There are two activist events planned for this weekend. That, if you are not a raving football fan, might pique your interest.

The first of the events to familiarize yourself with will be here in Fresno… Local Anons, as well as the helping hands of others have put together a march from 1777 G. St. Fresno (In front of KFSN ABC 30 studios) and continuing downtown towards the sheriff and police stations. This is an awareness and fund raiser event to help bring to public attention the very suspicious death of John Lang, and with your help fund the funeral service for John. The local mainstream media will not put the pressure necessary on the police dept. So activists from the area plan on doing this themselves. For more on the background of the story of John Lang, or to better familiarize yourself before being at the event, please follow these links:

Fresno People’s Media, Cop Block, Facebook, John’s own blog posts.

The Event is planned for this Sat. Feb 6th at 1:00 PM at the address listed above.

The Super Bowl is already proving to be a place of civil disobedience as the wave of tourists enters San Francisco for SB 50. Mayor Ed Lee declared that the city’s homeless population “are going to have to leave.” Sparking activists from all over to bring a big protest to the big game.

I’ll let the event description from the Facebook Event Page speak for itself.

On February 7th, SoMa StrEat Food Park (428 11th Street) and the Saint Francis Homelessness Challenge are teaming up to co-host a Super Bowl 50 Party with a charitable twist. In addition to celebrating the big game with its second annual all vegan Super Bowl event, the food truck park is creating space to provide services to the neighborhood’s unhoused residents and build bridges between San Francisco’s housed and unhoused neighbors.

The event will run from 11am until the game ends and is free to the public. Some of the Bay Areas best vegan vendors will be serving up healthy and creative takes on delicious tailgating food and the bar will have vegan beer and mimosas. There will be a vegan “chicken wing” eating contest and Super Bowl 50 will be playing live on 10 big screen TVs. This is the second vegan Super Bowl Party that SoMa StrEat Food Park has thrown. Last year’s debut event proved so popular amongst the vegan community that it spawned a monthly vegan event dubbed “Very Vegan Sunday. “

Services for unhoused neighbors on Super Bowl Sunday at SoMa StrEat Food Park include an additional Port-a-Potty (11am-6pm), Stuff check (11am-6pm), Free vegan hot dogs and food (Noon-6pm), Free acupuncture (11am-3pm) from Slow Poke Acupuncture and Circle Community Acupuncture, Free socks, Super Bowl viewing, and a limited amount of $25 HandUp cards for participation in activities.

Test your knowledge of homelessness in SF and challenge yourself and your city to take action in support of secure sleep, hygienic toileting, and healing and transition services for our unhoused neighbors:www.SaintFrancisChallenge.com

This charitable angle on a normally corporate day arose when both organizations met to acknowledge the growing encampments outside of the park. According to recent updates from the Coalition on Homelessness, over 100 tents line Division Street near the food park on any given day in Western SoMa and citations for the unhoused are on the rise prior to the Super Bowl. 311 data regarding human feces on the streets and sidewalks – visualized online by Jennifer Wong’s Human Wasteland project – indicates that Western SoMa has one of the highest needs for additional toilet services. Instead of merely critiquing the troubling rise of homelessness in San Francisco, this initiative challenges neighbors, business owners, and city government to take necessary and innovative action in 2016 in support of secure sleep, hygienic toileting, and services for the thousands of unhoused neighbors who live in a daily state of crisis on our streets.

The Homelessness Challenge is named after Francis of Assisi, the namesake of San Francisco, who once said: “Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” Weiss notes, “It is not only necessary and possible for San Francisco to provide increased access to secure sleep, hygienic toileting, and healing and transitional services for our homeless population – it is also more cost-effective than the status quo of criminalizing homelessness.”

So there you have it… If you’d like to sign up and volunteer to help feed or clothe homeless individuals being targeted by the city of San Francisco, do so here.

Be safe… And we’ll see you this weekend.