A Welcome From Jerry Brown

It appears, Craig, that you have fallen into the first rut on the way to being completely burned-out in social service: hating the community you serve. If you don't want to feed food to poor folks who need it, don't. I'm sure they don't want some handout from a self-righteous asshole who hates them.

"Oakland's crack party" is no different than Berkeley's "dope and LSD party" that has been going on for decades and years longer, and who have also "literally" lived in People's Park.

But we also know what "crack" is code-name for, right? Maybe you mean "inner city" or "urban"?

Guess what, most folks don't give a shit about the huge difference you seem to see here. People on drugs camping out and shuffling from free meal to squat are all perceived the same by the housed and employed: slightly repulsive, annoying and intimidating. Whether it's your hippies on LSD or pleasantly stoned, or your "Crackheads," it doesn't make much of a difference to actual people in the actual world. So get real and don't hate.

     After all this time, Craig, you still don't get it about FNB. Although one of FNB's activities is to 'cater the revolution', i.e., feed activists @ demonstrations and elsewhere, our purpose is to CREATE community, EDUCATE the public about the causes of hunger, poverty, and homelessness, not just pander to an already-enlightened clique. Were you born knowing everything you know about this fucked-up system? Neither was I. Neither were any of us. Our getting wise to the bullshit was due in very large part to those who DIDN'T think they were too cool to bother with us dolts. So it's our turn now to pass that on, WITHOUT arrogance and condescension toward those who haven't yet learned.

     A big part of bringing about 'peace and justice' is PRACTICING IT - WITHOUT EXPECTATION OF COMPENSATION. Otherwise the service is NOT selfless. For the work to truly be selfless, NO compensation (especially monetary) may be demanded. Many of us, myself included, have spent many years at this type of work, despite the lack of monetary compensation. Yet we perservere.

     And now for the drug issue. Maybe it's just because I 'm a relic of the 60's and 70's, but to equate cocaine, in any form, to pot or LSD is ludicrous. For starters, cocaine is physically addictive (crack especially so), pot and LSD are not. And no one, certainly not any medical authority, regards cocaine as having any medical value, as many now do with marijuana. Though there's no question that marijuana and LSD have been a factor in the ruining of many lives, I maintain that that was not the fault of the drugs as much as the user's inability to avoid psychological dependence on them. And if there's any evidence that the revenue generated from sales of pot or LSD wound up funding the dirty little wars instigated by the USA/CIA, I've yet to see it.

THANKS FOR SPEAKING UP; I COULD HARDLY HEAR YOU!!!