MEETING NOTES FOR PEOPLE FOR PEACE, JUSTICE, AND HEALING
People for Peace, Justice, and Healing
March 20, 2010
People for Peace, Justice, and Healing met March 20, 2010, at 10 a.m. at Associated Ministries. Present for check-in were Sarah, Sallie, Nancy, Rob, Mark, and Ray.
AGENDA
1. THANK-YOU NOTE (Sallie)
People for Peace, Justice, and Healing received the following thank-you
note this week: "Thank you for your generous co-sponsorship of the
Rachel Corrie Foundation hosting of Ali Abunimah at South Puget
Sound Community College on March 8th. We truly value your
partnership and friendship with the foundation. With gratitude, the
Rachel Corrie Foundation."
2. HEALTH CARE REFORM LEGISLATION (Rob)
Discussion of Dennis Kucinich's decision to support "the legislation," which
was big news this week. "Kucinich is the first Democrat who voted “no” on the original
House bill to announce that he’s switching his vote this time around," Rick Klein and Z.
Byron Wolf of ABC News noted. Rob
passed out copies of his Kucinich's March 17
statement.
3. LISTSERV (Mark)
The number of subscribers to the PJH listserv is now 111, following a recent clean-up
eliminating some bouncing addresses. (NOTE: To subscribe to the mailing list, register with Yahoo.
Once you've registered, join the listserv by going to Yahoo Groups [click "Groups" on the
Yahoo website] and search for "tacomapjh" -- or you can find our group under the Cultures &
Community/Issues and Causes/Peace and Nonviolence category. This is an active list;
in 2009, it averaged messages 134 per month or 4-5 a day.)
4. FUNDRAISER (Nancy)
Discussed an interesting gourmet picnic fundraising possibility for May 20. Onsite
inspection will be part of our Apr. 3 meeting, in two weeks.
5. PEACE PRIZE (Nancy)
Nancy will nominate Linda Frank for the Greater Tacoma Peace Prize on behalf of PJH.
6. MARCH 19 RALLY & MARCH DEBRIEF (Ray, Mark, Sallie, Sarah, Nancy)
Positive impressions. Good press. Ray's amazing Avatar costume!
7. ONE-STATE SOLUTION (Sallie)
Brief discussion of Ali Abunimah's support for a one-state solution of the
Israel/Palestine in One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict () (Metropolitian Books, 2006) which proposes that
Israel consist of a single democratic state for Palestinians and Israeli Jews, living side by side with equal rights. Is this proposal a non-starter for Israeli Jews?
8. ISMAILI 'RAYS OF LIGHT' EXHIBITION
"Rays of Light: Glimpses into the Ismaili Imamat" is coming to Seattle's Meydenbauer Center
in April. This is an Ismaili exhibition that "depicts 50 years of Mawlana Hazar Imam’s Imamat, against
the backdrop of the 1,400 year history of Ismaili Imamat. () The exhibition premiered in France and
has also been presented in Portugal.
***
RANDOM ALLUSIONS
(Spring 2010 officially began at 10:32 a.m. PDT.)
SPRING
By Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)
Nothing is to so beautiful as spring --
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glass peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.
What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. -- Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid's child, thy choice and worthy the winning.
***
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. DIGGING DEEPER (Mark)
UFPPC's book discussion group, Digging Deeper, will
begin a two-week discussion of two books on nuclear weapons and
U.S. foreign policy: (1) Garry Wills, Bomb Power: The Modern
Presidency and the National Security State (Penguin,
2010). "Written in Wills' characteristically accessible
style, Bomb Power is a well-argued denunciation of our
constitutional gatekeepers that is as sad and fascinating as
an account of the decline of the Roman republic. . . . [Wills's]
credentials as a historian are impeccable. His breadth of knowledge
is awe inspiring, but he never goes over the reader's head: He
is a scholar with the heart of a journalist." —Miami Herald. —
(2) Neil Sheehan, A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and
the Ultimate Weapon (Random House, 2009). A “deeply researched,
compulsively readable and important book. . . . Sheehan
succeeds by using the same technique he employed in his
splendid book A Bright Shining Lie (1988) . . . [In 1954
Gen. Schriever] was asked to supervise, on highest priority, the creation of
some kind of ICBM force. . . . Sheehan describes Schriever’s
buccaneering techniques, his many bureaucratic struggles and shrewd
collaboration with von Neumann and other scientists like Wernher
von Braun.” —Michael Beschloss, New York Times Book Review.
Respectfully submitted,
Mark