[Peace-discuss] 8/24/03 AWARE Meeting Minutes

Tue Aug 26 22:25:27 CDT 2003

Facilitating:  Durl (Thanks for facilitating on late
notice!)  You too can facilitate an AWARE meeting by
emailing Linda at veganlinda at yahoo.com.

Intros: approx. 26 people

News of the Week: Carl posted separately (Thank you,
Carl!)

Info on Kucinich: Chuck handed out Dennis Kucinich for
president literature and went through the top ten
points of his campaign.  
  1.  Universal Health Care with a Single Payer Plan
  2.  Full Social Security Benefits at Age 65
  3.  Withdrawal from NAFTA and WTO
  4.  Repeal of the "Patriot Act"
  5.  Right to Choose, Privacy, and Civil Rights
  6.  Balance Between Workers and Corporations
(Chuck mentioned that Dennis Kucinich lived in a car
as a child.)
  7.  Guaranteed Quality Education, Pre-K Through
College
(Chuck explained that Dennis Kucinich is talking about
cutting the US military budget to pay for the
improvements in education.  Kucinich is also dedicated
to holding the Pentagon accountable for the money they
spend.)
  8.  A Renewed Commitment to Peace and Diplomacy
(Per Chuck, Kucinich has avoided some questions on
Israel, but obviously does not back Israel 100% as
most other candidates.)
  9.  Restored Rural Communities and Family Farms
 10.  Environmental Renewal and Clean Energy

In closing, Chuck stated that Kucinich needs money for
his campaign and media coverage.  There is a local
group of Kucinich supporters meeting 7pm every
Thursday night at 608 W. Green.  Everyone is welcome.
Lisa asked if Kucinich had any link to the recent
massive power outage.  Apparently, Kucinich, while
mayor of Cleveland was pressured by the banks to sell
the utilities.  Kucinich refused and the banks
retaliated and caused major financial difficulties in
Cleveland and cost Kucinich the re-election.  The
company the banks wanted Kucinich to sell the
utilities to was apparently responsible for the
massive power outage.
For more information on Kucinich, go to
www.kucinich.us or call toll free 1-866-413-3664.  We
will try to have supporters for other presidential
candidates at future meetings.

WEFT PSA:  Paul brought the public service
announcement for WEFT and read it to the group. 
Unfortunately, I deleted the email Paul sent to the
peace discuss list and I didn't write the entire PSA
down during the meeting. The group make suggestions
and Randall is too look up the WEFT PSA guidelines and
the PSA will be submitted to WEFT.  If Paul could send
the updated version of the PSA to the peace discuss
list when it is ready, I would be most appreciative. 
Paul suggested people volunteer at WEFT as air
shifters.  The Democracy Now! time slot (4pm - 5:30pm)
on Thursdays and Fridays is in need of an air shifter.

Working Groups:
  Anti-racism:  Jan reported on the viewing of 'The
Color of Fear' at her house.  Around a dozen people
showed up for the movie and discussion.  The
anti-racism working group plans to have more
videos/book/article discussions in the future.  Al
passed around a draft of the literature linking racism
and war together.  People should send suggestions to
Al (akagan at uiuc.edu), Linda (veganlinda at yahoo.com),
and/or Mike (msimon at uiuc.edu).  The literature will
also be posted to the peace discuss email list.

  Farmer's Market:  We will resume tabling at the
Farmer's Market this Saturday from 8am - noon.  Linda
will set up the table and Peter will pick it up this
Saturday.  Peter will be facilitating of the Farmer's
Market tabling for the month of September.  We
discussed if political literature can be displayed on
the AWARE table.  AWARE is not an official
'non-profit' organization thus is not restricted from
getting involved in political campaigns.  Peter
offered to create a pamphlet comparing the
presidential candidates and their stance on issues of
interest to AWARE ("Patriot Act", war in Iraq, issues
of race/economics/labor, etc.).  Carl will help Peter
with the literature.  There was some reluctance to
'push' one candidate.  It was decided that any
political literature will be brought to the AWARE
meeting and okayed prior to displaying the literature
at our tabling events.  People are encouraged to bring
political literature, which they would like to have on
the AWARE table, to next Sunday's meeting for
approval.

  Literature:  Ricky has offered to facilitate the
literature working group.  Anyone can and is
encouraged to get involved creating AWARE literature. 
There are numerous topics which people have asked for
literature.  The Congo, Liberia, Columbia, Burma, and
various other topics have been suggested.  If you do
not want to write literature, you can still assist the
literature group by formatting, copying, editing, etc.
 Email Ricky at baldwinricky at yahoo.com if you would
like to get involved.  Please send finalized versions
of all AWARE literature to Randall at
recotton at earthlink.net so it can be included on the
website.

  Monthly Prospect for Peace:  Gabe announced a sign
making party for Friday August 29th 7:30pm at Gabe's
house (email ggstanto at hotmail.com for directions). 
The first monthly P4P will be Sept. 6th from 2pm - 4pm
on N. Prospect on the sidewalk near Tires Plus.  Email
Gabe for details.

  Sweetcorn Festival:  Linda reported $175 collected
at the sweetcorn festival Saturday August 23.  Thank
you to everyone who helped out with the tabling, wrote
literature, etc.  Overall, the response was positive,
many buttons/bumper stickers were sold, and there were
good conversation with people from the community.

  Finances:  Current balance is $2,522.42 not the 
$2,301.46 I stated in the meeting.  This is what
happens when I try to take minutes and participate in
the meetings!  I accidentally passed around an old
report and Peter was the only who noticed (or maybe
everyone else was just trying to be really nice to
me).  I thought I had just not updated the date on the
report, but when I looked things over after the
meeting I noticed the current/correct report and it
was apparent what had happened.  Many apologies. 
Thanks to Peter for noticing.

  Labor Day Parade:  Carol
(carolinskeep at yahoo.com)will have a sign making party
at her house 7pm Thursday night.  Her address is 606
E. High St. and phone number is 244-9155 if you need
directions.  Anyone who would like to march in the
Labor Day Parade with AWARE should meet 9:30am Monday
(Labor Day) at the corner of Race and High St. in
Urbana.

  Letters to the Editor:  Ricky suggested we have two
people from each meeting volunteer to write a letter
to the editor.  Carl and Lisa volunteered.  Linda
suggested pro-war letters to the editor be posted to
the peace discuss email list for those of us who do
not pay for the News Gazette.  Letters which are
written in response to other opinions have a greater
chance of being printed.  Of course, people are
encouraged to write letters to the editor any time
they feel it is appropriate.  Ricky and Carl offered
their services helping people write/edit their
letters.

Announcements:  IMC Fest is this Saturday from 1pm -
1am Canopy Club in downtown Urbana.  See
http://shows.ucimc.org/imcfest2003.html for more
details.

Any errors in the minutes are completely mine.  Please
feel free to post anything that I missed or
misrepresented.

=====
"As we talked of freedom and justice one day for all, we sat down to steaks.  I am eating misery, I thought, as I took the first bite.  And spit it out." - Alice Walker (author)

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