Thomas Merton Center Pittsburgh’s Peace and Social Justice Center
PITTSBURGH’S PEACE & JUSTICE NEWSPAPER VOL. 45 No. 3 March 2015
Gaming for War with Russia in Ukraine by Linda Nordquist We have entered the deep freeze of a second Cold War. The journey seems to have taken a nanosecond. In fact, it has been years in the making. Unfortunately, the reasons for how we got here are buried under a mountain of media distortions along with deliberate obfuscation and hyperbole by political Pinocchios representing the American war profiteers. It is important that
we understand the facts, and that we stop the U.S. from hurtling towards a very hot war in Ukraine, where tens of thousands may die and millions more be made refugees. Reports already say that 1.5 million people have been displaced, and 5,400 are dead. Unraveling recent history may seem daunting, but we can establish certain truths.
There are two legitimate culturally distinct Ukraines: Western Ukraine, language Ukrainian, with historical ties to Poland, Lithuania, and Austria, heavily invested in agricultural products and service industry. Eastern/Southeastern Ukraine, language Russian, with ties to Russia that go back beyond the Tsars, an industrial center accounting for 25% of Ukraine’s exports (steel, metals, machines, refineries, ships, airplanes, autos, nuclear power). It is here where the national government in Western Ukraine is trying to militarily defeat a rebellion of Eastern Ukrainians who want autonomy and closer ties to Russia. In May 2014 referendums were held in the Eastern cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. Each declared independence from Ukraine. In reaction,the national government placed the aged and infirm at risk by cancelling social security, pensions, unemployment, and disability benefits. When President Obama says he is thinking of arming “Ukraine,” $3 billion worth, he is really talking about Western Ukraine—that is, arming one-half of the country against the other half. Russia is allegedly arming Eastern Ukraine but the extent seems exaggerated. A word about NATO: A military An alliance of unions and activists groups lead a national boycott of Staples to protest its agreement with alliance founded in 1949 by the U.S. and
In this issue… Merton Festival pg. 3 Sudan Violence pg. 4 Netanyahu pg. 5 Nuclear Treaty pg. 9 Marx in Soho pg. 11 eleven other capitalist countries to defend against Soviet aggression. At the time of German unification in 1990, NATO assured the Soviet Union that no eastward expansion would occur, as the Soviets agreed to recognize a united Germany. But Russia watched as NATO’s (now 28 members strong) military bases crept closer to its borders. In 1999 NATO invaded Yugoslavia, an act clearly outside of its defense mandate that sent a warning to nonNATO members. In 2008, at a NATORussia summit, Putin made clear that Russia would not acquiesce to Ukraine joining NATO, and alluded to the probability Russia would annex Eastern Ukraine and
the postal service taking work from career postal workers. See articles on page 8. Photo by Joe Radovich
Thomas Merton 100th Festival Reception with Jim Forest on “Thomas Merton’s Advice to Peacemakers” Creative Commons
Monday, April 20, 6 pm Sheraton Station Square
Admission: $40 Register online at: thomasmertoncenter.org/100th-reception Send checks to “Thomas Merton Center” at: TMC, 5129 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15224
Honor a local peacemaker at:
http://tinyurl.com/ohq2mo3—your dedication will be featured in the Merton Festival Reception Program Booklet. For more information call (412) 361-3022. All proceeds benefit the peace and justice mission of the Thomas Merton Center.
See full article on page 14
Blowing in the Wind
Thomas Merton Award Winner Now in Federal Prison by Joyce M. Rothermel
(continued on page 4)
anymore because they can use On January 23 Kathy these new technologies to Kelly, co-coordinator of control populations and instill Voices for Creative tremendous fear. But the use Nonviolence, a campaign to of drones creates resentment end U.S. military and and antagonism, and economic warfare, began a continues to kill civilians…. three-month jail sentence in with the help of drones, 90 federal prison for a protest percent of the people killed in against drones (unmanned wars these days are civilians. aerial vehicles) at Whiteman The British organization Air Force Base in Missouri. Reprieve reports that for every Weaponized drones have been one person who is selected as directed from this base to a target for assassination by targets in Afghanistan. drones, 28 civilians are When asked about her killed.” motivation for her protest, she Kelly continued, “The told fellow activist Medea weaponized drones are Benjamin, “I think 21stoperated here in the United century militarism is very States in Air National Guard frightening when you bases and Air Force bases, combine the military’s Joint and with the press of a button Special Operations Forces they are killing people with drone and air strike thousands of miles away in capabilities. The military places like Afghanistan. Many doesn’t need sprawling bases people (continued on page 3)
by the TMC editorial collective Daffodils to Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande for standing up to the “War Party’- include the obvious here, McCain, Graham, and the eight empaneled white males in suits who proposed that we, being the taxpayers, give weapons to Ukraine. We are the ones who will pay, and it’s the military contractors who will profit, and the Ukrainians who will die. Fair winds for Bill Robinson, the only Allegheny County Council member to cast a vote in favor of a ban on fracking in county parks. And to Harrisburg activist, provocateur, and state legislative watchdog Gene Stilp, who is stepping back from his work to address health concerns. Get well, Gene. (Continued on page 4)
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.
March 2015
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March 2015
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 Economic Justice Committee drohanmichael@yahoo.com
Amnesty International info@amnestypgh.org - www.amnestypgh.org 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 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 New Economy Campaign gabriel@thomasmertoncenter.com
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 Pittsburgh North People for Peace 412-367-0383 pnpp@verizon.net www.NorthPgh.org
Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance 412-512-1709
Pittsburgh Campaign for Democracy NOW! 412-422-5377, sleator@cs.cmu.edu www.pcdn.org
Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee info@pittsburgh-psc.org www.pittsburgh-psc.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 Donna Hansen 412-812-1553
Progressive Pittsburgh Notebook 412-363-7472 tvnotebook@gmail.com School of the Americas Watch W. PA 412-271-8414 drohanmichael@yahoo.com Shalefield Stories (Friends of the Harmed) 412-422-0272 brigetshields@gmail.com 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 Page 1 Gaming for War with Russia Merton Award Winner Imprisoned Praise and Pratfalls from The Merton Center Page 2 See Above Page 3 2015 Merton Festival Merton Winner Imprisoned (cont.) Page 4 Government Impunity in Sudan Gaming for War (cont.) Praise and Pratfalls (cont.) Page 5 Unholy Alliance in the Middle East Arrogance of Netanyahu Page 6 Murals! Lights! Action!
TMC Projects
Out of Depression and War Summit Against Racism Highlights Page 7 Global Development and Aid Training Page 8 Post Office can save jobs and help lowincome Americans Making Staples pay Page 9 Interview with Activist Extraordinaire Nuclear Non-Proliferation Page 10 Thomas Merton, Environmentalist ALCOSAN Fact check Page 11 Marx in Soho Page 12 Marx returns in Zinn’s Time Machine Take a tip from Mother Nature
Religion and Labor Coalition 412-361-4793 ojomal@aol.com
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) 412-471-8919 www.ueunion.org Veterans for Peace kevinbharless@yahoo.com 252-646-4810 Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Eva 412-963-7163 edith.bell4@verizon.net
TMC is a Member of: 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
Global Divestment Rally Day Page 13 County Council rejects Fracking “Wait-andSee” Jeron X Grayson Community Center Page 14 An Interview with Kay Barchetti Merton Festival Reception-April 20 Bread for the World Spring Workshop Page 15
Meet Marnie Fritz Anti-Fracking Concert In Gratitude In Memory Making a Difference Page 16 March 2015 Activist Calendar
The Festival Continues to Unfold!
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 Centersponsored April 20th reception, 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. The film will be shown at the Kearns Spirituality Center located at 9000 Babcock Boulevard, Allison Park, PA 15101 at 7 PM. April 18 (Saturday): “Merton and Asia” A lecture and discussion led by Molly Rush about (CEASE) Catholics to End Asian Slaughter and Exploitation, circa 1972. Molly will also speak on the founding of the Merton Center in Pittsburgh. (Location and time tbd) 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 of the Greater Pittsburgh Interfaith Coalition. The program will be held 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 features Jim Forest, internationally known Thomas Merton biographer and activist. He will speak on
“Thomas Merton’s Advice to Peacemakers” This culminating event willl be held at the Sheraton Inn Station Square on the Southside . The reception is at 6 PM. $40 includes a buffet. Program ad opportunities are available. April 21 (Tuesday): “Sufi and Merton— Muslim Dialogue ” Hosted and being held by the Turkish Cultural Center, 1459 Crane Ave. in the South Hills. Speakers and time to be announced. April 22 (Wednesday): A forum presentation focused on the “Earth Day: Centennial Celebration of the Birth of Thomas Merton” led by Drs. Maureen Crossen, Jack Alverson, and Linda Maydak, at Carlow University in the A.J. Palumbo Hall located 3305 Fifth Ave, Pgh. PA 15213 at 7 PM. April 23 (Thursday): “Excerpts from a Biographical Film on Merton’s Life” with discussion by Molly Rush, Fr. Jack O’Malley, Fr. Jay Geisler and others at the Pump House located at 880 East Waterfront Drive, Munhall, PA 15120 at 7:30 PM. April 24 (Friday): “Thomas Merton's Interfaith Legacy for the 20th 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. April 25 (Saturday): "Thomas Merton and Martin Luther King: Two paths of NonViolent 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 located at 880 East Waterfront Drive, Munhall, PA 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 Avenue. 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, Pgh. PA 15213 at 9:30 AM.
Merton Award Winner in Federal Prison Creative Commons
Kathy Kelly
are enamored with being able to send an unmanned aerial vehicle to kill people in another country without a soldier in this country being harmed. But we find that the people operating
April 26 (Sunday): “Waking from a Dream of Separateness: Thomas Merton on Interfaith Dialogue” with author Dr. Bonnie Bowman Thurston and the Association of Pittsburgh Priests at 9000 Babcock Boulevard, Allison Park, PA 15101 at 2 PM. THOMAS MERTON SPEAKERS AVAILABLE FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION OR EVENT Please mark your calendars now and let us know if you have other events to suggest. We also have speakers, Thomas Merton books, and DVD’s available for groups who are interested in learning more about Thomas Merton. It is our hope that by the end of 2015 more people will be able to answer the question: “Who Is Thomas Merton?” and will consider membership in the Thomas Merton Center. To become a member today, visit this link: http:// thomasmertoncenter.org/join-donate. For more information call (412) 361-3022 or email McMahonD@thomasmertoncenter.org ADDITIONAL CENTENNIAL ACTIVITIES BEING HELD IN 2015 “Merton 100: Living the Legacy” The International Thomas Merton Society Conference, June 4-7, 2015 at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky. The conference brochure is available at http://merton.org/2015/ Brochure100.pdf. “Planting New Seeds for Contemplation: Cultivating Our Spiritual Journeys with Pedro Arrupe and Thomas Merton” at Villa Maria Community Center, Villa Maria, PA led by Natalie Terry and James Menkhaus, July 31 to August 2. Attendees will look at the lives of these two spiritual masters’ and how their lives invite participants to become: people committed to love, faith, and justice. Cost is $175 and includes the program, lodging, meals from pizza supper on Friday to lunch on Sunday. Registration is due by July 22 and can be made on line at www.vmesc.org or by calling 724-964-8886. “Thomas Merton: A Trustworthy Guide on the Path to God” at Villa Maria Community Center, Villa Maria, PA led by James Finley, author of “Merton’s Palace of Nowhere” from October 29 to November 1. The opening night presentation “Turning to Thomas Merton as Our Guide in Contemplative Living” at 7 PM. $15 for the talk alone. Full retreat cost is $395. Registration due by October 15, 2015 processed online at www.vmesc.org or call 724964-8886. 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.
(Continued from page 1)
these drones are experiencing trauma and stress just like soldiers in war zones.” Kelly also told Benjamin, “I’m also very worried about drone proliferation, with other countries acquiring these weapons systems. In 1945, only one country possessed a nuclear weapon, and look at the world now. I think the same thing is going to happen with drone proliferation.” The action at Whiteman Air Force Base consisted of crossing a line onto the base. I carried a loaf of bread and a letter to the commander asking how many people were killed by Whiteman
Air Force Base on that day. After taking only a few steps over the live, Kelly was arrested. (Kelly has spent a lot of time in Afghanistan, living with young people who have been victimized by our drones.” To support Kelly while she is imprisoned a fourth time, we can write to Kathy Kelly, FMC Lexington, Federal Medical Center Satellite Camp, P.O. Box 14525, Lexington, KY 40512. Voices for Creative Nonviolence are sending volunteers to Jeju Island in South Korea to join the movement against militarizing the island, as well
as working with youth in the Afghan Peace Volunteers in Kabul. For more information, go to www.vcnv.org Donations can be sent to VCNV at 1249 W. Argyle St., #2, Chicago, IL 60640 To participate in Pittsburgh’s antidrone warfare activities, attend the monthly meetings on the third Sunday of the month at 1 PM at the Thomas Merton Center in Garfield or call TMC for more information. Joyce Rothermel is a member of the Pittsburgh Anti-Drone Warfare Coalition. March 2015
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International Conflict Government Impunity and Continuing Violence in Sudan and South Sudan by David Rosenberg
The news out of Darfur lately is bad, but we can hardly be surprised. President Bashir and his National Congress Party have been given virtual carte blanche by previously interested outside parties to continue attacks on disfavored ethnic populations. UNAMID, the United Nations African Union Peacekeeping force, is actually reducing its footprint in Darfur, though the violence is mounting. The prosecutor from the International Criminal Court in charge of the war crimes and genocide case against President Bashir has suspended the case for lack (no kidding!) of cooperation from the government. U.S. efforts are so constrained as to be almost imperceptible. We once sought to build consensus around something called the Doha agreement signed between the government of Sudan and one of the Darfur rebel groups, but this has been an uphill battle, and Sisyphus appears to be losing. A half million Darfuris have been displaced this past year alone, the largest total since 2004. The Janjaweed have been repackaged as “Rapid Support Forces” and continue the process of ethnic cleansing or genocide-in-slowmotion (pick your terminology). There are rebel groups still in the field, and “democratic transformation” is their goal, but they are not strong enough or united enough to make a difference. So here is the bottom line as reported by the
Members of the Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition (PDEC) meet with Congressman Mike Doyle (PA-14) in his South Side Office. January 16, 2015. PDEC
Sudan Development Organization, UK: December 30-31, 2014: “An Antonov plane (weapon of the government of Sudan) bombarded KRKOLE and MADRA villages in West JABAL MARRA, killing two brothers on their farm…” “A group from Rapid Support Forces on 4 x 4 vehicles attacked seven villages, killing two persons and burning the villages to the ground as follows: 1) DULMA 2) KAJBARE 3) SAYMOWA 4) DAWA 5) SHARAFA 6) NUMRA 7) UMDAGE..” “On the same day around 6 pm, four men from Rapid Support Forces attacked Aisha Khamis in her home in KHOOR RAMLA IDP (Displacement) Camp. She was shot and severely injured when she attempted to prevent them from raping her daughter. Later Aisha and her daughter were taken to KASS hospital, but Aisha died before reaching the hospital.”
Gaming for War with Russia in Ukraine continued from page one
Crimea. Enter the European Union: In 2012, the EU, with U.S. backing, attempted to lure Ukraine with an “association agreement” with the EU. Ukraine faced an imminent financial collapse. Instead of the billions needed, the EU offered €600 million in loans, hints of an IMF loan of €1 billion, trade inducements, and the same ruinous austerity policies suffered by many European countries. Within the EU proposal was a clause making mandatory Ukraine’s abiding by NATO’s military policies—right on Russia’s borders. Is it any wonder that Russia is reacting strongly to this encroachment? A competition ensued between the EU and the Russian-backed Eurasian Union, which offered subsidies of several billion euros, abolition of debt, and duty-free imports. Wanting to be a member of both, Ukraine was told by EU “not possible—choose one or the other.” (Der Spiegel said it was Russia who forced the choice; Stephen Cohen, professor emeritus of New York University Russian studies, said it was the EU.) Ultimately ex-president Yanukovych rejected the EU proposal and looked to Russia. Protests erupted in Kiev. Within days, the moderates lost control of the streets to fascist gangs as the West cheered. A coup forced President Yanukovych to flee to Russia. The U.S. thrusts itself in the midst of fast moving events. Ever mindful of opening new markets, the U.S. sensed an opportunity. Contrary to U.S. statements that it was working with all sides to bring about a peaceful solution, a leaked telephone conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt evidences Washington’s agenda for who should run the 4 - NEWPEOPLE
March 2015
new Ukrainian government. Nuland favored Yatseniuk and he becomes the interim government president. They also discuss organizing protests. Unhappy with the EU’s attempts to broker a diplomatic solution, Nuland turns to the U.N. “Fuck the EU,” she says. It has come to light that important Ukrainian industries have ties to the U.S. This in itself is not unusual. It’s who that raises eyebrows. In April, 2014, a friend of John Kerry’s step-son, Devon Archer, was appointed to the Board of Ukrainian private oil and gas company Burisma. One month later, Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, was appointed to the same Board. It has become a mantra in Western media to demonize Putin as an “autocrat,” “kleptocrat,” “thug,” “Hitler,” which serves to focus attention away from real reasons for U.S. involvement, panders to American warmongers and makes difficult an understanding of facts, motives, rational explanations, and discussion. It subverts reasoned policy making, which runs contrary to military intervention. Saber rattling or conversation: Arms proliferation cannot resolve this conflict. It may be that Ukraine divides, which would recognize reality as opposed to a forced fractious marriage. In any event, this debacle can only be solved by diplomacy, not guns and threats to destroy Russia and raise the costs for Putin. NO U.S. ARMS, DRONES OR TROOPS IN UKRAINE. Linda Nordquist is a writer, photographer, and lapsed psychotherapist.
“Random shelling by Sudan Armed Forces injures many civilians in South Kordofan January 23-25, 2015” [Source for all: http:// www.sudouk.org accessed 2/10/2015] These are a smattering of examples from a depressingly ongoing chronicle. Whatever the aims and modalities of U.S. policy in the Sudans (and the preference has been to work through regional intermediaries like the African Union or the Intergovernmental Authority on Development(IGAD), and with international partners like Britain, Norway, and in some instances China, who has major oil interests in the Sudans), that policy is not working to inhibit the endemic violence, human rights abuses, destruction of villages and ongoing displacements. President Bashir, genocide charges notwithstanding, maintains his hold on power with the customary rigged elections impending, and the government and its militia allies are acting with impunity in committing new abuses daily. Not only Darfur but also South Kordofan and Blue Nile States have been subject to widespread civilian casualties and starvation as the government claims to put down rebel movements in these areas. Meanwhile, South Sudan, which became independent in July 2011, has been wracked by fighting between two leaders and two major tribes, the Dinka and Nuer. A recently announced accord
between the two leaders raises hopes that the death and displacement may be halted, but there are not yet grounds for celebration. Concerned about the effectiveness of U.S. and other countries’ efforts to help resolve these conflicts, Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition (PDEC) members met with Congressman Mike Doyle (PA-14) on January 16, 2015 in his South Side Office. Congressman Doyle, a member of the Sudan and South Sudan Caucus and a champion of the Darfur cause for many years, pledged full support and promised a renewed push in Congress to revitalize the caucus and focus U.S. efforts. (See photo). PDEC is planning a Forum, its third in three years, on Sunday, May 24, 2015, 2 -5 pm, at East Liberty Presbyterian Church to discuss Sudan and South Sudan and what the U.S. government and citizens can do to promote peace with justice in the region. Watch for more information on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/pittsburghdarfur. PDEC meets regularly 5:30 – 7 pm, on the first and third Wednesday of each month at the Starbucks at the foot of Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill. Please call ahead at 412-992-0102 to confirm, as weather or other issues may cause an occasional cancellation. David Rosenberg is Coordinator of the Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition.
Blowing in the Wind
continued from page one
Fair winds to President Obama for his at Congressional wimps for refusing to veto of the XL Pipeline. And to Gov- find their own language of advise and ernor Wolfe, for the Moratorium on the consent. Death Penalty. To end on a high note, kudos to U.S. District Court Judge Callie Granada for We’re not into slinging mud, scolding Alabama State Supreme but...sometimes it is appropriate. Court Justice Roy Moore (who deA handful speeding towards the Lame serves barrels upon barrels of mud) for Stream Media that feasts on individual sowing confusion by ordering judges misdeeds to cover for their daily lying and other officials to disregard the federal ruling banning marriage inequalabout the wars we engage in and the ity...and to John Boehner must go the militarism abroad in the land. biscuit for dissing the President of the President Obama cannot be spared here United States and choosing instead to from a few handfuls for his misdirec- honor the one who has invaded and tions about ‘boots on the ground,’ for killed thousands of Gazans on two occasions. What a shameful thing for the his Internal Threat program, his gunning for whistle-blowers and the inves- Speaker of the House to do. tigative reporters who report their Congratulations to all Alabamians, claims. regardless of gender, on their wedding day! But fair winds for Elizabeth Warren and others who strongly question the The TMC editorial collective produces President’s claim that he needn’t get The New People monthly. Congressional approval for his ongoing wars, and a mountain of mud slung
EVERY MONDAY NIGHT IN MARCH - on PCTV21– at 9 pm —Highlights of the BUTLER HOSTED GREAT MARCH FOR CLIMATE ACTION and GLOBAL FRACKDOWN, which occurred on October 11th, 2014. Members of the Great March for Climate Action were hosted by Butler County citizens and others from southwestern Pennsylvania for a march and rally to support the marchers and demand a movement from fossil fuel energy to clean renewable energy. The event was also part of the Global Frackdown that featured events occurring on the same date across the world to bring attention to the risk imposed by natural gas drilling using hydraulic fracturing. The Butler rally welcomed the marchers and demanded a halt to fracking and a commitment to cleaner sustainable energy sources.
Middle East indicates that Bandar by Michael Drohan threatened Putin with Zacarias life imprisonment for terrorist activity. possible attacks by Chechen rebels on Moussaoui, the so He was arrested originally in August, the Sochi Olympics if Putin continued to -called 20th 9/11 2001 on immigration charges, days support Bashar al-Assad. The key to hijacker, has before the 9/11 crime, but was understanding Saudi support for Sunni recently been in eventually discovered to have had flight rebels in the form of al Qaeda affiliates the news once training classes in the US and was a in Syria is that Saudi Arabia sees Syria more. In a 100 likely candidate for the 9/11 hijacking. as the cornerstone in the “Shiite page affidavit to The latest testimony by Moussaoui crescent” of Iran, Hezbollah in Southern Creative Judge B. Daniels reinforce long-standing allegations of Lebanon and the Shiite government in Commons of the US the Saudi Government’s involvement Iraq. Overthrowing Bashar al Assad, the Southern District of NY with al Qaeda terrorist activity. Saudi think, is the key to rendering the Court, he alleges that Prince Turki alThe Moussaoui allegations take on Shiite crescent powerless in the region. Faisal, the Saudi intelligence chief; deeper significance when linked to Next enters Israel into the picture. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, longtime Saudi backing of the al Qaeda affiliate Increasing evidence points to a SaudiAmbassador of Saudi Arabia to the US; in Syria, al Nusra Jablat Front, which is Israel alliance in the Middle East, as and Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, a trying to overthrow the largely secular they both see Iran and the “Shiite billionaire investor, were all contributors Alawite leader, Syria’s President Bashar crescent” as the greatest threat to Israeli to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden in al-Assad. US aid to overthrow Bashar al and Saudi dominance in the region. In the late 1990s. Moussaoui claims that he -Assad via so-called “defensive” Time Magazine, Jan 19 2015, Joe Klein was privy to this information because military materiel is pouring into Syria points to a new relationship between the Osama bin Laden commissioned him to from Saudi Arabia and ending up in the two countries evidenced by a meeting of draw up a database of supporters to the hands of al Qaeda affiliates. So Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal and Amos Yadlin, jihadist movement. The affidavit has collaboration with al Qaeda doesn’t respective spymasters of Saudi Arabia been filed by lawyers of victims of 9/11 appear to be something that only took and Israel, on May 26, 2014 in Brussels. who have alleged since 2002 that the al place in the 1980s, when it partnered At this meeting, moderated by David Qaeda hijackers were bankrolled by with the US in supporting Osama bin Ignatius, the Saudi prince stated that the people at the very top of the Saudi Laden and his mujahedeen fighting Arabs had “crossed the Rubicon and government. against Soviet troops occupying don’t want to fight Israel anymore.” The Saudi Embassy in the US has Afghanistan at that time. Rather Saudi As seen above, Prince Turki is one rejected the allegations and point to support for al Qaeda continues to the of Saudi Arabia’s principal al Qaeda Moussaoui as a mentally unstable present day in Syria. backers and Israel clearly wants the criminal. However, Judge Leonie A leaked diplomatic account of a overthrow of Bashar al Assad because Brinkema deemed him of sound mind in July 2013 meeting between Russian of his alliance with Iran. In fact, Israel his trial in 2006 and sentenced him to President Putin and Prince Bandar recently put itself right into the fray
Unholy Alliance in the Middle East
The Arrogance of Netanyahu: The Tip of the Iceberg “Please don’t cancel your speech, Mr. Netanyahu.” For the first time since 1948, the automatic and unthinking support for Israel is under question. And Netanyahu (aka Bibi) is panicking. To eliminate any threat to Israeli dominance in the region, Israel supported Bush’s war with Iraq; was thrilled when Libya was bombed and Khadafi murdered; sits by as Syria is torn asunder; and panders to General Sisi in Egypt as he kills and jails its dissidents and closes the border with Gaza. And now Iran. But Bibi’s obsession to have us invade Iran for him is not going as planned. Negotiations between the US and Iran may eliminate any nuclear threat to Israel, may allow Iran to use nuclear energy for the benefit of its people, and may forge a peaceful alliance with an old enemy. But it all makes no difference to Netanyahu. Bibi ceaselessly intones, ‘Iran,’ and the “existential nuclear threat” it poses to Israel, hoping we will forget that Israel is the sole nuclear power in the Middle East. Once again, Bibi reacts with the arrogant sense of entitlement that has motivated Israel since the earliest days of the Zionist project. Gideon Levy, the Israeli journalist, convincingly argues (Haaretz, 2/10/15) that the world should hope that Netanyahu is reelected in the March elections. And I agree. If he is not, the so –called liberals, Livni and Hertzog, will give the world the excuse to breathe a sigh of relief, take sanctions of Israel off the table, and once again spend years “negotiating the peace process,” while
more subtle influence is exerted in Congress, new settlements are built, more Palestinian land is stolen, and new racist laws are passed. But with Netanyahu still in power, the focus will remain unrelenting, and the pressure to isolate Israel and hold it accountable for its violations of international law will continue to develop and take root. When Bibi decided to speak to Congress, desperate to throw a monkey wrench into the Iranian negotiations, he miscalculated. In his cynical desire to see our negotiations fail, which could likely drag us into war with Iran, Netanyahu relied on the assumption that our Congress is, as one U.S. observer noted, "Israeli occupied territory.” As more Democrats jump ship and boycott the speech, this assumption is no longer one he can count on. And this is his greatest fear: now two Occupations are being threatened. Too busy being devious with Boehner, he did not see this resistance coming. It’s not that the Democrats are operating on any moral parameters; many of them wanted the sanctions to be strengthened as much as the Republicans did. But while Netanyahu may see himself as the King of Israel, a few Democrats remembered the name of the country on their passports. As Jonathan Cook observes (“US Loses its Grip on Israel and Palestinians,” Feb 9, www.aljazeerah.info): “Another warning Netanyahu has adamantly refused to heed: his-and Israel’sinfluence in the US depends on its
when it killed an Iranian General working with Hezbollah against the rebels in Syria. Another element of the Saudi-Israeli alliance has been their hostility to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and support of the overthrow of President Morsi in that country. Saudi Arabia and Israel are both avid supporters of the military dictatorship that took over in Egypt, putting an end to the Arab Spring and hopes for democratic governments in the Arab world. So now we have a close alliance in the Middle East between the most brutal dictatorship in the region, Saudi Arabia, and an Israeli government whose oppression of the Palestinian people generates intense hatred in the region. And finally, there are the al Qaeda proxies in the alliance through which both countries pursue their objective of overthrowing Bashar al-Assad. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post in September 2013, the Israeli Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, stated “we always wanted Bashar al-Assad to go; we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.” Oren could hardly be clearer and all of this bodes very badly for peace and democracy in the Middle East. The crowning element of the alliance is, of course, the US.
Michael Drohan is a member of the board of TMC and co-chair of the Editorial Collective. by Ken Boas
bipartisan nature. By taking on the president, Netanyahu risks smashing apart Washington’s political consensus on Israel and exposing the American public for the first time to a Creative debate about Commons whether Israeli interests coincide with ours.” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Photo source: Wikimedia Netanyahu is also assuming that a cornered Obama never become secure. This is the great will sit still while he undermines the tragedy of Israel: the Zionist Iranian negotiations. It was a good bet, movement, from its earliest noble but he didn’t figure that Obama, who search for security for the Jews, has brought this on himself with his assumed that the undeniable truth of failure to stand up to six years of historic anti-Semitism and then the humiliation, had nothing left to lose, Holocaust gave it the right to establish and that this would be the final straw. a Jewish homeland by dispossessing The resistance Bibi is facing is a another people from their land, and precedent setting warning: America is that this thinking was justified and beginning to wake up and hold Israel should be honored by the world. accountable for its years of violations As Netanyahu and those who and repressive policies. support Israel’s cynical policies must Netanyahu’s arrogance is one understand, no country has the right to more example of an almost be racist; no country has the right to pathological Israeli denialism. Denial steal another peoples’ land, deny them about the nature of what it is doing to their rights, and attempt to disappear the Palestinians, and denial that the them as a people and a culture. world is beginning to see it more Nothing justifies this. clearly as an apartheid state and a menace to Middle East peace, and that Ken Boas is Chair of the Israeli this cannot be sustained. Committee Against House Intrinsic to the narrative of Demolitions (ICAHD). For more “security” that has always driven information, visit www.icahdusa.org Israel, a narrative that justifies any and and www.icahd.org. all violations of international law, is the sad reality that to embrace this way of thinking assures that Israel will March 2015
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Local Activism MURALS! LIGHTS! ACTION! On Friday, March 6th, The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka (SPMMMV) presents Cocktails & Conservation at St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale. Proceeds support cleaning, restoration and lighting of the 22 remarkable and haunting murals painted by Croatian artist Maxo Vanka on 11,000 square feet of the church’s interior walls. Public interest, appreciation and support are rapidly growing for this historic art treasure unique to the Pittsburgh region. Between now and March 27th, SPMMMV offers multiple opportunities to learn about the content and context of these unique works of art and to support their preservation. In appreciation for his adopted homeland, Vanka titled the murals his Gift to America. Commissioned by Father Albert Zagar, the artist began in 1937 with the depiction of traditional religious and folk images. By the time of their completion in 1941, Vanka’s works had ascended to the level of powerful commentary about social justice, immigrant experience and the horrors of war. The intensity of the artist’s vision makes the murals an enduring and essential element of Pittsburgh’s cultural landscape. With the founding of SPMMMV in 1991, volunteer efforts began in earnest to increase public awareness of the murals and to ensure their preservation for future generations. In 2008, SPMMMV staged sold-out performances in the church of “Gift to America,” a dramatic retelling of the murals’ creation written by Dr. David Demarest. The rapidly-growing enthusiasm of new audiences led to an expanded docent program and a public fundraising campaign
by Anna Doering & Bob Neu
to restore, clean and properly light the murals. A $750,000 goal was established, and to date ten murals have been fully restored. A museum-quality lighting design has been approved for installation pending the raising of sufficient funds. Tickets are on sale now for Cocktails & Conservation. Sponsorships begin at $100 and General Admission is $50. 100% of net proceeds will support restoration and lighting of the murals. For more information: www.vankamurals.org/cc2015.
Other Mural Related Events Behind the Murals: Histories and other stories at the Panza Gallery (115 Sedgwick Street) in Millvale runs through March 27th. The exhibit, which includes original works by Vanka, features two Gallery Talks by art historian Dr. Sylvia Rhor, and labor and industry scholar, Dr. Charles McCollester: Friday, February 27th – Vanka in Context: Pittsburgh’s Murals Culture in the Early 20th Century. "From the gas-masked figure of Injustice to the images of industrial disaster, Maxo Vanka’s extraordinary mural cycle in St. Nicholas Croatian Church is unique in mural history. While Vanka's work is atypical, particularly in the context of a church, it was also part of a rich mural culture in Pittsburgh in the first half of the 20th century. Wellknown artists from across the nation and from Europe and Mexico flocked to the city to paint murals for Pittsburgh's civic buildings, department stores and private residences. It was against this backdrop that Vanka created the Millvale cycle."-- Dr. Sylvia Rhor
Dr. Sylvia Rhor, an associate professor of Art History at Carlow University has her MA and PhD in the History of Art from the University of Pittsburgh. She has presented public lectures, directed docent training workshops and created teacher resources for museums in Chicago, New York and Pittsburgh. Dr. Rhor also co-curated two exhibitions at the Andy Warhol Museum: Too Hot to Handle: Creating Controversy Through Political Cartoons and Drawn to the Summit: A G-20 Exhibition of International Political Cartoons. Friday, March 13th – Out of Depression and War: Transcendent Hope and Maternal Protection. "In the eighth year of the Great Depression (1937) and on the brink of humankind's most destructive war (1939), Croatian artist Maxo Vanka painted his "gift to America." A distillation of sturdy immigrant dreams, his murals at St Nicholas Church in Millvale illustrate a powerful dichotomy between the terrors and injustices of this world and the Christian promise of redemption out of suffering."-- Dr. Charles McCollester Dr. Charles McCollester recently retired as a professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and the director of the Pennsylvania Center for the Study of Labor Relations at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Point of Pittsburgh: Production and Struggle at the Forks of the Ohio. Dr. McCollester is the president of the Battle of Homestead Foundation and president emeritus of the Pennsylvania Labor History Society. Anna Doering and Bob Neu are consultants to The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka (SPMMMV).
Summit Highlights Need for Cross-Generational Unity in Struggle of the Black & White Reunion (BWR) racial justice activism. Young people Against Racism from its founder Tim Stevens and and seasoned actors need to be able to veteran Summit planners such as Bob Maddock, Ann Mason, Kenneth Miller, Craig Stevens, Dan Sullivan, and Celeste Taylor. Uniting across seemingly intractable racial divides because of their shared outrage at the 1995 death of Jonny Gammage at the hands of local police, the members of BWR have for two decades agitated against police brutality, called for city by anupama jain accountability, and championed A few years after I moved to collective action against injustice. Pittsburgh, I attended my first Black & A corollary to the Black & White White Reunion’s annual Summit Reunion’s longevity is that many of the Against Racism. I was impressed that founding members are on the-- um-this relatively small city had a tradition higher end of the age spectrum. The of hosting an event successfully 17th Annual Summit Against Racism convening different constituencies on Saturday, January 24, 2015 was fighting racism together. The long therefore especially exciting because history of the Summit is one of the there were many younger people in things that most attracted my attention, attendance, including the multiracial because many social justice initiatives group of teens who ran a workshop in are unfortunately short-lived and can which I participated, “Acting Out: thus serve to discourage young activists Creative Problem-Solving to Address from future participation in collective Everyday Racism.” The high school change-making initiatives. students facilitating the discussion were At the same time, I was unsure energetic, informed, and committed to about the focus on black and white. educating others about how racism While this is the prevailing framework affects all of us in ways that are both for race in the U.S., it is also an subtle and conspicuous. More than abbreviated story given the realities of simply identifying these micromany non-black people of color, aggressions, they were sharing tools for including indigenous groups and resisting and over-turning the racist immigrants who re-write our national status quo. narrative every day. Working with these impressive and Serving on the planning committee effective young people reminds me that for the Summit in 2014, I was reassured it is crucial to build sustainable bridges when I learned the inspirational history between the past, present, and future of 6 - NEWPEOPLE
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support one another and leverage the strength of our numbers. But how do we ensure that this happens without erasing very real differences in terms of lived experience, historical contingency, and preferred interventionist strategies? These issues are of course not unique to our current historical moment, Pittsburgh, or the Summit. For example, in Ferguson late last summer, even as activists mobilized to protest the death of Michael Brown at the hands of a white police officer, they found themselves encountering a familiar “generational divide” (as reported in The Washington Post on August 21, 2014). Younger activists are sometimes perceived by older ones as impatient, overly angry or despairing, and even disrespectful, while “the elders” may be viewed as condescending and out of touch with youth perspectives. Both groups feel that there is not enough recognition by others of their contributions and points of view, which compounds the feelings of hopelessness that so many social justice activists feel while living in a society that seems to be becoming more segregated and violent each year, rather than less. The Summit Against Racism offers an admittedly limited, but nonetheless authentic, occasion for mutual recognition that might help to bridge similar generation gaps. No event or conference will fulfill attendees’
Out of Depression and War Transcendent Hope and Maternal Protection A Presentation on Pittsburgh Labor History and the Yugoslav History Context of Maxo Vanka’s Great Murals at St. Nicholas Church in Millvale Panza Gallery, 116 Sedgwick Street, Millvale PA 15206 – Free
Friday March 13: Gallery Open from 5:30-8:30; Presentation at 7PM by Charles McCollester In the eighth year of the Great Depression (1937) and on the brink of humankind’s most destructive war (1939), Croatian artist Maxo Vanka painted his “gift to America.” A distillation of sturdy immigrant dreams, his murals at St Nicholas Church in Millvale, illustrate a powerful dichotomy between the terrors and injustices of this world and the Christian promise of redemption out of suffering. Even in the depths of sin, the crucifixion of the son of God, the endless crosses marking the graves of soldiers, the mother’s tears shed over the crushed body of a miner’s son, there is Christ present at the immigrant family’s meal, shining in the humble solidarity of workers offering their church to the Mother of God. Motherhood is all around: Mary Queen of Croatia with peasant hands, forthright dark eyes, and an ample lap supporting her son, the light of the world; Mary’s sorrows, the seven swords that pierce her heart. This communal church is a shrine to motherhood, the source of human life and the possibility of human redemption. A mother’s fury at Christians, who without question participate in the slaughter and the greed that inspires it, diverts a bayonet from her savior son’s side. And above it all: the resurrection, the spirit, and the hope; all intimated below in the family table and common labor, in Mother Nature’s resistance in the little flowers, animals and birds that appear in the most unlikely places. The heavenly sphere (depicted in imagery worthy of William Blake), - the eye of God, the risen Lord. Charlie McCollester is president of the Battle of Homestead Foundation.
expectations for what it could or should be, but the Summit powerfully symbolizes the possibility that resides in coalitions. We don’t have to fully agree on tactics or interpretations, but we can still make common cause around the certainty that institutionalized racism is unacceptable. In fact, we need to use every strategy at our disposal to challenge racism, every day and in every space. I look forward to future Summits as communitybuilding opportunities to do just that. Learn about past summit workshops and themes at (http:// summitagainstracism.blogspot.com). anupama jain, PhD, is a diversity and inclusion expert, an educator, and a researcher who focuses on how people build community by sharing stories, promoting social justice, and cultivating empathy.
The Clash of Barbarisms and Charlie Hebdo
By Michael Drohan
March 2015
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The Value of the Post Office How the Post Office Can Save Good Jobs and Help Low-Income Americans by Neil Cosgrove Nothing is more predictable than a politician’s reaction when a military installation or a defense contract that creates jobs in a congressional district is threatened. The ink on the Pentagon’s notification is barely dry when outrage about the loss of jobs—“good middleclass jobs”—echoes through the media. So, why is it that same politician isn’t equally upset about what has happened to the United States Postal Service in recent years? The same dynamic should apply; only Congress itself can save or reverse the loss of “good middle-class jobs” found in just about every congressional district in the country, and Congress has only made the post office’s position worse, when they could easily make it better. Over the past 14 years the Postal Service has cut approximately 320,000 jobs, according to the Federal Times, and plans to cut 85,000 more in the next few years. It is currently offering buyouts and early retirement packages to over 3,000 postmasters. Postal administrators seek to sustain service in the face of these massive losses by hiring non-career “postal support employees” and by farming out stamp and package sales to underpaid Staples’ counter clerks. (See adjoining article.) One of 82 mail-processing facilities scheduled for closure in 2015 is located in Youngstown, Ohio, a community still struggling to recover
from the collapse of the steel industry in the early 1980s. According to an economic impact study commissioned by the Postal Union Alliance, the Youngstown closure will result in a total of 261 jobs lost in the region, and a total annual loss in economic activity of $24 million. Now multiply that impact by 82. If a weapons system is cancelled or a local air base is shuttered, workers will lose jobs, but the economic impact of the postal service, which has greased the wheels of American commerce since the 18th century, is much greater. Digital media has contributed to a drop in first-class mail volume, but that does not mean Americans have stopped using first-class mail, or other forms of mail, including continuously expanding package volume. Because of losses created by congressionally mandated payments into future retiree health benefits, the USPS has not only cut jobs but also, as of January, 2015, quality of service. “Branches that used to have six or seven people now have one or two,” says Joe Radovich of the Pittsburgh Postal Workers Solidarity Committee. Such personnel cuts have had a direct impact on the efficiency of mail delivery, because mail sorting takes longer at both general mail facilities and at local post offices. Radovich says carriers now wait until 8 to 9 in the
morning to receive mail for delivery, rather than the previous 6 to 6:30 a.m., because there are fewer people sorting the mail. This is the reality behind the change in service standards that took effect January 5, 2015. If a piece of first -class mail isn’t ready at Pittsburgh’s general mail facility on the North Side by 7 a.m., then it won’t be delivered until the next day. Consequently, even first-class mail sent from one address to another within a single municipality now takes two days for delivery. Eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives (four Republicans and four Democrats) recently introduced a resolution stating the postal service “should take all appropriate measures to restore the service standards that were in effect as of July 1, 2012,” according to the American Postal Workers Union. But such resolutions are mere gestures, since it was Congress that put the postal service in the hole in the first place. Meaningful action would entail passing current House and Senate bills that would repeal the prefunding of retiree health benefits forced on the USPS in 2006. In the meantime, citizens can join in the postal workers’ boycott of Staples and its online subsidiary Quill. We can push the postal service’s Board of Governors and the Congress to
support the postal workers’ “campaign for postal banking,” which expands upon an earlier recommendation by the post office’s inspector general that USPS return to offering basic banking services. Organizations can join the “Grand Alliance” to save the post office launched February 12th by the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), which already includes, according to the Washington Post, “63 religious coalitions, retiree organizations, educational and postal unions, lawmakers and progressive advocacy groups.” One-third of the country’s zip codes have no banks but do have a post office that could offer lower-income customers savings accounts, debit cards, and small loans. Right now those customers are at the mercy of payday lenders and check-cashing companies. “The average household that patronizes these ‘legal loan sharks,’” argues Mark Dimondstein, President of the APWU, “has an annual income of about $25,500 and spends $2,412 each year just on interest and fees—nearly 10 percent of their income.” Preserving and growing middleclass jobs; helping low-income Americans save. Aren’t these goals that most politician claims to support? Neil Cosgrove is a member of the New People Editorial Collective.
Making Staples Pay For More Than Another Merger by Neil Cosgrove Postal workers consider the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) working agreement with Staples as the Service’s most egregious and threatening assault on their middle-class jobs. USPS hopes to ease pressure on already under-staffed postal branches by farming out more and more of its business to Staples’ stores around the country. The postal unions rightly characterize the Staples’ agreement as “union busting;” as an open attempt by the postal service to reduce its complement of career employees by tens of thousands. Since 2000 the USPS has shed approximately 320,000 employees, and now has around 485,000 in its workforce. Before his February retirement, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said he’d like to see that number reduced to 400,000 in the next few years, which he considered, according to the Federal Times, the “ideal number.” One strategy for hitting that number is to have more and more stamps sold and packages received by counter clerks in Staples stores by clerks making $18,000 a year with no benefits. Staples is the first company ever allowed to purchase stamps from the postal service at a discount and is making a profit off of services that have been under the purview of the post office since our nation’s founding. Consequently, the four postal unions, various teachers’ unions, and the AFLCIO have all chosen, along with their members, to boycott Staples and its online office-supply subsidiary Quill. 8 - NEWPEOPLE
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not have the benefit of expanding its reach to customers while cutting jobs, as the USPS originally thought it would. With Staples clearly making defensive moves to protect shrinking market share, a successful boycott of its stores and on-line business could have the effect of forcing its leadership and that of the postal service to reconsider just how useful their agreement may be. A list of Pittsburgh-area Staples stores participating in the postal service’s “approved shipper program” follows: • 6375 Penn Avenue, Suite B, Pittsburgh 15206 • 2515 Banksville Road, Pittsburgh 15216 • The Waterworks, 999 Freeport Road, Pittsburgh 15238 • North Hills Village Mall, 4801 “Since 2000 the USPS has shed approximately 320,000 employees, and now has around McKnight Road, Pittsburgh 15237 485,000 in its workforce.” Photo source: Wikimedia Commons • 6521 Steubenville Pike, Pittsburgh Staples purchase of Quill in 1998 is approve the merger, as it did the one 15205 suggestive of an on-going movement in between Office Depot and Office Max. • Riverview Plaza, 100 Tarentum Bridge the office supply market that could What is the Commission’s reasoning? Road, New Kensington 15068 eventually prove, ironically, that the The office-supply superstores are • 1675 Route 228, Cranberry Township USPS may be backing the wrong horse. already losing considerable market share 16066 Staples and Office Depot (which to the entities mentioned above, and • 796 Tri-County Plaza, 800 Rostraver purchased Office Max late in 2013) are therefore no longer constitute a “separate Road, Belle Vernon 15012 being challenged by big box stores like market niche.” • Washington Mall, 301 Oak Spring Costco and Wal-Mart, and by Amazon Staples has already been closing Road, Washington, 15301 and other on-line merchants, who can stores because of the competition, and • Hempfield Plaza, 6207 Route 30, Suite deliver anywhere, with the indispensable since close to one-half of Office Depot 1027, Greensburg 15601 help of our post office in more remote stores are within five miles of a Staples, regions of the country. retail analyst David Strasser believes a This list comes from the Pittsburgh Now Staples wants to buy Office merger of the two companies will result Postal Workers Solidarity Committee. Depot, a merger the American Postal in the closing of 1,000 of the more than Workers Union “vigorously 3,000 stores they currently have. Staples Neil Cosgrove is a member of The New opposes,” Many anti-trust legal experts can continue to make profits from postal People Editorial Collective. think the Federal Trade Commission will transactions, but the postal service may
Community Organizing Interview with Activist Extraordinaire, Paul LeBlanc Paul LeBlanc is one of the most outstanding activists in Pittsburgh and beyond. There are few protests for economic, racial and social justice that he has not been a part of for the last 50 years. I sat down with him for this interview on Feb 5, 2015
various social movements. Through all of this, I came to see capitalism as a form of economic dictatorship by the Paul: There are four: (1) Pittsburghers very rich, who squeeze immense for Public Transit, (2) the Black Lives profits out of the work we all do. I was Matter movement through We Change powerfully influenced by Martin Pittsburgh, (3) helping to build the Luther King, and when I learned he Martin Luther King Day believed in socialism, that made a lot demonstration, and (4) a number of M: When did your activism for of sense to me. For most of my life I educational efforts (including the peace and justice begin and take have benefited from belonging to a writing of books and articles) related to socialist group -- like the one I belong shape? the multiple problems we face. The to now, the International Socialist Paul: My parents were in the left-wing amazing young black women Organization (ISO). of the labor movement. They taught providing leadership for We Change me that all people are created equal Pittsburgh have inspired me and many M: You and the Merton Center: and should have equal rights, that there others to mobilize against systematic When and how did you become should really be liberty and justice for racial violence. It was meaningful to involved in the activities of the all. They were socialists and thought me that they joined with the Thomas Merton Center? the economic resources of society Merton Center's Anti-War Committee should be owned and democratically Paul: This involvement has been to connect the dots as Martin Luther controlled by all of us together. They King did -- racial injustice, economic fluctuating but constant since the believed that while wars are fought by injustice, militarism and war -- in the 1970s. The Center’s commitment and bring great suffering to working to radical nonviolence harmonized recent demonstration of 1200 people people and poor people, the ones who on Martin Luther King Day. powerfully with my own inclinations. reap the greatest benefits are rich The example of Molly Rush and the people. Those kinds of things M: Tell us a bit about your socialist Plowshares Eight challenging the influenced me greatly. When I was 18 views and commitments and the role threat of nuclear war deeply inspired and moved to Pittsburgh to go to the me. Eventually, I served on the Merton they play in your activism? university, back in 1965, I began Center Board. In this period I became Paul: In the early 1960s, I learned a lot close to the wonderful South African getting involved in civil rights activities and protests against the war from the writings of many socialists poet Dennis Brutus, who identified (from George Orwell and Albert in Vietnam. The key to all these closely with the Merton Center. I Einstein to Karl Marx). Later, I learned learned from his efforts to build an struggles is mobilizing masses of how socialist ideas relate to struggles international movement against the people in peaceful but against racism, struggles against uncompromising actions for what is destructive forms of globalization, and right, and to reach out to more people women's oppression, struggles against to mobilize support for the World war. Even more important were life to win them to the cause of social Social Forum. I threw myself into the experiences – working in the tobacco work of the Center as it played a justice. fields, as a social service worker, as a central role in response M: What are the campaigns that you shipyard worker and an auto worker, to the challenges of and my increasing participation in are presently involved in and why "globalization from you are involved in those campaigns?
by Michael Drohan
above" when the G-20 held its summit meeting in Pittsburgh. When the Occupy movement blossomed in Pittsburgh, I threw myself into that too, and sought to relate the Merton Center to the rising new layer of activists. M: You were very involved in the formation of the Cornerstone Sustainers of the Merton Center. Why and how did you undertake this initiative? Paul: The Merton Center is a mainstay within the resistance to oppression and violence, part of the pathway to a better world. In recent years, the Center’s never-ending financial crisis was intensified by unfortunate internal difficulties, and its existence was thrown into question. I knew there were many of us who felt its loss would be a calamity, and some of us now had significant financial resources. It occurred to me that if we worked together, we could ensure greater financial security for the Center. I brought this idea to various Center partisans I was close to – Jonah McAllister-Erickson, Ginny Hildebrand, Michael Drohan, Joyce Rothermel, and others – and the result was Cornerstone Sustainers. Michael Drohan is a member of the board of TMC and Co-Chair of the Editorial Collective.
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference by Jo Schlesinger & Scilla Wahrhaftig From April 30th to May 11th this year the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, (NPT) will come under review, and nation states will be meeting in New York to consider the legal obligations of the treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons. The Treaty only comes under review every five years so this is an important opportunity for civil society to put pressure on nuclear countries to fulfill these obligations. It is of particular concern as we see nuclear countries spending billions on updating their nuclear arsenals and the tensions rising between Western countries and Russia in regard to Ukraine. A number of activities have been organized in New York and across the globe to call for the elimination of these weapons. On April 26th, the eve of the NPT Review Conference, huge crowds will be gathering in midtown Manhattan for an international rally and march to the United Nations. On the streets and in front of the U.N., activists from around the world – with 2,000 from Japan alone, including Hibakusha (survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) – will demand a nuclear-free world; economic, social, and environmental justice; and an end to military crises and wars. At the same time, a global peace wave is planned as people
symbolically wave away these weapons of destruction. Social media will follow the wave as it progresses from country to country. In advance of these events will be an International Conference for a Nuclear-Free, Peaceful, Just and Sustainable World on March 24th and 25th. Remembering Hiroshima, Imagining Peace is organizing a group of people to go to New York to take part in the events. This will be historic and we hope to have a good delegation from Pittsburgh. It will also be an opportunity for our delegation to hand deliver two quilts made in collaboration with the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh to the New Japan Women's Association, for display in their museum. (see story and pictures of the quilt in www.rememberinghiroshima.org) The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons’ objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving complete nuclear disarmament. In spite of the Treaty's promotion of "peaceful" nuclear energy, many organizations, including Remembering Hiroshima, Imagining Peace, have come to see nuclear power as a dangerous and related issue. These
include the health and environmental risks of radiation leaks, severe mining impacts, storage and waste, excessive costs, not to mention accidents like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl or Fukushima. The current denial of US responsibility for the damage its' testing caused in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958, is a case in point. The impetus behind the NPT was concern for the safety of a world with many nuclear weapon states. More nuclear-weapon states, multiplies the risks of miscalculation, accidents, unauthorized use of weapons, or the risk from escalation during tensions and conflict. The five nuclear-weapon states China, Russia, France, UK and the US - are officially recognized as possessing nuclear weapons by the NPT. India, Israel and Pakistan, however, never joined the NPT and are known to possess nuclear weapons. Israel has not publicly conducted a nuclear test, does not admit to or deny having nuclear weapons, and states that it will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East. Nevertheless, Israel is universally believed to possess nuclear arms, although it is unclear how many.
Creative Commons
According to Hans M. Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, “All of the world’s nucleararmed states are busy modernizing their remaining nuclear forces for the long haul. None of the nuclear-armed states appears to be planning to eliminate its nuclear weapons anytime soon. Instead, all speak of the continued importance of nuclear weapons.” In fact, despite the US’s support of the NPT, we seem committed to spending over $348 billion over the next decade on modernizing our nuclear forces. Without some limitations on the pace and scope of nuclear modernization, the goal of eventual elimination of nuclear weapons remains increasingly unlikely. For more information on the rally and conference go to www.peaceandplanet.org The authors are coordinators of Remembering Hiroshima, Imagining Peace—get involved by contacting Scilla Wahrhaftig Scillahw@gmail.com or Jo Schlesinger joschlesinger@verizon.net
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The Environmentalists Thomas Merton, Environmentalist “I am just reading Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Have you read it? You must. It is very enlightening because it shows the disease is everywhere. The same type of absurd logic that drives us to nuclear adventures is driving us to spray thousands of acres with something that does not effectively eliminate the insect we are getting at, but does eliminate the birds that would otherwise eat the insect we don’t like”…- Thomas Merton 1963] He later read from the book to the monks in refectory until he was refused permission. Thomas Merton, from the time as a child when he watched his artist father paint landscapes until his last years, deeply loved the natural world. When he entered the Trappist order he worked with the other monks doing manual labor in the fields in the traditional way. They ate their homegrown, fresh food from the monastery farm. In the early 1960s a new Abbot took over. He expanded the lay retreat program, opening it to women. However, facing a $20,000 debt and to Merton’s dismay, the Abbot also mechanized the farm, introducing tractors, bulldozers and pesticides. Soon noisy, gas guzzling farm equipment replaced the monks’ hand labor, destroying the blissful silence of the Kentucky monastery. Gethsemane Farms became a successful business, selling cheese, bread, fruitcakes and bacon to support the monastery. Noise and pollution replaced the peaceful quiet of the countryside. Merton saw this mechanization as both spiritually and physically damaging, the pastoral idyll shattered. He is said to have irreverently referred to one product as “cheeses for Jesus.” In a journal entry on January 31, 1968, his last birthday before his sudden death on December 10th at 53, he wrote of how the beauty of the rural Kentucky hills collided with the cacophony of nearby Fort Knox: “Clear, thin new moon appearing and disappearing between slate blue clouds— and the living black skeletons of the trees against the 10 - NEWPEOPLE
ALCOSAN Fact Check by Molly Rush
evening sky. More artillery than usual thumping against the evening sky at Knox. It is my fifty-third birthday.” Monica Weis in her 2011 book The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton suggests that “throughout his life his study of the natural world shaped his spirituality in profound ways” and that he was one of the first writers to raise concerns about ecological issues. Merton’s interest in nature, which developed significantly during his years at the Abbey of Gethsemani, laid the foundation for his growing environmental consciousness. Tracing Merton’s awareness of the natural world from his childhood to the final years of his life, Weis explores his deepening sense of place and desire for solitude, his sense of responsibility and his love for all living things, and his evolving ecological awareness. In his journal from the early 1960s he wrote: “Someone will say: You worry about birds. Why not worry about people? I worry about both birds and people. We are in the world and part of it, and we are destroying everything because we are destroying ourselves spiritually, morally, and in every way. It is all part of the same sickness, it all hangs together.” Of technology he wrote: ”Our titanic power…threatens not only civilization but life itself… to survive we instinctively destroy that on which our survival depends… {we} eradicate religious and spiritual systems that for thousands of years assisted humans in maintaining a healthy balance between ourselves and the planet… It does no good to make fantastic progress if we don’t know how to live with it, if we can’t make good use of it. and if in fact our technology becomes nothing more than… cultural disintegration.” Technology is “made for man not man for technology … [ and] equals manipulation of the created world equals progress equals happiness… [and is] further debasement of the world in the name of a false humanism which has no other fruit.” In 1968, on his last trip outside of the monastery traveling to the interfaith retreat with monks from the eastern traditions where he died suddenly, he stopped in
March 2015
On January 28th and 29th, ALCOSAN held three public meetings to discuss solutions to sewer overflows. These meetings showed that the message from our authority has shifted dramatically thanks to the hard work of ratepayers. We have moved from a dialogue about a Wet Weather Control Plan focused solely on tunnels to one that touts the benefits and importance of green infrastructure. Nearly every time it rains, even as little as one tenth of an inch, Pittsburgh’s aging sewer system becomes overwhelmed and untreated wastewater flows directly into our rivers. Green infrastructure helps solve this problem by using soil, vegetation, and natural processes to restore natural drainage patterns and keep stormwater out of the sewer system. For instance, rain gardens are designed to capture stormwater, filter it, and allow it to soak into the ground. Green roofs can absorb water that would normally run off of a building. Stormwater planters are specialized planter boxes installed along sidewalks that can help manage runoff from the sidewalk and road. Even planting trees throughout the community can be an effective form of green infrastructure. Unfortunately, ALCOSAN’s new message of supporting green infrastructure was not supported with evidence. In fact, the information presented
by Jennifer Rafanan Kennedy
suggests that the plan and budget have not fundamentally shifted. What the public heard at these meetings was more of the same. Attendees saw budgets that reflect gray priorities, excuses for why things can’t be done rather than solutions, and a presentation long on spin but short on details, metrics, and commitments. These meetings were billed as a community discussion of “cost-effective solutions and potential benefits to our community and the environment.” Instead, the ALCOSAN senior staff addressed, in broad strokes, the general operations of the plant, the characteristics of the ALCOSAN system, the authority’s community outreach, and the history, goals, and current publicly available status of the Wet Weather Plan. While providing useful background information that would have been helpful in previous years, the presentation lacked the relevant updates, details, and transparency that ratepayers need. We are at a critical point in the path to fixing our sewage overflow problem. If new leadership is not in place to develop and implement the new plan going forward, then the region can only expect more of the same. Although ALCOSAN claims to have heard the concerns of ratepayers, they have yet to make concrete commitments in response. We need innovative leadership to take ALCOSAN’s message from
“vision” to reality. If ALCOSAN is not truly transparent and accountable, then ratepayers will be stuck with the bill for a plan that is not strategic or sustainable for our region. The Clean Rivers Campaign has been working to ensure that our investment reflects our values and priorities such as maximizing green infrastructure, producing benefits and jobs for our community, ensuring that everyone pays their fair share, and protecting our neighbors and our health by implementing a customer assistance program. We will have to be vigilant to make sure that ALCOSAN invests our money wisely and fairly. Join our e-list to receive updates so you can be informed about what ALCOSAN is saying and how they plan to spend our money, as well as campaign actions to hold ALCOSAN accountable to their promises. You can join our e-list (Click the EAlert Tab) and read our full fact check (on our homepage) at cleanriverscampaign.org. Jennifer Rafanan Kennedy is the campaign director for the Clean Rivers Campaign (CRC). The CRC, a coalition coordinated by Pittsburgh United, works to ensure that the federally-mandated solution to our sewageoverflow problem will bring the maximum benefits to our community by prioritizing implementation of green solutions.
“You worry about birds. Why not worry about people?” I worry about both birds and people. We are in the world and part of it, and we are destroying everything because we are destroying ourselves spiritually, morally, and in every way. It is all part of the same sickness, it all hangs together.– Thomas Merton Calcutta. Speaking to the monks he said, “In the West there is now going on a great upheaval in monasticism and much that is of undying value is being thrown away irresponsibly, foolishly, in favor of things that are superficial, showy, that have no ultimate value. I will say as a brother monk from the West to Eastern monks, the time is coming when you may face this situation and your ancient traditions will stand you in good stead.” Months before he quoted A Sand Country Almanac by Aldo Leopold [Center Magazine, July 1968] “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends
otherwise.” In a 1967 letter to Rosemary Radford Reuther he wrote, “Obviously it has to be made clear that the old negative Jansenistic pietism that just turns away from the machine…has to be shown up for what it is. But the problem of getting technology back into the power of man so that it may be used for man’s own good is by all odds the great problem of the day…” Merton’s prophetic vision has inspired millions of people around the world. Molly Rush is a Thomas Merton Center board member and a member of the editorial collective.
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Karl Marx Returns in a Time Machine Built by by Paul LeBlanc
Imagine the long-dead socialist Karl Marx returning to a super-capitalist Earth after more than a hundred and fifty years of benevolent “incarceration” in Heaven. He is permitted only a onehour visit, with restrictions on what he can do and say. “No agitating!” he tells us indignantly. But he cannot help himself, and over a bottle of beer, the old revolutionary gives us a piece of his agitated mind, cracking jokes and spinning stories that go in “dangerous” directions, despite threatening rumbles of thunder from above.
Welcome to Howard Zinn’s one-act play “Marx in Soho,” to be performed by Brian Jones at the University of Pittsburgh’s Frick Fine Arts auditorium in Oakland, Saturday evening, March 21 (7:30 p.m.). Zinn was the famed historian whose classic “A People’s History of the United States” left some indignant conservatives complaining about “the deranged quality of this fairy tale.” When Zinn died in 2010, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert explained that “Mr. Zinn was often taken to task for peeling back the rosy veneer of much of American history to reveal sordid realities that had remained hidden for too long,” and for arguing “that the interests of powerful political leaders and corporate elites are not the same as those of ordinary people who are struggling from week to week to make ends meet.” Yet growing numbers of people have been inclined to consider that point of view, with the book selling over a million
Take a Tip From Mother Nature 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 this form to: Thomas Merton Center, 5129 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15224.
copies. Describing “Marx in Soho,” Publisher’s Review, notes that Zinn's “passion for history melds with his political vigor to make this a memorable effort and a lucid primer” for those seeking “a succinct, dramatized review of Marxism.” We see and hear Marx “decrying the vast disparity between rich and poor and the corrupt, systematic funneling of the wealth that workers earn into the hands of capitalists.” But the all-too-human radical sometimes fumbles, at which point “it is Marx's critical wife, Jenny, and brilliant daughter Eleanor who take him to task.” Some of the play’s more humorous moments include Marx’s horror over would-be followers turning his ideas into rigid dogmas, and his drunken-brawl of a relationship with anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. Brian Jones, African American actor and activist, becomes Marx in this one-man play. “Jones invests his character with a surprising degree of urbanity and savoir-faire," according to the Los Angeles Times, with the Washington Post adding: “You wouldn't imagine that social criticism could make for lively theater, but Zinn’s text and Jones’s acting deftly
blended the political with the personal.” In addition to acting (awarded a 2012 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship), Jones has been a teacher in the New York City schools, and a social commentator appearing in the New York Times, MSNBC.com, Democracy Now!, and Socialist Worker.org. Running for Lt. Governor of New York on the Green Party ticket in 2014, he received 200,000 votes. Admission will be free at this Pittsburgh performance, whose sponsors include the History Department of the University of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh WorkingClass Studies Collaborative, the Pittsburgh Student Solidarity Coalition, the International Socialist Organization (of which Jones is a member), and the Thomas Merton Center’s Economic Justice Committee. After the play’s performance, the audience will be invited to participate in a discussion of the play, the ideas that animate it, and the present-day realities that it relates to. Paul LeBlanc is a professor of history at LaRoche College and founding member of the Thomas Merton Center’s Economic Justice Committee.
Merton Center’s Molly Rush Legacy Fund Donation/Pledge $__________ In Honor / Memory of:_________________________________________ Name(s):___________________________________________________ Organization (if any):__________________________________________ Address:____________________________________________________ City: _______________________ State:________ Zip Code:__________ Home Phone:________________________________________________ Cell Phone: _________________________________________________ Email:______________________________________________________
Global Divestment Rally Day—Feb 13—A Great Success
Gabe McMorland, TMC New Economy Campaign organizer for the Thomas Merton Center petitioning the city of Pittsburgh to divest from fossil fuels: “This is not the time to be investing in those fossil fuel companies and to be investing in the fossil fuel industry. They still think they’re a good investment, but the only reason they’re continuing with their business plan is because they believe we can’t muster up the political power to enforce real regulations that protect people and the environment.” Nick Goodfellow, Fossil Free Pitt Coalition (pictured with Wanda Guthrie, Chair of the Thomas Merton Center Environmental Justice Committee) - From Nick’s interview on WESA: “When we’re talking about fossil fuel divestment, we’re also talking about this community that is right around the corner from us, right at our doorstep... There are people who are taking an unreasonable amount of the burden of fossil fuel extraction, and it’s important for us to use our privilege to elevate their voices and get those personal stories out there so that we’re not just talking about economics and stuff.”
Becca Epstein, sophomore art major and co-president of CMU Sustainable Earth: “We are taught again and again in our classroom[s] that our future is to promote innovation that will change society. But by aligning itself with fossil fuel companies, CMU is aligning itself against innovation.”
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March 2015
We Need Change Now Not Later County Council Rejects “Wait and See” on Fracking Parks by John Detwiler & Joni Rabinowitz At its February 3rd meeting, Allegheny County Council rejected a citizen-sponsored proposal for a “Wait and See” policy toward fracking at public parks. The proposed ordinance would have required the county to document the effects of drilling at Deer Lakes Park before considering any new fracking deals. As a result of Council’s action, County Executive Rich Fitzgerald is free to entertain leasing offers from would-be drillers at the county’s eight other parks. Mr. Fitzgerald lobbied aggressively against the measure, although claiming to have “no plans” for further leases, and threatened to veto the ordinance if it passed Council. The proposal was sponsored by Protect Our Parks (POP), a coalition of grassroots groups, individuals, and environmental non-profits. Marcellus Protest, a project of the Thomas Merton Center, is a leading member of that coalition. (See www.marcellusprotest.org.) POP’s campaign employed a provision of the county’s Home Rule Charter which allows citizens to place legislation on Council’s agenda through petition. This was a historic accomplishment, as “Wait and See” became the first such measure ever to advance all the way to a formal vote of County Council. POP was formed in August, 2013,
when Mr. Fitzgerald first revealed plans to allow fracking at Deer Lakes Park. For the next nine months, POP and its many allies were a regular presence at County Council meetings, opposing the industrialization of the people’s parks, and warning of the environmental and social dangers of fracking anywhere in our communities. But in May, 2014, in spite of POP’s testimony, and with a boost from stacked “public hearings” on the question, Council authorized Mr. Fitzgerald to lease Deer Lakes Park to Range Resources Corporation. A lease was signed in November, 2014, and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has recently granted permits for drilling to begin. So, in October, 2014, POP launched a petition campaign to enact a “Wait and See” policy toward fracking the county’s remaining parks. Needing 500 signatures of registered voters to bring such legislation, POP had gathered nearly 2000 within less than three weeks. At its peak, the petition campaign had nearly 60 volunteers canvassing across the county. And, far from being a NIMBY response, petition signatures came from all 13 County Council Districts, and from 73 of the county’s 130 municipalities. As a response to the Deer Lakes Park decision, POP’s “Wait and See” proposal had two complementary provisions: (1) place a “hold” on
further drilling at parks, and (2) require the county to monitor the effects of drilling at Deer Lakes Park and to make a public report on environmental and economic impacts. But the debate on the ordinance (such debate as there was) was focused only on the “Wait” and disregarded the “See.” The prevailing rhetoric on Council was that the proposal was simply a “ban” on drilling, which would “tie Council’s hands”. POP was unable to direct the members’ attention to the bill’s provision for data-gathering and reporting at Deer Lakes Park, nor to the County Executive’s failure to establish any process whatever for holding Range Resources accountable there. (The Post-Gazette contributed to this mischaracterization of the ordinance, through its dismissive and patronizing editorials about the POP campaign.) In defeating “Wait and See”, Council members argued that they were honoring the county’s responsibility to consider future “opportunities” on “a case by case basis.” What they rejected, however, is a commitment to learn from the Deer Lakes Park experience, and to develop some objective “basis” on which such “opportunities” could be weighed. Despite Mr. Fitzgerald’s disclaimers, we expect to see Round Hill Park put forward for leasing by the end of this year. When that happens, the story will be told as if an
Jeron X Grayson Community Center Rev. Grayson of the Wesley Methodist Church and the Center that Cares has opened a new building for after school youth programs in the lower Hill district on Enoch St. It is called the Jeron X Grayson Community Center and many young people are already using its services. It is open between two and seven in afternoons on weekdays when the children arrive from the Urban Pathways school downtown. The Jeron X Grayson Center occupies the renovated Ozanam Center building, which had been primarily used for basketball camps and practices in the summer. Jeron Grayson was an ambitious young college student in 2010 when he was brutally shot and killed at a fraternity party at California University of Pennsylvania. The opening of the Center on Enoch Street followed four years of fundraising, construction team selection, bidding, demolition, gutting, and renovation. The new walls, heating, plumbing, roofing, windows, furniture and computers inside the building are a testament to the dedication and desire of a team of people from the Wesley Methodist Church, but especially of Rev. and Mrs. Grayson. I met them both one Sunday last winter during an opening event at the Concept Art Gallery on Braddock Ave in Regent Square. The sculptor Vanessa German of Homewood had
organized a parade of people to walk from Penn Ave and Braddock in Point Breeze to the Concept Gallery as a way of introducing her sculpture show to the city. Her work takes the form of totems or statues which reference 19th and early 20th century AfricanAmerican myths and reflections in the larger white culture.
by Sean Nolan
As Rev. Grayson spoke to me about the soon to be opened Jeron X Grayson Community Center, I sensed that it would be a great success and that it would be something very good to be involved with in order to build community and feel more connected to the neighborhood . I began to visit him regularly at the Wesley Methodist church where I assisted in editing documents or proofreading letters before they were mailed. I met his daughter Shinora there and his co-pastor Rev. Delbert. I marched with Reverend Grayson and his son Alan (from the activist group One Rev. Glenn G. Grayson holding up scissors used at the Jeron X. Grayson Pittsburgh) when Community Center Ribbon Cutting ceremony. Photo by J.L. Martello they and many Rev. Grayson spoke with me that others protested the low wages paid to day after the group toured the gallery, long time UPMC employees whose seeing Vanessa’s work and interacting union’s efforts had been blocked. with it. Her striking sculptures The national SEIU chapter and the offered a lot to talk about, with many ACLU marched in support of the pieces purposefully punctured by nails, UPMC custodial staff, nurse’s aides, standing upon plinths, riding skates, in CNAs and RNs who were demanding dancing poses, sporting wide smiles better pay and more comprehensive and laughing faces while standing as insurance packages. There were two mock advertisements for soap powder, significant marches last winter and flour, shoe shine products, condiments, spring from St. Benedict the Moor or some other commodity from Church to Grant Street, where local popular culture or entertainment. political representatives and members
offer simply arrived at his office, over the transom, from a company holding leases on adjacent property. Then, with a sense of inevitability, Council will be asked to approve yet another lease for yet another park, with no more rigorous logic than “We did it before, so why not do it again?” POP is gratified that our “Wait and See” proposal, and the petition campaign which brought it to Council, has added to the public awareness of fracking’s threat to our public parks. And, although Council ultimately voted against this proposal, POP will be ready to defend the county’s other eight parks “on a case by case basis” whenever that need arises. John Detwiler and Joni Rabinowitz are members of POP, Protect our Parks. Creative Commons
Joni Rabinowitz at County Council meeting looking to protect our parks.
of Mayor Peduto’s staff made speeches in support of the poorly paid UPMC workers. Since then the public has been made aware of the pay discrepancy between the lowest paid worker at UPMC and the pay of CEO Jeffrey Romoff. Mr. Romoff’s earnings are on the order of 1,600 times higher than the pay of the average UPMC employee, which is a shocking differential. He was paid well over $6 million in 2013 and that does not include his benefits package. The Jeron X Grayson Center offers many opportunities to youth who live in the lower Hill District and to young people who attend the Urban Pathways School on Penn Avenue downtown. The Center has a computer room housing twelve desktop machines which run Microsoft windows. Students can play games on these machines , use them for study, or to create art work and designs. There are pool tables, foosball tables, and rooms for quiet study or for art and writing classes. There is a fully equipped kitchen, which provides light snacks for students after school. The kitchen can also be used for serving banquets. Governor Tom Wolf came to the Center during his campaign last year. Sean Nolan is a socially engaged reader and writer who also works as a massage therapist. He is from Greensburg and calls Pittsburgh home and a little bit of California too.
March 2015
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Testimonies of Peace & Justice An Interview with Kay Barchetti - The Newest Merton Festival Reception-April 20
Spotlights Life & Contributions of Thomas Merton
Chicken in the Flock at TMC’s East End Community Thrift by Diane McMahon How do you support the East End Community Thrift Store? I donate eggs to Thrifty, usually on Tuesdays, out of respect for the work the Thrifty Volunteers do to help the community. Thrifty sells these eggs worth $7.00 a dozen for $2.50-$3.50 per dozen. It's a good buy for the customers of Thrifty. Exceptionally compelling to me, is the fact that the money taken in for the eggs goes to the Merton Center to promote World Peace. So my little feathered friends are helping many people to be healthy and happy. Now that I am fortunate to live on 6.4 Acres; I have 150 chickens. They are from Belgium, Chile, Holland, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, Egypt, Italy, China, Australia, USA, England, France, and Spain. My hens lay eggs which are Brown, Dark Chocolate Brown, Pink, Green, White, Cream and Blue/Green. Egg colors are determined by a chicken's breed. The taste of eggs, however, comes from their diet My hens/gals dine on Organic: Layer Crumbles, cracked corn, fresh apples and pears, timothy, alfalfa, all the while free grazing and guzzling pure fresh chemical free well water. My 150 chickens lay 60-90 eggs per day. I can only eat three per day; I give some to my clients who buy homes from me through Coldwell Banker. Can you tell us how you started your organic egg business? I love birds of all kinds and raised hundreds of canaries when I lived where chickens were not allowed. My first job from 8-17 was selling eggs and tomatoes door to door outside of Point Marion, PA. I love to cook and I love to feed my family and friends. I cook 99% organic food and have 3,025 sq ft of raised beds to grow organic vegetables. I do not sell any eggs so its not an egg business, rather it's my hobby/passion. Organic eggs are low in cholesterol and
Chickens at Kay’s Farm—Photo by Kay Barchetti
organic eggs that are also from free ranging chickens are even higher in Omega-3 fatty acids than salmon! What peace and social justice issues are you passionate about? 1. Feeding hungry folks, I grew up hungry. 2. Helping others and specifically helping women help themselves. 3. Mentoring young people. Thrifty, and the Merton Center do all of that..... Why do you support the East End Community Thrift Store? I believe when the Pope named the two new Saints this past year, he missed Shirley Gleditsch! Starting Thrifty and the subsequent 21 years of keeping that store going is a monumental contribution to society. I so respect that selfless dedication. I feel that via Thrifty and the Merton Center, my small efforts are multiplied exponentially. That works for me. I was proud that our Mayor recognized Shirley's contribution to our wonderful City and I was honored to feed her "FLOCK" to commemorate the Shirley Gleditsch Day this past year when Shirley and the Thrift Store volunteers were honored at the New Persons Awards. Diane McMahon is a member of the editorial collective and the managing director of the Thomas Merton Center.
Jim Forest is coming to Pittsburgh on Monday, April 20 as a highlight of the Thomas Merton 100th Anniversary Festival, to receive special recognition from the Thomas Merton Center and share a message with us entitled “Thomas Merton’s Advice to Peacemakers.” The planning committee was delighted when Jim agreed to come. Here’s why. Jim is an internationally known Thomas Merton biographer, writer, lay theologian, educator, and peace activist. Since 1989, a year after his reception into the Orthodox Church, he has been the international secretary of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship as well as editor of its quarterly journal, In Communion. In 1964 he founded the Catholic Peace Fellowship. In the late sixties and mid-seventies, he also worked with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, first as Vietnam Program coordinator and then as editor of Fellowship magazine. From 1977 through 1988, he was Secretary General of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, which took him to the Netherlands. He is the recipient of the Peacemaker Award from Notre Dame University's Institute for International Peace Studies and the St. Marcellus Award from the Catholic Peace Fellowship. In his younger years, Jim worked in the U.S. Navy, working with a meteorology unit at the U.S. Weather Bureau headquartered near Washington, D.C. It was during this period that he became a Catholic. His military service ended with an early discharge on grounds of conscientious objection. After the Navy, Jim joined the staff of the Catholic Worker community in New York City, working closely with its founder Dorothy Day, and for a time serving as managing editor of the newspaper she edited, The Catholic Worker. In 1964, Jim began the Catholic Peace Fellowship with Tom Cornell. This became a full-time job for both of them in 1965, a
time that coincided with deepening U.S. military engagement in Vietnam. They focused on counseling conscientious objectors. In 1968, while working as Vietnam Program Coordinator of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Jim and thirteen others, mainly Catholic clergy, broke into nine Milwaukee draft boards, removing and burning some of the files in a nearby park while holding a prayer service. Most members of the "Milwaukee Fourteen" served thirteen months in prison for their action. Jim had a long-term friendship with Thomas Merton. Merton dedicated his book Faith and Violence to him. Jim also accompanied the famed Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh. Jim’s own books include biographies of Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day, Praying with Icons, Ladder of the Beatitudes, The Road to Emmaus: Pilgrimage as a Way of Life, and several children's books, including Saint George and the Dragon and Silent as a Stone: Mother Maria of Paris and the Trash Can Rescue. The 10-day festival is filled with many wonderful opportunities to celebrate the grace-filled life of Thomas Merton. We hope you will attend one or more of the events. Many are free. All are open to the public. Please help spread the word about these many events that promise to introduce many to Thomas Merton and bring inspiration to all of us. For more information— www.thomasmertoncenter.org/ merton-100th or call the Merton Center at 412-361-3022. Joyce Rothermel is a member of the Merton Festival Planning Committee.
SW PA Bread for the World Holds Spring Workshop by Joyce M. Rothermel You can make a differenc for hungry children and families as Congress debates bills on U.S. hunger and poverty in the months ahead. How? Plan to attend Bread for the World workshop on Saturday, March 28 at Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park. There you will learn how to invite others to join you in using your voice to support the reauthorization of the U.S. Child Nutrition Programs. Bread for the World is a national Christian advocacy and education organization with a decade’s long experience in helping congregations voice their concerns to U.S. Congress for those who are hungry and food insecure here and abroad. 14 - NEWPEOPLE
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The new Republican-led Congress will review U.S. child nutrition programs in 2015: breakfast and school lunches; summer food service; the Women, Infants and Children Program (WIC), among others; all of which are key to the nutritional well-being of lowincome families. Bread for the World's goal this year for its Offering of Letters campaign is to make those programs as strong as possible, especially in a low wage economy where wages of the bottom 80% have stagnated for decades. Meanwhile, people returning from incarceration face daunting re-entry challenges, and the families of prisoners often struggle to make ends meet while their loved ones are not available to provide care and income. Hunger is one onerous result of a legal and penal
system that incarcerates millions, disproportionately people of color. Both these issues are on the agenda for this year’s Bread for the World’s Advocacy Training workshop on Saturday, March 28, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 pm at Christ United Methodist Church, 44 Highland Road in Bethel Park, PA. You'll learn about key U.S. programs that can help reduce the risk of hunger, hear stories of real life experiences with hunger, choose breakout sessions to deepen your knowledge, discover resources to help you promote advocacy in your church, organization or campus, and take practical action toward your members of Congress. Registration is free. A tasty box lunch for an $8 suggested donation will be provided. Scholarships are available.
You are encouraged to take part in the entire event, but you are welcome to come only for the morning (on child nutrition issues) or the afternoon (prisoner re-entry/mass incarceration issues), with or without lunch. You can register now. Please indicate whether you want a lunch and your preference for either meat or vegetarian option. Questions and registrations can be taken to Jeanna-Mar Simmons at (412) 835-6621, ext. 109, or jmsimmons@christumc.net. Joyce M. Rothermel is co-convener of the SW PA Bread for the World Team.
Thomas Merton Center Meet Marni Fritz: Newest Activist at the Thomas Merton Center This past summer, having recently graduated from SUNY Geneseo with a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology, I realized that my life was pretty much up-in-the-air. For the first time I had no acceptance letters telling me where to go, no deadlines to meet and no new schedule waiting for me after an allotted time off. Graduate school was decidedly on hold for a minimum of two years and returning to my hometown felt stagnant to me. After researching cities across the United States and taking that right-ofpassage cross-country road trip that young recent graduates dream of, my partner and I moved to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has it all: affordable rent, plenty of space, the “big-city” culture but at no cost to the sense of community one can feel here. More importantly, however, is that we felt as though we could actually get involved in Pittsburgh and that what we did here could have a positive impact. Struggling to find free Wifi in my new neighborhood, I stumbled across a coffee shop a couple of minutes down
by Marni Fritz
the road. Lying on the bottom shelf of a bookcase, right under the
Center that I could get involved with. My main goal for this internship is to gain as much experience as possible in everything the organization has to offer. The Thomas Merton Center has awarded me with every opportunity to learn and grow with the organization. In the short time I have been a part of the TMC, I have worked with Stop Sexual Assault in the Military, the Pittsburgh-Matanzas Photo by Catherine McWilliams Sister Cities register, was a stack of Partnership, Women’s newspapers featuring International League for support for Gaza and the Peace and Freedom, and fight for a livable wage now the NewPeople. for fast-food employees. When presented with Jeremy Scahill also the opportunity to work on gleamed on the front page the NewPeople, I was and, having just watched elated that my experience Dirty Wars, I was amazed had come full circle and that his work was being that I could contribute to a honored. In fact, I was commonwealth of shocked that there, knowledge reporting on beneath the register, was a social justice issues I am newspaper, in print, passionate about. covering the stories I am I am excited to become most passionate about. a contributing member to This is how I learned this paper and for about the Thomas Merton everything in store for me Center. at the Thomas Merton In the beginning of 2015 Center. I began interning after learning that a Youth and Marni Fritz is the newest member of the editorial Advocacy Leadership collective. Program existed at the
Anti-Fracking Concert Slated for May 16 at Mr. Smalls by Mike Stout Brothers, Sisters, and Good Friends! An important benefit concert to help the anti-fracking movement and those who have been harmed by fracking is scheduled for May 16, 2015 from 6 p.m. to midnight at Mr. Small’s in Millvale. (See announcement below.) I will be on the bill along with nationally-known rockers Rusted Root, internationally renowned hip hop artists Kellee Maize and Jasiri X, and the African-American women's group UJAMAA - with a total of 13 bands performing on three stages. This historic event will be the first local pro-environment show that is multi-cultural, featuring multiple musical genres and appealing to all ages and nationalities: Blues, rock, hiphop and folk all under one roof. At the same time, we will have video presentations during the show promoting solar and other renewable energies, as well as a motivational emcee encouraging participants to get involved in our movement to save and protect mother earth. Mr. Small's in Millvale can only fit 800, so tickets will be limited and
probably will sell out quickly, as Rusted Root local concerts typically do. Most of the tickets are for the floor and standing only. Only 60 will be available for the balcony with seating. As long- time community activists and friends of the earth, I am giving Merton Center members an early notice; some balcony or floor tickets can be reserved. You will not want to miss this event. With Earth Day activities on April 22 and a huge Solar Energy Fair on June 20, this event is central to our people's local offensive and to building a local base of support for turning away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. Please email me and let me know how many tickets you would like, or click this link to purchase your own tickets directly: https:// www.ticketfly.com/purchase/ event/779201 Pre-sale general admission (standing only) tickets are $30 each, while presale VIP (seated) tickets are $40. On the day of the show general admission tickets will be $35 and VIP $45.
Making a Difference Someone said once, about a miserly sort, “If he can’t take it with him, he’s not going.” That would be money, of course. All to the good, people are thinking differently about money. It used to be, unless you were Andrew Carnegie, with money falling out of your pockets, you left your house and whatever else there was to your children, or other close relatives. Now we like the example set by Warren Buffett, who said some years back that the right amount to leave to your children is enough that they feel they can do anything, but not so much that they can do nothing. So we can leave some money to our favorite non-profit, “the linchpin of the peace and justice movement in Pittsburgh” as my friend Delsa White calls it, the Thomas Merton Center. We can insure that the young people
By Bette McDevitt
coming of age have that Center, that linchpin, to find the beloved community that we have enjoyed for so many years. It’s easy and painless, if you already have a will, to make an addition to it; it’s called a codicil, and that makes it legal and binding. You can specify, if you would like, the Molly Rush Legacy Fund of the Thomas Merton Center. After all, there would be no Merton Center, no beloved community, were it not for Molly, Larry Kessler, and the few priests, women religious and lay people with foresight, who got the Center up and running. We’re the ones who can keep it going. Bette McDevitt is a member of the editorial collective and has included the Thomas Merton Center in her will.
In Gratitude... In gratitude to the legacy of Fr. Neil McCaulley. Gifts of $5,000 each were received by the Thomas Merton Center, the Association of Pittsburgh Priests, and the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
In Memory…
Dinner. But beyond these official functions at the Center, Marty was a great supporter for peace and social justice in by Michael Drohan the community of Pittsburgh. There rarely was an anti-war demonstration or a rally for racial justice or a campaign for economic justice that he was not seen. He was a true hero at the Center and a model for us all. On a personal note, Marty often regaled me with stories from his life about his ethnic Irish-American heritage. In stories from his father, he told me they spoke of "broad backs," also known as "green-horns," who were first generation immigrants. And then there were "narrow backs", those being Photo by Philomena Odea second generation Irish. The “broad backs” thought of themselves as a suMarty O'Malley from Forest Hills passed away this February in his home. perior strain of strong and tireless laborers who looked down on the second From an apparent had a severe heart attack. He was found dead in his home generation, whom they considered as wimps and weaklings. by friends and family. Marty was a Marty is survived by three daughgreat friend of the Thomas Merton ters: Maureen, Katie and Mary BrenCenter and delivered The New People nan O'Malley and one son Jack. Also to the Forest Hills route right up to his death. He served on the board for sev- survived by a sister Cecilia. The Center extends its sympathy and condolences eral years until 2010. He became the Mayor of Forest Hills in that year and to the family of Marty. he was reelected in 2014 for another Michael Drohan is chair of the term. Members of the Center will remember him especially for his pitch for editorial collective. funds annually at the Merton Award
Your Legacy Continue the work of Molly Rush and all the Merton members. Put the Merton Center in your will. Make sure your life-long commitment to peace will continue. For information on how to continue the work for justice and peace, please contact the Merton Center at (412) 361-3022. March 2015
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Regular Meetings
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“A Half-Century of Struggle and Success: A Civil Rights Retrospective" to commemorate 50 years of the civil rights movement 7:30 p.m. in Alumni Hall, 7th Fl. Auditorium. University of Pittsburgh
Purim starts at sundown
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DHS LGBTQ Community of Practice: Daylight Savings Intimate Partner Violence. begins Location Jazz at Emmanuel TBD.5:30pm – Episcopal 8:00pm Church, North RSVP to Side Shauna.Lucada mo@alleghenyc 1:30-2:20pm ounty.us
Crossroads Conference Wyndham Grand Downtown 8am-5pm
Center for Victims' 10th Christians and annual Peace it Jews: The Together Unfinished Awards Agenda. Celebration. Rodef Shalom Priory Hotel, Congregation 614 Pressley 7:30-9:30pm St . 5:30pm – 8:30pm
Out of Depression and War: Transcendent Hope and Maternal Protection Panza Gallery, 115 Sedgwick St., Millvale 5:30-8:30 pm
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St. Patrick’s Day
Assembling a Diverse Workforce 7pm-9pm The Father Ryan Arts Center
Voices of Freedom ACLU Annual Meeting in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium 7-9pm
7th Annual Inclusive Voices Converse, Listen, Lean. Westin Convention Center Hotel, 11:30 AM 1:30 PM
Marx in Soho, A One-Act Play by Howard Zinn. University of Pittsburgh, Frick Fine Arts Auditorium 7:30-8:30pm
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Monthly meeting of the Urban Green Growth Collaborative Kingsley Association, 6435 Frankstown Ave. 5:30pm – 8:00pm
"Pride!" Film Screening and Discussion. Slippery Rock University, Smith Student Center Theater . 7pm – 10pm
Lived Theology Conference: Share Courageous Faith Transforming Communities at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary 9am-9pm
Lived Theology Conference: Share Courageous Faith Transforming Communities at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary 8:30am-9pm
Women’s History Month National Social Work Month Irish American Heritage Month
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International Women’s Day
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PFLAG (Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays) New Castle's monthly meeting. Patches Place, 217 N. Mill St., New Castle 2:00-4:30PM
Energy Justice Shale Convergence Susquehanna County, PA http:// energyjusticesum mer.org/about-the -convergence/
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World Water Day A day to promote awareness of how water resource development contributes to social well-being, and to advocate for sustainable
management of freshwater
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"The Crisis of College Access for Students of Color" Lecture by Gary Orfield. University of Pittsburgh, 2017 Cathedral of Learning
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Have you registered for the Merton Festival Reception yet? The reception is set for April 20th and will bring together local peacemakers looking to create a more peaceful and just world. Join us and find out how you can get more involved in the work of the Thomas Merton Center. To register—go to www.thomasmertoncenter.org.
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Women of Color Political Westmoreland Lunch Hill County Progressive House at Noon Coalition Happy For tickets: Hour. J. Corks wocpoliticallu 25 East ncheon2015.e Pittsburgh ventbrite.com Street. 4:30pm – 6:30pm
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Palm Sunday Empty Bowls 2015, Just Harvest. Rodef Shalom Congregation 2pm-6pm
Black Political Empowerment Project Hill House Association Second Floor 6pm-7pm
Tracy Chapman’s birthday
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Honor the labor leader who organized migrant farm workers in support of better working conditions. Cesar Chavez was born on this day in 1927 in Yuma, Arizona
Subscribe to The New People by becoming a member of the Thomas Merton Center today! As a member, The New People newspaper will be
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B. 1870, Eugene Humbert
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March 6-13 Shalefield Justice Spring Break
This Stops Today is a Human Rights Defense and Documentation Project Hazelwood YMCA
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14 Project to End Human Trafficking (PEHT) Volunteer Signup . Carlow University, Antonian Room # 502
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mailed to your home or sent to your email account. You will also receive weekly e-blasts focusing on peace and justice events in Pittsburgh, and special invitations to membership activities. Now is the time to stand for peace and justice!
____$15 Low Income Membership ____$15 Youth / Student Membership ____$25 Introductory / Lapsed Membership ____$50 Individual Membership ____$100 Family Membership ____$500+ Cornerstone Sustainer Membership ____Donation $____________________________
***2015 Offer-Introductory or Lapsed membership available for $25 for the first year!
Or Become an Organizational Member:
Join online at www.thomasmertoncenter.org/ join-donate or fill out this form, cut out, and mail in. 16 - NEWPEOPLE
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____$75 Organization (below 25 members) ____$125 Organization (above 25 members) ___ Check here if this is a gift membership.
Sundays:
Book’Em: Books to Prisoners Project First three Sundays of the month at TMC, 4-6pm Contact: bookempgh@gmail.com 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 2101 Murray Avenue, Squirrel Hill 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
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: 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:
The Thomas Merton Center membership committee has set the goal of recruiting 1000 members in 2015. To date, approximately 150 people have renewed their membership or joined anew. This year, new members have the opportunity to join at a special introductory rate of $25. (Regular membership is $50 a year.) Select your membership level:
March 2015
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: 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) 361-3022 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.