Calendar

Join us on Wednesday January 7th, at 7 pm in the church sanctuary for a reflection/meditation by Mike Fiala who took a Public History course, at Cleveland State University with Dr. Mark Souther. His reflection about the Guantanamo Bay Prison and the Muslim men that have been held there, almost all without charge, serves as a preparation for a Witness Against Torture  event that will be held on the 24th Anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay Prison by President George W Bush on Jan 11th, 2002.

Join us with Witness against Torture members, faith communities, university students  and others on Monday January 12th, for a witness at the Celebreeze Federal Building at East 9th & Lakeside from Noon to 1:30 pm. We will witness with signs, banners, and flyers inside and outside the Federal Building.  

Witness Against Torture formed in 2005 when 25 Americans went to Guantánamo Bay and attempted to visit the detention facility. Once they returned from that journey, they began to organize more broadly to shut down Guantánamo, working with interfaith, human rights and activists’ organizations. They have planned a series of nonviolent direct actions to expose and decry the administration’s lawlessness, build awareness about torture and indefinite detention amongst Americans and forge human ties with the prisoners at Guantánamo and their families.

The Cleveland Mediation Center will teach us about De-Escalation with opportunities to practice the skills.

The session will cover:

• What is conflict?
• Preparing yourself for de-escalation
• How demographics come into play
• De-escalation techniques
• De-escalation practice

to register click here

Join us in person at 6:30 for heavy appetizers or online starting at 6:45. The Zoom link will be provided in the confirmation email. 

So if you missed Parts 1 and 2 of the series that were presented in November and December at our Chapter Gatherings, you will have an opportunity to experience both of them on: 

Saturday, January 24th 

Registration:  RSVP to reserve seat to: racialequitybuddies@gmail.com

Suzanne Zilber from SURJ NEO and Josiah Quarles from Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless will co-faciitate this event sponsored by Racial Equity Buddies.   

Our part 2 verison for this training will be improved by the feedback we received on December 9th.

This training is informed by successful international movements to resist dictators and authoritarian rule.

 Participants will learn

● How to identify institutions that uphold regimes

● Strategies for how to make demands and then encourage cooperation, or impose costs on those institutions.

The emphasis is on nonviolent noncooperation tactics. The training is interactive and we will practice the application to local threats.