Foreign-policy issues are not usually on the local agenda–not since apartheid in South Africa have so many local governments addressed an international issue. But “we’re a working-class, small city with a large number of active and retired military personnel,” says Tacoma, Wash., City Councilor Bill Evans, who drafted a resolution with several neighboring military bases. “Anything that impacts local people is our business.”
The reasons for protesting action in Iraq are all over the map–literally. In California, Mendocino County’s resolution cites the flagging economy. Gary, Ind., says spending billions of dollars on war will result in “further neglect of education, health care, housing… as well as other services desperately in need of repair and reform.” Carrboro, N.C., insists that there’s “no proven linkage” between the World Trade Center attacks and Iraq. Even state governments are joining the movement. Maine Democratic state Sen. Ethan Strimling says: “One of our paper mills just filed for bankruptcy. L.L. Bean just laid off 300 workers. We have intense economic issues here in Maine, and we need the president’s focus.”
Local officials who often see just a handful of people at council meetings have had sizable crowds on nights when resolutions are debated, often after other small-town tedium is dispensed with. The 40 residents who filled a room at the Community Center in Nederland, Colo., had a two-hour debate about a resolution after sitting through a report on the new town-hall furnace.
