Baltimore Activist Alert December 7 – December 10, 2014

Baltimore Activist Alert December 7 – December 10, 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] Can you donate a kidney?
6] Support restaurant workers -- Dec. 7
7] SodaStream Boycott Day of Action – Dec. 7
8] Prayer Service for World AIDS Day and the Ebola Epidemic – Dec. 7
9] End War/Rein in the CIA – Dec. 7
10] Film “On the Side of the Road” – Dec. 7
11] I Hear America Singing – Dec. 7
12] Light for Lima vigil – Dec. 7
13] Pentagon Vigil – Dec. 8
14] Marc Steiner on WEAA – Dec. 8 – 12
15] Protest the TPP – Dec. 8
16] Rethinking the Asia Pivot – Dec. 8
17] NO NEW ANIMAL LAB – Dec. 8
18] Peace among college students – Dec. 8
19] Shop for animal-inspired artwork – Dec. 8
20] Immigration answers – Dec. 8
21] Pledge/FOC meeting – Dec. 8
22] Project on Nuclear Issues – Dec. 9 -10
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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] – A relative – or sort of relative – of the Berrigans by the name of Michael Moore has an ex-wife suffering from renal failure and is on dialysis four times each day. Her only hope is to receive a kidney from a donor. Her name is Mary Ann Nowak, and she can be reached at 760-632-5462 or by email at bunnykimhm@hotmail.com. Anyone willing to be tested or who has already been tested and is able to donate a kidney would give new life to this woman. Many thanks for any and all consideration you can give. Thanks for reading, for caring, for considering--Liz McAlister.

6] - 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 Dec. 7, Charly Carter will give a platform address titled “Fighting For a Government That Represents Maryland’s Working Families.” She is the executive director of Maryland Working Families, and her address will be about her work. In her recent Op-Ed column in The Baltimore Sun, Carter decried the wage freeze for tipped workers: “During the last Maryland General Assembly session, workers who rely on tips for salary were dealt a harsh blow when legislators permanently froze their pay at $3.63 per hour. Previously, tipped workers earned 50 percent of the minimum wage, but as the state’s lowest wage goes up to $10.10 per hour by 2018, the earnings of tipped workers will be stagnant.”

Maryland Working Families is a grassroots independent political organization fighting for a government that represents the values of and works for the needs of Maryland’s working families. Maryland Working Families achieves its goals by developing and electing candidates who share their values; organizing issue campaigns to move progressive legislation; and building a movement of working families to hold leaders accountable. Call 410-581-2322 or email ask@bmorethical.org.

7] - There is a SodaStream Boycott Day of Action on Sun., Dec. 7 from 2 to 3:30 PM in front of the Columbia Heights Mall, at the Columbia Heights Metro Station on 14th St. and just north of the intersection with Irving St. Help educate D.C. area shoppers about the injustice of the Israeli occupation, and urge them to boycott SodaStream products. Call on local store managers to tell their corporate headquarters to stop stocking the products. SodaStream manufactures and distributes home carbonating devices and flavorings for soft drinks. Its products are sold in 39 countries and can be found in retail stores like Macy’s, Bed Bath and Beyond, Bloomingdale’s, Coop, Carrefour and Migros. The company’s main production site is in the illegal West Bank Settlement of the Mishor Edomin Industrial Zone, where the company conceals the fact that its products are manufactured in a settlement by using ‘Made in Israel’ labels. As an Israeli settlement manufacturer, it exploits Palestinian land, resources and labour. Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/374687909375208/?context=create&previousaction=create&source=49&sid_create=744350803. Email jvpdcmetro@gmail.com or call 240-425-7581. Visit www.JewishVoiceForPeace.org/DCMetro. Sign the national Boycott Soda Stream petition at http://sodastreamboycott.org.

8] – On Sun., Dec. 7 at 3 PM, you are invited to a Prayer Service for World AIDS Day and the Ebola Epidemic. Celebrate World AIDS Day as well and pray for healing and restoration for the Ebola Epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The prayer service is at Shiloh AME Church, 2601 Lyndhurst Ave., Baltimore 21216. Diplomats from those countries as well as South Africa (HIV/AIDS) have been invited. RSVP to Rev. Dr. Mankekolo Mahlangu-Ngcobo at mankekolo@aol.com.

9] – On Sun., Dec. 7 from 4 to 11 PM at the North Plaza of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F St. NW, WDC, peaceably assemble for 1) an end to war and reining in the CIA, as JFK sought to achieve; 2) immediate release of all records still withheld regarding JFK’s assassination; and 3) an end to the intimidation of official secrecy and the violence it perpetuates, bringing real transparency in governments everywhere. Register your interest (even if unable to participate on 12/7) in what are a series of important, ongoing activities at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/jfk-vigil-peaceably-assemble-in-petition-for-immediate-release-of-assassination-records-tickets-14456330273. Since Nov. 2, 2013, a precedent has been established - and even well received - that the public terraces of the Kennedy Center are a most appropriate place to gather, in the most Constitutional of manners, on dates that include every November 22nd and May 29th, (JFK's birthday), honoring the legacy of President Kennedy, but also petitioning by one’s mere presence for redress of stated grievances. Visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/273075412874276/.

10] -- On Sun., Dec. 7 at 7 PM @ 2640, 27th & St. Paul Sts., join director Lia Tarachansky as she presents her documentary “On the Side of the Road” -- Israel/Palestine | Hebrew & Arabic w/ English subtitles| 83mins | 2013. A former West Bank settler Tarachansky looks at Israelis’ collective amnesia of the fateful events of 1948 when the state of Israel was born and most of the Palestinians became refugees. She follows the transformation of Israeli veterans trying to uncover their denial of the war that changed the region forever. Tarachansky then turns the camera on herself and travels back to her settlement where that historical erasure gave birth to a new generation, blind and isolated from its surroundings. Attempting to shed a light on the country’s biggest taboo, she is met with outrage and violence.

11] -- Rachel Clare Donaldson, an independent scholar and the co-author (with Ronald D. Cohen) of “Roots of the Revival: Folk Music in the United States and Great Britain in the 1950s,” will present “I Hear America Singing: Folk Music and National Identity” on Sun., Dec. 7 at 7:30 PM @ Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse, 30 W. North Ave., Baltimore 21201. She will trace the history of the folk music revival from its origins in the early years of the twentieth century through its end in the late 1960s. By tracing the revival from its establishment during the Depression era through its decline, “I Hear America Singing” illustrates the ideological connections between the Old and New Lefts in the United States, thus challenging the historical view that demarcates the periods of leftist activity during the 1930s-40s and the 1960s into two separate movements. Many early revivalists participated in programs associated with the communist-led Popular Front, primarily because the Party supported the same marginalized Americans that the revivalists championed. Despite the anticommunist crusades of the early Cold War and the demise of the CPUSA as a political agency, revivalists continued their efforts to make constitutional rights applicable to all Americans, which channeled many into the modern phase of the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-Vietnam War movement, and the anti-poverty campaigns that became the hallmarks of the New Left. Call 443-602-7585. Go to http://www.redemmas.org.

12] – On Sun., Dec. 7, the Franciscan Action Network says people from diverse faith and spiritual communities will gather for public vigils - lit by solar lamps. There are currently vigils being planned around the U.S. as well as in Russia, India, South Africa, Israel, England and other countries. To join a vigil, go to the Maryland Presbyterian Church, 1105 Providence Road, Towson at 5:30 PM or to the White House at 7 PM.

This December, as world leaders meet in Lima, our future is on the line. Time is running out for our leaders to reach an agreement that saves us from devastating climate change. This is why OurVoices is organizing #LightForLIMA - a global, multi-faith prayer vigil. These vigils will show our leaders that the faith community is supportive of their efforts to bring forth valid actions to start reversing the affects of climate change. If we're to stop climate change we need a strong meaningful agreement in Lima. Nail down the fundamentals of an agreement in Lima, so that at next years' key Paris climate talks we get a climate treaty that protects our planet and our future.

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., Dec. 1, 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] – 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.

15] – On Mon., Dec. 8 at noon, stand up for Good-Paying Jobs, the Environment & Public Health at the U.S. Trade Representative, 600 17th St. NW, WDC. Trade negotiators from throughout the Pacific Rim will be meeting in Washington, DC this upcoming week for a closed-door round of talks aimed at concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — a massive corporate power grab that would set rules governing roughly 40% of the global economy, with potentially dire consequences for the economy, environment and public health both at home and abroad.

Join with labor, environmental, family farm, consumer, faith, human rights and community organizations for a rally to help drag the TPP out of the shadows and to say NO to Fast Track. See https://www.facebook.com/events/1574023319475953/?ref=6&ref_notif_type=plan_user_invited%20.

16] – In the IPS Conference Room, 1112 16th St. NW, Suite 600, WDC, on Mon., Dec. 8 from noon to 2 PM, hear Rethinking the Asia Pivot, a conversation about U.S. policy in the Pacific and the social movements that are challenging militarism in the region, featuring Ko Youkyoung and Raymond Palatino. Ko is a long time peace activist in South Korea as the former director of the National Campaign for Eradication of Crimes by U.S. Troops in Korea and member of the Korean Women’s Network against Militarism, SAFE-Korea. Palatino is a two-term congressperson who represented Kabataan (Youth) Partylist in the 14th and 15th Congress of the Philippines. He is currently the Southeast Asia editor of Global Voices and a columnist of The Diplomat online magazine. RSVP to Kaja Baum at kaja@ips-dc.org.

17] -- Join Don't Expand UW Primate Testing and be a part of a National Day of Action for a protest against Skanska USA, 945 G St. NW, WDC, on Dec. 8 at 12:30 PM. Skanska USA is planning to build a new animal lab for the University of Washington and has office locations all over the U.S. -- so this day of action is a chance to show them that people all over the country are telling them to cut their contract with the UW and NOT build a new animal lab. This campaign is a rare opportunity to stop the torture of thousands of animals in a lab before the facility is even built, so everyone must work together to tell Skanska USA that there will be NO NEW ANIMAL LAB. Email info@nonewanimallab.com or visit http://nonewanimallab.com/.

18] – Go to the Lincoln Memorial on Mon., Dec. 8 at 2 PM for a rally to help bring about peace among college students from different universities. Email hayesk913@gmail.com.

19] – On Mon., Dec. 8 from 7 to 10 PM at the E.M.P. Collective, 307 W. Baltimore St., shop for animal-inspired artwork to raise funds for the Greater Baltimore Chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers. Go to www.empcollective.org.

20] – On Mon., Dec. 8 from 6:30 to 8 PM, engage in an Immigration Executive Action Q&A Session. On Thurs., Nov. 21, in an attempt to fix our broken immigration system, President Obama announced a series of executive actions. These actions could provide millions of immigrants temporary protection from removal, as well as other benefits. Interested in finding out more? Join an information session presented by parishioner and immigration lawyer Jennifer Cook. Jennifer Drugay Cook is a founding partner of Benach Ragland LLP. She brings a unique perspective to her immigration practice - which is focused on representing clients before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service, in immigration courts, and federal courts - having spent a decade analyzing complex regulatory matters and finding creative solutions for clients subject to state and federal environmental and energy laws. Jennifer’s clients have included individuals, families, start-up companies, small businesses, non-profit organizations, municipalities, state agencies, and Fortune 500 companies. Catch her presentation at Holy Trinity Church Parish Center, McKenna Hall, 3513 N St. NW, WDC 20007. The presentation will be in English and Spanish. Contact Kate Tromble at ktromble@trinity.org or 202-903-2809.

21] – 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., Dec. 8. The proposed agenda will include anti-drone activities, including getting a drone law passed in Baltimore’s City Council, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine, a march from the EPA to the Pentagon, Ferguson, Cleveland and Staten Island, and a talk about ISIS. Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at verizon.net for directions.

22] – On Tues., Dec. 9 and Wed., Dec. 10, there is a Project on Nuclear Issues, "Winter Conference" at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW, WDC. Register at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1COFa3SUiIfoHpwOi4Z9zKMe56EHmkGpMnUl9dFAY-WM/viewform.

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