Baltimore Activist Alert -- April 8, 2021

46] “Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor 2020” – April 8

47] Use of technology and data in tracking and monitoring global health – April 8

48] Ensuring Every Vote Counts – April 8

49] Food Rescue at the Dovecote Café – April 8

50] Support the Uyghurs – April 8

51] Defender of Liberty Awards – April 8

52] American Rescue Plan's new benefits – April 8

53] Sharpen your Activism Toolkit -- April 8

54] FBI Entrapment of Muslims – April 8

55] Meet with Rep. Sean Casten. – April 8

56] Public Health and the Promise of Palestine – April 8

57] Systemic Equality Action Session 4: Student Debt – April 8

58] Communities of color suffering civic disenfranchisement – April 8

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46] – On Thurs., April 8 from 9 to 10:15 AM EST, the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP) cordially invites you to attend the Vienna launch of the “Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor 2020.” For those unable to use Zoom, the event will also be livestreamed to YouTube. Please note that Zoom capacity is limited to 200 participants. Sign up at https://vcdnp.org/2020-ban-monitor/. The Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor is produced each year by the NGO Norwegian People’s Aid, and data collection and analysis are assisted by a wide range of experts on international law and nuclear disarmament. It records progress related to universalization and implementation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which was adopted in 2017 and came into force on 22 January 2021. See https://banmonitor.org/.

 The Treaty has been signed by 86 countries and ratified by 54. The Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor describes the TPNW position of each of the UN Member States. The Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor is available for download free of charge here: file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/TNWBM-2020.pdf.

47] – As technology advances and the world learns from epidemics and pandemics past, how can we build robust surveillance systems to track the emergence of these diseases, especially among populations with less technological access, and ensure an equitable and cooperative global prevention and vaccination response? On Thurs., April 8 at noon EDT, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) will host a discussion on the use of technology and data in tracking and monitoring global health crises, why collaboration in international response is critical, and how to ensure equity in vaccine distribution. Sign up at https://phr-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-wi98VKST4WoXk1oFa59Gw?utm_campaign=653358_FY21%20April%20COVID-19%20Webinar%20Invitation%2024-rs_04072021&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Physicians%20for%20Human%20Rights&dm_i=4GV7,E04U,1TO2EP,1GPBC,1. The conversation will be moderated by Céline Gounder, MD, ScM, FISA, a practicing HIV/infectious diseases specialist, internist, and epidemiologist who is clinical assistant professor in the department of medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

  The speakers are as follows: John Brownstein, PhD is the chief innovation officer and director of the computational epidemiology group at Boston Children’s Hospital, and professor in the department of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School; Sanjana Ravi, MPH is a senior analyst at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and a senior research associate in the department of environmental health and engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Ronald Waldman, MD, MPH, a former PHR board member, is professor of global health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health of George Washington University. Submit questions for consideration to webinar@phr.org.

48] – Get over to Ensuring Every Vote Counts, a virtual training, hosted by Declaration for American Democracy Coalition on Thurs., April 8 from 4 to 5 PM EDT.  Speakers will include MSNBC Commentator Renato Marriotti, Common Cause Georgia Director Aunna Dennis and Brennan Center Democracy Counsel Gowri Ramachandran. The right and the freedom to vote includes being able to be confident that every vote will be counted as cast. The For the People Act invests in our voting systems to ensure that we can not only have secure voting systems but also have paper ballots and audits to check the paper against electronic vote counts. Visit https://www.mobilize.us/pfaw/event/381599/.

49] – Thursdays in Reservoir Hill at the Dovecote Café, 2501 Madison Ave., will continue through May 27 from 4 to 5 PM.  This event is supervised by Food Rescue Baltimore.  Bring a bag, bring a friend, and take delicious, nutritious, free rescued food. See https://www.facebook.com/foodrescueday/.

50] –       On Thurs., April 8 at 5:30 PM, Yom HaShoah, remember the 6 million Jews who lost their lives during the Holocaust.  Please join members of Adas Israel’s Social Action Committee in speaking out against the persecution and in support of the Uyghur community.  This ethnic Turkic community has become the focus of actions taken by the Chinese government that the US government, among others, has called cultural genocide.  This will be the first of several planned protests. Meet at Adas Israel at the Garden of the Righteous, near the front at 2850 Quebec St. NW, WDC. Then walk up Connecticut Avenue, on the sidewalk, to the Chinese Embassy on Van Ness Avenue. RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jIwQKDAySQzZTG-V-8Z2Rrx24WJ7gW7E0OUhHvqZuLk/viewform?edit_requested=true. Wear your mask. Stay socially distant. Bring a sign. But come support the Uyghurs. You are encouraged to enjoy a delicious meal at Cleveland Park’s local Uyghur restaurant: Dolan afterwards.

 51] – The Committee for the Republic is hosting "Shock and Awe," a Movie Salon & the Defender of Liberty Awards on Thurs., April 8 at 7 PM (EST). RSVP at Events@CommitteefortheRepublic.org.  The Zoom Link is at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86973997047. The Committee is giving its Defender of Liberty Awards to the undaunted Knight-Ridder journalists who reported 80-plus stories challenging the Bush administration’s false claims that Saddam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda and secret WMD. While The New York Times and the Washington Post championed the Iraq war, the Washington Bureau of the 32-newspaper chain (including the Miami Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the San Jose Mercury News) published one news story after another seeking the facts. Bureau chief John Walcott and three reporters -- Jonathan Landay, Warren Strobel, and Joe Galloway – stayed the course in the face of disparaging criticism, even from some of their families and colleagues.

 Watching Bill Moyers’ interviews of Landay, Strobel and Walcott, Hollywood star Rob Reiner decided to produce a movie dramatizing Knight Ridder’s lonely work. Released in 2017, Reiner ends “Shock and Awe” with a news clip of New York Times reporter Judith Miller admitting the media got WMD wrong – “except for Knight-Ridder.” Reiner will tell the salon why it was the perfect vehicle for exposing the Bush administration’s calamitous invasion, which instead of planting the seeds of democracy further destabilized the Middle East. Thomas Jefferson expressed the sentiment so well: “[W]ere it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”  The Film Link is on Amazon--Free to Stream on Tubi.

 52] – MomsRising.org [Info@MomsRising.org] sent out an alert about the American Rescue Plan's new benefits (including direct cash to your family) which will be explained on Thus., April 8 at 7 PM ET. Sign up at https://www.mobilize.us/momsrising/event/381787/.  Hear from a very special guest, the U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Some of our nation’s foremost advocates and experts for women and families will also be joining us to help cover how to access the new benefits (including direct cash to your family!) that just recently passed in the American Rescue Plan.

53] – Maxine Garcia [maxine@codepink.org] is suggesting that you can Sharpen your Activism Toolkit on Thurs., April 8 at 7 PM ET. This is an opportunity for a private meeting with Rae Abileah and Chelsea Byers of Beautiful Trouble, who will discuss a toolkit designed to put the wisdom of generations of activists at your fingertips! It has been described by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as a "crucial resource for changemakers." Feel free to bring any questions you might have, this is an interactive meeting suited to cater to YOUR activism experience. RSVP for Zoom at https://www.codepink.org/04082021.

54] – Mass. Peace Action [info@masspeaceaction.org] invites you to attend on Thurs., April 8 from 7 to 8 PM COINTELPRO Redux: FBI Entrapment of Muslims.  In the aftermath of 9/11, the FBI conducted blanket surveillance of Muslims throughout the US. Although this blanket surveillance violated our Fourth Amendment rights, it failed to produce any “terrorists.” Register at https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwqde-vrzwoE9yAZPA_u2sXPBwadTVBzTMr?emci=79955792-3596-eb11-85aa-0050f237abef&emdi=fb19e3f4-3896-eb11-85aa-0050f237abef&ceid=269591.

  Failing to find “terrorists” through their mass surveillance, the FBI moved on to manufacturing terrorism. The FBI located Muslim boys and young men and targeted them with what are essentially entrapment schemes. The prime targets of FBI entrapment were Muslim boys and young men who suffered from mental illness, poverty, loneliness, unemployment, lack of social skills, autism, or individuals who were otherwise somehow marginalized from larger society. The FBI sent undercover agents or informants (many of whom were promised reduced sentences for unrelated crimes, and/or large sums of cash) to befriend disenfranchised young Muslims with promises of money, friendship, purpose, or some other desirable outcome. Join our 4/8/21 program to learn more. 

55] – Climate Hawks Vote [info@climatehawksvote.com] is inviting you to meet with Rep. Sean Casten, as part of an interactive series, Climate Under, as the first guest. This will happen on Thurs., April 8 at 7 PM ET. Can Congress pass a climate bill under the guise of an infrastructure bill? Can anything at all get out of the Senate? Do climate finance/risk disclosure bills, like those championed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Sean Casten, matter? Find out April 8. Illinois Representative Sean Casten built his clean tech business before he entered politics and now sits on the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.  Register at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAscOqvrD0uH9C2fVvNtholvHxSS8VlvJkl?emci=d338db62-068c-eb11-85aa-00155d43c992&emdi=2c6dbbdf-a08c-eb11-85aa-00155d43c992&ceid=13143726.

56] – Jewish Voice for Peace [info@jewishvoiceforpeace.org] wants you to attend a webinar: Public Health and the Promise of Palestine on Thurs., April 8 at 8 PM ET. The first Health Advisory Council (HAC) webinar of 2021 will be co-sponsored by the Institute for Palestine Studies.  REGISTER at https://act.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/a/public-health-palestine-webinar-04082021?emci=d7d4a0bd-838b-eb11-85aa-00155d43c992&emdi=1f524dc8-f78f-eb11-85aa-00155d43c992&ceid=237778. In this talk, public health scholar, epidemiologist, and pharmacist Dr. Danya Qato will speak to the limits and possibilities of public health practice, research, and advocacy in Palestine that have come under increased attention during the Covid-19 pandemic. The talk will emphasize foundational questions that have often been sidelined in the public health discourse – including the enduring role of settler-colonialism, racism, and capitalism in shaping the health of Palestinians and in the practice of public health in Palestine. Qato, PharmD, MPH, PhD, is an assistant professor of epidemiology and health policy based in Baltimore. Look at www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org.

57] – ACLU People Power [info@peoplepower.org] is calling attention to Systemic Equality Action Session 4: Student Debt.  On Thurs., April 8 at 8 PM ET, learn how to cancel student debt and promote racial justice.  Did you know that the student debt crisis is impacting Black and Brown Americans disproportionately, and accounts for over 20% of the racial wealth gap?  40 million Americans are currently on the hook for about 1.7 trillion dollars in student loans. Because of long-standing systemic racial discrimination, Black families have far less wealth to draw on and are more likely to borrow and to have trouble in repayment. Two decades after taking out their student loans, the median Black borrower still owes 95 percent of their debt, whereas the median white borrower has paid off 94 percent of their debt. RSVP at https://go.peoplepower.org/signup/rsvp-systemic-equality-action-series/?source=ppem_92664&t=3&akid=92664%2E1415127%2EuNb7AT.

58] – The Accelerating Justice Series will look at Policing on Thurs., April 8 at 8 PM ET. Contact Andrea Miller at andrea@peopledemandingaction.org. Policing is gatekeeper to the criminal justice system! Last year's nationwide protests erupted from a long, intertwined history of race and a criminal justice system rooted in slavery, segregation and racist violence.  In partnership with AMP America.org and the North Carolina Poor Peoples Campaign, the Center for Common Ground presents the Accelerating Justice series because of wide concern for communities of color suffering civic disenfranchisement, trauma and lost economic opportunities. Hear from Kerwin Pittman of the North Carolina Task Force on Racial Equity in Criminal Justice and Director of Recidivism Reduction Educational Program Services who will describe key Task Force Report recommendations on law enforcement reform and tell us how to take action, no matter which state we live in.  Tony Burnette, career law enforcement officer (North Carolina and Virginia), community activist and leader in Northampton County -- one of the most highly economically distressed in North Carolina -- will describe the urgent need to put community healthfulness at the heart of things, the challenges and barriers and how communities can take direct action to make change happen.  Sign up at  https://actionnetwork.org/events/accelerating-justice-series-police-april-8-2021?link_id=1&can_id=4b9d4061aec5469758759317ac0f5285&source=email-thursday-accelerating-justice-police-reform-for-safer-communities-2&email_referrer=email_1135561&email_subject=thursday-accelerating-justice-police-reform-for-safer-communities.

To be continued.

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  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