[Imc-radio] Fwd: Things to Look into:Sucky Business at the Times Center.

[Clint Popetz]

----- Forwarded message from Shelley Masar <shellwash at sbcglobal.net> -----

Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 06:26:35 -0500
From: Shelley Masar <shellwash at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Things to Look into:Sucky Business at the Times Center.

L,
Sorry, it's tough herding (great BIG!) cats.
I told Charlie Vogel  we'd have a draft flier ( via the laptop) by 
today at 2:30pm.

THE Raw Deal
Charlie says there is a whole gambit of nasties at the Times Center. 
He suspects Tony, the counter staff person who is the main expeller 
of  men  secures his job by occasionally bringing blow for the other 
2 full-time counter staff people, Bill and Eva. He says, Tony, Bill, 
and Eva, regularly abscond with donated food, and other things. A 
wealthy woman recently came in with 12 pairs of new tennis shoes. THe 
Counter Trio said THEY had to distribute them. The men never got 
them.  Bill grills meat on that big outside grill by where we play 
drums. Charlie says Bill does up 5 donated roasts but 3 of them go 
home to Bill's and the men eat  soup. Guys coming outta prison come 
in with state money to support them. THey do not get banished as fast 
as the regulars. For instance, Bobby, the white guy with no legs ( 
has a chair) got kicked out by Tony in middle of winter for being a 
wise ass. But the jailbird who fokked Eva's daughter in the kitchen 
didn't get written up.

Joyce, the manager of the 3 managers, is close to retirement. People 
over her (Provena/Mental Health) and under her (Tony et. al.) protect 
her.

At the meeting Charlie called that was run by Kathy Sims, the 
oft-deemed saintly woman who runs the Women's shelter, former 
residents told stories on the staff but Joyce straight out said they 
were "lies." Charlie says it seemed inappropriate for a staff person 
to be calling the men she is supposed to be rehabilitating liars. He 
says it is odd in general that the counter staff are NOT social work 
trained and manifestly contemptuous. He says the culture at the Times 
is that of LOW Self ESTeem. THat it, especially Tony. rubs the guys' 
noses in the constant assumption/reiteration that they are drug 
addicts, jerk offs, losers. Apparently Tony is a former inmate.  He 
sets himself up as the warden. (That's the problem with our lil 
U.S.penal culture: You can take a thug outta the jug, but you can't 
take the jug outta the thug. The guys come out and inflict the BS on 
their post-incarceration lives)

Joyce and Kathy told the public they COULD not/WOULD NOT reveal the 
numbers,  the data on expulsions/staff person. If they would, Charlie 
says, the pattern/  problem (Tony) would be OBVious.

(That is the same thing that the C-U schools used to say. THat they 
would NOT reveal the stats on who was in gifted / special classes, 
who was being suspended/expelled by race. They had to be sued in 
order to get that info.)

Charlie had hoped the meeting would result in formation of an 
independent review board, but  he was outvoted 11/3 . Instead they 
set up an advisory board with no real power to investigate/and demand 
restitution. 

He regrets setting up the rally/demonstration on a Thursday, a work 
day. But hopes people will come on lunch break. He is afraid that 
many homeless men will stay away from the march for fear of 
retribution by Tony et.al. He is being attacked by some of the men 
who  resent the publicity he has received. (That old sociological 
truism: 2 persons suffering under a single oppressor turn against 
each other NOT against the oppression.)

He hopes to take the fliers to campus. I suggested the Afro-Cultural 
Center, The Afro-Studies Center, The Red Herring, Greg Hall, Lincoln 
Hall, the quad Kiosks, the Espresso cafes, The School of Social Work. 
He is working very assiduously. He has talked with reporters at the 
DI in addition to Jullie Wirth who has done well by him at the Gazoo. 
He even sent the News Gazette articles to Rainbow Push by certified 
mail asking for their support.

He is  going to appeal to his churchmen this Sunday. He hopes the 
Ministerial Alliance will rally their church members. I urged him to 
be very clear:  if they don't show up he will be standing alone. His 
courage rewarded by humiliation.

Thursday April 22,2004 is Earth Day. That fits. If we do not stop 
banning each other, we will not survive. (The earth will. We won't.) 
Rally at noon at the Champaign City Building. March at 1 to the Times 
Center on Washington St.

Dear God, may we see and understand!



After the fliers Maybe some posters to carry on the march:

WE DON'T WANT TONY as OUR WARDEN!

COUNTER STAFF SHOULD HAVE SOCIAL SKILLS!

RESPECT BREEDS RESPECT AND VISA VERSA!

JUST the FACTS and an INDEPENDENT AUTHORITY to REVIEW THEM!

GIVE us the FACTS: The names and numbers: Who is EXPELLING whom?

Let the Facts Speak for themselves.

I have an appt. at Frances NElson at 8:15am and then at Carle for a 
spine xray. Will have cell on. Left a  message for Chris Evans at the 
Linders and emailed to the corrected address but no reply.

Shell.



>Yowwsa!!!! Don't know what possessed you but all I wanted from the 
>gifted artist was his choice of his art as it does come from the 
>heart....That's all I was saying..
>Yeah The pic is split...it copies that way in strange sizes that 
>will not alter to go back together as one......
>
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <mailto:shellwash at sbcglobal.net>Shelley Masar
>To: <mailto:liddias at insightbb.com>liddias
>Sent: Monday, April 12, 2004 6:43 PM
>Subject: Re: Draft 4
>
>Well, I got the cameras and I got the filmers so i guess the pics 
>are mine if you insist on honoring ownership before all other 
>principles. The Jpegs came in broken on this email so I can't see. 
>Chris' email is bouncing. I'll call him; he lives at the Linders, 
>but I can tell you that he gave us, me and Gerald, carte blanche 
>when we made the film to use his images to help the men at the 
>shelter with whom  he deeply identifies  and he will say the choice 
>is yours/ours. Chris Evans is one of us--- a "dysfunctional" heart 
>who donates his genius for the good of his fellow sufferers. What 
>principle are you asserting, Concorde? Chris gave up on his 
>commercial interests ( he may be one of the only other artists in 
>town with a talent commensurate with yours) many years ago. He works 
>as a volunteer for Erwin Williams Urban Restoration Ministries  on 
>his free time. Which he has a lot of. I just came from Charlie's, he 
>is being put through the ringer, people who have everything to gain 
>from helping him are trying to tell him he is doing this for his own 
>purposes, to which he says, yes and for those who have been hurt 
>like i was. He is a good man. But we do not trust the good. We are 
>too used to bowing before those who profit by our being too broken 
>to believe that we are capable of standing up and organizing, taking 
>the heat of suspicion, on our own behalf. The story of what happened 
>to the prince of peace who so loved the meek and the sick is all too 
>real in 2004. But things have improved, we no longer crucify, we 
>medicate. If this is too much to ask of you, so be it. I will go beg 
>elsewhere on Charlie's behalf. And Victor's, and Bobby's, and the 
>hundreds of others who have been turned out these last two years 
>since Mr. Bush rode himself into office because a thug named Tony 
>enjoys playing the warden of their destinies.
>
>Sometimes it is too painful even for me to quarrel with friends. 
>We'll just watch TV and suck our teeth over our children's pain. It 
>is easier, and no one can criticize us for doing nothing. It is 
>always more polite to shut up and capitulate.
>
>Say hello to the solitare screen for me. See you on an easier quest 
>for comfort; wot the hell they hand out self esteem like candy for 
>the good boys and girls who don't ask why, and when. Much less dare 
>to demand NOW!
>
>Do I think I'm special? No, like Charlie I get the message. No one 
>is lining up to give credit for just being decent. It's a crime 
>against the realm.
>
>Pissed and hurt, but carrying on. What really do I expect for daring 
>to believe that what goes around comes back again. And that those 
>who seek will always find, and doors slammed  shut somehow, someway 
>be answered with an open window.
>
>
>>It's 2 pix...who's is it? I won't use unless I know...Also I won't 
>>use the homeless cartoons  from the kid without his picking it out. 
>>I know he would be happy to help out but he has a right to have his 
>>choice in print..
>>
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>----- Original Message -----
>
>From: <mailto:shellwash at sbcglobal.net>Shelley Masar
>
>To: <mailto:liddias at insightbb.com>liddias at insightbb.com ; 
><mailto:charlesvogel48 at yahoo.com>charlesvogel48 at yahoo.com
>
>Cc: <mailto:caevans1 at uiuc.edu>caevans1 at uiuc.edu ; 
><mailto:paulananda at ameritech.net>paulananda at ameritech.net ; 
><mailto:paul at electric-pictures.com>paul at electric-pictures.com
>
>Sent: Monday, April 12, 2004 3:35 PM
>
>Subject: Draft 4
>
>
>Hi Lidd,
>
>
>Met with Charlie who likes the text  below. We made a few changes 
>including adding his email #. He thinks this text would work  on top 
>of the dark home page image from the website of the man and the beds 
>if the text was in yellow as it appears there.
>
>
>Anyway ( GOD i hate to ask for favors! ) if we begged peanut 
>butter/no mayo /no mustard you could knock something out by 2 pm 
>tomorrow so he could see it and ok it and we could take it to 
>Dixon's?
>
>
>Charlie really wants to get people to come to the march. That dude 
>Tony who bans people from the shelter right and left when he is in a 
>bad mood, should  lose that job ( He might have a future in swine 
>management or bovines or something requiring less sensitivity.) He 
>came straight outta prison and jumped into turning the shelter into 
>what he knew there. You can take a thug outta the jug but you can't 
>get the jug outta the thug!
>
>
>I'm so clever!
>
>
>>
>http://www.rehearsal.uiuc.edu/projects/timescenter/
>
>>>
>>>>DRAFT 4
>>>>
>
>
>
>>         JUST SAY NO! to Injustice at the Shelter!
>>
>
>The men of the Times Center are being expelled at the whim of staff.
>
>who are accountable to no one.
>
>
>This is not humane.
>
>     It is not democratic.
>
>             It is not the way to assist the homeless
>
>                        toward participation in society.
>
>
>I call on YOU to JOIN ME in the demand for:
>
>  1. An independent review board to oversee
>
>		expulsions from the Time Center
>
>
>
>
>  2. A review of the  scope of Times Center programming/services in general.
>
>
>I assert that rehabilitation
>	requires progressive programs and services
>		based on
>
>		   respect, communication, and justice.
>
>  
>
>>>>~Charles Vogel, Expelled from the Times Center, November, 2003
>>>>
> charlesvogel48 at yahoo.com
>
>			Rally at Noon
>
>			April 22,2004
>
>			at the Champaign City Building,
>
>			        102 N. Neil Street, Champaign, Illinois
>
>
>			March at 1 PM 
>
>			to the Times Center,
>
>				70 E. Washington Street, Champaign, Illinois
>
>
>             Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely!

----- End forwarded message -----