[Imc-worcester] Darfur Divestment Resolution

[Richard Schmitt]

 News from Worcester Peace Works 

You may have heard that four Worcester City Counselors will offer a
resolution for Sudan divestment to the Worcester City Council on Tuesday 
10/9. This breaks a long tradition in the Worcester City Council against 
considering any international issues even those that, like the Iraq war, 
have tremendous impact on Worcester.

We are collecting signatures on the letter below addressed to the sponsors 
of the Darfur divestment resolution. We plan to send that letter with as 
many signatures as possible to the sponsors on the City Council. 

Worcester Peace Works also has asked the City Clerk to put a resolution on 
next week's
City Council meeting. The resolution will ask the Worcester City Council to 
support a 
resolution passed by the Massachusetts State Senate in March of 2007 asking 
the US govt 
to end the Iraq speedily.

Here is a story you might be interested in pursuing.

For Worcester Peace Works,
Richard Schmitt




Dear Councilors Perotto, Rushton, Smith and Palmieri,

We are greatly pleased to know that each of you have reconsidered your 
earlier opposition to the Worcester City Council addressing national and 
international issues.

This coming week, Worcester Peace Works will re-file a City Council 
resolution asking the Worcester City Council to go on record opposed to the 
Iraq war and its concrete effects on us here in Worcester. We would like to 
work with each of you to help secure the support of your colleagues for 
this subsequent resolution which we are sure you will agree is the moral 
equivalent to your Darfur resolution.

The war in the Sudan has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of children 
and families, and sadly the war in Iraq has equally killed tens of 
thousands of Iraqi children and families. It is our hope that now the City 
Council will also consider the incredible damage and loss of life caused by 
the Iraq war and its deepening effects here in Worcester. We need to not 
only speak-out against each of these wars and humanitarian crisis, we need 
to step-up and take action as you recommend.

Worcester taxpayers have now contributed more than $247 million to the cost 
of the war in Iraq while our city and schools suffer the burden. As you 
know, in the past the Worcester City Council has refused to consider issues 
regarding the world at large. On at least two occasions the Council has 
refused to discuss and vote on resolutions critical of the Iraq war and the 
major reductions in federal funding caused by Iraq war spending, which have 
decimated the Worcester School Department budget and threatened our City’s 
budget.

We applaud you for reversing your earlier positions and instead following 
your moral conviction in taking this stand. This is excellent news. 
Worcester does not live in a bottle which is unaffected and without any 
responsibility for our investments. This is a bold step forward.
-- 
Richard Schmitt
65 Tory Fort Lane
Worcester, MA 01602
508-757-0814