[Peace-discuss] see you tonight!

[Ricky Baldwin]

Hi folks- 

In case anyone reads your email before tonight's
anti-war rally at the Urbana City Council :-) ,
I thought I'd finally get around to sharing my
response to Dennis after his email to us.  If anyone
else wrote back, I'd like to see yours, too.

There are two references in my letter to things I
discussed with Dennis: (1) He was concerned after the
Town Meeting that it was all "AWARE members" -- which
it wasn't -- maybe 25 percent or less regular
participants in AWARE (whatever membership means in a
group like ours); and (2) I had previously mentioned
to him that I respected the courageous statement he
made against the Chief, before he mentioned it in his
response, but he apparently already had that
experience on his mind (in a negative way).

I also think I ought to mention that as a result of my
posting Durl's (completely nonpartisan issue-oriented)
call to come to the City Council meeting on our
neighborhood (HEUNA) discussion list, use of the list
will now be "discussed" at the HEUNA meeting this
Thursday.  (Other positions have definitely been
advocated on the list, in like nonpartisan manner, by
the way.)

Anyway, I'd be glad to see other responses that folks
wrote back to Dennis.  It's always a good idea to
write back when you get a response from an elected
official.  The "experts" tell us it's the second
letter that really gets their attention (in DC, that
is - I'm sure we have Dennis's attention).  I think if
they respond and disagree, we have to dispute their
argument.  And if they agree, we have to say thank
you.  My 2 euros.

Ricky

My letter to Dennis:

I want to thank you for your thoughtful response to
all of us who have written you in support of the
anti-war resolution hopefully about to be passed in
the City Council.  

I also want to apologize to you personally: the first
time I saw your letter it was forwarded from someone
else, and I didn’t find it in my inbox, so I
complained that you had not written me, which I
believed at that time.  I now see that you did.  I
found your message in my inbox.  I don’t know if it
was delayed or whether I overlooked it (both happen),
but you did send it and I’m sorry.  I also informed
those I had complained to of my error.

On another note, I looked over the email addresses you
sent it to, and I thought I would point out that about
half are not regular participants in AWARE.  At least
a couple have never even participated in an AWARE
event, including the recent Town Meeting on this
resolution, and others have not been active
participants in some time.  Since this is a concern we
discussed before, I thought you’d like to know.

I’d also like to point out that just because someone
has a “Support Our Troops” yard sign does not mean
they support the war.  In fact one of our neighbors
along California has a couple of these signs but is
adamantly opposed to the war and the president who
started it.  Certainly there are residents of this
ward and the city who will disagree with this
resolution, and with any action the Council takes, but
I think there will be more who disagree with the
Council’s inaction if this resolution is rejected.  

I also do not believe there is any offensive language
in the resolution as proposed.  But your conscience is
your own.  I do appreciate your willingness to work
with others on the Council to arrive at a resolution
you can support, and the main objective is still
accomplished without the language you suggest editing.
 In fact the occupation would be important to end even
without the lies and distortions, for the reasons you
cite as well as others.

And I am sorry that the other City Council members did
not contact you sooner.  I suspect they felt the onus
was on AWARE, as we were the ones initiating the
resolution.  I believe that our “working group” did
contact every City Council member, in hopes of
ascertaining any reservations that anyone might have. 
This is also part of the reason we held a public forum
for all residents to speak out.

I cannot speak to what conversations you had with the
other Council members regarding the Chief issue, which
you mention, as I was not privy to those discussions. 
I can reiterate, as I did in my previous note to you,
that I was glad to see your quote in the paper
regarding that issue.  And I can add that I would like
to see a resolution passed in both cities against the
Chief.  Had I known that a resolution was in the works
and in need of support, I would have spoken up at that
Council meeting as well.  I apologize if I missed that
opportunity through some fault of my own.

Lastly, I’d just like to point out that, as it turns
out, this anti-war resolution is not as
“controversial” as we might think.  Seventy-two
percent of the troops in Iraq now say they want
complete withdrawal within the year.  As you and I
discussed earlier, no one came to the Town Meeting to
express opposition to the resolution.  I take it from
your email that you haven’t received a flood of emails
from opponents, either.  There are some opposed,
apparently, in Lynne Barnes’s ward, but also many who
support the resolution.  The News-Gazette’s op-ed page
is pretty quiet on the issue, too.

It seems to me that Urbana is ready for this
resolution.  And I think it would be no more
“controversial” in its original form than without the
“whereas” sections you mention.  But, either way, I
eagerly await its discussion and passage.  I hope that
you and other Council members have been able to modify
the resolutions we citizens submitted to an acceptable
form and that you can pass it as soon as possible.



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