[Peace-discuss] AWARE in the NEWS; Township ballot advisory referendum

[C. G. Estabrook]

'...*jammed* the annual town board meetings..."?  Wish we could.


Jan & Durl Kruse wrote:
> Township ballot questions look at national issues
> By Mike Monson
> 
> Thursday January 31, 2008
> 
> Voters in the townships that include most of Champaign and all of Urbana 
> will get an opportunity to weigh on some national issues in the Feb. 5 
> primary.
> 
> Additionally, Champaign voters also will be able to vote on whether they 
> agree with the decision last year to cut funding to general assistance 
> recipients in City of Champaign Township, and whether they think the 
> town board should actively pursue "any and all means available to them" 
> to help those residents living in extreme poverty.
> 
> The advisory questions, most of which center around the war in Iraq, 
> were placed on the ballot at the annual township board meetings last 
> April. At those meetings, members of the Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort, a 
> local activist group, and its supporters jammed the annual town board 
> meetings and voted the questions on the ballot.
> 
> "The goal was to give the public the opportunity to vote on issues of 
> interest to them with regard to national policy," said AWARE member Durl 
> Kruse of Urbana. "Advisory referendums are a way to express that opinion."
> 
> One City of Champaign Township question concerns a financial crisis that 
> prompted Township Supervisor Linda Abernathy a year ago to cut the 
> monthly level of assistance in half, to $100 per month, for general 
> assistance recipients. She was also forced to remove all able-bodied 
> recipients from the general assistance rolls and just retain those who 
> are unable to work due to illness or disability.
> 
> General assistance is a form of welfare for the extremely poor who are 
> not receiving any other form of governmental cash assistance.
> 
> Dwindling cash reserves and property tax caps that limit growth in the 
> township's property tax extension led Abernathy to make her decision. 
> Township voters rejected in November 2006 a 5-cent increase in the tax 
> rate, which for 2007 stood at 3.5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
> 
> Abernathy later appealed to the Champaign City Council, whose members 
> also function as the town board, for financial assistance. But the 
> council rejected the appeal to use city funds to help township clients.
> 
> Two war-related questions will appear on ballots in both townships' 
> ballots.
> 
> One asks if voters should call upon their elected officials in Congress 
> to limit military funding in Iraq to the level required to bring the 
> troops home.
> 
> The second question calls for elected officials to work to repeal or 
> amend the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The act authorized the 
> president to establish military commissions to try unlawful enemy 
> combatants and prevents defendants from invoking the Geneva Conventions 
> as a source of rights during commission hearings.
> 
> The act allows hearsay evidence to be admitted during proceedings, so 
> long as the presiding officer determines it to be reliable.
> 
> The act also specifies permissible interrogation methods and clarifies 
> what actions would subject interrogators to liability under the War 
> Crimes Act.
> 
> In Cunningham Township, voters will also whether their elected officials 
> should "pursue all available means" to prevent war with Iran.
> 
> 
> 
> *Ballot questions
> 
> *City of Champaign Township
> 
> Proposition to restore the level of general assistance funding provided 
> to the township
> 
> Shall the voters of the City of Champaign Township ask the township 
> trustees to restore the level of general assistance funding by actively 
> pursuing any and all means available to them in order to preserve the 
> health and well-being of individuals, fathers, children, families and 
> adults living in extreme poverty in our township?
> 
> *Proposition to call upon Congress to repeal or amend the Military 
> Commission Act
> 
> *Shall the voters of City of Champaign Township call upon their elected 
> representatives in Congress to do all in their power to repeal or amend 
> the Military Commission Act in order to restore the U.S. Constitutional 
> right of habeas corpus and to uphold the internationally recognized 
> rules of law, thereby preventing the cruel and inhuman treatment and the 
> arbitrary and indefinite detention for all detainees held by the U.S. 
> government?
> 
> *Proposition to call upon Congress to limit military funding in Iraq
> 
> *Shall the voters of the City of Champaign Township call upon their 
> elected representatives in Congress to pursue all available means to 
> limit military funding in Iraq to only what is required to bring all 
> U.S. troops home safely?
> 
> 
> *Cunningham Township
> 
> *Cut funding for war and occupation of Iraq
> 
> Shall the voters call upon their elected representatives in Congress to 
> pursue all available means to limit military funding in Iraq to only 
> what is required to bring all U.S. troops home safely?
> 
> *Detainees' rights referendum
> 
> *Shall the voters call upon their elected representatives in Congress to 
> do all in their power to repeal or amend the Military Commission Act in 
> order to restore the U.S. constitutional right of habeas corpus and to 
> uphold the internationally recognized rules of law, thereby preventing 
> the cruel and inhuman treatment and the arbitrary and indefinite 
> detention for all detainees held by the U.S. government?
> 
> *Prevent war with Iran
> 
> *Shall the voters call upon their elected representatives in Congress to 
> pursue all available means to prevent war with Iran, including passing 
> legislation that would explicitly prohibit the president from attacking 
> Iran without Congressional authorization?
> Find this article at:
> 
> http://www.news-gazette.com/news/2008/01/31/township_ballotquestions_lookat_national 
> 
> 
> 
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