Who are YOU?

In October, donating acupuncture in the Mission district of San Francisco I learned about “Homes Not Jails” and met some amazing people.

In response to World Homeless Day - on October 10^th, 2012 a group of about 50 people gathered in Dolores Park in order to march to the Castro and temporarily enter a vacant building. The rally began at 5pm and according to Shadow, a woman I interviewed, there were 3-4 times as many cops as there were protestors. The cops “escorted” the protestors to the vacant building. Police in full riot gear remained outside the building while about 20 protestors went inside. An hour later the police stormed the building and arrested the people inside. Shadow entered the building shortly before the police did. She was on the second floor when they poured in. For the past year Shadow has been a part of the Occupy movement, first in Little Rock Arkansas, then in NY and now in SF – where she has only lived since August. A strong and beautiful 28 year old woman, Shadow does suffer from PTSD due to the NY Occupy riots. So when the cops entered the building she panicked and tried desperately to escape. But there was nowhere to go and she fell from the second floor breaking both of her feet. I treated Shadow in her wheelchair. Her feet had not healed, she could walk. Other parts of her body ache as well.

When most middle class people think about the homeless they have a particular picture in their minds. Hippies, drug addicts, people with mental disorders… and other negative beliefs. Yet that’s not always the case. There are lots of people who were just like you and me that tried to live the American dream. They went to college, got jobs or careers, cars and houses… and then the recession hit and those same people lost their jobs and got evicted from their homes due to foreclosures.

Shadow, the 28 year old homeless woman I met that day is not one of those people either but she is a graduate from Brown University with her BA in Asian History. And after being released from jail and living in a city she only moved to a couple of months ago Shadow is overwhelmed by the kindness that others have bestowed upon her. She was invited to live with people she barely knew.

There are ways to make a difference and there are ways to “give back”. If you can’t do what Shadow is doing than donate! If you can’t donate your time, donate your money. If you can’t donate your money, donate your time. Go to rally’s, write letters, make phone calls, blog, tweet, post youtube videos, volunteer. Do something to make a difference. If you don’t but wish you could, you’re part of the problem not the solution. If you don’t “have the time” that’s an excuse. I don’t have the time. I work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week but I MAKE the time, otherwise I have no right complaining about how I think things “should be”.

I also spoke to Bruce that day, a man involved in the 10/10/12 protest who was pushed down onto the floor by the police with a knee stuck into his back. He has a good sense of humor about it and calls it “his police knee massage”. But it’s not humorous because Bruce was still suffering from back pain 3 weeks later. Graham, another activist, received a concussion as he was pushed forcibly up against a wall by officers. And I was told about yet another man who had his head “bashed in” and was then interrogated in the hospital while he was practically incoherent. Shadow and others were denied pain medication while in the hospital and she ended up in isolation “wailing on the floor” from excruciating pain. Police brutality is nothing new but it will never be “right” and it will forever piss me off. These people were not armed, this was not a riot. These were peaceful protestors trying to make a difference in this crazy world. And they were severely punished. Arrested and held for 30 hours with a bail set at $325,000. While rookie cops take home $75,000 per year in salaries.

Homes Not Jails, which formed in 1992 advocates the use of abandoned and vacant buildings in SF to house the homeless. There are currently more than 35,000 unused houses in SF, a city with some of the highest rents in the country. Shadow told me this is because if a house is vacant for a long period of time the owner can get more money when he sells it than he could if someone is living there/renting – due to rent control I’m assuming. Having that many vacancies drives the rent up in SF in other newly rented units. There is also something called the Ellis Act which entitles building owners to evict all their tenants and take up to 5 years (after evictions) to renovate their buildings so they can then rent the previously rent controlled apartments at higher prices.

But since there are more than 35,000 vacant dwellings in SF and 10,000 homeless people here, you do the math. Personally this makes me very angry. I know a couple (the Corns) in LA who live in a house that takes up 3 city blocks in Beverly Hills and there are 2 people living there. This kind of decadence makes me ill. And then you look at Bea Johnson who downsized her living situation for her family of 4 and currently lives a lifestyle of zerowaste. I understand that such fluctuation and personal will are what makes “the world go round” but really if there are a million Bea Johnson’s and a million wasteful Corns they will only cancel each other out and no real progress forward will ever be made. Not until the Bea Johnson’s of the world outnumber the Corns 2 to 1 will change occur. Are you a Bea or a Shadow or are you a Corn? Are you part of the problem or are you part of the solution? 

Philanthropy

Although it’s not my intention to toot my own horn I realize that at this point in my life I’ve become quite philanthropic.

A year ago when the Occupy movement started in SF I had my own private acupuncture business. I was charging $110 for the first visit and $85 for follow up visits. I’ve now learned that what I was running was a “boutique acupuncture clinic”. This is what most acupuncturists do. I called it a private practice.

When the Occupy movement began some people posted in my acupuncture school’s alumni group saying they were donating acupuncture to the people who were involved in the movement, the people who were living at the end of Market Street in San Francisco. I couldn’t wait to get down there. I lived over the GG Bridge, about 40 minutes to an hour away and I was working full time at 3 different offices but I made the time to go down there and donate acupuncture. I met other acupuncturists who were doing the same thing, traveling from the East Bay on BART, riding their bikes across town – whatever it took. I felt a part of and everyone I worked on was more than grateful. I was making a difference. And although I couldn’t camp out on Market Street I was giving back in a way that I could.

While I was in acupuncture school my dream was to open a community acupuncture clinic. Community acupuncture was started in Portland, Oregon by Lisa Rohleder and Skip Van Meter as “Working Class Acupuncture”. It rapidly became a movement, first called CAN (Community Acupuncture Network) now POCA (People’s Organization of Community Acupuncture). The model is to treat 5-7 patients per hour in one large room for $15 - $40 per treatment (no more than $20 for the minimum cost). My plan was to open a community clinic. Lisa and Skip teach classes on how to do just that. Somewhere along the way I lost my vision and somewhere along the way of losing it, I found it again.

So that’s what I have now, a community acupuncture clinic in San Rafael called Tao. I treat patients for $20 a treatment instead of $85, making acupuncture more affordable to everyone. After I donated my time at the Occupy movement last year some of the other acupuncturists who were also donating time asked for more organization. I started a google group and a google calendar for people to coordinate -- and it all fell through the cracks. Shortly thereafter winter came and the Occupy campers were disbanded, by force.

A year went by. And quite recently a woman found the google group and asked for help. On October 10^th, 2012 – 20 people were arrested in San Francisco for protesting, they needed help. A woman contacted me and asked if I’d be willing to donate acupuncture to some of the people who had been arrested. Since opening, Tao the new community clinic on September 10^th I’ve been working 12-15 hours a day. The other Tao acupuncturist, Michiel and I have given away 87 free treatments thus far. It feels good and it feel right. People need it and can’t afford it. I’m not making my rent yet and it’s true I won’t be able to keep going this way much longer but it is the business model for community, it is what community is all about and I’m confident that it’s sustainable as all of my other friends who are running successful community acupuncture clinics have shown me.

So before I said yes to helping the 20 people I posted the question on my school’s yahoo group asking for help and volunteers. There are hundreds of people in the group (many living in SF) and most of them have boutique clinics. Not one person responded. So after another 15 hour work day and 6 hours of sleep I jumped up this morning and grabbed Michiel and we both drove an hour to SF in order to donate time we barely have in order to help people who really needed it. People who are trying to make a difference in this world.

I’d like to tell their story in the next blog. But first a word on giving and philanthropy. How many people can look at themselves in the mirror and say “I helped someone today who needed help and couldn’t afford to pay for it”? How many people in this world will sacrifice their desire for money or their time to help others?

I belong to an organization where there is the need for “service”. There are hundreds of members in this organization yet all the service positions are held by a handful of people, the same handful. People who do service, always do service and people who don’t, never do. Which one of those types of people do you want to be? Selfless or self-serving? I know that I’m making a difference in the world when I help others, when I give selflessly. It’s never too late to make that difference.