Present: Peter, Ellyn, Glenda Rae, Rey, Lois, Wanda, Galen
Old business
1. Approval of Minutes for October 1: The minutes were approved as written. Wanda mentioned that the Peace Ed Fund Board had met. They discussed the problem with incorporation and Glenda Rae will continue to try to get the Department of Revenue to issue us a letter so we can apply to the Secretary of State for reinstatement. Peter will prepare a financial statement for the last fiscal year when Glenda Rae gives him the check book register. There will be no medical delegation to Nicaragua in the Spring of 2019 due to violent unrest in the country, but the Peace Ed Fund will continue to support about 15 university students there.
2. Progress Reports:
a. Topic of the Month: We did not pick a topic this month. The possibilities are the issue of military recruitment in the local schools, U.S. involvement in Yemen by selling arms to Saudi Arabia, or the military budget. Lois tried to reach Regina Preston-Williams and Jan Brown to ask them about recruitment with no success. She will continue to try. She also tried to contact Bob Eberline, a vet who she met at MLK day tabling a couple of years ago. She hoped to ask him to come to a meeting so we could have a discussion with a veteran re recruitment in the schools.
b. Indigenous Peoples Day: This was celebrated on October 8 as Columbus Day. We had appropriate signs at our Monday vigil. No one showed up except the usual attendees.
c. Armistice Day: This is celebrated today as Veteran's Day. We will have appropriate signs at our 4:30 vigil.
d. FCNL training: No one in our group attended. They may have canceled it for lack of interest
e. Book of the Month report: Lois is reading "Aware," by Daniel Siegal, which had an interesting diagram of the brain and how we respond to things. She will tell us more at the next meeting. Wanda is reading "A Dream Called Home," by Reyna Grande, who had written "The Distance Between Us."
f. Immigration Coalition Report: The coalition has been planning the program for Human Rights day on Monday, December 10 6pm at the UAW Hall in the 1400 block of South Main St. The discussion will center around Article 14, the right to claim asylum in another country. The Jewish Federation will try to find a speaker to talk about the ship full of Jewish refugees which was turned away from the U.S. during WW II and had to return to Germany where many perished in the camps. This is the 70th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights.
3. Treasurer's Report: $124.52 with $30 in petty cash.
New Business
1. What do we (can we) do next? We incorporated this topic into other discussion
2. Topic of the Month: See above.
3. Human Rights Day: See above
4. Little Taste of Peace: This will be held at Holy Cross School on January 19. Glenda Rae is having trouble getting facilitators to confirm. Peter will help her contact them. Only two members from her board have come to the last two meetings. Another problem is that Alyssa at the Human Rights Commission who had handled the LTOP contacts had left. They can access her computer during the next 60 days. Laverne has taken over the work with LTOP and seems to have transferred the records from Alyssa's computer.
5. MLK Day table: The steering committee is meeting on Friday, November 16. We will have a table. Glenda Rae will pick up the reservation form and either Peter or she will fill it out. Last year we got permission to use electricity to run computers through Lois, who gets a free table as she is on the board.
3. Other Topics and Issues: On November 18 from 1 - 3:30, there will be a discussion on race at St. Michael's. Lois will try to contact a Lutheran minister, Walter Stitt, who wrote an article in the Tribune extolling war. She will ask him how we can educate the youth coming up to make sure that the glories of war do not overtake the horrors.
To send a message to the list, send it to mpjc@googlegroups.com. To join the list replace myid in the following url with the email address you use and copy into your browser. "http://groups.google.com/group/mpjc/boxsubscribe?email=myid"
4. Next meeting: Monday, December 17, at 2:30pm at Lois' assisted living center. We will send the directions in the meeting announcement.