The Facebook Activist and Gun Control

Logging into Facebook, it’s naturally expected to become overwhelmed by the number of emotional statuses condoning the atrocious attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. A number of people posting statuses about their disappointment and emotional shock in hearing about the incident, followed up later by commenting on their weekend plans, finals woes, etc. At the same time, there continued to be an insensitivity heckled by pain staking attempts to lighten the mood with jokes about the idea of guns, those promoting gun rights, etc. It frustrates me to see an aggregate of people suddenly becoming vocal activists in the event of a tragic incident. It’s unfortunate that it’s not until devastating events like this that we come to remember that we can use our first amendment, our freedom to vocalize our sudden, emotionally charged opinion.

I am guilty of contributing to this cause.

I am conflicted in the use of social media being used to temporarily seduce this activist high. I’ve quoted this a number of times, but find it to not be any less true: in the movie “Hotel Rwanda”, there’s a moment where the a news crew is confronted by a local Rwandan on the Rwandan genocide. The Rwandan commends the crew for seeking to expose the reality as a measure of increasing demand for international support. A member of the news crew, however, responds by saying that while people may turn away for a moment to comprehend the violence, they will go back to their routine lives, being untethered. Discussing the reaction and potential responses to the shooting with friends yesterday, I heard a similar response. The image of cyclic violence through the news, entertainment industry, etc. has corrupted and desensitized the human response to issues, that may otherwise gather stronger emotional response prior to a tragedy actually taking place. At the same time, if news crews isolated and didn’t focus as much on these issues, would there be enough response?

Take for instance the use of drones abroad. A number of innocent civilians in mostly poor regions are impacted and recognized simply as ‘collateral damage’. Drones are increasingly being manned by the Obama administration, while remaining to be un-transparent to the public eye. News programs may include a 15-30 second segment on statistics that will quickly quantify deaths of a family on foreign land. These 15-30 second clips are then galvanized into Hollywood productions, with films such as the highly anticipated “Zero Dark Thirty”. This is such a dangerous approach in decentralizing individual cultures and imposing American values, culture, etc. How are these types of productions suppose to stimulate emotional response when there is a deeply separation of human context?

Many of us preached sentimental support for civilians across the Middle East in 2011, with the start of the Arab ‘Spring’. Nearly 40,000 Syrians have died since the start of the Syrian protests. More than 400,000 Syrians have been registered as refugees in neighboring countries this year. In Egypt two years after the media marked a successful ‘revolution’, Egyptians continue to battle against an army and a president that have left the public with momentous unrest between those in support and those against the newly-(somewhat)elected regime. Palestinians in Gaza and Israelis north of Gaza continue to reconstruct the pieces of their physical and mental lives that were bombarded in the latest attacks, just weeks ago. Israel continues to increase settlements in the West Bank. Where is the support for this now? Where are our overnight activists now?

A conversation with a friend a while back struck me with a message that I’ve had a hard time shaking off: in events where we don’t have the right resources or access to resources to actually implement change, why even bother talking about it? Even without the appropriate resources, discussing these issues revive a conscious reminder to appreciate our own instances — that may lead us to give back, even if it begins at a local level. This lingo can be coined as superficial, but can’t a subtle mindful reminder encourage us to better our surroundings? In light of this, social networks may be serving under the right light. There is a huge transition to be drawn through activist sentiment to acting on sentiment

Loose regulations surrounding gun laws, particularly, have prefaced an accruing number of incidents over the past few years. And these incidents have been motivated individually by different interests — from hate crimes to individually suppressed reasons.

A rough timeline over the past few years suggests an increase in mass shootings:

2010 January – Jared Lee Loughner kills 6, wounds 11 – including Representative Gabrielle Giffords is Tuscon, Arizona. Loughner was said to have had an unbalanced past along with being diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression.

2011 October – Scott Dekraai kills 8, wounding 1 at a salon in Seal Beach, California. Dekraai sought to avenge his ex-wife over the custody of his child.

2012 July – James Holmes kills 12, injures 58 in Aurora, Colorado at a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises”. Holmes attack sparked a number of reactionary, isolated incidents across the country.

2012 August – Wade Michael Page kills 6 and injures 3 by open firing at a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. An army veteran, Page incited his violence as a result of hate crime.

(A detailed compilation of mass shootings since the 1990’s: http://timelines.latimes.com/deadliest-shooting-rampages/)

These are just a few of the major shootings that have headlined major news organizations. In the past few weeks, I’ve paid attention to the number of shootings at local universities and neighborhoods in Maryland – close to Baltimore. Many of these shootings have taken place in black communities marked by poor districts. It’s easy to forget about those less fortunate – stifling their access to economic resources. Yet, when we see an increase in drug use/trade, a spike in crime, resorting to prostitution – we ignore the socioeconomic conditions that prohibits individuals from prospering – and we criminalize them. When we cut off access to basic goods to any community, what other means do they have to turn to in order to provide day-to-day support?

In a society that allows easier access to guns than health care/mental health care/psychological support, how are we suppose to implement security on our own soil? While we continue to battle those abroad? How easy will it be to forget about the innocent children, teachers, parents, families that have forever been marked by the open fire in Newtown?

The easiest way to respond to this shooting is to write to your local representative.

http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

There are also a number of petitions in action on the White House website that simply just need a signature.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petitions

This is not politicizing a tragedy, this is compelling action that can prevent the next. Whether you are in support for or against access to guns, these events must incite reasoning to agree that there needs to be, at the very least, stricter access.

-Mawish R.

BWLY want to help!

BWLY would like to take this time to send warm vibes and good thoughts to any of you effected by Hurricane Sandy. It’s times like these when it’s important to count our blessings and look out for our neighbors who aren’t as privileged as us – to have a roof over our heads. Baltimore was lucky to not have been hit with the storm as badly as our neighbors around the east coast – New Jersey, New York. We will keep you updated on any way you all can help out victims around the coast.

“We have an immigration problem but let’s not make this an injustice where we begin to criminalize a people” – Alienation

Last year, the Yale Yale Visual Law Project created a short documentary following an immigration raid by ICE in Baltimore that occurred in 2007. The DREAM act is a big step toward the progression of immigration inclusion and recognition of their rights and civil liberties, but there is still work to be done. If you are interested in reaching out to Baltimore organizations that are working with immigration, CASA de Maryland (primary mission is to work with the community to improve the quality of life and fight for equal treatment and full access to resources and opportunities for low-income Latinos and their families), International Rescue Committee (dedicated to providing refugees with the skills, services, and support they need to succeed) and Educating Maryland Kids (a coalition of education organizations, faith groups, labor unions, and civil rights advocates dedicated to defending the Maryland DREAM Act) can create great opportunities to support and learn more about the issues that need support today.

Today’s a great day for freedom

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Maryland takes the win for the DREAM act and marriage equality!

Congratulations to all of the work that all you Baltimorians and Marylanders have put in! Now lets set the stage for these issues on a national level!

No matter who you voted for, it’s time to mobilize our efforts and energy and convert it into action – whether it’s in our own communities or those further away. About $2.6 billion dollars were invested by both parties in this presidential
race to win YOUR support. It’s time to progress forward and have our voices addressed. In the coming weeks, we will be updating our page and blog with opportunities that you can take part in to contribute in Baltimore or other communities. Today, we would like to particularly remind you all of the devastation that is impacting many individuals from Hurricane Sandy. Whether it’s a monetary donation or physical volunteering, it’s important to stand aside our neighbors in their time of need.

http://blog.ted.com/2012/11/05/how-you-can-help-hurricane-sandy-relief/

http://www.redcross.org/news/article/How-You-Can-Help-Hurricane-Sandy

Fall Screening at University of Maryland, College Park on October 2nd!

Hey everyone! We’re getting ready to kick off our screening tour and we’re getting it started at College Park on October 2nd! If you weren’t able to make it out to our first screening last spring, be sure to come by for this screening hosted by UMD’s Muslims Without Borders chapter. Click here to keep up with updates on this screening! MWB will be beginning their annual Canpaign fundraising with the screening, so bring a canned food donation to donate to the cause!

We are still booking screenings for this next year, so if you’d like to host one of your own, get in touch with us at baltimoreweloveyou@gmail.com

In the mean time, go like us on FB!

http://www.facebook.com/baltimoreweloveyou

Hope to see you all soon!

Welcoming More Voices to BWLY

In hopes of celebrating and raising awareness for the achievements and goals that need to be met for cities like Baltimore, we will be opening up this blog as a portal to include a wider range of voices, aside from our own. In the next coming weeks, we will be featuring reflections by the people who have been featured in the documentary, as well as individuals who are working on projects of their own around the nation. We’ve had the chance to meet some amazing in individuals and organizations and we’d like to give you the opportunity to hear about their work and stories that reflect how they impact their city.

For a quick preview to see what some individuals at The Roosevelt Institute | Campus Network are thinking about, visit their blog.

Mawish R.

A year after loving Baltimore…

It’s been exactly a year since Shannon and I started planning “Baltimore, We Love You” and I think I can speak for the both of us when I say it’s been an incredible journey. When I first began the project, I had no idea what direction it would take us in. I was hoping to capture the voice of Baltimore city by creating relationships with individuals who I may not have passed crossed paths with, but in the process I was able to create a much deeper relationship with the city itself.

After having had the opportunity to share the voices of the many individuals who have so far taken part in the documentary, I thought it would be a fitting time to share my own thoughts about the city and where it’s taken me.

When we discuss activism through the means of social media, the type of impact that one can make using the tools of today’s generation can sometimes be taken for granted. The recent development of the Arab Spring throughout the Middle East provides an example of how individuals used media to develop change and progress policy – even if the result was temporary. The popular phrase, “seeing is believing”, describes a distinct definition through the specific use of film in progressive action; film, particularly, has been used as a medium to convey arguments that can communicate emotional gestures and voice opinions through visualization. Film also provides an advantage in that it incorporates the same statistics that can be used in a research setting by attaching those elements with individual faces that humanize the issue at hand. For instance, when you consider presenting a case regarding a victim of abuse through a verbal argument, you hope to include credited numbers and background information that defines that case. You may even have personal quotes by the victim them self. And while imagining the victims voice can be moving enough to present a message, imagine the power behind seeing and hearing that victim exhibit that information in real time.

There is a hint of harsh realism that makes individuals step back when they see a story being recounted by the impacted person. Policy makers and organization leaders receive countless amounts of effort produced by individuals pledging for change – whether it’s through written letters or rallies and protests or phone calls. How do we change the balance of impact?

Baltimore is known for its unfortunate sources of impoverishment, instigated by the poor social, political and physical infrastructure that creates a new culture of life within the city. The downtown city skyline is an inviting image to tourists and individuals hoping to enjoy an evening accompanied by the luxury of restaurants, malls and museums. If you drive down a bit, you may meet an individual who suffers from homelessness as a result of endless amounts of debts that added up in order to pay college loans. And if you make a few turns, you might find yourself crossing paths with a scantily clad young girl – no older than the children at your local middle school – who is confined to a life of prostitution because she is a victim of human trafficking. Or maybe you don’t need to move further than downtown, within the inner harbor itself – at the restaurant you choose to dine; perhaps the waiter presenting you with your delectable meals is a father of seven and can barely afford to even bring home one of your dishes home. However, the fact is that the people creating statistics that tatter Baltimore’s ability to resemble a rich city are in fact individuals who may not be much different from you. These individuals did not choose the lifestyle that has been glamorously criminalized by Hollywood enterprises. They each strive to live the best life that they can afford and possess. But the differences that set you aside from them are the lifestyles and environmental constraints that keep them from moving forward.

Last year, I initiated “Baltimore, We Love You” as a social-media documentary project that discussed the role of poverty in Baltimore city. Primarily focusing on the role of worker labor rights, homelessness and human trafficking affecting the city, I proposed a plan to create a film that captures the voices of individuals who are directly dealing with these issues. The ability to give individuals who lack proper facilities to share their story with a public platform not only empowers them with the hope of reaching different audiences, but also envisions a network of progressive change.  Baltimore lacks several fundamental services, ranging from welfare programs to infrastructural complications that refrains the city from improving. While the city is willing to spend large amounts of money in refurbishing parts of it to attract tourists for short-term events such as the Grand Prix, expenditures disregard other neighborhoods and communities that can benefit over funding and projects for longer-termed periods. The significance of featuring specific individuals who are directly affected by these social contentions, their personal story is able to humanize the many statistics that represent these issues. Though statistics, facts and numbers provide an overarching framework for the overall premise, it illustrates the absence of the dynamics that are personalized by individuals; authorities, officials and scholars are often the talking heads in the condensation of these issues, policy implementations and marketing awareness. Even though they provide power in advancing efforts in alleviating, a large population continues to remain affected by these issues. This initiative begins as a promotional awareness campaign that invests its efforts in creating networks and programs with local organizations (including Health Care for the Homeless and United Workers) and develops itself into program initiatives supported by local university students and organizations.

When I began meeting people that had interacted with these issues themselves, I was faced with a moment of reality. These individuals were not much different from me or the people I surrounded myself with on a day-to-day basis.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jeanne Allert, the executive director and founder of an organization known as The Samaritan Women. The Samaritan Women is an organization located near Catonsville that acts as a source of safe haven and rehabilitation for women who have endured abuse. Through our conversations, Jeanne reveled the history and role that human trafficking, one of our focus issues, plays within Baltimore, as well as our country at large. What struck me most was how much of an impact victims of this type of abuse have on the the development of poverty within the city.

Imagine the case of a girl – 15 years of age. She may have run away from her home or may have been kidnapped. This girl becomes a target and then a victim of human trafficking – a life that she never signed up for. Any refusal to neglect or cross her ‘supervisor’ results in physical abuse.  A few years down the road, the girl becomes pregnant – or acquires an STD – and is disposed of from that job process. The girl is now homeless and is unable to acquire a job. She attempts to go back to school, but finds it useless, as she is unable to find support for basic necessities (such as housing and food). In the end, the girl returns to prostitution in order to raise money. This girl is now redefining the worker labor rights that is neglected her state government due to her occupation – regardless of how she started off as a prostitute; this girl is now creating a new breed of homelessness – one that creates a separate socioeconomic class; this girl represents the lives of many victims of human trafficking that add another side to poverty within the city.

So why is it important to share these stories and voices? Hearing these stories come from individuals who are directly in touch with these issues is much more moving than seeing a vague number that compiles all these stories into a bold statement. Being impacted by the stories that individuals share makes us realize the authentic content that is sometimes ignored. Along with alerting policy makers to produce bills that initiate programs to aid homeless victims, alleviate working conditions for employees and make it harder to traffic humans/make it easier to catch human traffickers, it is as important to educate ourselves. While policy makers elevate substantial power and support to stopping these problems from evolving, individuals and groups that carry passion and dedication can also create significant action. As a product proposal for this project, I present potential outcomes that can be reared through the use of this film:

• a.  Create a program among local college campuses that would inform students of these issues and then create opportunities with organizations working on these problems in the city to help reduce the impact. This program would work as a humanity scholars program that would be open to students as freshmen or sophomores in college. Students will spend their first year taking classes regarding a particular issue that will expose historical and contemporary roles. Following the educational year, students will begin working with local organizations to compel awareness and gather support for laws that are in place. Students may also work with organizations and leader on implementing new laws to help incorporate regional support by representatives. Students will continue to work with this program throughout their college career and be required to fulfill a product-goal by graduation (i.e. working with an individual to attain housing; pushing a law to get passed; a fundraising event).
• b. Pressing emphasis on the focus of state-run groups and centers, modeled after The Samaritan Women, that will aid individuals with resources to restart their life. The centers would act as a place for counseling and assistance in terms or providing education, job security, residence and counseling. Individuals would work together at the center and work on projects and activities that would build community engagement and also add to their own resumes. Activities may consist of projects such as harvesting, maintaining and distributing the products of city gardens. The centers would be open to the public and free of charge under the agreement of working as a part of the group for a minimal time period, in order to help individuals gain the resources for an independent life.

Though this project particularly platforms the voices and issues of Baltimore City, these matters aren’t distinct to Baltimore alone. Poverty is a toxic disease that impacts most urban cities. Whether you are in New York City or Miami, worker labor rights, homelessness and human trafficking will be a universally recognizable issue. Similarly, these proposals can be established into any city structure.

“Baltimore, We Love You” is a work in progress that is developing to work in accordance with local organizations and departments that are actively improving these conditions. While this project has had the honor of unveiling the voices of six individuals to the larger public, it is far from being finished. My fellow filmmaker, Shannon Palmer, and I have plans on developing this project to reach out to more individuals that are being impacted by other issues, including immigration and the poor education system.

(This article was originally published on The Roosevelt Institute | Campus Network Blog)

Mawish R.

The Official “Baltimore, We Love You” Trailer!

Hey everyone,

We’re pleased to share our official trailer for the documentary! We first screened this trailer at the Roosevelt Institute | Campus Network Solve Policy Expo earlier this summer and hadn’t gotten a chance to share it with you all, so here it is!

We’ll be updating the blog more frequently with upcoming announcements, updates and videos. Be on the look out for more news!

Mawish R.

The Maryland DREAM Act Campaign Launch, Press Conference at UMBC

When asked where he is from – “I’m from Maryland – from Montgomery County. I consider myself American. I call myself an undocumented American. The Dream act is about fairness, it’s about the future of the country; it’s about the future of the state.