[Peace] AWARE Minutes for June 8th

[David Green]

Minutes for AWARE Meeting
June 8, 2003

Facilitator: Ryan
Minutes: David

1. News: 

13,000 immigrants (mostly Arab/Muslim) face prospect
of deportation after registering with authorities (so
much for playing by the rules). Massive campaign
turned up less than a dozen with “terrorist ties,”
unspecified.

Testimony of John Ashcroft before Congressional
sub-committee—some aggressive questioning reported by
an African-American congresswoman from California.

Support HCR111, a bill calling for an investigation
into the death of Rachel Corrie. You can listen to the
moving interview with her parents on Democracy Now.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/06/174232

FCC ruling on media consolidation may be challenged by
Congress.

Francisco Franco still dead, while no WMDs yet found.
Alleged mobile biological weapons labs turn out to be
Stanley Steamers. Carpets in one of Saddam Hussein’s
palaces discovered to be remarkably clean, and under
extended warranty.

2. Farmers’ Market: 

A beautiful Saturday brought $107 into AWARE’s
coffers. Protest music CDs should be for sale this
Saturday. Urbana official advises that we may sell
items related to our organization’s purpose.

Tabling for CO/military in the schools also occurred.
Mike Simon noted that 57% of enlistee’s qualify for no
college funds. Visit www.objector.org for more info.
For example, while the maximum received is $15,575,
$1,200 of that is paid for by the serviceperson. And
“two-thirds of all Montgomery GI Bill participants are
paying non-refundable deposits of $1,200 without
receiving a dime in return!”

Durl Kruse would like to set up display of U.S. Flag,
Peace Flag, and Corporate Flag, ask interested
passers-by to complete survey regarding meaning of
U.S. Flag: “What does the U.S. flag symbolize to you
personally?” (18 choices from democracy to imperialism
to materialism). This was generally approved, although
an objection to U.S. flag display was voiced. This
will be discussed again before possible June 28th
display at Farmers’ Market.

3. Town Meeting:

Linda reported that things are on track for July 2nd
discussion of civil liberties, but that WILL will not
specifically invite a Muslim representative. It was
suggested that AWARE be represented by either Ricky
Baldwin or a speaker representing the Muslim
community. There will be speakers from ACLU, AWARE,
Champaign Police, Library and Info Science, Political
Science, and the Mark Thompson Institute of Sidewalk
Management. It was stated that WILL is concerned with
reaching a wider audience with this forum.

4.  Finances: $1,785.86, plus Farmers’ Market and
meeting proceeds.

5.  July 4th Parade: Ricky has found a flatbed truck
for inexpensive rental. The primary image suggested by
the working group is to show a tank taking aim at a
schoolhouse, suggesting the choice between spending on
the military or on education. The theme of the parade
is education. We are allowed to leaflet in the crowd,
but not from the parade itself.

An article called “Lessons of the Fourth of July in
Greensboro” was distributed, with some good ideas to
apply to our efforts.

6.  Non-violent resistance working group: the group
considered the appropriate timing of the use of
nonviolent resistance, and links to other groups with
progressive causes. The next meeting will be on July
18th at Jay Mittenthal’s house, including watching an
episode from A Force More Powerful about Danish
resistance during WWII.

7.  Linda Evans will be announcing a date for a
meeting at her house on the issue of racism and
AWARE’s related efforts, for later this month.

8.  A request from Lisa Chason was passed along
regarding a project producing stickers with names of
Iraqi civilians killed during war. It was agreed to
try to obtain some of these stickers and post them
legally (if possible). Sharon Courvee also suggested
sidewalk chalking as a good way of communicating our
message, which has not yet been outlawed in C-U.

9. A working group was formed to provide more
information and education about “less popular” wars,
especially in Africa, such as in the Congo.

10. Finally, an article was distributed called “Race
and Criminalization: Black Americans and the
Punishment Industry,” by Angela Davis.

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