Pledge/FOC meeting 7:30 PM on March 16/Can you sign on to the Sarbanes letter? Can you help deliver it at 4:30 PM on March 18? Best wishes.

Friends,

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., Mar. 16. The proposed agenda will include anti-drone activities, lobbying in Annapolis about reforming the police, renewable energy, fracking and GMOM, the ISIS forum, a book talk on the anti-war movement, TPP talk at Red Emma’s, the Spring Rising, a march from the EPA to the Pentagon and the various wars. Please RSVP. Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at verizon.net for directions and to get into the building.

Can you sign on to the Sarbanes letter? Can you help deliver it at 4:30 PM on March 18? Best wishes.

Kagiso,

Max

Rep. John Sarbanes
600 Baltimore Ave.
Suite 303
Towson, MD 21204

March 18, 2015

Dear Representative Sarbanes:

Members of the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore are voters and supporters of Progressive Democrats of America. Some of us live in District 3.

Delicate multinational negotiations on Iran are currently underway. Should these talks fail, our international prestige and national security would suffer. Partisanship should end at the water’s edge. We should pull together for peace. We understand that 47 Republican Senators have recklessly gone behind President Obama’s back. Please step back from such rash and reckless policies, including any bill that would let Congress veto a diplomatic solution with Iran, that would prevent lifting of current sanctions in return for real progress, or impose new sanctions.

War in Iraq caused the current crisis. We need a new policy. Support the comprehensive effort to defeat ISIL. Please contact Rep. Barbara Lee’s office at (202)-225-2661 to cosponsor H.J.Res. 30. Rep. Lee said, “As we work to degrade and dismantle ISIL, we must be comprehensive in our strategy. National security experts have clearly stated that there is no military solution to ISIL. In order to ultimately degrade and dismantle ISIL, we must craft a robust regionally-led, political, economic and diplomatic strategy.”

Please vote against TPA / “fast track”, and against the TPP and the TTIP. We support fair trade, however we have learned the TPP and TTIP go far beyond trade and tariffs. Like similar deals, they would eliminate good American jobs. The TPP has 29 chapters, but only 5 pertain to trade. The rest would override our rights to determine our labor, environmental, consumer, and other policies, and put special interests over the needs of American small businesses and families.

Rather than promote fair trade and lower barriers, these deals would elevate corporations to the status of sovereign nations. Rarely-used TPA may be introduced soon, to severely limit House oversight. Good deals aren’t cloaked in secrecy. Only bad deals need “fast track” for passage. We look forward to engaging you on these and other issues in the future.

Finally, we are seeking an end to the use of killer drone strikes, which we believe to be illegal and unconstitutional. We ask you to speak out against this assassination program, which ignores any veneer of due process. Consider as well a request for the full, unclassified release of information surrounding the administration’s drone policy.

We look forward to your response. And when you are ready, we would like to meet with you, preferably in Baltimore. But if necessary, we will travel to your D.C. office. We thank you for your consideration regarding these critically important issues, and look forward to ongoing discussion and engagement with you in the coming months.

Peace,

Max Obuszewski, on behalf of Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore/Fund Our Communities
Apt. 206, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Baltimore 21212

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