Meeting notes for People for Peace, Justice, and Healing
September 3, 2005
People for Peace, Justice, and Healing met at 10:00 a.m. at Associated Ministries, 1224 South "I" St., Tacoma, on Saturday, Sept. 3, 2005. Present for check-in were Sheila, Sara, Kyle, Denise, Louisa, Colleen, Mark, Sallie S., Susan, and Laura.
AGENDA
1. Update on progress in counter-recruitment (Sallie S.)
In addition to Tuesday morning leafleting at Lincoln HS, Sallie also went to a meeting
of parents at Mount Tahoma HS. School calendars are providing information about opt-out
forms. A HS career counselor has promised to give advance notice of visits by military
recruiters. So considerable progress is being made!
2. Progressive roundtable (Laura)
Progressive roundtable is a networking meeting for local progressive leaders and
activists. In addition to the 4th Friday 7:00 a.m. meetings at Shakabrah Java
(2618 6th Ave., Tacoma, 253-572-2787), a 2nd Saturday 9:30 a.m. meeting will be held as
Loa Reyes Del Taco (6308 E. McKinley Ave., Tacoma, 253-474-3642).
Write progressiveroundtable@yahoo.com for more information.
3. Brainstorming on pre-camp event (Sallie S).
South Sound Peace and Justice Center is organizing pre- and post-Peace Camp
events. (The Peace Camp is a plan inspired by -- but not copied from -- the
documentary film "Trust Me," on a North Carolina children's peace camp; it will be
held at the end of August 2006 at Camp
Seymour, a YMCA camp 30 minutes from Tacoma on Glen Cove.) The pre-camp event
will be hosted by Associated Ministries in October. Brainstorming on where to hold
the event, who to invite, and how to frame the event.
4. Conversation Café (Mark)
PPJH will be arranging more distributed responsibility for maintaining this activity
in coming weeks. Question for Tuesday, September 6, at 7:00 p.m., at the Mandolin
Café (3923 South 12th St., Tacoma): What have we learned from Hurricane Katrina?
5. Statement on Hurricane Katrina (Mark)
The group honed a statement on Hurricane Katrina for posting on the web site. Here
it is: "STATEMENT ON HURRICANE KATRINA -- People for Peace, Justice, and Healing,
September 3, 2005 -- People for Peace, Justice, and Healing urges every American to
consider making a contribution to disaster relief for the victims of Hurricane
Katrina. MSNBC has prepared a list of 35 agencies providing relief that are accepting
donations and other ways you can help, see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9115520/ -- We
also urge readers to consider Hurricane Katrina a wake-up call to an America that has
in recent years embraced disastrously misguided policies both at home and
abroad. Imperial adventurism, arrogant unilateralism, callous indifference to the
poor, systematic neglect of infrastructure, fanatical ideology, and a blatant disregard
for the dangers facing the planet's ecology have been made visible for all to see by
the blow Hurricane Katrina delivered to this nation on Monday, August 29, 2005. The
picture is an ugly one. It is up to all Americans to respond to this call and to help
reset national priorities. Michael Lerner's "Hurricane
Katrina, God and Social Morality," emphasizing that 'the choice between life and
death is in our hands,' is recommended reading on the significance of this catastrophe."
6. Therapy dogs (Denise)
Explanation of what "therapy dogs" are. Colleen reports that "therapy rabbits" are used
by Catholic Children's Services.
7. Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center (Sara)
Sara has been involved with and reported on the activities of Rocky
Mountain Peace and Justice Center, which has an office in Boulder, CO, weekly
meetings, three staff persons, and does a lot of work on nuclear-related issues at
Rocky Flats. It is
currently concerned
about Colorado University's bid to manage the Dept. of Energy's Los Alamos Laboratory
in New Mexico.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. ACLU's meeting on Wed., Sept. 7, at 7:00 p.m. at the Tacoma Public Library's Cascade Room A will feature a discussion of Instant Run-off Voting, with Richard Anderson-Connolly of the University of Puget Sound. (Colleen)
2. The PLU Working Group will show the three one-hour segments of "The Power of Nightmares," Adam Curtis's BBC documentary film on American neoconservatives and Islamist radicals at 7:00 p.m. on three successive Friday evenings (Sept. 9, 16, & 23) in the Philip Nordquist Lecture Hall on the Pacific Lutheran University campus. (Mark)
3. United for Peace of Pierce County will begin Digging Deeper IX: Connecting the Dots, a new 4-week study circle at 7:00 p.m. on Mon., Sept. 12, at the Mandolin Café. Five books will be read, shared, and discussed: Matthew Simmons, Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy (Wiley, 2005); Andrew Gumbel, Steal This Vote: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America (Nation Books, 2005); George Lakoff, Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate -- The Essential Guide for Progressives (Chelsea Green, 2004; orig. ed. 2002); V.S. Ramachandran, A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness: From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers (Pi Press, 2004 [paper 2005]); and William Engdahl, A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order, revised ed. (Pluto Press, 2004). No charge for participations; books available for borrowing or purchase. More information here or call Mark Jensen at 253-756-7519. (Mark)
4. Recommended book: Bridget C. Cantrell and Chuck Dean, Down Range: To Iraq and Back, "addressing the challenges of reintegration from combatant to civilian" and written by a psychologist and a veteran. See www.heartstowardhome.com and www.namvetbook.com for more information. (Sallie S.)
5. Susan recommends this article on the American health care system: Malcolm Gladwell, "The Moral-Hazard Myth," New Yorker (August 29, 2005), pp. 44-49, which concludes: "The issue about what to do with the health-care system is sometimes presented as a technical argument about the merits of one kind of coverage over another or as an ideological argument about socialized versus private medicine. It is, instead, about a few very simple questions. Do you think that this kind of redistribution of risk is a good idea? Do you think that people whose genes predispose them to depression or cancer, or whose poverty complicates asthma or diabetes, or who get hit by a drunk driver, or who have to keep their mouths closed because their teeth are rotting ought to bear a greater share of the costs of their health care than those of us who are lucky enough to escape such misfortunes? In the rest of the industrialized world, it is assumed that the more equally and widely the burdens of illness are shared, the better off the population as a whole is likely to be. The reason the United States has forty-five million people [now 45.8 million, according to an Aug. 30, 2005, press release from the U.S. Census Bureau --Mark] without coverage is that its health-care policy is in the hands of people who disagree, and who regard health insurance not as the solution but as the problem."
Respectfully,
Mark