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Notes from meeting 11/7/04:
Attending:
Brenda, Tina, Charles, Kathleen, Tom, Abe, Judy, Janet, Eric, Alexis, Jane, Bruce, Sidney, Kay, Vicki, Tim, Gunnel, Elaine, Catherine
Announcements:
FALSE HEADLINES AND EMPTY SOUNDBITES
7 PM Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, 225 N 70th St.
Media discussion with Bert Sacks, founder of the new group Citizen Commitee for Responsible Journalism and Susan Gleason with Reclaim the Media.
There is a professor & students looking for SNOW members to interview for a research project about SNOW. 3 or 4 people expressed interest in this; Gunnel will pass their names on to the professor.
FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE MEANINGFUL MOVIES presents:
"THE END OF SUBURBIA" (Wallingford)
Fri. Nov. 12 @ 7-9:30PM. Keystone Church, 5019 Keystone Pl.
This movie is related to our Oil Conservation topic (see below) and will be shown Friday in Wallingford; Gunnel will try to get the movie and host another showing at her house on Tuesday, 11/16 for those who can't make it this Friday.
Next Potluck & Meeting: Saturday, 12/4 4-7 at Brenda's, 8717 Corliss Ave N (near NSCC).
Tabling at Urban Bakery (at the north end of Green Lake):
We already scheduled tabling through the end of November; 12-2 on Saturdays at the Urban Bakery cafe. There was a minor change in the schedule (Jane needed to swap days):
11/13 - Tom & Brent; 11/20 - Charles & Jane; 11/27 - Gunnel & Eric
What will we have at the table? - bumper stickers, SNOW fact sheets on Iraq & Palestine, the NoMoreVictims postcards on the "human face of war."
Discussion on actions: or, "what will we do next?"
Eric brought copies of the laundry-list of possible actions he had posted to the Stirring Committee list. We discussed each idea briefly, a few additional ideas were added to the list, and then we did a quick show of hands to gauge interest in each activity. A few ideas seemed to generate the most interest, and we have agreements to move forward on three topics. There was concern about becoming divided if we try to take on too much at once.
I will list the topics more-or-less in order by how much interest was expressed for each:
- Counter-recruiting / draft resistance: counseling youth about the realities of military service and encouraging them to find alternatives to signing up for the military; fighting the current "backdoor draft" (coerced extension / re-calling of active military personnel who have finished their required duty) and any proposed future draft. (9 people were interested in this topic)
Abe expressed strong interest in doing this; he has already been working in the schools. There was also a suggestion to connect this to the living-wage movement, since there would be less incentive to sign up for service if there were more living-wage jobs available. There are already groups active in this area (e.g. FOR); we should coordinate with them. Once suggestion is to talk to our elected representatives about the backdoor draft and urge them to fight it. Sidney saw a speaker at the Wallingford SNOW meeting on counter-recruiting - we should track this person down and contact them. - Reducing our dependence on oil / oil conservation: we have already seen too many wars over oil supply; we will be sure to see more. Not to mention the struggles we will see caused by the effects of climate change... (10 people expressed interest in this topic)
There was discussion of the issue of Peak Oil (our global supply is running out - oil will continue to become more expensive and less readily available). Everyone agreed that the first thing we need to do is educate ourselves better about the issues related to oil supply, dependence, and conservation. Wallingford is showing the movie "End of Suburbia" about Peak Oil on Friday 11/12 - plus Gunnel will try to get the movie and show it on Tuesday, 11/16. Everyone should try to make it to one of these showings as a first step in educating ourselves.
There are already groups working on this issue - if we take it on, should we work in coalition with others? Eric has already done some research; Janet and Elaine also volunteered to help prepare more info for our next meeting. - Media accountability: part of our problem is the grip big media has on the nation, and the irresponsible way they cover the issues. We could make an effort to try to improve this locally. (6 people expressed interest in this topic)
Bert Sacks' new group, Citizens Committee for Responsible Journalism, is already focused on this issue. We should lend our efforts to this group to help them get off the ground rather than try to duplicate efforts and make it "our" issue. A couple of ideas were either to take turns being "point person" writing letters to the media to correct poor journalism or praise good journalism (so we can spread the work around) or else to have "work parties" where a number of us get together to write letters (so we have some moral and technical support).
There was also a suggestion to make use of talk radio to get our viewpoints out. KIRO was recommended as a relatively safe, neutral venue to call in to talk radio (e.g. the Mike Webb show). KVI is a station to listen to to hear how the "other side" thinks and talks, but not a place to call unless you're a masochist. - Civil liberties: Everyone agreed this is important, but there was not much discussion and no immediate action to take. We'll just have to see what Ashcroft's successor comes up with for us... (6 people expressed interest in this)
- Instant Runoff Voting and Campaign finance reform: this was proposed as a practical alternative to some of the problems we faced in the recent election. One suggestion was to pursue public campaign financing like the programs in Arizona and Maine, which seem to have been very effective at leveling the playing field so you don't have to be rich to get elected. (5 people expressed interest)
- Talking to war supporters / educating "middle of the road" people about the war: There was a lot of discussion about this topic. (4 or 5 people expressed interest in pursuing it as a group)
One suggestion was that we start by listening to people - find out what they really think about the war and why they might support it, since the answers might surprise us. There was suggestion of using a door-to-door survey as one tool to do this. People respect neighbors taking the time to talk to them, even if they oppose our messages or goals. We would need very specific messages and goals if we went door-to-door. We can address this as a moral issue, reach people's hearts. We need to bring along facts and information as well.
Some thoughts about how to communicate with people: People identify with strength - we heard that a lot canvassing before the election. We should find a way to present ourselves and our position as strong, so people feel comfortable supporting us. There has been a failure to show how horrific the war is - it is "sanitized" by the media. We get some news about the numbers of US soldiers dead, but no information about the devastation to Iraqis.
There was some concern about the effectiveness of only talking about the effect on Iraqis - they have been cast as our enemies, and connected with the WTC bombing - people who support the war won't be moved by pictures of injured Iraqis. People look at the cost to themselves, or to their community - we should also talk about the impact to local kids who have been sent there and killed or injured. Also the children of Gulf War I vets who were exposed to Depleted Uranium and who have birth defects as a result.
Another issue to take on is the fear-mongering about terrorists. We could address this issue head-on and ask whether we are any safer now that we have invaded and devastated Afghanistan and Iraq... - Reducing the region's dependence on war dollars: by lobbying to eliminate tax loopholes for defense contractors, support base closures? (3 people were interested in this)
This would be a very hard sell in the poor economy. There was not much interest, so we agreed to scratch it off the list. - Attack corporate power: Many of our problems stem from the fact that corporations have gained too much power, and ordinary people need to take it back. (2 people expressed interest in this)
This is a huge issue - it needs to be addressed on a larger scale: at least city-wide if not state-wide. It needs a broad coalition effort. There was some question where to start - boycotts? There was also interest in responsible investment options - several people said they could really use more info on responsible investment. We agreed to scratch the corporate issue off the list, though, since there was not much interest generally.
Other ideas that we didn't vote on:
Adopting / assisting injured soldiers who have returned home
Community-building, fun activities (e.g. cider-pressing)
Action items on the top 3 issues before next meeting:
- counter-recruiting: Abe volunteered to start looking into this.
- oil conservation: Everyone should attend one of the showings of "End of Suburbia" 11/12 or 11/16. Eric will get a small group started researching what we might do on this topic.
- media accountability: Anyone who is interested should attend the Phinney talk with Bert Sacks on Wednesday 11/10.
Other items:
Web site: should we get our own domain name and move our site off the SNOW server? Eric, Catherine, and Gunnel will discuss this and prepare a proposal for next meeting.
Rise Up donation: riseup.net provides our listservs so we can stay coordinated. It's been a year since we sent them a donation. We passed the hat and raised $53; Gunnel will add another $47 from our central fund so we can send them a round 100 dollars.