City wants the state to oppose Iraq war

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MODERATE STANCE: SANTA CRUZ COUNCIL REJECTS PLEA TO CREATE ANTI-WAR ‘SANCTUARY’

Feb. 27, 2003
By Ken McLaughlin
Mercury News
Ignoring activists’ pleas to pass resolutions that would create an anti-war “sanctuary” and urge Congress to impeach President Bush, the Santa Cruz City Council on Tuesday night voted to launch a campaign aimed at persuading the state Legislature to oppose a war against Iraq.
In September, Santa Cruz became the first city in the country to pass a resolution to oppose a war. Although more than 100 city councils and county boards across the country followed, Hawaii and Maine are the only states to adopt resolutions suggesting that Bush resolve the dispute with Iraq peacefully.
“There is growing and serious support” for impeaching Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, said activist Sherry Conable.
When the council held a town meeting with Rep. Sam Farr last week, the loudest cheers came when one speaker suggested impeaching Bush for his pro-war stance, she noted.
“We are two weeks away from a Holocaust in Baghdad,” said Robert Norse, adding that local officials needed to do more than write anti-war letters.
He urged the council to create a “sanctuary” in Santa Cruz for members of the military who refuse to join the fight against Iraq.
The council didn’t discuss the suggestions, also made by a handful of other activists, including James Cosner, a self-styled “revolutionary freedom fighter” who was sentenced to 10 months in Santa Clara County Jail for taking a sledgehammer to a Christopher Columbus statue in San Jose City Hall in 2001. Cosner had claimed Columbus was a symbol of white supremacy.
The council indicated it preferred a more moderate reaction to the town meeting, at which the overwhelming number of speakers expressed anti-war sentiments.
“To do something that sets us up for ridicule is counterproductive,” Mayor Emily Reilly said.
Instead, the council decided to send letters to state legislators who represent Santa Cruz, Democratic Assemblyman John Laird and Republican Sen. Bruce McPherson, asking them to sponsor a resolution urging Bush not to initiate a “pre-emptive war with Iraq” and to support a diplomatic solution built on international support.
The council also directed Reilly to send letters to the councils and boards of 18 other California cities and counties that have adopted anti-war resolutions to urge them to write their own state legislators to build support for a state resolution. The communities are Arcata, Berkeley, Davis, Fairfax, Los Angeles, Mendocino County, Oakland, Palo Alto, San Fernando, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara County, Santa Monica, Sebastopol, Topanga Canyon, Ukiah and West Hollywood.
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Contact Ken McLaughlin at kmclaughlin (at) sjmercury.com or (831) 423-3115