Monday, June 20, 2011

The Nation's Mayors ask Congress to Spend War Dollars at Home

Interesting article on CNN.com today- at the annual conference of mayor's a drafted a resolution to be sent to congress to ask that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq be ended as soon as feasible and that money being spent on both operations be redirected domestically. According to CNN, this is the first time since the Vietnam war have mayors taken such a stand.



"As read by the parliamentarian, this is the amended resolution passed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors:

Calling on Congress to redirect military spending to domestic priorities

-- Whereas, every member of the United States Conference of Mayors and the Americans they represent support our brave men and women and their families; and

-- Whereas, the drawdown of troops should be done in a measured way that does not destabilize the region and that can accelerate the transfer of responsibility to regional authorities; and

-- Whereas, the severity of the ongoing economic crisis has created budget shortfalls at all levels of government and requires us to re-examine our national spending priorities; and

-- Whereas, the people of the United States are collectively paying approximately $126 billion per year to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan; and

-- Whereas, 6,024 members of the U.S. armed forces have died in these wars; and at least 120,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since the coalition attacks began.

--Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors supports efforts to speed up the ending of these wars; and

-- Be it further resolved, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors calls on the president and the U.S. Congress to end these wars as soon as strategically possible and to bring these war dollars home to meet vital human needs, promote job creation, rebuild our infrastructure, aid municipal and state governments, and develop a new economy based upon renewable, sustainable energy."

Why am I posting this here? Well, it's an election year after all and come November we all will be deciding whom to vote for for Mayor- I hope this November Mayor Giuliano (R) and candidate Dan Drew (D) and/or who ever else decides to run addresses the issue of the current wars this country is engaged in- whatever his or her stance-it's important to be prepared to face the challenges that lie ahead and not ignore the issue just because it seems more national than local. The wars at least have to be brought to the table for discussion even if we cannot as a community reach a consensus in the end. The other issue, which cannot be disputed despite one's opinion about whether to end or continue the current wars, although the CNN writer neglected to address this, is that there will be an increasing need for local community support for returning soldiers when they do come home.
It will be interesting to see how Middletown's mayoral candidates & all other candidates running for Common Council, P & Z and B.O.E. address these issues in the fall- and who chooses to face the issue and who does not- the point of CNN's article is that for change to take place nationally, it has to start locally.
What are your suggestions for Middletown to help veterans and their families? How would you create jobs locally & fix our local share of the economy? What would you do?

Madam Nirvana
Molly Salafia

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

War dollars should be used to pay down the nations debt, but them, the nation shouldn't be allowing the Federal Reserve to print money (QE1, QE2, ...).

Anonymous said...

Was Mayor Giuliano at this conference? The website usmayors.org says that the Mayor's Conference is for mayors of cities with population of 30k or greater, which qualifies Middletown. There may be some real value to having our mayor attend this. It is always a good idea to see what other towns and cities are doing. In addition to the resolution that Madam Nirvana wrote about, the conference has established many many other resolutions. We should take steps here in Middletown to work towards the same goals that are being espoused across the country. I appreciate Madam Nirvana posting this and drawing some local connections. This is very thoughtful. Yes veterans do need very special support and I hope that Middletown is doing all we can to provide services where needed.

David Bauer said...

I sent notification of the following event to the Eye contact e-mail. I don't know if it is the pro-war stance of the Eye or some other reason....

What: Protest against War, all the Wars we are continuously waging

When: This Saturday 6/25 @ 1 PM

Where: At the corner of Main & Washington in Middletown

Who: Vic Lancia and anyone who wants to join in....

Why: War on Hunger, War on Drugs, War on Poverty, War on Terror, War on Reality, & Real Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Columbia, Iran, and on and on and on

Madam Nirvana (Molly Salafia) said...

Thanks David!

Anonymous said...

Let's end all wars on abstract nouns and inanimate objects. And while we're at it, let's focus on self defense as the basis for national security. (Of course, if we were to go this route, we'd soon realize that the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense are redundant. With a little clever trimming, our budget deficit problems would be a thing of the past.)