Baltimore Activist Alert - January 6 - 9, 2015

16] Witness Against Torture Fast for Justice – Jan. 6 - 8

17] Know Your Rights workshop – Jan. 6

18] Write prisoners – Jan. 6

19] Resisting fracked gas infrastructure – Jan. 7

20] Film THE MESSENGER – Jan. 7

21] Peace and justice meeting – Jan. 7

22] No repressive agenda – Jan. 8

23] Peace vigil at White House – Jan. 8

24] WIB peace vigil – Jan. 8

25] Steven Salaita speaks – Jan. 8

26] Black Lives Matter – Jan. 8

27] Film THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT – Jan. 8

28] Ballroom Dancing – Jan. 8

29] Black Left workshop – Jan. 9

-------

16] – You’re invited to Washington, D.C., to join the Witness Against Torture community from January 3 through 13 to fast, reflect and lift the voices of the men unjustly detained at Guantanamo Bay Prison.  Jan. 11, 2016 marks 14 years of torture and indefinite detention at the prison, as well as President Obama’s 8th year of broken promises. This is the final chance to hold his administration accountable to its promise to release those unjustly detained and close the prison. Right now 107 men remain detained, 48 of whom have been cleared for release and are held without charge or trial.  Go to http://www.witnesstorture.org/events/.

WAT is operating out of the First Trinity Lutheran Church, 501 4th St. NW (entrance on 4th St.), WDC 20001 (4th and E Sts. NW).  Use Judiciary Square Metro.  On Wed., Jan. 6 at 6:30 AM, there will be a Street Action with Pastor Susanne.  Then the group will travel to Camden, NJ to provide support during the Fort Dix Five hearings.

On Thurs., Jan. 7 there will be morning readings and then morning reflection.  Finally plan for a day of actions.

17] – The government has been conducting immigration raids targeting recent arrivals and other undocumented immigrants. In response, the Esperanza Center along with the ACLU of Maryland and the Maryland Immigrant Rights Coalition (MIRC) are holding a presentation on Wed., Jan. 6 at 5:30 PM to inform community members of their rights. The presentation will be held at the Assisi House behind Saint Patrick’s Church, 1728 E. Bank St. Contact Eric Seymour at 443-825-3433 or eseymour@cc-md.org.

18] – Come to the Potter's House, 1658 Columbia Rd. NW, WDC, on Wed., Jan. 6 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM and join DC Stampede for a night of solidarity with the people in the movements who have had their freedom taken from them. Materials will be provided, as well as a list of prisoners from various radical movements with short bios, and a quick “how to” for anyone who would like some guidance. Government repression, as animal activists well know, has long attempted to chill dissent and divide movements. Spend the evening fighting back against the state’s attempts to divide communities. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1142651579087401/.

19] – Come to Potter's House, 1658 Columbia Road NW, WDC 20009, on Thurs., Jan. 7 from 7 to 9 PM and join members of SEED, We Are Cove Point and other organizations resisting fracked gas infrastructure for a presentation and discussion. Dominion Resources is constructing a dangerous liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in Southern Maryland. This LNG terminal would export to India and Japan natural gas that is produced by fracking in the Marcellus Shale and transported by several pipelines that are being resisted across the mid-Atlantic. Along with worsening the major health risks to communities and environmental destruction caused by the fracking industry, Dominion Cove Point poses a catastrophic health and safety threat to the rural community living on and around the beautiful Cove Point peninsula on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. The fight to stop this project is on!

SEED (Stopping Extraction and Exports Destruction) is a direct-action-based group from the mid-Atlantic created to work against energy projects that are harming residents in the region. This includes mountaintop removal, coal exports, fracking, compressor stations, gas pipelines and the under-construction Dominion Cove Point LNG export terminal. Since its inception in 2014, SEED has been working with other groups and community members in Lusby, Maryland (the town that includes Cove Point), to help protect the welfare of Calvert County residents impacted by this terminal and to do what it can to make sure the project is never completed. Visit seedcoalition.wordpress.com or http://pottershousedc.org/event-blog/.

20] –  See "The Messenger" in partnership with the Audubon Maryland-DC and Lights Out Baltimore on Thurs., Jan. 7 at 7:30 PM at the Creative Alliance at The Patterson, 3134 Eastern Ave., Baltimore 21224.  Email info@creativealliance.org or call 410/276-1651. Tickets sold in advance are $10, and &7 for members.  Tickets are the door are $12 and $9 respectively.  The director of the 2015 Canadian film is Su Rynard.  For thousands of years, songbirds were regarded as messengers from the gods. Today, these creatures – woven inextricably into the fabric of our environment – are vanishing at an alarming rate. Under threat from climate change, pesticides and more, populations of hundreds of species have dipped dramatically. As scientists, activists, and bird enthusiasts investigate this phenomenon, amazing secrets of the bird world come to light for the first time in this acclaimed and visually thrilling documentary. Find out what’s killing our songbirds, and what can be done about it. As in ancient times, songbirds may once again be carrying a message to humans – one that we ignore at our own peril.  This film won the prize for Best Conservation Program at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. Special thanks to Audubon Maryland-DC, Lights Out Baltimore, and the Phoenix Wildlife Center.

21] – The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore now meets on Thursdays at 7:30 PM, and the meetings take place at Max’s residence.  There will be a meeting on Thurs., Jan. 7 at 7:30 PM.  The agenda will include Freddie Gray & local organizing, killer drones and Obama, an action at the State of the Union, the refugees, lobbying John Sarbanes, the MLK march and the unending wars. Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at verizon.net.

22] – Mayor Bowser has a plan to end traffic injuries and fatalities by 2024 called Vision Zero. The council will be holding a hearing about the plan on Fri., Jan. 8 at 11 AM in room 500 of the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, WDC. While we all want our roads to be safer, Mayor Bowser has consistently shown that her vision for public safety and human services is to criminalize everything and increase penalties. Her policies show a consistent bias towards regressive tactics of policing behavior. Start the year by reminding the council to not back the Mayor's regressive agenda. Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/916221765123103/.

23] – On Fri., Dec. 25 from noon to 1 PM, join the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker in a vigil urging the powers that be to abolish war and torture, to disarm all weapons, to end indefinite detention, to close Guantanamo, to establish justice for all and help create the Beloved Community! This vigil will take place at the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Contract Art @ artlaffin@hotmail.com or at 202-360-6416.  Members of Witness Against Torture will attend.

24] – On Fri., Jan. 8 from noon to 1 PM, join Women in Black peace vigil. This vigil will take place at the corner of Light and Pratt Sts.  Stay for as long as you can. Wear black. Dress for who knows what kind of weather. Bring your own poster or help with the "NO WAR IN MY NAME" banner.  When there are others to stand with, you don't need to carry the burden alone. Do this to be in solidarity with others....when everything around us says, Be afraid of the stranger.

25] – On Fri., Jan. 8 from 1 to 2 PM at the Palestine Center, 2425 Virginia Ave. NW, WDC, hear from Steven Salaita. In the summer of 2014, the American Indian Studies professor had his offer of a tenured professorship revoked by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. Salaita's employment was terminated in response to his public tweets criticizing the Israeli government's summer assault on Gaza. His firing generated a huge public outcry, with thousands petitioning for his reinstatement, and more than five thousand scholars pledging to boycott the University of Illinois. His case raises important questions about academic freedom, free speech on campus, and the movement for justice in Palestine. In this book, Salaita combines personal reflection and political critique to provide a thorough analysis of his controversial termination. He situates his case at the intersection of important issues that affect both higher education and social justice activism. Go to http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/EventDetails/i/53904.

26] –There is usually a silent peace vigil on Fridays, from 5 to 6 PM, sponsored by Homewood Friends and Stony Run Meetings, outside the Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St.  The next scheduled vigil is on Jan. 8. Black Lives Matter.  Since this is a First Friday, there will be a potluck dinner afterwards, followed by a DVD showing.

27] – The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, Baltimore Quaker Peace and Justice Committee of Homewood and Stony Run Meetings and Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility are continuing the FILM & SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS DVD SERIES.  The DVDs will be shown at Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St., Baltimore 21218, usually on the First Friday. At 7:15 PM, from January through June, a DVD will be shown with a discussion to follow.  There is no charge, and refreshments will be available. The series theme is CHANGE IS INEVITABLE.

On Fri., Jan. 8 see THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT [2010] Director Lisa Cholodenko’s film is about two children who were conceived via artificial insemination.  They want to meet their father.  The actors are Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson.  This beautifully acted tale of a lesbian couple and their children offers an acute study of modern relationships. It is a smart comedy about the relationship between the sperm donor and the postmodern family--a lesbian couple and their children. Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski [at] verizon.net for further information.     

28] – There is an opportunity to participate in ballroom dancing, usually every Friday of the month, in the JHU ROTC Bldg. at  8 PM.  Turn south on San Martin Dr. from the intersection of Univ. Parkway and 39th St.  Drive on campus by taking the third left turn. The next dance will be Jan. 8. Call Dave Greene at 410-599-3725.

29] – On Sat., Jan. 9 from 10 AM to 2 PM, check out a popular education workshop for Black Left positive action at Institute for Policy Studies, 1112 16th St. NW, Suite 600, WDC 20036.  This multi-media presentation and discussion --designed for African/Black and people of color in mind and led by Netfa Freeman-- will be an interactive workshop that will include a brief overview of the Black Liberation struggle and its transcontinental manifestations. Through a combination of compelling slide and video presentations, artistic expression, and popular education techniques, workshop participants will examine the historical context and relevance of the African national independence and U.S. Black Power movements of the 50s to 70s with today's Black Lives Matter movement. The workshop will also show how the Black Lives Matter movement is poised to break barriers and exercise power with oppressed people from Ferguson to Gaza to Colombia to Burkina Faso. Buy tickets at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lessons-of-black-lives-liberation-pan-africanism-tickets-19717600875.   

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 

Police Killings: Why We Must Keep Counting

Published on Portside (https://portside.org)

Police Killings: Why We Must Keep Counting

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/31/the-counted-killings-by-police-editorial

Guardian Editorial

Sunday, January 31, 2016

The Guardian

At the beginning of 2015, the Guardian began a grim task – to record the death of every person killed by American police officers – for a simple reason: astonishingly, the United States government publishes no such record.

Even as protests and calls for systemic policing reforms continued after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the US Justice Department’s best data scientists could not provide a figure for how frequent officer-involved deaths had become. The government scientists had been starved of funding [1].

Even as Barack Obama pressed his post-Ferguson policing task force on “the need to collect more data” for “appropriate oversight”, the FBI director admitted his agency’s oversight system was broken: “It’s ridiculous that I can’t tell you how many people are shot by police in this country right now,” James Comey said earlier this year.

The Guardian did what the US government by its own admission had failed to do for its own citizens: we counted.

"The rate of death for young black men was five times higher than white men of the same age"

We counted 177 deaths of young black men – 15% of all police killings this year, despite African American males making up just 2% of the country’s population. We counted 246 deaths of people about whom mental health issues had been reported – eight of which were officially ruled a suicide. We counted 124 deaths caused not by gunshot but by some other use of force – including Freddie Gray, who died after sustaining injuries in the back of a police van in Baltimore, where six officers face criminal trials in 2016 in connection with his death.

We have counted 1,134 total deaths at the hands of American police in 2015. That is approaching three times greater than the 444 “justifiable homicides” logged by the FBI’s entire team of government researchers for all of last year.

Just as the police killings have multiplied, so has the powerful protest movement against them – only with too little meaningful change. More than 15 police officers have been charged with manslaughter or murder this year – including one in Virginia first brought to widespread attention by the Guardian, one in Chicago that led the firing of the police chief and the institution of body cameras, and one in South Carolina that, like so many other encounters caught on video this year, went viral. But there seems to be no justice in Cleveland, where the mother of 12-year-old Tamir Rice must now live with the reality of an officer who killed her son going free. And there is no peace for the families of so many people – predominantly men, disproportionately black – whose lives do not register even as a number.

There can be no progress without more comprehensive context.

“It is unacceptable,” James Comey said in October, that “the lead source of information about violent encounters between police and civilians” has become the media – specifically naming the Guardian and the Washington Post, which began publishing a database documenting only fatal police shootings one month after The Counted was released to the public.

“That is not good for anybody,” Comey said. “It’s ridiculous – it’s embarrassing and ridiculous.”

He was right. Indeed, the ongoing absence of appropriate official oversight is an affront and is no longer tolerable.

So the FBI announced plans [2] to overhaul its failed undercount, promising to publish a wide range of data beyond shootings and in relative real-time, with a system resembling The Counted. But that count will remain voluntary for police, and thus grossly incomplete once again. What if only a fraction of the 18,000-odd police departments in the US have the decency to report themselves, when officers kill the people they are sworn to protect?

The Justice Department’s data scientists have restarted their count, too, as the federal government deemed arrest-related deaths once again meaningful enough statistics to log alongside lawn care and peanut consumption. But what if this open-source system, which researchers say could pick up where the Guardian might stop counting, misses significant incidents? What if the world never knew that somebody had died?

Senators Cory Booker and Barbara Boxer have called for the US Congress to mandate that all police departments report when they are responsible for someone dying – which they should. Boxer has called the Guardian’s work “the wind at our back”. But their legislation has languished in the Republican-controlled Senate, as Comey and other Obama cabinet members talk without measurable facts about a “Ferguson effect” of viral videos and anti-police protests leading to more crime.

America’s crisis of police violence is one that those at the highest levels of power have only just begun to comprehend. If the public cannot have a basic understanding of the scale of the problem, how can we begin to properly grapple with the solutions? What good is a body camera if hundreds of uncounted lives do not officially matter?

These unanswered questions compel us to directly hold the government to account by continuing to monitor deaths in parallel with the Obama administration’s two promised official efforts. The Guardian will begin a new count of people killed by US police for 2016, tracking the lethal use of force every day with the help of the community. We will not stop until we are satisfied that the federal government is doing its job, and that we no longer have to do it for them.

Source URL: https://portside.org/2016-01-01/police-killings-why-we-must-keep-counting

Links:

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/18/police-killings-government-data-count
[2] http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/09/fbi-launch-new-system-count-people-killed-police-officers-the-counted

- See more at: https://portside.org/print/node/10523#sthash.NUNjyabn.dpuf

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

Saudi Arabia's Mad Head-Choppers

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/34427-focus-saudi-arabias-mad-head-choppers

Saudi Arabia executed 47 people on Saturday. Some were beheaded while others were shot by firing squad. (photo: BBC)

Saudi Arabia's Mad Head-Choppers

By Robert Fisk, CounterPunch

04 January 16

 Saudi Arabia’s binge of head-choppings – 47 in all, including the learned Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, followed by a Koranic justification for the executions – was worthy of Isis. Perhaps that was the point. For this extraordinary bloodbath in the land of the Sunni Muslim al-Saud monarchy – clearly intended to infuriate the Iranians and the entire Shia world – re-sectarianised a religious conflict which Isis has itself done so much to promote.

   All that was missing was the video of the decapitations – although the Kingdom’s 158 beheadings last year were perfectly in tune with the Wahabi teachings of the ‘Islamic State’. Macbeth’s ‘blood will have blood’ certainly applies to the Saudis, whose ‘war on terror’, it seems, now justifies any amount of blood, both Sunni and Shia. But how often do the angels of God the Most Merciful appear to the present Saudi interior minister, Crown Prince Mohamed bin Nayef?

   For Sheikh Nimr was not just any old divine. He spent years as a scholar in Tehran and Syria, was a revered Shia leader of Friday prayers in the Saudi Eastern Province, and a man who stayed clear of political parties but demanded free elections, and was regularly detained and tortured – by his own account – for opposing the Sunni Wahabi Saudi government. Sheikh Nimr said that words were more powerful than violence. The authorities’ whimsical suggestion that there was nothing sectarian about this most recent bloodbath – on the grounds that they beheaded Sunnis as well as Shias – was classic Isis rhetoric.

   After all, Isis cuts the heads of Sunni ‘apostates’ and Sunni Syrian and Iraqi soldiers just as readily as it slaughters Shias. Sheikh Nimr would have got precisely the same treatment from the thugs of the ‘Islamic State’ as he got from the Saudis – though without the mockery of a pseudo-legal trial which Sheikh Nimr was afforded and of which Amnesty complained.

   But the killings represent far more than just Saudi hatred for a cleric who rejoiced at the death of the former Saudi interior minister – Mohamed bin Nayef’s father, Crown Prince Nayef Abdul-Aziz al-Saud – with the hope that he would be “eaten by worms and will suffer the torments of hell in his grave”. Nimr’s execution will reinvigorate the Houthi rebellion in Yemen, which the Saudis invaded and bombed this year in an attempt to destroy Shia power there. It has enraged the Shia majority in Sunni-rules Bahrain. And Iran’s own clerics have already claimed that the beheading will cause the overthrow of the Saudi royal family.

    It will also present the West with that most embarrassing of Middle Eastern problems: the continuing need to cringe and grovel to the rich and autocratic monarchs of the Gulf while gently expressing their unease at the grotesque butchery which the Saudi courts have just dished out to the Kingdom’s enemies. Had Isis chopped off the heads of Sunnis and Shias in Raqqa – especially that of a troublesome Shia priest like Sheikh Nimr – we can be sure that Dave Cameron would have been tweeting his disgust at so loathsome an act. But the man who lowered the British flag on the death of the last king of this preposterous Wahabi state will be using weasel words to address this bit of head-chopping.

    However many Sunni al-Qaeda men have also just lost their heads – literally – to Saudi executioners, the question will be asked in both Washington and European capitals: are the Saudis trying to destroy the Iranian nuclear agreement by forcing their Western allies to support even these latest outrages? In the obtuse world in which they live – in which the youthful defence minister who invaded Yemen intensely dislikes the interior minister – the Saudis are still glorying in the ‘anti-terror’ coalition of 34 largely Sunni nations which supposedly form a legion of Muslims opposed to ‘terror’.

     The executions were certainly an unprecedented Saudi way of welcoming in the New Year – if not quite as publicly spectacular as the firework display in Dubai which went ahead alongside the burning of one of the emirate’s finest hotels. Outside the political implications, however, there is also an obvious question to be asked – in the Arab world itself — of the self-perpetuating House of Saud: have the Kingdom’s rulers gone bonkers?

C 2015 Reader Supported News

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

The Liberator first published January 1, 1831/10 Good Things About the Not-So-Great Year 2015

January 1, 1831

William Lloyd Garrison first published
The Liberator
(four hundred copies printed
in the middle of the night
using borrowed type),
which became the leading
abolitionist paper in the United States.

He labeled slave-holding a crime
and called for immediate abolition.

From the first issue:
“I will be harsh as truth,
and uncompromising as justice.
On this subject, I do not wish to think,
or speak, or write with moderation.

“Assenting to the ‘self-evident truth’
maintained in the
American Declaration of Independence,
‘that all men are created equal,
and endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable rights
—among which are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness,’

I shall strenuously contend
for the immediate enfranchisement
of our slave population.”

William Lloyd Garrison

10 Good Things About the Not-So-Great Year 2015

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/24/10-good-things-about-the-not-so-great-year-2015/

December 31, 2015

Medea Benjamin

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Counterpunch

It would certainly be easy to do a piece about 10 horrible events from 2015, from the ongoing war in Syria and the refugee crisis, to the bombings in Beirut, Paris and San Bernardino, to the rise of Donald Trump and Islamophobia. But that wouldn’t be a very inspiring way to bid farewell to this year and usher in a new one. So let’s look at 10 reasons to feel better about 2015.

1. Iran nuclear deal: Despite significant political opposition and millions of dollars spent to try to quash the deal, the nuclear agreement with Iran was passed and the possibility of another US military entanglement was narrowly avoided. The powerful lobby AIPAC had its wings clipped, as did Israel’s Bibi Netanyahu (except that the deal unfortunately came with a payoff of even more US tax dollars going to the Israeli military).

2. Cuba thaw: It’s official! The US and Cuba now have embassies in each other’s territory for the first time in over half a century. The year has been marked by a UN meeting between Castro and Obama, more travelers to Cuba and more trade between both countries — but Congress still needs to lift the trade embargo, fully lift the travel ban, and return the Guantanamo naval base to the Cubans!

3. Keystone pipeline ain’t happenin’. After years of stellar grassroots activism against the Keystone pipeline (and years of lobbying by the oil companies), President Obama finally took the side of the activists (and the planet) by shutting down the project. And while the Paris climate talks did not result in the dramatic commitments we need to stop global climate chaos, they did raise consciousness and move the global community in the right direction.

4. The Black Lives Matter movement gets results. This incredible uprising has forced issues of racial injustice into the national spotlight and created real reforms within communities across the country. The Movement for Black Lives got its momentum in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri and spread throughout the nation. Cops have been convicted, police chiefs have been ousted, citizen review boards have been empowered, confederate flags have come down, buildings named after racists have been renamed, presidential candidates have been forced to talk about race. Kudos to the many young black activists leading the way.

5. Canada welcomes refugees. While Donald Trump threatens to ban Muslims from the US, newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau showed the rest of the world how a country can open its doors –– and hearts –– to Syrian refugees. Trudeau and other smiling officialswelcomed the first batch of Syrian refugees with flowers, toys, clothing, goodwill and the heartfelt declaration, “You are home.” “We get to show the world how to open our hearts and welcome in people who are fleeing extraordinarily difficult situations…because we define a Canadian not by a skin color or a language or a religion or a background, but by a shared set of values, aspirations, hopes and dreams,” Trudeau proclaimed.

6. Jeremy Corbyn heads UK Labor Party! Running on an anti-war, anti-austerity, and pro-refugee platform, longtime progressive parliamentarian Jeremy Corbyn earned a whopping 59% of his party’s votes. In an interview with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, Corbyn voiced his support for diplomacy and his aversion to airstrikes in the Middle East: “I want a world of peace. I’m not interested in bombs. I’m not interested in wars. I’m interested in peace.” Wouldn’t that be nice to hear from Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi?

7. Same-sex marriage was legalized in the US! In a landmark and long-awaited decision, the Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage a federal right. On June 26, the LGBTQ community and its allies rejoiced and took the streets to celebrate the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling. While there have been some minor setbacks since then (primarily due to bigots like Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis), there is no turning back now.

8. Ten years of BDS wins. The non-violent, non-sectarian, Palestinian-led movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel has seen a decade of victories. Key this year was the decision by the European Union that goods produced on land seized in the 1967 war must be labeled “Made in Settlements” (not “Made in Israel”), which will deprive Israel the corresponding tax benefits. The former Israeli intelligence chief Shabtai Shavit is convinced that BDS has become a “critical” challenge to Israel, while the former prime minister Ehud Barak admits it is reaching a “tipping point.” In a desperate attempt to counter the momentum of BDS, Israeli Embassy officials in DC sent holiday gifts exclusively made in settlements to the White House this year.

9. Marijuana becomes mainstream. What a year of momentum to end our country’s disastrous war on drugs and mass incarceration. Marijuana is now legal in Colorado, Washington. Alaska, Oregon and Washington D.C., California and others will hit the ballot box in 2016 to hopefully push us past the tipping point on marijuana legalization. President Obama, the first president to visit a prison, spoke out forcefully against mass incarceration and for criminal justice reform, and is helping formerly incarcerated people re-enter society by “banning the box” for those applying for federal jobs.

10. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign! The energy that Bernie has mobilized, especially among young progressives, has been phenomenal. While the media is obsessed with Donald Trump, droves of people have been flocking to hear Bernie talk about breaking up big banks, a financial transaction tax to make college education free, single-payer healthcare and other ideas to make our society more just. Wouldn’t it be great if this movement could continue after the race is over?

So while this holiday season the nation is obsessed with the latest Donald Trump insult and the special effects of Star Wars, may we bring in the new year truly striking back at the injustices of the empire. May the force be with the grassroots activists trying to build a more peaceful world.

Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the peace group CODEPINK and the human right organization Global Exchange. Follow her on twitter at @MedeaBenjamin.

Source URL: https://portside.org/2015-12-31/10-good-things-about-not-so-great-year-2015

- See more at: https://portside.org/print/node/10468#sthash.XqIea4c9.dpuf

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

Baltimore Activist Alert June 16 – June 22, 2014

Baltimore Activist Alert June 16 – June 22, 2014

"I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours.
The initiative to stop it must be ours." - Martin Luther King Jr.

Friends, this list and other email documents which I send out are done under the auspices of the Baltimore Nonviolence Center. Go to www.baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com. If you appreciate this information and would like to make a donation, send contributions to BNC, 325 East 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Max Obuszewski can be reached at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski [at] verizon.net.

Tune into the Maryland Progressive Blog at http://mdprogblog.org.

1] Books, buttons & stickers
2] Web site for info on federal legislation
3] Join Nonviolent Resistance lists
4] Buy coffee through HoCoFoLa
5] See THE EXONERATED – through July 6
6] Human, Soul & Machine: The Coming Singularity – through Aug. 31
7] Marc Steiner on WEAA – June 16 – 20
8] "Mutual Security on Hold? Russia, the West and European Security Architecture" – June 16
9] "India’s Nuclear Policy and Regional Stability" – June 16
10] 70,000 Palestinian books confiscated – June 16
11] "How to Unwind Iran Nuclear Sanctions" – June 16
12] Green Neighbors meeting – June 16
13] “Imagining a Future for Israel and Palestine” – June 16
14] Pledge of Resistance/Fund Our Communities meeting – June 16
15] Take Your Congregation Forward! – June 17
16] Philadelphia Peace Vigil – June 17
17] "No Drone Research at JHU" – June 17
18] Book talk “Part of the Family” – June 17
19] Jeff Halper in Arlington, VA – June 17
-----
1] – Buttons, bumperstickers and books are available. “God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions” stickers are in stock. Donate your books to Max. Call him at 410-366-1637.

2] – To obtain information how your federal legislators voted on particular bills, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/. Congressional toll-free numbers are 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 or 800-426-8073. The White House Comment Email is accessible at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.

3] – THE ORGANIZING LIST will be the primary decision-making mechanism of the National Campaign of Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR]. It will be augmented by conference calls and possibly in-person meetings as needed. It will consist of 1 or 2 representatives from each local, regional, or national organization (not coalitions) that wishes to actively work to carry out the NCNR campaign of facilitating and organizing nonviolent resistance to the war in Iraq. To join the ORGANIZING List, please send your name, group affiliation, city and email address to mobuszewski at Verizon dot net. Different local chapters of a national organization are encouraged to subscribe.

THE NOTICES LIST will include only notices of NCNR actions and related information and is open to any interested person to subscribe. It will be moderated to maintain focus & will include periodic notices about getting involved in NCNR national organizing. To join the NOTICES List, send an email message to mobuszewski at Verizon dot net.

4] – You can help safeguard human rights and fragile ecosystems through your purchase of HOCOFOLA Café Quetzal. Bags of ground coffee or whole beans can be ordered by mailing in an order form. Also note organic cocoa and sugar are for sale. For more details and to download the order form, go to http://friendsoflatinamerica.typepad.com/hocofola/2010/02/hocofola-cafe-quetzal-order-form-2010.html. The coffee comes in one-pound bags.

Fill out the form and mail it with a check made out to HOCOFOLA on or before the second week of the month. Be sure you indicate ground or beans for each type of coffee ordered. Send it to Adela Hirsch, 5358 Eliots Oak Rd., Columbia, MD 21044. Be sure you indicate ground (G) or bean (B) for each type of coffee ordered. The coffee will arrive some time the following week and you will be notified where to pick it up. Contact Adela at 410-997-5662 or via e-mail at adela4peace@verizon.net.

5] – Enjoy “The Exonerated,” a thrilling docudrama by the Vagabond Players. The play transports viewers into the hearts and minds of 6 death row inmates who are actually innocent. It is thought provoking and provocative, and will make viewers recognize the madness of a death penalty. The performances will continue through July 6 at 806 S. Broadway. Call 410-563-9135 or go to http://vagabondplayers.org.

6] – See the exhibit Human, Soul & Machine: The Coming Singularity, which
delves into the various ways technology affects lives through the perspective of inventors, futurists and 40 plus visionary artists. The intent is to bring new thoughts on artificial intelligence, robotics, genetics, nanotechnology, 3D printing, and big data, and you can see it through August 31 at the American Visionary Art Museum, 800 Key Hwy. Call 410-244-1900. Go to http://avam.org. A ticket costs $20.

7] – The Marc Steiner Show airs Monday through Friday from 9 to 11 AM 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.

8] – On Mon., June 16 from 10 to 11:30AM, here Wolfgang Ischinger, former German Deputy Foreign Minister, Zbigniew Brzezinski, SAIS, Jane Harman, Wilson Center, Steven Pifer, Brookings Institution, and Christian Ostermann speak about "Mutual Security on Hold? Russia, the West and European Security Architecture" at the Wilson Center, Sixth Floor, Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, WDC. RSVP at http://pages.wilsoncenter.org/2014_06_16IschingerBookLaunch_EuropeEventPanelwithKeynote_Event-SingleSpeaker.

9] – On Mon., June 16 from 12:30 to 3 PM, Michael Krepon, Stimson Center, Lt. Gen. Vinay Shankar (retired), Indian Army, Vice Adm. A.K. Singh (retired) Indian Navy, Joshua White, Stimson Center, Vikram Singh, Center for American Progress, and Jayant Prasad, former Indian ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament, will explore "India’s Nuclear Policy and Regional Stability" at the Stimson Center, 12th Floor, 1111 19th St. NW, WDC. RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1bQdRyplnN8Z-dTkeVvxe0_Ln8K7KdawrWjnIYcR20cs/viewform.

The triumphant return of a Bharatiya Janata Party government in India after a contentious campaign season has raised questions about revising India's nuclear posture, India-Pakistan relations, and regional stability with the draw-down of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Two panels of distinguished experts will discuss the potential for changes to India’s historically minimalist approach to nuclear doctrine, as well as the regional security challenges facing India. Short presentations by the invited speakers will be followed by a question-and-answer period for each panel. A light lunch will be served. Contact Julia Thompson at jthompson@stimson.org.

10] – The Jerusalem Fund, 2425 Virginia Ave. NW, invites you on Mon., June 16 from 12:30 to 2:30 PM to learn about how 70,000 Palestinian books were systematically "collected" by the newly created State of Israel during the 1948 war. Today, about six thousand of these books can be found on the shelves of the National Library, organized like a fossilized army of a dead Chinese emperor, accessible but lifeless, indexed with the label AP - Abandoned Property. Absorb a 57-minute documentary. See http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/EventDetails/i/45896.

11] – On Mon., June 16 at 2 PM, Kenneth Katzman, Congressional Research Service, and Cornelius Adbahr, Carnegie Endowment, will take on "How to Unwind Iran Nuclear Sanctions" at the Atlantic Council, 1030 15th St. NW, 12th Floor, WDC. RSVP http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/events/upcoming-events/registration/a08i000000SWZ6aAAH.

12] – Get over to the Petworth Library, 4200 Kansas Ave. NW, on Mon., June 16 from 6:30 to 8 PM as Green Neighbors will announce their final numbers from the Groundswell group purchase of clean energy, and will start to talk about next projects they want to work on. Contact cathsen5@gmail.com.

13] – “Imagining a Future for Israel and Palestine” is a presentation by Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions director Jeff Halper! It is scheduled for Mon., June 16 at 7 PM in the East Columbia Branch Library, 6600 Cradlerock Way. The Committee for Palestinian Rights (CPR) of Howard County is hosting renowned Israeli anthropologist and human rights activist Jeff Halper. The ICAHD co-founder and director is the author of the highly acclaimed 2008 book “An Israeli in Palestine.” His presentation is part of a U.S. speaking tour. Email CPR_Maryland@yahoo.com.

Born in the United States, Halper emigrated to Israel in 1973. An anthropology professor, he has taught at universities both in Israel and abroad. In 1997 he co-founded ICAHD, a grassroots political and human rights organization that uses Israel's policy of demolishing Palestinian homes (25,000 in the Occupied Territories since 1967) as a vehicle for resisting the Israeli Occupation. In 2006, Jeff was nominated by the American Friends Service Committee for the Nobel Peace Prize together with Palestinian intellectual and activist Ghassan Andoni. In 2008 he was the only Israeli to join the initial sailing of the Free Gaza Movement boats into Gaza to break the Israeli and international siege.

14] – The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore usually meets on Mondays at 7:30 PM, and the meetings take place at Max’s residence. The next meeting will be on Mon., June 16. The proposed agenda will include news that Max is moving, a report on the appeal of the conviction of the CIA Five, anti-drone activities, including the arrests at the NSA on May 3, the July 4 visit to the NSA, a report on the conference in Chicago, GMO legislation, Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration, and Keep Space for Peace Week. Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at verizon.net for directions.

15] – On Tues., June 17 from 9 AM to 6 PM, Joelle Novey will meet one-on-one with you at the Tribeca Coffee Roasters, 1210 N. Charles St. to Take Your Congregation Forward! Get Your Congregation to Speak Out for Strong Climate Safeguards - Order Postcards Now!

Whether you’ve just started taking leadership at your congregation or you’re well into a decade of hard work, Interfaith Power & Light - DMV wants to help with whatever project you’re implementing or whatever problem you’re facing. With years of experience helping green leaders work with their congregations, Joelle sets aside time each month to meet with green leaders and provide dedicated support. Email Elizabeth Stevens at program@gwipl.org.

16] – 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 June 17. Call 215-426-0364.

17] – Vigil to say "No Drone Research at JHU" each Tuesday at 33rd & North Charles Sts. Join this ongoing vigil on June 17 from 5:30 to 6:30 PM. Call Max at 410-366-1637.

18] – Gather in the IPS Conference Room, 1112 16th St. NW, Suite 600, WDC 20036, on Tues., June 17 from 5:30 to 7 PM, engage with the author of “Part of the Family.” The economy, and society generally, has long devalued workers who toil inside of homes to care for children, elders, and people with disabilities. Because of workers and organizers in the U.S., this has finally begun to change. This is the first book to chronicle the rising U.S. movement for domestic workers’ rights. As part of IPS' Break The Chain Campaign, join the conversation and the movement with author Sheila Bapat and members of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Bapat is an attorney and writer covering economic and gender justice. Her work has appeared in Jacobin, Salon, Reuters, Slate, AlterNet, Truthout, and many other places. She holds a JD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. Visit http://www.ips-dc.org/events/author_event_part_of_the_family.

19] – Dr. Jeff Halper will give a talk Exporting the Occupation: Israel and the Global Pacification Industry at Busboys & Poets, 4215 South Campbell Ave., Arlington, VA on Tues., June 17 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. Halper will focus on the production, distribution and use of Israel’s high-tech weapons systems and “counterinsurgency” weaponry and tactics as a profitable by-product of the Occupation that has spread worldwide. He is the co-founder and Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. Go to jvpdcmetro@gmail.com.

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

Baltimore Activist Alert Oct. 27 – Nov. 3, 2013

Baltimore Activist Alert Oct. 27 – Nov. 3, 2013

 "I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours." -Martin Luther King Jr.

 Friends, this list and other email documents which I send out are done under the auspices of the Baltimore Nonviolence Center. Go to www.baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com. If you appreciate this information and would like to make a donation, send contributions to BNC, 325 East 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Max Obuszewski can be reached at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski [at] verizon.net.

 Tune into the Maryland Progressive Blog at http://mdprogblog.org.

1] Books, buttons & stickers
2] Web site for info on federal legislation
3] Join Nonviolent Resistance lists
4] Buy coffee through HoCoFoLa
5] Vietnam Photograph Exhibit – through Feb. 23 
6] The Pursuit of Wisdom with Blinders On – Oct. 27
7] Peace and Pancakes – Oct. 27
8] Princeton Chapel Choir – Oct. 27
9] SOUL KITCHEN is open – Oct. 27
10] BALTIMORE GREEN FORUM – Oct. 27
11] Heschel Vision Awards – Oct. 27
12] “We Are One Community” – Oct. 27
13] Pentagon Vigil – Oct. 28
14] Paid Sick Days and Living Wage for All hearing – Oct. 28
----
 1] – Buttons, bumperstickers and books are available. “God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions” stickers are in stock. Donate your books to Max. Call him at 410-366-1637.

 2] – To obtain information how your federal legislators voted on particular bills, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/. Congressional toll-free numbers are 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 or 800-426-8073. The White House Comment Email is accessible at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.

 3] – THE ORGANIZING LIST will be the primary decision-making mechanism of the National Campaign of Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR]. It will be augmented by conference calls and possibly in-person meetings as needed. It will consist of 1 or 2 representatives from each local, regional, or national organization (not coalitions) that wishes to actively work to carry out the NCNR campaign of facilitating and organizing nonviolent resistance to the war in Iraq. To join the ORGANIZING List, please send your name, group affiliation, city and email address to donmuller@msn.com. Different local chapters of a national organization are encouraged to subscribe. THE NOTICES LIST will include only notices of NCNR actions and related information and is open to any interested person to subscribe. It will be moderated to maintain focus & will include periodic notices about getting involved in NCNR national organizing. To join the NOTICES List, send an email message to ncnrnotices-subscribe@lists.riseup.net. You will get a confirmation message once subscribed. If you have problems, please write to the list manager at ncnrnotices-admin@lists.riseup.net.

 4] – You can help safeguard human rights and fragile ecosystems through your purchase of HOCOFOLA Café Quetzal. Bags of ground coffee or whole beans can be ordered by mailing in an order form. Also note organic cocoa and sugar are for sale. For more details and to download the order form, go to http://friendsoflatinamerica.typepad.com/hocofola/2010/02/hocofola-cafe-quetzal-order-form-2010.html. The coffee comes in one-pound bags. Fill out the form and mail it with a check made out to HOCOFOLA on or before the second week of the month. Be sure you indicate ground or beans for each type of coffee ordered. Send it to Adela Hirsch, 5358 Eliots Oak Rd., Columbia, MD 21044. Be sure you indicate ground (G) or bean (B) for each type of coffee ordered. The coffee will arrive some time the following week and you will be notified where to pick it up. Contact Adela at 410-997-5662 or via e-mail at adela4peace@verizon.net.

 5] – An-My Lê's photographs come to the Baltimore Museum of Art's Front Room. 21 Black-and-white and color photographs explore the roles of the military and war, showing tensions between nature and human influence and machinery. The exhibit runs through Feb. 23 at the Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive. Call 443- 573-1700. Go to http://artbma.org.

6] – Usually, the Baltimore Ethical Society, 306 W. Franklin St., Suite 102, Baltimore 21201-4517, meets on Sundays, and generally there is a speaker and discussion from 10:30 to noon. The platform address on Sun., Oct. 27 is “The Pursuit of Wisdom with Blinders On,” and Desirée H. Melton, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Notre Dame of Maryland University, will deliver it. In a time when we have moved toward accepting that not all women are physically inferior to men and toward the acceptance that people of color are not intellectually inferior by virtue of their color and/or culture, the exclusion of their perspectives from the discipline that pursues truth and wisdom, results in philosophic thought with a distinctly distorted view of reality. Ms. Melton specializes in Critical Race Theory and Social and Political Philosophy. Call 410-581-2322 or contact Kathryn Sloboda at katamui@gmail.com. Go to http://bmorethical.org/. Twitter: @bmorethical Facebook: http://fb.com/bmorethical/.

 7] – Join the Kadampa Meditation Center for Peace and Pancakes on Sundays at 10:30 AM at KMC Maryland, 2937 North Charles St. All are invited to participate in guided meditation and chant praying for world peace. There will be a talk based on Buddhist thought followed by brunch. Call 410- 243-3837. Brunch is $5.

 8] – The renowned Princeton Chapel Choir, directed by Penna Rose, will present a concert on Sun., Oct. 27 at 3 PM at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church, 1316 Park Ave. University organist Eric Plutz will accompany the choir on Brown Memorial’s 1930 Skinner organ. A free reception will follow. Their program of American and Russian choral music will include works by composers Stephen Paulus and Alice Parker, spirituals arranged by Michael Tippett, and "Blagoslovi, dushe moya, Gospoda" ("Bless the Lord, O My Soul") by Pavel Chesnokov. Tickets for this Tiffany Series event are $15 ($5 for students) and are available at www.browndowntown.org. Get parking pass in front of the church for the lot a block away. Call 410-523-1542.

 9] – The SOUL KITCHEN is open. Gimmie Shelter Productions in conjunction with the Govans Presbyterian Church, 5828 York Road, Baltimore, MD 21212 is hosting a meal for the needy and homeless on Sun., Oct. 29 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. To help with the serving or cooking of the food, arrive at the church at 5 PM. If you are able to provide musical entertainment, call Alan Barysh at 443-239-5325. This happens on the 2nd & 4th Sunday of the month. To arrange to make a tax-deductible or an in-kind donation, call Rev. Tom Harris, pastor, at 410-435-9188. Go to govanspres.org/govanspres/welcome.

10] – The BALTIMORE GREEN FORUM, a monthly environmental education and discussion gathering, is happening on Sun., Oct. 29 from 4 to 5:30 PM at Maryland Presbyterian Church, 1105 Providence Road, Towson 21286. From 5:30 to 6:30 PM, it is optional for affinity groups to converse. The subject is ARMAGEDDON OR AWAKENING? Peak oil, water wars, collapsing economic systems, corrupt governments, poisoned earth, global warming could happen. Are we on the verge of ending it all for the human species, or a descent into transition that will lead us to an earth where all life is sacred, prosperous and sustaining? The answer is up to us... Hear the speaker Jack Arnold, founding steering committee member of Baltimore Green Forum. The Purpose of the Baltimore Green Forum is to seek to improve the quality of all life in the greater Baltimore area. BGF is open to the public and is free of charge, but donations to Maryland Presbyterian Church are greatly appreciated. Write to baltimoregreenforum@gmail.com, call 410-554-0006, or visit www.baltimoregreenforum.org.

11] – The Heschel Vision Awards 2013 take place on Sun., Oct. 27 at 6:30 PM at Temple Sinai, 3100 Military Road NW. Join Jews United for Justice to celebrate these fantastic local leaders who fuse activism and deep moral commitments. These leaders inspire and empower people from all walks of life. See http://www.jufj.org/heschel2013.

 12] – On Sun., Oct. 27 from 7 to 8:30 PM at the Cathedral of the Incarnation, 4 East University Parkway, Baltimore 21218, be at “We Are One Community” 2013 Baltimore, Maryland Caravan of Reconciliation. Clergy Beyond Borders. The main objective is to create “Rapid Response Networks” in the communities the Caravan visits and initiate a statewide network. The RRN will promote positive pluralism and respond to acts of discrimination and bigotry. This is sponsored by Clergy Beyond Borders, the Center for Dispute Resolution at the University of Maryland Law School, the Maryland Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office, and the Central Maryland Ecumenical Council. Visit www.clergybeyondborders.org.

 13] – 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., Oct. 28, and it is sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. Email artlaffin@hotmail.com or call 202-882-9649.

 14] – There is a Paid Sick Days and Living Wage for All hearing on Mon., Oct. 28 at 10 AM at the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, WDC 20004, in Hearing Room 500. To keep track of individuals who are testifying or would like to be present, email jeremiah@rocunited.org.

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

Baltimore Activist Alert June 14 – June 20, 2013

Baltimore Activist Alert June 14 – June 20, 2013

"I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours.

The initiative to stop it must be ours." -Martin Luther King Jr.

Friends, this list and other email documents which I send out are done under the auspices of the Baltimore Nonviolence Center. Go to www.baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com. If you appreciate this information and would like to make a donation, send contributions to BNC, 325 East 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Max Obuszewski can be reached at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski [at] verizon.net.

Tune into the Maryland Progressive Blog at http://mdprogblog.org.

1] Books, buttons & stickers

2] Web site for info on federal legislation

3] Join Nonviolent Resistance lists

4] Buy coffee through HoCoFoLa

5] Homage to Harriet – through June 23

6] Tour de Peace – through July 3

7] BUILD's 35 Years of Organizing -- through Aug. 31

8] Created Equal exhibit – through Aug. 31

9] Wildlife Rescue exhibit – through Sept. 2

10] Rally against FBI/NSA Spying – June 14

11] D.C. Demonstration for the Gitmo Hunger Strikers – June 14

12] Justice for Palestine/Israel vigil – June 14

13] Participate in a Blood Drive – June 14

14] Protest planned drone base – June 14

15] Genuine Progress Indicator – June 14

16] Silent peace vigil – June 14

17] Screening of "Enemy Alien" – June 14

18] Ballroom dancing – June 14

19] Foreclosure workshop – June 15

20] 2013 WALK FOR OUR GRANDCHILDREN – June 15 - 22

21] Olney Peace vigil – June 15

22] West Chester, PA demo – June 15

23] Silent vigil at Capitol – June 15

24] Fresh Beets Benefit Concert – June 15

25] Music for Peace by Jewish and Palestinian Youngsters – June 15

1] – Buttons, bumperstickers and books are available. “God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions” stickers are in stock. Donate your books to Max. Call him at 410-366-1637.

2] – To obtain information how your federal legislators voted on particular bills, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/. Congressional toll-free numbers are 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 or 800-426-8073. The White House Comment Email is accessible at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.

3] – THE ORGANIZING LIST will be the primary decision-making mechanism of the National Campaign of Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR]. It will be augmented by conference calls and possibly in-person meetings as needed. It will consist of 1 or 2 representatives from each local, regional, or national organization (not coalitions) that wishes to actively work to carry out the NCNR campaign of facilitating and organizing nonviolent resistance to the war in Iraq.

To join the ORGANIZING List, please send your name, group affiliation, city and email address to donmuller@msn.com. Different local chapters of a national organization are encouraged to subscribe.

THE NOTICES LIST will include only notices of NCNR actions and related information and is open to any interested person to subscribe. It will be moderated to maintain focus & will include periodic notices about getting involved in NCNR national organizing. To join the NOTICES List, send an email message to ncnrnotices-subscribe@lists.riseup.net. You will get a confirmation message once subscribed. If you have problems, please write to the list manager at ncnrnotices-admin@lists.riseup.net.

4] – You can help safeguard human rights and fragile ecosystems through your purchase of HOCOFOLA Café Quetzal. Bags of ground coffee or whole beans can be ordered by mailing in an order form. Also note organic cocoa and sugar are for sale. For more details and to download the order form, go to http://friendsoflatinamerica.typepad.com/hocofola/2010/02/hocofola-cafe-quetzal-order-form-2010.html. The coffee comes in one-pound bags.

Fill out the form and mail it with a check made out to HOCOFOLA on or before the second week of the month. Be sure you indicate ground or beans for each type of coffee ordered. Send it to Adela Hirsch, 5358 Eliots Oak Rd., Columbia, MD 21044. Be sure you indicate ground (G) or bean (B) for each type of coffee ordered. The coffee will arrive some time the following week and you will be notified where to pick it up. Contact Adela at 410-997-5662 or via e-mail at adela4peace@verizon.net.



5] – Homage to Harriet, works about and inspired by the life and legacy of Maryland-born abolitionist Harriet Tubman, continues through June 23 at Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, 830 E. Pratt St. Call 443-263-1800. Go to http://www.africanamericanculture.org/.



6] – From Thurs., Apr. 4 through Wed., July 3 follow the Tour de Peace across the country. Visit http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com/p/tour-de-peace-road-less-taken.html.



7] – The Enoch Pratt Free Library, Central Library, 400 Cathedral St., hosts an exhibit Learning, Listening, Leading: BUILD's 35 Years of Organizing in Baltimore City, which documents the achievements of BUILD, featuring the leaders who made these changes possible, through Sat., Aug. 31. Call 410-396-5430. Go to http://www.prattlibrary.org/locations/central.



8] – Created Equal, an exhibit celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and the second inauguration of President Barack Obama, is on display through Aug. 31 at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Central Library, 400 Cathedral St. Call 410- 396-5430 or go to http://www.prattlibrary.org/locations/central.

9] – Wildlife Rescue is a new Maryland Science Center's travelling exhibit

. It allows for experiment and exploration of the science of how we can save Earth's ecosystems. Visitors to the exhibit will be introduced to the rescue efforts used by experts, have a chance to experiment with puppets and costumes, and learn survival. The exhibit at the Science Center, 601 Light St., will continue through September 2. Call 410-685-5225 or go to http://www.mdsci.org.

10] – Attend a Press Conference and Protest Rally against FBI/NSA Spying on Fri., June 14 at noon across from Upper Senate Building, Delaware Ave. & Constitution Ave. Join the Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition, Defending Dissent Foundation, CODEPINK, Washington Peace Center, Bill of Rights Defense Committee and many others to protest spying and to support Edward Snowden and all whistleblowers! It’s not enough to be outraged. Times like this require concerted, committed, and focused grassroots action! Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/394947703953205/.

11] – A peace vigil takes place every Friday from noon to 1 PM at Lafayette Park facing the White House. Join the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker and friends. However, on June 14, as the hunger strike continues into 128 days, the vigil will Support Guantanamo Hunger Strikers--Close Guantanamo & End Indefinite Detention. The men detained at the U.S. prison in Guantánamo are engaged in a large-scale hunger strike, which began in early February. The vast majority of the 166 prisoners have been held for more than 11 years without any charge or fair trial, with no end to their detention in sight. Demand that President Obama use his authority to close Guantánamo! See www.witnesstorture.org. Contact Art Laffin: artlaffin@hotmail.com.

12] – A vigil for Justice in Palestine/Israel takes place every Friday from noon to 1 PM at 19th & JFK Blvd., Philadelphia (across from Israeli Consulate. It is sponsored by Bubbies & Zaydes (Grandparents) for Peace in the Middle East. Email cswartz@pil.net. Go to http://phillyjewishpeace.org/.

13] – Participate in a Blood Drive on Fri., June 14 from noon to 6 PM at 453 New Jersey Ave. SE. Every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood – and it only takes 15 minutes of your time to make a donation that can literally save someone's life. As a part of the re-launch of their "Faith in Action" volunteer campaign, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is hosting a blood drive. Donors can sign up at www.redcrossblood.org with the sponsor code: 0531295.

14] – The monthly demonstrations at Horsham Air Guard Station (Easton & County Line Roads) will continue on the last Saturday of each month through September as part of the campaign to stop the planned drone command center announced to open by October 1. There is regular bannering/leafleting on the 2nd Friday of the month, from 4 to 5 PM at the SEPTA entrance, 15th & Market Sts. (NW corner), across from the west side of Philadelphia City Hall.

15] – On Fri., June 14 from 4:30 to 6:30 PM at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, 700 Aliceanna St. As the first U.S. state to adopt a Genuine Progress Indicator, Maryland is at the leading edge of a national and global movement to rethink and reorient how we measure economic performance and social progress. At the heart of this movement is recognition that economic growth alone cannot deliver progress--indeed will not be possible at all--if we do not do more to support what really matters for our people and our future: improving family well-being, harnessing the power of our societal wealth through greater equity, and living more sustainably in our natural world. The Institute for Policy Studies' Genuine Progress Project and Demos, in cooperation with the Town Creek Foundation, are proud to welcome Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley for a special keynote dialogue in our second GPI in the States Summit, which is bringing leaders from around the country to Baltimore to learn about the Maryland GPI and other important new efforts in states such as Oregon and Vermont. Joining Governor O'Malley in this dialogue is Professor Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute and one of our country's leading thinkers on well-being measurement and sustainable economic growth. A RSVP is required for admission. Go to www.ips-dc.org. Email info@ips-dc.org.

16] – There is a silent peace vigil on Fri., June 14 from 5 to 6 PM outside the Cathedral of the Incarnation, University Parkway and St. Paul St. The vigil is sponsored by Homewood Friends and Stony Run Meetings, and was recently moved because of the construction on Charles St. The National Religious Campaign Against Torture is promoting June as Torture Awareness Month. TORTURE IS A MORAL ISSUE. So the weekly vigil on June 14, 21 and 28 will focus torture. Email campaign@nrcat.org or go to www.tortureisamoralissue.org.

17] – See a screening of "Enemy Alien" on Fri., June 14 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at The Jerusalem Fund, 2425 Virginia Ave. NW, WDC 20037. Call 202.338.1958. This first-person documentary is the gripping story of the fight to free Farouk Abdel-Muhti, a gentle but indomitable Palestinian-born human rights activist detained in a post-9/11 sweep of Muslim immigrants. Told through the eyes of the filmmaker, the grandson of Japanese Americans interned during World War II, this documentary takes on unprecedented intimacy and historical resonance. Attendance is free and open to the public. RSVP is required--http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/EventDetails/i/38307.

18] – There is an opportunity to participate in ballroom dancing, usually every Friday of the month, in the JHU ROTC Bldg. at 8 PM. Turn south on San Martin Dr. from the intersection of Univ. Parkway and 39th St. Drive on campus by taking the third left turn. The next dance will be June 14. Call Dave Greene at 410-599-3725.

19] – Congressperson Elijah Cummings invites you to the annual Foreclosure Prevention Workshop on Sat., June 15 at Woodlawn Senior High School from 9 AM to 3 PM. More than 20 mortgage lenders, attorneys and counselors will be there to meet with you and reach solutions to your mortgage issues on the spot through one-on-one sessions. Register at http://cummings.house.gov. Call 410-685-9199.

20] – Get involved with the 2013 WALK FOR OUR GRANDCHILDREN. KEEP FOSSIL FUELS IN THE GROUND. CLIMATE ACTION NOW. Contact Steve Norris at earthsun2@gmail.com. The Walk, led by elders and grandparents, welcomes and encourages participation from all generations. Walkers will gather on Sat., June 15 near Camp David, and over seven days travel 63 miles, arriving at the White House on Sat., June 22.

The walk dramatizes the need to liberate our children and grandchildren from fossil fuels, beginning this summer with the rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Camp David is the point of origin, referencing President Eisenhower naming the retreat after his grandson David, and his work to liberate the world from the destructive effects of fascism, - just as we must now mobilize to confront climate change and liberate our children and grandchildren from fossil fuels. The actual walk starts in Camp Catoctin Mountain Park, a federal campground next to Camp David, with training and orientation on June 15. Located in the campground is Evergreen Chapel, where President Obama often worships. On Sunday the 16th, some walkers may respectfully attend services in the chapel, perhaps wearing green scarves. If President Obama and his family are present, we invite him, Michelle, their children and their grandmother to join our walk.

After church on the 16th the walk proceeds through several Maryland communities over the next six days. During the walk educational events, prayer services, teach-ins, listening circles, discussions, caravan performances, interviews and nonviolent protest activities take place in various parks, churches, town halls, theaters and at other venues in cities and towns along the way.

21] – 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. [Route 97] in Olney, MD. The next vigil is June 15. Call Chuck Harker at 301-570-7167.

22] – 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.

23] – There will be a peace vigil on the West Lawn of the Capitol at noon on Sat., June 15. 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.

24] – The Food and Faith Network presents the Fresh Beets Benefit Concert on Sat., June 15 at 7 PM at St. Stephen & the Incarnation Episcopal Church, 1525 Newton St. NW. Proceeds from the concert will go to funding the Food and Faith Network's work to address food inequality and access issues in the D.C. area. The night will be a high-energy intro into how they are working to shape the sustainable food economy through faith-based Fresh Stops. BUY YOUR TICKETS at http://Quixote.org/FreshBeets. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/364762183625223/.

25] – Hear Passionate Music For Peace by Jewish and Palestinian Youngsters on Sat., June 15 at 8 PM at Busboys and Poets Cafe, 5th and K Sts. Hear songs of compassion and coexistence by members of HEARTBEAT [http://HeartBeat.fm/]. Look up https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1jxIeytuomnGnSBR-XLsFW8t1-CFdLTsVWR99PdKs6Ik.

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