It's great to have a day dedicated to honoring and appreciating motherhood. But instead of buying a card and flowers, how about doing something more meaningful — like honoring motherhood by volunteering some time for the peace movement? Hey, flowers are great — in nature. But it is not really honoring motherhood, and certainly not Mother Earth, to support the commercial practice of growing tons of pesticide-laden flowers in Ecuador and Colombia, then consuming tons of fossil fuels to ship them to U.S. consumers — so that they can look and smell pretty for two or three days before being thrown in the trash. And unless labor conditions have improved in the last few years, the ephemeral joy that your mother might experience from a bouquet comes with a bitter irony. More than likely, the true costs include the suffering and pesticide contamination of mothers in Colombia or children in Ecuador. Continue reading

Patients, health providers, and community activists will hold a protest and press conference outside of the entrance of the Johnston Medical Building (3333 N. Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD) at Union Memorial Hospital at 11:00 am on Thursday, May 10. The protest is against MedStar, which recently dropped Dr. Shawn Dhillon, a primary care doctor at Union Memorial for 16 years since he completed his residency in internal medicine there. Dr. Dhillon was dropped without cause from MedStar’s insurance plans, immediately terminating half of the patients in his practice and pressuring him to leave. Continue reading

from the Mobile Bay Green Party A recent turn of events at a Waffle House in Saraland, Alabama has brought attention to the very real, pervasive, and systemic problem of racism and police brutality. Chikesia Clemons, aka Keke, a 25-year-old black woman, was met with harsh brutality from Saraland Police after they were called by an employee of the Saraland Waffle House due to an argument over a dubious extra charge for plastic cutlery. When Chikesia asked for their corporate number to air her concerns of unfair treatment, a dispute broke out between the two parties. An employee at the Waffle House called the police, and the police, upon arrival, made no attempt to investigate or deescalate the situation; instead, police dragged her out of her chair -- resulting in the exposure of her naked body -- placed her in a choke hold, and threatened to break her arm. Continue reading

As Israel celebrates seven decades and prides itself on being the only democracy in the Middle East, the reality in Gaza undercuts that self-image and instead testifies that Israel is a state that is both racist and violent. GAZA — As the U.S., U.K. and France bomb Syria, claiming to support its people but in reality adding misery to a country that has had more than its fair share of violence, the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is almost completely ignored by the international community. This is because the perpetrator of this seven-decade-long disaster is Apartheid Israel. Continue reading