Baltimore Activist Alert - June 16 to August 16, 2015

33] Summer Solstice Celebration – through June 22

34] Assad’s chemical weapons – June 16

35] DC Healthy Communities Collaborative – June 16

36] Book talk about “Sumoud” -- June 16

37] Peace vigil – June 16

38] No JHU Drone Research – June 16

39] Hiroshima-Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Exhibition – through Aug. 16

40] ACLU dinner – June 16

41] Author Talk about IN AFTER SNOWDEN – June 16

42] Sandtown-Winchester – June 16

43] Soweto 1976 – June 16

44] Orioles game – June 16

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33] – The SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION goes from Mon., June 15 through Mon., June 22.  This year’s celebration will be a whole week of Sunrise and Sunset meetings focused on our relationship to the Sun, based on the teachings of Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov in his book, “Towards a Solar Civilization”. They will include morning prayers and ceremony.  The various events will be at 4209 East-West Highway (Jerusalem) or 4217 East-West Highway.  Call 301 654 6759 or go to www.theessenechurchofpeace.org.

 

34] – Go to 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, 200 D St. SW, WDC on Tues., June 16 from 10 AM to 1 PM for a hearing.  Chairperson Royce said this about the hearing: "The Assad regime continues its chemical weapon strikes, despite Obama Administration claims to have destroyed its illegal stockpile. Assad denies having any chemical weapons, while his forces brazenly gas men, women, and children. This hearing will highlight these horrific attacks and what can be done to protect vulnerable Syrian civilians. The Committee will hear chilling accounts, including from brave responders working to save the lives of those targeted by the Assad regime." Witnesses include The Honorable Robert Ford, Senior Fellow, The Middle East Institute, Mohamed Tennari, M.D., Idlib Coordinator, Syrian-American Medical Society, Mr. Farouq Habib, Syria Program Manager Mayday Rescue, and Annie Sparrow, M.B.B.S., Deputy Director Human Rights Program, Assistant Professor of Global Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Visit http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/hearing-assad-s-abhorrent-chemical-weapons-attacks.

 

35] –  On Tues., June 16 from 11 AM to 1 PM, the DC Healthy Communities Collaborative invites you to join in on the conversation about health in DC at THEARC Recital Hall, 1901 Mississippi Ave. SE.  The Collaborative consists of four DC hospitals and four community health centers that came together in 2012 to address the health needs of the Washington, DC community. As part of the mission to improve health in DC, the Collaborative is developing a citywide community health needs assessment and a community health improvement plan that is responsive to the needs identified in the assessment. The final assessment will be released in June 2016.  Join for engaging conversation about the current state of health in DC, the community assets that help keep us healthy, the barriers that weigh us down, and what we can do to elevate the health of our community. Lunch will be served! Registration is required: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-conversation-61615-getting-to-a-healthy-dc-registration-17104328507.

 

36] – On Tues., June 16 from 1 to 2 PM, the Palestine Center, 2425 Virginia Ave. NW, WDC 20037, invites you to a book talk about “Sumoud,” the Arabic title of this new history, means "steadfastness" in English. Presenting this book will be Joyce Ajlouny, director of the Friends School, with co-authors Betsy Brinson and Gordon Davies.  In 1969, fifteen year-old Miriam Karam approached Eli and Sybil Jones, Quakers from Maine, as they were walking in Ramallah. She asked them to start a school for girls. "But who would teach?" they asked, and Miriam replied, "I will."

 

Thus was born the Ramallah Friends School that today enrolls about 1400 students from kindergarten through high school with a curriculum that begins in Arabic and ends with students fluent in English. It is one of the few schools in the Middle East recognized for International Baccalaureate programs. It has sent students all over the world to pursue advanced education and has helped to strengthen Palestinian universities and society as well. The authors of this new history of the school have used documents, photos, and oral histories in an effort to tell the story from the perspectives of those who have lived in Palestine during the past century and a half. Copies of the book will be sold at this event. Attendance is free, but a RSVP is required at http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/RegisterForEvent/i/52431. Call 202-338-1958 or email info@thejerusalemfund.org.

 

37] – Each Tuesday from 4:30 - 5:30 PM, the Catholic Peace Fellowship-Philadelphia for peace in Afghanistan and Iraq gathers at the Suburban Station, 16th St. & JFK Blvd., at the entrance to Tracks 3 and 4 on the mezzanine.  The next vigil is June 16.  Call 215-426-0364.

 

38] – Vigil to say "No Drone Research at JHU" each Tuesday at 33rd & North Charles Sts. Join this ongoing vigil on June 16  from 5:30 to 6:30  PM.  Call Max at 410-366-1637. 

 

39] – Come to the Katzen Arts Center, Third Floor, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW, WDC on Tues., June 16 from 5:30 to 7:30 PM for, in conjunction with the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Exhibition, a panel which brings together several artists who have addressed war-related suffering in their own work. Panelists include Kristine Yuki Aono, Kitty Klaidman, Miriam Morsel Nathan, and Aida Sehovic. Go to http://www.american.edu/calendar/?id=6383062.

 

See the Maruki Panel exhibit at the American University Katzen Arts Center. Go to http://www.american.edu/cas/museum/gallery/2015/hiroshima-nagasaki.cfm. Six of the world-Famous panels will be exhibited outside Japan for the first time in many years. There will also be a display of artifacts from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as 24 of the All Souls Church Honkawa School Children's drawings. At the American University Museum, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW, WDC 20016-8031, see the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Exhibition through Aug. 16.In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the attacks, this powerful show will include 20 artifacts collected from the debris of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as 6 large folding screens that depict the horrors of the event. The 1995 Nobel Peace Prize nominees, Iri and Toshi Maruki, created a total of 15 screens over 32 years from 1950. This exhibition, made possible by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, is meant to deepen understanding of the damage wrought by nuclear weapons and inspire peace in the 21st century. Call 202-885-1000.  Email museum@american.edu. Admission is free, and the exhibit hours are Tuesdays through Sundays, 11 AM to 4 PM.

 

40] – You're invited to ACLU’s Annual Dinner & Discussion on Tues., June 16 at 6 PM at the New Deal Café, 113 Centerway, Greenbelt 20770.  Over the last year, and especially following the police-involved death of Baltimore's Freddie Gray, people across Maryland and the nation have been awakening to the cry for justice coming from communities whose trust in law enforcement has been shattered by police abuse, discrimination and misconduct, as well as the failure of our justice system to hold police accountable. The speakers for "Police Accountability to the Communities They Serve" are Del. Alonzo Washington – sponsor of House Bill 954, which will require police departments to report to the state civilian deaths as a result of a police encounter; Marion Gray-Hopkins – mother of Gary Hopkins, who was killed during a police encounter in Prince George's County in 1999; and Toni Holness – Public Policy Associate, ACLU of Maryland.  TICKETS are required for dinner ($25 in advance, $30 at door, $15 for students). The discussion following dinner at 7:30 p.m. is FREE. Buy tickets or reserve your seat at https://action.aclu.org/secure/md_20150616dinner?ms=eml_150529_aff_MD_criminal_law_reform&af=#%23query_string_encrypted%23%23.

 

41] – Go to the Alliance for Justice, 11 Dupont Circle NW, WDC on Tues., June 16 from 6 to 7:30 PM for a discussion of Edward Snowden’s release of classified documents about top-secret government surveillance programs.  “In After Snowden,” Ronald Goldfarb serves as editor and contributor of a provocative new book that includes several previously unpublished essays by prominent legal and political experts that examine the boundaries of privacy in America, and the future of secrecy in an increasingly accessible world.  Visit http://org2.salsalabs.com/o/6539/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=78009.

 

42] – Baltimore's Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood has received a lot of national press lately because of the Baltimore Uprising. The truth is that there is a lot of good happening in this neighborhood, thanks to dedicated people who are creating and running effective programs for the community. There are programs that are working to provide access to good food as well as to create jobs.  Sandtown: Building a model for food and jobs is the topic on Tues., June 16 at 6:30 PM at the Newborn Holistic Ministries, Harris-Marcus Building, 1947 Pennsylvania Ave., Baltimore.  Marc Steiner will moderate the panel with Elder C.W. Harris, Strength to Love II Farm and Newborn Holistic Ministries, Antoine Bennet, New Song Community Church, and Melissa Kelly, No Boundaries Coalition, Assistance provided to and from cars if needed. Call Valerie Williams at 443-804-1252.

 

43] –   At Mt Vernon Square NW, WDC on Tues., June 16 at 7 PM, the DCFerguson Movement will protest against racist, militarized policing in Washington, D.C. and across the country. June 16 was selected because on that day in 1976 twenty-thousand Black students took the streets of South Africa to protest the imposition of the racist language Afrikaans in their schools. Their protests were met with bullets by the Apartheid government killing hundreds of youth. Oppression, however, breeds resistance. The murders of those students jumpstarted the movement against Apartheid as thousands upon thousands of Black (and white) South Africans actively joined the struggle, swelling the ranks of the Liberation Movement.

 

On June 16th DCFerguson seeks to honor those who lost their lives in Soweto Township in 1976, who gave everything to be liberated. Email DCFerguson Movement or visit https://www.facebook.com/events/865978560116129/.

 

44] – There's an O's-Phillies game on Tues., June 16 at 7:05 PM.  For $10, you can get great seats! It is Ollie's Bargain Nights, and the seats are in Section 332.  Tickets can be delivered to Baltimore area residents, or one can meet Lou Curran at the Babe Ruth statue or pick up tickets at Will Call.  Call or text 410-499-8899!    Net proceeds will be shared among MdSPCA, Md Public Interest Law Program (MPILP), University of Baltimore Students in Public Interest Law (UBSPI), Maryland Legal Aid, Public Justice Center, Md. Criminal Defense Attorneys' Assn. (MCDAA), NACDL's Foundation for Criminal Justice, Association for the Public Defender of Maryland (APDM), and the Norm Uziak memorial children's scholarship fund.

 

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