August 2007

Are you able to help the South Bend Catholic Worker with a donation?

They need the following items:

• Coffee
• T-shirts
• Small canisters of shaving cream
• Dish soap
• Laundry soap
• Socks
• Trash bags (13 gal and 30 gal)

I think they could also use a copy of the Joy of Cooking.

You can bring donations to their drop-in center, “Our Lady of the Road,” 744 South Main Street in South Bend, Indiana, Friday and Saturday mornings. If you’d like to volunteer at Our Lady of the Road, please stop by and say hello.

Your generous donation will keep Al fully caffeinated.

Sister Madonna Buder finishes the Ironman

Cinnamon suggested this cool video of 76-year-old Sister Madonna Buder finishing the Ironman triathlon.

Waterloo (Iowa) Catholic Worker turns 25!
Congrats:

The Catholic Worker House, because it is not a non-profit and does not receive federal dollars, operates with less paperwork and more flexibility than many social service organizations. Also, the Waterloo operation, and others like it, do not receive or give tax write-offs, and pays property taxes. This practice, in [Dorothy] Day’s perspective, is a way to identify with the poor.

Any man, woman and child who comes looking for a temporary bed or a hot meal is welcomed, no questions asked, Quirk said. Though visitors, called guests by volunteers, must abide by house rules. Waterloo’s Catholic Worker House includes a home for about six men and a home for about five women and some children.

Snow Ghost podcast #4: Bon Scott vs. Brian Johnson
On this week’s podcast, Bruce and I are joined by Messrs. Paulukonis and Villani to discuss AC/DC, Metallica, and Bruce getting picked up by the police.

Download the mp3, see more formats, subscribe to the podcast feed.

Here’s Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy’s “Questions & Answers on Gospel Nonviolence” in podcast form: podcast feed | list of recordings

More info at the Center for Christian Nonviolence site. (I just made a podcast feed out of the audio they’ve posted, so it will be easier for iTunes users to download the whole series.)

I just finished listening to his series Behold the Lamb, and I recommend it to you.

Here’s the first part of “Questions & Answers on Gospel Nonviolence”, to whet your appetite:

Bruce and I talked to Brenna Cussen about South Bend’s Chicory Cafe for the Snow Ghost Community Podcast. You can listen to the complete podcast, or just read this transcription of the interview.

Pie and Coffee: On our last Community Show, we were complaining that it’s hard to get Fair Trade coffee at a coffee shop in Worcester. In South Bend, though, it’s gotten a lot easier.

Brenna, how’s it going?

Brenna Cussen: Great, thanks. How are you, Mike?

P: Pretty good. Thanks for sitting through all this nonsense so that you could be on the show.

Brenna: I’m happy, I’m very flattered that I got invited to be on the Bruce Russell show . . . Snow Ghost show.

Bruce: If we’re going to do this, let’s get things right!

P: So Brenna, I wanted to ask you about the Chicory Cafe in downtown South Bend.

Brenna: Sure.

P: They have Fair Trade coffee!

Brenna: They do! They made the transition slowly. Well, they had both options of Fair Trade and non-Fair Trade. And the Fair Trade was a little bit more expensive. I’d say maybe 15 cents more a cup. But just the other day, they made the complete switchover. And now they only serve Fair Trade coffee.
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Today Margie Pfeil and I went to the diocesan Eucharistic Congress held at Notre Dame. The day started with a very nice ecumenical prayer service at the basilica.

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Bye Nicole!

Darfur death toll
Interesting NYT op-ed on how some think the Darfur death toll has been exaggerated. Eric Reeves responds. Back in 2005, when we made our Darfur movie, we used a very high number based on Eric Reeves’s latest estimate, which he later revised downwards. I think that criticizing Darfur stats is an important part of public discussion of this issue, and is very different from attempts to claim there’s nothing untoward happening in Darfur; I’ve criticized that sort of attempt before.

Worcester, an immigrant sanctuary?
Buck Paxton:

So in reality, the only bad that could come from Worcester becoming a sanctuary city is a 450% increase in the quality of local food offerings and maybe, just maybe I’ll be able to afford to have a guy mow my lawn. But, Worcester being what it is try explain that to the locals who feel compelled to scapegoat anything that may out their own failings.

Related: Should newspapers run letters that aren’t factually accurate?

South Bend: mural vanishes (2006 vs. 2007)

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Here’s Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy’s recorded retreat “Behold the Lamb” in podcast form: podcast feed | list of recordings

“He takes as his central theme the Nonviolent Lamb of God and focuses on this biblical symbol and reality as the true icon and transcendental model for encountering God as revealed by Jesus, and for understanding and following the Way of God as taught by Jesus.”

More info at the Center for Christian Nonviolence site.

At a time when I had more or less convinced myself nonviolence was the way to go, I attended a small talk by Father McCarthy which sent me racing down that path.

Here’s the first part of the series, to whet your appetite:

A reader submits an item from today’s Worcester City Council agenda:

12q. Request City Manager arrange to have the exterior of City Hall illuminated with pink and blue lighting during November, 2007 in recognition of Prematurity Awareness Month. (see enclosed explanation). (Rosen)

There will be a remembrance to mourn the atomic bombing of Nagasaki this Thursday, August 9, 2007, 5-6pm in front of the Federal Building in South Bend, Indiana.

It is being organized by the Peter Claver Catholic Worker community.

Attendees are asked to wear black. For more info, e-mail pieandcoffee@gmail.com

Twenty years ago the following scene took place in one of the numerous prison yards of northern Russia. At seven o’clock in the morning the door of a cell was flung open and on its threshold stood a prison guard, who addressed its inmates: “Citizens! The collective of this prison’s guard challenges you, the inmates, to socialist competition in chopping the lumber in the yard.” In those parts there is no central heating, and the local police, in a manner of speaking, tax all the nearby lumber companies for one-tenth of its produce. By the time I am describing, the prison yard looked like a veritable lumberyard: the piles were two to three stories high, dwarfing the one-storied quadrangle of the prison itself. The need for chopping was evident, although socialist competitions of this sort had happened before. “And what if I refuse to take part in this?” inquired one of the inmates. “Well, in that case no meals for you,” replied the guard.

Then axes were issued to inmates, and the cutting started. Both prisoners and guards worked in earnest, and by noon all of them, especially the always underfed prisoners, were exhausted. A break was announced and people sat down to eat: except the fellow who asked the question. He kept swinging his ax. Both prisoners and guards exchanged jokes about him, something about Jews being normally regarded as smart people whereas this man … and so forth. After the break they resumed the work, although in a somewhat more flagging manner. By four o’clock the guards quit, since for them it was the end of their shift; a bit later the inmates stopped too. The man’s ax still kept swinging. Several times he was urged to stop, by both parties, but he paid no attention. It seemed as though he had acquired a certain rhythm he was unwilling to break; or was it a rhythm that possessed him? Read the rest of this entry »