SF Public Employees Union: Newly Passed Prop. F is Unworkable

Proposition F, the measure that requires welfare recipients to be referred to drug screening if suspected of drug use, was approved by 58% of San Francisco voters in the March 5 primary election.

Prop. F passed with less than half of the City’s registered voters casting a ballot, and did so despite opposition from various political and advocacy organizations, medical providers, media outlets and labor unions.

Two days after the election,

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It’s now significantly more deadly to be homeless. Why are so many people dying?

by Marisa Kendall, CalMatters

For many people, living on the streets of California is a death sentence.

That’s according to a recent study that took the first deep look into mortality rates in homeless communities throughout the country. It found the death rate more than tripled between 2011 and 2020. The findings make it clear that at the same time the number of homeless Californians is soaring,

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Homelessness Should Not Be Normalized for Neurodivergent People

by Jack Bragen

The media has taught Americans to associate “mentally ill” with “homeless,” and vice-versa. Politicians and authorities have brainwashed Americans to believe homelessness is caused by untreated mental disorders or a drug addiction. This is a sadly mistaken way of thinking, and it is promoted so that society can continue subjugating and otherwise mistreating those who are different. 

But it is a half-truth. Some people are homeless and have a mental condition or drug addiction,

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No on F: F is for “Fail”

In what has to be one of the dumbest, most desperate yet conniving pre-election moves this publication has seen in years, Mayor London Breed put an initiative on the March ballot that will dramatically drive up homelessness while wasting valuable public resources. 

This brain fart has been labeled Proposition F. While the Mayor has failed in addressing the overdose crisis, with more people dying from accidental overdoses than ever, she has come up with a plan to cut those suspected of drug use off of welfare. 

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A Futile Attempt to Make Money Foiled by Social Services

by Jack Bragen

The social services systems in California punish success and punish efforts at raising one’s standard of living and personal security—at least, that’s how it seems in my case. Even if your earnings are literally tiny, Social Security, the IRS, county food assistance and Medicaid all insist they need to know, and insist they all get their share.

As hard as I work at my two to three little-paid writing gigs,

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We’re Not Mentally Ill People Anymore—Now We’re “The Crazies”

by Jack Bragen

We live in challenging times. Those who have power over others are waging a detestable war against the innocent, against those who merely want to make things better for themselves and their families, and those who make sacrifices to help others. 

But those who have power over others cannot win—it is physically impossible. They could destroy all life and everything else, but they can not ultimately maintain a malicious dominance over the innocent. 

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Oakland Attempts to Curb the Homeless Health Crisis with Street Medicine

by Chris Lee

Homeless deaths have surged in recent years. In Oakland, Chronic illness and addictions make up most of homeless deaths by 47% and 31% respectively

John Janosko has been on and off methamphetamine for the last several years while homeless in West Oakland. However, it may not be the addiction that kills the 55-year-old. His heart might give up first.

Janosko is one of thousands of homeless residents with comorbidities that put him at risk of an early death.

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CARE Court in California: A Primer

Defund Police. Invest in Community. House. Feed. Empathy. Listen. Teach.

by Gloria A Lightheart

In September 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1338, creating a mental health court. The Community Assistance Recovery & Empowerment (CARE) court program empowers judges to compel people with mental health disabilities or substance abuse issues to accept psychiatric treatment and medication. The legislature approved the bill on a near-unanimous vote.

In the new system, a court-appointed conservator would make financial and health care decisions,

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Neurodivergent People and the Abuse of Language

Woman raising fist, wearing a green kerchief and shirt reading "None of us is free until all of us are free"

by Jack Bragen

To quote a highly educated, knowledgeable, authoritative religious man whom I know (I can’t give you his name, but he exists), “Words are weapons!” He’d said this to me in an outraged, loud, almost yelling, tone. He was unhappy with something I wrote. I had asserted that words didn’t count for much. That was more than twenty years ago, and now I know better.

Words can be weapons.

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It’s Not Your Imagination. Working is Tough.

by Jack Bragen

Many people don’t find it difficult to work a job, and as a result they may lack empathy for those of us who find it highly challenging.  They just can’t relate to the challenge of working with a disabling condition. Therefore, they might believe something is wrong with the person who finds work to be difficult. Or they might believe a person who has a problem with it is lazy or that they intend to mess things up. 

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