Dear Military Families:


46 town meetings across the state of Vermont passed resolutions this week calling for the withdrawal of the U.S. military from Iraq and calling on the Vermont Legislature to set up a commission to study the impacts of National Guard deployments on soldiers, families, communities and the state.

Military Families Speak Out members in Vermont -- including many with loved ones in the Vermont National Guard -- have been at the center of the campaign to get these resolutions passed. The process involved many discussions and speaking engagements at a very local level -- talking about everything from the lack of firefighters and police in local communities because they were deployed with their Guard units to Iraq; to the problem of post-traumatic stress disorder in returning soldiers; to impacts on families and children from long deployments; to the declining enlistment rate and what that means in years to come if there are not enough Vermont National Guard soldiers to help with future emergencies and natural disasters that may befall the state.

ABC's Nightline is devoting tonight's show to this topic. Generally Nightline is on after the late local ABC news. Check local listings for exact time. Below is Nightline's press release on tonight's program.

In peace and solidarity
Charley Richardson and Nancy Lessin
for Military Families Speak Out
www.mfso.org


Nightline's press release about the program reads:

ABC NEWS “NIGHTLINE” FOR THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2005
"Of the fifty states, Vermont has the highest death toll per capita in Iraq,
while nearly half of its National Guard has been deployed there. Out of
fifty-two town meetings held across the state this week, a majority voted to
pass resolutions that support the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.
On Thursday, March 3, 2005 at 11:35 p.m. (ET), ABC News “Nightline” will
take a look at the Vermont National Guard, the unit at the center of this
debate, and how the effort to withdraw troops from Iraq is being addressed
on a local level."

Vt. Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz says she thinks the messages sent by voters on Town Meeting Day may resonate beyond the town halls and school auditoriums where they met.

She said the fact that 20 towns passed resolutions calling on lawmakers to pursue universal health care would give a new impetus to legislators working on that issue.

She also says voters in towns that passed resolutions critical of the Iraq war and use of National Guard troops there also sent an important message.

Some 48 Vermont towns passed resolutions on the Iraq war.
(Thanks Vermont Public Radio) - http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=3026247

Vermont Votes No to War

Wed Mar 2, 5:16 PM ET Op/Ed - The Nation


John Nichols

Congress may not be prepared to hold an honest debate on when and how the United States should exit the Iraq (news - web sites) imbroglio, but the town meetings of rural Vermont are not so constrained. Declaring that "The War in Iraq is a Local Issue," citizens in communities across the state voted of Tuesday for resolutions urging President Bush (news - web sites) and Congress to take steps to withdraw American troops from Iraq and calling on their state legislature to investigate the use and abuse of the Vermont National Guard in the conflcit.



Spearheaded by the Vermont Network on Iraq War Resolutions, Green Mountain Veterans for Peace and the Vermont Chapter of Military Families Speak Out, the campaign to get antiwar resolutions on town meeting agendas succeeded in more than 50 communities statewide. That meant that the issue was raised in more than one fifth of the 251 Vermont towns where the annual celebrations of grassroots democracy take place. Forty-nine towns voted for the resolutions. Only three voted "no," while one saw a tie vote. In the state's largest city, Burlington, the antiwar initiative received the support of 65 percent of electors.


"Many have wondered how a town meeting could direct something on a national scale," admitted Middlebury Town Manager Bill Finger. "But it does send a message that hopefully people are listening to."


Ned Coffin, an 83-year-old retired poultry farmer in the town of Bethel agreed. "I can't think of another forum in which people can express their views on any subject, even ones of national importance," explained Coffin. "The war was a mistake and this is a way for that message to be heard."


There is no question that the message was heard by Vermont's Congressional representatives. US Rep. Bernie Sander, I-Vermont, announced his support for the resolution being considered at the town meeting in Burlington. US Senator Jim Jeffords, I-Vermont, endorsed the resolution campaign, as did US Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Foreign Operations. ''This resolution has prompted the kind of constructive debate that should be happening not only in Washington but in every community in the country, and Vermonters again are setting a good example of civic responsibility and participation,'' said Leahy.


Activists hope the Vermont resolution campaign will go national. Already, Amherst, Massachusetts -- which begins city council meetings by reading aloud the names of Iraqis and US soldiers who have died in the war -- has passed a "Bring the Troops Home" resolution, as has Arcata, California.


In November, San Francisco voters endorsed Proposition N, an antiwar statement that ended with the declaration, "The Federal government should take immediate steps to end the US occupation of Iraq and bring our troops safely home now."


One of the strengths of the Vermont resolution campaign was the focus on the status of the Vermont National Guard. That brought the issue home, as 200 of the state's 251 towns have residents who have been called up to serve in Iraq. A rural state where wages are low in many regions, Vermont has traditionally had a high level of participation in the National Guard. With Guard units being so heavily used in the Iraq, several studies show that Vermont has suffered the highest per capita death toll of any state since the war began a two years ago.


"There is nothing more quintessentially local than war, and the local connection is the National Guard," explains Ben Scotch, a former director of the Vermont American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) who helped draft the model resolution for the town meetings. "The guard members and their families are our first concern. Discussions over the appropriateness of their use in the war need to start in our own communities."


Nancy Lessin, a co-founder of Military Families Speak Out, a national antiwar network that includes more than 2,000 military families, agreed. The Vermont approach, Lessin says, "brings into discussion the very people who should be discussing the impact of this war: National Guard families, local politicians, police departments, school officials."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...thenation/12234