[Peace-discuss] financial support question slated for this evening at the AWARE meeting

[Karen Medina]

Are you considering attending tonight's AWARE meeting?

Tonight, at the AWARE meeting, we will be deciding whether to offer
financial support for Brian Terrell's trip to the Middle East,
December 8-28, 2010. He plans to come back and talk to groups about
the trip. Terrell is from Iowa.

[Stuart or Sam Y. or Allison might have more information on this
particular trip, but below is some cool stuff I found out about Brian
Terrell.]

[Financially, AWARE has the policy of suggesting an expenditure one
week and then officially deciding through consensus the following
week, after an open discussion.]

Terrell is a 53-year-old Catholic Worker living in Maloy, Iowa (near
Des Moines) is an active member of Voices for Creative Nonviolence
(with Kathy Kelly)(in 2003, this group openly defied sanctions by
bringing medicines to children and families in Iraq during the Shock
and Awe bombing), Terrell was executive director of the Catholic Peace
Ministry in Des Moines (about 10 years ago). He has also been the
Mayor of Maloy. He and his wife, Betsy Keenan, now live and work on
the farm, "Strangers and Guest Catholic Worker House", in Maloy, Iowa.

Terrell has made several trips to the Middle East before, including
trips to Iraq and Israel. He was arrested in Israel.

Some of you may have heard of Brian Terrell's name for several
reasons. For instance, 25 February 2009, Terrell was one of seven
individuals arrested in Des Moines when they refused to leave U.S.
Sen. Tom Harkin's office. A group of 15 had gathered in the office to
protest continued violence in Gaza and what they perceived as Harkin's
inaction.

Terrell has been arrested many times. February, 2006, he was one of
the "Winter of Our Discontent" protesters that were arrested in a
civil disobedience action at the White House (2/27/06). He has been
arrested for trespassing during protests at numerous numerous nuclear
and military facilities across the United States.

By the way, Iowa has perhaps the most lively, active per-capita peace
movement in the universe. (according to grantlawrence.blogspot.com)

Further reading:
(bio and pictures) "Brian Terrell, part of the dynamic Iowa peace
movement." http://mpalecek.blogspot.com/2009/05/brian-terrell-part-of-dynamic-iowa.html

Interview with Brian Terrell in 2009:
http://grantlawrence.blogspot.com/2009/05/interview-brian-terrell-catholic-worker.html

(interesting news report of the event at Senator Harkin's office)
"Seven Arrested During Protest in Harkin's Des Moines Office", The
Iowa Independent, 2/26/2009
http://iowaindependent.com/12053/seven-arrested-during-protest-in-harkins-des-moines-office

Voices for Creative Nonviolence, (www.vcnv.org)