12/13/05: Local peace activists: Put war to a vote - Lacrosse
Local peace activists: Put war to a vote
By JOAN KENT / La Crosse Tribune
Last summer, 10 local peace activists met in a room at the south branch of the La Crosse Public Library.
Frustrated with the Iraq war, they wanted to do something more concrete than just complain to friends or protest or write letters.
“We are spending so much money on military pursuits,” said Jessica Thill, citing National Priorities estimates that Wisconsin taxpayers have paid more than $3 billion toward the war, with La Crosse taxpayers accounting for $27.8 million. “The federal budget is really out of whack.”
Then one member mentioned the Wisconsin Green Party’s effort to promote resolutions in communities, calling for U.S. troops to leave Iraq.
Many footsteps later, Thill handed in corrected petitions Monday to the La Crosse City Clerk’s office, calling for a resolution supporting the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.
If the clerk finds the petitions in order, the resolution will go to the Common Council. If the council doesn’t vote in favor of troop withdrawal, the public would have its say in a referendum vote in the April general election.
The 10 peace activists didn’t know last summer that troop withdrawal would be such a hot issue now, Thill said. In September, she went to the UW-L Progressives and left with the names of 20 students willing to circulate petitions.
UW-L juniors and political science majors Jeremy Jansen and Jackie Jarvis collected more than 1,400 signatures at the clock tower on campus. “We had pretty significant support,” Jansen said, adding he told students the referendum would allow them to voice their opinions, whether they favored troop withdrawal or not.
This isn’t the first activist work for either Thill or Jansen. A Winona State University graduate student and employee in UW-L’s Upward Bound program, she was statewide spokesperson for the Green Party for two years and now is spokesperson for the local Green Party. She’s worked in the campaigns of the party’s 2002 gubernatorial candidate and 2004 presidential candidate.
Thill also has experience with referendums from the 1998 north-south corridor vote.
She said she first demonstrated against the Iraq war in January 2002 in Washington, D.C.
“Think how many college educations that could fund,” Thill said of the money spent in Iraq. “Or how much it could help get adequate health care for the uninsured.”
But for all her passion about the referendum, Thill said she tries to balance her life. “I work full time and am a graduate student, and I have a husband that I like to re-introduce myself to,” she said. “You find the time.”
Jansen became interested in political issues while in high school in Appleton. But he said it wasn’t until he came to UW-L and joined the Progressives, which he now co-chairs, that he found an avenue to become active. He has campaigned on issues including minimum wage, birth control ban and tuition freeze, and canvassed door-to-door on environmental issues.
“I just got tired of seeing all these things and of complaining, so you become a vehicle for positive change,” Jansen said. “Regardless of what happens, this will start some intelligent dialogue and get people thinking.”
Like Thill, he is involved in other activities, including making good grades — dean’s list for the past two semester — and a theatrical production.
The two do not see their work are finished, even when the petitions are approved. “Absolutely not,” Thill said, anticipating voter registration and education. “Our job is done when the war is over.”
Troop withdrawal petitions submitted again
A revised set of petitions for a resolution calling for immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq was filed Monday with the La Crosse City Clerk’s office.
The group Bring Them Home Now-La Crosse originally submitted the petitions Nov. 23, but City Clerk Teri Lehrke said changes were needed to be in line with state regulations.
She has already certified 2,423 valid signatures on the petitions, more than the 2,352 signatures — 15 percent of the votes cast for governor in the last gubernatorial election in 2002 — required to take the matter to the La Crosse Common Council.
Lehrke now must meet with the city attorney to make sure the referendum petition is in proper form before certifying.
It will be forwarded to the council to consider within
30 days of certification. The council can either pass the resolution, showing its support for troop withdrawal, or submit the question to voters in a referendum on the April general election ballot.
A letter with the petitions states the petitioners would prefer the council refer the issue for an April vote.
The group of 38 petitioners began circulating the petitions Sept. 24, and had 60 days to garner the necessary signatures. They handed in petitions with 2,606 signatures Nov. 23 but learned from Lehrke that alterations were needed.
Statewide, the Green Party and Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice are coordinating petition drives, said Jeff Peterson of Luck, coordinator of the troop withdrawal effort for the Wisconsin Green Party.
As of Monday, he said petitions have been submitted in 13 communities. Petitioners have collected the required signatures in two other communities but have not yet submitted petitions, he said.
In other communities, he said petitioners are working to beat the Dec. 27 deadline.
In Milwaukee, Peterson said, petitioners failed to gather the approximately 21,000 signatures necessary. But he said they gathered a sufficient number to cause the city council to voluntarily vote today on putting the referendum on the fall ballot.