<blockquote>In a debate that echoed in at least 50 other Vermont towns holding their annual meetings this week, Dummerston passed a resolution asking the State Legislature to investigate the impact of National Guard deployments on Vermont's readiness for a natural disaster or other emergency. The measure, which also asks Congress and the president to "take steps to withdraw American troops from Iraq," was part of a new effort by antiwar activists to take the debate over the war down to a distinctly local level.
"There are people from Vermont who have been sent to Iraq who have been called upon to do things which they wouldn't choose to do," Ed Anthes, a mental health educator who supported the resolution, told the crowd in the cafeteria of Dummerston's elementary school. "They have been put in a vulnerable position. And then when they come home, we're the ones that are going to take care of them."
The resolution was spearheaded by antiwar activists who hope the campaign will spread. So far, at least one community in Massachusetts, Arlington, is planning a similar resolution, and some Pennsylvania communities may follow suit.
"A lot of folks are hoping to use Vermont as a model," said Peter Lems, the Iraq program coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee, which along with other antiwar organizations, like Military Families Speak Out, helped organize petition drives to get the measure on town meeting ballots.
"This shows that the antiwar movement is different for this war than it probably has been for every war before," Mr. Lems said. "What these people are demanding is accountability, and they have this incredibly strong message - their sons, their daughters and their parents in some cases have had their lives torn apart by the war. It's probably the most powerful message we have right now."
In results available Tuesday, 39 Vermont towns, including Dummerston, passed the resolution, 3 defeated it, 3 tabled it, and one town's vote ended in a draw. (Pam Belluck, "Vermonters Vote on Study of National Guard's Role," New York Times, <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/02/national/02vermont.html>, March 2, 2005)</blockquote> -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>