January 2007

You can learn a lot reading the news obituaries in the paper. This morning, I found out about Robert F. Drinan, a Jesuit who became the first Catholic priest elected to Congress. The prospect of a priest in office is an interesting one, but apparently the Vatican didn’t think it was such a good idea and asked him (and other priests) to step down by 1980. It sounds like he was a strong voice against war, but the paper notes cryptically that he was a “moderate” on abortion. Of course, a great number of Protestant ministers hold elected office in the U.S., but as a priest is supposed to take orders from the Vatican, that could create personal or church/state conflicts. Do any of you in Massachusetts know more about Father Drinan?

Solidarity Event at Stone Soup (4 King St.)

Maggie Newburger is home for a week from Morazan, El Salvador and she is working to raise money to help fight a dam that would be devastating to thousands of people in the community where she has been living. They need money to build latrines and feed people that are coming to help fight the dam with them. At this Worcester Indymedia sponsored event Maggie with show us photos and talk with us about her time in El Salvador and the situation in Morazan. Please come and help show what international solidarity is all about.

For more info call Anne (508) 561-1164

City Councilor Kathleen M. Toomey hereby wins the prize for Most Web 2.0 Motion:

19p. Motion-Toomey @ #11c CC - Request City Manager provide a report on the use of blogs, podcasting and posting of a brief on what occurs at Council meetings on the City’s web site. Order adopted

Our readers have commented on this in the past:

I think Kate Toomey and Gary Rosen, both of whom I kinda like, run neck and neck as the Councilor most likely to stumble upon something on the internet and turn it into a Council motion.

Councilor Rosen, you gave it your best.

This morning I began investigating whether the City Council meetings broadcast on Channel 12 are in the public domain. You’d think they would be. If so, I know some local tech activists who’d like to grab them off the Tivo and archive them online.

City Councilor Kate Toomey

My camera is broken, so no photo this week.

Pie and Coffee: What about the One Love Cafe?

Bruce: I really enjoyed the lunch there.

P: It was good!

B: Yeah, very good.
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This is the first of what will hopefully be many recordings of homilies by Father Bernie Gilgun, from his weekly Mass at the Mustard Seed in Worcester, Massachusetts. You can download the mp3 (6.7MB) or see other formats. You can also subscribe (RSS) to the podcast.
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 Standard Podcast [14:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Cold: Today a crew from Channel 7 interviewed Bruce about the cold weather in front of City Hall. (It was 7 degrees F and windy.) I declined to be interviewed, and the guy looked angry. Nothing personal, man, it was just too damn cold to stand around.

Podcasts: Saint Kermit will be back to a regular schedule within the next few weeks.

Websites: WCCA’s website is a fun mix of telecommunications articles, local videos, and Albanian blog posts, which can make it a challenge to find things. If you’ve been following the drama around the station’s future, there’s a new page that promises to keep the relevant links organized.

Worcester: I have an article at Worcester Activist about city government and cars.

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A few days after Christmas, folks living on or near the streets in downtown South Bend started talking about a couple of guys who were missing. Mike Nolen’s family had been expecting him and his friend, Mike Lawson, for Christmas dinner, but they never showed up. This was unusual, not like them. Nolen’s mother put in a missing person’s report. We started calling local hospitals and jails.

A week later, with no word from either of the Mikes, their friends told police to check out an abandoned building where they were known to hang out, or down in the nearby manholes, in case something bad happened.
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South Bend, Indiana Tribune:

Lawson and three other men were found dead inside city manholes near Coveleski Stadium last week.

The deaths of Lawson, 53, Michael S. Nolen Jr., 40, Jason Coates, 29, and Brian G. Talboom, 51, have all been ruled homicides.

Authorities released no new information Friday regarding the deaths of the homeless men.

[Jerry] Eason spoke fondly about Lawson at the Mass held at Our Lady of the Road, a drop-in center at 744 S. Main St. About 80 people — primarily friends and a few family members — attended the Mass, which was followed by a potluck dinner.

The Mass was for Lawson, a Catholic who stayed at the Catholic Worker House, but all of the victims were prayed for.

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Recently, I have been reading a bit about India, in particular the panchayati raj envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi. Here in Oxfordshire, we have two tiers of local government: first, a county council; then, a city council surrounded by 4 (rural) district councils, which is a kind of a panchayat. (Note that the district and city councils are independent, not subordinate to the county council.) But as it stands, the political colours in the urban are in stark contrast to that in the rural. For example, none of the city and county councillors elected from the city are Conservatives; almost everywhere else, the Tories prevail. This pattern is replicated in the MPs returned. Read the rest of this entry »

Four men. One dinette.

I visited the Midtown Mall’s Midtown Dinette with artist/entrepreneurs Jacob Berendes and Mike Leslie, who run Happy Birthday Mike Leslie, and Bruce, who now has a MySpace page.

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