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Four Chicago women arrested at Dirsken Bldg. in war funding protest

Update from the Occupation Project
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Four Chicago Area Women Arrested at Federal Building

Arrest Statement:

We are a poet, a doctor, a pregnant woman, and a grandmother. We are risking arrest today to publicly protest Senator Durbin’s refusal to vote NO on the president’s $93 Billion dollar supplemental appropriations request to continue funding the immoral and unjust war in Iraq. If Senator Durbin is against this war, he must stop funding it. We will stay in the lobby of the federal building until removed because we strongly believe that this war must end and that our elected representatives have the power to follow last November’s mandate to do so.
Biographic Information on Arrestees

Rosalie Riegle, 70, of Evanston is a retired professor of English, a writer, and a grandmother of seven.

Rosalie’s statement: In risking arrest today, I am resisting with my body this horrific war that is ruining our country and alienating countries who were once our allies. The supposedly anti-war senators, including our own Senators Durbin and Obama, must stop funding it by refusing to pass the $93 billion supplemental appropriations bill. Instead, it appears they are playing a political game to win in 2008, sacrificing U.S. lives and honor to political ambition. In the name of the millions of citizens who want this madness to stop, I shout, “Stop funding the war!”

Dr. Marjorie Fujara — Marjorie Fujara MD is a pediatrician at Stroger Hospital and is a native of Chicago. Marjorie grew up on the Northwest side and attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical School and completed her residency at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Before accepting her current position, she was employed by Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis and was on staff at Resurrection Medical Center. She lives with her family in Evanston.

I am willing to risk arrest because I am passionate about my work and the families we serve. It became clear to me that the current situation facing the county is the result of more than poor financial management and political hiring. The cost of the war in Iraq could eliminate the $500 million Cook County deficit in 40 hours. As the number of uninsured and underinsured continue to grow daily, universal health care needs to be front and center on the country’s agenda. That hope becomes less and less likely as the end of the war in Iraq drags on and on. I am here today to specifically address the issue of the Supplemental Spending Bill. The Bush Administration is asking for an additional$99.7 billion on top of the $70 billion already allotted in the 2007 budget. This money would not be available for the military to use for two years. It will not be used for soldiers fighting on the battlefield today. Nor will it be used to take care of soldiers that have become injured in the line of duty.

Laura Bernstein is a writer and poet who is active in interfaith ministry. She teaches at Common Ground in Deerfield. Her recent book is “Healing the Jewish-Christian Rift: Growing Beyond Our Wounded History (co-authored with Ron Miller). Laura is on the board of Hands of Peace, a group which brings Palestinian, Christian and Jewish Israeli teenagers together for dialogue and intercultural exchange.

Laura’s statement: This illegal, immoral, unnecessary war has been going on for almost 4 years now. I have picketed on street corners (before the war actually began), attended candlelight vigils, written letters to the editor decrying this debacle, sent emails and faxes, and made a thousand phone calls in an effort to bring anti-war candidates to Washington. Now we have a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress, and the war rages on, with scarcely any change. The body count grows, and the tragedy deepens. I’m ready for nonviolent civil disobedience. If not now, when?

Katie Jean Dahlaw is a twenty-five year old expectant mother from Chicago. She’s a dancer, wife, and believer in the nonviolent way of Jesus Christ. Katie Jean is a practicing member of Reba Place Fellowship, Mennonite intentional community in Evanston, IL.

Katie’s statement: Katie Jean is participating in civil disobedience on February 20, 2007 because she is tired of the war. She does not want her unborn child to be born into a country that is so shamefully and aggressively using violence and power for its own selfish gain.

Read more at:
[ vcnv.org/money-for-nothing-iraq-war-funding-2004-to-2007 ]
 
 

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