[Peace] minutes of weekly AWARE meeting 2009-03-29

[Randall Cotton]

Minutes of 03/29/2009 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 considering moving our monthly demonstration venue from Main &
Neil in Champaign to a higher-traffic site. It would be helpful for us to
discover which intersections in Champaign/Urbana have the most traffic to
help us in that decision. A volunteer is needed to contact the appropriate
city department/official in both Champaign and Urbana to obtain a list of
and available statistics on, say, the 10 busiest intersections in each
city. It's probably a fair assumption that this is tracked by both cities
and that it's public information. For assistance, contact Randall Cotton,
recotton at earthlink.net, 351-8644/722-8470.

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. As of March 2009, the
sign is installed in the lobby of the Urbana/Champaign Independent Media
Center, right next to the Post Office there in the building (202 S.
Broadway, Urbana).

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 AWARE publicity documents
(and arrange for copies, as needed). This includes our business card,
intro sheet for new meeting attendees and our 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
----------------------------
Mar 31(Tuesday, TODAY) 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)

Mar 31 (Tuesday, TODAY) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air", taped earlier in the day (see above)

**NEW** Apr 7 (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)

**NEW** Apr 7 (Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air", taped earlier in the day (see above)

Apr 4 (Saturday) - National and International demonstrations on the
anniversary occasion of NATO's birth (60 years ago), MLK's "Beyond
Vietnam" speech and MLK's Assassination. Also, the date of this year's
NATO Summit. See, for example:
http://unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=4027
http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1087&Itemid=235

Apr 4 (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.

Apr 15 (Wednesday) 7:15pm, Channing-Murray Foundation, 1209 W. Oregon,
Urbana  (corner of Oregon & Matthews)
"Kilowatt Ours: A Plan to Re-Energize America", award-winning documentary.
A timely, solutions-oriented look at one of America's most pressing
environmental challenges: energy.   Viewers will discover how they can
save hundreds of dollars annually on energy bills, and use a portion of
the savings to purchase renewable energy.  The film also explores mountain
top removal and other harmful by-products of coal & nuclear power.  The
film will be followed by discussion. Free and open to the public.
Refreshments will be served. This event is co-sponsored by AWARE.

Apr 17-18 (Friday-Saturday), People's Church, 941 W Lawrence Ave, Chicago
Annual statewide conference of Illinois Coalition for Justice, Peace and
the Environment. See www.icjpe.org .
AWARE has attended in the past (when the conference was held in
Champaign).

Apr 24-27 (Friday-Monday), Stockton Unitarian
Universalist Church, Stockton, IL
Midwest Catholic Workers Resistance Retreat and Conference. Focus: is
Blackwater. Civil Disobedience at Blackwater's Jo Daviess County, IL site
being organized by Catholic Workers and Clearwater. Speakers include
both Jeremy Scahill and Kathy Kelly.

May 1-2 (Friday-Saturday) Tentative dates for "Riding out the Storm" event
arising out of the "People's Potluck" activity. Saturday's event will
likely span the entire day.

*****
Minutes of 03/29/09 AWARE meeting:

About 10 in attendance

News of the week was reviewed jointly

-----------------

Finance report:
AWARE balance is: $1379.36
Recent expenditure - $100 for US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
(membership dues)

**NEW** last payment for United for Peace and Justice dues was in February
of last year, so we are overdue.

Contribution jar 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 April 4. See details above in the Upcoming Events
Calendar. Location will be the traditional Main & Neil site, which was
scouted during the most recent Main Event and recommended for April's
event.

War Resistors League annual tax flyer suggested as a Main Event
handout space (See: http://www.warresisters.org/files/FY2010piechart.pdf )
However, Carl previously volunteered to put together a flyer and plans to
go ahead with this.

Conrad will consider a WILL AM-580 "Public Square" piece to
draw attention to the significance of the April 4th date and invite people
to join us on the street at the Main Event.

Stuart has volunteered to create an AWARE Facebook page.

No new information yet on Champaign/Urbana's busiest intersections.
Volunteer opportunity posted for this.

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

AWARE Presents Working Group meeting met on March 23rd, as planned.

Current AWARE Presents event lineup:

**NEW INFO APPENDED** 1. A panel on the occasion of the first 100 days of
Obama Administration (April 30) at Urbana City Hall (already reserved).
UPTV recording/broadcast planned. **NEW INFO** Invitations for panelists
have gone out. Confirmation so far from Paul Street and Robert Naiman.

Anna Baltzer coming to town - AWARE may not need to do anything.

Additional ideas under consideration:

- Invitation to Stephen Kinzer to appear again.

- Invitation to William Blum

- Jeremy Scahill event: previously contacted, currently in a "wait and
see" pattern.

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 new this week)

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

Discussion on who can make it this week. Some volunteered, more always
welcome.

Many "Aware on the Air" recordings are now available on-line. See the
AWARE home page at anti-war.net .

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.

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 progressive and anti-war groups such as
Campus Anti-Network, International Socialist Organization, and Iraq
Veterans Against the War).

(nothing new this week)

Monthly Message
============
(Efforts to propagate the content of the Main Event monthly flyer through
various media channels)

**NEW INFO APPENDED** Carl has submitted a piece to the News-Gazette based
on the flyer we distributed at this month's Main Event. **NEW INFO** There
has been no news on this from NG, Carl has followed up by email with no
response. Follow-up phone call planned.

AWARE Films:
===========
(Organization of film and video showings in the community)

AWARE Films may be shown within an IMC Film series. Discussion ongoing.

"The Take" (see http://www.thetake.org ) will almost certainly be shown in
early May at the Socialist Forum event being planned (based on the idea of
a localized "Social Forum"). Alternatively, "On White Privilege" may be
shown instead.

Other showings being considered for the future:

1. Another showing of Naomi Wolf's "The End of America".

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

Pursuit of meeting with Senator Durbin regarding his letter in support of
Israel during Gaza attack: Follow up attempts are planned to contact
Durbin after initial non-response. 3/1/09 update: Written response
received from Durbin, but making no reference to the meeting request.

**NEW** Farmer's Market application still not yet received, some folks
getting worried. Carl and the Aware on the Air crew plan to contact Lisa
Bralts-Kelly TODAY, Tuesday while they are at the Urbana City Building for
the AOTA taping.

**NEW** Sweet Corn Festival application has been received. Some folks
wonder whether early submission will help us get a choice booth.

New Ideas
*********
(never before discussed ideas brought up during this meeting)

**NEW** Advertisement in Champaign County Health Care Consumers Adbook
(for their annual dinner) is brought up for consideration. After some
discussion including objection by someone in attendance, a proposal is
made by Ron Szoke to buy a quarter page ad for $65 with half of that
provided by Ron. To be ratified at a subsequent AWARE meeting as per
standing rule. [Due to a confirmation deadline this week, this proposal
cannot be ratified in time, and Champaign County Health Care Consumers has
been notified.]

**NEW** Since UFPJ dues are confirmed as last paid February of last year
($50), proposal is made by Randall Cotton to pay $100 with $25 of that
coming from Randall. To be ratified at a subsequent AWARE meeting as per
standing rule.

**NEW** local composer Jacob Barton attends requesting $50-$100 to help
pay for travel costs from the West Coast of the performing group "The
Change of State Performance Project" (see http://changeofstate.org/ ) so
that they can perform their work "Take this house (and float it away)" on
April 21 at Allen Hall and April 23 at the IMC. Jacob' s e-mail address is
utterbot at gmail.com. This event will be tailored to the local community and
input is being solicited.

**NEW** AWARE folks encouraged to consider attending the upcoming
statewide conference of Illinois Coalition for Justice, Peace and the
Environment (see http://icjpe.org ) on April 17th and 18th. Stuart plans
to attend, others express interest. Mention made of investigating and
connecting with current statewide BDS efforts (Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions against Israel) in Chicago as one possible motive for attending.

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

(nothing new this week)

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

Mar 31 (Tuesday) 7:30PM, Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S Gregory St,
Urbana
"From Looney Coons to Tacos & Tequila: The Aesthetics of Race in Middle
Class America"
The Seventh Chancellors CAS Special Lecture
Speaker  James D. Anderson, Gutgsell Professor of Educational Policy
Studies, Illinois
Sponsor: Office of the Chancellor, Center for Advanced Study
In this presentation, Jim Anderson explores the ways in which evolving
forms of race and ethnic performance entered into and shaped the culture
of middle class America from the late nineteenth century to the present.
He begins with an analysis of the art and lyrics of minstrel sheet music
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and then traces its
legacy through television, playful racialized antics in educated
environments and into the theme parties of contemporary campus life. Then
and now, race performances have supplied Americas middle class with fun
and entertainment while offering up ethnic and race caricatures that have
reinforced entrenched dynamics of race superiority, national identity and
citizenship status.

Apr 2 (Thursday) 7:30 PM Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S Gregory
St, Urbana
"The Significance of Islamic Intellectual History for Contemporary
 Muslims"
Speaker: Dr. Mohammed Fadel, University of Toronto
Education in the Muslim world has radically changed as a result of
modernization programs adopted by Muslim political and cultural elites
beginning in the 19th century. One of the consequences of these reform
programs has been a pronounced decline -- if not outright collapse -- of
interest in the theoretical Islamic sciences such as theology (kalam) and
ethics (usul al-fiqh). As a result, educated Muslims, unless they attended
seminaries (and attained advanced training there), can only engage
religious texts in a naive, quasi-literalist fashion. Muslim reformers,
therefore, generally engage in a strategy of 're-reading' revelation in
order to advance their goals rather than, for example, arguing that the
reforms are good and desirable in themselves. Dr. Fadel believes that this
strategy at best leads to inconclusive results and at worst undermines the
Islamic credibility of reform projects. An alternative reform strategy is
possible if modern Muslims take the problems posed in traditional Islamic
theological and ethical discussions and apply them to contemporary
problems.
Sponsors: Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Center for
Global Studies, Department of Religion, Central Illinois Mosque and
Islamic Center, Muslim Student Association, and Illinois Network on Islam
and Muslim Societies (I-NIMS)


Apr 7 (Tuesday) 7PM, Spurlock Museum, 600 S Gregory St, Urbana
Film Screening: "The Last Ghost of War"
Sponsor: Asian Educational Media Service and Spurlock Museum
The use of Agent Orange as a defoliant during the Vietnam War and the
devastating effects of this chemical on both Vietnamese villagers and U.S.
soldiers are well known. This film follows that legacy into the 21st
century, revealing the dreadful, if unequal, impact Agent Orange had on
subsequent generations in both countries. While giving a human face to the
medical statistics, this film also traces the attempts made by Vietnamese
victims to find reparation through the legal system. (Janet Gardner, 2006,
54 minutes).

Apr 14 (Tuesday)  6-7:30PM Free Community Veterans Clinic at
Urbana-Champaign Friends Meetinghouse, 1904 E Main St, Urbana
As an outcome of AWARE's panel on PTSD in 2008, this free acupuncture
clinic was started in February 2009 and is held the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays
of each month. Credentialed professionals insert acupuncture needles into
both ears while recipients remain seated for 20-40 minutes. Much research
has shown the effectiveness of this treatment for stress reduction. This
free clinic is open to U.S. military veterans, current members of the
Armed Forces, or their immediate support network. Sponsored by
Acupuncturists Without Borders, www.acuwithoutborders.org .

Apr 28 (Tuesday)  6-7:30PM Free Community Veterans Clinic at
Urbana-Champaign Friends Meetinghouse, 1904 E Main St, Urbana
As an outcome of AWARE's panel on PTSD in 2008, this free acupuncture
clinic was started in February 2009 and is held the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays
of each month. Credentialed professionals insert acupuncture needles into
both ears while recipients remain seated for 20-40 minutes. Much research
has shown the effectiveness of this treatment for stress reduction. This
free clinic is open to U.S. military veterans, current members of the
Armed Forces, or their immediate support network. Sponsored by
Acupuncturists Without Borders, www.acuwithoutborders.org .