Fellow Travelers' Advisory from Anne Feeney - DECEMBER 2005: VOLUME ONE, #9

Fellow Travelers' Advisory from Anne Feeney - DECEMBER 2005: VOLUME ONE, #9

IN THIS ISSUE:
Immediate Destinations
Holiday Sale
Thanksgiving Message
Email McDonald's
Remember Boilermakers' 484
Hoyas
Family News

IMMEDIATE DESTINATIONS: Stockholm, Oaxaca, Lund, Copenhagen, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Denton, Fort Worth, Dallas, Tucson. Booking: Texas (Feb) & Florida (March)

HOLIDAY SALE!! This year you can give my critically acclaimed recordings Union Maid, Have You Been to Jail for Justice? and the inspiring recording of Wild Wimmin from The Great Peace March to your friends and relatives at discounted prices at CDBaby - - You'll also find Look to Left on sale for $9.99 and my 1994 live album, Heartland, on sale for only $5!! You can also find more music you'll love in my gallery. Supporting independent artists is a unique way to express yourself this holiday season. Thanks to all of you for your ongoing support of my music!



THANKSGIVING DAY 2005
Smedjebacken, Sweden

It's always strange to be in Sweden on Thanksgiving. Needless to say, Thanksgiving is a non-event here. This is the third time I've been here on Thanksgiving day. It does help me to realize that the US is not the center of the universe. This Thanksgiving Day, I'm grateful to have love in my life, to have such wonderful children, to have such a large loving extended family, to have work that I love, and to have so many talented and inspiring friends out there working every day to effect positive change in the world. And I'm very grateful to you - you've brought me to your towns, given me a place to stay, bought me a meal, bought my music, made contributions to locked out workers in Illinois and Michigan, signed petitions and postcards, and signed up to receive the Fellow Travelers' Advisory! Thank you!!

I'm thankful we were able to forestall drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. I'll be even more thankful if this corrupt regime is exposed for the anti-democratic corporatist cronies that they are.

This past weekend I was in Columbus, Georgia again for the School of the Americas Watch vigil. If you don't know about this terrorist training camp in Georgia, please visit their website. This year more than 20,000 came to hold a powerful vigil for the hundreds of thousands of people murdered by graduates of the School of the Americas in Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Venezuela and right now, every day, in Colombia. About forty people committed acts of civil disobedience over the weekend and will go to jail for justice. Four of them are already in jail. You can write to them at:

Christine Gaunt, Muscogee County Jail, 700 E. 10th St., Columbus GA 31901-2899

Louis Vitale, Muscogee County Jail, 700 E. 10th St., Columbus GA 31901-2899

Priscilla Treska, Muscogee County Jail, 700 E. 10th St., Columbus GA 31901-2899

Jerome Zawada, Muscogee County Jail, 700 E. 10th St., Columbus GA 31901-2899

SUPPORT THE COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS - WRITE MC DONALD'S

This Thanksgiving season, when we traditionally celebrate the harvest, let us also celebrate the harvesters. Join the CIW in calling on the world's largest restaurant chain, McDonald's to stop dragging its feet and to work with the CIW to improve the wages and working conditions for the men and women who pick its tomatoes.

Contact McDonald's today and demand they, too, pay a fair price for their tomatoes and work with the CIW to end human rights violations in the fields!

You can also call 630-623-3000 (ask operator for Social Responsibility department), fax 630-623-7409, and fill out an online form


BOILERMAKERS' 484 STILL LOCKED OUT

Your generous contributions can make the holidays brighter for 156 families still locked out by Celanese Corporation in Meredosia, IL

Read about the lockout and
donate online

or by mail to:

Boilermakers Local 484 Solidarity/Defense Fund,
P.O. Box258
300 Main Street
Meredosia, IL 62665

HOYAS

Thanks to Mary Cliff at WETA and my cousin Kevin McCahill for being the first to correctly answer the Hoya question -- (If you're just tuning in, the question was - What in the heck is a Hoya? - as in the Georgetown University Hoyas)

and the answer is.......(drum roll)

Many years ago, students well-versed in the classical languages invented the mixed Greek and Latin chant of "Hoya Saxa," translating roughly as "What Rocks!" in reference to both the stalwart defense of the football team and the stone wall that surrounded the campus. 'Hoia' is Greek for 'what' or 'what a,' and 'saxa' is Latin for 'rocks.'

FAMILY NEWS

Cousin Kevin Metcalfe is in the pink following bypass surgery at the VA Hospital in Pittsburgh... sister Maureen flew in from AZ to help out. Bill Feeney and I missed seeing cousin Pat Metcalfe on our get well visit to the hospital.

Terry McCahill is recovering splendidly from abdominal surgery in St Augustine. I was in Jacksonville a few weeks ago & went to St Augustine to visit cousins Joe & Rhonda McCahill. Got a glimpse of their handsome offspring, Jon Christian and Justin... then we headed over to Ed & Terry's place for a sumptuous dinner, hugs from Ryan and Collin, hot tub and marathon hootenanny poolside. It was such fun to sing all the old songs. Joe McCahill was the first person I ever saw play a guitar up close... It was on a family vacation to Deep Creek Lake - I was hooked.

That was indeed my song that Peter, Paul and Mary were featured singing in Get Up, Stand Up - the PBS documentary on protest music that aired in many cities last month.

Kimberly Sever has been skating for the past season with the "Manhattan Mayhem" - a for-real Roller Derby Team -- Check out this wonderful slide show of their last game with the Queens of Pain.

Kim's son Casey is the mascot of the Manhattan Mayhem... you'll see him in his "Jail Bait" uniform in the slide show. Kim is also featured this month in the "Ask a Gotham Girl" section.

Dan Berlin finished the Washington Marine Marathon in 3 hours and 58 minutes - He finished 3100 out of 19211 total finishers - 2405 out of 11699 men in the race. Cool beans! You can email congrats at danielfberlin @ hotmail.com ...

Dan should have beautiful organic cotton tee shirts for sale any minute now as a fundraiser for his new NGO, PARCA - to bring urgently needed supplies to the village he worked in while he was in the Peace Corps in Guatemala. It was devastated during the mudslides and supplies are still only being brought in by helicopter.

I don't remember all the details of Big D's recent golf triumph at the Naval Academy, but read up on cousin-in-law Charles Warren's adventures (he's married to Kelly Grefenstette) -- scroll down to about #77.

It was great to see Jill Weldon and Steve Merrill at the concert I produced at Jim and Llouise's last month. Steve's getting ready to retire!

That's all for now. To subscribe, please click here

House Concert at Jim & LLouise's - Pat & Sandy & Gina & Anne

What a great time was had by all at the November 5 house concert in Pittsburgh with Pat Humphries & Sandy O, Emma's Revolution with very special guest Gina Forsyth --




I opened the show to a *packed* house that included many many friends and family - Pat's sister Karen, my cousins Jill & Steve and lots of local luminaries like Rosemary Trump, Eric Marchbein & Claire Staples, Mark Rauterkus, Maryellen Hayden, Lee Fogarty, Paul Lodico, Joe Hughes -- and 16 year old activist Emma Blackman-Mathis, who organized and won a "girlcott" campaign against Abercrombie and Fitch.




Emma, Sandy & Pat



Sandy & Pat with Gina (!) on fiddle

Thanks to everyone who came, and thanks to Mark Rauterkus for these photos!

Take Action: Don't Let Oil Companies Plunder the Arctic Refuge!

Take Action: Don't Let Oil Companies Plunder the Arctic Refuge!

Fellow Travelers' Advisory from Anne Feeney - NOV. 2005: VOLUME ONE, #8

Thanks for being on my mailing list! It's the best way I've found to stay in regular contact with my friends and family and activist heroes. Let me know what you're up to... I love it when you write back! Please feel free to forward this to your friends and relations! You can subscribe by clicking here

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You can order my CDs at CDBaby and you can also download most of my music at Itunes and many many other download services. Music is a great holiday gift!!

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IMMEDIATE DESTINATIONS:
For all the details click here

Lexington, KY - Oct 27th
Louisville, KY - Oct 28th
Terre Haute, IN - Oct 29th
Cincinnati, OH - Oct 30th
Pittsburgh, PA - Nov 5th
Jacksonville, FL - Nov 11th & 13th
Tallahassee, FL - Nov 13th
Fort Benning, GA - Nov 18th-20th

and then -- I'm booking Sweden and Denmark through early February 2006 -- any ideas?

NOW BOOKING--
TEXAS in February
FLORIDA in late February/early March
the great Northwest in March
PA, upstate New York & Ontario in April?

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My friend Doug Gauss just bought a license plate frame that says 'My next license plate will be made by Dick Cheney and Karl Rove.' I'm trying not to get giddy as the house of cards trembles. Why is this game so much fun?

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PAT & SANDY & GINA & ANNE

Pittsburgh & vicinity -- Check this out!!! On November 5th my wonderful friends Pat Humphries and Sandy O aka Emma's Revolution will be coming to town and I'm arranging a house concert for them. Pat and Sandy are great writers and performers and their show is always terrific.. *and* they're bringing my wonderful pal Gina Forsyth with them!! Gina is a fabulously talented New Orleans fiddle and guitar player and singer and wordsmith ... a Kerrville pal ... displaced by Katrina... I'll be doing a short set too... this will be my last Pittsburgh show until spring of 2006. This show will also be a fundraiser for the Molly Yard Title IX Fund established to carry on the work of hellraiser Molly Yard who died on September 21st after decades of feminist activism.

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ROY BOURGEOIS to receive MERTON AWARD

also, Pittsburgh Folks -- Thursday November 10th is the annual Thomas Merton Center Awards Dinner. This year it's a new location - the Greek Orthodox Community Center of St Nicholas Church. The Merton Award goes to Father Roy Bourgeois of the School of the Americas Watch. We've got a New Orleans-style Cajun band, too! Sit at my table! Let me know if you can come and join me. anne@annefeeney.com

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HELP!!!

The lockout of the 156 families employed by Celanese in Meredosia, IL
continues - please read up on this struggle at their website and I'm sure you'll want to donate online or by mail to:

Boilermakers Local 484 Solidarity/Defense Fund

P.O. Box258
300 Main Street
Meredosia, IL 62665

Remember how very difficult it is for other hardhit people to raise money right now and please be generous

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FAMILY NEWS

My New Orleans cousins are still living in exile just outside of Austin. It looks like my cousin Kathleen's second child will be born in Austin instead of New Orleans. No hope of immediate return.

My son Daniel is running a marathon in Washington, DC this weekend. He's also working with other ex-Peace Corps volunteers in DC to set up a relief organization for Guatemala. The village where my son lived for 2 years in the district of San Marcos was hit very hard by the mudslides with many homeless and clean water and food only available by helicopter delivery. I should have an address for donations in time for the December Fellow Travelers' Advisory...

My cousin Bill Feeney is the pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Washington, PA. The parish celebrated its 150th anniversary on October 15th and it was a grand celebration! Bishop William Winter was joined by eight past and present pastors and vicars including Fathers Rich Wesoloski, Jim Young and Nick Spirko. My cousins Mary and Tom Weldon were there. (They'll celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on April 22, 2006) Rich W was hilarious as emcee at the dinner afterward.

My sister Kathleen is healing miraculously from her motorcycle accident and is back full time at her legal practice.

Happy Birthday to Bill Feeney & Jill Merrill (October 16); Casey Horn (October 5th); Dan Berlin (October 6th), Steve Merrill (October 20th); Coming up - November 6th - Kimberly Sever (35!) November 12th - Julie Leonardsson (63)

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Midwest Tour notes...

If you're headed to Michigan----

The IWW exhibit which opened on October 19th in the Hatcher Library at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor will continue for a while. It's an extraordinary exhibit. So many rare photos, artifacts ... you can see an envelope that contained Joe Hill's ashes... Julie Herrada did a fantastic job of putting the show together, and my friend and gracious host Joyce Kornbluh gave a very inspiring speech at the opening.

Another fine exhibit of Wobbly memorabilia is on display at the Reuther Library in Detroit.

If you get to Lansing, visit Magdalena's Tea House ... A charming spot doing great live music. Many thanks to Margabeth and Dave and Marya and Miko and Indigo and Susan.

and stop by the picket line of striking OPEIU nurses local 549 at Ingham Memorial Hospital.

The 15th Annual Bernie Firestone Tribute of Labor Poetry and Music at the Scarab Club was sensational. Kudos to ML Liebler for putting together such a wonderful event.

Locked out workers at Hercules Drawn Steel in Romulus, MI gathered at Local 174 for a great evening of solidarity... delicious catering by the Wobbly Kitchen and then Evan and I did a show. Thanks to Jim and Sue Burton.

Traveling with Evan Greer was so much fun. Check out http://riotfolk.org and listen to and download some of this anarchist collective's fine music.

Last month's trivia: A "Sooner" was someone who pre-emptively homesteaded Oklahoma (i.e. got there sooner) during the land rush ... no one told me what a Hoya was, tho...

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