[Peace] AWARE meeting minutes for 6/4/06

[Stuart Levy]

Gabe facilitated, Stuart took notes.

0.  Speaker: Illinois Peace Alliance (15 minutes)

Karen Johnson, state coordinator for the Department of Peace campaign,
came down from Joliet to tell us about the idea -- see www.thepeacealliance.org.
Briefly, its scope would be broad, both international and domestic -- from
seeking alternatives to war, to human rights and economic rights,
to reducing domestic violence, to reforming the criminal justice system
(Karen mentioned the Restorative Justice movement).  There would be
a cabinet-level Secretary of Peace and Nonviolence.

Bills have been introduced in both the US House (by Dennis Kucinich,
now up to 64 co-sponsors including 5 of IL's 19, though not Tim Johnson)
and in the Senate (by Mark Dayton, co-sponsored by Jim Jeffords).

The political campaign aims to have (I think) a coordinator for each state, 
and several people in each congressional district -- district team leader,
media coordinator, legislative liaison, outreach coordinator, etc.
Ariane is the media coordinator for us in IL 15th district; I think other
local posts are open.  Anyone interested?

If interested, you can contact Karen at kjohnson {at} draftnet.com.

There'll be a Midwest Regional Dept-of-Peace-campaign meeting in
Kalamazoo, MI on July 21-23.  If they get 20 people going via Chicago,
they'll book an Amtrak train car -- a Peace Train -- $28 Chicago<->Kalamazoo.
As of last Sat they had 6.

[I arrived late, only heard a bit of what Karen said at Sun 6/4 AWARE
meeting, so this account is a digest from what she'd said on
Sat 6/3 and from thepeacealliance.org web site.]

Paul Mueth interviewed Karen on WEFT on Sunday afternoon too -- she and
Ariane headed there after speaking to AWARE.  Thanks to Carl for
arranging that!
 

1. News of the Week (10 minutes)

2. Introductions (5 minutes)

A pretty full house -- maybe 20 people -- including two welcome
newcomers, Victoria and (?) Peter, who've recently moved to town,
and three of May's nieces, also very welcome!


3. New Ideas: (15 minutes)

Festivals.

  Several are coming up:
    Taste of Champaign-Urbana, West Side Park (already booked)
	(Fri 6/23 5PM-9PM, Sat 6/24 11AM-9PM, Sun 6/25 12-5PM)
	(AWARE booth already booked)

    Champaign-Urbana Days, Douglass Park in north Champaign
	(Fri 8/11 5:30-9PM, Sat 8/12 10AM-5PM)
	(no charge for a place there)

    Sweet Corn Festival, downtown Urbana
	(Fri 8/26 5-11PM, Sat 8/27 11AM-11PM)
	($25 to have a booth on Friday, $50 on Saturday)
	(Durl: unsure whether we, as a non-profit, need liability insurance.)

  comments:
   These are popular events -- many people have come to our tables
   in past years.  We should attend.

   C-U Days especially would bring us to a community we don't see that much of.

   Tempting to not attend the Farmer's Market on these festival Saturdays,
   since we only have one umbrella/table/etc., and to avoid
   overstretching AWARE volunteers -- these events take a lot of time.
   [For at least the sweetcorn fest] if we're present at all,
   we must staff the booth the entire day.

   For the Sweetcorn Festival, we need to sign up by July 14th,
   but earlier will get us a better site -- last year we were
   close to a band -- hard on conversation.

   We'll return to this next week.   Jan and Durl will have pass
   signup sheet to gauge interest, see what we can cover.  


4. Working Groups: (30 minutes)

Finances

   Have $2533 in the treasury "but we have proposals for expenditures".

4th of July Parade

   Float planning meeting, 7:00PM Mon June 5th at Jan & Durl's,
   2007 George Huff Drive in Urbana.  Like to have as many
   creative minds as possible -- or if you have ideas and can't
   attend, send e-mail.

Billboards

   We decided last week to drop the "Silence Gives Consent"/dove billboard,
   but instead to go for one to promote the advisory referendum:

    [X] Bring Troops Home Now
    [X] Impeach Bush/Cheney
    Vote Nov. 7th

   Apparently the billboard business is good -- Adams Outdoor Adv.
   were too busy to meet with Durl & Jan last Thu or Fri as planned.

   Will try again this week.  Several people expressed interest in
   attending a meeting at Adams (on north Neil just N of post office) --
   Durl will send e-mail when there's a meeting time set.
   [That turned out to be Wed 6/7 at 2PM -- how'd it go?]
   
   Not clear whether Adams will agree to anything mentioning impeachment --
   they've already turned it down in one form.  As Bob I. notes,
   we're victims of one kind of media consolidation, as Adams is now
   the only billboard game in town.

   A firm No from them might make for better publicity ("Banned in Boston")
   than the billboard itself would.  And if it came soon, we could put our
   own billboard on the 4th-of-July float!

Main Event

   June is Torture Awareness Month -- Don passed out ~300 flyers on 6/3.

   TASSC group (www.tassc.org) is organizing a series of events
   [including a national call-in day on June 23rd].

   One event at Illinois Disciples Foundation (Springfield & Wright):
   on June 22nd at 7:00PM, IDF will host a documentary on the use of torture.

AWARE Presents

   Kim Abel will speak about times she's volunteered at Walter Reed Army
   Hospital, working with psychiatric patients.  She'll be here
   Thursday August 10th, just before the troop-welcome-home event weekend
   (and just before C-U Days too).  Might invite Dr. David Gill and
   Tim Johnson to attend.  Jan has tentatively booked the Urbana Library.

   IL State Rep. Karen Yarbrough is supporting the push in the IL State
   Legislature to petition for impeachment proceedings against Bush.
   [a little digging after the meeting turned up this: Yarbrough has
    submitted a bill, and there's an on-line petition in support of it.  See
      http://www.impeachbush.tv/impeach/state_il.html
    - Stuart]
   
   Naomi Jakobsson is speaking at Urbana City Hall at 5:00PM on Wednesday.
   Maybe, says Jan, we can ask her whether she'd like to support this too.

Church Presence

   Carl regrets we didn't have a Church Presence at St. John's today
   (Pentecost), and so does May.  "If indeed this is the season of
   the Prince of Peace, operationalizing that would be appropriate."  
   Didn't have quite enough people lined up though.

Anti-Racism/Courtwatch

    Biweekly Court Watch protest a week from Wednesday (6/14, 1PM, outside
    Urbana courthouse).   Patrick Thompson's pre-trial hearing will be
    at 9:00AM on Tue 6/13 -- there'll be observers in the courtroom --
    and more are welcome.  [Thanks to Brian Dolinar for clarifying.]

    C-U Citizens for Peace and Justice are focusing on the five deaths
    among prisoners in Champaign county jail in last (year and a half?
    three years?) -- 'way out of proportion.  One man died just last
    Sunday, with several stories as to why -- heart attack?  But he'd
    choked on a plastic bag, containing -- drugs?  If so, where would
    he have gotten them, in jail, having only just been arrested,
    and what would be the jail system's responsibility?

Yard Signs

    Durl reports that the vendor [Donnelly-Cole?] *can* put a
    different graphic on each side, at no extra charge.  Something like

       (one side)                    (other side)

      [X] US Out of Iraq          [X] Impeach Bush/Cheney
      Vote Yes Nov 7th            Vote Yes Nov 7th


    The "US Out of Iraq" wording covers everybody --
    not just troops but contractors as well.  We liked it.

    How many should we get?  100 signs (printed, folded, with wires,
    shipping included) cost $544; or we can get 250 for $863.
    If we order *now* (Monday) we'll have them in time for the August events.

    After some debate we resolved to go with 250 signs, despite the cost.

    The price break is enough that we can sell them a good deal cheaper,
    say $3 rather than $5, and we'll have lots of chances to sell them
    at the Farmer's Market, etc.  The hope is to mobilize voters in general --
    not just to support the referendum alone but on allied issues as well.
    And at a lower price we'll sell more signs.

    Democratic procedure: we held a straw poll in which maybe 4/5ths of
    those present raised hands in support of going for 250.  But,
    Randall noted, if we decide by consensus than any objection should
    stop the action.  So, were there any objections?  One person
    said he'd prefer to get 100 rather than 250, but didn't feel so
    strongly as to raise an objection.  So we'll get 250.

Walk for Justice

    Voices for Creative Non-Violence is organizing a walk from Springfield
    to Chicago over June 6th-17th.  Jan passed a letter around with
    itinerary; anyone interested in participating should contact Jeff Leys
    (jeffleys {at} vcnv.org or 773-878-3815) as the schedule may change.
    [More on http://www.vcnv.org/]

C.R.O.W. (Committee for the Reform of WEFT)

  Carl announced the formation of C.R.O.W. (motto, "support the CAWS").
  CROW is not an AWARE working group, but may be of interest to some of us.
  Contact Carl or Randall if you'd like to be on its mailing list.

  There's to be a WEFT Associates' meeting Wedneday 6/7, 7:00-9:00PM,
  on the north side of the 2nd floor of the Illinois Terminal building
  in downtown Champaign.  Among other things, there'll be a vote
  for (some?) WEFT board members, and one of the candidates is Linda Evans,
  whom some of us know from AWARE.

  Only WEFT associates may vote, but others may speak (for example,
  if you'd like to speak in support of Linda).

  Someone asked what's required to be a WEFT associate.  The answer:
    - be a member (pay the annual contribution)
    - have attended at least one prior associates' meeting
	within the past year
    - do some kind of volunteer work at the station
	within the past year

     

5. Last Week's Events (15 minutes for 5 and 6)

Jobs with Justice organized a WALMART protest (concurrent with its
shareholders' meeting?) on Friday 6/2.  About 30 people came,
some wearing haz-mat suits!  The News-Gazette had a photo.

There'll be talks in Danville with coal miners, trying to ensure
their right to unionize.  [Missed who's doing the other side(s) of the
talking -- JwJ people?]

The new Appleby's at Curtis & Neil is another issue, as they're
using non-union labor.

6. Upcoming Events

On WEFT 90.1FM from 6-7PM on Monday, Carl presents "Telling Time",
an extended version of his News Notes.

Next Sunday, 2-4PM at Joe & Linda Weber's house, 1820 Lyndhurst Dr. in
Savoy, there'll be a house party for US Congressional candidate
Dr. David Gill -- all are invited to come and meet him.

See also the Court Watch-related events above.

  -- Stuart