Thomas Merton Center Pittsburgh’s Peace and Social Justice Center
PITTSBURGH’S PEACE & JUSTICE NEWSPAPER VOL. 45 No. 5 May 2015
Merton Festival Is Celebrated in Pittsburgh By Carol Gonzalez and Joyce Rothermel
After months in the planning, this year’s Pittsburgh celebration of the 100th anniversary of Thomas Merton’s birth continued with the Merton Festival, April 16-26. Kicking off at the Kearns Spirituality Center with the showing of the film, “We Are All Immigrants”, those who gathered made the connection of Merton’s realization of his love for all people, including the stranger, with the current welcoming of immigrants into the Pittsburgh area. “The whole idea of compassion,” Merton writes, “is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all living beings...all a part of one another.” Hosted by the PATH to Justice Committee of the Sisters Leadership Conference, the film viewing was followed by a discussion led by Sr. Janice Vanderneck, who heads Casa San Jose, a non-profit organization serving immigrants in the Pittsburgh area. On Friday, April 17, a poetry reading of the works of Thomas Merton and Dennis Brutus was enjoyed by a capacity audience at the East End Book Exchange. Organized by Paola Corso, the event began with brief but illuminating biographies of Thomas Merton and Dennis Brutus presented by Rev. Will Lambaugh and Kenneth Miller, respectively.
Carol Gonzalez read Merton poems, and the evening also featured the poetry of the poetreaders: Sheila Carter Jones, Bonita Penn, Mike Schneider, and Philip Terman. Molly Rush, co-founder of the Merton Center, was the featured speaker at the Jain Hindu Temple in Monroeville on Saturday, April 18. In addition to an overview of the beginnings of the Merton Center and its naming, Molly shared some of Merton’s writings about Gandhi and non-violence, with a focus on Merton’s final travels to Asia drawn from Merton’s Asian Journal. Sunday, April 19 featured April 20th Thomas Merton Reception. Photo Credit: Carol Gonzalez two events, starting with Carol Gonzalez leading a Merton and Rabbi Heschel at the Tree of Life Synawell- attended adult forum, “Praying with Merton: gogue in Squirrel Hill in the afternoon. The afterAwakening to Action” at Calvary Episcopal Church noon event --which offered a unique exploration of in the morning; followed by a panel presentation on these two complex, controversial contemplatives--
April 15: A Day of Action
(Continued on page 3…)
In this issue…
By Marni Fritz
The other 45% is divided amongst soAdjuncts Fight for a Living Wage pg. 4 cial programs such as education, healthcare, housing, food & agriculture, mass transportation and infraMusicians Support Fracking Victims - pg. 8 structure giving each one only a very small percentage of the budget. Seven buckets were set up representing proFrom Marches to Measurables - pg. 10 grams such as the military, healthcare, veteran support, housing, education, mass transit, and food. Local people Recognizing Local Activists pg. 14 walking by were asked to take ten pennies representing the budget and allocate those pennies to their area of choice. It was funded, agricultural programs and small-scale no surprise that military came in dead last. Edu- farmers continue to suffer while major corporations cation and healthcare were the programs people are the ones who benefit. A woman who teaches at chose to support the most but are, unfortunately, CMU found frustrating that the funding for experionly receiving a fraction of the money we pay ments within the University comes from the miliwith our income taxes. The federal budget does tary; she does not want to support gross military not represent the will of the people. spending but, on the other hand, does want to supCommunity engagement was at a high dur- port and promote research in the sciences. Pouring ing the Tax Day Rally. Many people enthusias- money into a broken education system is also probtically thanked those who were handing out fly- lematic and that money needs to go into revitalizing ers for bringing awareness to an issue that truly the system that is in place. The whole system is enrages them. The Raging Grannies came out to broken and we will not be able to fix it if we sit sing protest songs, livening up the street corner idly by as the government continuously pours our with their colorful hats and exciting tunes. money into military engagements abroad. Many community members expressed their Later in the day, around 4pm, the people of frustration while taking part in the penny poll, Pittsburgh took to the streets. Hundreds came out to exposing a lot of the nuances in the federal support the national Fight For $15 day of protest. budget. For example, when food programs are Beginning at the Cathe(Continued on page 9) Fight for $15 March on Forbes. Photo Credit: Marni Fritz
On April 15th Pittsburgh’s people were asked to hit the streets and show that they would not sit idly by while the government and corporations exploit their labor and their tax dollars. The people of Pittsburgh delivered. At noon the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the American Friends Service Committee and the Raging Grannies held their Annual Tax Day Rally and Penny Poll next to the Squirrel Hill Post Office. Flyers were handed out showing the US Federal Budget for the 2016 fiscal year, which allocates 55% to military spending.
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May 2015
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The NewPeople Editorial Collective Paola Corso, Neil Cosgrove, Ginny Cunningham, Michael Drohan, Russ Fedorka, Bette McDevitt, Diane McMahon, Anupama Pain, Joyce Rothermel, Molly Rush, Jo Tavener, & Scilla Wahrhaftig.
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Table of Contents
Page 1 Merton Festival is Celebrated in Pittsburgh April 15: A Day of Action Page3 Photos From Merton Festival Merton Festival is Celebrated in Pittsburgh cont. Page 4 RMU Adjuncts Vote for a "Just Wage" Is Duquesne University Religiously Exempt from Bargaining with Faculty? Page 5 2015 Elections Calendar Restoring Religious Freedom or Promoting an Anti-Gay Agenda? Cartoon by Russ Fedorka Page 6 Not a Drop to Spare Governor proposes increase in food allocation Circle of Faith Can Pittsburgh become a CEDAW city? Page 7 2 - NEWPEOPLE
May 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
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
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 Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance 412-512-1709
Pittsburgh Campaign for Democracy NOW! 412-422-5377, sleator@cs.cmu.edu www.pcdn.org
Citizens for Social Responsibility of Greater Johnstown Larry Blalock, evolve@atlanticbb.net Global Solutions Pittsburgh 412-471-7852 dan@globalsolutionspgh.org www.globalsolutionspgh.org North Hills Anti-Racism Coalition 412-369-3961 www.northhillscoalition.com PA United for Single-Payer Health Care www.healthcare4allPA.org www.PUSH-HC4allPa.blogspot.com 412-421-4242 Pittsburgh Area Pax Christi 412-761-4319 Pittsburgh Cuba Coalition 412-303-1247 lisacubasi@aol.com Pittsburgh North People for Peace 412-367-0383 pnpp@verizon.net www.NorthPgh.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 Joyce Rothermel 412-780-5118
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
Who’s Your Brother? 412-328-2301 support@whosyourbrother.com
Amnesty International info@amnestypgh.org - www.amnestypgh.org
www.ceasefirepa.org—info@ceasefirepa.org
Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens Group 724-837-0540 lfpochet@verizon.net
For more information: Call 412-361-3022 or email newpeople@thomasmertoncenter.org.
TMC Projects
Transform Now Plowshares US Middle East Policy and the Yemen Page 8 Musicians Unite To Support Victims of Fracking Local Poet Wins Prestigious Poetry Award Page 9 International Women’s Organization Celebrates 100 Years of Peace Building PDEC Luncheon Will Keep Focus On Sudan Crises Page 10 PIIN Moves from Marches to Measurables April 15: A Day of Action cont’d Bread for the World 2015 Focus: Federal Child Nutrition Programs Page 11 Keeping the Public in Public Transit Ongoing Activism by the Antiwar Committee May Day Call To Action from the National Garment Workers Federation of Bangladesh
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
Page 12 Perlstein's Reagan: Does His Rhetoric Retain Its Broad Appeal? Teens Serving Life in Prison: A Book Review Page 13 In Memory of Joe Hughes From James to Ulysses: The significance of a rededication of Grant Street O Sweet Irrational Worship 2015 Merton Award Winner Announced Page 14 A Prophet in Our Time Activist Never Retires: Toni McClendon Page 15 Merton and Camus In Memory of Lincoln and Wilma Wolfenstein Archbishop Oscar Romero to Be Remembered
Merton Festival Highlights
Carol Gonzalez Speaks at Praying With Merton: Awakening to Action at Calvary Episcopal. Photo Credit: Carol Gonzalez
Stained-glass Peace Award, made by Anne Kuhn, given to Jim Forest. Photo Credit: Marni Fritz
Sr. Georgine Scarpino speaks at the event “Thomas Merton and Rabbi Abraham Heschel” at the Tree of Life Synagogue. Photo Credit: Carol Gonzalez Kenneth Miller greets those gathered at our poetry reading night at the East End Book Exchange. Photo Credit: Carol Gonzalez
Molly Rush Speaks at the Jain Hindu Temple about Merton, Gandhi, and Asia. Photo Credit: Carol Gonzalez
Merton Festival Is Celebrated in Pittsburgh cont’d was hosted by the Pittsburgh Area Jewish Committee and facilitated by its executive Director, Karen Hochberg. A highlight of the entire festival came on Monday evening, April 20. With a reception at Station Square, the Thomas Merton Center welcomed approximately two hundred fifty people to a presentation by Jim Forest (via skype) entitled, “Thomas Merton’s Advice to Peacemakers.” The talk can be found on the Merton Center website and each guest received a copy of Forest’s booklet, “Thomas Merton’s Struggle with Peacemaking.” A stained-glass peace award created by Merton Center board member, Anne Kuhn, was given to Jim, who was sincerely surprised by the recognition. The event drew many long-time Merton Center members as well as new friends, with an opportunity for engaged Q & A dialogue with Jim Forest and one another! As we go to press, the remaining eight festival events from April 21 – 26 are yet to come. We will report on them in the June issue. Speakers on Thomas Merton, Thomas Merton books, and DVD’s are 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,” explained Diane McMahon, Managing Director of the Merton Center. Stay tuned for a special wrap-up event later this year, on or close to the anniversary of Merton’s death December 10. Other events this year hosted outside of Pittsburgh include: “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 this site http://merton.org/2015/
Participants at the kick-off Merton event discuss the film “We are All Immigrants” at the Kearns Spirituality Center. Photo Credit: Carol Gonzalez
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. The retreat will seek to cultivate a creativity of spirit through art, silence, prayer and dialogue. Cost is $175 and includes the program, lodging, meals from a pizza supper on Friday to lunch on Sunday. Registration is due by July 22 and can be made on line at www.vmesc.orgor 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 is due by October 15, 2015 processed online at www.vmesc.org or by calling 724-9648886. We welcome comments or articles from participants in these many events about how Thomas Merton has inspired you and/or what the Thomas Merton Center means to you. Send your comments or articles to newpeople@thomasmertoncenter.org Carol Gonzalez and Joyce Rothermel are members of the Thomas Merton 100th Anniversary Committee. May 2015 NEWPEOPLE - 3
Faculty Adjuncts: Fighting for a Living Wage RMU Adjuncts Join National Movement for a "Just Wage" By Neil Cosgrove
By a two-to-one margin, adjunct faculty members at Robert Morris University voted in March to unionize as part of the Adjunct Faculty Association -United Steelworkers (AFA-USW). It was the latest success in the USW’s campaign to organize temporary and part-time college teachers throughout the region. The election follows similarly successful efforts at Point Park and Duquesne universities. “We continue to organize at the other schools in the area,” reported Robin Sowards, an organizer for the USW as well as an adjunct faculty member at Duquesne and Chatham universities, “though none of our other organizing committees are prepared to make their campaigns public at this time.” Sowards says bargaining with Point Park has been “amicable and productive” so far, but the Duquesne administration has refused to bargain, claiming that its core religious mission conflicts with what would be required by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). (See accompanying article.) Duquesne tried to get the NLRB in Washington to reverse a decision by its regional office denying its request for a religious exemption. Instead, the NLRB ordered that a hearing on the matter take place at the regional office. The hearing began April 27 and the AFA-USW fully expects a final ruling in its favor. Adjunct faculty have often been characterized as the “fast food workers” of American universities and colleges, commonly employed as they are without benefits, on a semester-to-semester basis, while being paid by the course. That pay is shocking even by fast-food standards. Median per-course pay nationally is $2700, and the salary at Robert Morris is $2400, according to the USW. Teaching
the maximum load of three courses per-semester allowed by the university adds up to an annual income of $14,400. Few adjuncts can survive on such an income, and will teach many more courses a semester at multiple institutions, one good reason why the USW has chosen to organize such faculty regionally. “I work at more than one college in order to make a living,” writes Jim Talerico, who teaches at both Robert Morris and the Community College of Allegheny County. “Some semesters I have taught up to eight classes. Even at an average of six courses a semester, when you factor in the prep time and grading of papers, most adjuncts work at least 60 hours a week, which equals $2 an hour.” In a recent New Yorker article, Carmen Maria Machado estimated that “adjuncts constitute more than forty per cent of all instructors at American colleges and universities.” In other words, nearly half of the faculty at institutions with everincreasing tuition rates make the poverty-level wages described above, have no job security or the kind of continuity that allows for consistent advisement and mentoring of students, or even, in many cases, any office space. Many people, encouraged by a “rhetoric of envy” nurtured by politicians for decades, still find it hard to sympathize with adjunct faculty, whose advanced degrees and dedication to subjects like English writing and literature or German philosophy are merely seen as the poor career choices of an otherwise privileged class. The critical bystanders forget that such courses are often the same ones taught by the narrowing majority of job-secure faculty, courses commonly but sometimes belatedly appreciated by the students who have experienced them, courses still regarded as the core of a higher education, courses that provide skills students may only discover they needed after graduation and in
the midst of their careers. Faculty with job security sometimes refuse to include adjunct faculty in their own bargaining units, oblivious to the reality that their low-paid colleagues are an incentive for administrators to keep eliminating tenure-track positions and to hire still more adjuncts. Corporations and colleges, politicians and managers, have used such parochialism over and over again to put the American labor movement in the dire straits in which it finds itself today. To reverse that onerous trend, Kim Phillips-Fein recently wrote in The Atlantic Monthly, unions must “counter the widespread perception… that they are protecting their own wages and comfort at the expense of others.” Members of unions must see that their common fate lies with those they did not see themselves representing in the past. Tenured faculty must be in solidarity with adjuncts and teaching graduate students, who have also struggled to organize. Union members generally must be in solidarity with non-unionized workers in the socalled “service economy.” The USW, the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) and the CWA (Newspaper Guild/Communications Workers) are longstanding unions that recognize what solidarity means and are organizing adjunct faculty across the country. In turn, “you will find AFA members present at many Fight for 15 rallies and strikes, and similarly supporting casino workers, health care workers, postal workers,” says Robin Sowards. “We believe that all workers have a right to a just wage.” Neil Cosgrove is a member of The NewPeople editorial collective and previously served as an officer for the Slippery Rock University local of the Association of Pennsylvania College and University Faculty (APSCUF).
Is Duquesne University Religiously Exempt from Bargaining with Faculty? By Neil Cosgrove
In refusing to bargain with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)-recognized Duquesne University (DU) chapter of the Adjunct Faculty Association-United Steelworkers (AFA-USW), the DU administration claims that doing so would “risk bargaining away the core tenets of our [religious] mission,” as President Charles Dougherty put it in a letter posted on the university’s website. Is Dougherty’s argument expressing a legitimate matter of conscience? Or is the university simply delaying bargaining with its adjuncts in the hope the union will become discouraged and disband? The inconsistent and clearly disingenuous set of tactics employed by DU so far would suggest the latter. Unions bargaining with Catholic educational institutions consistently point to the church’s social teaching as a key “tenet” of the faith, a tenet DU and a few other universities (Seattle, St. Xavier, and Manhattan College) disregard by refusing to bargain with faculty unions. “All church institutions must fully recognize the rights of employees to organize and bargain collectively with the institution through whatever association or organization they freely choose,” American bishops bluntly stated in a 1986 pastoral letter entitled “Economic Justice for All.” In fact, a narrow 1979 Supreme Court ruling exempted teachers in “parochial schools” from coverage by the 1935 National Labor Relations Act. It is problematic to consider Catholic universities “parochial,” since they also have a “mission” to “permit a level of free inquiry not suitable to elementary or secondary education,” as a recent article in America put it.
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Moreover, many parish and diocesan schools throughout America have taken seriously the bishops’ admonition that “all the moral principles that govern the just operation of any economic endeavor apply to the church and its agencies and institutions” and chosen to bargain with faculty unions outside the framework of the NLRB. The Pittsburgh Diocese itself signed a five-year contract in April, 2014 with the Federation of Pittsburgh Diocesan Teachers, covering pay, benefits and working conditions for lay teachers in eight diocesan high schools. The contract does contain a clause that gives the bishop the “prerogative to dismiss a teacher for public immorality, public scandal or public rejection” of church teachings, a clause that wouldn’t be permissible under NLRB guidelines. According to Robin Sowards, a Duquesne University adjunct faculty member and USW organizer, “over the last few years we have repeatedly renewed our request to bargain outside the NLRB framework, both orally and in writing, since our first such request … in May of 2012. … Their [the DU administration’s] current stated position is that they are opposed both to NLRB jurisdiction and to adjunct faculty having union representation outside NLRB jurisdiction.” Inconsistent positions and delaying tactics have been DU’s pattern since the first attempts to organize its adjunct faculty. “Duquesne was initially receptive and quickly agreed to terms and conditions for a secret ballot election to be held under the auspices of the region’s National Labor Relations Board office,” writes Clayton Sinai in America. But when the adjunct faculty voted 50-to-9 for a union, the university became recalcitrant. The AFA
-USW sees the university’s decision to raise adjuncts’ pay in fall, 2015 to $4,000 per three-credit course as a result of union pressure, but that raise can also be seen as one more attempt to induce faculty to forget about collective bargaining. In the meantime, the union fully expects the NLRB hearings on the DU case, beginning on April 27, to end with a ruling in its favor. “They [DU administrators] have said to groups of faculty that they expect to lose their legal challenges,” says Sowards, “so my speculation would be that their strategy is to delay in the hope that we will give up—which, of course, we won’t.” Neil Cosgrove is a member of The NewPeople editorial collective and previously served as an officer for the Slippery Rock University local of the Association of Pennsylvania College and University Faculty (APSCUF).
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Freedom for All
Comic by Russ Fedorka.
Restoring Religious Freedom or Promoting an Anti-Gay Agenda? By anupama jain
There has been national debate over the last few months about the implications of recent Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRAs) that specify protections for people acting upon religious convictions. Versions of such laws are being championed in such states as Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina, and Texas. The passage into law this March of Indiana’s RFRA, Senate Bill 101, inspired fairly swift collective action and reaction from proponents and critics of the legislation. Republican Governor Mike Pence argued that the law simply protects freedom by ensuring the right to deny services to others based on one’s religious views. Despite Pence’s repeated denials, however, many interpret the bill as a covert mechanism for businesses to willfully and without consequence discriminate against individuals toward whom they have personal biases. As reported in The Guardian on April 2, in other states proposing RFRAs, possible inspirations for the laws have included control of women’s reproductive rights, but the discussion in Indiana has tended to focus on potential discrimination against LGBTQ communities. Because its RFRA followed soon after same-sex marriage became the law in Indiana, critics imagine scenarios in which discrimination against gay couples becomes permissible and even legally enforceable. Such a possibility seemingly played out in the case of an Indiana business, Memories Pizza, when it refused to cater a gay wedding. Concerned that, especially in those counties in
Indiana without human rights ordinances, targets of such discrimination would have no legal protection or recourse, critics in the state and throughout the country rallied behind changes to the Indiana law. In addition to objections from corporations such as Salesforce and Angie’s List, opponents of the Indiana RFRA represent an unexpected coalition, as reported by Tony Norman for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on April 3. Protestors included state officials fearing the loss of tourist revenue if the state does not maintain its reputation for “Hoosier hospitality,” Christian religious groups dissociating themselves from the law’s perceived homophobia, and professional athletes, health care industry leaders, entertainers, as well as prominent Republicans like former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Some people laud what the Society for Human Resources Management calls a “legislative fix” to Indiana’s Senate Bill 101, made in early April, that explicitly protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender. However, there are a number of questions that remain about how laws such as RFRAs can as easily be used as weapons of discrimination as they can be tools for protecting Americans from unfair or biased treatment. Much of the debate about the Indiana RFRA is based on assumptions about the intentions of its supporters, because Senate Bill 101 does not address specific cases in which “religious freedom” might be at risk. Instead, it is based upon the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which followed several high profile cases of minority religions seemingly being persecuted and was therefore viewed by many as a positive protection very much in the American grain. As with the federal law, the state’s legislation generally prohibits “a governmental entity from substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion.”
Despite this similarity to the federal Act, critics of Indiana’s RFRA (and those being proposed in other states) argue that they are reactive measures that invoke the tenets of religious freedom but actually sanction intolerance. Senate Bill 101 has been interpreted by so many as directed against same-sex couples because Pence has a history of objecting to gay rights, as reported by The Advocate, the Huffington Post, Business Insider, and many others. His arguments against equal protection for gay Americans have invoked particular types of family values and the concept of “natural marriage,” justifying discrimination based on religious beliefs that are not necessarily shared by others in the country. State RFRAs in the contemporary political and cultural climate in the United States are considered by many to be ironically named because the intent seems to be discrimination rather than freedom. As with many polarizing issues in American public discourse, RFRAs are potential test cases for the presidential hopefuls whose campaigns are starting to take shape right now. While it seems that, as Norman concludes, “democracy worked, this time around” because Governor Pence changed the legislation when criticism mounted, it is clear that discrimination and intolerance in relation to religion continue to be major political challenges in the United States, despite that other major tenet of our law— separation of church and state. All Americans need to ask ourselves how RFRAs or similar legislation can effectively be used to counter discrimination rather than subverted for other ends. 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.
May 2015
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Safe, Plentiful Food and Water Not a Drop to Spare By Marni Fritz
Access to safe and clean drinking water, the convenience and safety of our sanitation system (ie toilets, sinks, waste management) and the accessibility of bathing are luxuries that most U.S. citizens take for granted. However, problems with water are beginning to pop up all across the country: 24,000 face threats of water shutoffs in Baltimore, 150,000 residences were denied access to water in Detroit this past year, and California is restricting water access throughout the state in direct response to a persistent drought while Nestle continues to bottle and sell drinkable water off to California agricultural land-owners. According to the United Nations, over 40% of people worldwide are affected by water scarcity and an estimated 1.8 billion people will be living in areas of extreme water scarcity by 2025. Access to safe water incorporates both drinking water and water for hygiene practices, which includes medical safety, menstrual hygiene and the ability to access proper bathroom facilities. Various nonprofits and NGOs are working on this issue, but the intentions of such organizations claiming to be invested in community development prove false. Even if their intentions are good, how will their methods influence and finance an entire planet of people who are in need of access to clean water? One organization, however, WaterAid, supports a sustainable model of water access and educational programs by challenging the imperialistic nature of many global development programs. WaterAid uses area-specific programs that work directly with people who live in the areas of focus to implement sustainable programs. Robyn Fischer, Policy & Advocacy Officer for WaterAid, states that “Its not our job to go in and fix it. It is our job to understand what need is there and how we can help.” This is an appropriate and refreshing take on global development and global aid. WaterAid will not set up a program in a region without ensuring that there is a solid local partner to implement these changes into a permanent way of life. The organization assesses the needs of a particular area and creates a model based on those needs. For example, in Nicaragua, there is an abundance of surface water
Circle of Faith
but that water is not clean. Water Aid advocates for the development of wells with hand pumps as well as rain-water harvesting methods. Hygiene programs that WaterAid implement and support vary from region-to-region. This year the focus is on menstrual health while also emphasizing the set-up of hand-washing stations, and educational programs covering health benefits of strong hygiene practices. Fischer admits that menstrual hygiene management is a difficult topic to discuss worldwide and nationally, but extremely important all the same. There are several cultures where women cannot attend school during menstruation due to lack of hygiene resources and disposals as well as social constructs of shame and embarrassment, which come from lack of education/information. WaterAid strives to create places for women and girls to access water and to distribute hygiene products. One of the main challenges facing this organization is the permanence of these various projects. “Generally people will return to the same source they are familiar with even with access to technology” says Fisher, “Behavior change does not occur overnight.” Which is why working with local people is so important. Given the increasing threat of water privatization globally and in this country, water management can be taken back into the control of the every-day citizens. Using the model WaterAid has laid out with various technologies, the average person can access their own water and manage their own waste on a small-scale. Technology/practice that can be implemented and useful to communities experiencing water crisis include: rainwater harvesting jars which can provide up to 300 gallons of filtered rainwater per jar, a rope pump well built from recycled parts, a composting latrine creating safe and fertile compost from human waste, and “the Gulper” which is a small hand pump used to remove waste from latrine pits in dense urban areas without a sewage system. With the recent water crises, we are reminded, yet again, how imperative it is that we switch to a sustainable model of living. Marni Fritz is a member of the NewPeople Editorial Collective.
May 2015
Since the early 1980’s, Pennsylvania has been one of a handful of states that have included funding for the purchase of food for families in need. The program became law in the 1990’s and is called the State Food Purchase Program. Funding is allocated to each county. Many counties, like Allegheny County, contract with a Food Bank that works with a network of pantry and food providers to get food to those in need. The first state-wide allocation in the 1980’s was for $8 million and came when our region was suffering from the decline in the steel industry. Over the years, the program has grown, especially during economic downturns. Its current level is at $17,438,000. This hardly accounts for inflation and food prices have risen, thus diminishing the overall amount of food available to those in need. Governor Tom Wolf has proposed an increase of $2.9 million for 2015-16 to expand the distribution of food to families and individuals. This would be a welcome increase and one that PA Food Banks have sought for several years under a number of administrations. Now it is time for the Legislature to consider the various recommendations in the Governor’s budget and pass a budget by June 30. Readers of The NewPeople are encouraged to contact their PA Representatives and Senators to ask them to support this needed increase to the State Food Purchase Program for 2015-16 (from $17.4 to $20.3 million). As usual, there is great competition for state funds. Please help by raising your voice on behalf of those who struggle with food insecurity here in our Commonwealth.
Can Pittsburgh become a CEDAW city? By Marcia Bandes
The UN Convention on the Elimination of All By Dixie Tymitz Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Trying to find a place of worship Adopted by the UN in 1979, this is the only internawhere you feel welcomed, wanted, and tional human rights treaty to focus exclusively on the accepted for who you are without any rights of women. pretense? Having difficulty in finding As the Women’s International League for Peace and that place? Then the next meeting of the Freedom (WILPF) prepares to celebrate its 100th anniCircle of Faith Pittsburgh is for you. versary, the Pittsburgh affiliate is exploring the possiEvery year there is a get-together bility of spearheading something very local. Pulling where the emphasis is on inclusion and a welcoming spirit for ALL people of faith. together a coalition of organizations and City representatives to make Pittsburgh a CEDAW city. What exThis is a public witness to welcome and actly is CEDAW and what is a CEDAW city? includes LGBTQIA persons, their fami“CEDAW is a landmark international agreement lies and allies, by varied faith communithat affirms principles of fundamental human rights ties, who believe God's love is inclusive and equality for women around the world. Recognizing and all are welcome in the "family circle" that their faith communities offer. that women’s rights are human rights, it seeks to end There will be people from various sex trafficking and violence against women, prohibit churches, synagogues, and temples who forced marriage and child marriage, expand girls’ acpractice this belief, and you can see for cess to education, ensure women’s right to vote, help yourself, perhaps talking with some peo- families by fighting maternal mortality, and end workple. place discrimination against women. By providing a This year the Circle of Faith takes practical blueprint for achieving progress for women place on Sunday, June 7th at 2 pm. and girls, it has helped millions of women around the There will be music, three speakers (VERY short talks) information, and fun! world. CEDAW has been ratified by 187 of 194 UN memPlace: Schenley Plaza at the tent. Come ber states. The United States is the only industrialized and join us! For more information call nation that has failed to ratify it. There have been two (412) 450-0114. attempts to ratify the Treaty. However, there were Dixie Tymitz is a member of Circle of Senators who wanted it ratified with family planning Faith. qualifications. CEDAW was never brought to the Senate floor. Since then there have also been two subcommittee hearings on CEDAW. 6 - NEWPEOPLE
Governor Proposes a Budgetary $2.9 Million Increase in Food Allocation for Needy Pennsylvanians By Joyce Rothermel
In 2010, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, chaired by Senator Durbin (D -IL), held a hearing on CEDAW. WILPF took a strong position in support of CEDAW. As part of a coalition of 118 organizations, they submitted joint testimony to members of the subcommittee in support of the Treaty. In 2011, the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee, chaired by Senators Boxer (D-CA) and Casey (DPA), held a hearing on Women and the Arab Spring, which highlighted how CEDAW has been used in the Middle East and North Africa to advance equality for women and girls. And then in January 2013 WILPF joined 105 other organizations to write to the members of the Senate to urge them to make ratification of the CEDAW a priority for the United States Senate. Although there is still optimism that the US will someday ratify CEDAW many organizations have concluded that a more grassroots approach is needed. Thus, the Cities for CEDAW Campaign was launched at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in March 2014. Several US cities, starting with San Francisco, had already implemented a CEDAW ordinance and others have taken up the challenge. The most recent success story is Louisville, KY. So why not Pittsburgh? In March 2011, Pittsburgh proclaimed itself a Human Rights City (the 5th in the US). Could a Pittsburgh ordinance supporting CEDAW be the next logical step? Marcia Bandes is a member of the Thomas Merton Center and WILPF
Working For Peace
Transform Now Plowshares In the March 9th issue of the New Yorker, Eric Schlosser extensively covered the July 28, 2012 break in at a uranium storage facility, discussed the history of the Plowshare movement, and exposed the vulnerable state of US nuclear weapon storage in his article “Break-In At Y-12.” The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee began as part of the Manhattan project, producing the uranium used to decimate Hiroshima, and now stores weapons-grade uranium. Sprawling across the breadbasket of the U.S. are similar nuclear facilities, known as Minuteman complexes, scattered among farms and residences. Schlosser himself inspects several of these facilities, taking pictures and inspecting fences without being noticed by authorities, and describes how easy it would be to not only break through the gates, but to allow “a van, a backhoe, or a tractortrailer onto the complex.” He describes the incredible sight of a “windowless White Castle” surrounding one seemingly impenetrable site.. In the spirit of the Plowshare Eight, Gregory Boertje-Obed, Michael Walli, and Sr. Megan Rice, three Christian pacifists in the tradition of Dorothy Day, broke into Y-12 and thus exposed the security weaknesses at these sites. The Plowshares Eight’s first action in 1980 involved breaking into a GE nuclear-warhead plant and taking hammers to two missile nose cones, with the hope of exposing the threat of nuclear weapons to mass culture. After the eight were sentenced to prison, hundreds of break-ins emulating the original protest began popping up. Encouraged by Philip Berrigan, one of the original eight, activists wrote messages in their own blood across facility walls. Schlosser describes the performative aspect of these break-ins from the morbid to the absurd. While spilling blood all over the floor, the activists sang songs, screamed “Happy Thanksgiving” to the base switchboard and simply wandered around, prepared for their inevitable arrest in order to expose just how easy it was for these people to break into such high-security arenas and remain undetected. Father Kabat, a particularly interesting member of the Plowshare Eight, led a life of cyclical incarceration: he would break in, get sent to jail, get let out, break in again but this time wear-
By Marni Fritz
ing a clown outfit, and get sent to jail again, over and over. With extensive planning by twelve behind-the-scenes team members and the help of Google Maps, Transform Now Plowshares (Rice, Walli and Boertje-Obed) broke through the gates and entered Y-12. Once inside, the team of three began to spray paint and write messages in blood saying: “WORK FOR PEACE NOT WAR” and “WOE TO THE EMPIRE OF BLOOD.” They began hammering away at one storage building, breaking chunks out of the walls, and crime-scene tape was posted along the walls. Once finished, The Plowshare eight: (Back) Father Carl Kabat, Elmer Maas, Phillip Berrigan, the team sang religious songs Father Daniel Berrigan, John Schuchardt. (Front) Molly Rush, Anne for a half an hour, until they Montgomery Dean Hammer. Photo Credit: Liane Norman were eventually noticed by a patrol car while singing “This Little Light of middle-class North Americans that we can really Mine.” It was discovered later that five of the cam- be with the poor,” which highlights pervasive class era’s surveilling the perimeter of Y-12 were out of separation and the mass-incarceration of lowcommission and the security officer on duty missed income citizens. the incriminating shot of a person climbing through In the Y-12 trial, the defendants were not althe fence. Alarms went off and were ignored due to lowed to use anti-nuclear arguments, morality, inhundreds of false alarms each month occurring at ternational law or religious discourse to defend the site.. Investigation proved that the security themselves, as authorities attempted to subdue guards at the facility were caught cheating on their mass exposure to such progressive ideals. More performance tests, a scandal not isolated to this specifically, the defendants were denied use of the complex. necessity clause, which states that a person is innoSchlosser interviews Liz McAllister, Sister cent if a crime has been committed to prevent a Areth Platte, and Sister Carol Gilbert in Jonah greater harm, thus removing their one viable deHouse, a communal living environment on the fense. Sister Megan Rice, at the age of 84, was senground of a Baltimore cemetery. Adopting a rever- tenced to three years in prison while Wallie and ential tone, Schlosser describes the life’s work of Bortje-Obed were sentenced to five. Conclusively, these three women, their dedication to the anti-war however, the team exposed potential major global movement and their journey with the Plowshares. and national security threats and forced the governTheir accounts of their imprisonment were empow- ment to rectify these issues due to the public attenering and light-hearted; their time spent with Mar- tion this case received. Job well done. tha Stewart counterbalanced by scenes of clogged Marni Fritz is a member of the NewPeople toilets and vermin. Touching upon another major Editorial Collective issue in the U.S. is Sister Carol’s sobering admission that her time is prison is “the closest as white,
US Middle East Policy and the Yemen Yemen, now being torn apart by factions and sects aided and abetted by the US, Saudi Arabia, Iran and most of the reactionary dictatorial regimes in the Middle East, is the poorest country in the Middle East. All of the countries just mentioned except Iran are united in their determination to destroy the so -called Houthis, who have taken over control of most of the country in the past six months. The reason for the anti -Houthi invasion of Yemen is their alleged alliance with Iran, and is thus a war by proxy being fought with the lives of a poor benighted people. The conflict is brimming with contradictions since the principal opponents of the Houthis in the Yemen are Al Qaeda and ISIS affiliates. Consequently, the US and Saudi Arabia are allies of their sworn enemy in the region, namely the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. In order to get some handle on the situation in Yemen, a little historical background is necessary. The Houthis are named for a man named Hussein Badreddin al Houthi from the northwestern governorate of the Yemen called Sa’dah, who was killed on December 10, 2004 by the Yemeni army of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The people in this region of the Yemen, who became known as the “Houthis,”
belong to the Zaydi sect of Islam, which in many respects is similar to Sunni Islam except that it believes in an Imamate. Its adherents are hostile to Wahhabism and Salafism, which is of Saudi Arabian origin and the ideological basis of Al Qaeda, as we know it from Osama bin Laden, and also of ISIS. Houthi origins go back to 1992, when a movement called Believing Youth (BY) was formed in that part of the Yemen as a kind of reforming sect of Islam. There is some dispute as to whether Hussein al Houthi had a part in its foundation. Eventually the BY movement adopted an ideological and political agenda. It became concerned with corruption and reform in the government. Opposition to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a corrupt leader of the country, became part of its identity and in recent years Saleh waged six wars against the movement. Although the principal agenda of the Houthis is internal reform in the Yemen, it has also developed an anti-imperialist platform with intense opposition to US intervention in the region and to the State of Israel. Some of its adherents believe that 9/11 was a US-Zionist conspiracy and a pretext on which to wage war against Islam. What is called the Yemeni Rebel-
lion, also named the Houthi Rebellion, took place in June 2004 in the governorate of Sa’ada under the leadership of Hussein al Houthi. President Saleh attacked the rebels, claiming that they wanted to overthrow the central government. The Saudis joined the fray in 2009, asserting that the Houthis were practicing aggression in Saudi territory. Despite the six different wars conducted by the Sana’a government on the Houthis they went from strength to strength, eventually reaching the capital, Sana’a itself, in September 2014. On January 15, 2015 they succeeded in deposing the then-president, Mansur Hadi, and his prime minister. Hadi now resides in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. From there the Houthis extended their control further south and took over the city of Ja’ar, a stronghold of Ansar al Sharia, an affiliate of al Qaeda. This has brought the Houthis head-to-head with al Qaeda and ISIS, creating a veritable civil war between the two factions. Rather than trying to solve the conflict through diplomatic means, the US and Saudi Arabia have entered the war as partisans on the side of their supposed chief enemy in the region, al Qaeda and ISIS. The most recent bombing campaigns by the Saudis are clearly external aggression, not sanc-
By Michael Drohan
tioned by the UN or any other international agency. The weaponry and logistics are supplied by the US, so it is clearly a US war by proxy. But the US entry into the fray is not recent. For many years the US has been conducting drone attacks on the Houthis as it tried to prop up President Saleh and then President Mansur Hadi. In the US media, the Houthis are described as conducting “an Iran-backed” rebellion against the elected government. While the ideology of the Houthis bears a great similarity to that of the Iranian revolution, there appears to be little evidence that the Iranians are offering logistical or military support. It has all the appearance of a home-grown rebellion whose weaponry comes from captured munitions given by the US to the government in Sana’a. Apart from causing immense havoc, death and dislocation, the Saudi air attacks in the last few weeks seem to be making no dent in the drive by the Houthis to take control of the country. The war in Yemen is a tragicomedy in which the external powers are creating immense death and havoc as they conjure up and swat fictitious enemies. Michael Drohan is a member of the board of TMC and Co-Chair of the Editorial Collective.
May 2015
NEWPEOPLE - 7
Musicians Vs. Fracking Musicians Unite To Support Victims of Fracking By Mike Stout
Hundreds of rural working people and small farmers in PA have had their water, land, animals and families poisoned by fracking, and have been all but abandoned by our government, left to fend for themselves in shale fields of hell. Now a coalition of musicians of all genres – blues, folk, hip-hop, pop and rock and roll have joined together in the Burgh to come to their aid. Nationally-renowned rockers Rusted Root, pop-star Kellee Maize, and Mike Stout and the Human Union will be joined by 10 other performers, including Jasiri-X, African-American Women’s ensemble UJAMAA, folk-rockers Smokestack Lightning, poet Vanessa German and labor songwriters Tom Breiding and Anne Feeney. Our goal is to bring together a diverse crowd of all ages, races, and socio-economic backgrounds to help families whose lives have been affected by fracking, and fight the gas companies’ propaganda, while instilling hope and educating attendees about Clean Green Energy Alternatives. More than a dozen organizations, including the Thomas Merton Center, the IWW, Pittsburgh 350.Org, Healthcare For All PA, Marcellus Protest, Protect Our Parks, the Sierra Club, Mountain Watershed as well as a number of Solar and Renewable Energy businesses and promoters have come on board to sponsor this historical event. “This show is the result of an incredibly diverse and dedicated team of artists and activists who are all banding together to stand up against the effects that Fracking has on our world and our communities. We are trying to change awareness of this problem on a global level while coming to the table on a local level, helping those people who have been directly affected. “ – Liz Berlin, Rusted Root. "We can only survive a few days without water and poisoning it impacts every living thing on our planet. Anything that jeopardizes this precious resource needs to be stopped, especially when there are so many other sustainable forms of energy. I want to be part of anything that raises awareness and promotes action about this so that future generations of people, plants, and animals can thrive on our amazing mamma earth."- Kellee Maize, Rapper, singer, song writer, activist and performer. "Fracking for fossil gas has left people without drinking water. It has left farmers defending their soil and water from industrial installations. It has fragmented and destroyed our parks and forests. It has spewed cancer causing chemicals like benzene into our air. Haven't we had enough? Where is our rage? Where is our care for those who are deceived, rolled over and harmed by this devastation? Stand together and sing out for justice! Stand together and demand accountability! Freedom does not mean industry can do whatever it wants. Freedom means taking responsibility for correcting the harm. "Patricia M. DeMarco, Ph.D., President, DeMarco & Associates Visiting Researcher & Writer, Carnegie Mellon University Senior Scholar, Chatham University. It’s time to stand up and be counted; to let the powers that be know that we the citizens will not sit idly by while they take us down the road to environmental ruin. I hope all progressive-minded people will get off the couches and head out to Mr. Small’s to support this important event. IT’S TIME FOR SOLIDARITY… IT’S TIME TO ROCK!
Local Poet Wins Prestigious Poetry Award
Lines The Quarry by Robin Clarke was selected by Brenda Hillman as the winner of Omnidawn’s prestigious award, the 2012 1st/2nd poetry book prize. Unanimously praised by reviewing literary journals, the one by Meg Shevenock in the “Kenyon Review” struck me as being particularly incisive. “There have been few new poetry books in recent years that have shaken my heart and thrilled my mind like Robin Clarke’s Lines the Mike Stout, Musicians Union Local 60-471, Quarry (Omnidawn, 2013). .. IWW, Healthcare For All PA, POP, Marcellus Clarke’s poetry is a hybrid of narraProtest tive and experimental traditions, 8 - NEWPEOPLE
May 2015
By Jo Tavener
and Quarry offers a heart eclipsed partly in shadow, so we can both touch/know/trace the story and also wonder/ask/go wild with intuition...refusing to look away [from] the deep human consequence...of the most pressing issues of our time: workers’ rights, racisms, the abandoned poor, a failing healthcare system, environmental degradation, corporate power, political corruption—issues directly woven with a personal narrative of a family afflicted by alcohol, cancer, depression, poverty, prison.” Robin Clarke, who teaches English at the University of Pittsburgh,
continues to write and publish her poems. In the March edition of The New People, we republished the poem, Children &/or Corporations from the poetry magazine, Julilat. The NewPeople wishes to apologize for omitting the last lines of the poem: to get what’s inside but the injured ones know they live there. Jo Tavener is a member of The NewPeople Editorial Collective.
100 Years of Building Peace International Women’s Organization Celebrates 100 Years of Peace Building By Edith Bell
The Women’s International League for Peace vocating action to rescue European Jews. Sameena Naand Freedom (WILPF) is celebrating 100 years of Horrified by the bombings of Hiroshima and Na- zir, founder peace building with an international conference at The Hague April 27-29, and various events across the US. The celebrations launch International WILPF’s global campaign, Women’s Power to Stop War, to offer a different way of thinking about peacemaking; reaffirming the work of its founding mothers who insisted that women have a say on the issues of war and peace. Twelve hundred women from 13 countries gathered in The Hague in 1915 under the leadership of Jane Addams (Hull House, 1931 Nobel Peace Prize), calling on the governments of the world to stop the war, which we now know as World War I. The US delegation included Jeannette Rankin, who became the first woman ever to be elected to the US Congress (R- Montana). She cast the only vote against US entry into World War One, and again cast the lone vote opposing US entry into World War Two. Also attending were "enemies" Hungarian Rosika Schwimmer and German Anita Augspurg. The press was amused about women getting involved in politics, expecting it all to end in a big brawl. Teams of delegates travelled to 13 European capitals and Washington, DC, trying to convince officials to accept mediation, to which many nations agreed, but none were willing to begin the process. Although the results of this Congress were disappointing, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was founded, and became the beginning of a mass peace movement. WILPF publicly protested the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles, worked with the League of Nations, opposed imperialism, condemned antisemitism and warned of the growing totalitarian threat. In 1932 WILPF presented six million signatures calling for universal disarmament to a World Disarmament Conference, worked to make lynching a federal crime, drafted a bill against economic imperialism, and in 1934 helped initiate Senate hearings into the munitions industry. During the Holocaust US members distributed 50,000 brochures ad-
gasaki, WILPF protested atomic testing and proposed World Truce, a forerunner of Nuclear Freeze.In 1948 WILPF opposed the creation of NATO. WILPF organized a Peace Train from Finland to join 30,000 women attending the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, including forty from Pittsburgh Through decades WILPF women have been on the forefront of the struggle for peace and justice. Their names include labor activist Crystal Eastman, Amelia Boynton of Selma, anti-nuclear physician Helen Caldicott, Coretta Scott King, Pamela Saffer, native American Poet Joy Harjo, Aung San SUU Kyi, Jody Williams (land mine ban), Amber Amundson ( who opposed revenge for the 9-11 attacks, even though her husband died at the Pentagon), Cindy Sheehan, Palestinian Hanan Ashwari, and US Representative Barbara Lee (chosen for the 2015 Thomas Merton Award). WILPF has sections currently in 30 countries and 57 branches in 26 of the United States, yet “Peace and Security is still a man’s game,” notes WILPF US President Mary Hanson Harrison, “as we saw in the failed Syrian peace-talks (where no women were allowed to participate). Women have a vital role to play in changing that.” For more information visit : http:// www.womenstopwar.org/ and http://wilpfus.org/. Regina Birchem, who served as international president of WILPF, was one of the founders of the Pittsburgh branch which was founded in 2002. Since then our branch of WILPF has sponsored lectures, workshops and actions. Throughout our existence we collaborated with like-minded groups on rallies, appeals, and events. For the last nine years we have held an annual rally and penny poll on tax day to raise awareness with the public on how their tax dollars are being spent, and exposing the bloated military budget. We sponsored workshops on anti-racism and white privilege. We brought speakers, among them
of the Pakistani section of WILPF and organizer of a women's co-op. She explained how the women create and sell crafts, which gives them financial independence, and consequently more influence and independence in their society. . Probably our most successful events were the performances of Most Dangerous Women, a readers play with songs, sung by the Raging Grannies, about the history of WILPF and the amazing women who have been part of that history. Currently we are working to make Pittsburgh the third City endorsing the Convention for the Elimination of all Discrimination Against Women . CEDAW was passed in 1979 by the United Nations, but was never ratified by the US Senate. Individual cities have now passed this resolution, We are reaching out to local groups to join us to make it happen in Pittsburgh. For more information contact: wilpfpgh@gmail.com As we continue to fight the battles our foremothers began, we will gain allies, and eventually we will prevail over the forces of violence and greed. Edith Bell is the Coordinator of the Pittsburgh branch of WILPF, a long time peace activist, and one of the Raging Grannies. She is a current
member of the TMC and a past board member.
PDEC Luncheon Will Keep Focus On Sudan Crises “Men came. They had fire in their eyes. And nothing but darkness followed behind. And now all I can do is walk for miles…” “And I know you can see me, But why do you avert your eyes? And I know you can hear me Each time that you ignore my cries.” “I am here, invisible, interpreting all this pain And I need to be seen… I need to be seen” Copyright Jade Rhodes. 2015 (lyrics quoted in part) My friend Ismail, a Darfuri refugee in Pittsburgh who recently became a U.S. citizen, called me about a 13 year old girl in California he saw on CNN performing a song she had written about Darfur entitled “Invisible.” “Can we possibly get her here for our PDEC (Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition) Forum on the Sudans on Sunday, May 24,” he asked? He would willingly pay the cost of her ticket. Amazingly poised, Jade Rhodes told the CNN Anchor how, after studying about Darfur and reading a poem written by a refugee, she came to write “Invisible.” After singing with great emotion, she shrugged her shoulders in a gesture of relief and diffidence which evoked her real chronological age; and I was immediately reminded of all the young
people who have joined the Save Darfur and STAND campaigns, whose youthful idealism has been so inspiring and affirming for aging boomers like myself and, at that thought, I felt a sudden emotion. How to nourish and not frustrate this wonderful empathy amid a grinding eleven-years long advocacy effort which has paralleled an even more grinding and not palpably successful international diplomatic effort? Some young people who worked with PDEC as high school or college leaders have gone on to jobs and even careers of service to others. One works in an advocacy organization for Sudanese refugee rights abroad; another in New York for an organization called Responsibility to Protect, based on a principle enshrined in the anti-genocide convention which was part of the United Nations' founding documents. Another works for a local Congressman (Mike Doyle) as his legislative liaison with the Congressional Sudan and South Sudan Caucus. For these young people the flame has not flickered and died out. Still, the Darfur movement and its anti-genocide mantras have not proven their efficacy, and this is troubling. Genocide prevention is a new buzzword, but can the conflicts labeled genocides be prevented or even stopped? It is hard to point to any recent successes; it would be nice to see one such conflict through to a successful resolution! Save Darfur, the national organization that once provided leadership to our movement on this issue, has morphed into United to End Genocide, which is both less well resourced and spread thinner across multiple crises. Here in Pittsburgh, PDEC has sought to keep
By David Rosenburg
some focus on the original genocidal conflict. Thirteen year old Jade Rhodes seems to realize that refugees in Darfur who walked for miles fleeing from “men with fire in their eyes” and bent on destruction are still waiting to be seen; although new victims are being created every day in Darfur or in the two areas of Sudan or in the warfare between Dinka and Nuer in South Sudan. “I know you can see me,” sings Jade, “but why do you avert your eyes?” On Sunday, May 24, 2015, at the East Liberty Presbyterian Church, PDEC is sponsoring a Luncheon and Forum, hosted by the Peace Committee of the church, on the current ongoing crises of the two Sudans. We are pleased to welcome as one of our speakers Benjamin O. Rogus of the Office of the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan. We will also hear from Jehanne Henry, Senior Researcher in charge of the Sudan team for Human Rights Watch. The South Sudanese Ambassador to the U.S., Ambassador Garang Diing Akuong, will be participating in the luncheon. The event is free and open to the public but advance reservations are required. A free buffet luncheon is being prepared by members of the Sudanese Community of Pittsburgh. For reservations please contact jumphook@gmail.com or 412 892-8842 before May 20. Include your email and phone number for confirmation. David Rosenberg is the Coordinator of Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition
May 2015
NEWPEOPLE - 9
Local Activism PIIN Moves from Marches to Measurables In late 2014, the Spiritual Leaders’ Caucus of the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network (PIIN), led by Rev. Rodney Lyde, determined that the appointments of a new Public Safety Director and Police Chief provided PIIN with an opportunity to re-engage the public around issues of police training and tactics. The emergence of the national “Black Lives Matter” movement brought a new energy and passion to the issue of police militarization that PIIN could not resist. Since 2008 PIIN has been in the forefront of addressing racial profiling and demanding greater police diversity. In 2015, PIIN declared that they would "Move From Marches to Measurables," building on its Love Thy Neighbor Campaign, launched in 2014. Through a series of meetings that PIIN spiritual leaders held with Public Safety Director Stephen Bucar, Police Chief Cameron McLay, Pitt Law Professor David Harris, ACLU Legal Director Vic Walczak and others, the members of what was now the Public Safety Task Force began identifying issues where PIIN could have the greatest impact. This includes issues our leaders believe would improve police-community relationships and issues that were “winnable,” meaning issues where we and Chief McLay could agree on strategies to achieve a specific goal. The Public Safety Task Force members identified six areas they should pursue: Relationships (through proactive relationship-building), Training (to include implicit bias, racial reconciliation and procedural justice), Recruitment and Hiring (strategies toward recruitment, hiring and maintenance of a diverse police force), Tracking (undertaking data collection and interpretation as a
By Sue Thorn
standard means to improve overall policing, police accountability and better policy), Policy (Pittsburgh Police Bureau’s policy on body worn cameras) and Accountability (participating in PIIN’s 2015 Public Action to report progress on the commitments) On February 26, a cold snowy evening, over 500 people packed Baptist Temple Church in Homewood to see PIIN’s “Move From Marches to Measurables.” The passion of the diverse crowd rose as the choir opened with rousing music that brought people to their feet. Rabbi James Gibson from Temple Sinai set the tone of the evening: “… “But God can only illuminate our way. God can neither put us on the road nor hold us there. God cannot force our feet to walk on the way of justice, righteousness, love and light. Only we can do that. Tonight we affirm this as our sacred task.” PIIN President, Rev. Richard Freeman, framed the importance of the evening by recalling the names of Aiyanna Jones, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Jonny Gammage, Jordan Myles, and Leon Ford. “Each of these citizens endured great harm at the hands of those charged to protect and serve. Five of them are dead and one is permanently paralyzed. Eric Kelly, Stephen Mayhle , Paul Sciullo. Citizens and Police officers in Pittsburgh. Each of these men lost their lives on August 4, 2009 being faithful to their call to protect and serve. We, the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network declare that tonight we have moved from marches to measurables.” After Rev. Vincent Kolb summarized the research and negotiations with the Police Chief, Rev. Lyde presented PIIN’s demands. With each de-
mand Chief McLay responded with an enthusiastic ”Yes.” The crowd cheered, applauded and at the end rose in a standing ovation. Chief McLay called the reforms “absolutely critical steps for any policing agency in this country if we’re going to move the policing profession forward. I’m here to assure you that I’m fully committed to every one of these actions we’ve discussed. I’m also here to ensure you, however, that if I do every one of those things I committed to we cannot heal the wounds that are plaguing this community. I have to have your help.” Rev. DeNeice Welch answered the chief’s request for help by asking the crowd if they were willing to “get into the fight. We heard what the police chief is going to do. Now I want to know what [you’re] going to do,” she said. Three weeks later, Pittsburgh was one of six cities named by the Department of Justice as a pilot site for the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice. A critical element of this program is that the police department and the community must be willing to build strong, positive relationships with each other. PIIN’s “Moving From Marches to Measurables” demonstrated that the Pittsburgh Police Bureau and the community are not just willing, but are already involved in moving forward to make community trust and justice a reality. For more information about PIIN’s Public Safety Task Force, contact PIIN’s office at 412621-9230 or office@piin.org. Sue Thorn is a staff member for the PA Interfaith Impact Network.
April 15: A Day Bread for the World 2015 Focus: Federal Child Nutrition Programs of Action cont’d By Joyce Rothermel
dral of Learning in Oakland, different groups handed out signs, pins and bandanas for free, encouraging protestors to be as active as possible. Songs were performed by 1 Hood Media to get the energy high and engage participants with politically relevant messages, incorporating call-and-response verses to engage the audience. Josh Orange, one the of the student organizers of the rally, gave an emotional speech calling for an end to complacency and stated: “No one should work 40 hours per week and not be able to exist.” “If my efforts are futile let it be known that we fought” said Orange, culminating his talk with a chant that would be shouted for the rest of the event: “I believe that we will win!” Several hundred people then marched from the Cathedral of Learning down to UPMC on Forbes, holding signs, waving flags and chanting: “What do we want? 15! When do we want it? NOW.” On the return March participants stopped at the McDonalds on Forbes and marveled that the fast-food restaurant had closed it doors out of concern for the safety “of its employees and customers.” The protestors succeeded in their aim to “shut it down.” At that moment all the protestors on Forbes Avenue stopped and sat down. While holding hands to the sky, the connected power of all of the movements and projects represented at the rally was realized and a moment of silence was taken in support for all of the black lives that have been taken unjustly across the United States. Overall the day of action was a huge success and a poignant moment for the Pittsburgh community, exposing the power behind a connected force of peaceful activists and concerned citizens. Marni is a member of the NewPeople Editorial Collective. 10 - NEWPEOPLE
May 2015
Close to 16 million children in the United States (one in five) live in families that struggle to buy the groceries they need for their household needs. This is why the federal child nutrition programs are critical, including the National School Lunch, School Breakfast, Summer Food, Child and Adult Care Food, and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) programs. Every five years, the Child Nutrition Programs must be reauthorized. In 2015, consequently, the Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act of 2010 must be updated. Five years ago nutrition standards were set for all food served in schools, and more children were given access to the meals they needed. However, gaps in participation remain, and too many children continue to be at risk of hunger. Of the 21.5 million children who live in low-income households that benefit from the school lunch program, only a little over half also receive breakfast. Only about one in seven receive meals during the summer months. Children are most at risk of hunger during the summer and other school breaks. This year Congress has an opportunity to provide more children at risk of hunger access to the healthy food they need. Because we have so many new members of Congress, they must be educated on the importance of the child nutrition programs. The tight national budget and the current political climate, makes talking about programs that require more funding difficult. This year we are asking you to join Bread for the World, a national Christian education and lobbying organization, in urging Congress to pass a child nutrition bill that protects nutrition programs and gives more at- risk children access to the meals they need to thrive. Here are the organization’s requests: 1. Continue strong investments in child nutrition programs. These programs reduce hunger and food insecurity for millions of children, allowing them to grow and learn. Congress is called upon to maintain the gains made in the 2010 child nutrition bill, preserving the funding and the nutrition standards that have been effective. 2. Improve children’s access to feeding programs. Even though gains were made in 2010, there are still too many children unable to get the meals they need to stay healthy and hunger-free, especially during non-
school hours. Since 2010, several pilot projects have explored how to reach more children through the Summer Food Service Program and the school lunch and breakfast programs. Congress is urged to use this research to improve access and ensure children are receiving much needed meals. 3. Ensure improvements to child nutrition programs are not paid for by cuts to other vital safety-net programs. For the past several years, Congress has cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) to pay for other programs. SNAP was also cut in the 2014 Farm Bill. Nearly half of all SNAP recipients are children. Congress must no longer look to cuts in SNAP or any other safety-net programs to pay for investments in our child nutrition programs. You can take action individually by visiting the Bread for the World website at www.bread.org Bread for the World also encourages congregations to conduct an offering of letters. Several churches in the Pittsburgh area do. If you worship in a Christian church that is not yet doing an offering of letters, please contact me to learn more about this important advocacy activity to strengthen the Child Nutrition Program legislation. This spring, the SW PA Bread for the World Team is scheduling legislative visits with our U.S. Senators and Representatives. Please consider joining us. The national Bread for the World Lobby Day is scheduled for Tuesday, June 9 in Washington, D.C. Members of the local Bread Team will be attending. More are welcome. To register go to www.bread.org For more information or to join either of these activities. I can be reached at 412-780-5118 or at rothermeljoyce@gmail.com One hungry child is one too many! Joyce Rothermel serves as Co-Convener of the SW PA Bread for the World Team.
Expanding Transit, Opposing Racist Wars Keeping the Public in Public Transit Pittsburghers for Public Transit has had a busy past few months. We are continuing our community campaigns for adequate bus service in transit deserts, including Baldwin, Moon, and Groveton. We will soon see the Port Authority’s budget for the next fiscal year (which starts July 1). As of right now, they have an 18 million dollar surplus and are getting additional funding from the state. We expect that some of this funding will be used to add service; it remains to be seen where those changes will be made, but we know that the Port Authority has heard the calls from residents for improved service. PPT has also been participating in events to highlight the importance of transit in our communities. March 18th was national transit worker appreciation day. To honor that, over a dozen
PPT volunteers distributed nearly 2,000 thank you cards for riders to give to their operators. We also delivered cards to over 100 maintenance workers. Many riders were enthusiastic to thank their drivers, who were often thrilled to be acknowledged. Transit workers have very challenging jobs, and we hope this event encouraged riders to recognize the value of thanking them every day. One highlight from the day was visiting maintenance workers at the Manchester main shop. They do complete vehicle overhauls on 5-year-old buses to ensure they can stay on the road for over 10 years and up to 500K miles. This involves replacing seats, floors, outside panels, and transmissions, and even building replacement engines from scratch. The shop is basically a bus factory, and it is important
PPT Thanks maintenance workers. Photo Credit: Molly Nichols
for the public to understand the incredible work being done there. April 9th was national Stand Up for Transportation Day. Over 300 groups from across the country called on Congress to PPT member Helen Gerhardt encourages a rider to contact her elected pass a fed- officials. Photo Credit: Molly Nichols eral transportation bill, before expiration on sustainability plan, to demonstrate they May 31st. PPT participated in a local are making the right economic and press conference, and volunteers then environmental choices. We currently went to bus stops to encourage riders have 32 hybrid diesel buses on the to call their federal elected officials on road, which are a proven technology the spot! Riders told Sen. Casey, Sen. with good performance. Not only do Toomey, Rep. Doyle, Rep. Murphy, studies indicate that hybrid diesels are and Rep. Rothfus how crucial public the best environmental option, but they transit is, and asked for a bill that pro- also require little to no new infrastrucvides adequate funding for public tran- ture. sit, biking, and walking. PPT also adPPT is thrilled to see so many resivocated for the bill to include adequate dents, riders, and workers getting inlabor protections. We need our elected volved in improving their transit sysofficials to offer leadership on this cru- tem, and we are gearing up for new cial issue. campaigns in the coming year. If you April 22nd was Earth Day. Public would like to get involved email transit is inherently sustainable, ac- molly@pittsburghforpublictransit.org. counting for less than 1% of all trans- For updates, go to our website: portation emissions. Getting more peo- www.pittsburghforpublictransit.org ple out of their cars and into buses is Molly is the community organizer one of the best things we can do for the with Pittsburghers for Public Transit. environment, our air quality, and our economy. We also know that riders and residents are invested in seeing the Port Authority develop a
Ongoing Activism by the Antiwar Committee by Pete Shell
Last December, members of the Antiwar Committee and allied groups gathered at the Friends Meeting House to hold a strategizing meeting to discuss where the antiwar and peace movements should be going in the next year. One of the motivations was the revival of the U.S. government's military interventions in Iraq and Syria. The excuse given this time is the brutal methods employed by ISIS. We discussed the role of the U.S. in the creation of ISIS: the fact that ISIS gained political support amongst Sunnis because of the wholesale destruction of the Iraqi infrastructure by two U.S. wars, and the U.S. puppet regime's expulsion from the government and repression of members of the Sunni Bathist party during the U.S. occupation. We also discussed the fact that U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia funded ISIS. Another theme that emerged during our meeting was the growing movement against police brutality and racism in the wake of recent high-profile police murders of African-Americans in Ferguson, New York, Cleveland, and other cities.
We discussed the parallels between the wars abroad -- which mostly target people of color and promote Islamophobia (meaning the fear of Muslims) -- and police brutality, the increasing militarization of police forces in the U.S., and the huge portion of people of color who are in prison. To support this important movement and tie these themes together more visibly, we decided to approach the group We Change Pittsburgh, which has been organizing most of the recent local protests against racism and police brutality, and propose a march against the racist wars at home and abroad. The group enthusiastically supported the idea, and decided to hold the march on Martin Luther King day, Jan. 19. It ended up being a very energetic and empowering march. Endorsed by over 50 groups, over 1,000 people attended. It got ample press coverage, with coverage on the front page of the Post-Gazette and Pitt News. We will continue to make this expanded analysis of the racism inherent in the U.S. wars at home and abroad. We recently
by Molly Nichols
learned that the F.O.P. (Fraternal Order of Police) will hold their national convention in Pittsburgh on August 9 -- the oneyear anniversary of the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson. The F.O.P. has a history of fighting against any amount of transparency or accountability, and defends even the most brutal and racist offenses committed by officers. We will support the mobilization to protest them that We Change Pittsburgh, the New Afrikan Independence Party, and other Black-led groups have initiated. Another project that we brainstormed at the strategizing meeting is to organize an art exhibit. We are hoping to find a gallery in Pittsburgh that will host it. We're envisioning art and photography that would illustrate the horrors of war. We want it to include the racist wars at home as well. We are also continuing to try to find support in City Council for a resolution against drone warfare. The resolution that we have drafted would also ask for accountability: it would require institutions in the city that are
May Day Call To Action from the National Garment Workers Federation of Bangladesh By Kenneth Miller The National Garment Workers Federation of Bangladesh is asking for actions this May Day, May 1 seeking safe workplaces for all garment workers, living wages, free exercise of trade union rights, and abolition of all form of discrimination. To find out how you can help, contact the Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance at 412-512-1709. Kenneth Miller is a member of the Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance. engaged in research and development of drone weaponry to publicly disclose these projects. Please call your city council members and ask them to support this resolution. The importance of continuing to educate about and speak out against the U.S. wars was underlined by a report recently published by Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Global Survival, and the Nobel Prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. It concluded that at least 1.3 million lives were lost in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan alone since the onset of the U.S. wars following September 11, 2001. This is why we continue to oppose the wars in the Middle East, Africa, and elsewhere, such as Venezuela. Please join us. We generally meet on the 3rd Sunday of the month at1:00pm at the Merton Center. Our next meeting is Sunday, May 17 at 1:00pm. Pete Shell is a member of the Thomas Merton Center Anti-War Committee. May 2015
NEWPEOPLE - 11
Book Reviews Perlstein's Reagan: Does His Rhetoric Retain Its Broad Appeal? By Neil Cosgrove
The consensus among Washington political observers is that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was the most successful of all the potential Republican presidential candidates in wooing a January gathering of Iowa conservatives. Walker gave a speech that forcefully pushed his audience’s ideological buttons, including a loathing for public employee unions that his recent signing of a Wisconsin “right-to-work” law continues to reinforce. During that speech Walker retold the story of Megan Sampson, supposedly named outstanding Wisconsin teacher in 2010 and then subsequently laid off by her school district because of dastardly union-imposed seniority rules. Unfortunately, many of the key details of Walker’s story simply aren’t true and have been challenged since the governor first published the story in a 2011 Wall Street Journal opinion piece. First of all, Ms. Sampson was not one of the four Wisconsin teachers named state teacher of the year in 2010, although she did receive an award for first-year English teachers from a non-profit organization. Secondly, her school district had to let her go because of Walker’s cuts in state aid to education and she quickly got a new teaching job in another district. Finally, after Walker published the story, Ms. Sampson emphatically stated that she did not want the governor using her as “a poster child for his political agenda.” We have regretfully learned in the years since the so-called “Reagan Revolution” that neither the facts nor Ms. Sampson’s protestations will diminish the impact of Walker’s version of events on his chosen audience. The Wisconsin governor is channeling the great man himself, who commonly used an individual’s story to illustrate the validity of an argument he was making, regardless of the veracity of the story itself. Reagan knew how to render factual inaccuracies irrelevant, because his audiences agreed with the ideological basis for his arguments and because his forceful expression of their ideological preferences created within his audience an
Ronald Reagan, 1981. Photo Credit: Het Nationaal Glasmuseum
unshakeable trust. Who is Scott Walker to doubt an approach that worked so spectacularly well for a two-term president of the United States? Rick Perlstein chronicles Reagan’s rhetorical sleights-of-hand at great length in his most recent book, The Invisible Bridge. He traces how the “great communicator” transformed himself from a political sideshow immediately before and after Nixon’s 1974 resignation to the man who nearly wrested the Republican nomination from the incumbent Gerald Ford in 1976 and successfully gained the White House in 1980. With his indefatigable optimism and blithe disregard for troubling details, Reagan was a formidable opponent. “It had to be excruciating for Gerry Ford,” Perlstein comments about the 1976 primary campaign. “But run-
ning against Ronald Reagan for anything must have been excruciating for those who wished to honor truth.” Can Reagan Rhetoric work as well for current conservatives as it did for him? Perlstein’s book suggests that Reagan’s triumph was attributable both to his unique ethos, honed through years as a radio announcer, actor, and corporate spokesperson, and to the debilitating disillusionment of the 1970s, when Watergate, the fecklessness of our involvement in Vietnam, revelations about the CIA’s high crimes and misdemeanors, and the humiliation of the oil embargo gave a powerful rationality to Reagan’s belittling of government and praise of corporate enterprise. Reagan was an accomplished fantasist who could weave a narrative of American exceptionalism and heroism at a time when a clear majority of the citizenry yearned for what he was selling. However, if anything our disillusionment in 2015 may be even more encompassing than it was in 1975, for conservatives may no longer point to multinationals and financiers as a virtuous counter-point to big government, not after the debacle of the Great Recession, the ongoing stagnation of wages, and the hegemony of corporate profit in the face of widespread economic suffering. Perlstein’s book also provides a kind of historical perspective through which the reader sees how long conservatives have turned to the themes upon which Reagan thrived— the alleged collapse of Social Security, the insidiousness of “liberal” school curricula, the equation of patriotism with perpetual militarism. To a younger generation beset by economic insecurity, a strong social safety net may look like a means of survival rather than a barrier to individual freedom. For that generation, does the Reagan agenda appear as fresh as it did in the 1970s, or does it seem like a tired refrain ready for the historical trash heap? Perlstein’s Reagan possessed strong convictions that made him highly persuasive, even if those convictions were never modified by inconvenient truths. The question remains whether Americans are more willing to embrace those “truths” forty years further along in our history. Neil Cosgrove is a member of the NewPeople Editorial Collective .
Teens Serving Life in Prison: A Book Review By Ginny Cunningham
I did not know that a 15-year old could be sentenced to life in prison in Pennsylvania. I have assumed that our justice system had some kind of rule about juvenile offenders, in effect that fifteen year olds were still malleable, and their brains were not even within striking distance of maturity. Such are the claims of neuroscientists like Sandra Aamodt, co-author of the book Welcome to Your Child’s Brain. There is certainly a place on our reading lists, then, for Cindy Sanford’s book, Letters to a Lifer, about the evolution of her relationship with Ken, 27, who was convicted at 15 of being an accomplice to murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. According to her testimony, as well as Ken’s journal entries which are interwoven with Sanford’s narrative throughout the book, Ken has indeed evolved and matured. Deeply remorseful about behavior for which he takes full responsibility, Ken does not seek mercy for himself or relief from prison indignities or brutalities. “The hardest thing about being locked up forever,” he says, “is the regret.” His only wish is that “I could turn back the clock and undo the pain I caused others.” It’s left to Sanford to fill in the back-story of Ken’s horrific childhood and the neglect, abuse and abandonment he suffered at the hands of both mother and father. The details of that unendurable childhood outline an inevitability: early death or life in prison. There weren’t many options. Letters to a Lifer is written as a worthy piece of advocacy for legislation, especially for states such as Pennsylvania. According to the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that young people are more impulsive, more capable of change , less mature and less able to 12 - NEWPEOPLE
May 2015
committed before they turned 18 give Pennsylvania the distinction of having the largest number of such prisoners of any state and possibly more than any country in the world. Ken serves as a vivid example of a human being who has evolved into a mature, compassionate and discerning human being, serving as a model and mentor to other young prisoners. He cautions them about how to avoid the worst of prison life and make the most of their days behind bars until they, unlike Ken, can walk away from their confinement. Regrettably, much of the book’s emphasis is on the much less compelling story of Sanford’s evolution from rigid and unsympathetic judge of young prisoners to a saintly mother figure after learning of Ken’s innate artistic talent while making monthly visits at the prison where Ken resides. Her repetitive descriptions of her own sobs, shock and sorrow as she slowly learns of Ken’s childhood do little to enhance the story of a doomed young man; nor does her narrative about her own flawed parents and difficult childhood add power to the cause for which she is advocating. But Ken’s story will stay with the reader as a reminder of the human potential that can blossom in seemingly unlikely souls. Proceeds from the book benefit two organizations: Men in Motion in the Community (MIMIC), a Philadelphiabased charity run by ex-offenders for at-risk youth and Two Mothers: From Death to Life, which supports mothers and families of victims and offenders.
make good judgments than adults. Thus, judges must take into account mitigating factors such as age, past experience with the courts, family history, or mental illness. While Pennsylvania’s General Assembly has voted to end the automatic life without parole sentence for teens, it has failed to apply Ginny Cunningham is a sustaining member of the its ruling retroactively. Consequently, the 500 in- Thomas Merton Center. mates serving mandatory life sentences for crimes
In Honor Of... O Sweet Irrational Worship
In Honor of Joe Hughes Joe made a transition in his thinking that not many Americans make. He grew up in a Catholic family and came of age in the 1950s, got married, had five children and became a heavy equipment salesman. He wasn’t concerned about the issues burning in the 1960s. However, like his 6 siblings, he had the example of parents who were active in the community and politics and this laid the foundation for Joe’s transition in the 1970s to an antiwar activist. Once Joe went down that road, he never looked back and his activism continued until recently. Joe died peacefully on 14 April at 1:15pm as a result of metastatic prostate cancer. His political activism began in the 1970s and in addition to antiwar work, he worked on the Mobilization for Survival, the B-1 bomber campaign, the Wounded Knee Uprising, etc. He was also a regular at the Saturday Black Voices for Peace vigils for over 10 years.
By Thomas Merton Selected Poems by Thomas Merton
Wind and a bobwhite And the afternoon sun. By ceasing to question the sun I have become light, Bird and wind.
From James to Ulysses: The Significance of a Rededication of Grant Street
My leaves sing. I am earth, earth
By Charles McCollester
On April 14, Pittsburgh City Council recognized the 150th Anniversary of the surrender of Robert E. Lee to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse by unanimously passing a resolution I proposed declaring that: “from April 9, 2015 onward Grant Street shall be dedicated to the memory of General Ulysses S. Grant, his efforts towards preservation of the Union, the abolition of slavery, and the restoration of African American suffrage, and that a plaque of local manufacture be erected on an appropriate public building reflecting this change.” Though nearly all Pittsburghers assume that Grant Street is named for our nation’s 18th President, it was actually named for Major James Grant, a soldier in the service of the King of England, who on September 14, 1758, defied explicit military orders and led an advance force of General Forbes’ army on a disastrous attack on Fort Duquesne that resulted in the death of nearly half his command and his capture. At the beginning of my remarks, I noted that in December 1860 the citizens of Pittsburgh initiated the first act of Northern resistance to the dissolution of the Union when many thousands of them occupied Grant Street, physically blocking the movement of large cannons from the Arsenal in Lawrenceville to the Monongahela wharf. This act of popular intervention stopped the shipment of numerous large cannons to Southern coastal forts. I recalled that in September 2008, on
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the 250 anniversary of James Grant’s debacle, a number of proposals were made to change the Grant Street address of City, County and federal buildings as well as several corporate headquarters. I argued for the naming of a major street for Martin Delany, one of Pittsburgh’s most amazing citizens: father of Black nationalism, founder of the Mystery newspaper in Pittsburgh, doctor admitted to Harvard, ferocious opponent of the Fugitive Slave Act, explorer of Africa in 1859, and the highest ranking Black officer in the Union Army - named a colonel by President Lincoln himself. The expense of such a name change blocked any serious consideration. However as the anniversary of the end of the Civil War approached, I realized that an important symbolic change could be made at little financial cost. Also, I have been reading many Civil War books, several about Grant as general and as president. My great grandfather lost his hand at the Third Battle of Winchester (Opequon). With me at the Council meeting was my fellow Union Edge talk radio co-host Rosemary Trump. Among Rosemary’s ancestors are five soldiers killed in that great conflict including four at Antietam. Ulysses Grant was a tenacious general who led the Northern armies to total victory. No abolitionist, he felt a debt to Black veterans and realized that his Republican Party had no chance electorally in the South without African American votes. Elected president in 1868, he forced former Confederate states to ac-
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All these lighted things
cept the 14 Amendment (equal protection under the law) as a condition of reentry into the Union. To counter Southern resistance to African American voters, he pushed the Ku Klux Klan Act that made conspiracy to deny citizens their civil rights a federal crime. He strongly supported the 15th Amendment that prohibits federal and state government’s denial of the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” He established the Justice Department in 1870 specifically to enforce the 14th and 15th amendments. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was based on the 15th Amendment. What pushed me to propose this resolution was the realization that African American male voters only regained the right to vote in Pennsylvania as a result of the ratification of the 15th amendment. While slavery was first abolished in Pennsylvania and propertied Black males could and did vote in Allegheny County, the shameful 1838 revision of the Commonwealth’s constitution denied suffrage to all Blacks. The 15th amendment restored their vote. This was a notable step on the road to freedom in our state and nation. Charles McCollester, author of The Point of Pittsburgh, is a labor historian and member of the Battle of Homestead Foundation.
Grow from my heart. A tall, spare pine Stands like the initial of my first Name when I had one. When I had a spirit, When I was on fire When this valley was Made out of fresh air You spoke my name In naming Your silence: O sweet, irrational worship! I am earth, earth My heart’s love Bursts with hay and flowers. I am a lake of blue air In which my own appointed place Field and valley Stand reflected. I am earth, earth Out of my grass heart Rises the bobwhite. Out of my nameless weeds His foolish worship.
2015 Merton Award Winner Announced The Board of the Thomas Merton Center very happily announces the winner of its 2015 Thomas Merton Award is U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee. She will be honored at an event the week of November 9. Watch for more details in upcoming issues of The NewPeople. Rep. Barbara Lee represents California’s 13th congressional district. She is the first woman to represent her district. She has served as the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. She is the only member of Congress who voted against the authorization of the use of force following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. She continues to be a vocal critic of war in the Middle East and supports legislation creating a Department of Peace. Plan now to join us for this wonderful celebration Rep. Barbara Lee. Photo Credit: Jim Ratliff of our 2015 Merton Award to U.S. Representative
On TV Every Monday in May at 9 PM
Comcast Ch 21-Verizon Ch 47 “Greenworld Rising.org” a Series of Short Documentaries on Climate Change Narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio
May 2015
NEWPEOPLE - 13
Honoring Our Local Activists A Prophet in Our Time
By Bette McDevitt and Marni Fritz
Edith Bell arrived in Pittsburgh, in September 2001, the time of the catastrophic events of 9/11. She came from Athens, West Virginia, after the death of her husband, a professor at Concord College, to be closer to her family members. In no time at all, she was a valued member of the peace and justice community. Edith had come to the United States in 1955, by way of Panama, after living through the Holocaust. Out of that experience, Edith shaped her very broad world view. “It’s really about human rights,” she said. “When a whole group of people is declared to be subhuman, you can treat them any way you want to without your conscience bothering you, be they Jews, Arabs, African Americans, gays or lesbians.” It was logical, then, for Edith to reach out to the Muslim Community after 9/11, even though she was a stranger here. “There was all this anti
-Muslim feeling, and Craig Stevens, a friend of my daughter Alice, invited me to go to a meeting at the Islamic Center, to promote a relationship between the peace and justice community and the Muslim community. I had no idea where the Islamic Center was located, so I called the Merton Center for directions, and Molly answered the phone and offered to come and get me. She and Tim Vining came to pick me up. That was my first connection with the Thomas Merton Center.” By February, Edith was on the board. “When they asked me to be on the board, I said ‘But I’m not Catholic, and I am an atheist, and I have no connections here.’ Molly told me I was welcome at the Center, and I have been grateful since then to the Center for making me a welcomed member of the community.” At the Islamic Center, Edith learned about an upcoming trip to Cuba, and signed up to go. The trip
Edith Bell, Squirrel Hill Post Office Parklet, Tax Day, 2013.
was organized by the Sister Cities Project, and on the trip Edith met the Reverend Tom Smith, president of the Thomas Merton Center at the time, and Lisa Valenti. Lisa and Edith were both members of WILPF, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Lisa and Regina Birchem, another WILPF member, convinced Edith to start a local chapter of WILPF here, and she writes about WILPF in another section of this issue of The NewPeople. After joining the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) in the 1960s, Edith helped start chapters in both West Virginia and Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh chapter is currently working on making Pittsburgh a City for the (UN) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which would strongly contribute to support of equal rights for women in the United States and internationally.
Photo Credit: Bette McDevitt
During the lead up to the Iraq war, in late 2002, Edith and a few other outrageous women also formed a local group of Raging Grannies, a group of women over 50 who wear flamboyant hats and take to the streets to sing for peace, justice, and social and economic equality. Twelve years later, the same dozen or so women still meet in Edith’s apartment every two weeks, to learn new songs and plan more audacious performances. It’s probably the most fun to be had in the protest
Activist Never Retires: Toni McClendon When Toni McClendon first moved here, she jumped right in and joined the Pittsburgh chapter of the NAACP, and helped to create a model cities platform which married community action associations with economic and social justice efforts. She became an elected member of the Wilkinsburg school board. Her father had been a Baptist minister in Leesburg, VA and Toni grew up there near the banks of the Potomac river. She is now a staff member at Operation Better Block. Her most recent accomplishment, in February of this year, was to receive the “Heroes” award from Achieving Greatness, an organization, headed by Judge Dwayne Woodruff and Bill Neal, that recognizes community activists. Toni was honored as the lead writer and editor of Strategies for Peace, a comprehensive document sponsored by the Coalition Against Violence, which brought together students, athletes, and government leaders to discuss efforts toward decreasing violence. That process took two years and the contributions of 350 people. Strategies for Peace outlines strategies for change to build peaceful communities.
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Toni had been the office manager of the Merton Center from 1987 until 1991. “When I came to TMC in 1987 as the office manager, I had already spread my wings as a social justice activist. TMC helped me soar as a peace activist,” she said. Toni became very involved in helping to create nuclear free zones, earning an invitation to a 1989 East Berlin conference to promote worldwide nuclear disarmament. While at TMC, Toni organized the U.N. Decade on Children’s vigil and march in Pittsburgh, which brought 35-40 people to what became a large rally on behalf of children’s rights. Toni was chosen to be part of a delegation to an international women’s conference in Moscow from TMC in 1988. Her horizons were broadened further in 1989 with the nuclear free zone march in East Berlin. Toni helped to found New Voices Pittsburgh (NVP) along with La’tasha Mayes and Bekezela Mguni. She is now on the advisory board there. NVP is a human rights activist group geared toward reproductive justice issues within southwestern PA. “We advocate for Black women and girls to ensure their rights are protected now and
movement. The Grannies most recent appearance was in front of the Squirrel Hill Post Office on Tax Day, April 15th, to call on Congress to cut the U.S. military budget, which is bigger than the following top 13 countries’ military budgets combined. Last summer the New York Times ran a full-page ad, featuring Elie Wiesel, endorsing Israel’s bombing of Gaza on the grounds that Hamas were guilty of child sacrifice. A follow-up ad in the Times, signed by Holocaust survivors like Edith and their descendants, denounced that initial ad, condemned the Israeli bombings, and called for a boycott of Israeli products. Edith Bell was one of the second ad’s signatories, and it was not the first time she has publicly condemned Israel. For her trouble she has been ostracized by the proIsrael community here in Pittsburgh, regardless of her status as a survivor of Auschwitz, and has come under attack in public forums such as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Such opposition notwithstanding, both Edith and Bette have found a large and welcoming community through our memberships in the Merton Center. A few months after her arrival, one of Edith’s family members, on seeing Edith greet so many people at a rally, remarked that Edith knew more people in Pittsburgh than she had known in West Virginia. To honor Edith’s life and work as a peace and justice activist the Thomas Merton Center Cornerstone Committee invites the family, friends and fans of Edith Bell to a celebratory picnic, which will be held in Schenley Park’s Vietnam Veteran’s Shelter on Sunday May 17th. The potluck picnic buffet will be from 4:00pm7:00pm, featuring music from the Raging Grannies. Beverages will be provided courtesy of the Cornerstone Committee.
By Sean Nolan
in the future,” Toni said. 2015 marked the ten-year anniversary for New Voices Pittsburgh. In 1991, Toni and others attended a march in D.C., led by National Organization of Women. “I was a reproductive justice advocate and didn’t know it, when I was involved with Women for Racial and Economic Equality (WREE) in the 1980s. But the young women of New Voices Pittsburgh were smart to use the wisdom of women before them to take it to a higher level and they carried me with them,” Toni added. Toni is a member of the Black Political Empowerment Project (BPEP). She hosts a program on radio station WGBN 1360 AM the first and fourth Saturday of the month. The program is called “BPEP Community Moments,” and it is co-hosted with Odell Richardson and Bill Neal. Toni has been instrumental in establishing journey2acceptancepgh.org, a non-profit organization which unites people who have an HIV positive status with allies who can help provide services. Two billboards around the East End of Pittsburgh illustrated the participation of Kelly Parker, La’tasha Mayes, and Toni McClendon. Toni is also a certified trainer with
Toni McClendon . Photo Credit: Sean Nolan
InterPlay, a nationwide group formed in Oakland, California. InterPlay helps to establish community through guided activities which ground people in the wisdom of their bodies. Songs, reflections, music, and movement are used as tools to keep people in the present moment. Sean Nolan has been an occasional writer for The NewPeople since 2013.
Merton and His Counterparts Merton and Camus
by Robert Jedrzejewski
While James Joyce was Thomas Merton's most admired writer (his muse so to speak), in some small way the one closest to being his soul brother was Albert Camus. The parallels in their lives are remarkable. They were virtual contemporaries, (Camus. B. 1913, Merton 1915) , both expatriates (Camus, Algeria- France, Merton, France/U.K.U.S.), both achieved international literary acclaim in the 1940s; Merton's monumental "Seven Storey Mountain" and Camus' "The Plague" were both written in 1947. And both died by tragic accident in the 1960s at the height of their fame and intellectual capacity. Perhaps the most noteworthy kinship they enjoyed, however, was in their mutual struggle with the notion of "absurdity” . This was a foundational theme of Camus' novels and much of his philosophical output. And once discovered and analyzed by Merton, it became the hinge for understanding his greatest mid-life crisis, i.e. the love affair with "M". It is not surprising that Camus came to be read and appreciated by Merton - who seemed to have read everything - in English, French, Latin, Spanish. (He once remarked that to really appreciate the comic genius of Miguel Cervantes one had to read "Don Quixote" in the original Spanish). A passing knowledge of his life before the monastery, as well as a cursory reading of his monastic journals and voluminous publications, can confirm this. By 1966, however, Merton seems to have been comfortable enough with his exploration of the Camus' oeuvre to meditate on the French author's relevance to his own contemporary situation, specifically the "M" matter. Beyond that he responded
positively to a request by the Seabury Reading Program to write a commentary on Albert Camus' second novel "The Plague". In my mind, both are masterpieces in the genres they represent. Merton, rightly, sees Camus as a novelist, and not as some would have him: an existentialist philosopher in the mold of his French counterpart Jean Paul Sartre. Camus' "philosophy," however, as it is personified and played out through the characters and themes of "The Plague" begins with the conviction of the absurdity of the human condition, man virtually helpless in the face of evil and unhappiness - a stranger in his own universe, existence without meaning. What options are left to him? Suicide Camus rejects. Revolt, Camus offers, rather than suicide. Rebel against the absurdity and continue like Sisyphus of ancient myth to roll the stone back up the hill every time the gods cause it to roll back down. Thus Camus' ethics of revolt, in which man finds his dignity and freedom. In the spring of 1966 Merton was at a critical juncture in his priestly vocation. He faced the "absurdity" of a personal situation in his conflict between fidelity to his monastic vows or submission to a physical love relationship with a woman he calls "M" in his private journal: "...I am glad of my love for ‘M’ which adds a special note of absurdity and therefore reality to my professed ‘solitude’.... What then? Do I save my soul by learning to affirm it courageously in the midst of absurdity?" By determining to ‘be alone’ in the sense of ‘standing alone’ on the acceptance of my absurdity?" Do we have here a modern monastic Sisyphus? A man in revolt? A rebel? To be sure, Merton was,
at times a rebellious monk; his relationship with his superior, the abbot Don James, was frequently less than placid. However, unlike Camus, who disdained any notions of supernatural causation or intervention, Merton chose to resolve the issue within the strictures of his religious faith. It took many months of torment, but Merton eventually confirmed his initial choice of celibacy and commitment to monastic life and was able to write: "...The solitary must therefore return to the heart of life and oneness, losing himself not in the massive illusion but simply in the root reality. Where does he encounter this? In the heart of his own absurdity, but only by plunging through the center of his own nothingness and coming out in the All which is the void and which is, if you like, the Love of God." I am not sure, had he lived and come to know the monk from Gethesemani, whether Camus would have accepted Merton's metaphysical resolution or been able to understand his use of religious metaphor. The French novelist appeared to have a more earthy, collective notion of absurdity and the human condition, whereas Merton's was decidedly individualistic and personal. Nonetheless, in the light of the current "absurdity" of our geo-political situation, the relevancy of these particular literary contributions of Merton and Camus cannot be more apparent. And what they fulgently illustrate is that we do have choices. Robert Jedzerewski is a member of the Thomas Merton Center.
In Memory of Lincoln Archbishop Oscar Romero and Wilma Wolfenstein to Be Remembered By Michael Drohan and Molly Rush
Lincoln was a renowned nuclear particle physicist, his specialization being in the super-small and elusive particle called the neutrino. More particularly he studied the problem of missing solar neutrinos and developed a theory to explain this phenomenon. For over 50 years he taught Physics at Carnegie Mellon University until 2000. He continued to work there as an Emeritus Professor until 2014. But nuclear physics was only a part of Lincoln’s life. He numbered among those nuclear physicists who worked tirelessly for the abolition of nuclear weapons. In a sense this was extraordinary, since his thesis supervisor at the University of Chicago was no less than Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb, who reputedly was the one on whom the character Dr. Strangelove was based in the film by that name. Lincoln’s work in the abolition movement was perhaps even more extensive than his work on nuclear physics itself. He was a founding member of the Pittsburgh Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy and a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an abolitionist movement of scientists. He was also a member of the Ban the Bomb movement and of nuclear freeze campaigns. In addition he was a member of the Pittsburgh chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and was part of its steering committee for many years. And then there was his activity with the Thomas Merton Center and other social activist efforts. In 1986 the Merton Center conferred on Lincoln the New Person Award for his work in the abolition campaigns. Most recently he was a member of the Pittsburgh Anti-Drone Warfare Coalition of the Thomas Merton Center and allied organizations. He attended regularly our Sunday meetings up to 2014, when he moved to Oakland, California to be near family members. Lincoln passed away in Oakland on March 27 and ten days later, Wilma, his wife of 58 years, also passed on. A civil rights activist, Wilma worked with James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). They are survived by four children and three grandchildren. The Wolfensteins were Cornerstone Sustainers of the Thomas Merton Center. May the Wolfensteins be an inspiration to us all to take up the torch of nuclear abolition and civil rights and continue their unfinished work. Michael Drohan and Molly Rush are members of the board of the Thomas Merton Center.
By Joyce Rothermel
Many will remember the struggle of those who were poor in El Salvador over many decades. They had a strong voice in solidarity with their efforts in Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was assassinated and martyred on March 24, 1980 while offering Mass. This year marks the 35th anniversary of his death. The Catholic Church will celebrate his beatification in San Salvador, El Salvador on Saturday, May 23. Here in southwestern Pennsylvania a special event remembering and honoring Archbishop Romero will be Photo Credit: J Kile held on Sunday, May 17 beginning at 1:30 PM with the matinee showing of the film Romero at Clelian Heights School for Exceptional Children, 135 Clelian Heights Lane in Greensburg (off Route 66 south of Delmont). The film will be followed at 3pm with a short program and potluck meal. Those who gather will listen to and discuss Romero’s homily of March 23, 1980, which was the immediate cause of his assassination. Vespers will be prayed at 5pm. The day will conclude with a second showing of the film Romero at 5:45pm. The event was is organized by Father Bernie Servil, a Merton Center member who lived and served in Central America for many years RSVP’s are requested by May 11 at 724-850-1616 or atsenahuav@yahoo.com Attendance is free but a potluck food contribution is most welcome. This event is sponsored by Pax Christi Greensburg.
WOW MOM Make your Mother’s day a special one by renewing your commitment to causes promoting peace and justice in her name. Contribute to 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. Mother’s name:___________________________________________________ Merton Center’s Molly Rush Legacy Fund Donation/Pledge: $__________________ Name(s)______________________________________________________________ Organization (if any):___________________________________________________ Address:_____________________________________________________________ City:_________________________State:__________Zip Code:________________ Home Phone:____________________Cell Phone:___________________________ Email:______________________________________________________________
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Thursday
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Home Matters Day 2015— Washington DC
Renewal Day Anniversary of the Kent State Massacre
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May 2015 Regular Meetings
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International Workers Day Rally— Station Square
Sing Out for Pete 2—7:30-9:30— First Unitarian Church
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Sundays: Book’Em: Books to Prisoners Project First three Sundays of the month at TMC, 46pm 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 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
World Red Cross Day
Wednesdays:
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Mother’s Day National Bike Week Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as president of South Africa (1994)
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Honor & Emulate Oscar Romero—1:305:30—Clelian Heights School for Exceptional Children
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"The National Bike Healthcare to Work Day! Movie" and an Addendum: The Second Stage of Medicare—The Pump House
Healthcare. Do We Need a Single-Payer System? - The Pump House
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Third Annul Luncheon and Forum on Sudan and South Sudan— East Liberty Presbyterian Church
Thursdays:
Delaney Chevrolet Westsylvania Jazz & Blues Festival—IRMC Park
Celebration of Edith Bell—Vietnam Veterans Pavilion, Schenley Park
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State Mandates: National The Impact on Composting Day Local Schools—Mt. Lebanon Library Amnesty International Day
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 International Socialist Organization Every Thursday, 7:30-9:30 pm at the Thomas Merton Center Global Pittsburgh Happy Hour 1st Thursday, 5:30 to 8 pm, Roland's Seafood Grill, 1904 Penn Ave, Strip District Green Party Meeting 1st Thursday, 7 to 9 pm, 2121 Murray, 2nd floor, Squirrel Hill Black Political Empowerment Project 2nd Thursday, 6 pm: Planning Council Meeting, Hill House, Conference Room B
Fridays: Unblurred Gallery Crawl 1st Friday after 6 pm, Penn Avenue Arts District, 4800-5500 Penn Ave., Friendship and Garfield 15224 Hill District Consensus Group 2nd Friday, 10 am — 12 pm, Elsie Hillman Auditorium, Kaufmann Center 1825 Centre Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 People of Prisoners in Need of Support 3rd Friday, 7:00pm New Hope Methodist Church, 114 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh 15212
Saturdays: Project to End Human Trafficking 2nd Sat., Carlow University, Antonian Room #502 Fight for Lifers West 3rd Saturday, 10 a.m. to 12:30 pm, Thomas Merton Center
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***2015 Offer-Introductory or Lapsed membership available for $25 for the first year! Join online at www.thomasmertoncenter.org/ join-donate or fill out this form, cut out, and mail in. Select your membership level: 16 - NEWPEOPLE
May 2015
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