Has Your Town Declared Peace Yet?

Has Your Town Declared Peace Yet?
by Ben Manski and Karen Dolan


Tired of being ignored by the feds, citizens pass city laws declaring peace.

The heartland spoke; the world listened. On April 5, 2006, hundreds of newspapers across the globe, from Italy’s Il Manifesto to the Los Angeles Times, shared a similar headline: “Wisconsin votes for troop pullout.”

One day earlier, citizens in 32 Wisconsin cities, towns, and villages had cast ballots for immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Voters in tiny villages in the North Woods and the Door Peninsula, in the regional urban centers of Madison and La Crosse, and in the small cities that are the heart of the Badger State, sent a clear message. As Green Party activist Steve Burns told newspapers, the vote meant that “opposition to the war [has] become the majority sentiment,” winning over communities that had voted for George Bush only months earlier.

While peace advocates rejoiced over the events, the Bush administration was unresponsive to Wisconsin’s extraordinary display of democracy. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan attempted to downplay the Wisconsin vote, concluding that while “all Americans” wanted the troops home, they also understood the importance of the “mission in Iraq.”

Read MORE from YES! Magazine...