Baltimore Activist Alert -- December 17 - 18, 2021

56] White House peace vigil – Dec. 17

57] Fire Drill Friday – Dec. 17

58] Support Gun Safety in the Build Back Better Act -- Dec. 17

59] Vigil for the Freedom to Vote Act – Dec. 17

60] "CHRISTMAS means PEACE" – Dec. 17

61] Phone bank for the Freedom to Vote Act – Dec. 17 - 18

62] Phone to place a progressive on PG County Council – Dec. 17

63] Peace and Justice Vigil – Dec. 17

64] Phone bank for the Build Back Better Act – Dec. 17

65] Knock on doors for Brooke Lierman in Randallstown -- Dec. 18

66] Free Them All – Dec. 18

67] Food Pantry and Food Donation Center – Dec. 18

68] Venezuela and DC gentrification – Dec. 18

69] Meet John King, candidate for governor – Dec. 18

70] Brandon Walls is seeking a home/apartment to rent

71] Tell JHU president to renounce nuclear weapons contracts

72] Beauty Fades /Stupid Lasts Forever and The Trial According to Alan Barysh 

73] Read Dave Eberhardt’s book "For All the Saints- a Protest Primer"

74] New Book: “Confessions of a Radical Academic”

75] Do you need a doctor?

76] Donate books, videos, DVDs and records

77] Do you need any book shelves?

78] Join the Global Zero campaign.

79] Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil

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56] – The Dorothy Day Catholic Worker will host a peace vigil at the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, WDC, on Fri., Dec. 17 at noon.  Contact the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker: 202-882-9649 or artlaffin@hotmail.com.

57] –Jane Fonda for Greenpeace [info@greenpeaceusa.org] is hosting another Fire Drill Friday on Dec. 17 at 2 PM ET with Kumi Naidoo.  He will break down the outcomes of the recent UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, and why it is so important that elected officials all around the world take urgent action now. We must come together as a global community to address the climate crisis, and we must continue building international power for climate action. Go to www.firedrillfridays.com/events.

58] – Team Brady [brady@bradyunited.org] wants you to phone bank on Fri., Dec. 17 at 3 PM ET for gun safety progress.  Phone/text-bank to Support Gun Safety in the Build Back Better Act Action Hour.  Investment in community violence intervention (CVI) programs is proven to reduce gun violence and save lives. Help make sure the Senate passes the Build Back Better Act that includes $5 billion in funding for CVI resources! The House has passed the Build Back Better Act. Now, as the legislation makes its way to the Senate, this is consequential legislation.  It’s the largest single investment in preventing gun violence in our nation’s history.

59] –  Our Revolution Howard County and Indivisible HoCoMD continue their joint weekly action at the Gorman Road I-95 Overpass in support of HR1/SR 1, aka the Freedom to Vote Act on every Friday from 3:30 to 5:30 PM ET. Committed activists stand by large banners and wave at approximately 12,000 vehicles per hour as they whiz by. Go to https://www.facebook.com/Our-Revolution-Howard-1907025362884865/events/?ref=page_internal.

60] – The Brandywine Peace Community [brandywine_staff@brandywinepeace.com] on Fri., Dec. 17 at 4 PM ET will do its second "CHRISTMAS means PEACE" vigil in front of the Philadelphia City Hall Christmas Tree on the west side, 15th & Market Streets in front of the city's holiday laser light show.    The message of these vigils, with large banners, signs, and leafleting, will be End the Violence…from Handgun to the H-Bomb. Visit http://www.brandywinepeace.com/event/philly-peace-vigil-1-jfk-blvd-broad-st-end-the-violence-from-handgun-to-h-bomb/ or call Bob at 215- 843-4827.

61] – Join the Freedom to Vote Act Phonebank with Common Cause on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Work together to demand bold changes to our alleged democracy to create a government that represents all of us, not big corporations or special interests. Call voters in targeted states and connect them to their Senators to support the Freedom to Vote Act and eliminate the filibuster. These phone banks are subject to change based on variables outside of our control (i.e. a Senator's mailbox is full). On Fri., Dec. 17 from 4 to 6 PM EST, connect NH voters to Sen. Hassan to ask that they do everything possible to pass the Freedom to Vote Act including fixing the filibuster. On Sat., Dec. 18 from noon to 2 PM, 1 to 3 PM and 6 to 8 PM EST connect AZ voters to Sen. Sinema to ask that they do everything possible to pass the Freedom to Vote Act including fixing the filibuster. Register at https://www.mobilize.us/dfadcoalition/event/376178/?followup_modal_context=newsletter.

62] –   Make Calls with Friends of Edward Burroughs on Fri., Dec. 17 from 4 to 6 PM ET and 6 to 8 PM ET.  Call voters in District 8 to support Edward Burroughs for County Councilperson in the special election this upcoming January. Prince George's County deserves a more progressive County Council and for that to happen, make your voice heard! Sign up at https://www.mobilize.us/progressivemarylandneweraproject/event/427687/.

63] -- There is usually a Quaker Vigil for Racial Justice on Fridays, from 5 to 6 PM, hosted by the Baltimore Quaker Peace and Justice Committee (BQPJC) outside the Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St.  The next scheduled vigil is on Dec. 17. Black Lives Matter. Stop the Killing. Physical distancing applies. Wear your face mask. Email homewoodfriends@gmail.com or call 410-235-4438. Quaker values call us to speak truth and to seek equality for all people. Aim to follow Bayard Rustin’s wisdom that “we need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers” and John Lewis’s call to “make good trouble.” See https://www.facebook.com/events/311508100243529/?event_time_id=311508113576861.3&akid=18263%2E3302379%2Ez6bJVQ.

64] – The Sunrise Movement Baltimore [:general@sunrisemovementbaltimore.org] is organizing a Phone Bank on Fri., Dec. 17 from 6 to 7:30 PM ET. Take Action for the Build Back Better Act.  The Build Back Better legislation now before the U.S. Senate includes a crucial down payment on the Green New Deal, the largest ever U.S. investment in climate action. Learn more and sign up to push the Senate to pass Build Back Better. You’ll receive all the info and training you need when you join the calls at https://www.mobilize.us/sunrisemovement/event/403248/?emci=fbdc37c9-b648-ec11-9820-c896653b26c8&emdi=71fdb989-9c4b-ec11-9820-c896653b26c8&ceid=60007.

65] --On Sat., Dec. 18 from 10 AM to noon ET, knock on doors for Brooke Lierman for Comptroller starting at 3820 Fernside Road, Randallstown 21133.  Sign up at https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/397538/. Canvass the community and share Brooke's vision to transform the Comptroller's office to work for every Marylander. Once you sign up the team will follow up with everything you need to knock on doors!

66] – American Friends Service Committee held a #FreeThemAll week of action through December 18. Everyone deserves dignity and justice. But in the United States, 2.3 million people are locked away in prisons, jails, and detention centers because of racist law enforcement, and a legal system whose only solution is violence and confinement. Visit https://www.afsc.org/FreeThemAll?ms=EMA22EI1203&emci=7893d439-c952-ec11-9820-a085fc31ac93&emdi=a892d913-5254-ec11-94f6-0050f2e65e9b&ceid=764241.

As part of #FreeThemAll, there is a Letter Writing Drive on Sat., Dec. 18 from 2 to 4:30 PM ET.  On International Migrants Day, join AFSC and Detention Resistance and write letters to migrants detained in Otay Mesa Detention Center. Check out these letter writing tips: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z0CzylQUNaGBp-d8DDi_1xv9EK-57TF18mx68DJanI8/edit and download a graphic at https://www.canva.com/design/DAEx7BMkPrQ/hm2cDGpCbK_3z88OyCOwtw/view?utm_content=DAEx7BMkPrQ&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink#2.  Use the graphic on your card or letter.   Send your letter to Detention Resistance, who will address it and include it in the drive, at 2801 B St., #172, San Diego CA 92102.

67] – On Sat., Dec. 18 from noon to 2 PM EST, get over to the Food Pantry and Food Donation Center at First and Franklin Presbyterian Church, 210 W. Madison St., Baltimore. This Food Pantry is open every Saturday. Get a grocery bag – breakfast, jelly and peanut butter (a good source of protein) for lunch, the makings for a balanced dinner such as beans and rice, pasta and sauce, soup, vegetables, fruit, and a paper goods. Also added is a little fun food, such as popcorn or cookies, for everyone enjoys a treat.  Contributions of shelf stable foods can be brought to Reid Chapel every Saturday between noon and 2 PM. If shopping is difficult for you, monetary donations earmarked food pantry may be sent to the church.  How else can you help? Volunteers are needed to help collect and distribute food. Contact the church office to volunteer. You can also help by spreading the word to those you know who are facing food insecurity. See https://www.facebook.com/firstfranklinbaltimore.

68] – The ANSWER Coalition DC [dc@answercoalition.org] is asking this question:  What do regime change in Venezuela and DC gentrification have in common? This question will be answered on Fri., Dec. 17 at 7 PM ET at the Justice Center, 617 Florida Ave. NW, WDC. In the capital city of the richest country in the history of the planet, there is crumbling infrastructure and housing, all while the affordability of homes is pricing Washingtonians out of their neighborhoods. DC residents are rapidly being kicked out of the homes they occupy through increased housing speculation and gentrification. In Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela, residents are witnessing a socialist transformation of society all while experiencing crippling U.S. sanctions. The government has successfully built over 3,000,000 units of housing in under ten years, repeatedly overcoming target goals. [Is this possibly true?]

 Join for a conversation that links housing struggles locally to an international struggle to provide housing as a human right. RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/housing-socialist-solutions-to-capitalist-crises-tickets-223601527187.

69] – Jared Schablein [admin@lowershoreprogressives.com] indicates that the crucial 2022 midterm election is rapidly approaching. In this upcoming mid-term election, the State of Maryland will elect a new Governor for the first time in Eight Years. A Progressive Governor might fight for the Eastern Shore. The Lower Shore Progressive Caucus on Sat., Dec. 18 at 1 PM ET will host a Town Hall with Gubernatorial Candidate John King. All the candidates running for Governor in 2022 will be introduced.

  You can attend in person at the Wicomico Public Library, 122 S. Division St., Salisbury 21801. Register at https://www.mobilize.us/ourrevolution/event/433015/.  If you would like to attend the event virtually, register at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwtcOCtqzIjE9FyARMlFGmZ0m4i66RmaU6W

70] – A friend, Brendan Walls, has to move out of a rented home on March 1.  So he is looking for housing and wants to live south of the Baltimore beltway, east of US 95 and north of Route 214.  Do you know of a house or apartment in the Annapolis area with as much peace and quiet as I can get for no more than $1800 a month? He does not mind pet sitting, house sitting, keeping someone company or community living.  Let me know if you have a lead on a home or apartment for Brendan to rent.  Thanks for giving this your consideration.

71] -- This is A PLEA TO CONVINCE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY TO OBEY INTERNATIONAL LAW. The world reached a historic milestone on January 22, 2021: The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons [TPNW] entered into force and become binding international law -- https://www.icanw.org/the_treaty.

  Prevent Nuclear War/Maryland has called attention to the growing danger of nuclear war and the outrageous $1.7 trillion dollars we are spending to upgrade the nuclear arsenal. On July 18, 2017, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, a U.S. Navy - affiliated research center received a seven-year, $92 million contract to continue its systems engineering and research-and-development services for the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center. Help convince JHU to renounce nuclear weapons contracts. Contact the president, Ron Daniels, to urge him to reject all nuclear weapons contracts: Office of the President, 242 Garland Hall, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, Maryland 21218.  Call his office at (410) 516-8068 or email president@jhu.edu.

72] – Bad Attitude Publishers Announces the release of Beauty Fades /Stupid Lasts Forever and The Trial According to Alan Barysh. In light of the fascist/Q Annon/Truther/Alex Jones and Trump-inspired attack on the capital, Bad attitude Publications has released a photo essay by Alan Barysh. In the follow-up book to Sorry Truther, it was an OUTSIDE JOB Beauty Fades.... gives the reader an upfront look at the reactionary forces and the deadly beliefs these folks uphold. In pictures and texts, one gets a good look at the faces and ideas that pose a real threat to this country. The Trial According to Alan Barysh is a rewrite of the Kafka Classic The Trial. With pictures from the original movie, Alan Barysh rewrites this scathing satire with just a tad more cutting edge satire, and a different ending. The appendix to the book talks about the lonely uphill struggle of Tawanda Jones to get justice for her brother. This afterthought is included, because of the real Kafkesque struggle of the West Family to get justice for her brother. Both books can be purchased on Amazon.com. For every purchase of The Trial, Alan Barysh will give all of his royalties to the West Family. Just text a picture of the book to 443-239-5325.

73] – David Eberhardt was a member of the Baltimore Four with Father Philip Berrigan, Tom Lewis and Rev. James Mengel.  The group poured blood on draft files on October 27, 1967.  They would be convicted and sentenced to prison. Dave has written a book "For All the Saints- a Protest Primer"- documenting the Baltimore Four action and many others up to and including the most recent Plowshares action – Kings Bay Plowshares 7.  Phil Berrigan’s wife, Elizabeth McAlister, is a member of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7. 

Dave just printed the 5^th edition of the book which is available for $25 by sending him a check: Dave Eberhardt, 4 Hadley Square North, Baltimore, MD 21218. You can contact him at mozela9@comcast.net. He prefers that you DO NOT order the book from Amazon. Image 1 of 2 for FOR ALL THE SAINTS: A PROTEST PRIMER. David Eberhardt; Image 2 of 2 for FOR ALL THE SAINTS: A PROTEST PRIMER; and FOR ALL THE SAINTS: A PROTEST PRIMER.  This is a self-published book printed in 2017 with updates.

The price is $25 for a Spiral Bound, and Signed. This edition being what the publisher calls “The 4th edition (or first edition 4th state?)  of this book (with “final” additions) has been printed by the firm of FEDEX numbered 150-200, signed by the author, February 2017.”This is copy 187 and is numbered and signed by David Eberhardt on the title page.~~While the bibliographical information is a bit head-spinning, this is an engaging memoir by David Eberhardt recounting his involvement with the Brothers Berrigan in the protests against the Viet Nam war, and his subsequent time as an inmate at the Lewisburg Federal Prison. There is Near Fine binding: Item #291479.  

74] – Check out “Confessions of a Radical Academic: A Memoir by Fred L. Pincus,” now available from Adelaide Books (https://adelaidebooks.org/collections/latest-releases/products/confessions-of-a-radical-academic) or from Amazon.  Fred taught sociology at UMBC for more than 40 years and is on the board of Research Associates Foundation.  His memoir details his struggles to have a successful career while keeping true to his radical principles and activism.  One major theme is his struggle with race and racism both on and off campus. Go to www.fredlpincus.com.

75] – Yousef Zarbalian [mailto:yzarbali@gmail.com] started his own medical practice in December before the pandemic hit. It is called East-West Medicine and Rheumatology, and its website is EastWestMD.com.  Yousef is licensed in Maryland and Virginia. He is doing primary care as well as rheumatologic care (focusing on joint problems and autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and sjogren's).  He is offering telemedicine visits, and he has very reasonable rates for uninsured individuals.  He makes use of herbs (which can be sent directly to patients from the herbal dispensary) as well as prescribing medications to their local pharmacy if needed.  

76] -- If you would like to get rid of books, videos, DVDs, records, tarps and table cloths, contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at comcast.net.

77] -- Can you use any book shelves? Contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at comcast.net.

78] -- Join an extraordinary global campaign for the elimination of nuclear weapons: http://www.globalzero.org/sign-declaration. A growing group of leaders around the world is calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons and a majority of the global public agrees.  This is an historic window of opportunity.  With momentum already building in favor of Zero, a major show of support from people around the world could tip the balance. When it comes to nuclear weapons, one is one too many.

79] – A Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil takes place every day in Lafayette Park, 1601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 24 hours a day, since June 3, 1981. Go to http://prop1.org; call 202-682-4282.

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/.

“One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible. It may or may not be possible to turn the US around through nonviolent revolution. But one thing favors such an attempt: the total inability of violence to change anything for the better" - Daniel Berrigan