NEWS FROM THE TRENCHES

NEWS FROM THE TRENCHES

PAT BIRNIE

  A great activist, Pat Birnie died on April 16 peacefully at Sandy Springs, Maryland senior center at age .90.    Pat is definitely resting in peace, as she was a force here and in Arizona.  I first met her when we were taking on JHU?s APL.   Her home in Howard County was always available as a site to plan actions.  Her partner Betty Schroder climbed up on the roof of an APL building  and was arrested on MLK Day. It was a frigid day but not cold enough to stop that protest. Another issue which Pat took on was General Electric and its weapons contracts. She owned stock in GE and would attend shareholder meetings to rail against the weapons contracts.

  Because of Betty?s health, they moved to Tucson, Arizona, and I believe that  is where Betty died.  They made friends out there with Jack and Felice Cohen-Joppa, publishers of the Nuclear Resister.  After Betty?s death, Pat moved back to Maryland.

  She has been on my Elist forever.  The last time I saw her was in D.C. at a July 2013 climate rally in D.C.  Tim DeChristopher, who bid on land in Utah to prevent Big Oil from getting access to this federal property, spoke at the rally,  He had received a two-year prison sentence in 2011.

  I have many fond memories of Pat and Betty, a duo who refuse to acquiesce to injustice.  Pat, I am going to miss you, just as much as I am missing Betty. Max

LIN ROMANO

We also lost another wonderful activist and Plowshares disarmament expert, Lin Romano, who died on February 7.  Her memorial service is indefinitely postponed.  Her husband, David Hoovler, sent me links to a series of songs which remind him of Lin. Enjoy the music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DCzqHV-Xns&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR1Inrc8E1oF_CokqQs3n2_ALp62dbO3EUTcqz7VJ6B308l1NJLO-eR_w4o
We are called

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2svZhZT6Pro&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR3K9YCBPRTIyUassf4RgMQFDg8oi4mVvpCm9g2jf42qbW9FlL4C_JW9qmY
Make me a channel of your peace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXDW-J3U2g4&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR29gLQjQV3DbHSOkvRi3px6y-9Rtxy7WkvLsizAbRXrXtg6xN1joM6thvo
Simple gifts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UkTlj2uPl4&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR2XkR56Tr3JnbVqGr-_hDzu4u-Ax7F38Gy2JRZNFu7XmIBEAvBQK07xYeU
Here I am lord?or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GINNh15cT08&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR1Y_c9uiZE3mh1NbK6IvWtHdYaJoOrV-Esgka2m84Mcq6yEYzdNOzvOiGE
Here I am lord

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-QnTxcqxv4&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR0c-DTznQEcl_P5czuDTL_8qNyxjwERtSTyaqotC6nG5CMlYRBydbggS34
Help and serve the needy and poor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKJA71sJUKM&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR3yhE2suEXzCoB4SXFRAcZ57i9k5Cd9yAHUO1FPsI8bJtFlGV-5OqHeg_A
How can  I keep from singing

Poetry Contest

Congratulations to David Eberhardt!
Dave Eberhardt's poem "After ?Blade Runner 2049? and Anton Webern ?Piano Variations?- Op 27 / Ruhig, fliessend" has won the 2020 Enoch Pratt Free Library /  Little Patuxent Review Poetry Contest.

?Up a Creek" by  Shane Moritz and ?2019 Unrest" by  Kelechi Nwankwoala were finalists.

The poems were judged anonymously by a panel of  Little Patuxent Review judges.

There were 235 poems submitted to the 2020 Poetry Contest, representing at least 73 cities and towns and at least 15 counties in Maryland plus Baltimore City.

Dave Eberhardt was born March 26, 1941. He retired in 2010 from 33 years of work in the criminal INjustice system. As a peace protester, he was incarcerated at Lewisburg Federal Prison for pouring blood on draft files. His action took place in 1967 with Father Phil Berrigan and two others to protest the Vietnam war. He has published three books of poetry:  The Tree Calendar,  Blue Running Lights, and  Poems from the Website, Poetry in Baltimore. He has completed a peace movement memoir,  For All the Saints: A Protest Primer.

Read the winning poem, and winners in previous years: file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/Poetry%20Contest%20Winners%20Revised.docx.pdf

2020 Winner, Chosen by Little Patuxent Review After ?Blade Runner 2049? and Anton Webern ?Piano Variations?- Op 27 Ruhig, fliessend

by David Eberhardt

Your code is to sing the following tone row:

Pale grave stones the color of Indian Pipe?
?Soundless as dots on a disc of snow?

The difference, replicants, rogue replicants?
Dial me a veritable woman, a vertebrate woman?
Take me to Iceland, to the volcanic fissures
A pale blue luminous landscape.
Scan The whole field. Type in ?Emily Dickinson? enlarge?
Access to my memories permitted, unscramble
The plumbago and pale blues I have knitted.
Dead space between stars, a desiccant,
But I want the real rain that is treasured
Not some hologram rain, interstitial,
To see the world I had to imagine it.

?You are granted

5 minutes with Ms Dickinson and off world papers;
But when you return you?ll be scanned.
Returning from Reykjavik, its hot spring baths,
Report to your memory designer, room 27?.

The winning poem and runners-up will be published in the Summer 2020 issue of  Little Patuxent Review and celebrated in a special Pratt Library event to be announced soon.

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs