Pledge: President Elect Paul
Prayer: Gerri Lewis
Song: Led by Andy Anderson
Brent's Flim/Flam: Low hand won by Dave Wight.
Raffle Winners: John Donnelly, Bill O'Shaughnessy and Paul Moore who gave his prize to Reverend Goode.
Happy Dollars: Many for the UCONN men basketball team winning the NCAA national championship (for the 3rd time), the nice day, our guests. Stan Niemerski for being back from Florida, and Rick Beck for selling his Florida condo.
Guests: Tony Carrano, Asst. Principal in Westbrook and Christian Thompkins, a senior who has an interest in Middle East affairs and came to hear Reverend Goode's talk on the situation in Israel and Palestine.
Letters and Announcements:
The Chamber sent a thank you and a picture of our team at the Chili Fest.
Memorial Day Parade: The date is May 30, 2011 and Marty will coordinate our participation. The town is having it's Wreath Laying Ceremony on the Conn. River at 9am prior to the parade.
Gerri read a letter from a District Governor in Japan thanking US Rotarians for their support. She also indicated that the East Hampton Club will be having a picnic on Laurel Island on June 11th. Clubs in section 10 of our District are invited. The cost is $20 to go to the 'End Polio Now' campaign.
Brent Taylor indicated that last year's golf tourney pictures will be going out, pamphlets for this year's tourney are available and more info coming on the tourney such as donor lists and team assignments.
Program: Bill O'Shaughnessy introduced our Speaker Reverend David Goode of the Old
Lyme Congregational Church. His topic, his churche's involvement in the middle east.
Since 9/11. Reverend Goode and his church have been involved in what they call "The Tree
of Life" initiative. He describes this as a series of interfaith conferences both here in this
country and pilgrimage trips to both Israel and Palestine. His church has also brought
representative members of the Palestinian and Israeli faiths here to Old Lyme. On his
most recent trip to the middle east he's met with members of all faiths that are trying
to carve out a peaceful settlement to a long standing issue. That of giving the
Palestinians a 'home' and creating a peaceful coexistence of all the faiths. He indicated
that as well as visiting the 'Ancient Stones' he's visited with families on both sides of
the issue who he calls 'Living Stones". These people have suffered personal loss at
the hands of the other side but still work for peace and hold no enmity for the
aggression. Reverend Goode recommends a book, "Blood Brothers", written by one of
his named 'Living Stones". The author states he was born a baby, not a Jew, not a
Muslim, and not a Christian. He feels everyone can work for peace if these inbred
hostilities can be overcome. Reverend Goode also feels that the settlements in the
West Bank, and the wall, are creating more tensions and promoting violence from
the Arab community. He feels the US should exert some pressure on Israel to
abandon these sites and not continue expanding their holdings. These settlements
are heavily protected by the Israeli military. In one settlement there are 800 military
protecting 400 settlers. Ironically he stated that during his latest visit he felt very safe
in both Palestine and Israel. We all hope for a peaceful resolution to this ages old
conflict and wish Reverend Goode our very best wishes as he works for peace.
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