Greg Spence Wolf

Your Voice 

by Paulette C. Wolf 

Spider web or pressure cooker -- 

          Any other choice? 

No matter where you go, there’s no interest in your voice. 

          They only want to see how you fit in their web -- 

          As you smile they’ll suck your blood until they’re well-fed. 

          If your faith gives you 

a roof, hot water and bed, 

          be active in your space or you’ll be cooked to lead. 

          If the pressure cooker doesn’t get you, chemicals flood your innards, 

or your own inactivity melts your words. 

          The only road to sanity is to begin  

          to hear your own voice and face your needs within. 

          Then direct that voice without 

(no need to shout) 

          to meet the needs of others  

from where you are not in doubt.

Thank you all for the response to my "Cosby memory". Someone pointed out that by starting it with the New York Magazine link, people sharing it would only be able to share the link, not the text. So here it is again, with a different format.  

The photos are of me, at 16, on the Smothers Brothers show. They're here so anyone sharing will be able to share the text as well. The link to the New York Magazine piece is http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/07/bill-cosbys-accusers-speak-out.html. And here's my memory: 

Do I have a stake in this issue? Yes. Of course. Outside of being female, outside of knowing women aren't "heard" as loudly as men are heard, outside of firmly believing that if women were treated equally around the world, many if not all of the world's problems would no longer exist - outside of all that... I have a personal stake. 

No, I was not sexually bothered by Bill Cosby. We met because he was curious about me. 

My song "Society's Child" was climbing the charts and creating a great deal of controversy. The Smothers Brothers took a huge gamble and had me on their hit television show. I was just sixteen years old when we taped it. I'd been on the road for months, doing press and one-nighters. My chaperone/tour manager, a family friend six or seven years older than me, was doing everything in her power to make sure I was protected and getting as much rest as possible. 

Remember. I was sixteen. Still in high school. Fairly naive, including about my own sexuality. For months on the road, my chaperone was the only consistent face I saw. Everyone else was a complete stranger - radio personalities, newspaper reporters, magazine photographers, audiences, promoters, disc jockeys, all strangers. So I clung to my chaperone. 

We'd never been to a big-time TV taping. We had no idea we'd have to be inside from early early morning until whenever they called for me. There were only a couple of chairs for us on the set - I was pretty low on the totem pole, way lower than Jimmy Durante or Pat Paulsen or Mason Williams (all of whom were wonderful to us). And I was exhausted. I'd been having nightmares for weeks, the result of the controversy surrounding "Society's Child" and the death threats I was receiving daily. I needed to sleep. So I fell asleep in my chaperone's lap. She was earth motherly, I was scared. It was good to rest. 

We taped the show. I had a ball. (You can see it on Youtube, in fact. That's me, looking scared, in the green dress. My friend Buffy from East Orange, where I'd started high school, made it for me. I treasured it.) Then we went back to New York, and I went back to school. 

A while later, my manager called me into her office. "What happened at the Smothers Brothers show?!" I had no idea what she was talking about, and said so. "Well, no one else on TV is willing to have you on. Not out there, anyway." Why? I wondered. And was told that Cosby, seeing me asleep in the chaperone's lap, had made it his business to "warn" other shows that I wasn't "suitable family entertainment", was probably a lesbian, and shouldn't be on television. 

Again, a reminder. I was 16. I'd never slept with a man, I'd never slept with a woman. Hell, I barely been kissed, and that in the middle of the summer camp sports area, next to the ping pong table. 

Banned from TV. Unbelievable. Bless Johnny Carson and his producer Freddy de Cordova, one of the nicest men I've ever worked with, because they didn't listen. Or maybe they didn't give a damn. I don't know. I do know that they broke the barrier Cosby tried to create and left me with an open invite to The Tonight Show. 

There's a lot to bother a sensible person about this. The years these women were ignored. The years they were derided. That the story finally really "broke" because a male comedian named Hannibal Buress kept bringing it up, kept calling Cosby a "rapist". Not because woman after woman after woman went to the police, to the press, to anyone who'd listen, with horribly similar stories. 

Let me be snarky for a moment. Interesting that there are so few women of color in the New York Magazine photo. Interesting that the ones in the photo all appear to be light-skinned. Perhaps darker skinned women have not come forward yet? Perhaps they're among the other 12 women who've accused him but aren't pictured? 

Or perhaps not. I have to wonder if this rapist has some issues with his own race. 

Continuing the snarkiness, I find it horrifying that his wife is still insisting it was all consensual. That she sounds more upset by "the invasion of privacy" than the rapes. 

People seem to be confused because she continues to stand by him. I have just two words for that - money, honey. According to the press, she's his manager, and has been for years. And his "business manager", eg the person who handles the money. So if there were pay-offs, she saw the checks. She is complicit. 

If it was consensual, why pay anyone to be silent? 

If it was consensual, why are there so many women who do not want money, who do not need fame, who are by turns ashamed, violated, exposed, vulnerable, and still continue to speak out? 

Cosby was right in one thing. I am gay. Or bi, if you prefer, since I dearly loved the two men I lived with over the years. My tilt is toward women, though, and he was right about that. 

But what an odd thing, that a black man who slept with so very many white women chose to take my possible lesbianism away from our one meeting, rather than the message I tried to get across with "Society's Child." How pathetic. How truly, truly pathetic. 

Janis Ian

Reprinted with permission for non-commercial use:

This article originally appeared at

https://www.facebook.com/janisianpage/posts/880427738710612?pnref=story

 

     The republican party, and it's presidential candidate, are scapegoating immigrants, who conveniently can't vote.

     When they say scapegoating, I mean that they are unfairly generalizing about their behavior by listing and reporting their crimes in order to make them more threatening in your perception. This is similar to  the way nazis published Jewish crimes. It's manufactured opinion that distorts public opinion of reality in order to benefit a small group of people's political and economic intrests. Some of these people are private prison owners.

 If you believe that when the corporate media scapegoats immigrants on cable tv and talk radio. they are looking for someone to blame so that they can have  privately owned prisons that make people money.

 

 They allow people to be jailed for being immigrants. 

Then I am concerned that you'd have allowed people to  be jailed for being Jewish,  just as our grandparents in the United States of America allowed Japanese Americans to be locked up, thankfully not killed. 

All attacks against immigrants and people we can be convinced are unamerican, should be called out for what they really are, political and economic scapegoating. 

These attacks are done so we can keep Immigrants desperate for jobs and easily exploited in the workplace. Immigration restrictions make immigrants more desperate and more willing to hire others to smuggle them. Some smugglers take advantage of their employers and hand them over to human traffickers. This benefits employers like Mar a Lago which employs immigrants. 

© Greg Spence Wolf 9/12/2020

+4

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/03/02/adolf-hitler-also-published-a-list-of-crimes-committed-by-groups-he-didnt-like/

 

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/09/epstein-mar-a-lago-trump-1456221

 

https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/blog/crackdown-immigration-puts-trafficking-victims-more-danger

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/domestic-abuse-survivors-still-face-deportation-under-trump/

I Want COVID-19 Testing For Everyone, Everywhere.

 

In February 2020  

I got sick and had a fever, felt myself breathing hard and knew I was contagious 

When I felt a whole lot better I got my self tested for Coronavirus

I drove 20 minutes and took a test in Puyallup  

There were people in lab coats in a drive thru tent

And one of them stuck a long cotton swab up my nose

 

It was paid for by my insurance  

I Was told a few days later that I didn't get the coronavirus

I felt relieved I wasn't spreading something so catchy and deadly

I wished that others could get testing cuz if we're healthy then were ready

To go back to work if we can avoid something deadly

By knowing where the Coronavirus is spreading

Then maybe we can get back to work safely and reboot the economy.

+3

I want COVID-19 testing, 

For all essential workers 

And I want paid sick leave 

For all those who test positive 

  

I want them to get good health care

so that they can recover, 

I want us all to have health care

so that we can take care of each other. 

 

I want COVID-19 testing for all health care providers. 

So they can know that it is safe to stand right beside us, 

I want COVID-19 testing for dental assistants, 

Because they work inside our mouths, they can't social distance 

  

I want COVID-19 testing for all bus drivers. 

So that they can stay home and not spread it to the riders.

I want COVID 19 testing for all educators,  

Sustitutes, assistants, therapists  teachers and administrators.

  

Janitors, house cleaners, cooks  and food servers 

Should get the protection that they deserve.

The secretaries and receptionists - who greet us folks at the front desk, 

Should get treated with our  respect

And offered the Novel Coronavirus test. 

 

I want COVID-19 testing for police officers

Because they don't choose who they get to come into contact with.

They can't refuse to work with someone without a mask.

And many people in the public don't know if they are sick.

 

And they don't know all the names of all the people that they come in contact with

They could contract COVID from contact with a suspect or a member of the public

All the people served and protected, saved and arrested

Have not been contact traced or COVID19 tested

 

 

Everyone who works in crowds put on your mask and get tested

If your job places your health at risk go out and get your self tested.

Protesters, shoppers, hobbyists, panhandlers

Go wash your hands and follow health reminders.

        

I want COVID-19 testing for airline pilots, 

So that they can know if they are spreading the coronavirus

around the world. in the crowded planes

 

I want COVID-19 testing for 

EMTs 

Because  everybody needs the expertise of EMTs 

ambulance drivers, doctors and nurses, physician's assistants 

So they can know if they got COVID-19 from their patients. 

  

I want COVID-19 testing for doctors & dentists 

  

I want COVID-19 testing for grocery clerks 

So that they can know that it is safe to go to work   

I want COVID-19 testing for prison guards 

I want COVID-19 testing for prisoners in crowded cells 

  

I want COVID-19 testing for nurses 

I hope that COVID-19 testing flattens and reverses the curve

  

I want COVID-19 testing for all prisoners. 

I want them to get treatment and be survivors 

I want the sick people to quarantine 

I want medical supplies at the scene 

 

Yo quiero las pruebas para COVID-19  

para todos en todas partes.

© Greg Spence Wolf 09 14 2020

Updated 9/25/2020

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1102818/south-korea-covid-19-test-total-number/

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/09/26/COVID-19-South-Koreas-new-cases-fall-below-100-but-calls-for-holiday-lockdown/4281601120898/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h4vdOJhIeY

I am amazing

You are amazing

We are amazing together

 

She is amazing

He is amazing

They are amazing together.

+34

I know my self, I show myself

I'm confident not arrogant

I rock, I roll, I'm in control

I rule, I School, I aint no Fool

 

I overcome my doubts and fears

I overcome adversity

I make a plan

I plant a seed

To get the things I want and need.

+26

I am. I can. I do, I don't, I go. I stop.  I will, I won't.

I do my best, surpass the test,

I'm sure that you will be impressed.

I do the math, I check the facts

To make sure that it all adds up

+28

 

 

 

Trump Will Throw You Under The Bus

In order to make himself a quick buck

He can't be trusted, he's bad luck

He'll throw you under the bus.

 

Trump has cheated on all his wives (1)

Trump has cheated all his life

Trump is a fraud who's been caught

Committing white collar crime.

In New York for a second time.

 

The Trumps steal from charlities

That share their name for their own needs,

To pay for his legal fees

Cuz he's the one in need,

Yeah he's the one in need.

 

 

Trump Will Throw You Under The Bus 

In order to make himself a quick buck 

He can't be trusted, he's bad luck 

He'll throw you under the bus.

 

A judge has ordered him to produce 

DNA so they can prove. 

If E Jean Carroll is telling the truth 

When she says that he raped her 

While buying furniture(2) 

+60

When DJT was on a bus 

With Billy Bush, he told us 

That he went down on hard..like a bitch 

I forced on her a kiss. 

+19

Trump will put his hand on your cunt

Call you a bitch and try to steal a fuck

He can't be trusted, He's bad luck

Put an unwanted kiss upon your lips

And then he'll throw you under the bus,

 

I believe Temple Taggart, Kristin Anderson and  
Jessical Leeds,  

When they say that DJT  

Used them for his own needs  

Obscenly - instead of - romantically.

 

Jessica Leeds was on a plane

And she was offered a better seat

She was excited to get the upgrade

Then she met DJT

In the adjoining seat

 

She talked to him while they ate dinner

Then he lost control of his hands

When he got his hands on her genitals

She went back to her original seat

Where she meant to be

 

Trump has friends who are like him

Greedy men who pimp  and pimp

He said that Epstein was a great guy

Who like beautiful women

Almost as much as him+1

 

Maria Farmer went to the FBI  

In 1996 to report Epstein's crimes  
She said, "They were so dismissive that I just fealt daunted and I stopped."  

As they brushed her complaint aside.  

Maxwell threatened her life.  

And Epstein continued his crimes. 

+10

If you are in the nightclub  

And you got pussy a to grab  

He'll tell Billy Bush So that they can laugh  

As they get off the bus.

+6

Joe Biden is a decent man

Who doesn't associate with the Klan

Sometimes He's too much of a Republican

But he's got a Coronavirus plan

 

https://joebiden.com/covid-plan/

 

Joe wrote a bill with Orin Hatch

The Violence Against Women Act

It protections for victims of abuse

You should support it too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_Against_Women_Act

+5

If you got the Coronavirus

Trump has thrown you under the bus

He's against testing for all of us

He don't think we're worth the fuss

.https://www.vox.com/2020/5/15/21259888/trump-coronavirus-testing-very-few-cases

 

Trump Will Throw You Under The Bus,

In order to make himself a quick buck,

He can't be trusted, he's bad luck,

He'll throw you under the bus.

 

If you were raped as a teen,

By trafficker Jeffrey Epstein,

Donald will not call the police,

He'll say Epstein great guy.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-called-epstein-a-terrific-guy-before-denying-relationship-with-him/2019/07/08/a01e0f00-a1be-11e9-bd56-eac6bb02d01d_story.html

Guiffre worked at Mar a Lago

Where she was recruited by Epstein to give massages

She then got sexually abused

This is how Trump lets his business get used.

+2

4) https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-called-epstein-a-terrific-guy-before-denying-relationship-with-him/2019/07/08/a01e0f00-a1be-11e9-bd56-eac6bb02d01d_story.html

 

If you want to vote by mail

Donald Trump wants you to fail

His followers say "Sigh Heil"

And the US mail is for sale

(3)

+5

On the Apprentice he wasnt the boss 

Somebody else was paying the cost 

To pay the reality TV show host

He's throwing us under the bus.

+2

They gave the guy a TV show and all he does is talk

He does not help anybody he doesn't walk the walk

He can't fight his own battles

 

Virginia Roberts Giuffre 

Tara Reade 

Christine Oxenberg 

Learned about the Lolita Express 

Which Clinton rode when 

1) https://www.newsweek.com/how-many-times-trump-cheated-wives-780550

2) https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/obviously-required-to-provide-it-trump-given-deadlines-to-produce-dna-in-e-jean-carrolls-defamation-lawsuit/

3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_DeJoy

 

 

 

I have observed over 12 years of experience as an assistant teacher including five as a substitute,. The titles I have held in Seattle Public Schools are Special Education Assistant and Instructional Assistant. In Ithaca New York I also worked as a substitute teacher in the 1990's as well.

I have determined that the more profound a student’s disability, the more likely they will be working with a substitute instead of a certified teacher or permanent staff. 

  

For a year and a half I worked in a classroom with a student who can’t walk more than a few feet without a walker. They were served by multiple substitutes for over a year. This student has been pushed to the floor by another student, In that situation I caught her quick enough to keep her head from hitting the floor. 

+23

The substitutes who worked with this student for over a year and a half did not have a key to the building even though the student’s class is in a portable and the main building door is sometimes locked. This student's needs were under-served because of  the Seattle Public School District's policy of treating substitutes, especially special education assistants, as less valuable employees. 

During the 2015 school year I watched a series of subs work with two students with profound needs. Both students were transferred to Louisa Boren STEM from different schools with one-on-ones assigned to them. At the start of the next school year each of the permanent assistants assigned to work as their one-on-ones were no longer working in that classroom because they had transferred to other jobs. 

For about half the school year the special education department refused to hire replacements and insisted on overriding the IEP's of both students, because they thought there was too much staff in the room. Both of these students needed constant adult supervision and one required regular hygienic care. For half the year the staff assigned to them were substitutes who would work a few days and quit because these students demanded so much of their energy and time. A meeting finally happened where the two positions were merged into one 1 on 1 job. 

You would hope that people with the most profound disabilities would get the the most professional help in school, in reality, they get short term substitutes. They get short term substitutes not because someone is home sick, but because the Seattle Public School District Special Education Department and the State of Washington  won't hire a permanent staff person for the  most profoundly impacted students. I want a good substitute who has experience when a position can't be filled. But in reality these students need a trained employee working in my place, not a sub.

  

There are retired teachers and therapists willing to work as subs for Special Education Assistants and teachers. But Seattle Public Schools limits how many days retirees are allowed to work. So many days, classes are staffed with new substitutes instead of our experienced retiree subs. This means that classroom staff are required to train the sub on the fly. This takes time and therefore costs money. I know we need to be cost efficient, and so I am pointing out that an experienced sub is more cost efficient because they don't need to be shown how to do the job at the same time they are doing the job. 

Sometimes this training is from an assistant teacher, not a certified teacher. If someone is subbing in the certified teacher role. This means that our assistants are doing a teachers job form an assistants pay. So the situation is also economically unjust.

The state does not agree with me that substitutes are valuable enough to be trained, so they have this policy.

“Substitute paraeducators are not required to meet the requirements of the Paraeducator Certificate Program.” 

https://eln.seattleschools.org/paracertandfcsintro/#/lessons/QdKa1uRmw26LfQHtEsREdcuGHPqYBH28 FAQ Quoted 12/22/2020.

This means that our students are served by substitutes who are not even trained in the Paraeducator Certificate Program. This means that we are sending inexperienced or less experienced and undertrained assistants to work with our most vulnerable students when there is a need for a substitute. 

  

Thank you very much 

Greg Spence Wolf 

Roxhill Elementary - Special Educaton Assistant 

7217 Yakima Ave 

Tacoma, WA 98408 

206-601-6746 

  

  

  

  

  

 

I Want You to Remember ... Ali Ismael Abbas. 

Ali Ismaeel Abbas lost his arms in an attack, 

An aerial missile attack against the people of Iraq, 

He was twelve when the bombs fell, 

His life matters so I want you to remember. 

He said, “The house collapsed on us. The fire was all over. 

He said "I heard so much screaming from my family." 

“After this one of my neighbours came and took me out .... 

… and put me in a car and sent me to hospital.” 

Ali Ismaeel Abbas lost his mom in an attack 

That was authorized by Congress against the country of Iraq 

She was pregnant when the bombs struck 

Her life matters so I want you to remember 

Ali Ismaeel Abbas lost his dad in an attack 

That was ordered by George Bush against the nation of Iraq 

One of thirteen family member who were killed or dismembered 

Their lives matter so I want you to remember 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Ismail_Abbas

Manuel Ellis says, "Can't breathe sir, can't breathe." while dying in Tacoma Police Custody on Tuesday, March 3, 2020.

 

According to a report in the Tacoma News Tribune; 

On March 3, 2020. Manual Ellis was killed in the custody of the Tacoma Police Department. A recording of the incident reveals him saying at 1:40, "Can't Breath sir. Can't breathe." 

Sources:

https://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/editorials/article243427631.html  

https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/crime/article243414696.html

 

 

 
  Amadou Diallo Didn't Have A Gun
 
 

 
Amadou Diallo didn't have a gun 
Amadou Diallo wasn't a threat 
Amadou Diallo didn't hurt anyone 
Amadou Diallo was a target. 
He was shot dead for no good reason 
In the vestibule of his home 

 

Amadou Diallo lived in the Bronks 
Where he was shot dead by four cops 
When he reached into his wallet 
To pull out his wallet 
Let me tell you about one of those cops 
  
His name is Kenneth Boss and he's killed before. 
I'm concerned he's going to do it again. 
Unless we take away his badge and his weapon. 
It's a license to kill unarmed black men. 

They were undercover and wearing bulletproogf vests 
"I was wearing blue jeans," one of them said under oath. 
But still they acted like he was the threat. 
And they pumped his body full of lead. 

They didn't shoot him once, 
They didn't shoot him twice, 
They shot him 41 times, 
They weren't content just to tke his life. 
It wasn't self defense it was homicide. 
  
Amadou Diallo didn't have a gun, 
Amadou Diallo wasn't a threat, 
Amadou Diallo didn't hurt anyone, 
Amadou Diallo hasn't had justice yet. 

After they killed him they shook down his roommate 
We're they trying to find out who his enemies were 
Were they trying to pin it on somebody else 
Were they trying to get away with murder. 
© Greg Spence Wolf 08/30/2020