US Mayors: 'Bring These War Dollars Home to Meet Vital Human Needs'
US Mayors: 'Bring These War Dollars Home to Meet Vital Human Needs' | The Nation
by John Nichols, 6/21/11
"...When Pendleton, South Carolina, Mayor Randy Hayes rose to address the question of whether the US Conference of Mayors should back an antiwar resolution urging the president and Congress to “speed up the ending” of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the assumption might have been that he would speak in opposition. Instead, the self-described mayor of a “military town” argued that the resolution was very restrained—in that it didn’t call for immediate withdrawal—and suggested that most mayors would recognize the merit of the argument for redirecting money for military adventures abroad to meeting needs at home.
Hayes was right. The mayors voted overwhelmingly Monday for the resolution, which urges President Obama and Congress 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, and reduce the national debt.”
The resolution, which Code Pink and other antiwar groups campaigned for, was sponsored by a group of progressive mayors from traditionally liberal cities, including R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis; David Coss of Santa Fe; Dave Norris from Charlottesville, Virginia; and Carolyn Peterson of Ithaca, New York."
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