[MAPC-policy] X willing to cosponsor!

[MAPC-policy] X willing to cosponsor!

born-digital

email

yes

no

2001-11-13

Hi, all,

I finally got in touch with X, and she's willing - actually, eager
- to cosponsor the resolution!  She really likes the resolution and thinks
it has a good chance of passing the council.

Her one reservation about the resolution as currently written is the last
clause (below).  She feels it's out of tone with the rest of the resolution
and insinuates the U.S. is indifferent to the plight of the Afghanis (no
comment).  She suggested we try to re-write it to make the same points in a
different way, and said she'd also give some thought to it.

> BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Madison Common Council on behalf of the
> people of Madison, in solidarity with the international community and in
> their capacity as citizens of the United States, urges the federal
> government to put humanitarian concerns first and will consider the
> Government of the United States responsible for both the direct
consequences
> of its military actions in Afghanistan and for the results of its
> indifference to the priority of humanitarian concerns in Afghanistan and
the
> surrounding region.

About the timing of the resolution - X strongly suggests we introduce the
resolution on Nov 20, which means it will be voted on at the Dec 4 council
meeting.  She said doing anything else at this point would necessitate a
suspension of the rules, which people don't like to do.  She also said that,
especially with this resolution, alders would want time to read it over
carefully and get feedback from constituents.  To follow this timeline (with
normal procedure), we need to have a final text introduced by noon this
Thursday.  Since we're only looking at reworking the last clause, I said I
thought we'd be able to come up with a revised version tonight, which I'd
pass on to her tomorrow morning.

What do you think?  It's later than we had hoped to have it introduced, but
it sounds like we'll have a better chance of passing the resolution then
(given council dynamics), and we'll also have more time to mobilize the
community in support of the resolution.  It's true that this puts the
resolution passing just after the timeline humanitarian groups have put on
needing to start land convoys of aid, but I'm thinking that this is OK for
two reasons:  First, it's not like the U.S. federal gov't will immediately
stop bombing because of a Madison city council resolution - this is one
effort in a much bigger movement that will contribute to opening up dialogue
on the issue.  Second - this is tragic and I hope it doesn't come across as
insensitive - if there are increased reports of Afghani civilians starving
just before the council vote, it will make it really hard for alders not to
support the resolution (and we should submit copies of any articles like
this to the alders just before the Dec 4 vote).

See y'all tonight,
X

____________________________________________
X
East Timor Action Network field organizer   ETAN field office
X

Check out these internet sites!
the East Timor Action Network/US http://www.etan.org
Madison, WI - East Timor projects http://www.aideasttimor.org
Madison's Social Justice Center http://www.socialjusticecenter.org

"We struggled for more than 24 years for independence. We've learned the
lesson that even small people have a voice."
    -East Timorese leader Mari Alkatiri, during the August 30, 2001
Constituent Assembly vote


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Tuesday, November 13, 2001 1:22 PM

[MAPC-policy] X willing to cosponsor!