[Peace-discuss] AWARE minutes for 3/9/2008

Tue Mar 11 00:19:37 CDT 2008

The Champaign Public Library also has a copy of Winter Soldier. 
   --Jenifer

Stuart Levy <slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu> wrote:
  AWARE minutes for March 9, 2008

Karen facilitated, Stuart took minutes.
About 18 people attended.

News of the Week

[10 points in 10 minutes from Carl which I hope he'll post separately]
Three notable bits:
- An Esquire article [Thomas Bennett] on the US Africa Command
opening with an account of death-squad tactics used in Somalia
http://www.esquire.com/features/africacommand0707
- Russia warned NATO (!) not to interfere in the
Colombia/Ecuador/Venezuela situation
- Re the Bush veto this week of anti-torture legislation,
Scalia commented that it's "absurd that the government
can't stick something under the fingernails" of a suspect
to get information

Eric H. received a call from Champaign police re CAN's
upcoming counter-recruitment demonstration (Tue afternoon).
Police want to go over what protesters can and can't do.
(Police had called Eric's *mother* to get his cell phone number.)

We hadn't contacted the police, and Eric is not even the
organizer of the demonstration, but he had posted the
peace-list announcement. So it seems the police -- or more
likely the FBI, who then notified police -- are watching the
(public of course) mailing lists.

Were they asking Eric for a meeting? Not really.

.... But *we* should ask for a meeting with police at which
they'll discuss ground rules. Take notes and let them know,
in writing, what our understanding is.

Republican state rep. Aaron Schock of Peoria (~26 years old) 
is now running for Ray LaHood's US House seat. Wayne J. notes
that Schock proposes reining in Iran by *offering nuclear weapons
to Taiwan* if China doesn't pressure Iran to abandon any nuclear
weapons program. See e.g.
http://archpundit.com/blog/2007/11/08/daily-dolt-aaron-schock-fighting-non-proliferation-with-proliferation/
This bizarre plan led to an uncomfortable silence at a Republican
meeting where Wayne asked about it! Local Republicans will be
bringing Schock to speak in C-U some time in April -- Wayne will
let us know when.

Attacking Iran seems more likely now than ever, says Mort:
if anything can stop the Democrats from winning the election,
it'd be a war on Iran.

William Foster (D) defeated James Oberweis (R) in a special election
yesterday, taking Dennis Hastert's US House seat. He's a physicist,
opposes Star Wars... Mort considers him a reasonable guy, with
'typical liberal positions'. [Sierra Club supports Foster too.]
The seat will be contested again in the Nov. general election.

Greg Palast (http://www.gregpalast.com) writes on the Colombian
incursion into Ecuador. The Uribe/Bush charge that Chavez
is giving '$300 million to the FARC to build dirty bombs',
based on a captured FARC laptop, is exposed as nonsense: Palast
quotes the e-mail message in question, where "300" does appear, but
not apparently as money. Might well be in the context of a FARC
prisoner exchange of 300 *people* (the number in the most recent exchange).

Neither Clinton nor Obama condemned the incursion -- both support
'Colombia's right to defend itself', and Clinton called on Chavez to
'stop these provoking actions', whatever they are.
Even McCain's response was better.

At a three-way Uribe/Correa/Chavez meeting, DG notes,
Uribe apologized and all shook hands. NYTimes comment:
'isn't it great that these guys can solve their own problems'.
Uribe may want money to fight the FARC, but he doesn't want
to fight a war against Venezuela.

Carl: Colombia is a terror state -- 3rd in US foreign aid after
Israel & Egypt -- with the worst human rights record in the region.
It's not at all clear that the US will refrain from messing around here --
we might well have already if military weren't tied up in Iraq.
Cited Randy Beers, formerly on National Security Council and elsewhere,
who had earlier opposed the Iraq invasion ("we're killing the wrong Arabs,
should kill others but not those, and we should be in Colombia instead"!)

Working Groups

Financial:

Ordered new checks.
$2190.50 in treasury.
** Jan & Durl won't be here next week -- would someone else
collect money then?

Ground is now soft enough for yard signs. Should we order some?
"Peace is Patriotic"
"Impeach" (how many do we have left?)
[No objections, but I don't think a specific proposal was made. -SL]

Main Event
no news

AWARE Presents
"The People Speak" event on Tuesday, 7pm, March 11th,
Urbana City Council Chambers.

Durl sent a note to all who've signed up so far.

We're short of voices from minority communities -- know of any
Latino/a or African-Americans who'd like to read?

Anyone contacted Carol Ammons? - Yes, several times.
Mixmaster D, a DJ at WEFT, will be there to read if he doesn't
have to work that evening.

Rehearsal at 6pm, On Air Live at 7PM Tuesday!
Durl suggests: if some people can't stay the whole 3 hours,
they could stay for their reading and then go home.

Janet W. proposed dedicating the program to Grandpa Bob Wahlfeldt --
this idea was warmly received by all.

Can we get copies of the excerpts? Dave H. has scanned them in
and brought enlarged copies, but Carl wants to keep those together
to ensure they don't get lost. Dave will e-mail PDFs
to those reading.

Anti-Racism

Yesterday's CUCPJ meeting was devoted to Toxic Site (5th & Hill plant)
discussion. Held two site tours yesterday. Plans to hold
a meeting for immediate neighbors of the site, some time preceding
the next general public meeting which will be at Douglass Branch
Library at noon on March 29th.

Student Groups -and- Counter-Recruitment

This is the CAN/ISO/IVAW Week of Action, with events every single day
in light of the nearly-5-years of Iraq invasion.

(Actually Eric coined a new term -- not wanting these to be
called commemorative events -- this is the week of condemneration!)

Monday 3/10 7:00pm (arrive early)
IDF Wisegarver Lounge, Springfield & Wright
Showing of the Vietnam-era film, "Winter Soldier"
Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) fundraiser for
the upcoming "Winter Soldier Investigation II" in Wash. DC, 3/13-16

Tuesday 3/11 4-6pm
Campus Anti-War Network (CAN) will be out at new
North Champaign military recruiting center,
across Town Center Drive from Menards.

Wednesday 3/12 noon UofI Hopkins dormitory ("6-pack")
CAN will give a talk on the anti-war movement.
Food provided.

Thursday 3/13 11am-1pm UofI Quad
Rally and protest. Come if you can -- hoping for a massive turnout
to let the world know we do not support this war!

** Anyone willing to speak (3-5 mins) on AWARE's behalf
during the speaking part of the protest, noon-12:50?

AWARE can have a table there too (postcards!).
Mark Mallon, mmallon2 {at} uiuc.edu, seems to be the contact person. 

Org. by Campus Greens (and probably others as well).

Friday 3/14 6:00-7:30 pm -- Lincoln Hall room 106
Live satellite broadcast of "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan"
events in Washington, DC: veterans opposed to the war tell their
sides of the story, speaking on what they've witnessed.
Organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War.

[At AWARE meeting Eric H. mentioned a different location --
the IMC -- and that the event would be televised on both
Friday and Saturday. But I'm not sure: IMC calendar
doesn't show a booking. Can anyone confirm? Will Winter Soldier II
be televised locally any time Saturday, or is it Friday only? -SL]

Karen mentioned that Meg Miner will be among those present in DC.

Iran Working Group

Collecting postcards to our legislators to oppose attacking Iran --
these are the same ones that Bob Naiman/Just Foreign Policy brought
to the Stephen Kinzer talk.

Dave H. and Shara each have collected a number of signed postcards.
With all the events coming up this week (above) we should be able to
get people to sign a bunch more postcards -- Dave H. will ask Bob
for 100 or so.

Anti-Torture

The pro-torture TV show "24" has been off the air due to
writers' strike, but will resume in April. There's been talk
of a boycott of its advertisers, though not definite yet.

WILL-TV had an interview with the director of Taxi to the Dark Side,
which was haunting, said Karen -- disturbing even from just the
director's description without seeing any footage.

Wayne: Taxi to the Dark Side (100 minutes or so) has been
posted on YouTube.com. [There are lots of related clips if you
search youtube for it -- trailers, a 2-part Democracy Now interview,
a Bill Moyers Journal review, and the documentary as well,
sliced into few-minute pieces. -SL]

Can we get the Boardman Theater to bring this film?
Jan Kruse has written to the owner before -- he might agree,
especially given that it won a Best Documentary Oscar.
She will ask.

Blackwater

IL House Bill HB 5700, "Limitations on Private Military Contractors Act" 
http://www.juliehamos.org/pdfs/PrivateMilitaryFirmsFS_02-25-08.pdf

Includes prohibition on use of state funds (no state-funded
training of police or security guards by military contractors);
prohibition on use of military weapons or explosives, except
on secured US Military bases or other government-related facilities
designed for that purpose; no use of private military contractor
to patrol/arrest/etc. any Illinois resident in case of
natural disaster/civil disorder.

Hoping to get our State Rep Naomi Jakobsson to co-sponsor this,
or at least to support it if it comes to the floor.

Barbara K. spoke with Naomi on Friday.
Jakobsson will be in Champaign [(217) 373-5000] on Mon,
and in Springfield [(217) 558-1009] on Tue-Thu
while the legislature's in session. Please call and urge her to
co-sponsor this bill. She might not, but if the bill survives,
calling might make her more likely to vote for it.

Bill was drafted by Julie Hamos (Evanston). If it doesn't get
enough more cosponsors this week, it'll be dead in IL House.
If so, a similar bill may be introduced in IL Senate,
and then we could urge Mike Frerichs to support that.

Rep. Jan Schakowski is pushing a similar bill in US House.

AWARE on the Air

2pm Monday 3/10
Carl Estabrook, David Green, Dave Harley, Linda Weber 
will talk about what's up this week, for broadcast
on UPTV Channel 6. To be broadcast Monday night at 10pm
(and maybe other times too?).

Karen: could the UPTV session be at other times in future,
like 1pm? Carl will ask. 

New Ideas

Conrad W. proposes a "Library resources working group":
two or three people who'd be on the lookout for books, DVDs, etc.
of peace & justice interest, and encourage local libraries to
acquire them.

Durl: Carol Inskeep of Urbana Free Library has been doing
some of this, but she would welcome suggestions.
David G: Many good books just fly under the radar.

Wayne: What about a reading list, which we'd create,
so the libraries could offer a leaflet of suggested readings?
Durl suggested more generally that the working group explore
any paths to increased access to these materials.

A signup sheet went around.

Vigil

Described Bob Naiman's proposal:
5:00pm Wed March 19th (5 years to the day since Iraq invasion)
would be a good time for passersby and press/TV coverage.
Urbana Veterans Memorial would be a good place, roomy enough,
symbolic, familiar.

The tone of a vigil, without political signs,
seems best for this -- attracting the widest participation.

Durl suggested bringing the photographs of people (Iraqis and
Americans) injured and killed in Iraq.
Barbara agreed.

Events of the Past Week

Immigration Policy guest editorial appeared in News-Gazette
A good op-ed piece on immigration, written by a group including
Mike Mulberry, and signed by many in the community.
Hope others outside our group have noted it too.

Mort: on front page of today's N-G was a glorification of American
soldiers, looking at a woman who'd lost her husband
"people sent to the scorched earth of Iraq" -- images of a
remote barren Arab country.
Nowhere is there any mention of horrors that soldiers have
inflicted on people in Iraq and elsewhere...
Sees a drumbeat in News-Gazette to do this explicit support
of the war, over and over again. It's all phony.

Maybe on Air AWARE there might be discussion of what this
propaganda does.

Demonstration in solidarity with Gaza (last Monday 3/3 on UofI Quad)
Eric: 20-30 people showed up (including some we hadn't seen before)
DaveH: Had quite a good turnout for a day with such lousy weather.
Several African-American students, passing by on a tour,
chanted along with us as they passed by.

Conrad mentioned an inter-religious group [whose name I missed] --
representatives of Jewish/Hindu/Buddhist/Unitarian/
Catholic/Mennonite/Muslims were on the panel -- attempting
to share, and seek commonality in spirit (if not in theology).
They'll be sponsoring Invite Your Neighbor to Dinner:
interested people can sign up to host a dinner -- or to be
a guest -- to get acquainted, listen to one another.
Date not yet set but it'll be some time in April.

Conrad read the Public Square announcement of "The People Speak".
Several of us heard him -- sounded fine.

Upcoming Events

Mon 3/10 7:00pm IDF Wisegarver Lounge, Springfield & Wright
Showing of the Vietnam-era (1972) film, "Winter Soldier".
Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) fundraiser for
the upcoming "Winter Soldier Investigation II" in Wash. DC, 3/13-16

Is the film available for those who can't attend on Monday?
[Yes, That's Rentertainment has a copy.]

Tue 3/11 4-6pm Armed Forces Recruiting Station,
across Town Center Dr. from Menards
Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and
Campus Anti-War Network (CAN) will be out at new
North Champaign military recruiting center.

The CUMTD 2(red) bus goes there from campus;
or if you need a ride contact Alex (akueny2 {at} uiuc.edu)
before Monday night.

Tue 3/11 7:00pm (6pm rehearsal) Urbana City Council Chambers
"The People Speak: American Voices, Some Famous, Some Little Known"
Live readings from Howard Zinn's book.
Could still use readers -- if you are willing please write back!

Wed 3/12 noon UofI Hopkins dormitory ("6-pack")
CAN will give a talk on the anti-war movement. Food provided.

Thu 3/13 11am-1pm UofI Quad
Rally and protest. Come if you can -- hoping for a massive turnout
to let the world know we do not support this war!

** Anyone willing to speak (3-5 mins) on AWARE's behalf
during the speaking part of the protest, noon-12:50?

AWARE can have a table there too (postcards!).
Mark Mallon, mmallon2 {at} uiuc.edu, seems to be the contact person. 

Org. by Campus Greens (and probably others as well).

Fri 3/14 6:00-7:30 pm -- Lincoln Hall room 106
Live satellite broadcast of "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan"
events in Washington, DC: veterans opposed to the war tell their
sides of the story, speaking on what they've witnessed.
Organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War.

[At AWARE meeting Eric H. mentioned a different location --
the IMC -- and that the event would be televised on both
Friday and Saturday. But I'm not sure: IMC calendar
doesn't show a booking. Can anyone confirm? Will Winter Soldier II
be televised locally any time Saturday, or is it Friday only? -SL]

Karen mentioned that Meg Miner will be among those present in DC.

Sat 3/15 noon Champaign Public Library room "A"
Know Your Rights: Tenant and Employee Rights
Talk and Q&A by UofI law student groups: Street Law,
Black Law Students Association, National Lawyers Guild.

Wed 3/19 5pm Urbana Veterans Memorial, Broadway & Main, Urbana
Vigil for the beginning of the 6th year of Iraq occupation.

Fri-Sun 4/4-6 Chicago
Illinois Coalition for Peace & Justice annual conference

Wed 4/9 7:30pm Channing-Murray Foundation
Peter Rohloff and Magda Sotz Mux:
"Indigenous Communities and Development
Work Perspectives from Guatemala"

Thu 4/24 7:30pm Channing-Murray Foundation
Carolyn Treadway:
"Awakening from our Trance: Reversing Global Climate Change"

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