Chicago Indymedia : http://chicago.indymedia.org/archive
Chicago Indymedia

LOCAL News :: Peace

Peace groups get boost in Evanston

In case you missed it, this from the Chicago Tribune. (Registration is require to access this article online, so the reprint is below.)
Peace groups get boost in Evanston
City panel backs call for U.S. to leave Iraq

By Brian Cox and Lisa Black
Chicago Tribune
Published August 3, 2005

Evanston officials took the first step this week toward adopting a resolution urging U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, a move that some see as gaining momentum and others view as divisive.

An Evanston coalition, frustrated by what it says is a lack of will by most members of Congress to speak out against the war, wants the city to join other communities that are on record urging the U.S. to cease combat operations and pull out of Iraq.

Though organizers acknowledge the symbolic nature of their request, they don't downplay its significance.

"Speaking through you strengthens and empowers our individual voices," Dickelle Fonda of Neighbors for Peace told the city's Human Services Committee on Monday. "It might actually influence policy on a national level."

"This is not a Democratic or Republican issue. It is an American issue," said Sue Schell of the Democratic Party of Evanston, one of more than a dozen people from church, neighborhood, student and political groups who addressed aldermen. "War is very much a local thing. It affects all of us."

The committee voted 4-1 to send the resolution to the City Council, which is expected to vote on it in September.

Evanston and Gary were among nearly 200 communities that approved resolutions two years ago that opposed a pre-emptive war against Iraq, said Malia Lazu, national field director for Washington-based Cities for Progress.

"What we've found in the last few months is a resurgence of anger because [cities] are not able to do their jobs because of the domestic cost, whether that's in lives or money," Lazu said.

National Guard members and reservists often leave jobs vacant that are vital to the community, such as firefighters, police officers and teachers, she said.

Some speakers said the resolution could send the wrong message to American enemies in the Middle East.

"They may be looking for a sign of weakness," said Peter Greene, an Evanston resident who spoke at the meeting. "To be most effective, this should be put on hold for a short time."

Ald. Edmund Moran voted against sending the resolution to the council. After the meeting, he said the U.S. needs to stay the course until it's certain that progress is being made in Iraq. "Our enemies seek the death of innocent people until measures are taken to stop them," Moran said.

If passed by the council, the resolution would be sent to President Bush and Congress.

Evanston's neighbor to the south is scheduled for a Sept. 14 vote on a similar motion.

The Chicago Iraq War Resolution is spearheaded by Ald. Joe Moore (49th). He said 40 aldermen support it.

"I felt it was time for the City Council to stand up with the growing number of city councils across the nation," and urge the U.S. to pull out of Iraq, Moore said. "We have poured billions of dollars into the war, depriving cities of those dollars that could have been spent on affordable housing, education and health care."

Though many anti-war resolutions have provoked controversy, Gary Common Council President Chuck Hughes said he has not heard any complaints about the 8-0 vote on an April resolution that called for the U.S. to pull out of Iraq.

"That's highly unusual in the world of politics," he said. "It seems like a consensus in this community that we want the troops home, unconditionally.

"We're measuring the loss of life; we're measuring the circumstances that got us there in the first place--all the uncertainty about the motives. We feel the lives of these young people is too costly to bear."

Hughes said that his brother drowned last year while training with the Army Reserve in San Antonio, and that over the last week, two more soldiers from the area were killed in the war.
 
 

Donate

Views

Account Login

Media Centers

 

This site made manifest by dadaIMC software