The Declaration of Peace - Ohio

9/29 - WNWO Toledo (NBC) - Tiffin Sisters Send Stop War Message (video link)

Cynthia — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 08:01:54 -0500

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September 29, 2006

(Tiffin, OH) —- They came to Congressman Paul Gillmor’s office in Tiffin with a chain, a song and a message: end this war.

“Mr. Gillmor, this insanity must come to an end,” says Sr. Paulette Schroeder of St. Francis Convent, as shr and others from her order uncoiled a chain of paper klinks on the congressman’s floor.

“So we trust you will help it come to an end,” she adds. “When people can see it, visually, it’s in front of their face. They can’t see soldiers dying. When they see another visual … it shocks you.”

Demonstrators say each of these links in this chain of 3000 represents a serviceman or woman killed overseas in Iraq or Afghanistan. Each of these links also represents about 33 Iraqi soldiers and civilians killed during that same amount of time.

Republican Congressman Gillmor, speaking from Washington, D.C., said he hears their complaints, but doesn’t think our troops can return home yet.

“To do it on an immediate basis would create a lot more problems than it would solve,” he tells NBC24. “I think it would result in a lot more violence, a lot more warfare.”

The demonstrators call for a timetable to withdraw from Southwest Asia. They also suggest using our military budget to help build infrastructure in these countries, instead of stationing troops.

“We have to stop thinking about this as ‘cut and run’ or ‘stay the course,’” says Josie Setzler, demonstrator. ” Our options can’t be reduced to such simple alternatives.”

Anti-war groups will have a big conference coming up the middle of next month at JESU Parish, here in Toledo.

Matt Trezza

09/28/2006

Your Name: Cynthia

Your Email Address: info@declarationofpeace.org

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9/28 - The Cincinnati Post - Chabot's office the site of war protest

admin — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 10:54:57 -0500

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By James Proffitt
The Cincinnati Post

A generally cordial sit-in - in which Iraq war protesters eventually gave their “hosts” a thank-you note for their hospitality - ended Wednesday evening after eight hours with the arrest of seven people at the downtown office of U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot.

Those arrested included two 15-year-old students from Clark Montessori in Hyde Park and a 78-year-old nun, Mary Evelyn Jegen, who said she considered her willingness to go to jail to drive home the need for getting out of Iraq “an act of patriotism.”

The protesters, members of a group called the Greater Cincinnati Declaration of Peace, gathered on the sidewalk on Vine Street in front of the Carew Tower about 1 p.m. and passed out fliers and held up signs bemoaning U.S. involvement in Iraq. About 2 p.m., about 20 of them went to Chabot’s office on the 30th floor, demanding that he meet with them or that he sign a “Declaration of Peace.”

That document demanded an immediate and concrete plan to end U.S involvement in Iraq and reparations for damage the war has done to the country.

Protesters spent the next six hours in a sit-in with ceremonial readings of Americans and Iraqis killed in the war, protest songs and political conversation.

Beth Bryan, the congressman’s scheduler, did arrange an Oct. 16th meeting for the group with Chabot. But she said he was tied up in a House session and he could not deal with the declaration Wednesday.

Protesters ignored requests from Chabot’s office staff that they leave, so police were called.

After another request to leave, building security and police arrived and ordered protesters to leave. About 8 p.m., three hours after the office was supposed to have closed, some 50 police officers moved in and arrested the visitors still in the office. They did not resist.

Chabot’s chief of staff, Gary Lindgren, said, “This is the first time in my 12 years in this office I can remember a sit-in protest like this.”

During a conversation with Ellen Dienger, the group’s spokesperson, Lindgren assured her that Chabot wants troops out of Iraq as soon as possible too, but not before Iraqi forces are properly trained for success.

Adults arrested were charged with criminal trespassing and released from the Justice Center later. The two teens were transported to Juvenile Detention and released to their parents.

Your Name: Scott

Your Email Address: scott@vcnv.org

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9/27 - WCPO-9 Cincinnati - Seven Anti-War Protestors Arrested At Chabot's Office

admin — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 00:13:25 -0500

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Reported by: 9News
Web produced by: Neil Relyea
Photographed by: 9News
First posted: 9/27/2006 11:15:00 PM

Police have arrested anti-war protestors who refused to leave a local congressman’s office.

Seven people were arrested inside the Cincinnati office of Congressman Steve Chabot Wednesday night.

The protestors say they were representing the will of the American people.

The group called the Greater Cincinnati Declaration of Peace Coalition arrived around 1 p.m. this afternoon and had the office fax a “National Declaration of Peace” to Chabot in Washington, D.C..

He did not sign it, so the group sang songs, read names of Ohio servicemen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and rang a gong, all in hopes it would change the congressman’s mind.

“It was a national effort,” said Kristen Barker, of the Greater Cincinnati Declaration of Peace Coalition. “Today people were sitting in in congress-people’s offices around the country in an effort to end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home.”

At 8 p.m. when the office staff was leaving, the protestors refused to leave, so they called police to remove them.

The ages of the seven protestors arrested ranged from 15 to 78-years-old.

Your Name: Scott

Your Email Address: scott@vcnv.org

Link to Published Item: http://www.wcpo.com/news/2006/local/09/27/chabot_protest.html

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Congressional Candidate Arrested in War Protest - Andover, Ohio, Sept 22

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 08:02:12 -0500

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Andover, Ohio; Sept 22: Within hours of the funeral of Ohio’s latest casualty of the Iraq war, Rev. Werner Lange stood in the middle of the street of the town square in Andover holding a sign which read “STOP THE WAR NOW” until he was arrested. Andover was the hometown of Sgt. David Gordon who was killed in Baghdad on September 8 and buried on September 22, the day Lange was arrested during his war protest on the street at the town square.

“Not one more life, not one more wound, not one more dime for this immoral war based upon lies” was the message Lange delivered to many sympathetic drivers before he was arrested and taken to the Ashtabula County Jail. Lange is the independent candidate for US Congress in Ohio’s 14th District which includes Andover. “Politicians lied and Gordon along with nearly 3000 other American soldiers and 100,000 Iraqi civilians died”, said Lange, “their blood is on the hands of politicians, including the incumbent, who lied and repeatedly voted for this costly, immoral, unjust war. It is time to bring home all Americans from this bloody civil war and national tragedy created by masters of disaster in the White House and Congress. It is time to immediately end the war and hold those responsible for this immoral policy of trading blood for oil fully accountable”.

Lange’s protest was part of a new nationwide campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience until the war is over. It began on September 21, International Day of Peace.

For more visit www.lange4congress.com and www.declarationofpeace.org.

-30-

Your Name: Werner Lange

Your Email Address: werlange@earthlink.net

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