Month: April 2008

May 20: Tell China to Stop Supporting Genocide in Darfur

Dave MaciewskiJoin a nonviolent march, in Washington, DC, from the Chinese to the Sudanese Embassy on Tuesday, May 20th from 9 AM – noon. Despite international criticism, China remains the largest economic and military supporter of the government of Sudan which is widely held as responsible for the deaths or displacement of over a million civilians in Darfur. Because of China’s purchases of Sudanese oil and through China’s sales of arms to the Sudanese government, international efforts to end the bloodshed in Darfur and establish security for its people have largely failed. So long as the Sudanese regime is propped up by China, the killing in Darfur will continue.

Please gather with us at midday at the Chinese Embassy, 2201 Wisconsin Ave., NW, to hold signs which say, “China’s Support for Sudan is an Olympic Mistake” and “STOP THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR NOW.” Some of these signs have enlarged photos of victims in Darfur. We will have a limited number of t-shirts available with the same message for those who wish to join the rally and 1.3 mile march to the Sudanese Embassy at 2210 Massachusetts Ave. NW.

Please contact us now for details and for information about rides from Massachusetts (leaving at noon on May 19th), as well as about lodging in Washington, DC for the night of the 19th. With the Olympics less than 100 days away, the media and Chinese government are paying greater attention to the Darfur issue. For the sake of those Darfurians whose lives are still risk, please consider spending a half a day in the nation’s capital. RSVP ASAP!

Scott Schaeffer-Duffy
Saints Francis & Therese Catholic Worker
52 Mason Street, Worcester, MA 01610
508 753-3588
theresecw@gmail.com

Newspapers down 3.5%; T&G down 4%

Nationally, newspaper circulation is down 3.5% in the past 6 months:

Print circulation continues on its steep downward slide, the Audit Bureau of Circulations revealed this morning in releasing the latest numbers for some of the country’s largest dailies in the six-month period ending March 31, 2008. When a full analysis appears it is expected to find, according to sources, the biggest dip yet, about 3.5% daily and 4.5 for Sunday.

Worcester Telegram and Gazette daily circulation was 84,754 at this time last year. Worcester Magazine reports it’s now 81,437, a drop of about 4%.

This is not good, but it’s been worse: the past 2 reporting periods had T&G circulation dropping at 2 times faster and 5 times faster than the national average.

I get the first paragraphs of T&G articles via RSS, and I gotta say I found the first paragraph of Dianne Williamson’s Sunday column insulting enough that I didn’t bother to read the article (until this morning).

As most of you know— or maybe you don’t, because you’re watching “American Idol” rather than reading this newspaper — the news business is in trouble.

“[Y]ou’re watching ‘American Idol’ rather than reading this newspaper”? I know this is supposed to be a joke, but I wonder whether it’s also a sign of the disconnect between journalists and readers. Are people no longer subscribing because they’re watching TV, or because they’ve found more useful sources of news and advertising? What’s a better “risk factor” for someone canceling a T&G subscription in 2008, that person’s public engagement, or that person’s age?

What I would like to see the T&G do, speaking as a life-long newspaper fan: take their website seriously, so that I get value by lingering there, rather than wanting to head elsewhere after skimming the headlines.

Brendan Melican:

What may be my biggest frustration where local business is concerned, is watching good business go bad and suffer simply because the owners didn’t want to learn new tricks.

Forbes:

In one sense, circulation data can understate the newspaper industry’s financial challenges. Declining circulation can affect how much a newspaper charges for print advertising, its biggest and most lucrative source of revenue.

But print advertising has been sinking faster than circulation as the slowing economy and new Internet ad platforms like Craigslist have decimated newspaper classified ads, particularly for the help wanted, real estate and automotive categories.

Also: Thoughts from Worcester’s Jeff Barnard, thoughts from Joel Achenbach.

Update: The T&G ran a wire service article on this, but didn’t list their own #s.

Fr Bernie Gilgun’s homily, April 25, 2008

This is a recording of a homily by Father Bernie Gilgun, from his weekly Mass at the Mustard Seed in Worcester, Massachusetts. Mostly about the pope’s recent US visit.

You can download the mp3 (4.8MB) or see other formats. You can also subscribe (RSS) to the podcast.

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I’m experimenting with new recording equipment, which did a bad job this week, but which I think will lead to good results.

508 #32: Mavericks

508 is a show about Worcester. Today’s panel includes Brendan Melican and (briefly) Bruce Russell.

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A Worcester county court officer is being investigated for leaking info to crooks; a Barre police officer who shot a dog in the leg is back to work. Worcester Peace Works has submitted an antiwar/PILOT resolution to the City Council.

We talk about how City Councilor Rick Rushton has bucked some of his political patrons by becoming an Obama delegate. Brendan explains state taxes to Mike. Brendan complains about the schools. Mike describes the Transgender Emergency Fund fundraiser. We speculate about the whole Volcanoboy/Worcesterite web forum transition, which seems to be a work in progress. (Nice to see Worcesterite is running Drupal, in my opinion the least-bad CMS out there.)

Bruce kinda promises to be at Art Attack on May 1 if any listeners want a photo with him; the event would be a nice beginning to a night on the town, which you could end with some of the Turtle Boy shows at area bars.

Of course, we also talk about guns.

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Items

Peace in our time
“When will the governments realize? It’s got to be funky, sexy ladies.”
—Flight of the Conchords, from their “blondes not bombs” peace proposal

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Dan McKanan interview about the Catholic Worker movement
Here’s an interview with Dan McKanan, author of Touching the World and The Catholic Worker After Dorothy, about the Catholic Worker movement. I think everything he says about the CW is dead on. I can’t find a page about this anywhere, but here’s the mp3: Link
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Nicholson Baker’s Human Smoke
Interview with Christopher Lydon about his new WWII book. I love Baker, Lydon, and anything that seriously considers that war might be bad. So I’m looking forward to reading the book and hearing the interview.

Dorothy Day, the editor of the Catholic Worker, wrote an editorial called “Our Stand.” “As in the Ethiopian war, the Spanish war, the Japanese and Chinese war, the Russian-Finnish war — so in the present war we stand unalterably opposed to the use of war as a means of saving ‘Christianity,’ ‘civilization,’ ‘democracy.’” She urged a nonviolent opposition to injustice and servitude: She called it the Folly of the Cross.

“Where’s the Business Model for News, People?”
Jay Rosen’s latest meditation on the press. Short answer: There doesn’t seem to be one.
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Tom Lewis remembered

To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one’s life would not make sense if God did not exist.
–Cardinal Emmanuel Suhard

Inside Worcester magazine, June 1990
Photo Credit: Inside Worcester

Tom Lewis, a much beloved friend and colleague, died in his sleep on April 4, 2007 at “Emma House” in Worcester, Tom’s household of Biblical faith and resistance to empire. Many have written beautiful pieces of remembrance about Tom and I am a bit reticent to repeat what others have so aptly described and appreciated. But I find it is necessary to add my own unique sense of things too. Tom and I shared a pilgrimage and activist commitments in this life. And we both shared teaching posts at Anna Maria College.
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508 #31: It’s nice hair

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

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The Transgender Emergency Fund, previously announced on 508, has a fundraiser Saturday night at the Hotel Vernon. The Antiquarian Society has settled its feud with neighbors; Brendan and Mike don’t like the precedent that has been set. Brendan says people like his idea of a green grid for North Main Street, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.

Worcester Magazine’s best-of issue hands awards to both Alec Lopez of the Dive Bar and a runner-up to Happy Birthday Mike Leslie.

Brendan and Mike talk for a really long time about Gary Rosen and Kate Toomey’s hair. The powers-that-be are proposing new regulations on scrap dealers that Mike doesn’t think will solve the problem of metal theft. Brendan likes Rosalie Tirella’s article on sidewalks in the InCity Times.

This article about skateboarding in Sterling provides almost no information.

Brendan will start appearing on Mike Messina’s radio show Monday nights.

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Items

Catholic Worker to speak at National Catholic Prayer Breakfast with Bush and McCain
How surprisingly weird. If this doesn’t lead to a Colbert moment, CWs across the country are going to be disappointed. (What would a pacifist anarchist like CW co-founder Dorothy Day have said to a sitting president?)

“18 students arrested in Darfur protest at White House”
On April 13. The next Worcester-based Darfur event in DC (that I know of) is a march between the Chinese and Sudanese embassies May 20 organized by the Catholic Worker community.

Democracy Now remembers Tom Lewis
I thought this was a nice piece about late Worcester resident Tom Lewis.

“Green Pirates Claim Victory on Whaling”
New York Times: “This year’s mission was disrupted intensively by Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, who use violent means for disturbance,” said Hajime Ishikawa, chief of Japan’s whaling mission. I’ve previously mentioned that I think Sea Shepherd pirate-in-chief Paul Watson has one of the world’s funnest jobs.

Free Art Worcester
This morning I spotted Free Art Worcester’s Hexagrammum Mysticum on the way to work.

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508 #30: Tom Lewis

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s episode is a tribute to late Worcester resident Tom Lewis.
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In Worcester magazine, June 1990
1990 photo of Tom from the magazine Inside Worcester.