Chapel Hill calls for immediate surrender to al Qaeda. Another left leaning college town tries its hand at foreign policy. Towns like this never get their potholes fixed or their thieves caught.
NEW & OBSERVER
CHAPEL HILL -- The Town Council passed not one but two resolutions Monday night condemning the war in Iraq and calling for its immediate end.
Council members seized the opportunity to express their unanimous disapproval of the war, which they blame for depleting resources that could go to local governments.
It's nothing new for the governing body of this left-leaning college town. The council passed a pre-emptive resolution against the Iraq war in February 2003, a month before the invasion.
There was no vocal opposition to the petitions at Monday's meeting, but a local Republican reached at home afterward for comment dismissed the moves as meaningless.
"They think they're the Berkeley of the East Coast," said Carrie Cote, a Chapel Hill Republican whose husband is chairman of the county GOP. "They're a small little group in a small little town. ... They didn't even invite the other side that might disagree. There's no surprise here."
A 140-signature petition from the local Elders for Peace presented Monday night led to a resolution against the "illegal war of aggression." It will be sent to President Bush and members of Congress.
Another petition submitted by three local opinion columnists and activists was broader, outlining ways the administration's policies, including the war, have affected local governments.
Former Chapel Hill council member James Protzman was joined by writers Mark Marcoplos and Dan Coleman to offer a laundry list of ways Bush is bad for Chapel Hill. Columns written by Protzman and Marcoplos appear periodically in the Chapel Hill News. Coleman's columns appear in the Chapel Hill Herald.
They cited environmental policies that "worsen air pollution," more stringent testing in schools without increases in funding, no "meaningful minimum wage," increasing local burdens for disaster relief, and "gutting" programs for the poor.
All this, the petition said, while "the war in Iraq is siphoning billions of dollars from the U.S. economy."
"We quibble over crumbs for our local school system and government needs," Marcoplos told the council.
The town received $3.87 million in federal grants for fiscal 2005-2006, finance officials said. About $1.5 million of that was for public housing. Chapel Hill received about $2 million more the year before that, the difference coming in a grant used to refurbish town buses.
Town staff members are anticipating cuts starting next year. They are particularly wary of restructuring the federal Community Development Block Grant program, a key local funding source for services to low-income residents. The move could cut the program by about 20 percent, officials estimate.
"It takes my breath away what this administration is doing to this country," Protzman said. "We are here to call on you to raise your voice."
Council members happily obliged, each taking a turn slamming Bush.
"The list of problems our administration is causing isn't long enough," council member Cam Hill said.
The common complaint when a local government takes a stand on a national or international issue, many acknowledged, is that local leaders are overstepping their bounds and wasting time that should be spent on local issues.
Several council members said, however, the broad petition did an effective job of laying out how the war and other policies directly affect Chapel Hill.
"When they're described as unfunded mandates," Harrison said, "it really makes me jump up and want to do it."
Council member Sally Greene added, "Local government is the first line of government. If we can't take a stand like this, I don't know who is."
Staff writer Matt Dees can be reached at 932-8760 or mdees@newsobserver.com.
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