April 2007

This afternoon Grace Ross and I went down to Worcester’s water treatment plant, and I taped Karla Sangrey giving us a tour. It was fun checking out all the different equipment. Didn’t smell too bad, either.

With a little luck, a short movie about Worcester’s water treatment situation will come out of this. With a lot of luck, some fresh new ideas for dealing with the situation will emerge.

At present, the EPA is unhappy with the level of some of the chemicals coming out of this plant into the Blackstone River. (Worcester is the headwaters of the Blackstone.) It looks like the city will sue the EPA to keep from upgrading the plant, as such an upgrade would be very expensive.

The cover story of this week’s InCity Times is a hagiography of WCCA’s Mauro DePasquale, a guy who deserves all the praise he can get. I’m a WCCA volunteer, and Bruce is an intern, so this week’s review is of the WCCA office coffee.

Pie and Coffee: Did you take a look at the article? What did you think?

Bruce: Definitely him. One small problem—I’m not in any of the photos.

P: Maybe we should put a photo of you at WCCA in this article.

I love the introduction (written by Rosalie Tirella):

We’ll say it loud and we’ll say it proud: We love WCCA TV 13 and its Executive Director Mauro DePasquale! From the political shows to the kids news programs, from the exotic and highly capable Zara Dedi at the front desk to no-nonsense community leader turned TV producer Judy Langlois. From the esoteric to the mundane. From the political to the spiritual, TV-13 rocks! Located in the heart of downtown at 415 Main St., in an old bank practically a stone’s throw from City Hall—

[Patrick, a member of the WCCA youth program, walks into the room, takes the paper, looks at the photos, and comments—]

Patrick: Everyone’s there except me.

P: Patrick, why is everyone concerned about their photo being in here?

WCCA practices its own brand of politics: a refreshingly inclusive and progressive kind we’d like to see more of in ‘ol City Hall.

WCCA’s community producers and guests are black, white and brown. They’re old, young and middle-aged. They’re political insiders like City Manager Mike O’Brien; they’re political ousiders (like me!). They’re conservative and liberal; religious and questioning. To tune in to TV 13 is to feast at some funky urban banquet. DePasquale likes to call his station “the electronic park.”

Read the rest of this entry »

All my friends draw Z Magazine covers
Last year, Tom Lechner got his art on the cover of the American leftist Z Magazine. This month, Rudi Cilibrasi got his art on the cover of the Amsterdam street Z Magazine.

Some of my friends are nominated for awards
You can vote for Zack Berger as “Best Overall” blogger in the Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards.

Others are coffee drinkers
The other day I started tracking my coffee consumption in my Google Chat status . . . now I am hearing that friends of friends are doing it. I love the internet.

Government channel
Worcester’s city run government channel is slowly experimenting with publishing multimedia online. If the city would just declare footage of the council meetings as public domain, I predict that within a month the meetings would be uploaded on a regular basis . . . . Read the rest of this entry »

Howdy folks. This Sunday, April 29, I’ll be participating in the Peninsula Harbor CROP Walk. This is a 10-km walk around the streets of fabulous San Pedro, California to raise funds for Church World Service’s interfaith efforts to fight world and local hunger. My sister is a high school teacher and is heading a team of some of her students called Team Jester (after the St. Joseph’s HS mascot). You can find out more about Church World Service here.

Donation is easy! Just follow this link and you will be taken to my personal donation page where you can make a secure online credit card donation. Donations of any amount are appreciated.

I used to do the Long Beach CROP Walk every year when I was a little kid and it was always a happy event.

Author’s note: This is an essay I wrote in 1996 for the late Dr. Peter Fay‘s class, Hum 9a, at Caltech; transcribed with corrections in 2001. [Editor's note: Hiroshima is the subject of a chapter in David Griffith's A Good War Is Hard to Find, which we've been discussing here. Here are more of Griffith's reflections on the subject.]

I come from Taiwan, or Takasago, as one would call it back in the days of colonization under the Empire of Japan before the end of World War 2. Taiwanese people who are of my grandmother’s generation were educated to be Japanese; for example, the late pastor of my church, like many Taiwanese who were drafted by the Imperial Armed Forces at that time, was to be one of the kamikaze, the suicide pilots who were crashing their fighters into the carriers of the Allies. People of that age often talk to us about the times of the Japanese occupation and the Pacific War. Although they resented the unnecessary War they had to fight and complain about the occasional cruelty of the Japanese, they described the Japanese rule as a period of order and stability, in which even during the extreme of hardship near the end of the War, rarely did riots arise and corruption of the administration were unusual. It seemed that everyone in the neighborhood cooperated to remain organized for the War. I always wonder how this kind of disciplined behavior was attained.

After reading John Hersey’s Hiroshima, I think I know a bit more about the way of the Japanese. Although the emblem of the Japanese Empire is the glorious chrysanthemum signifying the Royal Family, common people refer to themselves as sakura, the cherry blossoms, which bloom brilliantly in the spring for a very short time, usually only a few days, and then fall to the ground. A respectful Japanese is one that suffers tragically, or even sacrifices oneself, for the cause of the greater organization (e.g., the Empire, or, as is observed in the modern, post-War society Japan, the kaisha, the Japanese idea of the “firm”), just like the sakura flowers. Any performance less than this is considered a shame in the Japanese mind.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here is the audio of a talk on Darfur at Holy Cross College earlier this month by Brenna Cussen, with Scott Schaeffer-Duffy chiming in. They were part of a four-person Catholic Worker Peace Team that visited Darfur in December 2004.

I really liked part 2 of this talk, where they got into questions like: How can a pacifist respond to genocide?

Woman in Darfur IDP camp, photographed by Brenna Cussen

Darfur talk, Part 1 [ 0:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Darfur talk, Part 2 [ 0:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On the front page of today’s Telegram & Gazette is an article about how Donna has closed the Mustard Seed Catholic Worker soup kitchen for a week, because she needs a break.

I don’t hang out at the Mustard Seed, but it’s my impression that closing the Seed is not news; it’s something she does several times a year. I talked to a couple Mustard Seed habitues today, and confirmed this.

“She closes all the time. Why are you asking me about this?”

It’s on the front page of today’s paper.

“You’re [kidding] me!”

So why does this make the paper? The article describes a note left on the door:

I would advise you to open up the doors for the hungry people who come there soon. Thank You.
[...]
If you don’t, I’m going to the newspapers and see what else can be done about this.

Hmm.

Obscenities have been omitted from this article in respect for the fine work done six days a week at the Mustard Seed.

James Martin, S.J., reminds us that being canonized does not mean that a person was without flaws, even after their conversion. This is a big misconception about saints that a lot of people, Catholic and otherwise, have, and I’m glad to see it clarified in a secular forum.

It was both unfortunate and disasterous that the Republican Party nominated —— as its candidate for President of the United States. In foreign policy, Mr. —— advocated a narrow nationalism, a crippling isolationism, and a trigger-happy attitude that could plunge the whole world into the dark abyss of annihilation. On social and economic issues, Mr. —— represented an unrealistic conservatism that was totally out of touch with the realities of the century. The issue of poverty compelled the attention of all citizens of our country. —— had neither the concern nor the comprehension necessary to grapple with this problem of poverty in the fashion that the historical moment dictated. On the urgent issue of civil rights, —— represented a philosophy that was morally indefensible and socially suicidal. While not himself a bigot, Mr. —— articulated a philosophy which gave aid and comfort to the bigot. His candidacy and philosophy would serve as an umbrella under which extremists of all stripes would stand. In the light of these facts and because of my love for America, I had no alternative but to urge every person of goodwill to vote against Mr. —— and to withdraw support from any Republican candidate that did not publicly disassociate himself from —— and his philosophy.

(gently edited to make the puzzle harder)

The Worcester Middle East Film Festival starts tonight. The films are free, but putting this on is costing the organizers a lot of money, so if you can make a donation (suggested: $5) it would really help.

The listings are at the festival homepage.

The first film is Iraq In Fragments, April 20, 7pm at Worcester State College.