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Dear Al, Please join Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund at an All-Beethoven Recital by Victor Rosenbaum
Saturday, October 18, 2014, 7:30 pm
Harvard-Epworth Methodist Church 1555 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridgenear Harvard Law School
Kicking off the 2014-15 Music for
Peace concert series, pianist Victor Rosenbaum, in his
only Boston area solo recital this season, will present an All-Beethoven
Recital, including the "Pathétique" and "Waldstein" sonatas; the Sonata in
A-flat Major, Opus 26; and Six Bagatelles, Opus 126.
The audience is invited to join the
musicians and Peace Action members at a reception after the concert.
![BPT_buy_tickets_large[1]](http://masspeaceaction.org/home/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/BPT_buy_tickets_large1.png) Benefits Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund.
Single Concert Tickets: $25 in advance for Mass. Peace Action members, $35
for non-members, $10 for students, $35 at the door. Write check to "Massachusetts Peace
Action Education Fund" and mail to 11 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
or purchase online.
Music for Peace Series of 3 concerts: member $65,
non-member $80, student $25. Write check to "Massachusetts Peace Action
Education Fund" and mail to 11 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 or purchase online.
American pianist Victor Rosenbaum has
concertized widely as soloist and chamber music performer in the United States,
Europe, Asia, Israel, and Russia in such prestigious halls as Tully Hall in New
York and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia. Festival appearances have
included Tanglewood, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Kfar Blum and Tel Hai
(in Israel), Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall (Blue Hill), Musicorda, Masters de
Pontlevoy (France), the Heifetz Institute, the International Keyboard Institute
and Festival in New York, the International Music Seminar in Vienna, and the
Bowdoin International Music Festival. Concert appearances have brought him to
Chicago, Minneapolis, Tokyo, Beijing, St. Petersburg (Russia), Tel Aviv,
Jerusalem, New York and Boston, among others.
Rosenbaum serves on the faculty of the New England
Conservatory in Boston, where he formerly chaired the piano and chamber music
departments, and the Mannes College of Music in New York. He has been Visiting
Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music, a guest teacher at Juilliard,
and presents lectures, workshops, and master classes for teachers’ groups and
schools both in the U. S. and abroad, including London’s Royal Academy of Music,
Royal College of Music, and Guildhall School, the conservatories of St.
Petersburg and Moscow, Beijing Central Conservatory, the Toho School in Tokyo
and other institutions such as the Menuhin School, and the Jerusalem Music
Center. Rosenbaum was Director and President of the Longy School of Music from
1985-2001.
His highly praised recording of Schubert is
on Bridge Records and the release of the last three Beethoven sonatas on
the same label was named by American Record Guide critic Alan Becker as one of
the top ten classical recordings of 2005. Two discs on
the Fleur de Son label feature music of Schubert and Mozart.
Rosenbaum is Music Director of the Music for Peace
Concert Series.
Donations to support our work for peace are needed in
any amount. Supporters donate
$250 or more to Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund, and receive two
tickets with preferred seating to each concert and recognition in the
programs; Sponsors donate
$500 and receive four tickets; Benefactors donate
$1,000 and receive eight tickets.
I hope you
will join me at Music for Peace!
 Yours, Eva Moseley Music Committee chair | |
|
Join Massachusetts Peace Action - or renew your membership in advance for 2015! Dues are $40/year for an individual, $65 for a family, or $10 for student/unemployed/low income. Members vote for leadership and endorsements, receive newsletters and discounts on event admissions. Donate now and you will be a member in good standing through December 2015! Your financial support makes this work possible!  Massachusetts Peace Action, 11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 617-354-2169 • info@masspeaceaction.org • Follow us on Facebook or Twitter Click here to unsubscribe |
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Join Anti-Drone Actions starting with HONK! Parade Sunday!
Please come join the Eastern Massachusetts Anti-Drones Network in these
upcoming actions: We need marchers at HONK! this
Sunday and help distributing leaflets at our other events.
Sunday, October 12
HONK! Parade
11:00 am. Gather in Davis
Square, Somerville, at Herbert and Day Streets.
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm. Parade
marches from Davis Square to Harvard Square.
After Parade: Participants join Octoberfest in Harvard Square.
The Somerville-based HONK! Parade of Activist
Street Bands will take place on Sunday, October
12 at noon, and once again UJP's Eastern Massachusetts Anti-Drones
Network (EMAD) will march carrying signs and its eye-catching Drone replica. The
group's message is encapsulated in the banner it will carry: "No Killer Drones!
No Spy Drones!" The U.S. Government must stop surveilling its citizens and
killing people from other countries with drones.
The HONK! Parade is the culmination of the annual
weekend-long HONK! Festival. Dozens of bands, community, artist and
activist groups, including Veterans For Peace, will march from Davis Square down
Elm Street, Beech Street and Massachusetts Avenue to Harvard Square, where
they'll join forces with the Octoberfest celebration. Thousands of people view
the parade, and last year, EMAD's Drone replica and anti-drones
message were well-received. This year, EMAD's participation coincides with the
first Global Action Day Against the Use of Drones for Surveillance &
Killing, called by the KnowDrones.com network.
Please join us in the staging area at Herbert and Day Streets at 11:00 am and march with us.
Thursday, October 16
Leafleting outside Naomi Klein speaking event to promote her new climate change book, "This Changes Everything"
First Parish Church, Mass Ave and Church Street, Harvard Square
6:15 pm. Leafleting
7:00 pm. Naomi Klein
speaking
The Eastern Massachusetts Anti-Drones Network will leaflet the audience for
Naomi Klein's speaking event. We're supporting the call to boycott and divest
drone maker and war profiteer Honeywell, issued by the KnowDrones.com network.
We'll distribute a leaflet with information on the boycott and the web site badhoneywell.org. Note that
Naomi Klein's appearance is a Cambridge Forum event. If you want to attend the
event itself, you'll need to get free tickets in advance at cambridgeforum.org.
Wednesday, October 22
Emergency Forum: Medea Benjamin on Our New Wars in Syria and Iraq
Harvard University Science Center, room D
7:00 pm
Medea Benjamin will speak on the new U.S. wars in Syria and Iraq, how we
should respond to them and how to build on the convergence of climate, peace and
social justice groups that converged in New York City on September 21. Sponsored
by the Harvard Palestine Support Committee, UJP is an endorser of this event.
The Anti-Drones group will have its Honeywell leaflets available on an
information table. (Note that this event has moved from a previously announced
location.)
Saturday, November 15
Boycott and Divest Honeywell stand out
Arsenal Mall, Watertown
12:00 pm to 2:00 pm
 | ||
|
United for
Justice with Peace is a coalition of peace and justice organizations and
community peace groups in the Greater Boston region. The UJP Coalition, formed
after September 11th, seeks global peace through social and economic
justice.
|
|
 |
Fear and Fair cannot
coexist… Mass graves. Horribly disfigured corpses. Police complicity in the ultraviolence of all-powerful drug gangs. Since 2005, stories like these have played out across Mexico’s headlines day after day, month after month, year after year. But the details of last month’s mass killing and disappearance of student activists in the southern state of Guerrero stood out above the ever-growing body count in Mexico’s drug and corruption wars. [...]  Source: Time Magazine And so Mexico’s small farmers and farmworkers continue their long, unrequited wait for justice. No peace, no justice The Fair Food Program that is having such remarkable success today addressing and eliminating longstanding human rights abuses in Florida’s fields wouldn’t have stood a chance in rural Florida back in the heyday of the Klan, either... |
The Story of Sergio Mancilla Caro,
A Southern Internationalist Guerrilla Fighter
by Sergio Reyes (*)
This October 2014 a Spanish
language e-book entitled "La Historia de Sergio Mancilla Caro, Un Guerrillero
Internationalista Austral" (The Story of Sergio Mancilla Caro, A Southern
Internationalist Guerrilla Fighter) has begun international circulation. This
book reveals the transformation of a young man born where the land ends in the
South, Magallanes, Chile, to conclude his life in the mountains of El Salvador.
This paper has been a collective effort of his childhood friends, his family,
and especially his beloved companion in struggle and wife, in an effort to
rescue the details of his life, which over the lapse of more than 30 years
seemed lost.
This story, however, has revealed
to be not just a simple story. Combined here are Mancilla Caro's thoughts, his
political work, his solidarity activities, and the terrible repression that
pushed him to go into exile from Chile to Panama. Then, the stories reveal that
his own convictions led him to work in the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua,
and finally in the revolutionary guerrilla war in El Salvador.
Like all Chilean political
prisoners, Mancilla Caro was dragged from military barrack to military barrack
transformed into prison camps, including a concentration camp built exclusively
for this purpose, Dawson Island. From prisons in Punta Arenas he was moved to
the prisoners camp Tres Alamos in Santiago. From there he went into exile to
Panama in 1975. Once there, he actively participated in solidarity with the
revolutionary struggles that occurred at that time in Central America.
In 1979, Mancilla Caro,
decided to go to work in support of the Nicaraguan Revolution. This
revolutionary process was supported by many Chileans as Mancilla Caro. In
Nicaragua, a group of members of the Chilean MAPU (Garreton) Party prepared to
participate in the armed guerrilla struggle in El Salvador. Eight young men
belonging to the Chilean MAPU party traveled to fight alongside the People's
Liberation Front of El Salvador in July 1981. In October 1981, Mancilla Caro,
fell riddled with bullets from soldiers of the Salvadoran military. Of the eight
members of the international contingent of MAPU, six survived.
In Chile, including his
family, we had lost track of our friend Mancilla Caro, wondering what was of his
aspirations, his ideals, his political work and finally his sacrifice for the
cause he lived and died for. As it usually happen when information is not
available, we had replaced the life and death of this young man with a myth. To
the extent that the reader becomes witness to the stories told us by those who
where close to him, you will see that his history is far more important and
interesting than any myth.
The story of this young man
from Magallanes turned revolutionary guerrilla is a bigger story. In Magallanes
we perceived him wrongly as an outsider, when Magallanes was his cradle.
Obviously, we did not know much about his childhood. We knew little or nothing
about his family life. When he left Chile we didn't know that he found love in
exile and that he, his love and many others joined in the ensuing struggle for
social justice in Panama, Nicaragua and El Salvador. We didn't know that in El
Salvador he ceased to be Sergio simply to become Horacio, the guerrilla
fighter.
Sergio did not live to see
the final years of the infamous military dictatorship in his country to make way
for a capitalist "cautelada" (“controlled” - as political analysts politely call
it) democracy . He could not see either that some of his own leaders who praised
his revolutionary fighter sacrifice are now large capitalists within the system
that they inherited from the dictatorship. Neither he could see that in the same
country where his remains are still buried in the mountains, the second
guerrilla commander at the time of his death is now president of El
Salvador.
Capitalism has solidified in
Chile, and is working very well for the rich with the help of many of those who
survived the repression of the dictatorship. A former Chilean political prisoner
and exile is now president for the second time and yet is instrumental to
capitalism. Those among us who are still able to raise a critical voice about
these things, like yesterday, are a minority. I'm sure if he was alive, Sergio
would side with us with the same courage that characterized him.
Sergio Mancilla Caro will no
longer be missing among us. There will no longer be “presumed death” as his
official death certificate indicates. We found him in our collective memory and
we know when and where he died fighting. Now, after reading this book, we all
can learn details about his life and his death. Those of us who loved him as a
friend and comrade, can now continue to think of him as an "average man", as he
wanted us to remember him. And based on this history of this average man we
reaffirm that he was a good man, a good companion, a good revolutionary, a great
brave, a good man from Magallanes, a good Chilean, a good internationalist,
faithful to his ideals until death. Sergio Mancilla Caro, Presente! - Comrade
Horacio, Presente! One day, after many struggles like yours, I am convinced that
we shall overcome.
-------------------------
(*) Sergio Reyes, was a political
prisoner in Magallanes, Chile, from 1973 to 1976. He lived in forced exile in
the United States until 1989 when the ban on 6000 prisoners whose exile was
extended by a decree that prevented him from returning to the country
indefinitely was lifted. Reyes is the coordinator of this collective memory
project. He is also the digital book producer.
E-book
Specifications:
Title: La Historia de Sergio Mancilla Caro, un
Guerrillero Internacionalista Austral
ISBN-13: 9781483539515
Author: Compiled by Sergio
Reyes
Publication Date: October 1, 2014
The e-book can be
purchased directly at the publisher's the format for Nook, Kindle, or pdf.
It will soon be
available in Amazon, iBookstore, Kobo, Scribd, and other international
distributors.
Music for Peace: Beethoven Solo Piano Recital
Saturday, October 18, 2014, 7:30
pm
Harvard-Epworth Methodist Church • 1555 Massachusetts
Ave • near Harvard Law School • Cambridge
Kicking off the 2014-15 Music for
Peace concert series, pianist Victor Rosenbaum, in his
only Boston area solo recital this season, will present an All-Beethoven
Recital, including the "Pathétique" and "Waldstein" sonatas; the Sonata in
A-flat Major, Opus 26; and Six Bagatelles, Opus 126.
Benefits Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund;
part of the Music for Peace Series. Tickets $25 in advance for
Mass. Peace Action members, $35 for non-members, $10 for students, $35 at the
door. Series of 3 concerts: member $60, non-member $85, student $25.
Write check to "Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund" and mail to 11 Garden
Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 or purchase
online.
The audience is invited to join the musicians and
Peace Action members at a reception after the concert.
Victor Rosenbaum, pianist
|
"At a time
when the worst elements of humanity -- religious and territorial hostilities,
cruelty and barbarism -- seem to be in full display across the globe, it is
worth being reminded that humanity has a higher and more noble side. Music
celebrates that higher and more noble side and can elevate and inspire the human
spirit. The concerts in the Music for Peace series give us a
chance to commune with our higher aspirations and, at the same time, to support
efforts to build a more just and peaceful world. I hope you will join us for the
2014-15 season."
-- Victor Rosenbaum |
American pianist Victor Rosenbaum has
concertized widely as soloist and chamber music performer in the United States,
Europe, Asia, Israel, and Russia in such prestigious halls as Tully Hall in New
York and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has collaborated with such
artists as Leonard Rose, Paul Katz, Arnold Steinhardt, Robert Mann, Joseph
Silverstein, Malcolm Lowe, and the Brentano, Borromeo, and Cleveland String
Quartets. Festival appearances have included Tanglewood, the Rockport Chamber
Music Festival, Kfar Blum and Tel Hai (in Israel), Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall
(Blue Hill), Musicorda, Masters de Pontlevoy (France), the Heifetz Institute,
the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York, the International
Music Seminar in Vienna, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. Concert
appearances have brought him to Chicago, Minneapolis, Tokyo, Beijing, St.
Petersburg (Russia), Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, New York and Boston, among
others.
A student of Elizabeth Brock and Martin Marks in his
hometown of Indianapolis, Rosenbaum later studied with Rosina Lhevinne, at the
Aspen Festival, and with Leonard Shure, while earning degrees at Brandeis and
Princeton Universities. Rosenbaum serves on the faculty of the New England
Conservatory in Boston, where he formerly chaired the piano and chamber music
departments, and the Mannes College of Music in New York. He has been Visiting
Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music, a guest teacher at Juilliard,
and presents lectures, workshops, and master classes for teachers’ groups and
schools both in the U. S. and abroad, including London’s Royal Academy of Music,
Royal College of Music, and Guildhall School, the conservatories of St.
Petersburg and Moscow, Beijing Central Conservatory, the Toho School in Tokyo
and other institutions such as the Menuhin School, and the Jerusalem Music
Center. Rosenbaum was Director and President of the Longy School of Music from
1985-2001.
His highly praised recording of Schubert is
on Bridge Records and the release of the last three Beethoven sonatas on
the same label was named by American Record Guide critic Alan Becker as one of
the top ten classical recordings of 2005. Two discs on
the Fleur de Son label feature music of Schubert and Mozart.
Rosenbaum is Music Director of the Music for Peace
Concert Series.
| ||
|
United for
Justice with Peace is a coalition of peace and justice organizations and
community peace groups in the Greater Boston region. The UJP Coalition, formed
after September 11th, seeks global peace through social and economic
justice.
|
Understanding China & U.S.-Chinese Relations: A Key to World Politics
When: Tuesday, October 21, 2014, 7:00
pm
Where: Encuentro 5 • 9 Hamilton Place •
(1 block from Park St. Station, next to old Orpheum Theater) •
Boston
With Prof. Robert Ross and Duncan McFarland
"Competitive Interdependence” defines U.S.-Chinese relations. The Pentagon has identified China as is primary “near-peer” competitor in the 21st century, and even as the two powers share many interests (economic, climate, Islamist challenges and more,) the two nations are locked in an arms race, are engaged in competitive diplomacy, and are dealing to manage military tensions.
To learn more about the forces driving U.S. and Chinese policies and ways that we can build toward peaceful common security between these great powers, join us for a public forum with:
Robert Ross: Prrofessor of political science at Boston College associate of the Fairban Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University and one of the foremost American specialists on Chinese foreign and defense policy and U.S.-China Relations
Duncan McFarland: Member of the planning group of United for Justice with Peace (Boston). He first visited China in 1981 and has since been involved in China tours, journalism and discussion groups.
Initiated by AFSC, Co-sponsored by UJP and MAPA
For more information contact JGerson@afsc.org or
phone; 617-661-6130. "Competitive Interdependence” defines U.S.-Chinese relations. The Pentagon has identified China as is primary “near-peer” competitor in the 21st century, and even as the two powers share many interests (economic, climate, Islamist challenges and more,) the two nations are locked in an arms race, are engaged in competitive diplomacy, and are dealing to manage military tensions.
To learn more about the forces driving U.S. and Chinese policies and ways that we can build toward peaceful common security between these great powers, join us for a public forum with:
Robert Ross: Prrofessor of political science at Boston College associate of the Fairban Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University and one of the foremost American specialists on Chinese foreign and defense policy and U.S.-China Relations
Duncan McFarland: Member of the planning group of United for Justice with Peace (Boston). He first visited China in 1981 and has since been involved in China tours, journalism and discussion groups.
Initiated by AFSC, Co-sponsored by UJP and MAPA
| ||
|
United for
Justice with Peace is a coalition of peace and justice organizations and
community peace groups in the Greater Boston region. The UJP Coalition, formed
after September 11th, seeks global peace through social and economic
justice.
Help us continue to do this critical work! Make a donation to UJP
today.
| ||
| 617-383-4857 | www.justicewithpeace.org | |
Upcoming Events:
Understanding China & U.S.-Chinese Relations: A Key to World Politics
When: Tuesday, October 21, 2014, 7:00
pm
Where: Encuentro 5 • 9 Hamilton Place •
(1 block from Park St. Station, next to old Orpheum Theater) •
Boston
With Prof. Robert Ross and Duncan McFarland
"Competitive Interdependence” defines U.S.-Chinese relations. The Pentagon has identified China as is primary “near-peer” competitor in the 21st century, and even as the two powers share many interests (economic, climate, Islamist challenges and more,) the two nations are locked in an arms race, are engaged in competitive diplomacy, and are dealing to manage military tensions.
To learn more about the forces driving U.S. and Chinese policies and ways that we can build toward peaceful common security between these great powers, join us for a public forum with:
Robert Ross: Prrofessor of political science at Boston College associate of the Fairban Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University and one of the foremost American specialists on Chinese foreign and defense policy and U.S.-China Relations
Duncan McFarland: Member of the planning group of United for Justice with Peace (Boston). He first visited China in 1981 and has since been involved in China tours, journalism and discussion groups.
Initiated by AFSC, Co-sponsored by UJP and MAPA
For more information contact JGerson@afsc.org or
phone; 617-661-6130. "Competitive Interdependence” defines U.S.-Chinese relations. The Pentagon has identified China as is primary “near-peer” competitor in the 21st century, and even as the two powers share many interests (economic, climate, Islamist challenges and more,) the two nations are locked in an arms race, are engaged in competitive diplomacy, and are dealing to manage military tensions.
To learn more about the forces driving U.S. and Chinese policies and ways that we can build toward peaceful common security between these great powers, join us for a public forum with:
Robert Ross: Prrofessor of political science at Boston College associate of the Fairban Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University and one of the foremost American specialists on Chinese foreign and defense policy and U.S.-China Relations
Duncan McFarland: Member of the planning group of United for Justice with Peace (Boston). He first visited China in 1981 and has since been involved in China tours, journalism and discussion groups.
Initiated by AFSC, Co-sponsored by UJP and MAPA
| ||
United for
Justice with Peace is a coalition of peace and justice organizations and
community peace groups in the Greater Boston region. The UJP Coalition, formed
after September 11th, seeks global peace through social and economic
justice.
Help us continue to do this critical work! Make a donation to UJP
today.
| ||
| 617-383-4857 | www.justicewithpeace.org | |
Upcoming Events:
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Cocktails & Public Policy with BU Professor Andrew Bacevich - "Lessons from America’s War for the Greater Middle East”
Register Now!Andrew J. Bacevich is professor of history and international relations emeritus at Boston University. He received his Ph.D. in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University and before joining the faculty of Boston University, Bacevich taught at West Point and Johns Hopkins University.
A retired Colonel in the US Army and a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, Bacevich was a vocal critic of the war in Iraq calling such preventative wars "immoral, illicit and imprudent."
Bacevich is the author of several books including Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country (2013) and the best-selling Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War (2010). His previous books include The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (2008), The Long War: A New History of U.S. National Security Policy Since World War II (2007) (editor), The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War (2005) and American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of U. S. Diplomacy (2002).6 pm: Networking reception with hors d'oeuvres and cash bar
7 pm to 8 pm: Presentation by Andrew J. Bacevich$15 Admission in advance, and $20 at the door
Cocktails and Public Policy with Andrew J. Bacevich - Eventbee
Just
Before The Sea-Change- On The 50th Anniversary Of The Voting Rights Act- All
Honor To Those Who Took To The Buses "Heading South"-Take Two
The Freedom Riders, a group of civil
rights workers who valiantly tried, by example, to integrate interstate
transportation in the South were among the first groups I identified with as I
became aware of the civil rights struggle there. Actions by heroic riders and
sit-in participants and the deadly reaction provided the visual impetus to the
later Voting Rights Act which turns 50 this year. A lot of people then thought black
life was cheap. Unfortunately while there have been undeniable gains we are not so
far removed from those hatreds and those attitudes even today as the events in
Ferguson, Missouri, New York City, and other places painfully demonstrate,
North or South.
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman:
I was in high school, North Adamsville
High in Massachusetts, at the time of the freedom rides and was part of a
support group sponsored by the Americans For Democratic Action (ADA) whose political
“darling” was somebody like Hubert Humphrey, then a hard anti-Soviet Cold War
left-liberal organization but very pro-civil rights (in the South, the North
was a book sealed with seven seals as became apparent when the struggle headed
North and West) that was raising money in order to send more civil rights
workers "heading South." What we did was mainly have book sales, and
such as well as hustling money on campuses and at political events. That “heading
South” as the comments below graphically point out was heading toward the
danger not away from it. A known danger with beatings, shootings and dead all in
the mix so not to be taken lightly. This is a day, even 50 years later, to honor
those black liberation fighters, black and white.
********
The following comment, although we are
labelling it “anonymous” to honor the writer's personal preference is from a
person known to me, and in the old days quite well-known as a fellow North
Adamsville corner boy when we hung around Marlowe’s Bowling Lanes not far from
the high school, and talked politics, girls, and dreams as we whiled away those
moneyless nights. He is no longer political, or rather as I would put it, he is
no longer political on the right side of the angels since he made a big right
turn in the heat of the 1960s upheavals where he came down on the law and order
side. Moreover, as he cheerfully pointed out to me, he is an opponent of almost
everything “communistic” about this blog, and has a job, a national security-type
job now that has placed him on the other side of the barricades. Isn’t that enough
reason to seek anonymity? I am posting his comment for the sole purpose of
showing that even those, some of them anyway, on the other side of the class
line at one time showed "the better angels of their natures." And even
better stands by an old-time feeling despite whatever has turned in his life. So
read on
***********
Anonymous comment:
It’s funny how things work out. How
despite the turns in my life I found myself recently thinking about the old
time “freedom riders” who, black and white, from the South and North, tried to
integrate the local and interstate buses in 1961 down in the Deep South. And
some not so deep parts like North Carolina where our friend, our corner boy friend
Pete Markin wound up, I think, some
fifty years ago now, stuff that should have never been segregated in the first
place. Then, shortly thereafter I was “surfing” the Internet for material on
the subject to check my own remembrances and way down in the “match” list for
what I Googled was a blog entry, get this, entitled Out In The Be-Bop Be-Bop
1960s Night- The Heart Of Rock ‘n’ Rock: 1964-Just Before The Sea Change - With
The Rolling Stone’s In Mind. The site it came from was this site, American Left History (hell, really
communist history if you ask me but I will let that pass because I have other more
important things to mention here). And I was not totally surprised when I found
out that the article was by Frank Jackman and that Pete Markin is the administrator
of the site. So I made some comments, made myself known, asked to write something
about that time, that freedom rider time, and after some gaff Pete and Frank
agreed as long as Frank could do the introduction. No problem.
Now hold on before you start sending
for the padded wagon for me. Yes, the blog entry that came up was a review of
an “oldies but goodies” CD about some of the popular non-Beatles, non-Rolling
Stones songs that got us through that tough senior year in high school. This
site according to Pete deals with all aspects of that Left history they are
peddling, including culture and an important part of that Sixties culture was
rock and roll music in its various permutations. But it also contained a story
about the trials and tribulations of some kids in our old home town, North
Adamsville, a strictly white working-class suburb just outside of Boston,
trying to get swept up in one of the great social movements of their
generation, and mine. That, of course, in those pre-Vietnam War escalation
times was the black freedom struggle down South in this country. See, I knew
those kids, Edward Rowley, Judy Jackson, and Pete Markin, the kids featured in
the review. Christ, for a while in senior year I hung out with Edward and Peter.
Pete, “The Scribe,” to one and all in those days, christened so by head honcho
Frankie Riley, a mad man if I ever saw one who had us glued to that damn
bowling alley Frank mentioned on the assumption that we would find girls there.
We did but that has nothing to do with this story so I will let that pass as
well. So I know the stuff (the guff really) that those guys were going through
in trying to be “different.” I also know that Frankie Riley, and most of the
school (North Adamsville High School, if I forgot to mention it before) didn’t
like what they were doing one bit. Didn’t exactly call them “n----r lovers” but
close [dashes by Frank Jackman anonymous wrote it out fully]. Edward and Judy
were getting serious grief at home about it as well.
As for Edward's grief, I was at
Salducci’s Pizza Parlor sitting right alongside Peter Paul when Edward came
rushing in all fluttered, all red-faced too, and related the story of what had
just happened at his house that Frank already has written about in that CD
review I mentioned Googling a minute ago. Frank, Peter and I decided that we
would just repeat that story here to get you caught up in case you didn’t get a
chance to read it. If it sounds all too familiar under any circumstances from
back then, or now for that matter (except now it is us giving the guff,
right?), then that is just about right:
“Isn’t that hair of yours a little long
Mr. Edward Rowley, Junior,” clucked Mrs. Edward Rowley, Senior, “You had better
get it cut before your father gets back from his conference trip, if you know
what is good for you.” That mothers’-song was being endlessly repeated in North
Adamsville households (and not just North Adamsville household either) ever
since the British invasion brought longer hair (and a little less so, beards)
into style. Of course when one thinks of the British invasion in the year 1964
one had been thinking about the American Revolution or the War of 1812 but the
Beatles. And while their music has taken 1964 teen world by a storm, a welcome
storm after the long mainly musical counter-revolution since Elvis, Bo, Jerry
Lee and Chuck ruled the rock night, the 1964 parent world was getting up in
arms.”
“And not just about hair styles either.
But about trips to Harvard Square coffeehouses to hear, to hear if you can
believe this, folk music, mountain music, harp music or whatever performed by
long-haired (male or female), long-bearded (male), blue jean–wearing (both),
sandal-wearing (both), well, for lack of a better name “beatniks” (parents, as
usual, being well behind the curve on teen cultural movements). “Why can’t
Eddie (he hated that name by the way, preferred Edward) be like he was when he
listened to Bobby Vinton and his Mr. Lonely or that lovely-voiced Roy
Orbison and his It’s Over and other nice songs on the local teen radio
station, WMEX,” mused Mrs. Rowley to herself. “Now it’s the Beatles, the
Rolling Stones and a cranky-voiced guy named Bob Dylan that has his attention.
And that damn Judy Jackson with her short skirts and her, well her… "
“Since Mrs. Rowley, Alice to the
neighbors, was getting worked up it anyway we might as well continue with her
tirade, “What about all the talk about doing right by the down-trodden Negros
down in Alabama and Mississippi. And Eddie and that damn Peter Paul Markin, who
used to be so nice when they all hung around together at Salducci’s Pizza Parlor
and you at least knew they were no causing trouble, talking about organizing a
book drive to get books for the little Negro children down there. If Eddie’s
father ever heard that there would be hell to pay, hell to pay and, maybe, a
strap coming out of the closet big as Eddie is. Worst though, worse than
worrying about Negros down South is that treasonous talk about leaving this
country, leaving North Adamsville, defenseless against the Communists with his
talk of nuclear disarmament. Why couldn’t he have just left well enough alone
and stuck with his idea of forming a band that would play nice songs that make
kids feel good like Gale Garnet’s We’ll Sing In The Sunshine or that
pretty Negro girl Dionne Warwick and Her Walk On By instead of getting
everybody upset.”
That mother-madness, however, as we
shall see didn’t stop Edward Rowley, Junior once he got his Irish up but that
was what he was up against on a daily, maybe on some days, an hourly basis.
Judy’s story was more of the same-old, same-old but again we decided to let it
rest as it is like Edward’s story. Her story I got second-hand anyway one night
when Edward and I were sitting down at the seawall in front of old Adamsville
Beach trying to figure things out, not big things, just things. Here's what
happened:
“Young lady, that dress is too short
for you to wear in public, take it off, burn it for all I care, and put on
another one or you are not going out of this house,” barked Mrs. James Jackson,
echoing a sentiment that many worried North Adamsville mothers were feeling
(and not just North Adamsville mothers either) about their daughters dressing
too provocatively and practically telling the boys, well practically telling
them you know what as she suppressed the “s” word that was forming in her head.
And that Eddie (“Edward, Ma,” Judy keep repeating every time Mrs. Jackson,
Dorothy to the neighbors, said Eddie), and his new found friends like Peter
Paul Markin taking her to those strange coffeehouses instead of the high school
dances on Saturday night. And endless talk about the n-----s down South and
other trash talk. Commie trash about peace and getting rid of our nuclear
weapons. They should draft the whole bunch of them and put them over in front
of that Berlin Wall. Then they wouldn’t be so negative about America.”
So you see how hard Judy Jackson’s
break-out was when all was said and done.
As for the Scribe, Peter Paul Markin,
his people were torn a different way. They, on his mother’s side, were Catholic
Worker movement people so they knew the political score. But they also knew
Peter Paul could be god-awful righteous when he got his dander up. Who knows
what he would say down there, or where he might wind up for saying it to the
wrong person, meaning just about anybody not black. Yeah, I guess if I was his
parents I would have been worried too.
This is how it figured though for me if
you really want to know.
Old time North Adamsville was strictly
for white working- class people, and a few middle class types, period. No
blacks, no browns, no yellows, no reds (Indians, I mean Native Americans not
the damn commies), no nothing color except white, period. So nobody could
figure why three pretty smart kids, with plenty going for them, would risk
their necks “heading” South for some, well, let me put it the way it was really
said on the streets, some “n-----s.” [Dashes by Frank as above.] Now you get
it.
But see here is what you didn’t know,
what Edward, Judy and Peter didn’t know either. I wanted to go with them. I
never said much about it, one way or the other, but every day on the television
I saw what they, the cops and white vigilantes were doing to kids, black kids,
yeah, but still just kids who were trying to change a world that they had not
made, but sure in hell, unlike most of their parents, were not going to put up
with the old way. The “we did it this way for generations so we will continue
to do it for generations” routine. That is a big reason that I was rooting for
them (like as if I was at some football game that I was addicted to in those
days, cheering on the under-dog who eventually was ground under by the
over-dog).
Still I never went, and you know why.
Sure my mother threatened to throw me out of the house if I dared to cross the
Mason-Dixon Line. After all my father was a proud, if beaten, son of the South
who, no matter how humbled and humiliated he was by the Yankee ethos that
condemned him, always thought of himself as a good-ole Southern boy. And a man
who we (my brothers and sisters) could, in later years, never get to say
anything better than “nigra” when talking about black people. So there was
that. And then there was my ambivalence about whether a boy, me, who had never
been south of New York City, and that just barely, and whether I could navigate
the “different ways” down South, especially in regard to the idea that white
people actually liked/tolerated or were deep friends with black people and
wanted to do something about their condition.
Those are, maybe, good and just reasons
to take a dive but here is the real reason. I just did not want to get my young
butt “fried-Southern-style” by those nasty bastards down in places like
Philadelphia, Mississippi (although Philadelphia, Pa, was a tough spot as well,
as it turned out). We had all heard about the three civil rights workers who
were slain by persons unknown (officially) in the sweat-drenched Southern summer
night. We had heard further of beatings, jailings and other forms of
harassment. Yes, I was scared and I let my scared-ness get the better of me,
period. That’s why I say hats off to the “freedom riders” in that 1961 hard
night. Hats off, indeed.
As The 100th
Anniversary Of The First Year Of World War I (Remember The War To End All Wars)
Continues ... Some Remembrances-Poet’s Corner
ENGLAND TO FREE MENMen of my blood, you English men!
From misty hill and misty fen,
From cot, and town, and plough, and moor,
Come in--before I shut the door!
Into my courtyard paved with stones
That keep the names, that keep the bones,
Of none but English men who came
Free of their lives, to guard my fame.
I am your native land who bred
No driven heart, no driven head;
I fly a flag in every sea
Round the old Earth, of Liberty!
I am the Land that boasts a crown;
The sun comes up, the sun goes down--
And never men may say of me,
Mine is a breed that is not free.
I have a wreath! My forehead wears
A hundred leaves--a hundred years
I never knew the words: "You must!"
And shall my wreath return to dust?
Freemen! The door is yet ajar;
From northern star to southern star,
O ye who count and ye who delve,
Come in--before my clock strikes twelve!
_John Galsworthy_
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