Posted by John Thomas
The meeting in the Winnetka Community House was opened at 12:35 by President Bill Leske.  An interesting Thought for the Day came from Greg Nelson before the pledge of allegiance was led by Jake Mtzplk. Representatives from member agencies was John Muno, Exec. Director of the Winnetka Park District. There were no visitors or birthdays. There were 24 members present and lunch was served at 12:40 and the meeting then started at 1:00.
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS: President Bill’s announcements included:
            - the meeting next week will be at Avli’s restaurant in Winneta
            - the Membership Committee will meet next Monday at 8:30 AM
            -  March 10 Winnetka celebrates its 150th Anniversary in Matz Hall at the WCH from 2-4PM
             - Ned Meisner announced his personal move to Ecuador and our club’s International Committee is now operating with Rik Boerjesson
           
 
SPEAKER – David Birkenstein introduced our speaker, Jon Grand. Mr. Grand’s early years were in state and federal natural resource agencies and finally in the U.S. EPA in Public Affairs. He was eventually the first regional environmental attach serving embassies in the Nordic arena. After retiring from government work, Jon managed the Book Stall in Winnetka for some years. He has recently done extensive reading on governmental structures. His topic today was “Fascism can’t happen here … or can it?”  He gave  an interesting outline of the steps that led 1930’s Germany and Italy into that mode despite a generally well-educated citizenry. He noted some of those factors are emerging in America. Examples are the government disparaging the news media and claiming it unreliable. Further, the Executive Branch actively attacking the Judiciary.
There was a lively 15 minutes of Q&A and the meeting closed at 1:25 PM with a recitation of the Rotary 4-way pledge.