[Peace] Minutes of AWARE Meeting January 28, 2007

[Conrad Wetzel]

Minutes of AWARE Meeting January 28, 2007

The meeting was chaired by Durl Kruse.

1.   News of the Week.
	In Carl Estabrook’s absence, various items of recent news were shared by 
members. (Carl had sent news of the week items by email.)

2.   Introductions were made around the circle.

3.   Working Groups.

a.   Financial Report.
       Jan Kruse passed around the financial report for the week. A current 
balance of $3,073.30 was shown.

b.   One Main events.
        Many observations were shared by those who participated in the war 
protest on Saturday, January 27. A large group held signs and distributed 
flyers. There were very few negative responses from the traffic and many 
honked approval and held up the peace sign. Shara Esbenshade and Cody Bralts 
gave very articulate interviews on TV. There was much more media coverage 
than before. (See note below about Rick Esbenshade’s taping of TV coverage.)

c.     Signs on busses.
         (Mort Brussel gave a report about the effort to get peace signs 
placed on busses.)

d.    AWARE Presents.
        Plans are in place for the presentation by Mike Mulberry, pastor of 
Community United Church of Christ, regarding his time of service with 
Witness for Peace at Oaxaca, Mexico. Location, Urbana City Council Chambers; 
Date: 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 13. Flyers have been distributed. Mike has 
been encouraged to submit information to WILL Public Square.

e.     Anti Racism.
        There was no report from Anti Racism working group.
        There has been no recent activity by Court Watch.

f.    Counter Recruitment.
       Shara Esbenshade commented on the article she has submitted to the 
public i about the way AWARE was prevented by U of I police in their efforts 
to distribute anti-recruitment material on campus in November 06. That 
article should appear in the next issue of public i.

  g.    Student Groups.
        A growing number of high school and college student peace groups are 
being formed. A description was given of a U of I band that went to 
Washington DC to participate in the large anti-war rally on Saturday, 
January 27.

  h.    Illinois Coalition for Peace and Justice (ICPJ).
      ICPJ will hold its 2007 convention at the Holiday Inn in Champaign, 
March 30-31. Program and registration information may be found on the ICPJ 
web site. AWARE’s status as a paying sponsor of ICPJ was discussed and will 
be decided upon at the next meeting.

i.     Public i.
        Question arose regarding AWARE’s status as a paid sponsor of public 
i, there being no clear record of our having paid dues of $125 on this 
recently. There was no objection to payment of the $125, to be decided upon 
at the next meeting.

4.    Old Business.
  a.   MLK Scholarship.
        The possibility of funding a scholarship for a Parkland student to 
write a peace-related essay remains on the agenda for the time being.

5.    New Business

a.   Annette Williams for Champaign City Council.
       AWARE member Annette Williams is running for a position as  member of 
the Champaign City Council. Members expressed willingness to assist as 
needed in her campaign. Primary elections will be held February 27.

b.    Petition to Stop Torture.
        Barb Kessel presented the petition to repeal the Military 
Commissions Act of 2006, which authorizes torture and denial of legal rights 
of prisoners held as terrorists. There was discussion about whether AWARE 
should be listed as a sponsor of the petition, the decision to be made at 
the next meeting.

6.    Upcoming Events.

a.    Peter Rohloff will speak on “Re-Evaluating International Aid Work: A 
Medical Case Study from Guatemala,” at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 4, at 
U-C Friends Meeting House. Peter will discuss his group’s medical aid work 
and his research in medicinal qualities of indigenous herbs.

7.    Showing of Rick Esbenshade’s taping of TV coverage of One Main event.
       Following adjournment of the AWARE business meeting, Rick Esbenshade 
showed the taping he had done of the several news accounts on Channel 15 of 
the One Main war protest on Saturday, January 27. The group enjoyed a laugh 
at Channel 15's error in referring to AWARE as an anti-war group formed by 
local teens.

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