October 2006

Last night US Rep Jim McGovern, who was arrested earlier this year for protesting at the Sudanese embassy, spoke in Worcester about Darfur. Telegram:

Before Mr. McGovern’s speech, Clark security police handcuffed and carried from the hall an anti-Zionist demonstrator after he allegedly refused to stop passing out literature. Peter Lowney, 36, of Valdez, Ark., was taken to Worcester Police Headquarters and charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Another anti-Zionist demonstrator, David Rolde a member of the Green Rainbow Party of Massachusetts, agreed to leave the hall. Picketing outside Higgins, Mr. Rolde said they were there to express opposition to a U.S.-U.N.-Zionist invasion of Sudan “for oil and uranium.” A third picketed on Main Street across from Clark, which she described in her placard as a “fascist university.”

The protestors have posted their own account at Indymedia.

The Green-Rainbow Party is mentioned with good reason: the GRP has a statement on Darfur. The statement opposes both military and financial action. Not sure where that leaves you.

Personal observations: I’m not buying the Zionist angle; I’d take the arguments of the protestors more seriously if they were also working to end the violence in Darfur; I wish the GRP would stay away from foreign policy issues, and focus on Massachusetts. I’m currently registered GRP, but this sort of nonsense makes me want to change that.

Photos and videos.

There’s a vigil Monday, October 30, at noon in front of Worcester’s City Hall to remember Brad Will, a US videojournalist associated with the Indymedia movement who was killed last week in Oaxaca. For more info about Brad, this BoingBoing post is as good a place to start as any. Speakers at the Worcester event will include local Indymedia activists who knew him.

The Telegram & Gazette’s excellent Jacqueline Reis writes:

Edward F. Behn of Westboro, whose oldest son is a U.S. Marine serving in Iraq, has offered to donate $2,500 to the Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust in honor of the Worcester high school senior class with the lowest percentage of students who “opt out” of allowing information about themselves to be provided to recruiters.

Interesting that he’s not a Worcester resident. Not bad, just an interesting twist.
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Opting out: Nothing in today’s paper about the rumored don’t-opt-out contest.

Albuquerque CW in homeless controversy: They sort of come off as jerks in this article, but this quote from their “opponents” is a classic:

“They want to start talking about Jesus, but we have legitimate safety concerns . . . .”

Peace: The South Bend Tribune has an article on St Marcellus.

Snow Ghost: Announcing The Snow Ghost Book of Scary Jokes. Available only at Happy Birthday Mike Leslie.

Democracy: If you live in Worcester, you can see my interview with Nicholas Reville on cable channel 13 this Saturday at 9am & 5:30pm, Sunday at 9am & 5:30pm, and Monday at 10:30am. If you live on the Internet, you can watch it online.

Portland: Tom Hastings arrested, profiled.

Just got off the phone with the T&G’s Jackie Reis. If I heard correctly, a guy is starting an anti-opt-out contest for Worcester’s schools. He’ll donate $2500 to the Disabled American Veterans in the name of whichever class has the lowest opt-out rate.

This is great!

• More parents and students will learn about opting out. The opt-out rates at the Worcester high schools are so low that any publicity, pro or con, will probably educate people about opting out.
• As the grandson of a disabled American veteran, and as someone who’s met more than a few disabled vets through my work with the homeless, I’m really happy that he’s donating to this charity. If the opt-out contest accomplishes nothing else, it has raised $2500 for the vets. (Note that our prize is a mere $250. If we’d made ours $1000, would the counter-prize have been $10,000? Something to think about for next year.)
• This is exactly how people should settle their differences. “Oh yeah? Think you’re so tough? We’ll see who can donate more to a good cause!” Reminds me of when Bill’s Place set up a competing soup kitchen as part of a feud with the St. John’s crowd.

The only bad thing about this is that it complicates matters. When this year’s opt-out numbers are released, there are too many variables to be able to say if any of these contests had an effect. I was a bit concerned that we announced our contest too late in the year for kids to act on it. The counter-contest, if it happens, will be really late in the school year. Any kid or parent who’s going to opt out has probably done so by now. Is that kid going to turn in another form to un-opt-out in order to get his school’s name on a check to the DAV? Seems unlikely.

(N.B. The title of this post is a play on the title of Clive McFarlane’s confused column about the original contest.)

Tom Lewis has posted some of his pix of the 2006 National Catholic Worker Gathering.

The Catholic Workers somehow came up with a joint statement to the U.S. bishops.
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Here’s an interview I did with Nicholas Reville of the Participatory Culture Foundation. We discuss the Democracy media player, free culture, and Worcester.

Download the mp4 video (76MB) or see other formats. You can subscribe to WCCA via Democracy.

Listen to the audio:
Podcast, Podcast Feed, Subscribe via iTunes, MP3 Link (64K)

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Blank Canvas: Just picked up the latest issue. Worcester has several publications that I can skim thoroughly in under five minutes. On the other hand, each issue of Blank Canvas takes days to contemplate. The first things I noticed:

Beautiful spread on Happy Birthday Mike Leslie.

Steve Siddle: “College students suck. . . . Having a large population of college students in Worcester is about as culturally significant as having an Applebees.”

And Mark Comeau has another zombie article, this time arguing that Worcester would be annihilated within 18 days of initial zombie infestation.
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[download the mp3 of Saint Kermit #44: “Music to Our Ears”]

Yes, another Saint Kermit podcast.

• Mike interviews Rand Wilson about the Working Families Party and Question 2.
• Jim and Mike talk about the gubernatorial debates.
• Jim interviews John McCutcheon about music, labor, and baseball. Featuring John’s song “It’s the Economy, Stupid.”
• More baseball from the sports gang.