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Peace and Justice Fair is Sept 12, 2009 |
BACKGROUND ON OUR LOBBYING EFFORTS RELATED TO THE DECLARATION OF PEACE (August, September 2006) We are writing as part of Vancouver for Peace's support of the Declaration of Peace campaign to explain why we are planning to increase pressure on our congressional representatives to support the Declaration of Peace, which calls on Congress to commit to a comprehensive, concrete, and rapid plan for ending our occupation and a negotiated peace in Iraq . If you have not read the Declaration of Peace, go to declarationofpeace.org . Over more than three and a half years, with the involvement of many of you, we have called on Baird, Murray, and Cantwell to end our war and occupation of Iraq many times and in many ways. We have turned in hundreds of your signatures on petitions. At one point Move-On turned in more than a thousand constituent signatures and comments to Rep. Baird. At another time we turned in over 700 signatures from True Majority asking Rep. Baird to support an Iraq debate in the House. We have spoken out in vigils, marches and town hall meetings. Small groups of us have met periodically with the local staffs of Baird, Murray, and Cantwell. Their local staffs have always been welcoming and polite. We have repeatedly asked Baird, Murray, and Cantwell first for their leadership to sponsor and vote for legislation to end our occupation of Iraq. We have also asked to meet with them. We have asked them to come home and participate in community discussions on the war with the goal of healing the wounds in our community and preventing deeper wounds. Most often these requests were met with silence, especially from the Senators. Our requests for meetings have thus far never been granted. Rep. Baird has always answered questions at Town Halls politely, but has not met with us as a group. On the core issue that you have expressed your passionate concern about - a rapid end to our occupation of Iraq - we feel that none of our representatives has taken action to secure this. OUR MOST RECENT LOBBYING On August 21, we delivered letters requesting support for the Declaration of Peace to the local offices of Baird, Murray, and Cantwell. That letter is posted on the Vancouver for Peace website. On August 28, a group of six local activists met with Bob Dingethal of Senator Cantwell's local office. They also met with Evan Schatz, Senator Murray's aide on defense and military issues. These meetings were very positive, but we have not yet received a response from either Senator to our requests, including a request to meet with the Senators. Since the week of August 21, we have called the local office of Rep. Baird multiple times each week requesting to meet with him and for a response to our letter. We have been received politely. At this time, we have not secured a response to our letter or a meeting time. We have been told that a meeting in October may be possible. So, we have not yet seen the leadership from our representatives we feel is required to face the situation in Iraq. Because of this, we plan to move ahead with an Ad in The Columbian on Sunday 9/17 that calls for this leadership and with the Vancouver Peace Camp on Sept. 21. As we said at the beginning of this message, we need to increase pressure on our representatives to represent us. Your participation in a way you are called to is needed. Please act on this information to end the killing and build lasting peace. ========================================== Mike Ellison wrote this page. I have tried to be completely accurate. If you feel anything here is not (or is no longer accurate,) please contact me. Last updated Sept. 4, 2007 |