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December 14, 2005
Fishkill, NY

Twenty people gathered in front of Congresswoman Sue Kelly's (R-NY19) district office in Fishkill today to deliver petitions signed by more than 1500 constituents calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

The event, part of a national series of events schedule for today by moveon.org was hosted by Steven Warshaw of Golden's Bridge, NY. In a statement, Mr. Warshaw said, "Enough slaughter already, Sue! Haven't we learned from Vietnam?"

Joining Mr. Warshaw were WWII Veteran's Cliff Carpenter and Jim Mearns, Vietnam Veteran Jim Schmitt, local peace activist Connie Hogarth and Kathleen Kovalsky, mother of Air Force sergeant Daniel Kovalsky.

Standing before a flag-draped coffin representing the 2146 (12/14/05) US soldiers killed in the Iraq war to date, those attending read statements asking Congresswoman Kelly to bring the troops home from Iraq as quickly as possible.

Before delivering petitions to Mrs. Kelly's office, Connie Hogarth read a statement in which she asked the Congresswoman to admit that the reasons we went to war in the first place were based on false information. Mrs. Hogarth said further, "It is time to turn the priorities of our country from spending over 250 billion on this war and its machines and instead vote to put that money to feeding the hungry, providing housing, for the 45 million Americans that have no health insurance and for our veteran's care and benefits."

After Mrs. Hogarth read her statement, Jim Schmitt and Jim Mearns carried the coffin inside the building to the Congresswoman's office where they were met, and stopped, by a staffer. The staffer said he would related to Mrs. Kelly the group's concern but refused to allow photographs nor any more than a few people in the office. Most stood in the hallway listening.

After the event, Mr. Hogarth being interviewed for local cable TV News said, "Yes, it is time Congressmember Kelly, listen to our plea, our demand, that you free yourself from President Bush's rhetoric and defense of this war and put your best efforts to begin to stop this bloody war now"

For more information contact:

Steven Warshaw
101 Park Road Extension
Golden's Bridge, NY 10526
914-767-0007

View pictures here.

Jeff Green

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