Tuesday, Jan 16, 7-9pm
Columbus Mennonite Church, 35 Oakland Park Ave.
Over the past few months we have witnessed two things: 1) the cruelty of the Trump administration’s efforts to deport immigrant families and 2) how those immigrant families are leading our movement by resisting Trump’s deportation agenda. 

While many localities, like Columbus, Ohio, have made proclamations that no local resources will be used to enforce federal immigration law, the reality is that ICE continues to terrorize and separate families like Edith Espinal’s. 

On October 10, 2017, Edith, a mother of three, was ordered to leave the country. She courageously made the decision to fight her deportation by entering sanctuary. Edith’s case is one of a handful of other cases where immigrant families have taken up sanctuary across the country. 

We invite you to join us to hear from Edith and others living in Sanctuary who are leading the sanctuary movement. 

The conversation will include: 
- Testimony from families in sanctuary about what it means to enter sanctuary and how does it impact the families and their communities.

The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ben Cardin, has become a big star in national media by routinely denouncing Russia as a dire threat to American democracy. The senior senator from Maryland personifies the highly dangerous opportunism that has set in among leading Democrats on the subject of Russia.

Chelsea Manning confirmed on Sunday that she is challenging Senator Cardin’s re-election effort in the Democratic primary this June. Her campaign has real potential to raise key issues. One of them revolves around the kind of bellicose rhetoric that heightens the dangers of conflict between the world’s two nuclear superpowers.

Breathe deeply, suck in your fear, value life.

Some psycho-pranksters have made this national conversation unavoidable. The game is called “swatting”: Call the cops, report a terrifying emergency — “they’re holding my mother hostage!” — and wait for the fun to start. A SWAT team swings into action. Police surround a random house with their guns drawn. The occupants inside have no idea what’s going on.

On Dec. 28, a house in Wichita, Kansas was targeted for a swatting prank by a guy in Los Angeles. Andrew Finch, age 28, a father of two, wound up being shot and killed by a police officer as he stepped out of his front door and, apparently, put his hands on his hips. He was unarmed.

It was convenient for the teaching moment that James Risen just

As the nation prepares to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – one of our greatest Americans – on Monday, President Donald Trump offers a stark contrast in leadership.

The best way to react to Mr. Trump’s latest decidedly non-Presidential outburst is not with anger at his incendiary, vulgar and racially-charged remarks this week about immigrants from “shithole countries.”

The best response is to do what Dr. King fought so hard for. It is to get registered to vote and then to cast ballots in massive and historic numbers. The 2018 midterm elections are just around the corner.

Now more than ever, we must continue Dr. King’s movement to “redeem the soul of America.”

Hours after the world-wide fire storm ignited by his vile words, Mr. Trump is denying saying them. But Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois was in the room where it happened and said today at Chicago’s 32rd annual breakfast celebrating the life of Dr. King that it is “exactly what [Mr. Trump] said and he said it repeatedly.”

When it comes to veracity, I’ll put my faith in the Senator from the Land of Lincoln.