Bloomington City Council passes resolution against war

Bloomington joined a growing number of cities across the country Wednesday when City Council members voted eight to zero in favor of a resolution opposing a war with Iraq. \nAndy Ruff sponsored the resolution, which is based on a document adopted by the Chicago City Council in January. In addition to Chicago, Seattle, Detroit, Philadelphia and several other major urban areas, a host of smaller cities such as Bloomington have now passed resolutions against the war. Bloomington's approval of the measure Wednesday brought the national total to 67. \nHours after Secretary of State Colin Powell's testified before the United Nations, support for the resolution from the council and among those present was passionate and sustained during the four hour meeting. \nMost speakers were applauded after their time at the microphone, contributing to the alternating moods of enthusiasm and solemnity. Many couched their opposition in personal terms, relating their own experiences with the atrocities of war. \n"Not one of us who has had the opportunity of hearing the planes, bombs, of waking up to find the street is half destroyed and your playground is gone," said Antonia Matthew, who grew up in England during the World War II. "None of us with that experience wants to be a part of another war, and certainly not this one."\nCouncilwoman Patricia Cole said her father was killed in Germany during World War II and she resented the implication that opposing the war was unpatriotic. \n"I have a flag at my home that came off my father's coffin," Cole said. "It's the wealthy class and the military class that's driving this. I think things are out of balance."\nCouncilman David Sabbagh, one of the two Republicans on the council, also articulated his support for the war, speaking about his family's roots in Lebanon and Syria. Sabbagh said he opposes the United States' foreign policy in the Middle East as a private citizen apart from his duties as councilman. \n"I'm a Hoosier-Arab-American. I don't usually vote on resolutions not directly related to city business but I'm going to vote on this one," Sabbagh said. "We can love our country, we can love our form of government, but we can disagree on a foreign policy." \nOthers urged the council to adopt the resolution because the costs and consequences of war, invoking the specter of Iraqi civilian and American military deaths. One speaker asked how the U.S. could bomb Baghdad, a city the size of Chicago, without killing scores of civilians. A new military draft could also bring the war to Bloomington.\n"Because I teach, I come into contact with young people. It would break my heart if something would happen to one of them," said Hanna Kolodziejski, a biology graduate student at IU. "I have a friend who is a lieutenant -- he signed up to protect our country, not go into foreign countries without international support."\nBloomington's social service budget, hit by cuts over the last several months, will suffer from a new war, said council president Chris Gaal. He cited federal budget cuts to Head Start and low-income housing programs as two instances of how war's fiscal mandates would trickle to Bloomington. \n"We're not just special interests," Gaal said at the session's close. "We're the majority"