Month: May 2008

A letter to the ambassador and staff of the Chinese Embassy

This letter was faxed to the embassy today, in anticipation of a protest next week.

Dear Sirs and Madams,

As a peace activist who has witnessed the tragedy of avoidable loss of life in war zones, I offer you and your people my heartfelt condolence for the suffering caused by the recent earthquake in your country. As a parent, I am especially sympathetic to all those Chinese parents whose children were injured or killed.

It is my desire to spare other parents this same agony that inspires me to write to you today. In December 2004, as a member of a Catholic Worker Peace Team, I visited Darfur, Sudan where I witnessed enormous harm inflicted on hundreds of thousands of civilians by the Sudanese army and its militias. We delivered food to many in pitiful camps for internally displaced people, but realized that only an end to the Sudanese government’s genocidal campaign against its African citizens could truly restore those victims to health and safety. When we asked Sudanese human rights activists what was the most effective nonviolent action we could take to end genocide in Darfur, we were told to protest at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, DC. We have done this several times since then, but have become increasingly aware that diplomatic efforts to end the genocide have been frustrated by the continued economic, military, and political support being given to the Sudanese government by the government of China.
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Items

WoMag jail story
It used to be hard (but not uncommon) for the weekly Worcester Magazine to scoop the daily Telegram & Gazette. Yesterday, via the power of the Internet, WoMag beat the T&G by 8 hours in their coverage of a recent federal report on problems at the county jail.

The report (PDF) makes a few dozen recommendations on improving conditions, because:

In defining the scope of inmates’ Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, the Supreme Court has held that corrections officials must take reasonable steps to guarantee inmates’ safety and provide “humane conditions” of confinement. . . . The “humane conditions” standard is satisfied when a corrections system provides for inmates’ basic needs for safety, medical care, food, clothing, and shelter. . . . As discussed below, the conditions at the Jail do not comport with these legal standards.

This part has already provoked comment:

The Jail’s grievance process is difficult for inmates to access. As an initial matter, inmates do not have direct access to grievance forms and must obtain them from the housing unit captain. Once a form is completed, inmates must “complete and forward the form in an envelope, with postage, addressed to the (‘Facility Inmate Grievance Coordinator’) by way of the outgoing facility mail.” Pursuant to the Jail’s policy, inmates must file a grievance form within ten days of the incident at issue, although the grievance officer told us that he does not enforce this rule. Inmates are subject to these same rigorous requirements if they wish to appeal the grievance officer’s decision.

The inaccessibility of this system is reflected in the low number of grievances that are filed.

Deputy Superintendent Jeff Turco:

There’s nothing in the Constitution that says a jail can’t have a cumbersome grievance process … [or] any process.

Buck Paxton:

Apparently some people think the right to petition for a redress of grievances is just part of a Seinfeld sketch.

I’d be curious to see how this report compares with the reports issued to other jails these days, or Worcester County in the past.

Meth lab at slaughterhouse
At a notorious kosher slaughterhouse, according to accounts of a recent immigration raid there. “Last November, the search warrant said, ICE agents interviewed a former Agriprocessors supervisor who said some employees were running a methamphetamine lab in the plant and were bringing weapons to work.” Erik Marcus notes: “I had no idea that crystal meth was part of a deep religious tradition.”

Interview with Louis Rodemann of KC Catholic Worker
Haven’t listened to it yet, but here it is: mp3#1, mp3#2.
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508 #34: Too old and too ugly

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panelists are Cha-Cha Connor, Brendan Melican, and Bruce Russell.

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The show begins with an excerpt from Fr. Bernie Gilgun’s homily at the memorial mass for Tom Lewis.

Cha-Cha was part of a Real Solutions press conference this week looking to change people’s attitudes towards “sex workers” and “drug users,” among others. Real Solutions has asked the City Manager for information about the state of rooming houses and “SROs” in Worcester over the past decade.

The license commission suspended the city license for a gun range and will allow alcohol to be served at an event at Green Hill Park. City Councilor Joff Smith has suggested the city start a lottery.

“Renegade blogger” Marc Reece had a bad experience with Karon Shea Modeling and started a blog about it. Mike ties this to some of the ideas in Clay Shirky’s great new book Here Comes Everybody.

Jeff Barnard and Jordan Levy have criticized some of the recommendations the Research Bureau made about the city’s finances. Mr. Levy’s blog now has an RSS feed.

Jeff:

They recommend that the city sell, among other things, the airport. . . . the city’s been trying to sell the airport since the beginning of time . . . They’ll probably recommend in some future report that the empty mall on Front Street should be redeveloped . . . .

We experiment with reading Mr. Levy’s blog aloud.

Brendan: You, Mike Benedetti, just fixed everything that’s wrong with Jordan Levy.

Mike: As Muhammad Ali said of someone else, he’s “too old and too ugly to be the champion. Look at me! I’m pretty!”

The Telegram & Gazette spammed Mike this week. Jeff Barnard pointed out that blogging for the T&G is a rip-off. This week’s best online discussion threads include this one about school funding and this one about WRTA funding.

Fitchburg is cutting library services.

Papamoka and Wormtown Taxi posted some interesting info about groceries. Mike encourages you to hike the Massachusetts Midstate Trail and read his thru-hiker’s guide (PDF).

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Fr Bernie Gilgun’s homily, May 2, 2008

This is a recording of a homily by Father Bernie Gilgun, from his weekly Mass at the Mustard Seed in Worcester, Massachusetts. He talks about the Lavallees’ wedding anniversary and the Ascention.

You can download the mp3 or see other formats. You can also subscribe (RSS) to the podcast.

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Tom Lewis memorial mass

The Mustard Seed was beyond packed for Tom Lewis’s memorial mass, with a crowd of 30 lingering outside the doorways hoping for a glimpse of the events.

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Father Bernie Gilgun celebrated the mass. (Deacon Walter Doyle assisted.) Here’s Fr Bernie’s homily:
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In Psalm 137, and also in the book of Proverbs, we are told, truly told, “The memory of the just is blessed.” If you wanna be blessed, don’t forget Tom Lewis! “The memory of the just is blessed.” You wanna be blessed? Remember this just man! He carried high and proud the banner of peace and justice in this community, perhaps like no other. Like a one-man revolution.

Download the mp3 or see more formats.

My bad photos.

Read comments about Tom Lewis.

Leave a comment about Tom Lewis.

508 #33: The Dragon Sorcerer

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel includes Brendan Melican.

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You wouldn’t know it from reading the Telegram & Gazette, but, as at other papers, their circulation is still dropping. The news could be worse. Mike notes a goofy headline. (Brendan mentions the 2-headed kitten in Milbury and a T&G column that made it to Fark.)

We have an exclusive interview with two of the kids behind the play The Dragon Sorcerer, which will be performed in Worcester May 9 and 10.

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I already have my tickets

Mike summarizes this week’s InCity Times and praises Annie’s Clark Brunch.

We listen to Gary Rosen speak about the possible decriminalization of marijuana in Massachusetts.

Brendan:

Next fall marijuana will be decriminalized in the state of Massachusetts. There’s no doubt about it . . . . All the Billy Breaults in the world are not going to stand in the way of this happening. There’s just too much public support out there.

Brendan shares his thoughts on the resolution of the strip club zoning issue.

We finish the show with an excerpt from the audiobook of Cory Doctorow’s new young adult novel Little Brother. Mike is going to buy a copy for a teen he knows who likes civil liberties and dislikes The Man.

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Happy 75th birthday, Catholic Worker movement!

On May 1, 1933, the first issue of The Catholic Worker went on sale in Manhattan’s Union Square for a penny a copy.

Dorothy Day, from that issue:

It’s time there was a Catholic paper printed for the unemployed.

The fundamental aim of most radical sheets is the conversion of its readers to radicalism and atheism.

Is it not possible to be radical and not atheist?

Is it not possible to protest, to expose, to complain, to point out abuses and demand reforms without desiring the overthrow of religion?

In an attempt to popularize and make known the encyclicals of the Popes in regard to social justice and the program put forth by the Church for the “reconstruction of the social order,” this news sheet, The Catholic Worker, is started.

[…]

This first number of The Catholic Worker was planned, written and edited in the kitchen of a tenement on Fifteenth Street, on subway platforms, on the “L,” the ferry. There is no editorial office, no overhead in the way of telephone or electricity, no salaries paid.

The money for the printing of the first issue was raised by begging small contributions from friends. A colored priest in Newark sent us ten dollars and the prayers of his congregation. A colored sister in New Jersey, garbed also in holy poverty, sent us a dollar. Another kindly and generous friend sent twenty-five. The rest of it the editors squeezed out of their own earnings, and at that they were using money necessary to pay milk bills, gas bills, electric light bills.

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