[Peace-discuss] Re: [Peace] An opportunity

[Ricky Baldwin]

Good idea!  Let's talk it over.


--- Patrick Bahls <pbahls at math.uiuc.edu> wrote:
> 
> 	Hello all,
> 
> 	First of all I would like to thank Kim Kranich for
> her terrific
> follow-up regarding the local media coverage of last
> night's council
> meeting.  She did a great job in holding their feet
> to the fire, so to
> speak, and making sure they get the story right.  I
> completely agree with
> her, in that we should offer the *entire* council
> our heartiest thanks for
> their actions.
> 
> 	I would also like to propose that AWARE and its
> affiliates take
> advantage of an opportunity that essentially fell
> into our laps at the
> meeting last night.
> 
> 	Before lending his support to the resolution,
> Councilmember Hayes
> gave a speech, directed largely to the members of
> the community, in which
> he expressed his chagrin that so many people do not
> often make the effort
> to show up and voice their concerns regarding issues
> of *specifically*
> local importance.  He mentioned specifically the
> issue of unfair drug
> crime sentencing laws, indicating that perhaps some
> of the local issues he
> has in mind are issues regarding race and race
> relations.
> 
> 	During the past weeks members of AWARE have
> bemoaned the fact that
> we do little to counteract racism in our community. 
> We've even set up a
> brainstorming session in order to come up with ways
> to better address this
> shortcoming.  In some sense, I feel that AWARE sees
> itself as a bag of
> solutions looking for a problem.
> 
> 	Well, here's our opportunity to discover what those
> problems may
> be, and to establish a dialogue with the city
> council, the mayor, the city
> attorney, and any other local officials who are
> willing to engage us in
> that dialogue.
> 
> 	I have begun to pen a letter addressed specifically
> to
> Councilmember Hayes, and I think it would be a good
> idea to present this
> letter (with suggested revisions, of course) to him
> on behalf of AWARE in
> order to introduce our willingness to act on these
> matters of local
> concern. Perhaps this would best be done by
> presenting this as an open
> letter to the council-at-large, maybe as a follow-up
> to the thank-you
> statement that Kim has proposed?
> 
> 	I feel that it would be utterly disingenuous of us
> not to take
> advantage of this opportunity.
> 
> 	I will finish the letter to the council this
> afternoon and post it
> to the Peace list so that everyone may comment and
> offer suggestions.
> 
> 	Please feel free to contact me regarding this
> matter -- my e-mail
> is misbehaving today, but I promise as prompt a
> reply as possible.
> 
> 	Best regards,
> 	Patrick
> 
> 
> ------
> Patrick Bahls, VIGRE Research Assistant Professor
> e-mail: pbahls at math.uiuc.edu
> office phone: 217-333-1504
> University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
> Department of Mathematics
> ------
> 
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> 


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