News from the Network, Vol. 2, No. 13

The most astounding news this week is the apparent ease with which Geithner and Company are seizing control of the most important financial system in the world, all apparently without a thought about the dangers of concentrated power of any kind, but especially economic and financial power. There seems to be very little appreciation of the truth of the dictum that Lord Acton quoted to Mary Gladstone, that power tends to corrupt, absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely.

Nevertheless, there are a few pieces of good news in the Global Justice Movement this past week:

• Mr. Mark Gross, O.P.L. (Lay Fraternity of St. Dominic), editor of Christ in the World!, the newsletter of the Lay Provincial Council of the Western Dominican Province, will be publishing a short piece on Father Andrew F. Morlion, O.P., Ph.D., who was active in CESJ until his death in 1987. Father Morlion referred to his friend, Father William J. Ferree, S.M., Ph.D., as "America's greatest social philosopher" when Father Ferree died in 1985. Contact information can be found on the Council's web site.

• Norman G. Kurland and Michael D. Greaney are in New York City today meeting with Father Kevin Dance, C.P., head of the Passionist NGO at the United Nations. The meeting was arranged by Father Cassian Yuhaus, C.P., Rector of the Shrine of St. Ann's Basilica in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The meeting is to acquaint Father Dance with the Just Third Way and its potential to solve the current global financial crisis, especially as applied in the Abraham Federation and Capital Homesteading.

• We received a note from His Eminence, Achille Cardinal Silvestrini, thanking CESJ for its support in his efforts to educate the youth of today in proper principles of morality and sound reason, especially the Cardinal's school, Villa Nazareth. His Eminence praised CESJ for its own work, and stated his belief that Pope Benedict XVI would bless CESJ's efforts to promote the Just Third Way.

• On Wednesday, Norman Kurland had a meeting on the East St. Louis project in Washington, DC, during which they agreed to join the Coalition for Energy Independence and Citizen Ownership. Mayor Alvin Parks of East St. Louis and Mayor Nathaniel O'Bannon of Brooklyn, Illinois attended the meeting. Antonio Betancourt, Walter Fauntroy, L. Dean Price, Laura Zacher, Rich Vogel of Whiting Turner Construction, and Marvin Warshay who headed the NASA-Louis Advanced Energy Systems were also there.

• Also on Wednesday there was a meeting with Congressman Jerry Costello (D), who had read the MECLC proposal, who indicated he liked it and would do all he could to raise the money for the $70 million prototype, which would be a global exemplar for green energy development and provide a new industry within East St. Louis and fourteen neighboring cities. It would also provide an ownership share in the land leasing and the profits from the exemplar to all the citizens of the area. Congressman Costello said he would be in contact with Senator Dick Durban to get the federal government to fund the project.

• Later that same day, the team met with Senator Dick Durban (D) of Illinois, one of the top three most powerful senators, who was born and raised in East St. Louis. After the senator indicated his interest, the team had an extensive meeting with two of the senator's aides, who indicated some possible sources of funding the projects.

• On Thursday there was a press conference in the morning at the National Press Club on the East St. Louis project, at which a series of excellent presentations were made. The conference was videotaped for presentation on YouTube. We will post a link when the video is up.

• On Thursday after the press conference, the team had a meeting with Congressman John Shimkus (R), on the House Energy Committee, and was very supportive. He said he is a good friend of Congressman Costello, and indicated he would support the $70 million proposal.

• As of this morning, we have had visitors from 48 different countries and 49 states and provinces in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past two months. Most visitors are from the United States, with Canada, the UK, Finland, and the Philippines.

Those are the happenings for this week, at least that we know about. If you have an accomplishment that you think should be listed, send us a note about it at mgreaney [at] cesj [dot] org, and we'll see that it gets into the next "issue." If you have a short (250-400 word) comment on a specific posting, please enter your comments in the blog — do not send them to us to post for you. All comments are moderated anyway, so we'll see it before it goes up.