San Francisco
Saturday, 9 October 1993
As I type this, the screams of low flying American fighter aircraft
rattle my windows, a military spectacle costing tens of thousands of dollars a
second, and intended to demonstrate what?... that the American military has
the power to easily kill people in countless numbers? That the
$6,000,000,000,000 worth of our time and labor sunk into the military since
1975 has produced something fun to watch?
This is the sound of death, and in our country the sound of death provides
entertainment. People ride to the top of empty, hundred story buildings to
watch the Blue Angels strafe our desperate city, while every other day on the
oh-so-distant streets below, a homeless person dies from exposure or illness
or violence. People smile and applaud the screaming death machines above their
heads, while those below who devote themselves to feeding the hungry, and who
refuse to allow the issue of hunger to be pushed out of our awareness, these
people are vilified as social manipulators and trouble makers... 600,000 meals
in eight years seen as a sure sign of some unspecified, evil "agenda". As if
homelessness and hunger are somehow not political.
The kitchens of St. Anthony and Glide Memorial turn hungry people away every
day. Knowing this, the priests of St. Anthony offer themselves up for arrest,
their ladles replaced by handcuffs.
$43,000,000 was spent on the 30,000 + homeless citizens of San Francisco last
year, $1400 per homeless person, much of which goes to the $80,000 + salaries
of city and private administrators who live in their gated Burlingame and
Sausalito communities. 150 + arrests for giving away free food in front of
city hall since September 2nd... no convictions, and the fighter aircraft spit
their foul air above us.
Who must the criminals be? The soup makers or the war makers? The hungry
person asleep on the cold ground of Civic Center, or the callous politician
napping in his $800,000 home? The homeless and hungry are the ones with hope,
and who know what is truly valuable. To be complacent, to believe that
injustice has no effect and that true justice for all will never come -- these
are the signs of real danger, and true hopelessness.
daniel
** Daniel Davidson **
San Francisco State University
davidson@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu
A willingness to make others conform to social conditions
you find offensive is the true power of the State in your life.
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