[Peace-discuss] Yesterdays AWARE demonstration

[Stuart Levy]

Though I won't be at tonight's AWARE meeting, I believe Ron will be, and 
he has the bundle of remaining flyers.   Carl had sent around the flyer 
to peace-discuss, which of course you couldn't receive because of 
hotmail's ongoing snit with the IMC mail system.   I'll pass it along 
separately.

Yes, thanks to Dave for organizing the lunch beforehand!   Please let's 
do that again!

Good for your integrating sign!

As for the white-shirted young men who looked like a frat contingent, 
glad to hear you got a spark from one of them.   Karen M and I spoke 
with them only very briefly, as one expressed surprise: "Who would 
disagree with you?"  I suspect he may share the view of the woman who 
once told us that "No one goes to war because they /want/ to," but they 
didn't stay around long enough to discuss it.   How shall we answer "Who 
would disagree?"

A half-dozen people with bright green shirts reading "Weapons of Mass 
Destruction" turned out to be a team who'd been competing in a 
fundraiser in support of a new building on campus, some sort of 
continuing-education center for wounded veterans.   Good for them.

Two other interactions: one with a young man on a bicycle, Dave, who 
asked what we were about, etc.   I told him about AOTA among other 
things, and he may be interested in appearing on that some time. It 
seems he's suing the Champaign police for having stopped him for having 
stickers for the musical group Insane Clown Posse on his car - it seems 
the FBI has declared that ICP's *followers*, fans of its music, are a 
"gang", and therefore presence of stickers is proof of gang affiliation. 
   The police chewed him out for that.   He has video of the interaction 
and would like to come and show it.     I told him where & when.    [A 
"gang" label is all too analogous to declaring them a terrorist 
organization.     ICP and several followers who've faced arrest, job 
discrimination, etc. are suing the FBI to get the gang association removed.]

Another: a man curious about Don's "Lost: 4th Amendment / If found, 
return to U.S." sign.  We talked about the fourth amendment a bit, and 
the many billions of dollars the US is now spending on mass surveillance 
and data collection in defiance of it.   He seemed well-informed if not 
talkative, and asked about coming to an AWARE meeting, though didn't 
seem to know the local geography - I had to explain to him how to reach 
6th and John from where we were standing.

Also, FYI, our first outdoor Farmer's Market will be next Saturday, May 
10th, 7:45-noon.   Who's in?   I'm pretty sure Karen's car can handle 
transport but don't know whether she'll be free to work any of the 
market time.    I can.

On 5/4/14 10:02 AM, Karen Aram wrote:
>
> Stuart: I neglected to acquire a copy of the leaflet handout you and 
> Carl created, if possible bring one to the meeting tonight? Or, 
> someone can email to me.
>
> David Johnson: the pre-lunch at the Esquire was very nice, gave us a 
> chance to meet up with others, thank you and I hope we can continue. I 
> counted at least 12 people in our demonstration and a lot of positive 
> responses by passerby's.
>
> In my haste to create a poster I wrote up a quick "end the killings, 
> end the wars, end poverty, climate change and nuclear proliferation." 
> This was my attempt at casting a wide net and appeal to all. We all 
> have our special interests which has resulted in our becoming 
> political activists which we tend to focus on, along with the usual 
> media complaints "he said, she said, etc." when on the air. We feel 
> good about ourselves doing what we can to solve the problems of the 
> world by disseminating information, but I wonder where we go from here.
>
> I ask this because I noted a group of young men, coming out of one 
> restaurant and passing by to enter another, they were all wearing 
> white t-shirts, and some held up their fingers in a V-sign, however I 
> noted some laughing, and it didn't appear they were laughing with us, 
> but rather at us, I hope not. Maybe Karen or Stuart or others across 
> the street had a chance to speak with them. I did with one. He stopped 
> to thank me for including "climate change" on my poster, which he sees 
> as a major concern, he appeared genuinely grateful and I wish I'd had 
> the opportunity to discuss with him the inter-relationships between 
> all of the mentioned  issues. Perhaps we can, someone better at it 
> than I, create a leaflet that does relate the critical issues facing 
> the world, keeping it simple in order to be a handout. Perhaps we 
> already have one. I know it's been discussed, but I think if we are to 
> reach the younger segment of society, by young I mean those who will 
> likely still be here 20 or so years from now.
>
> Perhaps we can discuss at this evenings AWARE meeting?

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