[Peace-discuss] Oct 16 Chicago: 4:30 pre-AWARE meeting; and, 7:30 tonight, "Life in Iran, A Girl's Story" at Foellinger

[Stuart Levy]

Sam Y is organizing this, but just a reminder:
a bunch of us wanting to go to Chicago for the Oct 16th
Anti-War March/Rally are meeting *today* (Sun) in McKinley Foundation
at 4:30 -- half an hour before the AWARE meeting, in same room --
to plan for transportation etc.

Also: earlier this week, I noticed people energetically chalking
the UofI Quad with announcements of a talk going on this evening, Sun 10/3:
  "Life in Iran, A Girl's Story"
7:30pm, Foellinger Auditorium, Sunday Oct 3rd

This could be a story of human rights and personal experience in Iran,
but the flyer suggests that it doesn't end with that.

It shows two faces: an angry caricature of Ahmadinejad, and a quote
from his recent UN visit, on the subject of the Sept. 11th attacks,
"Don't you feel that the time has come to have a fact finding committee?"

The other, larger face is of a young girl in hijab, and there's
a small outline map of Iran.

Then the list of sponsors:
  Hillel Israel Initiative; Sexual Health Peers; Alpha Epsilon Pi;
  Phillippine Student Association; Illini Conservatives Union;
  College Democrats; College Republicans; Chabad;
  ZBT (Zeta Beta Tau??);
  StandWithUs (a pro-Israel "anti-hate-speech" group)

If this is a human-rights talk, so be it, but if it's
an excuse to demonize Iran and argue that regime change is
regrettable but necessary to protect the rights of women,
just like it was in Iraq in 1991 (remember the
babies-dumped-out-of-incubators fabrication) and in 2003,
and in Afghanistan now, then we should point that out.


I'm thinking to go and hope other AWARE people will too.
At least a couple of people from CIMIC are attending --
one guy, Martin, came and spoke to Ron S and me about this
at the Farmer's Market yesterday.


(P.S. re human rights: Oliver Stone's film, South of the Border,
at the New Art through Wed Oct 6th, points out that "human rights"
has taken the rhetorical place that "freedom" had during the
Cold War, as an excuse for any kind of intervention.)