Lisa Savage: Mayors Tell Congress: Bring War Dollars Home

Mayors from around the world met in Baltimore this week to set public policy for the billions of people living in big cities, depending on municipal services to stay safe. While Congress considered allocating another $118 billion to conduct wars next year, and "President" Obama absurdly maintained that the costly bombing of Libya is "not" an act of war, and thus not subject to Congressional oversight, mayors listened to the people. Following a lively debate about adding stronger language supporting troops and their families, and adding President Obama as a recipient, mayors voted in their June 20 plenary session to call on the federal government to stop funding wars, and bring the money home. The US Conference of Mayors' Resolution Number 59 was only a twinkle in the eye two years ago, when a coalition of citizens alarmed at endless wars and catastrophic budget shortfalls coined the slogan "Bring Our War Dollars Home" at activist Sally Breen's kitchen table in Winthrop, Maine. That state's campaign took off on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2010, and soon spread nationally with adoption by the women-led peace group CODEPINK. Locations across Main soon adopted war dollars home solutions, including Deer Isle, Portland, and School Administrative District #74, followed by Northampton and Amherst, Massachusetts and, most recently, by Hartford, Connecticut. Meanwhile, Congress continues to pass war funding supplemental bills, but without the support of Maine's two representatives in the House. Rep. Mike Michaud (D-2nd) and Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-1st) defied Democrat party leadership to repeatedly vote no on the measures. Pingree began speaking out in Congress and in the press about the need to listen to her constituents' demands to end the wars as Maine's economy unraveled, and local budgets for education, health care, housing and job training were slashed!