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. 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. (You can join Mass. Peace Action now!) "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.  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

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

 

The Eastern Massachusetts Anti-Drones Network will bring its Boycott Honeywell leaflets and signs to a stand out at Arsenal Mall to educate shoppers about the role Honeywell plays in drone warfare and surveillance, as well as fracking, nuclear weapons and environmental contamination. 

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.

15 Now Auction: Tom Morello and Chris Cornell Signed Guitars!* More limited edition items to bid on:   Tom Morello signed concert poster!   Concert t-shirt!    *The guitars for auction are not ones used by Tom Morello and Chris Cornell during the 15 Now benefit concert, as pictured in the on-stage photo above. Proceeds from this auction will benefit the grassroots group 15 Now - the organization that won an historic $15 per hour minimum wage this year in Seattle.  Help take the fight for $15 forward and support ongoing 15 Now campaigns in New York, Minneapolis, Philidelphia, Portland and dozens of cities across the country. More pictures of guitars and other limited edition concert items.

Fear and Fair cannot coexist… Last month’s horrific massacre of student human rights activists in Guerrero serves as an awful reminder of why there will be no “Fair Food Program” in the foreseeable future of Mexico’s tomato industry… 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 [...] The victims of last month’s massacre were young human rights activists, their particular focus the rights of small farmers and farmworkers.  They dared to question the powers that control the area’s agricultural economy and for their efforts they were kidnapped and killed.  They were good, young people committed to justice — like the Freedom Riders of the Civil Rights movement — who were willing to take on grave risks to demand fair treatment for the poor agricultural workers of Guerrero.  They stood no chance, however, against the police/narco anarchy of that embattled state.  Like James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner — the three young men who dared to take on the entrenched powers of rural Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964 — their quest ended in a shallow grave. 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... Please take a few moments today to read the full reflection on Mexico's present, Florida's past, and the Fair Food Program.

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.

http://my.bookbaby.com/book/sergio-mancilla-caro

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. 

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.
info@justicewithpeace.org	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. 

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.
info@justicewithpeace.org	617-383-4857	www.justicewithpeace.org

Upcoming Events: 

American

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               Cocktails and Public Policy with Andrew J. Bacevich - Ev... The Harvard Kennedy School New England Alumni Association and Harvard Club of Boston cordially invite you to Cocktails and Public Policy with Andrew J. Bacevich View on hksne.us9.list-manage... Preview by Yahoo

Stop The Wars -Stop The Desecration Of Mother Earth 

 

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.