Brainerd Area Coalition for Peace (BACP) held our monthly meeting on Monday, February 6, 2023, at 7 p.m. The meeting took place online via the Zoom website. Richard Schiller and Doug Olson joined the BACP meeting. BACP meeting participants discussed the rally being held outside the Aitkin County Courthouse on Friday, February 24 supporting Water Protectors Winona LaDuke, the co-founder and Executive Director of Honor the Earth, and Dawn Goodwin (Gaagigeyaashiik). Honor the Earth, Indigenous Environmental Network, and RISE Coalition are holding the rally. The rally is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. The Aitkin County Courthouse is located at 209 2nd Street NW, Aitkin. LaDuke and Goodwin will be in the Aitkin County Courthouse for in-person hearings to face charges for peacefully resisting Line 3 construction. For more information about the Flood Aitkin County Court for Winona and Dawn rally, please visit the Honor the Earth Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1360734601329280 The Saturday, January 21 BACP peace vigil went very well. Larry Fisk, Gayle Nielsen, Mary Benson, and Doug joined the peace vigil. The vigil took place at the intersection of Sixth and Washington Streets, Brainerd, across from the historic Brainerd water tower. The vigil lasted from 1 to 2 p.m. The vigil received an overwhelmingly positive response from passing motorists. Many motorists honked their horns, gave thumbs up, or flashed peace signs in support of the vigil. The vigil was in solidarity with the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Week of Action (Friday, January 13-Sunday, January 22) and the Peace in Ukraine Coalition's Two Weeks of Action (Friday, January 13-Friday, January 27). Both Weeks of Action demanded an end to U.S. military aid to Ukraine and supported a peace settlement ending the Ukraine War. Meeting participants discussed the missed opportunity to end the Ukraine War in the spring of 2022. At the time, Russian and Ukrainian peace negotiators made headway in a possible peace agreement. The possible peace agreement might have ended the Ukraine War on the following terms: 1. Ukraine renounce joining NATO and not host foreign troops on its territory. 2. Ukraine no longer actively contest Russian control of Crimea. Instead, a 15 year "study period" would give de facto control of Crimea to Russia. [No further details were worked out. Perhaps a referendum would have been held in Crimea after the end of the 15 year "study period" to determine Crimea's political status.] 3. Russian troops withdraw to the battlelines which existed before the Ukraine War began on February 24, 2022. Before the war began, rebels controlled about 10% of Ukraine in the Donbas region. [No further details were worked out, such as possibly holding a referendum in the Donbas to determine if Donbas residents wanted to remain in Ukraine as an autonomous region, join Russia, or become an independent nation.] Unfortunately, the U.S. and U.K. scuttled the possibility of a peace agreement by pressuring Ukraine not to sign any peace agreement with Russia. Instead, the U.S. and U.K. promised Ukraine generous military assistance and encouraged Ukraine to keep fighting. According to former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the U.S. and U.K. also sabotaged an Israeli-backed peace proposal. Articles about the lost peace opportunities can be found at: https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-missed-opportunities-of-the-war-in-ukraine/?fbclid=IwAR1RwNUGbWJ9n1dhcXYMCYTcjdUwgIds76TZkDcr4l_WAL4BnRz80ozhS6E and https://consortiumnews.com/2023/02/13/caitlin-johnstone-the-wests-sabotage-of-peace-in-ukraine/?fbclid=IwAR1RC_kKtZaPdqKOhIuWrfVhJi-TPGH9f2MQbjnaPNomLkxkf218k5FY2NQ Meeting participants expressed concern the Ukraine War could escalate into a direct war between the U.S./NATO and Russia. This would be catastrophic. Peace activists should continue demanding the U.S. stop arming Ukraine and instead support diplomatic efforts to peacefully end the Ukraine War. The vast majority of the world's nations want a peace settlement. Practically all of Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and most of Asia and the Pacific support a peace settlement ending the war. They take a neutral position on the war. They don't sanction Russia nor arm Ukraine. For instance, in Brazil, the two leading Presidential candidates in the 2022 Brazilian Presidential election, incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, agreed Brazil would maintain its neutral position on the Ukraine War and support a peace settlement. This was the only substantive issue Bolsonaro, a reactionary, and Lula, a democratic socialist, agreed on. [Lula defeated Bolsonaro to win the election. A coup attempt by Bolsonaro's supporters failed.] BACP may hold another vigil demanding a peace settlement and cut-off of U.S. military aid to Ukraine in the near future. There may be National Days of Action BACP could hold our peace vigil in solidarity with. [UNAC and many other peace organizations are holding a march on Washington, D.C. on Saturday, March 18 demanding a peace settlement, an end to U.S. military aid to Ukraine, the termination of U.S. wars in the Middle East, the abolition of NATO, and money for human needs. BACP could discuss endorsing the march and possibly holding a solidarity vigil at the Monday, March 6 BACP meeting.] More information about UNAC's Saturday, March 18 March on Washington can be found at: unacpeace.org Meeting participants agreed BACP should host a table at the Brainerd Pride Picnic. The Brainerd Pride Picnic will be held on Saturday, September 9 in Gregory Park. The Brainerd Pride Picnic lasts from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Brainerd Lakes Pride, a Brainerd area LGBTQ rights organization, is hosting the Brainerd Pride Picnic. BACP hosted tables at the Brainerd Pride Picnic in 2021 and 2022. BACP table volunteers had positive experiences at both events. Many Brainerd Pride Picnic attendees visited the BACP table and expressed their support for BACP's peace activism. [Doug filled out the Brainerd Pride Picnic vendor application and mailed a check for BACP's table.] Doug will find out when Camp Ripley's Open House Day is. Open House Day is a biannual event when Camp Ripley invites the public into the base. Open House Day is used as a "recruitment and retention" event and spreads pro-war propaganda. Open House Day takes place in mid-September. BACP, Veterans for Peace (VFP), Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), and other peace activists have held peace vigils outside Camp Ripley at every Open House Day since 2013 to counter Camp Ripley's pro-war propaganda. [Brainerd Lakes Area Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) joined the 2021 Camp Ripley peace vigil.] Doug contacted VFP, WAMM, and other peace activists to let them know BACP intends to hold a peace vigil outside Camp Ripley in September 2023. VFP and WAMM let Doug know they are committed to joining the Camp Ripley peace vigil. Father Tony Kroll, a semi-retired Catholic priest and longtime peace activist, and Bill McGrath of Northfield People for Peace and Goodwill, also plan to be at the Camp Ripley peace vigil. Doug will ask DSA if DSA wants to co-host the vigil. Once Doug finds out when Camp Ripley Open House Day is, he will let fellow BACP members, VFP, WAMM, DSA, Father Tony, Bill McGrath, and other peace activists know so planning for the Camp Riley peace vigil can begin in earnest. If anyone finds out when the Camp Ripley peace vigil is, please forward this information to the BACP listserv. The next monthly BACP meeting will be held on Monday, March 6 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 March 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