Present: Peter, Ellyn, Glenda Rae, Rey, Lois, Wanda, Galen
Old business
1. Approval of Minutes for November 12: The minutes were approved as written. We need some fresh signs for the Monday vigil. Some suggestions were "Stop Funding Saudi Arabia," "No War in Yemen," War is not good for the economy," Honk for Truth."
2. Progress Reports:
a. Topic of the Month: We did not pick a topic this month. We talked about recruitment in the schools. Lois is still trying to connect with Regina Preston-Williams. She did get in touch with Jan Brown who said that we had to go through School City to get permission to do anything with the South Bend schools. Jan recommended contacting the recruiting offices to ask about their recruiting efforts in the schools. Rey said that our emphasis should be getting parents to fill out the opt-out forms so the school would not give the recruiters any information about their children. He mentioned that there is a peace group in Elkhart who has successfully gained permission to place booklets on display in some schools about the truth about enlisting and what to expect. This group approached individual schools and did not go through the central administration. He will try to get a contact for these groups. Wanda suggested we come up with a brochure and we all agreed to look at the websites of the organizations we belong to and try to find a good brochure.
b. Armistice Day: This was celebrated on November 12. We had appropriate signs at our 4:30 vigil. Only the usual suspects showed up. Lois had tried to convince Tony Flora to come and bring some union folks without success.
c. Human Rights Day: This was celebrated on December 10 at 6pm at the union hall on South Main. It was a much better venue than the Library and there was a good turnout and program. There were sets of people who had not attended previous year's celebrations. Ellyn encouraged the committee to rewrite the articles being celebrated next year to remove the sexist language. She said that Eleanor Roosevelt would approve.
d. Little Taste of Peace, Jan 19 6pm: Glenda Rae needs more minority facilitators. Dania is preparing the questions this year and the facilitators will get a chance to review them at the preliminary meeting on Jan 10. Last year there were complaints about the questions having yes/no answers, especially from one facilitator. Her group also complained in their feedback sheets, but most other respondents did not mention it. All the groups had plenty to talk about.
e. MLK Day Table: Lois will have a table next to ours that focuses on scholarships. Glenda Rae made out the check for our table and turned in the application. Ellyn will pick up Lois in the morning and help set up the tables. Wanda and Galen will staff the table in the morning and Peter will take over in the afternoon. Ellyn suggested we surround the photo of MLK with those of other people who made the world better. Peter will update the Cost of War brochure and perhaps collect statistics on the cost of the war in Yemen in terms of lives and money.
f. Book of the Month report: Lois read "Aware, The Science and Practice of the Present," by Daniel Siegal. She pointed out a diagram in the book of a wheel with the center hub representing awareness, and spokes out to the rim representing the 5 senses, plus a 6th sense "feelings or emotions," a 7th sense "mental activity," and an 8th sense "interconnection with other people and the universe." Rey recommended a book, "American Like Me," by America Ferrara, a compilation of stories of immigrants from all over the world, most people of color, all of whom had dual identity. The stories included Native Americans.
g. Immigration Coalition Report: The coalition has not met since planning the program for Human Rights day. Joe Carbone is moving to Michigan and there is a new coordinator. We noted that they handed out flyers at the Human Rights Day about the Dilley Pro Bono Project where a group of South Bend attorneys will travel to the border for a week and help the migrants waiting for asylum hearings. La Casa de Amistad is sponsoring this delegation and is collecting money to support them.
3. Treasurer's Report: $84.52 with $30 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: See above.
3. Other Topics and Issues: Lunafest is selling tickets for $20 for the season of films. The Peace Ed Fund has adopted this as one of its programs. We discussed whether having a senior and a student price might bring in more attendees, but Glenda Rae said it was a fundraiser and thought they would sell out without reducing prices. The films will be shown in Madeleva Hall on Saint Mary's campus this year
On January 21 at 7pm there will be a special performance of the Symphony in honor of MLK. Glenda Rae thought the tickets would be $10 each.
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4. Next meeting: Monday, January 28, at 2:30pm at Lois' assisted living center. We will send the directions in the meeting announcement.