Amnesty
International Group #642
7 August 2006
Main 322 UW-Superior
Present: Mayra Gomez, Bret Thiele, Haji Dokhanchi, Auburn Powell, Hal Bertilson, Naomi Yaeger, and Rebecca Bischoff.
Ceasefire Action. Today's noon Ceasefire Action was successful. Amnesty provided us with a great tool kit. Haji printed 12 banners. Hal purchased and split poster boards to serve as backing. Including AI Group #642, Women in Black, students, and "walk ons," we had 35 to 40 people at the one-hour vigil at the busiest intersection in downtown Duluth (Superior and Lake). People were standing vigil on all four corners. There was lots of support from passersby. This vigil reflects a growing cooperation leading to joint actions by a number of peace groups in the Twin Ports.
Warren Howe is a member of Veterans for Peace. Mayra and Bret work for the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions. Haji is a national coordinator for reducing the use of landmines. Hal Bertilson has attended vigils and actions organized by Loaves and Fishes, Women in Black, the Quakers, and Christian Peacemaker Teams. He attended colloquia, invited addresses, and business meetings of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, Society for Psychological Study of Social Issues, and Division 48 Peace Psychology at the 2006 meetings of the American Psychological Association in New Orleans on August 9-13. As a consequence, a network of cooperation of peace groups and groups concerned with victims of conscience is growing in the Twin Ports.
Special Focus Case Update and Actions. No report.
Update on Gay Marriage Amendment in Wisconsin. Hanna Johnson had a good turn out for her visit to Superior. Haji represented us and he reported that there are 10-30 people who have volunteered to be trained for canvassing. We have offered to share our table at the Gay Pride event with Hanna.
Update on the Death Penalty Referendum in Wisconsin.
The new Vice Chancellor at UW-Superior has denied all faculty the opportunity to teach unfunded overloads which requires Haji and Hal to cancel their social action course on the Death Penalty Action. Nevertheless Haji and Hal will offer the activity in an alternative form. We will conduct the instruction, classroom activities, and social action assignments through our roles as co-advisors to the UW-Superior student Amnesty group. Students who wish credit may earn credit via independent study course authorizations.
National Weekend of Faith in Action on Death Penalty October 20-22. Hal has arranged a meeting with Karen Gustafson, the Unitarian Universalist minister, on August 17th to review the action with her and solicit the involvement of the liberal clergy community. Haji will discuss it with Joel Heneman.
Dave Stamps has considerable experience and expertise in this area and might come up to join and lead our events. We have a copy of the video "After Innocence" and will likely show it on campus. Hal will review the National Weekend of Faith in Action on Death Penalty tool kit and materials and report on them at the September meeting.
Consolidation of Minnesota and Wisconsin Regions. Robert Schulz has been assigned as Field Organizer for both states. That will make it much easier for us since we will have only one field organizer that we need to work with.
Update from Mayra on her trip to Darfur, Sudan. Sudan has the largest number of displaced persons (4,000,000 – 5,000,000). The government is trying to forcibly expel people forcing them to be evicted to the regions they fled from. The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions had its mission in Darfur in cooperation with and facilitated by the UNHCR. Mayra went to displaced person camps. The situation was awful and dangerous. Fifty women in the camp had been raped two days before.
Amnesty Window Display at the Green Mercantile in September. We will have the window to display Amnesty International and Group #642 for the month of September. We will display our banner. It was suggested that a laminated version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights be displayed. We will also show pictures of Group #642 people doing various actions, tabling, fund raising, film festivals, etc. Perhaps we can find a mannequin and place an Amnesty tee shirt on it. We will use this opportunity to expose the general public to Amnesty's actions including in opposition to the death penalty and the Denounce Torture Campaign.
Gay Pride Festival. We discussed our presence at the Gay Pride Festival and March. It is hoped that a large number of our Local Group will participate at both the Pride Festival and the Pride March.
Budget. Reimbursement to Hal for the poster board for today's action was approved. Reimbursement will occur in the form of wine glasses and cash. Also approved was the postage for 75 letters sent by Amnesty students at St. Scholastica.
Post Card Actions. Post card actions were also conducted.
Minutes prepared by Hal Bertilson (8-13-06)