[Peace-discuss] Midwest Liberty Fest - a short report

[C. G. Estabrook]

I and several other AWAREists -- and some other people from C-U as well -- have been at the Midwest Liberty Fest in Du Quoin, IL, this weekend.

It's been quite interesting  -- half the participants are nuts, and the other half are dealing with the real political questions of the day in novel and interesting ways. 

The problem is that it's impossible to tell the two groups apart. 

Anti-war sentiment is general. I made a big mistake by not bringing some of the Farmers' Market table goodies.  I walked in wearing a US TROOPS OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST button, and someone immediately asked me where he could get one.  I gave him mine (I had another) but wished I'd brought a lot of stuff.

It was practically a four-hour drive to get here (the weather was bad), so I doubt that any of us will be back for Sunday night's AWARE meeting.  So, a few bits of meeting business:

--[1] AWARE on the Air will be recorded at the usual time on Tuesday, 1pm in the Urbana City Council chambers.

--[2] We should try to have a big Main Event the first Saturday in November, before the weather gets too bad.  We might want to discuss a flyer a bit early, given that the Peace Laureate is about to make his Big Decision on AfPak.  (I guess that's the unavoidable subject.)

--[3] Someone mentioned the Public Square spots -- WILL's Pacification Program for social responsibility -- and I think we should make a concentrated effort to get anti-war talk on that and the (few) other outlets we have around town.   Perhaps we're spending too much time talking to ourselves (not that I want to stop that) without including others.  We should be including Hamlet's yet-unknowing world... (Perhaps be could stage a liberal-vs-left brawl in the letter column of the N-G; it would be a change form the usual right-vs-far-right.)

--[4] People should go see the Station Theatre's 'Rachel Corrie'.  The theater has been quite timorous about it (dropping D. Green from a talk-back session, e.g.), and they've been getting a lot of pressure form local Israel-Lobbyists.  What can we do to put Israel's crimes, as sketched in this show, in the context of US policy? We'll talk about it on AOTA, but we need other venues.

--[5] The dismay expressed in a recent post by Mort makes me think that we should perhaps go to a once-a-month meeting and do more local organizing netwise.  Thoughts?

The streets in this southern Illinois town of perhaps 6,000 people are dark -- the lamplighter hasn't been around yet to trim the wicks in the streetlights -- and I'm typing this by fire-light on a wood-burning computer...  More anon.

Solidarity, CGE