Mass. Residents Write Congress: We Don’t Want War
By Scott Brooks
WASHINGTON – Letters from the SouthCoast and across the state continue to pour in, and the verdict is overwhelming: Keep U.S. troops out of Iraq.
House and Senate members from Massachusetts say they are receiving abnormally large amounts of mail from local residents with profound concerns about a war with Iraq that seems to be drawing ever closer. Legislative staffers are also fielding phone calls, e-mails and faxes from large groups of constituents with anti-war sentiments.
“They seem quite passionate about it. It’s not just the volume of mail you look at, but the intensity,” said Rep. Barney Frank, D-MA. “People are quite anguished about it.”
On Wednesday, hundreds of thousands of protesters put that intensity to work, flooding congressional offices with phone calls and e-mails in an organized show of the anti-war movement’s strength. The so-called “virtual march” congested congressional phone lines for most of the day, including those of Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-MA, and John Kerry, D-MA.
In the offices of Democrats who voted last fall against the war, such as Rep. Frank and Sen. Kennedy, the influx of communication often includes mounds of thank-yous and requests that they continue to fight against military action. For Sen. Kerry, who voted to give the administration authority to launch a war, it means something a bit less complimentary.
“I guess Sen. Kerry is the only one I’m worried about,” said Fall River musician Judith Conrad, who has tried to contact Sen. Kerry’s office both by mail and by phone since the war vote last October. “Frank and Kennedy are very much on our side.”
The majority of letters to Sen. Kerry have opposed unilateral action against Iraq, according to Kerry spokesman Tony Wyche. Many have said they would like to see the United States work harder to garner international support before going to war, he said.
Some residents who have contacted Sen. Kerry suggested that the senator voted against his better instincts by supporting President Bush’s authority to launch a military strike.
“I think Kerry is just a little too worried about being the next president,” said the Rev. Evan Johnson of Westport, who has written to several legislators on the subject. “But he can’t be afraid to take a risk. Somebody’s got to say the truth, and I don’t hear anyone saying it.”
Rev. Johnson, a retired Methodist pastor, said he was “halfway between disappointed and furious” when Sen. Kerry voted to approve the war resolution. His dissatisfaction prompted him to draft a letter, on behalf of several other members of his church, “out of the religious/ethical convictions of our faith.”
“We had hoped that the political dimension of this crucial Senate action might have been less evident,” he wrote. “Instead, on this crucial issue, politics seems to have played a large part in the stand of many.”
Many of Sen. Kerry’s critics have organized group letter-writing drives. Fall River activist Joe Carvalho said his organization, the Southeastern Massachusetts Committee for Peace, produced roughly 300 letters to the senator during an anti-war rally in January. Those letters were collected in a coffin and sent to Sen. Kerry’s Fall River office.
Frank spokesman Peter Kovar said the residents contacting Rep. Frank’s office have been “overwhelmingly opposed to war, or at least to unilateral action.” Most letter writers have shown a preference for continued cooperation with the United Nations, he said.
“For a lot of people, it’s just important to be able to register their opinion,” Mr. Kovar said. “The more communications we receive, it helps us develop a better sense of what opinion is like in the district.”
Often, people who call or write in with comments are answered with written responses from the legislator. Ms. Conrad said she received a thick packet from Rep. Frank containing a number of the congressman’s speeches on the war. “Quite impressive,” she said.
In response to the flood of mail reaching his office, Rep. Frank recently posted on his website a statement explaining his opposition to war.
“Saddam Hussein does not present the threat to the United States that the president claims, nor has he engaged in aggressive action against a neighbor,” Rep. Frank wrote, “and lacking either of these causes, I do not think war is justified.”
Letter writers do not always expect their letters to change a legislator’s mind. For some, writing to a government official is a form of democratic participation. In his own letters and phone calls, Mr. Carvalho said, his first thought was merely to provide information.
“When I was a kid, knowledge was power. If you had facts, you could make a thoughtful decision,” he said. “Given an ample amount of thought about it [the war], I want to think people would choose to hold off on such a horrific scenario.”
Published in The New Bedford Standard Times, in Massachusetts.
