[Peace] minutes of weekly AWARE meeting 2008-10-26

Sun Nov 2 14:36:55 CST 2008

My apologies for the extreme lateness of the minutes. Been working on the
township referendum issue to the exclusion of many other things.

Minutes of 10/26/08 AWARE meeting are below, but first, AWARE Volunteer
Opportunities and the Upcoming Events Calendar:

AWARE Volunteer Opportunities
-----------------------------------
(various ways to volunteer in AWARE's work)

AWARE is helping search for locations to set up a portable electronic LED
display that reports (in a loop) various statistics on the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan (casualties, financial cost, etc.). Here's a video of the
sign going through a typical loop:
http://dart.ncsa.uiuc.edu/stuffed/slevy/costofwar-sign.mp4
The display could be set up anywhere indoors - home, business, event -
where it will be seen by many, for as long or as little as you like. If
you can volunteer to display the sign somewhere or have any ideas where it
could be set up, contact Barbara Kessel, barkes at gmail.com, 365-9473 or
Randall Cotton, recotton at earthlink.net, 351-8644/722-8470.

AWARE is looking for an attorney or law student who would be interested in
volunteering to help craft Illinois legislation to regulate military
contractors such as Blackwater within the state as part of the AWARE
Blackwater Working Group. This would be in conjunction with a statewide
effort involving Clearwater (see www.noprivatearmies.org) and would be a
continuation of last year's effort (HB 5700) to pass legislation. See:
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=5700&GAID=9&DocTypeID=HB&LegId=37316&SessionID=51&GA=95 .
Contact Barbara Kessel, barkes at gmail.com,  365-9473 or Randall Cotton,
recotton at earthlink.net, 351-8644/722-8470.

Help is needed with content creation and maintenance for AWARE's website,
anti-war.net. Technical experience required for maintenance work
(UNIX/HTML/CSS). Contact: Stuart Levy, slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu,
351-9264/244-1543 or Randall Cotton, recotton at earthlink.net,
351-8644/722-8470.

Meeting minutes: Someone is needed to share or take over meeting minutes
duty (preparing these notes each week). Help will be provided (as much as
necessary). Contact: Randall Cotton, recotton at earthlink.net,
351-8644/722-8470

AWARE publicity: Someone is needed to maintain and arrange for copies, as
needed, of AWARE publicity materials (our business card, intro sheet for
new meeting attendees, general information sheet for tabling events). All
reproduction costs reimbursed, Help provided as needed. Contact:
recotton at earthlink.net, 351-8644/722-8470

Upcoming Events Calendar
----------------------------
Oct 28 (Tuesday) 1PM, Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine St.
Taping of this week's "AWARE on the Air" for UPTV.

Oct 28 (Tuesday) 7PM, mail lounge, Allen Hall on campus, 1005 W. Gregory
Dr, Urbana
Screening of Michael Moore's "Slacker Uprising" by AWARE Library Resources
Working Group. See: http://slackeruprising.com .

Oct 28 (Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air", taped earlier in the day (see above)

Oct 29 (Wednesday) 4:30PM, in front of Foellinger Auditorium, south end of
quad on campus, 709 S. Mathews Avenue, Urbana
GEO: Campus rally for quality
All over campus, we see rising tuition, pay cuts, and larger workloads for
instructors.  These moves degrade the quality of education at the
University of Illinois, and they're part of a broader trend of eroding
support for public education across the country.  The University says it's
in a perpetual budget crisis and has no choice, but we say it's a
question of priorities.  We say that our priority is a high quality,
accessible public university.  This means controlling tuition costs.  This
means ensuring working conditions in which instructors are paid a fair
wage and not overworked.  This means solidarity among students,
instructors, campus workers, and community members. Contact geo at shout.net
for more information.

Oct 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

Oct 30 (Thursday) 10AM Focus 580, WILL AM 580
Naomi Klein interview and call-in

Oct 30 (Thursday) noon, Illini Union Bookstore, 809 S. Wright St,
Champaign
Naomi Klein book signing event

Oct 30 (Thursday) 2PM 210 Illini Union on campus, 1401 Green St., Urbana
Naomi Klein appearance: Discussion of Latin American social movements

Nov 1 (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.

Nov 3 (Monday) 7:30PM, Central Illinois Mosque and Islamic Center, 106 S.
lincoln, Urbana
"Reflections on Interfaith Dialogue: A Muslim Pakistani perspective", Dr.
Muhammad Modassir Ali, Department of Comparative Religion at the
International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Fulbright visitor
to the Department of Religious Studies at UofI. Sponsored by Interfaith
Alliance, MWO, CIMIC outreach committee, and Intercultural Friendship
Foundation on campus,

Nov 4 (Tuesday) 1PM, Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine St.
Taping of next week's "AWARE on the Air" for UPTV.

Nov 4(Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air", taped earlier in the day (see above)

Nov 6 (Thursday) 9:30PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of AWARE's event with Dan Kenney from Clearwater:  "Outsourcing
of our Sovereignty: Privatization of War, Emergencies and Everyday Life",
which took place at the Urbana City Council Chambers on October 10, 2008.

Nov 8 (Saturday) 7:30PM Channing-Murray Foundation, 1209 W. Oregon St,
Urbana
First performance of "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail", by Jerome Lawrence
and Robert E. Lee, Directed by Matthew DeMarco. A minimalist
interpretation of the play, which focuses on the life of Henry David
Thoreau, in particular the night spent in a Concord jail for tax
resistance, which inspired his "Civil Disobedience."  A call for activism
over withdrawal. This event is co-sponsored by AWARE.

Nov 6 (Thursday) 4PM, Knight Auditorium, Spurlock museum on campus, 606 S.
Gregory St., Urbana
"Restorative Justice:What it is, Why it works, and what it can mean for
us" by Howard Zehr, professor at Eastern Mennonite University, author,
photojournalist, co-director of Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.
(see also the Nov 8 event with Howard Zehr)

Nov 8 (Saturday) 1-4:30PM, First Mennonite Church, 902 W. Springfield
Ave., Urbana
"Restorative Justice as a Way of Life: An All-Faith Workshop" with Howard
Zehr (see also the Nov 6 event with Howard Zehr).

Nov 9 (Sunday) 2:30PM Channing-Murray Foundation, 1209 W. Oregon St,
Urbana
Second performance of "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail" (see details
immediately above)

Nov 8 (Saturday) 7PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of ""PTSD: Our Troops, Our Community" panel presentation
sponsored by AWARE and IVAW that took place at the Urbana Free Library on
September 7, 2008

Nov 11 (Tuesday) 7PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of AWARE's event with Dan Kenney from Clearwater:  "Outsourcing
of our Sovereignty: Privatization of War, Emergencies and Everyday Life",
which took place at the Urbana City Council Chambers on October 10, 2008.

Nov 12 (Wednesday) 7:15PM, Channing-Murray Foundation, 1209 W. Oregon St.
Life and Work in Palestine: Rev. John Setterlund. Pastor Setterlund served
at St. Andrew's Church on campus 1991-2006.  He has recently returned from
two years as a volunteer at a Lutheran congregation in Palestine. This
event is co-sponsored by AWARE.

Nov 13 (Thursday) 6-8:30PM, 103 Mumford Hall on campus, 1301 West Gregory
Drive, Urbana
Winter Soldier: Champaign/Urbana
Testimony by Iraq veterans from throughout the Great Lakes region. Also
scheduled to speak: Camilo Mejia, who spent nine months in jail for
refusing to redeploy to Iraq.  This event is co-sponsored by AWARE

Nov 15 (Saturday) 8:30PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of AWARE's event with Dan Kenney from Clearwater:  "Outsourcing
of our Sovereignty: Privatization of War, Emergencies and Everyday Life",
which took place at the Urbana City Council Chambers on October 10, 2008.

Nov 16 (Sunday) 4PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of AWARE's event with Dan Kenney from Clearwater:  "Outsourcing
of our Sovereignty: Privatization of War, Emergencies and Everyday Life",
which took place at the Urbana City Council Chambers on October 10, 2008.

Nov 30 (Sunday) (time TBA) Urbana Civic Center, 108 E Water St.
People's Thanksgiving. Event planning in progress.

*****
Minutes of 10/26/08 AWARE meeting:

About 20 in attendance

News of the week was reviewed jointly

Finance Report: Balance is $1850.50. Financial report passed around.

Regarding ratification for paying rent, this was put off for additional
consideration in the upcoming week. There was a question as to whether the
last agreement (rent for our IMC storage space) included use of the
meeting room. Randall volunteers to search archives for details.

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

The next Main Event is next Saturday (see details above in Upcoming Events
Calendar)

Consensus without objection to "Peace Voter '08" guide from Peace Action
as the flyer ( see: http://www.peace-action.org/PV08/prezvoterguide.pdf )
on one side and the current Champaign Township poverty referendum flyer
(first page) as the other side.

John, Ricky, Randall and Stuart volunteered for a working group to work on
measuring traffic and flyering opportunities between the current and
prospective future site for our monthly demonstrations (University &
Neil).

Ricky volunteers to send out an announcement

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

Current planned event: A showing of Michael Moore's "Slacker Uprising" on
Monday, October 28th at Allen Hall (Tuesday) 7PM (details above in the
Upcoming Events Calendar).

Under consideration for future event: showing the new movie based on Naomi
Wolf's book "The End of America". See
http://www.endofamericamovie.com .

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

Working group meeting to be scheduled.

Current AWARE Presents event lineup:

1. Jeremy Scahill event still being pursued (he is on a book tour this
Fall). Contact made, currently in a "wait and see" pattern.

2. Proposal under development: 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)

CUCPJ efforts are focused on promoting passage of the Township poverty
referendum on the November ballot (and campaigning for Carol Ammons run
for County Board district 5).

Referendum flyer suitable for passing out to the public is available
online. Latest revision is online at:
http://imsahp.chambana.net/~randall/champaign_township/povref.pdf

Audience participation at last week's City Council meeting elicited
response from all City Council members. Several City Council members
authored a News-Gazette commentary in last Sunday's paper in strong
support of the referendum's passage.

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).

Syracuse Cultural Workers buttons are in and proving popular.

Sign-up sheet passed around

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

Taping occurs each Tuesday 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.

Format change - after each speaker's contribution, there will be time
allotted for subsequent discussion

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 )

Working group meeting may be scheduled soon.

Barbara headed to Evanston to meet with others (including state rep Julie
Hamos) on November 10. Others welcome to join her. Clearwater will renew
legislative efforts this year.

Dan Kenney event to be rebroadcast on UPTV 4 times (see details in
upcoming events calendar).

Student Groups
===========
AWARE requested for support with Nov. 13 IVAW Winter Soldier event:

1. Cosponsorship
2. Veteran support - gathering mental health professionals to assist
testifying veterans as needed.
3. Housing for out-of-town vets coming to participate
4. Water bottle supply for all speakers - donation already received for
this

Old Business
**********
Introduction and proposal for endorsement of the Employee Free Choice Act.
Two spoke in favor of endorsement and this was passed by consensus without
objection. Much discussion on this issue on the (publicly accessible)
peace-discuss mailing list starting with:
http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/2008-October/018965.html: