Baltimore Activist Alert Part 1

Baltimore Activist Alert Feb. 8 – Feb. 14, 2013


"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.



Tune into the Maryland Progressive Blog at http://mdprogblog.org.



1] Books, buttons & stickers

2] Web site for info on federal legislation

3] Join Nonviolent Resistance lists

4] Buy coffee through HoCoFoLa

5] Play, THE MOUNTAINTOP – through Feb. 24

6] Ascension Lutheran Church art exhibit through Feb. 28

7] For All the World to see exhibit – through Mar. 10

8] Thousand Little Brothers exhibit – through Mar. 23

9] White House vigil – Feb. 8

10] WIB Roland Park vigil – Feb. 8

11] Justice for Palestine/Israel vigil – Feb. 8

12] Silent peace vigil – Feb. 8

13] "Palestine Interrupted" – Feb. 8

14] Film "Beneath the Blindfold" – Feb. 8

15] emma’s revolution – Feb. 8

16] "The Vagina Monologues" – Feb. 8-9

17] Ballroom dancing – Feb. 8

18] Stop CIA Killer Drones – Feb. 9

19] Inequality matters – Feb. 9

20] Olney peace vigil – Feb. 9

21] West Chester, PA demo – Feb. 9

22] Silent vigil at Capitol – Feb. 9

-----

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] – See the play, THE MOUNTAINTOP, directed by CENTER STAGE Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah. It features Dr. Martin Luther King at the Lorraine Hotel, on the day before his assassination, when he gains a new perspective from a conversation with a maid. Center Stage is located at 700 N. Calvert St. Ticket prices range from $10 to $56. Call 410-332-0033. The play will be performed through February 24. These are the dates it will be performed: Feb. 1-24, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8 PM; Thursdays, 7 PM; Saturdays & Sundays at 2PM; Feb. 2, 8 PM, Feb. 9, 8 PM, Feb. 10, 7:30 PM, Feb. 13, 1 PM, Feb. 16, 8 PM, & Feb. 23, 8 PM.



6] – Get over to Ascension Lutheran Church art exhibit showing the work of local artists Phyllis Spirt and Shirley Neale. Ring back door for entry. The exhibit will run through Feb.28, Mondays-Fridays, noon to 4 PM at 7601 York Road. Call 410-825-1725 or visit http://www.ascensiontowson.org.



7] – For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights

explores the historic role played by visual images in shaping, influencing, and transforming the fight for civil rights in the United States. The exhibit includes photographs, television and film, magazines, newspapers, posters, books, and pamphlets. The exhibition will continue through Mar. 10. You can see it Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 AM to 5 PM in the UMBC Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, 1000 Hilltop Circle.

8] – Thousand Little Brothers is a multimedia exhibition by Hasan Elahi, a former subject of a post 9/11 FBI investigation. Comprised of over 50,000 images, including some of his financial data, communication records, and transportation logs, Elahi's exhibit comments on current investigatory techniques. The opening reception is on Thurs., Jan. 24 from 6 to 8 PM. The exhibit will continue through March 23, Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 AM to 5 PM at the Maryland Art Place, 8 Market Place, suite 100. Call 410- 962-8565 or visit http://www.MDartplace.org.

9] – A peace vigil takes place every Friday from noon to 1 PM at Lafayette Park facing the White House. Join the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker and friends. Contact Art Laffin: artlaffin@hotmail.com.

10] – There is also a noon Women in Black vigil on Feb. 8at Roland Park Place, 830 W. 40th St. Call 410-467-9114.



11] – A vigil for Justice in Palestine/Israel takes place every Friday from noon to 1 PM at 19th & JFK Blvd., Philadelphia (across from Israeli Consulate. It is sponsored by Bubbies & Zaydes (Grandparents) for Peace in the Middle East. Email cswartz@pil.net. Go to http://phillyjewishpeace.org/.



12] – There is a silent peace vigil on Fri., Feb. 8 from 5 to 6 PM outside Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St. Placards say: "War Is Not the Answer." The silent vigil is sponsored by Homewood Friends and Stony Run Meetings.

13] – There is a new exhibition at the Jerusalem Fund Gallery: "Palestine Interrupted," paintings by Bud Hensgen. The opening reception is on Fri., Feb. 8 from 6 to 8 PM at the Jerusalem Fund Gallery, 2425 Virginia Ave. NW, WDC. Hensgen’s 2011 tour of Palestine culminated in a series of 14 paintings that reflect his impressions on the injustice he found there. The individual paintings stand on their own graphically, but can also be viewed in the context of paired quotations from a variety of sources, such as news stories from the U.S. and abroad, political propaganda, memoirs, journals, human rights documents and his own thoughts. Hensgen’s training in religion and diplomacy, studied for nine years to be a Jesuit priest before joining the U.S. Foreign Service for 23 years, inform his life and artwork. Go to http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/sp/i/9242/pid/9242.

14] – See the film "Beneath the Blindfold" on Fri., Feb. 8 at 7 PM at American U. Washington College of Law, 4801 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Room 602. A panel discussion will follow. The film interweaves the personal stories of four torture survivors who now reside in the U.S., but originally hail from different parts of the globe: South and Central America, Africa, and the U.S. Filmmakers Ines Sommer and Kathy Berger set out to counter the ‘blind spot’ in our national conversation about torture by focusing on survivors’ personal stories, insights and struggles.



As the new film Zero Dark Thirty opens in movie theaters across the country and despite the extensive media coverage of abuse at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, it is worth noting that the voices of torture survivors are rarely included in any of the public discussions about the use of torture. But without their stories, torture remains abstract, a practice that happens to people we neither know nor care about. They become statistics, their human suffering easily ignored. Contact TASSC International at 202-529-2991.

15] – On Fri., Feb. 8 at 7:30 PM at the Seekers Church, 276 Carroll St. NW [near the Carroll Café], hear emma's revolution! Tickets are $15 in advance/$18 at the door. Call 301-five six two-4147 or email info @ carrollcafe.org. Go to http://www.emmasrevolution.com/live/.



16] – McDaniel College presents "The Vagina Monologues," Eve Ensler's play highlighting women's sexuality and strength. This student performance is in association with National V-day, a movement devoted to ending violence against women and girls. The proceeds will benefit the Rape Crisis Intervention Services of Carroll County and Family and Children's Services of Central Maryland. The performances take place on Fri., Feb. 8 and Sat., Feb.-9 at 7:30 PM at McDaniel College, WMC Alumni Hall, 2 College Hill. The ticket price is $10, and students get in for $5. Call 410- 848-7000.

17] – There is an opportunity to participate in ballroom dancing, usually every Friday of the month, in the JHU ROTC Bldg. at 8 PM. Turn south on San Martin Dr. from the intersection of Univ. Parkway and 39th St. Drive on campus by taking the third left turn. The next dance will be Feb. 8. Call Dave Greene at 410-599-3725.



18] – Stop CIA Killer Drones & Torture on Sat., Feb. 9 at 10 AM at CIA Headquarters, 900 block of Dolley Madison Blvd, Langley, VA. Pressure the CIA to stop their use of killer drones and torture! The CIA has been found guilty by the European Court of torture, abuse, & secretly imprisoning people. U.S. military & CIA drones have maimed & killed thousands of people in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya & Afghanistan. This year alone there have been over 333 + strikes in Afghanistan. Almost 60 Guantanamo prisoners have been cleared for release but still remain captives of the US indefinitely.



Go to WWW.WITNESSTORTURE.ORG. The demo is organized by Pax Christi Metro DC and many other groups. Contact Jack McHale at 703-772-0635. As of January 2013 the United Nations has launched a special investigation into the US killer drone program. Leading the UN investigation is Ben Emmerson the UN rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights. He said "The exponential rise in the use of drone technology in a variety of military and non-military contexts represents a real challenge to the framework of established international law," The US Military & Central Intelligence Agency drones have maimed & killed thousands including innocent people in Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, & Pakistan without charge, trial or conviction of crime. This year alone there have been over 362 + strikes in Pakistan. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports on estimates up to 3461 people killed and 891 injured in Pakistan, in Yemen 1112 killed and 178 injured in these two countries alone by CIA drone strikes. Stand with us opposing CIA & US Military drones used in extrajudicial killings.

19] – "INEQUALITY MATTERS! THE POISONOUS EFFECTS OF DARK MONEY IN POLITICS" is a discussion taking place on Sat., Feb. 9 from 10 AM to noon at All Souls Church Unitarian, 1500 Harvard St. NW. Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice in the National Capital Region (UUSJ) invites you to join Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause, a nonpartisan advocacy organization, for a discussion about one of the root causes of wealth inequality, the role that secret “dark money” plays in politics, and what that means for “we the people.” It’s been three years since the Supreme Court decided the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission question, that allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts of money in elections - that money equals speech - opening the floodgates for special interest money, and even greater corporate influence in politics. Bob will make opening remarks, show a segment from a documentary with Bill Moyers, “The United States of ALEC,” take questions from two respondents, followed by open discussion. Email info@uusj.org with your name or call 202- 600-9132.

20] – Friends House, 17715 Meeting House Rd., Sandy Spring, MD 20860, hosts a peace vigil every Saturday, 10:30 to 11:30 AM, on the corner of Rt. 108 and Georgia Ave. [Route 97] in Olney, MD. The next vigil is Feb. 9. Call Chuck Harker at 301-570-7167.



21] – 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. Go to www.ccpeace.org. Email ccpeacemovement@aol.com.

22] – There will be a peace vigil on the West Lawn of the Capitol at noon on Sat., Feb. 9. 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 to http://www.quaker.org/langleyhill/seekpeace.htm or email seekpeacevigil@yahoo.com.

To be continued.

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/.

"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