To remember the anniversary of this event, which continues to bear fruit today, we talked with Catonsville Nine member (and our housemate) Tom Lewis. Also part of the conversation is long-time peace activist Emeritus Professor Michael D. True, Ph.D. and Doctor of Humane Letters (honoris causa).

Scott: Division and self-interest are not good solutions. Building up walls, keeping out people, not being hospitable, they’re not good solutions cause ultimately somebody’s gonna catapult a plague victim over your walls because of the bitterness. You’re gonna end up divided with each other. You gotta keep your values intact.

Mike: So actually Worcester’s success in dealing with people who are experiencing homelessness, or addiction, or whatever, maybe comes into play when we face zombie attack.

Scott: The compassionate cities are gonna fare better.

These videos feature people such as Don Edwards, Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, Ed Loring and Murphy Davis, Jim Wallis, and Cornel West.

To subscribe to the feed in Miro, click here.

Here’s a video taken during the group portrait, which hopefully shows both the setting and the 160+ people who were there.

• More photos
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We’re going to have a little party this Friday at the Catholic Worker to celebrate, since the guest is Catholic Worker Scott Schaeffer-Duffy talking about the Three Stooges.

As if that weren’t enough, you can now watch episode 100 (3) online.

Another friend attacked over gay rights
You’ll remember that back in December 2006, my friend Sarah Loy was reportedly assaulted at a pro/anti gay marriage event in Worcester. Earlier this week, Kaihsu’s friend Peter Tatchell was attacked at a gay rights event in Moscow. BBC:

Gay rights activist Peter Tatchell and singer Richard Fairbrass have expressed their shock after being punched by anti-homosexual protesters in Moscow.

Both men were hit on the head during a gay rights march on Sunday. Protesters attacked with kicks, punches and eggs.

Anne Marie Kaune profile
Nice article in Worcester Business Journal about the sometime Catholic Worker, healer of the poor, and St. Peter’s parishioner.

New Snow Ghost book: Many Wisdom
Download it from the Archive or buy it at HBML.

Snow Ghost Community Show #2: Dracula

Opposition to Worcester Wal-Mart continues
Greg Olson:

Cynical residents might call this a done deal. But it looks more and more like it was just a dumb deal.

This letter at Worcester First is interesting:

I e-mailed Mayor Konstantina B. Lukes, writing against the proposed Worcester Wal-Mart. A response came from Edward Gardella, assistant to the mayor, “She (Ms. Lukes) is in agreement with your sentiments, but it appears it’s too late for argument and the project will move on. Thank you for your concern.”

[...]

I encourage the mayor and the city councilors to put on that ol’ Worcester smiley face, and not succumb to learned helplessness.

Scott Schaeffer-Duffy in the blogs
Writing about Cindy Sheehan’s withdrawal from the peace movement, Emily Spence namechecks Scott:

You, also, know that wars are very difficult to dismantle. As Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, a Catholic Worker, once explained to me—the violence is like pressurized magma just waiting to erupt. Once you tamp it down in one place on the planet, it will rise up on another. There seems no end to it.

Mike True on religion and non-theism
This week in Worcester Magazine, occasional Pie and Coffee contributor Emeritus Professor Michael D. True, Ph.D. and Doctor of Humane Letters (honoris causa) wades into the whole religion-vs-neoatheism debate:

The standard for evaluating organized religions should be not doctrines or dogmas laid down by hierarchies, but values embodied in the lives of great religious figures — the Buddha, Mahavira, Jesus, Mohammed, and their faithful disciplines, Francis of Assisi, Ramakrishna, and Dorothy Day.

More strong words from Pope on peace
You could write an article like this every week. Via Catholic Anarchy:

The Pope quoted from Tertullian: “The Christian cannot hate, not even his own enemies,” and then noted “the moral implication of the choice of faith,” that “proposes ‘nonviolence’ as the law of life.”

Sunflower Chalice
Tony Lorenzen, who is mere days away from becoming The Reverend Tony Lorenzen, is back to blogging.

Snow Ghost Community Show tapes first episode
We’ve been talking about it for months. We’ve been planning for weeks. And now it can be told: the first episode of the Snow Ghost Community Show has been posted. In this episode, we talk about the Three Stooges with Catholic Worker Scott Schaeffer-Duffy. (If you have comments, please post them at the WCCA blog post.)

Fresolo keeps being a big jerk
You know, when Dianne Williamson thinks you’re being mean, you have a real problem:

The object of [State Rep.] Fresolo’s wrath was Dismas House, a re-entry program for former prisoners, which plans to place a supervised residence on Arthur Street for up to six people who have jobs, years of sobriety and a track record with Dismas House. Mr. Fresolo opposes the home for the typical reasons — it’s too close to a school and the neighbors weren’t properly notified. He has since tried to cut state funding for Dismas House, but has garnered little support.

More from WoMag on this proposed program. Note that Dismas is widely respected as a fantastic program, and in fact, in the neighborhood where the main Dismas House site is located, 78% of the people “support” or “strongly support” “any type of group home in my neighborhood.” (Summary of the cited report.)

(Non-Worcester residents are going to read the Williamson headline “Fresolo bares fangs” and say, “Oh, you’re just jealous that you don’t live in a district represented by a vampire!” In reality, Fresolo isn’t a vampire, or even a werewolf.)

Costa Rica to withdraw its students from the SOA/WHINSEC
Good news via Catholic Anarchy:

…[President] Arias suddenly turned to me and asked “what needs to be done to close this school”. I shared that if Costa Rica were to pull out, that this would certainly have a positive affect, especially given his international standing as a peacemaker, and especially because a bill to withhold funding and investigate the school will be presented any day now. . He immediately said “it is done”.

The whole 09F9 thing
You Can Own an Integer Too — Get Yours Here

Strategic consumption
Worldchanging:

Strategic consumption is the recognition that the immediate, or tactical, effects of our purchases are of such limited power as to be essentially meaningless.