Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
A Volunteer Human Rights Group – Choose Love, Not Hate – Love Wins
These are posts on activism and events
1989 Tiananmen Square Protests
R.E.A.L. articles and postings on totalitarianism
Communist China’s version of “human rights”
Communist China – Tiananmen 20 years later: A survivor’s story
Communist China cracks down ahead of sensitive anniversaries
Communist China: 8 Human Rights Groups in China Issue Unprecedented Open Statement to Government
Condolence Book for Victims of Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 June 4th
The Party Pulls the Trigger – by Claudia Rosett – June 5, 1989
On Tuesday, April 7 from 4 to 6 PM at the Washington DC Capitol Reflecting Pool, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) and supporters of the International Campaign Against Honour Killings (ICAHK) held a joint rally against so-called “honor” killings.
International Campaign Against Honour Killings recognizes Tuesday April 7 as an International Day Against “Honour” Killings.
Like most Washington DC events, the way to get there is via the subway. The Washington DC subway is fast and efficient, and you will be able to park at a stop in Maryland and Virginia to come into the city. This weblink provides a map of Washington subway system. Federal Center SW and Capitol South Washington DC subway stops (via blue or orange lines) are the closest to the Capitol reflecting pool.
You can plan your trip from the Washington DC subway web site. The closest location on the WMATA trip planner web site to choose would be the United States Botanic Gardens.
This weblink provides a 360 degree view of the area in front of the Capitol reflecting pool; you can move the image by clicking on it and dragging it with your mouse.
The rally will take place on the “Third Street” side of the Capitol reflecting pool, which is in “front” of the reflecting pool as you are facing the Capitol building. The Capitol reflecting pool is along side Maryland Avenue SW, which connects to Third Street SW. It is next to the United States Botanic Gardens on Independence Avenue SW and Third Street SW.
Below are walking directions from the Federal Center SW subway (”metro”) stop to the United States Capitol Reflecting Pool:
– see weblink for map of such directions which show destination as Botanic Gardens directly south of Capitol Reflecting Pool
1. Exit station through FEDERAL CENTER METRO STATION entrance.
2. Walk approx. 2 blocks N on 3rd St SW.
3. Continue walking N on 3rd St past Independence Ave SW.
4. Turn right onto Maryland Avenue SW
5. You will see the Reflecting Pool which is in front of the Capitol – we will be in FRONT of the reflecting pool in the center – on the 3rd Street Side – see MAP below
If you decide to drive down (not recommended), parking may be available on Third Street SW. Note that this is “in front” of the National Mall, which is bordered by Madison Drive NW and Jefferson Drive SW. Visitor parking may also be found in the National Mall area.
NOTE: If you are driving, please note that we are told that the parking lot next to the Capitol reflecting pool is under the jurisdiction of the Capitol police and that we are NOT TO PARK in that parking lot.
International Campaign Against Honour Killings also states that they have an event in Illinois as well:
— “Visit a memorial service to be held in Rt.66 Hotel & Conference Center. Springfield, Illinois, April 7th from 6:30pm until 8:00pm”
http://www.stophonourkillings.com/?name=News&catid=12
http://www.stophonourkillings.com/?name=News&file=print&sid=3488
http://www.stophonourkillings.com/?name=Content&pid=37
— International Campaign against killings and stoning of women in Kurdistan Petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/kurdish/petition.html
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) is holding a public rally from 4 to 6 PM at the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool steps on April 4, 2009 – the day that Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968. See link and below for rally logistics.)
We will address the disgraceful resurgence of racial supremacism as documented in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s reports, ask for signatures to our online petition rejecting supremacism, and call for a new direction in fighting racial and other supremacism. We challenge those racial supremacists who would seek to promote the hate of the past and the supremacist lie that denies that all men and women are created equal. We plan to tell those racial supremacists who seek to rebuild a network of racial-based hatred — NEVER AGAIN!
Why Me Must Challenge Supremacism Now
As we face challenges with our economy and unrest, there are those supporters of racial hate and supremacism who seek to gain new members to their ranks of racial supremacist organizations. There are those who seek to leverage the fact that our president is an African-American to further division and hatred among us. As the Southern Poverty Law Center’s reports show, there are those who have the goal to expand a network of racial supremacist groups around America.
April is a month where the threat of racial supremacism is frequently remembered. It was on April 4, 1968 in Tennessee where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Also in Tennessee, white supremacists Paul Schlesselman and Daniel Cowart are scheduled for trial this April for their alleged plots to assassinate Barack Obama and to kill numerous African-Americans. (Schlesselman and Cowart had already attacked an African-American church in Tennessee in October.)
April 14 is the date that white supremacist John Wilkes Booth murdered our President Abraham Lincoln. April 19 is the date that white supremacist-linked terrorist Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995 killing 168 and injuring 800. April 20 is when white supremacist Neo-Nazis celebrate the birthdate of their idol Adolf Hitler.
But although April has been remembered as a month where the threat of racial supremacists has been remembered, April is also a month where the forces of hate and supremacism have been challenged.
April is also the month when the Confederate Army and the forces of slavery surrendered. April is also the month when the Civil Rights bills of 1866 and 1968 were signed. April is the month that slavery was abolished here in the District of Columbia. April is the month where apartheid white supremacists lost their control of South Africa. Most importantly, April is the month when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his last speech to America with a voice of courage, a voice of conviction, and a voice of hope about our commitment to equality and liberty. On April 3, he said that “I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”
He saw that we are more than our fears, more than our divisions. He saw that despite the most concerted efforts of those who sought to fill our hearts with hate, humanity still held love and fellowship in the core of its heart. He saw that it was that our common bond of humanity, of our shared inalienable rights of equality and liberty, that would get us there to a new hope for all people.
Furthermore, we know that those racial supremacist organizations that claim to represent Christian beliefs do not represent the love, hope, tolerance, and peace that Christianity calls for. We call for those who believe in Jesus Christ (Yeshua) to also use the occasion as an opportunity to publicly demonstrate those values, and to publicly reject racial supremacism and hate. At 6 PM, at the closure of our public rally, when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, we will ask for prayers to remove the hate and fear from the hearts of those who seek to promote racial supremacism.
So we ask you to join us in hope and love, in peace and fellowship, defiant as free men and women of all kinds, standing together this April to make our own statement in history. We ask you to join us this April 4, 2009 to tell those who seek to divide us by hate and fear and those who seek to spread supremacism among us — that they will not win and that we will never surrender on humanity’s inalienable rights of equality and liberty.
We are not afraid.
Rally Logistics:
Our rally will be held from 4 to 6 PM on Saturday April 4, at the reflecting pool steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial (not the Lincoln Memorial steps). We are recommending that attendees take public transportation via the Washington subway to either the Foggy Bottom metro stop and walk south to the Lincoln Memorial, or the Smithsonian metro stop and walk west along the National Mall and 17th street to Lincoln Memorial (see details below).
Important note – the reflecting pool steps where our rally will be located is on the east side of the 23rd street that goes between the Lincoln Memorial itself and the reflecting pool in front of it.
The Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC is on the far end of the National Mall and bisects 23rd Street (see PDF of map). It can be reached from Constitution Avenue from Henry Bacon Drive and from Independence Avenue from Henry French Drive. Limited parking may be available on Independence Avenue or Madison Avenue near the National Mall, or at the Jefferson Memorial. However, parking in Washington DC is scarce, and using public transportation is strongly recommended.
DC Subway and Walking Directions
Walking from Foggy Bottom subway stop to Lincoln Memorial
— Map in walking from Foggy Bottom to Lincoln Memorial
* Exit station using main exit
* Walk approx. 7 blocks S on 23rd St NW. (stay on 23rd Street essentially until you get within visual range of Lincoln Memorial)
* Turn right on Lincoln Memorial Circle SW.
* Walk a short distance W on Lincoln Memorial Circle SW.
Walking from Smithsonian subway stop to Lincoln Memorial
* Exit station using 12TH & JEFFERSON (THE MALL) exit
* Walk approx. 2 blocks W on Jefferson Dr SW.
* Turn right on 14th St NW.
* Walk approx. 1 block N on 14th St NW.
— Map in walking from Smithsonian subway to Washington Monument (en route)
* Keep walking past Washington Monument west in the direction of the Lincoln Memorial
* Cross 17th Street going west
* Walk past National World War II Monument west in the direction of the Lincoln Memorial
* Continue to walk down Washington Mall in the direction of the Lincoln Memorial
* NOTE: that our rally will be on the side of the reflecting pool nearest the Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln Memorial Information Center
23rd Street, NW
202-426-6841
National Park Web Site Directions to the Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln Memorial is part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks. The memorial stands in West Potomac Park, near the convergence of numerous roads from throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. In terms of placement, the memorial occupies a highly symbolic and important position as the western “bookend” of the National Mall, while the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial provides the eastern component at the foot of Capitol Hill, two miles to the east.
Car
Interstate 395 provides access to the Mall from the South. Interstate 495, New York Avenue, Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, George Washington Memorial Parkway, and the Cabin John Parkway provide access from the North. Interstate 66, U.S. Routes 50 and 29 provide access from the West. U.S. Routes 50, 1, and 4 provide access from the East.
Public Transportation
There are several Metro train and bus routes from the suburban areas surrounding the city. In addition to Washington, D.C. public transportation, adjacent state and commonwealth transportation authorities offer train service from area cites to the Nation’s Capital. Consult the Public Transportation link for additional details.
Parking
General visitor parking is available along Ohio Drive, SW between the Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson Memorials. Bus parking is available primarily along Ohio Drive, SW near the Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson Memorials and along Ohio Drive, SW in East Potomac Park. See the Maps section for a detailed understanding of these areas.
There is limited handicapped parking at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt and World War II Memorials and near the Washington Monument and the Thomas Jefferson, Lincoln, Korean War Veterans, and Vietnam Veterans Memorials; otherwise, parking is extremely scarce in Washington, D.C.
More About Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
https://www.realcourage.org/about/
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) is a non-partisan, citizen activist group with the goal to defend the inalienable human rights of equality and liberty as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the American Declaration of Independence. Our objective is defend such human rights of equality for all people. We believe that everyone deserves equal rights. As individuals responsible for equality and liberty, we challenge those who would justify supremacism, intolerance, and hatred, and seek to ensure that all of humanity’s inalienable rights of equality and liberty and protected, as a shared consensus among all people.
Please see our list of planned events and petitions designed to defy supremacists and let them know that we plan to stop their attack on equality and liberty.
For more information on how you can help, email us at realpublic@earthlink.net
Please sign our Never Again to Racial Supremacism Petition – defying those who would seek to rebuild a network of racial hatred and supremacism – and declaring our common bond in the inalienable human rights of equality and liberty.
We challenge those racial supremacists who would seek to promote the hate of the past and the supremacist lie that denies that all men and women are created equal. We say to those racial supremacists who seek to rebuild a network of racial hatred — NEVER AGAIN!
We are more than our fears, more than our divisions. We believe that love and fellowship remains the core of our identity as human beings. We defend our common bond of humanity and our shared inalienable human rights of equality and liberty — for all people. We stand together to tell those who seek to divide us by hate and fear and those who seek to spread supremacism among us — that they will not win and that we will never surrender. We are not afraid. We are responsible for equality and liberty for all people. We will not let racial supremacism gain power in America again.
See also April 4, 2009 – Rally Against Racial Supremacism in Washington DC’s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool
On March 8, International Women’s Day, we held a public rally from 1 PM to 3 PM in the front of the Capitol Reflecting Pool in Washington DC to address the global challenge of women oppressed and killed in the name of extremism. We demanded that the American government, the United Nations, and international leaders recognize the extremist war on women in America and around the world. Moreover, we demanded action on this extremist threat to women.
We spoke out on the abuses to women from extremism, who had posters challenging Sharia, and who sought to educate the public on attacks on American girls and women in so-called “honor killings,” such as the attacks on Sarah and Amina Said in Dallas.
We called for the focus of International Women’s Day to be changed to saving women from such supremacists who believe that they have “right” to oppress, mutilate, beat, and murder women. We stated that extremists have no such “rights,” nor does anyone have any “rights” to oppress and attack women. We called for the U.S. Congress, our President, and the federal government to recognize that women under attack by extremists are not expendable in tactical designs to negotiate with extremists around the world. The inalienable human rights of equality and liberty for women and all people must always be our first priority in our foreign policy, domestic policy, and our national security policies.
We called upon the public to convey to their government leaders that tactics based on fear of extremists that would sacrifice women as expendable are immoral and unjust policies, and they must be rejected and challenged.
We encouraged members of the public to sign our petition regarding the extremist war on women to “Save Women Now.” Since the rally, nearly another 100 have signed our petition – please share our “Save Women Now” petition with your friends and family!
Our rally location at the Capitol Reflecting Pool ensured reasonable foot traffic given the mild temperatures and we were able to reach many individuals who might otherwise never heard about these issues. Tourists visiting Washington DC stopped to listen to our message, view our placards, and we got a number of “thumbs up” signals from the public crowds. We were also approached by several individuals interested in further working with us on this cause, including a supporter of the group, the International Campaign Against Honour Killings.
The primary objective of such public rallies is not merely to gather those who share our views together, but to reach out to the general public. We don’t believe that our campaign for equality and liberty is served by focusing our missionary work of freedom on only “preaching to the choir.” So you will see us in other public rallies again and again in the future!
We spoke numerous times to the public crowds, and began and ended our rally with a verse from a song that we believe must be the new theme song of the continuing defiance against supremacism. Our song consists of the fifth verse of “We Shall Overcome,” and its lyrics are as follows:
“We are not afraid, we are not afraid,”
“We are not afraid today;”
“Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,”
“We are not afraid today.”
To the supremacists of the world, free people are NOT AFRAID of you!
We will Fear No Evil! that the American government, the United Nations, and international leaders recognize the extremist war on women in America and around the world. Moreover, we demanded action on this extremist threat to women.
Thank you to all those who attended, all those who listened, and to all those who signed our petition!
NOTE: Our next public rally challenging extremism is scheduled for Sunday, May 17 between 1 to 4 PM in Washington DC at the Capitol Reflecting Pool. We are also looking to have a public rally challenging the resurgence of white supremacism and calling for a renewed focus on our shared human rights on Saturday April 4 between 4 to 6 PM in Washington DC on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial; we are still awaiting our National Park Service permit for the April rally.
More information will be available on upcoming rallies in Washington DC, and hopefully this summer in New York City and the West Coast on Responsible for Equality And Liberty’s (R.E.A.L.) website at https://www.realcourage.org
We will also be looking to see our options for further DC rallies this summer on Saturdays. Our challenge to hold some rallies on Saturdays is that dates and areas for first amendment rallies are difficult to obtain because many are obtained up to a year in advance.
Contact us at realorg@earthlink.net about activism in defense of equality and liberty. We oppose white supremacism, Aryan Nazi supremacism, Islamic supremacism, and other supremacist ideologies.
Contact us at realpublic@earthlink.net about activism in defense of equality and liberty. We oppose totalitarianism, racial supremacism, Aryan Nazi supremacism, extremism, and other supremacist ideologies.
Thank you for your interest in being responsible for equality and liberty.
