[Peace] AWARE minutes

[David Green]

The first set of AWARE minutes I could find on the peace-discuss list was
from March of 2003, a year and a half after the founding of AWARE, recently
noted, by Danielle Chynoweth and Elizabeth Simpson. Notice that neither of
them are to be found at this meeting. Perhaps somebody can inform me of the
patriarchy and sexism that they notice documented in this context by Linda
Evans. This occasion was, of course, right before the beginning of the 2nd
Persian Gulf War.

Facilitator: Peter Rohloff Minutes: Linda Evans Time: Al Kagan Intros: over
40 people David Green spoke on the Israel/Palestine situation: David
suggested the book 'Perceptions of Palestine: Their Influence on US Middle
East Policy' by Kathleen Christison as a primer on this subject. He said
this book is good for Americans who want to understand Palestine by
beginning with the treatment of the Palestinians by successive U.S.
administrations, going back to Woodrow Wilson. David discussed the US
policy favoring Israel, which is structural and consistent, not an
aberration or a mistake. He displayed several newspaper clippings showing
violence on both sides during the past week and how they are covered in a
manner that avoids addressing the fundamental nature of the occupation in
shaping Israeli oppression and Palestinian resistance. While the word
"terrorism" is no longer used to describe Palestinian violence, neither is
the word "occupation" used to describe the fundamental reality of
Palestinian lives. Thus Palestinian violence is seen as a force of nature,
and Israeli violence is seen as retaliation or preemption. He suggested
that Israel will not resolve the Palestinian problem in a just manner
without a radical re-thinking of U.S. support, with the help of the
international community, as Israel's right-wing government has never been
more identified with a U.S. administration as it is now, and more free to
pursue policies that murder Palestinians and put Israeli citizens in
danger. He discussed the context of suicide bombings--the targeting of
Hamas leaders by Israel, and their predictable response. While suicide
bombings are immoral and condemnable, like other forms of "terrorism" they
must be explained and understood. A couple questions were asked regarding
the break down of peace talks. David expressed pessimism regarding
"reforms" in the Palestinian authority. He said that the new boss would be
the same as the old boss, his job being to sell out the interests of the
Palestinian people. News of the week: Carl Estabrook (posted previously)
Student Peace Action: A representative from Student Peace Action described
their scheduled 'Day of War Event'. They are planning a march following the
PRC event on the quad. The march will start around 1pm on the quad the day
after a major US bombing of Iraq. AWARE agreed to endorse this event. A
suggestion was made to SPA to contact Teachers for Peace. AWARE's Day of
War Event: Charlotte Green and Jeff Sowers discussed AWARE's Day of War
event and flyers have been posted at local businesses. Remaining flyers
were passed around for people to post them at business where we have yet to
flyer. Finances: Gabe said we have approximately $2000 in the bank.
Approximately $60 was collected at Prospect for Peace last Saturday. Linda
Evans will be able to write checks soon and will try to have a financial
report for next meeting. Since Raia will not be back for awhile, Linda will
start handling finances with the help of Gabe. AWARE Care: Al Kagan
reported on the AWARE Care meeting last Monday. Long term goals and AWARE's
philosophy (non-violence?) was discussed. Al said 'another world is
possible'. Organizing structure (openness vs. coordination), outreach, and
cultural presentation were also discussed. It was suggested that people
with announcements give them to the facilitator of the meeting so we can
streamline the announcement part of the meetings. An AWARE notebook is
being created by Linda Evans and Charlotte Green. This notebook will have
meeting minutes, flyers, current literature, etc. Linda and Charlotte are
also working on a list of working groups and their facilitators that will
be available every meeting. This may help people find ways they can get
more involved in AWARE. Linda and Charlotte are also working on a table
with current information for every meeting. The welcome flyer will also be
resurrected. Prospect for Peace: Ricky Baldwin said over 160 people were
protesting on N. Prospect last Saturday. He estimated around half of the
people were newcomers to the N. Prospect event. He thinks the word is out
about N. Prospect so we may not need to publicize this weekly event as
much. Security was discussed. A green van stayed on the street, but got
very close to the protesters last Saturday. The P4P security working group
scheduled to meet after the meeting. Even with the 'security' group, we all
need to look out for one another during the P4P. Flyers: Randall Cotton
showed the new P4P handout with a new more readable layout by John
Baldwidge. Randall estimated 1,000 Move On flyers were handed out last week
on the corner of Green and Wright. Tuesday March 11, 2003 at 11:45am on the
same corner, literature will be handed out so anyone can come by and help.
An estimated 350 flyers were put in doors around the C-U area. Janet has
the original electronic copy of the literature. There was discussion
regarding adding AWARE information to the Move On literature. March 15th:
If anyone is interested in traveling to DC for March 15th, contact Randall
Cotton. For those people staying in the CU area, we need to have a strong
presence at Prospect for Peace. The New Gazette will be at P4P March 15th.
Speaker's Bureau: Linda Evans reported on last Tuesday's meeting of the
Speaker's Bureau. The list of speakers is being updated. All the speakers
on the old list will be contacted to make sure they still would like to
speak and new speakers are being added. If anyone is interested, contact
Joe Parnarauskis. The Speaker's Bureau is working on ways to outreach to
the community and is interested in looking at this as an exchange of
speakers. We would ask people from the community to come speak to AWARE as
well as making AWARE available to speak. Announcements: The Public I's next
issue (due out April 1st) will have an article on war tax resistance. Ken
Urban has started 'Parklanders for Peace' and so far eight faculty have
come out to the Prospect for Peace. He tables at Parkland with AWARE
literature. Ken Urban suggested AWARE support Care3 since they have
supported AWARE. He mentioned four people running in the Unit 4 School
Board; Nathaniel Banks, Scott Anderson, Margie Skirvin (
http://www.skirvin.net/), and Charles (Ken, please provide the last name
here I couldn't find it during a quick web search). Ken also said Miles
Robert thinks we should have another DI ad regarding the Day of War Event.
Due to the amount of money involved, it was suggested we write a letter to
the editor instead. Jeff Sowers offered to write the letter. There is a
lock down in Milwaukee, but we were lacking specific information. Jay
Mittenthal announced the Nonviolence working group is going to have a
meeting at the IMC on March 30th prior to the AWARE meeting at 4pm. There
will be role playing and information on nonviolent activism.
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