Present: Peter, Ellyn, Glenda Rae, Reynaldo, Lois, Wanda.
Old business
1. Approval of Minutes for November 18: The minutes were approved as written.
2. Progress Reports:
a. Topic of the Month: Ellyn sent ideas how to save paper. She will add to that report ways to save water.
b. Book of the Month report: Glenda Rae is reading "White Rage," describing the history after the Civil War and how we got to the current state of race relations. The author does not make the case for reparations, but could have. Lois mentioned the connection to "Water Dancer," which she had read, describing the underground railroad. She also passed around a set of books she obtained at Prince of Peace: Beating Guns by Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin, God and the Gay Christian by Mathhew Vines, House for Hope by John Buchrens and Rebecca Ann Porter, Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle, Raising White Kids by Jennifer Harvey, and a library book, Anti-Social by Andrew Morantz.
Ellyn passed around an email about a Time Magazine article advocating reinstitution of a draft, but only for children of the wealthiest 1%. A draft would make civilians care about whether or not our country was waging war. Peter mentioned the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service, which has completed its hearings and submitted an Interim Report in January, 2019, and plans to release a final report in March 2020.
Wanda had just finished a book "Last Christmas in Paris" by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, including a series of letters from a lady writing to a friend during the 1st World War describing the horrors in the trenches. Oliver Bell, a friend of Galen's, became a minister after promising God that he would if he was able to survive the war. Men in that war suffered from shell shock, now called PTSD. The Spanish flu raged back and forth over the Atlantic as soldiers traveled to and from the war.
Reynaldo reported on the two books "Christ in Crisis," by Wallis, and "Immoral Majority," by Howe. Wallis made clear that he found Trump to be anti Christ. Howe contends that evangelicals have allowed their morals to become corrupted for the sake of power and calls us to responsible citizenship. He does not go so far as to say don't vote for Trump, but he should have.
c. Immigration Coalition Report: Jobs with Justice is under new leadership with Jaz Alexander taking over from Joe Carbone. When Glenda Rae asked who would be organizing the Immigration Coalition, no one seemed to know. Tony, who had been keeping it going, has been very sick. We mentioned the group of doctors who were recently turned away from the immigrant detention centers near the border when they tried to give out flu shots. The Trump administration claims they have no protocol for flu shots even though the flu can be deadly.
d. MLK table and LTOP: Because Peter and Ellyn will be out of the country in mid January, it was uncertain who would be able to set up our MLK table, so Glenda Rae did not sign us up. She found out at the MLK Day meeting that we had until Friday, the 20th to submit our application. Lois was able to get Diana to agree to help her with the table, so Glenda Rae will turn in the application and Peter will get the table materials and bean poll to Diana and Lois. Glenda Rae urged us to put up flyers for the Little Taste of Peace at our churches and organizations.
e. Human Rights Day: This celebration marked the 20th year that Jobs with Justice had sponsored the event. It was sparsely attended but had a very good program. John Broden was the main speaker and spoke about the need for an independent judiciary. Ellyn gave a brief talk on the right to health care. Other speakers touched on issues central to the Jobs with Justice mission.
f. Sunrise Climate Strike Demonstration: This was organized by the Sunrise group in the area, consisting mostly of IUSB and ND students There were a handful of grey hairs in the crowd, including Peter. The event started at Howard Park near the new skating rink on Friday, December 13. After a few speeches and chants, the group walked to the City County building and went up to the 14th floor. We lined up on both sides of the hall in front of the Mayor's office and, one by one, presented our letters expressing the urgency of doing something about climate change right away to his secretary. Mayor Pete has a plan to make South Bend carbon neutral by 2050 but that is way too late. Peter will stay in touch with the group. We noted that Jane Fonda keeps getting arrested to call the attention of the nation that we only have until 2030 to reverse the causes of climate change.Some of the Pacific Islands are flooding. We need to oppose the new Alaska pipeline which will disrupt the cariboo migration and threaten the indigenous food supply
3. Treasurer's Report: $133.50 with $10 in petty cash.
New Business
1. What do we (can we) do next? We incorporated this topic into other discussion
2. Topic of the Month: We ran out of time to discuss this.
3. Other Topics and Issues: Move On has scheduled a demonstration at Senator Braun's office on Colfax next to the Tribune building for 6:30-7:30pm on Tuesday, December 17. I have just returned from holding a sign at this rally. There were more than 200 folks holding signs and chanting slogans, "Impeach and Remove," "Trump must go," "Above the law," "This is what Democracy looks like," etc. Many young people!
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4. Next meeting: Monday, January 27, at 2:30pm at Lois' facility. We will send the directions in the meeting announcement.