WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives
Audio archives of spoken word broadcasts from Community Radio WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill (weru.org)
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Contributor: Lawrence Reichard
Lawrence Reichard reports from Honduras, one year after the coup that overthrew the democratically elected President. What are the living conditions? What is the state of the people’s movement? What was (and is) the role of the U.S.?
FMI: www.soaw.org , www.telesurtv.net
Producers/Hosts: Amy Browne & Meredith DeFrancesco
Contributor: Eric T. Olson
Topics: An interview with Father Joe Mulligan of SOA Watch regarding the situation in Honduras. FMI: www.soaw.org, and audio from the recent rally for Healthcare Reform in Bangor.
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio contributed by: Meredith DeFrancesco, Eric Olson, Jim Harney
Music from School of the Americas Annual Protest at Ft. Benning, GA
Today we pay tribute to Bangor resident—and world citizen—Jim Harney, who died on December 26th at age 68.
Harney was former Catholic priest, and one of the Milwaukee 14, a group of priests and faith-based peace activists who broke into draft boards and burned about 10,000 Selective Service records with homemade napalm in a protest against the Vietnam War in 1968. They read from the gospel while the records burned. He spent more than a year in jail for his part in that protest.
In recent years many of us knew Jim Harney through the faces and voices of others that he shared through his photographs and stories. The photographs of people he met in Iraq have adorned pins and posters, putting a real face on war. Jim traveled extensively in Latin America, interviewing and photographing people whose stories might not otherwise be told— the poor, survivors of systemic economic violence, those struggling for change. He accompanied them on their journeys– running with his friends in El Salvador as US bombs rained down on them, sleeping in the mud in the corn fields, crossing the desert with the undocumented.
After learning he had terminal cancer, Harney planned a walk from Boston to Washington DC last summer, to call attention to the plight of the undocumented. He was able to make it as far as Rhode Island.
In December 2008, Jim Harney was given the Sacco & Vanzetti Social Justice Award from Community Church of Boston— an award that over it’s more than 30 year history has also been presented to Howard Zinn, Scott and Helen Nearing, Cesar Chavez and Rachel Corie.
FMI: www.posibilidad.org, http://celebratingjim.net/, www.soaw.org
Executive Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Contributing Producer: Carolyn Coe
Thousands of protesters converged at Fort Benning, Georgia last month to demand the closure of a US Military run school that is notorious for the atrocities committed by many of it’s graduates– particularly in Latin America. The school has long been known as SOA. That used to stand for “School of the Americas”, but critics call it the “School of the Assassins” The official name has recently been changed to “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation”, but the mission of the school remains and calls for it to be closed are louder than ever.
For 18 years an ever-growing number of people have attended an annual vigil held at the gates of Ft. Benning. Led by Father Roy Bourgeois, the vigil is part funeral procession and part civil disobedience. Thousands of people march with small wooden crosses bearing the names and photographs of the dead and disappeared. As they march, the list of names is read and “Presente” sung in honor and remembrance— a list so long it takes several hours to complete. Each year several people also engage in acts of civil disobedience, by crossing the line onto Ft. Benning property in protest.
WERU volunteer Carolyn Coe attended this November’s vigil in Fort Benning, and brings us this report. FMI: www.soaw.org
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Contributing Producer: Carolyn Coe
Topic: Sounds from the 18th annual rally to close “School of the Americas” (now known as “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation”, long known to opponents as “School of the Assassins”), held at Ft. Benning, GA. Graduates of the school have gone on to commit acts of terrorism, particularly in Latin America. FMI: www.soaw.org
Part 1 (Part 2 will air next week on Voices)
Producers/Hosts: Amy Browne and Meredith DeFrancesco
Segment 1:We talk with Jim Harney, a well-known photojournalist and international social justice activist. Jim is terminally ill, but continues to use his time and energy to speak out about important issues–today he reflects on the “School of the Americas” aka “The School of the Assassins” at Ft. Benning, GA. FMI: www.soaw.org; www.posibilidad.org, www.pica.ws
Segment2: The Army Corps of Engineers will hold a public meeting in Searsport on December 1st (at 3p.m. at the Union Hall) to address the Maine Department of Transportation’s proposal for a wetland mitigation bank —- a proposal that has serious potential ramifications for Sears Island. Jody Spear has been working on the issue and will join us later in the program to tell us more. FMI: www.nae.usace.army.mil and select “Regulatory/Permitting”, then “Weekly Public Notices”, also www.peer.org, http://maine.sierraclub.org/