Any new news??

[ILoVeNY25]

Hi Everyone,

Was wondering if there was any new news on the reunion?? I read in another thread about the group rate being $129. I know nothing is definate yet. I was wondering is that $129 per night? I will definately be coming this year probably with my new boyfriend. Any other New Yorkers coming to the reunion?? Looking foward to seeing all of you. My boyfriend Will, is a really big baseball fan so we would love to attend a game. How close will we be to any of the ball parks? Anyone else interested?? Hope everyone is well. Take care!!!

P.S. Hey Ross, Will you be attending? We have to have the resident nut there!!

 

[Hank]

There will be more news on the reunion posted after Michelle and I get together with Gina and others on the 25th of this month. Keep bugging us though - we need all the motivational tools we can get!

 

[LUVMyBirman]

Fire fire fire. Yes light a fire under us! I have been very wrapped up in life. Meeting with Hank and Michelle in Phoenix next week will stimulate more formal planning. Half the battle was a group hotel rate. Wish it could be lower than $129. That is a bargin for the downtown Chicago area. We will do our best to keep on it for lower rates!

 

[Brad Nowak]

I think I'll pass on the reunion. If the guy in the news article below from the March 15 edition of The Record (our local daily) can't get into the U.S. , what chance do I have with something ticking inside of me? They're liable to detonate me on the spot!



Peace activist hassled at U.S. border

A Waterloo peace activist was denied entry into the United States last week after border guards deemed some Christian missionary literature he was carrying anti-American.

Matthew Bailey-Dick, a former associate pastor at Waterloo-Kitchener United Mennonite Church, was trying to cross the border at Port Huron, Mich., when officials found pamphlets for Christian Peacemaker Teams -- a Chicago-based missionary organization -- in his car's trunk.

The pamphlets contain reports of relief and peacemaking efforts by delegates in unstable countries such as Colombia and Iraq. Bailey-Dick was part of one such delegation to Iraq last month.

"I find the whole thing so absurd, that they would regard this literature as anti-American," Bailey-Dick said yesterday.

He said the border guards made special note of a sticker on his guitar case that reads: Question Authority.

Though Bailey-Dick, now a graduate student at a seminary in Indiana, has a student visa that allows him to live temporarily in the United States, border guards said his visa documentation was not valid.

He was refused entry, and told to meet with immigration officers in Detroit the next day. After that meeting, he was allowed to return to Indiana.

A Port Huron immigration official said yesterday that authorities could not comment on the case.

The incident, Bailey-Dick believes, was not about visa documents, but rather "the fear and paranoia" surrounding border security since Sept. 11, 2001.

He said it is "incredibly ironic" that officials would call the pamphlets anti-American, because they are printed in Christian Peacemaker Teams headquarters in Chicago and regularly distributed to several thousand U.S. citizens.

"But when (the literature) comes back across the border, they act as if it's some dangerous new plot to overthrow the American government."

Bailey-Dick says he believes border security is very important.

But he thinks "this kind of practice, in the long run, is just going to create more . . . distrust and more antagonism against the United States."

He says he is considering lodging a formal complaint with the border authority, but has no immediate plans to do so.

 

[LUVMyBirman]

Yikes! Hi Brad. How have you been? Thanks for posting the article.....not sure how much of it is accurate. But.... I can tell you this. Don't blame you a bit for staying in Canada. We planned a trip to europe this summer. With all that is going on....it's on hold. I am not comfortable leaving my dauther behind in the event something occurs abroad or in the states for that matter.

We plan on sticking to travel within the states until issues are resolved. At best, we could rent a car and drive home if need be. Scary times we are in.

 

[Granbonny]

Hi Brad

Hi Brad

Hope you are well..I was just looking through the October dates..and noticed where the 13th is our Columbus Day in U.S. and is Canada's Thanksgiving Day. Do you all celebrate Thanksgiving like we do? with Turkey and Dressing do the workers get a day off? Rock On. Bonnie

 

[Brad Nowak]

Hi Bonnie, doin' fine thanks. We sure do celebrate Thanksgiving! Mmmmmm....turkey and dressing. Everyone is off work that Monday - big Thanksgiving Day parade etc. Added bonus in the Kitchener area near where I live is that it's also Oktoberfest week - second largest German/Bavarian festival in the world next to Munich. Take care.

 

[Granbonny]

Octoberfest

Octoberfest

Brad..I live in H elen, Georgia. A Bavarian Village in North Georgia. Looks just like the Alps. All stores are very colorful and our Octoberfest runs from Sept. 15th-November 1..A lot of German beer and Brats drank and eaten. Bonnie