Northampton's Landmark Resolution to protest war dollars abroad
Facebook
Smith College Sophian
Sarah Fitzgibbons
10/28/2010
The Northampton City Council recently passed a resolution entitled "Bring the War Dollars Home" that calls for President Obama to put an immediate end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. The resolution was based on data calculated and compiled by the National Priorities Project (NPP) and on input from the Northampton community. The issue was brought to the attention of the City Council last May by the Alliance for Peace and Justice. A copy of the resolution will be given to Massachusetts Senators John Kerry and Scott Brown, as well as to Northampton's state representative Richard Neal of Massachusetts' second district.The NPP is a non-profit organization based in Northampton that compiles federal documents and makes the data more accessible to the public. The NPP calculated that Northampton's contribution to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has totaled $114 million since 2001. The NPP is also responsible for the electronic sign in the window of Broadside Bookstore, whose scrolling message keeps track of the American and Iraqi causalities since the war began in 2003. The NPP also runs the Web site costofwar.com, which tracks American money spent on the two wars since their onset. Six city councilors voted for the measure, including Ward Four's city councilor Pamela C. Swartz. Smith College is within Ward 4, so Schwartz represents all Smith students registered to vote in Northampton. However, only 13 percent of Smith students had heard of this resolution when asked, although all who said they were aware of it also supported it. 82.6 percent of students had not heard of the resolution, while 4.3 percent said that they had "sort of" heard of it. "I've heard about the 'Bring the War Dollars Home' resolution," said Rachel Wick '11, who is from Northampton. "I think the town passed the resolution because it is seeing a great deal of its tax dollars being spent in a way that's not having a direct effect on improving Northampton. Honestly, I doubt this resolution will have any kind of major effect; perhaps if it can gain national recognition the effect will be greater." Dana Elliot '13 expressed support for the resolution. "If it [the resolution] has any larger effect, it's absolutely a great thing. If enough states back it, it's possible it could have an effect beyond Northampton...There's so much money just getting funneled into the wars that could be used for so many other things," said Elliot. Two councilors voted against the resolution, Eugene Tracy from Ward 7 and Angela Plassman from Ward 3. "[T]he resolution is purely symbolic and the negative message to our servicemen and women is more significant than the message to our legislators," Plassman told the Daily Collegian. Support for the resolution came from the community at large starting last May, when the resolution was introduced to the City Council with the support of Mayor Clare Higgins. An open forum on the resolution was held last June and citizens of Northampton expressed their opinions. Marty Nathan, a resident of Ward 2, personally collected 500 signatures supporting the resolution. Northampton has a long tradition of war protests. Each week since the war in Afghanistan in 2001, a weekly vigil has been held on the corner of Main Street and King Street. Last March when President Obama announced the troop surge in Afghanistan, the weekly vigil's number swelled from a typical 10 to 20 participants to over 100. The office of the mayor declined to comment on this story.
