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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-20-2018 Human Rights CommissionAGENDA Human Rights Commission Tuesday, November 20, 2018 Helling Conference Room, City Hall 5:30 p.m. 1. Call Meeting to Order and Roll Call. 2. Public Comment of Items not on the Agenda. Commentators shall address the Commission for no more than 5 minutes. Commissioners shall not engage in discussion with the public concerning said items. 3. Approval of Minutes: a. Approve minutes from October 16, 2018. 4. Correspondence. 5. - Funding Request: Ron Stallworth, Black Klansman (January 23). 6. Funding Request: Thanksgiving Dinner for Community (November 16). 7. December meeting date and time (December 11). S. Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iowa United Nations Association. 9 2nd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Focus Day (January 18). 10. Social Justice & Racial Equity Grant FY 19 Update. 11, Strategic Planning 2018 Subcommittee Updates. 12. Report on Host International Visitors (October 23). 13. Report on Human Rights Breakfast (October 24). 14. Report on Refugee and Immigrant Recognition Dinner (October 27). 15. Report on National American Indian Heritage Month (November 6). 16. Commissioner Reports of Items not on the Agenda. Commissioners shall not engage in discussion with one another concerning said reports. 17. Staff Reports. 18. Adjournment. If you will need disability -related accommodations to participate in this meeting, please contact Stefanie Bowers at 319-356-5022 or at stefanie-bowers@iowa-city.org. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet your access needs. Minutes Draft Human Rights Commission October 16, 2018 Helling Conference Room Members Present: Jeff Falk, Cathy McGinnis, Eliza Willis, Bijou Maliabo, Joe Coulter, Adil Adams, Jonathon Mulioz. Members Absent: Barbara Kutzko, Tahuanty Pefia. Staff Present: Stefanie Bowers, Kristin Watson. Others Present: Laura Cottrell. Call to Order: Willis called the meeting to order at 5:35 PM. Approval of September 18, 2018 Meeting Minutes: Coulter moved to approve the minutes with one change; the motion was seconded by McGinnis. A vote was taken and the motion passed 7-0. Correspondence: Staff went over a recently released memo geared at employers that discussed criminal background checks in the hiring process. It included a conversation on "Ban the Box" which Iowa City follows. Ban the Box is aimed at persuading employers to remove from their hiring applications the check box that asks if applicants have a criminal record. Coulter participated in Abraham's Walk U. It was held on October 13. Participants walked from Big Grove Brewery to the Center for Worker Justice, to the Shelter House, and their the Crisis Center. The walk is held to ensure all in the community enjoy their right to freedom, equality, and dignity. The event raised $300. Dr. Laura Cottrell, Director of Diversity and Cultural Responsiveness for the Iowa City Community School District spoke on her role within the school system. Her time is spent working on some of the responsibilities of the Equity Director, restorative justice, and staff trainings. The District is continually working on engagement because there can be gaps in communication between families, students, and administrators. The Equity Committee has a reserved spot on the agenda at all Board of Education work sessions. The Committee consists of community members, parents, and teachers. Applications forms are available on the Equity link on the Districts webpage for those interested in applying. Restorative justice circles are different than conflict resolution circles, restorative practices are proactive to build positive relationships and can be used as an alternative to traditional suspensions and expulsions. Minutes Draft IIuman Rights Commission October 16, 2018 Helling Conference Room Strategic Planning Subcommittees: McGinnis*, Coulter, Maliabo (Public Safety); Adams*, Falk, Mufioz (Community Outreach/Support); Falk, Willis*, Kutzko, Pefa (Education); Falk*, Coulter, Adams, Pefia (Housing). Asterisks note subcommittee chairs. Public Safety: no update. Community Outreach: no update. Education: Willis and Kutzko attended an Equity Committee meeting. At the meeting they learned that the District has made strides on LGBTQIA. Falk mentioned that the New York Times had a recent article that tracked disparities in education throughout the country. 'You Are Still Black': Charlottesville's Racial Divide Hinders Students, Housing: no update. Host International Visitors: The Council for International Visitors to Iowa Cities will be hosting a Korean delegation. The delegation will attend the Human Rights Award Breakfast and then meet with Commission staff and members. Coulter, Adams, and Maliabo will represent the Commission. Refugee and Immigrant Recognition Dinner: Adams and Maliabo will try to attend the event being held on October 27 at the African American Museum in Cedar Rapids. Proclamations: Coulter accepted the Indigenous Peoples proclamation on October 2 on behalf of the Commission and will accept the Native American Heritage Month proclamation at the November 6 Council meeting. Social Justice and Racial Equity Grant: The Commission will hold two informational sessions on the grant on Tuesday, November 13. There will be a session over the noon hour and another in th'e evening. Commissioners will assist in spreading the word on the grant and these two sessions to the community. The Council has asked that the Commission intentionally reach out to organizations that assist individuals with disabilities and who serve an immigrant population. McGinnis and Maliabo will do the midday session and Coulter and Willis the evening session. IIuman Rights Breakfast: The event will be held on October 24. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Tammy Nyden, an advocate for persons with mental illness. Willis will introduce the keynote speaker, Maliabo the closing, McGinnis the honorees, and Pefia the introduction (pending his availability). Minutes Draft Human Rights Commission October 16, 2018 Helling Conference Room Reports of Commissioners: Coulter reported on Governor Kim Reynolds signing the state's first Indigenous Persons Proclamation on Monday, October 8. Maliabo spoke on her involvement in an initiative by the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics to lower the infant mortality rate of Congolese women. McGitmis presented at the crisis training for area law enforcement on the opioid epidemic. Adams mentioned the medical clinic that is currently doing outreach at the Neighborhood Centers and also his involvement with creating a Muslim school for children in the area. Mufloz is the current President of the League of United Latin Americans Council. The organization will be hosting an immigration rally on the Pentacrest on October 27. Falk will be teaching a course on statistics to a class at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center on October 17. Willis will not be at the November or December Commission meetings and so this will be her last meeting as a Commissioner. She has been working with the League of Women Voters to register persons to vote and hopes to continue assisting them in this endeavor. Reports of Staff: A fair housing choice survey has been created and is currently available for members of the community to take. Adiournment: Motion to adjourn at 7:23 PM. The next Commission meeting will be on Tuesday, November 20, 2018. « ) } }})}x \ }\\\\\}\ \ \ )wwocm®® } j co\}})/j\ \\}\}\\} \ \ \ \\\\\\\\ \ 0 \ }//})\}{ ))))\))) _ ))\\j)\/ \ }{\} \ a.cLa. f ,\}j\}}\\ „ e §&/00 /j\ \)/2j\\) ) \)/a2�(2 E ] ] //QLL » November Correspondence SIeplilie Bowers From: mary larew <marylarew33@yahoo.com> Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2018 7:05 PM To: Lonny Pulkrabek; Rita Offutl; Shane Kron; Gay Mikelson; Mary Mascher; Brad Kunkel; Dave Leshtz; Carol Porch; dloebsack@mchsi.com; Stefanie Bowers; Kristen OHare; Janelle Rettlg, Robin Butler; Rod Sullivan; Stephanie Van Housen; vanhousen@mchsi.com; Lorraine Huneke-bowans; Daniel L. Daly; Dan Johnson-o'mara; Debbie Peck; Carla Davis, Jean Littlejohn; Lynette Jacoby; Kevin Burt; Jim Walters; JEFF GINA RUBEL; Joe Marron; James Doorley, jandmmccue@earth link. net; Broderick D. Binns; Bob Huber; Robert Sulzer; Collin Kerstettar; Christa Walrathl Phyllis Reelfs; Sharon Nakato; Phil Kemp; Sandy Kemp; Sarah Clark; Steve Swender AFSCME 12 (retired); Steve Bridges; Tom Suter; Tommy Lang; Jim Hunter; Jerry Lalor; Mark Fitz; Joyce Carman; Joyce Leff; Jeanne Nunley; Lucy Joseph; Royceann Porter; Maureen Donnelly; Nancy Chown; Kinston Moss; Debbie Dunn; Roosevelt Mckinney; Paul Federici; Randy Burghdoff; Jane Dfapeaux; Mitch Finn Subject: Message to the All Stars Hi ... time to plan for the 28th Annual Homeless Children's Trust Christmas Party -can you believe this is the 28th year we have gathered to "Make'a Child Happy Today!" This year we will have the party at the River Community Church on Saturday December 1 from 8:00-1:OOpm. We will serve needy youngsters in the community chosen by DVIP(Domestic Violence Intervention Program, the Shelter House as well as HACAP (Hawkeye Area Community Action Program). Please email me at marylarew33@yahoo,ccm or call at 337-2264 or 338-1212 and let me know if you can come and help again this year. We always have such a great turn -out and I look forward to seeing you each yearl Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Mary Larew FtumauRiehia From: Erin Sullivan <erin@shelterhouselowa.org> Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2018 3:55 PM To: Human Rights Subject: SJRE Reports - Shelter House Fairweather Lodge Attachments: 6.1.18-9.30.18 FWL Gran( Financial Report.pdf; Shelter House Fairweather Lodge SJRE.Grant Report 11.1, 18.docx Please see attached documents for SJRE report. Let me know if you need any further information. Erin Sullivan Mental Health Recovery Manager ) Shelter House Address 429 Southgate Ave, Iowa City, IA 52240 Phone (319) 338-5416 ext. 221 Fax (319) 358-7132 SIRE Grant Report Since being awarded the Social Justice and Racial Equity Grant, the Fairweather Lodge Program has further developed the Social Engagement and Healthy Living hritiative by expanding group activities and community partnerships in the areas of education, building community, and health. The Fairweather Lodge has been able to do an average of fiveactivities per month that are sponsored by the grant. Many of the activities the Fairweather Lodge has participated in overlap in multiple areas which bring benefit to the members. They are then able to improve their health, while building lasting relationships.and expanding their education. These components are critical to the Fairweather Lodge program as the goals of permanent supported housing are to ensure the members have the human rights of housing and health. Training has been provided to two Fairweather Lodge members who participated in a week long Peer Support Specialist Training during the summer of 2018. The training was free and conveniently located in Coralville so the fiords were used to cover the cost of transportation to and from the site and meals. Having a trained peer support staff is beneficial because these individuals have lived experience, and offer emotional support, share knowledge, teach skills, and provide practical assistance to help others achieve long-term recovery as they participate in the Fairweather Lodge. The Fairweather Lodge has been able to increase community relationships with other agencies and businesses in the Iowa City area which has resulted in greater member engagement. The program has developed a relationship with Renee's Ceramic Cafe, Brush and Barrel, Beadology, and the Iowa Ceramics Center and Glass Studio so members are able to go to these businesses and attend workshops that promote creativity through painting, making j ewelry and sculpting with clay. Bowling at Colonial Lanes is another way the grant has sponsored active program participation. These workshops and outings allow members to learn side by side which inherently strengthens their relationships with one another while engaging with the greater community. Furthermore, through attending the workshops Fairweather Lodge participants are then able to use the skills they learned as a coping skill to manage their mental health and practice relapse prevention. Recently, one member of the Fairweather Lodge performed in "This Is My Brave," a show that features true stories about people's experiences with mental illness and is told through creative expression. Funding aided the Fairweather Lodge provide this individual with transportation to rehearsal and on the day of the show. It also made it possible for other Fairweather Lodge members to attend the performance to support their peer, and be empowered through listening to other's stories related to mental health. The Fairweather Lodge has _ continued to make strides to support mental health recovery by also utilizing NAMI's R Place Peer Center, a safe place for people experiencing the effects of mental illness to get support from peers through various activities. With grant funding, the Fairweather Lodge has been able to make more visits to R Place Peer Center. Over the past several months, the funds have helped cover transportation costs to visit the local recreation center weekly. At the recreation center, members have the options to choose from basketball, racquetball, pool, ping-pong, as well as a frilly equipped gym with weights, treadmills and bikes. Members also attend•a yoga class at Friendship Yoga once a week, which provides many health benefits given a high proportion of the individuals served experience chronic pain and other physical health ailments. In order to maximize their experience and encourage the practice of yoga outside of class, funds have also been used to purchase, yoga mats that members can use at home if they would like. Funds have also been utilized to buy ingredients for a meal preparation lesson provided by students from the University Of Iowa College Of Nursing. In this lesson, members were taught a new recipe for a healthy meal and how to properly read food labels for a better diet. Acquiring this skill is especially important because many of the individuals in the Fairweather Lodge are joining the program after living on the street, which is when nutrition is often neglected. The Fairweather Lodge has also made visits to various nature trails, local parks, Terry Trueblood Recreation Area, the MacBride Raptor Project, as well as Lake MacBride and Palisades -Kepler State Parks to hike and enjoy a picnic. Funds were also utilized to purchase fishing poles and a group fishing license that members have.been used during those trips to state and local parks. While visiting the MacBride Raptor Project, the Fairweather Lodge members learned about the different birds through a tour of the center. There have also been two separate trips to animal rescue farms in the area, Hercules' Haven and the Iowa Farm Sanctuary. While visiting both of these farms, the members were able to have therapeutic interaction with the animals which has shown to have positive effects on mental• health such as an increased sense of empathy and trust. They also spent time outside exploring the acreages, and learned about the different animals, how to care for them, and the process the owners went through to get the rescues opened. The Fairweather Lodge participants recently went to Wilson's Apple Orchard, where they toured the orchard and then sampled some of the different apples. During Phis programming, Wilson's staff taught the members nutrition facts about apples which made this outing educational and healthy. These activities provide members the opportunity to be active outdoors in ways that would otherwise not be as engaging or possible without the grant. The grant has permitted the Fairweather Lodge to explore cultural and educational resources near our community. For instance, members have'made trips to Film5cene, where they have watched documentaries and other independent films. Seeing these movies at FilmScene provides a unique opportunity for the participants since the screenings are outside of the mainstream media and explore more culturally diverse topics. To further promote cultural . experiences, the Fairweather Lodge covered admission on visits to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids Czech and Slovak Museum, the University of Iowa Museum of Art, the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History, the Antique Car Museum of Iowa, and Ushers Ferry Historic Village. Each one of these sites provided members the chance to learn more about different eras in history and cultures in the community. The Fairweather Lodge has supplemented these educational advancements by also making weekly trips to the lowa City Public Library in order for members to set up accounts and check out books or movies, In summation, the Fairweather Lodge has made tremendous progress with the implementation of the Social Engagement and Healthy Living Initiative since being awarded the Social Justice and Racial Equality Grant. The funding has directly impacted the members of the Fairweather Lodge by enabling the program to continue to do more engaging, healthy, and life changing activities that will help them collectively overcome their challenges. 3 C€� z55 5' 5559a aa3 m3 gg 688fg k,8k•• 898338�$§ gg 99� ��, 8 39 EEAE R$ ku5 n,tl F p '�Btl R�4 g Fg $$&rt&Eid Bes36s I§oa ,ate R°cRR RRR ENE �38 9 gg aR €R EC gE a dg If s = Esag4 a x$3 s c%�asa " E sl F ab Rp Sggg k68Ia5§3 roSY $ 3a5's5 551W Baas a ?3's His �e� 5555 'SM p '�65 aT 3 n ag1 a 6 P Stefanie Boimn From: Rafael Morataya <rafael@cwjiowa.org> Sent: Thursday, November 01, 20184:11 PM To: Stefanie Bowers Cc: Barbara Ziegler Subject: Social Justice and Racial Equity Grant Report Attachments: SJRE Interim Report-Nov2018 Final.docx Hello Stefanie, how are you? I attached the first report of the SJRE Grant, see you at the information session. By the way, here is our new address: 1556 1st Avenue # C, Iowa City thank you Rafael Morataya Executive Director Center for Worker Justice Cell 319-499 8363 Follow Us! Facebook I Twitter I Support Our Work Interim Report, November 1, 2018. Social Justice and Equity Grant: Work Skills Initiative Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa The Work Skills Initiative funded in the spring of 2018 proposed four ten -week classes for hands-on work skills training for two groups, low income youths and adults, to be carried out in conjunction with the STEAM Fab Lab, a collaborative workspace that provides materials and services to support invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. One youth and one adult class were to be conducted during the summer with an additional youth class beginning in late summer and an adult class beginning in the fall. Fourteen low-income youths from the immigrant community attended summer camps conducted by the STEAM Fab Lab at no cost to the students: • Zombies: Urban Foraging was a camp about surviving during an emergency. Using a zombie apocalypse as the backdrop, the camp taught survival skills and methods to be used in situations such as large- scale power outages, being stranded, or any other survival situation in or near an urban environment. Despite the backdrop, the material taught in the camp was all real world related. Students learned to make hardtack, a bread invented by the Roman army thousands of years ago that keeps for years and provides complex carbs, salt and other nutrients. They learned to open cans without a can opener, how to make a fishing hook out of a pop can tab and how to make fishing traps out of bottles. The camp included a field trip to the public gardens, and Fred Meyer of Backyard Abundance provided information about sustainable gardens. • Tricks and Traps was also geared towards survival, but less about food and shelter, and more about creating a safe space for oneself and loved ones during an event where modern conveniences are taken away. Survival skills such as the 3,3,3 rule (3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food) were taught. Students built water filters, made para-cord survival bracelets and learned the best places to go for various emergencies, when to evacuate and what to take with them. Emergency first aid techniques were covered on multiple days. The main take home message from both camps was that people work best in groups, and to trust and support your community so that everyone can benefit. A survey of the CWJ membership administered this past spring demonstrated a clear interest among the immigrant community in acquiring sewing skills. The survey data led to a shift in focus for the adult portion of the Work Skills Initiative, resulting in the organization of classes to provide instruction in basic sewing techniques. These skills have the potential to provide a source of income for immigrant families and are particularly important to the Sudanese community who sometimes struggle to find appropriate clothing. The ability to fabricate traditional Sudanese clothing items such as the hijab (head covering) and toub (sari -like dress) would contribute to maintaining a sense of cultural identity in this community. Sewing classes were therefore organized under the direction of an experienced instructor and, owing to a lack of space at the STEAM Fab Lab, are now taking place at the Center for Worker Justice. Sewing machines were purchased in bulk from Costco and two-hour classes were conducted over the course of 10 Saturdays. The first class included fourteen women with fair to no English language skills. Translators were available for the Spanish-speaking students who constitute half the class. The Arabic speakers assisted one another in their understanding. All lessons were facilitated by PowerPoint presentations and included handouts. All sewing supplies, machines and fabrics were provided by the program. The machines are Brother XM3700, and the intent has been to enable the women to use all the feet that came with the machines and understand the capabilities of their machines. The culmination of the course was the construction of a final project (machine tote), involving cutting and joining multiple pieces and using all the skills learned from smaller projects. Upon satisfactory completion of the course, each student was provided with the sewing machine used during the class to take home with them for their own use. Expenses incurred during this new phase of the Work Skills Initiative include sewing materials, machines, printing and translation services. Based on the success of the first class, it is anticipated that a second class will be conducted depending on the availability of a suitable instructor. Stefanie Bowers From: Alyssa M. Rodriguez<roddguez.alyssa@iowacityschools.org> Sent: Monday, November 05, 2018 10:00 AM To: Stefanie Bowers Subject: Re: FW: SJRE Reports Attachments: SJRE-Grant-Report-I1.2018.docx; Social Justice Racial Equity Budget-fnal.pdf Here you go Stefanie and again, sorry for the delay. Best, M. Rodriguez 1725 N. Dodge St. Iowa City, IA 52245 Cell: (319)631-3204 - Faz:(319)688-1009 On Mon, Nov 5, 2018 at 8:09 AM Stefanie Bowers <Stefanie-Bowers(a)iowa-city.ora> wrote: Hi Alyssa, I am checking in because we did not receive the report due November 1 from the ICCSD. Please advise. Stefanie From: Stefanie Bowers [mailto:Stefanie-BowersCcbiowa-city.org] Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2018 8:25 AM To: 'rafael(&cwjiowa.org'; Angelica Vannatta; 'Alyssa M. Rodriguez' Subject: SJRE Reports This is just a friendly reminder to all organizations that received funding from the Social Justice Racial Equity Grant for fiscal year 2018 that the requirements as outlined in the agreement from the City require the following: City of Iowa City Human Rights Commission SJRE GRANT REPORT — The FIRM Project GRANTEE: Healthy Kids School -based Health Clinics (HKSBHC) PROJECT FUNDED: FIRM Project DATE OF GRANT FUNDING, AND DATE THIS REPORT APPLIES TO: FY38, As of October 32, 2018 AMOUNT AUTHORIZED: $ 12,300 NAME OF PERSON REPORTING: Alyssa Rodriguez, Susie Poulton MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES COMPONENT SUMMARY Up-to-date, the FIRM Project has been able to provide access to mental health care for some of the Healthy Kids School - based Health Clinics/ICCSD's most vulnerable patients/students. One family consisting of a mother and her three children whose father/head-of-household was deported last winter received therapy through Maria Buendia at Luminis Minds. The mother had been living in almost immobilizing fear and with limited resources because of that fear (no job and steady source of income while she herself undergoes her own immigration process). She has received three individual sessions with Buendia thus far. Her two sons (ages eight and nine) who had both been experiencing somatic symptoms of stress and anxiety received therapy with Buendia as well. Another student who received therapy from Buendia is currently an unaccompanied minor from Guatemala. He had originally come here with his stepfather, but his stepfather was also deported earlier this year. This 15-year-old boy has since been living with an acquaintance from his native village in Guatemala while he undergoes the process to obtain legal status. While under the care of HKSBHC providers, he expressed anxiety about the outcomes of this process, fear of deportation and having to return to Guatemala where he had faced violent threats and persistent poverty. HSKBHC's collaborating with the University of Iowa Law Clinic has allowed him to receive legal aid in pursuing a Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIDS) so that he can remain in Iowa, which is his ultimate wish. In addition to these examples, HKSBHC providers have a list of other patients to refer for mental health services. Forthcoming, HKSBHC plans to make use of FIRM Project funds by helping fund a psychiatric and educational evaluation of a student who is presenting behavioral concerns at home and potential learning delays and need of a special education plan at school. This student is newly arrived and providers will be discussing a referral for therapy and the evaluations with his mom in the near future. Type of Service/Need Provider Therapy Maria Buendia, Luminis Mind- - 8 ------ ---- -- Totalspent to date............................................................... KNOW YOUR RIGHTS WORKSHOPS SUMMARY Patient's Age 32 15 Total Expense 225 150 � 75.. - 225 ..........$675.00 In mid -September, HKKBHC hosted its first Know Your Rights workshop. The focus of the workshop was for domestic violence survivors, but other basic rights pertaining to how to interact with law enforcement, rights when doing so and preparing a safety plan were touched upon as well. Presenters from RVAP, University of Iowa Law Clinic, Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Iowa Legal Aid participated. Carrying out this first workshop was informative for HKSBHC staff as far as advertisement and outreach methods go. Because this initial workshop was held close to the beginning of the school year, staff had little time to speak face-to-face with potential attendees in regards to the content and legitimacy of the workshop. Thus, the turnout was not as high as anticipated. Staff has considered this while planning the next two workshops. Due to the workload and limited HKSBHC as well as the HKSBHC's primary collaboration partner for the forthcoming two workshops (University of Iowa Law Clinic students who will be on winter break soon), finding a fitting time for everyone's schedules has been a challenge. This is especially pertinent now that HKSBHC staff want to ensure they have sufficient time to be able to advertise the workshops more directly to potential attendees versus the previous method of posting flyers around the Iowa City community. In addition, the themes of the next two workshops will adapt to meet the needs of the immigrant community in regards to what their most pressing concerns are. Currently, that includes the issue of "public charge". Expense 90.84 S.00 Total spent to date .................................... Initial, Projected Budget (attached). Purpose Supplies and food, printing Advertising via Facebook ........................................... $ 9 5.84 Social Justice Racial Equity Budget June 1, 2018 to June 30,2019 FIRM Project Budget Jun-18 Aug-18 Oct-18 Nov-18 Dec-18 Feb-19 Apr-19 May-19 Jun-19 Revenue 12,300 Fees Grants 12,300 Other Revenue Total Revenue 12,300 Expenses Professional Services (Individual sessions) Professional Services (Family sessions) 500 500 500 500 500 500 Know Your Rights Marketing 25 25 25 25 Rentals Know Your Rights Supplies 25 25 25 25 Outside Printing Know Your Rights interpretation 25 25 25 25 Total Expenses 12,300 75 2000 2000 75 2000 2075 2000 75 2000 �V UNA*USA �J�LL Iowa Division 70UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS YVARS #STANDUP4HUMANRIGHTS December 10, 2018 Dr. Emile Schrijver General Director, Jewish Historical Museum & Jewish Cultural Quarter, Amsterdam " Remembering the Holocaust in a global society in turmoil" Agudas Achim Congregation 401 E. Oakdale Blvd. Coralville, IA 52241 6:00 PM Iowa City Jewish Federation y\v� UNA•USA Johnson County Chapter Agudas Achim Congregation !l 11 Jewish Federation OF GREATER DES MOINES 41 i r L CITY OF IOWA CITY UNESCO CITY OF LITERATURE THE lk, Center for UNIVERSITY OFIOWA Human Rights YY 1 I 4265 Oak Crest Road Southeast, Iowa City, IA 52246-5824 November 8, 2018 Ms. Stefanie Bowers Iowa City Human Rights Commission 410 E Washington Street Iowa City, IA 52240 Dear Stefanie, Thank you! The Refugee and Immigrant Association and African refugee and immigrant communities in eastern Iowa are most grateful for your generous financial support of the second annual Refugee and Immigrant Recognition Dinner on October 27. The event drew an audience of 200 people, including many civic leaders and elected officials as well as members of the refugee and immigrant community. I am pleased to send you the printed program for the event. I am enclosing receipts for rental of the venue totaling $586. Thank you for covering $300 of that amount. The check may be sent to the address above. We were delighted that Daoud Adil Adams and Bijou Maliabo attended the event, as well as Mayor Jim Throgmorton and Councilman Rockne Cole. Your support for the refugee and immigrant communities is most appreciated. Thank you again for your important contribution to the success of this event. Sincerely, i Ison Dinner Coordinator v Y a) u V u V Q) O o N2 v O O a)c � m O � U Ol C V � � m C O 73 6 V E Q L C v EO V O O vi Q V i J c 0_, LU 9 Q @ m a'. 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Q O V J m U C n y v� UNA-USA V�' `✓� IowaOivislon TO: Iowa City Human Rights Commission Iowa United Nations Association would like to bring your attention to the following two items: Hate speech. At a Halloween event sponsored by Iowa UNA, a group of people stood near us on T. Anne Clearly Walkway shouting at students as they walked by. One comment I clearly remember are you a homo - you look like one. Several shaken students came to our table to calm down. I contacted campus police who told me that unless these people were breaking the law, there was little they could do. They did say officers would patrol the area. I understand there are efforts on the part of residents and the City to combat hate speech. It cannot be that there is no recourse for people like me on the receiving end of hate speech. I'm urging the Commission to take an public and active stand against hate speech, and to investigate options for redress for ordinary residents. WARNING.. November Agenda Packet Agenda Item 5 ,9161nie Bowers From: Berry, Venise T <venise-berry@ulowa.edu> - Sent: Monday, October 29, 2018 6:53 PM To: Stefanie Bowers Subject: Bringing Ron Stallworth to Iowa City Attachments: Ron Stallworth at lowa.doex; UI LectureCommrequest.pdf Importance: High Stefanie — I have attached a request to the Hurrfan Rights commission seeking sponsorship for an upcoming event. The UI Lecture Committee is bringing Ron Stallworth to Iowa City. He is the Black Colorado police officer who went undercover with the KKK. He will do a presentation about his experience and sign books. The event will be scheduled during MILK week (January 2311) and it is free. I could not see all of my responses on the form so please let me know if I need to do something differently. Thanks! Venise HRC APPLICATION FORM REQUESTING SPONSORSHIP FY19 Today's Date: October 29, 2018 Group/organization Name: UI Lecture Committee Contact person: Venise Berry Phone number: 319 337-7557 1 � t — .-4 �,^,rr®r�1■ CITY OF IOWA CITY 410 East Washington Street Iowa City, Iowa 52240-1826 (319)356-5000 (319) 356-5009 FAX www.lcgov.org Email address: venise-berry@uiowa.edu Date of activity/event/program: January 23, 2019 Event location and address: Iowa Memorial Union - Community Event Is the event location wheelchair accessible? yes Is the event location accessible to individuals with visual impairments? yes Describe the activity/event/program and how it contributes to Human Rights: Bringing Ron Stallworth, a Colorado police officer who infilltrated the KKK in the 1970's t Amount of funds requested and itemized budget (provide the budget on separate sheet): `p 1 000 Other funders involved? UI Student Life/City of Literature How will this activity/event/program be marketed? Open to the commun cond Will sponsors be mentioned and/or sponsor logos be used in the marketing of the activity/event/program? Yes Is the activity/event/program a fundraiser? If so, explain: No - the event will be free. No - the event will be free. Please acknowledge by initialling here that you have read the cover letter to this form: V b e rry Submit request to: Stefanie Bowers City of Iowa City 410 E. Washington Street Iowa City, IA 52240-1826 By facsimile to 319-887-6213 or email to stefanie-bowers@iowa-city.org. Venise Berry venise-berryftuiowa.edu (319) 337-7557 Ron Stallworth Presentation budget Honorarium $11,000 Travel/hotel $ 700 IMU Space/Food 300 Total $12,000 Sponsors (confirmed) UI Student Life $5,000 UI Office Diversity $2,500 Sponsors (requests) Iowa Writers Workshop City of Literature IC Human Rights Activity/Event/Program On January 23rd, (MLK week) Stallworth will do a presentation on his experience with the KKK in Colorado in the 1970s. We hope to include a book signing. We are also talking with Film Scene about showing Spike Lee's movie while he is in town. Maybe Stallworth will also make an appearance or talk briefly before or after the movie. BLACK KIANSMAN a RON STALLWORTH Ron Stallworth and his cohort had several crucial objectives when undercover: extract as much information from K.K.K. members as possible, steer clear of entrapment scenarios, and do not question the members, no matter how ridiculous their beliefs or logic are." He was sworn in as a Colorado Springs police officer on his zest birthday in 1974, making him the first African -American to graduate from the ranks of the Police Cadet Program. Stallworth was intrigued by the undercover narcotics investigators, and spent his first years peppering them with questions and pitching himself as a worthy undercover cop. His first undercover assignment was to attend a speech given by Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael. Stallworth dressed the part —blazer, bell-bottoms, concealed weapon and wire. He made a point of meeting Carmichael after the event and Carmichael advised Stallworth to "arm yourself and get ready because the revolution is coming." Stallworth had an inkling that he might one day need concrete evidence of his K.K.K. infiltration —a story that seemed too wild to be true. As such, he brought a Polaroid camera to his face-to-face meeting with David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and requested a group photo. Otherwise, wrote Stallworth in his memoir, "No one would ever believe that I was pulling this investigation off." Agenda Item 6 HRC APPLICATION FORM REQUESTING SPONSORSHIP FY19 Today's Date: 11 /8/18 1 r I CITY OF IOWA CITY 410 Cast Washington Street Iowa City, Iowa 52240.1826 (319) 356.5000 (319) 356-5009 FAX Group/organization Name: Black Voices Project www.lcgay.org Contact person:_Roycearlrl Porter — Phonenumber: 319-321-2779 Email address; royceannportera@msn.com Date of activity/event/program: 11 /16/18 Event location and address: Faith Academy 1030 Crosapark Avenue, Iowa City, IA 62240 Is the event location wheelchair accessible? Yes Is the event location accessible to individuals with visual impairments? Yes Describe the activity/event/program and how it contributes to Human Rights: al vrner runners mvotved7 t�l 115 _y Fri i kbi l�Cdda ,vs t u..c� $o ,1n b FM et How will this activity/event/program be marketed? Social media, flyers, ICCSD, Nextdoor.com_ "—^ Will sponsors be mentioned and/or sponsor logos be used in the marketing of the activity/ovent/program? Sponsors will be mentioned and logos shared if available. Is the activity/event/program a fundmiserl If so, explain: No No - Please acknowledge by initialling here that you have read the cover letter to this form: Submit request to: Stefanie Bowers City of Iowa City 410 E. Washington Skeet Iowa City, IA 52240-1826 Or By facsimile to 319-887-6213 or email to Stefanie-bowers@.iowa-city.org. To whom it may concern, We are writing this letter to thank you for your consideration in supporting the Black Voices Project efforts in providing a Thanksgiving meal for members of the community. This application is a re- submission of a request that was presented back in August for a Back to School bash. Unfortunately, that event did not happen and collectively we decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner with the leadership and excitement of Royceann Porter. In our efforts to collaborate with other entities in the Iowa City area, including Faith Academy, Neighborhood Centers and the South District Association we knew we would be serving a larger population of people than originally planned. Black Voices Project recently re -submitted an application to be able to provide the food and the above mentioned groups agreed to supply other supplies and activities for the event. Unbeknownst to BVP they also requested funds from a neighborhood grant through the City of Iowa City. Considering that we are separate groups trying to reach a common goal of serving the larger community we know that the funds requested will be much appreciated. and serve a number of youth and families in our community. The event is scheduled to take place on Friday November 161h, 6pm to 8pm at Faith Academy. We hope that you all can attend and we are hopeful that our request for funds will be honored during your meeting. Respectfully, Black Voices Project Committee Royceann Porter- Chair Date November 18 2018 Iowa City Community Aanksgiving Dinner Event Iowa Clty ComMunity'I'lranksgiving Dinner Food and supplies (ingredicnts) Eie raaagyes ,;Xveq" 14LiCffiIh Tel M9-321-2779 Email royceamiporterQmsn,com Black Voices Pxojeci- chair Mail to Black Voices Project c/o Roycearm Porter 136 Appanoose Ct. Iowa City, IA 52240 350.00 $300 Subtotal $350 Thank you for your business) Agenda Item 8 v� UNAD USA Convention on the Rights of the Child Next year marks the 301h anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United Nations General Assembly. Every country has ratified the Convention except the US. Iowa UNA will be focusing its Human Rights programming on educating about the Convention. We are inviting the Commission to make children's human rights a focal point for 2019, and to join us in our efforts. Agenda Item 9 Stelalue Bowel's From: joan schnabel/Jeff talk <Joanjeff@centurylink, nab Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 20M 8:14 AM To: Stefanie Bowers Subject: Re: MLK Focus Day at Liberty High School — Invitation to participate Attachments: mlk—vlel.pdf Stefanie, Please send this on to all the other commissioners. Thanks, jeff Falk All, I just reread MLK's oration at Riverside Church which is attached below. I would be willing to do a presentation around it at MILK Jr Focus Day and would appreciate anyone else joining with me to work out a plan and activity. As Stefanie says: "please let me know and soon" Thanks, jeff Falk On Nov 6, 2018, at 1:40 PM, Stefanie Bowers <Stefanie-Bowers@iowa-city ore> wrote: If anyone is interested in doing programming please let me know and soon! From: Carmen Gwenigale[mailto:aweniaale.carmen@iowacityschools org] Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2018 9:08 PM To: Stefanie Bowers <Stefanie=Bowers@Iowa-citv.ore> Subject: MILK Focus Day at Liberty High School — Invitation to participate Dear Ms. Bowers, I hope this message finds you well. On Friday, January 18, 2019, Liberty High School will celebrate its 2nd annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Focus Day, Our 2019 MILK Focus Day is an all -day event for students, complete with engaging activities celebrating Dr. King's legacy, The theme of the day is "Embracing Diversity, Encouraging Service, and Enhancing Cultural Inclusiveness". On this day, we hope to inspire our Liberty High students by providing a safe environment to develop an appreciation and understanding of diversity and inclusion, Our goal is to create an occasion for our youth to speak with a diverse group of amazing individuals through learning sessions designed to develop and enhance diversity, awareness, service, knowledge, and leadership skills for students in the 9th through 12th grades, It is an honor and privilege to invite you (or a member of your organization) to be an active participant as a guest presenter for one or more of our learning sessions for the day. Your voice will be an essential addition to our 2019 MILK Focus Day. We believe that through inspired dialogue and collaborative learning experiences, Liberty High students can be empowered to build a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive school environment where everyone feels a sense of belonging regardless of race, gender, ability, and ethnicity. Through interactive workshops, keynote sessions, and roundtable discussions, students will have the opportunity to explore various elements of Dr, King's vision of peace, understanding, equality, and unity among individuals and across diverse communities. On behalf of Liberty High School, we look forward to the prospect of having you at our event. If you are willing and available to present a session, please confirm your participation with the attached registration form by November 12th, 2018, Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thank you in advance for your consideration. Yours sincerely, Carmen Gwenigale-Ogoli Liberty High School - Spanish Teacher "The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of .action." John Dewey The Information contained in this communication f'rorn the sender Is confidential. It Is intended solely for use by the reciplent and others authorized to receive it. If you are riot the reciplent, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or taking action in relation of the contents of this information is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. - Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence Rev. Martin Luther King April 4,1967 Riverside Church, New York City I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam. The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on. Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation's history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement well and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us. Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about war, Dr, King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent? Peace and civil rights don't mix, they say. Aren't you hurting the cause of your people, they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling, Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live. In the light of such tragic misunderstandings,1 deem it of signal importance to try to state clearly, and I trust concisely, why I believe that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church —the church in Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate —leads clearly to this sanctuary tonight. I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. Neither is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they can play in a successful resolution of the problem. While they both may have justifiable reason to be suspicious of the good faith of the United States, life and history give eloquent testimony to the fact that conflicts are never resolved without trustful give and take on both sides. Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the NLF, but rather to my fellow Americans, who, with me, bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents. Since I am a preacher by trade, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle, It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor —both black and white —through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam comirmed to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such. Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor. My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettoes of the North over the last three years --especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked —and rightly so -what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today —my own government, For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent. For those who ask the question, "Aren't you a civil rights leader?" and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: "To save the soul of America." We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself unless the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear, In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier: O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath — America will ben Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of its who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land. As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America were not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1964; and I cannot forget that the Nobel Prize for Peace was also a commission —a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for "the brotherhood of man." This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances, but even if it were not present I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. To me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the good news was meant for all men —for communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for white, for revolutionary and conservative? Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? What then can I say to the Vietcong or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life? Finally, as I try to delineate for you and for myself the road that leads from Montgomery to this place I would have offered all that was most valid if I simply said that I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be a son of the living God. Beyond the calling of -race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood, and because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them. This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation's self -defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers. And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond to compassion my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them too because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their brokervcries. They must see Americans as strange liberators. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation, and before the Communist revolution in China. They were led by He Chi Minh. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony. Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were not "ready" for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. With that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination, and a government that had been established not by China (for whom the Vietnamese have no great love) but by clearly indigenous forces that included some Communists. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives. For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam. Before the end of the war we were meeting eighty percent of the French war costs. Even before tine French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of the reckless action, but we did not. We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization. After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva agreements. But instead there came the United States, determined that Ho should not unify the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators —our chosen man, Premier Diem. The peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly routed out all opposition, supported their extortionist landlords and refused even to discuss reunification with the north. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by U.S. influence and then by increasing numbers of U.S. troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had aroused. When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real change —especially in terms of their need for land and peace. The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governrnents which were singularly corrupt, inept and without popular support. All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy —and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us —not their fellow Vietnamese —the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go —primarily women and children and the aged. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one "Vietcong" -inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them —mostly children. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers. What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones? We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only non-Communist revolutionary political force —the unified Buddhist church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. What liberators? Now there is little left to build on —save bitterness. Soon the only solid physical foundations remaining will be found at our military bases and in the concrete of the concentration camps we call fortified hamlets. The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds as these? Could we blame them for such thoughts? We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. These too are.our brothers. Perhaps the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. What of the National Liberation Front —that strangely anonymous group we call VC or Communists? What must they think of us in America when they realize that we permitted the repression and cruelty of Diem which helped to bring them into being as a resistance group in the south? What do they think of our condoning the violence which led to their own taking up of arms? How can they believe in our integrity when now we speak of "aggression from the north" as if there were nothing more essential to the war? How can they trust us when now we charge them with violence after the murderous reign of Diem and charge thern with violence while we pour every new weapon of death into their land? Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their actions. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts. How do they judge us when our officials know that their membership is less than twenty-five,percent Communist and yet insist on giving them the blanket name? What must they be thinking when they know that we are aware of their control of major sections of Vietnam and yet we appear ready to allow national elections in which this highly organized political parallel government will have no part? They ask how we can speak of free elections when the Saigon press is censored and controlled by the military junta. And they are surely right to wonder what kind of new government we plan to help form without them —the only party in real touch with the peasants. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again and then shore it up with the power of new violence? Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition. So, too, with Hanoi. In the north, where our bombs now pummel the land, and our mines endanger the waterways, we are met by a deep but understandable mistrust. To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in Western words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now. In Hanoi are the men who led the nation to independence against the Japanese and the French, the men who sought membership in the French commonwealth and were betrayed by the weakness of Paris and the willfulness of the colonial armies. It was they who led a second struggle against French domination at tremendous costs, and then were persuaded to give up the land they controlled between the thirteenth and seventeenth parallel as a'temporary measure at Geneva. After 1954 they watched us conspire with Diem to prevent elections which would have surely brought He Chi Minh to power over a united Vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again. When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. Also it must be clear that the leaders of Hanoi considered the presence of American troops in support of the Diem regime to have been the initial military breach of the Geneva agreements concerning foreign troops, and they remind us that they did not begin to send in any large number of supplies or men until American forces had moved into the tens of thousands. Hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about the earlier North Vietnamese overtures for peace, how the president claimed that none existed when they had clearly been made. I-Io Chi Minh has watched as America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard of the increasing international rumors of American plans for an invasion of the north. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre -invasion strategy. Perhaps only his sense of humor and of irony can save him when he hears the most powerful nation of the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands of bombs on a poor weak nation more than eight thousand miles away from its shores, At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless on Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called enemy, I am as deeply concerned about our troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy and the secure while we create hell for the poor. Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours, The initiative to stop it must be ours. This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one of them wrote these words: "Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism." If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. It will become clear that our minimal expectation is to occupy it as an American colony and men will not refrain from thinking that our maximum hope is to goad China into a war so that we may bomb her nuclear installations. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horribly clumsy and deadly game we have decided to play, The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people, The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war. I would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do immediately to begin the long and difficult process of extricating ourselves from this nightmarish conflict: 1. End all bombing in North and South Vietnam, 2. Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation. 3. Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing out military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos. 4. Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any meaningful negotiations and in any future Vietnam government. 5. Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva agree- ment. Part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under a new regime which included the Liberation Front. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. We most provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country if necessary. Meanwhile we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. We must continue to raise our voices if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every'creative means of protest possible. As we counsel young men concerning military service we must clarify for them our nation's role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of conscientious objection. I am pleased to say that this is the path now being chosen by more than seventy students at my own alma mater, Morehouse College, and I recommend it to all who find the American course in Vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one. Moreover I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. There is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter the struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing Clergy and Laymen Concerned committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy. Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God, In 1957 a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. During the past ten years we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which now has justified the presence of U.S. military "advisors" in Venezuela. This need to maintain social stability for our unvestments accounts for the counter- revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Colombia and why American napalm and green beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken—the'role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing -oriented" society to a "person - oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. n the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed,gentry of Latin America and say: 'This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nations homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood. This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. War is not the answer. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Let us not join those who shout war and through their misguided passions urge the United States to relinquish its participation in the United Nations. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. We must not call everyone a Communist or an appeaser who advocates the seating of Red China in the United Nations and who recognizes that hate and hysteria are not the final answers to the problem of these turbulent days. We must not engage in a negative anti -communism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. We must with positive action seek to remove thosse conditions of poverty, insecurity and injustice which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops. These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail world new systems of justice and equality, are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light." We in the West must support these revolutions. It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti -revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgement against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores and thereby speed the day when "every valley shall be exalted, and every moutain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain." A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all -embracing and unconditional love for all men. This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept —so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force —has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu -Moslem -Christian -Jewish -Buddhist belief about ultimate 'reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: Let us love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. If we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever -rising tides of hale. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self- defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says : "Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word." We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The "tide in the affairs of men" does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out deperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: 'Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. 'The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on•.•" We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co -annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world —a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight. Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter —but beautiful —struggle for a new world. This is the callling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Wilt our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment,to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history. As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated: Once to every man and nation Comes the moment to decide, In the strife of truth and falsehood, For the good or evil side; Some great cause, God's new Messiah, Off ring each the bloom or blight, And the choice goes by forever Twixt that darkness and that light. Though the cause of evil prosper, Yet 'tis truth alone is strong; Though her portion be the scaffold, And upon the throne be wrong: Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow Keeping watch above his own. Agenda Item 8 v� UNAD USA Convention on the Rights of the Child Next year marks the 301h anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United Nations General Assembly. Every country has ratified the Convention except the US. Iowa UNA will be focusing its Human Rights programming on educating about the Convention. We are inviting the Commission to make children's human rights a focal point for 2019, and to join us in our efforts. 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