The Vigil At Hillary's Office Continues

Feb 3, 2006

The rain stopped and the skies cleared as dozens of New Yorkers gathered at 12:30 for a second Friday outside the Manhattan offices of Senator Hillary Clinton at 3rd Avenue and 49th Street. Singing and chanting, we demanded that the Senator end her long-standing support for Bush's war, a support that flies in the face of her pledge to "listen carefully" to her constituents. Polls have shown that New Yorkers, like most Americans, oppose the war and are increasingly calling for the immediate return of U.S. troops from that besieged and occupied country.


Members of Brooklyn Parents For Peace in front of Senator Clinton's Manhattan office today. "Are you listening?"

Today's news featured Bush's request for still another $100 billion to fund the neo-con's military adventures. At the same time, Congress has slashed funding for Medicaid, college loans and other social spending, sending even more Americans into poverty. While New York governor Pataki has called for a $500 increase in State University tuitions, Hillary bemoans the cutbacks and lack of money. But standing logic on its head, she still supports a war which sends our youth to their deaths while robbing our state and country of the money needed for health, education, jobs and housing.


One hundred New Yorkers have lost their lives in Iraq (and many more have been wounded). Our Senator must end her support of this immoral war begun on a pack of lies.

Amazingly, most New Yorkers are not aware of their Senator's pro-war stance. Perhaps, that's the fault of a media that features hours of gossip and fixation on car crashes and crime in the streets while ignoring details about things that really matter - like crime in the suites - ala the White House and Capitol, where decisions are being made that are turning our society back to the Republicans idea of the "good old days" before Social Security and unemployment insuance and public education.


Pataki calls for increasing state university tuition while Congress slashes college loans and Bush asks for another $100 billion for war and more war. Hillary - you're not listening!

But they are also uninformed because the Senator keeps her support of the war cleverly and opportunistically hidden - speaking out of both sides of her mouth (depending on who's listening) and keeping her feet firmly planted - on both sides of the fence (ouch!), the better to please all shades of the political spectrum.

However, a growing body of New Yorkers (and potential Presidential voters across the country) are watching Hillary more closely now. They realize that a pro-war "opposition" candidacy in 2008 will never be successful. It's clear to this writer that for the Democrats to win in 2008, they must galvanize the growing anti-war and anti-Bush sentiment in the country and run with it ... else instead of the White House they'll end up in the dog house. Again.


The vigil will continue: every Friday from 12:30 to 1:30 at Clinton's office -- East 49th Street and Third Avenue. Be there!