[Peace] minutes of weekly AWARE meeting 2008-06-08

[Randall Cotton]

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

June 10 (Tuesday) 1PM, inside Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine
St.
Recording for this week's "AWARE on the Air" at UPTV

June 10 (Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
"AWARE on the Air" broadcast

June 12 (Thursday) 7PM, 2007 S. George Huff Dr., Urbana (home of Jan &
Durl Kruse)
AWARE Presents Working Group meeting - discussion and organization of
future AWARE-sponsored community events.

June 15 (Sunday) 2-4PM at the IMC (Independent Media Center) 202 S.
Broadway, Urbana
IMC celebration of Bob Wahlfeldt and dedication of the Family Room in
Bob's name.

June 16 (Monday) 7PM, 2007 S. George Huff Dr., Urbana (home of Jan & Durl
Kruse)
Second meeting of working group for AWARE's July 4th parade float. This
year's theme is "Honoring our military heroes". Many possible individual
heroes to honor have been brought forth. More details below in the
minutes.

June 19-22 (Thursday-Sunday) "Socialism 2008" conference in Chicago -
impressive list of speakers. See: http://www.socialismconference.org/

June 21-22 (Saturday-Sunday) (details TBA): Jeffrey St. Clair will be in
town. He is editor of Counterpunch. See counterpunch.org . His new book
is: "Born Under a Bad Sky: Notes from the Dark Side of the Earth." Also
recent as co-editor: "Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in
the Heartland". Event expected at home of Carl Estabrook on evening of the
21st. Illini Union Bookstore signing event expected the afternoon of the
22nd. He is a speaker at the Socialism 2008 conference as well - see
immediately above.

June 24 (Tuesday) 9:30AM, Courtroom D, Champaign County Courthouse (101
E.Main, Urbana)
Final ruling expected on Patrick Thompson's small claims case against
Harvey Welch for return of legal fees due to ineffective representation of
Patrick during his 2nd trial.

June 25 (Wednesday) 7PM Urbana-Champaign Friends Meetinghouse, 1904 E.
Main Street, Urbana
Florence Ntakarutimana from Burundi: "Healing from Civil War: Bringing the
enemy sides together in Burundi"
Details at:
http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace/2008-June/021353.html

June 28-29 (Friday-Saturday), Cleveland, Ohio
"National Assembly" Conference
see www.natassembly.org

June 30  (Monday) 6PM Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine St.
Special Cunningham (Urbana) Township meeting - sole agenda items are
the addition of 2 advisory referendums - instant runoff voting
and financial transparency. News Gazette Letter to the editor from Gary
Storm in today's (Sunday's) edition.

*****
Minutes of 6/08/08 AWARE meeting:

About 15 in attendance

A few news items were discussed among those present, in lieu of Carl
Estabrook's "News of the Week", since he was absent.

Finance Report: $2295.20
Finance report sheet passed around:
IMC rent for AWARE storage space may change
(currently $110 every 3 months)

Main Event:
========
(AWARE's monthly street protest held at the intersection of Main & Neil
2-4PM on the first Saturday of each month)
Attendance around 20 total. Auto traffic was light. 300+ flyers passed out
of UFPJ-distributed document from Wisconsin Peace and Justice Network,
featuring compelling excerpts from a recent NPR interview with Iraqi
women's rights activist Yanar Mohammed (who also has appeared often on
Democracy Now! in the past). Flyer is at:

http://www.wnpj.org/Flyers/Yanar%20Mohammed.pdf

About 150 flyers left over. At least a couple new faces.

Working group reports:
*****************
Library Resource Group:
=================
(Compilation of valuable reference materials w/appeal to Libraries to
carry them). Contact initiated with Champaign Public Library.

AWARE Presents:
=============
(Organization of AWARE-sponsored events in the community)
Meeting scheduled for June 12, 7PM (see details above in upcoming events
calendar).
Ideas being thrown around:
1. A film series at a local library this Fall.
2. Jeremy Scahill event(s) coinciding with his expected visit to town in
connection with an initiative by Dan Kenney of Clearwater.
3. An event focusing on the psychological hardships faced by returning
veterans
4. "Wheels of Justice" tour coming through town in the Fall.

Anti-Racism:
=========
(AWARE's efforts to keep apprised of and provide support for
anti-racism/anti-decimation efforts)
No news from this week's CUCPJ (Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and
Justice) meeting, turnout was a little low at yesterday's meeting.
Continuing discussion on internal financial policies.

A new police watch project may be forming along the lines of Patrick
Thompson/Martel Miller's 2004 project.

Some discussion on "jury nullification". See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification

Farmer's Market:
============
(AWARE's presence at the Urbana "Market on the Square" each Saturday from
8AM to noon)
Rained out yesterday. Sign-up grid passed around for future Saturdays.

AWARE on the Air:
==============
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.

Blackwater:
========
Jeremy Scahill will be at the upcoming Socialism Conference in Chicago.

4th of July:
=======
Working group meeting held. Theme decided: "Heroes are those who dare to
speak the truth about war". Float concept described: a very large
wood-construction box frame sitting on a hay wagon, paneled all the way
around with large portraits of AWARE's military heroes with quotes. Sample
portraits shown for Maj. General Smedley Butler, Staff Sergeant Camilo
Mejia and Intel Specialist Diedra Cobb. Other suggestions at the meeting:
Washington, Eisenhower (military-industrial complex), Sherman ("War is
Hell"). Another suggestion: incorporating Thomas Paine's reference to
"summer soldier" in honoring "winter soldiers". Also planned: signs to be
carried by parade participants, in pairs, highlighting various truths
about the Iraq war "the truth about casualties/costs/injuries/etc."  Next
meeting planned for the 16th - all are welcome and encouraged to attend
(see details above in upcoming events calendar).

Old Business:
**********
"Cost of War" billboard
================
Billboard scheduled to come down tomorrow (Monday, June 9). Confirmation
obtained that the billboard company in town is not putting up any
non-profit public-service-announcement billboards for either June or July.
There is surplus money for this project and a new idea has materialized -
a smaller scale electronic window display. Idea comes from the National
Priorities Project. Some details on the display are at:

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/node/5748

The display would be used around town. Additional research is pending.

National Assembly Conference in Cleveland, June 28-29
=======================================
This is an effort to create nationwide unity among anti-war groups toward
the purpose of effecting mass, unified national demonstrations (the first
of which is tentatively slated for next Spring) with an uncompromising
demand for *immediate and complete* withdrawal and an explicit,
categorical independence from all political parties. It is meant to be
all-encompassing and includes support from United for Peace and Justice
and International Answer, but it is even more grassroots-oriented.

See http://natassembly.org.

And in particular, see:
http://natassembly.org/uploads/docs/NatAssemb_flyer.pdf
http://natassembly.org/uploads/resources/1211603546.doc
http://natassembly.org/uploads/resources/1211603647.doc
http://natassembly.org/uploads/resources/1211603438.doc

Proposal that AWARE send one or more folks to this conference. Stuart was
interested in attending, but discovered a scheduling conflict. Karen may
be able to attend. More than one person could go for about the same cost
(doubling up in a hotel room).

New Ideas
********
Steve proposed an idea for a summer anti-war coalition including CAN,
AWARE, IVAW, GEO, YAP-CU (high school Youth Awareness Project), CRAAC
(newly formed caucus of GEO - Critical Research And Action Caucus). Future
possible collaboration ideas: University divestment regarding military
contractors, RNC (Republican National Convention) protest (Minneapolis/St.
Paul Sep. 1-4), high school counter-recruitment.

Events of the past week
*******************
Conrad reported on a "Stewardship Workshop" at the Illini Union -
Scientists and Church Leaders discussing Global Warming issues. Part of
the discussion was about dialogue with right-leaning evangelical
churches - some are starting to move toward acknowledgement and awareness
of Global Warming.