Portland seems like such a logical city to become a sanctuary city for soldiers resisting the illegal occupation of Iraq. To be part of this exciting movement, consider going to the this first public meeting:
First Unitarian Church
1011 SW 12th st. Room B002
Saturday, November 17th
11:00am – 1:00pm
On Saturday, November 17, at The First Unitarian Church, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. , the PDX Peace Coalition will host a meeting to train volunteers and organize signature-gathering peace teams to let the City Council know that there is mass support for making Portland a sanctuary city for G.I. resisters. We will discuss the petition, what we need to do to make it a City (and possibly a County) policy, and how to address the various questions we may encounter from the public. We will also propose a calendar of possible venues for signature-gathering, organize teams to make the maximum impact, and discuss how to use this campaign to build the PDX Peace Coalition and support its continuing grassroots efforts to bring the troops home now.
If Portland becomes a sanctuary city, we can save some war resisters from having to go all the way to Canada for sanctuary, since just today two resisters had their appeals rejected.
There are thousands of military personnel resisting deployment who face a range of punishments. GI Resistance was a part of the end of the invasion of Viet Nam and will almost certainly have to be part of ending our occupation of Iraq.
I need to figure out if I can make this meeting, but expect to see me coming at you with petitions over the next few weeks. I will post more information when I have it about how this will work, and what it can mean for ending the occupation of Iraq.
If you have lots of time, I also found this Harper’s article on AWOL soldiers to be helpful background. There are also some fascinating stories at Courage to Resist.
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