Present: Peter, Glenda Rae, Rey, Wanda, Galen, Lois (on phone), Carol, Jenny
Old business
1. Approval of Minutes for July 10: The minutes were approved after Glenda Rae corrected misspellings in her and Alfreda's names and Lois added the story of the veteran who rode in our Memorial Day parade truck after he missed his unit. She commented that it fit in with our "Bring them home" theme.
2. Progress Reports
a. Topic of the Month: Faithful Budget- Everyone except Glenda Rae had completed their synopses of this document. Wanda and Galen had sent theirs in the last week. It was hard to do a synopsis of the human needs section of the document as it lies at the core of the nuns on the bus message. Peter will attempt to edit this section. We decided to continue this topic for one more month and exhorted Glenda Rae to finish her section.
b. August 6-10 - Hiroshima and Nagasaki Days: Peter had made a sign about remembering Hiroshima - No Nukes - which we used at our Monday vigil on August 6. Darlene came to the vigil and offered to help Lois leaflet on Friday, the 10th, which was supposed to have noontime music by the fountain in front of the Morris. None of the rest of us could make it. Lois prepared a leaflet and passed it by Peter before printing 100 copies. The Japanese professor who had promised to make peace cranes had left Notre Dame. When they arrived on the 10th, there was no one except some Presbyterian school kids near the fountain. The music must have been cancelled. Darlene and Lois moved to the Michigan and Jefferson intersection and gave out about 50 of the leaflets. Lois had also prepared the sandwich board (there are now 3 layers of info on it) and stood it up on the sidewalk.
3. Treasurer's Report: Our bank total is $167.43 with $5.56 in petty cash.
New Business
1. What do we (can we) do next? We skipped over this as time was running out.
2. Little Taste of Peace Sponsorship - We decided to sponsor this event after Glenda Rae had explained that it was designed to spur interest in the Study Circles program. It is always held on the Saturday before the official MLK celebration and consists of up to 100 folks gathered in small groups with a facilitator to discus 5 or 6 questions. It culminates with folks tasting desserts provided by the attendees. The site for this year's event has not yet been determined. Glenda Rae hopes to have it on the west side, but few facilities are big enough to host it. She is in contact with St. Hedwig's and may have to approach the MLK center, which would seem appropriate. In the past we have always gathered at places of worship.
3. Economic Forum Sponsorship. We decided to support this sponsorship realizing that Ellyn had already communicated our support. Peter and Ellyn will cover any financial sponsorship requirements
4. Topic of the Month: See above re the faithful budget
5. Other Topics and Issues: Rey and Glenda Rae called our attention to the Trans-Pacific partnership trade agreement which is being pushed through without public input. They had received a letter from Joe Donnelly expressing concern about this lack of transparency and possible harm to U.S. businesses and workers. The countries involved in this partnership are Japan, Canada, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Peru, and Vietnam. Rey had heard that TPP is NAFTA on steroids and may lead to sharp increases in drug prices.
Lois announced that the Center for History is collecting stories about South Bend in the past. She thought we should inquire about making sure the vigil over the last 10 years is included. Glenda Rae pointed out that we had leafletted every Tuesday for 15 years before 2001. Rey thought we should expand the effort to include the left-wing history connected with South Bend, collecting documents from such groups as Sane-Freeze, the Pledge of Resistance, WILPF, NOW, Citizens of Hope, Vietnam protests, Civil Rights actions, etc. Lois will contact the Center to see what they think of this project and David Cortright for his thoughts.
September 21 is the International Day of Prayer for Peace. The URC is planning a program on Sunday, September 16 from 2 - 5, on Violence Prevention and we encouraged Lois to ask Carol from the URC to incorporate the prayer for peace in this event. The Church of the Brethren said it was OK to celebrate the Day of Prayer for Peace any day in the week of Sept 16-23. Lois wanted to ask Mayor Pete to endorse the Violence Prevention resolution passed at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in June. Perhaps this endorsement could be incorporated in the URC gathering as well. We encouraged her to approach the mayor on this topic.
Several MPJC members attended the memorial service at the local Sikh temple on Day Road after the shooting at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin. There was a good representation from the community and their support was well received by the folks at the temple.
The film being done by Clarity Films, titled "Alhelm MLK on Palestine," is in the final stages. Rey had asked via email if MPJC could donate money to help offset the $5K needed to complete this project. We decided to contribute $50 for which we would receive a DVD when it is done.
The Monroe Park Neighborhood Association will hold its annual block party on September 9.
The Philadelphia City Council has adopted a resolution to bring the troops home from Afghanistan and cut the military budget, using the savings to increase services in the cities.
4. Next meeting: Thursday, September 20 at 7pm. Probably at Peter and Ellyn's.