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The June edition of the New People
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June 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 1
THOMAS MERTON CENTER, 5129 PENN AVE.
PITTSBURGH, PA 15224 NON-PROFIT ORG.
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PITTSBURGH, PA
PERMIT NO. 458
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. 6, June, 2012
In This Issue... Page #
Save Public Transit …..........1
Solidarity w/LCWR …......1, 4
Occupy the Polls ........3, 13
Voter ID Update ..............3
Women‘s Rights ..............4
The Pope & Obama ..............4
Potluck w/Houk ..............5
Do Not Depend ..............6
―Divert‖ Review ……......6
Bangladesh Event ..............7
Healing Wounds ..............7
Evac Zone Pgh ..............7
Hummus & Rights ..............8
Citizen‘s Police ..............9
TMC Youth Leaders ..............9
Class Wars ............10
TMC Focus Stories ............11
Feed People ……....12
Single Payer Health …..…..15
Organizing to Save Public Transit by Jibran Mushtaq
The year 2012 has been filled to date with
several activities that reflect the history,
mission, and spirit of the Thomas Merton
Center as we celebrate our 40th anniversary.
In June, our focus is on coalition building,
collaborative efforts, and public action. The
issues have varied over the years, but the
Center has found itself as a leaven among its
membership and a public witness to the
broader community through public action.
One of the current major issues facing our
region, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
and indeed much of the nation this year is
public transit.
We invite all our TMC members, New
People readers, e-blast receivers, and friends
of public transit to be a part of a very
important public action to "SAVE OUR
TRANSIT" on Friday, June 8, at 3 PM at the
corner of Stanwix Street and Fort Pitt Boulevard.
in downtown Pittsburgh. Organized by a transit
coalition including Pittsburghers for Public
Transit, the Thomas Merton Center, ATU Local
85, and many others, the March and Rally will
draw attention to the dire situation public transit
is here in the Pittsburgh region. Look for the
TMC banner and march along with us!
Among the demands of all who will gather are:
--No service cuts, fare hikes, layoffs, or attacks
on the transit workers' union
--Restoration of transit services to the March
2011 levels
--A guaranteed source of funding for public
transportation
Our public transit system in the Pittsburgh area
is facing an additional 35% cut in service due to
insufficient funding this fall. It will affect half of
all the bus routes, eliminate most runs
after 10 PM, and cause the loss of
more than 500 jobs.
While many would have us believe
that the reasons for the current budget
crisis are the wages of the drivers and
the unions, others would argue that it is
mainly due to the state failing for 20
years to find a dedicated source of
revenue for public transport. This year,
Governor Corbett is refusing to fund
public transit while at the same time he
plans to give an additional $833
million in tax breaks to corporations.
We encourage everyone to come
out for this important march and rally
on June 8 and commemorate the
Merton Center's 40th anniversary
through your action. In addition, we
can take action by making a phone call
today to the governor at 717-787-2500 or writing
to him at [email protected] and tell him what
you think about his refusal to fund transit. Also,
we can all keep up to date with news and events
by joining the announcement list at
www.pittsburghersforpublictransit.org.
Jibran Mushtaq is a Community Organizer
for the Thomas Merton Center.
by Joyce Rothermel
For almost 60 years, the Leadership
Conference of Women Religious
(LCWR), an association of the leaders
of congregations of Catholic women
religious in the U.S., has assisted its
members to collaboratively carry out
their service of leadership to further
the mission of the Gospel in the world.
The leaders 1,500 members represent
more than 80% of the over 57,000
women religious in the U.S. After an
investigation of the organization by the
Vatican, the hierarchy leaders have
appointed Seattle Archbishop Peter
Sartain to oversee reform of the
LCWR.
The national board of the
Leadership Conference of Women
Religious is meeting May 29 - June 1,
2012 to begin its discussion of the
conclusions of the doctrinal
assessment by the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith and of the
implementation plan put forth by that
Vatican office. The board will conduct
its meeting in an atmosphere of prayer,
contemplation, and dialogue and will
develop a plan to involve LCWR
membership in similar processes. The
conference plans to move slowly, not
rushing to judgment. They plan to
engage in dialogue where possible and
be open to the movement of the Holy
Spirit. They ask our prayers for them
and for the Church in this critical time.
To date, the LCWR has received
many supportive responses from
around the U.S., internationally, and
from other faith denominations.
Locally, prayer vigils in solidarity with
the women religious have been held
outside St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland
in the weeks leading up to the meeting
of the national board.
The Pittsburgh area has close
connections to the LCWR since we
have several congregations of women
religious based here whose leaders are
LCWR members. Sr. Lora
Dombrowski, a local Franciscan
leader, finished her term as LCWR
president in 2010, and currently Sr.
Janet Mock, a member of the Sisters of
St. Joseph in Baden, is LCWR‘s
Executive Director.
Many TMC members and New
People readers have great
admiration for the women religious
in the U.S., who have witnessed the
Gospel to us, served us in their
work in education, health care,
social services, parish ministries,
and religious education, and have
led us in the incorporation of the
teachings of Vatican Council II into
our lives. We are ready to stand
(Continued on page 5)
OCCUPY PITTSBURGH INSERT Produced by Occupy Pittsburgh VOL. 3 No. 6, June, 2012
Occupy Pittsburgh Insert Honoring Chen - pg. 12 Remembering
Martin Delany- pg. 8
Photo by Martha Null of City Paper
Transit activist Jon Robinson pictured on left.
In Solidarity with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious
2 - NEWPEOPLE June 2012
IS PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE THOMAS MERTON CENTER
5129 PENN AVE., PITTSBURGH, PA 15224
Office Phone: 412-301-3022 — Fax: 412-361-0540
Website: www.thomasmertoncenter.org
TMC Editorial Collective Edith Bell, J.T. Campbell, Corey Carrington, Rob Conroy, Michael Drohan, Russ
Fedorka, Martha Garvey, James Lucius, Bette McDevitt, Diane McMahon,
Kenneth Miller, Joyce Rothermel, Jo Tavener, Molly Rush
TMC Staff, Volunteers and Interns
Diane McMahon, Managing Director
Jibran Mushtaq, Community Organizer / IT Director
Roslyn Maholland, Finance Manager, Mig Cole, Assistant Bookkeeper
Shirley Gleditsch, Manager, East End Community Thrift Store
Shawna Hammond, Manager, East End Community Thrift Store
Dolly Mason, Furniture Manager, East End Community Thrift Store
Corey Carrington, Public Ally, Yiwei Zhang, Pitt MSW Intern
TMC Board of Directors Rob Conroy, Kathy Cunningham, Michael Drohan,
Patrick Fenton, Carol Gonzalez, Wanda Guthrie,
Shawna Hammond, Edward Kinley,
Jonah McAllister-Erickson, Francine Porter, Molly Rush
TMC Standing Committees
Board Development Committee
Recruits board members, conducts board elections
Building Committee
Oversees maintenance of 5123-5129 Penn Ave. sites
Membership Committee
Coordinates membership goals, activities, appeals, and communications
40th Anniversary Committee
Plan activities to celebrate TMC’s 40th year of service
Editorial Collective Plans, produces and distributes the NewPeople newspaper
Finance Committee
Ensures financial stability and accountability of TMC
Personnel Committee
Oversees staff needs, evaluation, and policies
Project Committee
Oversees project applications, guidelines, and policies
Special Event Committees
Plan and oversee TMC fundraising events with members and friends
Anti-War Committee [email protected]
www.pittsburghendthewar.org
Association of US Catholic Priests [email protected]
Book„Em (Books to Prisoners)
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
http://fightforliferswest.mysite.com
Human Rights Coalition / Fed Up (prisoner support and advocacy)
412-802-8575, [email protected]
www.thomasmertoncenter.org/fedup
In Sisterhood:
The Women‟s Movement in Pgh 412-621-3252, [email protected]
Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop
Community Alliance 412-867-9213
Pittsburgh Campaign for
Democracy NOW!
412-422-5377, [email protected]
www.pcdn.org
Pittsburgh Works! (labor history documentaries)
Roots of Promise 724-327-2767, 412-596-0066
(Network of Spiritual Progressives)
Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition [email protected];
www.pittsburghdarfur.org
Urban Arts Project
Progressive Pittsburgh Notebook
Call 412-363-7472
www.progressivepghnotebook.blip.tv
Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens Group/ Roots of Promise724-327-2767
The Pittsburgh Totebag Project
P.O. Box 99204, Pittsburgh, PA 15233
www.tote4pgh.org
Allegheny Defense Project, Pgh Office 412-559-1364 www.alleghenydefense.org
Association of Pittsburgh Priests Sr. Barbara Finch 412-716-9750
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
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
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
Veterans for Peace
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 listed.
TMC AFFILIATES
Thomas Merton Center
HOURS of OPERATION
Monday-Friday 10 am to 3 pm
Saturday 10 am to 1 pm
CONTACT INFORMATION
General information……….………...www.bit.ly/merton-contact
Submissions …………………...…...www.bit.ly/submitnewpeople
Events & Calendar Items ……….…www.bit.ly/merton-calendar
TMC COMMITTEES & PROJECTS
Volunteer at Thrifty in Support of
COMMUNITY CHANGE
Help support the East End Community Thrift
Store by volunteering at ―Thrifty.‖
The Thrift store is open four days a week.
Tuesday through Friday from 10 am to 4 pm
and Saturday from Noon to 4 pm. Please stop
by and find a treasure to take home with you!
Phone: 412.361.6010 Fax: 412.361.0540
June 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 3
THE CAMPAIGN FOR VICTORY
Occupy the Polls!!!
This is our non-partisan Election Protection
Team working to protect election integrity at
our Freedom Unlimited Election Protection
Headquarters on April 24, 2012/PA Primary
Election.
From left to right: Rev. Michelle Ellison,
Lorraine Cook, Rev. Maureen Cross-bolden,
Cynthia Smalls, Jamie Parham, Audrey
Thomas and Mary Young. Look out for us as
we will be Occupying our Communities doing
voter registration and voter ID education. We
are Campaigning for Victory so "They Can't
Stop us Now” Lorraine Cook is the Black
Political Empowerment Projects Civic
Engagement Coordinator, 412-758-
2056. Voter registration and using the voter
database to track new voters in our “Get Out
The Vote” campaign is what we are here to
do. There are thousands and thousands of
new voters that we are going to get to the
polls on election day. Volunteer with the
Black Political Empowerment Project to
solicit voter registration forms and conduct
Election Protection in your neighborhood.
Let’s verify petition signatures together!
by Michael Drohan
Thousands of Pennsylvanians are
at risk of losing the right to vote.
The American Civil Liberties Union
of Pennsylvania, the Advancement
Project, the Public Interest Law
Center of Philadelphia (PILCOP),
and the Washington DC law firm of
Arnold & Porter LLP filed a lawsuit
on May 1 on behalf of ten
Pennsylvania voters and three
prominent advocacy organizations,
alleging that the state's voter photo
ID law violates the Pennsylvania
Constitution by depriving citizens of
their most fundamental constitutional
right - the right to vote. The
plaintiffs are asking the
Commonwealth Court to issue an
injunction blocking enforcement of
the law before November's election.
If the law is not overturned, most of
the plaintiffs will be unable to cast
ballots in the fall, despite the fact
that many of them have voted
regularly for decades.
The lead petitioner in the lawsuit
is Viviette Applewhite, a 93-year-old
African-American great-great
grandmother and resident of
Philadelphia who marched for civil
rights with Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr., but cannot get an ID needed to
vote under the law. Other petitioners
include Philadelphia residents Wilola
Shinholster Lee, Gloria Cuttino, and
Dorothy Barksdale; all African-
American women born in the Jim
Crow South who, like so many of
their generation, were never issued a
birth certificate, which they now
need to get an ID in order to vote
under the law. Also among the
petitioners are Nadine Marsh, a
Beaver County grandmother, and
Grover Freeland, a Philadelphia-area
retired veteran, whose veteran's ID
card will not be acceptable to allow
him to cast a ballot. If the voter
photo ID law is not struck down,
none of them will be able to vote in
November.
Petitioners in the case
demonstrate a variety of different
problems with the law. Pittsburgh
resident Henrietta Kay Dickerson
was required by PennDOT to pay for
the ID because her old one didn't
fall within the convoluted validity
requirements.
Many senior citizens who may be
hardy enough to vote at their polling
places will not have photo ID and
will not be able physically to do all
that is necessary to obtain ID.
Joyce Block is an 89-year-old
resident of Doylestown who was
rejected for a voter ID by PennDOT
because she could not prove that her
married name on her voter
registration card matched her birth
certificate with her unmarried name.
Without legal documents her only
evidence was a marriage certificate
in Hebrew, which the PennDOT staff
could not read. Although Secretary
of State Carol Aichele has publicly
stated that all voters who need a
photo ID in order to vote will be able
to obtain a free ID from PennDOT,
the reality for those seeking these
free IDs has been very different.
Dozens of reports have been
received about PennDOT's refusal to
issue free IDs, saying, for example,
that people must pay because they
have had an ID in the past, their ID
has not been expired long enough,
they don't replace lost ones for free,
or that people with outstanding child
support or fines don't qualify for free
IDs.
Finally, the suit claims that the
voter photo ID law irrationally
distinguishes between in-person and
absentee voters because the latter can
vote without photo ID (just by
writing down the last four digits of
their Social Security number).
Pennsylvania allows people to vote
absentee only if they can
demonstrate an impossibility of
getting to the polls on Election Day.
While in-person voter fraud is
virtually nonexistent, there have
been far more reports of absentee
ballot fraud across the country, yet
under Pennsylvania's law this form
of voting is exempt from the photo
ID requirement.
Lawyers for the petitioners filed a
motion for preliminary injunction
with the court, asking for expedited
discovery and a trial date in June in
order to allow the Commonwealth
Court time to decide the case in
sufficient time to permit the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court to
review the decision in advance of
November's election.
Source: www.advancementproject.org
The Advancement Project is a policy,
communications and legal action group
committed to racial justice founded by a
team of veteran civil rights lawyers.
Voter ID Law Update
B-PEP, The Black Political Empowerment Project hosts is hosting "A COMMUNITY CONVERSATION"
WITH THE NEW ALLEGHENY COUNTY PUBLIC DEFENDER ELLIOT HOWSIE.” The County‘s
Public Defender's Office is under scrutiny for failing to represent thousands of people. B-PEP will provide
VOTER ID UPDATE AND VOTER REGISTRATION materials.
Monday, June 4, 2012 - 6 pm, ST. JAMES A.M.E. CHURCH'S SUMPTER HALL
444 Lincoln Avenue at Meadows Street, East Liberty
Please make plans to attend! Remember: "African Americans VOTE in EACH and EVERY election!"
Photo Taken by Lorraine Cook
4 - NEWPEOPLE June 2012
Women‟s Human Rights
By Fr. Neil McCaulley
Before Pope Benedict XVI was pope his
name was Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. He was
head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of
Faith. At that time he made the following
statement:
―A Catholic would be guilty of formal
cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to
present himself for Holy Communion, if he
were to deliberately vote for a candidate
precisely because of the candidate‘s
permissive stand on abortion and/or
euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a
candidate‘s stand in favor of abortion, but
votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is
considered remote cooperation, which can be
permitted in the presence of proportionate
reasons.‖
This is not his own creation but merely a
statement of an ordinary traditional moral
theology principle. It is the principle of
double effect. It is based on the natural law.
You are permitted to do something that has
two effects, one good and one bad, if your
will is to choose the good, not the bad. If you
have proportionate reasons for voting for the
re-election of President Obama, you are
morally free to do so. This is true despite his
support for freedom of choice.
That is my reason for supporting his re-
election. The proportionate reasons far
outweigh the evil of abortion. In fact, to vote
for the opposite party will increase the
number of abortions greatly by denying
numerous programs that would encourage
and support a pregnant woman. The greatest
reduction of the number of abortions occurred
in the Clinton administration, largely because
of some legislation that was introduced under
the headline of The Mother‘s Protection Act,
which Clinton encouraged and supported.
How big a reduction? About 15% to 35%,
depending on whose survey one follows.
(This was a major reduction from the ―pro-
life‖ administration of Bush Sr.) Within a
year after Bush Jr.‘s administration began, the
number of abortions grew by 10%.
In addition to that reason, is President
Obama‘s support for immigrants,
international diplomatic peacemaking efforts,
reducing military action, universal health
care, stabilizing the economy, help for the
unemployed, creating jobs by saving
industries, e.g. the automobile industry,
climate change response, supporting college
students, and much more.
These are some of the reasons I
will vote to re-elect Obama. The
other path would lead to a tragic
disaster for our nation, and more
abortions.
In the resurrected Christ, Fr. Neil
McCaulley
Fr. Neil McCaulley has been a
parish priest for 46 years and is now
retired.
Pope Benedict, President Obama & Abortion
by Rev. Joan Clark Houk
Every day, not just some days, but every day,
one thousand women die while attempting to give
birth to the next generation. That‘s like two
jumbo jets crashing and killing everyone on board
every day. The reason women die in childbirth is
simple enough. Women‘s lives are not valued.
A different statistic to
make the same point: in
some places a woman‘s
chance of dying in
childbirth is one in
seven. That‘s about the
same odds as playing
Russian roulette. For these
women getting pregnant is
like holding a pistol to
your head and pulling the
trigger to see if the live
round is under the firing
pin. Women‘s lives are
not valued.
When women are not
valued there are no
resources allocated for
their care or to meet their health needs, and
therefore, they die. In many places if a woman
gets breast cancer she just dies. But let‘s look
closer to home. A recent study produced the
statistic that one in four women in China have
been victims of domestic violence. A small
footnote in the study mentioned that this rate of
violence against women in China is about the
same as it is in the U.S.A.! Interesting that the
problem in China made the news, but the U.S.A.
problem seldom does. Women in China, and here
at home, are victims of violence simply because
they are women.
Women are not valued because of social
conditions, cultural norms, and finally, at the root
of this problem is religion. I am a Catholic
woman, and my Church is complicit in the daily
death and violence women experience just
because they are women. That sounds harsh, but
the truth often is. My Church claims a 2,000
years tradition of discrimination against women
and blaming God for it. The weight of this
tradition is literally crushing the
life out of women everywhere,
every day. What to do about it?
Leaving the Church may save
the soul of the one leaving, but it
does nothing for the millions of
women who suffer daily because
they are not valued. The teaching
and practice of my Church
regarding women must change.
The ordination of women to the
priesthood is the key to change.
The ordination of women will
have immediate, global
consequences for women. A
parallel exists in our experience of
giving women the vote. A society
that gave women the right to vote
also gave their lives more weight and directed
more resources to women‘s health. When women
could vote, suddenly their lives became more
important, and enfranchising women ended up
providing a huge and unanticipated boost to
women‘s health. (Page 116, Half the
Sky) Political leaders became concerned for
women‘s votes, and there were dramatic
adjustments to the allocation of resources. The
ordination of women will give them a place at the
table where the decisions about the Church‘s
agenda is decided, and the resources of my
Church are distributed.
In the years before the Second Vatican
Council, women began to research the reasons
that the Catholic Church discriminates against
women, and found the reasons unsupportable. In
1976 Pope Paul VI formed a commission to study
the scriptural basis for excluding women from the
priesthood. The commission reported that there is
no scriptural basis for excluding women.
However, reason and scripture have not moved
the Church. There remained only one way open to
accomplish change, and that was to break the
unjust law excluding women in order to change
it. In 2002 seven women were ordained by male
Catholic bishops, and the Roman Catholic
Women priest movement began. Ten years later
there are about 120 ordained Catholic women,
and more stepping forward for ordination as the
movement grows. These women are not leaving
the Church. They are living the Church of the
future today and in the process using an honored
method to create change. Break the unjust law to
change it.
I was ordained in Pittsburgh with eleven other
women in 2006. It has been my frequent
experience to have women come to me with tears
after my having presided at a mass. I raise their
hopes, they say. I know their tears are not just
because they see a woman at the altar, or even
because they hope to be ministered to by women
in a renewed Church. They are tears of hope for
the women of the world whose lives today have
little value, because ―discrimination anywhere
leads to discrimination everywhere.‖ (Martin
Luther King, Jr.)
Joan Clark Houk is Bishop for the Great Waters
Region of Roman Catholic Womenpriests. She
can be reached at [email protected]
Source: www.JoanClarkHouk.com
Are Women Human Yet?
Pittsburgh Community
Television
COMCAST 21 & VERIZON 47
Live Stream at www.pctv21.org
FREE SPEECH TV 8 - 10 am
"Democracy Now" 8 - 9 am
PGH PROGRESSIVE NOTEBOOK Thomas Merton Center Community Producers
Carlana Rhoten - [email protected]
and Kenneth Miller 412-867-9213
"Let's Talk About Sweatshops @ PNC
Park!"
The Thomas Merton
Center needs two
donated computers.
Please call Diane
McMahon, at (412)
361-3022 or email
McMahonD@thomas
mertoncenter.org.
June 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 5
This Year Give PEACE a Chance. Become an Active Member of the Thomas Merton Center and Help Change the World!
Together, we can create a more peaceful and just world. Already a member? Now is the time to renew your membership!
2012 marks the Center‘s 40th Anniversary! With you we will carry on our mission: to instill a consciousness of values and to raise the moral
questions involved with war, racism, poverty, environmental degradation and oppression. Our members are people from diverse philosophies and
faiths who find common ground in the nonviolent struggle to bring about a more peaceful and just world. Since the Center's beginning, thousands of
people have joined with us to work together on this important mission. Through protests, as well as by organizing projects, the active involvement of
our members has been the backbone of our work. Over twenty organizing campaigns and projects are supported by the Center. Our monthly
newspaper, The NewPeople, is a key source of information for activists interested in participating in justice-oriented advocacy strategies and events.
To become a member go to http://thomasmertoncenter.org/join-donate/ mail, or call the Center at (412) 301-3022.
with them in and after their
discernment for their respectful
engagement of the current situation
with the Vatican.
For further information contact:
Sister Annmarie Sanders, IHM,
Associate Director for
Communications, Leadership
Conference of Women Religious
301-588-955 (office)
301-672-3043 (cell)
Joyce Rothermel is a member of the
Association of Pittsburgh Priests
and serves as chair of its Church
Renewal Committee.
(Continued from page 1)
JOIN MEMBERS OF THE THOMAS
MERTON CENTER FOR A POTLUCK
AND CONVERSATION! Thursday, June 14, 6:30 pm
at the Thomas Merton Center
5129 Penn Avenue in Garfield (Please bring food or drink to share.)
Featuring Bishop Joan Houk
Join Thomas Merton Center members and friends for food and fellowship as we discuss the evolving movement of women working in
leadership roles in the diverse faith-based ministries, which includes the Roman Catholic Church. Please bring a covered dish to share. We
will provide tableware and beverages.
Bishop Joan Houk
Women
Religious
A Candlelight Vigil was held on May 22 at St. Paul‘s
Cathedral to show solidarity and support for the Sisters.
Welcome TMC Summer Interns
The Thomas Merton Center (TMC) welcomes
two new interns to this summer Ellie See from
Miami University in Ohio and Kitoko Chargois
from Chatham University.
These two interns are helping in a number of
ways in the office. This includes assistance with
the New People, membership and special
events, and social media tasks like constant
contact, facebook and twitter. We thank them
for their social justice service! If you are interested in volunteering or interning contact Diane at
(412) 361-3022 or email [email protected].
The Merton Center Hires
New Office Coordinator
Marcia Snowden has recently been hired
as the Thomas Merton Center‘s new
Office Coordinator. Marcia has extensive
experience in the field of education and
social services and will be a welcome
presence in our busy peace and justice-
centered office. Please stop by and say
hello if you have an opportunity.
If you would like to learn more about activities and happenings
at the Center please give Marcia a call at (412) 361-3022.
Ellie See
6 - NEWPEOPLE June 2012
“Do Not Depend on the Hope of Results” by Bonnie Bowman Thurston
One of Thomas Merton‘s great
contributions to those who do peace
and justice work is to remind us that
the results are not our business. This
is a hard but crucial truth, especially
for us who work for peace and
justice from Christian conviction. We
contribute to the building of the
“Reign of God.” Its ultimate arrival
is not our concern.
This was the experience of Jesus,
Himself. The Gospels describe a man
utterly committed to the call of God,
who proclaimed God‘s Kingdom
(not his own) but did not see its
advent in the world. Indeed, for his
trouble he was persecuted by
religious leaders of his own tradition
and put to a grisly death by the
powerful political empire of his time.
But what appeared to be failure was
humanity‘s greatest success. Things
are often not as they appear.
Jim Forest, a colleague of
Dorothy Day, who was instrumental
in the Catholic Peace Fellowship and
International Fellowship of
Reconciliation, corresponded with
Merton about just this matter. The
letters appear in William Shannon‘s
The Hidden Ground of Love (Farrar,
Straus, Giroux, 1985; hereafter
HGL). On February 15, 1966, Forest
wrote to Merton saying he was ―…in
a bleak mood; no one seemed to be
listening‖ to the Catholic Peace
Fellowship (HGL 294). Merton
responded on February 12, 1966,
―…do not depend on hope of results.
When you are doing the sort of work
you have taken on … you may have
to face that fact that your work will
be apparently worthless and even
achieve no result at all, if not perhaps
the opposite to what you expect. As
you get used to this idea you start
more and more to concentrate not on
the results but on the value, the truth
of the work itself‖ (HGL 294).
Merton‘s thinking is clearly
influenced by that of Gandhi. But the
point is that our job is to do the work
and leave the results to God. Merton
continued All you and I can ever
hope for in terms of visible results is
that we will have perhaps
contributed something to a
clarification of Christian truth in this
society, and as a result a few people
may have got straight about some
things and opened up to the grace of
God and made some sense out of
their lives, helping a few more to do
the same. As for the big results, they
are not in your hands or mine, but
they can suddenly happen… but
there is no point in building our lives
on this personal satisfaction, which
may be denied us and which after all
is not that important (HGL 296 )
Merton warns Forest against
building ―an identity in your work
and your witness‖ which ―is not the
right use of your work. All the good
that you will do will come not from
you but from the fact that you have
allowed yourself, in the obedience of
faith, to be used by God‘s
love‖ (HGL 296). Our call is to the
―obedience of faith‖ and not to
―success‖ as defined by the very
groups whose injustices we expose
and oppose.
In ―Blessed are the Meek‖ (in
Faith and Violence, U. Notre Dame,
1968, hereafter FV) Merton outlines
seven principles for Christian non-
violence. Number four begins,
―Perhaps the most insidious
temptation to be avoided is the one
which is characteristic of the power
structure itself---this fetishism of
immediate visible results‖ (FV 22).
Merton continues, ―One of the
missions of Christian non-violence is
to restore a different standard of
practical judgment in social
conflicts. It is here that genuine
humility is of the greatest
importance. Such humility, united
with true Christian courage…is
based on trust in God and not in
one‘s own ingenuity and
tenacity…‖(FV 22-23).
Here we see clearly the interstices
between Merton the man of prayer
and Merton the peacemaker. The
praying, waiting and letting go that
characterize monastic life taught him
that the same are essential for the
work of peace and justice. One‘s
―job‖ is to allow one‘s work to arise
from prayer, to do that work in
humility and faith, and to leave the
results to God.
To some of us things seem even
darker than they were 40 years ago
when the Thomas Merton Center
was founded in Pittsburgh. As the
task seems to grow greater and
greater, and our efforts seem smaller
and less effective in the face of its
enormity and of the massive
ignorance and indifference to the
dangers and injustices the human
family faces, Merton‘s teaching that
results are not our business can be a
source of immense strength and
hope. May prayer, work and
detachment from results characterize
Pittsburgh‘s Thomas Merton Center
for 40 more years…and beyond.
Bonnie Bowman Thurston has
written many books including
“Merton and Buddhism.”
Book Review: DIVERT! by Grant F. Smith
by Michael Drohan
On Tuesday a bill was put to the House of
Representatives for a vote on HR 568 which
contained the following words, ―The House urges
the President to reaffirm the unacceptability of an
Iran with nuclear-weapons capability and
opposition to any policy that would rely on
containment as an option in response to the
Iranian nuclear threat.‖ A similar bill went before
the Senate but was defeated by only one
dissenting vote, that of Rand Paul, who inserted
an amending clause that said, ―Nothing in the Act
shall be construed as a declaration of war or an
authorization of the use of force against Iran…‖.
The resolution referred to above was passed at the
recent annual meeting of AIPAC in New York
City. Its overarching purpose is to tie the hands of
the President in regard to dealing with Iran‘s
possession of highly enriched uranium and the
prospect, however remote, that it should develop
a nuclear weapon. It attempts to remove dialogue
and containment measures as a solution and tie
the hands of the President to use war as the
solution.
Reading Grant F. Smith‘s book Divert! in
conjunction with the present political
developments in Washington, detailed above,
suggests that duplicity and double standards exist
in the United States‘ policy towards proliferation
and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Smith,
in great detail, uncovers what went on in our own
backyard of Apollo, Pennsylvania in the 1950s
and 1960. And what took place was that at the
Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation
(NUMEC) 269 kg. of U-235 or highly enriched
uranium were ―lost‖ or unaccounted for between
1957 and 1968, and in all likelihood were
funneled to Israel and powered up to 20 nuclear
bombs in Israel‘s arsenal. How all this happened
and escaped detection and prosecution by the
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), the FBI,
Congress and the President is the subject of
Smith‘s very thorough investigation, detailed in
the book.
In 1976, the Deputy Director of the CIA,
Carl Duckett gave a report to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC), the successor of
the AEC, in which he stunned his audience by
telling them that the CIA believed Israel had
illegally obtained HEU from a fuel-processing
plant run by the Nuclear Materials and Equipment
Corporation (NUMEC) in Apollo, Pennsylvania,
and that Israel used this HEU for its first bombs.
However, the unredacted account of Duckett‘s
testimony to the NRC has not been made public
despite freedom of information requests of the
author.
In 1968, Smith reports, a memo from Richard
Helms, the CIA Director , to Ramsey Clark, the
then Attorney General of the United States, stated
that highly enriched uranium processed at Apollo
may have ended up at the Dimona nuclear plant in
Israel and that the FBI should investigate it.
However, no investigation, ever took place.
Smith also reports that when President Johnson
was informed by Helms about the possible
diversion, he reportedly said to Helms, ―Don‘t tell
anyone else even Dean Rusk, Secretary of State
or Robert McNamara, Secretary of State‖.
There are several indications, but no definite
proof that a diversion of HEU from Apollo to
Israel took place. One indicator is that in the
1960s, a clandestine environmental sampling
around the Dimona nuclear plant detected minute
traces of HEU that bore the signature of an
enrichment plant in Portsmouth, Ohio, the same
source as that of NUMEC. Also in the 1960s,
there is documented evidence of visits to the plant
in Apollo by Mossad and Shin Bet, agents who
had no experience in scientific or technical
matters, but rather in espionage. Smith also
quotes the CIA Tel Aviv Station Chief John
Hadden as saying that NUMEC was ―an Israeli
operation from the beginning‖. The basis of
Hadden and other similar observers on the nature
of NUMEC is that NUMEC never seemed to be a
serious economic enterprise, it was
undercapitalized, poorly run and managed. Its
ultimate purpose seemed to be other than
economic.
Smith‘s book is extremely well documented
and shows an intimate knowledge of the actors
and history of the NUMEC operation from its
inception. It is a great contribution to the
scholarship on the proliferation of nuclear
weapons to one country. However, because of the
schizoid climate, especially in the US in relation
to nuclear weapons possession, it is difficult to
see how its revelations will lead to change in
policy at this time.
Michael Drohan is Co-chair of the Editorial
Collective at the Thomas Merton Center.
Michael can be contacted at drohanmichael@
yahoo.com.
June 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 7
Bangladesh Workers in Pittsburgh for May 1st Event by Kenneth Miller
Workers from the Bangladesh
Center For Workers Solidarity
visited Freedom Corner and
Pittsburgh City Council to present
their testimony and ask us to support
their demands for free speech, fire
safety investigators, and living
wages. They work closely with the
International Labor Rights Forum,
SweatFree Communities, and the
AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center.
Members of the Pittsburgh Anti
Sweatshop Community Alliance and
the Pittsburgh Industrial Workers of
the World have worked closely with
them at the National Garment
Workers Federation of Bangladesh
for many years. The Pittsburgh
Pirates, area colleges and
universities, the city of Pittsburgh,
Allegheny County and the State of
Pennsylvania all license or
otherwise procure apparel from
sweatshops in Bangladesh. The
labor standards we are asserting are
being violated everyday and the
workers have come to Pittsburgh to
present their testimony and demand
their human rights.
A wave of plant closings is
looming over the workers such that
the workers have to ask Hillary
Clinton, the US Secretary of State,
not only to protect their labor rights,
but to ensure the continuation of a
tax free apparel import quota system.
This tax quota system, tax breaks in
exchange for using US cotton, once
known as the Multi Fiber
Arrangement, offers a quota for
garments that can be imported back
into the United States tax free. That's
right, cotton from the American
South is shipped to Bangladesh,
assembled in sweatshops - slave like
conditions - and then imported back
into the United States for sale at
PNC Park.
The whole economy of
Bangladesh for the past 40 years has
been developed to produce t-shirts,
underwear, jeans, and Pirates
baseball caps for export. There are
no other jobs now. The whole
economy of Bangladesh has been
made dependent on this system of
sweatshops. The workers do not
want to lose their jobs. They want
good jobs. On the one hand the
workers are fighting for their civil
rights, the right not to be murdered
for speaking out against unfair labor
conditions. On the other hand, they
have to make a case to the US
Government to continue the system
of the quotas (subsidy loopholes for
US cotton farmers and textile
manufactures) on which their jobs
fully depend.
There were two huge protests in
Dhaka on May Day; two separate
groups of garment workers
coordinated a general strike asserting
their human and civil rights calling
attention to their demand for a safe
workplace, living wages, and job
security. On May Day their message
transcended language and geography
and resonated with our own
demands.
Ken Miller is a member of the Anti
Sweatshop Community Alliance
Healing the Wounds by David Hughes
Loose Cannons, Inc.[LCI] will have a
Celebrate Pittsburgh! benefit June 3, 2012,
from 6-8 PM, at the Heinz History Center to
honor the long-time support of the city and its
inhabitants in helping to heal the wounds of the
Vietnam War.
Beginning with Shoeshine Boys Project
[1968-76] which cared for some 2,500
homeless street children in eight homes in
Saigon and DaNang, on through the Long/
Liem human rights campaign [1990-96] to
rescue two former Shoeshine volunteers
imprisoned in Vietnam, to the current Loose
Cannons effort to bring attention to, and find a
resolution for, the issue of "Agent Orange,‖
Pittsburghers have remained constant in their
support.
Former Vietnam vet and Steeler Super Bowl
Champion Rocky Bleier and LCI co-founder
Dick Hughes will co-host the event, a fitting
pair to represent the healing process of war as
both Bleier and Hughes "served" in Vietnam.
Rocky was a draftee into the army, and Dick, a
conscientious objector, was a journalist and
social worker there. In the 1970s, now back
home, they met together in a campaign, with
Dick's brother, Joe, to raise support for
Shoeshine Boys, Rocky wearing a "Help Dick
Hughes" t-shirt for publicity shots in
newspapers. Some forty-plus years later, in
2012, they have reconnected for an evening to
Celebrate Pittsburgh! and all the Pittsburghers
who have helped over the years.
The NYC Project Agent Orange dance group
will perform, and there will be a Silent Auction
of sports celebrity materials and other items.
Friends and family are invited to join in this
event marking the continuity of decades of
healing and ongoing humanitarian work.
More about the event can be found at:
http://www.loosecannons.us/heinz-
pittsburgh-benefit.html.
David Hughes is Dick Hughes’ brother.
50-Mile Evacuation Zones for all US Nuclear Reactors by Edith Bell
When the Fukushima disaster occurred in Japan, the U.S. government told all Americans
within 50 miles of Fukushima to evacuate, There is a nuclear plant in Beaver County, 40 miles
from Pittsburgh. Have you ever heard of any evacuation plan for Pittsburgh?
Many U.S. reactors are operating beyond the
period they were designed for. On-site back-up power is not sufficient for major outages. Unprotected on-site storage of tons of radioactive
waste has great potential to cause harm in an
attack. Realistic evacuation plans are needed.
This a life and death issue for U.S. citizens. Both the west and east coasts are at risk for a major earthquake. Major solar storms that can
shut down entire electrical grids are predicted for the next year and a half. Evacuation plans have not been updated to include population growth
and on-site storage of radioactive waste. There is a national petition circulating to be
delivered to the United States House of Representatives, the United States Senate, and President Barack Obama. Sign the petition at the
following website: http://tinyurl.com/bvd6fwa
Courtesy of the Creative Commons
Both Photos Courtesy of Kenneth Miller
8 - NEWPEOPLE June 2012
by Emily De Ferrari
In 2005, Palestinian civil society called for Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions against the occupation of Palestine by the Israeli government.
The occupation in Palestine is enforced by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
This article describes a
baby step to become
involved.
Human Rights are a
grave issue in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories.
International human rights
groups have cited many
violations. They include
house demolitions,
confiscation of property,
excessive force against
unarmed civilians,
restriction of movement
within the occupied
territories, and close range and lethal deployment of tear gas canisters
against nonviolent demonstrators. Many in the U.S. are frustrated that our
tax dollars support those violations, and wish there were ways to address
these injustices.
The Golani Brigade is a unit within the Israeli Defense Force that, along
with the IDF, has been accused by international human rights groups of the
above violations. The Golani Brigade receives support from the Strauss
group, an international food group that owns the company that makes Sabra
and Tribe brand hummus. Sabra and Tribe hummus are on an international
boycott list.
Boycotts have played a part in struggles for human dignity in several
causes over the last 50 years. Think grapes, lettuce, Nestles, South Africa
and sweatshops. Now they can play a part in the Palestinian struggle for
human rights. Although there are many companies involved (Caterpillar,
Motorola, Ahava) Sabra and Tribe brands of hummus are an easy way to
get started. Boycotting hummus may not strike you as an effective way to
address the injustices of the occupation of Palestine, but it can be part of the
ongoing education of Americans about conditions there. Boycotts worked
with grapes, lettuce and Nestlés chocolate, and it can work with a consumer
boycott on Israeli products as well.
Here‘s where the hummus recipe you see on this page comes in. I have
begun donning an apron, whipping up a batch of hummus and hitting the
streets with a table and a bag of chips. I strike a pose like a free sample
stand at Costco (they sell Sabra) and as I share my hummus, I also share
information: a list of
places to buy locally
made hummus and
the story of the
Golani Brigade, the
Strauss group and
human rights
violations in
Palestine. It‘s a
small gesture to
begin educating
Pittsburghers about
the Boycott
Divestment and
Sanction movement,
but it is a start, and the response has been almost universally positive and
supportive. To find out more about local boycott efforts, contact me at
Don’t Buy Sabra and Tribe!
Where to Buy Locally Made Hummus:
The businesses listed below have not been
approached about the boycott, but they sell
delicious, locally made hummus:
Salim‟s Middle Eastern Food Store 4705 Centre Ave. 412 621 8110
Greek Gourmet 2130 Murray Ave. 412 422 4998
Daphne Cafe 5811 Ellsworth Ave. 412 441 1130
Kassab‟s Restaurant 1207 E. Carson St. 412 381 1820
Khalil‟s 4757 Baum Blvd. 412 683 4757
Mediterranean Grill 5824 Forbes Ave. 412 521 5505
Salem‟s Grocery 340 S. Bouquet St. 412 621 4354
Leena‟s Food 121 Oakland Ave. 412 682 1919
East End Food Co-op 7516 Meade St. 412 242 3598
Najat‟s Cuisine 1500 Electric Ave. 412 823 2214
Or you can make your own! --Emily De Ferrari is a longtime Merton
member who spent 2.5 months in the West Bank in 2010 working on
midwifery projects.
Hummus and Human Rights
Hummus RecipeHummus Recipe
1 cup dried chickpeas, soak overnight, then boil till soft. (a can of chickpeas will work in a pinch)
No matter which you‘ve chosen, drain, and save the liquid. Smash them in a bowl, and push them over to the sides, making a big well in the middle.
Put 2 tablespoons tahini in the well. Put the juice of ½ lemon in the well. Mix just the tahini and lemon in the center till it forms a ball.
Slowly add some water that you saved until there is a spoonable paste in the well. Begin stirring the paste into the chick peas clinging to the side of the bowl.
Finish when all is mixed together. Flavor with garlic, salt, olive oil, red pepper: experiment.
Submitted by—Emily De Farrari
by Russ Fedorka
by Kenneth Miller
Martin Delany was brought back
to life for his 200th birthday in Wali
Jamal's production of Martin Delany
Lives from May 1 to 6 at the August
Wilson Center. This was an artistic
leap from a production in 2009, a
one person show, called Martin
Delany the Pittsburgh Years. Martin
Delany Lives! had a cast and crew of
over 20 people and music from Mike
Stout and the Human Union. May 6,
2012, the closing day of the
production was actually Martin
Delany‘s 200th birthday.
One of the things that stood out
for me was that Martin Delany was a
journalist using his free speech and
civil liberties to solicit and present the testimony of slaves. He used the
Mystery, his own newspaper to organize the Black Diaspora from Haiti
to Georgia to Pittsburgh to Canada to Africa. He pursued relationships
with some of the most important journalists of his time such as
Frederick Douglas and William Lloyd Garrison. He discussed the
importance of having an inter-racial newspaper team. Martin Delany
Lives! was, amongst other things, a joyous celebration of newspapers
and the power and obligation of newspaper editors just like those of the
New People Editorial Collective.
Kenneth Miller is a member of the TMC editorial collective.
Martin Delany Present
for His 200th Birthday
“Every man and woman is born into the world to do something unique
and something distinctive and if he or she does not do it,
it will never be done.” Benjamin Mays
June 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 9
by Ken Miller
Sala Udin was at Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday May 15 for a
Proclamation marking the 15th Anniversary of the Citizen Police Review
Board. There were current and former Board Members there. After the
Proclamation there was a reception and a swearing in ceremony for several
new appointees. I talked to a few of the new appointees. One of them was
appointed by Bruce Kraus, a computer programmer of some kind. He was
focused on discussing how the Fraternal Order of Police is presenting huge
resistance to citizen police review. I met the woman that Daniel Lavelle
appointed. I met the law enforcement professional appointed by the Mayor
Theresa Kail-Smith.
Tim Stevens of the Black Political Empowerment Project was there with
his ongoing support for Citizen Police Review... flowers for the officers and
staff of the CPRB.
Kenneth Miller showed up and invited everyone associated with the
Citizen Police Review Board to the Black and White Reunion's BBQ in
Schenley Park on July 28. Everyone interested in expanding the mandate
and powers of citizen police review, from all over Allegheny County are
invited to our BBQ.
Kenneth Miller is a member of the TMC editorial collective.
15th Anniversary of Pittsburgh’s Citizen Police Review Board
by Robert Maddock
On May 1, County Councilman William
Robinson presented a motion whereby Council
would urge the General Assembly to enact
legislation to appoint a special prosecutor ―to
investigate and if necessary prosecute any and
all charges of police criminal misconduct
within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.‖
The reading of the entire motion made it
apparent that the Jordan Miles case was a major
reason for this motion. Since then we have
learned that the information concerns racial bias
in the operations of the district attorney‘s
office .
The motion was withdrawn but reintroduced
May 15 in a modified form to ―establish a
special investigative committee ( although
based in County Council‘s Budget and Finance
Committee), with subpoena powers, pursuant to
the Office of District Attorney‖. The
investigation is to explore conflict of interest in
cases where the District Attorney‘s office is
called to prosecute police misconduct. The
proposal was referred to County Council‘s
Public Safety Committee. Councilman
Robinson stated that in the future he would be
offering legislation concerning the issue of a
special prosecutor in cases concerning use of
deadly force by the police and the
establishment of a County wide Police
Accountability Board.
In addition, Councilman Robinson has
called for the creation of an Allegheny County
Citizens Police Review Board, one which will
have more ‗teeth‘ and will learn from the
lessons of the CPRB of the City of Pittsburgh.
There can be no doubt that if the
Councilman is successful in all his endeavors
that the relationship of the people of this
County and the legal system will be
dramatically changed for the better. There can
also be no doubt that such dramatic change will
not come easily, nor will it come without
wholehearted community participation.
The January Summits of the Black & White
Reunion have always been a place where
strategies for overcoming racism have been
revealed and discussed-a place for
implementation to begin. There are also
monthly meeting where issues are discussed
and strategies worked out. All are welcome and
we hope that by our next meeting, June 19, 6-8
PM at the East Liberty Presbyterian Church,
116 South Highland Ave,, things will have
evolved to the point where we can plan
strategies for the actions and activities that will
enable the community to make the proposals
real. On July 28 the Black & White Reunion
will be having a Barbeque and Cookout at
Overlook Grove in Schenley Park. This is
intended to be a more relaxed event but
knowing the kind of people who attend it‘s
likely some business will get done.
This is a time of opportunity and we hope
you will join with us to seize it.
Robert Maddock is an active member in the
justice community and a New People
volunteer distributor. He is also a founding
member of the Black and White Reunion.
Robinson Proposes Citizen Police Review for ALL Police Departments
by Corey Carrington
In its 40 year history the Thomas Merton
Center has been one of the leading organizations
in Pittsburgh dedicated to peace and social
justice. The support of the Center‘s mission is
so strong that original members and co-founders
are still donating and volunteering their time.
Members who started at the center as idealistic
revolutionary twenty-somethings have grown
into idealistic revolutionary sixty-somethings.
That is not a bad thing at all; but I, among
others, have noticed that the Center lacks a
consistent presence of youth.
This past spring the Center saw a bevy of
students from the University of Pittsburgh
volunteer at the center as interns, including
Tyrone Scales, Emily Cimini, Missy Silverstein,
Yiwei Zhang, Annamarie Denghart, Hannah
Spiers, and Rachel McCain. As I saw the
students get more engaged in the mission of the
Center week after week, it dawned on me that
the Center might not be utilizing its network the
way it should. Merton Center members/
volunteers JT Campbell and Nina Barbuto, and
part- time IT Director Jibran Mushtaq also
influenced me to look around and say, ―We are
the change we want to see.‖
The recent Occupy movement and causes
like the unjust murder of Trayvon Martin have
rallied young people all over the country to
become more socially conscious, proactive, and
prepared to change their realities. Noting this, I
put together a list of people I thought would be
interested in helping me establish a Youth
Advisory Council that would act as the youth
outreach arm of the Thomas Merton Center. I
believe this would be mutually beneficial. The
TMC can provide the facility and experience
while benefitting from the influx of young
energy.
Among the ideas the council has discussed
are events including, concerts, art showings,
movie nights, and poetry readings. There is a
plan to do outreach in the fall at Chatham
University, Duquesne University, Point Park
University, University of Pittsburgh, and
Carnegie Mellon University to engage their
student populations to get involved in our youth
council, a plan that could change the landscape
of the Thomas Merton Center forever. One of
my hopes for the council is that it will promote
diversity among its members and invigorate our
passion for issues such as racism, LGBT issues,
classism, women‘s rights, and rights of the
handicapped.
We can‘t do this without the help of some
experienced members. We would love the input
of our membership and ideas on ways we can
make this a successful project of the Thomas
Merton Center for years to come. If you or
someone you know would like to get involved
with our youth advisory council you can contact
me at [email protected] or
call 412-361-3022 and ask for Corey
Carrington.
Corey Carrington is Public Ally and a member
of the Editorial Collective at the Thomas
Merton Center.
Youth Leadership at the Thomas Merton Center
10 - NEWPEOPLE June 2012
by Bette McDevitt
On Saturday, May 12, 200 people gathered
at the Iron Workers Local #3 outside space,
near the Opera‘s headquarters in the Strip
District to protest the Pittsburgh Opera‘s
decision to honor Governor Corbett and his
wife Susan with a Lifetime Achievement
Award, in a rally organized by One Pittsburgh.
In creative costumes, toting musical instruments, and pushing
babies in strollers, many people addressed the cuts to the arts and
to education in Corbett‘s proposed budget. The rally moved up
Penn Avenue to the area where the honored and invited guests
came in limousines to the posh event. As the guests turned over
their cars to the valet parking service, they were face to face with
the crowd. It was a well staged performance.
Bette McDevitt is a member of the TMC Editorial Collective
Pittsburgh Opera Sings For Arts Budget Slashing Governor
Corporate tax cut will cost PA $650-$730
million by end of the decade
Closing corporate tax loopholes is a responsible way to prevent cuts to
schools, health care and other investments that create jobs and build a
stronger Pennsylvania economy. House Bill 2150, a corporate tax bill
sponsored by State Rep. Dave Reed, does not achieve this goal.
Instead, the bill is one small step forward paired with two giant steps
backwards.
The legislation‘s supporters describe it as a revenue-neutral tax reform
that cuts corporate taxes and closes the Delaware loophole to pay for it.
In reality, it will cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars
annually within a few years. The bill prevents some corporations
from unfairly shifting profits from Pennsylvania to Delaware and other
low- or no-tax states by enacting an ―addback rule,‖ but this doesn‟t
come close to covering the amount the state will lose in revenue
from tax cuts in the bill. The result will be less money for things that
boost Pennsylvania‘s economy, such as a strong education system,
roads and bridges, and safe communities. Closing loopholes is a good
idea, but this bill takes Pennsylvania in the wrong direction.
Over the past 10 years, state lawmakers have cut business taxes by
$2.4 billion with the hope of creating jobs. Instead, these tax breaks
have contributed to cuts to critical services for families trying to
manage in the recession and to the loss of 14,000 jobs in public schools
and colleges in 2011. The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is
scheduled to vote on the bill as soon as April 30.
It‟s too expensive. The bill implements new tax cuts for large, profitable corporations. It
will reduce the corporate income tax rate by 30 percent over four
years, allow companies unlimited write-offs of prior year operating
losses in 10 years, and complete the state‘s move to a single sales
factor apportionment formula. When fully phased in, the tax cuts will
cost $971 million annually. Based on an optimistic estimate of the
legislation‘s cost and its additional revenue, the bill will drain $654
million[1] to $732 million[2] from state services by 2019-20.
It doesn‟t close the “Delaware loophole. The bill requires companies to add back expenses to their Pennsylvania
income, including expenses paid to related companies in other states.
But it offers a broad exception for transactions ―related to a valid
business purpose.‖ This means a company can easily skirt the law by
claiming a ―valid business purpose.‖ Most similar laws in other states
are written to provide clear guidance and make it hard to avoid
compliance.
An amendment in committee would close one longstanding loophole
by capping the sales tax vendor discount for big companies.[4] This
provision will likely be stripped from the bill prior to the final vote.
There are better approaches.
Eliminate the broad exemption to the addback rule. Requiring all
income from intangible expenses and interest to be included, with only
very limited exceptions, would raise significantly more money for
investment in Pennsylvania‘s economy.
Require tax cuts to be voted on each year by the legislature. Tax cuts
should be treated like other spending and be subject to annual votes
rather than being renewed automatically. The statutory phase out of the
capital stock and franchise tax is a good example of the difficulties
with this approach. Four times between 2000 and 2011, the General
Assembly found this automatic tax cut to be unaffordable and was
forced to delay it legislatively. A better approach is for lawmakers to
vote on tax cuts on an annual basis, just as they do with the budget.
Evaluate business tax cuts for impact, just like spending cuts. The cost
of business tax cuts have tripled (now $2.4 billion annually) since 2002
-03 without evidence that cuts have produced jobs or improved
Pennsylvania‘s economy. The benefit to the public remains unproven.
Learn More: Read more of our analysis of House Bill 2150 at http://
pennbpc.org/tax-loopholes
The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center is a non-partisan policy
research project that provides independent, credible analysis on state
tax, budget and related policy matters, with attention to the impact of
current or proposed policies on working families.
PA House Bill 2150 – The Rich Demand Even More Tax Breaks
Mary King crashes the limousine line! Photo by Henry Gonzalez Photo by Henry Gonzalez
Estimated Cost HB 2150 (in millions) 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20
Tax Cuts -$8 -$63 -$207 -$390 -$554 -$717 -$869 -$971
Revenue - Add
back Rule[3] $50 $176 $205 $213 $219 $226 $233 $240
Net Revenue
Gain or Loss $43 $113 -$2 -$177 -$334 -$491 -$637 -$732
June 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 11
by Molly Rush
July 17, 1940-April 23,
2012
I first met Cary in the
1960s when we were
members of SHARE,
South Hills Association
for Racial Equality, and South Hills NOW. A
voracious reader, she introduced me to many
of her favorite books, poems, and musicians.
We spent hours at the playground with our
children.
Her restless spiritual search led her down
many paths, Quaker, ―Quatholic,‖ Buddhist,
and more. She could be critical of herself and
others, outrageous, yet insightful, funny, and
loyal. At her memorial service her many
friends shared stories that had everyone
howling.
She was passionate about and involved in the
struggles against racism, sexism, economic
and social injustice, and war, always finding
the personal in the midst of the struggle.
Elena and Al Rojas and their children came
from California to organize the grape boycott
for the United Farm Workers. Forty years
later I called Elena. ―How‘s Cary?‖ was her
first question.
Cary was a staunch supporter of the Merton
Center to the end, and a Raging Granny, until
illness had her wheelchair-bound.
Nonetheless she made her way to Braddock
during the campaign against the closing of
the hospital. Of course.
Molly Rush is a member of the Thomas
Merton Center editorial collective4.
Remembering Cary
Fr. William H. Shannon, was the founding president of the
International Thomas Merton Society (ITMS). He died on April 29 in
Rochester, New York at 94 years old. He had been a priest for 69 years.
Fr. Shannon, professor emeritus in the religious studies department at
Nazareth College and a priest of the Diocese of Rochester, was the author
of numerous books, including the much acclaimed biography of Merton,
Silent Lamp, and Thomas Merton's Paradise Journey: Writings on
Contemplation. He was the general editor of the Thomas Merton letters,
and coauthor of The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia.
His spirit was clear in the final words of one of his Christmas
homilies:
―.... We can grasp this deepest meaning of today‘s holy feast only
when we have allowed the eyes of our hearts to be dilated, only when we
have let our vision be expanded. For only then can
we hear the rustling of angel wings and the songs
that the angels sing. For isn‘t it obvious that such
songs can be heard only by those whose hearts are
opened wide? For otherwise there is no room in
which angels can sing.‖
May the choirs of angels lead him to paradise.
Source: International Thomas Merton Society
Founding President of ITMS Dies
by Molly Rush
Larry Kessler, co-founder and first director of
the Thomas Merton Center, was given the
HEROES IN ACTION AWARD on May 21 at
Fenway Park, Boston. He founded the AIDS
Action Committee in 1983 and was executive
director for 21 years.
In the early days, Kessler was a reverie of calm and reason in
directing private and public resources to help lessen the suffering
of people dying of AIDS. He quickly saw that the HIV virus
attacks those living on the margins of society and fiercely
advocated on behalf of the many devastated communities.
Kessler is a national leader in HIV/AIDS, insisting early on that
the AIDS epidemic was a public health crisis that demanded a
public response with public funding.
Because of his decisive action, Massachusetts is on the verge of
ending new HIV infections in their state.
--AIDS Action Committee, 75 Amory Street, Boston MA 02119,
www.aac.org
Larry Kessler, 45 Summit Street, Hyde Park, MA 02136-4042
TMC Co-Founder Kessler Honored
by Bette McDevitt
Our members have a lot to offer; among us
are artists, house cleaners, painters, writers,
carpenters, financial planners, lawyers, tailors,
car dealers, mechanics, and that‘s only
skimming the surface. Wouldn‘t it make sense
to use one another‘s services? We would all
benefit -- the service providers and those who
have been looking to do business with someone
who shares their world view.
Here‘s how it can work. The New People
will offer a new section where people can make
known what they offer or what kind of services
they need; sort of a classified ad section, but we
won‘t call it that. The name is still to be
determined; for the time being, let‘s call it a
trading post. There will be a fee for
submissions. We need to make some money as
well, and we don‘t seem to have an advertising
department. The fee would be dependent on the
number of words, as low as $15, a small boxed
text- simple and direct. See the boxed chart for
ad rates. It will only work if people participate,
of course. So here‘s how to do it:
Join the Merton Center, if you‘re not already
a member. Dues are $45, $15 for low income or
students.
Prepare your ad. It could be as simple as
your business card, if you have one. Please
include your phone number or e-mail in an
email to Diane McMahon at:
[email protected], along
with the amount due by check and dues if you
are just joining. Send payment to the Merton
Center, 5129 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, 15224
Get your ad to us by the 15th of each month.
It will be in the New People that comes out
on the first of the upcoming month.
Bette McDevitt is a member of the TMC
editorial collective.
Not yet a member of the Thomas Merton
Center? Join with us by visiting
www.thomasmertoncenter.org/JOIN-
DONATE
Merton Center Starts “Shared Services” Column
12 - NEWPEOPLE June 2012
by Joni Rabinowitz
The Merton Center has always been there
for me to help build the movements I believed
in for peace and justice and fairness and to
boldly stand up for what's right. It seems like
my development and that of the Center have
gone along mostly parallel paths for the last 40
years.
I came to Pittsburgh in the early 70s, about
the time the Merton Center started. Before that
I was a welfare caseworker in New York and
was active in welfare rights, labor, anti-war,
(draft counseling), and voting rights work. In
Pittsburgh I got involved in anti-corporate
activities. We had a Gulf Action Project which
brought public attention to the unjust treatment
and abuse of the land and the people by Gulf
Oil in Angola (hmmm… sound familiar? ).
At that time, of course, TMC focused
primarily on the Vietnam War, the disastrous
time which brought the Center into existence.
I was involved in anti-war activities; not
only to end the war, but to call attention to the
causes of the war, especially American
imperialism. I've always admired how the
Center organizes actions and demonstrations .
You don't just talk. During this time many of us
were arrested in Pittsburgh for our actions.
As we all learned more about imperialism,
we learned that Vietnam was only the current
manifestation of this phenomenon. When the
war drew to a close, we turned our attention to
freedom struggles around the world. The
support campaigns and organizing which grew
out of the Center were important links to
oppressed peoples everywhere.
The New People informed us about these
struggles as they progressed (although
sometimes in more detail than we needed).
Never having had any religious training, I
was glad to learn about liberation theology
from people at the Merton Center.
During the 70s and 80s I was active in the
nationwide socialist-feminist organization, the
New American Movement (NAM), and we had
an active chapter here in Pittsburgh. Besides
anti-imperialist work we did labor organizing
(mostly in the service and clerical arenas), were
committed to feminism (including reproductive
rights and anti-violence against women), and
built active community campaigns, including
the Peoples Power Project which fought
Duquesne Light rate hikes.
The national groups, Medical Committee for
Human Rights and Health Care for All, were
precursors to the single-payer campaigns of
today.
For the past 25 years, my work in the anti-
hunger and economic justice movements has
also dovetailed with the work of the Center.
Molly Rush and Joyce Rothermel, key figures
in the Merton Center, were on the board of
Hunger Action Center in the early 80s and
assisted our transition into Hunger Services
Network and Just Harvest.
My work and the work of the Merton Center
often intersected along the way, and I was
grateful to meet and work with people who
came to these issues from a religious
perspective, rather than a leftist ideology, as I
did. These relationships have deeply enriched
and broadened my experience and
understanding of what needs to be done.
Overall, for me, the Merton Center is like an
old friend and I congratulate you on your 40th
birthday.
Joni Rabinowitz is a long-time Pittsburgh
activist and recently retired as co-director of
Just Harvest, a Center for Action Against
Hunger.
My Memories: 40 Years with the Merton Center
by Charlie McCollester
There have been larger Merton Award cere-
monies, but few were more poignant than the
program held in the Homestead Steel Worker
Local 1397 union hall on February 10, 1982.
Nearly four hundred people gathered to honor
the struggle of Polish workers for democratic
rights and genuine collective bargaining. The
strike at the Gdansk shipyards in late 1980 led to
a national union movement that explicitly re-
jected a violent response against the regime like
those that had erupted and been crushed during
workers‘ uprisings in 1956 and 1970. Their slo-
gan was ―Don‘t burn party headquarters, organ-
ize strike committees.‖ They occupied the ship-
yards and carried on labor negotiations with
party officials over loudspeakers. Citizen sup-
porters formed a protective picket line around the
yards. By the time martial law was declared in
late 1981, the independent self-governing Soli-
darity Union represented more than half of the
nation‘s workers.
In Pittsburgh, we were reeling from the wave
of steel mill closings that started in Youngstown
in 1977. In November of 1979, U.S. Steel closed
eleven regional facilities. and five hundred work-
ers from Youngstown and Pittsburgh supporters
occupied the first two floors of U.S. Steel head-
quarters; then in 1980 a similar number of work-
ers occupied the corporation‘s office building in
Youngstown. All around the region massive lay-
offs and closings were occurring that would
change the character of Pittsburgh forever by the
end of the decade. Like the top-down decision-
making of the politburo in the East Bloc, corpo-
rate interests in America were radically restruc-
turing the American economy. The Polish work-
ers assertion of a human right to have some say
in economic decisions that determined the future
of their jobs and the viability of their communi-
ties struck a deep chord.
It is hard to explain how deeply events in Po-
land stirred me. In 1967, I spent a dozen days
hitch-hiking across the country on my way from
Belgium to Israel (via Poznan, Gdansk and Ka-
towice). I lived 12 days on $34 and was pro-
foundly moved by the hospitality, friendship and
love I encountered. In Pittsburgh in 1973, I aban-
doned the path of teaching philosophy and fol-
lowed a blue-collar career successively in restau-
rants, carpentry and machining. In 1978 I was
hired as a milling machine operator at the Union
Switch & Signal in Swissvale. Subsequently, I
was elected third and later second shift union
steward in the machine shop. On November 1,
1981, my union, UE Local 610, went on strike.
At the time of the Merton award I had been on
strike over three months with a wife and four
kids to support. I was working as a janitor in
Homestead at St Mary Magdalene (one of my
favorite saints) in an area that was bleeding jobs.
I was on the Merton board briefly around
1980. I worked nightshifts in a large machine
shop at the Union Switch & Signal that made the
country‘s most reliable train switches, signals,
crossing gates, electrical tracking and control
systems for trains and subways. The Switch was
one of the great historic companies that devel-
oped the integrated systems of electronic railroad
controls consolidated by George Westinghouse.
When I visited the Gdansk shipyards and the
Poznan machine shops in 2000, I saw machine
and assembly workshops of the size, scale and
complexity of the 45-acre Switch plant. Now
where workers once built complex, high quality
machinery making at least double the minimum
wage, there sits the Edgewood Town Center.
Other responsibilities restricted involvement
in Merton Center governance until recently, but I
always felt connected to it as a member of
Catholic, labor and left activist communities. I
was deeply grateful when Molly Rush asked me
to present the award to representatives of the
Pittsburgh Polish community. Already an ―old
friend,‖ Mike Stout, grievance man at the Home-
stead mill, sang ―Solidarity Forever.‖ An excerpt
follows from my speech. My leftwing friends
winced when I said Poland was being squeezed
between capitalist banks and communist tanks.
The context has shifted since 1982, but the fun-
damental issues remain with us.
The Polish independent self-governing union
Solidarnosc has asserted the worker‘s right to
participate in economic planning and decision-
making on every level of society. ―By guarantee-
ing our right to dialogue, we want the govern-
ment to hear the authentic voice of the working
class, not just the echo of their own words.‖
In the USA our government is destroying the
very modest mechanisms of government regula-
tion or even influence over big business. Our
leaders boast of the complete unleashing of the
forces of ―free enterprise.‖ The economic system
is structurally and totally out of control of our
citizens. The destruction of Youngstown, Ohio,
the radical reduction of steel and other industrial
jobs here, were decided by no vote, no consulta-
tion with any public body. These decisions were
dictated by an accountant‘s pen, by a ―bottom
line‖ mentality that is blind to the wrecked com-
munities, the broken lives, the endangered fami-
lies engendered by its cold calculations.
Corporations want reductions in wages and
benefits; takeaways are the order of the day. But
no guarantees are given that workers‘ sacrifices
won‘t simply be stolen, invested elsewhere. As
Solidarnosc points out: ―It is in reality difficult to
demand an effort from the workers without guar-
anteeing that it will not be wasted or exploited by
others.‖
These sentiments are our sentiments exactly.
Their struggle is our struggle. Sto Lat solidar-
nosc! Solidarity Forever!
Charlie McCollester is a member of the edito-
rial collective and past TMC board member.
1982 Merton Award to the People of Poland
June 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 13
The Pittsburgh Haiti Solidarity Committee (HSC) seeks two host families to
provide room and board for students from Haiti‘s Bank for the Organized Poor
(Fonkoze) who has received a scholarship to study at Duquesne University from
mid-August 2012 to early May 2013. Host families provide a room for sleeping
and studying to the student and food (not necessarily prepared meals). Fonkoze
funds cover the costs for books, health insurance/medical care and a monthly
stipend for incidentals. HSC pays transportation costs (monthly bus passes), gives
guidance with signing up for courses, keeps in communication with the host family, acts as liaison with Fonkoze,
and provides a cell phone and social support. The commitment from a host family can be for the full year or for one
semester only. For more information, call Joyce Rothermel at 412-271-8414.
Room and Board Needed for Haitian Students
by Yiwei Zhang
A progressive human rights fighter in
mainland China, Chen Guangcheng is a famous
human rights activist abroad, but is barely known
by most Chinese people.
Blind from an early age and self-taught in the
law, Chen is frequently described as a "barefoot
lawyer," who advocates for women's rights and
for the welfare of the poor. He is best known for
exposing alleged abuses in official family-
planning policy, often involving claims of
violence and forced abortions.
As current Chinese politicians set priorities for
economic growth, human rights and unjust
distribution of wealth become serious
issues. With uneven distribution of resources, the
rural area of mainland China, Chen‘s battlefield,
has been beset with human rights issues. Policies
and regulations are forcibly conducted by local
authorities while the local citizens lack both
proper education in human rights and the legal
weapons to fight against the local government.
The lack of legal education and access led
Chen to teach himself the law.
His most publicized case came in 2005, when
he exposed harsh illegal measures used by local
authorities to enforce the one-child
policy. Family planning officials from Linyi
and municipal authorities in Shandong forced
thousands of people to undergo sterilization or to
abort pregnancies. Chinese national regulations
prohibit such brutal measures. The officials were
also accused of detaining and torturing relatives
of people who had escaped from the forced
measures.
Following widespread allegations of violence
and coercion of Chinese law, Chen Guangcheng
filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of the
victims. The local Chinese courts refused to hear
the case and imprisoned Chen Guangcheng on
trumped up charges. Due in part to the severity
and scope of these abuses, Linyi has been used as
an example by activists to criticize China's
violation of women's rights. In response, Linyi
officials also lobbied the Foreign Ministry and the
powerful Propaganda Department, which agreed
to ban any discussion of Chen in the state media
and the Internet.
The tragedy of Chen‘s case lies not only in the
result of his petition, but also in the treatment that
Chen received after his advocacy. On the
worldwide scene, in 2007 Chen Guangcheng was
named one of the Time‘s 100, Time magazine's
annual list of "100 men and women whose power,
talent or moral example is transforming our
world."
Chen's trial could renew international scrutiny
of China's population-control practices, yet it
represents a major setback for reformers in the
government who have been trying to soften the
one-child policy and eliminate the abuses long
associated with it. His trial did not mark the end
of the tragedy in his family. In an effort to stop
the spread of Chen‘s spirit, the local government
hired villagers to watch his family and threaten all
visitors before they could get close to his house,
no matter who the visitors were and what their
purposes were. The end of Chen‘s jail life in 2011
did not end the misery in his family‘s life and the
surveillance and isolation continued and became
even more harsh.
Chen Guangcheng made his way to the U.S.
embassy on April 26 , 2012. He arranged several
interviews with international media before he left
the embassy and during his time there expressed
his intention of further study in the U.S.
Chen‘s choice should be respected even if only
for his own benefit. He will not stop fighting
before the battle is over no matter which country
he is in. Even if he leaves his homeland for the
U.S., his spirit will inspire more activists in
mainland China to promote the struggle for
human rights.
Yiwei Zhang is a Master of Social Work
Candidate at the University of Pittsburgh who is
completing an internship at the Thomas Merton
Center.
Ed. note: According to the Associated Press,
Chen Guangcheng and his wife and children
arrived in the United States on Saturday, May 19.
Honoring Chen Guangcheng
Chen Guangcheng
14 - NEWPEOPLE June 2012
The Winning TMC Logo Design
by Joyce Rothermel
Bread for the World is a collective Christian
voice urging our nation's decision makers to end
hunger at home and abroad. Annually they host a
Lobby Day in Washington, D.C. This year it is set
for Tuesday, June 12. It occurs at a time when the
Farm Bill, which contains many important food
programs to help those in need is still in play (and
we know Sen. Casey is on the Agriculture
Committee and plays an important role in that),
when appropriations bills are moving along (some
with deep cuts to food programs), and when tax
credits for low-income people are already at risk.
On June 12, the Lobby Day message to
members of Congress will be to create a circle of
protection around funding for programs that are
vital to hungry and poor people in the U.S. and
around the world. In light of proposed deep cuts
to programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP formerly food
stamps), the Special Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and
Children (WIC), and poverty-focused foreign
assistance, those who attend will raise a collective
Christian voice on behalf of the children and
families who will suffer the consequences of
these cuts.
The day will begin with worship, providing an
opportunity to reflect on God's call to justice and
compassion for hungry people. Next, an issue
briefing will give the status of legislation related
to the Offering of Letters; when congregations
write letters to Congress in support of the main
anti hunger issues chosen by Bread for the World
that particular year. Also, insights from key
lawmakers, and tips on effective ways to
communicate with Congress are considered. In
the afternoon, all will have the opportunity to join
others from their region and speak to their own
member of Congress or his/her staff on current
legislation impacting hungry and poor people.
The day will close with a reception and evening
worship.
All the details are at http://www.bread.org/
event/lobby-day/2012/. At this website you can
register online using the button at the bottom of
the page that opens. If you are not able to attend,
tell Congress: Create a Circle of Protection
around programs vital to people who are hungry
and poor in the U.S. and abroad by visiting
www.bread.org
This will be my first Lobby Day with Bread
for the World. Please join us!
Joyce Rothermel is a co-
chair of the SW PA Food
Security Partnership and
Long Time Member of
Bread for the World.
Feed People - Lobby Day: Bread for the World
by Bette McDevitt
On the evening of Tuesday, May 8, twenty-five
people came together to share a healthy meal and
some thoughts, at the Merton Center.
The topic was the coming of the Cracker Plant
to Beaver County.
John Detwiler set the stage for our discussion
with a PowerPoint presentation about Shell‘s
existing cracker plants in other areas. Our region is
attractive to Shell because their plant would
process the ethane from Marcellus Shale wells.
(Our local wells are described as ―wet gas,‖
because of their high ethane content.)
According to available data, a plant similar to
Shell‘s other facilities would consume the entire
output of up to 500 Marcellus Shale wells.
Considering the expected lifetimes of such wells,
this represents new Marcellus wells to be drilled
and fracked near us at a rate of almost one per day -
- just to ―feed‖ this one Shell plant. Naturally, such
a prospect is attractive to drillers; and, of course,
it‘s just as unattractive to those opposed to drilling.
Local boosters hope that the cracker plant will be
just the beginning – that other processors will also
build in our region, turning the cracker‘s outputs
into plastics and industrial chemicals. John noted,
though, that all of these chemical processes are
highly automated and capital intensive, and that,
once in operation, Shell‘s and other such plants will
offer few if any new jobs for underemployed
people in our communities
Carl Davidson, a long time activist who has
returned to Beaver County, made the point that the
working class will welcome the plant, because of
the jobs it promises it will provide. He reminded
the group that other industries in the area,
including steel-making, were dangerous and
harmful to the environment. He said there are a
number of reforms that can be fought for, even if
they build the plant--tighter pollution/emission
controls, union wages and use of local union labor,
training programs for the more skilled jobs at our
local community college, a community plastic
recycling center, to name just a few.
We have a long way to go before this plant
is up and running, according to Sam Prodonovich,
who, though not at the meeting, spoke to me about
the jobs that will come to the area. He is President
of the Building Trades Council of Beaver County.
He states, ―I don‘t get excited until I see which
general contractor they have chosen, and if it is
someone we can work with. But I know this,
there will be 40,000 jobs involved in the
construction of this plant. They have to build a
power plant first. And, here in Beaver County, we
have the best work force in the country. We built
nuclear plants here. The way I see it, it will be four
years before we start to dig here.‖
Much discussion revolved around ―jobs versus
the environment‖, a question which many feel is
not the core issue. We certainly need more and
better jobs; but experience suggests that there is no
basis for the jobs projections being touted for this
industry. The discussion needs to challenge the
industry and our political leaders to substantiate
their claims and to provide data on safety, rather
than moving forward again on unsubstantiated
promises and unfounded hopes that damage can be
mitigated.
John Detwiler said, after the meeting, ―The
issue is more appropriately the fiction that these
plants will bring 40,000 jobs. There is an
abundance of information showing the oil and gas
and related industries cynically create this fiction.
Once created, people are misled into believing that
they must ―choose‖ between jobs versus the
environment.
It is beyond belief that ―40,000 jobs‖ will ever
come from this plant – directly or indirectly. There
is no rational basis at all for such a number; nor has
any study shown such forecasts to have been
achieved in the past. There is a total absence of
integrity around these offhand promises of ―jobs‖.
And yet they continue to be published.‖
As we tried to find a path here, Carl suggested
that the ―way out‖ calls for a replacement of
capitalism with socialism, and would require that
we maintain our bond with the working class and
the minorities and that we ―get our hands
dirty.‖ The revolution, or evolution, probably
won‘t happen in the very near future; it is worth
keeping in mind that the long term goal rises above
the short term one.
It is quite disabling to feel helpless, one person
pointed out. John Detwiler said that he does
―whatever is at hand, whatever is called for ―each
day, and Joyce Rothermel pointed out that we can
draw hope from working together.
It was a sobering evening, and the tension
between the need for work, and the concern for the
environment is not near resolution. The next
potluck dinner will be June 14, at 6 pm and the
topic will be Women in the Ministry. We hope you
will join us as we build community and plan for the
future.
Bette MeDevitt, member of the editorial collective.
Potluck Dinner Discussion of Cracker Plant
The winner of the TMC 40th Anniversary T-
shirt logo contest was Rick Martinec. Though a
resident of New England, Rick Martinec has deep
roots in Pennsylvania. He describes how he came
to submit an entry into the competition in the
following words:
―That issue‘s cover story, ―Citizens Demand
Their Share of the American Dream,‖ struck a
deep chord with me. I was raised in Youngstown,
Ohio, and was a student at Youngstown State
University in 1980 when the steel mills laid off a
majority of their workforce. So I have personally
experienced the feeling of hopelessness which
comes from not being able to find employment.
It‘s a feeling that has never left me. Also in that
issue there was an article about ―Coffee Party‖
which gave me hope for a better government.
―Less than a year later I was visiting the same
cousin (who is a retired nun from the Sisters of
Mercy) and got in a conversation with the office
manager at the convent about Thomas Merton and
his philosophy. I picked up the current copy of
The New People, saw they were having a logo
contest and once I returned to my current home in
Massachusetts I entered three designs in the
contest and was delighted that one was chosen.
―On the concept of supporting peace my view
is start small and start with yourself. 1. Forgive -
it‘s hard to do, but we should at least try. 2. Do
your best to protect and help your family, and
once you have that basically covered, extend it to
your immediate neighbors. If we could do these
things, I feel we‘d have safer neighborhoods, a
reduction in homelessness and a more peaceful
world.‖
Thomas Merton Center‘s 40th Anniversary t-
shirts with Rick‘s winning logo are available for
$10 each and come in sizes extra-large, large,
medium and small. To order your t-shirt call the
Thomas Merton Center office at (412) 361-3022.
The Thomas Merton Center is celebrating its
40th Anniversary in a variety of ways this year,
including potlucks, picnics, and planning for
ways that volunteers can become more actively
involved with our important mission of creating a
more peaceful and just world. If you are
interested in joining with us, please consider
becoming a member by signing up through our
website at www.thomasmertoncenter.org.
Rick Martinec - 40th Anniversary T-Shirt Logo Winner
June 2012 NEWPEOPLE - 15
by Molly Rush
The Supreme Court will soon issue a decision on whether all or part of
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is constitutional.
It could actually be a win for single payer, which, like Medicare and
Social Security, relies on a payroll tax and is clearly constitutional.
As columnist Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post put it:
"...the long term consequence is obvious - sooner or later a much more
far-reaching overhaul of the health care system will be inevitable....The
current fee -for-service paradigm, with doctors and hospitals being paid
through for-profit insurers is needlessly inefficient and ruinously
expensive...If the Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare, a single payer
system will go from being politically impossible to being, in the long run,
fiscally inevitable."
Single Payer News in PA
PA House Bill 1660, the Family & Business Health Security Act, is being
introduced by Rep. Tony Payton, chair of the sub-committee on Mental
Health of the Human Services Committee and a member of the PA
Legislative Black Caucus. It‘s easy to send him an e-mail of support at
www.pahouse.gov and then urge your Representative to co-sponsor the
bill. Sen. Jim Ferlo is prime sponsor of the Senate version, SB 400. You
can email him and your Senator at www.pasenate.gov. For information on
the bill go to www.healthcare4allpa.org
An Economic Impact Study of the bill, funded by HC4AllPA
supporters, will soon be underway.
In 2010 more than 10% of Pennsylvanians, or 1,343,800 under 65, had
no health coverage. Since then Governor Corbett has cut 88,000 children
off Medicaid and ended Adult Basic coverage for 42,000 people. Many
with coverage are being charged higher co-pays.
PUSH/SouthwesternHealthCare4All PA.
Faithful Health Care, a new project, is reaching out to congregations.
Keep posted
Award-winning Healthy Artists features video portraits in which
artists talk about their lives, their work, and why universal health care is
important to them. Our own Julie Sokolow is working with a large
contingent of interns to produce these gems. www.healthyartists.org
PUSH/SWHealthCare4AllPA needs to move by mid-June and is in the
process of finding new quarters. We‘ll need help with the move. Keep up
with developments at http://push-hc4allpa.blogspot.com/.
NEWS FLASH! Milliman Medical Index (MMI) measures the total cost
of healthcare for a typical family of four covered by
a preferred provider plan (PPO). The 2012 MMI
cost is $20,728, an increase of $1,335, or 6.9% over
2011.
Molly Rush is Co-chair of the Editorial Collective
and Co-founder and Board Member of the Thomas
Merton Center.
Supreme Court Puts Single Payer Health Care Front and Center
Dorothy Day Visited My High School in 1966
by James McMurtry Longo
Dorothy Day was a troublemaker. That was
what our teachers in 1966 told us when they
discovered she was to speak at our St. Louis
all boys inner city parochial high school.
Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement were
sparking protests across the nation and most of
our teachers were clearly not pleased this
―trouble maker‖ was coming to our school.
My fellow students and I were thrilled to be
getting out of class. We had no idea who
Dorothy Day was and were disappointed to
discover she was not related to Doris Day the
popular movie star, or Dennis Day the singer
on the Jack Benny TV show. It was a simpler
time.
The school received bomb threats, and some
teachers refused to listen to someone they
described as a communist agitator. By the time
she walked onto the stage the audience was
sullen and silent. To us she seemed a million
years old – she was nearly seventy! She was
small and dressed in the ugliest set of
mismatched clothes I had ever seen. She stood
straight and spoke straight. She talked about
her life, her faith, and her pacifism. What
Dorothy Day said that day was challenging,
thought provoking, and, at times, funny. She
told us she paid no taxes because she refused
to give the government money to support
wars. She explained she owned nothing.
―What about your clothes?‖ someone asked.
She said she had given everything away to the
poor, but the poor didn‘t want the clothes she
was wearing. Everyone laughed. Her
statement was very believable. She talked
about doing what was right and doing it in the
right way. The two things to her were
inseparable. Here was a Christian who married
her faith to her actions. Her personal stories
made me realize how little my own faith
interfered with or inspired my own life.
When the all school assembly was over she
agreed to stay for a while to speak with any
interested teachers and students. My best
friend and I were the only students who
stayed. She spoke about the need for all of us
to seek and demand peace and social justice in
our lives, our church, and our country.
Dorothy Day had an energy that surrounded
her that I have never felt from another person.
We stayed as long as we could. She soon
directed her entire conversation to us, turning
her back on teachers with folded arms, glaring
eyes, and closed ears. She made us feel that
we were the two most important people in the
room. I have never forgotten the feeling. She
told us she liked talking with young people
who listened, and heard, with their ears and
their hearts. The courage of her pacifism and
her living faith frightened and inspired me. It
still does.
James McMurtry Longo is Chair of the
Education Department at Washington and
Jefferson College
In this time of pain and promise, we call on
God‘s Spirit to bless the leadership of LCWR and all women religious
who strive to live the gospel in these uncertain times.
We call on the Spirit of God to reveal the way forward that is faithful to
God‘s dream for them and their lives together.
May all who are called to engage in prayer and conversation come to the
table with hearts that are open, transparent, and faith-filled. May their
reflection be marked by a deep listening to the
voice of the Spirit at work in our world.
May the holy ones who have gone before us inspire them by their courage
and wisdom and affirm that they are not alone.
May they continue to faithfully live the questions of our time and witness
to the people of God that they are women at home with mystery and filled
with fierce hope for our shared future. Amen.
Prayer by Chris Koellhoffer, IHM,
and adapted for TMC readers.
Dorothy Day
1887-1980
Photo Courtesy of the Creative Commons
A Prayer
16 - NEWPEOPLE June 2012
S O C I A L A C T I O N C A L E N D A R J U N E A C T IV I SM 2 01 2
See calendar on TMC Website for more details about events. www.thomasmertoncenter.com/calendar/
-Book‟Em Packing Day
4-7pm Merton Center
weekly
-Occupy Pittsburgh
Education Working
Group
4 pm at the Thomas
Merton Center
-Anti-War Meeting
2 pm at the Thomas Merton Center
-Heal the Wounds
History Museum 3 pm
-Anti-War Meeting 2pm
at TMC
-Book‟em Packing
4-7pm at TMC
weekly
-Book‟Em Packing Day
4-7pm Merton Center
weekly
-Anti-War Committee
Meeting 2pm at the Thomas
Merton Center
-Awakening Consciousness
Villa Maria Community
Center—225 Villa Maria
Road Villa Maria, PA 16155
June 24-29
-Book‟Em Packing Day
4-7pm Merton Center
-Fundraiser for Partners in
Progress work in Haiti
Map Room (Regent Square)
5-9 pm
3
10
17
24
TMC Project Committee
Meeting at 6:30 pm
Thomas Merton Center
Required Bi-Annual
Project Meeting
Labor Religion Coalition
7:00 –8:30 pm at Epiphany Rectory - 1018
Centre Ave. Pittsburgh,
PA 15219
TMC Board
Meeting
6pm Potluck
7 –9 pm Meeting
4
11
18
25
ISO Meeting at the
Thomas Merton
Center—7 pm
ISO Meeting at the
Thomas Merton
Center—7 pm
W.O.M.I.N. Meeting (Women in Care of
Incarcerated Men) St. Peter‘s—Schubert Street
Northside
Toni 412-969-2015
ISO Meeting at the
Thomas Merton
Center—7 pm
5
12
19
26
TMC Potluck -
Women in the
Ministry w/ Rev.
Joan Houk
Thomas Merton Center 6:30-8:30 pm
“Food Stamped” Film
The Pump House
7:30 pm-9:00 pm
KNOW NUKES Y'ALL
SUMMIT
Campus of University of
Tennessee Chattanooga.
Chattanooga, TN June 28, 29, 30
7
14
21
28
First Friday Action on
Unemployment Comp. 1:30-3pm at the Post Office,
Grant and 7th Avenue,
Downtown, Contact Tony at
412.462.9962
New People Editorial
Collective Meeting at
Thomas Merton Center 10:30 am—Noon
Unblurred—First Friday at the Thomas Merton Center
featuring Book‘sm—6 pm
TMC Supported
ACTION
Save Our Transit March
and Rally
11 Stanwix St
3:00-4:00 pm
ALL MEMBERS
PLEASE ATTEND
Screening of Koch
Brothers Exposed 2:30pm
Carnegie Library in Squirrel Hill
New People Editorial
Collective Meeting at
Thomas Merton Center
10:30 am
ADC National Convention
Washington, DC
New People Editorial
Collective Meeting at
Thomas Merton Center
10:30 am
ADC National Convention
w/ Michael Moore
The Hyatt Regency
Washington on Capitol
Hill—Washington, DC.
2:00-4:00 pm
Pink Smoke Over the
Vatican Film
7:30 pm -9:30 pm
The Hollywood Theater 1449 Potomac Avenue
Dormont, PA 15216
Fri 1
8
15
22
29
TMC Membership
Meeting - Noon @ TMC
Darfur Coalition Meeting
Meeting Room C
Carnegie Library
5:30—7 pm Contact [email protected]
TMC Book Study
Calvary Episcopal Church -7
pm
PA against Death Penalty
First Unitarian - 7 PM
Write On! Letters for
Prisoner Rights
7-10pm TMC
PUSH Healthcare for
All Meeting 6:15-8:15
pm—2101 Murray Ave. Squirrel Hill
Anthrocon 2012 David Lawrence
Convention Center
June 14-17
TMC 40th
Anniversary Meeting
at Noon @ TMC
Darfur Coalition Meeting
Meeting Room C
Carnegie Library
5:30—7 pm Contact [email protected]
Write On! Letters for
Prisoner Rights
7-10pm TMC
Write On! Letters for
Prisoner Rights
7-10pm TMC
6
13
20
27
Women in Black
Monthly Peace Vigil
10-11am
In Slippery Rock
Ginger Hill Unitarian
Church
Vigil for Peace
12 PM-1 PM
Forbes and Braddock Aves Every Saturday
Sat 2
Black Voices for Peace
Anti-War Protest 1pm
Corner Penn & Highland
15206
Peace Vigil 1pm– Beaver
Vigil for Peace
12 PM-1 PM
Forbes and Braddock Aves
Every Saturday
Fight for Lifers West Mtg
10-Noon Crossroads United Methodist
Church—325 Highland Dr.
East Liberty
Black Voices for Peace
Anti-War Protest
1pm at the corner of Penn and Highland
Dyke Trans March
Morrow Triangle Park
(Baum Ave. / Liberty Ave)
1:00-4:00 pm
Black Voices for Peace
Anti-War Protest
1pm at the corner of Penn
and Highland
When Jobs Disappear
The Pump House
1:30 pm-3:00 pm
Just Harvest's Annual
Meeting & Summer
Picnic 3:00-6:00 pm
Veterans' Shelter at
Schenley Park
Haiti Solidarity
Committee Meeting 10 am to noon at TMC
Speak Up Fundraiser for
Amnesty International
Bricolage Theater—7 pm
9
16
23
30
IN THIS EDITION
THOMAS MERTON CENTER has
partnered with OCCUPY PITTSBURGH‟s
Communication Work Group to support
their production of a four page insert.
The opinions expressed in the Occupy Insert
are those of the individuals who wrote
them and are neither endorsed, approved
or censored by the Merton Center.
The Center on Race &
Social Problems 10th
Anniversary
Alumni Hall University of Pittsburgh
5-8 pm with Ben Jealous
ISO Meeting at the
Thomas Merton
Center—7 pm
Volunteer at the
Thomas Merton
Center—email
volunteer@thomasm
ertoncenter.org or
call 412.301.3022
Interested in writing or taking photographs for the New People?
The editorial collective is looking for your contribution! Enter your articles
and photos on-line at our website www.thomasmertoncenter.org under the
New People link.
Looking to advertise your information to Pittsburgh’s most progressive
advocates? See ad information on page 11. To submit your ad send it to
Diane at [email protected]. Or call (412) 361-3022
for more information.
Get Ready for the
SHADOW PROJECT
(Remembering Hiroshima
and Nagasaki)
August 6 & 9, 2012 Call Ellie to learn more at
(412) 361-3022.
Various titles of books by
and about Thomas
Merton available at
TMC. Stop in!
