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Takoma
Park joins anti-war lobbying at White House
BY
KELLI ESTERS
On
February 20, Councilmember Marc Elrich came downtown to tell
President Bush and Congress that Takoma Park and other cities
oppose a preemptive attack on Iraq.
"Our
goal here is to stop a war with Iraq," Elrich said.
Nearly
50 city officials from across the country stood in stiff winds
and freezing weather outside the gates of the White House.
The group brought with them the resolutions their cities had
passed opposing U.S. military action against Iraq, and they
wanted to give them to President Bush.
The group
is called Cities for Peace, a rapidly growing coalition of
local elected officials and concerned citizens across the
country working to get city councils and other civic bodies
to pass similar resolutions.
So far,
the group consists of 90 cities and towns representing more
than 22 million Americans that have passed such resolutions.
The cities
of Takoma Park and Baltimore both passed resolutions on Oct.
28, and the City of Greenbelt drafted a letter in lieu of
a resolution.
For Takoma
Park, the idea came up from its grass roots—citizens brought
it to the council to be put on the agenda.
"The
council was not divided," Elrich said. "We felt
the resolution best represented our constituents' sentiments."
More than
17,000 people live in Takoma Park. The city is a "Nuclear-Free
zone" and has an award-winning recycling program. And
even residents who are not U.S. citizens can vote in local
elections and hold local elective office.
"No
war against Iraq [should] be undertaken," the Takoma
Park resolution reads, "without the agreement of United
Nations Security Council . . .and a vote in the United States
Congress."
The federal
government doesn't have enough money to meet its obligations
now, Elrich said, and they're cutting state subsidies.
"And
city and towns are at the end of the domino effect,"
he added.
Elrich
said that his jurisdiction has yet to get the federal funding
for first responders, health care costs have gone up 30 percent,
and schools are suffering.
"These
are the areas that we think need attention," Elrich said.
"If we win a war in Iraq, nothing will change."
The group
never got in to see Bush, nor anyone else from the administration,
despite arguing their importance at the gates and the insistence
that they had an appointment.
"We
are mayors, we are councilmen— weĠre not the usual suspects,"
said Joe Moore, an alderman from Chicago, to a guard.
The group
was told that Bush was out of town.
"The
President welcomes the fact that this is a democracy,"
said Taylor Griffin, White House spokesman. "Bush doesn't
want to go to war, but in the interest of peace, Saddam must
be disarmed."
The group
did meet with like-minded members of Congress, including Rep.
John Conyers (D-Mich.).
"The
polls say most American people favor a war—that's biggest
pile of propaganda that you will ever hear," Conyers
said. "Most people oppose the war. We are not in the
minority—we are the majority."
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