Baltimore Activist Alert - Part 4

71] Increase tobacco tax -- Mar. 7

72] Amazon Watch talk/fundraiser -- Mar. 7

73] Underground Railroad talk -- Mar. 7

74] Philadelphia peace vigil – Mar. 7

75] Future of Occupy – Mar. 7

76] Attack Iran? – Mar. 7

77] Film LOST IN DETENTION – Mar. 7

78] Future of Food -- Mar. 7

79] French film at 2640 – Mar. 7

80] Green Currency Meeting -- Mar. 7

81] Chestnut Hill peace vigil – Mar. 7

82] Voices of Experience – Mar. 7

83] Danish nonviolence – Mar. 7 & 8

84] African Films Festival – Mar. 8 - 12

85] Bill Barry's teaching a course on the 30s – Mar. 8

86] Film CONNECTED – Mar. 8

87] Eco Film Festival party – Mar. 8

88] Crusade 2.0 -- Mar. 8

89] Windows & Mirrors – Mar. 8

90] John Dear is speaking -- Mar. 8

91] THE EXONERATED -- Mar. 8 - 10

92] Film OF GODS AND MEN – Mar. 8

93] Wind power forum -- Mar. 8

94] Volunteers needed for MUPJ Conference – Apr. 20-21

95] Sign up with Washington Peace Center

96] Join Fund Our Communities 

97] Submit articles to Indypendent Reader 

98] Donate books, videos, DVDs and records

99] Do you need a television and/or a computer?

100] Join Global Zero campaign

101] War Is Not the Answer signs for sale

102] Click on The Hunger Site 

103] Fire & Faith  

104] Seeking students for a peacemaking summit

105] Join Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil

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71] – There is a big week in Annapolis for the Healthy Maryland Initiative.  Gather at noon on Wed., Mar. 7 in Annapolis at Lawyer's Mall.  And then attend hearings on the proposal to raise the tax on tobacco for health care.  Right after the noon event, there will be a hearing on two Senate bills (SB 631 sponsored by Senators Verna Jones-Rodwell and Rich Madaleno, and SB 526 sponsored by Senator Jennie Forehand) at 1 PM before the Senate Budget and Tax Committee. The hearing on the House bill (HB 1153 sponsored by Delegate Eric Luedtke) will be on Fri., Mar. 9 at 1 PM before the House Ways and Means Committee.  If you can testify, please call Deputy Director Matt Celentano at 443-253-7988. If you want Matt to submit your testimony, please email it to Matt at matt@healthcareforall.com.

 

72] – Amazon Watch encourages you to catch Peruvian indigenous leader Daysi Zapata and forestry expert Roberto Espinoza on Wed., Mar. 7 from noon to 1:30 PM for a GREEN BAG PRESENTATION at Amazon Watch/CIEL conference room, 1350 Connecticut Ave. NW, #1100, WDC (south Dupont, above Panera / Cosi). Call-in Number is +1 218-936-4700; access code is 607345.

 

There will be a FUNDRAISER RECEPTION on Wed., Mar. 7 from 6 to 8 PM at Busboys and Poets, Cullen Room, 1025 5th St. NW, WDC (Chinatown/Mt. Vernon Triangle, 5th and K Sts.) RSVP to caitlin@amazonwatch.org. The Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon (AIDESEP) is Peru's largest Amazonian indigenous organization, representing 60 local federations across the rainforest. AIDESEP defends indigenous rights through policy analysis, political advocacy, capacity building, communications, and occasionally grass-roots mobilizations against threats to the communities and their environment.

 

73] – Passage on the Underground Railroad is on exhibit through Thurs., Mar. 22 at the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery, Univ. of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle.  Exhibit hours are Sundays & Saturdays, 1 to 5 PM and Mondays through Wednesdays and Fridays, noon to 4 PM and Thursdays, noon to 8 PM. 

 

Tempe, Arizona-based artist Stephen Marc, tenured professor at the Arizona State Univ. Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, presents a lecture on his work on Mar. 7 at 4 PM in the Albin O Kuhn Library Gallery of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Dr. Marc's work documents his visits to Underground Railroad sites, from which he creates photo-montages combining both historic and new imagery dealing with the African-American experience in American society through the centuries.  Call 410-455-3827 or go to http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/gallery.

 

74] – 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 Mar. 7. Call 215-426-0364.

 

75] – On Wed., Mar. 7 at 5:30 PM, enjoy refreshments and at 6 PM catch a panel discussion on the Future of Occupy at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Labor Research Center, 7th Floor, Suite 702, Gelman Library, 2130 H St. NW, George Washington Univ. Within this last year the Occupy movement has, at its best, served to revitalize left momentum. It has also served to open up conversations about economic injustice. The encampment strategy in particular shifted attention to the importance of public space. Visithttps://www.facebook.com/events/190663267708251/.

 

76] – On Wed., Mar. 7 from 6 to 8:30 PM, hear Elbridge Colby, CAN, Jamie Fly, Foreign Policy Initiative, and Matthew Kroening, Georgetown Univ., address "Time to Attack Iran? U.S. Policy and Iran's Nuclear Program." It is sponsored by the Foreign Policy Initiative. Carnegie Endowment, 1779 Massachusetts Ave. NW, WDC.  RSVP at http://www.foreignpolicyi.org/events#RSVP.

 

77] – On Wed., Mar. 7 from 6 to 7:30 PM in the IPS Conference Room, 1112 16th St. NW, Suite 600, WDC, in honor of International Women's Day, join the IPS project Break the Chain Campaign for a screening of the PBS special "Lost in Detention" and an open audience discussion about the film with a panel of experts who will speak about the intersections of gender and detention in the United States: "Lost in Detention" is Frontline's hour-long documentary highlighting a year-long examination into the Obama administration's strict enforcement of immigration policy. The Obama administration has detained or deported more immigrants than any other administration in the history of the United States. Issues discussed include Secure Communities, detention centers, and the far-reaching implications of the immigration crackdown – for Obama and citizens alike.

 

78] – There is a discussion of the landmark book THE PRINCE'S SPEECH: ON THE FUTURE OF FOOD by Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, on Wed., Mar. 7 at 6:30 PM at The Aspen Institute, 1 Dupont Circle, Suite 700, WDC, featuring Stephen McDonnell, founder & CEO, Applegate Farms, and Robert Lawrence, MD, director, Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, and Josh Viertel, president, Slow Food USA. It will be moderated by Dan Glickman, executive director, Congressional Program, the Aspen Institute, and former United States Secretary of Agriculture.  RSVP is required: rsvp@prcollaborative.com.

 

79] – On Wed., Mar. 7 at 7 PM @ 2640, 27th & St. Paul St., see a screening of "How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman."  After forty years, 1972, the film by legendary Brazilian filmmaker Nelson Pereira dos Santos still remains a dark classic of post-colonial flavor - a Tropicalist allegory rooted in the conquests of the colonial past, the oppressive political realities of the twentieth century, and a cinema bent on devouring both.   As a shipwrecked Frenchman navigates the anthropophagic territories of what is now known as colonial Brazil, he is made a slave, married off, and then fattened up for an upcoming feast prepared by his captors, the Tupinamba.  This screening is presented by JHU's Program in Latin American Studies and Red Emma's.  It is free, but donations to support the space are welcome!   Snacks will be available. Call 410-230--560 or email info@redemmas.org.

 

80] – The Baltimore Green Currency Association meets every Wednesday at 7 PM at Breathe Books, 810 W 36th St. # A, Baltimore, MD 21211-2554.  Call 410-235-7323.

 

81] – 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 Mar. 7. Call 215-843-4256 or email nwgreens@yahoo.com.

 

82] – On Wed., Mar. 7 at 7:30 PM at Grace Gospel Worship Center, 5819 Kirby Road, Clinton, MD, hear with Kirk Bloodsworth & Ricardo Wiggs.  Wiggs and his wife Sharon were shot in their home in Clinton in 1992. Sharon died. Ricardo lived to raise their daughters and has become a leading voice for victims and victim survivors in Maryland. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Maryland Crime Victims Resource Center. "I want to be known as a survivor, not a victim." VOICES of EXPERIENCE events are cosponsored by MD CASE, NCADP and Witness to Innocence.

 

83] – The Peace Studies Program of Goucher College presents Steven M. Borish, ass't professor of Human Development at California St. Univ., East Bay.  He will lecture on Nonviolence and the Rescue of the Danish Jews, 1943 and the Story of the Danish Nonviolent Folk Schools.  The first lecture will take place on Wed., Mar. 7 at 7:30 PM in Kelley Lecture Hall.  The second talk will occur on Thurs., Mar. 8 from 9:30 to 11 PM in Hoffberger Science Building, Room 153.  In Hoffberger learn about the first Folk High School in Denmark in 1844.  The idea was to enlighten the uneducated poor. Email sdawit@goucher.edu.

 

84] – An African Films Festival starts on Thurs., Mar. 8 at noon and concludes on Tues., Mar. 12 at 11 PM.  The location is AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD.  TransAfrica, afrikafé and AFI Silver present the eighth annual New African Films Festival featuring the vibrancy of African filmmaking from all corners of the continent—such as MAMA AFRICA (the story of Miriam Makeba); BORN ON JANUARY 25 (story of the Egyptian uprising); and PEGASUS (2011 winner at Africa's major film fest, FESPACO).  Email info@transafrica.org or call 202-223-1960 ext. 137.

 

85] – Bill Barry is teaching a 3-credit course on the 1930s, covering Black Thursday to Pearl Harbor at CCBC-Essex. It continues on Thurs., Mar. 8 at 5:45 to 8:40 PM.  He sees a lot of comparisons between That Depression and This Depression, and how people and the government responded. See great videos and listen to guest speakers on this period of our history. This is a 3-credit college course but you can audit or just--in the spirit of the 30s--sit in. Anyone over 60 gets free tuition. Email wbarrymd@hotmail.com.

 

86] – There will be a screening and discussion of "connected!" on Thurs., Mar. 8 from 6:30 to 9 PM at the Hoff Theater, Stamp Student Union, Univ. of Maryland.  The event is sponsored by Beyond the Classroom and Global Communities.  Go to WWW.BeyondTheClassroom.umd.edu.

 

87] – Celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the Environmental Film Festival on Thurs., Mar. 8 from 6:30 to 9 PM in the Warner Brother Atrium, 1299 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, @DC.  Entrances are on E St. at 12^th and 13^th Sts..  This is one block from Metro Center. Tickets are $20.  Go to http://www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org/launchparty.

88] – On Thurs., Mar. 8 at 7 PM @ Red Emma's, 800 St. Paul St., discuss John Feffer's book "Crusade 2.0: The West's Resurgent War Against Islam" (March 2012, City Lights). It examines why anti-Islamic sentiment is on the rise and what can be done to stop it. The book focuses on contemporary Islamophobia and discusses three "unfinished wars" that have deeply shaped Western opinion and policy: the Crusades, the Cold War, and the current "war on terror" that continues to dominate U.S. thinking. To end this war against Islam and promote mutual engagement, Feffer suggests the West: Bridge the cultural divide by replacing the "Judeo-Christian" with the broader "Abrahamic" framework that includes Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.  

 

89] – Several of the faith-based organizations in D.C. are co-sponsoring an AFSC exhibit on Afghanistan titled Windows and Mirrors – Reflections on the War in Afghanistan.  The exhibit is hosted in the newly dedicated First Congregational United Church of Christ, located near Metro Center at 945 G St. NW.  The exhibit will be open each Thursday in March from the 1st through the 22nd from 5 to 8 PM.  Each Thursday from 7 to 8 PM, hear a speaker and discussion with policy advocates and people who can shed light on the situation in Afghanistan from various perspectives.  Matt Southworth of FCNL will present on Mar. 8.

 

90] – On Thurs., Mar. 8 at 7 PM, the Church of the Savior Festival Center, 1640 Columbia Road NW, WDC 20009, invites you to an evening with prominent peace activist and author Father John Dear. Dear will share excerpts from his new book Lazarus Come Forth! How Jesus Confronts the Culture of Death and Invites Us into the New Life of Peace.  An author Q+A and book signing will follow, with copies of Lazarus Come Forth! and other of Dear's books available for purchase from The Potter's House. Call 202.328.0072.

 

91] – 

Rain Pryor directs Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's THE EXONERATED, which is about six wrongly convicted death row inmates, starting Thurs., Mar. 8, Fri., Mar. 9 and Sat., Mar. 10 at 7 PM in the Univ. of Baltimore, Performing Arts Theatre, 1420 N. Charles St.  Call 410-837-4053. The price is $15, and seniors pay $10 and students $5.

92] – Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux) will be shown at  

Johns Hopkins as part of the third annual Tournées Festival of Contemporary French Cinema.  The festival will conclude on Thurs., Mar. 8 at 7:39 PM with the story of the dilemma of French Catholic monks facing the rise of fundamentalist violence in an Algerian village. The film shown in Gilman Hall will be followed by a panel discussion with Johns Hopkins faculty members William Egginton, chair of the Department of German and Romance Languages and Literatures, and Kristin Cook-Gailloud, director of the French Language Program.

 

93] – On Thurs., Mar. 8 at 7:30 PM, there will be an emergency meeting Fracking vs. wind in Baltimore.  Learn firsthand of efforts underway in Annapolis to promote offshore wind power and delay and/or ban "fracking" for natural gas.  You'll learn what's happening with key bills and what you can do on the spot and over the next few weeks to express your views to legislators. This meeting will be held in Knott Auditorium, floor level of the Knott Science Center, Notre Dame College of Maryland, 4701 North Charles St., Baltimore MD, 21210.

 

When you enter the Notre Dame College of Maryland campus, turn right and follow signs towards Knott Auditorium. Email climatealert@chesapeakeclimate.org

 

94] – Volunteers are needed to help with the 27th Annual Maryland Peace and Justice Conference to be held on Friday and Saturday, April 20 & 21 at the Episcopal Cathedral Church of the Incarnation, 4 E. University Parkway, Baltimore, 21218. The theme is: "Peacemaking in the 21st century; 25 years of working for peace and justice in Maryland."  Contact Paulette Hammond, secretary, MUPJ, at 410-747-3811 or phamm001@earthlink.net or paulette.d.hammond@questdiagnostics.com.

 

95] – The Washington Peace Center has a progressive calendar & activist alert! Consider signing up to receive its weekly email: info@washingtonpeacecenter.org.

96] – Fund Our Communities campaign – is a new grass roots movement to get support from local organizations and communities to work together with their local and state elected officials to pressure Congresspersons and senators to join with Congresspersons Barney Frank and Ron Paul, who have endorsed a 25% cut to the federal military budget.  Bring home the savings to state and county governments to meet the local needs which are under tremendous budget pressures.  Go to www.OurFunds.org.      

 

97] – The new Indypendent Reader is seeking articles for its web site at http://www.indyreader.org.  Submit an article. 

 

98] – If you would like to get rid of books, videos, DVDs or records, contact Max at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at verizon.net. 

 

99] – Can you use a television set and/or a computer, monitor etc.? Contact Max at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at verizon.net. 

 

100] – Join an extraordinary global campaign for the elimination of nuclear weapons: http://www.globalzero.org/sign-declaration. A growing group of leaders around the world is calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons and a majority of the global public agrees.  This is an historic window of opportunity.  With momentum already building in favor of Zero, a major show of support from people around the world could tip the balance. When it comes to nuclear weapons, one is one too many.  

 

101] – 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.

 

102] – 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.  

 

103] – Go online for FIRE AND FAITH: The Catonsville Nine File. On May 17, 1968, nine people entered the Selective Service Offices in Catonsville, Maryland, and burned draft records in protest against the war in Vietnam. View http://www.prattlibrary.org/digital/.

 

104] – Greetings from the Marquette University Center for Peacemaking. G. Simon Harak S.J., director, is seeking your assistance. The Center for Peacemaking, the Marquette faculty and administrators are committed to supporting students' knowledge and research, especially in the area of peacemaking.  At the Center, "peacemaking" in the broadest sense, means studying the structure and dynamics of conflicts and their consequences (physical, psychological, religious/spiritual, gender, familial, sociological, political, cultural, environmental, etc.), learning and testing the strategies of conflict resolution and their effectiveness in certain types of conflict and finally, working to form sustainable and stable communities where justice is fostered and truth can be pursued, so that peace can flourish.

In light of this goal, Simon requests your help. On March 30, 2012 the Center for Peacemaking will be hosting the Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies' [WIPCS] day-long undergraduate conference on the theme, "Negotiating in a Polarized Society" here at Marquette University's Alumni Memorial Union (AMU). Can you help increase student participation in this conference by a) encouraging students to submit a paper they may have written, b) recommending students submit a project proposal, and c) inviting students to attend? Email peacemaking@marquette.edu.

 

105] – 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.

 

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. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.

 

"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