TMC New Persons Award Honors Occupy Pittsburgh—pg. 6
Published by the Thomas Merton Center
Cracker Plants In the News—pg. 3
Occupy Pittsburgh Insert
PITTSBURGH‟S PEACE & JUSTICE NEWSPAPER VOL. 42 No. 5, May, 2012
OCCUPY PITTSBURGH INSERT Produced by Occupy Pittsburgh
VOL. 3 No. 5, May, 2012
ACTIVISM RISING by Francine Porter
Mark your calendars for this year's Thomas Merton Center New Person Award dinner honoring Occupy Pittsburgh. It will take place on Thursday, May 31, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., in the Social Hall of the East Liberty Presbyterian Church. The Thomas Merton Center New Person Award is an annual celebration and fundraiser that honors a local activist or activist group that has made a significant impact in strengthening our communities through the fight for social justice and peace. This year, the Merton Center is proud to honor Occupy Pittsburgh for exposing economic inequality in our society, as well as their wonderful work and support for various activist groups here in Pittsburgh. Overall, the feelings were that these activists have worked to raise consciousness of many Americans in regard to
In This Issue...
Page #
New Persons Awards …..........1
Martin R. Delany
........1, 11
Cracker Plant in PA ........3, 13 Mel Packer Speaks ..............4 Activist Reports
..............5
OP Photo Spread
..............6
Activist Budget
..............7
Faith and Activism ..............8 Activate Then/Now ……......9 Visionary Leaders
............10
The Merton Center ............11 Dorothy Urquhart
............12
IWW Anniversary
............12
Taking / Poem
............12
Cracker Industry
............13
Activist Events
............15
Event Calendar
............16
on the national debt and deficit as the central challenges of the nation and indeed of the world. There is still time to place an ad in the program for the evening please contact Diane McMahon mcmahond@ thomasmertoncenter.org. TMC member groups are invited to hang their banners in the Social Hall the evening of the event. A number of scholarships are available, as well as low income admission. The price of regular admission is $20. Photo By Jibran Mushtaq There will be music, refreshments, raffles, and the the plight of the 99% of us who face economic opportunity to spend an evening with some great injustice on a daily basis. Across the nation, the progressive friends. Occupy Movement has been hailed as one of the To volunteer call Francine at (412) 389-3216 most important developments in the fight for or email francineporter@aol.com. social justice. It has placed the question of Francine Porter is a Board Member at the economic inequality right in the center of the Thomas Merton Center. national debate and ousted the bogus emphasis
Wali Jamal Presents Martin Delany by Bette McDevitt At the Pump House monthly series of speakers, Wali Jamal and Mike Stout recently gave us a hint, a teaser, of their upcoming performance, ―Martin R. Delany Lives,‖ running May 1-6 at the August Wilson Center, with times and prices to suit everyone‘s schedule and budget. Don‘t feel badly if you don‘t know anything about Delany; he‘s only one of the many distinguished people in Pittsburgh‘s history, ―unlocked‖ as Mike Stout says, by Charlie McCollester, in his book, ―The Point of Pittsburgh,” available at the Center. Delany founded the first black newspaper west of the Alleghenies, ―The Mystery,‖ and went on to coedit, with Frederick Douglass, ―The North Star‖. Admitted to Harvard for
the study of medicine, he became a major in the Union Army, the first Black officer in the US Army. Jamal learned about him when he stopped to read the historical marker in PPG Place commemorating Martin Delany. ―He did what and said what?‖ Wali told us, recalling his first reaction. ―I was astounded that I had never heard of Delany and his many accomplishments. I went to the library, found some books about him, and was even more blown away at what he had done. I can‘t believe this dude lived to be 73 years old, saying the things he did, and being as black as this suit I am wearing.‖ Wali was looking very handsome in that black suit, white shirt and black tie, the clothing he wears when he takes on the persona of Delaney. ―To find out,‖ said Jamal, ―that he was active with the Underground
Courtesy of Mike Stout
Railroad right here in Pittsburgh, it sealed the deal. I had to do it. First I wrote the one man show "Martin R. Delany, The Pittsburgh Years" and performed it at Pittsburgh (Continued on page 11)
TMC works to build a consciousness of values and to raise the moral questions involved in the issues of war, poverty, racism, classism, economic justice, oppression and environmental justice. TMC engages people of diverse philosophies and faiths who find common ground in the nonviolent struggle to bring about a more peaceful and just world. May 2012
NEWPEOPLE - 1
PERMIT NO. 458 PITTSBURGH, PA
PAID
THOMAS MERTON CENTER, 5129 PENN AVE. PITTSBURGH, PA 15224
U.S. POSTAGE NON-PROFIT ORG.
Thomas Merton Center HOURS of OPERATION
Monday-Friday
IS PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE THOMAS MERTON CENTER 5129 PENN AVE., PITTSBURGH, PA 15224 Office Phone: 412-301-3022 — Fax: 412-361-0540 Website: www.thomasmertoncenter.org
10 am to 3 pm
Saturday 10 am to 1 pm
TMC Editorial Collective Joyce Rothermel, Jo Tavener, Diane McMahon, Martha Garvey, Rob Conroy, Michael Drohan, Russ Fedorka, Corey Carrington, Kenneth Miller, James Lucius, J.T. Campbell, Molly Rush, Bette McDevitt, Edith Bell
TMC Staff, Volunteers and Interns Diane McMahon, Managing Director Jibran Mushtaq, Community Organizer / IT Director Roslyn Maholland, Finance Manager, Mig Cole, Assistant Bookkeeper Shirley Gleditsch, Manager, East End Community Thrift Store Shawna Hammond, Manager, East End Community Thrift Store Dolly Mason, Furniture Manager, East End Community Thrift Store Corey Carrington, Public Ally, Yiwei Zhang, Pitt MSW Intern
TMC Board of Directors Nina Barbuto, Rob Conroy, Kathy Cunningham, Michael Drohan, Patrick Fenton, Carol Gonzalez, Mary Jo Guercio, Wanda Guthrie, Shawna Hammond, Edward Kinley, Jonah McAllister-Erickson, Francine Porter, Molly Rush
TMC Standing Committees Board Development Committee Recruits board members, conducts board elections Building Committee Oversees maintenance of 5123-5129 Penn Ave. sites Membership Committee Coordinates membership goals, activities, appeals, and communications 40th Anniversary Committee Plan activities to celebrate TMC’s 40th year of service Editorial Collective Plans, produces and distributes the NewPeople newspaper Finance Committee Ensures financial stability and accountability of TMC Personnel Committee Oversees staff needs, evaluation, and policies Project Committee Oversees project applications, guidelines, and policies Special Event Committees Plan and oversee TMC fundraising events with members and friends
TMC COMMITTEES & PROJECTS Anti-War Committee info@pittsburghendthewar.org www.pittsburghendthewar.org Association of Pittsburgh Priests Sr. Barbara Finch 412-716-9750 B.a.finch@att.net Association of US Catholic Priests Fr.Survil@EmbraceAllOflife.us Book„Em (Books to Prisoners) bookempgh@gmail.com www.thomasmertoncenter.org/bookem CodePink (Women for Peace) codepinkpgh@aol.com, 412-389-3216 www.codepink4peace.org East End Community Thrift Shop 412-361-6010, shawnapgh@aol.com Economic Justice Committee economicjustice@thomasmertoncenter.org Fight for Lifers West 412-361-3022 to leave a message fightforliferswest@yahoo.com http://fightforliferswest.mysite.com Human Rights Coalition / Fed Up (prisoner support and advocacy) 412-802-8575, hrcfedup@gmail.com www.thomasmertoncenter.org/fedup In Sisterhood: The Women‟s Movement in Pgh 412-621-3252, pmulbrich@yahoo.com
2 - NEWPEOPLE
May 2012
Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance 412-867-9213 Pittsburgh Campaign for Democracy NOW! 412-422-5377, sleator@cs.cmu.edu www.pcdn.org Pittsburgh Works! (labor history documentaries) connections05@hotmail.com Roots of Promise 724-327-2767, 412-596-0066 rootsofpromise@gmail.com (Network of Spiritual Progressives) spiritualprogressives.pgh@gmail.com Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition jumphook@gmail.com; www.pittsburghdarfur.org Urban Arts Project mbbpgh@yahoo.com Progressive Pittsburgh Notebook Call 412-363-7472 tvnotebook@gmail.com www.progressivepghnotebook.blip.tv Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens Group/ Roots of Promise 724-327-2767 murrysvillemarcellus@gmail.com The Pittsburgh Totebag Project P.O. Box 99204, Pittsburgh, PA 15233 www.tote4pgh.org
CONTACT INFORMATION
General information……….………...www.bit.ly/merton-contact Submissions …………………...…...www.bit.ly/submitnewpeople Events & Calendar Items ……….…www.bit.ly/merton-calendar
Thank You All for Supporting the THRIFTY Fashion Show! Last month‘s fashion show at East Liberty Presbyterian Church was a great success! We thank all the volunteers, models, and attendees for giving their time, talents, and funds to ensure the ongoing operations of the East End Community Thrift Store. The Thrift store is open four days a week. Tuesday through Friday from 10 am to 4 pm and Saturday from Noon to 4 pm. Please stop by and find a steeply discounted treasure to take home with you! Phone: 412.361.6010
TMC AFFILIATES Allegheny Defense Project, Pgh Office 412-559-1364 www.alleghenydefense.org
Pittsburgh Cuba Coalition 412-563-1519 lisacubasi@aol.com
Amnesty International info@amnestypgh.org www.amnestypgh.org
Pittsburgh Independent Media Center info@indypgh.org www.indypgh.org
The Big Idea Bookstore 412-OUR-HEAD www.thebigideapgh.org Black Voices for Peace Gail Austin 412-606-1408
North Hills Anti-Racism Coalition 412-369-3961 www.northhillscoalition.com Pittsburgh North People for Peace 412-367-0383 pnpp@verizon.net
http://www.ceasefirepa.org
Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee info@pittsburgh-psc.org www.pittsburgh-psc.org
Global Solutions Pittsburgh 412-471-7852 dan@globalsolutionspgh.org www.globalsolutionspgh.org
Raging Grannies 412-963-7163, eva.havlicsek@gmail.com
CeaseFirePA
info@ceasefirepa.org
Citizens for Social Responsibility of Greater Johnstown Larry Blalock, evolve@atlanticbb.net Haiti Solidarity Committee jrothermel@gpcfb.org 412-271-8414 www.thomasmertoncenter.org/hs PA United for a Single-Payer Health Care www.healthcare4allPA.org www.PUSH-HC4allPa.blogspot.com 2102 Murray Avenue Pgh, Pa 15217 412-421-4242 Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Martha Connelly (412) 361-7872 osterdm@earthlink.net Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network 412-621-9230/office@piin.org Pittsburgh Area Pax Christi 412-761-4319 Pittsburgh Committee to Free Mumia 412-361-3022, pghfreemumia@gmail.com
www.pittsburghraginggrannies.homestead.com
Religion and Labor Coalition 412-361-4793 ojomal@aol.com School of the Americas Watch of W. PA 412-371-9722, soapittsburgh@gmail.com United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) 412-471-8919 www.ueunion.org Urban Bikers urbanbikes@yahoo.com Veterans for Peace Icwheaties@aol.com Voices for Animals voicesforanimals@gmail.com 1-877-321-4VFA Women‟s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Eva 412-963-7163 edith.bell4@verizon.net Interested in getting more involved? Contact the emails / phone numbers listed.
ACTIVISM CENTRAL Progressives Differ on Cracker Plant Construction by Jo Tavener While Progressives appear to be united in condemnation of natural gas fracturing for its destruction of habitat and environmental pollutants that debase property values, undermine economic growth (Fort Worth, Texas, $77 million in debt) and undermine human and animal health, they have not reached such a consensus on the construction of a cracker plant in Beaver, Pa., just 35 miles from Pittsburgh. There have been such moments in the past when unions were opposed to the anti-war movement and the politics of the young 60s radicals or, more recently, when some unions did not see eye-to-eye with single payer health care activists. Much of the disagreement turns on the weight given to programmatic and economic concerns vs. long range economic, political and environmental goals. The current controversy, similarly, arises from the predicted economic boom associated with such energy production and the thousands of the jobs promised for the region. In the April issue of The New People, John Detwiler discussed the political repercussions of Shell signing a ‗land option agreement‘ for the
site and the coming negotiations between Governor Corbett and Shell. In the May issue we are just beginning a conversation -- taking a stab at understanding how the cracker plant could turn long-term allies against one another in terms of jobs vs the environment. That such a framing might arise from a false dichotomy will hopefully be discussed in future issues. Here we want to sketch some of the lines of disagreement and by so doing, help our readers begin to think through an issue that could change the face of Western Pennsylvania for decades to come. We hope that in the coming months, we can continue this conversation. We invite letters to the editor. Please let us know your thoughts. For Carl Davidson, a long time progressive activist out of Chicago, who relocated to Beaver a couple of years ago, the possibility of good paying jobs demands that we side this time with the working class. ―For the people of Beaver County, Carl writes, ―especially those most in need, the Shell 'cracker' is a godsend--it has near universal support among African Americans, the unions and the working-class more widely. Even if it's only 500 jobs in the end, it'll need 10.000 workers over several years to build it.
Turning natural gas into plastic is problematic, to say the least, but keep in mind that nothing was more harsh or polluting around here than the production of steel, and it's sorely missed. So if the idea is to block the cracker, I'm not interested. You might as well try to block the sunrise. But if the idea is to secure the cracker, then fight for the best terms, yes, that's a worthwhile discussion.‖ However, John Detwiler, in his article for the April issue, Here We Go Again, argues that Corbett has backed himself into a corner to give Shell what it wants regarding economic and environmental concessions. From Shell‘s own statements, it appears that they prefer no taxation (property, corporate, franchise, sale and use tax), financial sweeteners and a roll back of whatever environmental regulations there are in Pennsylvania. In other words, is there any chance that Shell will put safety before profits without a united and insistent mass movement building to community civil disobedience at the building of such a plant? According to Barney Ousler, co-chair of the Mon Valley Unemployment Committee and Executive Director of Pittsburgh United, all political (Continued on page 13)
Four Decades of Extraordinary Activism by John Haer It may not seem possible, but I believe that I have shared in the Thomas Merton Center‘s community organizing efforts over at least 35 of the Center‘s 40-year existence. Although it was generally through other organizations, it is clear to me that one cannot recount local movement history without attributing a central role to the projects and personalities associated with the Center. During the past four decades, it has become the heart of Pittsburgh‘s peace and social justice movement. I landed in Pittsburgh in 1969, assigned at the time by the draft board to do alternative service as a counselor at the Woodville State Hospital. I was a "conscientious, just war objector‖, not a pacifist; my disgust was mainly with our country‘s war in Indochina. Additionally, inequalities among the poor and racial minorities at home made a commitment to revolutionary social change one of my chief vocations. I had become a radical in the 1960‗s because of the social realities that did not seem to measure up to the religious values and ideals I had been taught to believe in. Though I identified with the new left Marxists, it was the religious social radicals who really caught my eye. Pittsburgh provided great models: Priests like Charles Owen Rice, Jack O‘Malley and Don McIlvane marched in support of demands for increased numbers of Black workers in the construction of the US Steel building. Hosting organizers from Cesar Chavez‘s United Farm Workers grape boycott and walking the picket line of the 1199 organizing strike at Presby were
other ways we demonstrated our dissent in the early years of the center. Molly Rush and the Berrigan Brothers put their lives on the line to confront GE and other corporate infrastructures who aided in supporting the war. Sisters Liguori Rossner and Joyce Rothermel helped establish the Jubilee Kitchen and the Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to show their solidarity on the home front. Garrett Dorsey and Don Fisher confronted the injustices of deindustrialization with their Mon Valley worker congregants and fought for reinvestment and public ownership. Religious activists denounced our country‘s unjust wars and the slaughter of innocent peoples in Indochina, Central America, and the Middle East. Worldwide, the movement was not shy to warn the Bishops that a coup d'état was at hand. My organizing work was primarily with service workers in health care and public service. Serving on staff for SEIU, my friends and comrades in the New American Movement (later DSA) worked to organize clerical workers at Pitt. Exposing deficiencies in the County‘s treatment of seniors housed at institutions (i.e., Kane Hospital) and organizing a movement to hire more staff and decentralize the facilities, a movement (PAJE) contesting rate increases in the public utilities organized support for women‘s rights against violence and fought for reproductive freedoms. This eventually led to advance community support for the rights of lesbians, gays, and bi-sexual individuals; producing regular cultural events, political forums, and
a monthly publication (Allegheny Socialist) with 900 subscribers. In all, we often worked closely with members of the Merton Center coordinating activities and programming. My proudest moment was in the 1970‘s, when I was honored to serve on the TMC Board (a time noted by the purchase of the building in Garfield and the move from South Side). Helping with the Merton Award Dinner was especially rewarding as we honored Machinists Union President William Winpisinger, who was one of the few major trade union leaders at the
time staunchly opposed to the Vietnam War. I was thrilled that the Merton Center provided a perfect forum for the coming together of community, labor, and religious activists; I am proud to say we still do today It is not an accident that the Thomas Merton Center survives while other activist groups do not. It is only through sustaining hope that we can continue to build the new TMC on the strong traditions of the old. John Haer recently retired as President of the local chapter of AFTRA, The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
May 2012
NEWPEOPLE - 3
THOMAS MERTON CENTER ACTIVIST FORUM A Conversation with Mel Packer Interviewer, Jo Tavener Mel, please tell us about how the Marcellus Protest Group helped grow the anti-fracking movement in Pennsylvania. The first thing that Marcellus Protest did was to organize activists from Burrell, Lawrenceville and Lincoln Place to focus on the Marcellus Shale Coalition Conference held in November of 2010. At the time suburban communities just outside Pittsburgh had begun to organize around the issue of fracking as ordinary citizens became alarmed when the land men started knocking on doors trying to sign leases. They began to realize that fracking threatens the very things we all need to live -- clean water and air and our land free of toxic dump sites. It
told them. They said, ―We‘re going to ban it anyway and we welcome a court fight.‖ Of course, the drillers didn‘t take the city to court. They bought the state legislature instead that recently passed a law forbidding localities to enact drilling regulations stronger than the state allows. They effectively took away all the rights of the municipalities to set their own regulations. Someone could put a nuclear dump in your backyard and the City couldn‘t do anything about it. Still, the controversy put Pittsburgh and Marcellus Protest on the map. Every week calls come in from around the world, from South Africa, Bulgaria, Ireland, Poland, seeking advice. It‘s a global effort because fracking is happening everywhere. The main fight against fracking will take place not in the city but in the rural areas where they are drilling - not Pittsburgh or New York City, but the Upper Hudson Valley and rural Western Pennsylvania. That’s very interesting because we usually find more conservative people in rural areas and if they are radicalized, there will be a definite coming together across class lines.
publish, enough to get them started. As people learn about the levels of toxicity in the air and the water, the dangerous seepage from pipelines, the loss of property value, the lack of job creation, the fact that most gas will be sold on the international market to the highest bidder, they begin to organize. And as they organize, they start making the connections. Historically that‘s how things happen. When you talk about the early union movement, when you talk about blacks and whites coming together, it was those struggles that made people realize they were all in it together. It‘s the same with Marcellus Protest. At meetings in these rural areas Marcellus Protest folks are there with dreadlocks and piercings. No one cares. It‘s not like the old days when you saw redbaiting all the time. People see that we are all in this together. People are making connections. They realize that the energy companies have ties to other industries that are being funded by PNC and other big banks that screwed us all two years ago. They think, ―Maybe this really is a class struggle.‖
regulations in rural areas are zero! Pennsylvania always been an extraction state, first coal and oil and now gas. We‘ve had shallow wells around for a long time that haven't posed any great danger. There wasn‘t any real need for regulations. So the drillers looked at Pennsylvania and thought that this was heaven. They knew they could go in and buy up the land with nothing to stop them. It's like the Wild West here. I am told that suburban developers are building $300,000 to $400,000 homes without giving up the gas rights when the houses are sold. One of these days some folks living in very expensive houses will find they‘re living on a fracking site! Thinking about Occupy, it feels like an obvious match. There are two central themes in Occupy. The first is that we are all in this together and the other is about the 1% as a criminal class. Both are borne out by the anti-fracking struggle.
One of the guys at Occupy describes democracy in America to me this way. It‘s two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner. That‘s exactly it. They‘ve What is the next battle? come to the realization that there is a We just held an action on March criminal class running this country. 20th around pipelines. To get the gas People get sucked into thinking that to the Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) if they just elect a few more honest reports you‘ve got to build a whole politicians we could turn this around. new system of gathering lines from That‘s the wrong road to go down. That has already the wells to the transmission lines Courtesy of Mel Packer happened. The that haul the gas across the So what is the road? term, class warfare, country. Gathering lines in rural leads to the destruction of our forests is not a Marxist term any more. The areas have little or no We have to build mass as well. It‘s one of the best idea is that 1% is a criminal class is regulations. They expect to put in up movements. We have never changed examples of the corruption of our not a foreign concept to these to 25 thousand miles of pipe in anything by electing officials to democracy from the local level all people. As people begin to Pennsylvania alone and clear office. I think it was Eugene Debs or the way to the national. understand what‘s happening to 150,000 acres of state forest. And someone of his caliber who said, ―If So we began organizing. And we them, they begin to connect the most will go in without I were Moses and could lead you to were successful. About 700 people dots. As a result there are newspaper regulation. That‘s the next fight. the promised land, I wouldn‘t do so, marched on a weekday from the articles about fracking every It‘s very dangerous. In the last for another false prophet would lead North Side to downtown day. The series published in the couple of years we have had an you out.‖ There are no saviors. We Pittsburgh. Bridget Shields, City New York Times was incredible. increasing number of gas line are our own saviors. And to save Council Chair Doug Shields‘ wife, incidents in Bruno, California, in ourselves we must regain that class became involved. She saw that this Allentown, Pennsylvania. where confidence and realize that we have Are there many anti-fracking was clearly a moral, ethical as well people died. And those were the old nothing at stake in this corrupt citizen groups in the area? as an environmental issue. While I lines that are now collapsing. So system. It only works for the top 1 don‘t want to take any credit away There‘s a wonderful group in who is going to inspect the new or 2%. We can never live well again from Doug, it was Bridget who Murrysville, a phenomenal group in ones? Nobody. You don‘t have until we create a world in which we spurred him into activism. And Butler. Beaver has a website and a to. No regulation. They just make a all live better. Doug became outraged like group going as well as Peters ditch, drop them in the ground and everybody else. We suddenly had a Township and Upper and Lower walk away. city spearheading a motion to ban Burrell Townships. They have all Pipes don‘t last forever. Every Jo Tavener taught film production fracking within city limits. spun off from and worked with weld, every joint is subject to wear studies at New York University Film The State said, ―You can‘t do Marcellus Protest. Now we‘re a and tear and failure. Federal law School before retiring as Assistant that.‖ Our City Council, partly resource. We can plug them into states that you cannot pass any state Professor of Critical Studies at the because of the momentum we built, other folks. We can find speakers regulations that are stronger than the University of Pittsburgh. unanimously voted to ban fracking in for them. We have literature we federal ones and the federal the city - despite what their lawyers
This Year Give PEACE a Chance.
Become an Active Member of the Thomas Merton Center and Help Change the World! Together, we can create a more peaceful and just world. Already a member? Now is the time to renew your membership! 2012 marks the Center‘s 40th Anniversary! With you we will carry on our mission: to instill a consciousness of values and to raise the moral questions involved with war, racism, poverty, environmental degradation and oppression. Our members are people from diverse philosophies and faiths who find common ground in the nonviolent struggle to bring about a more peaceful and just world. Since the Center's beginning, thousands of people have joined with us to work together on this important mission. Through protests, as well as by organizing projects, the active involvement of our members has been the backbone of our work. Over twenty organizing campaigns and projects are supported by the Center. Our monthly newspaper, The NewPeople, is a key source of information for activists interested in participating in justice-oriented advocacy strategies and events.
To become a member go to http://thomasmertoncenter.org/join-donate/ mail, or call the Center at (412) 301-3022. 4 - NEWPEOPLE
May 2012
ACTIVIST REPORTS Voter Photo ID Law Protested by Advocates, ID Seekers by Adam MacGregor Over 60 supporters of voting rights turned out just past noon on April 18 at the PennDOT Driver's License Center on Smithfield Street. The action was organized by Pa. Protect Our Vote (with support from many partner organizations of the Western Pa. We Are One Coalition) in order to raise awareness of the new photo voter ID law recently enacted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It followed a similar, well-attended and highly publicized event recently held in Philadelphia. Simply stated, the Voter ID law requires all voters to present a valid photo ID at the polls starting in November. The April 18 action sought Celeste Taylor Speaks Out
Photo Courtesy of Adam MacGregor
to highlight the law's unjust disenfranchisement of seniors, low-income people, and others who currently lack both a photo ID and/or the means to acquire it. The new law also states that those who do not have a means of paying the $13.50 processing fee for a state-issued non-driver photo ID may have the fee waived if they declare financial hardship. To hold the state accountable on this new promise, advocates first made sure that low-income ID-seekers who attended had the required documentation for the photo ID (a Social Security card, one other form of approved ID and two proofs of residence), before escorting them into the center to see that they received their nocost ID without a hitch. Speakers from the Black Political Empowerment Project (B-PEP), One Pittsburgh, Just Harvest, United Steelworkers, and other partnering organizations decried the harmful effects of the law on our democratic process, while noting that making sure that everyone is compliant in time for November is priority one. "We need to 'Occupy the Polls' in November," declared B-PEP's Tim Stevens, leading the crowd in a chant of the same. This voter suppression law is not going unchallenged, however: Representatives of the Pennsylvania. ACLU also circulated among the crowd, identifying potential plaintiffs from the group of ID-seekers for a
forthcoming legal action. Event organizer Celeste Taylor of Pennsylvania Protect Our Vote and B-PEP said, ―This new Voter ID law will disenfranchise many who are homeless, elderly, young, and poor, as well as costing the state millions to implement. It is more than an inconvenience for many - it's a downright burden! The Governor should be encouraging people to exercise their right to vote, not making it harder!‖ Other voter photo ID actions and informational events are in the works, including the first in a series of town hall forums being organized by the Western Pa. We Are One coalition. Finalized event information will be posted at facebook.com/ WEAREONEWPA. More on the requirements for procuring Voter Photo ID under the new law can be found on the PennDOT website: http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/ voter/voteridlaw.shtml. Questions or concerns from the public about the Voter ID law may be directed to the PA Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683). Adam MacGregor is the Communications Coordinator for Just Harvest, an organization that since 1986 has worked to end hunger and poverty in our communities through education, mobilization, and empowerment.
Demonstrators Demand Justice at Slain Youth Rally In NYC by Corey Carrington
that Martin ―looked suspicious‖). While Trayvon‘s case appears to be another On April 9th, over 350 demonstrators gathered springboard for an ever growing social justice in New York City‘s Union Square Park for a movement, participants and organizers of the rally Slain Youth Rally to remember Trayvon Martin, made clear that this rally was about more than an African-American youth who was allegedly unjust murders of our youth. A City University of murdered by a ―neighborhood vigilante‖. New York (CUNY) student described a ―racist Participants/supporters included those who agenda of America‖ bigger than racially charged identify with the Transport Workers Union Local murders and a contributing factor in military 100 and members of Occupy Wall Street. The operations overseas. Another protester related crowd also honored others around the country how the Martin case has parallels to the case of who have been victimized by racist and so-called Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black teenager who vigilante acts. A list of Black and Latino youth was brutally slain while visiting relatives in murdered by the NYPD was read during the rally. Mississippi in 1955. The most controversial and publicized of these The rally (organized by community activists, cases is Trayvon‘s, a 17-year old black teenager Gaynelle Morgan and Alicia Harrington) killed February 26 in South Florida by George culminated in a march to Washington Square Park Zimmerman. Many were outraged upon learning after the final speech. As the crowd marched they that he was not charged immediately with murder shouted, ―NYPD…KKK, How many kids did you due to the controversial ―Stand Your Ground‖ kill today?‖ and other chants. The NYPD stood law. Zimmerman is using this statute to claim self their ground, securing the street that day; defense - even though Trayvon was found however, that didn‘t deter anyone from sending unarmed. (It is important to note that 911 the message: Our youth shall no longer be dispatchers told Zimmerman not to pursue silenced. Victimize us no more. Martin, after Zimmerman was recorded claiming Upon reaching Washington Square Park,
Morgan (also known as Harriet Thugman) thanked the crowd, saying this would not be the last show of solidarity in the fight against racial and human injustice. ―My next plan is to organize an LGBT rally. This is important because people need to know that racism still exists [in many forms]…and we can‘t sit back and not do anything about it‖. Let us continue to hope that 50 years down the road America won‘t need rallies like this anymore.
Photo by Corey Carrington
Corey Carrington is a recent graduate of Slippery Rock University.
14th Annual Summit Against Racism launches the Black and White Reunion into 2012 by Kenneth Miller Tim Stevens and many members of the Black and White Reunion‘s Coordinating Council closed the 14th Annual Summit Against Racism on the Saturday after Martin Luther King Day at the East Liberty Presbyterian Church. Financial proceeds will support the 2012 Jonny Gammage Scholarship Program, along with an additional contribution and administrative support from Negro Emergency Education Drive (NEED). Members of the Black and White Reunion are currently protesting police brutality and campaigning for citizen review of the police. We have also joined with the Black Political Empowerment Project to solicit voter registrations from college students at the
Community College of Allegheny County. A big thank you to all of the volunteers and Photo Courtesy of Ken Miller workshop presenters who helped make the 14th Annual Summit a success. The next Black and White Reunion meetings are Tuesday May 15 at 6 pm and Tuesday June 19 at 6 pm, both at the East Liberty Presbyterian Church. The Summer BBQ Against Police Brutality will be on Saturday, July 28, at in Schenley Park at the Overlook Shelter. (www.blackandwhitereunion.org) The 15th Annual Summit Against Racism will be on the Saturday after Martin Luther King Day, January 28, 2013. Let's Occupy Pittsburgh to end racism and stop police brutality right away! Ken Miller is a member of the TMC Editorial Collective. May 2012
NEWPEOPLE - 5
ACTIVIST CELEBRATION
Thomas Merton Center Honoring Occupy Pittsburgh On May 31, 2012 at the New Persons Awards Register on-line at: http://tinyurl.com/6qug3zf
6 - NEWPEOPLE
May 2012
ACTIVIST BUDGET THE PEOPLE'S BUDGET Congressional Progressive Budget Cuts The People‘s Budget eliminates the deficit in 10 years, puts Americans back to work and restores our economic competitiveness. The People‘s Budget recognizes that in order to compete, our nation needs every American to be productive, and in order to be productive we need to raise our skills to meet modern needs. Our Budget Eliminates the Deficit and Raises a $31 Billion Surplus In Ten Years. Our budget protects Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and responsibly eliminates the deficit by targeting its main drivers: the Bush Tax Cuts, the wars overseas, and the causes and effects of the recent recession. Our Budget Puts America Back to Work & Restores America‘s Competitiveness • Trains teachers and restores schools; rebuilds roads and bridges and ensures that users help pay for them • Invests in job creation, clean energy and broadband infrastructure, housing and R&D programs
Our Budget Creates a Fairer Tax System • Ends the recently passed upper-income tax cuts and lets Bush-era tax cuts expire at the end of 2012 • Extends tax credits for the middle class, families, and students • Creates new tax brackets that range from 45% starting at $1 million to 49% for $1 billion or more • Implements a progressive estate tax • Eliminates corporate welfare for oil, gas, and coal companies; closes loopholes for multinational corporations • Enacts a financial crisis responsibility fee and a financial speculation tax on derivatives and foreign exchange Our Budget Protects Health • Enacts a health care public option and negotiates prescription payments with pharmaceutical companies • Prevents any cuts to Medicare physician payments for a decade Our Budget Safeguards Social Security for the
Next 75 Years • Eliminates the individual Social Security payroll cap to make sure upper income earners pay their fair share • Increases benefits based on higher contributions on the employee side Our Budget Brings Our Troops Home • Responsibly ends our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to leave America more secure both home and abroad • Cuts defense spending by reducing conventional forces, procurement, and costly R&D programs Our Budget‘s Bottom Line • Deficit reduction of $5.6 trillion • Spending cuts of $1.7 trillion • Revenue increase of $3.9 trillion • Public investment $1.7 trillion Source Information can be found at www.cpc.grijalva.house.gov (Congressional Progressive Caucus) Inequality by the Numbers Source Information: This chart comes from the website toomuchonline.org. About Too Much Each and every week, Too Much explores excess and inequality, in the United States and throughout the world. They cover a wide swatch of territory, everything from the latest executive pay outrage to the most current research insights on how staggering income and wealth divides are impacting our health and our happiness. A project of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good of the Washington, D.C. based Institute for Policy Studies, Too Much began publication in 1995 as a print quarterly, then became an online weekly nine years later.
CONCERNS VOICED ABOUT OBAMA’S 2013 BUDGET REQUESTS by Jo Tavener The President's proposed 2013 budget will, said the White House, keep fairness and equality alive "by creating an economy that's built to last - with good jobs that pay well and security for the middle class." Priorities focus on short-term job growth, unemployment extension, and a payroll tax cut as well as road and rail infrastructure, school modernization ($30 billion)) and $30 billion to help states retain teachers and first responders. However, the corporate media isn‘t buying the rosy picture provided by the White House. While noting that the 2013 budget, like those in the recent past, encourages ―fair share‖ taxation -- a tax hike on those making $250,000 or more; limitations on deductions for the wealthy; expansion of college tax credits; and the Buffett Rule insuring that those making more than $1 million a year pay at least 30% of income in taxes -- the one recurrent theme is the deficit and deficit reduction. They claim that Obama‘s 2013 budget
produces a $977 billion deficit. I won‘t rehearse all the arguments against budgets based on deficit reduction during hard times. Just look at Europe to see how these policies go awry. Instead, let‘s focus on concerns that many progressives have with both the 2011 and 2013 Obama budget proposals. According John Nichols of the Nation Magazine in the February 2011 issue…―The Catholic Church has always said that budgets are moral documents and that a budget tells us what a government…to be most important. And the unsettling thing to me... is that a Democratic president is proposing an expansion of military spending — a substantial expansion of military spending. He‘s also proposing to dramatically increase the amount of U.S. government support for the building of nuclear power plants, for all sorts of initiatives that we thought had been settled, old issues...At the same time, there are dramatic cuts in humanitarian programs and, well, in programs that we think of as basic social services.‖ In August, 2011, the debt ceiling agreement
further disturbed liberals. The main concern was the imposition of $1 trillion in cuts to programs that served and employed women such as food stamps, college tuition programs, family planning clinics, and childcare. The National Organization for Women rejected balancing the federal budget on the backs of the most vulnerable. Amy Goodman‘s blog of August 2, 2011 made similar points. ―President Obama‘s debt ceiling deal is widely considered a historic defeat for progressives, a successful attack on the New Deal and Great Society achievements of the past century. Congresswoman Donna Edwards, DMd., summed up the disappointment, in which half the Democrats in the House voted against their president, tweeting: ―Nada from million/ billionaires; corp. tax loopholes aplenty; only sacrifice from the poor/middle class? Shared sacrifice, balance? Really?‖ Now we are facing even further cuts in the 2013 budget. As we have already seen, there is an extraordinary disconnect between who pays taxes, (Continued on page 13) May 2012
NEWPEOPLE - 7
FAITH AND ACTIVISM
Living with Wisdom: The Life of Thomas Merton by Joyce Rothermel
book about Merton without giving attention to his extraordinary efforts to prevent another world war In April, a small group of and to challenge Christians to a renewed interested folks joined in appreciation of the example Christ has given us of the first gathering of the a life free of violence. Yet one of the dangers of Merton Study Group, having known Merton through a common formed in this 40th preoccupation is the temptation to overstress that anniversary year of the interest while ignoring or slighting others. I hope Merton Center. The book this biography comes reasonably close to getting Thomas Merton chosen for study this year is the balance right.‖ Jim Forest's book, "Living with Wisdom: A Life (I think it does, too!) of Thomas Merton". Study will continue on Of great interest in the book is the amount of Wednesdays, May 9 and June 6, at 7 PM at time and detail given to Merton's early life, time Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside. New in New York City, conversion, and work on "The members are welcome! Seven Storey Mountain,‖ his autobiography As we continue this 40th anniversary year of the written in 1948 under orders from his abbot and TMC, we include a book review of this book on translated into 29 languages. It continues with Merton to invite you to read it and learn more Merton's life in the Monastery as primarily a about this amazing man of the twentieth century monk, but also as an essayist, social critic, for whom the Center is named. Several of ecumenical pioneer, poet, artist, photographer, Merton's own books are available for purchase at correspondent, and prophetic voice for the Center and many for loan. nonviolence and social justice. "Living with Wisdom" was originally published Merton was controversial among some of his in 1979, revised in 1991 and brought into print fellow monks and more traditional church folk with a third new and expanded edition with many because of his writings on social justice, civil more photos in 2008, the 40th anniversary of rights, the Vietnam War, Buddhism, and other Merton's death. Some would say that this book is religions. (It is because of these same writings the best introduction to anyone of Merton's life that the Merton Center was named after him!) In and work. Jim Forest, says of the book: the afterword of the book, Jim Forest talks about ―It would be impossible for any author to write a the unfortunate decision by then Bishop Donald
Wuerl of Pittsburgh to omit Merton in the American Catholic Catechism in 2005. He was to be profiled as an exemplary American Catholic in the section on prayer. It is the only chapter in the book without a profile. It appears that Merton may still be controversial! Jim Forest includes in the sidebars of almost every page quotes or photos that parallel the narrative. Many of the photos are close-up shots of Merton taken throughout his lifetime. Others picture him with social justice activists who came to speak with him at the Monastery in Gethsemani. When you finish the book, you feel you have completed a survey course in the life, spirituality, and social activism of Thomas Merton. Most of Merton's own books remain in print over a half century after their original publications. Merton remains a powerful witness and influence in my life, in the lives of many here in the Pittsburgh area, and around the world. (The author, Jim Forest, became a close personal friend of Thomas Merton in the early 1960's. A founder of the Catholic Peace Fellowship of Reconciliation, he is the author of many other books including a biography of Dorothy Day entitled, "All Is Grace".) Joyce Rothermel is a participant in the Merton Study Group and Co-Chair of the TMC 40th Anniversary Committee.
From Justice for Jordan in Mellon Park to a Sing-Out for Earth Day by JT Campbell On a weekend when many in the nation stop to reflect on Mother Nature and the many gifts we have each been afforded at different points in our lives, here in Pittsburgh, two important events unified familiar faces with undying causes and battle cries that even forecasts of rain and snow could not overshadow. The AntiWar Committee once again pushed forward on Saturday, April 21, with their steadfast campaign calling for the resignation of District Attorney Stephen Zappala. Reminiscent of marches and rallies the city has held in the
Photo by JT Campbell
past for Jonny Gammage and Jordan Miles, this gathering held a breath of a renewed "enough-is -enough" attitude. This most probably can be attributed to the new connections and similarities in community support found between the Pittsburgh campaigns and those in
Sanford, Florida, for Trayvon Martin, the teen murdered there recently. However, in the true spirit of the Merton Center, a lot of this same strong-willed energy was then refocused on Sunday in conjunction with Earth Day. On April 22, there was a circle formed on the green growth of spring lawn in Point State Park to sing a rendition of "This Land Is My Land" at the same time as others were doing so nationwide. The water in the rivers flowed peacefully as the music from the park reminded us why our city will always be "the City of Champions". JT Campbell is a volunteer at the Merton Center & member of the Bethesda Presbyterian family.
Death Row Exonerees Speak Out Against Death Penalty by Dorothy Miller Kirk Bloodsworth was branded a rapist and a murderer and spent nine years on death row for a crime he did not commit. The first death row exoneree freed by DNA evidence, he spent nearly 18 years on death row in a Florida prison. Bloodsworth spoke to an audience of 130 at the Mt. Lebanon United Methodist Church in February on his prison experiences and the injustice of the death penalty. He was brought to Pittsburgh by Faith in Action Against the Death Penalty, a local interfaith initiative affiliated with Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (PADP), and his appearance was sponsored by Witness to Innocence and the United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society as well as a score of South Hills and Pittsburgh faith groups. Bloodsworth has dedicated his life to helping other innocent victims of a flawed criminal justice system. He is a perfect example of how the death penalty—irreversible—can be used to kill an innocent victim. Relating his experiences in a harsh Maryland prison he stated, ―The death penalty is a stark reminder that if it could happen to an honorably discharged Marine like me it could happen to anybody in this room.‖ Bloodsworth was saved by DNA testing in 1984. The real killer, caught several years after he was released, was actually in the same prison with him. Bloodsworth is responsible for legislation, the 8 - NEWPEOPLE
May 2012
2000 Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA testing program that helps defray DNA testing costs as part of the Innocence Protection Program. He is also the subject of the book ―Kirk Bloodsworth: the True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA‖ by Tim Junkin. Another death row exoneree, Juan Melendez, told Pittsburgh audiences about his nearly 18 years in a Florida prison for a crime he did not commit and his ―miracle‖ release. His March visit here, hosted by Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Faith in Action, the Pittsburgh Area Jewish Committee, Amnesty International Group 39, American Civil Liberties Union and the Human Rights Coalition/Fed-Up, took place at the Bricolage Theater, Downtown. The 99th U.S. exoneree said of the 1272 executed in the U.S., ―Only God knows how many were innocent.‖ A victim of false testimony in a murder case, he languished in prison for years to become a perfect example of hope and survival. A member of Witness to Innocence, he has been telling his story and about the broken system of capital punishment for the past ten years in hopes of ending the death penalty in his lifetime. Melendez was convicted on false testimony from a prison informant. There was no physical evidence against him. At the time his poor English worked against his defense. It was later found that the defense had a confession from the real killer one
month before his trial. ―Saved by the grace of God…a miracle,‖ he says, ―People need to know that the death penalty is racist, it costs too much in appeals, it is cruel and unusual punishment. And we can never release an innocent man from the grave.‖ Bloodworth and Melendez are just two of 240 innocent death row inmates released since 1973. Juan is the subject of a 48-minute documentary: ―Juan Melendez 6446.‖ Six of the innocents were from Pennsylvania which has the fourth largest number, 219 people, on death row. There are 3233 prisoners awaiting execution in the U.S., still one of the few industrialized countries utilizing the death penalty. Statistics show the death penalty is borne chiefly by the poor and minorities with a huge racial disparity in sentencing. The problem is further exacerbated by an ineffective and poorly financed public defenders system. DNA statistics clearly show the dangers of executing an innocent person. Recent studies show that when given a choice most people opt for life without parole rather than the death penalty which has been opposed by all major faiths. For further information or to join the fight against capital punishment call Faith in Action (412-681-8528) or Pennsylvanians Against the Death Penalty (412-361-7872.) Dorothy Miller is a member of the Merton Center and both Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and Faith in Action.
ACTIVISM IN HISTORY Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike by Margaret Baco
moments of Dr. King‘s revolutionary leadership. He tells a compelling story about Fresh insights into the Civil Rights Labor and Civil Rights struggles from the movement came from the historic perspective inside out. Dr. King was a prophetic Christian of the Memphis Sanitation Workers by who saw materialism and poverty as a Michael Honey as he delivered the ―Cause structural problem in a society dominated by Lecture‖ on April 13 in Baker Hall, CMU. militaristic powers intent on disrupting any Honey commenced his lecture with one of the movement for economic justice. freedom songs of the 60s At the end of the lecture, the audience as he crooned ―I woke up was spell bound … resonating with Photo by Michael Drohan this morning with my these past heroes, and realizing the mind stayed on freedom. importance of this historic reminder. Alleluia... like a tree Poor people can change the way planted by the water, we things are. When people mobilize, shall not be despite the risks, victories are won. moved....‖. Honey took The Sanitation Workers influenced part in the Civil Rights the politics of their time. They won movement himself, then the right to legally organize. he proceeded to academia Dr. Honey suggested that it is and has spent his life much wiser to be mal-adapted, in the documenting those way Dr. King inspired us to struggles and the role of understand mal-adaptation, than to be M.L. King in them. He adapted to the status quo of injustice. has written four books on The Jericho road is a ―dangerous King and his road.‖ May we take courage in the Dr. Michael Honey Speaks at CMU. involvement with example of those who have walked it oppressed people before us. working for justice. Margaret Baco serves on the Thomas Merton In his most recent book on King ―: Going Center Environmental Committee and the Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Health and Wellness Committee of the Martin Luther King‘s Last Campaign‖ Dr. Kingsley Association. Honey documents the last days, hours, and
New Activist Organizations in Pittsburgh by Tyrone Scales, Emily Cimini, and advocates for individual‘s Missy Silverstein reproductive rights. To enable such rights, VOX champions the As the 2012 elections grow closer, availability and accessibility of many progressives ponder the comprehensive health care current legislation coming out of reproductive services for all. (VOX, Washington and state capitals and 2012). On a recent lobbying trip to hope that a majority of Americans Washington D.C., Vox members will reject those policies urged members of Congress to push underwritten by profoundly back against policies that undermine conservative ideologies. In the health and welfare of most Pennsylvania, House Bill 934 was Americans. recently passed, requiring voters to One Pittsburgh is an umbrella provide an approved form of photo organization -- consisting of identification at the polls to counter community organizations, faith the non-existent problem of voter groups and labor unions -- that fraud. Two other troubling national advocates for economic justice. Its campaigns, what some call ―the war mission is to win good jobs, grow on women,‖ targeting female strong communities, and insure contraception, and ―the war on the corporate accountability (Kyndall, poor,‖ targeting social service 2012). One Pittsburgh supports the programs, gain traction in the House viability of communities by ensuring of Representatives that, at the same that services like public transit and time, call for continuing the Bush tax public education are adequately cuts for the wealthy. funded. One Pittsburgh also In response, the peace and social advocates for the creation of jobs justice community has actively that benefit society as a whole while sought to push back against such paying a living wage regardless of policies that target minorities, the the education or training required. It poor and people of color. Here at the monitors proposed legislation that Thomas Merton Center, there has benefit corporations and their bottom always been an interest in finding line at the expense of the rest of us. and supporting new activist groups Pittsburgh United emerged in that work with such populations. 2007. The organization seeks social Recently a number of new activist and economic justice for the people groups have emerged in the of Pittsburgh. It is part of the Pittsburgh area. Partnership for Working Families coalition and geared to advocating Voices for Planned Parenthood or VOX, as it is more commonly for good government, responsible referred to, is an organization that ‗green‘ development and a fair was just formed at the University of economy. Its recent campaigns Pittsburgh in 2011. The group include Northside United which
focuses on north shore development; the One Hill Community Benefits Agreement that raises funds to improve the Hill District; workers rights campaigns; and finally, watchdog efforts to support the EPA‘s enforcement of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts (United, 2012). Action United Pittsburgh is a membership organization that consists of low and moderate income residents. Its goal is to build strong neighborhood coalitions to support policies that benefit their communities. The organization focuses on a host of community needs: job creation, a living wage, the strengthening of Social Security, greater accessibility to improved healthcare services along with paid sick leave, environmental protection, public education enhancement, and homeowners‘ rights (United A. , 2012). Tyrone Scales, Emily Cimini and
Missy Silverstein are University of Pittsburgh students in the School of Social Work enrolled in Professor Aaron Mann‘s class. Sources of Information: Kyndall. (2012, February 19). Media. Retrieved from One Pittsburgh: http://onepittsburgh.org/ category/media/ United, A. (2012, April 15). Action United Pittsburgh. Retrieved from Action United For the Common Good: http://actionunited.org/ taxonomy/term/10 United, P. (2012, April 13). Campaigns. Retrieved from Pittsburgh United: http:// www.pittsburghunited.org/ campaigns VOX. (2012, January 1). About Us. Retrieved from VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood: http:// pittvox.blogspot.com/p/about-us.html
May 2012
NEWPEOPLE - 9
ACTIVIST VISIONS Centrality of Workers' Rights for M. L. King by Michael Drohan It was not peripheral to Martin Luther King‘s life and mission that his final hours, before his assassination were spent in Memphis, Tennessee in solidarity with the Sanitation Workers of that city. According to Dr. Michael Honey, who spoke about King‘s solidarity with oppressed workers at the Pump House on April 14, 2012, King understood his visit to Memphis in terms of the Good Samaritan parable ( Luke 10: 25-37). In his speech on the eve of his assassination, King interpreted his journey to Memphis as taking the journey to Jericho to aid the man who had fallen among robbers and lay near dead at the side of the road. Michael Honey in his book ―Going Down Jericho Road‖ fleshes out the
saga of M.L. Photo Courtesy of the Creative Commons King‘s solidarity with workers and its centrality to his life‘s work. The sanitation workers in Memphis as in MLK much of the south in the 1960s were paid minimum wages, had no benefits and were defined as casual workers with minimal to no rights. They represented the most downtrodden sector of the labor force and were almost entirely African-American. In his latter years, King saw the interconnections of the Vietnam War, poverty at home and the struggle for civil and labor rights. He maintained that the flame throwers in Vietnam
have our cities as their target. For him, Civil Rights and Voting rights were only the beginning and as he said the easy phase. The second phase was the struggle for Economic and Labor Rights and this was the difficult phase. King had a deep understanding of the linkage between the war in Vietnam and all these domestic struggles. His own studies of Marx and other progressive economic analysts together with his advisors Stanley Levinson and Bayard Rustin deepened King‘s interpretation of contemporary events. Another plank of the organizing of the Sanitation Workers in Memphis
was for the right to collect union dues from the workers by the city. Honey sees the link between these struggles and those of workers in Wisconsin today where the Governor of that state, Scott Walker, wants to roll back these rights and make Wisconsin a right to work state. The connection between the struggles for the right to vote and have representation by King find an echo in the movement today to roll back through Voter ID laws the right to vote of poor and minority populations. And so the struggle continues . Civil Rights, Labor Rights and Voting Rights are never secure and have to be continually fought for. Michael Drohan is Co-Chair of the Editorial Collective and a Board member of the Thomas Merton Center.
Nuclear Weapons a Very Real Threat Today By Molly Rush “From a Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace: Molly Rush Transforming the Human Spirit,” an exhibit and symposium on nuclear abolition held March 21-24 at CMU, co-sponsored by a Buddhist peace group, Soka Gakkai International - USA and SGI at CMU. Molly Rush addressed the symposium on March 23 with the following words: In 1980, when I took a hammer to the warhead casings of two Mark 12 -A missiles, the Cold War threat was that the two superpowers, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, were on a collision course. Mark 12-As were part of a U.S. first-strike policy; they were aimed at Soviet missile silos and were on hair trigger alert. The danger of an accidental war was very real. In 1982, a million people rallied at the United Nations Disarmament Conference in New York City to call for an end to the arms race. In the movie WarGames, when the self-aware missile-launching computer realizes that global thermonuclear war is as futile as tictac-toe it concludes, "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play." That‘s why in 2008 four topranking Cold Warriors –including Henry Kissinger -- published an op ed in the Wall St. Journal saying, "In some respects, the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons is like the top of a very tall mountain. From the vantage point of our troubled world today, we can't even see the top of the mountain, and it is tempting and easy to say we can't get there from here. But the risks from continuing to go down the mountain or standing pat are too real to ignore. We must chart a course to higher ground where the mountaintop becomes more visible." They concluded, ―We endorse 10 - NEWPEOPLE
May 2012
setting the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons and working energetically on the actions required to achieve that goal.‖ [--George Shultz, William J. Perry, Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn Wall St. Journal, 15/1/08 ] On March 22, 2012 Bloomberg News reported a statement by one of the four, former chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee Sam Nunn: ―The elements of a perfect storm are gathering. There is a large supply of plutonium and highly enriched uranium-weapons- usable nuclear materials spread across hundreds of sites in 32 countries, too much of it poorly secured. There is also greater know-how to build a bomb widely available, and there are terrorist organizations determined to do it.‖ Next week about 50 heads of state, including President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will attend the second global conference ever on nuclear material that has escaped state control, The Nuclear Security Summit on March 26-27 in Seoul. The legacy of the Soviet Union‘s breakup, inadequate atomic stockpile controls and the proliferation of nuclear-fuel technology mean the world may be awash with unaccounted-for weapons ingredients, ripe to be picked up by terrorists. ―If material is loose, it may already be impossible to contain or account for it,‖ said Graham Allison, director of Harvard University‘s international security program and a former nuclearsecurity adviser to President Ronald Reagan. ―There are no precise figures for how much high-enriched uranium or plutonium is missing.‖ On December 5th Greenpeace, the anti-nuclear environmental group, demonstrated how easily intruders could breach security at EDF nuclear reactors near Paris and in southern France. They hid inside
one reactor for 14 hours and unfurled a banner reading ―Safe Nuclear Doesn‘t Exist‖ on the roof of another. But the politics of nuclear weapons remains convoluted and fraught with dangers. We have Republican candidates for the presidency calling for an attack on Iran. And a Democratic President threading his way through minefields while working to restrain Israel during an election year while fending off attacks that he is weak. Meanwhile we are spending tens of billions of dollars this year on nuclear weapons and environmental cleanup at nuclear weapons sites. A couple of years ago nuclear hawk Sen. John Kyl secured a promise from the White House to boost funding for "modernizing" the nation's existing warheads: $80-85 billion over 10 years. Critics say instead it‘s for new facilities to build the ingredients for new warheads. Plants at Los Alamos, New Mexico and Oak Ridge, Tennessee would create plutonium warhead cores, and highly enriched uranium secondary cores. There have been major protests in Kansas City of a proposed third plant for non-nuclear bomb materials. In February AP reported that President Obama is considering three proposals by the Pentagon to cut the number of deployed nukes. The most ambitious proposal would reduce America's active stockpile to just 300 to 400 warheads—fewer than the country has had since the earliest days of the Cold War. [Since 1945 the US has reportedly built close to 70,000 atomic bombs.] Air Force researchers propose the U.S. focus on "proportional deterrence" —the idea that America doesn't need to annihilate its enemies out of existence but instead just needs enough firepower to threaten an enemy's most valuable targets. Throughout the years since the
U.S. destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki with what are now considered little bombs, there has been strong civilian resistance to nuclear weapons worldwide. CND, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament formed in 1958, remains active today. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has 200 organizations in sixty nations. Since that first Plowshares Action in 1980, there have been over 100 direct actions at nuclear weapons sites around the world. Many protesters have spent years in jail. Just a few weeks ago, Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower, with Cindy Sheehan, mother of an Iraq vet, four members of Code Pink, the President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Fr. Louis Vitale and six others were arrested for trespassing on military property while conducting an act of civil disobedience at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California. They were protesting the test launch of the first of five tests slated for 2012 of the Minuteman III InterContinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) , which reached its target 4200 miles away in the Marshall Islands. If ever there was a time for renewed, broad opposition to nuclear weapons, it is right now! [At the summit, President Obama stated, ―It would not take much, just a handful or so of these materials, to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people and that's not an exaggeration, that's the reality that we face." The leaders agreed to work on securing and accounting for all nuclear material by 2014, a most ambitious goal.] Molly Rush is Co-Chair of the Editorial Collective and CoFounder and Board Member of the Thomas Merton Center.
ACTIVISM RISING Experiencing the Spirit of Merton by JT Campbell
Community Organizer. Jibran is a volunteer at the Center, is a student graduate of Gateway High School of the urban studies/anthropology Over the past year, the and now lives with his Thomas Merton Center has been wife in the North Hills fortunate to have the help of many area. individuals (volunteers and longMany other students time members, alike). The Center joined us this past continues to attract new faces, those semester, including a dedicated to Pittsburgh‘s Peace & group from the University Social Justice movement. of Pittsburgh Yiwei Zhang, a 22-year-old native undergraduate School of of Shanghai, is finishing the second Social Work‘s Public semester of his internship at the Policy Class, taught by Dr. (Left-Right) Corey Carrington, Hannah Spiers, Diane McMahon, Yiwei center while in the Masters of Social Aaron Mann. In addition Zhang, Annamarie Denghart, Missy Silverstein and Jibran Mushtaq. Work Program at the University of to volunteering at the Pittsburgh. Yiwei hopes to find work center, these students participated in department at the University of locally and intends to work in the lobbying and experienced social Pittsburgh. Hannah speaks of plans area before returning home to visit justice advocacy through trips class to study abroad this summer in his family , whom he has not seen trips to Harrisburg and Washington, Eastern Europe, with a one-way since he came to this country two D.C. At the Thomas Merton Center ticket already in her backpack. years ago. they were given the opportunity to Annmarie Denghart, originally Corey Carrington, our Public Ally build relationships with veteran from central PA, not only spent Volunteer Coordinator, was community organizers, and use their time at the Merton Center, but she connected to us through the local skills/talents in an advocacy-based also worked with youth in an chapter of the AmeriCorps program. setting. Also, as part of ―Pitt Day,‖ afternoon children‘s program. Corey is originally from the North members of the group stood up and Missy Silverstein, graduate of Side but found a new home recently voiced their opinions to state Woodland Hills High School, shared in the Lawrenceville community. lawmakers on the budget and unfair insight about volunteering and Jibran Mushtaq, a graduate of cuts in funding for education on their brought her own experiences. LaRoche College, supports the team trip to Harrisburg. Tyrone Scales, another Social as the part-time IT Director and Hannah Spiers, another new Work major in the undergraduate
program, is taking what he learned at the center with the intention of applying it at the United Cerebral Palsy where he will work in the fall. Emily Cimini, from the south Williamsport Pennsylvania area, finished her Associates Degree in Early Childhood Education and plans to move forward into an opportunity with the Student Conservation Association. Rachel McCain, from the Philadelphia area, is the newest to join the group, but her organizational skills have come during a time when they are needed most. Rachel multitasks between volunteering, school work, and various extracurricular groups like One Pittsburgh. One of the students reflected, ―I think the Merton Center is a great place to get involved with. While volunteering here, I have met many kind people who truly care about the well-being of all in our society. Through my volunteer experiences I have learned a lot about the organization. JT Campbell is a volunteer & member of Thomas Merton Center.
Wali Jamal Presents Martin Delany Memphis, where King was murdered, but the workers prevailed. The simple words on the signs carried by hundreds of strikers were ―I Am a Man.‖ Those are the very words, spoken by Delany to a prestigious scientific meeting in London where the white speaker who introduced him, well meaning and supportive though he was, stumbled over his words. Delany replied, simply enough; ―I rise, your Royal Highness, to thank his lordship, the unflinching friend of the Negro, for the remarks he has made in reference to Photo Courtesy of Ken Miller myself, and to assure your royal highness and his lordship Many members of the cast and crew of the “Martin R. Delany Lives!” assembled during a rehearsal at 937 Liberty Avenue on that I am a man.” Delany was active on every April 21, 2012. From left to right, Ron Black Sr., Marcus front to achieve equality, but Muzopappa, Wali Jamal, Michael Jackson, Camille Lowman, came to believe that the black Charles E. Timbers Jr., Mayme Williams, Vince Venura, Davion Pack and Davide Conley. They were rehearsing for the May 1st man would not achieve justice opening of the play at the August Wilson Center. "History at its in America. He traveled to Africa and considered finest!" proclaims actor Ron Black Sr. emigration for himself and others, looking for a life in which black people (Continued from page 1) could enjoy full participation. ―This dude,‖ said Playwright's Theater.‖ Jamal, ―wanted to move to Africa. He said we Delaney came here in 1831, and immediately were never going to get what we need got involved politically His colleague, Frederick here.‖ But he chose to stay here and work for Douglass regarded Delany as a man of ―defiant emancipation. blackness.‖ In his book, McCollester quotes I‘ve only touched on highlights here; Delany Douglass: ―I thank God for making me a man was all over the world, and knew everyone, simply, but Delany always thanks him for including Abe Lincoln, but Jamal and Mike will making him a black man.‖ McCollester regards fill us in. Ticket prices range from $5 to $25, and Delany as the father of Black Nationalism. His may be obtained through Proarts.org or by strong opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law led calling 412-394-3353. Wali Jamal is available to his most famous fiery speech, about protecting for school presentations, ―How many children his own home and family, which will be part of know about Martin Delany?‖ and is available to Jamal‘s presentation. accompany a traveling exhibit from the Heinz Delany is linked, by his words, McCollester History Center, featuring four citizens of said, with the famous public worker strike in Pennsylvania – Delany one of them - whose
lives were impacted by the Civil War. He can be reached at walijamal2001@yahoo.com. His production company is appropriately named History‘s Flipside. Bette McDevitt is a member of the Editorial Collective and a past staff person at the Thomas Merton Center. _______________________________________
Even More Martin Delany Places in Pittsburgh Compiled by Kenneth Miller On 3rd Avenue near the PPG ice skating
rink, is a National Historic sign marking the location of Martin Delany‘s home.
The Downtown Pittsburgh Partnership has installed a lighted map that shows the North Star, pointing the way to freedom. It shows the position of the North Star in 1831 during the founding of the Abolitionist Society here Pittsburgh... Martin Delany‘s The Mystery was one of the newspapers that Abolitionists used to present the testimony of slaves.
Members of the Battle of Homestead Foundation and History‘s Flip Side are urging Pittsburgh City Council to rename Grant Street for Martin Delany. Has anyone noticed that the Greater
Pittsburgh International Airport does not have a name yet? Educate the world about Martin Delany and highlight today‘s struggle against racism everywhere Pittsburgh, fly out of Martin Delany International Airport! Ken Miller is a member of the Editorial Collective at the Thomas Merton Center.
May 2012
NEWPEOPLE - 11
ACTIVIST REFLECTIONS Memories of Dorothy Urquhart, Life long Advocate for Justice by Pete Shell
Post Gazette Photo of Pete and Dorothy
Dorothy Urquhart, formerly of Pittsburgh, passed away on April 9, 2012, in Atlanta, GA, at the age of 80. Dorothy is an excellent example of why we should remember our history. She was one of the most dedicated fighters for justice I‘ve known. She was a leader in the community, and we in the struggle for justice for Jonny Gammage thought of her as our leader, too. She always kept us honest and focused. Since the partnering of her group, the United Concerned Christians at Work, and ours, the Campus Coalition for Peace and Justice, in a multicultural alliance for justice, she cut through the legal and political intricacies to consistently remind us that ―we need the truth‖ and
―we need justice.‖ At a time when many were afraid to speak out, she couldn‘t be shut down, bought out, or co-opted. More than anybody else, she was constantly out there at the City Council steps, passing out leaflets demanding prosecution of the police who murdered Jonny Gammage. Sister Dee (as we called her) stayed in contact with the Gammage family in Syracuse, arranging for us to travel there to deliver thousands of ―Justice for Jonny Gammage‖ buttons and participating in community meetings with them. She also participated in bus trips that we organized together with the NAACP to Washington, D.C., to meet with the ―justice‖ department to demand federal prosecution. I remember when Bill Lan Lee, who was Attorney General Janet Reno‘s assistant, said at our meeting ―I‘ll be
there watching over the case,‖ true to her up-front style she responded, ―And, Mr. Lee, we‘ll be right there too.‖ As a long-time PAT bus driver, she was active in the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) She was also active in the African American Workers Union, who protested when African American workers were discriminated against at the new stadiums. Dorothy was a good friend and comrade, and her spirit of struggle will be remembered as we continue it. And she made some really good fruit juice.
Pete Shell is Chair of the Thomas Merton Center’s Anti-War Committee and co-founder of the Campus Coalition for Peace & Justice.
The Pittsburgh General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World prepares to celebrate its First Ten Years by J. M. Brent
hired by Carnegie Steel during the 1892 Battle of Homestead and holds The Pittsburgh General incredible significance in American Membership Branch was chartered labor history. May Day, or on May Day 2002. The Pittsburgh International Workers' Day, is also a Industrial Workers of the World vitally important day for the history (IWW) held its founding meeting at of workers' rights. May 1st is a the Pump House in Homestead, commemoration of the 1886 Pennsylvania. The Pump House Haymarket Massacre in Chicago and marks the location where striking the fight for the eight hour work day. steelworkers clashed with Pinkertons Wobblies (aka IWW) in Pittsburgh Photo Courtesy of Ken Miller
are making preparations to celebrate our anniversary while coordinating with groups throughout the city to participate in May Day events. For information about the Pittsburgh IWW and May Day events, contact the branch at: PO Box 5912, Pittsburgh, PA 15210 or pittsburghiww@yahoo.com ―Remember that you are fighting more than your own fight. You are
fighting for the entire working class and you must stand together.‖— William Dudley "Big Bill" Haywood, to the striking mill workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1912. J.M. Brent is Branch Secretary/ Delegate - Pittsburgh Industrial Workers of the World
Taking
by Liane Ellison Norman
When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. —John Muir
IWW Members in 2002 in front of Pump House.
Great grandfather, Charles Thomas from mined-out Cornwall, joined the Gold Rush, dug Grass Valley gold from underground, tailings dumped downriver onto farmland. Miners dug up 12 billion tons of soil, injected mercury to flush out gold— toxins in rivers and lakes, trees uprooted, floods. California natives were in the way: infected with foreign pathogens, murdered— 100,000 killed—children taken from parents, the costs of get-rich-quick. By the time gold fever had died down, streams and rivers were dammed, drained, poisoned. Charles Thomas‘ grandson, my father, wrote how overgrazing the Wasatch Plateau of south-central Utah caused floods of mud and rock in valley towns. It had been free for free-loading herders to run sheep and cattle along the top, grazing between railheads, nipping off grasses and forbs that held soil to steep slopes. Without vegetation to absorb snow melt into hillsides, flooding followed. Farmers, townsfolk down in the valleys begged the Federal government to help. Herders objected: if they couldn‘t use the land for free, what was free-enterprise? Now gas companies want what‘s under my city, my house, my backyard garden in which my daughter‘s ashes lie buried under Lenten roses. Marcellus Shale, deep beneath us, full of natural gas that‘s been there since before first mammals walked the earth. Wild-to-profit companies—another Gold Rush, more herds free-grazing the Wasatch, dollar signs worming greedy brains. Rupturing Devonian rock, pouring chemicals in to force gas up and out, rummaging in earth‘s great womb, flushing out the time when forests and amphibians first appeared, when fish became abundant, as the plates under everything shift, capsize, collide. But frackers say don’t worry.
—Liane Ellison Norman Liane Norman is past board president of the Thomas Merton Center and a member of Madwomen in the Attic. 12 - NEWPEOPLE
May 2012
Progressive Views Differ on Cracker Plant Construction (Continued from page 3)
opposition against fracking ended in Harrisburg after ―the industry dug into the state, bought every politician but a few and kicked out Representative Levdansky. Oursler had hoped to seed the rural areas where fracking occurred with full time organizers once he saw the deep anger where drillers had been working. However, he found little support from the AFL and what he calls ― open society‖ types like Soros, ―afraid of ‗arming‗ the already armed rural opposition to drillers to go after both Republicans and Democrats.‖ Even the environmental foundations appear, according to him, afraid to fund opposition to drilling. Instead they fund ―monitoring rather than real advocacy.‖ In other words, there is little ―possibility of meaningfully regulating this super wealthy/powerful energy industry‖ or influencing the manner in which Pennsylvania develops as a petrochemical state. There is, of course, the further issue of the ‗good citizen‘ status of Shell and other petrochemical companies. Can we trust them to care at all for the safety of their employees or the communities whose resources make them among the richest and most powerful industries in the world? The extraordinary pollution of the Niger Delta that has ―endured,‖ according to Adam Nossiter of the New York
CONCERNS ABOUT OBAMA’S BUDGET (Continued from page 7) mostly the 98%, and who benefits from governmental largesse, namely the top 2%. Though our current deficit has been brought on entirely by President Bush‘s two unfunded wars, his tax cuts and the Wall Street debacle, it is the poor and the middle class who are being asked to shoulder the debt in cuts to federal and state social welfare, health and public transit programs as well as higher education and individual health care costs. It was recently reported in The Nation 2/17/12, that Obama‘s 2013 budget plan would protect the military from cuts, undoing the defense sequester the Congressional Super Committee on Debt called for, at the expense of domestic programs. And here I get a bit ‗wonky.‘ To secure the proposed defense expansion, Obama is proposing cuts from security* rather than defense spending or the entire Pentagon budget along with $24 billion for nuclear weapons, FBI, etc. In effect, he is undermining such areas as Veteran Affairs, Homeland Security, State Department (diplomacy) and foreign aid, that make up the ―security‖ funding. According to the debt ceiling deal, 2012 and 2013 spending caps would be split between security and non-security spending (social services, Head Start, scientific research, national parks, environmental protection, etc.) But Obama proposes to spend $5 billion above defense caps and $5 billion below on non-defense spending. In other words, cuts would come from important domestic and non-defense security programs. Since 2014 re-institutes only one cap, there would be nothing to stop further defense increases. All the cuts would come from programs that help the middle class and the poor as well as Veterans. It would undermine both scientific innovation and also the fight against global environmental degradation.
Times, ―the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years:‖ the Corrib gas controversy in Ireland: the fines levied for clean air violations in Texas, Alabama and Louisiana --- all these are indicative of the way petrochemical companies exploit the communities of extraction. Michael Klare of Alternet News claims that energy companies are well on their way to turning the United States into a third world petro state. So what are we left with? It is clear, after all, that we are no longer talking about one plant or limiting the number of fracking wells to be drilled in the state. The thousands of jobs that energy front groups are predicting can only come from a complex of allied industries that will move in to take advantage of the byproducts of fracking and the petrochemicals produced through cracking. Given our allegiance to the working class, should we just say ‗no‘ to such jobs, even if they are dangerous to workers and their families living nearby? Many of us already work in dangerous jobs. Many others work for companies whose policies we reject and whose politics we abhor. Why should we demand more from workers who want such jobs? Of course, we cannot condemn those who take such jobs, especially given the present economic situation. However, we still need to work against the
Thomas Merton Center 5129 Penn Avenue, Pgh. 15224
POTLUCK DINNER And CONVERSATION Tuesday, May 8, 2012 6:30 pm Discussion will focus on the Cracker Plant coming to Beaver County and what this means for residents in Southwestern PA. Please bring food and drink to share. For more information call (412) 301-3022.
Question: What is the government, in concert with fossil fuel companies, doing to avoid the next drilling disaster? Answer: H.R. 4345: Domestic Fuels Protection Act of 2012 To provide liability protection for claims based on the design, manufacture, sale, offer for sale, introduction into commerce, or use of certain fuels and fuel additives, and for other purposes. In other words, if methane gas from fracking results in damages to your person, family or home or worse, you cannot sue the responsible drillers for said damages.
―third worldification‖ of our state and our nation. Inevitably, this places us in opposition to the very workers we are concerned about. There appears to be no middle ground: either jobs now and devastation later or fossil fuel jobs now vs. development of green jobs through renewables later. From the way things are going, it doesn't appear that we can have petrochemicals without devastation or fossil fuel now AND renewables later. In future articles, I would like to consider the possibility that such an either/or framing may not be necessary. If we look at how supporting fossil fuel jobs now undermines the possibility of developing well paying green jobs through the investment in and production of renewable energy and chemicals, we might find a convincing strategy to unite workers and environmentalists in an effort to save the nation from economic decline, environmental degradation and continuing global warming.
Jo Tavener, a member of the TMC editorial collective, taught film production studies at New York University Film School before retiring as Assistant Professor of Critical Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.
THOMAS MERTON CENTER NEW PERSON AWARDS Honoring
OCCUPY PITTSBURGH May 31, 2012 7 to 9:30 PM East Liberty Presbyterian Church Social Hall $20 general admission $15 low-income Reserve online at http://tinyurl.com/6qug3zf
--Jo Tavener is a member of the New People Editorial Collective.
Courtesy of the Creative Commons May 2012
NEWPEOPLE - 13
PUSH / Healthcare4AllPA Needs Your Support Today by Mary Pat Donegan
cost-effective and efficiencies greater than ever. One that is not wedded to a profit motive is more needed now than ever.
pod-casts. • Led SW PA "Keep Your Hands Off our Social URGENT:WITHOUT SUFFICIENT Security and Medicare" Campaign, with 500 post FUNDS TO PAY RENT, WE MAY HAVE Consider these successes over the last year: cards presented to US Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) TO MOVE and rallied outside his office. • Educated more than 9,000 individuals • Led a workshop on Single Payer at Three Rivers • Connected more than 278 uninsured to free Having an office on Murray Avenue has been a clinics or sliding fee-scale doctors, specialists Community Foundation's Progressive Summit. real advantage. This is how I would describe the • Co-planned and led more than four major rallies • Presented at the Rights Conference at the U. of work we do at the office. California at San Francisco which received major news coverage Visitors come in, asking: "What is Single • Coordinated visits with State Legislators, talks • Established a blog for local, regional and Payer?" "I don't have insurance and I need to see national single-payer healthcare by national, state and local Experts, and met with a doctor. Where can I go?" Volunteers field their • Established a www.healthyartists.org group with labor groups. questions empathetically between answering the more than 20 members • Published several letters to the editor in regional phones, (chatting sometimes over tea, coffee or and statewide newspapers • Helped initiate a new chapter of Student cold water). Progress is not made by the rich and famous; it Alliance for Reform in Healthcare (STAHR) Committee meetings go on at the same long is made by the right-sized, right-minded, right • Served as a learning site for ten college interns table where visitors are welcome to express their • Testified before the PA Insurance Commission sacrifices of the multitudes who make things a opinion and sign post cards to Sen. Toomey to little better every day, for everyone. • Produced mini-documentaries, appeared on ‗Keep Medicare!‘ and postcards to their State YouTube, local, regional television, radio, live Senators to ‗Support SB 400‘. You can keep up with our Some visitors decide to become news and activities by visiting volunteers by offering their www.pushMary Pat Donegan at PUSH Headquarters. expertise, joining a committee, hc4allpa.blogspot.com. staffing the office. The office is the hub of activity where voices are Please become a heard, decisions are made and member or donor actions are planned. now! Visitors, many of whom do not have online home service, may face difficulties finding free clinics You can sign up on PayPal. If or sliding scale medical and mental you wish to volunteer, contact health services which are on line. me at (412) 421-4242 or They won‘t learn about Single email: Payer as a viable alternative. In any case, we‘re not going to Revdr1payerhc@gmail.com; go away, though. The campaign Mary Pat Donegan chairs for Single payer health care is not PUSH/HealthCare4AllPA/ going to go away! The need for a W.PA Photo Courtesy of Molly Rush system of universal care that is
TMC Memories from Sr. Georgine Scarpino, RSM by Georgine Scarpino, RSM
Pittsburgh. As a project for this program I volunteered to do a study involving the operational One advantage of having decades of life experiences is components of the TMC; i.e., communications, administration, etc. following an organization My involvement with the Center took a more from its beginnings to its intense direction in 1986 when I was invited to join current realities. This is the board. It was not too long after becoming a especially true when it comes board member that I moved into the role of TMC to my association with the treasurer. This was when we bought the building on Thomas Merton Center. Sr. Georgine Scarpino Penn Avenue as well as the facility next door to During the early days, I house the East End Community Thrift Shop. Joe became interested in anti-war activities, especially Hughes, one of the building residents and TMC staff with the involvement of the many men and women person, helped with the issues we faced as landlords. religious in the area including Fred Just, the late Also during this time, we had to initiate a process Sister Maria Green, Sister Betty Sundry, Stella for collecting sales taxes on our book sales as well Smentanka, and many more. For me, some of the as computerizing our other finances. One staff highlights of these early years were attending the member, Suzanne Cawley, held the majority of this Thomas Merton Center Award Dinners with its responsibility; however, a volunteer, Sister Beth national and international awardees. In the midYoest, helped shoulder these tasks. (Putting these 1970‘s Molly Rush and I were part of a semester administrative pieces in place expanded on the program on conflict resolution at the University of
recommendations of the earlier study which I mentioned.) The financial re-organization of the TMC was a serious task which provided stability for the board, staff and volunteers and also presented other opportunities to focus on challenging issues for peace and justice. I left the board in 1995 due to family responsibilities. Recently, I was invited to serve on the Merton Center‗s 40th Anniversary Planning Committee. I was very glad to be active again at the Center. What still impresses me is that many of the folks that were active at the time I was on the board are involved in significant ways at the Center today, including Joyce Rothermel, Bette McDevitt, Shirley Gleditsch, Pat Fenton, Don Polito, Gail Britanik, Jim Ruck, (and, of course, Molly Rush). Georgine Scarpino, RSM is a Sister of Mercy, and past Treasurer of TMC.
“Who‟s Your Brother” Helps People and Non-Profits by Wade Redcross
happens without the exchange of money! Surprisingly, the needs posted cover a broad Who‘s Your Brother (WYB), a non-profit organization encouraging people to build up their spectrum: furniture, tutoring, babysitting, help with home maintenance, clothing, transportation, communities has created a dynamic fundraiser and groceries. The only requirement is that those designed to help the work of local nonprofits. who have a need fulfilled must help another To increase the amount a non-profit can raise, they can register family and friends to participate. person before they can receive help again. Wade Redcross developed the idea for Who‘s Dozens of people can potentially raise funds for Your Brother on Christmas Day in 2009 while their nonprofit each time they eat out. To add motivation WYB is offering 105 prizes including playing with his children in his pajamas. The iPads, Kindle Fires, iPods and more for the WYB night before he watched the movie ―One‖ which entertains the idea of people living together in Mobile Contest. harmony. After conceiving the idea, he wrote On the WYB website (www.whosyourbrother.com), people can freely down the concept and began programming the website the very next day. post needs and others can lend a hand sharing Recently in the Bloomfield area of Pittsburgh, their talents and resources with one another to four individuals who helped one another have promote peace and brotherhood. And it all become friends in the process. One elderly 14 - NEWPEOPLE
May 2012
woman who posted her need for assistance cleaning her home was contacted by a couple who offered to help. After they cleaned her home, she offered her van to transport furniture for a man in the neighborhood. He in turn offered a stove to a local woman he connected with through WYB. ―It is beautiful to see people becoming connected, engaging their neighbors and finding that the very things they need are surprisingly right next door.‖ says Redcross. If you are interested in helping WYB to build up the community or if you would like to learn more regarding the nonprofit fundraiser contact WYB at info@whosyourbrother.com or 412-328-2301. www.whosyourbrother.com. Wade Redcross is The founding director of Who’s Your Brother.
ACTIVISTS EVENTS Edith Wilson Mother's Day Peace Vigil by Francine Porter
Photo by Philomena O‘Dea
The annual Codepink Mother's Day Peace Vigil will be held Sunday evening, May 13th, from 8 pm to 9:30 pm in Frick Park at the corners of Forbes and Braddock Avenues. This year's vigil will be dedicated to long time Codepink Pittsburgh founder and member Edith Wilson, who passed away December 31st, 2011. Edith was a true pioneer for peace, spending many Mothers Days with us, Liz Penton, Lee Calhoun, Janet Shuster & Edith Wilson standing for an end to war and advancement of social justice. Edith will be deeply missed, and fondly School of The Americas, her dedication to remembered for all her work at The Thomas social justice causes here in Pittsburgh, her Merton Center, her many trips to close The work with The Palestinian Solidarity
Committee and Students for Justice in Palestine, and her kind heart and warm smile. We will have an open microphone where friends can share thoughts and memories of Edith. Please join us as we celebrate coming together as mother's with a vision of a more peaceful world, and celebrating the life and work of our dear friend Edith Wilson. We invite you to bring your children and help us mark this special day with candles, song, and peaceful reflection. For additional information about the Vigil contact Francine Porter 412-389-3216. Francine is Coordinator Codepink Pittsburgh Women for Peace TMC Board Member.
May 2012
NEWPEOPLE - 15
S O C IAL ACTI O N CALE N DAR M AY A C T I V I S M 2 0 1 2 See calendar on TMC Website for more details about events. www.thomasmertoncenter.com/calendar/
Sun 29
Mon 30
Anti-War Meeting 2pm at the Thomas Merton Center
Pittsburgh Sings for Workers / Bread and Roses Strike Centennia
Book‟Em Packing Day 4-7pm Merton Center weekly
7:00 pm-10:00 pm Letter Carriers Union Hall 841 California Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15212
Wed 2
Tues 1 Martin Delaney Lives Wali Jamal‘s work commemorating the 200th Birthday of Martin Delaney one of Pittsburgh‘s best. August Wilson Center May 1-6 Call 412-583-6395 to make reservations
Green Party Mtg—7-9pm 2121 Murray Ave. Citizen Power Offices
The Health Effects of Marcellus Fracking- How Safe Is it? First Unitarian Church Ellsworth and Morewood
Call to Action Film Showing of Pink Smoke Over the Vatican 7:00 PM-9:30 PM Fr. Ryan Arts Center 420 Chartiers Avenue McKees Rocks, PA
May Day MARCH and TMC Membership RALLY Meeting Noon at TMC Freedom Corner at 5:30 pm
6 -Cinco De Mayo Swap Assemble 5125 Penn Avenue 2 PM-5 PM -Book‟Em Packing Day 4-7pm Merton Center weekly -Anti-War Meeting 2pm at the Thomas Merton Center
7 SAVE PENNSYLVANIA‟S BRIDGE TO SELF SUFFICIENCY! Rally and Lobby Day in Harrisburg On the steps of the Capitol Rotunda Monday, May 7, 2012 11 AM TMC Project Committee Meeting at 2:30 Thomas Merton Center
13
8
Darfur Coalition Meeting Meeting Room C Carnegie Library 5:30—7 pm
6:00 PM-8:30 PM
PUSH MEETING 6:15-8:00 pm Health Care 4 All 2101 Murray Avenue Squirrel Hill Merton Book Study Calvary Episcopal Church 7 pm
Thomas Merton Center 5129 Penn Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15224 Bring food or drink to share with others.
14
-Book‟em Packing 4-7pm at TMC
Contact jumphook@gmail.com
15 Black & White Reunion 6pm East Liberty Presbyterian Church 116 South Highland Ave.
-Anti-War Meeting 2pm at TMC
9
TMC Pot Luck Supper and Discussion about Cracker Plant coming to Beaver County
Codepink Mother‟s Day Peace Vigil 8 pm—9:30 pm Corner of Forbes & Braddock
16 Write On! Letters for Prisoner Rights 7-10pm TMC
Thomas Merton Center Monroeville / Murrysville Regional Outreach Meeting East Suburban Unitarian Universalist Church 4326 Sardis Rd, Murrysville, PA 15668 1:30 pm
21
23
MEMORIAL Get involved with DAY local Pittsburgh activist events!
--Book‟Em Packing Day 4-7pm Merton Center weekly
Volunteer at the Thomas Merton Center—email volunteer@thomasm ertoncenter.org or call 412.301.30222
THOMAS MERTON CENTER has Partnered with OCCUPY PITTSBURGH‟s Communication Work Group to support their production of a four page insert. The opinions expressed in the Occupy Insert are those of the individuals who wrote them and are neither endorsed, approved or censored by the Merton Center. May 2012
12 Black Voices for Peace Anti-War Protest 1pm Corner Penn & Highland 15206
Peace Vigil 1pm– Beaver Come On! Let's Celebrate The Lord In Song 4:00-5 :00 pm East Liberty Presbyterian Church Vigil for Peace 12 PM-1 PM Forbes and Braddock Aves Every Saturday
18
19
New People Editorial Collective Meeting at Thomas Merton Center 10:30 am
Fight for Lifers West Mtg 10-Noon
TMC Anti-War Committee Bus to National March and Rally Against NATO & G8 - Leaves Chicago for Pittsburgh: May 19th, Sat. evening. Cost—$55 a person
Black Voices for Peace Anti-War Protest 1pm at the corner of Penn and Highland The Crisis of Public Transit 1:30 p.m. The Pump House Haiti Solidarity Committee Meeting 11 am to noon at TMC
Register and find out more at www.pittsburghendthewar.org. (see page 15)
Crossroads United Methodist Church—325 Highland Dr. East Liberty
25 New People Editorial Collective Meeting at Thomas Merton Center 10:30 am
26 Black Voices for Peace Anti-War Protest 1pm at the corner of Penn and Highland Vigil for Peace 12 PM-1 PM Forbes and Braddock Aves Every Saturday
30 Write On! Letters for Prisoner Rights 7-10pm TMC
IN THIS EDITION
16 - NEWPEOPLE
11 Occupy Your Mind 7 pm The Pump House, Waterfront Drive, Munhall.
Write On! Letters for Prisoner Rights 7-10pm TMC
29
Haiti Solidarity Committee Meeting 11 am to noon at TMC New Horizon Theater presents The Manhattans Kelly Strayhorn Theater 5941 Penn Ave 7:30-9:30 Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Contact jumphook@gmail.com
28
In Slippery Rock Ginger Hill Unitarian Church
New People Editorial Collective Meeting at Thomas Merton Center 10:30 am—Noon
24
Darfur Coalition Meeting Meeting Room C Carnegie Library 5:30—7 pm
TMC Board Meeting 6pm Potluck 7 –9 pm Meeting
27 -Anti-War Meeting 2pm at the Thomas Merton Center
22
Sat 5 Women in Black Monthly Peace Vigil 10-11am
1:30-3pm at the Post Office, Grant and 7th Avenue, Downtown, Contact Tony at 412.462.9962
17
Thomas Merton New Seeds of Contemplation
20
First Friday Action on Unemployment Comp.
10 Enduring Issues of Pittsburgh‟s Labor History 7 pm Carnegie Science Center
God bridges the infinite distances between Himself and the spirits created to love Him, by supernatural mission of His own life.
UPMC Pay Your Fair Share Action 12 pm-3 pm Wood Street Subway Station
Fri 4
Thurs 3
Write On! Letters for Prisoner Rights 7-10pm TMC
31 Thomas Merton Center New Person Awards Honoring Occupy Pittsburgh 7-9 PM— East Liberty Presbyterian Church, 116 S. Highland Ave.
Join the Editorial Collective! Become a member of the TMC Editorial Collective. Meetings - attend the evaluation and review for the next issue on the first Friday on the month at 10:30 at the Thomas Merton Center.
$20 general admission / $15 low-income
Submit your articles, cartoons, opinions, and photos to the NewPeople at; http://thomasmertoncenter.org/newpeople/ submit-article/
Reserve online at http://tinyurl.com/6qug3zf
Progressive Pittsburgh Notebook (www.ProgressivePghNotebook.blip.tv). Carlana Rhoten Producer ―Let‘s Talk About Sweatshops @ PNC Park‖ Kenneth Miller Producer (412-867-9213). Free Speech TV— AL JAZEERA, Public Access TV Democracy Now - 8 am-Mon-Friday 8 am; AJ Stream @ 9 am, & Faultlines at @ 9:30.
One or Two Bedroom Apartment Needed First floor apartment needed (minimum stairs) in the East End near the bus, Under $400 +utility. After May 1st. PLEASE TEXT 412.689.1864.