Minutes for August 29, 2004 Meeting

Present: Lois, Pam, Ron, Lee, Caroline, Ellyn, Peter, Rey, Glenda Rae

Old Business

  1. Kay Westhues, our webmaster for http://community.michiana.org/justice/, and the michpeacejust listserv is not happy with the pop-up ads that appear on the listserv. We polled the folks at the meeting and all were willing to live with the ads (most just skip over them without reading them). If Kay can find a free listserv server without ads, we are willing to change. Kay also sent word that she is very busy and not able to keep the website as up-to-date as she would like. Peter volunteered to help with this.

  2. Lee asked us to renew our Jobs with Justice membership ($50) and take out a half page ad in their banquet booklet ($50). We agreed and passed the hat through which we collected $55. Glenda Rae said that we have enough in the bank to cover the rest of this expense.

  3. We discussed how to respond to the rhetoric from the Republican Convention. We decided to make a bunch of new signs for the Monday vigils. Each of us was to make two signs. Some of the slogans were: "Defend America, Defeat Bush," "Redefeat Bush," "Bush Wrong on Iraq War, Civil Rights Women's Rights, Tax Policy,"

  4. We asked what people were doing to defeat the Bush agenda. Many of the people at the meeting had been working at Democratic headquarters for the Kerry, Kernan, and Donnolly campaigns. Rey mentioned that the Democrats have not been straight with the Precinct committee chairs, sending voter registration teams into the neighborhoods without coordinating with them.

New Business

  1. We asked what the Coalition should do as MPJC. No one thought we should endorse any of the candidates -- Kerry, Kernan, or Donnolly -- all left something to be desired. We all agreed that Bush must go. We decided to put the Move-on ads on the website if possible and update the petition on the website, adding the phrases "and the de-facto occupation of Iraq" and "no interference in the affairs of Cuba or any other nation." We would not try to collect signatures for the petition, but use it to try to convince people to vote against Bush.

  2. We talked about pushing yard signs and decided to inform the list about their availability. Ed Jensen and Caroline both posted a source for "Bush Must Go" yard signs. The person to contact is Darlene Catello, 232-5141, DGibson459@aol.com The signs are $6 plus $1.50 for a different message on the back.

  3. Lois reported on a possible dialog between Muslims and Christians, and wondered if we could encourage Jews to participate. We encouraged Lois to continue her work on this.

  4. We decided to try to get out as many people as possible for the vigil on August 30, to try and offset the Republican Convention backlash. We were each to call three people. (Only the usual folks showed up for the vigil on the 30th.) Ellyn will put a notice in the Tribune again about the vigil.

  5. Next Meeting. We will meet at 1036 N. Niles on Tuesday, September 14. It will be announced via the List Serv and at the weekly vigil.