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February, 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 1
THOMAS MERTON CENTER, 5129 PENN AVE.
PITTSBURGH, PA 15224
NON-PROFIT ORG.
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PITTSBURGH, PA
PERMIT NO. 458
-- Page 11
Remembering
Our Peace & Justice Heroes
– Page 12
- Center Insert
TMC works to build a consciousness of values and to raise
the moral questions involved in the issues of war, poverty,
racism, classism, economic justice, oppression and
environmental justice.
TMC engages people of diverse philosophies and faiths
who find common ground in the nonviolent struggle to
bring about a more peaceful and just world.
Art McDonald Speaks on Thomas Merton
By Art McDonald
While enduring a personal crisis of vocation and faith
during the Vietnam War in 1969, I had the good fortune of
stumbling upon some of the writings of Dorothy Day, the
co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. I was
serving a six month tour of duty in the U.S. Army at Ft.
Jackson, South Carolina, and suddenly realized during a
military training exercise in which we were instructed to
simulate hand to hand combat with a "gook" from North
Vietnam, and while we were thrusting our bayonets into the
enemy's chest, we were told to yell "kill" as loud as we
could, that I could not mouth the words. That is, nothing
came out. I was paralyzed. Later that day as I was
pondering how I had gotten myself into this situation, I
headed off to the base library and actually found a book by
Dorothy, "The Long Loneliness." It changed my life.
(Continued on page 10)
PITTSBURGH’S PEACE & JUSTICE NEWSPAPER Published by the Thomas Merton Center VOL. 42 No. 2 February, 2012
By Michael Drohan
On Face the Nation (Jan 8, 2012) Secretary of
Defense, Leon Panetta obliquely admitted that the
Iranians were telling the truth when he said ―Iran
is developing a nuclear capability but not
necessarily a nuclear weapon‖. He continues to
say that building a nuclear weapon by the Iranians
would be a ―red line‖ for the US. According to
Panetta, crossing such a ―red line‖ ―would compel
the US to act militarily‖. Instead of challenging
Panetta’s threats of war on a peaceful non-
aggressive country, the interviewer, Bob Shieffer,
outdid the Secretary in bellicosity when he stated
―Some say tell Israel to go ahead and take out
Iran‖. What this interview reveals is that the
mainstream press is little more than an arm of the
Pentagon. Just as with the Iraq and Afghanistan
wars, the mainstream press is simply the
stenographer of the imperial, immoral and illegal
war plans of the Pentagon.
Just as with Iraq, all indications are that the truth
lies with the Iranians and their claims to have no
plans, present or future, to use nuclear enrichment
for nuclear bomb purposes. Despite the fact that
the US has now succeeded in placing a faithful
ally in charge of the International Atomic Energy
Administration (IAEA), namely Yakiya Amano
of Japan, this institution’s latest report maintains
that Iran is abiding by its commitments to the UN
and the Non-Proliferation Treaty and is not
weaponizing its enriched uranium. Israel’s claims
of Iran weaponizing enriched uranium supposedly
based on soil samples collected near the enriching
sites, carry about the same level of credibility as
Dick Cheney’s allegation that Iraq was importing
uranium ore in 2003. But evidence or no
evidence, it would seem that the US and Israel are
bent on leading this country and the world into a
catastrophic war once more.
In early December, Defense Secretary Panetta
made the statement that a war with Iran would be
catastrophic. The pushback from Israel to this
remark was enormous leading to a more
belligerent stance with his recent statements of
―nothing is off the table‖ in dealing with Iran. In
all probability, the US is trying to stave off a
direct attack on Iran by Israel by appeasing and
assuring that the US will attack Iran militarily if it
crosses the so-called ―red line‖. One of the
problems with Israel is that it got out of the Iraq
war all that it wanted, namely, the removal of
Saddam Hussein and his regime without loss of a
single Israeli life, soldier or civilian.
Consequently, Israel has no problem in
demanding another disastrous intervention by the
US in Iran to remove their newest bete noir in the
Middle East. A war with Iran, however, by the
Untied States and Israel, would be far more
catastrophic that that of Iraq. Iraq had been
weakened incredibly by ten years of sanctions and
the carpet bombing of Baghdad and other cities at
the beginning of the war. Yet, despite all this the
US had to withdraw from Iraq basically defeated.
None of its strategic objectives of a permanent air
base and control over its oil were achieved.
If the US were to attack Iran, the Iranians have
made it clear that they will not act like sitting
ducks as happened with Iraq. Michael
Chossudovsky estimates that such a war ―would
engulf a region extending from the Mediterranean
to the heartland of Central Asia. It would have
devastating consequences, resulting in a massive
loss of life. It would precipitate humanity into a
(Continued on page 5)
Stopping the War Juggernaut
Including the OCCUPY PITTSBURGH NOW insert Produced by Occupy Pittsburgh Issue No. 1, February, 2012
By Fr. Eugene F. Lauer - Pastoral and Theological Ministries, Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh
I have been a supporter of the Thomas Merton Center since its founding, and have been deeply impressed with its
idealism and its unceasing commitment to social justice, especially in behalf of those who are at the bottom of our
society. The staff members of the Center have shown great courage and assertiveness in their pursuit of their
goals, even when it was unpopular to do so. I have always admired their careful attention to discovering the facts
about controversial issues and expressing them exactly, and not simply making general statements. The Thomas
Merton Center has indeed been a significant force in the movement for social justice in the city of Pittsburgh. I
trust that the Center will continue its remarkable work for many years into the future.
A Merton Center Memory From Father Eugene Lauer
Thomas Merton
2 - NEWPEOPLE February, 2012
IS PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE THOMAS MERTON CENTER 5129 PENN AVE., PITTSBURGH, PA 15224
Phone: 412-361-3022 — Fax: 412-361-0540 — Web: www.thomasmertoncenter.org
Editorial Collective
Frank Carr, Nicole Coast, Rob Conroy, Michael Drohan, Russ Fedorka, Corey Carrington, Kenneth Miller, Jordana Rosenfeld, Molly Rush
TMC Staff, Volunteers and Interns
Vivienne Shaffer, Thomas Merton Center Coordinator
Jibran Mushtaq, Thomas Merton Center Community Organizer / IT Director
Roslyn Maholland, Bookkeeper / Mig Cole, Assistant Bookkeeper
Shirley Gleditsch, Manager, East End Community Thrift Store
Shawna Hammond, Manager, East End Community Thrift Store
Dolly Mason, Furniture Manager, East End Community Thrift Store
Corey Carrington, Public Ally
Jordana Rosenfeld, NewPeople Intern
TMC Board of Directors
Nina Barbuto, JT Campbell, Casey Capitolo, Rob Conroy, Kathy Cunningham, Michael Drohan, Patrick Fenton, Carol Gonzalez, Mary Jo Guercio, Wanda Guthrie, Shawna Hammond, Edward Kinley,
Jonah McAllister-Erickson, Diane McMahon, Francine Porter, Molly Rush.
TMC STANDING COMMITTEES
Board Development Committee (Recruits board members, conducts board elections)
Building Committee Oversees maintenance of 5123-5129 Penn Ave.
Membership Committee Coordinates membership goals, activities, appeals, and communications
Editorial Collective Plans, produces and distributes The NewPeople
Finance Committee Ensures financial stability and accountability of TMC
Personnel Committee Oversees staff needs, evaluation, and policies
Technology Team Provides technical advice and assistance to TMC
Special Event Committees
Plan and oversee TMC fundraising events with board and staff
(Events include the spring New Person Awards and the fall Thomas Merton Award Dinner)
Anti-War Committee [email protected] www.pittsburghendthewar.org
Book‘Em (books to prisoners)
[email protected] www.thomasmertoncenter.org/bookem
CodePink (Women for Peace) [email protected], 412-389-3216
www.codepink4peace.org
Conscience 412-231-1581
www.consciencepgh.blogspot.com
Demilitarize Pittsburgh: War-Profiteering Edu-cation & Action Network
412-361-3022, [email protected] www.demilitarizepittsburgh.org
Diversity Footprint (art, justice, community)
East End Community Thrift Shop 412-361-6010, [email protected]
Economic Justice Committee [email protected]
Fight for Lifers West
412-361-3022 to leave a message [email protected]
http://fightforliferswest.mysite.com
Food Not Bombs [email protected]
http://fnb-pgh.2ya.com
Human Rights Coalition / Fed Up (prisoner support and advocacy)
412-802-8575, [email protected] www.thomasmertoncenter.org/fedup
In Sisterhood: The Women’s Movement in Pgh 412-621-3252, [email protected]
Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance
412-867-9213
Pittsburgh Campaign for Democracy NOW!
412-422-5377, [email protected] www.pcdn.org
Pittsburgh Works! (labor history documentaries) [email protected]
Roots of Promise 724-327-2767, 412-596-0066 [email protected]
(Network of Spiritual Progressives) [email protected]
Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition [email protected]; www.pittsburghdarfur.org
Three Rivers Area Medics (TRAM) 412-641-9191 or [email protected]
Urban Arts Project
Pittsburgh Progressive Notebook
Call 412-301-3022 for more info
The Palestine Film Festival
Call 412-301-3022 for more info
Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens Group
Wanda Guthrie
724-327-2767
The Pittsburgh Totebag Project
Sue Kerr, 412-228-0216 P.O. Box 99204
Pittsburgh, Pa 15233 www.tote4pgh.org
The Africa Project
412-657-8513, [email protected] www.africaproject.net
Allegheny Defense Project, Pgh Office
412-559-1364 www.alleghenydefense.org
Amnesty International [email protected] www.amnestypgh.org
Association of Pittsburgh Priests
Molly 412-343-3027 [email protected]
Association of US Catholic Priests [email protected]
The Big Idea Bookstore
412-OUR-HEAD, www.thebigideapgh.org
Black Voices for Peace Gail Austin 412-606-1408
Citizens for Global Solutions 412-471-7852 [email protected]
Citizens for Social Responsibility
of Greater Johnstown Larry Blalock, [email protected]
Haiti Solidarity Committee
[email protected] 412-271-8414
www.thomasmertoncenter.org/hs
PA United for a Single-Payer Health Care www.healthcare4allPA.org
www.PUSH-HC4allPa.blogspot.com 412-421-4242
2102 Murray Avenue Pgh, Pa 15217
Pittsburgh Area Pax Christi 412-761-4319
Pittsburgh Committee to Free Mumia
412-361-3022, [email protected] Pittsburgh Cuba Coalition
412-563-1519 [email protected]
Pgh. Independent Media Center [email protected] www.indypgh.org
Pgh. North Anti-Racism Coalition
412-367-0383
Pgh. North People for Peace 412-367-1049
Pgh. Palestine Solidarity Committee
[email protected] www.pittsburgh-psc.org
Raging Grannies
412-963-7163, [email protected] www.pittsburghraginggrannies.homestead.com
Religion and Labor Coalition 412-361-4793 [email protected]
School of the Americas Watch of W. PA 412-371-9722, [email protected]
United Electrical, Radio and Machine
Workers of America (UE) 412-471-8919 www.ueunion.org
Urban Bikers
Veterans for Peace [email protected]
Voices for Animals
[email protected] 1-877-321-4VFA
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
Eva 412-963-7163 [email protected]
TMC AFFILIATES and FRIENDS
TMC MEMBERSHIPS
These are organizations or coalitions in which TMC has formal membership, including payment of dues to and fulfillment of other agreed-upon responsibilities as an organizational member
Abolition 2000: W. Pa. Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons 724-339-2242 / [email protected]
Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
412-384-4310, [email protected]
Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network
412-621-9230/[email protected]
Thomas Merton Center
HOURS of OPERATION
10 am to 3 pm
Monday-Friday
10 am to 1 pm
Saturday
CONTACT INFORMATION
General information ........ www.bit.ly/merton-contact
Submissions ..................... www.bit.ly/submitnewpeople
Events & Calendar Items www.bit.ly/merton-calendar
What You May Find at The East End
Community Thrift Shop
ANYTHING Shirley Gleditsch will let in the door,
which is everything: A Coach Bag for $15.00,
Laughter, Children’s clothes under 50 cents, someone
who will listen, A Liz Claiborne suit for $10.00, a 3-
year old shopper, a 9 year old cashier in training? An
ideal dresser for a college dorm room. Customers
amazed at the prices. Over 40 volunteers happy to lend
a helping hand, and an opportunity to volunteer!
PROJECTS
February, 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 3
Cartoon By Jon Jonik
Occupy the Health Care Industry: Healthcare for the 99% Rally and March - Saturday, February 11, 2012, 12:00 pm
Gather at People's Park, Sixth and Grant Street, Downtown
Come to challenge corporate greed, the corruption and disparity present in the US healthcare system and the nonprofit status of
companies such as UPMC and Highmark. See www.occupypittsburgh.org/upcoming-events, www.wpasinglepayer.org and www.PUSH
-hc4allpa.blogspot.com for details and information on true health care reform and how we can work together for change.
Members of Occupy Pittsburgh have initiated a community-wide action to take on health care giants UPMC and Highmark. In a match
that could have been fought in a Worldwide Wrestling Federation ring, these two health care insurers who happen to provide health care
that they also insure to their own benefit, if not the public’s, they went toe-to-toe over Highmark’s purchase of West Penn Hospital.
UPMC blinked, but only after extreme pressure on all sides forced them to back down from their threat to wall off people that carry
Highmark insurance from their network. In a way, they did the public a favor by exposing their commitment to profit and power at the
expense of the health and economic well-being of their ―consumers,‖ or should we say victims? They made a great case for a Medicare
for All single payer system.
by Diane McMahon
With the coming of the Occupy Movement, many
of us think that setting up tents in the middle of a
crowded city is an exciting new way to get a new
radical transformation underway.
But is it the first time that it’s happened? Not
really.
―Encampments‖ or ―tent cities‖ have been
increasing in recent years. Many of these make-
shift settlements have been located under busy
city bridges, along river fronts, or in public parks.
These occupants are ―without homes.‖
Many may not know that before Occupy hit the
press, homeless encampments existed in almost
every city, albeit unnoticed by the majority of us.
Or, if detected, they were quickly dismantled by
the local authorities for fear that local property
values would drop.
Those who live in pre-occupy encampments are
called ―homeless.‖ And, it is not unusual for the
residents of these camps to be portrayed by the
local media as undeserving of public support;
type-casted as alcoholic, mentally ill, criminal, or
just plain ―lazy bums.‖
Yet, are the residents of these two occupied
encampments in some way different?
Maybe not as much as we think they are.
Many may not know that the face of
homelessness is changing in America. Today, a
growing number of those ―without homes‖ are
adults with families, forty percent who have jobs
but can’t stretch their minimum income checks
far enough to pay for the bare necessities. It can
easily be argued that these are the true working
poor who are among the authentic 99%.
In the new America (the one that doesn’t get
much publicity in the press) it is not unusual to
see a family living in a motel room, van, or in a
tent city in the middle of town. Where else can
you live when rents are out of reach, the cost of
heating a house has skyrocketed, and gas prices
have tripled?
In the light of our new world order it is easy to
see that occupied camps are needed now more
than ever before. Not just by those of us who are
trying to make a point about the growing
economic divide between those ―who have‖ and
those ―who have not‖ but also by those who need
physical and tangible supports as well as a good
tent to live in.
And doesn’t an Occupy Camp offer more than
just shelter?
Yes! It provides food, community, friends,
support, and a sense of belonging to something
bigger than just your own problems. It is the
awakening of a social movement that just might
reverse a long chain of deeply interconnected
historic injustices.
As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. framed it, ―Our
goal is to create a beloved community and this
will require a qualitative change in our souls as
well as a quantitative change in our lives.‖
Certainly this is something that the Occupy
Movement has the potential to become if is
grounded in nonviolent resistance to global
injustices.
Diane McMahon is the current President of
the Board of the Thomas Merton Center, and
an advocate for people experiencing
homelessness.
PRE-OCCUPIED with the homeless and the 99%
By Joyce Rothermel 2012 Marks the 25th Anniversary of the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Pastoral Letter, "Economic Justice for All: A Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy". The Bishops proclaimed: "…every perspective on economic life that is human, moral and Christian must be shaped by three questions: What does the economy do for people? What does it do to people? And how do people participate in it?" The Bishops go on to say, "…the common good demands justice for all, the protection of the human rights of all." The words of the Bishops are just as relevant and needed today. They seem to align with the Occupy Movement and their demands. For the U.S. Bishops go on to say, "The time has come for a new American experiment…to implement economic rights, to broaden the sharing of economic power and to make economic decisions more accountable to the common." I encourage everyone to read or reread, "Economic Justice for All" and to seek ways to be in solidarity with Occupy wherever you live. We cannot let another 25 years pass without heeding the important message of the U.S. Bishops and the Occupy Movement!
Joyce Rothermel is Convener of the St. James Social Justice and Peace
Committee in Wilkinsburg.
Prescribed Justice for a Sick Economy
Tent City in Sacramento in 2009
4 - NEWPEOPLE February, 2012
Isaac Beachy on Colombia By Dan Kovalik
On January 19, 2012, the Thomas Merton Center and the USW teamed up to host a talk by Isaac Beachy of the Fellowship of Reconciliation
(FOR) at the USW headquarters downtown. Over 50 people turned out to
hear Isaac tell of his work in Colombia and as an accompanier of peaceful
groups and communities in that war-torn country.
As many familiar with the accompaniment movement
in Central America know in the 1980’s, this involved being present with
individuals and groups under threat by armed groups to help deter violence against them, to decrease their fear
from such violence, and to thereby help them increase the space they have in which to engage in social, human rights and political activity.
Isaac spent two years doing this work in Colombia, including with the town of San Jose de
Apartado, and is planning to return to Colombia to continue this work. As Isaac explained, San Jose de Apartado is a
peace community located in the highly conflicted
area of the Northwest of Colombia near Panama. For many years, San Jose de Apartado has held itself out as neutral in the armed
conflict, making it clear that it rejects the presence of the military, the
military’s paramilitary
allies, and the guerillas as well. The
citizens of this town have paid dearly for its
neutrality, being targeted by all armed
groups in Colombia for
violence, but
especially by the military and paramilitaries. In total, 130 community members have been killed over the years.
Most recently, in 2005, the XVII Brigade of the
Colombian military brutally murdered eight community members, including three children (ages 2, 6 and 11 years old). In response to this
massacre, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said that the murder of these individuals was
appropriate because those killed (apparently even
the children) were guerrillas
However, as Isaac explained, since the FOR has
been doing its accompaniment work in this peace community, there have been no killings, attesting to the effectiveness of the FOR’s work.
Isaac, speaking largely to unionists at the USW, encouraged folks to think about engaging in
accompaniment work to protect the lives of unionists in Colombia – the most dangerous country in the world to be a unionists, with
around 2900 unionists killed in that country since 1986.
As of the time of this writing (January 19), at least three unionists have been killed in Colombia – one from the peasant union known as
FENSUAGRO who was tortured and killed by the military and another unionist with the oil union known as the USO. The second unionist
was killed along with his wife, leaving their 5 children orphaned. Meanwhile, Colombia, which has received $ 8.5 billion from the U.S.
government since 2000, remains one of the largest recipients of U.S. military aid in the
world.
Dan Kovalik is an attorney with the United
Steel Workers and has traveled to Colombia
many times.
Isaac Beachy explains the situation in Colombia
Photo by Corey Carrington
By Eliza Pugh
The Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition
recently launched its 2011-2012 Speaker Series.
With the overarching theme ―It’s Not Over for
Darfur,‖ the PDEC Speaker Series is designed to
call attention to the violence in and around
Darfur and to reinvigorate community members
to fight for the cause.
The first speaker was Daniel Solomon,
a junior at Georgetown University and
National Student Director of STAND.
STAND is the student-led division of
the activist organization United to End
Genocide; STAND chapters in high
schools and universities in the U.S.
work to fight mass atrocities
throughout the world, including in
Darfur. From December 8-10,
Solomon spoke to STAND chapters at
Taylor Allderdice High School and the
University of Pittsburgh as well as
youth and adult congregation members
at Beth Shalom synagogue. With
Allderdice students, Solomon
discussed the impact that violence on
the other side of the world can have.
―While these conflicts can seem
detached from our communities,‖ he
said, ―we’re often intimately connected
to the types of crises that we see across
the world. There is an influx of
Sudanese refugees in Pittsburgh. [These
conflicts] deeply affect people that live in our
communities, go to our schools, and are part of
our constituency.‖
At an informal lunch at Congregation Beth
Shalom, Solomon addressed questions ranging
from the origin of the genocide to United States
policy towards Sudan. He advocated for new
roles for international peacekeeping forces and
increased protection of civilians. He also
stressed the dire need for sustained and
comprehensive U.S. and international diplomatic
efforts to address the Sudanese government’s
marginalization of minority groups.
The fighting in Sudan continues today. Recently
there has been a rise in violence and casualties
along the border of Sudan and South Sudan. In
the wake of South Sudan’s independence in July,
Sudanese government militias are fighting rebel
forces in Abyei (a border region rich in oil), the
Nuba Mountains, and the border states of Blue
Nile and South Kordofan. There have also been
reported clashes between South Sudanese ethnic
groups that, with the common goal of
independence behind them, have resumed
fighting.
As Solomon emphasized, the fight for peace in
Darfur is both empowering and difficult. PDEC
works to engage community members in its
work for peace and democracy in Darfur. PDEC
hopes to gain momentum from the speaker series
and move forward with plans to lobby elected
officials for genocide prevention legislation,
promote awareness, and support the Sudanese
diaspora in Pittsburgh.
The next speaker will be John
Prendergast, Co-Founder of the Enough
Project, an organization that works to
end crimes against humanity around the
world through research and advocacy.
Prendergast will be in Pittsburgh
February 8-17 as a guest of the Ford
Institute for Human Security, housed at
the Graduate School of Public and
International Affairs at the University
of Pittsburgh. Abdalmageed Haroun, a
Darfuri activist based in New York,
will speak in March. He will be
followed by Ambassador Dane Smith,
Senior Advisor for Darfur in the Office
of the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan,
who will visit Pittsburgh in late March
to discuss current U.S. policy in Sudan.
Lastly, Rebecca Hamilton, author of
Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and
the Struggle to Stop Genocide, will
speak in April. Dates and venues will be
posted on the PDEC website
ww.pittsburghdarfur.org and the
Thomas Merton Center calendar.
For more information contact PDEC Coord.
David Rosenberg at [email protected] or
Eliza Pugh, Co-President, Allderdice STAND, at
Eliza Pugh, a Senior at Allderdice High
School in Squirrel Hill, is the Co-President of
Allderdice STAND. She has been an active
member in PDEC for the past five years.
Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition
Announces Speaker Series on Sudan
Photo (left to right): David Rosenberg, Coordinator of PDEC; Daniel
Solomon, National Student Director of STAND; Eliza Pugh and
Denise Monti, Co-Presidents of Allderdice STAND.
February, 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 5
World War III scenario‖. James Petras
similarly agrees that an extraterritorial war
turned against Iran would provoke a
catastrophic conflagration which would far
surpass the disastrous outcome of the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan. Petras concludes that
Iran ―has the military power, geographical
proximity and economic resources to
demolish the weak and vulnerable peripheral
US client states. Israel can start a war against
the Islamic world, but it cannot win it‖.
In the face of a very possible if not probable
disastrous intervention by the US in yet
another country in the Middle East, the stance
of the anti-war movement must be pre-
emption. One cannot wait and hope for the
best, namely no new war. Every stop must be
pulled out to preempt yet another immoral
and illegal attack on a country which never
has attacked the US or indeed any other
country for centuries.
Michael Drohan is currently serving on
the TMC Board.
(Continued from page 1)
Continued, Stopping the War Juggernaut
By Robert Naiman, Sarah Burns, Chelsea Mozen and Megan Iorio
Just Foreign Policy Public-financed media PBS and NPR have recently promoted as if they were known fact claims that Iran has a nuclear weapons program, even though no
proof has been advanced that Iran has
a nuclear weapons program. Even Defense Secretary Panetta says, "Are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon?‖ As Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting has noted, on January 9, PBS News Hour deceptively edited Panetta's comments on Sunday's Face the Nation to exclude his
statement that Iran is not trying to develop a nuclear weapon. News Hour then used his comments to try to suggest the opposite: that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon.
On NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, reporter Tom Gjelten said, "The goal for the U.S. and its allies … [is] to convince Iran to give up a nuclear weapons program," thereby implying that Iran already has a nuclear weapons program, which is not a known fact. Complaints to the
Washington Post and the New York Times have had an effect. The Washington Post corrected a headline that said, "Iran's quest to possess nuclear weapons,‖ and
Washington Post Ombudsman Patrick Pexton wrote in his column that he agreed with the readers' complaints. On Tuesday, New York Times Public Editor Arthur Brisbane wrote that he agreed with reader complaints about a New York Times report that spoke of "a recent assessment by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran’s nuclear program has a military objective," and he wrote that the New York Times should run a correction.
Not Proven: Iran has a Nuclear Weapons Program
By Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
(January 4, 2012)
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been
threatened with military action by the US
and its allies for the last eight years.
Iran has been involved in war games in the
Persian Gulf. The US Navy is deployed.
Iran's naval exercises which commenced
on December 24th were conducted in an
area which is patrolled by the US Fifth
Fleet, based in Bahrain.
Meanwhile, a new round of economic
sanctions against the Islamic Republic of
Iran has been unleashed, largely targeting
Iran's Central Bank, leading to a dramatic
plunge of Iran's currency.
Reacting to US threats, Iran declared that it
would consider blocking the shipment of
oil through the Strait of Hormuz:
"Roughly 40 percent of the world's oil
tanker shipments transit the strait daily,
carrying 15.5 million barrels of Saudi,
Iraqi, Iranian, Kuwaiti, Bahraini, Qatari
and United Arab Emirates crude oil,
leading the United States Energy
Information Administration to label the
Strait of Hormuz "the world's most
important oil chokepoint."
(See John C.K. Daly, War Imminent in
Strait of Hormuz? $200 a Barrel Oil?
Global Research, January 3, 2012)
The Globalization of War and the
Demise of the American Republic
There is a symbiotic relationship between
War and the Economic Crisis.
The planning of the Iran war is being
carried out at the crossroads of a
worldwide economic depression, which is
conducive to widening social inequalities,
mass unemployment and the
impoverishment of large sectors of the
world population.
Crushing social movements on the
domestic front --including all forms of
resistance to America's military agenda and
its neoliberal economic policies-- is an
integral part of the United States'
hegemonic role Worldwide.
Does Constitutional Government in the
eyes of the Obama Administration
constitute an encroachment to "The
Globalization of War"?
History tells us that an Empire cannot be
built on the political foundations of a
Republic.
In this regard, it should come as no surprise
that the new Iran sanctions regime adopted
by the US Congress became law on New
Year's Eve, December 31st, on the same
day Obama signed into law the National
Defense Authorization Act (NDAA 2012),
which suspends civil liberties and allows
for the "Indefinite Detention of
Americans".
(See Michel Chossudovsky, The
Inauguration of Police State USA 2012.
Obama Signs the ―National Defense
Authorization Act ", Global
Research, January 1, 2012)
The Obama administration is intent upon
crushing both social dissent as well as
antiwar protest. The American Republic is
incompatible with America's "long war".
What is required is the instatement of a
"democratic dictatorship", a de facto
military rule in civilian cloths.
The War on Iran: The Deployment of Thousands of US Troops to
Israel with Integration of US-Israeli Command Structures
6 - NEWPEOPLE February, 2012
By Miller Schulman Some call the Haitian capital chaotic, dirty, dangerous, messy, and vibrant. Others are just at a loss for words when describing Port-au Prince. The city of over 2 million is so unlike any other city in the world, that the only word that truly sums it up was muttered to me by my friend ten minutes before our plane landed in the heart of it. Impossible. Port-au-Prince is impossible. From the destitute slum of Cite Solei to the ultra-wealthy suburb of Petionville, to the now-collapsed presidential palace, the capital is so massive, sprawling, incomprehensible, and so decrepit that it is impossible to comprehend its existence, its cohesion, how it continues to exist. Since its independence, Haiti has never enjoyed the virtues of political and financial stability. Weighed down by a 200 year debt to France and widespread corruption, Haiti did not develop a decent infrastructure or economy, especially evident in Port-au-Prince, which has become the worst example of ―urban sprawl‖. In the 1950s, enterprising Port-au-Prince developers built miles and miles of concrete tenement housing for the growing population who came to Port-au-Prince to find work. No building code had been
written, so the corner-cutting developers could build however cheaply and dangerously as they pleased. Cheap, concrete, and brightly painted (to mask the structural deficiencies) became Port-au-Prince’s architectural style, or lack thereof. When the massive earthquake struck on January 12th, 2010, Port-au-Prince crumbled to the ground. Its concrete slums grotesquely collapsed onto one another, rolling into the shantytown valleys below. Buildings turned to rocks and powder in a matter of minutes, crushing a quarter of a million people. Such an atrocity merited a global aid response as impressive as that of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. World governments sent massive amounts of money, aid, and food to the calamity-struck capital. Lady Gaga, Sean Penn, and Wyclef Jean became some of the celebrity faces promoting charitable donations to the Haitian people. The aid helped the people of Port-au-Prince, there’s no doubt, but when I flew to Haiti twice since the earthquake, the globally promised ―rebuilding‖ of the capital seemed like it was progressing at a crawling pace; Port-au-Prince and its needs were being ignored for other issues considered more en vogue. Outside the airport was (and still is) one of the largest refugee tent camps in the city. Emblazoned atop almost every tent is a USAID or a UNAID. Two months after the earthquake, the people in these tents were awaiting their promised temporary housing. A year later, these tents were now their homes. The tent camp became a city, complete with barbershops, brothels, and restaurants. When I saw the same tent city a year later, it became clear to me that to the world, Haiti was no longer in style. Like
fashion, global issues are constantly in and out of style. The Japanese earthquake had drawn all the media away from the struggling Caribbean nation, and taken further from the skeleton crew of peacekeepers, doctors, and builders. Interest in Haiti is quickly fading, maybe because of how extremely challenging the task of rebuilding an entire city, then country, actually is. Spending her first day in Port-au-Prince, my mother decided to take a walk from her squalid apartment (rats, sewage, mosquitoes) to explore the city. Being five months after the earthquake, most of the rubble had been cleared away. After some time she came to a lookout point on a road to wealthy Petionville. She stood for some time, gazing at what remained of part of the concrete Delmas 33 slum. Delmas was built into a hill of soft dirt to accommodate the growing population during the Duvalier era. When the earthquake occurred, many of the buildings folded and tumbled from their perches to the valley below. In this valley, mangled metal and rock remains of these fallen buildings were still visible. As my mother took in the horrific scene, she noticed an elderly woman carrying a basket
of eggplant ascending the hill below. She was dressed modestly, with a long denim skirt making her climb difficult. Finally reaching the road, she turned poised at my mother. She bellowed, ―Gen peyi mwen tonbe”, and gestured toward the rubble. Gen peyi mwen tonbe! And she walked away, basket of eggplant balanced on her head. My mother scribbled this phrase down, knowing little to no Creole, and asked for its translation from her friend at the apartment. ―My country has fallen‖. Her friend sighed, ― it’s common to hear now.‖ Haiti had fallen, but where are the helpful arms
to bring it to its feet? Long before the earthquake Haiti was in desperate need of aid. Money has been given, but much of it has been lost in the overcomplicated and corrupt bureaucracy that is the Haitian government. Before the earthquake, direct food donations given by the UN were placed in government warehouses where they languished in the heat and expired due to their lack of correct permits. However, it is learned that nothing shipped to Haiti has the right permits. The lack of interest by the government concerning humanitarian issues made earthquake recovery all the more difficult. When the grandiose Presidential Palace collapsed, the French government offered to rebuild the entire structure, as well as several other building around the city. The reeling Haitian government was wary with their reply, fearing colonial strings may be attached to the offer. The French soon lost interest in the indecisiveness of the Haitians, and turned their humanitarian affairs toward another project. Like the French, many countries and organizations began downsizing their relief efforts after they found negotiating their efforts in Port-au-Prince ―impossible‖. The differences I saw between March 2010 and March 2011 at the L’Ourveture Airport in Port-au-Prince were disheartening. In 2010, two months after the earthquake, the airport was alive with UN soldiers, helicopters, doctors, optimistic volunteers, and everyone and thing associated with global aid and relief. The following year, the most prominent demographic at the airport were church groups. Not to say church groups do not assist in any way, however, this was what
the airport was like before the earthquake. And what Haiti was receiving before the earthquake compared to what Haiti needs now is immeasurable. How can this tiny, poverty and disaster struck nation appeal to the hearts of the world after its
time in the limelight is passed? ―We rely on pity,‖ said a worker at the Hangar Prosthetics Clinic in Deschapelles, Haiti. Hangar provides free prosthetics services to any amputee patient from Port-au-Prince. For Hangar, support is giving from grants and donations. Not really pity, but goodwill. The worker, however, was speaking for his entire nation. Pity is what got millions of Haitians their tents and rice bags, but pity can only take Haiti so far. What would justify massive humanitarian aid to Port-au-Prince from governments of the world? Very little. Haiti has no oil, money, or power. The only thing that would justify aid is goodwill, which is rare in global politics. Powered by one of the most resilient peoples on earth, Haiti is still growing, living, and surviving. However, just barely. Global neglect, or denial, is hampering the once optimistic plans of rebuilding. An unspoken second cholera epidemic is wreaking havoc on the extremely
frail Haitian health system. The massive tent cities are decaying in the height of the rainy season. Suffering was and still is a daily occurrence. Haiti is at the disposal of the world. It had a chance to change the country forever, but treated it like a fleeting style. Haitians are being rejected now more than ever. Their country was founded on the values of strength and unity, but struggle and turmoil have made Haiti a weak and unforgiving place. So the world is faced with the seemingly impossible task of rebuilding a nation beyond repair. The Haitians have a proverb; an empty sack cannot stand up. Since the earthquake, Haiti cannot stand on its own. When the right aid and relief comes, its people will stand and be the strong and independent Haitians they yearn to be.
Miller Schulman is an 11th grade student at
Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts—
Grades 6-12—studying visual art.
Haiti
February, 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 7
By Tom Cornell
Captain James, the son of the Bellameys in
the "Upstairs Downstairs" BBC series comes
home from World War I disillusioned. He
knows the war is a massive criminal waste.
He is at his wits’ end to process his
bitterness. But when dear Rose, the
upstairs maid, loses her fiancé and her
only hope for a life of her own to the war,
Captain James feels constrained to
comfort her with the ancient lie. She can
be proud; her beloved died a hero’s death
for king and country. He can not tell her
the truth. It’s too hard for her to hear.
Imagine President Obama addressing the
troops at Fort Bragg as US combat forces
withdraw from Iraq. Could he have told
the truth: the invasion was the most
grievous criminal act in international law,
a crime against peace itself? Can he tell
more than four thousand families that
buried a son or daughter or spouse or
parent it was all in vain, and worse, a
criminal plot to control the natural
resources of another country? Or the tens
of thousands of families torn apart by
PTSD suffering veterans? And what of
the Iraqi victims? NPR and Reuters count
the Iraqi dead in the tens of thousands.
For shame! Multiply that by tens!
Hundreds of thousands Iraqi dead, more than
a million if excess morbidity is factored in.
Between five and six million Iraqis have
been driven into exile, many of them
impoverished, unemployed in neighboring
countries. For them the war is not over. The
Christian community, Chaldean Catholics in
the majority, a church that traces its origins
back to St. Thomas, has been drastically
reduced.
Iraqis were the best educated people in the
Arab world. The education and the health
care systems, once among the finest (and
free), are in shambles. Professionals have
fled in such proportion as to constitute a
brain-drain. Baghdad is in ruin, with
neighborhoods cordoned off from each other
by road-block and razor wire. After the 1991
bombing, Saddam Hussein was able to get
the electric grid up and running in six
months. After eight years, the US leaves
Baghdad with six hours electricity a day.
Basra, Haditha, Fallujah will not soon forget
the crimes committed against their civilian
populations, nor quickly forgive. For them
the war is not over.
It has been the Catholic Worker tradition to
contrast the corporal works of mercy with the
works of war: to feed the hungry as opposed
to destroying farms and foodstuffs, to shelter
the homeless as opposed to destroying cities,
towns and villages, and so on. Consider the
spiritual works of mercy as well, again
opposed to the works of war.
Instruct the ignorant? No! Lie,
deceive them! The first casualty of
war is always truth. Counsel the
doubtful? No! Draft them, in the
present instance through an
―economic draft.‖ Comfort
mourners? Only those on ―our‖ side.
Reproach sinners, the perpetrators?
You might be fired, or even jailed if
you put your body where your
mouth is. Bear wrongs patiently,
forgive offenses? Hardly! Revenge!
And pray for the living and the dead
victims of ―our brave fighting men
and women‖? Not to mention them!
If you must, pray for them but
quietly, not out loud, not in the
Prayers of the Faithful at Mass. The
Church thus becomes complicit.
Imagine President Obama making a
clean breast of it all and calling for
reparations and national repentance!
Imagine our bishops taking the Holy
Father at his word and doing the same.
Meanwhile, the Afghan war goes on and the
warlords now take aim at Iran. Fast and pray!
Tom Cornell is an editor of The Catholic
Worker and a deacon serving at St Mary's
Catholic Church in Marlboro, NY. He and
Jim Forest co-founded the Catholic Peace
Fellowship in 1965.
The Iraq War Is Over -- Sort Of
Remembering Thomas Merton Center in the 90’s
When I Pray
for Peace
―I pray not only that the
enemies of my own country
may cease to want war, but
above all that my own country
will cease to do the things that
make war inevitable.‖
-Thomas Merton
By Tom Webb
My experience with the Thomas Merton
Center especially while living in
Pittsburgh in the early 1990's was of great
solace and strength.
Rooted in a vibrant and colorful Catholic,
ecumenical and interfaith spirituality the
Merton Center offered creative responses
to the challenges of an economy going
global, international conflict and local
issues, especially racism, in the greater
Pittsburgh area.
The Center, rooted in a life of spirituality
and resistance, offered Pittsburgh a
unique way of approaching the various
questions and social issues which
confronted the region over the last forty
years. Differing in approach from the
more staid responses of the hierarchical
church, the Merton Center has spawned
innumerable movements and institutions
over these forty years. It was my
involvement with the Tri-State
Conference on Steel (Manufacturing )
that introduced me to the Merton Center
and it's a connection I've
treasured and maintained since I
left Pittsburgh in the mid-1990's.
I am currently living and
working in a L'Arche
community in Spokane, WA.
I am also involved in a variety
of justice and peace projects
including the Iraqi Student
Project (links Iraqi students
with U.S. colleges and
universities).
8 - NEWPEOPLE February, 2012
By Bette McDevitt
When some of us who help out with the New
People sat down to plan this issue, we decided to
do a section called Faces of Occupy Pittsburgh,
to get a deeper understanding of these
courageous souls who sleep in tents at People’s
Park, for the rest of us.
I volunteered to talk to Helen Gerhardt, whom I
did not know, but had seen many times at the
Occupy site. Lucky for me, Helen, a fine writer,
had written an essay about her experience with
Occupy Pittsburgh, which is printed below my
background information about Helen.
Helen spent 13 months in Iraq, in 2003 and
2004, as a member of the Missouri National
Guard, driving large trucks in convoys and she
observed a lot of abuse of Iraqi civilians. Being
in the service herself, she had some
understanding. ―During the deployment there
were unbelievable stresses on the soldiers, due to
family issues, the extended commitment, the
work and obligations left behind. The anger
could not go up the chain-of command, so it was
taken out on the Iraqi people.‖ Helen mentioned
that Fox News was on at all times, in the dining
hall, and you were not allowed to adjust the
volume or change the channel. (Enough to send
you over the edge!)
Helen said, ―There was an escalating pattern of
abuse of civilians, including crashing trucks into
civilians and using weapons to terrorize
civilians. I reported the incidents all the way up
the chain of command, and nothing was done.‖
In some small way, things improved. Her own
commanding officer, another woman, was
supportive, and did accompany Helen on the
convoys, so in those cases, violence abated.
But in other areas, it only increased, with horrific
results. Members of her company told Helen of
the abuse at Abu Ghraib, and she acknowledged
that it was more than she could bear to hear. ―I
didn’t want to know. I was not willing to accept
the consequence, which would be the loss of
comradeship, a very powerful thing in the armed
services. That was March, and the news broke to
all the world, with devastating photos, in April. I
was complicit.‖
Helen came to Pittsburgh in 2006, to get her
Master’s Degree in non-fiction writing, at the
University of Pittsburgh. She had a degree in
English, but she wanted the tools needed to write
a book telling the truth about her time in Iraq.
The book is completed, but not yet published, to
protect some of the people still in danger in Iraq.
When she came here, she became engaged in all
the activist groups, thanks to ScillaWahrhaftig,
whom she met through the Veteran’s Listening
Project. Helen regards Scilla as her mentor; ―To
see how she organizes her life around actions for
peace and justice has been regenerating for me.‖
And the work Helen does has set her free; ―The
cure for my depression and post traumatic stress
disorder was activism, to speak the truth and live
up to my responsibility.‖ So read on, and meet
Helen.
Helen Gerhardt of Occupy Pittsburgh Story
IN THIS EDITION
THOMAS MERTON CENTER has partnered with OCCUPY PITTSBURGH’s
Communication Work Group to support their production of a four page insert .
The opinions expressed in the Occupy Insert are those of the individuals who wrote
them and are neither endorsed, approved or censored by the Merton Center .
By Helen Gerhardt
At midnight, I stand outside the tall chain
link fence that encircles the square fountain
stones at the center of the park we used to
call Mellon Green. December mist drifts
down across the bright windows of Bank of
New York Mellon, rows of light stacked so
high I must crane backwards to see the top
floors. The mist glows with cold cubicle
fluorescence.
All around me the thin skins of tents shiver in
the reflected light of the bank, low domes
buttressed with arched plastic poles, mud-
stained blue, green, brown, turquoise, and
yellow domes of nylon, flimsy, motley
molehills ranged against the tall, clean, silver
lines of skyscraper. Thanks to a generous
donor, wood chips have been scattered
between many of the tents at the top of the
camp after our first reconstruction day on
December 11th, but many muddy patches
remain, brown puddles gathering along
bedraggled edges of tarps. Much work
remains to be done to carry through on our
plans for winterization. Much planning and
work must be done to carry through on our
intention to ―resist and abolish the political,
social, and economic injustices that confront
us and our communities…claiming a space
for public dialogue and the practice of direct
democracy for the purpose of generating and
implementing solutions accessible to
everyone.‖
I shiver with the tents beside me. It often got
this cold and wet in the wide deserts of
southern Iraq in winter, our Army National
Guard tents flapping and billowing in the
rainy winds along the roads we traveled to
deliver supplies to coalition forces across the
country. But we were usually far more poorly
supplied with the basic necessities to stay
warm and dry. I pull on the warm coat given
to me by a fellow Pittsburgher and remember
the helplessness and anger I felt watching the
gleaming, armored trucks of Kellogg, Brown
& Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton
Corporation. I remember how I envied the far
more warmly dressed private contractors,
their down coats and their brand new, heated
vehicles, paid for with tax dollars that were
not used to fix my own beaten up old truck.
Many times my transportation company
broke down in cities whose inhabitants were
enraged by the thefts, abuses and murders
inflicted on them, both by our military and
the mercenaries the American People paid
billions of dollars to terrorize. Many times I
looked out over the barrel of my rifle at stony
faces of civilians who I knew had good
reason to wish me and my fellow soldiers
dead. Members of my own company
delivered water to Abu Ghraib, only one of
many army prisons at which innocent men,
women, and children were tortured and
humiliated by teams both of soldiers and
private contractors employed by such
corporations as Titan Corporation and CACI.
I came back from Iraq determined to make
reparation for my participation in that war by
bearing witness to the damage we had done
to peoples who had earned no such
abuse. Also, I wanted to draw attention to
the takeover of our democratic system by
greedy, cold-hearted corporate elites that
have used war to fatten their own pockets at
the expense of our own roads, schools,
healthcare, living wage jobs and basic
security in a world that had come to fear and
hate us as a far crueler and more destructive
(Continued on page 9)
Helen Gerhardt of Occupy Pittsburgh
The Occupy Movement
Photo By Tom Jefferson
February, 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 9
The Occupy Movement
By Jo Tavener
This article will be presented in two parts. Part 1 speaks to the issue of reclaiming public spaces as central to Occupy’s future. Part 2 looks at the role of the Church in supporting
such transformative social movements. It all begins with the land. Over the past 230 years, most of this country's land has been parceled out and bought up as private property. What remained as public property is often treated as if it were private. How else could local officials have gotten away with evicting Occupy from public spaces as they did? The 1% knows the power that private property is, the foundation of wealth creation and its justification. It enables them to treat the police, a public institution, as their own Pinkerton guards and public officials as personal secretaries. The Occupy movement stands in opposition to this privatized way of doing things. The backlash was inevitable. Those supporting the status quo, including landowners, developers and local officials, could not allow a peaceful experiment in participatory democracy to exist unmolested in the heart of the city for everyone to see, to take pictures of and then YouTube. Showing the naked face of power with its violent response to peaceful democratic dissent, they stripped away the protective illusion of our national collective mythos. We have indeed become the dispossessed -- dispossessed of our homes, our public spaces, our environment, and our rights.
How do the dispossessed fight back? We refuse such dispossession. We stand our ground. Thomas Jefferson once dreamed of a nation based on an agrarian form of collective individualism -- independent landed farmers coming together on the village green to cultivate the common good and enact the collective will. The land we now hope to re-till -- in the form of new social and economic relations -- must be repossessed. And once again, it has started with a Commons. There is an idea circulating among the Occupy dispossessed that the Occupy camp had a primarily strategic importance that has outlived its usefulness. It had, in fact, consumed time, energy and resources that might be best used elsewhere. I have heard similar words spoken at Occupy Pittsburgh. To paraphrase, most people in our working groups don't live in the camp nor do we necessarily need the camp to continue our work. I'm not so sure. In "The Fracturing of Occupy Wall Street," J.A. Myerson argues that "the fracturing of Occupy Wall Street from its camp has created two distinct populations: the activists --planning for the future -- and the occupiers -- confronting the current reality" of nowhere to sleep, no food or medical care or money to reach shelters and soup kitchens. "The people who don't drink tea in a comfy office but stand out in the rain‖, says Chris, 50, of Long Island ―ARE being excluded...And then this General Assembly starts and this facilitation team shows up with an agenda already planned out. Who are these
people? Where did they come from?" Indicative of the mounting tensions are the smaller and smaller general assemblies that get bogged down as occupiers refuse to take a back seat to planning actions. Though efforts have been made by Occupy Wall Street (OWS) to find temporary housing solutions, the fundamental problem remains. Without an occupation, with nothing to occupy, all that is left is a small group of devoted activists who will sooner or later be reabsorbed by ongoing activist’s organizations and a much larger group of poor and discouraged occupiers who will feel their dispossession and their powerlessness even more forcefully. Perhaps the real question is, what is the meaning of Occupy? Why was it able to do what many wonderful, hard-working non-profit activist organizations were unable to do – that is, create a public spectacles of protest which pointed to the possibility of a different society and a more encompassing culture -- where everyone would be welcomed , fed and have one’s voice heard. Occupy is an invitation to do things differently. It is not just about getting stuff done! We have so much help in that regard. Let activist organizations use Occupy as a platform! Occupy is a social movement attempting to change our way of seeing -- to make what seems impossible, possible and to make what appears possible, actual. We know this by the way the term 'Occupy' seems to reach out in every direction -- from Occupy Our Homes to Occupy Washington to every corner of our culture. As the wonderful political philosopher and activist, Antonio Gramsci, noted, revolution is a long march through the institutions to change not just our government but our culture and social mores. It starts on the ground where we live, in our reoccupied communities and on our repossessed public spaces. It is not yet clear how we can repossess our public spaces. In courts across the nation, Occupy legal teams argue that public space is land set aside for common use, one of which is the public gathering for the redress of grievances. Linking public space to the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment, lawyers are asking judges to reject evictions that refuse to honor either. This is an important teaching moment: the inability of most Occupy movements to find public or 'privately owned public space,' owned by the 1% or controlled through its local governmental proxies, is proof of our common dispossession. Jo Tavener taught film production studies at New
York University Film School before retiring as
Assistant Professor of Critical Media and
Cultural Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.
Occupy 2.0 Reclaiming the Commons: A Polemic
terror than the force we were
supposedly fighting when we
invaded Iraq. Our most basic
civil liberties of free speech,
assembly and due process of law
have been forthrightly attacked,
our economy devastated, and our
most crucial ethical foundations
corrupted by a system which
values corporate rights over
human rights, the bottom line
over flesh and bone, the
almighty dollar over hearts and
minds.
Many times I have been thanked
for my service in Iraq. Many
times I have had to explain why
I think I did far more damage to
my homeland than if I had
stayed at home. Many times I
have had to bear witness to my
shame over the cruelties we have
savagely inflicted on other
peoples. Here in the tiny tent city
of Occupy Pittsburgh I finally
feel I am starting to serve my
country. Here in this urban open
space, open to sky and mist and
rain and snow, I assemble with
my fellow citizens to petition the
government for a redress of
grievances. Here I stand my
ground with people who choose
to live in mud and shiver in tents
as a sign of the rejection of a
system which values wealth over
heart or conscience or
consideration of our common
good.
Here I begin to practice what it
means to fulfill the soldier’s oath
that I swore to support and
defend the Constitution. I have
committed myself to stand by
those stones at the center of the
fountain in the space we have
renamed the People’s Park,
shoulder to shoulder, hand in
hand, our flawed and vulnerable
flesh and minds and hearts
standing small, muddy,
shivering, but determined,
against the cold, clean lines of
skyscrapers.
(Continued from page 8)
Continued, A Reflection
10 - NEWPEOPLE February, 2012
Upon returning home from active duty, I immersed myself in the writings of Dorothy and Jesuit priest, Daniel Berrigan. And it was through these two lenses, Dorothy and Dan, who were many years later referred to as two of the key figureheads of what some later referred to as the "Catholic Left," that I was exposed to the life and writings of Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk. I never met Merton, as he died in a tragic accident in 1968, but I have had the privilege of meeting Dorothy and Dan. And it was through the writings and influence of these three, including the reading of Merton's autobiography, "Seven Storey Mountain," as well as several great activist priests in inner city Boston, and a college mentor, that I entered a semi-monastic religious order, the Dominicans, in 1972. It was there I learned something of the monastic life, a life centered on contemplation. And ten years later, in 1982, shortly after leaving the Dominicans, Melanie (soon to be my spouse) and I had the good fortune of moving to Pittsburgh and I started working at the Merton Center. I thought then, as I still do today, what a brilliant idea to name a center of peace and social justice after a modern day contemplative, who not only understood better than most the importance of contemplation, prayer and reflection as essential to the active life, but who became the unofficial chaplain of a new, radical and prophetic movement, the Catholic Left. Merton first attracted the attention of Dan Berrigan through an article he wrote for the Catholic Worker newspaper on the threat of nuclear war in 1960. Dorothy Day and Merton had already had a lively correspondence over the years on matters spiritual, as well as on issues of war, peace and activism. Upon writing to Merton after reading the article, Berrigan received an
invitation to visit Merton at his monastery in Kentucky. Thus began this profound dialogue on contemplation and action, on faith, protest and non-violence, culminating in a workshop Merton offered to peace activists at Gethsemane in 1964, entitled "A Theology of Protest." Berrigan and others visited Merton at the monastery every year from 1960 until Merton's untimely death in 1968. Merton could be tough, relates Berrigan. He
had misgivings about the draft board raids and the pouring of napalm on the files; he also challenged the activists not to use the truth they discovered in an arrogant way, in a way that might belittle the opponent.
Merton preached a very self-critical form of non-violence. As Anthony Padavano, a wonderful interpreter of Merton, suggests: Non-violence "...begins as an act of conscience, a spiritual search, a committed way of life. The enemy is not the other but the tendency in all of us to make the other different and to declare ourselves the norm and the center of human behavior." But, continues Padavano, non-violence is the opposite of passivity. Rather, "non-violence is a contemporary and political form of contemplation, a modern mysticism that has broad social consequences...the non-violent person has an obligation to be active on behalf of justice."
But Merton also warned activists about the dangers of excessive activity. To him over activity could be viewed as a subtle form of violence. Writes Padavano: "...the acceptance of demands and commitments beyond the limits of our endurance, the desire to assist everyone in everything, is a capitulation to the philosophy of violence." Finally, writes Padavano, reflecting on Merton's views, "...non-violence seeks dialogue, not victory...true non-violence requires spiritual discipline and a deep love for people."
Ultimately, the monastic prophet and radical "...belongs to the world, but the world also belongs to him, in so far as he has dedicated him or her self totally to liberation from it in order to liberate it," wrote Merton in "The Asian Journal." This is the paradox of monasticism as Merton viewed it and lived it. It is a protest against greed, violence and materialism. Ironically enough, Merton's last lecture given on his Asian journey is entitled "Marxism and Monastic Perspectives." Much like the Marxist dialectic of praxis, action and reflection, Merton believed deeply in the dialectic of action and contemplation, the latter in his mind "...the highest expression of the human person's intellectual and spiritual (and active) life." (taken from "New Seeds of Contemplation."). Surely this man and his ideas are as relevant today as 40 years ago when a committed group of Pittsburgh Catholic activists honored his legacy by dedicating a center in his name. He still serves mightily as an inspiration to anyone (Christian, Buddhist, non-believer, even a Unitarian Universalist from Catholic and Dominican roots(!)) committed to peace, social justice, and loving and active non-violence in the service of Truth. Art McDonald is a Unitarian Universalist Minister in Essex, MA. He was a TMC staff member from 1982-85 and the TMC Board from 1985-87.
(Continued from page 1)
Continued, Art McDonald Speaks on Thomas Merton
By Bill Headley, CSSp
―The Center has re-invented itself throughout our history, taking on new projects.‖ (Molly Rush)
In the mid-1990s, I was recycled as a Spiritan – a priest member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit – back to Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA. I had recently come from an assignment at the Spiritan general headquarters in Rome, where I served as the Community’s Justice and Peace Coordinator.
Toward the end of my ministry in Rome, the concerns coming from Spiritans in the field, particularly Africa, were increasing about conflict and violence. Intra-state and identity conflicts were occurring with increasing frequency and would later take tragic expression in the Burundi and Rwanda genocides.
My task at Duquesne was to set up a concentration in conflict resolution within an already established Master’s program. It was clear that this initiative would not survive, if it was locked away in an academic ivory tower. I knew that I needed practical peace builders as partners. I found them at the Thomas Merton Center.
The Merton Center in a loose but very real sense adopted our academic program as a ―project.‖ The MA students and I were welcomed at Merton Center’s meeting. We learned and grew from individual Mertonians and their justice and peace activities. Haiti was a hot issue at the time and we worked on it together. When we wanted to host the Dalai Lama in Pittsburgh or invite African bishop peace builders to campus, Molly Rush was there to lend her good sense of what works and what doesn’t. It was a great and formative time for me and those associated with the program at
Duquesne. The Merton Center and its supporters were a real assist. I feel privileged to sing ―Happy Birthday‖ on the occasion of your 40th birthday. Keep the flame of Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation burning brightly. I and others take strength, courage and hope from you.
*Fr. Bill Headley, CSSp left Duquesne (2000) to serve with the Catholic Relief Services’ executive team with responsibilities in policy and peace building. In 2007, Bill became the founding Dean of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, University of San Diego. He joined colleagues of the Catholic Peace building Network recently (2010) in the publication of Peacebuilding: Catholic Theology, Ethics, and Praxis.
We Are Singing Here, Also
Rev. Art McDonald, PhD
February, 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 11
By Margaret Laske
Recently, I drove to the North Shore with a carload of folks eager to hear about the programs of the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, a free after school program for High Schoolers, and the Bidwell Training Center, again free, which prepares students and guarantees them good jobs. We attended one of the introductory lectures and tours held every Monday and Wednesday at 9 AM and learned that the age range of students at Bidwell was 15 to 77. The 10 programs students can choose include Culinary Arts, Horticulture Technology, Office Technology, Medical Claims Processor, Chemical Laboratory Technician,Medical Coder, Pharmacy Technician, etc., plus training for the GED. Students train Monday through Friday, 8:15 AM through 2:15 PM and all kinds of folks
are welcome: homeless, folks with disabilities, retirees and folks who just haven't found their calling yet, -the only qualifier is that the student has a PA address of some kind. People in our group were hot and excited about what we were hearing since we all knew somebody who might welcome such an attractive and supportive program. And we were mighty impressed with the training facilities which have state of the art equipment and wonderful art work. What an impressive campus! Heck, what an impressive program! Margaret Laske is a social worker who retired from
Westmoreland Hospice and now enjoys photography.
An Opportunity Found
on the North Shore
Celebrating Black History Month WITNESS OF BLACK
VOICES FOR PEACE —by Gail Austin
The photo on the left is one of my
FAVORITE photos from our regular
Saturday vigils. The woman in the
photo is one of our staunchest
members, Dr. Aisha White. This is
from Saturday February 6, 2010 I
believe Up until that day, Black
Voices had NEVER missed a
Saturday vigil since we started the
regular vigil in 2003. However, on
this particular Saturday, there was a
massive blizzard in Pittsburgh and
most of us could not get out our
homes, let alone make it to East
Liberty for the vigil. So we held a
conference call and agreed for the
first time ever, we would not hold
the vigil. However, a couple of
hours later, we received this emailed
picture from Aisha, taken by her
daughter Jamilla Rice (who is a
school teacher). Aisha lives in East
Liberty and couldn't bear the
thought of us missing our vigil for
the first time. She decided to walk
to the corner and her daughter
couldn't bear the thought of her
mother going alone. So she walked
with her; they stayed about ten
minutes or so, just to put in an
appearance to make sure our record
held up. Don't you just love it!
Gail Austin is a local activist and a
member of Black Voices for Peace
weekly vigil in East Liberty outside
East Liberty Presbyterian Church.
Catholic Contempt of the Negro Must End
A writer...remarked that the attitude of the
average Catholic toward the Negro is one of
indifference. He is wrong. The attitude of the
average Catholic toward the Negro is one of
hostility which is often so pronounced that it is
hatred… It is safe to say that the majority of the
Catholics in the United States is of Irish descent.
Irish Catholics have tasted the bitterest dregs of
persecution... They of all people should be
friends of the underdog. But they are not. They
have borrowed the race prejudice of the Anglo-
Saxon and made it their own. The contemptuous
dislike in the Irish-American hearts, the godless
expression of hatred on Irish American lips must
cause Erin’s saints and martyrs to hide their
faces for very shame in the high court of heaven.
Let us end this disgrace. Before we Irish
Catholics say “Back to the gutter, you black___”
let us recollect that once in New York and Boston
there were signs “No Irish need apply.”
Before any Catholic says, “The Negro must keep
his place,” let him find out what right he or any
other lump of the slime of the earth has to assign
any race to an inferior place. Christ has
something to say about those who pick the
highest place for themselves and leave the lower
places for others. They end up in the lowest
place. In God’s Providence, we shall see black
faces shining high above us in Heaven, if we
haters of men manage to get there.
Msgr. Charles Owen Rice Honored
On January 12, 2012 The Kingsley Association presented its annual Spirit
of King Award to the late Charles Owen Rice, Pittsburgh’s labor priest, an
early opponent of the Vietnam War, whose columns in the Pittsburgh
Catholic educated generations of Catholics about workers and prisoners
rights, poverty and racism. He didn’t mince words.
Former Thomas Merton Center board member Charles McCollester, editor
of Fighter With a Heart, a collection of Rice’s writings, read from this
column, which appeared in The Catholic on August 1, 1938:
The 2012 Spirit of King
Award Ceremony
By Corey Carrington On January 12th, 2012, about 120 people attended the Spirit of King Award Ceremony sponsored by Port Authority, the Kingsley Association, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Pittsburgh Courier to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by honoring the lives of two important Pittsburgh natives who dedicated their lives to social justice, Dr. Edna B McKenzie and Monsignor Charles Owen Rice.
The ceremony was attended by many influential people including the Center’s own Molly Rush, former president of the NAACP, Tim Stevens, and Allegheny County Executive, Rich Fitzgerald. The invocation was given by Rev. Margaret Tyson of Trinity A.M.E Church while CEO of Port Authority, Stephen G. Bland, gave opening remarks.
On behalf of Rice, former TMC board member and author/activist Charles McCollester spoke of Rice’s legacy in Pittsburgh as a religious figure who was able to bridge the gap between race relations, stood behind unions, supported labor issues, and was a major advocate for peace and anti-war. An Irish Catholic at heart, Rice was able to support many different people and causes due to his overall quest for justice for all people.
Tim Stevens, now Chairman of the Black Political Empowerment Project, spoke on behalf of Dr. Edna B. McKenzie, a long time educator at CCAC, first female writer for the Pittsburgh Courier, and served on the board of PHEAA, personally invited by Pennsylvania’s first black speaker of the House of Rep., K. Leroy Irvis. She also was the first African-American woman to earn a PhD in history at Pitt. Stevens and McKenzie were church family, both attending Trinity AME Church, so he sang a hymn in remembrance of her.
Overall the ceremony was a bridge between the past and present, keeping Dr. King’s legacy alive by recognizing our own local heroes.
Corey Carrington is the Volunteer
Coordinator at the TMC
Fr. Dorsey and June Dowdy accept awards on
behalf of Msgr. Rice and
Dr. McKenzie recognized at the 2012 Spirit of King
C e r e m o n y a t t h e
Kingsley Center.
2012 Spirit of King Awardees Recognized
Photo by Fred Kenderson
12 - NEWPEOPLE February, 2012
By Al Hart
David Montgomery, a founder of the ―New Labor History‖ in the United States, who inspired a generation of activists and historians, died December 2nd. He taught labor history at the University of Pittsburgh from 1963-79 when he was named Farnam Professor of History at Yale. He was author of Beyond Equality (1967) and The Fall of the House of Labor (1987).
In 2009 David spoke at the Working Class Studies Association conference at Pitt on ―Imperial Power and the U.S. Working Class: Reflections on the Last Hundred Years.‖ A former professor in the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh, he was actively involved in the civil rights and antiwar movements and was a friend of the Merton Center.
David Montgomery was not only America's most outstanding labor historian, but a lifelong activist and fighter for working people. He was a shop worker and member of UE in New York City in the early 1950s, and later a member of the IAM and the Teamsters. He taught at Pitt in the 1970s (where he trained many of the present-day U.S. labor historians) and later at Yale. In New Haven he provided important support to the struggles of Yale workers, including the famous 1984-85 strike by the clerical and technical workers, organized in HERE. He spoke at four UE national conventions between 1966 and 2009 and was one of our delegates' favorite guest speakers.
Al Hart is the editor of UE's newsletter UE News. Also he is a member of
the TMC Economic Justice Committee.
In Memory of David Montgomery, Labor Studies Giant
Sad News…
Rick Peduzzi passed away On January 18th, after a massive stroke followed by a heart attack.
He was hired shortly after the United Electrical (UE) Worker’s Union moved to Pittsburgh in
1987. Many people around the country and the world know the face of the UE through our web
site; that was Rick's work. Here in our national office, and out in the field, he did far more,
keeping our office computers functioning and dealing with a myriad of technological challenges
and other issues. Rick was our friend and comrade. He was also a committed progressive activist
who has made invaluable contributions to building a movement here in Pittsburgh.
--Robin Alexander is the International Coordinator of the UE and a Pittsburgh Activist
By Beth Kinney I worked for the Thomas Merton Center intermittently for three years in the early '80s. I look back at my experiences there with much fondness, appreciation, and even nostalgia. I had been introduced to the idea that the US was the ONLY nation that had ever used a nuclear weapon in a homily given in Boulder, Colorado. I had reflected on it and found it troubling. But never had I been exposed to the myriad ideas of societal systemic "sin" that the Merton Center articulated so lucidly. I gradually came to understand what Dorothy Day meant when she referred to "the filthy, rotten system."
The Merton Center did not just radicalize my political views. The people that I had such a privilege to work with embodied many wonderful personal traits--from caring about others to living simply. I have never worked in such a supportive, understanding, and open work environment. The Center very much treated its own with the justice, forgiveness, and
fairness that it has long advocated to be the pillars of foreign and domestic policy. I think the continued existence of the Center, through good economic times and bad, attests to the stability such an approach gives an organization.
I have not been an active part of the Center for years, although I have made economic donations. Nonetheless, its work and very existence give me hope even though Pittsburgh is thousands of miles from my home. Organizations like the Merton Center, in their persistent cry for justice and peace, give voice to the values and beliefs that all good people everywhere find crucial for living loving, meaningful lives. The Merton Center changed my life permanently for the better. For that I will always be grateful.
Beth is a medical doctor and works with a deprived community in
Alamosa, CO. She moved to Colorado after her years at Merton
Center and Medical School in Hershey, PA.
Beth Kinney Reflects on the Thomas Merton Center of the 80’s
By Mike Stout
For 5 years, 1998-2002, I along with dozens of
others from Pittsburgh, accompanied Edith Wilson
on bus trips to protest the School of the Americas
(SOA) in November down at Fort Benning,
Georgia, getting arrested with her 2 years in a row
back in 1998-99. Edith was the quintessential
organizer behind the scenes. Along with Pete Shell,
she would secure the buses, find us a hotel to stay in
(no easy task with 15,000 protesters descending on
such a small town and rural area), get everyone to
and from the buses, and watch over us all like the
movement mother she was.
She was a quiet but active warrior against war,
imperialism, and the ever-terrorizing empire, as
evidenced by the SOA and its trained assassins. The
peace and justice movement has lost another
soldier. To her daughters and family: The
movement to shut down the SOA will miss her,
love her and remember her always.
Shut down the SOA!
Mike Stout is a popular musician activist who owns
and operates Steel Valley Printers in Homestead, PA.
In Remembrance of Edith Wilson
In Memory of Our Peace & Justice Heroes
Rick Peduzzi
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
February, 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 13
By Brian Walker / Nation of Change January 18, 2012
Environmental activists and grassroots efforts have put up a tremendous effort against the Keystone XL proposal, even going as far as surrounding the White House, are pushing to get the project cancelled outright, and the opening for a consideration of an alternate route will not be well-received. The Obama administration will not grant a permit
to TransCanada to go through with the Keystone XL pipeline.While this is good news for activists fighting against the construction of the pipeline, it is not a cancellation of the project and TransCanada will be allowed to reapply with a new route following suggestions by the administration. The new route would be directed through Nebraska. The announcement came shortly after a 60 day deadline for a decision was set by the Republican controlled Congress.
Criticizing the deadline, White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Tuesday, "It's a fallacy to suggest that the president should sign into law something when there isn't even an alternate route identified in Nebraska and when the review process is" unfinished, and "There was an attempt to short-circuit the review process in a way that does not allow the kind of careful consideration of all the competing criteria here that needs to be done." Proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline argue that independence from foreign oil is an essential US interest, and that the jobs created as well as other benefits from working together with Canada economically supersedes environmental concerns. Environmental activists and grassroots efforts have put up a tremendous effort against the Keystone XL proposal, even going as far as surrounding the White House in protest, are pushing to get the project cancelled outright, and the opening for a consideration of an alternate route will not be well-received. They argue that tar sand oil extraction and refinement is tremendously destructive to the surrounding environment.
Obama Denies Keystone XL Permit but Allows
TransCanada to Apply for a Different Pipeline Route
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations [CAIR] issued the following statement after President Obama signed legislation
to permit indefinite detentions of American citizens suspected of terrorism:
"It is deeply troubling that the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) became law with the detention provisions intact. We believe it is unconstitutional for our military to become a police force that would hold
American citizens indefinitely without the right to trial or even to hear the charges brought against them. "Permitting indefinite detention of American citizens without trial shatters a cornerstone of our democracy -- the right of the individual to due process. Every elected official who participated in the formation and
passage of this law has violated their oath to support and defend the Constitution. "As the president noted in his signing statement, such unconstitutional detentions would 'do nothing to improve the security of the United States.'
"While it is encouraging to hear that the current administration will interpret the detention provisions 'in a manner that ensures that any
detention it authorizes complies with the Constitution, the laws of war, and all other applicable law,' we have no assurances that future administrations will act in a similar manner. "This ill-conceived and un-American legislation will forever be seen as a stain on our nation's history -- one that will ultimately be viewed with
embarrassment and shame.” In signing the legislation, President Obama said: "I want to clarify that my administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens. Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a nation."
From: CAIR-Pittsburgh, 801 N. Negley Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15206
(412) 606 3601 Email: [email protected] - -
Website: http://pa.cair.com/pitt/
CAIR Responds To Indefinite Detention Legislation
14 - NEWPEOPLE February, 2012
By Paul Le Blanc
The fourth forum in the First Thursday Forum series was held at the Friends Meeting House on the evening of January 5, with a panel discussion on ―Evaluating the Obama Presidency.‖ Drawing over 30 participants, the forum considered the positives and negatives of the Obama Presidency, the discrepancies between what many Americans expected if Barack Obama won the 2008 election and what actually happened, and the upcoming Presidential election. The series is sponsored by the International Socialist Organization (ISO) of Pittsburgh.
Panelists included: Jessica Benner, a student activist and member of the Pittsburgh ISO; Katrina Brabham, Chair of Green Party of Allegheny County; Al Hart, editor of UE News published by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE); and Charles McCollester, a veteran labor educator, and recent Board Member of Thomas Merton Center. Brief presentations launched a rich discussion in which various perspectives were presented.
There was general agreement that the Obama administration – when judged against the promises and expectations associated with his 2008 election campaign – is incredibly disappointing.
A primary problem, according to McCollester, has been Obama’s preference for compromise and his reluctance to actually fight the good fight for what he had called for in his 2008 campaign speeches. Hart focused on the President’s inclination to support corporate bail-outs more strongly than the rights and needs of the working-class majority. Benner emphasized the devastation of cutbacks in U.S. education funding, and the toll this has had on students, with many going into debt for tens of thousands of dollars each, with diminishing
employment opportunities to look forward to. Brabham also took aim at the economic injustice and inequality that Obama policies maintain, especially impacting people of color but increasingly undermining the population as a whole.
Others during the discussion hit hard on other issues, such as the Obama administration’s failure even to consider single-payer health care, which would provide decent health care to all as a matter of right. Another target for some in the discussion was Obama’s hawkish foreign policy. One example – his continuation of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. It was argued that the much hyped ―pull-out‖ from Iraq veils the reality, U.S. occupational presence in the Middle East, designed to continue the long-standing defense of U.S. corporate interests throughout the region.
Another point of general agreement was that progressives, socialists, and others favoring the interests of the majority of the people (some using the term ―the 99 percent‖ and others ―the working class‖ – with many using the term interchangeably) cannot simply rely on any President of the United States to meet their needs. Instead they must mobilize sustained and independent mass pressure on all politicians, on representatives of ―the 1 percent,‖ for peace and economic justice, equal rights for all, taxing the rich, providing decent health care and education and housing for everyone, etc. Some even argued that ultimately the power of the majority should be used to place in the hands of the people actual control of our political and economic life – which is how some would define the terms democracy and socialism.
Differences emerged over what should be done in regard to the Presidential election of 2012. McCollester suggested that despite his deficiencies, it would be better to have Obama
as President than his Republican alternative. Branham emphasized the need for the kind of progressive, independent politics represented by the Green Party. Hart noted that his union, while not endorsing or campaigning for any candidate, believed that there were important differences between the Democrats and Republicans – but also emphasized the centrality for the working class of building their own independent and class-conscious struggles. Benner stressed the point that regardless of what one does or does not do in the voting booth for several minutes in November, it is crucial for all of us to unite in the streets around uncompromising struggles for peace, full human rights, and economic justice.
Reference was made in the discussion to the global insurgencies against existing power structures, including the Occupy movement in the United States. Some participants highlighted the importance of Occupy Pittsburgh, for which there was considerable support in the discussion. There was general agreement that this forum discussion was only part of a much larger and ongoing discussion among those of us in the 99 percent – and the forum chairperson promised that the evening’s discussion would be continued at the next First Thursday Forum, in response to a presentation on ―Rising Struggle in the United States‖ by ISO regional organizer Ashley Smith February 2, 7:30 p.m. at the Friends Meeting House, 4836 Ellsworth Avenue.
[Some Pittsburgh activists may remember Smith for his opening remarks at the downtown rally of the massive People’s March when the G20 Summit met in Pittsburgh in 2009 – see his speech at www.bit.ly/paul-obama-presidency]
Paul LeBlanc is a professor at LaRoche
College, a member of the Anti-War and
Economic Justice Committees and a
Sustaining Member of the Merton Center.
The Obama Presidency: Dead-End Or Worth Repeating?
Russ Fedorka Explains Cartoons By Russ Fedorka
Okay… So I was
at the register
paying for copies
of this month’s
cartoon. I gave
the clerk a copy,
as I sometimes
do. Then I asked
him what he
thought of the
cartoon and if he
had ever heard of the ―School of the
Americas.‖ Well, he kind of rolled back, raised
his eyes, and somewhat apologized because he
didn’t understand. So I thought to myself, ―Geez,
maybe I should do an explanation with this
cartoon.‖ Then when I got to the Thomas
Merton Center, Molly was verbalizing what I was
thinking.
Most of you already had your laugh and can
move on but for those of you like the clerk, here
it is (the short version, of course). The ―School
of the Americas‖ or ―W.H.I.N.S.E.C.‖ is a school
of the U.S. Army for the expansion of the steely
grip of American corporate imperialism at the
expense of the working class, the poor, and the
indigenous cultures of the Americas. At
W.H.I.N.S.E.C. they are taught the fine arts of
union busting, marginalization, disorganization,
discrediting, disrupting, and destroying any and
all forces that oppose their imperialistic
domination. ―Chiquita‖ is an excellent example
of a corporation willing to do almost anything to
protect their competitive edge and corporate
profits for their stockholders. This is at the cost
of everything and everyone else. They have a
long history of just that, as do so many other
military/industrial corporations.
Rick Santorum was inserted to expose the
―blinders on‖ and ―can do no wrong‖ American
exceptionalism sickness.
Santorum would be the last person to inform the
public of the goings on at
W.H.I.N.S.E.C. You can
research for yourself the
Santorum history of
special privilege, bizarre
homophobic hatred,
mixed in with some
religious platitudes.
Boy, do us artists have
some great material to
work with! It’s like
having 1,500 Nixon/
Agnew’s to draw. Read
your history (Howard
Zinn’s ―A People’s
History‖ is a great
source) and get on board
with the people of
Pittsburgh and elsewhere
who are fighting for a future for our children’s
children and a safe and happy planet. Join us and
have some laughs along the way. Peace.
--Russell Fedorka has been in construction,
activism, and cartooning for over 45 years. A
follower of Jesus Christ, he is a member of the
Thomas Merton Center's Anti-War
Committee and Economic Justice Committee
as well as the International Socialist
Organization of Pittsburgh.
Russ Fedorka
February, 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 15
Let Your Voice Be Heard!
Please submit your stories, letters, poems, essays, cartoons, and photos to the NEWPEOPLE or they may never find an audience! The
average submission is about 600 words. Photos or art should be sent as JPEG or PDF.
Articles may be emailed to [email protected], http://thomasmertoncenter.org/newpeople/submit-article/ or mailed
to The Thomas Merton Center, 5129 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15224. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION IS THE 15TH OF
EACH MONTH -
Manuscripts will not be returned. All submissions will become the property of the NEWPEOPLE, a publication of the Thomas Merton
Center of Pittsburgh, and may be edited.
ADVERTISING IS AVAILABLE BY CONTACTING - [email protected]
Meet Carol Gonzalez: New TMC Board Member
Carol Gonzalez was
raised in a large
family on a farm in
western New York
where working
hard, loving deeply,
and doing one’s
best became
formative habits of
being. A passion to learn, to travel, and to
connect with ―the other‖ took root early
on in Carol’s heart and mind, and became
a guiding force in her diverse professional
and personal life. She has learned the
most important lessons in life from
children and young people, the homeless,
handicapped, and marginalized people that
she has known and loved in her
community development work and as a
lay leader in the Church.
As a resident of Pittsburgh’s Northside
community of Manchester for the last
thirty-six years, Carol’s interests and
talents include renovating an abandoned
one hundred and twenty-seven year-old
home, organizing a neighborhood food co-
op, providing emergency housing in the
spirit of the Catholic Worker movement,
working with men and women in prison,
protesting with Christian Peacemakers,
teaching childbirth/parenting classes,
coordinating a monthly community jazz
service, as well as serving in her current
position as program director with UP 4
Reading, UP for Life, a literacy program
for at-risk children. She taught nine years
in the history department at Shady Side
She has been long involved with Pax
Christi, Network of Spiritual Progressives,
PIIN and a number of other interfaith
groups, and most recently with Occupy
Pittsburgh. She says that amazing people
of all ages that she’s been privileged to
work with --whether Russian teenagers or
Mayan children, whether in Chiapas,
Mexico, Bruges, Belgium, Fox Chapel, or
inner-city Pittsburgh-- have been her
“teachers,” for it is her conviction that a
teacher must also be a life-long learner.
Active in the Episcopal Diocese of
Pittsburgh, Carol is also a member and
leader of CLC-USA, an international, lay,
Ignatian community of contemplative
activists. She is married to Henry
Gonzalez, a high-school Spanish teacher.
Carol is immensely grateful for the
creative and diverse community of the
Thomas Merton Center. Her recent work
in bringing Jim Forest to Pittsburgh
around the Dorothy Day events was a
positive experience in exploring afresh the
spiritual roots of the TMC.
Wanted: Spirited Women
The Raging Grannies of Pittsburgh need
some more women to sing in solidarity with
the progressive movement, and catch the
attention of the uncommitted. All that is
needed is a willingness to gather on corners
and makeshift stages, walk in rallies and
parades, attend rehearsals twice a month, and
show up for performances. Carrying a tune is
nice, but can be learned. Having progeny is
not required; caring about the future is. To
join with us:
Call Bette at 412.321.3233
or Edith at 412.661.7149
The Comical Nature of
Corporate Personhood
A group of about 100 people gathered at
Market Square on Friday, January 20, to
commemorate the second anniversary of
Citizens United, the Supreme Court
decision equalizing money and free
speech, allowing corporations as persons
to shower tons of money into political
campaigns.
Edith Bell of the Women’s International
League for Peace and Freedom
expressed her desire to get wealthy, in
order to funnel more money into the
peace and justice movement.
―I was thinking, I’ll marry a rich person,
so I approached New York Mellon Bank
to marry me; but that person was not
interested in marrying me. Then I
figured, I’d try Exxon; but that person
would not have me either.
It was nothing personal though. I found
out corporations can only marry
corporations, and they call it mergers,
unless it’s a shotgun wedding, then it’s
called a hostile takeover. Edith came to
the conclusion that corporations are not
persons.
Then the group walked to EQT and the
Bank of New York Mellon to get proof
of their personhood. A ―judge‖ in black
robe and white wig posted requests for a
birth certificate. The group ended at the
Federal court building to ‖Occupy the
Courts.‖
Edith Bell, Coordinator of WILPF
Pittsburgh.
Carol Gonzalez
January March Protesting
Corporate Personhood
Photo by Philomena Day
16 - NEWPEOPLE February, 2012
S O C I A L A C T I O N C A L E N D A R
This year give PEACE a chance. Become a Member of the Thomas Merton Center!
Become a MEMBER today, and together, we can create a peaceful and just world.
Already a member? Now is the time to renew your membership!
2012 marks the Center’s 40th Anniversary! With you, we will carry on our mission: to instill a consciousness of values and to raise the moral ques-
tions involved with war, racism, poverty and oppression. Our members are people from diverse philosophies and faiths who find common ground in
the nonviolent struggle to bring about a more peaceful and just world. Since the Center's beginning thousands of people have joined with us to work
together on this important mission and goal. Through protests, as well as ongoing projects, the active involvement of our members has been the
backbone of our success. Over twenty organizing campaigns and projects are supported by the Center. Our monthly newspaper, The New People, is
a key source of information for peace and justice activists interested in participating in campaigns, and justice-oriented advocacy events.
Go to http://thomasmertoncenter.org/join-donate/ or call the Center at (412) 301-3022.
F E B R U A RY 2 01 2 See Calendar on TMC Website for more details about events. www.thomasmertoncenter.com/calendar/
Darfur Coalition Meeting 5:30pm in Meeting Room C of Carnegie Library, Squirrel Hill
5th Annual Human Rights Film Series 7pm in Room 105 of College Hall, Duquesne
PA Against the Death Penalty 7pm at First Unitarian Church (Morewood)
1
Anti-War Meeting 2pm at the Thomas Merton Center Amnesty International Letter-Writing Salon 2pm at Kiva Han on South Craig Street, Oakland Book’Em Packing Day 4pm at the Thomas Merton Center
Amnesty International Letter-Writing Salon 2pm at Kiva Han on South Craig Street, Oakland Economic Justice Meeting 3:30pm at the Thomas Merton Center Book’Em Packing Day 4pm at the Thomas Merton Center
Anti-War Meeting 2pm at the Thomas Merton Center Amnesty International Letter-Writing Salon 2pm at Kiva Han on South Craig Street, Oakland Book’Em Packing Day 4pm at the Thomas Merton Center
Amnesty International Letter-Writing Salon 2pm at Kiva Han on South Craig Street, Oakland Economic Justice Meeting 3:30pm at the Thomas Merton Center Book’Em Packing Day 4pm at the Thomas Merton Center
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TMC’s 40th Anniversary Event with speaker Helen Gerhardt from Occupy Pittsburgh 6:30pm Potluck followed by brainstorming for content of TMC solidarity statement with Occupy
TMC Board Meeting 6:00 to 7:00 Potluck 7:00 to 9:00 Meeting Association of Pittsburgh Priests 7pm Meeting at Epiphany Church Rectory
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Occupy Pittsburgh General Assembly 7pm at the People’s Park occupypittsburgh.org Pittsburgh International Socialist Organization (ISO) Meeting 7pm at the Thomas Merton Center
Occupy Pittsburgh General Assembly 7pm at the Occupy Site occupypittsburgh.org Pittsburgh International Socialist Organization (ISO) Meeting 7pm at the Thomas Merton Center
Occupy Pittsburgh General Assembly 7pm at the Occupy Site occupypittsburgh.org Pittsburgh International Socialist Organization (ISO) Meeting 7pm at the Thomas Merton Center
Occupy Pittsburgh General Assembly 7pm at the Occupy Site occupypittsburgh.org Pittsburgh International Socialist Organization (ISO) Meeting 7pm at the Thomas Merton Center
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Green Party Meeting 7pm on 2nd floor of Citizen Power’s Offices, 2121 Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill http://www.gpoac.org/ The Rise in Struggle in the United States 7:30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 4836 Ellsworth Ave
5th Annual Human Rights Film Series 7pm in Room 105 of College Hall at Duquesne’s campus
5th Annual Human Rights Film Series 7pm in Room 105 of College Hall, Duquesne
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First Friday Action on Unermployment Comp. 1:30pm at the Post Office, Grant and 7th Avenue, Downtown Contact Tony at 412.462.9962
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Consensus Organizing: Building Communities of Mutual Self-Interest 12pm at the School of Social Work Conference Center PUSH Meeting 6pm at the Health Care for All PA Office, 2101 Murray Avenue, Squirrel Hill
Darfur Coalition Meeting 5:30pm in Meeting Room C of Carnegie Library, Squirrel Hill Write-On! Letters for Prisoner Rights 7pm at the Thomas Merton Center
Write-On! Letters for Prisoner Rights 7pm at the Thomas Merton Center 5th Annual Human Rights Film Series 7pm in Room 105 of College Hall, Duquesne
Write-On! Letters for Prisoner Rights 7pm at the Thomas Merton Center 5th Annual Human Rights Film Series 7pm in Room 105 of College Hall, Duquesne
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Occupy Pittsburgh Teach-In 12pm at Community Empowerment Association Training & Culture Center, 7120 Kelly St., Homewood
Women and War: Women and Peace 6pm at Gallery 937 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh
Black Voices for Peace Anti-War Protest Weekly 1-2 pm Penn and Highland in East Liberty
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Healthcare for 99% Rally & March 12pm at People’s Park
Black Voices for Peace Vigil weekly 1-2pm
Memorial for David Montgomery 3pm. Frick Fine Arts Aud.
Lessons From Iraq 3pm at Gallery 937 Liberty Avenue
Occupy Pittsburgh General Assembly 4pm at the People’s Park
Fight for Lifers West Meeting 10am at 325 N. Highland
Regional Haiti Solidarity Committee 10am at the Thomas Merton Center
Black Voices for Peace Anti-War Protest 1-2pm, Penn and Highland
Occupy Pittsburgh General Assembly 4pm at the People’s Park
Black Voices for Peace Anti-War Protest 1pm at the corner of Penn and Highland Occupy Pittsburgh General Assembly 4pm at the People’s Park occupypittsburgh.org
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Multi-Day Events
Windows and Mirrors: Reflections on the War in Afghanistan Gallery at 937 Liberty Ave (second floor) January 27 – February 12, 2012