[Peace-discuss] AWARE meeting minutes for October 28, 2007

Sat Nov 3 00:13:28 CDT 2007

AWARE Meeting Minutes for Sunday October 28, 2007
Durl Kruse facilitated
Karen Medina took minutes
Location: Family Room (downstairs) of the Independent Media Center housed in the historic downtown Urbana post office building located at 202 S. Broadway Ave at Elm Street, Urbana.
Time: 5pm

I forgot to count the number of people present, but it was more than 15.

I.   News of the Week
     A. Carl Estabrook read his list of news of the week. The list is posted to the peace-discuss list.
     B. Some comments were made, but I was just arriving, so I did not get them written down.

II.  Introductions were skipped as Durl knew everyone.

III. Working Groups
     A. Financial Report - Jan Kruse reported
        * There was no Farmer's Market this past Saturday because of the send-off/counter demonstration on North Prospect.
        * "Impeach" signs were more expensive this time. We have to charge $10 and we will have troubles recouping the cost.
        * Income of $30 for tee-shirt sales at North Prospect event.
     B. Main Event - Ricky Baldwin and others reported
        * North Prospect event 10/27/2007 was touted as "dueling protests" by Channel 15
        * One Main next week, but North Prospect was fun.
        * Ricky suggested: roving demonstration sites.
        * Barbara: we need to get the signs back from the Chicago event. Paul Kottheimer, Randall Cotton, and possibly other cars still have signs in them.
        * Nice energy on North Prospect.
        * Wind.
        * Turning lane.
        * Cars standing still in traffic.
        * Ask other groups to co-sponsor Main Events? IVAW, CAN, ISO, Arab Student Association, Palestine group ...
        * More publicity for pro-victory group.
        * Durl: we can use the overpass over I-74.
        * Decide on location far enough in advance.
        * Stuart: Challenge people to go to any anti-war meeting or do something beyond 
        * Public Square helps bring in new people to the demonstrations.
        * Potomac as a location? 
            - Potomac High School students might invite us; they are going to the Iowa Primary for the SODaPOP sit-in.
                ^ SODaPOP [Kathy Kelly] [Jan knows about these]. 
                ^ SODaPOP = Seasons of Discontent: A Presidential Occupation Project.
                ^ What is SODaPOP doing in Iowa? "Voices for Creative Nonviolence and our allies in Iowa are in the initial stages of organizing a campaign of nonviolent civil resistance focused upon those who would be President"
                ^ For more information: http://occupationproject.org/sodapop
            Some information I found in a quick Internet search for Potomac:
            - Potomac is North and West of Danville on Route 136; Gifford, Alvin, and Rossville are in the same area
            - Potomac population: 2006 estimate of 663; 49.3% male, 50.7% female; median age: 35.4 years.
            - 34.4 miles from Champaign
            - Vermillion County
            - Median household income in 2000 was $40,221.
            - 97.1% white non-Hispanic; 2.2% Hispanic; 1.6% Other race; 0.6% mixed of two or more races. 
            - Mean travel time to work: 29.8 minutes
            - Want more information? http://www.city-data.com/city/Potomac-Illinois.html
     C. Farmer's Market Working Group
        * Mort mentioned that last week he met Mark Foley, an English teacher at Urbana High, who wants to have someone come and talk to his class. He'll invite a counter opinion as well -- to give balance. Contact information: mfoley at usd116.org
        * 2 dates are left for the outside Farmer's Market: November 3, November 10
        * Move inside the mall November 17-December 22, 9am-2pm (times are different)
     D. AWARE Presents - Durl Kruse reported
        * Flyer: "A Mother's Response to War" 
        * November 12 (Monday) 7pm; 5:30am pot-luck; Urbana Civic Center, 108 E Water St, Urbana [North of Main St.; East of Broadway]
     E. Anti-Racism Working Group
        * November 2 Friday No-buy no-sell day in support of the Jena 6. [Looking on-line, I found a reference to a "black out day" on November 2nd. Warren Ballentine, "the People's attorney", called for all African Americans to participate in a national blackout, saying "Until we have federal legislation regarding hate crimes as African Americans we need to band together to show our "Economic Power" by refusing to spend ANY money from fast food restaurants to gas."
        * November 5, 1pm, Patrick Thompson in court (we think this is the start of the 3rd trial) 
        * Conrad: a film was mentioned on Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, Hollywood for years has been portraying Arabs as evil. There is a documentary about this portrayal -- "Reel Bad Arabs"
           - "Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People" Available now on DVD (also VHS for Institutions). 
           - Put out by "Media Education Foundation" (MEF) Challenging Media
           - a documentary
           - perhaps AWARE can get this and show it.
           - http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/19/144225
     F. Counter-Recruitment Working Group
        * The high school football tournament is coming up around Thanksgiving
           - Friday, November 23 (Class 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A); 
           - Saturday, November 24 (Class 5A, 6A, 7A, 8A) at the Champaign Memorial Stadium.
           - All games are scheduled between 10am and 7pm; Starting at 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm
           - [Tickets are $10 for 4 games on a single day]
           - IHSA 34th Annual Football 
           - Shara is interested in getting other groups involved, perhaps to stay here over the break to help out.
     G. Student Groups
        * Jan mentioned that one of the kids she saw at a Die-In at Wright and Green wearing a Chief Illiniwek tee-shirt, was at the IVAW event wearing a Che Guavara shirt. In other words, she sees some significant changes in at least one person as a result of the student groups.
     H. Iran Working Group - Dave
        * Not much new.
     I. Blackwater Working Group - Karen
        * Pending letters to the editor.
        * Ricky is willing to write a letter, if we could send him some information.
        * Roger: They are seeking support "for their family" (see Roger's post to peace-discuss earlier in the week; dated Wed Oct 24 2007; subject was: Blackwater-Asking For Your Support!)
        * Killing in Iraq of snipers.
        * Karen: This working group will be having a meeting in the next few weeks.
     J. Anti-Torture Working Group
        * Conrad: Asking about how the questioning of Mukasey, Bush's nominee for attorney general, was going since he refused to answer whether "waterboarding" was torture or not.
            - Carl: They are waiting for written answers.

IV.  Old Business
[I didn't write any down, so I think there may not have been any.]

V.   New Business/New Ideas
     A. Peace Demonstration in Potomac? [see loads of information on Potomac earlier in these minutes, under Main Event.]
        * Shara will talk to Eric     
        * Barbara: troops come from places like Potomac
     B. Film: "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" by NRCAT. We are interested in showing it. 
     C. New movies: "Reel Bad Arabs" (mentioned above)
     D. ? Also "Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg" 
     E. Barbara: News-Gazette, Peggy Kovasic is ... [something I did not catch -karen]
     F. Place for Main Event... 
        * something about Mrs. Mary O'Rourke
     G. An event at the deployment of the local troops to Afghanistan? 
        * largest deployment of Illinois National Guard since WWII
        * 2,700 members being deployed
        * an Urbana brigade, the 33rd Infantry Brigade, is one of eight units from across the country being readied
        * Based in Urbana, but comes from across the state.
        * Will leave as early as next summer and no later than November 2008
        * They will expect to be gone 13 to 14 months (shorter than previous deployments, because the Guard as a whole was asking for shorter deployments)
        * Composition: Aurora, Bloomington, Carbondale, Champaign, Chicago, Crestwood, Dixon, Effingham, Elgin, Galva, Kankakee, Kewanee, Litchfield, Machesney Park, Marion, Marseilles, Mattoon, Mount Vernon, Pontiac, Salem, Springfield, Sycamore, Urbana, West Frankfort, and Woodstock Illinois.

VI. Events of the Past Week
    A. October 27, 2007 march in Chicago.
        * Bob Naiman had a megaphone on the Chicago event, and it was wonderfully helpful.
        * All went well. Tens of thousands were there (estimates from attendees were from 10,000 (Stuart) to 30,000 (Mort))
        * There were police, including on horseback
        * There was a counter protest of about 100 pro-Bush people, surrounded by about 100 police protecting them.
        * Loads of people backed out at the last minute, so only about 25 went from here.
          [Stuart mentioned something about Patti Smith, Philip Glass, and Allen Ginsberg as an activist]. I think this is referring to the documentary "Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg". [I am not sure why it was mentioned here, but I am also putting it above under new ideas where several other films are mentioned for possible showing by AWARE or AWARE Presents]
        * Not a lot of Iran signs at Chicago. 
        * [Ron Paul side note: at the Campus Anti-war Network meeting, Chris mentioned that there were a huge number of Ron Paul signs at the Chicago march.]
    B. October 27, 2007 demonstration on North Prospect. 
        * Between 50 and 60 people, including Iraq Veterans Against the War and some students who did not go to Chicago and some people who had never been to a demonstration before, and one person who was driving by and decided to join.
        * 11 people in the pro-Bush group at the height of their demo. Their demo went from 11-2, and we left at noon, so they might have gotten more later. 
        * Lowe's did not want us in their parking lot and someone did come out to tell us that the cars would be towed.
        * Grandpa Wahlfeldt got into an altercation with an employee at the tire place. The employee came out to complain about the signs being put in the ground, because he thought they were on the store's property. After threatening to call the police, the tire employee got a little physical and attempted to pull up the signs and grabbed Grandpa by the collar of his coat. That is when Durl called the police.      
    C. A lot of people were still talking about the IVAW (Iraq Veterans Against the War) event (a panel) the week before. Martin Smith and the others were very impressive.
    D. Dahr Jamail event (today, Sunday, October 28, 3pm). 
        * Very good. Large attendance. News-Gazette reporter was there. [see the article in the NG after Sunday which Brian Dolinar posted to the peace list (Mon Oct 29; subject was: NG on Dahr Jamail)]
        * Question and Answer part brought up some interesting topics:
            - Muhammad said that he dislikes the signs that say "Support the Troops" even if they say "End the War"
               ^ Carl pointed out that we only give out those signs because they are free. We don't condone the message, nor the messenger, but you can't beat free.
            - Martin Smith said: Bring Troops Home Now, Fund the Wounded Not the War.

VII. Upcoming Events
     A. Barabara: National Conference of Prison Book Projects (the national version of the Books for Prisoners) will be this coming weekend.
        * November 2-3
        * 70 people visiting from out of town
        * Invitation to some open events:
            - Saturday 1pm-2:30pm -- Paul Wright of Prison Legal News will give the Keynote "Dealing with Rejections and & Prisoner First Amendment Rights"
            - Saturday 3pm-5pm workshops
            - Saturday 8pm Prison Poetry open mic 
            - All these events are at the IMC
            - [I think one event on Friday was at the YMCA on campus]
        * Shara and others will be showing people around the building.
        * Suzanne Linder is coordinating volunteers on Friday

Meeting adjourned.