Minutes for March 29, 2005 Meeting

Old Business

1. The minutes for March 8 were approved as written.
   
   
2. Progress Reports
   • Midwest Peace Summit and Rally: Lee reported that there were 200 persons attending the peace summit (300 for the Parenti lecture) and about 200 attended the Sunday rally. The organizers of the rally were somewhat disappointed in the rally attendance but at least the lack of porta potties did not present a problem as the folks were able to use a nearby church and restaurant. A highlight of the rally was the beating of drums and chanting by the Gary contingent. There was no participation from outside of Indiana, few students or peace church folks, and less participation from the east side of the state except for Fort Wayne. There were more folks from South Bend than Bloomington. The organizers want another summit in a year but are reluctant to organize any type of activity in the interim. There will be a phone conference of the IPJN on March 30, and a meeting at Purdue on April 8. Lee and Mary Jo will participate.
     
     
   • Next Quarter Student Group Gathering: Since there will be a major peace weekend at ND in early April we decided not to schedule another gathering until the Fall. We will see if we can get the Catholic Peace Fellowship to train some of us in the summer to counsel at high schools and plan a training event in early Fall to increase the counter-recruitment presence at the high schools in the region. The coordinator for Justice Education at Saint Mary's has not been very receptive to organizing such a session at the college, but Zae will continue to pursue the possibility.
     
     
   • Tax Day plans: These are proceeding. Nothing new. Peter and Glenda Rae will try to get people to sign up for shifts at the post office from 6-8, 8-10, 10-midnight on April 15. Contact Peter at 289-2126, or Glenda Rae at 287-7715 to sign up.
     
     
   • Weekly Letters to Congresspersons on Web: This has been done and is available as a link from the main page. Also, letters to the editor that have been published recently and sent to Peter in electronic form are also included. The Volunteer Speakers list is also available on the website.
     
     
   • Cost of War brochure: This is the brochure that faculty at Saint Mary's have been working on. It was finished in time for the peace rally on March 20 due to the heroic effors of Patty Sayre from the Philosophy department. There were a couple of typos that Peter will correct when he puts the brochure on the website for downloading. We decided to purchase some cards to send Thank You notes to Patty for the brochure and Julie for the banner, and have them ready for other benefactors of MPJC. Mary Jo will take care of the cards.
   
   
3. Procurement subcommittee report: Rey reported that we took in $118 in ribbon and water sales at the rally and paid Ellyn back $60 she had invested for magnetic ribbon purchase. She donated the other $40 to the coalition. We still have to provide the IPJN a portion of the sales. Lee and Mary Joe will try to get some idea how much other groups are donating and we will make a decision at the next meeting. The "Bring the Troops Home Now" ribbons are still available for sale for $4 apiece or 3 for $10. Glenda Rae will bring some to the Saturday rally
   
   
4. Treasurers Report: Glenda Rae arrived too late at the meeting to give a treasurer's report. She will do so at the next meeting.
   
   

New Business

1. MPJC Position of Reinstatement of the Draft: Because it is almost impossible to draft a statement at a meeting like this we decided to let Ed C. and Zae prepare and promulgate a statement on the draft and also on the next item on withdrawal of troops. We had a brief discussion and one recommendation was that we oppose reinstatement of the draft but use the draft threat to organize young people to get active. Another suggestion was to push for legislation that would require reinstatement of the draft before war could be waged in the future (whether it is declared or not).
   
   
2. MPJC Position on immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq: This topic was the subject of heated discussion to which the minutes cannot do justice. A serious concern was the inability of the UN to do anything not approved by the U.S. Another was the level of desirability of Iraq becoming a Muslim state. Ed C. and Zae will try to sort this out and prepare a statement.
   
   
3. Watch Video of March 19th Fox News on Vigil at Grape Road: We watched it and were impressed with the good coverage. We were also impressed with the coverage of the Indianapolis Star for the March 20th rally. With such a low attendance the reporter could have produced a negative piece, but instead gave MPJC several mentions. We decided to send her a Thank You note.
   
   
4. Revise MPJC mission statement: We decided not to tackle this at the meeting. Instead, Zae and Paul will work up a draft for the next meeting. We encouraged them to be concise, since no one will read a long statement. Using Talking Points for material omitted from the mission statement was a good idea.
   
   
5. Next Topic of the Month: We decided to address torture under any conditions, including rendition (outsourcing torture to other countries). Ed C. will post the initial message to the web.
   
   
6. Peace Tythe PAC: There was some concern with how to go about this and the cost of starting up a PAC. We thought it better to offer volunteers to candidates we endorse to influence them to take seriously our views.
   
   
7. Other topics and Issues: None
   
   
8. Next Meeting. We will meet at 1036 N. Niles on Tuesday, May 3rd. It may have to be moved to another place since we may be out east helping after our daughter's baby arrives. It will be announced via the List Serv and at the weekly vigil.