if to make light of the situation I said "Two, two umbrellas!" after the manner of The Count on Sesame Street, and she obliged me with another one. That's when I awoke, heart pounding.

Quote of the Day

"The mosquito women really got inside my head." -- Andrew Murphy

What's that you say -- you want context? That would spoil all the fun! But here's a clue: it was said at Philcon.

Leader? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Leader!

http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2011/11/occupy_denver_leader_dog.php

If the Tea Party are going to call themselves that, they should really do something more like the original Tea Party -- like, say, gather at a Boston pier disguised as Native Americans and dump a bunch of sick infants without health insurance in the harbor.

Quote of the Day

"Consciousness, as far as I can tell, is a consequence of the laws of the Universe, not an ingredient of them." — physics Nobelist Frank Wilczek, speaking at Penn this evening