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Minutes February 23, 2003 meeting of the Palouse Peace Coalition:
The first hour and a half of the meeting was a training session by Rusty and Nancy Nelson
of the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane. They spoke with the membership of approximately 30 people about non-violence, their personal experiences in various actions, and provided background information and historical precedence for non-violent actions. As Rusty stated early in their talk, "Violence is the tried-and-failed method." Nancy continued: "Non-violence is a journey that will continue all your life." They referred to non-violence as a "tactic, a life-style - a refusal to do harm." Non-violence training enables us to ferret out those corners of us that harbor hatred or anger. It enables us to not see anyone as an enemy. So we can see "the other" as someone with inherent dignity. The goal is not to win; the goal is conversion. They spoke of MLK's principles: "Non-violence is a way of life for courageous people. It is NOT passive. It chooses love instead of hate." And I will end with a Daniel Berrigan quote: "You will do civil disobedience when you cannot NOT do it." For more information e-mail PJALS or go to their website Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane
or mailing address: Peace and Justice Action League
35 West Main Suite 120M
Spokane, Washington 99201
In other news:
Our next meeting will be Sunday March 2, probably at the Campus Christian Center. Kenton will
recruit a facilitator.
1. Dave Peckham has received 250 bumperstickers with the logo SUPPORT OUR TROOPS/ OPPOSE THE WAR
for a total cost of $178.50.
2. Tony Brown reported on our website PPC. It was decided by the group that at this time we will focus on local events, a calendar, and selective links to other sites. Chris volunteered
to help Tony handle the flood of material that is coming in.
3. Ron Hatley volunteered to handle this list during my vacation from March 5 - 11. It was also decided to have a small core group of interested people who will receive more than the 2 - 3 pieces of e-mail/week that is currently provided by this listserv. More on this later....
4. Saturday March 1 events: The PPC will sponsor a march during the Mardi Gras parade. We will convene at 10:45 at the corner of Main and A Streets. (Chris has volunteered to get there at 9:00 to register.) Following the parade, we will meet at Friendship Square for an "Emergency convergence on the White House". We will provide a space and materials for people to write postcard messages to our elected officials protesting the war on Iraq. Bob and Linda will bring their canopy, we will provide tables, postcards and have a "mail-in" of messages.
5. March 5 activities: The Justice Alliance at the UI, NoTerror and CAN at WSU are sponsoring a student walk-out that day. The PPC is also sponsoring a reshowing of the video, "Hidden Wars of Desert Storm" at 7:00 PM at the Clearwater Room in the UI Commons.
6. The Teach-in committee will meet Thursday, February 27 at 6:00 at Mikey's Gyros. Also that evening at 7:00 there is a bookclub discussion of Howard Zinn's "Terrorism and War" at the Moscow Public Library. Jerry Swensen will be leading the discussion.
7. MoveOn is sponsoring a virtual march on Washington on Wednesday February 26. On that day, they are urging everyone to call their representatives with messages opposing the war. For more information, go to the website: Move On In their words: "Working together, we'll direct a steady stream of phone calls -- more than one per minute, all day --to every Senate office in the country, while at the same time delivering a constant stream of emails and
faxes. Think of it as a march -- one by one, we'll be passing through our Senators' offices and the offices of the White House to let them know how we feel about this war. You can sign up for your time to call or to place a free fax right now at the link above"
8. And Pat Hart reported on the Sleepless Women's activities March 8:
As you can see, there's lots to do. But I think all of us who attended last night's meeting are encouraged and hopeful that there is so much positive energy going toward peaceful solutions.
WORKING FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE!
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