[Peace] minutes of weekly AWARE meeting 2008-04-06

[Randall Cotton]

Minutes of 4/6/08 AWARE meeting are below, but first, Upcoming Events:

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******* TURNOUT NEEDED: PLEASE READ *******
**** CALL TO ACTION for the following two events ****
*** one in Champaign, one in Urbana, both on same day ***
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**** CHAMPAIGN RESIDENTS ****
April 8 (Tuesday) 6:55PM Champaign City Council Chambers (102 N. Neil St)
Champaign Township Annual Meeting. Champaign residents will *VOTE* on
advisory referenda to be placed on the November election ballot.
Suggestion: arrive 15-20 minutes early (6:40PM) to allow for validation of
your status as a voting "elector". A crucial vote on the agenda (2/3
majority required) will take place at the very beginning of the meeting,
so being early really counts. There is a substantiated RUMOR OF A
COMPETING REFERENDUM regarding restoration of the "chief" and supporters
of such could spoil planned referendum efforts. More details below in
meeting minutes. IT IS NOT AT ALL CLEAR ESPECIALLY IN CHAMPAIGN THAT THERE
WILL BE ENOUGH VOTES TO ESTABLISH THESE REFERENDA. CHAMPAIGN RESIDENTS
PLEASE ATTEND IF YOU CAN.

**** URBANA RESIDENTS ****
April 8 (Tuesday) 6:00PM Urbana City Council Chambers (400 S. Vine St.)
Cunningham Township Annual Meeting. Urbana residents will *VOTE* on
advisory referenda to be placed on the November election ballot.
Suggestion: arrive 15 minutes early (5:45PM) to allow for validation of
your status as a voting "elector".A crucial vote on the agenda (2/3
majority required) will take place at the very beginning of the meeting,
so being early really counts. There is a substantiated RUMOR OF A
COMPETING REFERENDUM regarding restoration of the "chief" and supporters
of such could spoil planned referendum efforts. More details below in
meeting minutes.
**********************************************
Other upcoming events:

April 7 (Monday), 6PM, WEFT 90.1FM broadcast of the most recent University
YMCA Friday Forum lecture, titled "The U.S. within the World" by Franklin
Gamwell. See http://www.universityymca.org/friday_forum.html .

April 7 (Monday), 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6): AWARE on the Air
(hopefully not pre-empted by a long Urbana City Council meeting)

April 9 (Wednesday) 10AM, Focus 580 w/David Inge, WILL 580 AM. Interview
w/Nicholson Baker, author of "Human Smoke: The Beginnings Of World War II,
The End Of Civilization".

April 9 (Wednesday) noon-1PM, Champaign County Courthouse (101 E. Main
St., Urbana)
Street demonstration against Brian Chesley convictions called by
Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice

April 9 (Wednesday), 6PM, UPTV (cable channel 6) video broadcast of the
most recent University YMCA Friday Forum lecture, titled "The U.S. within
the World" by Franklin Gamwell. See
http://www.universityymca.org/friday_forum.html .

April 9 (Wednesday) 7:30PM Channing-Murray (1209 W. Oregon, Urbana)
"Indigenous Communities and Development Work Perspectives from Guatemala"
w/Peter Rohloff and Magda Sotz Mux. This event is co-sponsored by AWARE.

April 10 (Thursday) 10AM, Focus 580 w/David Inge, WILL 580 AM. Interview
w/Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, author of "The power of the word:
Scripture and the Rhetoric of Empire"

April 14-18 (Monday-Friday) Palestine Awareness Week at UIUC. Events to be
finalized and announced. This series of event is co-sponsored by AWARE.

April 15 (Tuesday) 7PM, 112 Chem Annex on campus.
Green Party presents Cliff Thornton on casualties of the "drug war".
Thornton is co-chair of the Green Party of the United States and with drug
reform group Efficacy. This is an AWARE co-sponsored event.

April 24 (Thursday) 7:30PM Channing-Murray (1209 W. Oregon, Urbana)
"Awakening from our Trance: Reversing Global Climate Change" w/Carolyn
Treadway. This event is co-sponsored by AWARE.

May 9 (Friday) 9AM, Courtroom E, Champaign County Courthouse (101 E. Main,
Urbana).
Brian Chesley court date - anticipated filing for new trial.

May 12 (Monday) 1:30PM, Courtroom A, Champaign County Courthouse (101 E.
Main, Urbana)
First session of Patrick Thompson's third trial.

****
minutes:

about 15 in attendance

News of the week was heard, courtesy of Carl Estabrook

Advisory Referenda information:
=====================
Efforts to add 3 advisory referendum to the November ballot by vote of
citizen residents at the Annual Township Meetings this Tuesday (one each
in Champaign and Urbana) may be endangered. The following referenda have
been planned among various groups for each local township corresponding to
Urbana and Champaign:

Urbana:
Instant Run-off Voting (request to City of Urbana to establish binding
referendum)
Municipalization of water (request to commission a study)
Government transparency (request for increased financial disclosure)

Champaign:
Anti-Torture (urging support of anti-torture legislation by our
representatives)
Municipalization of water (request to commission a study)
Government transparency (request for increased financial disclosure)

An anonymous report to an AWARE member indicated that "chief" supporters
may attend the township meeting to get a "restore the chief" referendum on
the ballot, which could displace one of the referendums above in each
township (There is a legal limit of 3 advisory referenda). Also,
supporters of that referendum could vote against and prevent the other
above referendums as well.

In addition, media coverage of the township meeting and the referenda is
imminent in both the News Gazette and on WILL radio. There are already
general rumors of counter-organizing. Media stories could accelerate this
(as has happened in the past with Iraq war-related referenda).

Side note: The next referendum on Champaign General Assistance funding for
the poor through the Township is expected to be placed on the ballot as a
binding referendum by Champaign Township on April 15 and doesn't count
toward the limit of 3 advisory referenda.

Carl Estabrook provided the latest revised anti-torture referendum text:
"Given Representative Timothy Johnson's support for a bill outlawing
torture, which was vetoed by President Bush, shall the citizens of
Champaign Township urge all their congressional representatives to renew
their efforts to pass such a bill?"

The township meeting where citizens must attend and vote is this Tuesday,
April 8th (6PM at Urbana City Council Chambers and 6:55PM at Champaign
City Council Chambers) - arrive early - see more details above in the
Upcoming Events Calendar.

Finance Report balance is $2227.72

Anti-Racism:
CUCPJ is conducting a demonstration in front of the Champaign County
of the Courthouse from noon to 1PM this coming Wednesday, April 9. Theme
is the
injustice of Brian Chesley's trial and attendant related overarching
issues of racial profiling, all-white juries, etc.

Patrick Thompson's third trial is approaching. First court date of the
trial is May 12, 1:30 PM, Courtroom A
Brian Chesley case: next scheduled court date is May 9 at 9:00 a.m. in
Courtroom E (motion for new trial).

Student Groups:
Rachel reports "Stop Loss" movie is unexpectedly pro-war.

Iran:
General Patraeus expected by some to accuse Iran of participating in Basra
fighting, which could be a further step toward war with Iran.

Blackwater:
Roger attended the Blackwater-related session at the Illinois Coalition of
Peace and Justice conference in Chicago. Anti-military contractor bill (HB
5700) is dead in committee. Efforts continue to eject Blackwater from
their training camp in Jo Daviess county, Illinois. About 75 total
attendance at ICPJ conference. 10-12 in first Blackwater session. Barbara
will be able to provide more details later.

Main Event:
Flyers well-received - some accepted flyers only when told it was from
IVAW.
Champaign Police arrived on-scene in connection with a complaint about
stepping on bushes. Officers asked us to stop distributing flyers to
drivers. Conference with at least 3 officers ensued where Ricky
successfully convinced the officers of our right to hand out flyers by
prior agreement with police. This was close - we need to have a copy of
the letter acknowledging our right to flyer *every* month.
Participants reported much more positive response than last month.
300 flyers with material from IVAW distributed in record time (1 hour 15
minutes).

AWARE Presents
Ideas bounced around:
Hosting touring performance of "Marx in Soho"? (see:
http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace/2008-April/021197.html

Distributing our Zinn presentation for UPTV to schools?

AWARE on the Air:
Program recorded last Friday to be shown tomorrow (Monday) 10PM.
Previously considered move to Tuesday was not implemented this week with
the hopes of getting the message out about the referendums in time. Next
recording session is Monday, April 14, 1PM.

Old business:
Ratification of $100 to UIUC Arab Students Association for Palestine
Awareness Week passed without objection.

However, ASA is considering disinviting David Green to the discussion of
the film they plan to show. Disapproval was expressed by AWARE members
over this prospect.

Events of the Past Week:
Cafe Intifida well-attended, well-received, though there was a "ruckus"
during a presentation from someone with Hillel . Disapproval was expressed
regarding the Hillel speaker, accommodation was attempted to allow
expression of their views, but ultimately the microphone was unplugged.

Campus Anti-War Network Vigil - 10 people for the 8PM event, then later 30
people at a 10:30 event covered by Channel 15.

New ideas:

Show Winter Soldier events on UPTV (Karen to follow up on this)

Co-sponsorship requested by the Green Party for their event with Cliff
Thornton on Tuesday, April 5 7PM at 112 Chem Annex on campus. see:

http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/2008-April/016242.html

For more info on Cliff Thornton, see:

http://www.votethornton.com/pages/meetcliff.html
http://www.efficacy-online.org/

Co-sponsorship passed without objection.


Farmer's market is coming up May 10th - Nov 8
27 sessions each costs $7.50, but if you sign up for 5 or more, there's a
10% discount. Each booth section is 6ft wide 10 ft deep. Deadline to
register is Friday 4/27. Total would be 182.25 w/discount. Rules include
that We need to set up by 8AM and that if we miss 2 Saturdays in a row we
a new can be kicked out. It's possible to rent two spaces. Two spaces
would let
us set up our Canopy, but the canopy might not last the whole summer. It
was noted that the Common Ground Food Coop will be moving next to the
Farmer's Market over the summer if things go as planned and this could
increase traffic substantially. The Kruses are unable to set up and tear
down the whole summer, but could share duties. Interest was expressed by
several with helping out on setup and teardown. Preferred course of action
remains unclear. It was suggested and accepted that we give it a week to
think things over.

Miscellaneous Notes:

much discussion on the likelihood of U.S. attacking Iran before election
or before bush leaves office

much discussion on motivations behind U.S. military installation proposal
in Czech Republic and Poland.