Shall the State Representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of a resolution calling upon the President and Congress of the United States to end the war in Iraq immediately and bring all United States military forces home from Iraq?

We hope to place the above referendum on the November 2006 ballot in state representative districts across Massachusetts so that people can vote directly on the critical issue of bringing our troops home. This effort is being coordinated by the American Friends Service Committee, the United for Justice with Peace coalition, and Military Families Speak Out.

This referendum campaign can be a way to give voice to the strong anti-war sentiment that is growing in this country but which is being ignored by the Republicans and Democrats. Despite the illegality, immorality, and staggering human and financial costs of the war, our government plans to continue the occupation of Iraq indefinitely. The goals of this campaign are: 1) to give voters a chance to send a message to our leaders and to the media that we reject this madness; 2) to give visibility and credibility to the policy of immediate withdrawal; and 3) to increase pressure on the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation to end this war.

There are 160 state representative districts in Massachusetts. In order to add the referendum on the war to the November ballot in each district, we need to collect 200 certified signatures from registered voters in that district by the end of June. The more district ballots we can get the referendum on, the better. Several districts already have their 200 signatures certified and several others have brought the signatures to their town halls for certification. Volunteers in about 25 other districts are hard at work on getting those required signatures.

We need to expand our work into more districts and we need help in the districts already being covered. If you would like to volunteer, or if your peace group, congregation, or Quaker meeting would like to organize signature collection in your town, please contact Joanne Comerford (413/584-8975) if you are in western Massachusetts, or Paul Shannon (617/497-5273) if you live in central or eastern Massachusetts.