Baltimore Activist Alert September 26 - 27, 2016

18] Protest at the Pentagon – Sept. 26 19] Reform justice system – Sept. 26 20] Peace vigil in Philadelphia – Sept. 27 21] U.S.-Russian Lab Collaboration" – Sept. 27 22] Protest drone research at JHU – Sept. 27 23] Author talk about Studs Terkel– Sept. 27 24] Book talk on Scientific Racism – Sept. 27 25] Medea Benjamin talks about her book – Sept. 27 ------- 18] – It’s time to protest war at the Pentagon. On Sun., Sept. 25 from 2 to 4 PM, there is a Planning/Training Session for the Next Day’s Nonviolent Action. Meet at American University Kay Center Chapel. This meeting is part of a conference that is full to capacity, but this and other events Sunday afternoon and evening have extra space. Events in the Founders Room are full, but workshops and events in other locations are not.  On Mon., Sept. 26 at 9 AM be at the Metro Entrance to the Pentagon. The gathering will begin n near the top of the Metro subway escalators (the Pentagon stop) next to the bus bay. Bring your signs and banners and join a spirited nonviolent witness against war! A petition will be delivered to the Pentagon calling for the closure of Ramstein Air Base in Germany, as U.S. whistleblowers and Germans together deliver it to the German government in Berlin. This action is one of over 650 nonviolent actions planned around the country this week. Call Max at 410-323-1607. 19] – As part of Maryland’s efforts to reform the criminal justice system, Gov. Hogan started an initiative to study the consequences of incarceration for former inmates. In December 2015, he directed the Governor’s Office of Crime Control & Prevention to create a working group to study the legal and regulatory barriers many ex-offenders face when they are released from prison. “These consequences have a lasting impact, making it more difficult for ex-offenders to re-enter society, find a job, and fully engage in the community,” said Governor Hogan. The workgroup must submit a report on its findings and recommendations to the Governor in December 2016. This working group met for the first time on Sept. 1, 2016. The workgroup is planning two stakeholder meetings in which stakeholders, such as returning citizens and the people who help them find employment, can give input. The workgroup plans three more meetings, all of which are open to the public. All will be in Annapolis, most likely in the Legislative Hearing Room: Mon., Sept. 26, 12 to 3 PM, Mon., Oct. 31, 10 AM to 1 PM, and Tues., Nov. 15 from 12 to 3 PM.  Complete notes from the first meeting are available at http://www.ma4jr.org/workgroup-0901/. 20] – 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 Sept. 27.  Call 215-426-0364. 21] – On Tues., Sept. 27 from 5 to 6:30 PM, Siegfried Hecker, Stanford University, will tackle "Doomed To Cooperate: U.S.-Russian Lab Collaboration" at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW, WDC. RSVP at https://www.csis.org/events/doomed-cooperate-us-russian-lab-collaboration. 22] – Vigil to say "No Drone Research at JHU" each Tuesday at 33rd & North Charles Sts. join this ongoing vigil on Sept. 27  from 5:30 to 6:30  PM. Call Max at 410-323-1607. 23] – Studs Terkel , an author talk with Alan Wieder, 1658 Columbia Rd. NW, WDC, is happening on Tues., Sept. 27 from 7 to 9 PM. Terkel was an American icon who had no use for America’s cult of celebrity. He was a leftist who valued human beings over political dogma. In scores of books and thousands of radio and television broadcasts, Studs paid attention – and respect – to “ordinary” human beings of all classes and colors, as they talked about their lives as workers, dreamers, survivors. Alan Wieder’s “Studs Terkel: Politics, Culture, But Mostly Conversation” is the first comprehensive book about this man. Drawing from over one hundred interviews of people who knew and worked with Studs, Alan Wieder creates a multi-dimensional portrait of a run-of-the-mill guy from Chicago who, in public life, became an acclaimed author and raconteur, while managing, in his private life, to remain a mensch. We see Studs, the eminent oral historian, the inveterate and selfless supporter of radical causes, especially civil rights. We see the actor, the writer, the radio host, the jazz lover, whose early work in television earned him a notorious place on the McCarthy blacklist. We also see Studs the family man and devoted husband to his adored wife, Ida. Wieder is an oral historian who lives in Portland, Oregon. He is distinguished professor emeritus at the University of South Carolina and has taught at the University of the Western Cape and Stellenbosch University in South Africa. In the last fifteen years, he has published three books and numerous articles on South Africans who fought against the apartheid regime. The latest book, “Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid,” was published in 2013 by Monthly Review Press. 24] – There is a Book Talk on Tues., Sept. 27 at 7:30 PM at Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse, 30 W. North Ave., Baltimore 21201. “In Admit One: An American Scrapbook,” Martha Collins uses poetry to trace the history of scientific racism from the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis through the eugenics movement of the 1920s. “An unflinching look at the underpinnings of racism in the U.S., via key figures who used science to defend sterilization, exploitation, discrimination, segregation, and dehumanization of nonwhites, whites not deemed white enough, and anyone ‘less’ than those with ‘superior’ genes. With the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair as a framework, Collins attempts to understand her family’s experience of and participation in those times. Her poems are lists, definitions, newspaper pages, historical time lines, and biographical facts. These diverse poetic forms highlight the beauty of diversity itself. But Collins never lets up on the driving themes of unethical treatment and collective culpability. In fact, ‘Postscript Three’ punctuates this powerful collection with the vitriol still spewed and sensationalized, keeping racism depressingly alive in a supposedly advanced century.”—Booklist Call 443-602-7585.  Go to http://www.redemmas.org.   25] – Medea Benjamin will be speaking about her new book "Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the US-Saudi Connection" on Tues., Sept. 27 at 7 PM at UDC, at Walls of Books DC, 3325 Georgia Ave. NW, WDC 20010.  RSVP at https://www.facebook.com/events/931759723636800/. 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