508 is a show about Worcester. This week, Chris Robarge of the Citizens Advisory Council (and ACLU) talks about Worcester Boards and Commissions. Also: sharpening a Ka Bar Fighting Knife
with a Spyderco Sharpmaker and a Chef’s Choice 130.

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You can watch 508 Fridays at 7pm on WCCA TV13.

Also: FYC closing, Occupy/Tea Party protest against the NDAA.

(Amazon affiliate links in this post help fund the 508 Giant Knife Fund.)

Rita Corbin, 1954

The conviction that governments serve elites rather than the general populace is widespread. In The Boston Globe, December, 21, 2011, Brandeis Professor Kanan Makiya said that Iraq is now run by corrupt “political elites…. no better than the former Baathist elite that was overthrown.” Also on December 21st, the Associated Press reported that 10,000 Egyptian women demonstrated against the brutality of the caretaker military government which demonstrators empowered only months earlier after Hosni Mubarak was overthrown. That same day, the BBC broadcast a story of Chinese villagers barricading their streets against local officials who’ve been seizing their land. According to the BBC, “Every year, tens of thousands of demonstrations occur [in China] against corrupt officials.”

Giving anyone power over a nation is risky. When the Israelites asked for a king, the prophet Samuel warned them:

…the king who is to reign over you…. will take your sons and assign them to his chariotry and cavalry, and they will run in front of his chariot…. He will make them plow his plowland and harvest his harvest and make his weapons of war…. He will also take your daughters as perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He will take the best of your fields, of your vineyards, and olive groves and give them to his officials. He will tithe your crops… and you yourselves will become his slaves
(I Samuel 10-18)

This is not to say that all politicians are corrupt. Some use their authority for the general good, but power tends toward personal aggrandizement and favoritism. The authors of the US Constitution were so wary of tyranny that they tried to craft a government with three branches checking each other’s power. Little did the founding fathers realize that all the branches would eventually serve the same master–the rich. From a nation originally lauded as a land of equal opportunity and broad prosperity, America has become a country where 50% of its population is either poor or low income, while the top 1% own 38.1% of the wealth. (This wealth gap is even greater if one includes the tens of millions of undocumented people working in the US.) Although the wealthy, white, male, slave-owners who established our republic proclaimed government “of, by, and for the people,” it wasn’t until a hundred years later that public education was provided and fifty years after that before fair wages, reasonable hours, and safe working conditions were mandated. Civil rights took another quarter century. Environmental protection is still a work in progress.

But since the election of President Ronald Reagan, the government has increasingly reduced services while transferring wealth to the rich. People think nothing now of paying fees to use public parks or to have their children participate in school sports. Fire departments, the postal service, public transportation, libraries, and schools go begging, while the lords of Wall Street and the mandarins of the military industrial complex gorge themselves at the people’s expense. And yet, ironically, many impoverished Americans still cheer for super-wealthy politicians, like Mitt Romney, whose economic policies would make his class even richer.

Then again, the corrupting influence of power is not confined to politics. When Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield opened their ice cream business in Vermont, they famously pledged that no executive would ever earn more than seven times the salary of their lowest paid employee. The CEO now earns $250,000, quite a bit more than the average Joe.

Similarly, while Pope John XXIII encouraged Catholic decision-making via consultation with bishops, lay people, and other faiths, subsequent popes have moved ever closer to top down rule and papal infallibility. Interestingly, one of the most prestigious theologians of our time, Rev. Hans Küng, made an impassioned appeal in June 2011 for decentralization of Church power. In an open letter, Father Küng points out blunders of Pope Benedict XVI, the most autocratic pope since Pius XII, and argues that frequently held councils of bishops are less prone to error or abuse. Küng rejects authoritarianism saying, “unconditional obedience can never be paid to any human authority; it is due to God alone.”

But shouldn’t we go even deeper than pointing our fingers at political, business, and religious leaders who abuse power? After all, don’t all of us wield some authority over others? Police officers, teachers, parents, owners of pets, and yes, even Catholic Workers can wield power abusively. Here at Saints Francis & Thérèse Catholic Worker, a core group of volunteers manages donations, determines the rules, makes the menus, and has the final word on how long a guest can remain. We too can lord it over others and save the best portions for ourselves. We might not even notice our elitism. At Saint Benedict’s Catholic Worker in Washington, DC, volunteers would sleep on the floor if all our beds were full because Christ urged us “to take the lowest place,” as He certainly did. When we first came to Worcester, members of our community would go out in pairs to spend one night a month on the street to remind us of how difficult homelessness is and of the fact that the Son of God had “nowhere to lay His head.” Like governments, which Thomas Jefferson suggested should be overthrown periodically, power arrangements on the interpersonal level need to be evaluated and reformed constantly.

Brian Kavanagh

I’m happy to say that Ben and Jerry announced in late 2011 that their company will become 100% fair trade. They will give up some of their profits to redistribute wealth and power downward. It doesn’t happen often and isn’t easy, but power can take the form of servitude. We can grow in moral stature and personal happiness by divesting power and sharing decision-making. The Occupy Wall Street people take it on the chin from critics who demand immediate results, but they model a better world by eschewing leaders and embracing consensus. Ultimately, the most vital state, congregation, or business is community-based with loyalty voluntarily given and power dispersed as widely as possible and oriented toward service of others.

Once again, Jesus sets the standard:

Though He was in the form of God, He did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at. Rather He emptied himself and took the form of a slave…
(Philippians 2:6-7a)

Originally printed in the January 2012 issue of the Catholic Radical. PDF link

I was in downtown Worcester at the federal courthouse this afternoon for the first of four (!) hours of an NDAA protest organized by Occupy Worcester.

Interest in this event skyrocketed a couple days ago when the local Tea Party encouraged members to take part.

Things began with Occupy Worcester mic checking the Bill of Rights:

The big Tea Party contingent hadn’t arrived by the time I left; most of the 30-40 people were familiar from past OW events.

In Massachusetts, the days finally feel like they’re getting longer. The battle against darkness continues, but it’s obvious the tide has turned, and these holidays mark a natural time to celebrate the impending victory and think about the end of winter, whether by preparing liturgical equipment or seeing if small animals can give us an ETA.

I’m officially beginning to plan for Lent today. That means starting to think about what I might want to give up (this year: a lot), and asking the people around me if they’re observing Lent this year (many non-Christians do!). It’s also turned out to be a day of garden and business planning, and reviewing the progress of my New Year’s resolutions. Candlemas—now my favorite neglected holiday.

Womag: Eliminating boredom at the FYC

508 is a show about Worcester. This week, School Committee Vice-Chair Tracy Novick gives Mike an intro to the School Committee.

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Subscribe with iTunes

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You can watch 508 Fridays at 7pm on WCCA TV13.

508 is a show about Worcester. This week, Mike and Brendan talk about newspapers, SOPA, and Pulse’s “ones to watch” list.

Audio: mp3 download link, other formats, feed

Subscribe with iTunes

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You can watch 508 Fridays at 7pm on WCCA TV13.

I observed the tenth anniversary of Guantanamo along with hundreds of others in front of the White House. Our group had placed a wheeled cage, with someone dressed as a detainee (black hood, orange jumpsuit) inside, outside the White House 90 hours before the big demonstration began, and the goal was to keep the cage vigil going until the demonstration, and the following march to the Supreme Court, were over.

So I stood next to the cage the afternoon of January 11, keeping the “detainee” company, talking with tourists and protesters, and keeping people from doing anything stupid to the cage. (Only a handful tried, but enough to put me on edge.)

When I started working on closing Guantanamo and related issues in late 2008, it felt like the issue was in play, but in 2012 working on Guantanamo or indefinite detention feels like tilting at windmills.

I’ve read that people like to spread their donations across several charities, building a portfolio in the spirit of a mutual fund. I’m blessed to have spare time as well as money to contribute, and in my portfolio Guantanamo is one of the more speculative investments.

This year’s ten-day “Hungering for Justice” campaign was a portfolio in itself, a mix of outreach, education, street demonstrations, and both a civil disobedience trial and arrest (in that order). Other groups we work with, like Amnesty International or the Center for Constitutional Rights, work on the issues in more conventional ways that require money and specialized expertise; Witness Against Torture tries the many other things that might possibly, maybe, contribute, and that mostly require dedicated people.

The first photo, of demonstrators and the cage outside the White House, is mine. The second, of the march to the Supreme Court, is Johnny Barber’s.

I’m sure there’s a technical term for how the viewer separates the artwork from the background. I love taking creche photos in part because the background is so often completely inappropriate, and occasionally accidentally appropriate. Here, NO TRESPASSING and BEWARE OF THE DOG are a “No room at the inn” for our time.

Christmas morning, I vowed to my little brother that any time I see a celebrity in a setting where greeting that celebrity is at all appropriate, I will greet that celebrity. (Stories like “I could have talked with Stephen Hawking this one time” or “I could have talked with Ted Turner this one time” are nothing but frustrating.) And who was at Christmas mass but Michael “Catholic Anarchy” Iafrate. I’m still not sure how two anarchist-sympathizing Catholic bloggers emerged from the same generation in a single West Virginian parish, much less how they did this without meeting before. Well, I greeted him, and now we have met.

At this parish, they’re adjusting to the changes in the mass with elegant pew cards from the hilariously-named AndWithYourSpirit.com. (“And with your spirit” being the phrase nobody remembers to say.)

My most memorable mass this Advent was one Saturday at dusk at St. Andrew’s in Worcester, when there was a local power outage. Below, the lector reads with the aid of a pen light. As you would expect, much was made of “waiting for light in darkness.”

2011 overall was an amazing year in my spiritual life, but Advent was a time of stress and distraction. One last thing I should have blogged earlier was Christmas caroling with the Catholic Worker community. This year, 25 of us visited nursing homes, Christmas parties, and unsuspecting neighbors.

Mike: Bruce, did you see that joke on the whiteboard? “What did one angel say to the other angel?” “HALO THERE!”

Bruce: Ha ha ha!

Justin (ten seconds later): Bruce, did you see that joke on the whiteboard?

Bruce: Yeah. It went over my head.

508 is a show about Worcester. This week, Mike and Brendan recap the week’s news and finish up their 2011 season on a series of depressing notes.

Audio: mp3 download link, other formats, feed

Subscribe with iTunes

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You can watch 508 Fridays at 7pm on WCCA TV13.