trial by fire

the last week since i have moved to the city of pittsburgh to be in the PULSE program and life has been extremely busy but has offered a time of intense thought. i moved into a house of six others and began to live as an intentional community. sharing food, expenses, and ideas in an effort to ask questions about our lives as urban, national, and global citizens. i have already been challenged in many ways to question how i have previously lived my life and how i see my life for the future. specifically i have been greatly challenged by the job which i have undertaken. working for the afsc or american friends service committee organization which under the direction of (www.afsc.org) has thrown me into the middle of an extremely active peace community as well as into the middle of a movement within the pittsburgh branch of the quakerscilla wahrhaftig is striving to make a difference in the local area, the state, and country. it is amazing the amount of different areas i have already gotten my hands into. as an organization i have been working with multiple projects including starting petitions to meet with senator elect casey to push the anti-war stance, promoting and recording the existing project "eyes wide open" which brings to light the incredible toll the war in iraq has taken on the lives of all involved. i will try to give more information on ways to get involved or on specific projects which the afsc and other organizations are starting, and if you have any questions on what i am doing please send an email (andrew.foderaro@gmail.com). the website for the pittsburgh branch of afsc where you can see specific projects i am working with is here... afsc pittburgh

in addition to the specific projects i have been working with scilla and afsc pittsburgh has vaulted me into the middle of the pittsburgh peace community. already the second night i was here i was able to attend a banquet hosted by the thomas merton center which brought together nearly 600 of the local peace movement activists to celebrate the giving of the annual thomas merton award. i was more than privelaged to be able to be present and listen to a spectacular speech by angela davis who is and was active in the field of social justice and equality and spoke with extreme vigor and conviction when critiquing not only the blatant forms of injustice but even more so critiquing the newer form of injustice that attempts to mask itself as equality. in addition to her speech she was eloquently introduced by mumia abu jamal speaking on recording from prison. the entire night was an incredible learning experience for me and a great start to my experience in the peace communities in pittsburgh.