Minutes for MPJC Meeting of March 13, 2017

Present: Peter, Ellyn, Glenda Rae, Rey, Lois, Wanda, Galen

Old business

    1.  Approval of Minutes for February 13: The minutes were approved as corrected.

    2. Progress Reports

        a. Topic of the Month: Racial Justice - Ellyn did contact Chip Roush and he said that he had not preached on racial justice but thought he could pull something together in the next few weeks. He had not submitted anything before the meeting. Peter talked with him after the meeting and he had a reference that he thought would be apropos. He will contact Peter or Ellyn soon.

        b. Tax Day Plans - We will use the regular vigil on Monday, April 17, to protest the use of taxes for war. We should emphasize the percentage (52?)of discretionary budget that goes to the military, the number of teachers that could be paid from the amount Indiana sends to war, and that we should pay for healthcare, not war.

        c. Book of the Month report: Wanda had read a book, Gertrude's Oath, set before WWII. It was a story of two families very sad. One Jewish Polish family had to move from Warsaw and were unable to get housing because they were Jewish. The mother died and the nanny, Gertrude, raised the son. The other family lived in Berlin. The father and daughter joined the Nazis who killed the Jewish wife because the father would not divorce her.

        d. Sanctuary City - South Bend?: Churches can be sanctuaries. There is an ACLU video on this subject.

        e. Resource Hub: Kathy has been very busy. Ellyn got a message from Susan Searight, a former NOW member, who said that the library was interested in picking up this project. The contact is Rona Plummer, (r.plummer@sjcpl.org) - her phone # is 282-4615.

        f. Protest events over the past month: No one had anything to report

3. Treasurer's Report: $18.72 with a $5.11 in petty cash. Glenda Rae paid our Jobs with Justice dues.

New Business

    1. What do we (can we) do next? We incorporated this topic into other discussion

    2. Memorial Day Parade: Lois thought that the parade entry process was closed. She later learned that it will remain open until April 30. We were reluctant to plan anything involving a float pulled by a truck. Perhaps we could find band members to play and carry the banners. Another idea was to talk with Jan about teaming up with CPNV.

    3. Topic of the Month: We will continue to work on racial justice.

    4. Other Topics and Issues: There will be a Community Forum on Healthcare on Sunday, April 9, 3-5, at Century Center.

Write a postcard to Paul Ryan asking what will we do if we don't have workers. His address is 700 St Lawrence Ave, Jaynesville, WI 53544.

Ellyn and Peter talked about their trip to Nicaragua. The group saw 400 patients and met with most of the 25 university students we support. We had 4 1/2 days of clinics distributed over the two weeks we were there.

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    5. Next meeting: Monday, April 10th, at 2:30pm at Lois' assisted living center. We will send the directions in the meeting announcement.