Protestors tell DeLauro: stop war in Ukraine

 

 By Reginald Johnson

  NEW HAVEN ---- For over a year, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, has been an ardent supporter of the United States’ military aid program for Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia.

The U.S. has provided over $100 billion in assistance to Ukraine --- much of that lethal aid --- and DeLauro has used her influence as a leader on the House Appropriations Committee to make sure the aid packages got approved.

 Last Friday marked the 1-year anniversary of the start of the war and a group of area residents gathered in chilly weather outside the congresswoman’s office at 59 Elm Street to say they don’t like DeLauro’s pro-war position and demand an end to the Ukraine conflict.

  “We’re here to stop this war. It’s killing thousands of people and destroying the infrastructure of Ukraine and Russia and is causing economic pain for all of Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States,” said Henry Lowendorf, a member of the Greater New Haven Peace Council, which organized the vigil.

   Lowendorf said they want DeLauro to get behind the idea of a cease-fire and negotiations to end the war.

  “What we want Rosa to do is to cut the silence of the Biden administration that there are alternatives to war and start promoting negotiations. It is absolutely regrettable that when someone from the Pentagon like Gen. Mark Milley says that we need to negotiate, he can be shut down by the Biden administration – ‘you can’t talk like that,’ said Lowendorf.  He added that when some congressional progressives suggested peace talks, they were also shut down.

  “So the result is, dissent is being crushed,” he said.

Members of the group carried signs that read “Don’t Escalate --- Negotiate,” and “Diplomacy Works --- No More Wars.” and handed out fliers to passersby.

 Several drivers honked their horn in approval at the sight of the protest.

     

 

Ukraine War protestors outside Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro's office in New Haven. (Henry Lowendorf photo)

   The flier warned that the longer the war goes on, the chances increase that nuclear weapons will be used. “Both the U.S. and Russia possess enormous arsenals of nuclear weapons. If used, they spell doom for civilization.”

  The protest also took aim at America’s bloated military budget, which siphons money away from addressing domestic needs such as housing, health care, education and the environment. The leaflets invoked the words of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, who criticized the U.S. for spending so much money on war. In his famous “Beyond Vietnam” speech in 1967, King said that “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

   Just a ten percent reduction in America’s $858 billion military budget by Congress, the flier suggested,  “would return billions of dollars back to cities like ours.”

 Lowendorf and others urged people to call their local congresspersons and the White House and ask that the military budget be cut and that diplomacy be used to end the war in Ukraine.

 The Congressional switchboard is 202-224-3121 or toll free at 800-826-3688. The White House number is 202-456-1111 to leave a message.

  The end of the flier read simply: “Remaining Silent Prolongs The Wars.”