Present: Peter, Ellyn, Glenda Rae, Lois, Wanda, Galen, Kathy
Old business
1. Approval of Minutes for December 5: The minutes were approved as submitted.
2. Progress Reports
a. Topic of the Month: Racial Justice - Peter did not contact Chip Roush to ask for an initial position statement. He will try to ask him for next meeting.
b. Human Rights Day: The program was very upbeat, but the attendance was low. Darryl gave a good talk about the article guaranteeing a fair trial. Jobs with Justice is planning a different human rights event every month.
c. Book of the Month report: Ellyn had to bring "Underground Railroad," back to the library. There is a large sign on SR 4 about a black community that had settled there and it was probably part of the underground railroad. We recommended that Lois contact John Charles Bryant for more information. Ellyn mentioned that there was a suffragist march in 1917 that asked black marchers to go to the back. She sent out an email describing this march which mentioned that the black suffragist leader declined to walk in the back. Wanda suggested that we read Howard Zinn's book "The People's History of the U.S." to get the real story about events leading up to the civil rights legislation and the many black women who filed cases in the Supreme Court.
d. SURJ meeting: This meeting occurred on December 16 at the Unitarian Universalist church with soup followed by discussion. Chip started the discussion. The national SURJ office has notified us that we are an official chapter. They encouraged us to listen in on the conference calls. We still don't have an accountability group identified. Terri discussed actions we could take. We will have a table at MLK Day celebration and walk in the march. She asked folks to help with these projects. She encouraged us all to participate in the Little Taste of Peace.
e. Little Taste of Peace: Glenda Rae has found 26 facilitators, two for each of the 13 circles, as well as 3 standby facilitators. This year the hostesses will bring folks, who attend without signing up, to a table that seems appropriate. This may be difficult if folks are milling around and not sitting in their assigned circle. Last year the circles were not very balanced. Perhaps this year the facilitators can swap folks with other circles to attain balance. Glenda Rae is asking people who can help set up chairs to arrive at the church by 5pm.
f. MLK Day table: Ellyn, Lois, and Kathy will set up the tables at 8:30am. Wanda and Galen will arrive at 10:30 to staff the table. Peter and Kevin will staff the table after the noon march and take it down about 3pm. Lois will have paper plates at her table for people to draw and write their hopes for the new year which we can hang on a long rope when we stand along St. Joseph Street during the inauguration at noon on Friday, January 20.
3. Treasurer's Report: $18.72 with a $5.11 in petty cash.
New Business
1. What do we (can we) do next? We incorporated this topic into other discussion
2. Inauguration Events: April and Darryl are planning several events for the weekend of Jan 20-22, but the details were not available when we met. Lois and Kathy proposed that MPJC sponsor a presence along St. Joseph St in front of Morris Civic starting at noon on January 20. When we get more information from Darryl and April we could possibly coordinate with their events. Ellyn mentioned the vinyl roll she still has that we can use to print our message so cars passing by will know why we are there. Lois and Kathy proposed we hang the paper plates off a long rope. People could write on them what they care about. They got the idea from the picture in the paper where Dieter's daughter used paper cups to spell out LOVE on her fence. Once we get all the details set, Kevin will put the event out on social media. Kathy is working with someone at Notre Dame to try to get student participation. Lois wants all the messages to be positive. It is not a protest.
5. Topic of the Month: We will continue to work on racial justice.
6. Other Topics and Issues: Everyone should call their Senators and Representatives to ask they not dismantle the ACA.
There is session on Immigration reform starting at 9am on January 14 at the Civil Rights Heritage Center
Brian is collecting items of clothing to send to Standing Rock. Kevin, who had just come back from there, said that all the camps have piles of clothes and other item they are not using. Perhaps it would be better to send money. Look at the DAPL website to see that they need.
The Community forum has two upcoming events: Tuesday, Jan 17 at 6pm at the Civil Rights Heritage Center, a session on Public Education sponsored by CAFE, and on Tuesday, January 24th at Lasalle library at 7pm, a session with Christina Brooks from the mayor's diversity office.
There is a talk about the sanctuary movement at the Center for Social Concerns at Notre Dame Geddes Hall at 4pm on Wednesday, January 18.
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7. Next meeting: Monday, February 13th, at 2:30pm at Lois' assisted living center. We will send the directions in the meeting announcement.