[Peace] minutes of 10/15/2005 AWARE meeting

[Randall Cotton]

Calendar:
========
October 16 (Monday) 12 noon - UofI Quad rally with Illinois Green Party
gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney

October 16 (Monday) 6PM - Talk by Illinois Green Party gubernatorial candidate
Rich Whitney, 151 Everitt Lab on campus (NE corner of Wright and Green)

October 16 (Monday) 7PM - Reception with Illinois Green Party gubernatorial
candidate Rich Whitney, Jerusalem Restaurant (601 S. Wright St.)

October 17 (Tuesday) 5PM - Picket in front of Chipotle (528 E. Green) with
Coalition of Immokalee Workers. For more info on this issue, see:
http://www.ciw-online.org/DALF_letter.html .

October 17 (Tuesday) 6PM - Pot-luck (bring food) for the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers folks, IMC basement (School for Designing a Society's space).

October 17 (Tuesday) 8PM - Coalition of Immokalee Workers presentation,
University YMCA.

October 19 (Thursday) 12 noon - Consent-decree hearing, University of Illinois
College of Law, 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave., Champaign. First-come first-serve
seating for the public in a closed-circuit TV room separate from the hearing
proceedings.

October 19 (Thursday) 7PM -  Illinois Disciples Foundation Human Rights film
series "Ghosts of Rwanda" a special two-hour documentary to mark the 10th
anniversary of the Rwandan genocide -- examines the social, political, and
diplomatic failures that converged to enable the genocide to occur. IDF, Wright
and Springfield, Champaign.

October 19 (Thursday) 7PM - Townhall meeting on Champaign Township funding for
the poor (and the associated ballot Referendum). Champaign City Council
Chambers, 102 N. Neil St., Champaign.

October 19 (Thursday) 7PM - Channing-Murray Social Justice Forum - Rachael
Dietkus, Director of Development at the University YMCA, will be speaking on her
experiences serving on the United Nations Human Rights Council.

October 21 (Saturday) 7PM - Troops Home Now/Impeachment Referendum fundraising
party at home of Carl Estabrook, 5 Litchfield Ln, Champaign.

October 23 (Monday) 5:30PM - Troops Home Now/Impeachment Referendum canvassing
in Champaign w/Ricky Baldwin (helpers needed - call Ricky at 328-3037)

October 26 (Thursday) 7-9PM - AWARE Presents: panel discussion: U.S. Foreign
policy regarding Israel and its neighbors (featuring Ken Cuno, Michael Shapiro,
Fred Jahar, Jamal Nassar), moderated by T.J.  Wilson, Urbana City Council
Chambers, 400 S. Vine St., Urbana.

October 26 (Thursday) 7PM - Illinois Disciples Foundation Human Rights film
series (co-sponsored by AWARE) - "SIR! NO SIR!" energetically reveals the untold
story of the GI movement to end the war in Vietnam. IDF, Wright and Springfield,
Champaign.

October 27 (Friday) 4:30-7PM - Public Hearing sponsored by C-U Citizens for
Peace and Justice on the SMART Act (Substance Abuse Management Addressing
Recidivism through Treatment), which provides alternative sentencing and
treatment and education for low-level, drug and prostitution offenders, Urbana
City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine St, Urbana. Refreshments served during
4:30PM-5PM reception.

October 28 (Saturday) time, place TBA - Campus demonstration coinciding with the
called National Day of Action.

November 2 (Thursday) 7PM? - AWARE Presents: Frances Boyle presentation on
Impeachment, Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine St., Urbana

November 5 (Sunday) 7PM - Pre-election Referendum party at Channing-Murray,
Oregon & Matthews, Urbana. Performance by Paul Kotheimer. Refreshments.

==================

News of the week provided by Carl (perhaps posted separately to the list)

Requested addition to agenda:
==================
Announcement by UFPJ for a briefing by phone conference call Wednesday on Iran
and North Korea (see new ideas below)

Financial Report:
==================
income: last week's meeting: $25
Farmer's Market: $77
Referendum fundraiser: $90
balance: $2590

Farmer's Market:
==================
Good turnout at the market yesterday
Only 4 Farmer's Markets left.
Nov. 4th setup/takedown needed (Jan and Durl out of town).

AWARE Presents:
==================
Karen Yarbrough events cancelled
Oct. 26th panel discussion on U.S. Policy regarding Israel/Palestine (see
calendar above)
Nov. 2nd Frances Boyle/Impeachment event (see calendar above)

Anti-Racism/Community Courtwatch:
==================
Police Review Board - There is a proposal bubbling up within the City of
Champaign regarding a Citizen's Police Review Board (less effective than the one
in later stages of consideration in Urbana).

Consent-decree Hearing - 7 Anti-Racism Working Group folks are signed up to be
in attendance within the closed hearing room this Thursday (see event details in
calendar above). There is a separate room for first-come, first-serve public
viewing by closed-circuit TV. This is a status hearing requested by the Federal
judge overseeing the decree, out of concern that Champaign Unit 4 schools are
not favorably meeting the decree's provisions.

SMART Act - Public hearing is approaching on October 27th, sponsored by C-U
Citizens for Peace and Justice (details in calendar above). SMART Act state
legislation will establish infrastructure that encourages Illinois counties to
put in place programs that integrate education, treatment and mental health
screening instead of felony convictions and prison for low-level non-violent
drug offenders. The SMART Act is based on the successful "drug school" model
being used in Cook County, where the recidivism for those completing the school
is only 11% vs. the state-wide overall average of 55% (recidivism is the rate -
typically over a 3 year period - at which criminal offenders return to prison
for a new criminal offense).

Counter Recruitment:
==================
AFSC video "Before you Enlist!" was shown to Dr. Wiegand at Centennial , who
approved showing it to students, thought it was appropriate and didn't disagree
with anything in the video. It features voices of young people on their
experience in the military. It also shows snippets of Army recruiting videos and
then shows the other side. This 15-minute video can be viewed on-line at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fkkdoDOIJM

Student groups:
==================
Demonstration event being planned for the 28th on campus (to coincide with
national protests from coast to coast), perhaps in conjunction with Arab Student
Association and others.

Neighborhood Canvassing/Referendum work:
==================
Carl is hosting a referendum party next weekend on Saturday, the 21st 7PM.
Monday the 23rd, after that, Ricky will be doing canvassing, probably in
Champaign, and invites others to join him starting around 5:30 or 6PM.
November 5th. Pre-election Bash Bush Bash at Channing-Murray 7PM, refreshments
featuring Paul Kotheimer ($350 requested for funding, including $250 deposit up
for approval at the next AWARE meeting)

New Ideas:
==================
Pre-emptive reaction planning for attack on Iran: Quakers are taking lead on
organizing a network for this, Carl volunteered as AWARE contact.

WEFT update: CROW (Committee for the Reform of WEFT) plans to make formal
contact with WEFT shortly.

UFPJ phone conference: AWARE is a member group of United for Peace and Justice
(www.unitedforpeace.org). Mort informs us that they are having a phone
conference-call with member groups to urgently discuss Iran and North Korea
issues. Randall proposes Mort take part, Mort accepts, no objection by the
group.

Events of the past week:
==================
Mennonite Christian/Muslim event at CIMIC was well-attended.

Upcoming events:
==================
(see calendar above)

Laura Wetzel is looking for David Gill campaign volunteers. Laura is always at
Democrats table at Farmer's market.

facilitator and notetaker needed for next week.