MEETING NOTES FOR PEOPLE FOR PEACE, JUSTICE, AND HEALING
People for Peace, Justice, and Healing
March 14, 2009
People for Peace, Justice and Healing met Saturday, March 14, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. at Associated Ministries. Present for check-in were: Sallie S., Sol, Vivi, Nancy, Sheila, Mark, and Colleen.
AGENDA
1. ASSOCIATED MINISTRIES AUCTION (Sallie)
Associated Ministries' annual spring auction will be held on Sat., May 30, at 6:30 p.m. Tickets can be ordered through the above web site. Put it on your calendar. This will be a big send-off for David Alger at the end of 30 years of service as well as an event marking the 40th anniversary of Associated Ministries. Cost: $50.00 per person. It will be held downtown at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center. Auction items are needed, especially quality items. Also, is there a local merchant you can approach to contribute goods or services (e.g. a dinner for two)? Or do you know someone who could contribute a weekend at a privately owned cabin? Call Robin Mason at 253-383-3056 ext. 145 or email auction@associatedministries.org -- or send donations directly to Associated Ministries Spring Celebration, 224 South "I" St., Tacoma, WA 98405.
2. BUILDING PLANS FOR CHABAD OF PIERCE COUNTY (Colleen)
Building plans for Chabad of Pierce County on N. Hawthorne Dr. ran into problems from opposition to variances. Colleen feels since at present there is only one synagogue in all of Pierce County, it would be a good idea to address individual letters of support to the City of Tacoma for the new location being considered (2146 N. Mildred). For more information on Chabad-Lubavitch, a large Hasidic movement in Orthodox Judaism, see here.
3. PIERCE COUNTY FOR CHANGE (Sheila)
Sheila reported on her attendance at the last meeting of Pierce County for Change on Mar. 8. About fifty people attended; they split into groups, and Sheila participated in a group discussing human rights. This is an opportunity to network with an interesting group that seeks to extend the energy from the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. The next meeting will be held at the Center for Spritual Living at 206 N. "J" St., Tacoma, WA 98403, at 3:00 p.m. on Sun., Apr. 19.
4. MARCH 21 (Sallie)
Tacoma SDS is taking the lead in calling for a a "6th Anniversary Demonstration Against the War" involving a march from Jefferson Park to Wright Park from 12:00 noon to 3:00 p.m. on Sat., Mar. 21. More information here and here. A TV spot is available on YouTube and a media buy is putting it on Tacoma's Click! network.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. DIGGING DEEPER LXXVI READS MICHAEL HUDSON'S SUPER IMPERIALISM AND MICHAEL PARENTI'S DEMOCRACY FOR THE FEW (Mark)
On successive Mondays, Mar. 9 & 16, at 7:00 p.m., UFPPC's study circle, Digging Deeper, is examining two books that demystify social, political, and economic myths about American society and its global role: Michael Parenti, Democracy for the Few, 8th ed. (Wadsworth, 2007); and Michael Hudson, Super Imperialism: The Origin and Fundamentals of U.S. World Dominance (Pluto Press, 2003).[1] — Michael Parenti holds a Ph.D. in political science from Yale; his volume "tries to show how democracy is repeatedly violated by corporate oligopoly, and yet how popular forces have fought back and occasionally made gains." — Hudson has a Ph.D. in economics from NYU; his book "aims at providing the background for U.S.-European and U.S.-Asian financial relations by explaining how the U.S. Treasury bill standard came to provide America with a free lunch since gold was demonetized in 1971," and is an updated version of a 1972 version that "was the first to criticize the World Bank and IMF for imposing destructive policies on the world's debtor economies, and to trace these policies to U.S. diplomatic pressure." Both works offer important insights into the contemporary crisis.
2. BERT SACKS TO SPEAK AT KING'S BOOKS IN TACOMA ON MAR. 20 (Mark)
On Fri., Mar. 20, the 2008-2009 UFPPC Speaker Series will feature Bert Sacks speaking on Iraq, Gaza, U.S. media, and the cause of peace. Sacks is "a gentle soul, soft-spoken, an apostle of nonviolence, and, depending on whom you ask, either a defiant criminal or a compassionate hero," as Geov Parrish wrote several years ago ("The Compassionate Outlaw," Seattle Weekly, Apr. 2, 2003). A recent video of Bert Sacks can be viewed here. This event is free and will be held at King's Books, 218 St. Helens, Tacoma, at 7:00 p.m.
3. AFGHANISTAN DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL (Mark)
UFPPC and the Micah Project of First United Methodist Church will sponsor a festival of documentary films about Afghanistan on three successive Saturday nights at First United Methodist Church in Tacoma: Mar. 21 & 28 and Apr. 4, 2009. — More information here.
4. ANDREW FINSTUEN ON 'REINHOLD NIEBUHR'S VISION FOR AMERICA' ON APR. 3 (Mark)
On Fri., Apr. 3, at 7:00 p.m., the 2008-2009 UFPPC Speaker Series will present Andrew Finstuen, a visiting assistant professor with a Ph.D. in History currently teaching in the Department of Religion at Pacific Lutheran, speaking about "Original Sin and the Prospects for Justice: Reinhold Niebuhr's Vision for the Kingdom of God in America" at King's Books in Tacoma (218 St. Helens Ave.). Reinhold Niebuhr's work had a crucial influence on Martin Luther King Jr., who read Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932) in the fall of 1950. As historian Taylor Branch wrote in one of President Barack Obama's favorite books, "[King] invoked Niebuhr in every one of his own major books, always with a sketch of Moral Man and Immoral Society. He confessed that he became 'enamored' of Niebuhr . . . [King] came to describe Niebuhr as a prime influence upon his life, and Gandhian nonviolence as 'merely a Niebuhrian strategem of power.' King devoted much of his remaining graduate school career to the study of Niebuhr, who touched him on all his tender points, from pacifism and race to sin" (Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63 [New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988], p. 87). — More information available here.
Respectfully submitted,
Mark