October 2012 New People

October 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 1

THOMAS MERTON CENTER, 5129 PENN AVE.

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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.

PITTSBURGH’S PEACE & JUSTICE NEWSPAPER Published by the Thomas Merton Center VOL. 42 No. 9, October 2012

OCCUPY PITTSBURGH INSERT Published by Occupy Pittsburgh Issue No. 8, October 2012

PASSIONATE AND MILITANT FOR PEACE

Featured

A New Economy

Medea Benjamin

Voting Deadline

by Francine Porter

“WE MUST BE AS PASSIONATE ABOUT

PEACE AS OUR COUNTRY IS ABOUT

WAR.” - Medea Benjamin

On Thursday,

November 8th, at

6 P.M. at The

Sheraton Station

Square, activists

and members of

the peace and

social justice

community will

gather to

celebrate The

Thomas Merton

Center's 40th

Anniversary and honor long time activist Medea

Benjamin by presenting her with the Center's

Peace and Social Justice Award.

The major fundraiser for the Thomas Merton

Center is sure to be a spectacular evening of

celebrating the efforts of the progressive

community, and a chance to hear Benjamin share

her experiences, knowledge, and insights in the

peace and social justice arena. The Big Idea

Bookstore will be offering several of the books

Benjamin has authored at an informal book

signing after the dinner. Plans are also underway

for Benjamin to speak on The University of

Pittsburgh Campus, the afternoon of November

8th, through kind sponsorship by the Women's

Studies School and the Graduate School of

Public and International Affairs.

Medea Benjamin is an American political

activist, best known for co-founding Codepink

and the fair trade advocacy group Global

Exchange. Benjamin also was a Green Party

candidate in 2000 for the United States

Senate. The Los Angeles Times has described

her as "one of the high profile leaders" of the

peace movement, and Benjamin was included in

San Francisco Magazine as being on the "power

list" of the "60 Players Who Rule the Bay Area."

Benjamin worked for 10 years as an

economist and nutritionist in Latin America and

Africa for the United Nations Food and

Agriculture Organization, the World Health

Organization, the Swedish International

Development Agency, and the Institute for Food

and Development policy. Continued on page 11.

Voter Registration

Deadline - Oct. 9, 2012

If you are not registered

to vote, or have moved

since you last voted, or

have a name on your

photo ID that does not

agree with the name on

your voter registration

card, please act quickly to

register to vote for the November 6 elections!

The deadline is Tuesday, Oct. 9! It is one of

two opportunities available each year to be

heard through the election process!

If you do not have a photo ID as of this printing

due to a change in the law in

Pennsylvania, you will need one in order to

vote in November. Your photo ID must be

current and include an expiration date. For the

latest information or if you have problems

getting a free ID, call 866-687-8683 or visit

www.aclupa.org/voterID.

Continued on page 14

Courtesy Citizen.org

Trans-Pacific Partnership Protest Taken at the Allegheny County Court House—

Rally Against the New Voter ID Law

Correction to September New People Article

“Duquesne Adjunct Profs Unionize”

the author was Jeff Cech not John Haer. Courtesy of DemocracyNow.org

2 - NEWPEOPLE October 2012

IS PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE THOMAS MERTON CENTER

5129 PENN AVE., PITTSBURGH, PA 15224

Office Phone: 412-361-3022 — Fax: 412-361-0540

Website: www.thomasmertoncenter.org

TMC Editorial Collective Rob Conroy, Ginny Cunningham, Michael Drohan, Russ Fedorka,

Martha Garvey, Carol Gonzalez, John Haer, Shahid Khan, Bette McDevitt,

Charlie McCollester, Diane McMahon, Kenneth Miller, Jibran Mushtaq, Mike

Rosenberg, Joyce Rothermel, Jo Tavener, Molly Rush

TMC Staff, Volunteers and Interns Diane McMahon, Managing Director

Macia Snowden, Office Coordinator

Joyce Rothermel, Membership Chair Person

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

Michael Rosenberg, Shahid Khan, Interns from Pitt Social Work Program

TMC Board of Directors 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 of the Board of Directors

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

Plans and oversees 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

Plans and oversees TMC fundraising events with members and friends

Anti-War Committee [email protected]

www.pittsburghendthewar.org

Association of US Catholic Priests

[email protected]

Book‘Em

(Books to Prisoners)

[email protected]

www.thomasmertoncenter.org/bookem

CodePink

(Women for Peace)

[email protected], 412-389-3216

www.codepink4peace.org

East End Community Thrift Shop

412-361-6010, [email protected]

Economic Justice Committee

[email protected]

Fight for Lifers West

412-361-3022 to leave a message

[email protected]

http://fightforliferswest.mysite.com

Human Rights Coalition / Fed Up

(prisoner support and advocacy)


www.thomasmertoncenter.org/fedup

Marcellus Shale Protest Group

[email protected]

(412) 243-4545

marcellusprotest.org

Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop

Community Alliance

412-867-9213

Pittsburgh Campaign for

Democracy NOW!


www.pcdn.org

Pittsburgh Works!

(labor history documentaries)

[email protected]

Roots of Promise

724-327-2767, 412-596-0066

[email protected]

(Network of Spiritual Progressives)

[email protected]

Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition

[email protected];

www.pittsburghdarfur.org

Urban Arts Project

[email protected]

Progressive Pittsburgh Notebook

Call 412-363-7472

[email protected]

www.progressivepghnotebook.blip.tv

Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens

Group/ Roots of Promise

724-327-2767

[email protected]

The Pittsburgh Totebag Project

P.O. Box 99204, Pittsburgh, PA 15233

www.tote4pgh.org

Whose Your Brother?

412-928-3947

www.whosyourbrother.com

Allegheny Defense Project, Pgh Office 412-559-1364 www.alleghenydefense.org

Association of Pittsburgh Priests Sr. Barbara Finch 412-716-9750

[email protected]

Amnesty International [email protected] www.amnestypgh.org

The Big Idea Bookstore

412-OUR-HEAD www.thebigideapgh.org

Black Voices for Peace

Gail Austin 412-606-1408

CeaseFirePA

http://www.ceasefirepa.org

[email protected]

Global Solutions Pittsburgh

412-471-7852 [email protected] www.globalsolutionspgh.org

Citizens for Social Responsibility

of Greater Johnstown Larry Blalock, [email protected]

Haiti Solidarity Committee

[email protected] 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

[email protected]

Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network

412-621-9230/[email protected]

Pittsburgh Area Pax Christi

412-761-4319

Pittsburgh Committee to Free Mumia 412-361-3022, [email protected]

Pittsburgh Cuba Coalition

412-563-1519 [email protected]

Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

[email protected] www.indypgh.org

North Hills Anti-Racism Coalition

412-369-3961 www.northhillscoalition.com

Pittsburgh North People for Peace

412-367-0383 [email protected]

Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee

[email protected] www.pittsburgh-psc.org

Raging Grannies

412-963-7163, [email protected] www.pittsburghraginggrannies.homestead.com

Religion and Labor Coalition 412-361-4793 [email protected]

School of the Americas Watch of W. PA 412-371-9722, [email protected]

United Electrical, Radio and Machine

Workers of America (UE) 412-471-8919 www.ueunion.org

Urban Bikers

[email protected]

Veterans for Peace

[email protected]

Voices for Animals

[email protected] 1-877-321-4VFA

Women’s International League for

Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Eva 412-963-7163

[email protected]

Interested in getting more involved? Contact the emails / phone numbers above.

TMC AFFILIATES

HOURS of OPERATION

Thomas Merton Center Monday—Friday

10 am. to 3 pm.

Saturday—10 am. to 1 pm.

East End Thrift Store Tuesday—Friday

10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Saturday—Noon to 4 p.m.

CONTACT INFORMATION

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TMC COMMITTEES & PROJECTS

THRIFTY needs volunteer truck drivers...if you can help please

call Shirley, Shawna, or Dolly at (412) 361-6010.

From left to

right:

Linda Loar,

Dolly Mason,

Becky,

Shawna and

little John

Romeo, Shirley

and Sarah, pose

for a picture at

Thrifty during a

busy afternoon

at the store!


by Molly Rush

Sometimes ideas come together so that it’s

almost inevitable that you’ll pay attention amidst

the clamor of issues, protests, elections and day-

to-day living. That’s how the “NEW

ECONOMY” hit me.

First, I listened to Gar Alperovitz’ keynote

speech at the Green Party convention on

Democracy Now. He’s an economist I’ve

long admired. He spoke about “transforming the

most powerful corporate capitalist system in the

history of the world”

He went on to say that there are “10 million

people involved in worker-owned companies.

One hundred thirty million are involved in co-

ops and co-op credit unions... 40% of society.

Four or five thousand neighborhood owned

corporations, thousands of social enterprises.”

He recommended a website, Community-

wealth.org “(Where) you will find thousands of

things that are happening on the ground that

change the ownership of wealth and begin to

green the economy, and it is part of the new deal

that we’re going to build forward as we go on

through the decade.”

Next, Sarah Byrnes, who was our CBC

campaign intern ten years ago, came to visit

family here. Turns out she’s working with the

Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) for Chuck

Collins. He gave a talk on inequality for CBC

back in 2001 when he was with United for a Fair

Economy. His latest book is “99 to 1: How

wealth inequality is wrecking the world and what

we can do about it.”

Sarah and Church are working with - guess

who - Gar Alperovitz! on the New Economy,

bottom up initiatives in local communities.

The New Economy Working Group is

composed of Institute of Policy Studies, YES!

Magazine, the Business Alliance for Local

Living Economies (BALLE), the Living

Economies Forum, and the Democracy

Collaborative.

They write that the real solution to our

economic, political, social and environmental

crisis “requires a thorough system redesign to

give priority to serving the real needs of people,

community, and Earth's living systems.

Widespread public outrage creates an opening

to reframe the public debate on economic policy

choices and the assumptions underlying those

choices about values, the proper purpose of our

economic institutions, and the potentials of our

human nature.

The basic design elements of the real wealth

living economies we humans must now create

are largely known. Indeed, millions of people

are already engaged in local initiatives that are

bringing the needed new economies into being.

It remains, however, to weave together the

known elements into a holistic, coherent, and

compelling vision of the possibilities at hand,

translate that vision into a coherent policy

agenda, and build public support through

popular education and media outreach.”

(See neweconomyworkinggroup.com)

I decided to convene a meeting at the Merton

Center. Sarah agreed to return to discuss the

New Economy, its potential in Pittsburgh, and

her project, “Resilience Circles,” small groups of

people who come together to learn about the

economy, provide mutual aid and do social

action. IPS provides training for facilitators.

On September 11, 14 people met with Sarah to

discuss the concept of a New Economy and ways

to gain a clearer understanding of the many

people involved in diverse projects and

economic campaigns that are already active in

our area. Think cooperatives, community

gardens, green projects, reclaiming

neighborhoods like Larimer or One Hill, for just

a few examples.

The hope is that we can begin to meet with

them, learn more about what they’re doing, and

discover ways to facilitate that weaving together

needed to develop that holistic and broader

vision that can engage and move the broader

community into action.

Pitt Social Work Professor Tracy Soska

described this as a year of learning and

engagement. Several concrete ideas grew out of

this meeting: train two facilitators for Resilience

Circles; invite local speakers to discuss their work at a series of potlucks; do a field trip to Cleveland where a lot is happening; arrange a larger program in the spring with Chuck Collins and a local panel; begin a mapping project to research and disseminate information on local initiatives; hold a conference with Gar Alperovitz as a keynote speaker later in the year. You are welcome to join the discussion at the

meeting on Tuesday, October 9,

10 a.m., at the

Merton Center. Please RSVP to

[email protected].

ACTIVISTS in the NEW ECONOMY

“New Economy” Comes to Town. Oops! It’s Already Here!

by Paul Ricci

On a Wednesday night I

was at a meeting of the

Western Coalition for

Single Payer Healthcare (a

group in Western PA

campaigning for a national single payer

plan to be enacted). The subject of state

efforts to enact single payer system came

up. I said that there were efforts in several

states to enact it and Vermont passed it two

years ago. A member objected saying that

Vermont's plan is not single payer because

it's administered by Blue Cross. This made

me ask myself what a single payer system

is.

I looked at the Vermont for Single

Payer website and they do have a definition

saying that "health care” is financed by the

public, whose money is managed by the

government or by a government-sanctioned

agency... (the full definition can be read at

their website vermontforsinglepayer.org/

what_is_single_payer).

If the government of Vermont indeed

has sanctioned Blue Cross to administer

their plan in a nonprofit capacity, then it

does meet their definition of single payer.

As TR Reid in the documentary “Sick

Around the World” (it can be seen here that

there is considerable variability in health

care systems around the world. Germany,

Japan, and the Netherlands have systems

which are administered by private insurers

but heavily regulated by the government.)

Does that count as single payer? According

to Vermont, yes.

Canada, the United Kingdom, Cuba,

and Taiwan have healthcare systems which

are administered directly by the

government. This I believe is the type of

single payer system which those at the

Western PA Coalition would prefer. While

there are good reasons to be suspicious of

the intentions of Blue Cross or UPMC, we

won't really know how it works until it is

fully implemented.

We do have working models in other

nations for universal non-profit systems,

They are all good systems with outcomes

comparable to Canada's. The

commonwealth fund has studies which

show that their health and cost outcomes

are roughly equivalent with the U.S. for-

profit system trailing.

I go to discussion groups like Drinking

Liberally where many on the left do not

really understand what single payer is.

They ask me questions like "Doesn't

Massachusetts already have it?" I tell them

no, because it leaves the for-profit nature of

the current system intact which drives up

the costs.

Paul Ricci is a statistician with a

background in public health. He manages

the website for PUSH-Healthcare 4 All

PA (www.push-hc4allpa.blogspot.com).

Will Vermont Have a Single Payer System?

http://vermontforsinglepayer.org/what_is_single_payer)

http://vermontforsinglepayer.org/what_is_single_payer)

http://www.push-hc4allpa.blogspot.com/


by Charlie McCollester

As we approach the 50th anniversary of the

opening of the Vatican II Ecumenical Council

this coming October 11, we believe that it is both

appropriate and necessary to question and

challenge recent assertions by Duquesne

University that it should be granted a “religious

exemption,” from the sanction and procedures of

U.S. labor law in order to block adjunct teaching

faculty’s ability to organize, form a union, and

collectively bargain. The university’s position is

particularly painful given Duquesne’s acceptance

of unions outside the academic disciplines, its

history of promoting unions and labor education

in the past, and especially the legacy of

Monsignor Charles Owen Rice, one of the

university’s most influential graduates and

namesake for an annual endowed lecture on

Catholic social teaching.

The Second Vatican Council represented a

confident and robust attempt by the church to

confront the world in a spirit of generosity and

tolerance and thereby transform the world into a

more peaceful and just place. Sadly today, it

seems that sexual and financial scandals,

combined with the influence of powerful

reactionary financial interests, have combined to

shrink the scope of Church teaching and make it

complicit in the growing global and national

economic inequality - today more extreme than at

the time of the council, at levels not seen since

the Great Depression. The Second Vatican

Council called for vigorous efforts “to remove as

quickly as possible the immense economic

inequalities which now exist.”

The Council’s pastoral constitution “The

Church in the Modern World,” asserts the

interdependence of person and society, along

with the necessity of promoting the common

good. It strongly recognized the limitations of an

individualistic ethic. “Profound and rapid

changes make it particularly urgent that no one,

ignoring the trend of events or drugged by

laziness, content himself with a merely

individualistic morality. It grows increasingly

true that the obligations of justice and love are

fulfilled only if each person, contributing to the

common good, according to his own abilities and

the needs of others, also promotes and assists the

public and private institutions dedicated to

bettering the conditions of human life.”

This brings us to the heart of the matter. In

discussing the principles governing economic life

as a whole the Council asserted: “Among the

basic rights of the human person must be counted

the right of freely founding labor unions…

without risk of reprisal.” The document asserts

that this fundamental right to a freely organized

labor organization is rooted in the need for “the

active participation of everyone in the running of

an enterprise…workers themselves should have a

share also in controlling these institutions, either

in person or through freely elected delegates.”

Justice cries out for Catholics who still affirm

the spiritual optimism and joy of Vatican II to

consider the state of full time adjunct faculty at

Duquesne and other local institutions. A full time

adjunct with an advanced degree teaching a full

faculty load of eight classes in two semesters will

earn less than $25,000 a year and not receive any

health care benefits. Given the steadily climbing

costs for students, the tuition money paid by a

single student for a single class will pay the

adjunct’s remuneration for teaching the same

class. Classes are normally authorized for a

minimum of ten students, so the worker’s share is

10% or often substantially less. President

Dougherty’s salary is $552,000 a year. Does this

give evidence of Catholic character?

What makes this situation more acute is that

many if not most of these young teachers are

carrying enormous debt loads as a result of the

cost of a university education growing at twice

the level of inflation for decades. How do these

young faculty, teachers of the future generations

of Catholic educated professionals, speak with a

straight face about Catholic social teachings

about economic justice?

This brings us to the issue of religious

freedom and intellectual freedom in a Catholic

institution of higher learning. Apparently

Duquesne feels so insecure about the issue of

intellectual freedom that it has to maintain the

club of employment-at-will over the head of

every adjunct. They are defining it as a question

of power. It should be a question of negotiation

between the elected representatives of the

teachers who work for them and the

administration. Explicit attacks on Catholic

teaching by university employees in the

classroom might be subjects for disciplinary

action under a union contract. Full, free and

balanced discussion of ethical and social issues,

however, is a hallmark of a true university.

Charlie McCollester is a member of the editorial

collective and a renowned local labor historian.

UPDATE: The adjunct faculty vote decided for

USW union representation. Duquesne University

has pledged to continue to oppose them.

The Duquesne Adjuncts and Vatican II

Faith and Activism

Sr. Anne Montgomery dies

Above: Sr. Anne Montgomery (Source: Society of Sacred Heart of Jesus web site www.rscj.org)

by Molly Rush

Sister Anne Montgomery, RSCJ, who died at

age 85 on August 27, served two-months house

arrest last year for her sixth Plowshares action.

She served as a witness to peace in the 1990s in

dangerous conditions in Iraq, the West Bank,

Hebron and the Balkans with the ecumenical anti

-war nonviolent Christian Peacemaker Teams.

Anne once explained her peace activism this

way: “Civil disobedience is, traditionally, the

breaking of a civil law to obey a higher law,

sometimes with the hope of changing the unjust

civil law. … But we should speak of such actions

as divine obedience, rather than civil

disobedience. The term ‘disobedience’ is not

appropriate because any law that does not protect

and enhance human life is no real law.”

Tiny, courageous and determined, she and I were

the only women who participated in the

Plowshares 8 action in 1980 at GE in King of

Prussia, PA. I believe that our presence, a nun

and a mother of six, made clear that this was no

macho action, but an act of faith and hope that

nuclear weapons could be abolished.

In the 1970s Anne taught at the Street Academy

of Albany, where she experienced the challenges

faced by the poor and people of color. In 1975,

she went to East Harlem to work with school

dropouts. May she rest in peace.

Molly Rush is a member of the Thomas Merton

Center board and one of the Plowshares Eight.

by Joyce Rothermel

If you like this title,

then you will want to

come to hear the

presentation by

Kathleen Kennedy

Townsend on Tuesday,

October 16, at 7:30

PM, at the Kearns Spirituality Center located at

9000 Babcock Blvd. beside La Roche College

and behind the Motherhouse of the Sisters of

Divine Providence. Just in time for the election,

Ms. Townsend's talk will offer a message of

hope and spiritual renewal!

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former

Lieutenant Governor of Maryland and daughter

of Robert Kennedy, is the author of "Failing

America's Faithful: How Today's Churches Are

Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their

Way." At the Kearns Center, Ms. Townsend will

discuss the main themes of her book and suggest

a way forward for Christians. She envisions a

transformation embracing the peace and justice

issues of our current era as intrinsic to the life of

the Christian.

The talk by Ms. Townsend is the second in a

series presented by the Association of Pittsburgh

Priests. A suggested donation of $15 is

requested. The third presentation in the series

will be made by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton

on "The Challenge of Peace in a Violent

World.” It will be held on Monday, November

19, at 7:30 at the Kearns Center. For more

information or to make a reservation, contact Sr.

Mary Joan Coultas at 412-366-1124 or

[email protected].

Joyce Rothermel is Chair of the Church

Renewal Committee of the Association of

Pittsburgh Priests.

Faith, Politics and Power:

The Catholic Church Today

Woody Guthrie Celebration and Sing-along

With Performer Doug Morris

Sunday October 28, 7:00 pm. Pittsburgh Metro Area, Postal Workers Union

Hall, 1414 Brighton Rd, Pgh. Pa 15212.

Free will offering to benefit Merton Center.

Contact: (412) 361-3022


by James Kunz

Unlike members of most other labor unions,

the Building Trades usually go to work knowing

that they are working themselves out of a job.

They build things and once the construction of a

building, bridge or road is completed, the job

ends, and unless the employer has another project

to move you to, you are laid-off. These are great

lifetime careers but they often require the worker

to move from job to job and often from employer

to employer. Yet knowing this, the Building

Trades craft person still shows up with the work

ethic, training, and productivity to allow the

contractor to complete the project within budget

and on time. It is this professionalism that often

sets union construction labor apart from the non-

union competition. When the contractor is able to

deliver a successful project it ensures that they are

in a position to continue to effectively bid on

future work that will provide continued

employment for the building trades members.

The Western Pennsylvania building trades

unions and their contractors have developed a

partnership committed to bringing the highest

standards to the industry. Like many partnerships

we don’t always agree and occasionally argue, but

we recognize that if we work together, both can

benefit. The contractor can make a profit and the

union tradesmen and women can have steady

employment, earning a decent living with

benefits.

It starts with a joint commitment to safety and

training. The Building Trades Unions each

provide state-of-the-art apprenticeship and

journeyperson training programs which are jointly

managed by labor and management. Here in

Western Pennsylvania, the trades spend more than

$11 million a year on training and safety which is

funded by both labor and the employer. This

training is consistently being updated to meet the

demands of the industries in which the contractor

and union members work. For example, over the

last several years, the Building Trades have

partnered with their contractors to develop and

update a wide variety of green construction

classes from solar hot water heating to wind

generation to use of recycled materials to the use

of biodiesel fuels and this will continue as green

building construction grows in the region. These

highly successful partnerships result in the best

trained and most capable work force necessary to

produce the high quality of work that makes the

contractor successful.

In addition, we have partnered with the

employers to provide the pension, annuity, health

care, and other benefits which the Building Trades

member receives. These funds are also jointly

managed by labor and management and allow

Building Trades Union members to build a

pension and maintain health insurance as they

move from job to job and employer to employer.

Besides providing good benefits for the

worker, these jointly managed funds have also

helped finance many projects in the region by

investing in funds that were created to provide

loans and investments for local construction

projects. These projects create jobs for the

contractors who employ Building Trades Union

members and also offer a financial return to the

pension funds that invest in it. These funds are

typically advised jointly by labor and

management.

Finally, much of the work that the Building

Trades and their contractors do is influenced by

politics. Whether it is funding for roads and

bridges or other infrastructure, tax incentives or

other legislation to attract development, or

responsible legislation and regulation to both

protect and sustain our environment while

growing the use of the regions many energy

sources, the Building Trades and their contractors

have found common areas of interest to jointly

engage in effective political action that benefits

both the union member and the employer.

At a time when the labor movement is under

constant attack, the cooperation and partnerships

that have been developed over the years between

the Western Pennsylvania Building Trades and

their contractors continue to create a unified

construction industry that will allow both to

continue create economic opportunities that

benefit everyone. To learn more about applying

for the apprenticeship programs, which take in

new people every year, look at their website,

www.buildersguild.org/careers/

apprenticeships.htm.

James Kunz is the Business Manager of Inter-

national Union of Operating Engineers, Local 66.

The Power of Partnership

Occupy YOUR Education System NOW!

What: Occupy Our Education System Teach-In.

When: Saturday, November 10 check in starts at

9:30 am.

Where: Kurtzman Room, the William Pitt Union

at the University of Pittsburgh

Contact: Jon at Clark at [email protected]

for more information.

Education, Partnership and Activism Education, a Basic Human Right

by Scilla Wahrhaftig

“Education is a basic human right. Everyone

should have the opportunity to go to school to learn

and to feel safe while doing it,” states Maya Rosen,

part of the American Friends Service Committee. “I work with the most amazing kids in the world and

the only thing that stops them from having a great

life is opportunity and the only thing that stops them

from getting opportunity is their zip code,” said

Chuck Slayton, Counselor at Oliver High School.

Our education system is a totally two-tiered

system with those that can afford it or have

influence getting the sort of education that we all

would want for our children, while the others get an

education that is basically racist.

The youth from the AFSC, PA Racial Justice

Through Human Rights Youth Group have been

looking at the disparity in our education system,

and they approached the Youth Media Advocacy

Project about doing a video about their concerns.

Each youth was interviewed for the video along

with other educators in the area. The trailer for the

video can be viewed at: afsc.org/video/education-

justice-pennsylvania.

What the youth and others interviewed clearly

show are the racial disparities in the system. This

was highlighted when they compared disparities

between the suburban schools and their own inner

city schools. The suburban youth talked about being

issued two sets of books; one to have at school and

one at home for homework, while the city schools

are lucky if they have one set and are always short

of supplies. Libraries, gym facilities, art and music

were all totally inadequate in the city schools if not

nonexistent, while the suburban schools had

excellent facilities.

Within the city schools there are discrepancies as

well. The all-black schools have fewer programs,

facilities, and materials than those that have a mixed

population. As Chuck Slayton says, it is all about

zip code. Seven of the youth in the first year of the

Racial Justice Through Human Rights will have

their schools closed down by the end of this year.

Raven Moore commented, “It hurts when your

school gets shut down… you feel that nobody cares

about you.”

Governor Corbett and our state representatives

are in the process of deciding on the budget, and

there are going to be massive cuts to the schools and

education. This will set our school system back even

more than it already is. The future of our children is

at stake.

When you learn about civil rights and schools

and you learn about how many fought so that

different groups of people could sit in the same

classroom together and learn the same things and

you think about today and how unequal it is and

people aren’t taking any notice. We are just taking a

large step back and we should be moving forward.

Scilla Wahrhaftig is Program Director for the

American Friends Service Committee PA.

Source: http://

thealiensinmybase-

ment.tumblr.com

by Jonathon Clark

Mass student protests in Quebec, adjuncts

organizing in Pittsburgh and throughout the country,

a trillion dollars of student loan debt, public school

closings, and most recently a massive teacher strike

in Chicago, the United States’ third largest public

school system! Battle lines are drawn for a struggle

between those who would turn our education system

into a commodity that promotes corporate needs and

those who want a system that belongs to the people

and promotes the welfare of society.

Occupy Pittsburgh is putting together a teach-in

that will bring together the many issues and

disparate struggles within the education movements

under the umbrella of the Occupy Wall Street

movement and its focus on the 99% vs. the 1%. The

teach-in will be held at the University of Pittsburgh

on November 10th. Check in begins at 9:30. An

opening discussion will bring us together in the

struggle for educational democracy. It will include

speakers on student organizing, teacher/worker

organizing, and student debt. A free and

democratically controlled education system is

fundamental to a healthy society. It is our goal to

organize a space to create immediate solutions and

actions to take this crucial aspect of society back

from the corporations who currently dominate it.

There will be break out groups that will focus on

specific themes facilitated by a speaker on that

issue. They will be designed for participation,

collaboration, and movement building. Some topics

to be addressed include the role of unions, resisting

tuition costs, student organizing, the role of students

and the community, and challenging the rise of

student debt, local, national, and global education

struggles, and confronting the lack of ethnic, racial,

and economic diversity in higher education.

Although much of the focus will be on college

issues, there will be multiple discussions on issues

facing high school students, workers, and

community members. A free lunch will be provided.

Following the break out sessions a final plenary will

bring everyone back together. A final action is being

planned by the Occupy Pittsburgh Action Working

Group. Please attend if you are new to these ideas,

worried about what is happening to our education

system, and interested in learning and helping shape

solutions! Don’t just vent about how much your

student loans are. Now is the time to fight back. Our

city is not exempt from these challenges and must

be organized in mind and body to resist.

Jonathon Clark is a member of the Occupy Pgh.

Education Working Group, Pittsburghers for

Public Transit & the International Socialist Org.

What: Occupy Our Education System Teach-In

When: Saturday, November 10; check in at 9:30 a.m.

Where: Kurtzman Room, the William Pitt Union at the

University of Pittsburgh.

Contact: Jon [email protected] for info.


Activists Focus on Mother Earth

The Merton Center signs the Chambersburg

Declaration

Wild Law, Local Sovereignty, the Rights of

Nature, and Democracy Schools

by Wanda Guthrie

The Thomas Merton Center recently signed

the Chambersburg Declaration, a document that

redefines and strengthens the rights of

individuals and local communities as well as the

rights of nature. This is a call for a Pennsylvania

Constitutional Congress.

When large corporate polluters come to town

with development plans that could threaten

community health and viability, local governing

bodies that want to keep them out often discover

that their existing ordinances and laws leave

them with no protection. But with the help of an

innovative non-profit organization things are

beginning to shift.

The Community Environmental Legal

Defense Fund (CELDF), a non-profit

Pennsylvanian law firm, collaborates with

communities to prevent them from becoming

unwilling victims of corporate pollution.

CELDF’s innovative strategy has already

helped dozens of government bodies, including

the city of Pittsburgh, draft and pass rights-based

ordinances that promote local sovereignty and

the rights of nature. The ordinances establish

local self-government and “the people’s

authority and consent,” and specify that

“corporate entities…shall not enjoy special

privileges or powers under the law which make

community majorities subordinate to them.”

Some ordinances go beyond the rights of

people to recognize the rights of natural

communities and ecosystems, stating that they

also possess “fundamental rights to exist and

flourish.” Local residents are also granted legal

standing to enforce the rights of nature on behalf

of those natural communities.

CELDF’s services are in such demand that

they founded the Democracy School, which

trains elected officials and others on how to

effectively assert their rights and pass local

ordinances. They will be conducting a

Democracy School for the Thomas Merton

Center Board of Directors. We hope to sponsor

many more Western PA two day Democracy

School Trainings.

Though Western jurisprudence has made

great strides in human rights and responsibilities

toward one another, the rights of the rest of the

Earth Community is largely ignored. As we

move toward a wider understanding of rights, we

are challenged to govern in a new way that

respects the inherent rights of all members of a

diverse and often unfamiliar Earth Community.

The idea is to govern ourselves in a restrained

and respectful way that contributes to the health

not just of humans, but to wider ecological

communities.

As Cormac Cullinan writes in his landmark

book, Wild Law, “the ultimate source of

jurisprudence and of law shifts out of the

homosphere and beyond human control…it

follows that human jurisprudence is embedded

within, and bounded by, the larger and more

significant Great Jurisprudence.”

The goal of shifting our colossal governance

structures to a new philosophical framework is

an ambitious one. Yet there are many promising

initiatives taking hold all over the world. In

2008, Ecuador became the first country with a

constitution that recognizes the rights of nature.

“Nature, or Pacha Mama, where life is

reproduced and occurs,” the new constitution

reads, ”has the right to integral respect for its

existence and for the maintenance and

regeneration of its life cycles, structure,

functions and evolutionary processes.” Other

initiatives, just as Bolivia’s “Law of Mother

Earth,” and the Universal Declaration of the

Rights of Mother Earth, an international

document that was birthed in 2010, indicate a

new momentum for recognizing the rights of the

Earth Community.

One fresh example can be seen in the

ongoing work to expand the ideas inherent in the

Public Trust Doctrine that has been emphasized

by Canadian scientist Maude Barlow. She sees

the potential for this doctrine, which is still a

part of United States common law, to stand for

the broader principle that Earth’s fundamental

elements – its air, water, minerals and soil –

must be protected for the common good.

Wanda Guthrie is Chair of the Environmental

Justice Committee. She offers a special thanks

to Liz

Marshall,

attorney for

Genesis

Farm.

Wild Law

Saturday

Potluck/Book

Study begins

November 3

at TMC.

Green Your Money

by Wanda Guthrie

Erin Pischke is leading the way to Green

Your Money by closing his bank account at

PNC. He has handed out 450 leaflets and is

withdrawing his money from the Squirrel

Hill Branch as part of a state-wide level; by

the Earth Quaker Action Team, a faith-

based organization working to build a just

and sustainable economy through

nonviolent direct action. He needs your

help! Contact Erin at [email protected].

The current campaign of Green Your

Money is BLAM! (Bank Like Appalachia

Matters!), a strategic effort to get PNC Bank

out of the business of financing mountaintop

removal coal mining. The group’s intention

is to shine the light on PNC, one of two

primary financiers funding this devastating

surface mining practice that has destroyed

over 500 mountains and 2,000 miles of river

and streambed in Appalachia. Green Your

Money is the newest initiative of the

BLAM! campaign, dedicated to organizing

individuals, faith communities, and other

organizations to close their bank accounts

with PNC. The group recently completed a

17-day, 200-mile walk across Pennsylvania

from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, taking their

campaign to a statewide level.

Wanda Guthrie is Chair of the

Environmental Justice Committee of the

Thomas Merton Center.

Environmental Protection for the Common Good

Curse the bigots who tied the witches to the

dunking stool — acabussade

Sisters drowning in their sex, strapped to an ill-

fitting cage

prepare

as they always have

to be penetrated in all her secrets

Curse the institutes (mind locked in tense building)

who expropriated the magical virtue from the body

I am not this discipline.

“The body had to die so that labor-power could

live.” Silvia Federici.

Curse the authorities who snatched the hanged

bodies and handed them to the anatomists

Be weary of laboratories where ‘knowledge on the

body is gained’

while the practitioner is executed

The astronomers Name the microscopic strings of

energy they can’t find but know are there,

anti-reason

Magik is for the freaks

The sharper tool we need is our own awakened

selves.

replenish the commons

dance to each other

know your instruments

If you can’t make love

don’t argue about it

Measure time as it is measured by the solar

system:

either creating or destroying

Occupy Pleasure Town

the line between lovers and comrades is

annihilated,

drenched in the secret sauce (drift)

A psychic break is necessary for survival,

so is dissent.

Danielle Maggio is a Preschool teacher and

museum educator at Children's Museum.

On Behalf of the Spiral by Danielle Maggio

by Kenneth Miller

The Service Employees International Union

(SEIU) here in Pittsburgh has put in an all out

effort to organize three of Oakland’s largest

UPMC hospitals. For months, 10 - 20

organizers have been on the ground leafleting,

charting, house calling, and meeting. There are

nearly 7,000 workers at these three hospitals

and organizing them all into the union requires

talking to all of them, advising them of their

rights.

UPMC has been fully engaged in an anti-

union campaign for many years, and this year’s

SEIU campaign has caused them to increase

their efforts. At Magee Women’s Hospital,

nurses in the cancer ward have anti-union

literature posted in their bathroom stalls. UPMC

is offering better than usual raises this year.

There are meetings where the boss does anti-

union presentations. Workers are speaking up

and challenging the anti-union assertions their

bosses are making in these meetings. Some

workers are exercising their free speech rights

at work and talking about the union on the job.

With 7,000 workers involved in this union

effort, members of the Thomas Merton Center

bound to know some of them.

Kenneth Miller is a member of the TMC

Editorial Committee.

UPMC UNION ORGANIZING

“Every moment and

every event of every

man's life on earth

plants something in

his soul.”

Thomas Merton


by Joyce Rothermel

For the 16th year, Fonkoze, Haiti's alternative bank for the organized poor, has sent two of their employees to Pittsburgh on scholarship to study at Duquesne University. Each year Fonkoze requests the scholarship from Duquesne University. When the scholarships are approved, two of the Fonkoze employees are selected. The Pittsburgh Regional Haiti Solidarity Committee, an affiliate of the Thomas Merton Center, is the third partner in the annual endeavor. The Committee recruits host families who generously provide room and board for the two

students and reaches out to members of the community to serve as financial sponsors. Committee members assist with class registration, as well as healthcare and social needs. On August 15, Chedlin Gerve and Fredler Jean-Louis arrived at the Pittsburgh International Airport and are now settled into their host homes and classes at Duquesne University. I would like to introduce you to them, asking you, our New People readers and Thomas Merton Center members, to welcome them into our community. Both will be invited to our 40th anniversary dinner at the Sheraton at Station Square on Nov. 8 where you will have an opportunity to meet them and learn about their critical work in Haiti!

Fonkoze, their employer, includes two institutions working together for the single goal of helping Haiti’s poor remove themselves from poverty and create a democratic economy in Haiti.

• Fondasyan Kole Zepol (Fonkoze), which in English means “Shoulder to Shoulder”, is a Haitian non-profit microfinance institution on the cutting edge of the delivery of rural financial services. New branches are created and nurtured to increase profitability while at the same time developing new products, providing educational programs for clients, and measuring success rates of clients.

• Fonkoze Financial Services (FFS) is a Haitian commercial microfinance institution that takes profitable branches and well-tested products from Fonkoze and expands them to hundreds of thousands of Haitians, especially those in rural, hard to reach areas. Since the end of 2006, FFS has established itself as a stable, profitable organization.

When Chedlin and Fredler return to Haiti, they will take on increased responsibilities and make greater contributions to the success of these important efforts in Haiti. Consider supporting a Fonkoze student! Each year several sponsors are needed to help cover some of the financial expenses for the project that are not covered by Fonkoze and the host families through their room and board. These include health insurance, monthly bus passes, cell phones, and medical needs not covered by insurance (dental, glasses, etc.) You can join the Fonkoze Family by becoming a “One Month Sponsor” for one of the Fonkoze employee scholarship recipients this year. Call me at the Merton Center (412) 361-3022 for more information about the Haiti Solidarity Committee and how to become a sponsor.

Joyce Rothermel is the Secretary /Treasurer of

the Pittsburgh Regional Haiti Solidarity

Committee.

Haitian Micro-Bankers Arrive in Pittsburgh to Study Business at Duquesne

International Activism

by Daniel Kovalik

According to Colombia’s El Tiempo, 75% of

Colombians want a dialogue between the

Colombian government and the guerillas. And,

this stands to reason, for Colombia has been

devastated by over 50 years of armed conflict

which has cost the lives of hundreds of

thousands of civilians (between 50,000 to

250,000 of whom were “disappeared”); left over

5 million persons internally displaced (the

largest internally displaced population in the

world); and given a pretext for the Colombian

government, with the aid of its paramilitary

allies, to wipe out progressive organizations,

including trade unions, working for social

change. On a grander scale, the Colombian

conflict has provided a convenient pretext for

U.S. military intervention in that country and the

entire region and has been the biggest hurdle to

the dream of Latin American integration.

It is therefore welcome and monumental

news that the Colombian government recently

confirmed rumors that it has signed an

agreement with the largest guerrilla group, the

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia

(FARC) to commence peace talks as well.

Experience has shown that such peace talks

are fragile. Colombia has gone through a

number of peace processes, but they have all

ended badly thus far. The most notable failed

peace process took place in the 1980’s when the

FARC agreed to end the armed insurgency in

return for being able to participate in Colombian

political life through the Patriotic Union party

(UP). In a great act of treachery, the Colombian

military and paramilitary death squads

responded to this deal by murdering around

5,000 UP leaders and activists, and the FARC

commenced hostilities anew.

Meanwhile, as The Miami Herald reports,

both sides of the conflict have made it clear that

they will not cease armed conflict during the

peace talks; on the contrary, battles between the

guerillas and the Colombian military and police

have increased in recent months. More

troubling, the main non-violent group calling for

peace talks – the Patriotic March – has been

increasingly vilified by the Colombian

government (quite untruthfully) as FARC

supporters, and a number of Patriotic March

leaders have been threatened, jailed, killed or

disappeared with increasing frequency. And,

just as these peace talks have commenced, and

as such attacks against peace activists have

escalated, the Colombian government has cut in

half the support for the beneficiaries of its

government protection program – a program

which purports to protect peace and social

activists from these very attacks. In short, there

are many reasons to be very cautious in our

optimism for these talks.

At the same time, there are reasons for hope.

For its part, the FARC took an important step in

the direction of peace earlier this year by

renouncing its longtime practice of kidnapping

(a tactic of raising money through ransom). As

for the Colombian government, President Santos

has exhibited much more openness to peace

talks than his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, and

has been much more moderate in his rhetoric

about the guerillas and about the Colombian non

-violent left as well. Santos has even begun a

land reform program which purports to give

back land to Colombians (particularly those of

the indigenous and Afro-Colombian

community) whose land was seized unlawfully

during the conflict.

While it remains to be seen how successful

this program will be, and while the program

itself has inspired paramilitary groups to

violently attack those standing to take back land

that the paramilitaries wrongfully seized during

the conflict, the overture is an important one for

the guerillas whose primary demand over the

decades has been meaningful land reform.

Finally, the accelerated growth of the peace

movement in Colombia, most notably through

the establishment of the Patriotic March, will

add critical support to these talks.

As usual, the important wildcard is the

United States – the financial backer of the

Colombian military and the author of

Colombia’s anti-insurgency program beginning

in 1962. The only way that the peace process

will be successful is for the U.S. to support the

process, or, at the very least, get out of the way

to allow it to go forward and prosper. So far, the

U.S. has shown no willingness to support peace

in Colombia, instead opting to exploit the

conflict to retain its last military beachhead in

the Latin American region – a region which,

much to the chagrin of the U.S., is increasingly

radicalizing and turning leftward. A key factor

in the peace process, then, is a strong movement

of citizens in the U.S. who will support peaceful

actors, such as the Patriotic March, in Colombia,

and put political pressure on the U.S.

government to allow peace to flourish in

Colombia. This is a momentous opportunity for

President Obama to finally earn his Nobel Peace

Prize (3 years after the fact) and we must

encourage him to seize upon this opportunity.

As a final note, the Cuban government must

again be applauded for playing its positive role

in this process. As it has in the past, Cuba

hosted the initial talks which led to the

commencement of this peace process, and,

along with Norway, will continue to host such

talks throughout the process.

This tiny island, much vilified by our

government, continues to play its positive role

in our hemisphere for peace, regional stability

and public health. The shamefulness of the

U.S.’s continued blockade of that country grows

each day as Cuba outshines the U.S. in terms of

its contributions to the world.

Daniel Kovalik is a labor and human rights

attorney living in Pittsburgh and teaches

International Human Rights Law at the

University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Dialogue Between the Government and FARC in Colombia

Fredler Jean-Louis and Chedlin Gerve

Photo by Joyce Rothermel


Thwarting Democracy: The Commission on Presidential Debates

by Edith Bell

Petition to Challenge Corporate Power needs

volunteers for petition drive, starting on Election Day

Challenging Corporate Power is a phenomenal

undertaking. Today we see the unwarranted influence

of corporations on everything from foreign policy to

domestic environmental policy, from price setting and

bailouts to favorable corporate tax policies, and

trumping rights of human citizens, communities,

cities, states, even nations.

We cannot expect our official representatives in the

government to change the situation, because they are

beholden to these powers. It has to be a grassroots

effort to amend the U.S. Constitution, since by law

corporations have the same rights as human beings.

Peoples Right vs. Corporate Rights, Democracy vs.

Corporate Rule is the issue.

It is up to us ordinary people to use our numbers to

start working on it.

The talk by David Cobb and George Friday of

Move To Amend in Pittsburgh in July resulted in the

formation of an informal coalition of people, some

representing organizations (AFSC PA, Coffee Party,

Move On, Women’s International League for Peace

and Freedom).

We are planning a major (only with your help)

petition drive starting on Election Day to take

advantage of most people’s disgust with the blatant

influence of money in this election through attack ads.

We believe that people coming out of the voting booth

will be ready to sign a petition to get money out of

politics and strip corporations of their personhood.

The petition will read: “We, the People of the

United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme

Court’s ruling in Citizens United, and MOVE TO

AMEND our Constitution to firmly establish that

money is not speech, and that human beings, not

corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional

rights.”

If you can help on Election Day, please let us

know, when, where, and which polling place you can

cover. We will provide you with petitions, hand outs,

talking points etc. Contact Edith at 412-661-7149 or

email [email protected]. Check the TMC e-

blast for the date of our next meeting.

“Practically every important issue in American

politics is tied to Campaign Finance.” Harvard

Professor Lawrence Lessig.

Edith Bell is coordinator of the Women’s

International League for Peace and Freedom.

Democracy vs. Corporate Rule—Act for Change NOW

Activist Actions

by Josh Zelesnick

In a country that calls itself a democracy (even

though this word is never mentioned in the

Constitution) what kind of choice is there in

choosing the “lesser of two evils”? In fundamental

ways, when we vote, we’re only maintaining the

status quo. It’s blatantly obvious that both the

Democratic and Republican parties are in bed with

corporations and the business elite (just look at

Federal Election Commission data). Thanks to the

Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, it’s very

clear, the more money you acquire and hand out to

buy your interests, the more free speech you have.

Even though I’m not hailing this as the solution

for our rotten election system, one way to actually

have a political choice in this country is to allow all

candidates on the ballot to debate each other. In

2008, four candidates were on the ballot in

Pennsylvania—McCain, Obama, Nader

(Independent), and Barr (Libertarian)—but how

many people actually knew Nader and Barr were

running until they were face-to-face with the ballot?

With the exception of Perot (whom I discuss below),

third party candidates have been barred from

presidential debates since 1987, when the

Commission on Presidential Debates seized control

of the whole presidential debating process. In the

2012 election cycle, there will be at least four

candidates on most of the ballots: Obama, Romney,

Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party), and Jill Stein

(Green Party). Think of how interesting and

challenging it would be if these latter two were

added to the mix to discuss their plans for America.

Republicans and Democrats must be forced to

debate third parties. The Commission on

Presidential Debates (CPD) is simply a non-profit

private corporation created by the Republican and

Democratic parties in 1987—forcibly replacing the

League of Women Voters (LWV), who allowed

third parties to debate—to make sure no third parties

could debate against them.

According to George Farah, author of No Debate

and spokesperson for the non-profit Open Debates

(opendebates.org), much of the money that finances

the CPD presidential debates comes from private

corporations that have "regulatory interest before

congress." Anheuser-Busch and Brown Brothers

Harriman New York (a bank) are two of the biggest

sponsors of this year’s debate events (there are ten

sponsors total in 2012). Tobacco giant Phillip

Morris was a major sponsor in 1992 and 1996.

Commission co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf—the

nation’s leading gambling lobbyist and the President

of the Gambling Association—has even said,

"We’re not going to apologize for trying to influence

political elections." Nancy Neuman, former

president of the LWV, explains the difference

between her organization and the CPD quite clearly:

One of the big differences between us and the Commission was that the commission could easily raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions. They did it very quickly in 1988. Even though I would go to some corporations, I would be lucky to get $5,000. Why? Because under the commission's sponsorship, this is another soft-money deal. It is a way to show your support for the parties because, of course, it is a bipartisan commission and a bipartisan contribution. There was nothing in it for corporations when they made a contribution to the League. Not a quid pro quo. That's not the case with the commission.

According to the CPD website, in order for a

candidate to qualify to debate, she/he must 1) be

constitutionally eligible, 2) be on enough ballots to

be able to win, and 3) have at least "15 percent of

the national electorate as determined by five selected

national public opinion polling organizations…"

The first two criteria are reasonable, but it’s the third

one that exposes the true face of the CPD. In the

past, getting 15 percent has been impossible, and

this arbitrary number was chosen exactly for its

impracticality in a world where mainstream media

almost never reports on third parties. You may recall

that Ross Perot debated in 1992 with just 9 percent

of the vote. This is because Clinton and Bush (I)

allowed it. In 1996, even though Perot again had 9

percent of the vote at debate time, Clinton and Dole

refused to let him speak. Why? Because Clinton was

soaring in the polls and didn’t want anything to

change. The Republican and Democratic campaigns

agree on and sign a secret, private, "legal" contract

months in advance. This “contract” decides who

gets to debate, how many debates there will be, the

format including what topics can be raised, and even

which passive moderators will host the debates.

This election season third party candidates like

Green Jill Stein (on at least 37 states and D.C.) and

Libertarian Gary Johnson (on at least 47 states and

D.C.) are already on enough ballots to make

winning the presidency a mathematical possibility.

What they’ll never get is the irrational 15 percent of

the national electorate that corporate money buys.

Let’s remember that Abraham Lincoln’s

Republican Party was a third party formed to contest

the extension of slavery into the territories. They

decided not to ignore the slavery issue, and Lincoln

won the election in 1860. In just this way, third

parties can help shift conversation away from a

limited sphere of ideas and toward acknowledging

genuine failures of the existing system.

Joshua Zelesnick teaches a writing course on the

“Citizen” at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA.

He is a poet and activist and is on the volunteer

organizing committee for the Adjunct Faculty

Association, which awaits union recognition.

by Benjamin Eckert

Born in 1946, Steve Biko

was a student organizer and

activist for the anti-apartheid

movement in South Africa.

While studying medicine at

the University of Natal,

Biko began organizing stu-

dents to work toward political self-reliance in the face

of racially-motivated oppression. There, he helped

found the South African Students Organization

(SASO). Much of Biko's work in SASO grew into

what is now known as the Black Consciousness

Movement. Biko's influence was so great that he was

expelled from the university and banned by the gov-

ernment. It was prohibited to quote him.

"Black man, you are on your own" was the rallying

cry as the movement fought against the oppressive

forces of the South African government. The struggle

reached a breaking point on June 16, 1976, when

thousands of high school students in an area known as

Soweto in Johannesburg took to the streets to protest

the introduction of Afrikaans (a West Germanic Lan-

guage) in their schools. Approximately 700 people

were killed by South African Security forces. The

event became known as the “Soweto Uprising”. The

harsh reprisal ignited unrest throughout the country,

strengthening the resistance. Aware of his role in

uniting political dissenters, the South African authori-

ties increased their efforts to silence Biko. On Sep-

tember 6, 1977, he was arrested in Port Elizabeth. He

fell into a coma after being beaten and tortured for 22

hours while in police custody. On September 11,

1977, he was transported to a prison hospital in Preto-

ria where he died the next day. His death sent shock

waves around the world and brought to light many of

the horrors of apartheid. Over 10,000 people attended

his funeral. The police in the incident were never

charged. Few figures have inspired as many people to

work for social change as Stephen Biko. Biko left his

mark on the history of South Africa, and on the global

discourse of social justice. He awakened the con-

sciousness of a people to begin to fight against their

oppressors. He paved the way for the eventual elec-

tion of Nelson Mandela in 1994. His legacy is an in-

spiration and an obligation.

October 9th is the last day you can register to vote.

People have fought and died all over the world for us

to be given the chance to pick those who might lead

us. We have an obligation not just to those activists

such as Steve Biko, but to ourselves and our commu-

nities, to ensure we get involved to protect our rights

that they fought and died for.

Benjamin Eckert, a 22 year old student at CCAC

Boyce, helped register students to vote, and was an

active participant in Occupy Pittsburgh.

Courtesy of Creative Commons

About Steve Biko


Activist Culture & Events

by Harvey Holtz

Part I - Theorizing

“The ideas of the ruling class are in every

epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is

the material force of society is at the same time

its intellectual force.” (Marx and Engels, 1846.)

While it is essential to understand the impact

of the forces that Marx and Engels refer to, we

must realize that there are gaps in our society

where alternative, resistant, and transformative

structures exist as well. This is my purpose for

creating Capital’s End, a space where our

combined efforts can be directed towards

transformative change.

In the economic sphere, new relations of

production (class relations) are being born within

the belly of capitalism. Worker cooperatives,

employee stock option plans, credit unions and

public banks, as well as resilience circles,

sustainable agriculture, and a wide variety of

other models represent these new forms of

production and distribution. Unlike many reforms

that take the values and relations of capital for

granted, alternative reforms can be somewhat

autonomous of capital and pave the way to a new

economy and a new society.

These new economic reforms are ideological

as well as material. Capital’s End is designed to

focus on social forms of transformation that are

part of the broader society. As an organizing tool,

Capital’s End is also designed to help alleviate

the alienation (fragmentation) that many of us

experience in our work and in our lives.

Although there is variation in the degree of

fragmentation among our different forms of

active work, our work is often a “means to life”

instead of life itself. We separate our “active

work” from our lives, especially the “joie de

vivre,” that is a result of our dancing, (as

Goldman says) singing and playing.

Moreover, alienation takes the form of the

fragmentation of our struggles, which can appear

as unconnected to the theory that may link them -

instead of having a praxis that connects theory

and practice (“active work”) in an unending

spiral. Additionally, it would also be helpful to

have a social structure that connects all of our

groups like Capital’s End.

Our work often does not provide enough space

for building deep friendships, other than the

limited instrumental and entertainment

relationships that dominate capital. Deep

friendships are built through face-to-face contact

and shared experiences over long periods of time.

Deep friendship builds the forms of trust, and

primary ties, antithetical to capitalist social

relations.

Capital’s End is a way to build a strong basis

for community, along with creative essential

solidarity that is fuel for our “active work.”

Capital’s End intends to be a somewhat unique

step in that direction.

Sustaining ourselves in the best of health begs

for our integration with nature, our control over

our own work, social relations of friendship,

community and solidarity, and the integration of

our work lives with the rest of our lives,

especially with our “joie de vivre.”

To conclude, “active work” is inclusive of all

of those creating and working for social change. It

includes nothing less than those involved in

transition, activists, anarchists and others.

CAPITAL’S END to Begin at the ISTANBUL GRILLE

Part II – Practicing

How Can Change Happen?

Capital’s End is designed to provide a space

where the full diversity of “active work” groups

and individuals working for change may: (a) have

a social space to share ideas across issues, to

build concrete bridges and to form deeper

analyses; (b) help to create the deep friendships

that allow a trust that enhances our possibilities;

and (c) form a culture that binds us theoretically,

practically and personally. We must, however,

maintain the essential independence and

differences that create diversity of structures and

ideas and the independence of groups. Each event

will be dedicated to a particular theme.

The structure will be the responsibility of the

Capital’s End “active work” group. The content

of the program will be the province of the “active

work” group that is conducting that week’s cafe.

The First Cafe: will feature a COSTUMED

HALLOWEEN PARTY on Saturday, October 27,

2012, beginning at 7:30 PM.” The theme of the

first café will be “The New Society.” It will

focus on models for a new society and/or the

various institutions in that society. Ideas might

include those that focus on a sustainable

agriculture, anarchism, a new capitalism,

socialism, communism, etc. One idea might be to

choose to come as (be) a person in that new

society (I hope that includes interesting garb.),

come together as a collective, but come in

whatever makes you smile.

Subsequent events will take place on

Sundays, beginning in November. The tentative

subjects of November’s programs include:

November 4 - “The New Economy;” November

11 “Climate Change and Sustainability;”

November 18 “War;” and November 25 “Active

work” groups.

Although each event will be dedicated to the

evening’s theme, we intend that the program

connect to the cafe’s stated goals. Capital’s End

will also require continual critique so that our

aims and our programs can evolve through this

face-to-face interaction. The TENTATIVE

program concerns the topic of the evening and its

relationships, as well as essential diversities and

includes: (a) a definition of the topic and active

goal, (b) group political, community karaoke and

dancing (c) the performances of local, diverse

bands, (d) scheduled poetry/rap, (e) open

microphone encouraging creative cultural

production, (e) the display, discussion and sale of

art, (f) a “call to arms” by the presenting group,

(g) for the good of the order. Additionally there

will be space for critique as well as space for

“active work” groups to distribute literature.

THE ISTANBUL GRILLE is a place for fine

TURKISH dining. You might also consider

dinner before the event or at any other time - tell

Josh that Harvey sent you.

The ISTANBUL GRILLE is located at 4130

Butler Street / Pittsburgh 15201 – the phone

number is (412) 251-0441. One might consider

dinner at the Istanbul on Wednesday’s - as a place

to socialize to achieve a critical mass for

community and friendship on a second

evening. Eventually, we might have our own

place.

The goal of Capital’s End is to begin a

dialogue and a practice, not to state truth or what

must be. The intent is to heal the wounds of

division – we need each other.

RSVP’s to the Halloween Party

([email protected]) would help to better serve

Josh and our needs of food and drink. BYOB.

If you would like to be involved in the “active

work” of Capital’s End, CONTACT HARVEY

([email protected]) or (724) 388-6258.

Harvey Holtz has been a member of the Thomas

Merton Center Board. He was a member and

often chair of the Department of Sociology at

Indiana University of PA and has been an

activist for most of his life.

This article lays the framework (both theory

and practice) for a new community organizing

and friendship building effort, entitled

“Capital’s End,” which will be launched on

Saturday, October 27, at the Istanbul Grille in

Lawrenceville. (See ad on page 10.)

HEALTHY YOUNG ARTISTS—GIVE SOCIAL JUSTICE A VOICE! by Julie Sokolow On Friday evening, August 24th, Healthy Artists, threw a one-of-a-kind party at Assemble, uniting health care advocates, young

people, and artists. Health care advocates, Molly Rush and Be Well! Pittsburgh’s Jude Vachon took the stage. Their talks covered

issues such as the Affordable Care Act, Single-Payer, and Voter ID issues. The talks

were followed by a creative workshop in which young people and artists created art

around the issue of health care reform and presented their ideas to the audience.

Afterwards, local conceptual artist/folk-singer Jenn Gooch performed, followed by the

indie glam-rock Dazzletine. The host of the event was the unique organization,

Healthy Artists. The group produced a free to watch, online documentary series in which young Pittsburgh artists

discuss their lives, their work, and their experiences with the current health care system. The topic of health care

particularly affects the young artist demographic; many artists work non-traditional jobs and part-time jobs that do not

provide health insurance. Additionally, the largest uninsured pool in the U.S. is comprised of young people in the 19-

29 year age range. Healthy Artists aspires to give voice and exposure to these young artists, while bringing vitality and artistry to a serious social justice issue

that has yet to fully connect with a youthful population. To watch the series and learn about future events, visit: www.healthyartists.org.

Julie Sokolow is a filmmaker, musician, and writer, living in Pittsburgh, PA. She is currently directing a feature documentary entitled Aspie Seeks

Love and she also produces the Healthy Artists documentary series.

Thinking about giving to

Thomas Merton Center ?

Then give on Wednesday,

October 3rd and have your

donation matched by

Pittsburgh Foundation as

Part of the citywide Day of

Giving 2012.

Donations must be made online beginning October 3,

2012 from 12:00 a.m. ET until 11:59 p.m. ET

Donate at : www.pittsburghgives.org.

tel:%28412%29%20251-0441

mailto:[email protected]


tel:%28724%29%20388-6258

http://www.healthyartists.org/


COSTUMED HALLOWEEN PARTY

CAPITAL’S END

AT THE

ISTANBUL GRILLE

“The New Society”

Saturday, October 27, 2012 – 7:30 PM

Come as a member of your new society. Come as you like. All are welcome. - sustainable agriculturalist, anarchist, new capitalist, socialist, communist, a collective, or any others –

Live local music, poetry/rap, talk, collective “political” karaoke, open microphone, display and sale of art, a “call to arms,” and an

opportunity to build friendships, community and solidarity.

FINE TURKISH CUISINE

“My dinner was so good, I had to either lick the plate or forsake Dr. Atkins.” (HH)

Enjoy the soup of the day, the salads, the hot and cold appetizers, the succulent dinners and the daily desserts – the lamb gravy was exquisite, “Eggplant Moussake” is the signature dish.

Arrive hungry for “a nosh” or a meal during the café, or dinner before the café or at any other time. (Tell Josh that Harvey sent you.)

Josh Gokalp, the owner, has provided us with a beautiful and valuable space at no cost to us.

The Istanbul Grille

4130 Butler St. Pittsburgh, PA 15201

For dining reservations, call (412) 251-0441 ISTANBULGRILLE.COM

Capital’s End Café Halloween Party, RSVP to [email protected].

The RSVP will help Josh plan adequately for food and drink - - - - and BYOB. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Capital’s End provides a social space for the full diversity of individuals and groups working for social change: (a) share ideas across issues, build concrete bridges, form analyses; (b) create the deep friendships of trust that enhance our active possibilities; (c) build a culture that binds us theoretically, practically and personally, while maintaining the essential independence and differences that celebrate diversity and independence. Each café will be dedicated to a particular theme .

Subsequent cafes will be on Sundays, beginning in November. The tentative subjects will include: November 4 - “The New Economy;” November 11 - “Climate Change and Sustainability;” November 18 - “War;” and November 25 - “Active Work” groups.



Activists Work to End the Wars

Continued from Page One

She spent four years in Cuba, and has authored

three books on the country. Her books, reports,

and articles have examined global issues of

hunger and unequal development.

Ms. Benjamin's work has focused on

improving the labor and environmental practices

of U.S. multinational corporations, and the

policies of international institutions such as the

World Trade Organization, the International

Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Her

organization, Global Exchange, was instrumental

in organizing the protests against the World Trade

Organization in Seattle in December 1999 and is

a leading advocate of the concept of "fair trade"

that puts labor and environmental needs over

corporate profits. In May 1998 Global Exchange

was credited in the Washington Post as a group

that has "put labor rights on the human rights

agenda."

Ms. Benjamin has become a key figure in the

anti-sweatshop campaigns to change the garment

and shoe industry. When the Clinton

Administration formed the Apparel Industry

Partnership to come up with standards to

eliminate sweatshops, Ms. Benjamin interceded

by urging the Partnership to address the rights of

garment workers to earn wages that cover their

basic needs. She has since become a leading

national figure in the effort to pressure U.S.

companies to include a living wage provision in

their corporate Codes of Conduct.

Global Exchange's campaign focusing on the

giant sports shoe company Nike put the national

spotlight on factory conditions overseas, exposing

the long hours, low pay, unhealthy environment,

and physical abuse that young women workers

endured in Indonesia, China and Vietnam. Global

Exchange mobilized US Congress people, college

students, women's groups, environmentalists,

civil rights organizations and athletes to pressure

Nike to agree to independent monitoring of their

overseas factories and to increase the pay of the

factory workers. The Campaign achieved its first

major victory in May 1998, when Nike agreed to

independent factory monitoring by non-

governmental organizations and raised health and

safety standards in the factories. The Campaign is

still mobilizing the garment and shoe industry

around a living wage and the workers' right to

freedom of association.

Since the September 11, 2001 tragedy, Medea

has been working to promote a U.S. foreign

policy that would respect human rights and gain

us allies instead of contributing to violence and

undermining our international reputation. In 2003

Benjamin co-founded the left wing feminist anti-

war group Codepink: Women for Peace, which

advocated an end to the War in Iraq, the

prevention of future wars, and social justice.

Her work for justice in Israel and Palestine

includes taking numerous delegations to Gaza

after the 2008 Israeli invasion, organizing the

Gaza Freedom March in 2010, participating in the

Freedom Flotillas and opposing the policies of the

Israel lobby group AIPAC. In 2011 she was in

Tahrir Square during the Egyptian uprising. In

2012 she was part of a human rights delegation to

Bahrain in support of democracy activists; she

was tear-gassed, arrested and deported by the

Bahraini government.

In 1999 Ms. Benjamin helped expose the

problem of indentured servitude of garment

workers in the US territory of Saipan (the

Marianas Islands), including a billion-dollar

lawsuit against 17 U.S. retailers profiting from the

workers' plight. She also launched a campaign

focusing on the giant retailer Gap, exposing their

abuses in Saipan and elsewhere around the world.

Ms. Benjamin has also been a key advisor to the

student anti-sweatshop movement, helping to

shape a model university Code of Conduct and

monitoring guidelines.

With the garment, shoe and toy industries

moving so much of their production to China, in

1999 Ms. Benjamin, along with the International

Labor Rights Fund, spearheaded a campaign to

promote workers' rights in China. The Human

Rights Principles for US Businesses in China has

been endorsed by major companies such as

Reebok, Levi Strauss and Mattel, and a NGO/

Company Working Group has been set up to

oversee the practices of US companies in China.

For over twenty years, Ms. Benjamin has

supported human rights and social justice

struggles around the world. She was instrumental

in building US. support for the movement to

overthrow General Suharto in Indonesia and has

been fighting for the right of self-determination

for the people of East Timor. She has been

involved in supporting the Peace Process between

the Zapatista rebels and the Mexican government,

has fought to lift the embargoes against Cuba and

Iraq, and was active in cutting US military aid to

repressive regimes in Central America.

Her books include the following :The Peace

Corps and More; 175 Ways to Work, Study and

Travel in the Third World and Bridging the

Global Gap; A Handbook to Linking Citizens of

the First and Third Worlds. These books examine

the myriad ways North Americans can get

involved in sustainable development-including

working overseas, ethical tourism and alternative

trade, sister cities and material aid, human rights

activism, and changing US. corporate and

government policies. Medea also edited and

translated the award-winning book Don't Be

Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from

the Heart, the moving story of a campesina

leader.

She also helped produce the public TV

documentaries The Fight for Land and Liberty,

Indonesia: One Struggle, One Change, and the

anti-sweatshop video Sweating for a T-Shirt. Her

books on Cuba include Cuba: Talking about

Revolution, The Greening of the Revolution:

Cuba's National Experiment in Sustainable

Agriculture, and No Free Lunch: Food and

Revolution in Cuba Today. Benedita da Silva: An

Afro-Brazilian Woman's Story of Politics and

Love, is the life story of Brazil's first poor, black

woman senator. Her most recent book, Drone

Warfare, Killing By Remote Control is a

comprehensive look at the growing menace of

drone warfare, with an extensive analysis of who

is producing the drones, where they are being

used, who are "piloting" these unmanned planes,

who are the victims and what are the legal and

moral implications. But this book is also a call to

action, with a look at what activists, lawyers and

scientists are doing to rein in the drones, and

ways to move forward.

Ms. Benjamin received a Masters degree in

Public Health from Columbia University and a

Masters degree in Economics from the New

School for Social Research. She lives in

Washington, DC.

To register for the dinner, be a sponsor, or to

become involved in planning, please call the

Thomas Merton Center at 412-361-3022 or visit

the website at www.thomasmertoncenter.org.

Francine Porter is a TMC Board Member and

Coordinator of Codepink Pittsburgh, Women

for Peace.

Medea Benjamin to Receive Merton Peace & Justice Award

2011 Thomas Merton Dinner

Raffle Ticket Winner Report

by Bette McDevitt

If you are a member of the Merton Center,

you will be receiving in the mail, a packet of

raffle tickets, with some nice prizes. We’ve

found a good mix, and stayed with it; the first

prize is two nights at the Edison Hotel in New

York City, a sweet hotel, located steps from

Times Square, and where August Wilson always

stayed; a custom made bike from Bike

Pittsburgh; a big bundle of tickets to theaters,

museums and sporting events, and a basket of

bottles of wine. Look at the website for the

Hotel Edison, www.edisonhotelnyc.com, and

you’ll want to make the trip yourself.

Nancy Crew, who along with her husband,

Ray, won the tickets for various events and

attractions in Pittsburgh last year. She said her

favorite was the dinner cruise on the Gateway

Clipper. “You live here in Pittsburgh, and think

you know it, and then you see it from the water,

and it’s a beautiful sight.” The Crew’s gave the

rest of the tickets, including museum entrances,

to out of town visitors.

We had such a good response from the

museum, theaters and sport venues that we made

two prizes. Rosemary Coffee, the second

winner, gave away the Zoo and Carnegie

Science Center free admissions to friends with

young children, but she very much enjoyed

using the ones to theater presentations

downtown. “I am still taking advantage of the

set of tickets to the Heinz History Center, with

which I visited the museum itself twice, as well

as Meadowcroft west of the city. It has been a

great opportunity to extend some of my cultural

horizons,” she said.

Helen Ortmann won the bike from Bike

Pittsburgh and donated it to Occupy Pittsburgh

to run errands. When the camp was dismantled,

it was probably passed on to someone who

doesn’t use a car.

The winner of the hotel prize was unable to

use the award, due to illness, and regrets that she

did not give it to a family member, before the

expiration of the prize, which was one year form

the date of issue.

Sell the tickets to your friends, or you can

buy them up for yourself. Either way, it’s a great

chance to benefit the Merton Center. We count

on you, our friends, to keep the doors open to

Pittsburgh’s peace and justice center.

Bette McDevitt is a member of the Merton

Center dinner planning committee and the

editorial collective.

Source: Alex Wong/Getty Images South America.

Members of Codepink Medea Benjamin (L) and Gael

Murphy (R) protest during a hearing before the

Senate Foreign Relations Committee.


Activists Working to End the Wars The Inhumanity of Drone Warfare

by Michael Drohan

On Tuesday, November 8, we in Pittsburgh

will have the great opportunity to hear Medea

Benjamin, author of "Drone Warfare: Killing by

Remote Control," speak at the 40th Anniversary

Dinner of the Thomas Merton Center. (Register

online at www.thomasmertoncenter.org.)

Shortly after the initiation of the Afghanistan

War, Benjamin visited that unfortunate land and

witnessed the reality behind the “precision

bombs” on which United States military forces

were becoming increasingly reliant. An entire

mythology has been built up around the so-called

wonder of drones. Benjamin explodes

systematically these myths and exposes the naked

reality and savagery of drone warfare.

The new frontiers for the use of drones are the

Yemen and Pakistan. The New America

Foundation recently published an article entitled

“The Year of the Drone” in which it detailed the

number of drone strikes in northwest Pakistan

between 2004 and 2012. In that timeframe there

were 302 reported drone strikes killing between

1,845 and 2,836 individuals of whom 17 percent

were estimated to be civilians. The context of this

phenomenon is that the war against the Taliban in

Afghanistan has spilled over inevitably to

Pakistan, and in a very real sense the United

States now finds itself at war with Pakistan.

The Pashtun people, who comprise most of the

Taliban, stretch across Afghanistan and Pakistan;

and, for them, the national boundaries between

Pakistan and Afghanistan are mere imperial relics

infringing on their tribal lands. The Pakistani

government, needless to say, does not want to

embroil itself in a civil war by attacking its own

tribal people while the U.S. government/military

is “ losing patience," in the words of Leon

Panetta, with Pakistan’s unwillingness to make

war with the Pashtuns. But let there be no doubt,

the U.S. is at war with Pakistan or at least with

part thereof, even if there are no boots on the

ground. The new warriors are drones, operated

from McCree Airbase in Nevada, and their

operators are Air Force men turned geeks who

never see the battlefield.

Down through the centuries warfare has gone

through several radical turning points from the

days of hand-to-hand combat to today’s latest

revolution with drone and robot warfare. In the

20th century, through air warfare and above all

nuclear warfare, human beings crossed a

threshold of savagery and brutality hitherto

unimaginable. In the Second World War, the

mass killing of civilians by carpet bombing and

the destruction of the cities of Nagasaki and

Hiroshima with atom bombs represents the depth

of savagery and barbarity to which humanity had

descended. But now comes the age of the drones

and the robots, and we have not yet grasped the

full dimensions of what this has unleashed on

humanity.

In his book “Blowback,” Chalmers Johnson

many years ago laid out the broad context in

which it is helpful to view and understand much

of what has happened in the sphere of warfare in

the 21st century. According to Johnson, in the age

of overwhelming imperial military power

dominating the entire globe, the resistance of the

relatively powerless and dispossessed is

constrained to the unconventional military

methods of what is called “terrorism”.

These methods consist of violent attacks on

institutions and symbols of power within the

powerful states by very angry inhabitants of the

dominated world.

Once again the victims by and large are

innocent civilians such as in the Trade Center in

New York City on September 11, 2001. This

form of resistance has popped up in many corners

of the world since the beginning of the 21st

century with the resulting perception that

terrorists are everywhere and have to be combated

ruthlessly. Most of them are alleged to be part of

an international network known as Al Qaeda.

One of the anomalies of the situation is that

the elimination of one “terrorist” gives rise to the

appearance of ten others in his/her place. This has

been the case especially in Iraq, Afghanistan, and

now Pakistan. The powerful countries of NATO,

led by the United States, seem to have little

comprehension of the multiplication of enemies

that their actions give rise to. In the midst of this

incomprehension, strikes with drones that take out

the occasional alleged terrorist give the illusion of

success and power. The drone strikes also give

the illusion of total pinpoint accuracy, where only

the designated enemy is “taken out." On several

counts, however, their success is not only illusory

but false. In both the real battlefield and the

virtual one, the identification of enemy

combatants has proven to be false on many if not

most occasions.

When troops on the ground and intelligence

agents in far away offices have little or no idea of

the culture or language of the people they have

identified as enemies, misidentification can be

expected to be the norm. Bombing of wedding or

funeral parties can be expected to become routine.

The responding outrage and hatred of the

presence of foreigners is little assuaged by

perfunctory regrets and apologies.

Michael Drohan is a member of the Thomas

Merton Center Board and chair of the Editorial

Collective.

Photo courtesy of www.cndcymru.org


by Tim Cimino

Humanity could use a powerful new tool to

boost our ability to address our problems. This

article introduces a powerful new educational

structure called super programs. First, some

preparatory thoughts:

1. Imagine if superheroes like Superman really

existed. They’d protect and help humanity.

2. In a sense, superheroes really do exist and

have been helping humanity for thousands of

years. Great ideas are superheroes. Advances

such as agriculture, coin money, written

language, democracy, the Scientific Method, and

most recently, the Internet are like superheroes

because they are: a) super powerful; b)

egalitarian (willing to help anyone who uses

them); and c) practically immortal.

3. Superheroes aren’t perfect. For example,

written language at first created an elite and the

Scientific Method made possible horrific

weapons and complex ecological problems.

4. Super ideas are often undervalued at first.

Perhaps hunter-gatherers ridiculed the first

farmers since a hunter could instantly get food

but a farmer must wait months and worry about

insects, drought, and thieves. Papyrus could be

ruined when the Nile overflowed. Coin money is

not so useful as the actual chicken or potatoes.

Now to the particular new idea:

5. If people could learn more efficiently, it would

affect every area of life. Imagine more

efficiently learning relationship skills, health

habits, mental health habits, and career skills.

Better skills and habits can help the organizations

you belong to, as well.

6. Almost all organizations on earth are on the

bottom two rungs of a Ladder of Empowerment

that I developed in the 1980s (see below).

Teaching someone to fish is equal to teaching

one skill or knowledge area. Only a few courses

and books teach learning how to learn.

7. If people could operate on the top two rungs as

well as the bottom two, it would dramatically

increase their capacity to learn and change their

lives – and the world.

8. Trying to learn without having all the

ingredients is like trying to bake a cake without

all needed ingredients. Don’t make me eat that

cake! In other words, your learning will be

partial; it won’t stick; you’ll fail to apply it in all

relevant cases; or it will be a struggle.

9. I couldn’t find a list of the ingredients needed

for learning on Wikipedia or anywhere on the

Internet. So I created a list and put it at

LOVELYPLAN.ORG. Surprisingly, between 15

and 25 ingredients are needed, depending on the

learning task.

10. I believe that I’ve created a whole new class

of educational structures. I named them

superprograms. The Basic Program link at

LOVELYPLAN.ORG contains a ready-to-use

superprogram.

11. Ongoing personal support is a key ingredient

in superprograms. It makes change much easier.

12. I don’t have data to prove superprograms are

superior. But it stands to reason that consciously

re-gathering all needed ingredients is better than

winging it. Also, Rung Four is very high-

leverage.

13. If superprograms really can increase

humanity’s capacity (and your own capacity) it’s

urgent that it be developed and used as soon as

possible.

14. A long list of benefits you can get in the next

few months is at the website – even if

superprograms don’t spread around the world.

15. A WARNING: Decent people will tend to

think, “I will wait and see, and maybe use

superprograms when I get around to it.

Meanwhile, irresponsible corporations. power-

hungry individuals, and oppressive governments

will tend to think, “Superprograms will give the

most power to the first people to exploit them.

Therefore, I will investigate superprogram as

soon as possible!” – Thus, it’s imperative that

decent people jump in as soon as possible.

16. In other words, the decent people of the

world are in a three-way race: They’re racing

against the accumulated impacts of their bad

economic, political and environmental habits

AND they’re racing against the oppressive

governments and irresponsible corporations.

17. You may think I’m overstating the potential

power of this idea. But superhero ideas are often

simple. The Internet is complex, but agriculture

is basically putting seeds in the ground. Written

language is simply marks that stand for

something. Simplicity is another reason why

super-ideas are often discounted.

18. Six other original superhero ideas are at

LOVELYPLAN.ORG.

19. Ultimately superprograms and the rest of

Lovely Plan are about making the best, most

loving use of your life and time – for your own

sake, and for others.

Tim Cimino was once an agricultural research

chemist. He now directs Group Genie, a

creativity team and action network.

A New “SUPERHERO” Upgrade for Humanity

by Anne E. Lynch

This month, let’s explore the fascinating term “intersectionality.” In Pittsburgh, all too often the environmental justice groups don’t partner with racial justice groups, even though environmental racism is rampant in our area. Economic justice groups don’t have disability rights groups in-volved in campaigns, even though people with disabilities are paid lower salaries for doing the same work. One of the most hopeful things I’ve seen in my experience as a Pittsburgh activist was during the lead-up to the G-20 protests in September 2009. For the first time, I saw all these disparate groups in the same room, working and talking together. The Merton Center was instrumental in making sure all were welcome at the frequent open meet-ings. I had hoped to see this continue, but after the G-20, we all went our separate ways again. Intersectionality is, very basically, many groups with different key issues or foci working together to have a bigger impact. For example: women’s groups working with LGBTQ groups to ensure that all women, cisgender and transgender, have access to quality health care. Fair housing groups working with people with disabilities to ensure that safe, affordable housing is accessible. Racial justice groups being true partners in the environmental justice movement. Working on an intersectional level shows pol-icy makers and other parties that their constitu-ents aren’t just interested in one particular item, and that they’re willing to work together to create a better world. How can we see this happen more frequently in our region? First of all, we have to ensure that, when we’re looking at problems to solve, we think about all possible angles of who the problem affects.

Are you working to promote economic justice? Are women, people with disabilities, and people of color sitting at your table? Are you working to improve relations between community members and the police? Are there LGBTQ people, fre-quent targets of hate crimes, at your table? Are you working to fight pollution? Are people of color, who are more often affected by the place-ment of polluting sites, at your table? If they’re not, you need to invite them in! Start with a phone call and try to set up an actual visit. In-person meetings are the best way to show your commitment to reaching out to a broader coali-tion. Invite them to a meeting. If they cannot make an already-scheduled meeting or get to the location of a meeting, work to accommodate them by asking what days/times/locations would work for future meetings. Make sure they knows you truly want and appreciate their time and effort. Secondly, after you’ve got everyone affected at the table (no small task in and of itself!), you have to ensure that everyone at the table knows that their opinion and voice is valued. Actively listen when people speak, and wait to respond until they’ve concluded. Ask people who aren’t talking much what their thoughts are. Don’t im-mediately assume that the way you’ve always done something is going to work for everyone in the room – be willing to adjust your plans, and be open to new ideas and tactics. We’ll continue to explore intersectionality in future months. The one thing I want you to take from this column is that working on an inter-sectional level makes all of our movements

stronger, so it’s worth the effort!

Anne Lynch is Office Manager at Three Rivers Community Foundation.

Intersectionality in the Social Justice Community

Activist Paths to Peace

A Victory!

On September 17, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke

Ravenstahl joined the Mayors for Peace and

called on the U.S. government to stop making

nuclear weapons and to redirect the funds to the

needs of the cities. Mayors for Peace is an

organization with 5,400 member cities in 154

countries, who are calling for the elimination of

nuclear weapons by 2020.

The group Remembering Hiroshima/

Imagining Peace, including Women's

International League for Peace and Freedom

(WILPF) and the American Friends Service

Committee of PA representatives, was

instrumental in getting this accomplished. They

are pictured above with Mayor Ravenstahl.

Submitted by Edith Bell of WILPF.

http://lovelyplan.org/




Continued from Page One

Registration forms and other important voting

information are available at the Thomas Merton

Center, our East End Community Thrift Shop

(5123 Penn Avenue), the Board of Elections

downtown in the County Office Annex Building

behind the Court House, and

many other locations. At the Merton Center and the

East End Community Thrift Shop at 5123 Penn

Avenue, you can be helped and get postage if

needed. TMC encourages your support of the

important efforts of the Black Political

Empowerment Project and the

Pittsburgh NAACP in their non-partisan Election

Protection and Get Out the Vote. To volunteer, call

Celeste Taylor at 412-452-2120.

Opportunities to Become More Involved

Building a Community of Activists

by Marcia Bandes

Mere Citizens takes us back in time to the 1980’s when nuclear proliferation was at its peak and President Reagan was determined to roll out a first strike capability. Citizens across the country were forming groups to protest this race to what many believed to be nuclear war. In Pittsburgh, concerned citizens formed The River City Nonviolent Resistance Campaign. They were not politicians, corporate executives, rich, or otherwise local leaders. They were teachers, parents, graduate students, lawyers, workers, and thus mere citizens. Drawing heavily upon original source documents, such as the minutes from meetings, newspaper archives, and interviews with the participants, Liane Norman, who was also a participant, captured the thought process and research that went into targeting Westinghouse, Rockwell, and the Software Engineering Institute; the tactics they used; and the friendships and mutual respect that evolved over time among the participants. The River City Nonviolent Resistance Campaign compared these corporations’ contributions to the development of first strike nuclear missiles to the corporate complicity identified as war crimes or crimes against humanity during the Nuremberg trials. This comparison led to meetings between River City and Westinghouse executives. Norman’s coverage provides insight that is as relevant today as it was then. River City met weekly to develop and execute tactics that kept the campaign fresh and in the news for nearly ten years. Creative tactics included

creation of a ribbon of banners that connected Rockwell in the US Steel building with both the Federal building and the Westinghouse building to graphically demonstrate their ties. River City members disrupted shareholder meetings, were arrested for civil disobedience and teamed with many organizations and church groups for a weekly leafleting effort alternating between Rockwell and Westinghouse. The book includes many examples of the hand drawn leaflets that were used to educate and keep the risks of nuclear war on people’s minds. But I believe that the key factor that kept River City active beyond the normal life of similar groups was members’ commitment to learning and sharing information among themselves and others. One member, Jonathan Pressler, authored The Other Westinghouse: Weapons and Waste. Though a surprisingly quick read, Mere Citizens: United, Civil and Disobedient offers a thought provoking review of a non-violent campaign and a glimpse at the people that kept it alive for nearly a decade.

Marcia Bandes is a member of the Thomas Merton

Center.

This book is available for purchase at the Merton Center for $19.99. The Center will receive a portion of the book sale price.

Help Book ‘Em

Send Books

to Prisoners

Make a small monthly

contribution and

Help Free a Prisoner! (Please sign up to be a monthly supporter.)

$5 a month: Trusty with a key

$10 a month: Friend with a file in a cake

$15+ a month: Member of a parole board

Go to www.thomasmertoncenter.org,

and click on Join/Donate and scroll

down to Book ‘Em. All donations are tax-

deductible and will be used to mail books.

Thank you from the men and women in

prison who love to read!

Mere Citizens Book Review

Meet MIKE ROSENBERG...

TMC is pleased to introduce Mike

Rosenberg who, as an

intern, has joined

our staff at the

Thomas Merton

Center.

Mike was born

and raised in Silver

Spring, MD—just

outside of

Washington, DC.

Mike has lived in

Pittsburgh for the

past three years while he has been pursuing a

bachelor’s in social work at the University of

Pittsburgh, where he is in his senior year.

Mike has an interest in community organizing

and smart-urban planning. He intends on

working in those fields upon the completion

of his schooling. While at the Center, Mike

will be working on online calendar, e-blast,

membership, and whatever else needs to be

done. Please stop in sometime and introduce

yourself to Mike. In addition to his studies,

Mike is an avid cyclist and works at Pro

Bikes in Squirrel Hill. Keep an eye out for

him riding his bicycle around town. Mike is

also active in the undergraduate social work

club at Pitt as well as his fraternity, ZBT.

After his graduation from Pitt in the

springtime, Mike plans riding his bicycle

home to Maryland via the Great Allegheny

Passage. Following that, Mike will be

attending graduate school to earn a master’s

in social work.

...And SHAHID KHAN

TMC is also fortunate to have another intern

join our staff! Shahid

Khan will be working

with Mike and other

TMC staff and

volunteers to help

build a more peaceful

and just world. More

from Shahid...

Nice to meet you!

I am Shahid Khan.

I am a second year

Masters student at the

School of Social

work, University of Pittsburgh.

I am an intern at Thomas Merton Center.

My area of concentration is COSA

(Community Organizing and Social

Administration). As a social worker I am

interested in many things such as raising

awareness in people about social issues and

injustices.

I believe that organizations like TMC have

and are still playing an important role in doing

so. I also believe that such organizations

present an excellent learning opportunity for

the students who are interested in running an

NGO or a non-profit organization in the

future.

Please stop in at TMC and introduce

yourselves to Mike and Shahid, when you

have a spare moment, as they get to know

more about our activist community!

Shahid Khan

Mike Rosenberg

Meet TMC’s New Interns!

SPECIAL THANKS TO RICH FISHKIN! TMC would like to thank Rich Fishkin for his recent donation of a video projector! The projector comes

at a time when the Center is seeing an increased need for this resource! Rich has produced three video programs about Occupy Pittsburgh and they have been

shown on Pittsburgh Community Access TV - PCTV 21 - many times. He also taped TMC’s New People Awards this past spring when Occupy Pittsburgh

was recognized for their heroic community organizing work. You can view Rich’s videos at www.youtube.com/user/richfishpgh. Copies of his videos are

available for purchase for $15 a piece. Email Rich at [email protected] or call(412) 856-7723. Rich is a professional videographer who shoots

weddings and special events. Please contact him if you would like to hire him for your event!

WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP TO BUILD THE MOVEMENT! TMC needs a flat screen TV with USB and network capability. Call us if you can help!

Catholics in Alliance for Common Good

www.catholicsinalliance.org

Catholics United

www.catholics-united.org

Conference of Major Superiors of Menhttp

cmsm.org

Colomban Ctr for Advocacy and Outreach

columban.org/jpic

Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph

www.sistersofsaintjosephfederation.org

Franciscan Action Network

www.franciscanaction.org

Franciscan Friars (Eastern Province)

www.franciscanseast.org

Good Shepherd Sisters

www.goodshepherdsisters.org

Leadership Conference of Women Religious

lcwr.org

Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

maryknollogc.org

National Catholic Social Justice Lobby

www.networklobby.org

Pax Christi USA

paxchristiusa.org

Sisters of Mercy of the Americas

www.sistersofmercy.org

Catholics Vote for Common Good

commongood2012.org

Local Bread for the World advocates meet with Senator

Casey representative, Jackie Erickson, on September 18,

2012 to speak about the need for healthy and accessible

food for all the poor and vulnerable living in our

community and around the world.

Links to Voting Records for Review Before Elections:


by Michael Drohan and Diane

McMahon

From among the present Board of

the Center, the following members’

tenure expires at the end of 2012.

Kathy Cunningham; Michael

Drohan; Wanda Guthrie; Francine

Porter; and Molly Rush. All of these

members have agreed to stand

again for the next two year, 2013-14

period.

The following are the new

candidates for the Board to

complete the slate:

Ed Brett: Ed is a Professor

Emeritus of La Roche College

where he served for 28 years in the

History Dept. He has been a

member of the Merton Center since

1984 and has been a key activist

especially around the wars in

Central America during the 1980s

and 1990s. Among his educational

achievements are a Ph.D. from

Rutgers University, an M.A. from

Louisiana State. and a B.A. from

Loyola College, New Orleans. He

has authored many books on

subjects related to Central American

history.

Kitoko Chargois: Kitoko is a

senior at Chatham University and is

doing her degree in Print Journalism

and Photography. She is already

familiar to the Center having been

an intern during the last Semester.

During her internship, she did

invaluable work for the Center as

she produced the weekly eblast,

wrote articles for the New People

and reported on several issues for

the paper. Presently, she is editor

for Chatham’s College newspaper

and is active in many student

organizations.

Ken Joseph: Ken is an Attorney

who practices with Pepper

Hamilton. His practice is focused on

real estate transactions, particularly

those involving the development of

affordable housing. He has a B.A.

from St. John’s College, Annapolis

and a J.D. from Duquesne

University. He has volunteered as a

legal observer for the National

Lawyers Guild at the protests in St.

Paul at the Republican Convention

and for the ACLU on numerous

occasions in Pittsburgh. He is

presently a Cornerstone Sustainer of

the Merton Center and serves on the

governing bodies of other

organizations in the city.

Chris Mason: Chris was a

prominent member of Occupy

Pittsburgh in the Fall of 2011. She

helped to organize the encampment,

facilitate general assemblies and

provide social media support.

Presently she works with the

Birmingham Foundation which

makes grants to non-profit

organizations that provide health

and human service programs in the

South Pittsburgh area. She received

her education at CCAC and

Duquesne University in Liberal Arts

Studies. She also studied

documentary film production at

Pittsburgh Filmmakers.

Joyce Rothermel: Joyce was

Executive Director of the Greater

Pittsburgh Community Food Bank

from 1987-2011. She was a co-

founder of the Food Bank, which

was born out of the Merton Center’s

outreach to the needy and hungry in

our city. Prior to going to the Food

Bank, she served for 10 years on the

Staff of the Merton Center in many

capacities including the production

of The New People. Her education

includes a B.A. in Education from

St. John’s College, Cleveland and

an M.A. in Education from Dayton

University, Dayton, Ohio. She was

a founding member of the

Pittsburgh Haiti Solidarity

Committee and is a member of

numerous peace and social justice

groups in the city.

Tyrone Scales: Presently Tyrone is

pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in

Social Work at the University of

Pittsburgh. Prior to that he received

an Associate Degree at CCAC in

Social Work. He has worked as an

intern with United Cerebral Palsy,

Pittsburgh, and has volunteered with

Aseracare Hospice and other non-

profit organizations in the city.

Shernell Smith: Shernell presently

works at CMU in the Office of the

Dean of Students Affairs on

Multicultural and Diversity

Initiatives. Prior to her present

position, she worked as Coordinator

for Student Development and House

fellow Student Development also at

CMU. She received her Bachelor's

Degree in Biological Sciences at the

University of Central Arkansas and

her Master of Higher Education at

the University of Arkansas,

Fayetteville. She is already familiar

to us at the Center for the invaluable

help she provided in organizing the

Merton Award Dinners of 2010 and

2011.

There is still time for additional

names for the slate. If there is

anybody whom you would like to

nominate for the Board please

submit his or her name to the

Thomas Merton Center before

October 15, 2012.

TMC 2013 Slate of Board Candidates

Building a Community of Activists

“Becoming Nonviolent Peacemakers: A Virtue Ethic

for Catholic Social Teaching and US Policy”

by Eli Sasaran McCarthy

by Joyce Rothermel

As we continue to celebrate

our 40th anniversary at the

Merton Center, we are excited to

host a book signing pot luck

reception at the Center on

Sunday, October 14, 2012 from 3

- 5 PM. Our guest is Eli Sasaran

McCarthy, author of Becoming

Nonviolent Peacemakers:

A Virtue Ethic for Catholic

Social Teaching and US Policy

and adjunct professor of Justice and Peace Studies at Georgetown

University. Eli is the son of Connie Totera-Hutchinson, TMC

member from Beaver County. He will be joining us to discuss, sell

and sign his new book for all who purchase it.

Lisa Cahill from Boston College's Theology Department has this

review: "This is an excellent book. It is highly original and

intellectually precise, while remaining grounded in the Christian life

and passion for social change. McCarthy cuts across standard

divisions of just war theory and pacifism to create a public and

political peacemaking ethic of virtue for an era in which Christian

action for global justice is not optional. He ties the ethic to both

national and international policy. A tour de force."

Another review comes from Alan Goulty, former British

Ambassador to Sudan: "McCarthy's deep discussion of the

challenges of nonviolent peacemaking should be essential reading

for all would-be peacemakers and, more especially, for all those who

still see lethal force as the answer to international problems."

Please plan to attend the reception and bring an appetizer, dessert

or beverage to share as we continue to toast the Center's 40th year!

Joyce Rothermel is co-chair of the TMC 40th Anniversary

Committee.

Book Signing Reception at TMC


Sunday Monday 1 TMC Mad Mex ($60 pp)

Fundraising Dinner

Shadyside—7 pm

Civics for Grown-ups

Part II

7:00pm-9:00pm

100 Warwick Drive

Upper St. Clair, PA

15241 412-681-7736

ISO Meeting:

7:30-9:00pm at TMC

[email protected]

Tuesday 2 Thursday 4 Editorial Collective

Meeting 10:30am-12:00pm

Thomas Merton Center

First Friday Action 1:30-3:00pm

Post Office, Downtown

Tony @ 412-462-9962

Anti-Racism

Workshop 3:00-8:30pm

Contact: 412-721-0853

Friday 5 TMC Day of Giving (your donation will be

matched by Pgh. Fdt)

All day online at

Pittsburghgives.org

Write On! Letters for

Prisoner Rights

7:00 pm at TMC

FedUp! Meeting 7:00-9:00 pm TMC

PADP meeting First Unitarian Church

Contact:412-384-4310.

Wednesday 3 TMC Anti-War

Forum at East Liberty

Presby Church 1-4 pm

Black Voices for

Peace: Vigil to End the

War. 1:00pm

Corner of Penn and

Highland in East Liberty

Anti-Racism

Workshop 8:30am-5:00pm

Contact: 412-721-0853

Saturday 6

Social Movements

& Global Crisis: 4:30-6:00pm

5604 Posvar Hall, Pitt

Green Party meeting:

7:00-9:00pm 2121 Murray Avenue

Pgh, Pa 15217 (2nd

Floor) 412-784-0256

OFF THE RECORD Pgh Community Food Bank Fundraiser

8 pm @ The Byham

Become a Member of TMC! $45—Individual Membership

$100– Family Membership

$75—Organization (below 25 members)

$125—Organization (above 25 members) THE NEW PEOPLE WILL BE MAILED TO YOU!

TMC membership benefits include monthly

mailings of the New People to your home or

email account, weekly eblasts focusing on peace

and justice events, and special invitations to

membership activities. Join at thomasmerton-

center.org/join-donate.

TMC Members Host Outreach Meeting in the North Hills

In an effort to grow engagement in the activities of the Thomas Merton Center and expand

membership, the Membership Committee is planning regional gatherings hosted by

members in their respective communities. One has been held so far in Murrysville this past

May. The second has been planned for the northern area on October 7 from 1:30-3:00 pm at

the Kearns Spirituality Center, a Ministry of the Sisters of Divine Providence.

The event is being hosted by TMC members Sr. Betty Sunday, CDP, Mary Sheehan, Donna

and Ed Brett. The afternoon will include a short video about the Center, updates about the

focus areas of the Center: anti-war, economic justice, environmental justice and prisoners

rights. Testimonials will also be given by the event hosts. Discussion and refreshments will

wrap up the afternoon.

All attendees are invited to the Mike Stout benefit concert later in the day at 7:30 PM at the

Frick Fine Arts Auditorium in Oakland. A suggested donation of $15 is requested to benefit

Pennsylvanians United for Single Health-Payer (PUSH) and the Thomas Merton Center.

OCTOBER ACTIVIST EVENTS

TMC Anti-War

Committee Meeting


2:00 pm

Doug Morris

Fundraising

Concert for TMC

Featuring Woody

Guthrie Songs

7-9 pm

Postal Workers Hall

Northside

21

28

29

Civics for Grown-

ups Part II 7:00pm-9:00pm

100 Warwick Drive

Upper St. Clair, PA

15241 412-681-7736

ISO Meeting: 7:30-9:00pm


23

30

Woody Guthrie:

Ain't Got No Home 7:30-9:00pm

Pump House

-

25

26


Prisoner Rights

7:00pm


FedUp! Meeting

7:00-9:00pm


Darfur Coalition

Meeting

5:30-7:30 pm

Room C, Carnegie

Library, Squirrel Hill

Happy Halloween


Prisoner Rights


7 pm

FedUp! Meeting

7:00-9:00pm


24

31

Black Voices for

Peace

Vigil to End the War Corner of Penn and

Highland in East Liberty 1:00 pm

PodCamp Pittsburgh 9:00-5:00pm

Point Park University

201Wood St. Pgh, Pa

15222

27

Just Harvest’s

Annual Dinner 6:00-9:30pm

Omni William Penn

www.justharvest.org

Visions of Hope for

Haiti 6:00-9:00pm

616 N. Highland Ave.

ISO Meeting:

7:30-9:00pm at TMC

TMC Book Signing

3-5 pm at TMC

Women in Black Monthly Peace Vigil 10:00 am

Ginger Hill Church 35th Pittsburgh East

CROP Hunger Walk 1:00am-4:00pm

733 South Ave. Pgh. 15221

Anti-War Com. Mtg

2:00-3:00pm at TMC

14 15 Civics for Grown-

ups Part II : 412-681-7736



Association of

Pittsburgh Priests

speakers' series 7:30-8:30pm

9000 Babcock blvd.

Allison Park, PA 15101

16 18

19 TMC Membership

Committee Meeting

12:00pm at the



Prisoner Rights

TMC 7 pm

FedUp! Meeting

7:00-9:00pm


17 Black Voices for Peace Vigil to End the War

Corner of Penn and Highland in East Liberty

1:00 pm

PPT Meeting 10:00am –12:00pm


Fight for Lifers West

meeting 10:00am– 12:00pm

325 N. Highland,

Pittsburgh Pa.

20

PIIN Fall Public

Action Meeting 7:pm-8:30pm

Rodef Shalom

Pgh. PA 15213

TMC Northern

Area Outreach

Gathering 1:30-3:00pm

9000 Babcock Blvd,

Mike Stout & The

Human Union

Band ($15 pp) 7:30-9:30pm

Frick Auditorium 650

Schenley Dr, 15213

412-361-3022

7 8

TMC New Economy

Planning Mtg—10 am -at the Center in Garfield

Civics for Grownups 7:00-9:00pm

100 Warwick Drive

15241 (Upper St. Clair)



W.O.M.I.N. Meeting 7:30-8:30 pm 18 Schubert St., Pgh PA 15212

9 11

12 Write On! Letters for

Prisoner Rights

7 pm at TMC

Darfur Coalition Mtg

5:30-7:30 pm

Room C, Carnegie

Library, Squirrel Hill

PUSH Meeting 6:15-8:00pm

2101 Murray Avenue,

Pgh, Pa 15217

[email protected]

FedUp! Meeting 7-9pm

10 Black Voices for

Peace Vigil to End the War

1:00pm

Corner of Penn and Highland in East Liberty

PEHT (Project to End

Human Trafficking

10am-2pm

Carlow Campus

Like a Man Gone Mad

1:30pm

Pump House

13

22

TMC

Board Meeting 6:00pm –9:00pm


Board

Development

Committee 3:00-4:00pm

Thomas Merton

Center

Dorothy Day, a person of contradictions, activist and

contemplative, political, radical and theological

traditionalist, intended to found a newspaper “The Catholic

Worker” but ended up founding a movement. The many

houses of hospitality stretching from Los Angeles to

Amsterdam, like the original Catholic Worker, are places of

welcome for many who are treated as throwaways. Many

regard Dorothy as one of the saints of our time.

Jim Forest worked closely with Dorothy Day during the last

twenty years of her life. “All is Grace,” an expanded version

of his biography on Dorothy, “Love is the Measure” draws

on recently released letters and diaries. An author and peace

activist, Forest left the Navy in 1969 as a conscientious

objector and joined the Catholic Worker movement. He

spent a year in prison for burning draft records (1969-1970).

Formerly General Secretary of the International Fellowship

of Reconciliation, he is now international secretary of the

Orthodox Peace Fellowship and lives in Holland. Jim will

lead a retreat December 6-9 at Kirkridge, a beautiful retreat

center nestled atop a mountain in northeast PA: 2495 Fox

Gap Road, Bangor, PA 18013. 610-588-1793,

[email protected]. The program begins with dinner

on Friday at 6:30 and runs until noon on Sunday;

Cost is $365 per person. Call to learn about scholarships.

Kirkridge Retreat on Dorothy Day

The TMC 40th Anniversary is just around

the corner! Register for the dinner at

www.thomasmertoncenter.org.

This year we are honoring

Medea Benjamin with a

Peace and Justice Award!

The dinner will be held at

6 PM on Thursday, Nov. 8,

at the Sheraton Station

Square Hotel on the Southside.

Want to become more involved in

the local peace and justice

movement?

Call the Thomas Merton Center to

find out about volunteer

opportunities.

Volunteers are needed during the

weekday hours to assist with special

events, mailings, and organizing

activities. (412) 361-3022.

Thomas Merton

1915-1968

October 2012 New People

Documents

Transcript of October 2012 New People