Pledge: President Keith.
Prayer: Pete Corbett.
Song: Led by Bill McLaughlin.
Brent's Flim/Flam: Low hand won by Bob Antoniac.
Raffle Winners: President Keith (again), Ed Pinn's wife and Elaine Beame.
Happy Dollars: Heather for upcoming family trip to Disneyworld, Many for food booth, many
for guests today, Dave Wight for his B'day, wife Bobby's B'day and their anniversary, John
Donnelly for his guest, Brent & Bob for World Affairs students help on food booth and Rick
Beck's help, Rick for celebrating his 53rd wedding anniversary.
Announcements: Brent announced we netted about $2,150 on food booth and sold over
700 hot dogs. He also thanked the many volunteers who helped.
President Keith calling for brief Board meeting after the regular meeting and that the
business meeting and budget discussion will be held next week.
Program: Ed Pinn introduced our speaker today who is Maris Lutz, a Killingworth native
who is a correspondent for the L.A. Times. Her topic is on her experiences and
observations on the middle east where she has lived and reported from.
Maris attended Emory University majoring in Arabic and foriegn affairs. She joined the
L.A. Times in 2009 and has lived and covered affairs in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and other
middle eastern countries. She discussed the "Arab Spring" which was a surprise as old
regimes were questioned and uprising arose. She attributes this to the social media
explosion with the use of cell phones, texting and Facebook. Although effective, these
efforts had little coordination and the news accounts eminating from them were not always
accurate and have been exagerated. She talked of Syria where the regime was still enjoyed
by many Syrians even though it is a harshly militaristic regime. The initial protests, posts
and spray paintings drew harsh retaliation by the government. This of course fostered even
more dissent among the protesting masses. Even now reporting and verifying claims on
both sides is difficult. She feels the newspaper Der Spiegel is a pretty good source of
information. She also feels Syria may draw Lebanon into the conflict. She feels the root
cause of much of the problems stems from colonialism where religious bias came in
conflict with native sectarian groups. In Lebanon alone there are 17 different sects. She
also feels that a lot of meddling has been done in Middle Eastern countries due to other
country's national interests, sometimes supporting the wrong regimes. She answered
a question on a women working as a journalist in these countries and claims that she
was treated fairly and respected. A bigger problem for her is the "Old Boys Club"
mentality of the male journalists.
(asl)
THE FOUR-WAY TEST
of the things we think, say or do
First...
Is it the TRUTH ?
Second....
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Third....
Will it build GOOD WILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Fourth....
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
