2018 Berrigan House Beg …

 

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2017 Berrigan House Report & 2018 Beg ...

PS: INTENT OF THIS LETTER IS TO RAISE MONEY FOR BERRIGAN HOUSE.

We are doing this the old fashion way:

Make checks out to: Phil Berrigan Catholic Worker or Frank Cordaro
Mail to: 713 Indiana Ave., Des Moines, IA 50314
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What follows is the text of the Berrigan House 2017 yearly report & beg

Dear friends and supporters

The Berrigan House bank account is running low, just in time for our annual Berrigan House beg letter. I have been writing this yearly begs since 2003. (We skipped 2016 thanks to my Aunt Mary’s estate gift.)

We will need around $12,000 to keep this house afloat in 2018, and by my reckoning, it’s the “Best Bang for your Peace & Justice Bucks!”

Our works at Berrigan House includes the following:

Berrigan House maintains a library of peace and justice books and periodicals, spanning a 45-year collection effort. It specializes in faith-based peace and justice work and history, with an emphasis on the US Catholic left & Catholic Worker movements. Eddie Bloomer maintains our periodicals, of which we have over 35 Catholic Worker community Berrigan House continues to maintain “A National Catholic Worker List” Google Groups news service. This year’s discussions on CWers and property destruction, Plowshares and Racism were particularly significant. If you would like to be on this list serve just let me know.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/national-cw-e-mail-list

Berrigan House also hosts a weekly AA meeting on Fridays at 4 p.m. This is one of the best things happening at Berrigan House. It’s a thriving meeting, often filling the larger meeting space on the 1st floor, primarily with guys from Bethel Mission. I would like to say a huge thank you to Eric Hedberg, who has been hosting these meetings for ten years.

We also host a weekly liturgy on Wednesdays at 3 p.m. All are welcome, though few attend. This is as humble and “low church” a liturgical effort as I have ever been privileged to be part of. It’s been a two-year, on-and-off effort, rarely having more than five people on any given Wednesday. Ed Bloomer, Gil Landolt, and myself are the most consistent attendees. Bread, wine, the scriptures, three old guys, and heartfelt prayers … it is enough, and it means wonders to us, but more people are always welcome. Check us out!

Another very important service that presides in Berrigan House is the monthly meeting of the Des Moines Veterans for Peace Bill Basinger Chapter. We meet the first Monday of each month. Half the chapter are DMCW members. DMCW Gil Landolt is our Chapter Commandant. We want to welcome others. US vets make the best peacemakers, and having a VFP chapter acting out in our community is one of the DMCW’s unique witnesses. Catholic Workers and the VFP are a super natural fit, nonviolent peace makers in the most violent country in the world.

We are also conducting two resistance campaigns from Berrigan House:

The first campaign emerges in response to the fact that we are killing people in the Middle East from Des Moines by computer 24/7, and no one wants to talk about it!

     This past year the IA National Guard Drone Command Center on the south side of Des Moines has become our local/national flash point for anti-war work. A year ago this May the DMCWers 1st direct action and arrest was on May 11, Arms Forces Day. 
https://frankcordaro.wordpress.com/2017/07/22/previous-dm-drone-campaign-postings-starting-may-11-to-july-22-2017/

      We ended our first year drone campaign on April 17, 2018 in court with a mistrial for trespass in Polk County for three Catholic Workers: Ed Bloomer, Des Moines, Greg Boertje-Obed, Duluth, and Brian Hynes, Bronx NY! It was a fun two-day trial with a victory! – a hung jury! 
https://frankcordaro.wordpress.com/2018/03/30/2018-dm-drone-campaign-postings/

God bless the lone juror who held out, refusing to convict! A rare event by any measure! Kudos to our local movement attorney Glen Downey, who saw it coming and guided the defense superbly. The judge allowed the defendants to speak to the jury on why they trespassed last December 2h, giving us a chance to discuss the grave harm caused by US drone warfare and the moral urgency of stopping it. When Ed, Greg and Brian took the witness stand, Glen asked the questions that painted them in the best light, especially when all three talked about the Catholic Worker movement and the people they serve in their communities! All were moved! When given a chance, powerful witness can be heard, one juror at a time.

The official 2017 tally of Drone Command Center protest was 42, with 7 of them ending with arrests. These figures were given on the witness stand by the IA National Guard officer during the mistrial. Amazing, given all that we went through last year.

     Right now, we are organizing for our second annual May 19 Armed Forces Day Drone Command Center Rally and Direct Action at 4 p.m. Elliott Adams, a former VFP National President will be our main speaker. I am planning on risking arrest and following the Dorothy Day risk arrest, go to jail, plead guilty, do the time campaign she and the NYC CW did to stop the annual nuclear air raid shelter drills in NYC in the 1950s. 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/national-cw-e-mail-list/aRYWS-NZNu8/5x_r80R5CAAJ;context-place=forum/national-cw-e-mail-list

     We are also going to repeat our Aug. 6-9 vigil at St. Ambrose Cathedral, begging the Bishop to join our efforts to shut down the DM Drone Command Center based on the US Bishops’ January 2014 Armed Drone Statement. 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/national-cw-e-mail-list/G-j0qtc9gug

In between Armed Forces Day and our August vigil, we hope to sustain a continued presence at the drone site, depending on our numbers and energies. We will also be repeating our December 28 Feast of the Holy Innocents Retreat and Action at the end of this year.

Our second resistance project is the seventh year of our Oct 18, 2018 Occupy the World Food Prize (OWFP) campaign!

In Iowa, our peace work doesn’t end with war makers. Turns out, our global food system is at war with the planet.
http://occupytheworldfoodprize.org/

Iowa, its governments, its press, its banks, its schools and its churches are owned, bought, and scripted by a pro-corporate industrial agriculture agenda, no matter our political or denominational differences.

Iowa’s pre-WWII agricultural family farm roots and the hundreds of small thriving communities the state held with pride have largely disappeared. They have morphed into industrial agriculture’s global platform, specializing in beef and pork, growing corn and soybeans for animal feed. Meanwhile, most all the people reside in cities, with a few outline struggling towns, as the business of growing food is laying waste to Iowa’s soil, water, and air.

Every October, the State of Iowa’s government and corporate agriculture’s deep pockets host the “World Food Prize” at the State Capitol. Each year, the state of Iowa and our corporate elites officially showcase Global Industrial Agriculture as humanity’s last best chance for feeding our hungry world.

This October will be our OWFP campaign‘s seventh year. As always, there are lots of exciting things going on in this campaign. Last year we won a $50,000 free speech lawsuit against the state of Iowa regarding our yearly rallies and direct actions at the Capitol. This year, Reverend Billy is returning to Iowa to join us! Stay tuned, and those who can, plan on being with us at the State Capitol October 18 for our OWFP Rally and Direct Action.

$50,000! A lot of money divided a lot of ways. It was a class action suit with over 36 people and two attorneys to divide the money. The biggest cut goes to our two attorneys, who did all the work. My share, which I asked to be given to Berrigan House, is $5,000. Half will be used for needed basement foundation work. The other half will be used for this year’s 2018 OWFP effort.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/national-cw-e-mail-list/50$2C000%7Csort:date/national-cw-e-mail-list/x30uuU-mF74/LXtvRqRSAwAJ

IN HOUSE NEWS:
Right now, I am the only one living at Berrigan House. Rev. Bob Cook has officially moved to Vale, IA, where he is serving two small Presbyterian congregations. He often returns to Des Moines, and we will have a bed for him whenever need be.

Jess and Ruby remain in their “underground” status. Not much more to report beyond what I wrote in the March 2018 Via Pacis. Personally, my heart is broken, and I am sad.

Spring has been long delayed. Yet with it, new life springs from its warm sun, wet rains, and life-filled soil. The DMCW and our work here at Berrigan House is my soul’s spring, and I count it all as a gift.

Plus a big “Shout Out ” & “Thank you Jesus!” for the April 4th “Kings Bay Plowshares” act of disarmament and to the 7 Catholic Peace Activists arrested at Kings Bay Naval Base Georgia that day… all dear friends & CWers; including former DMCW Carmen Trotta, now at the NYC CW! Wonders never cease, even in these dark times for those with eyes to see.
https://www.kingsbayplowshares7.org/

 

In light of all of these projects and updates, your donations will pay for the following:

Utilities, gas and electric, bug service, internet, phone, property taxes, and upkeep for the physical space of 713 Indiana Ave., where all of these great projects and ideas emerge. Plus, donations will go towards upkeep of an old van, gas, and car insurance. Printer and printing cost. Any leftover funds will go towards the Berrigan programs, projects, and campaigns. Please be generous … though anything is appreciated! Please write a check…

Make checks out to: Phil Berrigan Catholic Worker or Frank Cordaro
Mail to: 713 Indiana Ave., Des Moines, IA 50314