Love in practice is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.
I came across this report on the beheadings of 3 Christian schoolgirls in Indonesia and was viscerally shaken:
BBC Report
Here are the extremely disturbing photos:
From a blogger
What can we possibly do in the face of such evil? What madness has possessed this world?
Two thousand U.S. troops have died in Iraq. In Indiana, where I am travelling, there are some statewide rallies planned for the weekend to use the 2,000 number to call for an end to the war/occupation. I think it is important to remember our fallen troops locally as well.
A memorial was held today at Worcester Common with 2,000 white crosses. Many photos at Indymedia.
The photo below is from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette of yesterday’s Lincoln Square peace vigil, held weekly since 9-11-01.
Continue reading “Remembering 2,000 US dead in Iraq”
Word on the street is that the guys are vacating the lot now anyway as the weather turns cold. I think as many as a dozen people were sleeping there over the summer, although the cops would periodically raid the area and arrest some of the guys. When they were released from jail, they’d head right back to Beaver Brook.
Also in WoMag, Phil Reid presents his vision for a compassionate city.
Members of the Area Plan Commission of St. Joseph County voted to recommend that the South Bend Common Council turn down a request that zoning of the house at 1126 W. Washington St. be changed from single family to multifamily.
(Full story in South Bend Tribune)
Last night, I taught another English class. For some reason, this time people saying bebsi (pepsi), sank yo (thank you), swotr (sweater), and ce…tly (certainly, which seems to be a constant pronounciation problem for everyone) made me laugh just a bit in class. To be fair, I think that they have laughed at my Arabic since day 2. It may be a sign that my students and I are getting closer.
Continue reading “Cairo 2”
Editor’s Note: Mike Ciul needed to order some checks. He decided to make a statement by having them printed with his own background designs. I’ve seen the checks made from the watercolor design; they are beautiful. Click on the picture for a high-res version.
“Capitalism is a pyramid scheme”
“The love of money is the root of all evil”
As far as I know, there is only one company that will print your design on a check. That company is Checks Your Way.
You should specify that you want to use my (Mike Ciul’s) design in the special instructions at the end of the ordering process, and specify that you have my permission to use it. (I hereby give everyone permission to use my designs.)
If you make checks from these designs, please send an email to captainmikee at yahoo dot com to let me know. Thank you!
I am teaching English classes on Monday and Wednesday night to men and women from Cairo, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Sudan.
Man, I wish it would rain. Somehow that really sums Cairo up for me at the moment. I guess it may also seem somehow incongruous for those of you in Worcester, which has been getting drenched as far as I can understand. But rain falling on Cairo would be…magnificent.
OK, back up. I’m not sure if these posts will even really be appropriate for pieandcoffee, as I don’t expect to write anything really socio-politically relevant. However, I do hope these posts will be interesting in one form or another or for some reason or another.
At the moment I am about mid-way through a fever which has yet to turn belligerent, lying on our uncomfortable couch typing with my housemate Simon‘s laptop, watching my other housemate Lee eat some Pizza Hut pizza, and listening to Beck’s “Lost Cause”. Lee just said “God, since I came here to, you know, ‘find myself’ I promised myself I wouldn’t party or eat Pizza Hut or anything.” Chomp.
Continue reading “Cairo 1”
Today is Yom Kippur. It’s also Ramadan. Many are fasting today, and many who would not fast ordinarily are joining them. So if you see a bunch of people looking cranky and repentant, that’s what’s going on.
Yesterday was the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast in Worcester. I’d heard of “prayer breakfasts,” but I’d never been to one, so I did a little research and found the Prayer Breakfast Network. Their website does not feature symbols of religion (Christian cross, Jewish star, Muslim crescent, Buddhist wheel) or breakfast (Northern bagel, Southern grits, Western omelette), just a bunch of American flags. Their spiritual heritage page is entirely about Anglo-Saxon Protestantism.
Maybe some towns could have a monocultural prayer breakfast like that, but not Worcester. The breakfast emcee was a rabbi, the opening prayer was by a Catholic bishop, the opening speech was by a city employee identified as a Unitarian, the keynote speaker was Bernard Lafayette (Baptist minister, among other things), and the closing prayer was by representatives from Hillel and the Islamic Society.
Then an Indian man who’d known Gandhi read a poem!
Stuff like that, and the City Council’s choosing religious tolerance over mosque wiretapping, makes me happy to be in Worcester.
Here’s another story that makes me happy to be in Worcester. It’s about some folks who decided to meet their new neighbors instead of fearing them. As told in Worcester’s Catholic Free Press:
Continue reading “Fasting and Eating and Understanding”
Here’s the full text of the report, typed from a copy. There’s also a scan of the report (5MB, .pdf format).
Continue reading “Mayor’s Social Service Task Force Report”
Here’s the gist of the “Mayor’s Social Service Task Force Report” for Worcester, Massachusetts.
Continue reading “Social Service Siting Report–the gist”
The report of the “Mayor’s Social Service Task Force” is not yet public, but already plenty of folks in Worcester have their hands on it and are discussing it.
Worcester Magazine leaked the guts of the report yesterday.
Let’s look at what they said. I’ll comment in much more detail once the report is no longer confidential.
Continue reading “Social Service Siting Report and other items”
