Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore

JUST! NEWS!

Number 226 – January 16, 2012

JUST! NEWS! is a newsletter devoted to bringing news about justice and peace issues effecting the Montgomery County community, the greater Washington D.C. area, the nation and the world

Upcoming events appear after advocacy opportunities and general news listed at the beginning of this newsletter

“Whoever says, ‘I am in the light’, while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling.” — 1 John 2:9-10

Monday, January 16, 2012, 10:00am – Keep the Dream Alive Mass & Awards A Liturgy & Celebration – St. Aloysius Church, 900 Block of North Capital Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20001.   Catholic Charities USA and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington invite you to join us as we honor Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and contemporary heroes who keep his dream alive through their work to reduce poverty in America.

Monday, January 16th, 2012, 10am – The Leesburg MLK March committee would like to invite you to attend the 20th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration -“The Dream Is Real – Make It Your Reality.”10:00 am – Line up for the march to the Leesburg courthouse; 10:30 am – March to the Douglas Community Center;11:00am-11:15am – Arrive at Douglas Community Center Reception; 11:30 am – Program begins in the Community Center; 1:30 pm – Program concludes.  Light refreshments will be served between the March and the Program in the upstairs cafeteria.

Monday, January 16, 2011, 3 pm to 9 pm – Maryland Death Penalty Repeal Rally and Lobby Night – rally is at 3:00 pm Lawyers Mall, Annapolis and was initiated by students.  All are invited.  Lobby Night Check-in and Program, 5 pm – Featuring Kim Davis, sister of Troy Davis – St. Ann’s Parish Hall.  Pick-up your lobby night packets.  Warm-up and get something to eat.  Call to schedule appointments with your legislators now!  To find out about scheduled meetings or share or get assistance setting up yours, contact MD CASE at 301-779-5230 or info@mdcase.org. 7:30 pm - Gather in main hall of the State House .  We will go as a group to sit in the galleries together when session opens about 8 pm.  Look for “Repeal the Death Penalty” buttons!  Find Annapolis parking info here.

January 16, 7 pm – Prince Georges County Peace and Justice Coalition says that in honor of Martin Luther King Day, the Reel & Meal at the New Deal will be showing the film “The House We Live In” which deals with ways that banks, lending agencies, and other institutions control how mortgages are provided to different groups, resulting in racial biases in housing. This is the third film of a three part series on Public Broadcasting System’s “Race: The Power of An Illusion” broadcast in 2003. Although Greenbelt is not mentioned, scenes from the early years of Greenbelt are shown in the film.  Dianne Lyday and Nora Howell from Baltimore Racial Justice Action will lead the discussion following the film.

There is an optional vegan buffet for $13 at the New Deal Cafe starting at 6:30 followed by the film (free) at 7 p.m. Monday, January 16. Come and find out more about the public policy forms of racism. The discussion afterwards is sure to be interesting!  For more information, please contact Donna Hoffmeister, 301 441 9377.

January 17, 2012 — Civil Resistance on the Steps of the Supreme Court — Washington, DC - On January 17, 1977, Gary Gilmore, a “volunteer” for execution, was killed by a firing squad in Utah, marking the first execution since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty. Thirty-five years later, the U.S. has exterminated nearly 1,300 more prisoners since Gilmore. On January 17, 2012, the death penalty abolition community will mark this shameful anniversary with non-violent civil disobedience, just as we have done every five years since 1997 (hyperlink has information on the last several actions). Traditionally, the act of resistance on January 17 has involved unfurling a large banner reading “STOP EXECUTIONS!” on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, declaring our opposition to the death penalty. The act of protesting on the Court steps or plaza is in itself illegal, which makes us subject to arrest on minor charges.  We use this small act of knowing disobedience to stand in solidarity with the thousands of men and women on death row and to demand that our government recognizes the sacredness of their lives.

If you would like more information or would like to be included in a future conference call about this action, please email scott@abolition.org or call 518-769-1867.

Tuesday, January 17^th, 6 pm – The DC Peace Team invites you to join some of them in viewing the movie The Interrupters at the DC Central Library.  This is a documentary that “tells the moving and surprising story of three “violence interrupters” in Chicago who with bravado, humility and even humor try to protect their communities from the violence they once employed.” Because of their own personal histories, they have “street cred” and intervene in conflicts before they explode into violence. The Interrupters has screened across the country, receiving acclaim at Sundance, SXSW, and the Philadelphia Cinefest, to name a few; and wherever it has shown, it has been a powerful conversation starter.

Immediately after The Interrupters screens, we will host a panel discussion and community dialogue about innovative ways that local citizens are organizing to address the issue of street violence in some of Washington, DC’s most hardest-hit neighborhoods. Confirmed panelists include:

• Thandor Miller—WE CAN Program and Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation
• Autumn Saxton-Ross—Words, Beats, and Life and DC Department of Health
• Penelope Spain and the alumni of Mentoring Today
• Officer David Bailey—Metropolitan Police Department, Youth Services Division

For more information, go to http://www.dclibrary.org/mlkweek or contact Eli McCarthy of the DC Peace Team at eli_trinity@hotmail.com.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 7:30 p.m.- What is the truth about Islam and Muslims in America? (Everything you always wanted to know – but were afraid to ask).  In recent months, anti-mosque protests, anti-Sharia legislation and related controversies have left many Americans confused about Islam and Muslims in America. Join a panel of experts for a civil dialogue that separates fact from fiction in the current debates about Islam in the U.S. Bring your questions — and learn about resources for addressing these important issues in your own community.

PANEL – Haroon Mogul, Columbia University, Institute for Social Policy and Understanding;  Rabbi Marc Schneier, Foundation for Ethnic Understanding; Melissa Rogers, Center for Religion and Public Affairs, Wake Forest University; Asma Uddin, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Institute for Social Policy and Understanding – MODERATOR – Charles C. Haynes, Religious Freedom Education Project at the Newseum

Admission is free, but registration is required. To RSVP or for information, contact Ashlie Hampton at ahampton@freedomforum.org or 202/292-6288.  Held at the Annenberg Theater, Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C.

Thursday, January 19, 2012, 11:00AM to 1:00PM – Rally in Annapolis “TAKE BACK DEMOCRACY–END CORPORATE RULE; MARYLAND IS NOT A CORPORATE STATE! at Lawyers’ Mall in Annapolis, Maryland.  We will call on the Maryland General Assembly to pass State Senator Jamie Raskin’s resolution calling upon Maryland’s US Senators Cardin and Mikulski to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the disastrous “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision.  Speakers: State Senator Jamie Raskin, Delegate Sheila Hixson, Chairperson of the House of Delegates Ways and Means Committee, a representative of Public Citizen and of Common Cause and State Senator Paul Pinsky and other Maryland legislators.  Contact Mark Hays, Public Citizen at mhays@citizen.org or phone at 202-588-7757.

Saturday, January 21^st, 6:30 (food), 7:00 (program) – help celebrate U.S. Labor Against the War’s 9^th Birthday!  Featuring Phyllis Bennis.  RSVP by January 18^th to anicosia@uslaboragainstwar.org.  To be held at the home of Dennis Serrette, 1809 Clayton Drive, Oxon Hill, MD.  To RSVP on line of make a secure donation, please go to http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/DC-Jan21.

January 22, Father Jacek Orchekowski will be joining several other members of St. Camillus parish in the Polar Bear Plunge at National Harbor organized by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN). He’ll be plunging into the cold waters of Potomac River out of the conviction that, as John Paul II said, “Respect for life extends to the rest of God’s creation.”

I hope you’ll consider sponsoring Father Jacek for the Polar Bear Plunge.  Your financial contribution will help CCAN’s campaign to mobilize people across our state to help Maryland realize its offshore wind energy potential. Your sponsorship, which can be done in a secure and easy way can be done by going to: http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/jacekorzechowski/keepwintercold2012

Wednesday, January 25^th, 7:30 pm – Panel Discussion on the upcoming Montgomery County Budget – which will be lead by Chuck Short, Special Assistant to the County Executive, Ike Leggett.  Sponsored by the Archdiocese of Washington Montgomery County Justice and Advocacy Council and held at St. Jane de Chantal, 9601 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda, Maryland 20814.

To have more background on the budget for this panel discussion, you are encouraged to attend one of the FY2013 Budget Forums Scheduled; Resident Input Invited, which will be held at the following times and locations.  All of the forums are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., on the following dates:

• January 9, Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center, 4805 Edgemoor La.,
• January 12, Silver Spring Civic Building, One Veterans Place;
• January 17, Mid-County Community Recreation Center, 2004 Queensguard Rd., Silver Spring;
• January 23, BlackRock Center for the Arts, 12901 Town Commons Dr., Germantown; and
• January 31, Eastern Montgomery Regional Services Center, 3300 Briggs Chaney Rd., Silver Spring.

Tuesday January 31 2012, 7-8:30pm, Washington Peace Center Volunteer Orientation – Interested in learning more about the Washington Peace Center and how you can be involved? Come join for our Volunteer Bash! You will learn about our work at the Peace Center, what we have planned for the fall and how you can help.  If you’re planning to join us, please RSVP here.  Held at St. Stephen’s Church, 1525 Newton St. NW.

Tuesday, January 31, at 7:00 PM – Join Take Back Democracy-Maryland, Maryland United for Peace and Justice and others as we meet with US Senator Benjamin Cardin to urge him to support a constitutional amendment to overturn “Citizens United“.  We will meet him on at the Wheaton Public Library.  Contact Tony Langbehn at tonylang4peace@gmail.com or phone 301-390-9684 or Mike Hersh at mike@pdamerica.org or phone 301933-7169.

February 3, noon to 7 pm – Americans across the country will gather outside congressional offices to protest NDAA 2012 (H.R. 1540). You will find your protest location by looking to see how your congressmen voted. Look below – under house and senate. There is also a link so you can find the address to your congressman’s local office where your protest will take place.  House – http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2011-932; Senate -

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s2011-230

The objective of our demonstration is to have our congressmen repeal Section 1021 and 1022 which could lead to the indefinite military detention of Americans without due process. Make sure to contact your congressmen also. The protest is not affiliated with any particular political or grassroots organizations. We are uniting as individuals who want to stop this tyranny before it gets worse. Martin Luther King didn’t need violence to affect change, neither do we.

Friday, February 3, 2012 @ 7:30 p.m – Creating a Just and Nonviolent World: A Muslim Perspective – Speaker: Ibrahim Ramey.  Ibrahim Ramey is an international Muslim activist with over 25 years of work in the areas of peacemaking, nuclear disarmament, and human rights. He has held leadership and staff positions at several national and international organizations, including the Fellowship of Reconciliation (1995-2006), and the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation. Ibrahim also serves as a board member of the Temple of Understanding and the Muslim Women’s Institute, both located in New York City.  Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, 503 Rock Creek Church Rd. NW,
Washington, DC, 20010. For more info contact Art @ 202-360-6416 or artlaffin@hotmail.com.

Saturday, February 4, 2012, 10am-4pm – Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation presents Mystery of Suffering Quiet Day – the mysterious presence of God is in all things, often especially hidden in suffering.  The fear and pain of loss and change can lure us away from the contemplative stance of living into the mystery of suffering.  Sometimes the fear and pain are so deep that all we can do is come with our questions and our fragile desire.

Join them for this time of opening to the presence and transformative power of the Spirit in the sacred space of a dedicated community.   The hope is that we will be strengthened to embrace the suffering in our lives and in the world with compassion and healing grace.

Held at Dayspring Farm House, 11301 Neelsville Church Road, Germantown, MD 20876.  Led by Ann Dean, who is Director of Shalem’s Leading Contemplative Prayer Groups & Retreats Program and Director of the Personal Spiritual Deepening Program Leadership Initiative.  Ann is a spiritual director and nationally-known leader of retreats and conferences and Anne Grizzle, who is a spiritual director, family therapist, retreat leader, and author of three books, including Reminders of God.  She also serves on Shalem’s faculty for the Personal Spiritual Deepening Program.  “Jesus did not come to explain away suffering or to remove it.  He came to fill it with his presence.”  — Paul Claudel.  This day will have a gentle rhythm of prayer, guided meditations, silence, and optional sharing.  $50 (please bring a bag lunch).  To register online, please click here.

Saturday – March 3, 2012, 8:00 am – 3:30 pm – READING the SIGNS of the TIMES: Catholic Social Teaching in Action Today - 33^rd Annual Archdiocesan Social Ministry Convocation, Seton Keough High School – This year’s Convocation promises to be a dynamic program filled with workshops on thought-provoking topics and workshop leaders who have a lot of knowledge and life experience in their topic areas. Many Catholics are not familiar with the essential principles of Catholic Social Teaching.  Click the link below to view the schedule of the day, workshop descriptions and speakers, as well as the registration form to fill out and send back to make sure you reserve your place today.http://www.catholiccharities-md.org/advocacy/parish-social-ministry/pdfs/smc-registration-2012.pdf

March 9 – 11 2012, Consistent Life 25th Anniversary Conference – Celebrating a quarter century of working for Peace, Justice and Life!  A weekend to rejuvenate and invigorate your commitment to the Consistent Life Ethic – registration materials coming soon.  For more information, contact Bill Samuel at president@consistent-life.org.

Thursday to Saturday, March 15-17, 2012, New Ways Ministries presents a Symposium on Catholicism and Homosexuality – From Water to Wine: Lesbian/Gay Catholics and Relationships*.  Held at the Renaissance Baltimore Harbor Place Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland.

Major speakers include: Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, Luke Timothy Johnson, Patricia Beattie Jung, Richard Rodriguez, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson will also facilitate a pre-symposium retreat day. Workshop topics: marriage equality, transgender issues, African American issues, youth and young adults, lesbian nuns and gay priests/religious, Latino/a issues, and coalition building.  For Catholic ministers, laity, educators, LGBT persons and their family, friends, and advocates.  For more information:  info@NewWaysMinistry.org or(301) 277-5674 or http://www.newwaysministry.org/symp2012.html. 

Fund Our Communities campaign – is a new grass roots movement to get support from local organizations and communities to work together with their local and state elected officials to pressure our Congress persons and Senators to join with Congressmen Barney Frank and Ron Paul, who have endorsed a 25% cut to the federal military budget.  We then want Congress to bring these savings home to state and county governments to meet the local needs which are under tremendous budget pressures.  For more information about this movement in Maryland, please go to www.OurFunds.org.

American Friends Service Committee says that while the Obama administration’s new Defense Guidance document has been portrayed as moving to significant cuts in the Pentagon budget, the President himself tells a starkly different story. At last week’s rollout, he said:

“Over the past ten years, since 9/11, our defense budget grew at an extraordinary pace. Over the next ten years, the growth in the defense budget will slow, but the fact of the matter is this—it will still grow… In fact, the defense budget will still be larger than it was toward the end of the Bush Administration.”

What does that mean? We will continue to spend $2.1 million every minute of every day on the military – an unethical and unsustainable policy. Yet lawmakers are already clamoring to oppose the proposal, suggesting it would hobble US defense, cripple innovation, and cost jobs.

Please write your local paper to set the record straight: Slowing the growth of the military budget is not a cut in a budget that already has doubled since 9/11 and consequently has devastated spending on human needs.

Nearly every other area of federal spending – investing in jobs, health care, affordable housing, and education – has been cut, putting real security more at risk.

Investment in people and communities, increased reliance on diplomacy, and supporting sustainable human security by meeting human needs at home and abroad is what will ultimately make our world more safe and stable.

REFLECTIONS on some words from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

• Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
• Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.
• I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
• I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.
• In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
• It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important..
• Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.
• Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.
• Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
• Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
• Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars… Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
• Segregation is the adultery of an illicit intercourse between injustice and immorality.
• We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
• When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.
• The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.
• The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers.
• Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
• Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
• The church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.
• I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.
• Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
• Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
• The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

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