Undercurrents

A crowd of several thousand basked in comfortable temperatures under threatening skies as the Boston Common hummed with frustrated war protesters this afternoon. It was a big enough crowd–twice the capacity of the Bushnell, at least–to produce much harmony and love, but not nearly big enough to exert any real pressure on the ruling class. It was one of eleven demonstrations nationwide. High-schoolers were well-represented, as was the white-haired crowd, with younger middle-aged folks a distinct minority. The police kept a very low profile, saving a good deal of the grumbling that always accompanies a trip to New York or DC.  There were speakers from organized labor, politics, and academia, but the most moving addresses came from veterans, soldiers and soldiers’ families. The rain stopped in time for the demonstration and resumed afterwards. At the edge of the weather on the road home, the sun was bright enough on the western horizon to produce a complete rainbow in the east, and the cars were stopped along 84 with smiling kids and grownups lined up to enjoy this rare event.

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The following is a correspondence from John Dennehy, former HIMC volunteer and intern. John has been traveling the world’s lesser known corners and reporting on what he witnesses there. John self-published a book of his letters, simply entitled Letters from Far Away. After spending much of the last two years in South America, John is now in the remote areas of India. Here is his latest letter:

Kerala

Yesterday I woke up in a city on the Arabian Sea called Calicut and I was happy with neither the city nor how I was feeling. Today is a new day. I was already feeling better by the time I left that place behind on a bus traveling south and things have only improved since. I picked a random dot on my map and waited for it to arrive. I don’t
think I waited long enough. (more…)

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Scientists say that the so-called petrified forests of Arizona were the result of the organic materials of ancient trees being slowly replaced over eons with inorganic compounds. While the form remains familiar, the object itself is no longer a tree or a piece of wood but mineral. Stone cold and hard.

In the political realm, the transformation from human tragedy to grist for the political mill does not take eons. In fact, in Connecticut it took place overnight. (more…)

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General, we’ve been doing a little armchair reconnaissance on how your surge is going. Not so many U.S. soldiers getting zapped in Baghdad. Iraqis still taking it up the ass, but that’s war, aint’ it. But lookie what’s happening up north. PKK, the Kurdistan Workers Party, got some foxes shooting at the Turks. Hope they don’t start shooting at us.

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The following is a press release from our friends at ACORN -

When: 9:00 a.m., Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007

Where: Lot 45-47 Enfield Street, Hartford, CT

Members of Hartford’s North End United chapter of the community organization ACORN and residents of the North End will meet with city officials Tuesday morning to demand why the city’s promises to see to the clean-up of abandoned vacant lots, made at a meeting on October 2nd, have not been fulfilled.

“No one should have to live like this,” says ACORN member Rosie Easterly of Enfield Street, who shares her back door with an overgrown lot. “The rodents are so bad, it’s ridiculous. If the city doesn’t do something soon, the rats will evict us.” (more…)

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The regular Saturday noon vigil on the green in West Hartford yielded to a press conference today to promote next week’s nationwide rally for an end to the war in Iraq. Instead of a single assembly in Washington, this rally is being held in 11 cities, and Boston is the gathering point for this region, with buses leaving Saturday morning from West Hartford, New Haven, and Willimantic.

Steve Thornton, local labor organizer and activist, introduced the speakers. Cornell Lewis, a Hartford clergyman and civil rights leader, brought a can-do attitude to the crowd of about 25, warming them up for Bill Shortell, of the Machinists’ Union, Mims Butterworth, a longtime West Hartford resident and Quaker activist, Rich Sivel, of AFSCME, and Henry Lowendorf and Al Marder of the Greater New Haven Peace Council.

I reminded the gathering that bus riders can charge their fare on-line using my terminal, accessible from http://www.stepfour.com/peacetrain. It’s a secure site, and it accepts a credit card or an electronic check. A bus ride from Hartford is $45 and a ride from New Haven is $50, with reduced fares for seniors and students. Transportation details are published on the web site.

To the accompaniment of an occasional supportive car horn, all of the speakers emphasized the Illegality of the Iraq enterprise, and all expressed confidence that our ever-growing movement will end it.  The West Hartford News was there to take a few pictures, but there were no television cameras, and no Courant photographer that I could see. 

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I can’t believe that in 2007 people still dress up in red face. Red face is the use of red pigment to make one look like a stereotyped caricature of a native American. It’s to native Americans what black face is to African Americans. It’s meant to ridicule and degrade, to amuse the dominant white majority. And from March to October, you can see on TV — every time Cleveland’s baseball team hits the field.

Maybe I’m just seeing it more now, with the Red Sox battling the Indians in the American League Championship Series, but I don’t remember fans painting their faces like this.

(more…)

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The Colt strike of 1986-1990 was one of the most difficult and bitter battles waged by labor. It stands as the longest strike in Connecticut history. In 1986, 800 workers walked off the job after going 10 months without a contract. Through the years of the strike, 60 Colt union members decided to retire and 40 died. The entire progressive community of Hartford was challenged as it never had before, but from this struggle a new minor party was born: People for Change/Pueblo Pro Cambio. (more…)

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We waited all day for this question: “Judge Mukasey, there’s every reason to believe the last attorney general and the president have violated federal laws, precipitating a crisis of confidence in the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law itself. What are you going to do about that?” (more…)

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Yesterday afternoon, approximately 7 cars were broken into at the ArtSpace parking lot. Five of the cars belonged to residents and two belonged to visitors. Shattered glass is still strewn about the lot.

It is still unclear what items were taken, but all of the break-ins were traditional “smash and grabs.” The interiors of the vehicles were tossed and small, easily-pocketed items were taken.

Nine days earlier, two cars were broken into in the same manner, including my own. But, unlike this brazen Sunday afternoon spree, these two earlier break-ins were done during the early morning hours, between midnight and 4am. (more…)

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