Friday, March 24, 2023

Baltimore Activist Alert -- March 24 - 30, 2023

58] Maryland Environmental Policy Act – March 24

59] Peace vigil at the White House March 24

60] Women in Black vigil – March 24

61] See the film Okinawa's Water of Life -- March 24 - 25

62] Election Protection phone bank – March 24, 26, 27 & 30

63] Text Party Fridays – March 24

64] FREE brake light clinics -- March 25

65] Online rally to stand with the people of Yemen -- March 25

66] Get over to the food pantry – March 25

67] How to protect our forests March 25

68] Watch In Beyond the Divide – March 25

69] Watch RADIOACTIVE – March 25

70] Medical supplies are needed in Ukraine

71] Tell JHU president to renounce nuclear weapons contracts

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

73] Do you need a doctor?

74] Donate books, videos, DVDs and records

75] Do you need any book shelves?

76] Join the Global Zero campaign.

77] Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil

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58] – Claire Miller [claire@mdehr.org] wants you to know about the Path Forward for the  Maryland Environmental Policy Act and the Maryland Campaign for Environmental Human Rights on Fri., March 24 at 11 AM ET. Join in for a conversation and discussion to consider how to move ahead in continuing to advocate for implementation of environmental laws, including the Maryland Environmental Policy Act. If this is something you are passionate about, please RSVP here and join the conversation. If you can't join us at that time but are interested in the conversation, please RSVP anyway as we will make sure to share the summary of next steps with those who are interested in this effort. https://actionnetwork.org/events/maryland-campaign-for-environmental-human-rights-the-path-forward?source=direct_link&&link_id=0&can_id=4b9d4061aec5469758759317ac0f5285&email_referrer=email_1852642&email_subject=the-weekly-brief-the-path-forward-for-mepa-friday-march-24-at-11am-on-zoom.

59] – The Dorothy Day Catholic Worker will host a peace vigil at the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, WDC, on Fri., March 24 at noon.  Contact the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker: 202-882-9649 or artlaffin@hotmail.com.

60] – Every Friday from noon to 1 PM, Baltimore Women in Black vigil for peace with men and women who live in Roland Park. WIB invites all to join, and any peace sign is welcome, such as "Defuse Nuclear War."  The vigil takes place outside Roland Park Place at the corner of West 40th Street and Elm Street. Parking is free at RPP or at the Rotunda across the street. Contact Ann Vinup at annvinup@gmail.com.

61] – See the film Okinawa's Water of Life on Fri., March 24 from 3:30 to 5:45 PM ET in 1957 E B17, The George Washington University, 1957 E St. NW, WDC 20006.  The film portrays Okinawans’ struggle for justice in one of the worst environmental catastrophes in modern Japanese history, the contamination by the military of their drinking water with PFAS “Forever Chemicals.” Hear from Jon Mitchell, correspondent with the Okinawa Times and author of the award-winning book Poisoning the Pacific: The US Military’s Secret Dumping of Plutonium, Chemical Weapons, and Agent Orange. Also hear from Natsuko Shimabukuro, director with the Ryukyu Asahi Broadcasting Corporation. Her documentaries about the island’s history, politics, and environmental problems have won Japan’s top TV prizes.

See the film Okinawa's Water of Life on Sat., March 25 from 6:30 to 9 PM ET at Busboys & Poets, 450 K St. NW, WDC 20001.  The film portrays Okinawans’ struggle for justice in one of the worst environmental catastrophes in modern Japanese history, the contamination by the military of their drinking water with PFAS “Forever Chemicals.” Hear from Jon Mitchell, correspondent with the Okinawa Times and author of the award-winning book Poisoning the Pacific: The US Military’s Secret Dumping of Plutonium, Chemical Weapons, and Agent Orange. Also hear from Natsuko Shimabukuro, director with the Ryukyu Asahi Broadcasting Corporation. Her documentaries about the island’s history, politics, and environmental problems have won Japan’s top TV prizes. Go to https://dc-office.org/post/1944?link_id=20&can_id=4b9d4061aec5469758759317ac0f5285&source=email-wbw-news-action-peace-rising&email_referrer=email_1850820&email_subject=wbw-news-action-an-uprising.

62] – On Fri., March 24 from 4 to 6 PM, Sun., March 26 from 6 to 8 PM, and Tues., March 28 from 4 to 6 PM & Thurs., March 30 from 5 to 7 PM ET,  there is a Common Cause organized Election Protection phone bank.  These phone banks will continue until April 2, 2023.  Work together to demand bold changes to our democracy to create a government that represents all of us, not big corporations or special interests. Register at https://www.mobilize.us/dfadcoalition/event/376178/?followup_modal_context=organization_newsletter_custom_recommendations. Register for a shift to make calls to recruit poll monitors to support nonpartisan Election Protection efforts in the GA Run-Offs.  Join in to make calls Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and/or Sundays.

63] – On Fri., March 24 at 6 PM ET, join Text Party Fridays with Progressive Prince George's.  The County Executive, Angela D. Alsobrooks, is refusing to let the community into the process of recruitment and hiring of the new PGCPS CEO. All stakeholders deserve a seat at this decision making table. Reach out to the community via text to raise awareness for this and other very important issues and encourage neighbors to take action to lift up the voice of the community and strengthen Prince George's County schools.  This event will take place virtually every Friday night from 6 to 7:30 PM ET through April 21. Please register for more than one outreach opportunity and feel free to share the link with friends, coworkers, and neighbors. Register to receive the Zoom link: https://www.mobilize.us/progressivemaryland/event/554531/?followup_modal_context=organization_newsletter_custom_recommendations.

64] – The Northern Virginia Democratic Socialists of America [novabranch@mdcdsa.org] wants your involvement on Sat., March 25 from 11 AM to 4 PM ET as Socialist mechanics are set up for a FREE brake light clinic, as a way to build community support for getting police out of traffic enforcement by having volunteers replace car brake lights for free. The clinic will be held at 3801 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria, VA 22305. The process for fixing brake lights is simple, but it will help educate the community on legislation that may pass in DC in the near future. If you or someone you know would be interested in getting their brake light fixed at one of the clinics on March 25, please fill out a repair request form for the Alexandria clinic. Register at https://actionnetwork.org/events/nova-branch-dsa-and-defund-nova-pds-brake-light-repair-clinic?link_id=7&can_id=4b9d4061aec5469758759317ac0f5285&source=email-nova-branch-dsa-upcoming-actions-and-events-84&email_referrer=email_1837620&email_subject=nova-branch-dsa-upcoming-actions-and-events.

 The Metro DC DSA [info@mdcdsa.org] wants your involvement on Sat., March 25 from 11 AM to 4 PM ET as Socialist mechanics are set up for a FREE brake light clinic, as a way to build community support for getting police out of traffic enforcement by having volunteers replace car brake lights for free. The clinic will be held at H St. NE, WDC. The process for fixing brake lights is simple, but it will help educate the community on legislation that may pass in DC in the near future. If you or someone you know would be interested in getting their brake light fixed at one of the clinics on March 25, please fill out a repair request form for the DC clinic. Register at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfiT0_SOJYKzfydieCmX-kFSEYFb4TGIBUp2aq7zO_33YuczA/viewform.

65] – Eva de Menezes Martins Langer [eva@actioncorps.org] thinks you will be part of an online rally to stand with the people of Yemen on Sat., March 25 at noon ET. Sign up at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hC-VPtNqSvGL9gTubo4UXQ.  March 25 will mark the eighth anniversary of the beginning of the Saudi-led coalition's bombing of Yemen. To mark the occasion, US and international groups will hold an online rally to inspire action to end the war on Yemen.  Speakers include Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Ro Khanna, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Rep. Ro Khanna, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Dr. Shireen Al-Adeimi , Dr. Aisha Jumaan, Hassan El-Tayyeb (Friends Committee on National Legislation), Dr. Liz Theoharis (Co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign), Chris Nineham (Stop the War UK), and Sam Perlo-Freeman (Campaign Against the Arms Trade, UK), and more to be announced.  There will also be a live performance by Amaani Yehya, Yemen's first female rapper.

66] – On Sat., March 25 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.

67] – Maryland LCV [info@mdlcv.org] is inviting you to the Friday Digest on March 24 from noon to 12:30 PM ET about how to protect our forests.  RSVP at https://www.mdlcv.org/event/friday-digest-march-24-2023?emci=de7f825b-b2c9-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&emdi=398b8187-b9c9-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&ceid=578562.  A special guest Vice Chair Dana Stein will talk about the Forest Preservation and Retention Act.  Stein is the House of Delegates' Environment and Transportation committee Vice Chair.

68] – Join World BEYOND War for its 3rd annual virtual film festival! On Sat., March 25 from 3 to 4 PM ET, watch In Beyond the Divide. Audiences will discover how a small-town art crime sparks furious passion and reignites animosity left unresolved since the Vietnam War. In Missoula, Montana, a group of people from the “wrong side of the tracks” decided to commit an act of civil disobedience by painting a peace symbol on the face of an enormous communications panel that sat atop a hillside overlooking the town. The reaction essentially divided the community between anti-war and military-establishment supporters. The film traces the aftermath of this act and follows the story of how two individuals, a former Vietnam explosives engineer and a fervent peace advocate, come to a deeper understanding of each other’s differences through conversation and collaboration. The wisdom and leadership modeled by the two primary characters is especially timely in today’s politically divisive world.  RSVP at https://worldbeyondwar.org/filmfest2023/?link_id=12&can_id=4b9d4061aec5469758759317ac0f5285&source=email-wbw-news-action-peace-rising&email_referrer=email_1850820&email_subject=wbw-news-action-an-uprising.

 The tour will visit 3 sites in Downtown DC after meeting at The Park at City Center, 1098 New York Ave. NW, WDC. It will adjourn at 2:45 PM at 1001 Pennsylvania Ave. NW after just under a mile of walking. Then there will be an optional happy hour afterward at outdoor tables at the Penn Quarter Sports Tavern. Contact Taylor W at woodswt@gmail.com. RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeliGN0t7CrCNjK77vmCJ72-N-wTMHG2OWpFH0LiOuNulWTgw/viewform?link_id=9&can_id=4b9d4061aec5469758759317ac0f5285&source=email-metro-dc-dsa-weekly-newsletter-for-february-17-2023&email_referrer=email_1826892&email_subject=metro-dc-dsa-weekly-newsletter-for-february-24-2023.  

69] – The Nuclear Information & Resource Service [nirs@nirs.org] is inviting you to the documentary RADIOACTIVE The Women of Three Mile Island on Sat., March 25  at 7 PM ET, as part of the DC Environmental Festival. See it at Naval Heritage Center, 701 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, WDC 20004. The closest Metro Station is Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter. Sign up at https://dceff.eventive.org/schedule/radioactive-the-women-of-three-mile-island-63f112f471a7bf006fc40a05?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=8ca773ab-c799-4ed2-8f2a-ff90c3db76de.  This is a resonant story about a battle of wills, hubris, and energy – atomic, maternal, moral, and feminist.

 At the prompting of an ecofeminism professor turned visual journalist, the four original “concerned” mothers, a two-woman legal team and a reporter, now all much older, wiser, and bolder, break open years of corporate silencing and nuclear industry doublespeak, and tell their stories about the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident, the worst commercial nuclear reactor meltdown in U.S. history. And though this disaster took place in 1979, the life and death implications continue in the spiritual, physical, and political DNA of the community, its residents, and their descendants.  RADIOACTIVE features activist and actor Jane Fonda--whose film, CHINA SYNDROME (a fictional account of a nuclear meltdown), opened 12 days before the real disaster in Pennsylvania. RADIOACTIVE also breaks the story of a radical new health study (in process) that may finally expose the truth of the meltdown. For over forty years, the nuclear industry has done all in their power to cover up their criminal actions, claiming, as they always do, "No one was harmed and nothing significant happened."

70] --  If you are able to donate any kind of surplus medical supplies for field hospitals in eastern Ukraine, please email Brendan.walls@seaseton.org or call 410-721-5770 x231.  There is a colleague whose father is a medic on the front line. One container is shipped every month to the Donbass region. Donations can be picked up in Baltimore and Columbia every Thursday, and on other days in Annapolis and Crofton.

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] – 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.  

  Dave just printed 50 new copies of For All the Saints, a Protest Primer- 250+ pp w photos-therefore #'s 351-400 making it o so collectable with two Berrigan book reviews added. The books are signed, and the price remains $25. Will send free if need b- he is not in it for the money! If you want one, send him a check: or contact Dave Eberhardt, 4 Hadley Square North, Baltimore, MD 21218 by email at 1941mireille@gmail.com . 

73] – 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.  

74] -- 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.

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

76] -- 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.

77] – 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

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