[Peace-discuss] AWARE

[Matt Reichel]

Jenifer - 

It appears that this list has descended into absolute silliness ie juvenile intellectual masturbation from the 3-4 primary posters.

AWARE was initially founded as an answer to the PRC, which used to dominate progressive politics in Champaign-Urbana with its authoritarian, overly-bureaucratic organizing style. On the student end of things, I founded Student Peace Action for those students who had too much self-respect to sit through a PRC meeting. For a few years there, this model of having three organizations, one for students, one for community members and one for people who were able to withstand PRC's inane bureaucracy, was incredibly effective: on the day the war in Iraq began, we had over 1,000 people marching through the streets of Chambana.

It looks as if most of the original organizers of AWARE are long gone, and the group has become the wrong it originally sought to correct, i.e. a top-down group dominated by a few unpleasant personalities.

Best,
Matt

Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:29:50 -0700
From: jencart13 at yahoo.com
To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
Subject: [Peace-discuss] AWARE

Yet more issues today that take time and energy away from peace and justice work...
 
I think about all the good people who have left AWARE because of the unpleasantness, and so I'm hanging on and trying not to become another casualty. But right now I feel so downhearted about all the ugliness that I really don't want to be part of this anymore. 
 
I will say that it is the good people remaining who give me hope that there are better days ahead for AWARE, as well as for our nation and the world.
 --Jenifer

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