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Announcement :: Iraq |
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Springfield to Vote on War Resolution |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peach
Email: Michael (nospam) ImpeachBush.biz (verified) |
16 Apr 2006
Modified: 11:57:14 AM |
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http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/71543/index.php
From the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Wednesday, April 12, 2006 by Philip Ewing
SPRINGFIELD, ILL.
Springfield this November will become the latest electoral battleground in the Iraq war, as local voters answer the question: Should we get out?
Using a quirk in Illinois' township system, activists on Tuesday night managed to get the township that covers Springfield to put the nonbinding referendum on the Nov. 7 ballot.
Backers hope it will add Springfield to the dozens of other cities around the country that have adopted resolutions or referendums calling
on President George W. Bush to withdraw American soldiers from Iraq.
"If enough of these things happen across the country and enough people take to the streets, write their congressman, actually become active as
a part of the anti-war majority, they'll have to start listening," said activist Michael Ziri, who introduced the referendum.
Ziri was one of about 25 attendees Tuesday at a meeting of Capital Township, which shares essentially the same borders as the city of Springfield. State law required all of Illinois' townships to meet Tuesday, and also enabled anyone living within the township to vote and otherwise participate in the meeting. As a Springfield resident, Ziri used that privilege to put forth the war referendum, and the people at
the meeting voted for it unanimously. Many of them came specifically to support it, he said.
The question will ask: "Shall President George W. Bush and Congress commence a humane, orderly, immediate and comprehensive withdrawal of
all U.S. military personnel and bases from Iraq?"
Township Administrator Tom Cavanagh - who didn't vote because he moderated the meeting - stressed that the referendum came about because of the anti-war attendees at the meeting, not because of any political
agenda on the part of the township board.
Activists used similar techniques to get the question on ballots throughout Wisconsin. Some of them were voted on last week, and some of them will be in the November election. The city of Madison voted to
oppose the war, and voters in Milwaukee will consider the question in the general election. In addition, city councils nationwide, including those of Chicago and San Francisco, have adopted resolutions calling for
the war's end and for the troops to be pulled out.
Anti-war activists said they didn't know of any such efforts under way in Missouri.
Jerry Newberry, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, played down the significance of the anti-war votes, but he acknowledged that they were "part of the democratic process."
"Just because there's a referendum doesn't mean it's people opposed to the war," Newberry said.
The war's current unpopularity could ebb by November, meaning voters in Milwaukee, Springfield and elsewhere could vote to keep troops in Iraq,
he said.
Either way the vote goes, Ziri said he has no illusions that it will change U.S. foreign policy.
"I'm practical. I realize the president won't give a lick what Springfield says," he said.
But he plans a publicity campaign leading up to the referendum, which he hopes will spur discussion about the war and about which candidates will be elected to Congress. |
This work is in the public domain |
