[Peace] minutes of 8/29/2004 AWARE meeting

[Randall Cotton]

Facilitating: Carol
Minutes: Randall
Attendance: about 25

1. Introductions (a few new faces - yay!)

2. News of the week - Carl
10 items in 10 minutes - 13 total in the version separately posted to
AWARE's peace-discuss mailing list, thanks to Carl.

[Note: Carl will be out of town for the next three meetings - perhaps
someone or the group, collectively, could make it a point to review
important news items until Carl gets back]

Subsequent news discussion:

Highlighted: A detailed article in the NY Times on the underreported
evaporation of U.S. control in the western Anbar province of Iraq (including
Fallujah and Ramadi). [ed. note (REC): the story is at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/international/middleeast/29province.html?pagewanted=print&position=

Highlighted: Juan Cole's blog "Informed Comment" and, in particular, his
posting that starts out referencing the story on a possible Israeli spy deep
in the Pentagon and jumps off from there to describe, in fair detail, much
of the mechanics of just how Washington is kept so Pro-Israeli. [ed. note
(REC): the blog entry is at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/international/middleeast/29province.html?pagewanted=print&position=
but scroll up to see an additional, extraordinary amount of additional,
detailed material and insight on the Israeli spy story.]

Highlighted: A Nightline story on U.S. prison abuse similar to Abu Ghraib,
some conducted under George W. Bush when he was governor of Texas. [ed. note
(REC) - the story is at:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Nightline/World/texas_prison_abuse_040826.html

3. Presentation and Discussion with Faith from the IMC on their financial
straits.

The IMC is running out of money. When the city of Urbana shut down the back
room of the IMC for code violations, a substantial source of income (all the
IMC shows they held there) essentially evaporated. The shows group can only
break even now since they need to rent space from Channing-Murray to conduct
events. While the Capital Campaign Fund remains untouched (as it must), if
the IMC doesn't start getting hundreds of dollars of additional income every
month, they may soon no longer be able to pay rent. IMC folks are now making
urgent appeals for new members, membership renewals and folks who can make
regular monthly contributions to sustain the IMC until they can complete the
purchase of a new building (where shows could once again provide income). To
become more informed and get involved about these finance issues as well as
serious discussions regarding a new building for the IMC, it's important to
attend the next Finance meeting next Wednesday, 7PM at the IMC. Membership
enrollment forms were distributed.

4. Paul Patton's new tri-fold pamphlet "Bush Nuclear Weapons Policy: A Grave
and Gathering Danger" is ready to go. He requested that it be tabled at
AWARE events, stocked at the Boardman's Art Theater table and distributed at
AWARE's "Prospect for Peace" monthly street demonstrations with AWARE funds
for photocopying (300 copies to start). All requests granted by consensus
with no objection.

5. Prospect for Peace. Next demonstration is set for Saturday, September
4th, same time and place as usual - Prospect at Marketview, 2 to 4PM.

6. Farmer's Market: (David and others) On for next week. We ran out of lawn
signs at the end of the Sweetcorn Festival, but a new shipment has come in.

7. WILL Commentary. (Randall, David) David Green made a slight revision of
his submitted commentary for broadcast on WILL and it was enthusiastically
received by Jay Pearce. No news yet on what happened at last Monday's WILL
meeting where our concerns were to be discussed. Randall has an e-mail in to
Jay Pearce to get an update on that meeting as well as a request to set up
the promised "early September" meeting to continue working toward resolution
of our concerns regarding the arbitrarily restrictive policy on
listener-submitted commentary. Carl made note of News-Gazette publisher John
Foreman's editorials regarding free speech (including one in today's N-G)
and reminded us of the opportunity to recruit Foreman to this cause.

8. Legal Committee:  (Susan) We have had some formal response from the City
Attorney, Joe Hooker, regarding our concerns and requests related to
police-conduct, business conduct and videotaping at our monthly Prospect for
Peace demonstrations, but much remains to be resolved. Maps of the
Prospect/Marketview intersection were provided to us that contained much
information on right-of-way and property lines, but it was inadequate
because many unknowns remain, particularly with the recent construction to
create a new turn-lane at the intersection. Susan will get in touch with our
attorney to continue making progress.

9. "Postcards for Peace" (Peter). This was an event and fundraising project
from two years ago that was very successful. Dozens of artists from the area
contributed artwork, which was then auctioned and their works were turned
into postcards for sale. Peter plans on organizing another event,
tentatively around the beginning of November. Others volunteered to assist.
A meeting may be announced soon.

10. Democracy Now! on UPTV (Randall) The big meeting is two weeks away -
September 13th at noon at the Urbana City Council Chambers at the City
Building, 400 S. Vine St., Urbana. It's crucial that folks show up in person
at this meeting of the Urbana Public Television Commission to demonstrate
the substantial support for getting the video edition of "Democracy Now!"
broadcast on public-access cable. I'll be on the radio next Sunday at 10AM
on WEFT 90.1 FM for an hour to talk about the issue and encourage folks to
attend the upcoming UPTV commission meeting. Total petition signatures are
now over 1000, but there's no reason to stop now.

11. Finance Report: current balance is over $2400. Farmer's Market and the
AWARE table at Boardman's Theater are doing well and it looks like the same
can be said for Urbana Sweetcorn Festival as well. [ed. note (REC) - though
we were told we could not set up our table on Friday, so we lost out there
even though we paid $100 for our spot at the Festival =8-{ ]

12. September 12th discussion prior to next AWARE meeting. Though Mort
Brussel, the primary organizer, still seems to be out of town, all
indications are that this even will indeed take place. It will be a
discussion of voting strategy in this year of electoral dilemma - should one
vote for Kerry just to vote against Bush even though you'd have to hold your
nose to do so? Or should you stick to principle and vote for (or write-in)
the candidate you really would prefer? This discussion will be based on
three articles that Mort identified. They are at:

www.wpunj.edu/~newpol/issue37/Shalom37.htm
www.wpunj.edu/~newpol/issue37/Harrison37.htm
www.wpunj.edu/~newpol/issue37/Hirsch37.htm

12. Events of the past week:

Quad Day - we didn't wind up having a table, but we had literature at the
Channing-Murray table. Many of the anti-recruitment trifolds were taken.

13. New Ideas:

Lots of stimulating discussion here.

There was a call for new efforts to help draft-age kids with recruitment and
draft information. There was substantial interest in this. The past work of
Mike Simon and Paul King was noted. Susan reminded us that Sue Keller, head
of the Urbana Middle School and Leal School has an interest in this as well.
There may be critical mass forming for a new working group in this area.
Mention was made of an important resource for anti-draft/conscientious
objector information - www.nodraftnoway.org .

The discussion turned to what it would take to get folks who are vehemently
against the war, but who are not yet politically active, to cross the
threshold and get involved, particularly military folks who served and could
offer perhaps the most compelling testimony against the war. We were
reminded of the strong positive effect of AWARE's event back in April,
hosting speaker Rosemarie Dietz Slavenas, an Illinois mother whose son died
in Iraq. It was noted that many in the military would be afraid to speak out
for fear of retribution against them by the military, perhaps putting their
military benefits such as retirement at risk. It was suggested that perhaps
anonymity could be ensured. We were reminded that a major factor in the
ultimate rejection of the war in Vietnam was the revolt against it by
American Armed Forces. The point was made, though, that we should be on
guard against propagating the soldier hero myth (whereby any soldier is
reflexively, but erroneously lauded as a "hero", simply by virtue of being
in uniform or being deployed) and guard against reinforcing the poisonous
presumption that a soldier's life is somehow worth more than another's or
that an American life is somehow worth more than an Iraqi's. The momentum of
this discussion may transform into a future AWARE working group or event.