Category: General

The St. Patrick’s Four were acquitted of conspiracy to impede a federal officer in connection with a nonviolent 2003 demonstration against the Iraq War. (The jury found them guilty of misdemeanor charges of property damage and trespassing.)

This means it’s still OK to demonstrate against the war.

100,000+ demonstrated against the Iraq War in DC this weekend.

I was one of 30 in Worcester demonstrating against it.

For every person demonstrating against it, probably 10 people are blogging against it.

The best “US out of Iraq NOW” posts of the weekend are from Billmon and Juan Cole. Running Scared has a good summary of the latest arguments.

I recommend these posts because they might help you articulate these “out NOW” arguments to others. Especially those who prefer: “US Out of Iraq, But Not Yet.” (Several P&C contributors are leaning that way.)

Every week in Worcester we have a demonstration against the war–it’s been going on for years. (I recall demonstrating with a “No War On Iraq” sign in May 2002; I can’t recall what news item prompted this.)

Most drivers encourage us, but people still flip us off, too. I wish I had a way to reach out to these folks. Maybe you need a 500-word essay to articulate the argument, and not a 5-word sign.

I went to jury duty today. In our state there is a “one day or one trial” policy, and since they had more than enough juries for the day, my group was sent home without ever entering a courtroom.

Worcester City Councillor Barbara Haller says that her “Main South” neighborhood is “supersaturated” with residential programs, most notoriously the PIP shelter, a “wet” shelter that allows high and drunk people to sleep there. Others say that the shelters have been unfairly blamed for the neighborhood’s troubles. For example, Dave McMahon of the Worcester Homeless Action Committee wrote in this week’s InCity Times: “Poverty came first–it saturated neighborhoods with its terrible effects after industry moved from Main South–fact. Social service agencies came next to remedy the arrival of the ‘ghetto.’”

Monsignor Francis Scollen, of Main South’s St. Peter’s Church, spoke out on the controversy from the pulpit this week, and put the following note in the church bulletin:

The readings talk also about hospitality. We are asked to welcome people into our homes, to give a cup of cold water to the thirsty, to shelter those who are in trouble.

This happens to us as individuals, as family, as a Church, and as a neighborhood. There has been quite a debate these last several weeks about not giving people in trouble hospitality in certain neighborhoods. Well, here in Main South we show hospitality to everyone. And we are better for it.

It’s so amazing to witness politicians trying to come down firmly on both sides of the problem. Real political leadership?

Someone of our esteemed leaders came to St. John’s once and when he finished speaking an older parishioner said to Fr. Lebeau, “I don’t understand a word he said.” Fr. Lebeau replied, “Then his mission was accomplished.”

Sometimes we can understand what they are saying–and avoiding. It’s called integrity and principles.

Our city, Worcester, Massachusetts, has recently adopted an “action plan” for dealing with the “panhandling problem.”

The problem is not specifically with guys hitting you up for “fifty cents for the bus” as you walk down the streets, but guys holding cardboard signs at busy intersections, making the city look bad.

The “action plan” has no legal teeth. It’s just an advertising campaign to discourage people from giving to the guys with the signs.

There were some articles opposing the “action plan” in the recent issue of Worcester’s semi-monthly alternative paper, The InCity Times. (These have been reprinted at Worcester Indymedia.) Then some folks vandalized one of the billboards. Our daily paper, the Telegram & Gazette, even reported on the vandalism.

Now, the billboards in my neighborhood have switched to a “Don’t Spread AIDS” public service ad.

Worcester’s Bob Flanagan, of the Ron Kovic chapter of Veterans for Peace, was profiled this week in Worcester Magazine:

. . . the Vietnam War was going on and we had a friend, Flipper, and he joined the Marine Corps and he never came home; he was blown away. Then there was another guy in Westboro, then Georgie Adams and Paul Bellino. About six or seven guys I knew as a kid never came home. Probably being the sensitive type, I never knew what to do with the anger.

Bob’s weekly vigil at the Armed Forces Recruiting Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, was profiled at Worcester Indymedia. Bob’s also active with the Worcester Veteran’s Shelter.

Today is a notable one for counter-recruitment activists, as the U.S. Army has suspended all recruiting for the day in order to “emphasize proper conduct” to recruiters who have been accused of conning potential recruits.

Bob Flanagan, of Veterans for Peace, vigils against war at the Armed Forces Recruiting Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. Photo: Mike Benedetti.

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