Inside the Belly of the Beltway Beast

Contact: For Immediate Release Pete Perry, 202-704-3963 July 12, 2016 Democracy Spring Activists Conclude Their First Amendment Trial, Await Judgement Washington, DC -- Four activists who took part in Democracy Spring’s week of peaceful protests at the Capitol Building calling for corporate money to be removed from the American political process are waiting a decision in their trial before D.C. Magistrate Judge Diane Lepley. On Monday, the government prosecutor and the defendants concluded their closing arguments. Lepley scheduled the decision in the case for 9:00 a.m. Friday, July 15, in D.C. Superior Court, Room 116. Defendants Peter Perry of Philadelphia, Manijeh Saba of New Jersey, and Helen Schietinger of Washington, D.C. are defending themselves in court. Defendant Alexander Park of Virginia is being represented by Attorney Mark Goldstone. The four activists participated in Democracy Spring’s week-long protests on Capitol Hi...

Bruno and I are enjoying ourselves as we settle into our new home city. Future posts will cover my recent activism and my life-work at New Jerusalem Now. But this post will touch upon my great love of exploring new restaurants! OK, so I love walking the bustling streets of Chinatown Philly! What I have noticed is the boba (or bubble) tea phenomena has exploded in popularity. There must be about a dozen establishments here dedicating their focus to this. Also, where else can you find several Internet Cafes within a five block radius without jumping into a time machine and journeying back to the mid to late 1990s? A bit odd. But perhaps I will explore those two types of businesses in future posts. Now back to food. Honestly, I love Chinese food and would not have a problem eating it every day if given the chance! Pho 20 -- Located up on the northern end of Chinatown Philly is this family run establish with generous hours (unlike many places in the neighborhood, this one actually sta...

I know it has been a long time since I have written in this blog, I guess some might have written it off as long-dormant, and probably to be forgotten. 2016 will certainly bring changes into my life and more spiritual development. I look forward to the remaining 358 days. I joined a community house in Syracuse, and tried to make it a Catholic Worker house of hospitality. I faced a lot of disagreements, and the various ideas for a mission, from the individuals involved, were never on the same page. Then there was anger and a lot of frustration. Now there is a lot of uncomfortable silence. There were some personality clashes (I accept my role in that). I am not pointing any fingers. Maybe I was wrong to push my vision. The house here has been many things over its 40 years of existence. But it seems like its longest running mission was being a part of the Central American Sanctuary movement and offering hospitality to that affected community on a family scale for about 10 years (mid-80s...

On Tuesday, I returned from a 16-day journey to the Midwest to visit two Catholic Worker communities. The first was in Kansas City and the second one was in Davenport, IA, and I must say they are very different. I loved KC and I would probably want to live there if it was on the East Coast. They provide breakfast, showers, laundry services, and free second-hand clothes to homeless folks three times a week. In addition, they have a small urban farm, which includes more than two dozen egg-laying hens, honey bees, fruit trees, okra, bell pepper, and much more! I also think the four regular CW members: Jodi, Eric, Allison, and Lonnie are remarkable people. Davenport on the other hand is small, basically two houses of hospitality for long-term guests run by one amazing CW member, Michael. I will be upfront in saying that I developed quite a crush on Michael, but I think I am growing past that now. For a number of reasons, I don't think Davenport would be a great fit for me over the long...

I surprised myself to realize just how long it has been since I last wote a blog entry. A lot has changed in my life, but I think even greater change is just around the corner. As I type this long-awaited blog entry at a little after 2 a.m. on September 27, I realize my view of the world, and my life in  particular, continues to evolve. I hope my activism becomes much more proactive, rather than reactive. I also want to embrace my share of responsibility for creating more peace and justice in the world. I grow weary of attending protests and vigils where we seem to be just appealing to "the powers that be" rather than seizing the initiative ourselves. Furthermore, my spirituality which I often silenced or suppressed, has now truly begun to blossom. I now wish to grow and nourish my relationship with God. To me my activism was never separate from my spirituality. My belief in pursuing justice, doing good, and resisting violence in the world has always been very important to ...

2013 was not a great year, but there were a few exciting highlights, such as my great trip to Ecuador. As I expected, I loved this small South American republic. I stayed nearly the whole time in Cuenca (except for the first night in the capital city of Quito), which is rapidly becoming a major haven for ex-pats from the U.S. and Canada. It is a charming small city, about one-third the size of D.C. I can easily see myself retiring here in a city with several museums, where you can buy fresh produce from an amazing farmer's market, and have a three-course lunch for under $3. Where you can relax in a nice park next to a huge cathedral for hours and then wander the streets until you find a quaint cafe where you can have a cafe con tinto for $1.50. 2014 will be a better year. I am sure of it. After seven months of unemployment, next week I will begin a digital archives job in downtown D.C. I also plan to begin yoga regularly and continue to live frugally in order to save some mon...

"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." ~ Emma Goldman, anarchist leader and philosopher "It's time to bring the global pro-democracy movement into the belly of the beast." ~ Howie Hawkins, co-founder of the Green Party U.S. During the last three years, I have on occasion described myself politically as an anarchist. And now I have a confession to make. I am not a very good anarchist. I write this now, as I believe there is still some utility to voting within the current capitalist-imperialist structure of the U.S. government. I vote for Green Party candidates. I have thought for a while now about this internal conflict of mine. I do believe that most humans have come to a point in their evolution where they don't really need a large centralized government managing their social customs, enacting laws over their lives. We certainly can now handle direct democracy and find it far more preferable over the corrupt and quite literally bro...

OK, I desperately want to do some wildly creative things, as well as land a job that doesn't drive me insane, pays me a salary above the poverty line, and is at least someway related to an archives or a library's special collection. But more on the job hunt later. So with the long neglected creative side of my persona yearning to be unleashed, I decided I am going to write in this here blog a lot more frequently, and I am going to make a second attempt at working through my sci-fi, near-future dystopian novel. I might also try and get back into meditation and poetry. Meditation, I think I need to bring more peace and discipline into my life. And poetry just would help me express myself new ways, bringing me more joy; something I used to do more -- before I became obsessed with a quest to save the world, or at least the empire from itself. That struggle, I am convinced, slowly took over my life and enslaved me to my own hubris. So, let me state quite clearly here: I will becom...

Three and a half days ago Col. Denise Lind sentenced Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning to 35 years imprisonment for releasing information to the public, which exposed war crimes, massive wrongdoing and knowledge of deep-seated corruption of regimes our government long supported. There was of course the famous Apache Helicopter video from Baghdad, dubbed "Collateral Murder," but there was also State Department cables such as the one about the severely corrupt ruling family in Tunisia which helped spark the Arab Spring, as well as information on Guantanamo prisoners, most of whom are still being held in this gulag despite being cleared for release, and more accurate civilian casualty counts from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq than had ever previously been released. Much of this information was indeed embarrassing to the U.S. government, but no one was directly harmed by the releases, despite the prosecution's best efforts (even in closed door sessions from what Manning...

One week ago I was laid off from a job I did not enjoy. Yes, I loved the salary and was quite enthusiastic about landing this job nine and a half months ago. The pay was significantly greater than I had ever earned before. My friends and former co-workers seemed surprised when I started looking for a new job, and then my unmasked relief of actually being laid off and seizing the opportunity to collect unemployment. Yes, it was related to library science, but it was not in a library or an archives (my specialty). It was also boring, I did not like the unpredictability of contracts, and frankly didn't really care for some of the big name clients our firm had (and in fact a couple I worked on). I also felt a little out of place, and don't think I ever want to do private consultancy work again. Ever. Unless it's later in my career and I am providing some consulting work for an archives and historical collection. That's enough about me. I am job searching for something in ...

It has been far too long since last I wrote in my blog. I have been working very hard at a job for which I am now losing all enthusiasm. I also have little hope that living conditions will improve for most Americans within the existing paradigm, and that prospects appear dim for any sort of major shift away from the existing status quo. My friend Debbie and I will be scouting out our future home in Ecuador at the end of the summer. However, I find myself compelled to write finally. This past week, the Washington Peace Center celebrated its 50th anniversary. I am proud to have been associated with this great small progressive org. There were times when it appears this org would not make it to 50 years of life, but it did. And I would say a lot of the credit goes to the activists associated with it for so long, its generous donors, and its past and present board members. They have never given up hope that positive social change could occur through the vision and organizational leadersh...

Troubled white male guns down 20 schoolchildren is a headline that shouldn't happen. But it does. I am truly sickened and exhausted by what happened yesterday in Connecticut. I plan on retiring to Ecuador and the commonality of gun violence in America is just one reason. Our foreign policy (which is also terribly violent) is another reason. The natural beauty and lower cost of living in the Andes are two more reasons. There are some more reasons for my Ecuador plans, but I digress. I want to deeply discuss and try and make some sort of sense out of this mass shooting of innocents by -- the first three words I wrote. Troubled. White. Male. Adam Lanza a resident of Newtown, Connecticut, was quite young himself, 20, and lived with his mother who was a teacher. Not much else is known about him. What is known though from the reports coming out now was that he was severely socially awkward, avoided eye contact, had been on medication for some time; many neighbors said he was a ...

Good evening one and all... I am at home writing for my Traveller campaign, and getting a start on a novella. This story will be dear to my heart.It is a look at a future where we have lost basically all of our civil liberties, and corporations control our food, our media, our politicians. Doesn't sound far off from what we have now! But anyhow, I am re-committing myself to supporting local businesses. You will soon see more restaurant reviews/shout-outs here. Why am I excited about turning my back on some major corporations? Well, one is the recent expression of blatant and outrageous greediness of Papa John's owner and CEO. He refuses to raise the price of his pizza 11 to 14 cents in order to help cover his worker's health insurance. In fact, he is slashing all of their hours so there's no way they could qualify as full-time employees entitled to some important benefits in a civilized society that actually begins to care about its workers. This callous creature has ...

Winter seems to be rolling in about a month early here in DC, and yesterday was the election. One wing of the corporate party won more electoral college points than the other. More drone wars killing thousands of civilians, more off-shore drilling furthering our fossil fuel addiction, and more jobs will now be shipped overseas with the soon-to-be signed Trans-Pacific Free Trade Pact. Sadly, the American people and the future of our planet is not benefiting from the destructive and exploitive nature of our current political system. As Americans, we are also harshly divided over vague and outdated ideologies, which are little more than abstract and little understood titles we hang on one another -- chief among these are capitalism and socialism. Neither in any of their original purity exist in reality today. In better news, I have been enjoying some meals here in the Eastern Market neighborhood of DC. One of my favorite food haunts is Tortilla Cafe, 210 7th Street SE, Washington, DC....

Hello dear readers, I am sorry that I have written so little on this blog during 2012. No, I am not going to comment on the presidential race between the two wings of the corporate party. I will say that Presidential Green candidate Jill Stein will of course get my vote, and I am pleased that she will appear on more state ballots than any other Green presidential candidate before (I think the number is above 40 now). I landed a much better paying job, which I enjoy. I am continuing to game. I am the GM of a cool Traveller campaign, which will have its first full-length session later today. I guess you will now see more writings about role-playing games, movies, and restaurants here. But let me pull your attention toward the wonderful canoe trip I just came back from in Maine. I enjoyed canoeing down the Penobscot River with college buddy Matt, before enjoying two nights and three days on the Maine coast in and around Acadia National Park. If you have never been to Maine -- go! It...

Today was a very small protest at the Ecuadorian Embassy, as part of a campaign pleading with that country's president to grant asylum to WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange. Currently Assange is staying inside the London embassy waiting for a decision. Here is an email, I sent out earlier this evening to other activists: Hi all, Well, despite the low numbers I consider it a success! Within the first 10 minutes David, Steve and myself were invited into the embassy where we met with the Deputy Chief of the Mission Efrain Baus Palacios. He listened to what each of us had to say, and was very sympathetic. He said the embassy is receiving thousands of e-mails every single day supporting Assange, and urging Ecuador to grant him asylum. He said Pres. Correa is presently reviewing all legal issues connected to the case, and is not sure when a decision will be announced. He also said Assange has his own bathroom with a shower and a bed, but it is indeed just an offic...

Super diva Donna Summer, 63, passed this week. I should have known I was gay when I enjoyed dancing to her inspirational and soulful singing when I was 10 years-old. Beyond her glorious days of disco, Ms. Summer never quite made a successful comeback, nor was she ultimately successful in battling cancer. That's the beautiful and sad reality of many lives; great but often unfulfilled and over far too soon. On the activism front, I am still on my sabbatical, however, a few weeks ago a major highlight thus far this year for me was attending a pre-trial court hearing for Pvt. Bradley Manning , the greatest government whistle blower since Daniel Ellsberg. He is once again being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, although his own government is trying to put him away for life. I was overjoyed to see Bradley smiling in court and engaging in detailed conversations with his attorney. He seemed engaged and a bit hopeful during the proceedings. At one point, Bradley entered the court f...

I went to a rally for Trayvon Martin, a Florida teen who was murdered in late February by a violent racist for being himself, yesterday in front of DC City Hall. At the time, Martin was wearing a hoodie and carrying a bag of skittles.  Under the insanely fascist "Castle Law" in that state (and I believe a dozen others), his murderer, George Zimmerman, remains free. Carrying a gun, Zimmerman uttered a racial slur ("f#@king coons") and said "these assholes always get away" into his cell phone during his 911 call. You can listen to the recording .  A 17 year-old walking home and chatting with his girlfriend on his cell phone should never be murdered. And yet it happens. What is so horribly wrong here is George Zimmerman has not been prosecuted. Shame on Florida. And shame on us if we let this stand. My hope is that people will really be motivated to act. At the rally yesterday there was a lot of urging people to vote. That is not what we need. We need p...

At the beginning of October, I met a couple of the folks who were in their first week of occupying McPherson Square, located along the corporate lobbying corridor of K Street in my hometown of DC. They were determined to stay and spread a message about income inequality, crony capitalism, and the wrong direction our government was headed. They stayed and they multiplied. At the time I was attending The Stop Machine multi-day rally at Freedom Plaza. I had earlier been associated with helping to organize this older, more strictly anti-war mobilization, but I had withdrawn from the steering committee both because of constraints on my time (busy work days and moving to a new apartment with my dog) and disagreements with the organizing style of others involved. I fell in love with Occupy DC at McPherson Square and even as I attended Stop the Machine at Freedom Plaza, I became even more disenchanted with them. This is my story about the two occupations in DC, and how one has always bee...

Last week and this week has been the pre-trial Article 32 hearing for the brave whistleblower Pfc. Bradley Manning. I am proud that OccupyDC joined the rally last Saturday demanding Bradley's freedom. The military wants to put this great gay American behind bars for life. His crime? Reporting war crimes and widespread government corruption, which helped light the fire of the Arab Spring. That in turn inspired Occupy here in the states. This is a good review of Bradley's case at this point: Punishing the whistleblower? - Inside Story Americas - Al Jazeera English