[Peace-discuss] Urbana City Council meeting last night

[C. G. Estabrook]

It doesn't help that the members of the Urbana City Council are flakier than a 
basket of fresh croissants.  --CGE


David Green wrote:
> How ridiculous. Brumleve is a crackpot, of course. But suffice it to say 
> that if there was a show that told the awful truth about the ethnic 
> cleansing of Palestine, from 1948 to the current day, then the same 
> folks would be labeling that "hate speech" too.
>  
> What really is sad is that because of their hyper-sensitivity and 
> complete lack of perspective, the local Zionist self-pity partyers put 
> everyone else through an evening that sounds like having to go to three 
> Bar Mitzvahs. Now you know what we have to deal with.
>  
> DG
> 
> 
> */Karen Medina <kmedina at uiuc.edu>/* wrote:
> 
>     The Urbana City Council met Monday night. The meeting was about UPTV
>     and Mr. Dunleve's hate speech dvds from David Duke. The meeting went
>     on for 4-1/2 hours (7pm-11:33pm).
> 
>     UPTV was #8 on the agenda, so people stood through the long
>     presentation about the plan for the Boneyard. They stood through a
>     public arts report and proposal. They stood through the combining of
>     the conflicting revisions of the arts proposal. And literally dozens
>     of people spoke on the hate speech vs. free speech issue (they were
>     given 5 minutes apiece). The other points made were: hate speech
>     leads to violence possibly of some unstable person who watches and
>     then decides that the Jews are to blame for everything, that
>     vandolism and grafiti have already been a problem for years, that
>     Dunleve did not have copyright permission for a long time and that
>     he had removed the titles and credits on the shows so that nobody
>     could tell where he was getting the stuff for a long time, that the
>     city could be sued, that tax money should not go toward this, and
>     how horrible it was to know that someone out there wanted to kill them.
> 
>     Around 10:45, the Council paused the UPTV discussion and rushed
>     through the remaining 7 items on the agenda. Then returned to the
>     UPTV discussion again, giving the last 6 people who wanted to talk
>     about 2 minutes apiece. Durl Kruse was the next to last to speak. He
>     mentioned that no tax money is involved, that it comes from the
>     cable agreement. He also mentioned that the issue was not really
>     hate speech vs. free speech, but I forget what he did say it was
>     (forgive me). Durl did well to show compassion and understanding to
>     entire community.
> 
>     The public discussion was not acted on, but will pick up again in 2
>     weeks. The council members were all too tired. The lawyer for the
>     city was asked to look in to a few issues and prepare a report. I
>     think it was Charlie Smythe who asked "Could a group of people sue
>     Mr. Dunleve". The lawyer said "I can give you a quick answer right
>     now." But they decided that it would be best to wait on that issue
>     as well.
> 
>     The media was there. Channel 15's camera left around the time the
>     open topics finished. The News-Gazette and WILL stayed throughout.
>     And a few TV people stayed, but I don't think there was a camera
>     with them (there might have been).
> 
>     It had been grueling. The Urbana City Council Chambers were packed.
>     Standing room only at the beginning, then large pockets of people
>     stood in the hallway for a long time. Dwindling over the extended
>     time, there were finally enough seats for anyone who wanted one.
> 
>     After the meeting was adjourned, on the way out the door, one man
>     told Durl that since the City Council Chambers were used for some of
>     the filming of UPTV content, that tax money was involved. A parking
>     lot discussion with Durl and some of the community involved may have
>     led to some other ideas.
> 
>     -karen medina
>