[Peace] minutes of weekly AWARE meeting 2008-11-16

Sun Nov 16 22:56:37 CST 2008

Minutes of 11/16/08 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
Dimensions of the sign are: 50.3" L x 6.3" H x 1.7" W and it weighs 12
pounds. Full specifications are at:
http://www.bigbrite.com/product.aspx?id=78
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 (UNIX/HTML/CSS) required for
maintenance work (but not content creation) 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
----------------------------
Nov 18 (Tuesday) 1PM, Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine St.
Taping of "AWARE on the Air" for UPTV to be broadcast later the same day
(see below)

Nov 18 (Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air", taped earlier in the day (see above)

Nov 25 (Tuesday) 1PM, Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine St.
Taping of "AWARE on the Air" for UPTV to be broadcast later the same day
(see below)

Nov 25 (Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air", taped earlier in the day (see above)

Nov 30 (Sunday) 5-10PM Urbana Civic Center, 108 E Water St.
The People's Potluck Thanksgiving - a food-sharing communal gathering to
be thankful for all of the good, caring, and active people and
organizations in our community, and an occasion to discuss the launching
of a Central Illinois Social Forum next Spring (in the vein of the World
Social Forum and U.S. Social Forum). All are welcome, but are asked to
RSVP (to hworthen at illinois.edu or a-fields at uiuc.edu) and to bring a dish
to share.

Dec 1 (Monday) 7PM, Champaign Public Library, 200 W. Green St.
Screening of Naomi Wolf's "The End of America" by AWARE Library Resources
Working Group. See: http://www.endofamericamovie.com . (This event will
NOT be at Allen Hall, as was INCORRECTLY reported in 11/09/08 AWARE
minutes)..

Dec 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.

Dec 12-14 (Friday-Sunday) United for Peace and Justice 4th National
Assembly
Wyndham O'Hare Hotel - near Chicago O'Hare Airport
6810 North Mannheim Road, Rosemont

*****
Minutes of 11/16/08 AWARE meeting:

About 12 in attendance

News of the week was reviewed jointly

Finance Report: Balance is $2138.
$305 paid to IMC for rent through 2/15/08
Finance report passed around.

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 December 6 (see details above in Upcoming Events
Calendar).

Upon scouting University & Neil during the past Main Event, that
intersection didn't turn out to be very attractive. There's lots more
traffic, but the east-west traffic is nearly always moving and the
southbound traffic doesn't stop for long.

Flyer suggestions: what we should expect from the new administration,
recent UFPJ statement, recent IVAW statement, Stuart also passed around
some text. It was suggested ideas be posted to peace-discuss for further
discussion.

Details still forthcoming (from David H) on Champaign/Urbana's busiest
intersections

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 Naomi Wolf's "The End of America",
based on her 2007 book. Monday, December 1st at Champaign Public Library
(details above in the Upcoming Events Calendar).

Mention made of Naomi Wolf's remarkable interview of IVAW member Matthis
Chiroux about the arrests of IVAW folks at the final presidential debate
on October 15th, 2008 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. The
video is at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/glassbeadian

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

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)

(nothing to report this week - CUCPJ did not meet due to East St. Louis
trip)

Closing of the local branch of the Urban League mentioned.

Mention made of possible new Urbana "nuisance ordinance" which would hold
property owners responsible for criminal conduct of property occupants.
Some are troubled by the apparent plan to enforce this ordinance
selectively.

Mention made of various threats to Obama noted in the media around the
country. Mention made of police accused of hate crimes in Chicago in the
wake of Obama's acceptance speech in Grant Park. See:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/13/police-sued-over-election_n_143670.html

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

Yesterday was first day indoors.

Sign-up sheet passed around for staffing the table.

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

Taping typically 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.

Carl is not in town this week. Ron volunteers to anchor. Recording is on
Tuesday at 1PM (back on regular schedule this week after two weeks of
taping on Monday).

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 )

(nothing new this week)

Student Groups
===========
(AWARE's efforts to keep apprised of and provide support for local
chapters of student-affiliated anti-war groups such as Campus Anti-Network
and Iraq Veterans Against the War).

Mention made that there is remarkable involvement and vitality among the
current group of anti-war student activists.

Mention made of article in VVAW's "The Veteran" by Meg Miner regarding
AWARE.

Old Business
**********
(new developments regarding ongoing issues)

(nothing this week)

New Ideas
*********
UFPJ National Assembly coming up - Dec 12-14 - attendance urged as AWARE
is a member group and can have 2 voting delegates if we attend. Mort is
considering attending and could drive. Proposal for $500 to send two
people to UFPJ National Assembly agreed to by consensus without
objection - plans and proposal be fleshed out and ratified at the next
AWARE meeting.

Green Party is searching for and looking to support folks to run for
Champaign City Council on the Green Party ticket.

Events of the past week
******************
(comments/reviews of recent events since the last AWARE meeting)

Union of Concerned Scientists held an event about climate change that
was attended and reviewed well by Mort.

Positive mention made by Conrad of  John Setterlund appearance at
Channing-Murray regarding the Palestine/Israel conflict.

Positive mention made by Stuart of films shown on Friday for Arab Heritage
week, especially "Driving an Arab Street" from 2002.

Upcoming Events
*************
(events of note which aren't listed in the upcoming events calendar above)

Nov 21 (Friday) 7PM, 112 Gregory Hall , 810 S. Wright St. Urbana
Eddie Tabash: "The Threat of the Religious Right to Our Most Basic
Freedoms"

Mention made of Mennonite Church art display next weekend Saturday and
Sunday - paintings, prints, ceramics. Conrad will post details.