[Peace-discuss] Urbana City Council meeting last night

[John W.]

At 12:51 PM 4/15/2008, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

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

Oh, indeed.  Much better to have a bunch of tough cookies like those on the 
Champaign City Council.  Jerry Schweighart and his batch wouldn't tolerate 
no stinkin' discussion of "hate speech"!



>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