January 2010 – Pie and Coffee

508 #98: Cargo cults

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panelist is Brendan Melican.

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Audio: mp3 link, other formats, feed

There was a big rally for (now-Senator) Brown at Mechanics Hall; the City’s considering banning plastic bags, though Mike has long advocated non-governmental action on this issue.

Vegetarian Renaissance: vegan mac’n’cheese cookoff coming up; veg fest coming up; creative Dunkin Donuts event. (Non-veg: Dr. Gonzo may have a roadkill barbeque.)

There are fancifully-dressed tax services advertisers on the sidewalks. Chain bar McFadden’s has closed.

Belmont Street Community School was massively vandalized. There was a Haiti fundraiser.

Mike talks about cargo cults. “Do different dumb things, Worcester. Do different dumb things.”

We’re planning something special for episode #100. Please share your ideas.

Baseball Player to Become Priest

Here’s a nice little article about Oakland A’s prospect Grant Desme leaving baseball to join a seminary.

Reflecting on fasting and action to close Guantanamo

Yesterday was the 12th and final day of the fast. It was spent, by many, in jail. For the others, it was a day of cooking food, roaming the corridors of the courthouse, and tidying up outreach.

This morning, three of us went down to the Japanese Buddhist temple for drumming and chanting.

“If even monks become weary and sloppy in saluting with joined palms, then no one will perform raihai. One would no longer salute parents, children, wife and husband, neighbors or laborers with palms together.”
—Nichidatsu Fuji

Which suggests one value of Thursday’s actions. If Catholic Workers aren’t creating illegal memorial services for dead detainees in the Capitol dome, then who will perform them?

Save Our Poolz: The documentary

This is too awesome: Nick Nassar at WCCA TV13 has made a documentary about Worcester’s cross-cultural, well-organized, relentless, and so far unsuccessful “Save Our Poolz” campaign.

I wish somebody posted a Worcester video this good every week.

2 Guantanamo protests at US Capitol; 42 arrested

On the 11th day of our 12-day fast, and the eve of President Obama’s missed deadline to close the Guantanamo prison, Witness Against Torture held 2 coordinated protests at the U.S. Capitol.

On the steps outside, 28 people dressed in orange jumpsuits and black hoods, many wearing the names of current detainees cleared for release on their backs, held signs reading “Broken Promises, Broken Laws, Broken Lives.”

Inside, our Capitol tour group turned into a memorial service as 14 Witness Against Torture members placed the names of three detainees who died at Guantanamo in the spot in the Rotunda where presidents lay in state. (Revelations published by Harpers this week strengthen the suspicion that the detainees were tortured to death.)

We’ll be breaking the fast tomorrow evening, after everyone has been processed and is out of jail.

Beth Brockman photo

Fast and action to close Guantanamo: day 9 of 12

Today there was a vigil at the Pentagon (which I missed) as well as the standard White House vigil with the mostly-Christian group singing to their Muslim brothers.

Fast day 8: MLK

Today was free from public protest, though there was a “public presence” at one of the museums. The day ended solemnly with stories from torture survivors. It began with surprising joy as we chatted with Afghani youth and sang Civil Rights hymns to them. Pretty weird and pretty great.

Posted today at Harper’s, evidence from a soldier that three Guantanamo detainees said to have committed suicide may actually have been tortured to death:

. . . new evidence now emerging may entangle Obamaâ€™s young administration with crimes that occurred during the Bush presidency, evidence that suggests the current administration failed to investigate seriouslyâ€”and may even have continuedâ€”a cover-up of the possible homicides of three prisoners at GuantÃ¡namo in 2006.

Fast day 5

In which Witness Against Torture visits a John Yoo talk, and random passersby insult him.

(If my summaries are a little sparse for you, Kate Cowley has been writing excellent, detailed summaries of each day at the Witness Against Torture website.)

Guantanamo fast day 3: Ghost walking

I spent the day messing with cameras and computers in a cafe, and reading about the earthquake in Haiti. My companions meanwhile walked the halls of the Senate offices in black hoods and orange jumpsuits. Remarkably, there were no arrests or evictions.

Witness Against Torture: 2010 fast day 2

Thanks for all the kind messages of support. Did some good traditional and non-traditional lobbying today. And Carmen Trotta and I returned to the White House for our sadly long-running series of Guantanamo vigil videos.