Baltimore Activist Alert October 4 – October 6, 2014

Baltimore Activist Alert October 4 – October 6, 2014

"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] The Visionary Experience: Saint Francis to Finster – Aug. 30
6] Food drive – through Nov. 8
7] March with Mike Brown – Oct. 4
8] Compassion workshop – Oct. 5
9] “The Long Shadow” – Oct. 5
10] Peace and Pancakes – Oct. 5
11] Central American children – Oct. 5
12] Discussion on the future of ACTOR – Oct. 5
13] Pentagon Vigil – Oct. 6
14] Gitmo Force Feeding hearing – Oct. 6 - 7
15] Support D.C. Statehood – Oct. 6
16] Marc Steiner on WEAA – Oct. 6 – Oct. 10
17] Hearing on Energy Laboratories – Oct. 6
18] Central American children – Oct. 6
19] 5 BROKEN CAMERAS – Oct. 6
20] Pledge/FOC meeting – Oct. 6
21] Children At Our Border – Oct. 6
22] RAF info session – Oct. 6
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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 mobuszewski at Verizon dot net. 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 mobuszewski at Verizon dot 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 Francine Sheppard at 5639B, Harpers Farm Rd., Columbia 21044. The coffee will arrive some time the following week and you will be notified where to pick it up. Contact Francine at 410-992-7679 or FrancineMSW@aol.com.
5] - The Visionary Experience: Saint Francis to Finster, featuring artist Rev. Howard Finster, will be exhibited from Sat., Oct. 4 through Aug. 30. The Visionary Experience offers a perspective on some of the most important moments in history, invention, science, politics, and religion at the American Visionary Art Museum, 800 Key Hwy. Call 410-244-1900. Visit http://avam.org.

6] – The Men and Families Center, 2222 Jefferson St., Baltimore, continues its food drive through Sat., Nov. 8. The organization is collecting canned and unperishable goods so that food pantries in the center are stocked for the holidays! Call Quandra or Rodney at 410-614-5353 or email menandfamiliescenter.org.

7] - March for Mike Brown starting at the Foggy Bottom/GW Metro Station on Sat., Oct. 4 at 7 PM. The march, which makes several demands, is sponsored by a number of groups, including the National Black United Front. Go to https://www.facebook.com/nationalblackunitedfront.

8] – On Sun., Oct. 5 at 9:30 AM in Takoma Park, find compassion for the structures and systems we live in while creating the world we want. Visit
https://www.facebook.com/events/292381057628531/.

9] - Usually, the Baltimore Ethical Society, 306 W. Franklin St., Suite 102, Baltimore 21201-4661, meets on Sundays, and generally there is a speaker and discussion from 10:30 AM to noon. On Sun., Oct. 5 hear about Karl Alexander’s “The Long Shadow.” West Baltimore stands out in the popular imagination as the quintessential “inner city” – gritty, run-down, and marred by drugs and gang violence. With the collapse of manufacturing jobs in the 1970s, the area experienced a rapid onset of poverty and high unemployment, with few public resources available to alleviate economic distress. Prof. Alexander’s research focuses on children who grew up in west Baltimore neighborhoods and others like them throughout the city, tracing how their early lives in the inner city have affected their long-term well-being. The experience of Baltimore’s children who came of age during this era is mirrored in the experiences of urban children across the nation.

Alexander is the John Dewey Professor of Sociology at the Johns Hopkins University. He writes the following: “My research tries to understand why some children, and some kinds of children, are more successful in school than others and how this affects them later in life. I am particularly interested in the role schools play in society’s system of stratification, and how youngsters perform in school is an important part of the picture. Patterns of social inequality from generation to generation in large measure are maintained through the educational system. … Through survey studies of school age-youngsters, I try to identify features of the home, of the school, and of the individual that seem to promote or impede positive school adjustment.” Call 410-581-2322 or email ask@bmorethical.org.
10] - 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.
11] – In the summer of 2014, the US mainstream media erupted over the ongoing influx of young Central Americans to the United States. While grassroots activists and scholars working with Central American populations were in near-unanimous agreement that these children are the refugees of decades of unspeakable violence resulting from U.S. foreign policy, most politicians and media "experts" told a different story. These children, the U.S. public was told, were in search of the American dream. They had irresponsible parents who did not care about them enough to keep them from undertaking the dangerous journey to the United States. Their governments and/or cultures were at fault for failing to make their own countries more attractive to them.

In Room 245, Mary Graydon Center, American University Campus, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW, WDC, on Sun., Oct. 5, from 3:30 to 5:30 PM and hear panelists address the issues raised. Register if you would like to attend. See https://www.american.edu/cas/anthropology/public/register.cfm.

12] – At Busboys and Poets, 2021 14th St. NW, WDC on Sun., Oct. 5 from 5 to 7 PM, participate in a discussion on the future of ACTOR (A Continuing Talk on Race), race dialogues/talks in the city and the topics that interest YOU at the intersection of race, class and culture. The café hosts it as a community service. It provides the opportunity for people to come together and speak openly and honestly about issues of race. The intent is that each person walks away from the discussion feeling something: challenged, educated, uncomfortable, enlightened, refreshed, reassured and hopefully inspired and moved to action! See http://busboysandpoets.com/events/event/a.c.t.o.r-a-continuing-talk-on-race-the-future-of-race-talks-and-dialogues-.

13] -- 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. 6, and it is sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. Email artlaffin@hotmail.com or call 202-882-9649. The vigil will be outside the Pentagon's south Metro entrance and in the designated "protest zone" behind bicycle fences across from the entrance to the Metro. By Metro, take Yellow Line and get out at the "Pentagon" stop. Do not go to the Pentagon City stop! Go up south escalators and turn left and walk across to protest area. By car from D.C. area, take 395 South and get off at Exit 8A-Pentagon South Parking. Take slight right onto S. Rotary Rd. at end of ramp and right on S. Fern St. Then take left onto Army Navy Dr. You can "pay to park" on Army Navy Dr., and there is meter parking one block on right on Eads St. Payment for both of these spots begin at 8 AM. No cameras are allowed on Pentagon grounds. Restrooms are located inside Marriott Residence Inn on corner of S. Fern and Army Navy Dr.

14] –Get over to the U.S. Federal Courthouse, 333 Constitution Ave., WDC on Mon., Oct. 6 and Tues., Oct. 7 at 8:30 AM. There is a hearing on the painful force-feedings of Guantánamo Bay detainees almost entirely in secret. Abu Wa'el Dhiab, a Syrian prisoner, has been held without charge at the Guantanamo prison camp since August 2002. According to his lawyers, he has been forcibly extracted from his prison cell and force-fed three times a day since the start of the most recent hunger-strike more than a year ago, totally 240 cell extractions. Join Witness to Torture to demand that all evidence and videotapes of the force feedings be handed over and exposed to the American public. Go to www.witnesstorture.org.

15] -- On Mon., Oct. 6 at 9 AM, D.C. Statehood Green Party candidates Eugene Puryear and David Schwartzman will lead a "D.C. Statehood Call-in Day" on which Green Party members, friends, and all supporters of democracy and equal rights across the U.S. are invited to call their U.S. Senators and Representatives and President Obama and urge support for legislation that will grant statehood to the District of Columbia. Call your congressmember to urge the passage of the "New Columbia Admissions Act" (Senate Bill 132) legislation that would make D.C. a state!

16] – The Marc Steiner Show airs Monday through Friday from 10 AM to noon 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.

17] - On Mon., Oct. 6 from 10:30 AM to 4 PM, speak out at the Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories public meeting at Institute for Defense Analyses, Room 1301, 4850 Mark Center Drive, Alexandria, VA. RSVP to crenel@hq.doe.gov.

18] – Go to the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, WDC, on Mon., Oct. 6 from 6:30 to 7:30 PM, as a coalition of organizations such as CARECEN and La Clinica del Pueblo have been hosting weekly vigils in front of the White House to shed light on the humanitarian crisis of unaccompanied children from Central America. "Over the last three months, more than 63,000 children have been forced out of their homes and across the border to escape poverty, persecution and violence. Most of these children and families have endured a traumatic journey and fear that they will be separated from their families." Hoyas for Immigrant Rights has been invited. Transportation will be provided to and from the vigil from Georgetown's campus. Go to https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1cdNHJQd6kPLz5xoCI3jmGkmuj7OqfOThsH3hx6yq6Z8/viewform?c=0&w=1. Email hoyasforimmigrantrights@gmail.com.

19] – On Mon., Oct. 6 from 7 to 9 PM, Beyond the Classroom Living & Learning Program presents the 2012 Academy Award-nominated documentary “5 Broken Cameras” at the University of Maryland 1104 South Campus Commons, Building 1. An extraordinary work of both cinematic and political activism, the film is a deeply personal, first-hand account of nonviolent resistance in Bil’in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. Shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, the film was assembled by Burnat and Israeli co-director Guy Davidi. Structured around the violent destruction of each one of Burnat’s cameras, the filmmakers’ collaboration follows one family’s evolution over five years of village turmoil. Burnat watches from behind the lens as olive trees are bulldozed, protests intensify, and lives are lost. “I feel like the camera protects me,” he says, “but it’s an illusion.” Email btcinfo@umd.edu.

20] – The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore usually meets on Mondays at 7:30 PM, and the meetings take place at Max’s residence. The next meeting will be on Mon., Oct. 6. The proposed agenda will include anti-drone activities, including the trial of the NSA Three and getting a drone resolution passed in Baltimore’s City Council, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine, the Climate Chaos march in NYC, the Sept. 23 action at the White House, and the Oct. 4 visit to the NSAs. Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at verizon.net for directions.

21] – On Mon., Oct. 6 at 7:30 PM at St. Ignatius Catholic Church, 740 N. Calvert St. (at the Ignatius Hall), catch “Children At Our Border: What Are The Facts/ How Can We Help,” a panel discussion of the current immigration crises. The panel features Rosemary Thompson, executive director of the Murphy Initiative for Justice & Peace, and Sr. Patricia Ann Rogucki, SFCC. An assortment of “finger foods,” inspired by Central American foods, will be served.

22] – Research Associates Foundation (RAF) awards small grants to Baltimore-area activists for projects or ongoing work promoting transformative change in Baltimore. Visit rafbaltimore.org to see grant guidelines and to download applications. Completed applications for the next round of grants are due by October 14. Anyone interested in submitting a grant application to the Research Associates Foundation (RAF) is invited to attend an information session, at which members of the RAF Board of Directors will explain the process of submitting proposals and answer questions from attendees. On Mon., Oct. 6 at 7:30 PM, a will be held at MICA Place, 814 N. Collington Ave. (between Ashland Ave. & Madison St.), Baltimore 21205. Email info@rafbaltimore.org.

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