Baltimore Activist Alert

Baltimore Activist Alert May 30 – June 4, 2011

 

"I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours.

The initiative to stop it must be ours." -Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Friends, this list and other email documents which I send out are done under the auspices of the Baltimore Nonviolence Center.  Go to www.baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com.  If you appreciate this information and would like to make a donation, send contributions to BNC, 325 East 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218.  Max Obuszewski can be reached at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski [at] verizon.net.

 

The Baltimore IndyMedia Center publicizes peace-related events. Go to http://www.radicalendar.org/group/_baltimore.

  

1] Books, buttons and stickers

2] Web site for info on federal legislation

3] Join Nonviolent Resistance lists  

4] Buy coffee through HoCoFoLA  

5] Used stamps for humanitarian causes

6] Bring the World Home continues        

7] Art Along the Trials – through Sept. 3

8] Marc Steiner on WEAA – May 30 – June 2

9] March on Blair Mountain -- May 30

10] Transforming Christianity – May 30 – June 2

11] War Is Not the Answer demo – May 31

12] Film class – May 31

13] Wayne Pacelle at Barnes & Noble -- May 31    

14] Conference of Mayors planning – May 31

15] Reuse & Repurposing – May 31

16] Torture Awareness Month -- June

17] Philadelphia peace vigil – June 1

18] Preventing Torture – June 1  

19] Chestnut Hill, PA vigil – June 1

20] Dangerous Untruths – June 1

21] Palestine/Israel discussions – June 2

 

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1] – Buttons, bumperstickers and books are available.  "God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions" stickers are in stock. Donate your books to Max. Call him at 410-366-1637.

 

2] – To obtain information how your federal legislators voted on particular bills, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/.  Congressional toll-free numbers are 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 or 800-426-8073. The White House Comment Email is accessible at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.

3] – THE ORGANIZING LIST will be the primary decision-making mechanism of the National Campaign of Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR].  It will be augmented by conference calls and possibly in-person meetings as needed.  It will consist of 1 or 2 representatives from each local, regional, or national organization (not coalitions) that wishes to actively work to carry out the NCNR campaign of facilitating and organizing nonviolent resistance to the war in Iraq.

 

To join the ORGANIZING List, please send your name, group affiliation, city and email address to donmuller@msn.com.  Different local chapters of a national organization are encouraged to subscribe.  

 

THE NOTICES LIST will include only notices of NCNR actions and related information and is open to any interested person to subscribe.  It will be moderated to maintain focus & will include periodic notices about getting involved in NCNR national organizing.  To join the NOTICES List, send an email message to ncnrnotices-subscribe@lists.riseup.net. You will get a confirmation message once subscribed.  If you have problems, please write to the list manager at ncnrnotices-admin@lists.riseup.net.

 

4] – You can help safeguard human rights and fragile ecosystems through your purchase of HOCOFOLA Café Quetzal. Bags of ground coffee or whole beans can be ordered by mailing in an order form. Also note organic cocoa and sugar are for sale.  For more details and to download the order form, go to http://friendsoflatinamerica.typepad.com/hocofola/2010/02/hocofola-cafe-quetzal-order-form-2010.html. The coffee comes in one-pound bags.

 

Fill out the form and mail it with a check made out to HOCOFOLA on or before the second week of the month.  Be sure you indicate ground or beans for each type of coffee ordered.  Send it to Adela Hirsch, 5358 Eliots Oak Rd., Columbia, MD 21044.  Be sure you indicate ground (G) or bean (B) for each type of coffee ordered. The coffee will arrive some time the following week and you will be notified where to pick it up.  Contact Adela at 410-997-5662 or via e-mail at adela4peace@verizon.net.

 

5] – Brad Hathaway spearheads an effort to sell donated used stamps to raise money for different humanitarian causes around the world. Go to www.mattapoisettquakers.org, and click the link for the stamp ministry.  Carefully clip canceled postage stamps and send to Quaker Missions, PO Box 795, Mattapoisett, MA 02739. Send no small flag stamps or Liberty Bell Forever stamps.

 

6] – Catch the "Bringing the World Home" exhibit in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps!  The exhibit is in the UMBC Library Rotunda through the end of the semester and consists of 5 display cases featuring photos and artifacts from UMBC's faculty, staff and students who have served in the Peace Corps, including many current and alumni Shriver Peaceworker Fellows.  The center case features pieces from the Peace Corps founding era (a tribute to Sarge Shriver!) and the surrounding case highlight experiences from Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, and the Americas.  If you are coming from off campus, give Joby Taylor a call at (410) 455-6398, and he will give you a tour.

 

7] – Art Along the Trails continues at Carrie Murray Nature Center Leakin/Gwynne Falls Park, 1901 Ridgetop Road, Baltimore, MD 21207.  The exhibit is up through Sept. 3.

 

8] – The Marc Steiner Show airs Monday through Thursday from 5 to 7 PM on WEAA 88.9 FM, The Voice of the Community, or online at www.weaa.org.   The call-in number is 410-319-8888, and comments can also be sent by email to steinershow@gmail.com. All shows are also available as podcasts at www.steinershow.org.   

 

9] – On Mon., May 30 at 7 PM @ Red Emma's, 800 St. Paul St., get over to March on Blair Mountain Info Night.  In 1921, after two decades of intense labor struggles against inhuman living and working conditions, miserly wages and fierce anti-union repression, around 10,000 armed coal miners in West Virginia rose up against the coal bosses. They marched over 50 miles together and fought what came to be known as the "Battle of Blair Mountain," a largely erased chapter of U.S. history. Now, 90 years later, Blair Mountain threatens to be cancelled from the landscape by mountaintop removal coal mining. To keep this memory alive and to save Blair Mountain, with its rich historical legacy, standing, there will be a five-day March from June 6 to 10, culminating in a mass rally and action on June 11. Join D.C. area March mobilizers to learn more about the action and to watch a documentary video of the 1921 labor battle. Call 410-230-0450 or info@redemmas.org.

10] – On Tues., May 31 through Thurs., June 2, the 4th Annual Conference "Transforming Christianity" will take place at College of Notre Dame in Baltimore.  René Girard is one of the most exciting Christian thinker to emerge at the end of the 20th century.  In a world piled high with the machinery of violence, and in an era when traditional theology struggles to find a coherent voice, Girard's radical bible-inspired anthropology offers a dramatic new reading of revelation. Rather than teaching the abstract character of God, he sees the bible as a progressive disclosure of the victim at the core of human culture. And hand in hand with that it becomes the divine in-breaking of a nonviolent way of human living rather than a flight ticket to another world. Theology and Peace is a conference organization dedicated to the development and spread of this theology. Speakers include Brian McLaren, Michael Hardin and Suzanne Ross.  Go to http://www.theologyandpeace.org/conference.html. 

11] – 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 May 31 from 5:30 to 6:30 PM.  Call Max at 410-366-1637.

 

12] – At the Baltimore Free School, 1323 N. Calvert St. from 6 to 9 PM on Tues., May 31, Ben McCusker will continue with his film screening and discussion class.  Go to www.freeschool.redemmas.org. 

13] – A Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the Humane Society of the United States will discuss and sign copies of his book THE BOND: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them on Tues., May 31 at 7 PM at the Johns Hopkins Barnes and Noble, 3330 St. Paul St. Call 410-662-6850. 

14] – The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore usually meets on Mondays at 7:30 PM, and the meetings now take place at Max's residence. However, Pledge members are part of the Fund Our Communities Task Force for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which will meet on Tues., May 31 at 7 PM at Max's house to continue to plan for the gathering in Baltimore June 17-21. Call Max at 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at verizon.net for directions. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake & the Baltimore City Council passed a resolution to cut military spending in order to fund our communities.  Now we must get the resolution passed at the Conference, as well as an anti-nuclear weapons resolution.

15] – On Tues., May 31 from  7 to 10 PM, the Emergence Community Arts Collective, 733 Euclid St. NW, WDC 20001, invites you hear a talk Reuse and Repurposing with Katherine Nehring of a World Without Waste.  Learn about reuse and repurposing of common household goods. She'll be talking about what she's learned, both from a conference on the subject and as an owner of a business that does just this!  Contact Espy at storminvestments@msn.com or 202 498-1578. Donations will be accepted, but no one will be turned away.

16] – June is Torture Awareness Month, and the lead organization is National Religious Coalition Against Torture. Go to http://www.nrcat.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=298&Itemid=219

 

17] – 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 June 1. Call 215-426-0364.

 

18] – On Wed., June 1 at 6:30 PM, there will be a panel discussion - Accountability Today - Preventing Torture Tomorrow at Lutheran Church of the Reformation, 212 E Capitol St., WDC 20003, hosted by Alliance For Justice and many other organizations.  The closest Metro stops are Capitol South and Union Station.  Nearly ten years since the beginning of the so-called "War on Terror," not a single victim of the Bush Administration's torture program has had their day in court or received any meaningful redress from the U.S. Both the White House and Congress have opposed efforts to establish a Commission of Inquiry and any independent criminal investigation into torture. Moreover, the U.S. has opposed every civil action brought against U.S. officials, shutting the courthouse doors to victims of torture and other serious U.S. violations of international law. Meanwhile, several countries have initiated their own investigations related to U.S.-sponsored torture, isolating the United States in its failure to investigate torture crimes.  The keynote speaker is JUAN E. MÉNDEZ, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, and a torture survivor.  The panelists are AMRIT SINGH, senior legal officer for the National Security and Counterterrorism program, Open Society Justice Initiative; KATHERINE GALLAGHER, senior staff attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights.  RSVP to june1.dcevent@gmail.com or 202-547-1920. At 6 PM, there will be a reception.  And at 8 PM, there will be a closing reception with live musical performance by Advocates for Survivors of Torture and Trauma. 

 

19] – Each Wednesday, the Northwest Greens hold 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 June 1. Call 215-843-4256 or email nwgreens@yahoo.com.  

 

20] - Dangerous Untruths: Climate Change 2011 will be unpacked by Dr. Forrest Hall on Wed., June 1 at 7 PM at the Electronics Museum, 1745 West Nursery Road.  Tickets are $10, and students pay $5.  Call 410-765-0230.

 

21] – The WEEKLY ROUNDTABLE SEEKING A JUST PEACE IN PALESTINE/ISRAEL takes place from 12:30 - 1:30 PM on Thursdays 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.

 

To be continued