Baltimore Activist Alert - Oct. 20-21, 2013

Baltimore Activist Alert Oct. 20 – Oct. 26, 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] Vietnam Photograph Exhibit – through Feb. 23 6] Baltimore Ethical Society – Oct. 20 7] Peace and Pancakes – Oct. 20 8] "Some of My Best Friends are Zionists" – Oct. 20 9] Community Party – Oct. 20 10] Documentary "Fly By Light” – Oct. 20 11] Pentagon Vigil – Oct. 21 12] Annual Maryland Food Stamp Challenge – Oct. 21 13] Marc Steiner on WEAA – Oct. 21 – Oct. 25 14] When Your Neighbor is a Stranger – Oct. 21 15] “End the Silence. Stop the Violence” – Oct. 21 16] Green Neighbors meeting – Oct. 21 17] Documentary “Born into Brothels” – Oct. 21 18] Alternative Histories Film Series – Oct. 21 19] Pledge of Resistance/Fund Our Communities meeting – Oct. 21 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] – An-My Lê's photographs come to the Baltimore Museum of Art's Front Room. 21 Black-and-white and color photographs explore the roles of the military and war, showing tensions between nature and human influence and machinery. The exhibit runs through Feb. 23 at the Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive. Call 443- 573-1700. Go to http://artbma.org. 6] – Usually, the Baltimore Ethical Society, 306 W. Franklin St., Suite 102, Baltimore 21201-4517, meets on Sundays, and generally there is a speaker and discussion from 10:30 to noon. To find out the platform address on Sun., Oct. 20, call at 410-581-2322 or contact Kathryn Sloboda at katamui@gmail.com. Go to http://bmorethical.org/. Twitter: @bmorethical Facebook: http://fb.com/bmorethical/. 7] – Join the Kadampa Meditation Center for Peace and Pancakes on Sundays at 10:30 AM at KMC Maryland, 2937 North Charles St. All are invited to participate in guided meditation and chant praying for world peace. There will be a talk based on Buddhist thought followed by brunch. Call 410- 243-3837. Brunch is $5. 8] – On Sun., Oct. 20 at 2 PM, Jewish Voice for Peace presents the film "Some of My Best Friends are Zionists" at the Takoma Park Community Center, Azalea Room, 7500 Maple Ave., Takoma Park, MD 20912. The director, Bruce Robbins, will lead the post-film discussion, and light refreshments served. Jewish intellectuals, writers, artists and storytellers, including Tony Kushner, Judith Butler, James Schamus and Gary Shteyngart, along with a wide spectrum of young and older less well-known Jews, discuss what they were told growing up about Israel, and how their world views may have changed since then about their relationship as Jews with Israel and the Middle East. Call 240-425-7581 or email jvpdcmetro@gmail.com. 9] – On Sun., Oct. 20 at 4 PM, FICA DC and School of Americas Watch invite you to a community party, an evening of cultural, physical and political resistance at Haydee's Restaurant, 3102 Mount Pleasant St. NW to benefit of both organizations. Enjoy a capoeira performance and live music by Son Cosita Seria (son jarocho). 10] – See the documentary "Fly By Light" on Sun., Oct. 20 at 8 PM at All Souls Church, 1500 Harvard St. NW, WDC 20009. Currently being submitted to film festivals around the world, this advanced screening is for those from the D.C. community who would like an inside peak and opportunity to not only watch the finished 90 minute documentary, but also ask questions to the featured youth and filmmakers. This evening is sponsored by Flow Yoga Center, World Renowned educator Shiva Rea, and All Souls Church Unitarian. A group of teenagers board a bus for West Virginia, leaving the streets of Washington, DC to participate in an ambitious peace education program. For the first time in their lives Mark, Asha, Martha, and Corey play in mountain streams, sing under the stars, and confront the entrenched abuse, violence and neglect cycles of their past. But as they return to DC, each young person faces an unforgiving series of hurdles and roadblocks that challenge their efforts to build a better life. Through breathtaking visuals from street corners to mountaintops, "Fly By Light" is an intimate exploration of the chaotic, confusing, and emotional journey to rewrite a young person’s future. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/465749936856443/. 11] – 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., Oct. 21, and it is sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. Email artlaffin@hotmail.com or call 202-882-9649. 12] – The Annual Maryland Food Stamp Challenge takes place from Mon., Oct. 21 at 8 AM through Sun., Oct. 27 at 8 AM , and the gathering gives participants a glimpse into just some of the struggles faced by millions of low-income people trying to put food on their tables. Challenge participants use the average Food Supplement Program benefit – just $30 per person – as their budget for food for one week. The challenge provides an opportunity for participants to grasp the realities of how difficult it is for families living on food stamps to simultaneously avoid hunger, afford nutritious foods, and stay healthy on a miniscule budget. Contact lklingenmaier@mdhungersolutions.org. Sign up at http://marylandhungersolutions.org/foodstamp_challenge.shtm. 13] – The Marc Steiner Show airs Monday through Friday from 9 to 11 AM 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. 14] – When Your Neighbor is a Stranger: A Community Conversation in the Aftermath of George Zimmerman is hosted by YWCA Greater Baltimore and Associated Black Charities on Mon., Oct. 21 from 4 to 8 PM at the University of Baltimore, 1420 N. Charles St. Pre-registration is required. Call 410-837-4200. 15] – Johns Hopkins University's first Intimate Partner Violence awareness campaign is called “End the Silence. Stop the Violence." Behind closed doors, domestic or intimate partner violence scars the lives of millions of families in America, regardless of their socioeconomic status, nationality, or other demographic characteristics. Given the severe costs of intimate partner violence to health, economics, and society and its unfortunate prevalence in the lives of 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men in the US, this issue is particularly relevant for Hopkins staff, students, and faculty to learn more about. October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. On Mon., Oct. 21 at 6 PM in Charles Commons Salon B, the Hopkins community is welcome to attend a panel discussion on intimate partner violence in Baltimore. Faculty, students, and community members alike will be able to learn about IPV from speakers from local advocacy groups, police forces, Legal Aid, and hospital programs around the city and hear about what they can do to end the silence around IPV. Dinner will be provided! Visit www.facebook.com/JHUendthesilence. 16] – A Green Neighbors Meeting is happening on Mon., Oct. 21 at 6:30 PM at Petworth Library, 4200 Kansas Ave. NW, WDC 20011. Come help to plan the outreach strategy for helping neighbors switch to wind energy. 17] – Beyond the Classroom presents the Academy Award-winning documentary “Born into Brothels” on Mon., Oct. 21 from 7 to 9 PM at 1102 South Campus Commons, Building 1, 0200 Calvert Hall, College Park, MD 20742. A tribute to the resiliency of childhood and the restorative power of art, the film is a portrait of several unforgettable children who live in Calcutta’s red light district, where their mothers work as prostitutes. Spurred by the kid’s fascination with her camera, Zana Briski, a New York-based photographer living in the brothels and documenting life there, decides to teach them photography. As they begin to record their world through new eyes, the kids, whom society refused to recognize, awaken for the first time to their own talents and sense of worth. Filmmakers Ross Kaufman and Briski capture the way in which beauty can be found in even the seemingly bleakest and most hopeless of places and how art and education can empower children to transform their lives. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/232249270263574/. 18] – Check out a Film Series: Alternative Histories. Imagine a world in which computers run our lives, food comes only in processed packets, and authoritarian governments pit people against each other in bloody battles. Wait, that sounds too familiar. Towson University professors present films dealing in worlds that are almost real to us, that start from a real point in history and go off on an alternate track. Some of the films are "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Robocop" and "Battle Royale." Each week a different professor introduces the film, and each screening is followed by a discussion. The films will be shown on Mondays at 7:30 PM through Nov. 25 at Towson University, 8000 York Road. See http://www.towson.edu. 19] – The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore usually meets on Mondays at 7:30 PM, and the meetings take place at Max’s residence. There will be a meeting on Mon., Oct. 21. The proposed agenda will include a report on the visit to Rep. Sarbanes’ Towson office, anti-drone activities, the trial of the CIA Six, a possible meeting with Rep. Elijah Cummings and a visit to Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s office to demand a copy of the “classified” torture report. Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at verizon.net for directions. 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