[Peace] Last minutes for now

[David Green]

May 2004, 2 1/2 years after Danielle and Elizabeth founded AWARE, leaving
no evidence whatsoever that they ever did anything else beyond that. But
surely, if I were to move ahead for a year or two, I would discover
evidence of blatant sexism and patriarchy that caused them to abandon the
organization "a few years later" after their immaculate efforts to inspire
the organization with their vision of peace, love, and justice. Damn men,
fuck em all.

Carol Inskeep hadn't yet figured out that AWARE was patriarchal and sexist.
But I think that eventually she did.

Greetings - Here's the minutes. Email any corrections - my apologies in
advance for any oversights or distortions. cpi AWARE Meeting 5/23 - Al
Kagan Facilitating / 20 folks attending Poetry by Matt Murrey Introductions
News of the Week by Carl Estabrook (posted separately) P4P - Next protest
is on June 5th – Keeping with the National Day of Protest, we will have
signs about the Israeli invasion into Gaza. Ricky will bring sign-making
materials to the next AWARE meeting so that folks can make some much-needed
new signs. - Ricky also mentions that some folks periodically ask for more
frequent protests; we can always go more frequently if there is interest.
Legal Issues (Al, Carol and Ricky) - Folks on the working group are
contacting additional lawyers since there has been a delay in Ellyn
Bullock’s law firm okay-ing her working for AWARE. - Ricky is setting up a
meeting with the Champaign Police and their legal department for next week.
- We may want to keep in mind the option of approaching the Champaign City
Council with our concerns since they are the oversight for the police. Tim
Johnson: Public Meeting - Matt presented the letter to Tim Johnson
requesting a public meeting to discuss concerns about the war. Group
approved his version and it will be faxed to Johnson’s Washington office
this week. I’ve included the letter at the end of these minutes. Farmer’s
Market - We need folks to work the 10-12 slot at the table on Saturdays.
Please email Peter if you’re available for the upcoming Saturdays. rohloff
at uiuc.edu> - Durl volunteered to coordinate the Farmer’s Market tabling
in July. - Susan and Carol will work on literature / info to encourage
folks who stop by the table to send a postcard to Kerry (or any candidate
running for office) to encourage anti-war positions. ( In general
discussion, folks mentioned that we all can email candidates or use the
candidates’ postage-paid fundraising envelopes as an opportunity to
pressure for stronger stands against the war. See Ricky’s posting to
peace-discuss for one example) Finances -Linda reports that we’ve got
$1,812.76, thanks to donations to AWARE at Farmer’s Market. WILL commentary
policy Local public radio station WILL has turned down a commentary
submitted by David Green because they have decided (after Randall’s
commentary) to only accept pieces which deal with local/regional issues.
Much discussion about the hypocrisy of this stand, and a suggestion to go
to the News Gazette to publicize it, or to try to impact them during the
next fund drive. Group agreed that a first step is to talk to sympathetic
WILL staff in as timely a way as possible. Al will follow up. Democracy
Now! -Randall reports progress is being made on bringing DN! to UPTV. No
meeting yet about getting it on WILL. News Gazette drops Boondocks - Jan
has written a letter to the News Gazette protesting their dropping of the
popular comic strip Boondocks. The strip was removed because of its
critical humor targetting Bush. Several folks added their names to the
letter. If you would like to be included, please email Jan promptly. durljan
at earthlink.net New Ideas - Linda is doing the groundwork to get AWARE a
table at the Sweet Corn Festival held in Urbana in August. - David Cobb, a
Green Party candidate, is speaking on June 2nd at 8 pm at the Illini Union.
We’ve been invited to table there. - Tom Mackaman is running as a Socialist
candidate in District 103. A petition to help him get on the ballot was
circulated. He will speak at an upcoming AWARE meeting. Events of the Past
Week - Carl reported on the Free Speech forum at the Champaign Public
Library Upcoming Events - WEFT is tabling at Pages for All Ages from May
23-27, and 20% of purchases will support the station (if you mention WEFT).
Stop by their table and tell them you appreciate the public affairs
programming and would like to see more. http://www.weft.org/ Randall
graciously agreed to facilitate next week. Please email me (carolinskeep at
yahoo.com) with agenda items or to volunteer to try your hand at
facilitating. Thanks to Al for facilitating and to all the hard-working
folks who keep AWARE going... cpi Matt’s letter to Tim Johnson follows
below: Dear Representative Johnson, I am writing to you as a representative
of the Champaign-Urbana group AWARE, an anti-war, anti-racist group of
citizens, most of whose members are your constituents. I am contacting you
because our group would like to hold a public meeting with you to ask you
questions about the ongoing war in Iraq. We are especially interested in
the following topics: the secret intelligence that led you to vote for
authorizing the President to wage war in Iraq, the torture and abuse of
prisoners in Iraq, exit strategy for US troops now in Iraq, the funding of
the war, and the relation of the war to the Israel/Palestine conflict. It
seems that the war and occupation of Iraq have reached a critical juncture,
and with the "handover of sovereignty" planned for June 30th, your
constituents should have an opportunity to ask you questions and give you
their opinions about the war before your next public meeting in scheduled
in August. I look forward to hearing from you about setting up this meeting
as soon as possible. Thank you very much. Sincerely, Matthew Murrey
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