[Peace] Minutes of January 18, 2004 AWARE meeting

[Randall Cotton]

Well, my apologies, but I lost the sheet of notes I made for this week's
minutes (I have no idea what happened there and it's really kind of buggin'
me =8-P), so I can only do this from memory. Other folks will have to help
me out on the stuff I miss...

Facilitating: Linda Evans
Attendance: about 15

News of the week:
Carl inquired whether folks wanted his News Notes to be posted to AWARE's
mailing list and the web site. Some folks said yes, but that ultimately it
really should be up to Carl himself.

After Carl's update, there was some discussion on the clash between the Bush
administration's ruling out of direct elections in Iraq and Grand Ayatollah
Ali Al-Sistani's insistence on them.

Events of the past week:

Flyering at the Krannert MLK event went very well - many flyers were
distributed and though security took notice, they didn't give us any static.

Working Group reports:

Ricky gave us an extended review and update on the Prospect for Peace
incident where a Toyota vehicle with license plate "TRENDS 5" drove up on
the curb and threatened AWARE folks while we were demonstrating.

In summary, AWARE folks are unhappy with how the police are handling the
issue and after some discussion, a consensus was reached that Ricky will
request Champaign Police relay to the driver that AWARE would like to
personally meet with him (many volunteered to be available for this meeting)
in order to attempt reconciliation. Ricky would also ask Champaign Police to
relay that if our request is refused, we plan on pressing charges.

Upcoming Events:

Green Tea - 7PM Wednesday in the IMC Middle Room - An Illinois Power
representative is scheduled to attend and municipal power will be discussed.
(Editor's note: in light of Sunday's extended power outage in Urbana, it may
be a lively discussion, and it will be interesting to see if IP keeps their
appointment =8-)

Many MLK events this week sponsored by the UofI. Full details are on the web
at:
http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/04/0112mlk.html

Carlos Euceda of the Confederation of  Aboriginal and Black People of
Honduras (CONPAH) will visit Champaign/Urbana (and hopefully join us at an
AWARE meeting). He will speak at the Channing - Murray Foundation on Oregon
and Matthews Streets in Urbana, 7:00 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 29, 2004. See
separate peace list posting with full details from Bill Taylor.

R