[Peace] minutes of weekly AWARE meeting 2008-08-03

[Randall Cotton]

Minutes of 8/03/08 AWARE meeting are below, but first, the Upcoming
Events Calendar:

Aug 5 (Tuesday) 1PM, Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine
St.
Taping of this week's "AWARE on the Air" for UPTV.

Aug 5 (Tuesday) 7PM, Champaign City Council Chambers, 102 N. Neil St.
Monthly Champaign Township meeting. *Turnout requested*, especially of
Champaign residents, in support of Linda Abernathy,  Township Supervisor
(see minutes below for details).

Aug 5 (Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air", taped earlier in the day (see above)

Aug 6 (Wednesday) 12-1PM, Champaign County Courthouse, 101 E. Main St.,
Urbana
CUCPJ (Champaign Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice) Courthouse
demonstration. Another in a series of occasional demonstrations protesting
inequality (racial and otherwise) in the court system and police conduct.

Aug 12 (Tuesday) 1PM, Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine St.
Taping of next week's "AWARE on the Air" for UPTV.

Aug 12 (Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air", taped earlier in the day (see above)

August 14 (Thursday) 7PM, home of Jamie and Gary Storm, 304 E. George Huff
Dr, Urbana
AWARE Presents working group meeting.

August 22-23 Urbana Sweetcorn Festival
AWARE will be tabling at our own booth.. Booth staffing required 5PM-11PM
on Friday, 11AM-11PM Saturday.

September 6 (Saturday) 2-4PM Main St. & Neil St., Champaign
The Main Event - AWARE's monthly (first Saturday of each month) street
demonstration event. Largely focuses on opposing U.S. occupations of Iraq
and Afghanistan, but is open for anyone to join us either using one of our
signs or one of their own. We try to have a topical flyer to distribute to
motorists and passers-by each month.

September 7 (Sunday) 2-4PM, Urbana Free Library
AWARE Presents event: panel on PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).
Composition of panel currently being finalized, but will include local
folks who work with PTSD-affected individuals.

September 12 (Friday) noon - 1:30PM, Latzer Hall at University YMCA, 1001
South Wright Street, Champaign
"Friday Forum" presentation: Luis Alberto Urrea, author of "The Devil's
Highway: A True Story", about an incident in 2001 of 26 men attempting to
cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, through the
deadliest region of the continent. Only 12 men emerged. Luis Alberto
Urrea, is from Tijuana but now lives outside Chicago. Lunch may be
purchased for $6.00 ($3.00 for students with a valid ID.). Join a book
club that is reading the book by contacting Rev. Mike Mulberry
<m.mulberry at comcast.net> or Patricia Syoen psyoen35 at sbglobal.net. Study
guide available.

September 12 (Friday) 5PM-7PM, Pages for All Ages bookstore, 1201 Savoy
Plaza Lane, Savoy
Book signing event: Luis Alberto Urrea (see immediately above).

September 15 (Monday) 6PM, WEFT 90.1FM audio broadcast of Luis Alberto
Urrea "Friday Forum" presentation (see above).

October 29 (Wednesday) 7:30PM, Auditorium, Smith Memorial Hall, 805 South
Mathews Ave., Urbana
Naomi Klein: "Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism in Latin
America"
(hosted by the UofI Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies as
part of the CAS/MillerComm Lecture Series).
See: http://www.cas.uiuc.edu/casmillercomm.php#oct29

*****
Minutes of 8/03/08 AWARE meeting:

About 20 in attendance, including folks who discovered us through
www.the217.com . see:
http://the217.com/events/view/2008/08/10/4057 . The217 is a news/event
website of Illini Media (WPGU, Daily Illini, The Buzz, etc.).

News of the week was heard courtesy of Carl Estabrook

Finance Report:  Balance is $1939.36
Rent on our IMC storage space is coming up on the 15th

Main Event:
========
(AWARE's monthly street protest held at the intersection of Main & Neil
2-4PM on the first Saturday of each month).

This month's Main Event was yesterday.

Just under 300 flyers were provided by Carl for distribution to passing
motorists and pedestrians. The material was taken from:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/29/10670/
And the flyer is on-line in MS Word format at:
http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/attachments/20080801/6c110e46/cohn-flyer-0001.doc

All available flyers were successfully distributed despite interference
from the Champaign Police who, at one point, told us we could not step
into the street (cruiser #35), completely disregarding us when we affirmed
that we had a letter from the City stating that, in fact, we could do
exactly that (step into the street) under certain circumstances in order
to distribute flyers.

After another cruiser (#40) drove by, we had a visit in person from
Officers Cherry and Krieppen(?) who advised us not to flyer where there
was no sidewalk (on the west side of Neil where there is construction
going on for the M2 building), but they at least did apparently get it
straightened out with their superiors that we were allowed to step into
the street to flyer as outlined in the agreement we have with the City.

Carol volunteered to send our Main Event flyer each month to our
Congressional representatives (Johnson, Durbin, Obama).

Working group reports:
*****************
Library Resources:
=============
(Compilation of valuable reference materials w/strategies to make them
available in the community through various channels including local
libraries).

Library Resources working group is taking responsibility for going forth
with the film series idea originally brought forth by the AWARE Presents
working group. Possible titles: "Body of War". "Winter Soldier" footage,
"War Made Easy", "Redacted", "Blood and Oil: The Middle East in
World War I", "Reel Bad Arabs", "Iraq for Sale".

AWARE Presents:
=============
(Organization of AWARE-sponsored events in the community)

Working Group meeting was held this past Thursday, July 31st

Next meeting is August 14th (see upcoming events calendar above for
details).

Current plans for future presentations include:

1. PTSD panel - including local individuals that work with veterans
affected by PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

UPDATE: Date and venue is now set:
September 7, 2-4PM at the Urbana Free Library Auditorium
(room reserved 1:30PM-4:30PM)

UPDATE: Communication is in progress to firm up panelists - 5 folks in
mind, primarily folks whose work supports local PTSD-affected folks. Also
possible is a local PTSD-affected person on the panel itself. More
information as it is confirmed...

2. Dan Kenney of Clearwater on the privatization of war, including
Blackwater.

UPDATE: Dates and Venues are set: October 9th at Allen Hall on campus and
October 10th at Urbana City Hall, with recorded video. WILL AM-580 "Public
Square" radio spot planned for publicity.

3. Jeremy Scahill event still being pursued (he is on a book tour this
Fall. Scheduling information anticipated from Scahill)

Mention made of Scahill's recent article deconstructing the hype regarding
Blackwater's supposed exit from the security business. See:
http://www.truthout.org/article/blackwaters-not-going-anywhere

4. New proposal - Invite Juan Cole to speak (University of Michigan
Professor of History, middle-east expert, author of Informed Comment blog,
see: www.juancole.com ). Initial contacts to promote interest in this at
UIUC: Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Center for
Global Studies.

Anti-Racism:
=========
(AWARE's efforts to keep apprised of and provide support for
anti-racism/anti-discrimination efforts, including efforts of CUCPJ -
Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice)

Public Comment planned for this Tuesday's Champaign Township meeting (7PM,
Champaign City Council Chambers) to address harassment of Township
Supervisor Linda Abernathy by Champaign City Council members Vic McIntosh
and Tom Bruno. McIntosh mounted a political attack on Abernathy,
insinuating that she was padding her salary (when, in fact, McIntosh
himself and the rest of the Township Board (AKA Champaign City Council)
set her salary levels for the past four years by ordinance before she was
even ever elected). Abernathy complained at the time, then Bruno backed
McIntosh up. Details to be posted later today (Monday, August 4).

Another Champaign Courthouse demonstration by CUCPJ is scheduled for this
Wednesday, August 6, noon-1PM (courthouse is at 101 E. Main St in Urbana).

Farmer's Market:
============
(AWARE's presence at the Urbana "Market on the Square" each Saturday from
8AM to noon where we offer progressive and anti-war materials, generally
at or below cost).

Bumper sticker supply is getting low

REMINDER: There will be no Farmer's Market on the 22nd (we'll need to
table at the Sweet Corn Festival at that time)

AWARE on the Air:
==============
(AWARE's weekly television show on public access cable channel 6 - UPTV,
Urbana Public Television)

Taping occurs each Tuesdays at 1PM and is broadcast later the same day at
10PM. AWARE members (and friends) invited to participate - the more the
merrier (see details above in upcoming events calendar). Program quality
is always better with more participants.

New feature has been added: AWARE's  "Question of the Week", slated to
occupy the last half-hour of the program. Last week's question was: What
is "This War"?

Suggestion for this week's topic: The recent Rand report criticizing the
neo-con "War on Terror".

An alternate suggestion: The decline of the Township Annual  Meeting
(legislation was recently signed into law by Gov. Blagojevich which takes
rights away from the public in conducting the Annual Township meeting).

Video posts of recent AWARE on the Air editions to the Internet are
anticipated soon.

There is always room for more participation in AWARE on the Air - prepared
statements OK. Arriving late/leaving early is OK.

Blackwater
========
(Activism regarding notorious domestic policing and international
mercenary contractor Blackwater, including coordination with
Illinois-based activist group Clearwater: see:
http://www.noprivatearmies.org )

Sen. Jim Webb asked War Secretary Gates about investigating Blackwater and
this is apparently happening. See:
http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/2008-July/017638.html

Blackwater also in trouble for posing as a "small business" when pursuing
contracts. Rep. Henry Waxman is looking into this. See, for instance:
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/waxman-blackwater-misled-officials-to-get-contracts-2008-07-29.html

Business Card
==========
Latest draft passed around of proposed business card. All approved.

AWARE gives green light to go ahead with purchase at the working group's
discretion, though final cost/vendor figures were not available yet ($200
was proposed as a top-end figure last week).

T-shirts
=====
AWARE T-shirt design passed around. Estimated cost: about $10 each. Signup
sheet passed around for AWARE folks to reserve their preferred color and
size.

Other suggestions were passed around for T-shirt designs that we might
stock at Farmer's Market. See:
http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/2008-August/017752.html

Old Business
**********
(none)

New Ideas
*********
"Holiday Market" - where "Farmer's Market" goes after they shut down in
November (inside Lincoln Square Mall). Deadline for signing up is
September 25th. There are 6 Saturdays, $30 each. For consideration at
upcoming AWARE meetings.

Request to put Randall's video of this year's 4th of July AWARE presence
on DVD.

Events of the Past Week
*******************
(no additional discussion)

Other upcoming events
******************
August 4 (Monday, TODAY), 7PM, CIMIC (Central Illinois Mosque and Islamic
Center), 106 S. Lincoln, Urbana.
Local chapter of Interfaith Alliance is meeting today (Monday) 7PM with
Steve Shoemaker to discuss a possible December television program on WILL
TV 12. . Anybody welcome to come.

August 6 (Wednesday), 7PM, Channing-Murray Foundation, 1209 W. Oregon,
Urbana
New Sanctuary Movement meeting. See: http://www.newsanctuarymovement.org/

Announcement
***********
Rev. Mike Mulberry has apparently accepted a new position at the United
Church of Christ in Byron, IL.

Bill
****
Discussion turned at the end of the meeting toward "Bill", longtime
homeless man, who prefers not to live indoors (going back at least to
1985) and has never harmed anyone. He has apparently been banned recently
from the Library, the Urbana City Building and the Lincoln Square Mall,
leaving him with diminishing sources of water and shelter.

Talk turns to contacting the Lincoln Square Mall management. Agreement to
first investigate endorsing a rumored "Health Alliance" petition in
support of Bill. Conrad volunteers to check this out.