Baltimore Activist Alert - May 1 - 2, 2015

14] Two rallies for Freddie Gray – May 1 & 2
15] Silent vigil & potluck – May 1
16] Film CHASING ICE – May 1
17] Art exhibit & poetry – May 1
18] Peace, Justice, & Environment Conference – May 1 & 2
19] Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam Peace Movement – May 1
20] See the film ROMERO – May 1
21] Celebrate the Catholic Worker – May 1
22] Ballroom Dancing – May 1
23] Welcome to Hebron – May 1
24] PALESTINE AND ZION: THE JOURNEY FOR CIVIL RIGHTS – May 2
25] West Chester, PA demo – May 2
26] The Embassy of Saudi Arabia – May 2
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14] – Join on Fri., MAY 1 a MAY DAY RALLY & PROTEST, starting at 5 PM AT McKELDIN SQUARE, LIGHT & PRATT STS, Commemorate the life of Freddie Gray, and seek justice. The YOUTH AREN’T THUGS! THEY ARE HUMAN BEINGS! DEMAND AMNESTY FOR THOSE WHO’VE BEEN JAILED!

May Day is an international day dedicated to worker’s power and rights. Demonstrations are held all over the world and in this country. This May Day has been dedicated to justice 4 Freddie Grey. In Oakland, the longshore workers, ILWU Local 10 and longshore workers in Charleston, South Carolina have plans to shut down ports May 1st in solidarity with struggle against racist police violence. Call the Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly at 443-221-3775. Go to https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=66U3G8YMX57ZQ.

On Sat., May 2 gather at 1 PM @ Prestbury & N. Mount Sts., where Freddie was accosted by the police. Stand with the community. Call 410-218-4835 or visit www.PeoplesPowerAssemblies.org.

15] – There is usually a silent peace vigil on Fridays, from 5 to 6 PM, sponsored by Homewood Friends and Stony Run Meetings, outside the Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St. The next vigil is on until Apr. 10. On that Friday it will remind us that War Is Not the Answer and that there is the need to stop torture, and prosecute the torturers. Afterwards enjoy a potluck dinner and a film.

16] – The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, Baltimore Quaker Peace and Justice Committee of Homewood and Stony Run Meetings and Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility are continuing the FILM & SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS DVD SERIES. CHASING ICE [USA, 2012] will be shown with a discussion to follow on Fri., May 1 at Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St., Baltimore 21218, around 7:15 PM. There is no charge, and refreshments will be available. Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at Verizon.net.

This documentary is about James Balog and his team on the Extreme Ice Survey as they assemble a multiyear chronicle of the planet's rapidly melting glaciers. Jeff Orlowski expertly films this risky attempt to "chase ice." Balog has photographed many stories and films for National Geographic, often about endangered species. This time he made repeated expeditions to Greenland, Iceland, Alaska and Montana to install stop-motion cameras in order to view the devastation wreaked by climate chaos on glaciers. The Extreme Ice Survey has been collecting the results since 2007, and it is terrifying to see glaciers retreating from ice mountains to expose the rock they rest on. Determined to continue the project, this scientist has to undergo knee surgery, after all of those mountain treks. Yet you will see him returning to inspect his cameras — on crutches. This documentary qualifies as a horror film.

17] – On Fri., May 1 from 6 to 8 PM at the Jerusalem Fund, 2425 Virginia Ave. NW, WDC 20037, The Jerusalem Fund Gallery Al-Quds invites you to the opening of al Ab w’al Ibn--Father and Son paintings by Zahi and Besan Khamis. The opening will also feature Baltimore poet Kim Jensen reciting some of her works. For the first time, Gallery Al-Quds presents art from two generations, that of Palestinian painter Zahi Khamis and his son Besan. Influenced by the modernist styles of Picasso and Matisse as well as the Mexican muralists, Zahi’s work is part of the long tradition of committed art. His bright, optimistic colors combined with the tragic expressions of his subjects, express the painful, yet luminous, contradictions of all those who struggle for liberation.

Besan Khamis is a third-year undergraduate art student at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), and a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts. He is an interdisciplinary sculpture major, and is working in a variety of disciplines: music, sound, painting, installation, 3D digital fab, and video. Visit http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/sp/i/9242/pid/9242. Call 202-338-1958 or email info@thejerusalemfund.org.

18] – Coordination and Cooperation to Achieve Peace and Social Justice is the title of MUPJ’s 30th Annual Conference on Peace, Justice, & the Environment. Celebrate the lives of Vivienne Shub, June Wing, Howard Ehrlich and Katherine LeVeque. The conference begins on Fri., May 1 from 6:30 to 9 PM and continues on Sat., May 2 from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM at the Salem Lutheran Church, 905 Frederick Road, Catonsville. On Friday, start with a potluck dinner. From 7:15 to 7:30 PM, there’s a MUPJ business meeting. At 7:30 PM Liz McAlister and Ray McGovern will address “Standing up to empire – then and now!” Conference fees are $35 for an individual, and $20 is the regular fee for students, retirees and second members of a family.

On Saturday, registration goes from 8 to 8:20 AM. At 9 AM, the featured speaker is Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies, who will take on The Mess in the Middle East: What can we do? The first workshop session is at 10 AM, the next at 11 AM. There is a Plenary Session: Participant speedy-input on new MUPJ website and proposed quarterly MUPJ summit meetings at noon. Enjoy lunch and music at 12:30 PM, then an awards session. At 2 PM hear from featured Speaker II, Martin Fleck, Program Director, for Physicians for Social Responsibility who will address "Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons." There are more workshops at 3 PM. Then at 4 PM, finish with a plenary session. Enter the church from the parking lot in the rear. Email phamm001@earthlink.net or call 443-418-5479 (c-Paulette). Go to www.mupj.org.

19] – On Fri., May 1 at 6:30 PM and Sat., May 2 at 7:45 AM Win Without War asks you to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam Peace Movement at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, 1313 New York Ave. NW, WDC20005. Go to http://lessonsofvietnam.com/. There will be a full day of talks, workshops and a march on Saturday, plus cultural events on Friday and Saturday evenings. As war continues to be a clear and present danger to our democracy, gather to reflect on the past, present, and future of the peace movement in America. For the first time, former Vietnam anti-war activists are coming together with younger justice-fighters of today, for an evaluation of what was done then, and to create a call to action today. Register at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/vietnam-the-power-of-protest-telling-the-truth-learning-the-lessons-registration-15993083744. This is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet with the individuals who successfully organized against the Vietnam War. Folks like Tom Hayden, Daniel Ellsberg, Marge Tabankin, and many, many more.

Right now, the Pentagon, with $63 million from Congress, has initiated a ten-year program that, in the guise of honoring Vietnam-era veterans, is a whitewash of the history of that horrific war and nearly silent on the massive peace movement that organized against it. Our effort began last fall in reaction to the Pentagon’s plans for their own commemoration, including extensive public outreach and a false and one-sided website history of the Vietnam War that excluded the peace movement. While former presidents and Pentagon officials seek to obscure the memory of what we accomplished, we will keep pushing for an accurate history of both the Vietnam War and one of our country’s most important social movements.

20] – Go to Peace Center of Delaware County, 1001 Old Sproul Road, Springfield, PA 19064 for the First-Friday Free Large Screen Film Series on Fri., May 1 at 7 PM to see ROMERO [1989]. Directed by John Duignan, and starring Raul Julia as Archbishop Oscar Romero, it is El Salvador, 1980. The Vatican has elevated to archbishop a conservative priest from a wealthy family. His name is Oscar Arnulfo Romero (Raul Julia). Military rulers, who have the support of the U.S. government, believe he will quiet the peasants and the priests who serve them. At first, that is exactly what Romero does. But when soldiers thwart voters, shoot into crowds, torture people, and kill a priest and friend of Romero, he condemns the regime on the radio, and leads a march into a church occupied by soldiers. He also directly defies the El Salvadoran president, an iron-fisted general. Go to http://www.delcopeacecenter.org/ or call 610-544-1818.

The country is in the throes of civil war. Romero’s words gain international attention. The film builds to its climax, recreating the events of Monday, March 25, 1980. Romero is saying his mother's funeral mass. Attendees include men with guns who have no intention of receiving the Holy Eucharist. Romero is shot dead in the church sanctuary. On May 15, 2015, Archbishop Oscar Romero will be beatified by Pope Francis, the final step before sainthood. Doors open at 6:30 PM for light refreshments. The film is-sponsored by the Brandywine Peace Community.

21] – On Fri., May 1 at 7:30 PM at Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, 503 Rock Creek Church Rd. NW, WDC 20010, celebrate the 82nd anniversary of the Catholic Worker. The speaker is Bill Frankel-Streit, member of the Little Flower Catholic Worker in Louisa, VA. On May 1, 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, The Catholic Worker newspaper made its debut with a first issue of 2,500 copies. The paper provided a radical critique of the political and social order from the perspective of the Gospel and Catholic social teaching. Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin and several others distributed the paper in Union Square for a penny a copy (still the price) to passersby. The Catholic Worker Movement is grounded in a firm belief in the God-given dignity of every human person. Today, over 200 Catholic Worker communities in the U.S. and abroad, remain committed to nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and hospitality for the homeless, exiled, hungry, and forsaken. Catholic Workers practice the works of mercy and peace and protest injustice, war, racism, and violence of all forms.

Bill and his wife, Sue, were formerly members of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker for ten years before moving with their family to rural central Virginia to start the Little Flower Catholic Worker. Contact the Catholic Worker at 202-882-9649 or artlaffin@hotmail.com.

22] – 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 May 1. Call Dave Greene at 410-599-3725.

23] – Come to the Emergence Community Arts Collective, 733 Euclid St. NW, WDC, on Fri., May 1 from 8 to 11 PM for Welcome to Hebron. John is an interfaith community organizer who has spent the last three months with the Christian Peacemakers Teams as a nonviolent witness to the occupation of Palestine. Explore with him in this interactive workshop how occupation and policing have similar tactics around the world. This is a sliding scale fundraiser for the Christian Peacemakers Teams; or donate at http://www.cpt.org/participate/donate.

24] – On Sat., May 2 from 9 AM to 1 PM, attend the Sabeel DC Metro 4th Annual Spring Program--PALESTINE AND ZION: THE JOURNEY FOR CIVIL RIGHTS--at the Sixth Presbyterian Church, 5413 16th St. NW (corner of 16th & Kennedy Sts.). The program will explore ways that African American Christians & churches can encounter and respond to the suffering and discrimination experienced every day by Palestinians living in the Holy Land. The keynote speakers are Rev. Graylan S. Hagler, senior pastor, Plymouth Congregational UCC, WDC, and Rev. Dr. Heber M. Brown III, senior pastor, Pleasant Hope Baptist Church, Baltimore. There will be a panel featuring Palestinian & Jewish viewpoints & experiences. The registration cost is $20, which includes a catered lunch. There is an ONLINE REGISTRATION at www.SabeelDCMetro.brownpapertickets.com. Contact Paul Verduin at phverduin@gmail.com or 301-518-5551. Go to www.sabeeldc.org.

25] – 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.

26] – Go to the Embassy of Saudi Arabia, 601 New Hampshire Ave. NW, WDC 20037 on Sat., May 2 from noon to 3 PM for Around the World Embassy Day. The Saudi Embassy will open its doors to promote Saudi culture. Bring these messages to Saudi officials & embassy visitors: 1) STOP BOMBING CIVILIANS IN YEMEN, 2) FREE RAIF BADAWI NOW and 3) RELEASE WALEED ABU Al-KHAIR IMMEDIATELY. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the Saudi Arabian-led coalition is turning a blind eye to civilian deaths and suffering caused by its military intervention. Raif Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in Saudi prison, 1,000 lashes, and a subsequent 10 year travel ban for voicing his personal political opinions on a blog he created. Waleed Abu Al-Khair is a Saudi human rights lawyer and activist. He defended Raif Badawi and was detained in connection with his human rights work. Despite continued pressure, he has refused to renege on his human rights work. He is a prisoner of conscience and must be released immediately and unconditionally. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/828800777208136/.

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