Martin Sheen: One person can make a difference

http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/0309sheenside.html

Personal changes can affect others for the better, actor says

By Scott Elliott

Dayton Daily News

DAYTON | Martin Sheen was 14, a Chaminade High School freshman with a bad smoking habit, standing on the corner by the school sucking down a last drag before heading to class one morning...

"This is really the fundamental question for all of us," Sheen said. "How do you make a difference and what difference does it make? This has to be highly personal. The only thing you can change is you."

Sheen, who has been arrested dozens of times for protesting on behalf of social issues, urged the students to look inward for what they might do to help their communities or the world.

"You have to look inside and say, 'I cannot not do this and be myself,' " he said. "I don't even think about trying to change other people's minds. I do it for myself."


Sheen honors slain missionary with portrait

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/14049220.htm

DAYTON, Ohio - Actor Martin Sheen attended a ceremony Wednesday to unveil a portrait he commissioned of a U.S. missionary shot and killed last year in Brazil.

Dorothy Stang, originally from Dayton, was a nun with the Sister of Notre Dame de Namur and spent the last 30 years of her life working with poor settlers in the Amazon rain forest, helping them gain land and protect the environment.

"Sister Dorothy Stang was doing exactly that work that we are commanded to do by the gospel," Sheen said during the ceremony at Chaminade-Julienne High School.

Sheen and Stang graduated from Chaminade and Julienne high schools respectively before the schools merged...


Sheen to unveil portrait in Dayton

http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/0308sheen.html

...

Stang worked in the Amazon for 40 years before she was killed by gunmen last February. The Vatican named her a martyr in January.

Stang was killed by gunmen allegedly hired by ranchers who disliked her efforts to preserve the rainforest. Two men were convicted last year in Brazil for the killing and were sentenced to 17 and 27 years in jail.



Backers press Stang name for school
Church officials say she will be honored in some other way

http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/0311schoolname.html

After Wednesday's festivities, some Stang supporters began a phone and e-mail campaign in hopes that the committee leading the merger of five city Catholic schools into one would reconsider...

Mary Queen of Peace was recommended by students who voted at the five merging schools and then picked by a committee of parish priests.

Krumm said Stang's name was a strong contender and that the choice of Mary Queen of Peace should not be seen as a rejection of Stang...

"She's been a wonderful model of social justice. I can appreciate the concern of the family. We share the values she upholds and we do want to instill them," he said...

.....perspective. President Martin Sheen sounds pretty good to me.