Items

Clark University students yesterday installed 2,000 crosses and other faith symbols on the main quad to remember the 2,082 GIs who lost their lives in Iraq and to call for a swift withdrawal of U.S. forces.

Photo: Emma Klein. More at Worcester Indymedia.

Other items:

• The annual vigil to close the SOA is this weekend.
• San Francisco’s River Sims now has photos from his nightly street ministry on his blog.
• Worcester’s Tom Lewis has made it back safely from Israel and Palestine, where he was travelling for the opening of the Three Cities Against the Wall exhibit. The American artworks were held up in customs and didn’t make it to Ramallah in time. They may be displayed in a few weeks, if they make it out of customs.
• A fence is being installed at the main entrance to the homeless camp at Beaver Brook Park. Word on the street is that “they” will cut down some of the trees there.
• I happen to know a 13-year-old boy who happens to know more about Watergate than anyone I know. Yesterday, he told me: “I used to be a big Woodward & Bernstein fan. Now I guess I’m just a Bernstein fan. I always liked Bernstein better. He had cooler hair.”
• South Bend Tribune on the South Bend Catholic Worker:
  

  Common Council member Al “Buddy” Kirsits expects to cast the deciding vote against a controversial homeless shelter [the CW], he said Tuesday.
  […]
  “Zoning restrictions are important to a city,” Kirsits said. “If we grant this variance now, what’s to keep other people from doing the same thing? It’s too bad. They’ve done a lot of work here.”

  What’s to keep other people from doing the same thing? Wise city councilors, presumably. Zoning laws were made by people for people, not handed down from on high. They should be flexible. If zoning is keeping someone from doing something that benefits the city, then the city should grant a variance. South Bend will not be plunged into anarchy if this variance is granted.

• Saw “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price” Wednesday at Ralph’s, a local bar. There are other Worcester screenings tonight and this weekend at Clark University. I have seen Wal-Mart destroy the diversity of stores in the town where my parents live in West Virginia. Wal-Mart’s not all bad, of course—where else can you do the performance art piece Whirl-Mart?

  The film ended with a list of towns that kept Wal-Mart out, using zoning or other measures. This is another instance in which a City Council can and should make zoning exceptions for the common good.

  Wal*Mart uses the smiley face in their advertising, and there were plenty of smileys in the movie. More than one person muttered, “What would Harvey Ball say?” (Ball was the Worcester native who created the smiley.)

  (Massachusetts Jobs with Justice has a Wal-Mart page.)