Notes from BNCPJ SPECIAL Meeting First United Methodist Church of Normal March 26, 2003 Last night, Wednesday, March 26, twenty-two (22) BNCPJ members met at the Wesley Foundation/First United Methodist Church of Normal to share reactions to US attacks on Iraq and to plan our group's "What Next?" strategy. Following are highlights organized into three sections: Acknowledgments, Announcements, and Upcoming Activity and Opportunities. You will note among the acknowledgments that we all felt uplifted connecting and laboring together last night. We did good work! Acknowledgments of Peace-and-Justice-Making Activities in March Carroll Cox and Gabe Gudding have written substantive and sustaining messages to the ISU English Department list serve BNCPJ has deepened and extended its network with other B/N area peace and justice groups: ISU's Student Peace Action Network, IWU's People Opposed to War with Iraq, Veterans for Peace, the new Heartland Community College group; "there is a strong sense of momentum here, of groups coming together" Prayer Peace Is Cool Club sent off its 12 Relief Bags for delivery to the people of Iraq There has been a continuous stream of letters to the Pantagraph Local media coverage--The Indy, WGLT, the Pantagraph, WCBJ, Heart of Illinois, and the local CNN affiliate--again, steady B/N community members have called in to radio talk shows to talk about the war. People are continuing to ask tough questions, seek out alternative news sources (truthout.com, moveon.org, afsc.org, theguardian.com, the Indy), and "educate themselves on the issues rather than settling for answers they don't understand; they've been turning off their television sets, refusing to see the Iraq War as a Hollywood movie" DEMONSTRATIONS Town of Normal and City of Bloomington Police and the McLean County Sheriff's office have all acknowledged that the local peace and justice community has properly notified them and followed appropriate ordinances during our public activities March 15 candlelight vigil at the intersection of School and College Streets was attended by more than 100 people and covered by the press; peace activists handled heckling from college students and false reports of misconduct to the Normal police with aplomb March 20 anti-war rallies at ISU's quad and the McLean County Law and Justice Center pulled in nearly 200 and 80 people, respectively; SPAN's Chris Ball protected pro-war activists' use of the bull horn at ISU: "No, let him talkÉ." March 24 rolling rallies at ISU, Wesleyan, and the McLean County Law and Justice Center saw more than 100 people and ended with a strong showing at the intersection of Main and Front Streets at rush hour March 25 pro-war rally at ISU was attended by several SPAN and BNCPJ members who engaged the other side in discussion and dialogue that were mutually respectful and mainly productive "No Iraq War" yard signs, bumper stickers, and buttons continue to be distributed. We note that since these items have an obviously limited "shelf life," people are more than ever encouraged to hand them to interested parties. New attenders at BNCPJ meetings! Iraq war-focused graffiti on both campuses. At IWU, in particular, there has been a strong sidewalk chalk debate about the war. ISU's art gallery hosted an art show which contained numerous anti-war pieces "We're keeping on, saying, "I'm an American. I'm a patriot. And I'm raising my voice against this war." Continuous ground mail, email, fax, and telephone contact with our elected officials at the state and national levels 22 people to tonight's planning meeting! Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Documentary and Moore's anti-Bush/anti-war proclamation at the awards ceremony was received by a standing ovation Nathalie Op de Beeck had a remarkable written exchange with a Sergeant from the US Army who tucked his long letter into the top of her "No Iraq War" yard sign and apparently collected the response she similarly tucked into the sign. Announcements 1 A warm invitation to the April monthly meeting: Sunday, April 6, from 4-5:30 p.m. at the Wesley Foundation/First United Methodist Church. BNCPJ will be joined by Terry Greenberg of the Pantagraph, Keith Gottschalk from WJBC, and others from the B/N media establishment to address questions of media independence and "news" coverage, especially as now, during times of international tension. 2 BNCPJ's email setup has been re-structured. Watch for details from David McHone-Chase. In short, we're moving to an "Announcements/Actions" address (bncpj@yahoogroups.com) and a "Discussion/Information" address (bncpj-discussion@yahoogroups.com). Both lists will remain UNMODERATED, which means we all must use restraint when sending messages. 3 STILL, get a "NO IRAQ WAR" yard sign or magnetic bumper sticker by contacting Mary and David Williams at 452-6742 or mrpwilliams@yahoocom. Or the Hile-Broads at 454-5463 or hilebroad@earthlink.net. Take more than you need at this point; help us get them out! 4 Consider contributing to Iraq Relief Bags, an initiative being led by the Mennonites and the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers). Learn more by contacting Dylan and Rachel Hile-Broad (454-5463) or going online to www.afsc.org. 5 SPAN is holding an anti-war rally every Saturday afternoon from 1-2 p.m. at the intersection of College and University in Normal. 6 SPAN is coordinating a LARGE anti-war rally with other mid-central and downstate Illinois student groups. It will be held in Springfield on Sunday, April 13. More details to come. 7 POWI will hold a candlelight vigil tonight, March 27, on the IWU quad at 10 p.m. 8 Watch for BNCPJ's announcement of the cable cast "Hidden Wars of Desert Storm." Soon to come. Again, consider hosting or attending a pot luck and discussion of the film. Contact Susan Heiser at 828-2507 or sheiser810@aol.com. 9 We will pass the hat from now on at all BNCPJ meetings. Donations to cover supplies, postage, purchase of relevant videos, etc. Upcoming Activity and Opportunities 1) The Telephone tree will be reworked by Jan Cox, Ralph Durang, and Fariba Murray. We want to have the tree available for full urgent contact. 2) BNCPJ will offer its list of strong nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and relief agencies. Stewarded by Jim Nelson and Madeline Callahan. 3) After lengthy discussion about the positive impact we've seen from dialogue with people who do not share our political positions, we are creating an event whose focus will be conversation and learning about the issues. Planners of this event will meet at Meredith Schroer's home (605 Normal Avenue) Sunday, March 30 at 4:00 p.m. Planners include Meredith, Maria, Gabe, Drew, Nathalie, Jim, Linda, Nick, and Carroll. Details to be shared at our April 6 meeting. 4) Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" will be shown at the Normal Theatre May 15-18 as part of Beyond Normal Films. Mary Lehman will contact the Normal to see what BNCPJ might do to endorse and extend the impact of the film's showing. She will work with Elizabeth Kosuth to pull this together. 5) Drew Swierczek and Gabe Gudding will apply lessons learned from recent events to sharpen up the guidelines/protocols for BNCPJ rallies. They will create a check list and "How to Be Effective at A Rally" tips for distribution. 6) Drew will meet with the Peace is Cool Club April 6 to talk about the possibility of a PICC 2003 Summer Camp that would be half days and last a week or two. 7) OTHER ITEMS NOT SCHEDULED FOR ACTION AT THIS TIME BNCPJ wants to update its brochure to include current information and contacts for SPAN, POWI, Heartland, etc. and make it readily available to interested attenders of events. We'd like to encourage more internal discussion about what BNCPJ's long-range ethos and commitments are. We'd like to better understand the particulars of one another's' anti-war positions. There is room here for us to clarify the values which inform our work and to leverage those values into other local groups who share similar values. What is the nature of the support we would like to offer US troops? How do we express our concern for their sacrifices without condoning their actions? Is there work for us to do around helping anti-war veterans who attend our events hook up with one another for greater support and impact? Visits to elected officials continue to feel important. We need leadership in this area.