[Peace] AWARE minutes 7/25/04

[Gabriel Stanton]

AWARE weekly meeting minutes 7/25/04

Facilitator- Al Kagan
Time- Randall
Minutes- Gabriel Stanton
Introductions- About 19 people
News- Carl Estabrook for a complete detail of the news of the week including 
sources used check AWARE’s web site at anti-war.net

Some items of interest (Sorry I couldn’t keep up with Carl’s pace. Reading 
the news is hard enough. Excellent job Carl!.)

Jordan Times compared Iraqi invasion to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

3 of the 911 Hijackers were on the terrorist watch list

Iran may be the next target of bombs by administration who exaggerates the 
threat of this country’s possible development of nuclear reactors

U.S. Used Guantanamo Bay techniques at Abu Ghraib

Democratic National Convention meeting tommorow 7/26/04 in Boston Mass.

Protesters are to be pigeonholed in free speech “cages”. Policy seems to 
severely limit constitutional rights. Dennis Kuccinich backed Kerry and 
called on Nader and his supporters to do the same. Ironically Democrats 
banned them from the convention. Kerry said he would fight terrorism better 
than Israel including Threats to Israel. No mention of the ongoing threats 
to Palestinians.

Working Groups

WILL- Randall- (To provide some brief background Progressive employee Kim 
Kranich proposed a regular weekly spot for commentaries after 2 of AWARE’s 
commentaries were submitted and rejected. Randall hoped that this would make 
getting the commentaries aired since opposing views could also be aired. 
However the station has not accepted the proposal Policy is that WILL wants 
commentary limited to local issues (everyone noted that the effects of the 
Iraq war are many local problems) In addition the radio station is not 
consistent with its policy in regard to all cases. Susan agreed to research 
the organizational structure of WILL to determine why they are so unwilling 
to allow us to air our views. Someone (Carl?) mentioned that all radio 
stations have to appy to get broadcast permits. Perhaps we can send letters 
asking that the station be responsive to the community when we send in 
pledge donations

Urbana Public Television- Randall- Still working dilligently to get 
signatures to air Democracy Now on Urbana’s public television. About 800 
signatures have been collected so far. UPTV commissioner Resnick initiated a 
vote among commission members. 5-1 voted in favor of the proposition. The 
primary opposition came from the democratic mayor of Urbana. The mayor 
didn’t feel that the petition accurately represented the views of Urbana 
cable TV subscribers and he wanted to know if Democracy Now (and Free speech 
TV in general) was people’s first choice for the time slot (7-9AM?) Randall 
wants 10 Urbana cable tv subscribers to fill out a form expressing why they 
support the idea in preparation for the next UPTV meeting on September 13 in 
the Urbana City council chambers. People can plan to attend to offer support 
for Democracy Now ( hard hitting journalism)

Legal Committee-AL, Susan and Randall
Pro Bono lawyer-Bob Finch came with them to the meeting with City Attny Joe 
Hooker, Lt. Gallo and Lt. Murphy (there is a summary on the peace discuss 
list) AWARE members were satisfied with the meeting because it showed that 
AWARE is willing to stand up for its rights especially when they concern the 
safety of people. The primary topics of the meeting were:
-Police response to the threat of vehicular assault(specifically involved in 
a couple of incidents of trucks driving onto the sidewalk nearly hitting 
protesters.
-When and where we are allowed to videotape( policy is that when 
investigation begins we are not allowed to have a camera running. AWARE 
members protested against the arbitrariness of this policy-Our lawyer would 
like them to clarify the policy in writing.
-Boundaries of the city property( dispute with business Tire’s Plus about 
where private propery begins)
-Towing ordinance- Susan has researched this and will provide info on the 
Peace-discuss lists
-Leafletting-Bob Finch had them review the laws which permit us to leaflet 
on public property provided we aren’t in the street.

Farmer’s Market- Durl, Jan A lot of buttons and bumperstickers were sold. 
People were asked to fill out postcards to John Kerry asking him to oppose 
the war and stencils were used to make homemade signs. 21 people requested 
Pre-made Vote out Bush Yard Signs but we weren’t able to order because they 
were back ordered. AWARE agreed to order 50 more Yard signs.  Jan shared 
hate mail corresponding to her letter to the news gazette about beautiful 
yellow Yard Signs.
    AWARE members remarked that a person at the booth was confrontational 
with people. By consensus, AWARE doesn’t want to endorse a particular 
candidate only to highlight the evils of war, racism and corporate control 
of the government.  Durl offered to draw up some guidelines for interacting 
with people at the table and would share them with the group.
      There is a call for someone to take over the job of setting up and 
taking down the table the last week in August when the Kruses will be on 
vacation. Durl and Jan have faithfully set up the table and watched it for 
the entire month.

Tim Johnson meeting- He doesn’t want to meet now or hold a town meeting 
because he doesn’t want to look bad before the election

Art Theater Control Room- Jan Kruse
Peope are still donating money, taking bumper stickers and trying to put 
Kerry literature on the table. We want to keep the table through the current 
showing of Control Room(About corporate media’s interpretation of war in 
Iraq (American and Arabic media) and the upcoming The Corporation about 
connections between corporations and government and corruption. However we 
will need to update the presentation. A working group spontaneously formed 
to this end.

Literature group- Al and Susan are putting together a pamphlet on US foreign 
policy under GW Bush. They will bring it before AWARE next meeting.

Events of the past week-
Many saw documentary on the Republican party’s media outlet Fox News called 
Outfoxed. They said it was good. It is available for rent at the video store 
on sixth and daniel streets in campustown or available for purchase at 
moveon.org



Upcoming events-
Democracy Now coverage of conventions and other events leading to upcoming 
presidential elections on WEFT.


Gabe Stanton’s last show of the political World Beat Revolutions This Monday 
2-4PM The views and opinions are solely those of the speakers and don't 
necessarily represent anyone else


The majority of Urbana City Council members are asking support from the 
current members about the current  membership  because they don't want two 
new at-arge seats to be created based on perceived voter turn-out instead of 
population of districts. Come to the meeting  This monday  7/26/04at 7:30 at 
the Urbana City Council Chambers 400 S Vine St

New Ideas- Randall heard about some requests for static stickers for car 
windows to sell at the farmer’s market and the two following bumper sticker 
slogans;

Do something for the environment, plant a Bush in Texas and Turn Left at the 
next Election “How?” Carl asked :)

_________________________________________________________________
Overwhelmed by debt? Find out how to ‘Dig Yourself Out of Debt’ from MSN 
Money. http://special.msn.com/money/0407debt.armx