The image of the wanderer � we all envy the romantic idea of it � the freedom from the constraint of borders and governments � yet we operate within a society that vilifies and scapegoats those who do not fit within the narrow confines of the 9-5 or something suitably allied; the idea of having to work for someone else for a living. This society hates those who defy this reality, and abuses their place in the system by using the problems that occur within America�s impoverished and poor populations as an example of what is going wrong in America rather than recognizing that these problems are not a source but an end result of capitalist democracy (what I like to call economic facism). We allow politicians and the media they own to point to the homeless like a kind of cancer that can be eradicated.

The young people I work with slept outside last night. They spent the night trying to stay warm and find something to eat. But few people really care. We say we do but we vilify the kids who ask us for change on the streets - as junkies, as alchoholics, as fuck-ups who don�t want to take responsibility - rather than society taking responsibility for the conditions that produced them; reading the same crap in the papers every day while ignoring our surroundings, trying to sweep it under the carpet, allowing people like Gavin Newsom to denounce the homeless from his Marin home, in an ad campaign paid for by big business; wondering why this is happening while we read about billions of dollars being spent on an oil war in Iraq. These kids will tell you the truth. They are being eaten alive by this system. They are not separate from you. If they speak about darkness it is a darkness that is encroaching on all of us.

These voices are falling through the cracks � they�re not easy to access because they left society for a reason�.but they are brilliant, the wanderers, the ones who at the risk of cold and hunger have ventured beyond the comfortable bounds of society and stayed, and their existence itself holds something that can help us all survive. If we can keep these kids from dying by their own hands or by lack of care, maybe we can confront our own demons and really change.

Here are some excerpts that convey what some of the Roaddawgz writers have to say on the subject:

�go from talk show to talk show
and hear the shit other people talk
five minutes of rest for the commercials
then are you ready for more?
fuckingcommercialistpopcornfactory
the hand of the devil

try to believe in something
it's totally difficult for me
when i have no belief
except when at times
i believe only in myself
and when is this enough?

it just brings you back to
day by day society
and
and
and the whole loaf of bread
you just threw away
with the other food you could have eaten.
thank you for that
and thank you for letting us all see
how hungry you really are.�

(from �Hunger�, by Alexander Clouchard Barbone)

*

�I bit into the buttered lie
Spread over freshly-baked
pre-fabricated rye
Their poisons served in crystal goblets
cooled with ice cubes
Made with Toxic water
Mmmm the taste it made me high
I�ve tried the triskets topped with greed
Control and hatred over rice
Destruction salad
oooh
Very nice
But
Most of all I do agree
The triumph of their lush cuisine

Was the
smoked
hog
stuffed
with poverty
seasoned
with betrayal
and a side order of
need�


(�Mastication�, by Lisa)

*

�You tell me I need to contribute to society
I need to get a job
spend my checks at Macy�s
at the mall
where all the
shiny happy people
wear the same clothes
buy the same clothes
can�t count past their fingers and toes
unless a register tells them so
�You can be anything you want to be�
When I was a little girl I wanted to be an astronaut so my dad took me to the planetarium and before we left my mom told me
�You can be anything you want to be�
But before that
finish school
drive an insured car
work two jobs so you can�t see the sun or the stars
cuz you�re at work
pushing buttons
shredding papers
making copies and copies
or saying
�Have a nice day�
to members of the ruling class
as they walk out the door
onto the next store

I was cautioned against shoplifting at Walgreen�s because a theft on my record would ban me from a job in retail forever.
I have a theft on my record and am banned from a job in retail forever. Thank God.

I went home last month and everyday watched my mom slowly spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on butterfingers and cokes and sweet nothings everytime she bought gas. I saw her smile because for the first time in her life she felt rich.

Buy shit so you can feel good!
Buy shit cuz you know you should!
Buy shit because I am!
Buy shit cuz you can!
You�re an American!
Free to buy anything you wish
Buy shit and help squish
terrorism and kill all the terrible people
who don�t have money to buy shit like we do

There is no gold in Fort Knox!
Still it�s under locks
and key
So no one figures out our economy
is based on credit cards
endorsed by stars
so we don�t leave home without it
and we get our green we kiss it and bless it
Like in Germany the day before
they started taking Deutchmarks door to door
in wheelbarrows
after the war
trying to barter a barrow for that stuff called food
buy shit America
so we can feel good�

(�You Tell Me� by Viva)

*
�Do you
Avert your eyes
When you stroll by
The shopping cart camp
Under Cesar Chavez bridge?

Do you
Switch the channel
When the news comes on
Announcing that bombs
Have stolen lives and maimed again?

Do you
Mumble something
Deep under your breath
When an emaciated hand
Pleads for your spare change?

Do you
Wonder why
We�ve all begun
To talk in whispers
Believing it�s just survival of the fittest?�

(�The Brush Off�, by Sphinx)

*

�How does a species with no natural enemies become extinct? It destroys itself. Must the circle end with the snake eating its tail? Or can we transcend the wheel of life and personal selfishness? Can we evolve? Can we survive?

(from �What Is This Game We Play�. By Zach)

�Enlightenment? Your politics can be a further enslavement or a tool to freedom. Others can't live our lives for us. Who ever invented the myth that we live in a democracy or anything other than a system of control: a cage? Look around you. There is a reason schools are being torn down and prisons built. A method to the madness. What? A cage within a larger cage? So what's the stretch?

The cycle of birth, death, and rebirth has been played out throughout the centuries. This fascist imperialist empire must fall. It is only a matter of time. I think its time to help the dying monster to its grave. Anyone who has seen the inside of a prison or a jail or has been harassed by the police can tell you that the "free" world in which we live is just a prison with bigger walls and wider space.

Our freedom is illusional. Have you ever tried to leave this country without large reserves of cash? South America is perhaps the last great refuge of the wild. And you know that is disappearing! Along with it, 20% of our (the world's) oxygen supply in the form of a renewable rainforest.

We must see all life as sacred and the earth as belonging to all beings, not just those able to afford it!�


(from �Steel�, by Zach)

*

�If I told you a secret would you keep it? Don�t! Give this knowledge to all. Is it knowledge? Yes, your fair share of. What? Oh right to the point....of the needle hovering over veins vains vanity in�sanity lies teenage lives lost over? Lies. Minds homes families destroyed over? Lies. Wait a minute what lies�beneath? The ones known since birth. Stay out of the woods at night, for evil things lurk. Pray to the lord accept no perks. In life Death made so scary like organized religious thought theft. Eat your peas dammit go to school. Work. Live as told respect the old. Sorry elder. Speak write. Give in submit to�two American lives two half husbands to half wives why half repression that is the key Guilt Fear to incorporate life lessons through? Lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies eyes shut to the fact of wool over a nation of stupid, ignorant repressed fools doing whatever told by? God. Satan. World leaders follow the law. Makers? No. Stop. Stop it. I want off let me go let me be.�

(from �El Rantu Libera, by Stefan)

"'Get a job' is now cliche as if working isn't evil lurking on the fringe. Unhinged it swings into greed. 'Need not want, use not flaunt!' the revolutionaries scream and nary a passerby listens as diamonds glisten in unholy matrimony, 'Marry for money'. The homeless are watching closer than you watch your time fly by from an office window. They know the top is toppling on top of the apex of greed. 'Want not need' the elite hiss, but they miss out on love for push and shove economics. All this makes me vomit inside as rich men hide their eyes when they lie, 'Sorry, no change' as pockets clank with books of blank check pages and credit cards with platinum limits. So the rich dictate the poor's fate and pass laws to saw humankind into rifts like clipped vines, they break our spines to do the unclean things. Do not fuck with us, we're the people you must trust. I make your food how dare you be rude? It's like telling your doctor you wanna sock her in the jaw before you go under the saw."

('San Franpsycho', by Luke)