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March 1, 2008
1- 2:30 PM Monthly Meeting
Dear
Teach Peace Members,
The March 1, 2008, meeting started at 1 pm.
Dave Dionisi called the meeting
to order at 1 pm. Attendees: Dave, Don, Mary, Mary Ann, Mike, Jimmy, Guy,
Akemi, Nancy, Amy. Phone attendees: Linda, Leon, Bob, and Stu.
Dave read thank you notes from students who had participated in the DC trip,
then did introductions. Stu Pettygtove, UCD faculty member,
introduced himself as a member of Culture of Peace working group and said he was
interested in learning about the DC trip.
Mary Wind gave a presentation on the DC trip. Highlights as follows: The
trip was extremely successful and the 2009 trip information is already on the
website.
Saturday: White House tour, Smithsonian, Peace Alliance presentation on
the Dept. of Peace proposal, watched political videos (Bringing Down a
Dictator). Sunday: Met with Colman McCarthy, American Univ.;
Holocaust Museum; Busboys & Poets restaurant/bookstore. Monday:
Dave, Peggy, Karina went with Coleman McCarthy to hear additional presentations
for people interested in teaching peace at American University, ex-Congressman
Tom Anderson met with students. Tom Anderson gave students pointers on
meeting with Congress. He stressed that meeting with the staff is very important
so don't be disappointed if you only are able to meet with a legislative
director or chief of staff. He emphasized that young people have a lot of
influence with lawmakers. Students met with 34 representatives, liberal to
conservative from 9 am to 5 pm on February 4th. At 1 pm that day, all students
met in
Speaker Pelosi's office and presented her legislative director with the
City of Davis Resolution against attacking
Iran. Students then went to one of the Senate buildings. The
students divided into two groups and to meet with Boxer and Feinstein's
representatives. They gave the "Do not attack Iran" resolution for each
Senator. They ended their visit to Congress at
Representative Kucinich's office. The students handled all
meetings themselves and proved to be able and intelligent speakers.
Tuesday: Visited monuments and the Capitol building. Flew back home
in the afternoon. Highlight of the trip, at least for Mary, proved to be
Dave's Seinfeld dance. : )
Mary Ann gave her impressions of the trip. She noted that DC is much more
guarded, like a police state, than when she was there 9 years ago. She
spoke about being one of 4 in the group who were initially denied entrance to
the White House; the other 3 were Linda, Maureen, Laura.
Eventually they did get to go on the tour, but only after Dave made a special
appeal to the Secret Service. At night the group sang peace songs at the White
House fence. She also noted that she was impressed by the
knowledge/intelligence of the students. She also thought Coleman McCarthy
was fantastic and recommended his I'd Rather Teach Peace book.
Dave then asked for questions. Topics discussed included the number of offices
visited by the students (34) and whether videos could be made of the trip and
essays sent to teachers at various schools. Dave then noted that he and Mary are
proposing an option to upgrade JROTC in schools, with exciting
possibilities in San Francisco. They will be meeting in SF on March 4th to
discuss details and will make a presentation to the JROTC Task Force and board of supervisors in a
few months. Because our leadership and peace education has been delivered
since 2006, the Teach Peace Foundation is prepared to move quickly.
Nancy noted that students were given info on calling talk shows and that various
media had been contacted about running stories about the DC trip/Peace Clubs.
The Sac Bee indicated an interest in hearing from the students for their teen
page, and students were invited to submit essays.
Dave announced that there will be 2 student internships (paid) and that at least
one student said she would write an essay about the trip.
The upcoming April 21st Scott Ritter event at the Varsity was discussed.
Attendees were encouraged to help promote the event. Publicity cards were handed
out.
Mary Ann noted that the film Power of Forgiveness was recently at the
Varsity and sold out.
Jimmy announced the PSR essay contest and suggested that Leaders Club students
enter. Essays to be based on a Smedley Butler's quote about war. He
also announced the dates to testify about revitalizing the nuclear weapons labs.
The.meetings are on 3/18 in Tracy and 3/19 in Livermore.
Amy made an announcement regarding educational programs on Democracy Now. Leon
made an announcement about the March 19th vigil in Sac, at the UU Church;
Dave noted that Teach Peace is one of the vigil co-sponsors and Leaders Club
students are helping with the event. Additional information about this
event is available on our website. For people not in the Sacramento area, we
offer a movie discussion on Iraq for Sale via phone that evening.
In summary, Teach Peace continues to grow and
experience success. We now have over 1,500 members, 116 volunteers, and 2 full
time staff.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:30
pm, with informal discussion afterward.
Nancy Patterson
Secretary, Teach Peace
March 1, 2008
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