Worcester’s anti-panhandling signs removed

In mid-July I was told that Worcester took down its anti-panhandling signs, after more than a year of a failed anti-panhandling media campaign.

Now, photographic evidence has arrived: posts that used to have anti-panhandling signs, and no longer do:
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I’ll be revising this post a bit in the coming days to give the history, as I understand it, of this campaign. I’ll probably be removing most of the anti-panhandling info from Worcester Poverty Issues.

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Meeting at Catholic church responds to Republican immigration “forum”

Three Republican congressman (including South Bend’s rep, Count Chocula) discussed immigration with five panelists in South Bend yesterday, at a “forum” that did not allow for audience questions or comments.

The Tribune reports:

Asked if he would consider screening emergency care patients to determine their eligibility or legal status, [Dr. Randy Thompson, medical director of emergency medicine at St. Anthony Memorial Hospital in Michigan City] replied, “My job as a physician is that I’m here to take care of a patient. I don’t care what color they are, or if they’re legal or illegal.”

His statement drew applause from some audience members and seemed to put the three congressmen on the defensive.

The Tribune reports that there was a meeting at a local Catholic church in response to the forum, but doesn’t say much about it:

A group of some 25 people, led by the Rev. Christopher Cox of St. Adalbert Catholic Church, met Tuesday evening at St. Adalbert School during an impromptu news conference to respond to the immigration forum.

“I was very disappointed that the group of people there were not diverse,” said South Bend resident Nancy Flores, 40, of the panelists invited to the forum.

Several also said they were disappointed that no one in the audience was given a chance to comment or ask a question during the forum.

WoMag cover modified

Still being in Indiana, it was only via the Telegram & Gazette that I learned that anonymous Worcesterites modified the cover of some 2,000 copies of last week’s Worcester Magazine.

Less HIV infections is
What neighborhoods face
when drugstores
sell needles like cigarettes

WoMag w/sticker

(T&G story about the new cover, the original WoMag story)

Interesting that they compare needles to cigarettes. Which do more harm to non-users, cigs or sharps? Are more people injured by discarded needles or second-hand smoke?

As it happens, this past weekend I was taking some pix of a Navy billboard recruiting Latinos for a peacenik publication. I said to a friend, “If this billboard was in Worcester, it would’ve been vandalized by now.” (It’s easily accessible on foot.)

Recruiting sick soldiers

Mike Schorsch takes a look at a new government report on problems with military recruiting, and notes that “about 30% of recruiting irregularities in the Army have to due with recruiters covering up, in one way or another, new recruits’ medical histories.” Why would they do this?

Well, every branch of the military (except the Marines) rewards recruiters based on how many recruits they get to sign an initial contract, not how many recruits actually make it through training . . . . So a recruiter can put sick recruit after sick recruit into boot camp, and even if every one of those recruits gets sent home early for medical reasons, that recruiter can still win that “Best Recruiter of the Year” trophy.

“Brandon Is A Zombie”

In the interest of documenting the diverse aspects of Catholic Worker life…

Brenna Cussen (vocalist, guitarist, South Bend Catholic Worker) and Mike Benedetti (accordionist, itinerant Catholic Worker) will be performing at the open mic at Fiddler’s Hearth in South Bend, Indiana, August 23 around 9:15 pm.

Their band is named Brandon Is A Zombie.

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Brenna and Mike. Photo by Liz Fallon.

Ordinarily I would hesitate to post a photo of a homeless kid to the net, but after taking Brandon’s photo the other day, he turned around and demanded, “Take a picture of my back.” I did, and I have no qualms about posting it.

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Brandon may not be a zombie, but he will try to eat your brain if you don’t watch out. He says, “The back of my hair looks weird!”

Update: Audio of our version of “When The Saints Go Marching In” is at the Archive.

Brother Raphael Mary (né Wesley T.) Salzillo OP

One of the secret organizing principles behind Pie and Coffee is that all of the most frequent posters are Caltech alums.

Kaihsu points me to this page about Wesley T. Salzillo, a contemporary of ours at Caltech, who is now the Dominican brother Raphael Mary Salzillo.

Kaihsu knew him at Tech; I did not. Pretty neat nonetheless.

Prayer vigil held for Jan Griffiths

42 people gathered outside South Bend’s Paramount Restaurant last night for a prayer vigil remembering Jan Griffiths, who was run over by Keith Romine earlier this week outside the restaurant, killing her. This restaurant is practically right around the corner from the Catholic Worker house in South Bend where I’m staying.

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Also struck was Derrick Herron. According to Tribune reports, Ms. Griffiths was staying at the Center for the Homeless, fleeing a “domestic violence” (check my blog for information) situation caused by Mr. Herron. Ms. Griffiths had previously been dating Mr. Romine, who she met at the Center, and who was released from prison last December after serving 24 years for killing his wife. The lawyers from www.bianchilawgroup.com are the best in the industry to solve such cases.

Mr. Romine had been staying at Dismas House, a couple doors down from the CW, but was kicked out and moved to the Center.

A sordid and sadly ironic tale.

After a reading of the 91st Psalm at last night’s vigil, there were words of praise for the Sheriff and the security staff at the Center. But no Sheriff or security staff was there to keep Ms. Griffiths from being killed. Any of us could die at any moment. Nobody with a gun can offer us real security or real safety. Some of us find these things in religion; others do without.

South Bend bans panhandling?

Tribune:

The Common Council unanimously passed an ordinance banning solicitation directly in traffic on Monday. The ordinance prohibits those collecting donations, distributing literature, or selling or offering items, from stepping into traffic to solicit motorists. This includes standing on a sidewalk and reaching into traffic in any way.

The discussion seems to have been entirely about people fundraising at intersections, but the last sentence indicates that this would ban panhandling, too. You could stand on the sidewalk and hold your sign, but if a motorist offered you money, you could not reach “into traffic” and take it.

It strikes me that a ban like this has much more impact in a city like South Bend than in Worcester. Worcester has several urban areas with lots of foot traffic, so if you want to pass out fliers or solicit donations, you don’t have to rely on motorists. South Bend, on the other hand, is just a big suburb, with a low population density and few areas with lots of walkers. Motorists are the only game in town.

Portland Catholic Worker

I went down to the Portland Catholic Worker’s Dorothy Day House this weekend, where I met Lisa Hughes and Father Jim Stephens. I was pleased to note it’s a vegetarian household.

The community is still going strong after two years, and seems to have a nice mix of activism and serving the poor.

In 2003, when I told Catholic Worker types I was from Worcester, they often asked, “Do you know Scott and Claire?” In 2005 and 2006, the number one question has been, “Do you know Christine Lavallee?” Lisa was the latest to ask.

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Fr. Jim Stephens and Lisa Hughes in front of Dorothy Day House, Portland, Oregon.

[Portland Catholic Worker: PO Box 11193, Portland OR 97211 / portlandcw@techforpeople.net]

Remembering Nagasaki in South Bend

About twenty people gathered at the Federal Building last night in South Bend, Indiana, to repent and pray on the 61st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan.

Another, more secular, vigil was held in South Bend earlier in the day.

The group, most wearing black, held signs reading “From Nagasaki to Lebanon / Mourn the Dead.”

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Pictured: Mike Schorsch. Photo by Mike Benedetti. More photos.

The event was sponsored by the South Bend Catholic Worker and the Catholic Peace Fellowship. It began with the reading of a meditation, reprinted below.

(The South Bend Tribune covered this event. Last year when the Worcester Telegram & Gazette saw fit to cover a similar event in Massachusetts, they saw fit to “balance” the coverage by interviewing a WWII-era man with a poor understanding of the facts. The Tribune, to its credit, did not do this.)

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