Mine is a voice of a native San Franciscan who attended public schools and who has lived in The City since birth with a brief exit due to military obligations brought by our country's involvement in the Vietnam War.

I have always lived in The City because I chose to spend my life here in the place I love. I have always admired the different cultures and people here. I have watched The City change for the better.

My Father always told me never say anything bad about anyone because you really can not take back the hurt it may cause. So is my belief, but I still voice my opinion; not to hurt anyone but to voice my morals which have evolved with each and every of my experiences. I am always willing to listen to others and I can be swayed to think and view in another way if a proper and intelligent argument in opposition to my views is presented. My beliefs are an accumulation of my experiences, most of which have been here in this city.

I went to school before the invention of integration, I was never bussed anywhere and neither were any of my classmates. I have never ridden a school bus; I took public transit - The Municipal Railway, the old ones when the coaches were a green and yellow and the drivers wore blue uniforms. No one defaced the busses in those days. The drivers carried conductors' punches and they would punch our school bus cards which, back then, cost fifty cents for ten rides. We could only ride on those bus cards before school and after school up until 5pm, otherwise we would have to pay a full adult fare of 15 cents.

I remember riding the J Church line to school. That line back then was the old trolleys which have been brought back to the new F Market line . In those days all the lines were above ground on Market Street; a time before BART. I remember the old days of Market Street when it was theater row. The Old Fox Theater on Market was the grandest of the old movie houses there. In those days, there was a Fox, a Paramount and a United Artist theater on Market Street and those beautiful marquees in neon and other colored lights dazzled me.

We went downtown to shop at The Emporium, F.W. Woolworth's, Kress, Weinstein¹s, J.C. Penney¹s and visit Merrill's Drugstore's toy land. We would ride the cable car to Chinatown and jump on the big turntable and hurry for a seat. In those days no one sat on the street and asked for spare change and no one would sit and drink an alcoholic beverage in public view.

When I went to grammar school, there were whites, African-Americans, Latinos, other Chinese like myself and other Asian students as my classmates. I never heard the word nigger used until I entered the U.S. Air Force and there were enlistees from all over the states. I remember when a civilian co-worker asked me where I learned to speak English and I replied, "In school, where else??"

I remember being told to leave a Elk's Club in New England because I was not white. I left; it was no big deal to me at the time, but today I might have acted differently. I have been to different countries in my travels with the U.S. Air Force and nothing compares with home. We take so much for granted here. The tap water is potable, the sewage is not in the streets where you walk and people do not have to go hungry here. Opposing comments of our government are not punished and you are not restricted from leaving your home and subject to arrest.

That is why I live here in San Francisco and why so many people chose to make San Francisco their home. In my forty plus years in this town, I could say I have seen it all and not much surprises me anymore. I never thought I would ever be in a position to publish a newspaper or even own a business. I was content with my life and my career. But I met Jim and he pushed for the first business I was involved in starting and he loved it, spending all his waking hours there. I loved him and we enjoyed working side by side.

I lost Jim to AIDS in 1996, and I carried on the business with the help of his best friend, Gary who promised Jim that he would take of me. Gary cared for me through several short illnesses and he kept the business going. I love Gary! One day I mentioned to Gary that we should start a newspaper which would be an alternative to the current gay press. Gary made all the contacts and we carefully chose a name, "SPECTRUM".

Why SPECTRUM? We wanted a name that covers the range of this community, a spectrum. When we worked on our logo, we had to incorporate the rainbow, but not an ordinary rainbow, I wanted it to be different as our newspaper would be. The colors of the rainbow do not hang over us, we are not under the rainbow, we are the source of the rainbow. The colors come from The City. I call it a rainbow in a different way.

There is a difference in wanting a newspaper and publishing one. I still have my law enforcement career which I enjoy and I get great job satisfaction from, and Gary was and is busy running the print shop so we found it necessary to hire an editor.

So we have all the components of our organization, we are small but we will be growing and learning. I have watched the pages of the SAN FRANCISCO SPECTRUM grow from blank pages to a newspaper filled with news, articles, and comics.

We welcome your comments and suggestions so as to make this a better publication. I hope San Francisco is ready for the SPECTRUM because we are here.

I dedicate this publication to Jim, and his love for me, and I thank him for providing me with Gary whom I also love.