Baltimore Activist Alert – August 4 to 5, 2019
"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 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net.
1] Books, buttons and
stickers
2] Web site for info on
federal legislation
3] Get involved with NCNR
4] Buy an
Anti-War Veteran hat
5] Lawyers Against War
6] SUPPORT AMAZON
WORKERS OF CONSCIENCE
7] Little Friends for
Peace
8] Jose needs your help
9] Plans to Prosper You –
through Aug. 11
10] JAPANESE-AMERICAN ART
EXHIBIT – through Aug. 23
11] The Warmth of Other
Suns – through Sept. 22
12] Ms.
Michiko Kodama, a survivor of Hiroshima, will give testimony – Aug. 4
13] 2019 Worldwide Threat
Assessment – Aug. 4
14] Animal Safe Haven and
Adoptions – Aug. 4
15]
Canvas with Bill Henry – Aug. 4
16] Close the Camps & Prisons
– Aug. 4
17] Poor
People's Campaign gathering – Aug. 4
18] Climate Change
Education Program – Aug. 4
19] Film SHORED UP – Aug. 4
20] Protest the Pentagon – Aug. 5
21] Climate Change
Education Program
– Aug. 5
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1] – Buttons,
bumperstickers and books are available. “God Bless the Whole World,
No Exceptions” stickers are in stock. Call Max at 410-323-1607.
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 U.S.
wars.
To join the ORGANIZING
List, please send your name, group affiliation, city and email address to
mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net. Different local chapters of a
national organization are encouraged to subscribe.
4] – Get a good-looking black hat
which says Anti-War Veteran in the front and Viva House 50th in the
back. The cost is $10. Contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at
Comcast dot net.
5] – Jeff
Ross, an attorney in Maryland, is interested in gathering with other lawyers to
discuss ways in which the legal profession and the law generally can be
conceptualized as a peace-building and war-resisting institution and redirected
to these ends. Areas to explore might include: 1) ways in which this
group could support with legal analysis/writing those lawyers who are
representing peace-builders/war-resisters in criminal prosecutions; 2) ways in
which, from a more theoretical perspective, the law might be grounded in an
ethic of non-violence; and 3) ways in which law students and young lawyers
might be exposed to a non-violent vision of the law. All religious,
philosophical, and critical perspectives on the law are welcome. The group
might want to call itself Lawyers Against War. Jeff can be reached at
443-690-6872 and jross50@hotmail.com.
6] -- SUPPORT AMAZON
WORKERS OF CONSCIENCE. We are in a deep struggle to support conscience
within the high tech community, which may be the only way to prevent a major
leap into artificial intelligence warfare that we see the beginnings of in the
expanding global U.S. drone war system. This may be of particular
interest to Johns Hopkins' Navy-funded researchers, some of whom have been
working on swarming drone technology.
These are not major asks and can be a powerful reinforcement of
conscience at an extremely critical moment. Please consider circulating this
link to your lists encouraging people to sign the linked RootsAction petition - https://www.knowdrones.com/blog/2019/3/6/support-amazon-workers-who-dont-want-to-work-for-war and leafletting Whole Foods in your areas. This
is a link to the leaflet -- https://gallery.mailchimp.com/dd110b000ca250d868d4f419b/files/107fc695-8af9-4f7e-a523-ecd1d1dfd28f/Wholefoods_Leaflet.pdf.
Should you have interest in circulating the links and possibly leafletting,
contact Nick Mottern at nickmottern at gmail.com.
7] -- Little Friends for
Peace (LFFP - http://www.lffp.org/) has
been conducting summer peace camps around the Metro DC area for well over 30
years. For approximately the last ten years, LFFP has been offering free
tuition to children of TASSC (Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition
- https://www.tassc.org/)
members. Recently they have also been welcoming children of refugees to
their camps without regard for tuition payment. If you would like to assist
with this undertaking, there are many ways you can including:
Driving -
many of the TASSC and other refugee families want their children to attend camp
but they do not have the ability to drive them there and back. For the
last 8 to 10 years, Helen Schietinger has been working with LFFP and TASSC to
provide drivers for these children. If you can drive some children even
one way, on one day on any day during the following three weeks of peace camp
this summer, it would be much appreciated. Many drivers from past years
have moved or "aged out" of feeling comfortable driving and we really
need as many volunteer drivers as possible. If you can possibly drive,
please contact either Helen (202-344-5762 - h.schietinger@verizon.net ) or
Bob Cooke (301-661-0449 or cookerh1251@gmail.com)
regarding exactly when you can drive and from where you might be comfortable
driving. Most of the children live in PG County, D.C. or Montgomery
County.
The
weeks drivers are needed include: August 5 - camp is in Colesville/Silver
Spring, MD and August 19 - camp is in Mt. Rainier, MD. Share this
information.
Donate
for Scholarships. In order to help as many scholarship asylee, refugee (and
other) children attend camp, LFFP (http://www.lffp.org/donate.html)
can use as much scholarship money donations as possible. No amount of
scholarship money is too little.
8] –
José, a family man who works at
Zen West, was detained on July 18th and is possibly facing deportation. His
family is being faced with legal fees and many financial needs while José is
detained. The Immigration Outreach Service Center has been working with Zen
West to try to provide help to the family as they struggle with José’s
detention, legal fees, and trying to hold their family together. Please
consider donating to the Go Fund Me page -- https://www.gofundme.com/f/stop-joses-deportation.
Call 410-323-8564.
9] – Plans
to Prosper You is hosted by Save Bethesda African Cemetery through
Sun., Aug. 11 at 5119 River Road, Bethesda 20816. Thanks to
anthropologist Delande Justinvil and Professor Adrienne Pine, you are invited
to a very special event: Plans to Prosper You: Reflections of Black Resistance
and Resilience in Montgomery County's Potomac River Valley. The exhibit is to
be seen from 9 AM to 5 PM at American University's Katzen Museum. See https://www.facebook.com/events/2053174084987910/.
10] – BALTIMORE SISTER
CITIES [baltimoresistercities.org] is hosting through August 23 a
JAPANESE-AMERICAN ART EXHIBIT AT CITY HALL called “Flightless Cranes/Tobenai
Tsuru” in the North Gallery, 100 N. Holliday St., Baltimore 21202. The
title means “a crane cannot fly.” The curator is Kirk Butts, and the
artists are Aimi Chinen Bouillen, Ahraun Chambliss, Mary Champagne, Kei
Ito, Sanzi Kermes, and Ayaka Takao. Admission is free, but you need an ID
in order to enter the building. The exhibit celebrates the 40th year
anniversary of Baltimore and Kawasaki’s sister city relationship. It showcases
6 young Japanese, American, and Japanese-American artists, looking for
commonalities in their immigrant identity and relocation themes that are part
of their artistic heritage. The artists include several members of Baltimore
Kawasaki Sister City Committee and other artists both local and national.
11] – The Phillips
Collection (TPC) in Washington, D.C. has a dedicated mission of addressing
contemporary social justice issues of global significance. The museum has
recently undertaken an extraordinary exhibition on the urgent topic of
immigration and the global migration crisis entitled: The Warmth of Other Suns:
Stories of Global Displacement. This important exhibition presents 75 historical and contemporary artists—from
the United States as well as Algeria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Egypt,
Ghana, Iraq, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, Syria, Turkey, UK, Vietnam, and
more—whose work poses urgent questions around the experiences and perceptions
of migration, internal and cross-border displacement, and the current global refugee crisis. Check out https://www.phillipscollection.org/events/2019-06-22-exhibition-the-warmth-of-other-suns.
In conjunction with the exhibition which is on
view through Sept. 22, the museum has also created a slate of dynamic
programming including artist talks. Exemplarily, on Aug. 29, Millennium
Arts Salon Executive Director Juanita Hardy will feature a Salon Panel Talk on
the issue of migration. Contact Phillips Director of Communications
Miriam Magdieli at MMagdieli@phillipscollection.org
for complimentary passes, or to RSVP for Phillips After 5. If you have a group
she can also help to arrange a tour with museum staff. The Phillips
Collection is eager to engage in partnerships with organizations working with
migrant communities, whether by advocacy, direct action, or support for
migrants here in DC.
12] – On Sun., Aug. 4 at 10:15
AM for a Church Service, and at 11:30 AM for full testimony at All Souls
Unitarian Church, 1500 Harvard St. NW (at 16th St.), WDC 20009. Ms. Michiko Kodama, a survivor of Hiroshima, will give
testimony to the devastating effects of war and the promise of peace. Contact John Steinbach at 703-822-3485 or <johnsteinbach1@verizon.net>.
13] – Usually, the Baltimore Ethical Society,
2521 St. Paul St., Baltimore 21218, meets on Sundays, and generally there is a
speaker and discussion at 10:30 AM. On Sun., Aug. 4, the platform address
is the
2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment. Each year the Director of National
Intelligence presents to Congress the Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S.
Intelligence Community. BES member Emil Volcheck served for two years on the
staff of the National Intelligence Manager for Cyber at the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). He will present excerpts from the
2019 assessment dealing with cyber threats and provide some explanation and
background. Volcheck served as BES president from 2012 to 2015 and
received the Anna Garlin Spencer Award of the American Ethical Union in
2018. He works in the Research Directorate of the National Security
Agency. He received the NSA Meritorious Civilian Service Award in 2017. Call 410-581-2322 or email ask@bmorethical.org.
One
day in 2003, in the lead up to the Iraq War, British intelligence specialist
Katharine Gun received a memo from the NSA by Frank Koza with a shocking
directive: the United States is enlisting Britain's help in collecting
compromising information on U.N. Security Council members to blackmail them
into voting in favor of an invasion of Iraq. Unable to stand by and watch the
world be rushed into war, Gun makes the gut-wrenching decision to defy her
government and leak the memo to the press. A dramatic film, coming out in
late August and called OFFICIAL SECRETS, will highlight the courage of
Katherine Gun to take this act of resistance.
14] – On Sun., Aug. 4 from 11 AM to 2 PM, attend an Animal
Safe Haven and Adoptions event at Clipper's Canine Cafe in Old Ellicott City,
PO Box 2773, Columbia 21045. Meet adoptable kittens! See https://www.facebook.com/events/363674614320210/.
15] – Canvass with Bill
Henry in Original Northwood on Sun., Aug. 4 at noon or 2 PM, hosted
by Friends of Bill Henry starting at 1108 Argonne Drive, Baltimore
21218. Sign up here to knock on doors with Councilmember Bill Henry -- https://bit.ly/2KCmxCP. Now more than ever, there is a
need an independent voice in City government to promote accountability and
transparency from top to bottom. You will get all the training you need
to be successful and have fun. Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/483360812238264/?event_time_id=483360828904929.
16] – On Sun., Aug. 4 from 3 to 4:30 PM, attend a Protest &
Press Conference to Close the Camps & Prisons, hosted by ICE Out of
Baltimore and Youth Against War and Racism at the Howard County
Detention Center, 7301 Waterloo Rd., Jessup 20794. Demand that Maryland
close its 3 existing ICE concentration camps and that the U.S. abolish ICE once
and for all! Join the campaign against ICE building a new concentration camp
for immigrants and refugees in Baltimore.
On
July 18, the Baltimore Sun announced that ICE is looking to open a new
immigrant detention center around Baltimore City. This new ICE prison would
house between 600 and 800 immigrant men, women, and children. Maryland already
has 3 ICE detention centers in Howard, Worcester, and Frederick counties.
ICE
is waging a horrific, racist war on immigrants and refugees, especially
children. Meanwhile in Baltimore City and around the country, racist law
enforcement continues its war of mass incarceration and police brutality on
Black and Brown people. Both prisons and ICE detention centers are
concentration camps for the poor. We will be rallying in front of the Howard
County ICE detention center. Since 2013, Howard County has made more than $14
million from its contract with ICE. ICE agents have been seen making arrests
and stopping people for no reason whatsoever in Columbia, which has a large
Latinx immigrant population. All across the country, people have been holding
demonstrations and conducting direct actions at ICE detention centers. In Fort
Sill, Oklahoma, hundreds of immigrant rights and indigenous activists descended
on the Fort Sill concentration camp, blocking the entrance to the site and
shutting down freeway traffic for several hours. Close the camps and prisons
now! ICE out of Baltimore, ICE out of everywhere! See https://www.facebook.com/events/2419250944762914/.
17] – This is a dangerous yet
important time in our nation. An attack on the most vulnerable among us and
policy violence is occurring right in our face. Our nation is in sore need of a
moral revival. On Sun., Aug. 4 from 3 to 6 PM, the Poor People's Campaign will
host a quarterly statewide gathering. This will be an opportunity for you to
meet with other like-minded people whose conscience compels them to come
together as a movement. We seek to end poverty and the distorted moral
narrative against the poor. It is at Cedarhurst Unitarian Universalist Church,
2912 Club House Rd., Finksburg 21048. Contact Rev. Amy Williams-Clark at amy@mdpoorpeoplescampaign.org.
18] – On Sun., Aug. 4 from 4 to 5 PM, get on The
CALL - ERA Education Program at Katrina's Dream, PO Box 32003, WDC 20007.
Tickets are at www.katrinasdream.org. Please come
each Sunday and help build the groundswell. The collaboration of grassroots
organizers, lobbyists, and professionals is dedicated to promoting and
educating folks across the United States of America to empowering women around
the world.
The CALL IN NUMBER is 563.999.2090, the CONFERENCE NO:
898879#. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1710130249022424/?event_time_id=1710130255689090.
19] – On Sun., Aug. 4 from 6 to 8:30 PM, see a “Shored Up” Screening
and Q&A with Director Ben Kalina, hosted
by PennEnvironment and Cherry Street Pier, 121 N. Columbus
Blvd., Philadelphia 19106. As we’ve seen with the extreme heat and flooding
this month, climate change is already taking its toll on Southeastern PA. As
the earth continues to warm, Philadelphia will face many adverse impacts,
including rising sea levels that threaten our low-lying communities. So,
PennEnvironment is partnering with South Philadelphia director Ben Kalina for a
FREE screening of his critically acclaimed film which tells the story of rising
sea levels in coastal communities on the Jersey Shore and the Outer Banks. RSVP
for this FREE event at https://secure.everyaction.com/ETO7E4WzUk-j88aEYy5mwg2.
Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/618657321959581/.
20] – 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 Aug. 5, and it is sponsored by the
Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. Email artlaffin@hotmail.com
or call 202-882-9649. The vigil will be outside the Pentagon's south
Metro entrance and in the designated "protest zone" behind
bicycle fences across from the entrance to the Metro. By Metro, take
Yellow Line and get out at the "Pentagon" stop. Do not go to the
Pentagon City stop! Go up south escalators and turn left and walk across to
protest area. By car from D.C. area, take 395 South and get off
at Exit 8A-Pentagon South Parking. Take slight right onto S. Rotary
Rd. at end of ramp and right on S. Fern St. Then take left onto Army
Navy Dr. You can "pay to park" on Army Navy Dr., and there is
meter parking one block on right on Eads St. Payment for both of these
spots begin at 8 AM. No cameras are allowed on Pentagon grounds.
Restrooms are located inside Marriott Residence Inn on corner of S.
Fern and Army Navy Dr.
21] – Attend the Summer Institute of Climate Change Education
Program, hosted by Eco-Voice and Lowell School on Mon., Aug. 5 from 8
AM to 5 PM and continuing through Wed., Aug. 7 at the Lowell School, 1640
Kalmia Rd. NW, WDC 20012. Tickets are at www.climategen.org. Participants will receive a free
copy of the new humanities resources––including book guides and curriculum to
support climate fiction novels (supported by C3 Social Studies Standards and
ELA Common Core). This a role-playing exercise of the UN climate change
negotiations. Join the day-long field trip around Washington D.C.
featuring sites in their climate action plan showing local solutions.
Look at https://www.facebook.com/events/709079166202882/?event_time_id=709079169536215.
To be continued
Donations
can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.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
