Baltimore Activist Alert - January 24 - 25, 2018

22] Community Healthy Air Act – Jan. 24

23] Happy Hour for Habitat for Humanity -- Jan. 24

24] Progressive Maryland Montgomery Happy Hour – Jan. 24

25] Baltimore Green Space fundraiser -- Jan. 24

26] MAJR General Meeting – Jan. 24

27] A staged reading of A Blanket of Dust -- Jan. 24

28] Implicit Bias in the Criminal Justice System – Jan. 25

29] Our Revolution gathering – Jan. 25

30] The Threat of Genocide Today – Jan. 25

31] Small-Donor Public Financing Program – Jan. 25

32] Public Forum on Medicaid in Maryland – Jan. 25

33] AUTOMATING INEQUALITY – Jan. 25

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22] – On Wed., Jan. 24 from noon to 1 PM, join the Rally for the Community Healthy Air Act, hosted by the Rachel Carson Council in Lawyers Mall, Annapolis 21401.  Visit www.act.foodandwaterwatch.org.  Kow that chicken factory farms emit harmful pollutants into communities, who suffer from asthma, lung disease and cancer. Yet the Maryland Department of the Environment does no air emissions monitoring at factory farms!  The Community Healthy Air Act would create a healthy air study at factory farms so we know what's in the air we breathe.  Following the rally and press event in Lawyers Mall will be the Senate Committee Hearing for the bill at 1 PM, which all are welcome to stay for and listen to the compelling stories of affected community members from the Eastern Shore.  Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/198879230664756/.

23] – On Wed., Jan. 24 from 5 to 9 PM, come to a Happy Hour for Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C. at Vinoteca DC, 1940 11th St. NW, WDC 20001.  Take a chance to win some great prizes! A $10 donation will get you two extra hours of happy hour deals (and good karma). Visit www.dchabitat.org/hypdc.

24] – Progressive Maryland Montgomery is holding its First Happy Hour in District 3: Rockville to connect with local progressives and enjoy extended happy hour specials!  The Happy Hour is on Wed., Jan. 24 from 6 to 8 PM at the World of Beer, 196B E. Montgomery Ave., Rockville 20850. The site is a five minute walk from the Rockville Metro station. Contact Andrew Krug at erasmusregret@yahoo.com.

25] –  On Wed., Jan. 24 from 5:30 to 8:30 PM, Blue Pit BBQ & Whiskey Bar, 1601 Union Ave., Baltimore 21211, is generously donating 15% of food sales to Baltimore Green Space. Come for a fun night of friendship and fundraising. Visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/baltimore-green-space-friend-event-at-blue-pit-bbq-fundraiser-tickets-42057131011.

26] -- MAJR is a nonpartisan association of over forty community organizations and churches with members in every part of the state, formed to support justice reinvestment. Individual supporters include judges, attorneys, corrections professionals, as well as returning citizens, victims, and service providers. Visit http://www.ma4jr.org or https://facebook.com/ma4jr.org/.
The next MAJR General Meeting is on Wed., Jan. 24 from 6:30 to 8:30 starting with a Potluck Supper at the UA House at Fayette operated by Living Classrooms, 1100 E. Fayette St., Baltimore 21202.

27] – On Wed. Jan. 24 at 7 PM hear a reading of A Blanket of Dust in the Keegan Theatre, 1742 Church St. NW, WDC 20036.  RSVP at rsvpmadeline@gmail.com.   Scena Theatre and Delphi Film cordially Invite You to a Staged Reading of the play by Richard Squires, directed by Robert McNamara.  There is no charge.   

A Blanket of Dust is the story of Diana Crane—the daughter of a US Senator who loses her husband in the World Trade Center—and her shocking ordeal to redeem his death.  As she struggles with facts that her government, the media, her family and her countrymen deny—facts about murder, torture, fraud, and imperial travesties—she is finally forced, in a world consigned to permanent war, to seek justice by herself. 

28] –  On Thurs., Jan. 25 at 11:45 AM, hear a discussion Implicit Bias in the Criminal Justice System at the Clarence Mitchell Courthouse,  Room 504 (Bar Library Brown Room), 100 N. Calvert St., Baltimore 21202.  The Bar Association of Baltimore City Diversity Committee & The America Bar Association Criminal Justice Section will lead the discussion in identifying and recommending methods to combat bias in the justice system. Admission is FREE for BABC & ABA members, the non-member fee is $40. RSVP to info@baltimorebar.org. Non-members may register here https://www.baltimorebar.org/calendar/signup/MTMz, or call 410-539-5936. For questions, contact Kay N. Harding, Esquire at kay.harding@baltimorepolice.org.

29] – Our Revolution Maryland (ORMD) is the fastest-growing grassroots political and issue-focused organization in Maryland. In a crucial election year, it is committed to advancing its 2018 legislative agenda. You may find your chapter by visiting  http://ourrevolutionmd.com/?link_id=2&can_id=9c5bbb0ed9159a7bb5318410d9b7fb18&source=email-our-revolution-fighting-for-a-progressive-vision&email_referrer=email_274999&email_subject=our-revolution-fighting-for-a-progressive-vision and clicking Local Chapters toward the top-right.  Throughout January, many of the chapters will be hosting Senator Nina Turner, national President of Our Revolution, to discuss the next steps for Our Revolution.  There is a meeting on Thurs., Jan. 25 at 5:30 PM, hosted by Lower Shore Progressive Caucus at Salisbury University, Devilbiss Hall, Room 123. Visit http://ourrevolutionmd.com/.

30] – On Thurs., Jan. 25 from 6:30 to 9 PM, hear about The Threat of Genocide Today, hosted by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Pl. SW, WDC 20024.  Go to www.events.ushmm.org. Learn more about this critical aspect of the Museum’s mission and its recent work to bring attention to the plight of victims fleeing atrocities committed by ISIS in northern Iraq and the Assad regime in Syria.  The speakers are Naomi Kikoler, Deputy Director, Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide and Rob Satloff, Executive Director, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Author of “Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust’s Long Reach into Arab Lands.” Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/1980543185552658/.

31] –  On Thurs., Jan. 25 at 7 PM, attend a Forum: Small-Donor Public Financing Program for Prince George's County Elections at Kenhill Center, 2614 Kenhill Drive, Room 101, Bowie  20715. Do you want to reduce the influence of wealthy interests and increase the power of regular Prince Georgians in County politics?  To enable grassroots candidates to compete effectively for County Council and Executive, discuss legislation that would create a Small-Donor Public Financing Program for County elections – allowing citizens to run on the power of their ideas instead of the size of wealthy interests’ bank accounts.  

The program would work by amplifying small dollar donations to candidates who show sufficient community support and agree to accept donations only of $150 or less from individuals.  A similar program has been launched in Montgomery County and has brought out many grassroots candidates! The forum is sponsored by the Prince George’s Sierra Club and the Fair Elections Maryland Coalition.   Registration is not required, but appreciated for planning. Register at https://sierra.secure.force.com/events/details?formcampaignid=7010Z000001P2PAQA0.  See http://www.fairelectionsmaryland.org/home.html.

32] – Get over to a Public Forum on Medicaid in Maryland on Thurs., Jan. 25 from 7 to 9 PM at the Annapolis Friends Meeting House, 351 Dubois Road, Annapolis 21401. In cooperation with Congressman John Sarbanes, the Maryland Citizen's Health Initiative and Climate Stewards of Greater Annapolis present a forum on Medicaid in Maryland. Share how Medicaid has impacted you and your family. RSVP at t inyurl.com/medicaidannapolis. Go to https://www.csgannapolis.org/medicaid.

33] – On Thurs., Jan. 25 at 7:30 PM at Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse, 30 W. North Ave., Baltimore 21201, turn out for AUTOMATING INEQUALITY WITH VIRGINIA EUBANKS.  Today, automated systems control which neighborhoods get policed, which families attain needed resources, and who is investigated for fraud. While we all live under this new regime of data analytics, the most invasive and punitive systems are aimed at the poor. In Automating Inequality, Virginia Eubanks systematically investigates the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on poor and working-class people in America. Join the author for a night of heart wrenching, eye opening, but ultimately inspiring stories of the "digital poorhouse" -- from a woman in Indiana whose public assistance benefits are automatically terminated as she lays dying to a family in Pennsylvania in daily fear of losing their daughter because they fit a certain statistical profile. “This book is downright scary,” says Naomi Klein, "but with its striking research and moving, indelible portraits ... you will emerge smarter and more empowered to demand justice.” Call 443-602-7585. RSVP at http://www.redemmas.org. 

To be continued.

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.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