Hello Minneapolis Folks:
I support such a resolution. Many Americans are being treated no different than Japanese Americans during World War II, presumed guilty before any real evidence has been established of a crime being committed. Politicians can decide to take the "safe" political position of staying silent, many did in America during WWII, and many did in Nazi Germany. We should have learned lessons from our previous mistake and speak out as individuals, through government resolutions, and assembled together in mass support of liberty, justice, and human rights. I for one support such a resolution and will support my elected officials that have the strength to not be silent.
Ken Bradley Corcoran Nieghborhood
612-728-8962
&nNeighborhoodmermann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
My thanks to Mark Snyder and Phyllis Kahn for urging the City of Minneapolis
to pass a resolution urging federal authorities to respect the rights of
local citizens. Personally, I think it is a great idea and if someone would
like to forward to me two or three sample resolutions from other cities, I
would be more than happy to put something forward to the Council.
I must say, however, that I am not very hopeful that there is much chance of
such a resolution passing. The Minneapolis City Council President has ruled
that the war in Iraq is not a local issue and only 5 council members
(Lilligren, Johnson-Lee, Zerby, Niziolek and Zimmermann) voted to overturn
his ruling. So much for "Thinking Globally-Acting Locally."
Consider this: The US government is spending billions and billions of
dollars of public money to destroy the infrastructure of Iraq in its attempt
to keep the petroleum profits flowing into the pockets of Bush and Cheney's
cronies. At the same time, Minneapolis has 6,000 units of public housing and
12,000 people on the waiting list but the US government has no money to
build public housing.
According to a recent study by the Minneapolis Health Dept. there are
$57,400,000 in hidden health costs associated with the Xcel coal-burning
electricity plant in northeast Minneapolis. At the same time, there is no
Federal money available to build a wind and photo-voltaic electric
generating system for Minnesota that could produce clean power free from
dependence on foreign oil. A side benefit (besides creating new livable wage
jobs) is that such an electrical infrastructure would be much more
decentralized and less vulnerable to terrorist attacks. All of the money, of
course, is being used to destroy the electrical infrastructure of Iraq.
How can we expect a city council that can not make a connection between
wasting money on war and not having any money to spend on local needs, to be
able to see how such a simple thing, as the erosion of civil liberties,
might have anything to do with the lives of the people of Minneapolis?
Dean Zimmermann
Mpls City Council Member - Ward 6
612-673-2206
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