Catholic Worker Tea Party

On Wednesday, April 14, 2010, Ken Hannaford-Ricardi, Julia Skjerli, and Scott Schaeffer-Duffy of the Saints Francis & Therese Catholic Worker in Worcester, Massachusetts went to the Boston Common where a Tea Party rally addressed by Sarah Palin was held. At the edge of a crowd of about 4,000 Tea Party supporters, the Catholic Workers held signs and distributed almost 500 leaflets. Ken held a sign which read, “A Tea Party the US Needs Now.” It depicted colonists throwing boxes labeled “WAR” into Boston Harbor. Julia held a sign which read, “Cut Government Spending, End the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Now.” Scott wore a tri-corner hat and colonial garb. He rang a bell and quoted James Madison and Patrick Henry on the evils of a standing army.

Their leaflet is reprinted below:
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Radical priest Carl Kabat profiled in NYT

Carl Kabat at the 2008 Catholic Worker national gatheringNice profile in today’s New York Times of Fr Carl Kabat, OMI, a Catholic priest with longstanding ties to both the Plowshares and Catholic Worker movements:

At 75 he continues his crusade against nuclear weapons at missile silos across the United States, armed with a hammer and a pair of bolt cutters. He usually wears a clown suit, in homage, he says, to St. Paul’s words: “We are fools for Christ’s sake.”

[…]

Subsequent protests led to Father Kabat’s spending more time in prison than out, raising questions about the effectiveness of his approach.

Liz McAlister, who married Philip Berrigan, has an answer. “We live in a culture where we want to measure everything to know how successful things are,” Ms. McAlister said. “It’s beautiful to see people who don’t spend time wondering and worrying about that and are willing to do what they think is right regardless of the consequences.”

Photo: Carl Kabat at the 2008 Catholic Worker National Gathering in Worcester.

Band Together: street politics and old-time music

“Band Together” combines street outreach on political issues with live, old-time music. I talked with some of the people behind the concept about their experiences and what advice they’d give to others looking to try it.

Download the podcast, subscribe, or see other formats.

Band Together is a human rights advocacy project. We use live artistic performances in public places to capture people’s attention and turn it toward human rights. We strive to educate people on the most urgent issues of our time, and facilitate action that will lead to a change in legislative policy on these issues.

Worcester wins

“City Manager Announces City Council Meetings to Go On-Line”:

The City Manager has announced that City Council meetings will now be available on-line, greatly increasing citizen participation and government accountability.

Worcester Indymedia, with help from WCCA TV13, has been archiving these meetings for the past year, at a grand cost of $50.

This is amazing timing by the City, as I’ve done most of the archiving for Indymedia, and the project is set to end when I leave for DC next week.

Carl Malamud’s “Hack 3: Be Government” was a big inspiration:

Sometimes the best way to get government to do something is just do it yourself. That’s a strategy I previously used in posting data from the SEC on the Internet. I ran the database for a couple of years, then put a little sign up saying the service would terminate in 60 days. The SEC got it right away that free markets are based on information and started running the service. I tried the same trick on the Patent Office, but that is a much less clueful bunch when it comes to subversive goals like promoting the dissemination of knowledge, and I had to harass them for a few more years.

How to: commemorate the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

August 6 is the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. August 9 is the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

One year in South Bend we held a Nagasaki commemoration and our signs were confusing to passersby. A short, clear sign might be NAGASAKI / 1945 / MOURN THE DEAD.

Here’s a leaflet with a Catholic focus you can customize.:

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Worcester, 2004

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South Bend, 2006

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Worcester, 2009

If you have constructive suggestions, or this info is helpful, please post a comment.

Imagine no more slogans

Yes We Can Have No Slogans

This Thursday, May 29, the City of Worcester, which has suffered under many a failed and crappy slogan, will unite without any slogans at all and drink some beers.

Worcester’s slogans include Do You Woo, The Heart of the Commonwealth, City that Reads, City on the Move, Moving in the Right Direction, Choose Worcester, Right Place/Right Time, and So Much/So Close. Discussion thread here.

Worcester has a few decent slogans mixed in there: Paris of the Eighties, Port au Prince of the Nineties, and The City that Screws Turtles all come to mind.

I say rejecting these slogans is a small price to pay for a day without the rest.

An interview with Claire Schaeffer-Duffy

Long-time Worcester Catholic Worker Claire Schaeffer-Duffy is one of 35 people on trial in Washington, DC, Tuesday for nonviolent civil disobedience at the Supreme Court against torture and denial of habeas rights to Guantanamo detainees. I talked to her shortly before she left on the bus to DC.

Download the mp3 or see more formats.

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The Saga of Dorothy Day

Editor’s note: This is excerpted from Scott’s comic “Servant of God Dorothy Day” in the April/May 2008 issue of The Catholic Radical. For a copy of the whole thing, write to 52 Mason St, Worcester MA 01610.

Servant of God Dorothy Day

The vast majority of those who sought help at Catholic Worker houses of hospitality were pleasant and courteous, but some, (from drink, drugs, mental illness, or plain frustration at their plight) were sometimes violent. Dorothy met those angry few with a down-to-earth love and a good sense of humor.