On May 24, a majority of members of
Congress caved in to President Bush and gave him $100 billion to
continue pursuing his disastrous policies in Iraq and
Afghanistan with no strings attached. Ken Salazar, the lone
Democrat in Northern Colorado's congressional delegation, voted
in favor of this shameful capitulation.
A local ad hoc organization, the Fort
Collins Project Occupation Team, met or attempted to meet with
staff members of our congressional delegation nearly every week
for a three-month period prior to the vote. We also leafleted
outside of Salazar's downtown office on five or six occasions
during the weeks preceding the vote and received a very positive
response from the general public.
On the day of the vote, six members of
Project Occupation conducted a sit-in of Salazar's Fort Collins
office. We asked that the senator support our requests for a
"no" vote on the war spending bill and for a commitment to
resist any unprovoked attack on Iran. Two of our members were
eventually threatened with arrest and removed by the police.
Despite his occasionally critical
rhetoric, Salazar remains mired in supporting the policies of a
blind and intransigent president. When the chips were down, he
voted with his Republican colleagues in Congress, Wayne Allard
and Marilyn Musgrave.
The American public gave control of
Congress to the Democrats last November largely because they
wanted our country to find a way out of Iraq. Clearly, this
point has thus far been lost on Salazar.
Kevin Cross,
Fort Collins
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originally published
in the Fort Collins Coloradoan |
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