[Peace] Update: Need help! (Democracy Now! Petition)

[Randall Cotton]

Hi again,

I just set up the petition at the AWARE tent at Taste of Champaign/Urbana.
"The Taste" is now underway (as of 5PM today) and runs through the weekend.
It's easy to find the AWARE table - it's the absolute closest tent to the
corner of State and Church.

Check out this map of "The Taste" - AWARE is booth "O" (capital letter O
there, not zero):
http://www.champaignparkdistrict.com/taste/ne.htm

So the upshot of this is that you can stop by anytime over the weekend at
"The Taste" to sign the Democracy Now! petition. Hours of "The Taste" are:

Friday, June 25, 5:00 - 9:00 pm
Saturday, June 26, 11:00 am - 9:00 pm
Sunday, June 27, Noon - 5:00 pm

Also, I put copies of the petition at the AWARE table in Boardman's Art
Theater. So when (note that I didn't say "if") you go see "Fahrenheit 911",
you can sign it there as well.

There will be other opportunities to sign the petition as well - I'll post
to this list as they come up.

R

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Randall Cotton" <recotton at earthlink.net>
To: <peace at lists.groogroo.com>
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 4:19 PM
Subject: Need help! (Democracy Now! Petition)


: Hi all,
:
: I've been working on getting UPTV to broadcast Democracy Now! on
: Champaign/Urbana's cable-TV system. This would be on channel 6, Urbana
: Public Television (UPTV) and ideally, DN! would be broadcast live at 7AM
: every weekday. I've been keeping AWARE folks up to date on my efforts and
: they have endorsed this project at AWARE meetings and have also approved
: funding (if necessary) for up to $350 (that would be the maximum cost
needed
: to implement this proposal for the first year).
:
: But I need folks to help me with a petition (either by just signing it
: yourself or by signing other folks up) to help get this going.
:
: The petition reads:
:
: --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
: We, the undersigned residents of the Champaign/Urbana area, thank the
Urbana
: Public Television (UPTV) Commission for considering the acquisition of
Free
: Speech TV (FSTV) and regular broadcasts of "Democracy Now" from FSTV, and
:
: We strongly encourage the commission to vote in favor of making FSTV
: available for retransmission on UPTV and to broadcast the live feed for
: "Democracy Now!" every weekday at 7AM.
: --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
:
: And I'm hoping to get at least 200 signatures by Monday, July 12th, when
the
: UPTV Commission has their next meeting.
:
: You can sign the petition yourself at the AWARE table for Taste of
: Champaign/Urbana (which starts 5PM today and runs through the weekend). I
: also plan to have it available at the AWARE table at Boardman's Art
Theater
: during Fahrenheit 911's run (the film starts today, of course, and I'll be
: there at the 7:30 show with petition in-hand). I'll also have it at AWARE
: meetings and other gatherings.
:
: And please reply to me if you're interested in signing folks up yourself
: (that would help a lot and I'd really appreciate it) - I'll get you blank
: copies of the petition.
:
: If you're curious about all this, but want to know more, read on...
:
: You may or may not know this, but Democracy Now! (democracynow.org on the
: web) does indeed have accompanying video. While it was born as a strictly
: audio program for radio, for some time now DN! has been broadcasting as a
: full-blown video program. Usually, the video is just of Amy and any guests
: she has in the studio, but increasingly there's also video footage of
: newsmakers, speeches and documentaries.
:
: Of course, that's not the only reason to get DN! available on UPTV. While
: you can hear DN! on WEFT, 90.1 FM at 4PM on weekdays, the program is
: actually produced at 7AM central time, so it's 9 hours old by the time it
is
: rebroadcast on WEFT. My proposal is to broadcast it LIVE as it happens on
: cable channel 6, 7AM every weekday  morning. In addition, many people are
: unable to listen to Democracy Now! on WEFT because it broadcasts during
: working hours. Finally, having Democracy Now! available on cable-TV would
: make it easy for people to record the program using a VCR or DVR (Digital
: Video Recorder - e.g. Tivo) and more accessible for folks who don't often
: listen to the radio. I believe many folks may discover DN! for the first
: time by accident just by flipping through their cable channels and
anything
: that makes independent, alternative, non-profit news and analysis more
: accessible to the general population can only accomplish good things.
:
: There are already over 100 public-access cable-TV stations across the
: country that broadcast DN!, so this isn't exactly a bold new precedent.
: Check out:
:
: http://democracynow.org/stations.pl?op=fullsearch&broadcast=tv
:
: to see a complete list.
:
: But I do need help. In particular, I feel I need to put together a
petition
: to influence the UPTV Commission (the body that governs/advises UPTV).
I've
: already made a proposal to the UPTV Commission at their most recent
meeting
: to acquire broadcasting rights for "Free Speech TV", which will, in turn
: allow them to broadcast Democracy Now! (which is one of Free Speech TV's
: programs). They'll be considering my proposal at their next meeting on
July
: 12th. It's not a certainty that they'll vote to approve this proposal. I
: hope to have 200 signatures by then (and more after that) to help
influence
: the commission.
:
: Feel free to reply to this message (but please don't include the whole
peace
: list) if you'd like to know more. Or you can contact me by phone at
: 722-8470.
:
: Thanks =8-)
: R
: