Imprisoned for 'dangerousness' in Cuba

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/26/AR2010022604901.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

 

Imprisoned for 'dangerousness' in Cuba

By Nik Steinberg
Saturday, February 27, 2010; A15

Click. And then silence.

It was the sound I dreaded in my calls to Cuba. As I gathered testimony from relatives of political prisoners, I never knew what an abrupt end to the call meant.

Had the Cuban intelligence services cut the line, or was it just the shoddy phone system? I would call back immediately, often getting a busy signal or a recorded message that the number was not in service. If I found out what had happened, it was usually days or weeks later.

"A neighbor dropped by to check on me, someone sospechoso."

"I don't know, my phone just stopped working."

For months I made -- and lost -- these calls. Because Cuba does not allow visits from human rights groups, we are forced to gather information from phone interviews, reports from local groups and the rare copies of prison sentences smuggled out by visiting relatives.

For nearly five decades, Fidel Castro silenced virtually all forms of dissent in Cuba, locking up anyone who dared to criticize his government. After ailing health forced him to hand control to his younger brother in 2006, many hoped that repression would ease. But Raúl Castro has allowed scores of political prisoners arrested under Fidel to languish. One of those, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, died last week after an 85-day hunger strike, which he had undertaken to protest the conditions in which he was held.

Raúl Castro has also incarcerated scores more political prisoners, such as Ramón Velásquez, who completed a three-year sentence in January, but was reportedly detained again following Zapata Tamayo's death. I first spoke to Ramón's wife, Bárbara, on the phone last March. She told me how on Dec. 10, 2006, they had set out with their 18-year-old daughter, Rufina, on a "march of dignity" across Cuba to call for respect for human rights and freedom for political prisoners.

They marched silently, from east to west, sleeping on roadsides or in the homes of people who took them in. Along their way, police detained them, they were attacked and cars even ran them off the road. They kept marching. In January 2007, more than 185 miles from where they started, Ramón was arrested. He was accused of "dangerousness," tried in a closed hearing and sentenced to three years in prison.

Under Cuba's "dangerousness" law, authorities can imprison people who have not committed a crime on the suspicion that they might commit one in the future. "Dangerous" activities include handing out copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, writing articles critical of the government and trying to start an independent union.

Bárbara and I spoke several times over the following months about her trips to visit Ramón in prison; about her son René, who took care of her; and about how Rufina had fled to the United States after her father's arrest.

My organization repeatedly sought permission to visit Cuba but never received a response. Eventually, we decided to go anyway. To minimize risks, we told no one we were coming. Last summer a colleague and I rented a car in Havana and drove east, conducting interviews along the way. We stayed nowhere for longer than a day.

When we arrived at the Velásquez home on the outskirts of Las Tunas, only René was there. Bárbara was on her way back from visiting Ramón in prison, he said.

We sat in a small kitchen with a dirt floor. Inside were two small chairs, a worn wooden table and a single-burner gas stove. A door opened on a room just big enough to fit a mattress and a dresser.

René told us he had not been on the march and did not consider himself political. But shortly after his father's arrest, he came home to find "Death to the worms of house 58," his family's address, spray-painted on the nearby bus stop. A week later, he was fired from his longtime hospital job. Members of the local "revolutionary defense committee" -- the neighborhood association connected with the Communist Party -- insulted him in the street and tried to pick fights. A man was assigned to watch him and his mother; he stood on their corner and followed them as they came and went.

René's girlfriend stopped talking to him on her parents' orders. So did most of his friends, who were warned by police that they would find themselves in trouble if they kept hanging around a "counterrevolutionary."

"It's like having someone plant a boot right in the middle of my chest and applying so much pressure I can hardly breathe," René told us. "Some days I wake up and I think: I have nothing. I am nobody. I have no dreams left for my future." We encountered this profound sense of isolation time and again in visits with the families of political prisoners.

Soon Bárbara arrived from her five-hour journey. Exhausted, she talked for a few minutes and then went to lie down.

"For weeks after they arrested my father, she didn't leave that bed," René whispered. The upside, he said, laughing, was that he'd been forced to teach himself to cook.

When we left, René insisted on walking us to our car. We headed down the dirt road outside their home, past neighbors who stopped their conversations and stared, and past the man on the corner, who trailed a few yards behind us. When we reached the car, René hugged us and asked us to pass a message to his sister, to whom he hadn't spoken in months: "Tell her we're fine -- not to worry."

As we drove away, I looked in the rearview mirror. René turned around and walked home, past the watchful gaze of his neighbors.

The writer is a researcher with the Americas division of Human Rights Watch.

© Copyright 1996- 2010 The Washington Post Company

 

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

 

"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

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/us/27beliefs.html?th&emc=th

February 26, 2010

Defender of Waterboarding Hears From Critics

By MARK OPPENHEIMER

There’s nothing unusual about partisans of the Bush administration defending waterboarding as a useful form of “enhanced interrogation.” Others will go even further, calling the technique “torture,” but saying it may be a necessary evil. What is a bit unusual is the case being made by Marc A. Thiessen, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush.

In “Courting Disaster: How the C.I.A. Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack,” Mr. Thiessen, a practicing Roman Catholic, says that waterboarding suspected terrorists was not only useful and desirable, but permitted by the teachings of the Catholic Church.

This does not square, to put it mildly, with the common understanding of Catholic teaching. In the past month, Catholic bloggers and writers from across the political spectrum have united to attack his views, and to defend their own: that waterboarding is torture, and that Roman Catholics are not supposed to do it.

Mr. Thiessen makes two basic arguments. First, he says that waterboarding, the simulated drowning technique used on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the professed chief planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, and others, is not torture. “I didn’t get into the Catholic theological stuff of it until I sat down to write the book,” Mr. Thiessen said in a phone interview. So when Mr. Bush asked him, in 2006, to write a speech explaining the C.I.A.’s interrogation program, Mr. Thiessen asked himself other kinds of questions.

“There’s a standard of torture in civil law,” he said, “which is severe mental pain and suffering. I also have a common-sense definition, which is, ‘If you’re willing to try it, it’s not torture.’ ”

Thousands of American soldiers have been willing to undergo waterboarding as part of their resistance training, Mr. Thiessen notes; therefore, it stands to reason that it is not torture.

Second, he invokes Catholic teaching to defend what he calls “coercive interrogation.”

The catechism states, “the defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to do harm,” and Catholic tradition accepts that this might involve killing. And, Mr. Thiessen writes: “If this principle applies to taking human life, it must certainly apply to coercive interrogation as well. A captured terrorist is an unjust aggressor who retains the power to kill many thousands by withholding information about planned attacks.”

To justify killing in self-defense, Catholics point to Thomas Aquinas’s principle of double-effect: the intended effect is to save your own life; killing is the unintended effect. By the same logic, Mr. Thiessen argues, “the intent of the interrogator is not to cause harm to the detainee; rather, it is to render the aggressor unable to cause harm to society.”

While Mr. Thiessen points out that the church does not forbid specific acts, his antagonists say the church’s guidelines are hardly nebulous. The blogger Andrew Sullivan has noted that the catechism condemns “torture which uses physical or moral violence.”

The philosopher Christopher O. Tollefsen, whose essay attacking Mr. Thiessen’s views appeared Friday in the online magazine Public Discourse, pointed in a phone interview to the 1993 encyclical Veritatis Splendor. There, Pope John Paul II wrote that there are acts that “are always seriously wrong by reason of their object,” including “whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, physical and mental torture and attempts to coerce the spirit; whatever is offensive to human dignity.”

The belief that waterboarding is morally or physically violent seems to unite all the writers who have criticized Mr. Thiessen, a group that includes the conservative blogger Conor Friedersdorf; Mark Shea, who edits the Web portal Catholic Exchange; and Joe Carter, who blogs for First Things, a magazine popular with conservative Catholics.

“Thiessen has been vigorously criticized by both so-called liberal and so-called conservative Catholics,” said Paul Baumann, who edits the liberal lay-Catholic magazine Commonweal. “That is one good indication of how erroneous his view is. “

In “Courting Disaster,” Mr. Thiessen cites several thinkers to explain facets of his just-war interpretation. In interviews, two sounded skeptical of his position.

Parts of Mr. Thiessen’s argument may have merit purely as a “philosophical theory,” said Darrell Cole, who teaches religion at Drew University. “But jumping to the conclusion that the C.I.A. was just in what it did is a tremendous leap in logic that I do not make.”

Jean Bethke Elshtain, of the University of Chicago, said that while soldiers or politicians might have to commit necessary evils sometimes, they “still stand convicted before God, if you are thinking theologically.”

“The necessary evil means precisely that: it is both ‘necessary’ and ‘evil,’ ” she said. “So the worst thing that can happen is to make something like waterboarding legally acceptable.”

When asked if any Catholic theologians agreed with him, Mr. Thiessen named the Rev. Brian W. Harrison, (although “there are others who haven’t necessarily been outspoken on it”).

By phone, Father Harrison cautioned that “you can’t do evil that good may come — that is an intrinsic principle of Catholic doctrine.” But, he said, he was persuaded by Mr. Thiessen’s book that “at least so far, there is nothing that the Catholic magisterium has said that would condemn waterboarding as such.”

But what if the church specifically prohibited waterboarding?

“On what competence would they do that?” Mr. Thiessen said. “I don’t think the church would be competent to judge whether the way we did it was torture.”

“Perhaps,” he added, “they should clarify it. We were in the middle of a war, and there was no teaching on that. But the church only gives general moral guidance, and people of good faith have to interpret that guidance.”

The Beliefs column will appear every other week.

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

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

 

"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

 

Baltimore Activist Alert - Part 2

Baltimore Activist Alert Feb. 25 – May. 17, 2010

 

31] March 20 bus tickets on sale – Feb. 27  

32] Women’s Bible Study – Feb. 27—Mar. 27

33] Olney vigil to end the war – Feb. 27                               

34] Peace vigil in Chester, PA – Feb. 27                                       

35] Peace vigil at Capitol – Feb. 27

36] AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN EXECUTION – Feb. 27                          

37] Film MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA – Feb. 27 & 28, Mar. 1

38] Vigil to mourn for deaths in Afghanistan – Feb. 27

39] Labor troubadour – Feb. 27

40] Ethical Society -- Feb. 28

41] Bridge vigil – Feb. 28                                                                 

42] Quaker Peace Vigil – Feb. 28

43] Blueprint for Peace in Afghanistan – Feb. 28

44] Green Forum – Feb. 28

45] Fiesta Tropical – Feb. 28

46] Red Emma’s needs volunteers – Feb. 28

47] Pentagon vigil – Mar. 1

48] “Unnatural disasters” – Mar. 1, 2, 3

49] Marc Steiner on WEAA – Mar. 1 — Mar. 4

50] Protest the death penalty – Mar. 1                  

51] Education Coalition rally – Mar. 1

52] Pledge of Resistance meeting – Mar. 1

53] Alternative Currencies conversation – Mar. 1

54] Anti-torture vigil – Mar. 2

55] ISLAND OF SHAME – Mar. 2

56] Ecolocity DC meeting – Mar. 2

57] White Privilege & the Church – Mar. 2

58] Ellsberg at Goucher – Mar. 2

59] Healthcare for All rally – Mar. 3

60] Philadelphia, PA vigil – Mar. 3

61] Voluntary Simplicity circle – Mar. 3

62] Smart Energy meeting – Mar. 3

63] Chestnut Hill, PA vigil – Mar. 3

64] PREP SCHOOL NEGRO – Mar. 3

65] WIB Towson vigil – Mar. 4

66] Israel/Palestine roundtable – Mar. 4

67] First Thursday demo – Mar. 4

68] Film THE AGRONOMIST – Mar. 5

69] WIB Frederick vigil -- Mar. 5

70] Benefit performance – Mar 5

71] Labor Chorus function – Mar. 6

72] Fusion Centers & Surveillance – Mar. 11

73] Film DISTURBING THE UNIVERSE – May 17

74] Germs in the Kitchen

75] Buy a red maple tree

76] Contribute to the Georgia Four defense fund

77] Join Global Zero campaign

78] War Is Not the Answer signs for sale

79] Publish your peace article

80] Click on The Hunger Site  

81] Fire & Faith   

82] Join Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil

-----

 

31] –  There will be tabling on Sat., Feb. 27 starting at 9:30 AM at the Waverly Farmers Market , 32nd and Barclay Sts., to hand out flyers and sell bus tickets for the ANSWER March 20 antiwar rally in Washington, D.C. There will be other outreach opportunities. Call 415-216-8370.

 

32] – Rev. Dr. Mankekolo Mahlangu-Ngcobo’s 12-week Bible Study for Women to study women then in the Bible and women now continues through Mar. 27.  The bible study will continue each Saturday at 9:30 AM Shiloh AME Church, 2601 Lyndhurst Ave. Baltimore 21216. The motto is "Biblically literate and spiritually strong women change and build themselves, families, communities and the world." If interested, call Mankekolo at 410-233-4649 or the Church at 410-367-8961. Rev. Charlotte Clemons is the senior pastor. Mankekolo’s book "One a Day Spiritual Vitamins" is available at $10:00 each plus $3:50 handling.

33] – Friends House, 17715 Meeting House Rd., Sandy Spring, MD 20860, hosts a peace vigil every Saturday, 10:30 to 11:30 AM, on the corner of Rt. 108 and Georgia Ave. in Olney, MD.  The next vigil is Feb. 27. Call Chuck Harker at 301-570-7167. 

34] –  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.

 

35] – There will be a peace vigil on the West Lawn of the Capitol at noon on Feb. 27. Look for the blue banner with the message, "Seek Peace and Pursue It.--Psalms 34:14." The vigil lasts one hour and is silent except when one responds to the occasional questions. Go to http://www.quaker.org/langleyhill/seekpeace.htm or email seekpeacevigil@yahoo.com.

 

36] – On Sat., Feb. 27 at 1 PM at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW, WDC 20008, David Dow, litigation director of the Texas Defender Service, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center, and a staunch opponent of the death penalty, will discuss his book THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN EXECUTION.  It is a powerful account of capital punishment and an intimate look at all parties involved, from the overworked legal aid lawyers to their clients.

 

37] – Goucher will present three viewings of the film THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA, which recounts the circumstances surrounding Daniel Ellsberg’s decision to leak top-secret documents leading up to the Vietnam War to the New York Times. The free film screenings will be held in Kelley Lecture Hall at the following times: Sat., Feb. 27 at 4 PM, Sun., Feb. 28 at 4 PM and Mon., Mar. 1 at 7 PM.

 

38] – There's a vigil to Mourn Deaths in Afghanistan on Sat., Feb. 27 at 5 PM, organized by PeaceAction Montgomery, at the Rockville Town Center, near the library. Go to www.montgomerycountymd.gov/apps/libraries/BranchInfo/ro.asp#dirs. There is a terrible milestone in the war in Afghanistan as the number of U.S. soldiers who have died there approaches 1,000. It is unknown how many civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan have also been killed, but it is many times more. Email info@peaceactionmc.org or go to www.peaceactionmc.org.

 

39] – On Sat., Feb. 27 at 8 PM, Iraq Veterans Against the War presents NYC Labor Troubadour George Mann at the IVAW House, 727 Ingraham St., NW, WDC.  George has been a union organizer and has played and recorded with the legendary labor song Julius Margolin for 13 years prior to Julius’ death.  George, who produced the anti-Bush CD compilation “Hail to the Thief,” is coming to celebrate the new CD compilation “Until You Come Home,” a collection of songs for veterans that features folks like Tom Paxton, Holly Near, Utah Phillips, John Gorka, David Rovics and many more.  Doors open at 7 PM for reception and snacks.  The suggested donation is from $5 to $10.  Everyone welcome regardless of ability to pay.

 

40] – On Sun., Feb. 28 at 10:30 AM, the Baltimore Ethical Society, 306 W. Franklin St., Suite 102, hosts Greg Paul, scientist and writer, who will address “The End of Supernaturalistic Religion: The Socioeconomic Factor.” Call 410-581-2322 or visit www.baltimoreethicalsociety.org.

 

41] – Maryland Bridges for Peace welcomes you to stand for peace Sundays from noon (or thereabouts) to 1 PM on the Spa Creek Bridge in Annapolis.  Contact Lucy at 410-263-7271 or mdbridgesforpeace@toadmail.com. Signs are not allowed to be on a stick or pole.   If there is interest, people will be standing on the Stoney Creek Bridge on Fort Smallwood Road in Pasadena [410-437-5379 or magicalgodmom@aol.com]. Go to http://BridgePeace.blogspot.com/.

 

42] – Every Sunday, 4 to 5 PM, there is a Quaker Peace Vigil at Independence Mall, N. side of Market between 5th and 6th Sts., Philadelphia. Call 215-421-5811.

 

43] – A Blueprint for Peace in Afghanistan is a Community Conversation on Sun., Feb. 28 from 4 to 6 PM at the Friends Meeting, 723 N. Market St., Frederick, MD. 21701.  The panelists are as follows: Linda Pappas Funsch, professor, Fahima Vorgetts, director of the Afghan Women’s Fund, Ellen Barfield, Veterans for Peace, and John Darnell, Ph.D., energy advisor to Congressperson Roscoe Bartlett.  The event is part of the Seasons for Peace and Nonviolence series.  See www.unityfrederick.org/SNV2010.html or call 301-834-7581 or email info@wibfrederick.org.  Afghan handicrafts and other items will be available for purchase.  All proceeds will benefit projects of the Afghan Women’s Fund. 

 

44] – A BALTIMORE GREEN FORUM, a monthly environmental education and discussion forum, takes place on Sun., Feb. 28, from 4:30 to 6:30 PM, at the Maryland Presbyterian Church, 1105 Providence Road, Towson, MD 21286. Go to http://www.mpchurch.org/About.htm.  Local Transportation Transition to The Smart Jitney Plan Created by Community Solutions will be presented by Sam Hopkins.  A true mass transit system for the U.S. may not be possible.  However, the Smart Jitney system is both possible and effective for at least local transportation.  The Community Solutions organization in Yellow Springs, Ohio, has produced power point presentations and an article that explain the plan.  See  http://www.communitysolution.org/transport.html.

 

The Forum, co-sponsored by a number of groups including Simplicity Matters Earth Institute, is a monthly environmental and discussion forum held usually on the last Sunday. RSVP at baltimoregreenforum@gmail.com or 301-345-2234. Go to http://www.simplicity-matters.org/forums/baltimore.php.

 

45] – Go to "Fiesta Tropical" on Sun., Feb. 28, from 6 to 11 PM at St. John’s Church, 27th & St. Paul Sts., 21218.  Get on a beach in Nicaragua right here in Baltimore.  From 6 to 8 PM, listen to live steel drums, then from 8 to 9 PM, get some instructions in Salsa dancing, and from 9 to 11 PM enjoy the dance music by WEAA DJ Guillermo Brown.  Enjoy a delectable buffet – Latin entrees, mouth-watering desserts – a cash bar, a silent auction of Nicaraguan art & other items, including massages and hammocks.  The prices at the door are $35 one adult, $60 two adults and $15 kids 6 – 12.  Call 410-662-6292 or go to www.CasaBaltimoreLimay.org.  The proceeds go to Casa Baltimore/Limay for development, food security, health and education projects in San Juan de Limay, Nicaragua.  The friendship-city project has linked Baltimore and Limay for over 24 years.

46] – Red Emma’s needs volunteers.  Stop in to the weekly Sunday meeting at 7 PM at 800 St. Paul St. or email info@redemmas.org.  The next meeting is Feb. 28. There is no meeting on the first Sunday of the month.  Call 410-230-0450. If you would be interested in volunteering or becoming a collective member of 2640, send an email to 2640@redemmas.org.

 

47] – There is a weekly Pentagon Peace Vigil from 7 to 8 AM on Mondays, since 1987, outside the Pentagon Metro stop.  The next vigil is Mon., Feb. 29, and it is sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker.  Call 202-882-9649.

 

48] – The National Lawyers Guild and others at Univ. of Maryland are looking at how structural inequality, historic oppression, and natural events combine to create unnatural disasters, focusing specifically on Haiti, New Orleans, and West Virginia, where every mining disaster is blamed as "an act of God." On Mon., Mar. 1 there is a panel of experts who will paint a historical perspective from 5 to 7 PM in Ballroom 210 B at the Univ. of MD Campus Center. On Tues., Mar. 2 from 4 to 6 PM, TOXIC SOUP, a documentary film examining toxins in the environment, will be screened in Ballroom 208 at the Campus Center.  Finally, on Wed., Mar. 3from 5 to 7 PM, there will be a sharing of experiences from professionals and students in post-disaster efforts in Ballroom 208 A at the Campus Center. Contact Nikola Nable-Juris at njuri001@umaryland.edu.

 

49] – The Marc Steiner Show airs Monday through Thursday from 5 to 7 PM on WEAA 88.9 FM, The Voice of the Community, or online at www.weaa.org.   The call-in number is 410-319-8888, and comments can also be sent by email to steinershow@gmail.com. All shows are also available as podcasts at www.steinershow.org.

 

50] – There is usually a vigil to abolish the death penalty every Monday from 5 to 6 PM, outside the prison complex and across the street from Maryland’s death row, at the corner of Madison Ave. and Fallsway in Baltimore.  The next vigil is scheduled for Mon., Mar. 1. Call 410-233-0488.

51] – Support the Baltimore Education Coalition's fight for public education funding.  Although Governor O'Malley has asked for full funding of aid to local schools in his budget request, legislative analysts have already recommended reductions.  The BEC rally in Annapolis is Mon., Mar. 1 from 6:30 to 8 PM.  If an organization would like to request a bus (min. 30 people signed up), email baltimoreedcoalition@gmail.com.  Buses will leave Poly-Western High School and Edmonson-Westside High School at 5 PM.  Gather at St. Anne’s Parish Hall, 199 Duke of Gloucester before the rally in Lawyers Mall.  Adults should bring an ID.  

 

52] – The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore usually meets on Mondays at 7:30 PM, and the meetings now take place at Max’s residence.  However, the Pledge instead will meet at Goucher’s Kelly Lecture Hall at 7 PM and watch THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA, which recounts the circumstances surrounding Daniel Ellsberg’s decision to leak top-secret documents leading up to the Vietnam War to the New York Times.  Call Max at 410-366-1637 or email me at mobuszewski at verizon.net for a ride.

 

52] – The Backbone Campaign Conversation is hosting an Alternative Currencies Conversation with founder of Ithaca Hours, Paul Glover, & co-founder of BerkShares, Susan Witt, on Mon., Mar. 1 at 8:30 PM EST. RSVP to bill@backbonecampaign.org to secure a spot by placing in the subject line "Alternative Currencies.”  You will be sent instructions for cueing up for "on air" questions in the chatroom. At the time of call, dial 1-218-339-4300, follow prompts and enter access code 1037729 followed by #. Go to http://backbonecampaign.org/.

 

53] – There will be an anti-torture vigil each Tuesday at 5:30 PM in Lafayette Park, H and 16th Sts., NW. The next vigil will be Mar. 2.  Contact Helen Schietinger at h.schietinger at verizon.net.

 

54] – There is a vigil to say "War Is Not the Answer" each Tuesday since September 11, 2001 at 4806 York Road. Join this ongoing vigil.  The next vigil is Mar. 2 from 5:30 to 6:30 PM.  Call Max at 410-366-1637.

 

55] – There is a meeting of Ecolocity DC every Tuesday from 7 to 9 PM at the EMERGENCE COMMUNITY ARTS COLLECTIVE, 733 Euclid St. NW, WDC 20001.  It is for people who live in, or are interested in making D.C. a transition town starting with an intentional community that will encompass clean energy, freecycle, natural building, organic farming, community salvage, new urbanism, etc. The next meeting will be on Feb. 23. Go to http://ecolocity.ning.com.

 

56] – On Tues., Mar 2 at 7 PM at Red Emma's, 880 St. Paul St., DAVID VINE will present “Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia.” The book takes a hard look at the way the brutal displacement of indigenous populations and U.S. military hegemony go hand in hand. Call 410-230-0450.

 

57] –  Eda Uca-Dorn is facilitating a course at the Hosanna People's Seminary (HPS) on White Privilege and the North American Church- Yesterday and Today! There will be sharing from anti-racism activists, faith leaders and others, as well as reflections on suggested reading from WHAT COLOR IS YOUR GOD by Columbus Salley and Ronald Behm. All materials will be offered free of charge from HPS. The course continues on Tues., Mar. 2, from 7 to 9 PM at All Souls Church, Unitarian in DC.  The course is free, but a suggested donation would be between $5 and $15. Email Eda.Uca.Dorn@gmail.com.

 

58] – Daniel Ellsberg, the former military analyst who precipitated a national political maelstrom in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, will appear at Goucher College on Tues., Mar. 2, and he will discuss his decision to give the New York Times the top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making leading up to the Vietnam War. The event will be held at 8 PM in Hyman Forum, Athenaeum and is free and open to the public. Contact Kristen Keener at kristen.keener@goucher.edu.

 

59] – Heathcare for All is hosting a rally on Wed., Mar. 3 at noon in Lawyer's Square in Annapolis to promote its Ten Cents Makes Sense campaign.  The idea is to raise the alcohol tax by ten cents and use the funds to increase public health benefits. Email info@healthcareforall.com.

 

60] – Each Wednesday from 4:30 - 5:30 PM, the House of Grace Catholic Worker holds a weekly vigil for peace in Iraq outside the Phila. Federal Building, 6th & Market Sts. The next vigil is Mar. 3. Call 215-426-0364.

 

61] – A "VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY" discussion circle will have its second session on Wed., Mar. 3, and run for seven sessions, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM, at Villa Assumpte, 6401 N.Charles St., Baltimore 21212 in the Assembly Room (main entrance is at the back of the building, facing away from Charles St. Go to http://www.simplicity-matters.org/guides/vs/vs_2sided.pdf.  Email gabrielroeder@yahoo.com or call 410-377-7774 x 1184.

 

62] – Attend a Smart Energy Now Town Hall Meeting on Wed., Mar. 3 from 7 to 8:30 PM at North County High School, 10 1^st Ave. E., Glen Burnie, MD.  Featured speakers will discuss how to implement energy efficiency measures in your home, what the state is doing now to promote efficiency and what still needs to be done. Contact: Keith Harrington at 240-396-1985 or keith@chesapeakeclimate.org.

 

63] – Each Wednesday, the Northwest Greens hold a peace vigil from 7 to 8 PM outside the Borders Book Store, Germantown Ave. at Bethlehem Pike in Chestnut Hill, PA. The next vigil is Mar. 3. Call 215-843-4256 or email nwgreens@yahoo.com.

 

64] – “Prep School Negro” Director André Robert Lee IS to Speak at Friends School, 5114 N. Charles St., Baltimore 21210,

on Wed., Mar. 3 after a screening of his acclaimed 2009 documentary.  The event will take place from 7-9 PM in the Forbush Auditorium. The director will lead an outreach workshop for audience members immediately following the film. He received a full scholarship to attend Germantown Friends School, near Philadelphia, in 1983, when he was 14. Go to www.theprepschoolnegro.org. Contact Felicia Wilks at fwilks@friendsbalt.org.

65] – There is a WIB peace stand on Thurs., Mar. 4, noon-1PM in Towson at northwest corner of Washington & Chesapeake Aves., across the street from the post office, near the courthouse. Contact mbrainzo@aol.com. This vigil takes place on the first Thursday of the month.

66] – On Thurs., Mar. 4, the WEEKLY ROUNDTABLE SEEKING A JUST PEACE IN PALESTINE/ISRAEL takes place from 12:30 - 1:30 PM at Potter's House, 1658 Columbia Road NW, WDC.  Join a civil discourse which explores the history, issues, myths, realities, and truth of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Contact Alice Azzouzi at 202-232-5483.

 

67] – The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore hosts an End the War! End the Occupation! rally on Thurs., Mar. 4 from 5 to 6:30 PM in Mount Vernon at Centre & Charles Sts.  The Pledge gathers in Mount Vernon on the first Thursday of the month to protest the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Call Max at 410-366-1637

68] – Help our sisters and brothers in Haiti on Fri., Mar. 5 at 7:30 PM at Govans Boundary United Methodist Church, 5210 York Road, Park in rear of church and then watch Jonathan Demme’s (Silence of the Lambs) THE AGRONOMIST, a profile of Haitian journalist and activist, Jean Dominique. Historical footage helps us understand that the recent natural disaster comes on top of a century of oppression of the Haitian people by dictatorships supported by the US State Department. A free-will offering will be requested. Call 410-433-3269.

69] – WIB holds a silent vigil mourning all violence, the first Friday of the month.  The next vigil is Mar. 5 from 12 noon to 12:30 PM, War Memorial Park, intersection of W. 2nd & N. Bentz Sts. in Frederick.  Please dress in black; no additional signs.  Call 301-834-7581 or email wibfrederick@mizmail.com.

 

70] – Gimme Shelter Productions continues to do consciousness/fundraising events about the plight of the homeless and for the shelters that serve them. On Sat., Mar. 6 at 7 PM, there will be another "WINTER IN AMERICA" benefit performance. This one is for Booth House Shelter, and will feature music & poetry by Alan Barysh. Marcus Colasurdo, Suzanne X, Ron Williams et al.  Time permitting there will be an open mic at the Baltimore Ethical Society, 306 W Franklin.  Admission is $5, and donations of children's gloves, socks, hats & sweaters will be gladly accepted!  Call 410-627 8774.  

 

71] – On Sat., Mar. 6 AT 7 PM, the Charm City Labor Chorus will hold its Baltimore premiere recital "Step by Step: Songs for Peace, Jobs and Justice" in the Recital Hall of the Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center, Morgan State University, 2201 Argonne Drive, Baltimore 21218. The suggested donation is $10 for adults, $5 for students, and free for children up to 12.  No one will be turned away.

 

 Formed last year, the Labor Chorus focuses on songs that come out of union organizing campaigns and victories, as well as struggles for peace, justice and equality.  Some of the pieces are old, some new.  Some you will know, others will be exciting discoveries.  Joining the choir for the evening will be Joe Jencks, a popular labor singer from the DC area. 

 

72] – You are invited to "Maryland Fusion Center/Police Surveillance Town Hall Forum" on Thurs., Mar. 11 at 6 PM at the Pikesville Branch, Baltimore County Public Library, 1301 Reisterstown Rd. Baltimore, MD 21208.  Max will be one of the panelists.

 

73] – The Off Center Media documentary DISTURBING THE UNIVERSE about William Kunstler will be shown as part of the Jewish Film Festival at the Gordon Center for Performing Arts on Mon., May 17.  The film was done by the two daughters Emily and Sarah Kunstler.  Check out the website http://www.disturbingtheuniverse.com. 

 

74] – You may be interested in Michelle Brown’s article on her blog entitled “The 25 Surprisingly Germiest Places you Encounter Everyday” at http://www.ultrasound-technologist.org/the-25-surprisingly-germiest-places-you-encounter-everyday/.  Read it and let her know what you think.

 

75] – I bought two red maple trees for $10 each as part of the Trees for Baltimore program.  Buy a tree, plant it and contribute to saving the planet.  Call Max at 410-366-1637

 

76] – Larry Egbert and Nick Sheridan are in Baltimore awaiting further legal developments, and the "Georgia Four" is seeking contributions to a legal defense fund.  Go to www.finalexitlibertyfund.org to make a contribution.   Larry may go on trial in Arizona in February.   

77] – 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.  

78] – WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER signs from Friends Committee on National Legislation are again for sale at $5.  To purchase a sign, call Max at 410-366-1637.

79] – Publish Your Peace Article. Daniel Frasier is soliciting peace articles for the biweekly series of commentaries Paths to Peace in the Frederick News Post Religion and Ethics section. For details, email path2peace07@yahoo.com.

 

80] – The Hunger Site was initiated by Mercy Corps and Second Harvest, and is funded entirely by advertisers.  You can go there every day and click the big yellow "Give Food for Free" button near the top of the page; you do not have to look at the ads. Each click generates funding for about 1.1 cups of food.  So consider clicking.  

 

81] – Go online for FIRE AND FAITH: The Catonsville Nine File. On May 17, 1968, nine people entered the Selective Service Offices in Catonsville, Maryland, and burned draft records in protest against the war in Vietnam. View http://www.prattlibrary.org/digital/.

 

82] – 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 the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net

 

"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