December 2006 – Page 3 – Pie and Coffee

Surveillance begins in Worcester?

A reader:

Cameras–Being installed as I type at the intersection of highland and park . . . .

The City Council has expressed support for mass surveillance in the City. Didn’t hear anything about it being approved yet. No idea if these cameras are part of it. Anyone know anything more?

Sign of Peace 5.2: Counter-recruitment and the Church

The latest issue of the Catholic Peace Fellowship‘s journal, The Sign of Peace, is excellent. You may wish to download the PDF. The CPF would also be delighted to mail you copies.

There follow some passages which caught my interest.
Continue reading “Sign of Peace 5.2: Counter-recruitment and the Church”

Worcester Vets for Peace demonstration

Rally in support of those who refuse to fight in the illegal & immoral WAR in IRAQ. Please join us to stand with Lt. Ehren Watada and all who have the courage to resist!

Sunday December 10
1 PM – 4 PM

ARMED FORCES RECRUITMENT CENTER
255 PARK AVENUE
WORCESTER, MA

Sponsors:
VETERANS FOR PEACE – RON KOVIC CHAPTER
Contact: Bob Flanagan – IrishBob54@aol.com
MONTACHUSETT COALITION FOR PEACE & JUSTICE
Contact: MontachusettCPJ@aol.com
www.couragetoresist.org

How to Support the Troops

One of the nice things about visiting South Bend, Indiana, is hanging out at the Catholic Peace Fellowship office and talking to Mike Schorsch.

Here’s an interview I did with him about his work with the GI Rights Hotline. Download the mp3 or try other formats.

Pie and Coffee: Mike, as a counselor with the GI Rights Hotline, your job description is basically “to support the troops.” Can you tell me a little bit about what you do?

Mike Schorsch: Sure. Mainly what I do is I answer the phone.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Items

Great essay from Mike Schorsch about passing through Ireland’s Shannon Airport, used by the US military despite Ireland’s supposed neutrality. “This is what the jobs side of the principles vs. jobs fight looks like. An old lady pushing booze into the hands of giddy and sad American kids.”
The US bishops have a podcast of the daily readings. And the podcast has a feed.
Worcester Magazine mentions Happy Birthday Mike Leslie as part of an article on bargains in the city.
WoMag: Doherty student documents disrepair with digital camera.
T&G: Clark student documents Main South. She says she wants to distribute the video to politicians and activists, so I’m very disappointed it’s not on-line.
If you want to get on the e-mail list for Real Solutions, you can.
Oldish story: a homeowners’ association in Pagosa Springs, CO, is trying to prevent a homeowner from displaying a “peace sign” wreath. I’ve visited Pagosa, which despite what you’d think from this story is a nice town, with a great outdoors shop.
I’m continuing to maintain Worcester News for All to Learn, as seen in the sidebar of Pie and Coffee. The focus is on blog posts and letters to the T&G (RSS). For example, I love this letter complaining about attempts to name a Worcester street after MLK, and noting that long-time residents are not “comfortable” with this kind of change.
Last week some South Bend kids spent the night outside as part of a project learning about Dorothy Day and homelessness. If you watch the news report, they mention that some homeless folks associated with the Catholic Worker spoke with the kids. I, in turn, spoke with the folks, who were very disappointed they didn’t get on TV.
John Holbo: “War is a continuation of punditry by other means? Have I got that right?”
Ciaron O’Reilly has a blog.
There’s a trailer for “Mary Poppins” as a horror film. It’s been pointed out that the original stories do have a terrifying aspect. As my friend Mike Radford likes to say, Mary Poppins is “a creepy Edwardian witch.”
Bob Waldrop is not happy that Oklahoma City is subsidizing a new luxury hotel.

City Council agenda (late)

From last night’s agenda, submitted with commentary by Anonymous Reader.

8d. Councilor Barbara G. Haller request to install Designated Sticker Parking on the west side of Sever St. along the property of the Worcester Tennis Club, May 1st through November 1st, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., 7 days per week.

ok… so looks like the Worcester Tennis Club crowd doesn’t want to have to walk past too many Becker student cars in their white tennis shorts to get to the Sever St. clay courts.

9b. FROM THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE AND DEVELOPMENT – Request City Manager report to City Council how many artists are estimated to be living within the City of Worcester as part of the artist study being conducted by the Main South CDC.

10a. Request City Manager investigate the possibility of purchasing simultaneous interpreter equipment in an effort to create greater opportunities for communication with the multifarious linguistically challenged populace in Worcester and Municipal government. (Toomey)

10j. Request the City Manager request the Police Chief to consider the benefits of acquiring and installing software currently in use in the state of Oregon and in other countries that pinpoints vehicles as they are tailgating other moving vehicles, issues citations and generates revenue. Said software is being considered for use in Arizona, New Mexico and Tennessee, also. (Toomey)

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. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of equipment is out there to assist our linguistically challenged Municipal government. Wouldn’t our hiring City Hall employees more representative of our City residents and immigrant communities be a different way to go?

17i. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RULES AND REGULATIONS Upon the Order of Mayor Raymond Mariano and Councilors Paul Clancy, Jr., Steven Patton, Juan Gomez, Joseph Petty, Janice Nadeau, Dennis Irish, Timothy Murray, Stephen Abraham, Konstantina Lukes, and Michael Perotto request the City Council establish goals for appointment to the Library Board of Trustees including district representation and appropriate representation for under represented groups: recommend Order be placed on file.

This item goes back to Jan 2, 2001…..hmmm. Either the Library isn’t a priority or the Comittee on Rules and Regulations only meets occasionally. (i.e. danger of Konnie Lukes becoming Mayor) So let’s see,

ROLL CALL PLEASE ……
Mayor Raymond Mariano—GONE
Councilors Paul Clancy, Jr.—Still here
Steven Patton—GONE
Juan Gomez—GONE
Joseph Petty—Still here
Janice Nadeau—Deceased for several years
Dennis Irish—GONE
Timothy Murray—Leaving
Stephen Abraham—GONE
Konstantina Lukes—Rising Star
Michael Perotto—Not GONE yet

yup ….. good example of City Government at work.

Our Lady of the Road opens

The South Bend Catholic Worker celebrated the beginning of Advent today with the grand opening of their new daytime drop-in center at 744 South Main Street, Our Lady of the Road.

The event began with a mass celebrated by Father Paul Kollman, CSC. Well over 100 people were there.

Before

Photos: Grand opening, history of the building since mid-August.

After

(I’ve been sifting through the 800 hobo names for Our Lady of the Road, or Boxcar Mary, but no luck so far.)

From the program book:

Our Lady of the Road is a day-time drop-in center for folks who find themselves on the street. We will offer coffee, snacks, use of the restrooms, showers, and washers and dryers to do clothes. Most of all, however, we will offer a place for people to sit and talk–a place to belong.

We could greatly use your help! To volunteer your time, please contact us at [574] 235-0623 or [574] 287-7734.

Also, the following helpful items are needed: laundry soap, coffee and filters, toilet paper, bath towels, soap, shampoo, razors and shaving cream, women’s hygene products, and other toiletry items.

Most importantly, we ask for your prayers and your presence. We have a lot to celebrate, lots of friends and supporters to thank.

SBCW drop-in center to open

The South Bend Catholic Worker are planning to open their new drop-in center on Dec 2. The grand opening will begin with mass at 5pm at 744 South Main Street, South Bend, Indiana.

(blueprint)

Mike Baxter in a dust cloud: The middle room is clean!