Historian Taylor Branch Will Speak at the 22Nd Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration
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A MODESTO PEACE/LIFE CENTER PUBLICATION JANUARY, 2016 VOLUME XXIV, NO. 5 Modesto Peace/Life Center presents Historian Taylor Branch will speak a John McCutcheon Benefit Concert at the 22nd Annual Martin Luther By JOSEPH HOMER Advance tickets are $20, door tickets Dear Engaged community member! $23, and youth tickets $7. We accept check King, Jr. Commemoration When was the last time you went to a folk or cash at the Church of the Brethren (2301 By JAMES COSTELLO concert? Saw your friends at the Center? Took Woodland, Modesto; 523-1438) or downtown Taylor Branch will to speak at the a night off for a good cause? at Beads of Contentment (1028 J, Modesto; free 22nd Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. The Modesto Peace/Life Center cor- 523-6335). Tickets are also available Commemoration on Saturday, January 23 dially invites you to our upcoming John online at http://mccutcheonmodesto2016. at 7:00 p.m. at Modesto Junior College’s McCutcheon Benefit Concert for the Peace/ eventbrite.com Performance and Media Center on East Life Center. Please consider becoming a sponsor of John plays several instruments (from the Campus. Mr. Branch will speak on “Freedom the concert. You will receive tickets to the guitar to the hammer dulcimer), earned six and Gridlock: Lessons From Martin Luther concert, your name in the program, and Grammy nominations (made 30 albums), and King.” reserved seating. Five levels of sponsorship never misses a chance to visit Modesto! So There will be a public reception for Mr. are available: this is the event for you. Branch at the West Modesto King-Kennedy Not to mention, you’ll be supporting all of Autoharp — $40 One ticket Center, 601 S. Martin Luther King, Jr. at 5:00 the great projects the Center is working on! Guitar — $75 Two tickets p.m. Students will meet with him there at 4:00 Banjo — $150 Four tickets p.m. [All students are welcome!]. Piano — $300 Eight tickets Taylor Branch is best known for his land- Hammer Dulcimer — $500 mark history of the civil rights era, America Sixteen tickets. in the King Years. The trilogy’s first book, Sponsorship checks Parting the Waters: America in the King should be mailed by January Years, 1954-63, won the Pulitzer Prize in 5th to Michael Jurković, 1989. Two successive volumes also gained [October 2011 The Atlantic.] which “may 2309 Vicki Dr., Modesto CA critical and popular success: Pillar of Fire: well be the most important article ever written 95350-3450. For informa- America in the King Years, 1963-65, and about college sports.” [Sports commentator Frank DeFord.] tion on sponsorships, contact At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Mr. Branch has discussed doctrines of non- Michael at 209-614-1573, Years, 1965-1968. All three books remain in demand. violence with San Quentin prisoners, and with [email protected] Branch’s latest book, The King Years: officers at the National War College. He has For updates, follow us Historic Moments in the Civil Rights presented seminars on civil rights at Oxford on Facebook at “Modesto Movement (2013) presents eighteen key epi- University and in sixth-grade classrooms. Peace/Life Center,” where sodes across the full span of the era, knitted His 2008 address at the National Cathedral you can RSVP for the event! together from the trilogy, each chapter with marked the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s last Other questions? Call Ken new introductions. The result is a compact, Sunday sermon from that pulpit. In 2009, he Schroeder, 209-480-4576 190-page immersion for readers in this trans- gave the Theodore H. White Lecture on the or email Joseph Homer at formative period of American history. This Press and Politics at Harvard. [email protected] book will on sale at the event. Branch began his career in 1970 as a jour- Don’t wait too long to buy Branch’s other works include The Clinton nalist for The Washington Monthly, Harper’s either. Tickets go quickly, and Tapes: Wrestling History with the President we want to see you there! and the “The Shame of College Sports” continued page 2 INSIDE CONNECTIONS DISTINGUISHED PEACE LEADER 6-7 READERS! Sign-up for our e-edition! LOCAL . 2 READ HIS STORY! . 8 Get the latest e-edition of Stanislaus Connections delivered right into your email box! VIOLENCE PREVENTION . 3 A GATHERING OF VOICES . 9 Can enlarge text to read more easily! Print out if desired! LIVING LIGHTLY . 4 GREEN TIPS . 10 To sign-up, send your email address to Jim Costello, [email protected] FACING TRUTH . 5 BRIDGE-BUILDERS . 11 If you do not have Adobe Reader, download it free from http://www.adobe.com/downloads/ 2 LOCAL JANUARY, 2016 Hightower to be keynote speaker at Delegation to Nicaragua: Food Sovereignty & Motherlode MLK Celebration Agroecology June 20 - By PAT CERVELLI and thinking at the same time.” Music and mind tickling com- Hightower talks about democracy as July 1, 2016 mentary will be featured at this year’s something that happens not just at elec- Submitted by SHELLY SCRIBNER annual Motherlode Martin Luther tion time, and not just with one event. The Alliance for Global Justice is a co-sponsor of this King, Jr. event on Sunday, January He stresses that it’s an ongoing building important delegation. 24, 2:30 pm at the Sonora High process. “What created democracy was While mainstream US media tends to focus on the pov- School Auditorium. The free event Thomas Paine and Shays’ Rebellion, erty in Nicaragua, social movements and local community will host nationally known columnist, the suffragists and the abolitionists and organizing in this Central American nation are alive and radio commentator, journalist, public on down through Martin Luther King, well. Nicaragua is the regional gathering place for La Via speaker and author Jim Hightower, Jr., and César Chávez. And now it’s Campesina, a global movement made up of rural peoples, and the musical talents of the Gwen Amey Gospel Choir, down to us,” Hightower says. He speaks about dialogue and small farmers, and indigenous communities. This movement Michelle Allison and Dennis Brown. grassroots partnerships to advance democratic values. It is coined the term “food sovereignty” in resistance to the cor- Twice elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Hightower these “partnerships” that lie underneath much of America’s poratization and industrialization of the food system. La Via believes that “the true political spectrum is not right to left but can-do and know-how society. Campesina sees agroecology, a form of low-input sustainable top to bottom.” He is a leading voice for those he designates Jim Hightower, “America’s most popular populist,” agriculture, as a pillar of building food sovereignty. “the 80 percent of the public who no longer find themselves reinforces President Abraham Lincoln’s statement in the Our delegation includes visits to peasant schools that pro- within shouting distance of the Washington and Wall Street Gettysburg Address: “…government of the people, by the vide political and technical training in agroecology. We will powers at the top.” As he describes his life, he “has spent see agricultural cooperatives that sustain local communities four decades battling the powers that be on behalf of the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.” The Motherlode Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee is bring- and are addressing issues like gender equity and climate powers that ought to be: working families, small businesses, change. To understand the political context in which social ing Jim Hightower to Sonora to share his ideas and invites the and just-plain-folks.” His nationally distributed newspaper movements in Nicaragua operate, including its revolutionary public to be a part of the conversation. His website is http:// column appears on the opinion page of the Union Democrat. history and membership in ALBA, our delegation will also www.jimhightower.com/. Jim Hightower has been called many things, including include visits with Nicaraguan officials and citizens. irascible and a hilarious curmudgeon. He has been compared The 21st annual Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday celebra- Cost: $1250 plus airfare. to Will Rogers who, in 1939, also spoke at the Sonora High tion organized by the Motherlode MLK Jr. Committee also Trip fee includes lodging, meals, in-country transport, School Auditorium. features the Gwen Amey Gospel Choir from Merced, as well translation, and staff coordination. Scholarships are available. American historian Studs Terkel said of Hightower, as singers Dennis Brown and Michelle Allison. Following For an application or more information, contact: “Thank God for Jim Hightower. Instead of leaving us stew- the program there is a free reception to which all are invited. Erika Takeo, Friends of the ATC National Coordinator ing in anger and despair, he rallies us with stories of our own The MLK Committee website is http://mlmartinlutherkingjr. [email protected] history and of our own neighbors, inspiring us to take charge org/. For more information contact MLK Committee member Visit the Alliance for Global Justice web page at of our own democracy’s destiny. And he leaves us laughing Pat Cervelli at [email protected], or call 928-3494. www.afgj.org Taylor Branch from page 1 Climate Change: There Is No Consensus By DAN ONORATO and Esquire. He holds honorary doctoral degrees from ten What the hell? you probably fumed on reading that skepticism on that matter, unfortunately.” colleges and universities and was awarded the National headline in Connections. So, now that I have your attention, It seems that Orwell’s “Big Lie” is alive and well. We Humanities Medal in 1999. January’s Film Night features Merchants of Doubt that have our work cut out for us.