The Newtown Pentacle

– photo by Mitch Waxman

First Canto,

Lords and Ladies of Newtown-

Homosexuality is a non issue to me. This is partly because I’m not gay, and therefore I don’t suffer the oppression, discrimination, and second class status afforded this slice of the american pie by so called political conservatives. Most people hate me for reasons having nothing to do with sexual preference, but when the subject is brought up by my blue collar buddies- a standard response I offer is “what the hell do you care what somebody else does in the bedroom?”. The antics some of my heterosexual friends get up to would curl your hair, I tell you, but this is a society based on choice and self determination and anyone can follow whatever dream may intrigue them.

from thekelticdreams.com

The Keltic Dreams Irish Dancers, are a group of 33 children ages 7-12 from Public School 59, PS 59 in the Bronx, NY. The school is situated in a low Socio Economic area in the Bronx and has a 95% poverty rate. The students are all African American and Hispanic and have no background in Irish culture. Hired by the Department of Education, I, Caroline Duggan, moved to New York over 4 years ago and began teaching music in the school. I had no intention of staying more than one year in the school but fell in love with the children’s drive to become professional. After being constantly asked by the children why I spoke funny I told them that I was from Ireland. The fascination began with questions about the Irish lifestyle, leprechauns and Irish dance. They questioned me about a huge photo of Riverdance I had hanging in the classroom . I showed the children a few steps and was truly amazed by how quick they grasped even the most complicated steps. They were fascinated with the Riverdance video from Radio City, which I still show them on a regular basis. Especially how the show incorporated different cultures into Irish dancing. With this idea in mind and with the amazing support of the principal and school, I began an Irish dancing program after school twice a week. The group The Keltic Dreams was born and have since had their own one hour show on The Plaza at Lincoln Center, in the Bronx Botanical Garden for Bronx week , St Barnabas Nursing Home, on the Band shell at Central Park, at Lehman College in the Bronx and in The Manhattan Mall at Herald Square NYC. They were the sole performers at the St Patrick’s Day Parade in Queens for Mayor Bloomberg and afterwards all the students marched in the parade joined by their parents. The Irish dance program has encouraged huge parental involvement, bringing the whole community together!!!! Much to my surprise some of the children had never been to Manhattan before they performed in these shows!!

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The St. Pat’s for All parade in Sunnyside, Queens, however, was organized as a response to the banning of homosexual marchers in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Manhattan 10 years ago. My take on this, based on an outsider’s view of the Roman Catholic Church- is that although exclusionary politics rub me the wrong way, church policy is that Catholicism is not a buffet. You eat the meal they serve or dine elsewhere, there are no substitutions allowed on their menu.

Saying that, “what the hell do you care what somebody else does in the bedroom?” once again escapes my lips and I remind you that I’m neither gay nor catholic. I grew up in an ethnic culture that encourages the wearing of funny little hats, having Saturday’s off, and the mass consumption of cake. As always, I remain an Outsider.

Shunning homosexuals from public view or acknowledgment – is bigotry in my opinion – and the power elite of New York City’s political class seems to agree with me on this one. One finds an alternative to such rudeness at this all inclusive event.

At this parade, you don’t even have to be Irish.

from wikipedia

John Chun Liu (simplified Chinese: 刘醇逸; traditional Chinese: 劉醇逸; pinyin: Liú Chúnyì, born January 8, 1967 in Taiwan) is a New York City elected official, currently serving as New York City Comptroller. Liu previously served on the New York City Council representing District 20. He was elected to the City Council in 2001 to represent northeast Queens (Flushing, Queensboro Hill, Mitchell Linden, Murray Hill, Holly, Kissena Park, Harding Heights, Auburndale, part of Whitestone) and was re-elected in 2003 and 2005.

Liu entered the New York City Comptroller election in 2009 and won the race on November 3, 2009, becoming the first Asian American to be elected to a city-wide office in New York City. He was succeeded in the City Council by pharmacist Republican Peter Koo. Koo, along with Democrat Margaret Chin, a Council member from Manhattan, comprise the Asian-American delegation of the Council.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Events like this are a photographer’s dream, a time when the politicos let their guards down for a few minutes, and they seem to conduct a lot of business at the sidelines. The politician smile mask, which is every bit as menacing and shallow as a shark’s grin, drops away and you see the actual face of the people who run our government. To wit, witness the Mayor in a contemplative moment, and his assumption of the public face he normally shows us when Carolyn Maloney greets him, and then his “big show” face used for working the crowd. This is part of the art they practice, the methodology of navigating the “endless sea”- as a 15th century Italian Poet might have described politics.

from wikipedia

Elizabeth Crowley (born November 27, 1977, Queens, New York) is a member of the New York City Council and a Democratic Party politician in New York.

Crowley was elected in November 2008, defeating the incumbent Republican, Anthony Como. She was sworn in January 2009 to represent the Queens neighborhoods of Glendale, Richmond Hill, Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village and Woodhaven.

Crowley is the first Democrat and first woman to represent the 30th Council District. She was born and raised in Middle Village and now resides with her family in Glendale, Queens. She has two sons, Dennis and Owen. Crowley graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelors degree in Restoration/Preservation from the Fashion Institute of Technology (SUNY). She has a Masters degree in City and Regional Planning from the Pratt Institute Graduate School of Architecture.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

An admission I must make is that I love taking pictures of Michael Bloomberg. Absolutely no gap seems to exist between his thoughts and the facial postures exhibited, which is of course what his public persona is designed to intone. If it seems that I’m describing stagecraft and thespian performance, I am. Like all great actors, the elite who have clawed their way to the dangerous summit of political life in New York City must go to where a receptive audience can be found, and for politicians- places where their constituents can see them supporting favored causes. The LGT community is an important voting bloc, and those who do not take them seriously will suffer the consequences- and appropriately so.

from wikipedia

Carolyn B. Maloney (born February 19, 1946) is a New York Democrat who has served in the United States House of Representatives as the Congresswoman for New York’s 14th congressional district since 1993. This district, popularly known as the “silk stocking district”, includes most of Manhattan’s East Side; Astoria and Long Island City in Queens; and Roosevelt Island.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Social conservatives- a term which is actually a bit of a misnomer as it refers to a series of radical ideologies which advocate the overthrow of current social mores and policies in favor of something that would have nauseated Ronald Reagan, infuriated Nixon (who was an evil genius), and that even Ayn Rand might find severe- have a right to their opinion, also known as conscience. The Constitution of the United States acknowledges and protects this right- it does not GRANT this inalienable and irrevocable human right– as asserted by the so called “right wing”, it bows before it. This notion is something that evolved out of the religious wars of 16th and 17th century Europe, producing “the enlightenment“, Freemasonry, and representative democracy by the 18th and 19th centuries.

“Conservatism” can serve traditionally left wing causes as well, with do gooder progressives regulating what you eat and drink and inhale in the name of knowing what’s good for you – I term this “the left hand of fascism”- but that’s a story for another day.

from wikipedia

Christine Callaghan Quinn (born July 25, 1966) is a Democratic politician and the current Speaker of the New York City Council, which is among the most powerful positions in city government after the Mayor. The office of speaker was established in 1990 as a result of the revision of the City Charter.The third person to hold this office, Quinn is the first female and first openly gay speaker.

In 2007, the New York Post named Quinn the third-most powerful woman in New York, after Hillary Rodham Clinton and Diane Sawyer.She was rated one of the “Forty Under Forty” by Gotham Magazine.

Second Canto,

Lords and Ladies of Newtown-

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Early in the parade, I encountered a community affairs officer of the NYPD I had met during the Manhattan Bridge Centennial planning meetings, and after I reminded him of our amiable conversations- he shepherded me into the “press box”. Feeling haughty, as I was shoulder to shoulder with the Daily News, NY1, and CBS News personnel, I scanned around from my vantage and did my thing.

As long time readers of this Newtown Pentacle know, “my thing” is to look for what doesn’t fit or belong in a scene, and find out everything I can about it. That’s when I noticed the gentleman in the shot above, who seemed to be aghast at the unfolding tableau. In the middle of a happy and raucous crowd, he was radiating sorrow.

from wikipedia

A lone wolf is a wolf that lives by itself rather than with others as part of a pack. Lone wolves are typically old specimens driven from their pack or young adults in search of new territory. Instead of openly challenging the leadership of the pack leaders, most young wolves between the ages of 1 and 4 years leave their family in order to search for a pack of their own. Some wolves will simply remain lone wolves; as such, lone wolves are usually stronger, more aggressive and far more dangerous than the average wolf that is a member of a pack. They have difficulty hunting, as wolves’ favorite prey are large ungulates, and it is nearly impossible for a wolf to bring one down by itself (hunting on their own can be done, as lone wolves are naturally stronger and some specialize in hunting moose on their own). Instead, they will hunt smaller animals and scavenge. Sometimes, a lone wolf will find another lone wolf of the opposite sex, and the two will start a new pack.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Soon, his dour and expressionless countenance found company in the form of protesters waving signs. Ugly sentiment on such placards is commonplace at public events centering around LGT communities and these were rather tame by the standards of such protest. Once again- not commenting on right or wrong, just what “is”.

Noticing that the protesters were all carrying similar signs, however, made me realize that this might be a coordinated effort by a small group to manufacture the appearance that the surrounding community disapproves of the event and disseminate this false impression via the news media.

The news media ignored them… but your humble narrator…  scuttles forward

LO, BEHOLD, AND TREMBLE

for the Newtown Pentacle is back in session…

Third Canto,

Lords and Ladies of Newtown-

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Were it not so, but there is a shadow which fell on the sylvan lanes of Sunnyside this last weekend, a malevolent force which seeks to hurl down the hard fought progress of mankind and return us to serfdom. An organization whose roots reach into the sandy amazonian soil of Brazil, and has spread to all points on the globe.

A true conspiracy, the apostate organization whose identity is displayed on these unhandsomely designed placards reads “The American TFP – America Needs Fatima”.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Scuttling ahead of the parade, and I really must compliment NYPD on their gentle touch in keeping me ahead of the pack as I walked backwards up Skillman Avenue, I kept on noticing sullen faces with leaden eyes scanning the scene.

People who didn’t fit.

The first warm day after a torturous period of winter storms and blasting wind, families and dogs and marching bands promulgated a general feeling of relaxed enjoyment along the route. The parade felt like a safety valve, blowing off the high pressures of a very cold and dark winter in the megalopolis, but there were those who felt other things.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The American TFP (Tradition, Family, Property) is a Catholic Lay organization which is the United States arm of the international TFP. Banned from Brazil by diocesan edict, outlawed in France as a cult organization, the TFP was founded by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. A very interesting group of people, the American TFP and America Needs Fatima can be contacted here:

American TFP P.O. Box 341 Hanover, PA 17331

Phone – (888) 317-5571 or (717) 225-7147 FAX – (717) 225-7382

and at their web site,

At this site, which is a tremendous and expensive feat of web engineering, you can expose yourself to the totality of their views. I recommend “Dispelling Myths about the Crusades“, “Virgin is not a dirty word“, and the credo of their group which is Prof. de Oliveira’s Revolution and Counter Revolution.

quoting from Revolution and Counter Revolution:

This terrible enemy has a name: It is called the Revolution.

Its profound cause is an explosion of pride and sensuality that has inspired, not one system, but, rather, a whole chain of ideological systems. Their wide acceptance gave rise to the three great revolutions in the history of the West: the Pseudo-Reformation, the French Revolution, and Communism.

Pride leads to hatred of all superiority and, thus, to the affirmation that inequality is an evil in itself at all levels, principally at the metaphysical and religious ones. This is the egalitarian aspect of the Revolution.

Sensuality, per se, tends to sweep aside all barriers. It does not accept restraints and leads to revolt against all authority and law, divine or human, ecclesiastical or civil. This is the liberal aspect of the Revolution.

Both aspects, which in the final analysis have a metaphysical character, seem contradictory on many occasions. But they are reconciled in the Marxist utopia of an anarchic paradise where a highly evolved mankind, “emancipated” from religion, would live in utmost order without political authority in total freedom. This, however, would not give rise to any inequality.

The Pseudo-Reformation was a first revolution. It implanted, in varying degrees, the spirit of doubt, religious liberalism, and ecclesiastical egalitarianism in the different sects it produced.

The French Revolution came next. It was the triumph of egalitarianism in two fields: the religious field in the form of atheism, speciously labeled as secularism; and the political field through the false maxim that all inequality is an injustice, all authority a danger, and freedom the supreme good.

and from wikipedia

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira (São Paulo, December 13, 1908 — October 3, 1995) was a Brazilian intellectual, politician and Catholic activist.

His mother, Lucilia Corrêa de Oliveira, was a devout Roman Catholic. He was educated by Jesuits. In 1928 he joined the Marian Congregations of São Paulo and soon became a leader of that organization, often giving speeches. In 1933 he helped organize the Catholic Electoral League and was elected to the nation’s Constitutional Convention. As the youngest congressman in Brazil’s history he was part of the “Catholic bloc”.

He assumed the chair of Modern and Contemporary History at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. He was also the first president of the São Paulo Archdiocesan Board of Catholic Action.

From 1935 to 1947 he served as director of the Catholic weekly Legionário. In 1951 he began his direction of the monthly paper Catolicismo. From 1968 to 1990 he wrote a column for the Folha de São Paulo, the city’s largest daily newspaper. He opposed communism and Catholic leftism in Latin America, believing instead in the breeding of a ruling elite to run society.

An admirer of Thomas Aquinas, he was the author of 15 books and over 2,500 essays and articles. His works include: In Defense of Catholic Action, Revolution and Counter-Revolution, The Church and the Communist State: The Impossible Coexistence, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII, and many others.

To put his ideas into action, he founded the Brazilian Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) in 1960 and served as president of its national council until his death in 1995. His treatise Revolution and Counter-Revolution inspired the founding of autonomous TFPs groups in nearly 20 countries worldwide.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Come into my house, and make the Lords and Ladies of Newtown uncomfortable on the first nice day in 2010? You get what you get, folks. The storm approaching you is the light of day, and something wicked this way comes… its called Truth.

from nationmaster.com

TFP’s worldview is based on Corrêa de Oliveira’s 1959 study Revolution and Counter-Revolution. According to the aims laid out in this book, TFP strives to reverse what it sees as the immoral processes that have undermined Christian civilization since the 14th century, the “Revolution” of the study’s title. TFP promotes the values of Christianity, and opposes liberal and egalitarian ideas, policies, and trends in both society as a whole and in the Catholic Church. Thus, in addition to supporting official Catholic teaching on matters like abortion, same-sex marriage, and the like, the group distinguishes itself by also being monarchist and feudalist in its political tendencies and advocating a return to rule by “aristocracies” and “elites,” such as the titled, landed nobility of the Middle Ages, as witnessed by one of Corrêa de Oliveira’s most available works, Nobility & Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII (in this book, Corrêa de Oliveira rejects the “preferential option for the poor” idea that has become the core of modern Catholic social teaching, and argues for a “preferential option for the nobility”). Ardently anti-Communist, the group’s Catholic identity did not prevent it from excoriating the Pope over his perceived softness on Communism (Corrêa de Oliveira, The Church and the Communist State: The Impossible Coexistence)…

…The group’s activities, notably its pro-life marches, have won it the admiration of many conservative Catholics.On the other hand, most other Catholics, including conservative ones, consider the group an embarrassment, and allege that it advocates a return to Medieval society by advocating values that are, paradoxically, incompatible with Christianity. Recent pronouncements on their website that the Indian Ocean Tsunami was sent by God the day after Christmas as a punishment for the sinfulness of vacationers and the rest of the world, have added to this controversy.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

democraticunderground.com presented a fully realized reporting of this organization here.

Amongst other revelations found in the posting are: the story of Carmina Salcido, TFP’s banning or condemnation by the governments of  Venezuela (1985’s version), Chile, and France. The Church’s response to them is similar- take for example this bulletin from the Archdiocese of Miami from 2007, this study of them by the University of Durban (written DURING apartheid, I would add), and this lovely exchange at catholicforum.fisheaters.com’s message board in which the current director of the American TFP- Robert Ritchie- offers his views to an anxious public.

from wikipedia

The American TFP’s worldview is based on Corrêa de Oliveira’s 1959 study, Revolution and Counter-Revolution. According to the aims laid out in this book, TFP acts to oppose the anti-Christian process that has undermined Christian civilization since the 14th century, the “Revolution” of the study’s title. This “Revolution” has three phases which progressively undermine the Church and social order:

The Protestant “Pseudo-Reformation” and its rejection of religious authority and inequality, in particular the Pope.

The “Enlightenment” and the French Revolution and its rejection of temporal authority, in particular the King and nobility.

The Communist Revolution and its rejection of economic inequality.

The final phases that follow (now taking place) seek to eradicate the Church and Christian civilization while applying more radical egalitarianism and implementing neo-paganism.

The American TFP promotes the values of Christianity, and opposes liberal and egalitarian ideas, policies, and trends in both society as a whole and in the Catholic Church. In addition to supporting all official Catholic teaching, the group also argues for the need for authentic elites in society that raise, above all, the moral tone of general society, as witnessed by Corrêa de Oliveira’s Nobility & Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII. In this book, Corrêa de Oliveira seeks to balance the notion of “preferential option for the poor” idea in some modern liberal Catholic social thinking, with support for the natural elite that exists in all societies, according to the teaching of Pius XII, that they may become the obligated class working for the good of society (Noblesse Oblige).

If the Revolution is disorder, the Counter-Revolution is the restoration of order. And by order we understand the peace of Christ in the reign of Christ. That is, Christian civilization, austere and hierarchical, fundamentally sacral, anti-egalitarian and anti-liberal.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

And yet, most of the people along this parade route in Sunnyside would agree to defend the right these people have to express this odd stance in public without fear of state retribution. It would be nice if the same courtesy was afforded in return…