[Peace-discuss] AWARE Minutes October 22, 2006

[karen medina]

AWARE Meeting Minutes for Sunday, October 22, 2006. 5pm. Facilitator: 
Randall Cotton. Minutes: Karen Medina

VII. Calendar of Upcoming Events:
October 23 (Monday) 5:30PM – canvassing for the referenda. Meet at Ricky's.

October 23 (Monday) 8PM – AWARE on Campus. 215 Greg Hall.

October 25 (Wednesday) 7PM – meeting with the Peace and Service 
Committee of the U/C Friends. Location: Independent Media Center, Family 
Room, 202 S. Broadway, Urbana.

October 25 (Wednesday) 7-9PM – Net Neutrality Panel: Is our government 
streamlining technology access or rigging the Web for preferential 
treatment? This is a free opportunity to learn about a communications 
bill recently passed by the US House and to express your views. 
Moderator: Greg Kline, News-Gazette Tech Columnist. Panelists: Dr. David 
Gill, Candidate for US Congress; Representative Tim Johnson will send a 
statement; Academic Voice, Victor Pickard, University of Illinois; 
Alternative Media, Paul Riismandel, WEFT Radio; Local Entrepreneur, 
Peter Folk, Volo Wireless; Local Citizen, Jim Hall. Hosted by IMC, 
AWARE, and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. 
Location: Independent Media Center, Main Floor, 202 S. Broadway, Urbana.

October 25 (Wednesday) 8PM. WILL PBS will be showing "My Country, My 
Country". 'Working alone in Iraq over eight months, filmmaker Laura 
Poitras creates an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Iraqis living 
under U.S. occupation.'

October 26 (Thursday) 7-9PM - AWARE panel discussion: U.S. Foreign 
policy regarding Israel and its neighbors (featuring Ken Cuno, Michael 
Shapiro, Fred Jahar, Jamal Nassar), moderated by T.J. Wilson, Urbana 
City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine St., Urbana.

October 27 (Friday) 4:30-7PM – Sentencing Reform Hearing. Public Hearing 
sponsored by C-U Citizens for Peace and Justice on the SMART Act 
(Substance Abuse Management Addressing Recidivism through Treatment), 
which provides alternative sentencing and treatment and education for 
low-level, drug and prostitution offenders, Urbana City Council 
Chambers, 400 S. Vine St, Urbana. 4:30-5PM reception. 5-7PM Hearing. 
Urbana City Council Chambers.

October 28 (Saturday) 12:30- 3PM. National Out of Iraq Now! 
demonstration and march on campus. 12:30am - Meet in front of Union on 
the Quad; 1pm - opening remarks and starting chants; 2pm- Begin march on 
Green St; 3pm - End at Union with closing remarks

November 2 (Thursday) 7PM. "The National Campaign to Impeach President 
George W. Bush Jr." presentation by Francis Boyle followed by question 
and answer session. Urbana City Council Chambers.

November 5 (Sunday) 8PM – Bash Bush Bash at the Channing-Murray 
Foundation. Paul Kotheimer will be performing. Food and soft drinks.

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Order of sections during the meeting: I. News; II. Introductions; III. 
New Ideas; IV. Working Groups; V. Old Business; VI. Past Events; VII. 
Upcoming Events

I. This week in the news – by Carl Estabrook (Carl will post the items 
he mentioned)

II. Introductions
Visitors included: Barbara Kessel from the Quakers and the Peace and 
Service Committee of the U/C Friends, Bill Strutz, Dr. Sachi 
Kuhananthan, Rad, Mimi.

III. New Ideas
Mort : Gara(sp?) and Andrew Stern, reporter and photojournalist for 
Independent Media, are available for inviting to speak. They are asking 
for $1,000 honorarium which they say is flexible. Currently, they have 
time between November 15 and December 30th available. They also 
suggested co-sponsorship to help defray the costs. SORF funding from the 
University can pay up to 90% of honorariums up to $10,000. It was 
suggested that the Sterns might have very good videos or photos that 
will be compelling and recent. Durl will take the suggestion to AWARE 
Presents.

Durl : Alison Walker invitation. Ricky Baldwin had posted to the 
Peace-Discuss list an email from Alison Walker, from the International 
Engagement, Communications and Protocol at the University of Illinois. 
They are interested in working with different community organizations to 
create a series of Town Hall Meetings that focus on timely international 
topics. These meetings will the community a forum to discuss 
international issues and how they affect our everyday lives. Partnership 
to help shape the themes of the meetings is being sought. Partnership 
does not imply any financial support, only a time commitment. Ms. 
Walker’s contact information: Phone: 217-333-1993; email: abwalter at 
uiuc dot edu; website: www.ips.uiuc.edu/io . Ricky’s post: Sat 21 Oct 
2006. Durl will take this suggestion to AWARE Presents.

Barbara: Invitation to a meeting, October 25, 7pm, IMC, Family Room. 
AWARE is invited to send representatives to the Peace and Service 
Committee of the U/C Friends. They are planning actions concerning the 
U.S. Invasion of other countries. Chris Baker's name came up, but I 
failed to write down the context.

IV. Working Groups

Financial Report: Jan Kruse
Two referenda fund raiser parties brought in money (Kagan, $90; 
Estabrook, approximately $263), in addition to the Farmer's Market 
income and a few costs. Jan Kruse gave us a written report with the 
current total.

Main Event.
Next Main Event is Saturday November 4th. There is an event on October 
28th with the campus group as they join the national "Out of Iraq Now!" 
demonstrations (see AWARE on campus below).

Farmer's Market: Durl
3 Saturdays remain. Only a few yard signs left – if anyone has extra 
ones, please bring them on Saturday or drop them off at Jan and Durl's. 
A sign up sheet was passed around for Saturday shifts. Linda Webber 
asked whether we are going inside when the Lincoln Square opens up the 
indoor market. Some discussion ensued. The inside Lincoln Square events 
last for about 4 Saturdays at about $40 per week. Decisions made: * We 
will go inside Lincoln Square when that market opens up. * We will 
restock bumper stickers, pins, etc. (after all they don't spoil, and we 
are pessimistic enough to think they will continue to be appropriate for 
some time). Mort has a catalog. Randall suggested that we create a sign 
up sheet for setting up and taking down, to even out the burden.

Bash Bush Bash: Ricky
The Bash will be on November 5, Sunday, beginning at 8PM at the 
Channing-Murray Foundation on campus. $250 damage deposit, $25 per hour 
rent, with 1 hour free have all been approved. Help is needed for 
setting up, loading Paul's music equipment, setting up a table for 
donations and selling bumper stickers and handing out information, for 
taking down, and for returning Paul's music equipment. A few weeks ago, 
Jamie offered to help person the table, but we would like to have a 
second person. Durl suggested that we add $50 to the budget. * Total of 
$400 was approved ($250 deposit + $150 rent and supplies).

AWARE Presents: Durl
A reminder of the October 26 event (the panel on Israel and It's 
Neighbors) and the November 2 event (Francis Boyle presentation on 
Impeaching Bush). A working group meeting will be called within the next 
2 weeks.

Church Presents: no report

Anti-Racism working group: Karen, Randall and Stuart reported.
The Consent Decree hearing was well attended this past week. The school 
board was the defendant, and the Black Community was the plaintiff. The 
judge asked the school board to give more information on their plan and 
steps for achieving those goals. The judge also said that all citizens 
of Champaign should read the Consent Decree and know what to hold the 
School Board to. There are at least 5 documents that together are the 
Consent Decree. The Consent Decree incorporates the "Controlled Choice 
Memorandum", the "Educational Equity Memorandum", the "Office of Civil 
Rights Resolution", and the "Education Equity Implementation Plan 
("EEIP"), and the 1998 "Peterkin/Lucey Audit". These are available on 
the court's Web site: http://www.ilcd.uscourts.gov/Champaignschools.htm

CU Citizens for Peace and Justice: Randall reported
Reminder of the October 27 event on Sentencing Reform. The Drug School 
model from Chicago has 11% recidivism rate while there is a 55% 
recidivism without the drug school. Inner-City Muslim Action Network 
(IMAN) and Developing Justice are involved in similar reforms.

Counter Recruitment: Durl reported
10 copies of the "Before You Enlist" dvd have arrived. Copies will be 
given to the high schools, Parkland, and other places. If people would 
like to borrow a copy to see or show, contact Durl. It lasts about 14 
minutes. The cost was $30 for 10. Gabe mentioned that the film "Ground 
Truth" could be used in counter recruitment. Karen is donating a copy of 
"The Ground Truth" to AWARE. The flight events at the airport were 
mentioned, and we decided that any counter recruitment at the airport 
would be a way to be arrested rather than have an impact.

Student Groups of AWARE: Karen reported
Update on the October 28 demonstration. "National Out of Iraq Now!" 
demonstration and march on campus. The local event is sponsored by the 
Arab Student Association, and AWARE on Campus. We will join with people 
across the country. We are still looking for people to say something at 
the rally. "The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has initiated a call for locally 
coordinated protests on Saturday, October 28th, just days before the 
pitiful charade known as the 2006 mid-term elections. The people will 
force the issue of the Iraq war onto the U.S. political stage."
U.S. Out of Iraq Now! We Are the Majority!
End Colonial Occupation from Iraq, to Palestine, Haiti, and Everywhere!
Locally Coordinated Anti-War Protests from Coast to Coast
(I have since posted our event to the ANSWER website, so it should come 
up sometime soon here: 
http://answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_Oct28events#IL )

Neighborhood Canvassing: Ricky
Ricky is going out canvassing Monday (October 23), 5:30. Talk to Ricky 
after the meeting tonight.

V. Old Business
Mort: United for Peace and Justice phone call. He will post the notes to 
the peace-discuss list. There were people speaking about N. Korea, Iran, 
and several other places. 30 people were signed up to ask questions. The 
call lasted about 1-1/2 hours.

Barbara: Acting on Faith, November 4th, opening 12-1. Referenda to be 
discussed.

VI. Past Events:
Ricky: Coalition of Immokalee Workers were here October 17th. Articles 
and pictures were in the Daily Illini and the News-Gazette. McDonald's 
and Chipotle have 6 convictions for slavery.

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Comments and Questions on the news:
* Mort: Obama on a roll
* Mort: If 600,000 Iraqi deaths, that would be 350 deaths per day, which 
seems rather high considering the current high rate per day is less than 
350.
* Linda Webber: asked a question about Keith Olbermann from MS NBC.
* Carl and a few others discussed the Israeli planes flying over 
Lebanon, discussing whether they were F16s or Intelligence planes.