Minutes for MPJC meeting for December 6.
Present: Lois, Peter, Dustin, Zae, Ellyn, Paul, Carol
Old Business
- Approval of Minutes: The minutes for the November 8th meeting were approved
as corrected.
- Progress Reports
- No Child Left Behind Issue - Let Me Decide High School Project: Brenna
had emailed to say that she had talked with the principal at Marian High
School and he said that because of the article that came out in September
about the opt-out campaign (remember it was on the front page with a picture
of military recruiters at Marian having kids doing push-ups), they got
a number of calls from parents. SOOOO..... Now, Marian no longer allows
recruiters in the hallways or cafeterias! Recruiters go straight to the
office, an announcement is made, and if kids want to meet and make an
appointment, they can.
Also, Lois heard from a social worker at Washington High school that she
is unhappy with the way the military is pressuring kids. She tells the
students to call the opt-out hotline.
- MPJC Statement on Outsourcing: Other than an offer by Jackie to work
on this issue, there has been no response from the list after we reposted
Ed C.'s lead-in. We decided to ask Jackie if she would post her thoughts
to the list and if there is no further response, ask her to compose an
MPJC position on this issue.
- Local "Camp Casey" Jan. 7-22: There have been two meetings of the committee
to work on South Bend's Camp Casey. This follows on a successful Camp
Casey in Fort Wayne in October and one currently taking place in Elkhart
(Nov. 26 - Dec. 10). At the first meeting, Cliff from CPT described the
logistics of the Fort Wayne Camp Casey and recommended we do a Camp Casey
in December. After discussion we decided not to do our Camp Casey in December
since several folks could not participate until January. We brainstormed
about sites and after the meeting several of us looked at some proposed
sites, not liking any of them. In the second meeting, Cliff and some folks
from Elkhart described the Elkhart Camp Casey which they pulled together
in less than a week. A highlight for them were house meetings where up
to 10 friends or neighbors are invited for discussion about the war. They
also planted 2050 crosses and had an action where they visited the recruiting
offices and asked probing questions.
We decided to hold our Camp Casey, Jan. 7-22 to include a week of ND/SMC
classes and also the MLK celebration festivities. We decided to set up
close to downtown so there would be folks walking by. We would like a
place in view of the street and sidewalk to set up tents and also a room
in the sponsoring church to meet with folks dropping by and also to sponsor
talks and video documentaries. We also wanted to put signs in Rey's truck
to create a mobile Camp Casey to bring to Sunday church services, and
other remote locations to stimulate discussion about the war and hand
out anti-war material. We discussed the pros and cons of 5 downtown sites.
Ellyn and Lois agreed to contact these to discuss their willingness and
ability to host a Camp Casey. Carol will try to get information into church
bulletins. Brother Sage wants to include campers on his Sunday evening
program on 960, and WUBS will probably help publicize it. MPJC endorsed
this effort and ask our members to support it as best they can.
- CLAP project: This a ND student group working to improve wages and working
conditions for ND service workers. Carol talked about their efforts to
start a dialog with the ND adminstration about paying their workers a
living wage without success. This is especially disturbing since Catholic
social teaching advocates the payment of a living wage. After much discussion
we decided to support the students, but wait until they have specific
recommendations for our participation. ND is the largest employer in the
area, so concessions on their part are likely to have broad repercussions.
- Anti-war letters to the editor: Zae had put out a plea to the list serv
asking folks to write letters to the voice of the people and send these
letters to the list. A few present wrote letters but only sent them to
the Tribune. There are lots of letters published about time zones and
euthanizing dogs, but not enough on the war tragedy. We decided to again
encourage folks to write and publish their letters. The email address
is vop@sbtinfo.com. Some topics are: number of deaths, cost of war, poll
numbers, fixing facts, etc. We asked Ellyn to send the weekly letter to
the senators and reps also to the tribune.
- Treasurer’s Report: The treasurer was absent.
New Business
- CPT plans for local nonviolent training center: CPTer Tom B. is interested in
bringing a CPT delegation to South Bend every 6 weeks or so, to put on a Camp Casey and become trained
to do the same in their home areas. We decided to wait for a formal proposal on this suggestion. We are concerned
that there will be only a very few participants in future Camp Caseys and this will reflect poorly on us and drain
energy from other efforts.
- Topic of the Month: How and When should the troops withdraw from Iraq. Zae
will ask Ed C. to review our current position on withdrawal of troops from
Iraq in view of the change in poll results with respect to withdrawal. Once
he posts a position it is our responsibility to respond. A clear position
on this issue will help the campers respond to questions in January.
- Other topics and issues:
- Our presence has been requested at Chocola's office on December 14.
We decided to ask Andre and the CPNV to organize this. The issue is the
budget proposals that cut off funding for the poor. For more information
go to www.sojo.net.
- CPT has put out a request for a Thursday fast in solidarity with the
CPT team members who were captured and may be beheaded on Thursday. There
are several prayer vigils scheduled. Information on these was sent out
to the list.
- The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 pm. Next meeting will be Tuesday, January
3, at Peter and Ellyn's.
Peter Smith