Thomas Merton Center Pittsburgh’s Peace and Social Justice Center
PITTSBURGH’S PEACE & JUSTICE NEWSPAPER
VOL. 45 No. 4 April 2015
Code Pink Challenging AIPAC By Suhail Shafi
Every March, the pro Israel lobbying committee known as AIPAC organizes a Policy Conference in Washington DC, designed to bring Israel’s most fervent supporters under one roof. The organization, deemed by some to be the foreign policy equivalent of the National Rifle Association ( NRA ) has long been known for its vice-like grip on US
Photo Credit: Creative Commons
policy makers with its ample financial resources and ties to grass roots Evangelical organizations. The US’s massive financial, moral and political support for Israel and its decades long military occupation of Palestinian lands in clear disregard for international law is often attributed to AIPAC’s overriding political clout. For the past several years, the anti-war organization Code Pink has been instrumental in mobilizing protests against AIPAC, decrying and exposing its role both in intimidating US politicians into proIsrael positions, and also supporting Israel’s massive human rights violations against Palestinian Photo Credit: Suhail Shafi populations. Led by its charismatic co-founder Medea Benjamin and downtown Washington DC. Their partnering with other anti-occupation activities have included chanting antiorganizations like the ANSWER occupation slogans, holding up signs Coalition and the US Campaign to End opposing aid to Israel, lobbying the Israeli Occupation, Code Pink prominent politician’s offices, members have picketed the annual opposing their position on the Israel/ AIPAC Policy Conference in Palestine issue, and even crafting
Join Us! Mon. April 20th Hear “Thomas Merton’s Advice to Peacemakers” By Diane McMahon
The Thomas Merton Center (TMC), Pittsburgh’s peace and social justice center, will celebrate the 100th birthday of Thomas Merton on Monday, April 20th at 6 PM at the Sheraton Station Square Hotel on the south side of Pittsburgh. All funds raised will support the peace and justice mission of the center. Thomas Merton, the namesake of our center, achieved worldwide acclaim as a writer of more than 70 books focused on spirituality, social justice and nonviolent pacifism. Among Merton's most enduring works is his bestselling autobiography The Seven Story Mountain (1948), which sent scores of World War II veterans, students, and even teenagers flocking to monasteries Continued on page 3
mock Israeli checkpoints to simulate one of the most reviled facets of the ongoing occupation. This year, for the third year in a row, I had the opportunity to attend Code Pink’s anti-AIPAC protests, christened ``Shut
Continued on page 4
Tax Day Is Coming By Edith Bell
April brings spring, and with spring comes Tax Day, the last day to pay our taxes. The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom with the American Friends Service Committee Pennsylvania will hold their annual tax day rally and penny poll on Tuesday, April 15 from noon till 2PM in Squirrel Hill at the corner of Murray Avenue and Darlington Street, next to the post office. With local movements for Worker, Racial, and Climate Justice gaining momentum this spring, it is critical that we understand the links between the undue influence of corporations on militarized public policies and our federal budget, as well as the disastrous consequences these structures and priorities have for poor communities of color in the U.S. and around the world. We will tell whoever wants to know where our tax money goes. It's a sad story. Although most of us gladly pay our fair share to run our society, for education, roads, bridges, healthcare, childcare, housing and in general for the good of humanity, our lawmakers instead use the largest part of our taxes for the de- Continued on page 9
See full listing on page 3
In this issue… Merton Festival News... pg. 3 Responding To Netanyahu... pg. 4 US/Cuba Negotiations….. pg. 5 Preserving a Pitt Treasure... pg. 9 Darfur Heats Up Again…...pg. 11 The Thomas Merton Center works to build a consciousness of values and to raise the moral questions involved in the issues of war, poverty, racism, classism, economic justice, oppression and environmental justice. TMC engages people of diverse philosophies and faiths who find common ground in the nonviolent struggle to bring about a more peaceful and just world.
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Thomas Merton Center
East End Community Thrift Store
Monday—Friday: 10 am to 4 pm Saturday: Noon to 4 pm
Tuesday—Friday: 10 am to 4 pm Saturday: Noon to 4 pm
Office Phone: 412-361-3022 — Fax: 412-361-0540 Website: www.thomasmertoncenter.org
The New People Editorial Collective Paola Corso, Neil Cosgrove, Michael Drohan, Russ Fedorka, Marni Fritz, Bette McDevitt, Diane McMahon, Joyce Rothermel, Molly Rush, Jo Tavener, Scilla Wahrhaftig.
TMC Staff, Volunteers & Interns Managing Director: Diane McMahon, PhD, CFRE Operations Manager: Marcia Snowden Finance Director / Project Liaison: Roslyn Maholland Support Staff: Sr. Mary Clare Donnelly, Meagan McGill Office Volunteers: Pat Bibro, Kathy Cunningham, Monique Dietz, Lois Goldstein, Jon Mulig, Joyce Rothermel, Judy Starr New People Coordinators: Marni Fritz, Diane McMahon, Quinn Thomas, Hannah Tomio, Neil Cosgrove East End Community Thrift Store Managers: Shirley Gleditsch, Shawna Hammond, Sr. Mary Clare Donnelly, & Janet Myles Thomas Merton Center Interns: Catroina Daly, Leah Friedman, Marni Fritz, Margaret Hane, Victoria Heverly, Rohan Lambore, Meagan McGill, Regina Omlar, Quinn Thomas, Hannah Tomio, Irene Zeng
2015 TMC Board of Directors Thom Baggerman, Ed Brett, Theresa Chalich, Rob Conroy, Kathy Cunningham, Mark Dixon, Art Donsky, Michael Drohan, Patrick Fenton, Mary Jo Guercio (President), Wanda Guthrie, anupama jain, Ken Joseph, Anne Kuhn, Chris Mason, Jonah McAllister-Erickson, Joyce Rothermel, Molly Rush (co-founder), Tyrone Scales, M. Shernell Smith.
The East End Community Thrift (Thrifty) is an all volunteer-run thrift shop which provides quality, low-cost, used clothing and household goods to the surrounding community. Thrifty needs volunteers and shoppers! Please contact us at (412) 361-6010 and ask for Shirley or Shawna, or stop in at - 5123 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15224. Email shawnapgh@aol.com. Thrifty needs volunteers and shoppers to serve the community! We are mission driven volunteers who look to build love and community by serving others in times of need.
Publish in The New People The New People is distributed to 3,000 people who belong to diverse organizations, businesses and groups each month. The deadline for all submissions is the 13th of the month for the following month’s issue. To Submit Articles, Photos, or Poems: Visit www.thomasmertoncenter.org/ newpeople/submit. To Submit an Event to the TMC Calendar: Visit www.thomasmertoncenter.org/calendar/submit-event To Advertise: Visit www.thomasmertoncenter.org/newpeople/ad Advertising prices range from $15 for a business card size to $250 for a full page. There is a 10% discount when purchasing 6 months of ad space at a time, and a 20% discount when purchasing a year of ad space at a time. An additional 10% discount is available for non-profit organizations and faith-based groups. For more information: Call 412-361-3022 or email newpeople@thomasmertoncenter.org.
TMC Projects
TMC Affiliates
(TMC projects follow TMC guidelines and receive financial and ongoing resources and support from the Thomas Merton Center.)
(Affiliates are independent partner organizations who support the nonviolent peace and justice mission of TMC. - Articles may not necessarily represent the views of Affiliates)
Anti-War Committee info@pittsburghendthewar.org www.pittsburghendthewar.org
Abolitionist Law Center 412-654-9070 abolitionistlawcenter.org
Book‘Em: Books to Prisoners Project bookempgh@gmail.com www.bookempgh.org Capital’s End 724-388-6258, iamholtz@iup.edu CodePink: Women for Peace francineporter@aol.com, 412-389-3216 www.codepink4peace.org East End Community Thrift Shop 412-361-6010, shawnapgh@aol.com
Association of Pittsburgh Priests Sr. Barbara Finch 412-716-9750 B.a.finch@att.net Battle of Homestead Foundation
412-848-3079
The Big Idea Bookstore 412-OUR-HEAD www.thebigideapgh.org The Black Political Empowerment Project Tim Stevens 412-758-7898
Economic Justice Committee drohanmichael@yahoo.com
CeaseFire PA
www.ceasefirepa.org—info@ceasefirepa.org
Environmental Justice Committee
environmentaljustice@thomasmertoncenter.org
Fight for Lifers West
fightforliferswest@yahoo.com
www.fightforliferswestinc.com Greater Pittsburgh Interfaith Coalition Anne Wirth 412-716-9750 Harambee Ujima/Diversity Footprint Twitter @HomewoodNation Human Rights Coalition / Fed Up (prisoner support and advocacy) 412-802-8575, hrcfedup@gmail.com www.prisonerstories.blogspot.com Marcellus Shale Protest Group melpacker@aol.com 412-243-4545 marcellusprotest.org
Citizens for Social Responsibility of Greater Johnstown Larry Blalock, evolve@atlanticbb.net Global Solutions Pittsburgh 412-471-7852 dan@globalsolutionspgh.org www.globalsolutionspgh.org North Hills Anti-Racism Coalition 412-369-3961 www.northhillscoalition.com PA United for Single-Payer Health Care www.healthcare4allPA.org www.PUSH-HC4allPa.blogspot.com 412-421-4242 Pittsburgh Area Pax Christi 412-761-4319 Pittsburgh Cuba Coalition 412-303-1247 lisacubasi@aol.com
New Economy Campaign gabriel@thomasmertoncenter.com
Pittsburgh North People for Peace 412-367-0383 pnpp@verizon.net www.NorthPgh.org
Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance 412-512-1709
Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee info@pittsburgh-psc.org www.pittsburgh-psc.org
Pittsburgh Campaign for Democracy NOW! 412-422-5377, sleator@cs.cmu.edu www.pcdn.org
Raging Grannies 412-963-7163 eva.havlicsek@gmail.com
Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition jumphook@gmail.com; www.pittsburghdarfur.org
www.pittsburghraginggrannies.homestead.com
Pittsburghers for Public Transit 412-216-9659 info@pittsburghforpublictransit.org
SWPA Bread for the World Joyce Rothermel 412-680-5118 rothermeljoyce@gmail.com
Progressive Pittsburgh Notebook 412-363-7472 tvnotebook@gmail.com
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) 412-471-8919 www.ueunion.org
School of the Americas Watch W. PA 412-271-8414 drohanmichael@yahoo.com
Veterans for Peace kevinbharless@yahoo.com 252-646-4810
Shalefield Stories (Friends of the Harmed) 412-422-0272 brigetshields@gmail.com
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Eva 412-963-7163 edith.bell4@verizon.net
Religion and Labor Coalition 412-361-4793 ojomal@aol.com
TMC is a Member of:
Stop Sexual Abuse in the Military 412-361-3022 hildebrew@aol.com Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens Group 724-837-0540 lfpochet@verizon.net Who’s Your Brother? 412-328-2301 support@whosyourbrother.com
Table of Contents
Amnesty International info@amnestypgh.org - www.amnestypgh.org
TMC supports these organizations’ missions: Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network 412-621-9230 office@piin.org Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Martha Connelly 412-361-7872, osterdm@earthlink.net
Page 1
Presentation on New Power of Attorney Law in PA
Code Pink Challenging AIPAC Tax Day is Coming Join Us! April 20th Hear “Thomas Merton Advice to Peacemakers”
Page 8
Highlights from The 12 Steps to Peace, by Johnny F. Merton Center on the Air!
Labor Makes Strides in Pittsburgh National Organizing Workshop: Is There a Way Forward? CORRECTION: a Poem by Jim Kuhn
In Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Thomas Merton Merton and ‘M’
Page 3 Thomas Merton Centennial Festival This Month Thomas Merton Advice to Peacemakers cont’d
Page 4 Code Pink Challenging AIPAC cont’d J Street’s Response to Netanyahu’s March 3rd Speech to the US Congress
Page 5 What Pittsburgh Cam Do To Help US-Cuba Negotiations “Celebration, Victory, Solidarity” A Discussion of US-Cuba Relations
Page 6 Join Low-Wage Workers on the Fight for Fifteen Higher Pay leads to Higher Productivity and Profits
Page 7 New Face for the New Economy 2 - NEWPEOPLE
April 2015
Page 9 Cocktails & Conservation: Preserving Pittsburgh’s Hidden Treasure Tax Day is Coming cont’d Legacy: It’s Not Too Late
Page 10 Fracking as a Feminist Issue Changing the Narrative on Climate Change
Page 11 Darfur (and South Sudan) Heat Up Again: Where’s the Outrage? “Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel” Book Review
Page 12 Happy Birthday, Thomas Merton!
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Page 14 Merton Scholar, Bonnie Bowman Thurston Wraps Up Merton Festival TMC/East End Community Thrift Store Expand Space! The Construction of a Fashion Show A Readers Thoughts on James Carrolls Latest Book:
Christ Actually: The Son of God for the Secular Age
Page 15 Good Friday Ecumenical Public Procession of the Way of the Cross Thomas Merton and the Root of War Sing Out for Pete 2
Thomas Merton Centennial Festival this Month! 15120 at 1:30 PM. April 25 (Saturday): "Special Mass for Thomas Merton" celebrating Thomas Merton’s 100th birthday at St. Mary’s of the Mount Church located at 403 Grandview Ave., Pgh., PA 15211 at 7 PM. April 26 (Sunday): “Walking the Path to Peace with Thomas Merton” Forum and discussion led by Diane McMahon at First Unitarian Church in Shadyside in the Schweitzer Room, 605 Morewood Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15213 at 9:30 AM.
The Thomas Merton Center founders chose Thomas Merton (1915-1968) as their namesake in 1972 in honor of his life’s commitment and impact on promoting the goal of peace and social justice. This year a collaboration of peace and justice advocates and faith-based communities will celebrate Merton’s 100th Birthday with a diverse set of enriching events. Thomas Merton, a Trappist Monk, writer, poet, artist, photographer, and contemplative, continues to inspire Merton Center members, and people all over the world, through his spiritual writings and life witness to peace and justice. We hope you will consider attending one or more of the Merton Festival events listed below. Except for the Thomas Merton Center-sponsored April 20th reception and the April 26th discussion, all events will be free and open to the public. More information and updates to this information will be available at: http://thomasmertoncenter.org/merton-100th. April 16 (Thursday): A special showing of the documentary “We Are All immigrants” produced by the PATH to Justice Committee of the Tri-Diocesan Sisters Leadership Conference. To be shown at the Kearns Spirituality Center located at 9000 Babcock Boulevard, Allison Park, PA 15101 at 7 PM. April 17 (Friday): Poetry Reading: Featuring the works of Thomas Merton and Dennis Brutus. Readers include Sheila Carter Jones, Paola Corso, Carol Gonzalez, Kenneth Miller, Bonita Penn, Mike Schneider, Philip Terman. East End Book Exchange,4754 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15224 7 -9 PM. April 18 (Saturday): “Merton, Gandhi & Asia” features Thomas Merton Center co-founder Molly Rush, who will speak on CEASE (Catholics to End Asian Slaughter and Exploitation), founded in 1970 to oppose the Vietnam War, and how it led to the Center’s founding in 1972, and Merton on Gandhi at the Hindu Jain Temple, 615 Illini Drive, Monroeville, PA at 3 PM April 19 (Sunday): “Praying with Merton: Awakening to Action” Adult Forum with Carol Gonzalez at Calvary Episcopal Church, Shadyside, 315 Shady Avenue, Pgh., PA 15206 at 10 AM. April 19 (Sunday): “Thomas Merton and Rabbi Abraham Heschel” a panel discussion led by Rabbi Art Donsky, Sr. Georgine Scarpino, and Karen Hochberg, the Executive Director of the Pittsburgh Area Jewish Committee, at Tree of Life Synagogue, 5898 Wilkins Avenue, Pgh., PA 15217 at 3 PM.
April 20 (Monday): A Thomas Merton Center led program and reception featuring Jim Forest, internationally known Thomas Merton friend, biographer and activist. Forest will speak on “Thomas Merton’s Advice to Peacemakers” a special highlight of the Festival. The event will be held at the Station Square Sheraton Inn on the South side of Pittsburgh . The reception begins at 6 PM. $40 includes a buffet. Program ad opportunities are available. For more information please visit the following link: http://thomasmertoncenter.org/100threception. April 21 (Tuesday): “Sufi and Merton: Muslim Dialogue and Conversation” with Yunus Kumek (Lecturer at Buffalo State University’s Religion Department), Jim Forest (Merton biographer), Peter Smith (Religion Editor of the Pittsburgh PostGazette), and Joyce Rothermel (member of the Board of the Thomas Merton Center of Pittsburgh) at the Turkish Cultural Center, 1459 Crane Ave, in the South Hills at 7 PM. April 22 (Wednesday): “Earth Day: Centennial Celebration of the Birth of Thomas Merton,” forum presentation led by Drs. Maureen Crossen, Jack Alverson, and Linda Maydak, at Carlow University in A.J. Palumbo Hall located 3305 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 at 7 PM. (Parking available at St. Agnes catacorner to the hall.) April 23 (Thursday): “The Many Storeys and Last Days of Thomas Merton” Film and discussion at The Pump House, 880 East Waterfront Drive, Munhall, PA 15120.
April 26 (Sunday): “Waking from a Dream of Separateness: Thomas Merton on Interfaith Dialogue” with author and Merton scholar, Dr. Bonnie Bowman Thurston. Hosted by the Association of Pittsburgh Priests at Kearns Spirituality Center, 9000 Babcock Boulevard, Allison Park, PA 15101 at 2 PM. Registration: $10 at the door.
THOMAS MERTON SPEAKERS AVAILABLE FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION OR EVENT Please mark your calendars now and let us know if you have any other ideas to suggest. We have speakers, books, and DVDs on Merton that are available to groups who are interested in learning more about Thomas Merton throughout all of 2015. It is our hope that at the end of 2015 more people will be able to answer the question: “Who Is Thomas Merton?” and many more will become new members of the Thomas Merton Center. Please plan to attend and help spread the word about the Merton Festival.
Must Read Articles This Month...
April 24 (Friday): “Thomas Merton's Interfaith Legacy for the 21st Century” featuring Fr. Eugene (Gene) Lauer, Rabbi Art Donsky, Dr. Kevin Mongrain and Fr. Sebastian Madathummuriyil. The program will be held at the Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center in Duquesne's Gumberg Library at 7 PM.
“Baghdad on the Brink”. Written By Matthew Aikins in Rolling Stone magazine. Issue 1231, published March 26, 2015.
April 25 (Saturday): "Thomas Merton and Martin Luther King: Two Paths of Non-violent Solidarity for Peace and Justice." A discussion led by Charlie McCollester, with representatives from: the African American church, Catholic social teaching, Protestant social gospel, and Jewish prophetic traditions at the Pump House at 880 East Waterfront Dr., Munhall, PA
Thomas Merton’s Advice to Peacemakers cont’d from page 1 across the US. Merton was a keen proponent of interfaith understanding. He pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama, the Japanese writer D.T. Suzuki, the Thai Buddhist monk Buddhadasa, and the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, and authored books on Zen Buddhism and Taoism. In the years since his death, Merton has been the subject of several biographies, including two books written by the Merton Festival
Reception’s peace and justice award winner and keynote presenter, Jim Forest. Forest will be speaking about Thomas Merton’s advice to peacemakers at the reception. Forest had a long-term friendship with Thomas Merton, who dedicated the book Faith and Violence to him. Jim is the author of Thomas Merton’s Struggle with Peacemaking and Living with Wisdom: A Life of Thomas Merton. Forest’s keynote speech will incorporate his own experiences and interactions with Thomas Merton and
his writings about him. Forest will travel to Pittsburgh from the Netherlands to speak to participants and accept the Thomas Merton Center’s Peace and Justice award. A sell-out crowd is anticipated. Those interested can purchase their tickets now through the Merton Center’s website: www.thomasmertoncenter.org. Tickets are $40 for general admission and $100 for patrons. Call 412-3613022 for more info. More at www.thomasmertoncenter.org/100th-
“Resisting Isis”. Written by Maria J Stephan. Soujourner’s magazine. Published in the April 2015 edition. “Break in at Y-12”. Written by Eric Schlosser in The New Yorker. Published in the March 9, 2015 edition. reception or call (412) 361-3022 to
confirm your spot. Diane McMahon is managing director of the Thomas Merton Center.
April 2015
NEWPEOPLE - 3
International Conflict Code Pink Challenging AIPAC
website of the US cont’d from Page One Campaign to End the Israeli Down AIPAC’’ by the organizers. The Democratic President but also to Occupation, a staggering 40,000 protest, attended by around a hundred sabotage any attempts by him to broker constituents from across the US sent a people, was as always, noisy, a negotiated compromise with Iran total of 110,000 letters to their passionate, provocative - and a thorn in over that nation’s alleged nuclear representatives advocating for a the side of the well-heeled AIPAC weapon’s program. Boehner’s boycott of Netanyahu’s address. In the attendees, some of whom verbally invitation to Netanyahu, and his end, 56 members of the House - almost confronted our protesters with taunts subsequent speech to the US Congress, a quarter of all Democrats - were and jeers. were the target of heavy criticism from persuaded by a combination of the The 2015 Shut Down AIPAC within the ranks of the Democratic online campaign and political pressure event, did, however, bear additional party, as they were seen as a means of from within the Democratic party to significance. This year, US House undermining both President Obama’s skip the speech. Speaker Rep. John Boehner had taken authority and his negotiations with Given the pro-Israel lobby’s the rather impudent step of inviting Iran. historical stranglehold on US politics, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to Perhaps equally significant from this represents no mean achievement address the US Congress. This step the vantage point of the antifor the anti-occupation movement’s had been taken independently of, and occupation movement was the online struggles, which now seems to be no in defiance of the Obama campaign by activists to persuade their longer confined to Code Pink’s chants administration’s wishes. It had been members of Congress to boycott and slogans supporting Palestinian motivated to not only defy the Netanyahu’s speech. According to the freedoms.
To learn more about the movement for Palestinian rights and opposing Israeli occupation, please visit the following websites Code Pink - http://www.codepink.org/ ANSWER Coalition - http:// www.answercoalition.org/ US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation - http:// www.endtheoccupation.org/ Those interesting in attending next year’s rally opposing AIPAC are welcome to email me at suhail_shafi@hotmail.com Suhail Shafi is an Indian citizen living and working in Altoona, PA. Shafi is a medical doctor by profession and has been active with the anti-war movement for the past decade.
Photo credits: Suhail Shafi
J Street’s Response to Netanyahu’s March 3rd Speech to the US Congress The response to the planned March 3rd speech on Iran by Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu to the US Congress was fast and furious. Reactions poured in from Jewish communal leaders, members of Congress, TV and radio talk shows, and energized citizens, both here and in Israel. J Street, an American lobby with a grassroots base and a Political Action Committee (PAC), played a prominent role in shaping the discourse around the speech. Would the speech threaten sensitive Iran negotiations? Was it mere Netanyahu election grandstanding? What of Netanyahu’s claim that he would be speaking for all Jews everywhere? Founded in 2008 to support strong American leadership to end the IsraeliPalestinian conflict diplomatically, J Street believes that resolution of the conflict will advance US interests in the Middle East and promote peace and security for Israel and the region. J Street also believes that diplomacy with Iran is the best way to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. J Street has grown to a base of over 180,000 people, including 8,000 students in over 50 chapters nationwide, and 700 national Rabbinic Cabinet Leaders. In the 2014 election cycle, J Street PAC distributed over $2.4 million to its 95 endorsed candidates.
By Nancy Bernstein
4 - NEWPEOPLE
April 2015
The Netanyahu controversy erupted after U.S. House Speaker John Boehner invited Bibi to address a joint session of Congress without consulting the White House or Democrats. The speech also came three and a half weeks before a framework agreement deadline for the P5+1 Iran negotiators (the UK, United States, Russia, China, France, and Germany) and before a contentious Israeli election. In the speech, Netanyahu warned that the deal was “very bad,” that Iran could not be trusted, and that a “better deal” could be had if stronger sanctions were applied at this time. Bibi invoked the specter of a nuclear-armed Iran threatening Israel’s survival if the deal (whose parameters were not finalized) was signed. J Street was quick to call out the Boehner/ Netanyahu move as a threat to a sensitive moment in the diplomatic talks with Iran. Before the speech, J Street issued a statement appealing to Members of Congress to urge Netanyahu to postpone it, saying that the timing couldn’t have been worse. J Street also created an online petition to challenge Netanyahu’s claim that he would be speaking “as a representative of the entire Jewish people". The petition, which included the statement “I’m a Jew. Bibi does not speak for me,” received 20,000 signatures.
J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami appeared on numerous radio and TV talk shows. J Street’s lobby, which has worked assiduously to discourage US Representatives from signing legislation that would hamper Iran negotiations, continued its efforts. Its messaging and outreach on the Hill emboldened Congress members to speak their mind. Over 60 Representatives did not attend the speech. Eleven House members, all J Street endorsees, held a press conference to show their disagreement with Netanyahu’s dire predictions. Nancy Pelosi stated she “was near tears throughout the Prime Minister’s speech — saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States as part of the P5 +1 nations, and saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation.” J Street has fostered close relationships with allies in the Jewish community and in Congress. It has opened up political space for debate about the impact of Israeli policies such as the ongoing occupation and settlement expansion. Members of Congress and Jewish spokespersons are now more able to both support Israel’s existence and need for security as well as critically evaluate Israeli policy and actions without the fear of being labeled anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. Those who
spoke out boldly to challenge the timing and purpose of Netanyahu’s visit and the content of his speech, as well as those who boycotted the speech, are prime examples. So what is the upshot of Netanyahu’s speech? In Israel, it seems to have backfired. A recent poll showed that the main opposition party, led by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni was strengthened (Netanyahu was reelected). Netanyahu will continue to press his case on Iran. In the US, new bills have already been introduced to increase Congressional oversight on any diplomatic agreement. Recently, 47 Republican Senators signed a letter by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) to Iran’s leaders declaring that any agreement without legislative approval could be reversed by the next president “with the stroke of a pen.” J Street will fight for diplomacy to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Investing in this approach offers the only viable alternative to a senseless war in a very unstable region. For more information about J Street Pittsburgh, or to get involved, please contact us at pittsburgh@jstreet.org Nancy Bernstein is Co-Chair of J Street Pittsburgh and a J Street National Board Member.
U.S. / Cuba Relations What Pittsburgh Can Do To Help U.S. - Cuba Negotiations For over half a century the U.S. has been trying by any means necessary, to undo Cuba’s independence and sovereignty, hard won through a popular revolution. Overt military invasions, biological and chemical weapons, terrorism, assassinations, mercenaries, bombings, outright murder, and an endless hodgepodge of laws designed to cause pain and suffering and to make people abandon their government were concocted by every “cowboy” and “cowgirl” in Congress in the vain hope that at least one would “topple the regime.” President Bill Clinton signed away his constitutional powers, abdicating his presidential executive powers to Congress with a 121- page act of war against Cuba, the infamous Helms-Burton act, which CODIFIED all those long years of war in all its forms into a policy that can only be changed by an act of Congress when Cuba has abdicated its sovereignty and become a perfect democracy controlled by U.S. interests. Please, don’t take my word for it! Please Google it! It is an education in real life politics, Cuba 101, a tip of the iceberg of U.S. policy, even if you just skim it, but I would advise you bring a barf bag. Despite actual U.S. policy still being held hostage by Jesse Helm’s cold dead hands, and the U.S.’s stated policy objectives still on steroids for “regime change,” there have always
been people in the U.S. who have objected to that policy and worked very hard to change it. Many of them live in Pittsburgh and have supported the many initiatives here that are deeply rooted in solidarity with the Cuban people for decades, like the Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister Cities Partnership, Global Links, Pastors for Peace U.S.-Cuba Friendshipments Caravans, student exchange programs, the Thomas Merton Center, just to name a few. Now the Obama administration has decided to try a new tactic for an old objective; restore diplomatic relations and use those new openings for engagement to subsidize and build a ‘privatized’ dissident movement in Cuba to de-stabilize the Cuban state. Remember, the Helms-Burton act still constrains the US, chains that can only be removed by Congress, when its conditions are met. It’s true, Obama has some executive prerogatives he could employ that he has not yet done which would help ‘gut’ some of the worse parts of policy via trade. So, what can ‘ordinary’ people do to help make these openings bring real change? One thing we all can do is work with members of Congress who have been trying to advance actual legislation that will dismantle the Helms-Burton Bill. I have listed the most recent bills below. We can also engage our groups, institutions, churches, and friends, to hold
informational events, invite a speaker and join any of the groups I mentioned above to become more active. This is the first time in over half a century that IF WE DO THE WORK WE CAN BE THE CHANGE WE WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD! You can help; every small thing we do together becomes a big thing! Let’s work together to end the longest, harshest economic blockade in all of human history, which the world considers a crime against humanity. Let’s work together to stop US intervention into Cuba’s internal affairs. Let’s make sure Cuba is taken off the Terrorist List. Let’s take delegations to Cuba and see Cuba for ourselves. Let’s remove the U.S. travel bans, so the U.S. can again be a “land of the free.” Let’s close Gitmo. Let’s be a part of building a better world we all know is possible. We should also ask our elected representatives to enter the fray and take a bite out of the Helms-Burton Bill, or at least support these efforts!
on Cuba - Senator Amy Klobuchar (D -Mn) H.R. 634 & H,R. 635 - Export Enhancements Acts to Cuba - Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) H.R. 403 - Free Trade with Cuba Act Rep. Charles Rangel H.R. 735 - Lift Trade Embargo -Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) H.R. 570 - Stop Wasting Taxpayer Money on Cuba Broadcasting Act It is going to take serious and committed grassroots lobbying to get these bills passed. That is where each one of us can make a difference. We must all become engaged if we are going to overcome the money and influence of the smaller but still powerful pro-embargo side in Congress. Lisa Valanti is co-founder of the Pittsburgh CUBA Coalition, The Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister City Partnership, US-Cuba Sister Cities Association. Lisa Valanti
U.S. Congress Introduces Bipartisan Bills to end the Cuban Embargo and lift Travel Restrictions S. 299 - Freedom to travel to Cuba Act of 2015 - Senator Jeff Flake (R-Az) H.R. 664 - Companion Bill - Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC) S.491 - A bill to lift the trade embargo
"Celebration, Victory, Solidarity" A Discussion of US / Cuba Relations On December 17, 2014 President Obama announced his plans to normalize relations with Cuba. University of Pittsburgh School of Law hosted the event “What’s Next for US/Cuba Relations? Cooperation, Contention, Counter-Revolution?” on February 24, 2015, providing reactions from panelists who have special ties to Cuba, international law or US/Cuba relations. Professor Jules Lobel, President for the Center for Constitutional Rights and one of the panelists, described Obama’s announcement as a great victory and celebrated the Cuban Revolution’s resilience against US imperialism. Prof. Lobel pointed out that imperialism in the forms of war, embargo and covert intervention persists today. Professor Sheila Velez Martinez, who runs Pitt’s Immigration Law
Clinic, gave a detail-rich account of migration between Cuba and the US and the emerging new community of Cubans in trans-national relations. The United States has always been willing to provide special treatment to Cuban immigrants that no other immigrant population has been awarded. Prof. Martinez provided a counter-narrative to popular representations of Cuban migration to the US. A wave of migrations to the US by Cubans directly after the Revolution were made up of aristocrats who made their money off capitalist ventures, not refugees fleeing from human rights crises. Will the United States’ influence in Cuba tear down what the Revolution built? Prof. Lobel doesn’t think so and gave us two reasons for hope: the Cuban people are also concerned with this threat and many Cubans don’t want to give up the revolutionary ideals of the last generation. Cuba remains a country under siege and progress is slow under such circumstances. So what can we do? Panelists Lisa Valanti and the Hon. Jim Ferlo promoted the idea of people-to-people diplomacy through the Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister Cities Partnership. So much can be learned from the Cuban people through innovation and cultural exchange. Ferlo suggests engaging Cubans in Professor Sheila Velez Martinez, Professor Jules Lobel, policies for healthcare Ginny Hildebrand, Lisa Valanti, Hon. Jim Ferlo
By Lisa Valanti
By Marni Fritz
systems, citizen support during times but it is not a platform for negating of crisis/disaster relief, and sovereignty. Normalization cannot pharmaceutical technologies. These are occur as long as the US policy towards
Prof Jules Lobel addresses the audience.
Photo credit(Both Photos): Marni Fritz
areas in which Cuba thrives and the US is lacking. One of the takeaway messages from this discussion, emphasized by Lisa Valanti, co-founder of PittsburghMatanzas Sister Cities Partnership, is that this “normalization” between Cuba and the US does not imply a regime change. It does not imply that Cuba will become pro-Capitalist. It is the hope of all four speakers in the panel that Cuba maintains its autonomy and self-determination. The Cuban government has made it very clear that these “normalization” efforts are appreciated as a tool for dialogue and a means to recognize differences,
Cuba involves regime change or until the blockades are ended and Cuba is taken off the list of terrorist nations. Though attendance was low, this event was an exciting start for more local engagement with this issue. If you want to stay up to date with Cuban affairs or get involved, visit the Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister Cities Partnership facebook page at: https:// www.facebook.com/ pittsburghmatanzassistercities or email Lisa Valanti at: lisasubasi@aol.com. Marni Fritz is an intern at the Thomas Merton Center.
April 2015
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Higher Pay Better For Everyone Join Low-Wage Workers on the Fight for Fifteen Strike Day On April 15th, low-wage workers will lead a nationwide strike day demanding fifteen dollars an hour and a union. Hundreds of Pittsburgh community members, students, and faith congregations will join workers for actions around the city on April 15th strike day. This event builds on two years of actions and low-wage organizing, including last Summer’s demonstrations with people travelling from around the country to confront the McDonald’s shareholder meeting in Chicago. Beyond the raw facts of poverty wages, this is a campaign for racial and gender equity. McDonald’s is currently involved in lawsuits over
By Gabe McMorland
alleged racial discrimination at stores in multiple cities. Their overall business plan relies on politically subduing low-wage workers, which perpetuates the disparities oppressing women, minorities, and people living in chronic poverty. Fight for $15 Pittsburgh Leader Janelle Wilson speaks on the importance of winning $15 and a Union to women, especially mothers: "They push us (women) to the bottom. We get paid less and we deal with the most harassment at work. Most of the people I work with are adults. We got real bills to pay and we can't survive. I don't have kids and I'm struggling. This fight is so real. You have to choose between keeping your gas on
in the winter or being homeless, while these bosses go on vacation. Enough is enough! I have two jobs...McDonalds and Fight for $15....I'll do anything for my Union, We need a better wage and we will win it by organizing and pushing!" The poverty wages of the working poor are the result of political choices influenced by large corporations. The Fight for Fifteen builds worker and community power in a time when corporations claim increasing legal and political powers. McDonald’s, for example, is now bringing legal challenges against the living wage ordinances recently passed by city councils in Seattle and Los Angeles. Large corporations across the service
industry contribute to lobbying efforts opposing any increase in the minimum wage. Pittsburgh actions will kick off at 4 PM, April 15th, with a rally at Forbes Ave and Bigelow Boulevard in Oakland. To join other Thomas Merton Center members on April 15th strike day, contact staff member Gabe McMorland at Gabriel@thomasmertoncenter.org or 412.719.3424.
Gabe McMorland is a Thomas Merton Center staff organizer working with the New Economy Campaign.
Higher Pay Leads to Higher Productivity and Profits The fight by postal workers to halt the loss of career positions and to hold onto decent wages and benefits is reflective of a larger struggle within America to not just narrow the “wealth gap” but also to increase overall economic growth. An increasing number of economists and business scholars are making the argument that better wages and benefits actually lead to higher sales and profits, rather than hurt them. Wages have been stagnant since 2007, and growth in workers’ pay has been anemic since 2000. While job growth has been impressive during the past year (295,000 new jobs in February alone), wages have only increased 2 percent, which with inflation is no increase at all. Why? “The erosion of collective bargaining is the single largest factor suppressing wage growth for middle-wage workers
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over the last few decades,” Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute recently wrote. Postal workers have organized a nationwide boycott of Staples because having lowpaid workers in an office-supply chain do work formerly performed exclusively by postal workers is a classic union-busting tactic and a direct threat to the future bargaining power of those workers. Results from Wisconsin, where Governor Scott Walker and the state legislature have waged a four-year war against organized labor, support Mishel’s claim. Since 2011 median income in that state has fallen steadily, and is now around $800 below the national average. Public employees, forced to devote more of their wages to health insurance and pension benefits, have seen their take-home pay drop by 8 to 10 percent. On the
other hand, Walmart’s recent announcement that it will increase the wages of a half-million of its workers to a minimum of $9 an hour can be attributed at least in part to the organizing campaign conducted by the United Food and Commercial Workers. Conservative economists and politicians continually argue that increasing wages will harm business growth and profits, consequently reducing the overall number of available jobs while creating inflationary pressures. But Harold Meyerson argues in the Washington Post that evidence points to a different set of motives driving managers to suppress wages. Confronted by powerful financiers and investors seeking higher returns on a company’s shares, who often also threaten the jobs of those same managers, corporate executives are redirecting “funds that used to go to businesses’ research, modernization, expansion and workers” to shareholders. Meyerson cites a recent study showing that certain capital investments made between 2000 and 2011 are “less than a fifth that of the 1980s and less than one-tenth that of the 1990s.” In truth, evidence suggests such strategies as wage suppression and the temporary goosing of profits are both shortsighted and counterproductive. Henry Ford figured that out in 1914, when his famous increase in wages to $5 a day resulted in less worker turnover and absenteeism while both profits and productivity went up. In explaining why
by Neil Cosgrove
Aetna will increase the wage for its lowest paid workers from $12 to as much as $16 an hour, CEO Mark Bertolini said, “It’s hard for people to be fully engaged with customers when they’re worrying about how to put food on the table.” Then there is the research of Zeynep Ton of MIT’s Sloan School of Management, which demonstrates that even in retail stores low wages are not a good idea. In comparing wages and sales results for Costco and for its largest competitor, Walmart’s Sam’s Club, she found that Costco employees earned 40% more, while 98% of store managers were promoted from its pool of employees, thus giving workers the incentive to stay with the company and to devise ways to increase efficiency and sales. “Sales per employee at Costco are almost double those at Sam’s Club,” reports Ton, and Costco sales per square foot were nearly $400 more. At Trader Joe’s, where the starting annual wage for full-time employees ranges from $40,000 to $60,000, “sales per labor hour are more than 40% higher than those of an average U.S. supermarket;” and sales per square foot are more than three times as high. Retail success depends upon what Ton calls “operational execution” that entails skills involving inventory, stocking processes, and customer interaction. Well-trained, experienced, and motivated workers, not ones who are hastily trained, on part-time schedules and unlikely to hang around for long, perform those skills in a way that result in higher sales and higher return on investment. Postal service administrators and members of Congress may think that cutting full-time career positions and farming out work to low-paid Staples clerks are what’s needed to keep our post office viable. Are they acting upon hard evidence or unexamined beliefs? Neil Cosgrove is a member of the NewPeople editorial collective.
The New Economy New Face for the New Economy By Marni Fritz
Right now there are three main things we are doing: 1. Interviewing and researching worker-owned cooperatives from other cities about their work, how they started, What is the New specifically in low-income or food Economy Campaign? desert areas, and how they have The New Economy become part of the economic Campaign supports development in those cities 2. Talking practical local to neighborhood groups in Pittsburgh solutions for an about how co-ops could help them economy that puts with their community development people and the planet work 3. Finding people in Pittsburgh Gabe over profit. Nationally who are either knowledgeable or McMorland there is a conversation curious about co-ops and bringing about democratic them into our group. Two goals of ownership and how communities or economic development are usually to groups of people could all have a create good jobs and strong stable collective and democratic stake over neighborhoods. Worker-owned important things such as the cooperatives are a way to directly workplace, land and energy resources. achieve both of those goals. A interview with Gabe Morland, Thomas Merton Center staff organizer working with the New Economy campaign.
Why are you interested in working with the New Economy Campaign? This group has been meeting at the Thomas Merton Center for three years and I began my involvement last summer working towards building a local economy that is based on democratic ownership and environmental sustainability. I have always wanted to strengthen the connection between economic and environmental justice issues. I see the New Economy as working at the intersection of those issues on the local level. What is the New Economy Campaign currently working on?
What are you trying to establish in Pittsburgh? This is a long-term commitment. Our biggest short-term goal is to build expertise and build more active participants. We would like to eventually hold events around the city for people to learn about how cooperatives are benefiting people in other cities. Our long-term goal is really up to the group itself. We would like to see more cooperatives, especially worker-owned, and we would like to see cooperatives enter the every-day conversation about economic development in this city. If there are already groups with resources, how can we partner with
them to apply democratic ownership to community challenges? There is still a lot of room for our group to form its own long-term identity, which is pretty exciting. Why is this important to our city and its future? Pittsburgh has a really strong labor history and worker-owned cooperatives are about building quality jobs that put workers at the center of workplace decisions. Worker-owned cooperatives set their own wages and benefits. Pittsburgh is also going through a lot of development as we rebuild neighborhood infrastructure and housing which, in turn, attracts new residents and economic growth. Democratic ownership for land, housing, and worker-owned co-ops could be a way to ensure community control over development and who is benefiting. It’s all part of a spectrum of pushing for a world where every-day people have power. How are you engaging with the community about cooperatives? We’re really looking for community partners already working on challenges in their neighborhood. How are you working with other projects to achieve your goals? The New Economy Campaign is partnering with the Environmental Justice Committee to support the
Thomas Merton Center’s campaign to ask the city of Pittsburgh to divest from fossil fuel use. Western Pennsylvania is the center of fossil fuel extraction and the people who live here pay the real costs of this industry with our health, air and water. Beyond climate change and the toxic pollution at home, the fossil fuel industry is one of the major funders of right-wing lobbying against policies that protect labor unions, working families and the environment. The fossil fuel divestment campaign is part of a much larger effort to shift to a renewable energy economy and it acts as a powerful statement against one of the most powerful political forces working against progressive values and practical social benefits. For more involvement sign our petition at divestpittsburgh.com which also includes info on how to get involved with the divestment campaign. February’s Global Divestment Day Rally was a great way to get involved with student activists and the EarthQuaker Action Team campaign which recently got PNC Bank to stop financing companies with more than 25% of their coal production coming from mountaintop removal. To get involved, contact Gabe at gabriel@thomasmertoncenter.org. Make sure to keep your eye on the Thomas Merton Center Calendar for upcoming events and different ways to get involved! Marni Fritz is an intern at the Thomas Merton Center.
Presentation on New Power of Attorney Law in PA By Tris Ozark
You are invited to join the members of the nonprofit Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Pennsylvania (FCAWP) at their annual meeting on Sunday, April 26, 2 p.m. at the Friends Meeting House, 4836 Ellsworth Avenue 15213. The meeting is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be served. Following a brief business meeting and election of officers and trustees, FCAWP will welcome guest speaker Attorney Colin A. Morgan, who will present a program entitled “New Power of Attorney Law reminds us to check our Estate Plans.” Act 95 of 2014 made broad changes to the law governing Pennsylvania’s Powers of Attorney. Mr. Morgan will explain how this new law might affect end-of-life and estate planning. An attorney with Julian Gray Associates, Mr. Morgan assists clients in all phases of long term care planning, especially issues specific to aging clients and younger clients with disabilities. He also assists families who need to maintain government benefits such as SSI and Medicaid. He received his Juris Doctor degree from the Duquesne University School of Law. Mr. Morgan’s program fits well with the mission of FCAWP, which, according to their member-
ship brochure, is “to help members plan for simple, dignified, and affordable funeral services. We encourage members to become informed consumers on end-of-life issues and advocates for legislative reform. We also provide information relating to whole body, organ, and tissue donation so the dead can help the living.” FCAWP “is committed to helping people through a difficult time with information on options and tips for effective preplanning.” The Funeral Consumers Alliance, founded in 1958 as the Pittsburgh Memorial Society, will also have a table at the meeting with literature on funeral planning and information about membership and member access to affordable direct cremation, simple burial, and green burial services offered through 30 area funeral homes. The Friends Meeting House is wheelchair accessible and has a stair lift to the lower level meeting room. For more information on FCAWP or the meeting, email fcawp@verizon.net or call 412-241 -0705. For directions or more information about the venue, go to http://www.quaker.org/pghpamm. Tris Ozark is a freelance writer and office manager of FCAWP.
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Organizing for the Future Labor Makes Strides in Pittsburgh When Rich Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, addressed the biennial convention of the Pennsylvania AFLCIO in the spring of 2014, he called Pittsburgh the leading city in the United States for union organizing. In my report in last month’s NewPeople, I reviewed the present situation for important union organizing drives, and/or negotiations by SEIU at UPMC, HERE at the Rivers Casino, and the USW with adjunct faculty at Point Park, Robert Morris, and the nurses at the County jail. This month we’ll examine the community-labor organizing efforts of Pittsburgh UNITED.
A distinguishing characteristic of labor organizing and worker support efforts in Pittsburgh is the consistent long-term support provided by the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network (PIIN), the Thomas Merton Center, Action United (former ACORN), student and other progressive organizations that understand that the issues they care about, inequality, support for public education and mass transit, depend on workers earning enough to pay taxes and support their families. These ecumenical, nonsectarian organizations provide a channel for social activism by people often motivated by religious and justice convictions about non-violence and economic justice. One of the most frustrating aspects of the rhetoric used by both President Obama and the Democratic Party is the constant referral to the plight of the “middle class.” While the stagnation of wages, the decline of home ownership, and the crushing debt incurred by young people to obtain the supposed nirvana of a college degree has undeniably put tremendous downward pressure on the middle class, religious people have a hard time ignoring the growing poverty and social deterioration around them. The religious and other progressive
by Charlie McCollester
organizations’ awareness of society’s growing poverty provides a point of view that seeks to unite everyone from below in a social movement that condemns inequality and hunger, inadequate housing, healthcare and transportation, and the national disgrace of the bloated prisonindustrial complex. The Workers Organizing Table (WOT) of Pittsburgh UNITED attempts to advance the struggle for good jobs by raising consciousness around the social cost of inequality and the critical importance of worker and community solidarity. The struggle to make low wage service jobs pay family supporting wages and benefits and allow workers the right to form unions is the heart of the table. The unions and other worker organizing struggles like the Restaurant Organizing Center (ROC) Pittsburgh work through this coalition table to better support each other’s organizing. Along with transportation, an activist vision that is based on the poorest communities understands the critical issue regarding the availability of healthy food and the adequate pay and benefits for workers in the food industry. The Hill District’s long struggle for a grocery and the growing cooperative gardening initiatives in Lincoln-Larimer, Hazelwood and Braddock illustrate the centrality of an adequate available supply of food. Besides continuing organizing efforts at UPMC, SEIU 32BJ has recently organized 1,000 security officers, who will soon begin contract bargaining. The Fast Food workers’ Charlie McCollester is the founder of Fight for $15 and a Union will The Battle of Homestead Foundation. continue to build pressure on the fast food industry, especially the industry leader McDonalds and will hold a
National Organizing Workshop: Is There a Way Forward? The National Organizers Workshop of the AFL-CIO presented a distinct menu of strategy and tactics in Washington, D.C. on March 6 and 7th. Union organizers joined with community organizers in workshops to share experiences and develop a mutuality that has clearly been missing over the past decades. Issues such as mass incarceration and immigration were put on the table. There was an overarching theme of unity. This collection of AFL-CIO unions has clearly paid the cost for the focus on government employees. The reputation of unions collaborating with the National Security Administration, promoting super-max prisons, covering up the militarization of police and facilitating repression has cost the AFL -CIO. At one workshop, one of the panelists brought up the efforts of steelworkers in Pittsburgh to buy out a local mill shutting down. “The only thing we lacked was capital.” The panelist was reminded of how other locals stayed out of the project and failed to demonstrate a mutual defense of steel jobs through a concerted regional job action against the closings. Instead, now we find United 8 - NEWPEOPLE
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Steel Workers of America (USWA) locals promoting steel jobs by promoting government contracts for Keystone XL and fracking at the expense of the same communities their left-hand is supposedly promoting at the Workshop. Labor Day in Pittsburgh last year showed a massive display of thousands of union workers. Much like the Workshop, this demonstration is expressive of the current discontent in the marginalization of workers and the simmering anger of our communities. The UPMC organizing drive, also in Pittsburgh and the Labor Day demonstration present the face of the AFL-CIO as engaged in organizing the unorganized and uniting a broad spectrum into a social movement opposing grave wage inequities. But, the fundamentals remain unaddressed. Teachers continue to be harassed by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Killer cops continue to demonstrate their immunity from accountability. Even among governmental workers, there continues to be a downslide in representation from 2004-2014, from 36.4% down to 35.7 %. Meanwhile, telecommunication workers in unions have gone from 22.4% of the
major action on April 15. The struggle of fast food workers for a living wage is gaining traction internationally. There are few comparable efforts that affect the living standards and employment goals of young minority workers. Labor faces serious struggles on many fronts nationally and internationally. Longshoremen on the West Coast and Oil Workers in the United States and abroad are engaging in job actions to defend safety standards on the job. However, in a future report, we’ll talk about the dramatic success of the Pittsburgh Building Trades unions to completely change their labor relations’ model from confrontation to cooperation and regain near total dominance of the regional market after almost collapsing under the incursions of non-union construction in the 1980s and 1990s. Labor can fight and labor can cooperate. SEIU, known for its militant struggles locally, made its peace with the Golden Age Nursing Homes after battling its predecessor Beverly Nursing for decades. Now labor-management cooperation is based on union skill-training and a living wage that has drastically reduced turnover and improved the efficiency of operation. It is important for organized labor to walk on two legs: cooperate where we can, fight where we must. But underlying any successful labor movement over the long run is inclusive community involvement and education. Such is the critical role of Pittsburgh United and the unions, community and faith organizations at the Workers Organizing Table.
by Martin Zehr
workforce in 2004 down to 14.8% in 2014. [Bureau of Labor Statistics] The National Organizers Workshop was a good idea. It is a recognition that things cannot go on as before. But it denies what is obvious; that what we lack are leaders more willing to fight than they are to compromise away our rights. Students have joined with teachers in opposing standardized testing. Prison employees have opposed the brainwashing techniques of “cognitive restructuring” where access to basic life necessities are subjected to meeting required obedience standards and super-max prisons isolate prisoners from the world. And many have refused to be complicit in violations of fundamental human rights. The militarization of AFL-CIO unions needs to be confronted. Workers have no stake in a police state. There are no jobs worth the crimes. Therein lies the new strategy. Martin Zehr is a member of the Pittsburgh General Membership Branch of the IWW, an adopted member of the family of two-Spirit enrolled Wind River Shoshone and a veteran worker engaged in issues of social justice.
CORRECTION A poem by Jim Kuhn These last months, like Any in the sentence, Are just empty spite Meted out with the same pretense Of moral authority Underlying penology and its uniformed minions Who stand around flat-footed, Their belts dripping keys and cuffs, The radio bleating and Crackling the same guff Over and over again When my stint is done, They’ll still be putting theirs in, Behind the fence and concertina, With no credit for good time. I wonder, in the end, if they will find Their contract was a bargain. Jim Kuhn is a long time Merton Center member.
Looking at the Future and the Past Cocktails & Conservation: Preserving Pittsburgh's Hidden Treasure Walking in to St Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale for the first time was absolutely breathtaking. This church, and the murals it hosts within its walls, is truly a hidden treasure of the Steel City. It is not only a religious experience one will find here, but one artist’s and one church’s dedication to peace and social justice issues. It is something one must see with their own eyes. Murals, once cracked and peeling have been revitalized with life thanks to the conservation team of Rikke Foulke, the lead conservator, and Rob Long, lighting designer. Maksimilijan “Maxo” Vanka, a Croatian artist, painted these murals between 1937 and 1941. These murals represent his experience and the sharedexperience of immigrants joining the labor force in the United States addressing issues of greed, working conditions and pacifism.
The Immigrant Mother Raises Her Sons For Industry
St. Nicholas held a Cocktail sand Conservation event on March 6th that housed a crowd of over 300 people, more than double the turnout of last year. The reception provided an elegantly decorated church basement with a wonderful and lively Croatian folk band playing throughout the evening. David Conrad, famous actor, came back to once again host this wonderful event calling these murals “utterly Pittsburgh” for their operatic beauty, their strong comment on social justice and for their faith and mystery. Beautiful images of the Mother Croatia and Justice line the walls alongside violent images such as Injustice and Battlefield highlighting social justice issues of non-violence and workers’ rights. In the past year, four murals have been fully restored including The Capitalist; a mural depicting a scary, gaunt monopoly-man looking character greedily feasting while an angel turns her head in shame and a beggar with no legs lies beneath his table. Foulke described the conditions the murals were in when she began her conservation work. Years of air pollution dirtied the mural with “notorious Pittsburgh soot” and Hurricane Iva, in 2004, damaged the roof of the church resulting in an accumulation of salt deposits on the murals. Working with chemists, Foulker and her team were able to remove the salt, retouch the surface, and stabilize losses. As you examine the various murals it is clear which ones are still in need of conservation. The theme of the evening Photo Credit : Marni Fritz was “Murals! Lights!
Action!” and one can see why. The incredible lighting design of Rob Long is immediately striking. Using different techniques of lighting, the murals look as though they are illuminated from within, giving them a glowing quality. Not only does this technique immediately draw your eyes to the particular mural, “Injustice” Photo credit: Marni Fritz but the detail and true beauty are illuminated. Not all conditions are the same so different murals call for different lighting. The goal is to permanently install light fixtures that can be controlled by the individual docents as they give their tour in order to promote the beauty and importance of each individual mural in an accessible manner. Jim Augustine, one of the docents at St. Nicholas, told us he grew up going to the church as a young boy and found some of the images to be scary. Now he’s proud to be leading tours, showing off the beauty of the murals to people from all over the world. Hopefully, with the combined efforts of the conservation team, the lighting design and passionate docents, these murals will continue to draw attention from all over the world. Marni Fritz is an intern at the Thomas Merton Center and a member of the editorial collective.
Tax Day is Coming cont’d from page 1 struction of humankind and towards the detriment of our planet. This year's proposed federal budget designates 45% or $1.3 trillion for current and past military spending, one of the largest military budgets since WWII; but only 43% goes for all human resources, which includes $71 billion for education and $8.6 billion for the environment. This is much more than the rest of the world combined spends on defense. China, the second biggest military spender in the world, just upped their military budget to $145 billion. Our taxes pay to maintain an empire. We pay for US navy ships in the South China Sea and in the Persian Gulf, for military exercises in South Korea, US bases in Japan and Germany, for drone strikes on Yemen and Pakistan and more. General Breedlove, commander of NATO and Victoria Nuland, head of European affairs at the US State Department, are beating the drums for involvement in Ukraine.
We are told that we must fight the “terrorists” all over the world; but there’s a world beyond wars. The United States can begin this process by no longer sending arms and military aid to all our current "friends.” The United States must sign on to the International Arms Trade Treaty, which prohibits sending arms to other countries. When humanitarian aid replaces weapons and troops, living standards will rise and leave fewer reasons to fight. The $5.3 billion now used to fight ISIL alone could increase non-military aid to Syria and Iraq by 26 times, which would help the people in the region, rather than bombing them back to Stone Age conditions. While European countries are cutting their NATO spending and can afford free tuition for their university students and can build fast and well running trains, our infrastructure is crumbling and education becomes more and more elu-
sive to most Americans. Why are our priorities so skewed towards warfare? In a nutshell: Corporate profits and unsustainable jobs. 1.The weapons manufacturers are thriving, and they create jobs. 2. The whole war machine production is spread among all congressional districts, and no congress member wants to lose jobs in his or her district. 3. Since the Supreme Court ruling of Citizens
by Marni Fritz
funding towards sustainable jobs in education, health care, renewable energy and towards a more just and peaceful world, a world beyond wars. Edith Bell is the coordinator of Pittsburgh’s Chapter of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
Legacy: Its Not Too Late By Judy Starr Celebrate the rebirth of spring by renewing your commitment to peace and justice. Remember the Merton Center’s Molly Rush Legacy Fund now or in the future. All donations, no matter how modest, are greatly appreciated. Complete, clip, and mail the form below to: Thomas Merton Center, 5129 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15224.
United unknown amounts of money flow from these corporate war Merton Center’s Molly Rush Legacy Fund Donation/Pledge $______ profiteers to the coffers of In Honor / Memory of:____________________________________ our elected officials to Name(s):______________________________________________ secure that Congress makes decisions which Organization (if any):_____________________________________ promote continuous Address:_______________________________________________ demand for tools of ______________________________________________________ war. City: ________________ State:________ Zip Code:_____________ It is up to us to make these local, naHome Phone:___________________________________________ tional, and international Cell Phone: ____________________________________________ connections and conEmail:_________________________________________________ vince our government to change priorities of April 2015
NEWPEOPLE - 9
Feminist Activism Fracking as a Feminist Issue On Monday, April 6, at 7 pm in the Assembly Room of the Pitt Student Union, Sandra Steingraber will be speaking on the topic "Fracking is a Feminist Issue: Women Confronting Fossil Fuels and Petrochemicals in an Age of Climate Emergency." Steingraber will argue that the contemporary environmental movement in the United States is really two parallel movements: the fight against chemical pollution and the fight against climate change. The struggle against toxic trespass is largely populated by women activists and scientists (with Rachel Carson as its guiding figure), while climate science and activism is dominated by men (with James Hansen and Bill McKibben as iconic figures). With climate change now an existential threat to children born today-and with a growing realization that toxic chemical production is driven by the economic needs of the energy industry -these gendered responses to the environmental crisis are rapidly evolving. As both a biologist and a leading figure in the national fight against fracking, Steingraber will explore the role of women in the construction of knowledge about the
By Marianne Novy
risks of extreme fossil fuel extraction, gender disparities in the distribution of economic costs and benefits, the disproportionate burden of harm that women experience when their communities become targeted for oil and gas extraction, and the rise of women leaders in the anti-fracking movement. Sandra Steingraber received a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Michigan, and she writes and researches climate change, ecology, and the links between human health and the environment. She reaches many more people than most biologists do because she brings scientific data together with moving personal writing. Her most influential and most recent books are: Raising Elijah: Protecting Children in An Age of Environmental Crisis(2011), Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood (2001; also released in Japan, Germany, China, the United Kingdom, and Estonia); and Living Downsteam: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment (1997; 2nd edition 2010; also released in Japan and the United Kingdom; adapted in a 2010 film). Her work is most closely gender-related because
she writes about the links between environmental pollution and breast cancer, problems in pregnancy and nursing, and early puberty in females, and testicular cancer and undescended testicles in males, but she also is concerned with the way in which environmental pollution affects everyone, and especially the intelligence and mental and physical health of children. Steingraber gave the keynote address at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education in 2011, and received the Heinz Award, the Rachel Carson Leadership Award, a Hero Award from the Breast Cancer Fund, the Environmental Health Champion Award from Physicians for Social Responsibility, and many other awards She has been invited to lecture at many medical schools, hospitals, and universities, including Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Columbia, and the Woods Hole Research Center, and has keynoted many conferences on health and the environment. She has testified in the European Parliament at the European Commission, and before the President’s Cancer Panel. She is currently a Distinguished Scholar in
Changing the Narrative on Climate Change If enough of us decide that climate change is a crisis worthy of Marshall Plan levels of response, then it will become one. Naomi Klein Recently, the Guardian decided to do a major series on the climate crisis and how humanity might solve it. Alan Rusbridger, editor of this very good newspaper, admits that journalism “tends to be a rear-view mirror.” This is why Earth’s climate is not a biggy for the world of journalism; it belongs to a future that is not yet seen. So what has changed? Bill McKibben’s math, ( pinpointing the safe level of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, 350 parts per million). 400,000 people showing up for the Peoples Climate March in New York, and Naomi Klein’s book, This Changes Everything, and yet one more UN Climate talk coming up in December in Paris. The late social change activist, William Moyer, (not to be confused with Bill Moyers) wrote that all movements have eight stages in the process of success. The 3rd stage refers to “Ripening Conditions,” followed by the 4th stage labeled “Take Off.” This is characterized by a “Trigger Event.” For those of us who work on climate change we are always seeking that Trigger Event. The signs are here. Trigger events are characterized by dramatic nonviolent actions or campaigns, particularly actions showing conditions and policies that violate widely held values. These nonviolent actions are repeated around the country and the problem has finally been put on the social agenda; the movement is rapidly taking off, and 40% of the public finally oppose current environmental policies and conditions. 10 - NEWPEOPLE
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But we cannot forget that it is the poor of humankind who bear the brunt of environmental degradation in the form of hunger, illness, displacement from their homes, as well as the destruction of human cultures, biological communities, and entire species. These conditions continue to diminish the world in untold ways and impact all of us. Yet, on a daily basis this still does not seem to involve us. Whatever is out there has not happened to us directly. It is time for us to recognize the emotionally powerful narrative we are ignoring, rather than the many narratives that stand in our way. These concepts, which stand in our way, are described in the work of Naomi Klein and the Reverend Fletcher Harper. Fletcher Harper is the founder of GreenFaith, a training program to turn clergy and laity into religious-environmental leaders. As an example, we continue to believe the “Paradise Narrative,” and talk about nature’s beauty without recognizing the difficulties. Another, the “Scientific Narrative” also hinders seeing the truth. Some people are willing to take the research as authority. This narrative can be difficult to understand and leaves us feeling helpless. The “Environmentalist Narrative “ can be characterized by a message that says “Danger! Danger! Why don’t you listen!” This is perceived as emotional and polarizing. This is the narrative accepted by many who are culturally and politically liberal. It appears to value nature over humans. In the “Skeptics and Ethics Narrative,” we find that the “Doubtful” tend to be politically conservative, and only around one in
Residence at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. Her website-www.steingraber.com-- has more information. This event was initiated by the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies program of the University of Pittsburgh, and is co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Honors College, the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, the Humanities Center, the Departments of English, Biology, Communication, and Sociology, the Environmental Studies Program, and the Charles Crow Fund. Marianne Novy is a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh and member of the steering committee of the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Program.
By Wanda Guthrie
discrimination, abolitionism ... none of these were crises until we recognized them with compassion and love. Naomi Klein tells us we can make global decisions not to look away, but Naomi Klien Creative Commons to decide that climate change is ten regard themselves as liberal. Party a crisis worthy of a “Marshall Plan for identification skews toward the Earth” and that Earth’s political Republican, as do cultural values. The systems will have to respond. If we Doubtful are low in their level of treat this as the true emergency, our egalitarianism, and high in resources will be required to move individualism. While they are slightly away from fossil fuels. We can reclaim more likely to be white and male than our democracies from corrosive the national average, their income, age, corporate policies, and we can really and education do not substantially get to works of care. differ from the rest of the country. The Thomas Merton Center has They tend to prefer the status quo. always asked for no less than a shift in There is an “Economic Narrative” perceptions of reality, both cognitively which is in transition. Is the climate and spiritually, and we invite everyone change movement breaking or making to explore and build what eyes have the bank? Is this something good for not yet seen. To change everything we the economy and good for business or need everyone! is it bad for the environment and bad Please visit divestpittsburgh.com for the economy. Is there an inverse and sign our City Divestment Petition. relationship between environment and Contact us at the economic well-being of all? We environment@thomasmertoncenter.org sometimes find a Counter Economic or call 412-661-1529. Narrative: Is it possible for good jobs to be green jobs? Wanda Guthrie is the Chair Naomi Klein brings a different Environmental Justice Committee of narrative. My work with GreenFaith the Merton Center, and a 2015 compels me to call for a different GreenFaith Fellow. story. the narrative of love, forgiveness and compassion. What is it we value? What is it that leads us to become primary movement builders?. Civil rights, anti-apartheid, sex
International Peace and Justice Darfur (and South Sudan) Heat Up Again: Where’s the Outrage? Union (UNAMID) force, and a negotiated agreement (the Eleven years ago word leaked out Comprehensive Peace Agreementfrom the western Darfur region of CPA- of 2005) to end the bloody 20 Sudan that a brutal campaign of year conflict with the southern region bombing, pillaging, rape, and murder of the country. was being waged against the non-Arab The level of conflict slowed population by the government of dramatically at first, but the officials of Sudan (GOS) and allied Arabic the government of Sudan (GOS) “janjaweed” militias. This response to continued to obstruct implementation attacks by rebel groups tired of being of protective measures and tested the marginalized by the central will of the international community to government resulted in over 300,000 enforce them. The UNAMID force was civilian deaths and the complete not fully funded and was forced to destruction of thousands of villages at operate without a full complement of its height. Over 2,000,000 survivors troops and equipment. Over the years, gathered in internal displacement they have been severely hampered by camps (IDPs) inside Darfur, while over the GOS in efforts to provide 350,000 gathered in refugee camps in protection for civilians or to monitor eastern Chad. and report on abuses in areas of National human rights groups conflict. When the International joined with numerous grassroots Criminal Court (ICC) indicted organizations, such as the Pittsburgh Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir Darfur Emergency Coalition (PDEC), and other government officials for to raise awareness of these atrocities crimes against humanity in Darfur, the and demand that the US and other GOS expelled most humanitarian aid world governments and the United agencies from the region and increased Nations stop what then-Secretary of its intimidation of those that remained. State Colin Powell labeled as The GOS resisted reforms that would genocide. Despite the obstruction of increase representation of marginalized Sudanese government officials, non-Arab groups like those in Darfur diplomatic pressure forced their and southern Sudan. acceptance of humanitarian aid The GOS and its renamed allied organizations in IDP camps, the militias, the Rapid Support Force, have expansion of a small African Union greatly increased attacks in Darfur “peace-keeping” and monitoring over the past two years, displacing mission into a hybrid UN-African 450,000 people in 2014 alone, By Mary Dawn Edwards
especially since gold mines in the area offer a source of revenue to compensate for decreased oil revenue caused by the secession of South Sudan. According to independently corroborated accounts obtained by Human Rights Watch, GOS soldiers from a nearby military base invaded and looted homes in the North Darfur village of Tabit, beat and herded men to the outskirts of town, and raped 221 women on Oct. 30-Nov. 1, 2014. UNAMID soldiers who were allowed by GOS troops to enter the village on Nov. 9 to investigate the allegations conducted brief interviews with residents under the surveillance of GOS troops and reportedly found no evidence of an attack. Further investigation by the UN Security Council (UNSC) was blocked by Russia, a trading partner with Sudan. In Dec., 2014, the chief ICC prosecutor announced that she was suspending the criminal investigation of GOS officials because of lack of international cooperation. In March, 2015, the ICC asked the UNSC to enforce arrest warrants against the indicted GOS officials, who are continuing their crimes with impunity. Despite evidence of increasing atrocities in Darfur and other parts of Sudan, there has been little recent international response; diplomatic efforts in the region are focused on resolving South Sudanese inter-tribal
conflict before civilians caught in the middle succumb to famine. There has also been little focus on violence in Sudan in the US. However, on March 5, 2015 the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the House of Representatives held hearings on the situation; among the recommendations of experts was increased enforcement of economic sanctions and classifying Sudanese gold as conflict-related (to be boycotted). Also, the Darfur Women Action Group has published a letter demanding further UN investigation of the Tabit atrocities and the revocation of Sudan’s participation in the 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. We members of PDEC call for renewed focus on the continued human rights violations by the government of Sudan and effective measures to stop them. We will hold a forum on May 24, 2015. Among our speakers will be members of a Presbyterian mission who recently visited South Sudan. For further information, please visit our website, www.pittsburghdarfur.org or visit our Facebook page. Mary Dawn Edwards is a member of the Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition.
“Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel” Book Review
By Michael Drohan
Most people familiar with the formation of the modern Middle East geopolitical map are familiar with the Balfour Declaration. Lord Arthur James Balfour, Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1919, in a November 29, 1917 letter to Lord Rothschild, head of the British Zionist Organization. declared: “His Majesty's Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” What most people do not know, however, is how and why Balfour came to make this declaration, especially since Palestine at that time was part of the Ottoman Empire and not within the jurisdiction of the British Empire. In her marvelously concise book on the history of this period, Alison Weir reveals the subtext to the letter. By the end of 1916 the war was going badly for Great Britain and the Allies and they desperately needed the US to enter the war on their side. This was an uphill battle since sentiment in the US was for nonintervention. The British perceived that the key to this dilemma was the Zionist sector of the Jewish population in the US and their influence. The British
proved to be correct and so with such powerful people as Louis Brandeis and Felix Frankfurter of the American Zionist Organization, the US entered the war. The result was the Allies prevailed, the Ottoman Empire was gutted and the Allies divided the carcass among themselves. The next phase in the eventual establishment of the State of Israel was the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919. At this time, the official policy of the US President and State Department was for the “selfdetermination of peoples” in the colonies of the European powers. Consequently, the US was a priori against the establishment of one more colony in the Middle East, including Palestine as had been proposed by the leaders of the Zionist movement. President Wilson, as Weir points out, sent the King-Crane Commission to Palestine to study the situation. The commission returned with a damning report which stated that “the Zionists looked forward to a practically complete dispossession of the present non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine” and that armed force would be required
to accomplish it. Nevertheless the wording of the Balfour Declaration prevailed in Britain’s plans for the control of the Middle East.. One of the most misunderstood and misrepresented phases in the formation of the state of Israel is the role of the United Nations in 1947. Weir sets the historical record straight. On November 29, 1947 the General Assembly Resolution 181 recommended partition and asked that the Security Council take the necessary steps for its implementation, which it never did. So the General Assembly made a recommendation but did not create any states, contrary to what most think. Within months, however, this recommendation resulted in the expulsion of 413,000 Palestinians from their homes and land. At the time of the partition, the Jewish population was approximately 30 percent of the total population and their ownership of the land, achieved through buyouts amounted to 7 percent. The partition proposal, however, allotted 55 percent to the Zionist population, with only 45 percent remaining for the Muslim and/ Christian Palestinian population. The ensuing war, in view of this massive injustice, was all but inevitable. The
worst, however, was still to come; by the end of the war in 1948 the new Israeli state had claimed 78 percent of the land of Palestine with still only 30 percent of the population. In the US State Department sentiments were strongly against partition. President Truman, however, ignored that opinion and supported it, guided by his pursuit of money and votes for the presidential elections of 1948. There are many more twists and turns in the establishment of the state of Israel on Palestinian land, such as the inducement of the Jewish population of Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries to migrate to the new state and deals with the Nazi government of Germany to allow some Jews to take their financial capital to Israel. Weir explores and exposes all these dimensions of the origins of Israel. She documents all her assertions with copious endnotes which take up more than half the book. It is to be assumed that Weir will be accused of anti-Semitism but such an accusation would be grossly unfair. She merely lays out the historical record without flinching from the truth and the facts. It is to be hoped that those who disagree with her thesis will challenge what she lays out as factual rather than resorting to personal attacks or attribution of motives. Michael Drohan is co-chair of the NewPeople editorial collective.
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Living a Life of Peace and Nonviolence Happy Birthday, Thomas Merton! Merton’s writings set in liturgical form: A Book of Hours compiled and edited by Kathleen Deignan. Beginning on the eve of what would have been Merton’s 100th birthday, a contemplative service held at the Mennonite Church in Swissvale included excerpts from A Book of Hours, read by Br Christopher Johnson and Carol Gonzalez with Linda Kernohan playing twenty-eight original piano compositions that gracefully weave Merton’s prose together as meditative prayer. This hour long recording has been posted on YouTube as a gift to the world in honor of Thomas Merton. Search “A book of Hours readings by Carol Gonzalez” on YouTube Opening prayer—Emmanuel Episcopal to watch! Church on the North side of Pittsburgh Saturday morning’s “Dawn” office (prayer) Saturday, January 31, 2015 someone’s began the actual feast 100th birthday when that person died day of January 31 which was held on December 10, 1968? Approximately the Northside (Emmanuel Episcopal) one-hundred Pittsburghers chose to as a dozen men and women entered the honor Thomas Merton --the vastly church in quiet darkness at 7:00 AM, influential Trappist monk and author gathering to pray together using who continues to inspire and mentor Merton’s words and silent meditation contemplative activists all over the around the theme of Holy Wisdom. world-- with music and prayer in Leaving in morning’s light, most went gratitude for Merton’s enduring about the rest of their day’s activities presence. Over a twenty-four hour in that contemplative frame of mind, period in five locations around the city, and some participated in the diverse, people gathered with the ‘whole ecumenical expressions of the other communion of saints’ in “Praying with three prayer gatherings (or ‘offices’) Merton” using a common text of that same day. By Carol Gonzalez
God is experientially present, and we are aware that God is with us. This is contemplation, isn't it, the experience of the nearness and closeness of God? Therefore, if we love, the love which makes us love one another in community is that which makes us contemplatives. -- Thomas Merton, The Springs of Contemplation: A Retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani So how do you celebrate on
St. James Catholic Community in Wilkinsburg welcomed over twenty people gathered at Noon in a circle for animated, informal sharing along with praying the “Day” office for Saturday, with celebratory birthday cupcakes afterwards. “Dusk prayers from A Book of Hours were so beautiful and inspiring,” expressed Sr. Georgine Scarpino, RSM, Ph.D. “What touched me was seeing the Mercy Chapel [at the Motherhouse on Carlow University’s campus in Oakland] filled with people of prayer – Merton Center friends, strangers and our active and retired Mercy Sisters together raising up their voices and intentions out of reflective reverence for Merton, Blessed Mother Mary and one another.” The culminating prayer office in the evening was generously hosted by the Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community on the Southside. As we began, we ended the day in darkness with candle-lit icons and quiet, informal reading of the prayers with various individuals taking turns. Speaking for many who expressed
Highlights from The 12 Steps to Peace by Johnny F. By Joyce Rothermel
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), is probably the most well known and respected recovery program in the world today. It has been instrumental in changing the lives of over 3 million alcoholics in over 150 countries regardless of faith tradition, race or economic background. People who once lived with chaos, pain and suffering discovered peace through AA. Many have discovered that the 12 -step program is not only effective for those struggling with alcoholism, but also with many other addictive behaviors. The author of The 12 Steps to Peace, Johnny F (anonymous), believes that humankind has an addiction to violence and war. He invites his readers to utilize the 12-step program to change their way of thinking and way of acting to achieve peace. Why not chapters of Peace Anonymous? Here is short summary of Johnny F’s outline and questions of the 12Steps to Peace: Step 1: Admit we are powerless over war and violence and our lives have become unmanageable. Do we need to change? Can we continue to live in a world of escalating war and violence? Are we numb to the violence in our world? Is there a better way? Step 2: Come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity. (Inclusive – from the atheist to the Moonie; for example, belief that the power that exists in the 12 - NEWPEOPLE
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earth’s people exceeds my power as an individual). Can you believe that there is a solution? Can you believe that peace is achievable? Step 3: Make a decision to turn over our wills and our lives to the care of a Higher Power as we understand Them. (Surrender). What good can I do in the world today? What are my responsibilities as a citizen, not only of this country, but of this world? Step 4: Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. (Honesty). Are we capable of listening to those of other countries who, fearing repercussion, have been afraid to speak? Are we willing to learn from our mistakes? Step 5: Admit to that Higher Power, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Is the world we leave behind for our children more important than Wall Street bonuses and corporate dividends? What values motivate us to think the thoughts and take the actions that brought us to where we are today? Step 6: Are ready to have a Higher Power remove these defects of character. (Acceptance). Can we accept that many of the actions taken by groups we consider to be unfriendly around the world are actions provoked by the behavior of our corporations and our governments? Are we willing to accept that a small, powerful group motivated by greed and selfishness has brought us to this place? Step 7: Humbly ask that Higher
Hot Metal Bridge Candle Light Ceremony
their appreciation for these meditative gatherings, Mimi Darragh (of Pittsburgh Area Pax Christi) also hopes that we’ll have future opportunities to share what Merton means to each one of us. And, indeed, we will have numerous such venues as we celebrate Merton’s centenary in the Merton Festival 2015! http:// thomasmertoncenter.org/mertonfestival-events/ In his blog article on January 31, 2015, “One Degree of Thomas Merton,” Peter Smith from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette makes a strong case that more than anyone else, the story of Thomas Merton offers a unique framework for telling the broader story of 20th century intellectual and cultural life. Thomas Merton (1915 – 1968) -- monk, prolific writer, and student of comparative religion-- addressed spirituality, social justice, and interfaith understanding and continues to captivate so many of us the world over. Happy Birthday, Thomas Merton! An educator and contemplative activist, Carol (CJ) Gonzalez is on the Merton Festival Planning Committee and has served on the board of the Thomas Merton Center, Editorial Collective, and led numerous Merton and Dorothy Day study groups. our conscious contact with a collective conscious as we understand it, praying only for knowledge of the collective will for us and for the Power to carry that out (Gratitude). How long do we have? Step 12: Try to carry this message to those seeking peace and practice these principles in all of your affairs. (Service). Do I know that I have a choice? Through AA, Johnny F was slowly able to regain his life. The 12 Steps was instrumental in providing him direction, sense of purpose, and, most of all, peace. This book 12 Steps to Peace takes us on Johnny F’s journey sharing the wisdom he has gleaned, leading him to his commitment to always think and act peace. It is his hope that when we are filled with peace, we, too, will be able to share these principles with others.
Power to remove our shortcomings. (Humility). What is the right thing to do? What good can I do in the world today? Step 8: Make a list of all persons we have harmed, and become willing to make amends to them all. (Willingness). Am I willing to make amends and repair the relationships I have damaged due to my behavior? Step 9: Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. (Forgiveness). Do I really want peace? Am I willing to go to any length to get it? Am I willing to listen to the Collective Conscience (whatever you call your higher power) and do the right thing? Step 10: Continue to take personal inventory and when we are wrong Joyce Rothermel is a member of the promptly admit it. (Maintenance). Can Thomas Merton Center Board and we admit where we have been wrong editorial collective. regarding our environment and our Merton Center on the Air! at 3:30, when Diane McMahon and Molly Rush will talk treatment of others? The first edition of the Tho- about the Merton Festival. Can we see that we mas Merton Center Radio You can also listen to TMC possess so much of the Show aired March 10 on Members Charlie McCollestechnology to solve "Pittsburgh Speaks," WKFB ter and Rosemary Trump on over-populations, Radio, 770 AM or 97.5 WKFB on Tuesdays from 2world hunger, and FM. Wanda Guthrie, (Chair 3 p.m. on "The Union Edge, environmental issues, of the Environmental Justice Labor's Talk Radio," and and the only thing we Committee) and Gabe from 3-3:30 p.m. on lack is the will and the McMorland (TMC Commu- "Pittsburgh Speaks," talking courage to do the right nity Organizer for the New about issues of interest to Economy Campaign) disunion members and all prothing? cussed their work on envigressives. Live at Step 11: Seek ronmental justice issues. www.theunionedge.com. through prayer and The program, at this point a meditation to improve monthly presentation, will Bette McDevitt is a member next air on Tuesday, April 7,
of the editorial collective.
Vision and Values of Thomas Merton In Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Thomas Merton by Robert Jedrzejewski
inhabiting spiritual worlds most are Thomas unaware of, yet, toward the end of his Merton, born attenuated life he indulged in a in 1915, did somewhat adolescent infatuation and not die in a dalliance with a young woman (he tragic accident refers to as "M") half his age while in Thailand in sequestered in his private hermitage at 1968 as the monastery. This period (1966-67) reported. He of his astounding "odyssey" is simply lay poignantly recounted by Merton dormant for a himself in "Learning to Love - Vol. Six, few years and was resurrected in The Journals of Thomas Merton. One Pittsburgh as the Thomas Merton can neither understand nor appreciate Center. I speak mystically, not the beauty and the humanity of the metaphorically. As an observer, "man" Merton without visiting this member and supporter of the TMC episode of his life - that is unless one since its establishment on the prefers plaster saints and prophets Southside in 1972, I can firmly attest without "feet of clay". To quote to its actual identity as the collective re Merton from the May 11, 1967 entry in -incarnation of the monk of his Journal: Gethsemani. A simple case of “My intention is that, though it may metempsychosis. eventually be published, this Journal Merton, the monk, was a complex should be kept under wraps for twentyindividual with a brilliant mind and a five years after my death....Meanwhile tender heart, but not without hang-ups I have no intention of keeping the M. and contradictions that a psychiatrist business entirely out of sight. I have would delight in analyzing. Yet his always wanted to be completely open, contributions to the combination of both about my mistakes and about my literature, authentic spirituality and effort to make sense out of my life. ideas for the amelioration of the The affair with M. is an important part world's social evils are unrivaled. He of it - and shows my limitations as reached the heights of contemplation, well.... for it is a part of me”.
Merton and ‘M’ What to make of a 51-year-old contemplative monk, sworn to celibacy, who falls madly in love with a nurse less than half his age and pursues a nearly two-year relationship - while living as a hermit within the enclosure of the Trappist monastery at Gethsemani, Kentucky ? Thus is revealed one of the lesser known but acutely human episodes in the fascinating life of the man known as Thomas Merton. By that time in 1966 he had behind him a somewhat dissolute youthful life prior to a conversion to Catholicism and heeding the call of a vocation to the priesthood in 1941. This earlier life is detailed in his best-selling autobiography Seven Storey Mountain (1948), which catapulted him to national fame. Subsequent prolific writings on spirituality, racial justice and nonviolence, while residing in the monastic enclosure, enhanced his literary reputation However, two years before the tragic accident that took his life in Bangkok, Thailand in 1968, Thomas Merton underwent back surgery in a hospital in Louisville where he became smitten with a nurse that he subsequently referred to in his personal journal as "M". "M" was in reality Margie Smith, an attractive 25 year old, whom herself became quickly enamored of the already famous monk-author. The next few months saw an intense letterwriting as well as a physical relationship develop. between the two, as Merton wrestled with the conflict between his commitment to a life of monastic celibacy and an overwhelming desire for the physical love of a woman. Agonizingly torn, Merton, with his
A prolific journalist and writer of some 70 books, largely on the spiritual life, he also seems to have read everything, admitting that the writings of James Joyce also contributed to his conversion (to Catholicism). Merton was in awe of the genius of William Faulkner and Albert Camus; he wrote incisive commentaries and reviews of their works. One was an exceptionally brilliant monograph on Camus' novel The Plague. He was a student of and became an authority on Buddhism and eastern mysticism, particularly the Zen Masters, while maintaining a mundane appreciation of the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. The later Merton (early -on he fully responded to the siren call of leaving the world to "find" God) wrestled with the temptation to reenter secular life and engage in its struggles with injustice extra monasterium. Of those in the forefront of opposition to the Vietnam War, he was an outspoken critic of violence as a means to settle any social/political dispute. He manifested an admirable resilience in dealing with an egotistical ,overbearing superior, while at the same time struggling to maintain his commitment to the authoritarianism
of the institutional Church. The Thomas Merton Center has embodied and reflected the weaker but above all the stronger characteristics of its eponymous source. Throughout the past 42 years the TMC's communal love, collective courage, resilience and brilliance as manifested through its leadership and membership are admirably contrasted with its occasional organizational weaknesses, contradictions and difficulty in trying to stand under the same umbrella with a hierarchically-controlled religious institution. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose! Once characterized by a disgruntled TMC detractor as "a dead, white monk" of forgotten worth and little relevancy, Thomas Merton resides vibrantly and happily at the Thomas Merton Center on Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh. The world is a far, far better place for his/their continued existence. Metempsychosis indeed! Ad Multos Annos, Gloriosque Annos, Vivas. Robert Jedrzejewski is a TMC member and former college instructor of Philosophy, Theology and Literature.
by Robert Jedrzejewski
unique and profound capacity for introspection, tried to reconcile the erotic nature of human physical love (eros) with his life-lasting vocation to the spiritual all-demanding love of God in Jesus (agape). None of this struggle was publicly known at the time.. A few close friends and his Abbott, Dom James, were acutely aware of what was transpiring, but Merton's wish was that his personal journals not be published until 25 years after his death. It is in the sixth of his seven personal Journals, Learning to Love that we discover the intimate details of Merton and Photo Credit: Creative Commons "M". Not quite to the level of Heloise and Abelard, the 12th century the soil of human need and desire. story of a monk and his younger With their ardor eventually cooling, student in flagrante delicto, we are left due to a variety of reasons - Merton's in some doubt as to whether their restricted life in the hermitage, his modern counterparts ever monastic vows and ever-growing consummated their love. But Merton conviction that "this" isn't going to spares no details in describing his work, her distance and "soft" meetings with "M" and the depth of his commitment to another man - the feelings, e.g. "...we are deeply, terribly "affair" ended shortly before his illattached and in love and very fated journey to a conference of concerned with each other. I doubt if I monastic leaders in Thailand in 1968. have ever loved any one so deeply or There are different takes on this ever been loved with so much passion. episode in Merton's life, depending on The poems and letters I have written whether one reads Mark Shaw's have only intensified this." Merton Beneath the Mask of Holiness or Jim ends his Vol. Six Journal of 1966-67 Forest's Living With Wisdom, Monica with a 49 page appendix "A Furlong's excellent Merton: A Midsummer Diary for M" in which he Biography refers to it only tangentially reveals not only the depth of his in a brief paragraph or two, as her feelings for "M" but also his literary book was published in 1980, long after capacity for describing the torments of the liaison but before Merton's account a soul seeking the ultimate "escape" became public. Nonetheless, a devotee into the breath-taking airiness of divine of the famous monk, would be selflove and a heart firmly implanted in
cheated by a failure to explore this period of Merton's life; a religious pilgrimage with the undertones of a secular odyssey. Overriding it all, however, is a life-long, intrepid effort to discover what love is all about in both its human and divine ramifications. In pursuit of the truth and fullness of complexity in personalities we deem "heroic", one can accept their human frailties and still marvel at the admirable and dominating virtues and contributions to society their lives exemplify. Thus, with Thomas Merton.
Robert Jedrzejewski is a member of The NewPeople Editorial Collective.
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Faith and Activism Merton Scholar, Bonnie Bowman Thurston, Wraps Up Merton Festival Winding up the 10-Day Thomas Merton 100th Anniversary Festival on Sunday, April 26 will be a presentation by Merton Scholar, Bonnie Bowman Thurston on “Waking from a Dream of Separateness – Thomas Merton on Interfaith Dialogue.” The event is sponsored by the Association of Pittsburgh Priests and will begin at 2 PM at the Kearns Spirituality Center, 9000 Babcock Blvd. in Allison Park (behind the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Divine Providence). Registration at the door is $10. Bonnie Bowman Thurston, a long time friend of many in the Pittsburgh area, is a native of southern West Virginia who currently lives quietly near Wheeling, WV. She earned a B.A.
in English (First Honors) from Bethany College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Virginia. The subject of her dissertation was Thomas Merton’s poetry and inter-religious thought. She has done post-doctoral work in the New Testament at Harvard Divinity Dr. Bowman-Thurston School, Eberhard Karls University in Tuebingen, Germany, and the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem. Bonnie was a founding member of the International Thomas Merton Society and served as its third president. She has written many scholarly articles, given retreats and lectured on Merton widely in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Europe. She is the editor of Thomas Merton and Buddhism
at 5119 Penn Avenue in Garfield, The new office will be called “The Thomas Merton Center Annex” and will support the needs of TMC’s 23 projects. It will be located on the first floor of 5119 Penn Avenue (the old Thrifty furniture site) and will include a large and open room with a bathroom, office and meeting space. It will also house the Merton Center library. One of our established projects, Pittsburghers’ for Public Transit, will have their office there. Additionally, a large table will be available for project meetings during the weeknights and weekends. During the day, project leaders, volunteers and board members will have the opportunity to use this open meeting space to work on their organizing campaigns. At the same time, Thrifty's furniture store will be moving to the ground floor of the East End Community Thrift Store, which is located at 5123 Penn Avenue. Currently, volunteers and interns are helping renovate and update the ground floor to better display furniture there. Special thanks to Shirley Gleditsch, founder of Thrifty, Dolly Mason, Furniture Manager, Shawna Hammond and Sr. Mary Clare Donnelly, Cookie
TMC / East End Community Thrift Store Re-envision Space By Diane McMahon
I’m happy to report that over the past four years the Thomas Merton Center (TMC) has experienced renewed vitality and growth with the support of its cornerstone sustainers, members, partners, and friends! We thank all of our supporters for investing in our dynamic peace and social justice mission! Since 2010 we have grown from being a volunteer-run organization (led by our board members) to being a small but mighty and thriving nonprofit that employs nine professional staff and supports 23 organizing projects, led by a governing board of 20 active and diverse community leaders. Not surprisingly, this growth has led to the need for more space for TMC! Through the generous support of our East End Community Thrift Store partner (aka Thrifty), TMC is adding on another office location to better accommodate the needs of our project leaders. The new office space is located only a few store fronts down from TMC, and the East End Community Thrift Store,
McDonald, Quinn Thomas, and Terry Turner for helping make this transition possible! Once the renovations are complete in both locations we plan on having an open house so that our members and friends can visit and learn more about the new transformation. The purpose of this move is to ensure that core operational needs of our growing center are being met in an efficient manner, with staff having the private space needed to perform their expanding tasks and duties. Interns will also be working from the current space and where they will be supervised by staff. We thank the board, project leaders, volunteers and interns who that have been supportive of this needed effort! As the center of peace and justice for the greater Pittsburgh region, TMC still has much work to accomplish! From fracking, to global warming, to ending the wars, to advocating for the human rights of all people and the planet, the need has never been more urgent and we stand ready to work for long-term transformative change to end deep and persistent systemic injustices.
James Carroll was the first recipient of the Merton Award in 1972. He was a Paulist priest then and wrote about Vatican II and spirituality in light of the new changes in the Catholic Church. Since then he has written books of historical fiction and non -fiction. He is interested in the relationship between Christians and Jews. This latest book, Christ Actually, explores the ways the gospels were written and interpreted shortly after they were written and how that changed throughout the ages. He also demonstrates how difficult it is to discover the historical Jesus. Carroll explores the effect of the Book of Daniel on the Jews at the time of Jesus. Daniel predicts 14 - NEWPEOPLE
the coming of the Son of Man. The gospel writers would have been very aware of this and open to seeing Jesus as the answer to the prophecy. The place of John the Baptist in Jesus' world is also explored and the fact that Jesus did not seem to see it as his place to try to rescue John from the hands of Herod. The influence of war on the writings of the gospels might be interesting to TMC readers, as Carroll explores the tensions between the Jews and Romans at the time of Christ's life, tensions at the time of the writings of each gospel and at the time of the dispersal of the Jews throughout the Middle East and Europe. These tensions don't completely come through to us in reading the scriptures. He also describes the effect of
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(Fons Vitae Press, 2007), Hidden in the Same Mystery: Thomas Merton & Loretto (Fons Vitae, 2010), and Thomas Merton on Eastern Meditation (New Directions, 2012). In addition to her writings on Merton, Bonnie has written or edited eighteen theological books and many articles and has contributed to reference works on the New Testament. Bonnie’s poetry frequently appears in religious periodicals, and she has authored five volumes of verse. Bonnie has taught at the university level for 30 years, including Bethany College, Wheeling Jesuit University and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Her scholarly interests in the New Testament include the gospels of Mark and John, the Deutero-Pauline canon and, more generally, the history of Christian Spirituality and prayer. Her church affiliations include the Episcopal Church and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She was ordained in 1984 and has served as co-pastor, pastor, or interim for five churches and twice in overseas ministries. She is a spiritual director and experienced retreat leader. Bonnie is a widow, an avid reader, gardener and cook, enjoys classical music (especially the opera and liturgical music) and loves the West Virginia hills. Her most recent books include Maverick Mark: Untaming the First Gospel (Liturgical Press), O Taste and See (Paraclete Press) and a collection of monastic-themed poems, Practicing Silence (Paraclete Press). This final Thomas Merton Festival event is an inspiring and appropriate conclusion to 10 days packed with meaning and insights into the treasure of Thomas Merton’s legacy, the Merton Center’s namesake and guide. Joyce Rothermel is Chair of the Church Renewal Committee of the Association of Pittsburgh Priests.
The Construction of a Fashion Show By Shawna Hammond
East End Community Thrift will hold its annual fashion show, "Affordable Chic", on SaturDiane McMahon is the Managing day, May 2,2015. Sojourner's House will partner with Thrifty for this 22nd year of fashion and Director of the Thomas Merton food. The show will be held at the East Liberty Center. Presbyterian Church from 11 am to 2 pm.
A Reader’s Thoughts on James Carroll’s Latest Book, Christ
Actually: The Son of God for the Secular Age
by Joyce Rothermel
By Carol Rosenberger
World War II on Western culture's attitude toward the Jews. Carroll points out that the gospel writers held the Jews, rather than the Roman conquerors, responsible for the crucifixion, resulting in centuries of bias. The Holocaust,, writes Carroll, opened the eyes of Christians to the harm this attitude had caused. Carroll, who describes himself as still a believing Catholic, sees Jesus as remaining human, Jewish, and divine. His behavior while alive is what accounts for the longevity of his effect on the world. Carol Rosenberger is a long time member of TMC, and volunteered at the Center for 5 years in the late 90's, early 2000's. She is a long time singer with the Raging Grannies.
Manager Shirley Gleditsch and volunteers will be there to showcase the wonderful fashions and boutique items that can be found at Thrifty. The silent auction includes gift certificates from local Garfield businesses, gift baskets created by long time Thrifty supporter Rose Evosevic Lunch, with its delicious salads and desserts. Other items provided by volunteers and friends of Thrifty and Sojourner House. Entertainment will be supplied by pianist David Boxley, and another long time Thrifty supporter, Sandra Talley. JOIN US ON SATURDAY, MAY 2ND, AT THE EAST LIBERTY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Come and celebrate the end of the Penn Avenue Construction Zone!
Ticket Prices: $20.00 and $5.00. Tickets may be purchased at East End Community Thrift or through The Thomas Merton Center website at thomasmertoncenter.org. All proceeds benefit the peace and justice work done by The Thomas Merton Center, Sojourner House and East End Community Thrift. Shawna Hammond is a Thrift Store Manager.
Faith and Activism vironmental Justice Committee, We Change Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network (PIIN). All are welcome. Participants are encouraged, but not required, to bring a cross to carry inscribed with a peace and justice issue important to them. At the start of the procession, a collection will be taken up for Casa Jose, a local program that provides housing and services for immigrants in our area. Pittsburgh Area Pax Christi, an affiliate organization to the Thomas Merton Center, is a local chapter of Pax Christi USA, a Catholic peace and justice organization that promotes nonviolence through a process of prayer, study and action. The group meets on the last Wednesday of each month at 7 PM in the Sisters of Mercy Motherhouse on Carlow University's upper campus. For more information call Mimi Darragh, 412-445-7102.
Good Friday Ecumenical Public Procession of the Way of the Cross By Mimi Darragh
On Good Friday, April 3, 2015, Pittsburgh Area Pax Christi will hold its annual Way of the Cross/Way of Compassion through downtown Pittsburgh, This is an ecumenical public procession of prayer, song and silence to commemorate the passion and death of Jesus as it is lived out in our world today. The group meets at the Greyhound Bus Station at 8:45 AM. The procession is about a mile in length and ends by approximately 10:30 AM. At various stops along the way prayers will be offered and there will be speakers on issues including war and the use of drones, racism in our culture, workers rights to organize and earn a living wage, care for the environment, and the need to abolish the death penalty and work for reform of our criminal justice system. Confirmed speakers are Pete Shell with the Merton CenMimi Darragh is the local convener ter's Anti-War Committee, Wanda Guthrie with the Merton Center's En- of Pittsburgh Area Pax Christi.
Sing Out For Pete 2—MAY 2!!! When I pray for peace I pray to be protected not only from the Reds but also from the folly and blindness of my own country….I pray not only that the enemies of my country may cease to want war, but above all that my own country will cease to do the things that make war inevitable…When I pray for peace I am not just praying that the Russians will give up without a struggle and let us have our own way. I am praying that both we and the Russians may somehow be restored to sanity and learn how to work out our problems, as best we can, together, instead of preparing for global suicide”. Well, we know that Merton’s prayer did not come through, the Soviet Union folded and we had our way with the New World Order of George H. Bush. This brought the expansion of NATO to the doorsteps of the Russian Federation despite an agreement not to advance one inch. It led to almost continuous war in the Middle East beginning with the sanctions on Iraq in 1991. It entailed the destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, with many others in a shambles. The entire Middle East is torn apart by religious and ethnic tensions wrought by the invasions. Such is the fruit of our war on evil and the projection of our fears. Merton ends his essay with these words: “If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed – but hate these things in yourself, not in another”. One can presume that Merton here implied not only our individual selves but also our collective selves as in nations and tribes.
Thomas Merton and the Root of War By Michael Drohan
In October 1961 Thomas Merton published an article entitled “The Root of War is Fear” in the Catholic Worker newsletter . This essay was later published in an abbreviated form in his book New Seeds of Contemplation, which I use as a source for this article. In his essay, Merton goes truly to the roots of the wars and rumors of war ever present that plague humanity and he leaves no one complacent or unscathed as he unearths the psycho-socialpolitical roots of the phenomenon. When most of us speak of fear, we are generally thinking of an external threat or danger to our life, our country, our tribe or social group. But Merton takes us a step deeper by identifying the root of war as fear of ourselves, specifically the fear of our dark side, our malice and the evil we both do and contemplate. Fearing this aspect of our psyche and without acknowledging it, we project it onto others and come to see in them our faults, our failings and our repulsive traits. We set out to make war against them but not in ourselves but on the “axis of evil” which is other people, other nations, other tribes and other religious and political groupings. All this is done in perfect self-righteousness and unconsciousness of what we are in fact doing. Then, in Merton’s own words, “we see crime in others, we try to correct it by destroying them or at least putting them out of sight”. This process operates both at the personal and the collective level. At the national collective level in the US the expression of
this fear of the “other” and the identifying and creation of enemies is an ever present phenomenon and is the daily rant of media and politicians. We are the “exceptional country”, the “indispensable country” that is called upon to intervene always for “humanitarian” reasons and the conquest of evil. Hubris, moral blindness and overweening arrogance all rolled into one. When we stand back and look at the utterances and acts of George W. Bush and his war on the “axis of evil” it is not super-difficult to see that the evils he was exposing in other nations and leaders were really his (our) own that he was talking about. When it comes to us as individuals, however, awareness of our projection of our faults and evils onto others is much more difficult and therein lies the challenge. When Merton wrote this seminal essay, the world was at the height of the Cold War and for the US the great Satans of the time were the Soviet Union and China and the entire socialist world. Merton’s reflections on this conflict, which brought the world to the brink of extinction, are still relevant to the present moment, as all we have to do is replace the Soviet Union and China with ISIS, Iran, North Korea, the Russian Federation and Syria. We could add more to the list. I offer some of Merton’s own words on the situation at that time to illustrate his political and religious thinking. Here is what he had to say: “When I pray for peace I pray God to pacify not only the Russians and the Chinese but above all my own nation and myself.
by Marni Fritz
other social activist singersongwriters. During the first set two special participatory performances will involve children, so bring your kids and grandchildren for free! Since so many people were unfortunately turned away last year, this year there is an option for an advanced ticket purchase of $5 to guarantee a seat. Admittance for standing room is free and children are free. Proceeds will go to TMC and another social activist group to be determined. “We are hoping this will be an annual event initiated by TMC,” says Ginny Hildebrand, “home to so many social justice projects and having relations of mutual respect and cooperation city-wide.” When asked what she was most excited about for this upcoming celebration, Ginny said, “to see if people turn out not just to honor Pete this time, but because they are moved by the same thing that inspired his life - enthusiasm for singing songs of social justice that build community and inspire activism.” Make sure to reserve your ticket today! You can order them at: http:// tinyurl.com/q27uqah For more information call The Merton Center: 412-3613022 or Ginny at 412-2416087
Last year the Thomas Merton Center celebrated Pete Seeger’s life and accomplishments on his birthday May 3rd. To honor him and his spirit of social justice, a concert highlighted Seeger’s original songs and songs that he made widely popular through his emphasis on audience sing-along. It was a beautiful May evening filled with fantastic energy and group engagement, a moving experience for those involved. Around 500 people lined up to enter the First Unitarian Church to sing in honor of Pete, filling the church to capacity. Ginny Hildebrand, and her amazing team of musicians and community activists, are planning Sing Out for Pete 2, which will be held on May 2, 2015, once more at the First Unitarian Church. Although a bigger venue was considered due to last year’s overwhelming enthusiasm, the First Unitarian Church has a direct historical connection to Pete Seeger here in Pittsburgh. After being convicted of contempt of Congress in March 1961, Seeger’s concerts in Pittsburgh were cancelled. The First Unitarian Church reacted by inviting Seeger to perform at the church, believing in his right to Marni Fritz is an intern at sing. This year, popular local the Thomas Merton Cenmusicians will be leading ter. Michael Drohan is a member of the audience in songs both the board of TMC and Co-Chair by Pete Seeger and by of the Editorial Collective. April 2015 NEWPEOPLE - 15
Sunday
Monday
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Divest Pittsburgh Open Meeting 3:00– 4:30pm
Lecture by Sandra Steingraber: “Fracking is a Feminist Issue” William Pitt Union, Assembly Room, 3959 Fifth Ave 7– 8:30 pm
Tuesday
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Jazz at Emmanuel 1:30-2:30pm
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Launching of Pittsburgh 350Kingsly Community Center, 6435 Frankstown Ave 7- 8:30pm
Time Tender Social Currency Study Group Big Idea Book Store 7:30 pm
Pax Christi Way of the Cross— 8:45 am Downtown Pittsburgh Greyhound Bus Station
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Dirty Dancing Benedum Center for Performing Arts 7-10pm (Showing until April 11)
Financial Management Workshop The Corner, 200 Robinson St. 6-8pm
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New Economy Meeting at TMC 6 PM
WILPF 2015 Tax Day Protest Squirrel Hill Post Office with Raging Grannies 12-2pm
Etty Presented by Classrooms Without Borders 4905 Fifth Ave 7-9pm
Merton Festival April 16-26
Saving Our Children: A Global Issue - A Local Response La Roche College Cranberry Township Municipal Center Gym, 2525 Rochester Rd., Cranberry Township, PA April 9-10
Taking a NoHolds-Barred Approach to Blight, Webinar #2, Online 121pm
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Saturday
Regular Meetings
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Praying With Merton: Awakening to Action, Calvary Episcopal Church, 10am-12pm
Thomas Merton Centennial Festival Reception, Sheraton at Station Square, 300 West Station Square Dr. 69pm
Thomas Merton’s Legacies In the 21st Century for the Church and Beyond, Duquesne University, Gumberg Library, Phenomenology Center. 7-8pm
Anti-War and Anti-Drone Warfare Coalition 3rd Sunday at 1:30 pm at TMC, 5129 Penn Ave., Garfield, PA 15224
Mondays: SW Healthcare 4 All PA /PUSH Meeting 1st Monday, 7:30 —9 pm Association of Pittsburgh Priests 2nd Monday, 7—9 pm, Prince of Peace Rectory 162 South 15th, Southside, Pgh. PA 15203 Amnesty International #39 2nd Monday, 7—9 pm First Unitarian Church, Morewood Ave. 15219
11 Palestinian Cultural Night and Fundraiser for Medical Aid to Palestinians 6-9 pm William Pitt Union Kurtzman Room
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Earth Day Centennial Celebration of the Birth of Merton— 3305 Fifth Ave 7PM
Merton Festival—April 16 to 26—Join Us!
“Merton– A Biography” Film Screening, 880 East Waterfront Dr, Munhall, PA 7-9:30pm
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Thomas Merton Interfaith Legacy for the 21st Century— Duquesne University Gumberg Library 7PM
Thomas Merton and Martin Luther King: Two Paths of Non-violent Solidarity for Peace and Justice.—880 East Waterfront Dr. 1:30PM
Jasmine Muhammad Cathedral Concert, East Liberty Presbyterian Church 4-6pm
Merton Festival—April 16 to 26—Register for April 20th Reception at www.thomasmertoncenter.org
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Waking From a Dream of Separateness: Thomas Merton on Interfaith Dialogue, 900 Babcock blvd, Allison Park PA 12:30-1:30pm Funeral Consumers Alliance Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh Friends Meeting House, 4836 Ellsworth Ave 2-4pm
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A Project of the Thomas Merton Center Select your membership level:
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____$15 Low Income Membership ____$15 Youth / Student Membership ____$25 Introductory / Lapsed Membership ____$50 Individual Membership ____$100 Family Membership ____$500+ Cornerstone Sustainer Membership ____Donation $____________________________
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April 2015
International Socialist Organization Every Thursday, 7:30-9:30 pm at the Thomas Merton Center Global Pittsburgh Happy Hour 1st Thursday, 5:30 to 8 pm, Roland's Seafood Grill, 1904 Penn Ave, Strip District Green Party Meeting 1st Thursday, 7 to 9 pm, 2121 Murray, 2nd floor, Squirrel Hill Black Political Empowerment Project 2nd Thursday, 6 pm: Planning Council Meeting, Hill House, Conference Room B
Fridays: Unblurred Gallery Crawl 1st Friday after 6 pm, Penn Avenue Arts District, 4800-5500 Penn Ave., Friendship and Garfield 15224 Hill District Consensus Group 2nd Friday, 10 am — 12 pm, Elsie Hillman Auditorium, Kaufmann Center 1825 Centre Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 People of Prisoners in Need of Support 3rd Friday, 7:00pm New Hope Methodist Church, 114 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh 15212
Saturdays: Project to End Human Trafficking 2nd Sat., Carlow University, Antonian Room #502 Fight for Lifers West 3rd Saturday, 10 a.m. to 12:30 pm, Thomas Merton Center
All Month Long:
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Joe Snare, our valued friend & volunteer for Fight for Lifers West passed away February 22, 2015. His encouragement with our group and unusual perspective, being a former employee of the PA Department of Corrections and Parole Board, was very much appreciated. Our prayers go out to his wife Peg & two daughters.
Subscribe to The New People by becoming a member of the Thomas Merton Center today! As a member, The New People newspaper will be
Wednesdays: Human Rights Coalition: Fed-Up! Every Wednesday at 7p.m. Write letters for prisoners’ rights at the Thomas Merton Center Darfur Coalition Meeting 2nd and 4th Wednesdays, 7-9 pm, 2121 Murray Ave., 2nd Floor, Squirrel Hill. 412-784-0256 Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (PADP) 1st Wednesdays, 7-8pm, First Unitarian Church, Ellsworth & Morewood Avenues, Shadyside Pittsburghers for Public Transit 2nd Wednesday, 7pm, 1 Smithfield St., lower level
Thursdays:
We are All Immigrants– 900 Babcock Blvd. 7-9PM
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Sundays:
Book’Em: Books to Prisoners Project First three Sundays of month at TMC, 4-6 pm Contact: bookempgh@gmail.com
Poetry Reading: Merton Gandhi Featuring the and Asia— Works of Hindi Jain Merton and Temple, 3PM Dennis Brutus— 4754 Liberty Ave. 7-9PM Machete Kismontao, El Documental, From Borinken to the Burgh An exploration of Afro-Puerto Rican music and dance—6:30 PM CMU Porter Hall 5000 Forbes Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15213
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Friday
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Time Tender Social Currency Study Group TMC 6:30 pm
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Thursday
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____$75 Organization (below 25 members) ____$125 Organization (above 25 members) ___ Check here if this is a gift membership.
The Art of Corita Kent The Andy Warhol Museum, 117 Sandusky St., Pittsburgh, PA, 12:30-1:30 pm
Please note: If you were a financial contributor to the Thomas Merton Center in 2014, and you would like to claim your donation for tax purposes, please call (412) 3613022 and let us know so that we can process an acknowledgement letter for you.
Please complete and return to TMC. Thank you! Name(s):__________________________________ Organization (if any): ________________________________ Address:_______________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ City:_________________ State:______ Zip Code:__________ Home Phone:______________________________ Cell Phone: _______________________________ Email:____________________________________
Mail to TMC, 5129 Penn Ave. Pgh. PA 15224 Call (412) 361-3022 for more information.