Call for peace in Middletown Council chambers tonight

I've been asked to present the Middletown residents' petition for peace to the Common Council this evening. During public comment, Wesleyan students will present their petition, and I will deliver the public petition.

The petitions ask the Common Council to consider a resolution condemning the war in Iraq, and to bring our troops home. If Middletown were to pass such a resolution, it would not be the first town in the country to do so. Hundreds have already passed such a resolution.

You might ask why a symbolic gesture like passing a town resolution, with no real power to directly affect the course of the war, is worth considering.

First, it sends a message. It allows the public to address and debate the war in public. If it is passed, it demonstrates to all who hear about it that our citizens are against a war which was sold with a lie, and which has caused so much damage to our country. And in the case of Middletown, it lets at least one of our representatives, Senator Creepy Joe Lieberman, understand that when he advocates this war, he is not representing his constituents, he is standing alone, or nearly alone.

I encourage all Middletown residents, on both sides of the argument, but especially those advocating peace, to attend the meeting tonight, Monday December 3, 7 pm in Common Council chambers.

Wesleyan students march for peace

Who would have thought that a committed group of Wesleyan students and staff could convince the Middletown Common Council to include a resolution to consider passage of an anti-war resolution, on the agenda of Monday's (December 3) Common Council meeting.





Protestors and peace walkers Ashley Casale and Michael Israel prepare for the march.


But they did.

Wespeace, the Wesleyan students for peace organization, marched from campus to City Hall, and then to the military recruitment offices in the Metro Square Shopping Plaza off Main Street, and presented the draft resolution and petition to Council Representative Bob Santangelo, who happily accepted it, and promised it would be on the agenda. A good reason to attend the Council meeting on the 3rd. Remember, public comment is at the beginning of the 7 pm meeting.

BTW, the trip down High and Main was uneventful except for a single, thick-necked asshole leaning out the window, flipping the bird and shouting, "George Bush is the man, cocksuckers." Ah, Middletown.

\The group then proceeded to the military recruitment offices in Metro Square, where a security representative informed them that we were trespassing, and could not display signs on private property. Several minutes of polite discussion with the security officer and the Middletown Police followed, with the police concurring that the security officer had the right to ask the student group to leave. Several students decided to stay and to try to present their questions and comments to recruiting officers, but the recruitment offices were locked. After a half hour of waiting, during which students and police officers debated the right to gather and express opinions, three recruitment officers arrived. One refused to speak to the students. Two others accepted printed material. When it appeared that the offices would remain vacant, students debated the appropriateness of a sit-in, and decided that they would return when the offices were open.