Brainerd Area Coalition for Peace (BACP) held our monthly meeting on Monday, November 7, 2022 at 7 p.m.   The meeting took place online via the Zoom website.  Richard and Judi Schiller and Doug Olson joined the BACP meeting.   


The BACP meeting began with a tribute to Paula Overby.   Paula, a peace activist and politician, passed away from heart failure on Wednesday, October 5.   She was 68.   Paula was running as the Legal Marijuana Now Party candidate in the Minnesota Second Congressional District race when she passed away.    Paula championed peace, environmental protection, civil liberties, LGBTQ rights, economic justice, and Move to Amend (i.e. a Constitutional amendment to ban corporate personhood and declare money is not a form of free speech) during her campaigns.   Paula joined the 2019 Camp Ripley peace vigil hosted by BACP, Veterans for Peace (VFP), and Women Against Military Madness.    She spoke at the 2019 Peacestock organized by the Red Wing and Twin Cities VFP chapters.   Paula was a good person who will be missed by her family and friends.


Meeting participants reviewed the Fall BACP Adopt a Highway cleanup (Saturday, October 15) and the Fall BACP peace vigil (Saturday, October 29).    Both events went very well.    Richard, Judi, Doug, Doug's dad Joe Olson, and Brainerd Lakers United for the Environment (BLUE) chair Dean Borgeson joined the Fall BACP Adopt a Highway cleanup.    Larry Fisk, Gayle Nielsen, Mary Benson, Larry Mjolsness, Isaiah Oleson, and Doug Olson joined the Fall BACP peace vigil.    The Spring BACP Adopt a Highway cleanup will be held in either April or May 2023.    BACP may hold a Spring peace vigil.


Meeting participants discussed BACP making donations to organizations.   After discussing several different organizations to make donations to, meeting participants agreed BACP would make $50 donations to the Women's Center of Mid-Minnesota, the Radiothon to End Child Abuse (being held from Thursday, December 1 through noon on Friday, December 2), the Brainerd United Church of Christ (UCC), and the Alliance for Global Justice's Nicaragua Solidarity Padre Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann Fund for hurricane relief to help Nicaragua recover from Hurricane Julia.

BACP has often supported the great work done by the Women's Center of Mid-Minnesota and the Radiothon to End Child Abuse to end domestic violence and help domestic violence victims.   BACP always makes a donation to the Brainerd UCC because the Brainerd UCC provides BACP a meeting space in the upstairs library.   BACP donating to the Nicaragua Solidarity Fund is our way of showing solidarity with the Nicaraguan people who have built a more just, humane, and peaceful society since 2007, despite U.S. sanctions and threats.


[BACP member Larry Fisk shared a statement from the Nicaragua Advocacy Network entitled "Supporting Nicaragua's Sovereignty, Honoring It's Achievements" to the BACP listserv a few weeks after the November BACP meeting.   The statement demands the U.S. government lift sanctions against Nicaragua, calls for the U.S. mainstream media to accurately report on events in Nicaragua, and lists the many achievements of the Nicaraguan government in improving the quality of life in Nicaragua.   The statement can be found at https://drive.google.com/file/d/17bfReh2ivcs8WKDvQiSwZ3qvdWh9RlZm/view ].

[If you agree with the statement and would like to sign it as an individual, please send an email to the Nicaragua Advocacy Network at nicaraguaadvocaynetwork@gmail.com with your name and address.   BACP members will discuss whether BACP as an organization should endorse the statement at the Monday, December 5 BACP meeting].



The next monthly BACP meeting will be held on Monday, December 5 at 7 p.m.    The BACP meeting will be held online via the Zoom website.   The meeting will last 40 minutes, the maximum amount of time Zoom allots for free meetings.   BACP will meet online through at least April.   A link to the online December BACP meeting will be sent out with the meeting notice.


The BACP meeting adjourned at 7:40 p.m.   


BACP Meeting Notes Submitted by Doug Olson