[Peace] minutes of weekly AWARE meeting 2008-06-22

[Randall Cotton]

Minutes of 6/22/08 AWARE meeting are below, but first, the Upcoming
Events Calendar:

June 23 (TODAY, Monday) 7PM, Pavilion Room B, Champaign Public Library,
200 W. Green St.
Andrew O'Baoill, Danielle Chynoweth and Stuart Levy (maybe others) give a
review and their impressions of the recent National Conference on Media
Reform held in Minneapolis on June 6-8. For more details, see:
http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace/2008-June/021392.html

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

June 24 (Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
"AWARE on the Air" broadcast

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 26 (Thursday) 6:30PM-9PM Float construction for July 4th parade, 709
S. Poplar, Urbana

June 27 (Friday) 7:30PM Central Illinois Mosque and Islamic Center, 106 S.
Lincoln Ave.
Additional presentation from Florence Ntakarutimana from Burundi (see
above).

June 28-29 (Saturday-Sunday), Cleveland, Ohio
"National Assembly to End the Iraq War and Occupation" Conference see
www.natassembly.org . AWARE will attend, sending up to 4 people to this
conference (details below in minutes).

*** CALL FOR TURNOUT ***
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. Democratic Party elected officials may mobilize to
counter this effort, as they have recently. Massive turnout is especially
important.

July 18 (Friday) 7:30PM, Independent Media Center, 202 S. Broadway, Urbana
1st performance of "Marx in Soho", a one-man Howard Zinn play performed by
Jerry Levy.
$5 suggested donation. See: www.levyarts.com

July 19 (Saturday) 7:30PM, Channing-Murray Foundation, 1209 W. Oregon St.,
Urbana
2nd (final) performance of "Marx in Soho", a one-man Howard Zinn play
performed by Jerry Levy.
$5 suggested donation. See: www.levyarts.com

July 19 (Saturday) (time TBA) proposed one-time "Main Event"-style street
demonstration at high-traffic intersection of Springfield and Mattis.

*****
Minutes of 6/22/08 AWARE meeting:

About 20 in attendance

News of the week was heard courtesy of Carl Estabrook

Finance Report: $2425.20
Finance report sheet passed around:
IMC rent for AWARE storage space may change
(currently $110 every 3 months)

Letter received and passed around from Shara

Main Event:
========
(AWARE's monthly street protest held at the intersection of Main & Neil
2-4PM on the first Saturday of each month). Next Main Event is July 5th.
Some Yanar Mohammed flyers left, some IVAW flyers left, some "Cost of War"
flyers left, but any other proposed flyer can be distributed together with
these or instead of them.

It was suggested that we might find or create a flyer that picks up on our
July 4th float theme.

Working group reports:
*****************
AWARE Presents:
=============
(Organization of AWARE-sponsored events in the community)
Next meeting anticipated after July 4th. Four ideas under consideration
include:

1. Public forum with attendees of recent National Conference on Media
Reform in Minneapolis (Ann, Stuart, Bob, Danielle, etc.). (occurring
tonight, Monday, July 23rd - see first item in upcoming events calendar
above).

2. Jeremy Scahill events coinciding with his anticipated visit to town
this fall on a book tour.  Barbara met Jeremy Scahill on June 20th at the
Socialism 2008 conference and is establishing contact for further
coordination on his future visit.

3. Film festival at Urbana Free Library. Under consideration: "Body of
War". "Winter Soldier" footage, "War Made Easy" "Redacted", "Blood and
Oil: The Middle East in World War I". Other suggestions: "Reel Bad Arabs",
"Iraq for Sale".

4. PTSD panel - 4 local individuals have been identified that work with
veterans affected by PTSD (one of whom was in attendance at today's
meeting).

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)

New Copwatch project under CUCPJ announced last week is currently on hold
due to legal reasons, but related video documentary projects may go
forward in the meantime.

Barbara relates the experience and approach of Chicago Copwatch.

Barbara relates details regarding "Black People Against Torture", their
efforts to demand accountability for the documented torture of more than
100 men under Chicago Police Commander John Burge, resulting in recent
indictment of 10 individuals.

Farmer's Market:
============
(AWARE's presence at the Urbana "Market on the Square" each Saturday from
8AM to noon).

Sign-up grid passed around for future Saturdays.

Suggestion: More literature to hand out to folks.

Suggestion: Bob Naiman's "Support the Troops, End the War" signs could be
provided at AWARE's table.

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.

For last week's show, the crew made use for the first time of a document
viewer to show a map.

Plans are for Florence Ntakarutimana (see details on her above) to attend
the next taping (Tuesday, 1PM, details above).

Blackwater:
========
(Activism regarding notorious domestic policing and international
mercenary contractor Blackwater, including coordination with
Illinois-based activist group Clearwater)

There is a Clearwater meeting on the 27th with State Rep. Julie Hamos
regarding ongoing strategy to pass Illinois military contractor
legislation in the Fall.

Blackwater recently exposed as buying AK-47's for a police department in
NC. See:
http://www.newsobserver.com/917/story/1116379.html
Do they do this in the Midwest?

It seems that Blackwater getting more and more into training U.S. police
officers.

Mention made of Mia Farrow advocacy for Blackwater to provide security in
Darfur. See:
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/itsonlyfair/ft004.html

Mention made of new info on Blackwater and military contractors related by
Jeremy Scahill at the Socialism 2008 Conference: Blackwater being used for
border patrol, a new "total intelligence solutions" group being formed to
offer CIA type services to Fortune 1000 companies, 70% of US Intelligence
is now in private hands (there is a need to shift focus to this increasing
privatization). Details on much of this at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080623/scahill

4th of July:
=======
(AWARE's entry in this year's 4th of July parade)

Working group meeting was held on the 19th.

Float concept: a 8'x8'x18' wood-construction box frame sitting on a hay
wagon, paneled all the way around with large portraits of AWARE's military
heroes with names and quotes. For example, Maj. General Smedley Butler,
Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia and Intel
Specialist Diedra Cobb. 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."

Revised wording for float theme: "Honoring our military heroes who speak
against war" (this will appear on the sides along the top).

Wording for front panel: AWARE - Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort - War is not
the answer.

Wording for back panel, honoring Grandpa Wahlfeldt, "Bring the troops
home"

Two construction parties scheduled: 2-5PM Monday, the 23rd (already held)
and 6:30-9PM Thursday, the 26th (see upcoming events calendar above for
details)

Concern raised that AWARE's theme implies "honoring vets who have healed
(but not others)". Suggestion that the word "especially" be added, as in
"Especially honoring our military heroes who speak against the war".

Draft images for all seven panels (three on each side, one on the back)
passed around.

Old Business:
**********
"National Assembly to End the Iraq War and Occupation"
A conference in Cleveland, Ohio, June 28-29
www.natassembly.org
=======================================
Randall presented a revision of last week's initial proposal that AWARE
fund up to $500 for up to 4 attendees to this conference.

Proposal is attached as an Adobe Acrobat PDF document.

Proposal was passed by consensus without objection with the suggestion
that Randall should attend.

There is one person committed to going (David Harley), with 3 others
considering, but not yet committed.

New Ideas
********
Proposal to buy 2009 Peace Calendars now, before July 18th, to get a price
break. To be ratified next week as per AWARE practice/policy.

Events of the past week
******************
June 22 (Sunday) Jeffrey St. Clair at Illini Union Bookstore signing
event. Mention was made of the eager willingness of the IUB to produce an
event there - getting a backlist of books by authors available in time -
very well done. The event was recorded and is planned for broadcast on
WEFT.
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