Month: August 2006

Pablo Ros did a great job in today’s South Bend Tribune, collecting questions that people planned to ask the politicians at South Bend’s immigration “forum”. As it turned out, audience questions and comments were not allowed.

Here’s one from Neris Gonzalez, a friend of the South Bend Catholic Worker:

Why, if people who work the fields and in factories are willing to work so hard, aren’t you willing to give them a livable minimum wage?

Here’s one from Rev. Christopher Cox, St. Adalbert Catholic Church:

[US Rep Chris] Chocola owns up to half a million dollars worth of Wal-Mart stock, according to a financial disclosure published in the Washington Post. Wal-Mart was fined $11 million last year for employing hundreds of illegal workers. Mr. Chocola, wouldn’t it be socially responsible of you to sell your Wal-Mart stock?

Chocola gave the Tribune a response that doesn’t answer the question:

“I voted for the U.S. House Immigration Reform bill that included an employer verification program that will give employers no excuse for hiring illegal immigrants,” Chocola replied Friday. “It also includes tough punishment for those that employ illegal immigrants.”

The followup question would be: Given that Wal-Mart has broken laws about employing illegals “hundreds” of times, why do you think they’ll follow new ones? Wouldn’t it be more ethical to divest yourself from a corporation that thumbs its nose at these laws? Shouldn’t you be putting your money where your mouth and votes are?

Well, I’ve made my podcasting debut as part of the team on Saint Kermit #36. Haven’t listened to it yet, but I believe that my contribution was to ramble about needle exchange and the modified WoMag cover.

{{{mp3}}}

I heartily invite you to subscribe to Saint Kermit and catch all the action.

Podcasting from the Catholic Peace Fellowship office.

I had all sorts of technical difficulties, and couldn’t stay connected for more than a couple minutes at a time. Interesting to hear how they stitched these bits together into a coherent conversation.

The main sanctuary at Mission San Miguel (est. 1797) in Central California was severely damaged by the San Simeon Earthquake in 2003 and has been closed ever since. The Diocese of Monterey says it doesn’t have the money to repair it and it can’t get public funds, despite being a California Historic Landmark, since it’s an active place of worship. So volunteers have been doing their part by, among other things, casting 5,000 adobe bricks just like they used to back in the old days. The L.A. Times has the story.

Saint Kermit: Jim Henderson and I are interviewing Maine Senatorial candidate Jean Hay Bright next week for the podcast Saint Kermit. If you’d like to suggest a question for her, post a comment here or e-mail pieandcoffee@gmail.com.

Silk Hope Catholic Worker: Long article about them, with plenty of quotes from South Bend’s Mike Baxter.

Lechner on “Z”: Tom Lechner (who recently gave me a place to crash in Portland–thanks again) had a cartoon on the cover of June’s Z Magazine. (Here’s a great cartoon he drew while I was out there.)

Genius on genius: Vern reviews THEY LIVE.

Brandon is a Zombie: Out debut performance was not our best effort, but it was fun and we’re hoping to do another open mic before I leave South Bend. Dawn took some photos from the back of the bar.

Duluth News Tribune: “Diocese cancels nun’s Duluth talk because of anti-Bush newspaper ad”

Democracy Now!:

Church Cancels Speech by Sister Helen Prejean Over Criticism of Bush
In Minnesota, the Catholic Church of Duluth has uninvited the well-known nun, Helen Prejean, from speaking at an upcoming fundraising dinner. Sister Prejean is the author of the book Dead Man Walking. The church said it canceled her speech after her name appeared in ad in the New York Times calling for the removal of President Bush from office.

August 11: Sister Helen asks that her name be withdrawn from the ad. (The final version of the ad contained pro-abortion language that she could not endorse.)

Think the diocese has ever cancelled a talk by someone who’s made pro-Bush or pro-war statements?

Three Republican congressman (including South Bend’s rep, Count Chocula) discussed immigration with five panelists in South Bend yesterday, at a “forum” that did not allow for audience questions or comments.

The Tribune reports:

Asked if he would consider screening emergency care patients to determine their eligibility or legal status, [Dr. Randy Thompson, medical director of emergency medicine at St. Anthony Memorial Hospital in Michigan City] replied, “My job as a physician is that I’m here to take care of a patient. I don’t care what color they are, or if they’re legal or illegal.”

His statement drew applause from some audience members and seemed to put the three congressmen on the defensive.

The Tribune reports that there was a meeting at a local Catholic church in response to the forum, but doesn’t say much about it:

A group of some 25 people, led by the Rev. Christopher Cox of St. Adalbert Catholic Church, met Tuesday evening at St. Adalbert School during an impromptu news conference to respond to the immigration forum.

“I was very disappointed that the group of people there were not diverse,” said South Bend resident Nancy Flores, 40, of the panelists invited to the forum.

Several also said they were disappointed that no one in the audience was given a chance to comment or ask a question during the forum.

Still being in Indiana, it was only via the Telegram & Gazette that I learned that anonymous Worcesterites modified the cover of some 2,000 copies of last week’s Worcester Magazine.

Less HIV infections is
What neighborhoods face
when drugstores
sell needles like cigarettes

(T&G story about the new cover, the original WoMag story)

Interesting that they compare needles to cigarettes. Which do more harm to non-users, cigs or sharps? Are more people injured by discarded needles or second-hand smoke?

As it happens, this past weekend I was taking some pix of a Navy billboard recruiting Latinos for a peacenik publication. I said to a friend, “If this billboard was in Worcester, it would’ve been vandalized by now.” (It’s easily accessible on foot.)

Mike Schorsch takes a look at a new government report on problems with military recruiting, and notes that “about 30% of recruiting irregularities in the Army have to due with recruiters covering up, in one way or another, new recruits’ medical histories.” Why would they do this?

Well, every branch of the military (except the Marines) rewards recruiters based on how many recruits they get to sign an initial contract, not how many recruits actually make it through training . . . . So a recruiter can put sick recruit after sick recruit into boot camp, and even if every one of those recruits gets sent home early for medical reasons, that recruiter can still win that “Best Recruiter of the Year” trophy.

In the interest of documenting the diverse aspects of Catholic Worker life…

Brenna Cussen (vocalist, guitarist, South Bend Catholic Worker) and Mike Benedetti (accordionist, itinerant Catholic Worker) will be performing at the open mic at Fiddler’s Hearth in South Bend, Indiana, August 23 around 9:15 pm.

Their band is named Brandon Is A Zombie.

Brenna and Mike. Photo by Liz Fallon.

Ordinarily I would hesitate to post a photo of a homeless kid to the net, but after taking Brandon’s photo the other day, he turned around and demanded, “Take a picture of my back.” I did, and I have no qualms about posting it.

Brandon may not be a zombie, but he will try to eat your brain if you don’t watch out. He says, “The back of my hair looks weird!”

Update: Audio of our version of “When The Saints Go Marching In” is at the Archive.