There were 39 persons in attendance this week: 37 members, one guest and our speaker.  Heather Higgins brought her daughter-in-law, Martha, a writer, who was visiting from Moscow where her son is stationed.  Mike Rydell was here for Julie Tye representing the Hadley Institute for the Blind.

 

At this weeks meeting two Paul Harris Fellows were awarded to Jill Joyce and Barb Kincaid in honor of their long service to our club in serving lunches.  These new Harris fellows were due to the generosity of Rodger Morris who said our club may not have 100% of its members who are Paul Harris Fellows but we are likely the only club to have 100% of our caterers as Fellows.  Donna had been given a Paul Harris at an earlier date.

 

The speaker was Bob Feferman, who is the Outreach Coordinator for the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI).  Bob came all the way from South Bend, Indiana to speak at our meeting.  The goal of this non-profit, non-partisan group is to prevent Iran from its goal of producing nuclear weapons.  The Iran nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was implemented this past January, was opposed by UANI though they are now opposed to scraping the deal now.  Iran has decommissioned its enriching facility and has agreed to limits in stockpiling enriched uranium so their program to producing weapons grade uranium has been setback.

 

Bob explained that one of the areas of concern that is not covered by the JCPOA is Iran’s abysmal human rights record.  They support the Syrian regime of Assad by financing weapons and aiding and abetting Syrian war crimes.  Iran is a state sponsor of terror and materially supports Hezbollah.  They have sponsored Palestinian terror and have had a hand in the bombing of Gaza.  The have conventional missiles that can reach most of the Middle East and are working on intercontinental missiles which could eventually carry nuclear warheads.  While Iran has lived up to the agreement so far it continues to cause unrest in the area. 

 

One of the main things that UANI is trying to do is to restrict Iran’s economy so they are deprived of financial resources to carry out terroristic activities.  They have convinced 50 major companies to stop operating in Iran.  Bob asked us to ask Congress to renew the Iran sanctions and hold them accountable for their human rights abuses.