[Peace] AWARE meeting minutes Sunday July 15, 2007

[Karen Medina]

AWARE meeting minutes Sunday July 15, 2007; 5pm start time
Bob Illyes facilitated
Gary Storm took notes
Karen Medina wrote up the notes

News of the week
--------------------------
Carl Estabrook's News of the Week focused on Impeachment (see his list in an email from him)
Discussion of the News of the Week

"Tough Talk on Impeachment" -- Bill Moyer's Journal (7/13) explored the talk of impeachment with Bruce Fein (Constitutional scholar) and John Nichols (author of THE GENIUS OF IMPEACHMENT) 
* Gary suggested AWARE purchase a copy
* Bill Moyer's Journal, an on-line journal at http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07132007/profile.html , has a link to the video and the transcript.

Norman Solomon's new documentary "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us To Death." is showing here in town August 1st. See Upcoming events for more details.

Working Groups
-----------------------
Financial Report: $71.50 from Farmer's Market

Main Event: no report

Farmer's Market: Very busy; ran out of "Impeach" stickers; need yard signs or other items for communicating (perhaps people's bumpers are full). tee-shirts were mentioned.

AWARE Presents: Need to meet. Watch for announcement.
ISU faculty - 2 Net articles; possible speaker?

Anti-Racism: Read the News-Gazette article about the police shooting into the home of Mildred Davis when Torriano Johnson randomly ran into her house on June 24. Mildred and 4 children were in the house at the time.

Counter Recruitment: A family objected to pro-military previews being shown at the Savoy 16 theaters. Shall we write letters to the Press? Do a public service announcement about it? Could we get equal time? Letter to the theater from AWARE.

Student Groups: no report  

Iran Working Group: Interview with Z-Magazine -- military is dead against invading Iran. But would Israel strike? Dave will convene the working group soon. 

Anti-Torture: no report

Old Business
-------------------
SiCKO is worth seeing; humor mixed with serious topics.
SiCKO is still at the Boardman's Art theater, rated PG13, FINAL WEEK! ENDS THURSDAY, JULY 26; Shows daily 2:00 4:30 7:00 9:45 pm 

Sweet Corn Festival: approved $50 for a table
The festival runs Friday August 24 5:00 pm-11:00 pm AND Saturday August 25 11:00 am-11:00 pm

Green Party: Mark Mullen(?sorry, I am not sure I caught his last name, and I think this is what Gary had written)
Mark from the Prairie Greens was at AWARE to invite people to run for offices. Now is the time to run! There are alot of people up for re-election, and only a few signatures are needed to get on the ballot. info at prairiegreens.org
* Ballot line for all state officers
* Green Party is available to help, they know how to campaign

New Ideas
---------------
Carl: Big Lies -- reported without challenge
eg. "Terrorists will follow us home". AWARE needs to find ways to counter viel
* Letters to the editor
* Library displays
* Speakers, etc

Tim Haden observation
Size of anti-war movement
International crime

Occupation Project (Chicago) where they had sit-in at Durbin's office. This was done by the Center for Creative NonViolence.

Events of the Past Week
------------------------------------
nobody mentioned any


Upcoming Events
-------------------------
Need to find the banner "Impeach Bush/Cheney"

Instant runoff voting (IRV) meeting: Wednesday, 7pm at Durl's (This would have been last week; sorry I took so long to write up the minutes)

August 1, 2007
Norman Solomon's new documentary "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us To Death." is showing here in town.
August 1, 7pm at the Community United Church, 805 S. Sixth Street Champaign, Illinois 61820
Sign up for a seat online http://warmadeeasy.bravenewtheaters.com/screening/show/9627-champaign
(Note that the interview with Norman Soloman is available for download from WILL:
http://www.will.uiuc.edu/media/mediamatters070715.mp3 )
"War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50- year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations."