[Peace] AWARE minutes 7/25/04

Mon Jul 26 10:30:58 CDT 2004

I've posted the minutes to our website (anti-war.net) with Al's
clarifications along with some other editing and clarification. A copy of
that follows...

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 for Carl's posting on the peace-discuss
mailing list.

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 weapons.

U.S. Used Guantanamo Bay techniques at Abu Ghraib

Democratic National Convention begins tomorrow 7/26/04 in Boston Mass.

Protesters are to be pigeonholed in free speech "cages". Policy seems to
severely limit constitutional rights. Dennis Kucinich 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 Bush 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 one of
AWARE's commentaries were 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. Current 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
mentioned that all radio stations in Illinois have to apply to get
broadcast licenses renewed this year. 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 diligently 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 [ed. note (REC) - the commission later backed out of the
vote] . The primary opposition came from the democratic mayor of Urbana.
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 Attorney 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).
  Our lawyer requested them to clarify the policy in writing.

  -Boundaries of the city property (dispute with business Tire's Plus
  about where private property begins)

  -Towing ordinance- Susan has researched this and will provide info on
  the Peace-discuss lists

  -Leafleting-Bob Finch requested that officers be reminded of the
  agreement with the police that allows us to leaflet at the Prospect
  for Peace demonstrations.

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

AWARE table at Boardman's Art Theater- Jan Kruse. People 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.

Urbana City Council members are asking for help in opposing the proposal
put forth by council member Milton Otto to create two new "at-large seats"
on the Urbana City Council, which would slant representation toward voter
turn-out and away from actual population. Come to the Urbana City Council
meeting this monday 7/26/04 at 7:30PM at the Urbana City Council Chambers
400 S Vine St. to voice opposition.

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 :)

R

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alfred Kagan" <akagan at uiuc.edu>
To: "Gabriel Stanton" <ggstanto at hotmail.com>; <peace at lists.groogroo.com>
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2004 9:49 AM
Subject: Re: [Peace] AWARE minutes 7/25/04

: Gabe, thanks for doing the minutes.  Here are a couple of clarifications:
:
: AWARE commentaries on WILL.  We decided to do a set of commentaries.
: Randall's first commentary was aired.  After that,the station
: developed a policy for such commentaries.  This policy limits
: commentaries to local and regional issues, thus excluding all our
: commentaries. All radio stations in Illinois must get license
: renewals by December 2004. See the FCC website for more information.
:
: Legal Committee Meeting with City of Champaign -- Leafletting.  The
: Police will remind all the  officers about the terms of our agreement.
: -- 
:
:
: Al Kagan
: African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
: Africana Unit, Room 328
: University of Illinois Library
: 1408 W. Gregory Drive
: Urbana, IL 61801, USA
:
: tel. 217-333-6519
: fax. 217-333-2214
: e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu
: _______________________________________________
: Peace mailing list
: Peace at lists.groogroo.com
: http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace