Mayor RT and list:
I am really truly struggling with this issue of the anti-war resolution at
the City Council. This isn't the first time this list has had this
discussion.
But, here's my dilemma. I am an organizer. And I know the very real power of
collective action. And I'm trying to envision what it would say to the Bush
administration (or at least the tools it would give to anti-war organizers)
if the top fifty cities in the United States passed resolutions against the
war in Iraq. I also wonder about the role of our local elected officials in
communicating to our state elected federal officials the viewpoint of the
half a million people that live in Minneapolis. This situation reminds me
of the poem....First They Came for the Jews
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Pastor Martin Niem�ller
This concerns me for other reasons as well. The City Council and mayor in
the past have passed numerous resolutions that have had little direct
relationship to their mandated roles in the city charter.
In the Spring of 2000, the City Council passed a Free Burma Resolution, a
resolution that I wholeheartedly supported. This resolution was a direct
critique of the policies of the Burmese government, and the City of
Minneapolis refused to do business with any business currently operating in
Burma. The City of Minneapolis similarly passed an Anti-Apartheid Resolution
in the 1980's and refused to do business with companies in South Africa, a
direct repudiation of the policies of the government of South Africa. Most
definately Minneapolis has a history of putting its hands (and justly so) in
foriegn policy and politics. This makes me wonder, then, how much of the
hestitation of you, Mr. Mayor, in supporting this resolution has to do with
election politics and how much has to do with justice. Why has the City of
Minneapolis been so easily able to participate in the foriegn arena
critiquing foriegn governments, but yet lacks the courage to critique and
stand against unjust policies of our own federal government?
Would you, Mr. Mayor, have vetoed the Free Burma Resolution? Would you, Mr.
Mayor, have vetoed the Anti-Apartheid Resolution? If your answer is yes to
these questions, then you most certainly aren't the mayor I thought you
were, and if your answer is no, then how can you justify your willingness to
veto any resolution condemning action in Iraq?
-Brandon Lacy Campos
-Powderhorn Park
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- Re: [Mpls] Mayor Rybak and his promised veto of a City Coun... Brandon Lacy
