Nine arrested in march on Xcel

Nine arrested in march on Xcel

 

By CURT BROWN, Star Tribune

August 31, 2008

Nine protesters were arrested in an act of civil disobedience this afternoon during an antiwar march to the Xcel Energy Center where the Republican National Convention was gearing up.

About 500 activists led by Veterans for Peace marched from a rally at the State Capitol into downtown, walking behind a flag-draped coffin. As they reached St. Peter Street , organizers told those interested in an act of civil disobedience they could turn left.

Nine turned left. With retired surgeon David Harris of Red Wing in the lead, they crawled under a security tape and started nudging a loose piece of security fencing.

More than a dozen Ramsey County deputies in riot gear approached and detained them. Nine were taken into custody, seven were booked and two were released.

Earlier today St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman defended aggressive police action that has included a series of raids and arrests on the eve of the Republican National Convention. He said he hopes to protect the safety of "legitimate" protesters.

"We are making sure that people here to legitimately protest have the right to do that, but people engaging in criminal activity are not going to be able to do that," Coleman said in a Sunday morning interview.

He pointed to items seized in raids, including Molotov cocktails, a book called "Recipe for Disaster" and tools aimed at disabling buses.

"I think we have done absolutely everything we can to accommodate First Amendment rights," he said. "But the weapons recovered as a result of these operations make it very clear that there are people here planning to engage in criminal behavior."

The target for the sweeps so far has been a group call the RNC Welcoming Committee, which says on its website: "Together we can derail this purely ceremonial show of this repressive system and remake it with our own hands..."

Dozens of people have been handcuffed and released after their identifications have been checked. At least five have been jailed. The raids have been condemned by protesters and civil liberties advocates.

Authorities expect the largest march Monday when dozens of anti-war groups plans to March from the Capitol to the Xcel Energy Center around noon. They have permits and have pledged to be lawful.

"When people come down to protest in the peace march, we don't need the people who are there having their public and person safety threatened," Coleman said. "That's what these criminals want to do. My mother-in-law wants to march and it's just absolutely imperative that all the peaceful protesters have a chance to do that."

Curt Brown • 612-673-4042

© 2008 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

 

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center , 325 E. 25th St. , Baltimore , MD 21218 .  Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at]verizon.net

 

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

 

Joan Baez: 'I Was Right 40 Years Ago and I Am Right Now!'

Published on Friday, August 29, 2008 by Times Online/ UK

Joan Baez: ‘I Was Right 40 Years Ago and I Am Right Now!’

Age has not wearied Joan Baez, the queen of protest, but it’s calmed her down ... a bit

by Will Hodgkinson

 

Time has been kind to Joan Baez. Over peppermint tea in the restaurant of a South London hotel, the queen of America 's folk scene in the Sixties appears extremely youthful for someone in the fifth decade of her career. "We'll sit here until we get thrown out," she says, firmly but quietly, after the manager protests at our not wanting dinner. She appears the model of calm, unwavering serenity, but something about her unblinking stare - and her swift dismissal of a fussy maitre d' - suggests that you wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of her.

Perhaps the company she keeps has maintained her youth. Day After Tomorrow, her new album, is produced by the much younger country singer Steve Earle and it features songs by her favourite songwriters, including the British singer Thea Gilmore, who is half her age.

Joan Baez, the queen of America’s folk scene in the Sixties, says she has ’never really been a songwriter’ (Source: TimesOnline)

"Steve's so like me in a lot of ways," says Baez, who holds herself in a poised way that has a tinge of therapy about it (she underwent a lot of it in the Eighties) and reveals an awareness of her status as a diva, albeit one that would rather see the poor clothed and fed than swathe herself in diamonds. "We share the same beliefs, although he's so left of me that I call him Mr Pinko, and there's something about his gruffness and my voice that gels."

Baez is a good advertisement for not getting caught up in stardom. Born to a liberal Quaker family in 1941, she'd already lived in France , Italy and Iraq by the time her Mexican father, a physicist who worked for Unesco, and Scottish mother settled down in Boston when she was 17. It was only a year later that she was thrust into fame after a triumphant appearance at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival. Her first album was already out by the time a young, hungry and extremely ambitious Bob Dylan hit Greenwich Village in 1961.

For a brief moment in the early Sixties Dylan and Baez were the king and queen of the folk movement, the perfect couple to lead the young of America towards a new consciousness. But while Baez stuck to cover versions and causes, Dylan took off on a poetic journey all his own, hitching on the coat-tails of Baez's fame and then leaving her behind to become the foremost songwriter of the 20th century.

"I've never really been a songwriter," Baez says of the path she's taken. "Steve Earle wrote a song for me called I Am a Wanderer that expresses a sentiment I relate to far better than anything I could write."

These days, the warbling falsetto that Baez brought to We Shall Overcome and Babe I'm Gonna Leave You in the Sixties has been deepened by age, but she's still using the songs to get across her core messages of pacifism, social responsibility and, for the first time, party allegiance, saying of her endorsement of Barack Obama: "For years I chose not to engage in party politics. At this time, however, changing that posture feels like the responsible thing to do."

Her strident sincerity is something that doesn't always sit well with audiences as radical politics fall in and out of fashion. "After 9/11 nobody wanted to hear anything bad about America ," says Baez, growing animated as she enters into political territory. "Nobody loves a war better than the President, and a few years ago it got to the point where if I said anything I truly believed about the Iraq war or global warming during a concert, people would get up and leave. That's fine with me. Actually, it's a badge of honour."

Baez is used to hostility. One senses that she thrives on it. At school in California she upset teachers by refusing to leave class during a bomb drill, reasoning that if the school was to be nuked, running outside would hardly do anyone much good. Later, as a teenage folk singer she would stop singing and glower at anyone who dared to talk during one of her performances. She and her first husband, David Harris, served jail sentences for their resistance to the Vietnam War (he refused the draft; she refused to pay a portion of her taxes to the war effort). It's no surprise that the rebirth of her career coincided with an increasing dissatisfaction with the Bush presidency and its foreign policy.

"Little by little it became clear that Bush was bizarre - and dangerous," she says. "I would do concerts where I would see people in the audience sitting with their arms crossed, looking angry as I said: ‘I was right 40 years ago and I am right now!' and throw my fist in the air. Now they're listening. Bush's great trick is to suggest that to go against him is to be unpatriotic. Slowly people realised that."

Baez acknowledges that, to her generation at least, she eternally represents the Sixties protest movement. "I'm a part of history," she says with calm resignation. "I represent so much before I've even opened my mouth. But I was more active when I was young, and it's only now that I'm spending time with my family."

Like so many of her contemporaries, Baez put bringing her message of peace to the world before raising kids. When she was divorced from Harris in 1972 their son Gabe went to live with his father, and it's only recently that she has become close to him. "I live with my mother, who is 95, I have a four-year-old grandchild, and it's a turning for me. It's confusing, too - am I really allowed to hang around the home and look after my mom?

"I don't regret what I did in the Sixties, but you can't stay on the biting edge of radicalism all your life. My core beliefs of non-violence haven't changed, but my lifestyle has."

Baez accepts that the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement gave her a purpose, and that when they came to an end she was left floundering. "It's natural," she says with a shrug. "The Vietnamese developed all sorts of neuroses and phobias after the war ended because they were no longer spending every day in the heightened state that comes with not knowing if you're going to be killed or not. When the war ended a lot of us lost direction. I certainly did."

It's also taken Baez a long time to relax and actually enjoy herself. She was, by her own admission, "far too neurotic" to appreciate early fame, and her image as an overly earnest Virgin Mary figure worked against her as the concerned citizenship of the counterculture gave way to hippy experimentation in the late Sixties. "I had this great fear of going commercial. As a result of becoming well-known at such a young age I was afraid of the wider world. But I did also have deeply held beliefs that I clung on to tenaciously. The big event was meeting Martin Luther King in 1956 at a Quaker seminar. That pretty much shaped the direction my life took."

In 1963 Baez was given the job of driving King and Jesse Jackson from an airport to a march. "They laughed all the time and told racist jokes about themselves, and I realised that nobody could see that side of them. They had to be seen as serious, and I related to that. We got to a restaurant and I asked them: ‘Don't you have a big march to organise?' They said: ‘We just have.' You get a public image that you have to live up to but your private reality is often very different."

After years of being written off as an unsmiling anachronism, Joan Baez is relevant once more. She thrives on political and economic tension - such as now. "At times of great uncertainty music and politics are fused," she says. "I would never have sung We Shall Overcome to an American audience during the Eighties because it would have been a nostalgia trip. Now it's appropriate again because it's relevant. I'm happiest when that happens."

© 2008 Times Online

 

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center , 325 E. 25th St. , Baltimore , MD 21218 .  Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at]verizon.net

 

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

 

US tries to cover up torture

There are 148 days until Jan. 20, 2009.

 

t r u t h o u t | 08.28

http://www.truthout.org/article/us-warns-uk-against-releasing-information-torture-case

 

US Warning to Court in Alleged Torture Case

Thursday 28 August 2008

 

by: Duncan Campbell, The Guardian UK

 

    The US State Department yesterday warned that disclosure of secret information in the case of a British resident said to have been tortured before he was sent to Guantanamo Bay would cause "serious and lasting damage" to security relations between the countries.

 

    Stephen Mathias, a legal adviser to the department, also claimed that the "national security of the UK " would be affected by disclosure of the details of the detention and interrogation of Binyam Mohamed, 30, who is accused of conspiring with al-Qaida.

 

    Lawyers for the Ethiopian national have been arguing in the high court that they should have access to details of his interrogation from the time he was detained in 2002 until he was taken to Guantanamo Bay - where he is still held - in 2004. Mohamed claims that he was tortured by, among other methods, having his penis cut with a razor blade.

 

    In an email to the Foreign Office, which was read out to the court, Mathias said disclosure would cause "serious and lasting damage to the US-UK intelligence-sharing relationship and thus the national security of the UK ".

 

    Ben Jaffey, for Mohamed, told the court that the US had said 44 documents would be made available to the "convening authority" in the US which will decide on Mohamed's prosecution but not to his legal representatives, Lieutenant Colonel Yvonne Bradley and Clive Stafford-Smith, of Reprieve, although both had been security-cleared in the US .

 

    Jaffey said there was "no movement on the central question - where was Mr Mohamed between 2002 and 2004?" Tim Eicke, for the government, said the US had made concessions by making documents available to the convening authority.

 

    After hearing from both sides in open court, the judges retired to hear further arguments in private. No decision was made last night but a ruling is expected tomorrow.

 

    Mohamed, a UK resident, was initially held in Pakistan in 2002 and was later secretly rendered to Morocco, where he claimed that he was tortured and had his penis lacerated while further threats were made. He was then flown by the US authorities to Afghanistan , where he claims he was subjected to further ill-treatment and interrogation. In September 2004, he was taken to Guantanamo Bay . He claims that all his confessions were a result of torture. He faces the death penalty.

 

    Last week, in the initial hearing of the case, the high court found that MI5 had participated in the unlawful interrogation of Mohamed. One MI5 officer was so concerned about incriminating himself that he initially declined to answer questions from the judges, even in private.

 

    Although the judges said that "no adverse conclusions" should be drawn by the plea against self-incrimination, it was disclosed that the officer, Witness B, was questioned about alleged war crimes, including torture.

 

    David Miliband, the foreign secretary, has provided the US with documents about the case. He has declined to release further evidence, arguing that disclosure would harm the intelligence relationship with the US .

 

Click to SUBSCRIBE -> http://www.truthout.org/content/subscribe

 

Baltimore Activist Alert - Part 2

25] Peace vigil in Chester , PA – Aug. 30

26] Peace vigil at Capitol – Aug. 30

27] Westminster peace vigil – Aug. 30

28] Olney vigil to end the war – Aug. 30                                                                      

29] African Service – Aug. 31                           

30] Bridge peace vigil – Aug. 31

31] Peace Walk in D.C. – Aug. 31                                

32] Red Emma’s needs volunteers – Aug. 31

33] Pentagon vigil – Sept. 1

34] War Is Not the Answer vigil – Sept. 2

35] Marc Steiner on WEAA – Sept. 3

36] Peace vigil in Philadelphia – Sept. 3

37] Peace vigil in W. Mount Airy , PA – Sept. 3

38] Peace vigil in Chestnut Hill , PA – Sept. 3

39] Pax Christi Montgomery meeting – Sept. 3

40] WIB Peace Stand – Sept. 4

41] Israel/Palestine roundtable – Sept. 4

42] First Thursday protest of the war – Sept. 4

43] Help plan for Winter Soldier – Sept. 4

44] Pax Christi Montgomery meeting – Sept. 4

45] WIB Frederick peace vigil – Sept. 5

46] Death penalty hearings – Sept. 5 & Sept. 22

47] Mass for labor – Sept. 6

48] Flea market – Sept. 6

49] Land and Promise conference – Sept. 7

50] Discussion on racism and labor – Sept. 7

51] Death penalty demonstration – Sept. 8

52] Pledge of Resistance meeting – Sept. 8

53] Peace Center meeting in Frederick – Sept. 8

54] Single payer study session – Sept. 8

55] BGE rate hikes meeting – Sept. 9

56] Death penalty meeting – Sept. 9

57] Peace Path – Sept. 11

58] Film Occupation 101 – Sept. 19

59] MUPJ conference – April 4, 2009

60] War Is Not the Answer signs for sale

61] Sign on to impeachment petition  

62] Little Friends for Peace Summer Camps

63] Become a member of the Washington Peace Center

64] Click on The Hunger Site  

65] Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil needs volunteers

---------

25] – Each Saturday, 11 AM – 1 PM, Chester County Peace Movement holds a peace vigil in West Chester in front of the Chester County Courthouse, High & Market Sts. This vigil has been the target of counter-demonstrators and harassment from the " Chester County Victory Movement" but has grown and persisted.  Go to www.ccpeace.org.

26] – There will be a peace vigil on the West Lawn of the Capitol at noon on Sat., Aug. 30. Look for the blue banner with the message, "Seek Peace and Pursue It. --Psalms 34:14." The vigil lasts one hour and is silent except when one responds to the occasional questions. Go tohttp://www.quaker.org/langleyhill/seekpeace.htm or email seekpeacevigil@yahoo.com.

27] – Westminster WIB holds a vigil the last Saturday of the month. On Aug. 30 meet at 2 PM in front of the library on Main St. Please wear black, everyone welcome at all stands, signs provided. Contact wibwestminster@mizmail.com.

 

28] – Friends House, 17715 Meeting House Rd., Sandy Spring, MD 20860, hosts a peace vigil every Saturday, 3:15 to 4:15 PM, on the corner of Rt. 108 and Georgia Ave. in Olney, MD.  The next vigil is Aug. 30. Call 301-774-9792.

 

29] –  On Sun., Aug. 31, the KALAFONG AME CHURCH invites you to a Prayer for Africa at 11 AM at the HISPANIC SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST DAY CHUCH, 5100 Edmondson Ave., Baltimore 21229.   Contact Rev. Dr. Duane Rawlings at realministr@aol.com.  Go towww.orgsites.com\md\kalafong-ame-mission-church/index.html.

30] – Maryland Bridges for Peace welcomes you to stand for peace Sundays from noon (or thereabouts) to 1 PM on the Spa Creek Bridge in Annapolis .  Contact Lucy at 410-263-7271 or mdbridgesforpeace@toadmail.com. Signs are not allowed to be on a stick or pole.   If there is interest, people will be standing on the Stoney Creek Bridge on Fort Smallwood Road in Pasadena [410-437-5379 or magicalgodmom@aol.com]. Go tohttp://BridgePeace.blogspot.com/.  

31] – Join the weekly Peace Walk on the Mall at 4 PM on Sun., Aug. 31 starting at the WWII Memorial ( 17th St .).  Northern Virginians for Peace and Justice do this weekly Peace Walk on the Mall from the World War II Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial and back via Constitution and Independence Aves. Contact Ken at kiask@comcast.net.

 

32] – Red Emma’s needs volunteers.  Stop in to the weekly Sunday meeting at 7 PM at 800 St. Paul St. or email info@redemmas.org.  The next meeting is Aug. 31. Call 410-230-0450.

33] – There is a weekly Pentagon Peace Vigil from 7 to 8 AM on Mondays, since 1987, outside the Pentagon Metro stop.  The next vigil is Mon., Sept. 1, and it is sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker.  Call 202-882-9649.

34] – There is a vigil to say "War Is Not the Answer" each Tuesday since September 11, 2001 at 4806 York Road . Join this ongoing vigil. The next vigil is Sept. 2 from 5:30 to 6:30 PM. 

 

35] – The Marc Steiner Show is back on Wed., Sept. 3 at 9 AM on WEAA 88.9 FM, The Voice of the Community.  During the summer, the hour-long show will continue each Wednesday.  And in Fall 2008, the show will begin broadcasting daily Monday through Friday.  The call-in number is 410-319-8888, and comments can also be sent by email steinershow@gmail.com.

 You can listen to interviews by Steiner through his Center for Emerging Media podcasts. To hear the interviews, emailJessica@centerforemergingmedia.com.  

36] – Each Wednesday from 4:30 - 5:30 PM, the House of Grace Catholic Worker holds a weekly vigil for peace in Iraq outside the Phila. Federal Building , 6th & Market Sts. The next vigil is Sept. 3. Call 215-426-0364.

37] – Each Wednesday in clear weather, there is a peace vigil from 5 to 6 PM outside the Unitarian Society of Germantown, 6511 Lincoln Drive (between Wayne & Hortter) in West Mount Airy, PA. The next vigil is Sept. 3. Call 215-843-4256 or email nwgreens@yahoo.com.

38] – Each Wednesday, there is a peace vigil from 7 to 8 PM outside the Borders Book Store, Germantown Ave. at Bethlehem Pike in Chestnut Hill, PA. The next vigil is Sept. 3.  Call 215-843-4256 or email nwgreens@yahoo.com.

 

39] – There will be a Pax Christi Montgomery meeting on Wed., Sept. 3 at 7:30 PM at Resurrection Parish, 3315 Greencastle Rd., Burtonsville , MD.    Contact Sister Rita Ricker at 301-236-5200, ext. 22 or rricker@resurrectionadw.org.

 

40] – There is a WIB peace stand on Thurs., Sept. 4, noon-1PM in Towson at northwest corner of Washington & Chesapeake Aves., across the street from the post office, near the courthouse. Contact mbrainzo@aol.com . This vigil takes place on the first Thursday of the month

 

41] – On Thurs., Sept. 4, the WEEKLY ROUNDTABLE SEEKING A JUST PEACE IN PALESTINE/ISRAEL takes place from 12:30 - 1:30 PM at Potter's House, 1658 Columbia Road NW, WDC.  Join a civil discourse which explores the history, issues, myths, realities, and truth of the conflict between Israel and Palestine . Contact Alice Azzouzi at 202-232-5483.

42] – The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore hosts an End the War! End the Occupation! rally on Thurs., Sept. 4 starting at 5 PM in Mount Vernon at Centre & Charles Sts.  The Pledge gathers in Mount Vernon on the first Thursday of the month to protest the war.  Call Max at 410-366-1637.

43] – You are invited by the Ft. Meade Chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) to a coalition planning meeting on Thurs., Sept. 4 at 7 PM at the AFSC at 4806 York Rd.  The purpose is to organize a Winter Soldier: Baltimore event for mid-October, so antiwar and social justice groups in the Baltimore area are welcome to participate in the planning.  See http://ivaw.org/wintersoldier andhttp://blip.tv/file/961234 for videos of other Winter Soldier events.

44] – There is a Pax Christi Montgomery meeting on Thurs., Sept. 4 at 7:30 PM at St. Francis of Assisi, 6701 Muncaster Mill Road, Derwood, MD.  Contact Charles McCarthy at 301- 840-1407 or cmccarthy@sfadw.org.  

45] – WIB Frederick holds a silent vigil mourning all violence, the first Friday of the month, from 12 to 12:30 PM, War Memorial Park, W 2nd St. & N. Bentz in Frederick. The next vigil is Sept. 5.  Please dress in black; no additional signs. Men are welcome.  Contact: 301 834-7581 or info@wibfrederick.org; www.wibfrederick.org. 

46] – The Maryland Commission on the Death Penalty is starting to hold a series of hearings.  The next will be on Fri., Sept.  5 at 3 PM in Annapolis in the Joint Hearing Room of the Legislative Services Building , 90 State Circle .  Another meeting is scheduled for Mon., Sept. 22.  Benjamin R. Civiletti is the chair.  Contact Rachel Philofsky, Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention at 410-821-2828.  Go tohttp://www.governor.maryland.gov/pressreleases/080710b.asp or http://www.mdcase.org/.

47] – There will be a mass for the Blessing of Human Labor on Sat., Sept. 6 at 5:15 PM at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, 400 Michigan Ave., NE, WDC 20017.  During the mass, the Msgr. George Higgins Award will be presented.

 

48] – Don’t forget the Station North Artists Flea Market on Sat., Sept. 6  (and every 1st Saturday) from 9 AM to 2 PM at the Howard Street Bridge - 100 block of North Avenue in the Station North Arts & Entertainment district.  Vendors will be selling mid-century modern and post modern maybes.  Plus there will be the usual casual junk, precious fake jewels and more than a few useful items you didn’t think you needed.  Go tohttp://www.loadoffun.net/FleamarketVendor.html or call David at 410-962-7075.

49] – Land and Promise: Jewish and Lutheran Perspectives on Israel/The Holy Land takes place on Sun., Sept. 7 from 2:30 to 8:30 PM at the Cafritz Conference Center at GWU, 800 21st NW.  Exit on the Metro at foggy Bottom/GWU.

This conference will explore the differences and the practical implications that arise from them, as well as suggest possible ways to achieve mutual understanding. Register at http://www.jewishlutheranconference.eventbrite.com/.

50] – There will be a talk, Racism as a Means of Controlling Labor, on Sun., Sept. 7 from 4 to 6 PM at Busboys and Poets, 14th and V Sts., NW WDC.  Racism has long served U.S. elites as a means of sowing division among working people who collectively have the power to upset the corporate order. The 4-month series 'Finding Common Ground' is sponsored by Busboys and Poets, the DC Alliance for Immigrant Justice, and the Metro D.C. Interfaith Sanctuary Network. Call 202-974-8224.  

51] – There is usually a vigil to abolish the death penalty every Monday from 5 to 6 PM, outside the prison complex and across the street from Maryland’s death row, at the corner of Madison Ave. and Fallsway in Baltimore .  The next vigil, however, is scheduled for Mon., Sept. 8.  Call 410-233-0488.

 

52] – The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore usually meets every Monday.  However, the next meeting is on Mon., Sept. 8 at 7:30 PM at the AFSC, 4806 York Road .  Discuss the response to the State Police spy scandal, the NSA and upcoming protests against the war. Call Max at 410-366-1637.

 

53] – There will be a meeting of the Frederick Peace Resource Center on Mon., Sept. 8 at 7:30 PM at 4 East Church St. Call Gus Fahey at 301-663-6117.

 

54] – On Mon., Sept. 8 at 7:30 PM at St. John's United Methodist Church , St. Paul St. at 27th St. , there will be the eighth study session on what a single payer health insurance system could look like in the U.S. The study will continue on the first Monday of each month.  The topic and presentation will be the same. Go to www.mdsinglepayer.org. Call 410-467-7756.  There is single payer legislation HR 676 whose principal sponsor is Congressman John Conyers of Michigan . Go to www.healthcare-now.org. There are also single payer bills in many state legislatures, including Maryland . Go to www.mlis.state.md.us/2008rs/billfile/HB1125.htm.

 

55] – The Maryland Coalition to Stop the BGE Rate Hikes are next meeting on Tues., Sept. 9 at 6:30 PM at the Orleans Street library, across from Sojourner Douglas .  The group is gearing up to lobby the Maryland Legislature in 2009.

 

Then the group will meet on Thurs., Sept. 25 at 6 PM at the Hamilton Library, the corner of Harford and Old Harford Rds.   One item of discussion at both meetings is a flea market/bake sale on Sept. 21 to raise funds for a class action lawsuit.  Another agenda item will be a candlelight vigil on Oct. 26 outside BGE, 750 E. Pratt St . 

 

56] – The next meeting of the Baltimore Coalition Against the Death Penalty will be Tues., Sept. 9 at 7 PM at AFSC, 4806 York Road.   Because of the breaking news that Maryland State Police were spying on peace activists and opponents of the death penalty, the group will review ways of taking advantage of the situation.  Also to be discussed will be the hearings held by the commission to study the state’s death penalty.  Call 410-488-6767 or 443-838-3221.

 

57] – The 7^th annual Peace Path will form along Charles Street from Fort Avenue south of the Inner Harbor to the Beltway from 4 PM – 6 PM on Thurs., Sept. 11. For Peace Path lawn signs (with the date and time on one side and “Peace is Patriotic” on the other) or “Peace Hon” bumper stickers, please contact Women In Black at peacepath911@yahoo.com or 410.467.9114.  Please let WIB know where you plan to stand.   Go to www.peacepath911.org. 

58] – The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee is hosting its latest FILM & SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS VIDEO SERIES.  The first film, OCCUPATION 101: Voice of the Silenced majority [ U.S. , 2007], will be shown Fri., Sept. 19 at AFSC, 4806 York Road [three blocks north of Cold Spring Lane ].  Doors open at 7 PM, and the video starts at 7:30 PM.  There is no charge, and refreshments will be available.  Call 410-366-1637.

 This documentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is directed by Sufyan and Abdallah Omeish, and narrated by If Americans Knew founder Alison Weir. The film looks at the rise of Zionism, the Second Intifada and Israel 's disengagement plan, and presents its case through dozens of interviews. It questions the nature of Israeli-American relations. Specifically, it questions the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza , and whether Americans should help pay for it. It includes interviews with scholars, religious leaders, humanitarian workers and NGO's critical of the injustices and human rights abuses that stem from the occupation.

 

59] – The 24th annual Maryland Peace and Justice conference has been set for April 4, 2009 at the Church of the Resurrection in Burtonsville, MD, easily accessible off of Rt. 29. Please put the date on your calendar and try not to schedule any other major events on that day. Thanks so much for your cooperation, and the organizers hope to see you there!  Call Paulette at 410-747-3811.

60] – WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER signs from Friends Committee on National Legislation are again for sale at $5.  To purchase a sign, call Max at 410-366-1637.

61] – Sign on to the impeachment petition at www.kucinich.us.  "Impeachment" DOES NOT MEAN removal from office.  Impeachment is a formal filing of charges.  The Judiciary Committee investigates the misconduct and sends a report to the House of Representatives, with specific articles of Impeachment. A vote in the House in favor of the Articles of Impeachment is similar to the process of indictment. The person impeached would then be subject to a trial in the US Senate. It takes a two-thirds vote in the Senate for conviction.  Removal occurs only upon conviction.

 

62] – MJ and Jerry Parks will be holding area summer peace camps again this year.  The Parks have trained thousands of children and adults since 1981 when they founded Little Friends for Peace to teach non-violence skills to children.  So if you know of any children who might benefit from a camp, or if you are an adult interested in sharing your peace story with a group of campers this year, contact MJ and Jerry.  Climb aboard the Peace Train at http://www.lffp.org/. They can be reached at 4405 29th St., Mt. Rainier MD 20712. Call 240-838-4549 or email mjpeace@gmail.com.

 

63] – Become an active member of the Washington Peace Center , which is now located at 1233 12th St. NW .  All members are granted voting rights and are invited to join one or more of our many working groups. Members are asked to pay suggested annual dues of 25 dollars, or volunteer. Email wpc@igc.org - subject "membership.” The mailing address is The Washington Peace Center, P.O. Box 50032 , WDC 20019-0032 . Call 202-234-2000. Subscribe at www.washingtonpeacecenter.org.  Send donations to The Washington Peace Center.

 

64] – The Hunger Site was initiated by Mercy Corps and Second Harvest, and is funded entirely by advertisers.  You can go there every day and click the big yellow "Give Food for Free" button near the top of the page; you do not have to look at the ads. Each click generates funding for about 1.1 cups of food.  So consider clicking.  

65] – Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil takes place every day in Lafayette Park, 1601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 24 hours a day, since June 3, 1981.  Go to http://prop1.org; call 202-682-4282.

Vigilers are needed at the White House.  The Proposition One Committee, which has maintained the 24/7 anti-nuclear peace vigil outside the White House since 1981, requests help from D.C.’s peace and justice community during the month of August. Under U.S. Park Service regulations, the signs in Lafayette Park must be wo/manned at all times. Volunteers are sought now who can spend one to four hours (during evenings, between 5 and 11 PM) with the signs in front of the White House, on either an occasional or regular basis. Meet and talk peace with American and International tourists, stand vigil against war and against nuclear weapons, and become part of the longest uninterrupted vigil in the country and a front line of defense for the First Amendment! Those who recognize the contributions to peace by Thomas and Concepcion over the last 27 years are especially asked to respond. Call Ellen at 202-682-4282 or Jay at 202-234-2000.

Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 East 25^th St. Baltimore , MD 21218 Ph: 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski [at] Verizon.net.

 

"One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible. It may or may not be possible to turn the US around through nonviolent revolution. But one thing favors such an attempt: the total inability of violence to change anything for the better" - Daniel Berrigan