The 36th Annual Thomas Merton Award was a success!
 On
Wednesday, November 12, 2008, friends and supporters of the Thomas Merton
Center gathered at the IBEW Hall on the Southside to celebrate and honor
several people who are working for peace and justice every day within the
greater community.
From 6:00-7:00, attendees socialized and learned more about the many projects of the Thomas Merton Center before moving into the main hall for the program, which included presentation of both the New Person and Thomas Merton Awards.
The New Person Award was awarded to Pittsburgh’s own One Hill Coalition, a group made up of over 100 Hill District organizations, unions, and environmental groups that has done outstanding work representing the interests of Hill District residents in recent negotiations with the City of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Using citizen power, One Hill signed a Community Benefits Agreement that guarantees $2 million for a much-needed grocery store, an employment center offering Hill District residents first opportunity at new jobs paying from $12-30+/hour, $500,000 from the Penguins every year for the next 6-12 years to be used for development and social services, support for the YMCA to build a community center within the neighborhood, and more. Carl Redwood, chair of One Hill, accepted the award at the dinner on behalf of this tremendous organization.
After the meal and a brief presentation by the TMC Board, the Thomas Merton Award was presented to Malik Rahim. Malik is a former Black Panther and longtime housing and prison activist from New Orleans, LA. He gained publicity as a community organizer in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when he stayed in New Orleans to assist the community. With only $50 between them, he and three other volunteers co-founded the Common Ground Collective, a volunteer-run organization dedicated to rebuilding the lives, hopes, and homes of New Orleans citizens devastated in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Since its founding, Common Ground has grown into a wide-reaching community organization that includes health clinics, food distribution, contracting and rebuilding programs, community gardens, and more. Malik continues to be one of the public faces of Common Ground and is currently running for Congress as a Green Party candidate. After receiving the award on November 12, he spoke of the importance of individuals doing their part to help their neighbors and change the world for the better.
Thank you to all who contributed and came to the Thomas Merton Award Dinner on November 12 - you made it a success! Look for the December issue of The NewPeople for more photos and coverage of the dinner.
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About this year's awardee Malik Rahim...
On November 12, the
During Hurricane Katrina,
Malik stayed to assist the community and has been
speaking out about racism and the failures of government exposed by the Katrina
disaster. To counter the powerful corporate forces trying to control the
rebuilding, Malik has founded Rebuild Green to work
with community-based organizations' efforts to advance social justice and
environmental sustainability. Malik states that
"By focusing on green building technology, renewable energy, mass transit
systems, and green community development that empowers local people to take
control of their local resources, the rebuilding of
In July of 2008, Malik filed to run for
Merton Awardees Over
the Years
The Thomas Merton Award has been awarded since 1972 by the
Award recipients
1972: James Carroll, currently columnist in the Boston Globe and author of “House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power.”
1973: Dorothy Day, pacifist, founded the
first Catholic Worker (CW) in
1974: Dick Gregory, ‘60s comedian, vegetarian, Civil Rights activist, a drum major for equal rights and nutritional consultant.
1975: Joan Baez, folk singer: "I
can't tell you how boring it would be for me to give a concert and not have it
connected with people's lives and suffering and real issues. There's no music
for me outside of that." She lived her beliefs, founding the
Institute for the Study of Non-Violence in
1976: Dom Hélder Câmara “When I feed the poor,
they call me a saint; when I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.”
Archbishop of
1977: Dick Hughes,
1978: Bishop John Burt
& Bishop James Malone co-founded the Ecumenical Coalition of the
1979: Helen Caldicott, co-founded Physicians for Social Responsibility,
helped found Intl. Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Women’s Action
for Nuclear Disarmament. Her books, “Nuclear Madness” and
“Missile envy,” helped spur
1980: William Winpisinger, International President of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM); founder and president of the Citizen/Labor Energy Coalition; and co-chair of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee. Member, National Commission for Economic Conversion and Disarmament, which supported converting from a military economy to a civilian economy.
1981: The People of
1982: Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen withheld half of his income tax to protest the
stockpiling of nuclear weapons by the
1983: no award
1984: Bernice Johnson Reagon Jailed for participating in a SNCC demonstration, she spent the night in jail singing songs. She joined the SNCC Freedom Singers to use music as a tool for civic action. Composed and produced much of the Sweet Honey in the Rock's renowned repertoire of traditional African and African American music.
1985: Henri Nouwen renowned author, teacher, spiritual guide whose passionate conviction that those rejected by society have essential and prophetic gifts to offer took shape during the 1960s through his involvement with the civil rights, peace and social justice movements. One of the 20th century’s most popular and prolific spiritual writers, he helped people deepen their spiritual foundations and cultivate community.
1986: Allan Boesak Through his prodding, in 1982 the World Alliance of Reformed Churches suspended the membership of the Afrikaner Reformed churches in South Africa, declared Apartheid a heresy and elected Boesak their president.
1987: Miguel D’Escoto, an ordained Roman Catholic priest, became foreign minister when Nicaragua was governed by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (1979-1990).The U.S. had armed and supported the Contra death squads responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Nicaraguans so “we took the United States...to court, the World Court” where the government “received the harshest sentence, the harshest condemnation ever in the history of world justice.”
1988: Daniel Berrigan Jesuit priest, poet, writer. He, his brother
Philip and Trappist monk Thomas Merton founded an
interfaith coalition against the Vietnam War. One of
the Catonsville Nine, who removed 378 draft files from the draft
board of
1989: Comrades of
1990: Marian Wright Edelman In 1968 was counsel for the Poor People's Campaign. She founded the Washington Public Policy Resource Center which developed into the Children Defense Fund. She organized the Stand for Children March on behalf of children which brought hundreds of thousands to Wahington. “ If we don't stand up for children, then we don't stand for much.”
1991: Howard Zinn His “A People's History of the United States” presents U.S. history through the eyes of ordinary people, Native Americans, slaves, unionists and other workers, women against patriarchy, of African-Americans and others whose stories, as Zinn suggests, are not often told in mainstream histories. The New York Times review suggested it be "required reading" for students. Zinn not only writes but acts on his beliefs. He helped to edit “The Pentagon Papers.”
1992: Molly Rush, staff organizer,
co-founder of the
1993: Reverend Lucius Walker, leader of the Interreligious
Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), was Associate General Secretary
of the National Council of Churches of Christ 1973-78. He founded Pastors for
Peace, which organizes humanitarian aid caravans to
1994: Richard Rohr OFM, a Franciscan priest of
the
1995: Marian Kramer In the front lines of
the welfare rights and civil rights movement from its origin in the 1960s, she
has co-chaired the National Welfare Rights Union (NWRU) an organization of, by
and for the poor in
1996: Winona LaDuke, Native American activist, environmentalist, economist and writer. In 1996 and 2000, she ran for Vice President on the Green Party ticket. She was involved in the struggle to recover lands promised to the Ojibwe by a 1867 treaty, helping the Ojibwe buy back thousands of acres of ancestral land. She was Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year in 1997.
1997: Ron Chisom went from janitor at
1998: Studs Terkel, legendary author of “Hard
Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression,” “American Dreams: Lost
and Found,” Pulitzer Prize winner “The Good War: An Oral History of World War
II” and “Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American
Obsession.” “The Studs Terkel Program” ran on
1999: Wendell Berry The
New York Review of Books described him as a “
2000: Ronald V. Dellums In his 27 years in the U.S. House of Representatives he conducted hearings on the Vietnam War, founded the Congressional Black Caucus, was a consistent voice on Africa issues, and led campaigns against defense projects, saying the funds would be better spent on peaceful purposes, especially in U.S. cities. He was just elected Mayor of Oakland, CA.
2001: Sister Joan Chittister “Joan Chittister
has been one of
2002: Bishop Leontyne T.C. Kelly in 1984 became the first African American bishop
in a mainline denomination ( the
2003: Kathy Kelly and
Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end economic and military warfare against the
Iraqi people. They organized more than 70 delegations to
2004: Amy Goodman is the host and
executive producer of Democracy Now! a national daily,
independent, award-winning news program airing on over 300 stations in
2005: Reverend Roy Bourgeois Maryknoll Priest who
founded SOA Watch, a large, diverse, grassroots movement rooted in solidarity
with the people of
2006: Angela
Y. Davis
is internationally known for her ongoing work to combat all forms of oppression
in the
2007: Cindy
Sheehan
is an American anti-war activist whose son, Casey, was killed during his
service in the Iraq War. She attracted international attention in August of
2005 for her extended demonstration at a peace camp outside President George W.
Bush's ranch in