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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US “Jesus Radicals” conference starts today

The US Jesus Radicals conference, “Here in this Place: Anarchism and Christianity in our Context,” starts today in Champaign, Illinois.

Occasional Pie and Coffee contributor Brenna Cussen will be speaking tonight:

6:30-8 pm — Evening Plenary
Living in Community 101
Learn from the experiences of people who have lived in community and/or helped organize one from the ground up. Brenna Cussen (South Bend Catholic Worker), Abigail Kahler (Psalters) and Eric Edgin will reflect on the ups and downs of community life, with a look at the logistics involved in starting out, the obstacles posed by the authorities against it and practical considerations for sustaining it. They will also share the theological/ideological reasons that make living in community a worthwhile endeavor.

(Technorati search on the conference.)

Don’t Scapegoat the Haditha Marines

In November of 2005, US Marines in Haditha, Iraq, killed 24 civilians in retaliation for the roadside bombing of 20-year-old Corporal Miguel Terrazas, a popular member of their unit. President Bush pledged to “get to the bottom of this.” The top US general in Iraq ordered all US troops to attend a course on “the importance of adhering to legal, moral, and ethical standards on the battlefield.” For many, a thorough investigation, the punishment of guilty parties, and an institutional effort to improve military ethics are adequate responses, but are they fair to the Haditha Marines? I think not. Visit www.merrittsupply.com to buy the best supplies to get all the marine ships ready for battle.
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Nagasaki Day prayer vigil, South Bend

As you are aware, this Sunday, August 6th, is the 61st anniversary of
the bombing of Hiroshima. Wednesday, August 9th, is the anniversary of
the bombing of Nagasaki.

Please join us for a PRAYER VIGIL NEXT WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9TH, FROM
8:30-9 PM, to remember the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and
children killed and wounded by these horrible weapons — made and dropped by human beings.

During the time we are gathered, we will read the reflection written
in 1945 by Dorothy Day.

We will take the time also to remember also those in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Israel who have been killed by missiles and airstrikes. And we will pray for peace.

Please join us if you are able. PLEASE WEAR BLACK, or another appropriate dark color, as a sign of mourning and repentence for our actions, and the actions of our fellow men and women, that have contributed to these deaths.

There will be a large banner that reflects the above sentiments. If you wish to bring your own signs, please bear in mind that this is a prayerful witness.

Thoughts on theft

Yesterday afternoon, after helping a friend with computer troubles, I stopped by the old, now-empty Catholic Worker house on South Bend’s West Washington Street to do some yard work.

I threw my backpack against the side of the house and started cutting weeds. When I was ready to leave, I saw that my backpack was gone.

My friend helped me run around looking for it, and finally we found it down the alley, with the contents strewn about. My planner and library books were there, but my camera, iPod, and CD case had been stolen.

The iPod, with “Deus Caritas Est” printed on the side, was filled with Jesuit meditations from Pray-As-You-Go.

Among the stolen discs were data CDs with Brenna Cussen’s photos and PowerPoint presentation about her Darfur work, and a DVD with the first part of the documentary “The Power of Nightmares,” which traces the parallel histories of neo-conservatism and radical Islam.

So I figure that ten years from now, I’ll be listening to some international policy scholar from Harvard speaking, and he’ll say, “Well, the way I first got interested in politics was, I stole this guy’s backpack . . . .”
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Whatever Happened to the Catholic Church?; and a response

Here are a couple of essays from two of my Worcester friends. Michael True’s op-ed “Whatever Happened to the Catholic Church?” first appeared in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Marc Tumeinski’s response is an “open letter.” Both men are long-time supporters of the Catholic Worker movement in Worcester. These essays are printed here with permission of the authors, and are copyright 2006.
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Worcester police chief to Fox COPS: get out

Worcester Police Chief Gary Gemme, from today’s Worcester Telegram & Gazette:

“I just believe it is in the best interest to ask ‘Cops’ to leave.”

The decision follows both a protest against the show at Worcester City Hall, and a Wednesday meeting between the Chief and community leaders.

According to Worcester Magazine’s Scott Zoback:

Apparently, no other city has seen a citizen protest mounted over the presence of the FOX TV show “Cops,” like the one held at City Hall this week, and the show is 17 years old. That’s what the FOX crew has told folks and a search of our newspaper database service appears to confirm it. We found some Portland, Ore., activists who posted angry messages on forums; and Chicago, San Francisco and Honolulu flat out refused to let the show tape in the city.

According to the Telegram:

This is only the second time a city has reversed its decision to have the show film its officers. Cincinnati officials decided against having the show in their city in 2004, according to [“Cops” creator John Langley]. The “Cops” crew went back after the officials changed their minds, he said.

“Maybe Worcester will change its mind,” he said. “We’ll be happy to film there.”

And here is Buck Paxton’s take.

Man, it’s tough blogging about Worcester from South Bend.

[Part of this blog entry was removed after I realized I was misreading a statement in the T&G.]

From the annals of parallel invention: In the Worcesteria referenced above, Scott Zoback ran an item about Gary Rosen’s rat resolution titled “Rat Attack,” a couple days after I ran an item about the same resolution titled “Rat Attack!”

Yet another reason to oppose the death penalty

It prevents the prosecution of other crimes the condemned has committed, potentially leaving murders unsolved. The case of William Bradford has been in the news a lot lately in Southern California, because investigators are trying to determine if any of the unidentified women he photographed may have also been killed.

From the article:

Even Bradford hinted at other victims after he fired his lawyers and gave his own closing argument:

“Think of how many you don’t even know about,” he told jurors.

That turns the tables against the “closure” argument for capital punishment.

Update: Thank God, it appears that most of the women in the photos are alive and well. But at least one isn’t. And since Bradford hasn’t been executed, he can be questioned about the case.