] The City Council in the place hit hardest by the Sept. 11
] attacks approved a resolution Wednesday opposing war with
] Iraq except as a last resort.
]
]
] The 31-17 vote came after months of debate over whether
] New York should stake out a position.
]
]
] "If we're going to be looking for a fight, let's fight
] poverty, let's fight firehouse closures, let's fight
] racism and sexism," said Yvette Clarke, a Democrat who
] supported the resolution.
]
]
] Democrat Alan Jennings said that after losing one of his
] closest friends in the World Trade Center attack, he was
] in no mood to vote for an anti-war measure.

New York City Council approves resolution opposing Iraq war until options exhausted

] Beth Sanders took a stand for free speech a few weeks ago
] while she waited at Westlake Center for the Monorail. And
] it meant security guards accosted her, then banned her
] from the center.
]
] Sanders says Westlake security guards evicted her because
] she refused to lower a peace sign near a packed Monorail
] platform.
]
] Now she and other civil rights activists plan to
] challenge the center's policy that bars entrance to those
] carrying political signs.
]
] They also are challenging the line that separates
] Westlake Park outside the center, where free speech
] flourishes, and inside the center, which is private
] property whose owners can restrict free speech.

Westlake gag order raises outcries of protest

] The Pledge of Allegiance is back in play. Just when it
] appeared that a federal appeals court might reconsider
] its ruling that use of the Pledge of Allegiance in public
] schools is unconstitutional, it instead affirmed the
] decision.
]
] The decision last June by a three-judge panel caused a
] firestorm of controversy and led the 24 judges of the 9th
] U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to consider whether to take
] a second look at the case before an "en banc" court. This
] larger court would have consisted of 11 judges.

The Pledge of Allegiance: one nation, truly divided 03/12/03

] The cafeteria menus in the three House office buildings
] changed the name of "french fries" to "freedom fries," in
] a culinary rebuke of France stemming from anger over the
] country's refusal to support the U.S. position on Iraq.
]
] Ditto for "french toast," which will be known as "freedom
] toast."

CNN.com - House cafeterias change names for 'french fries' and 'french toast' - Mar. 12, 2003

] A student's right to say --or not to say-- the Pledge of
] Allegiance at the start of the school day is causing an
] uproar at two Jefferson County Public Schools.
]
] A parent of two students has filed a complaint with the
] school board after her children were reprimanded after
] they refused to stand and say the pledge last week.
]
] The school district is reviewing the situations after Fox
] 41 News raised questions about them.
]
] Both of the children say their refusal to stand up and
] say the pledge is in protest to a possible U.S.-led war
] with Iraq.
]
] They say they're simply exercising their right to freedom
] of expression.
]
] The family members asked not to be identified by name
] because they fear reprisals for their stances.
]
] "I heard about the war, and then I thought it might start
] World War III, and I didn't want all those innocent
] people to die. So I thought, 'I'll start a protest,'"
] one of the students, a seventh grader at Newburg Middle
] School, told Fox 41 News.

Pledge protest prompts policy review in JCPS

] JACQUES CHIRAC was basking in ecstatic praise from
] virtually all of France yesterday after his Monday night
] pledge to defy America and veto a war against Iraq.
]
] Only a few grumbles from the business world and a squeak
] of dissent from his own conservative camp marred a
] symphony of tributes for President Chirac and his
] redemption as a man of destiny after a long and chequered
] political career.
]
] Only Joan of Arc was missing from the rollcall of heroes,
] from Charles de Gaulle to Charlemagne, to which M Chirac
] was likened.

Anti-war hero Chirac finds his destiny

] THE first President Bush has told his son that hopes of
] peace in the Middle East would be ruined if a war with
] Iraq were not backed by international unity.
]
] Drawing on his own experiences before and after the 1991
] Gulf War, Mr Bush Sr said that the brief flowering of
] hope for Arab-Israeli relations a decade ago would never
] have happened if America had ignored the will of the
] United Nations.
]
] He also urged the President to resist his tendency to
] bear grudges, advising his son to bridge the rift between
] the United States, France and Germany.
]
] %u201CYou%u2019ve got to reach out to the other person.
] You%u2019ve got to convince them that long-term
] friendship should trump short-term adversity,%u201D he
] said.
]
] The former President%u2019s comments reflect unease among
] the Bush family and its entourage at the way that George
] W. Bush is ignoring international opinion and overriding
] the institutions that his father sought to uphold. Mr
] Bush Sr is a former US Ambassador to the UN and comes
] from a family steeped in multi-lateralist traditions.

Bush Sr warning over unilateral action

] I couldn't get arrested. I went to a shopping mall
] this weekend wearing a T-shirt that said "Peace on
] Earth" on it, and, can you believe it, I didn't
] get hauled off to jail. Not like the guy in upstate New
] York who got arrested - handcuffed, even - for walking
] around a shopping mall last week with a T-shirt bearing
] the same inflammatory anti-war slogan.

Newsweek: No War Shirt? No problem

] TERRIFIED Iraqi soldiers have crossed the Kuwait border
] and tried to surrender to British forces - because they
] thought the war had already started.
]
] The motley band of a dozen troops waved the white flag as
] British paratroopers tested their weapons during a
] routine exercise.
]
] The stunned Paras from 16 Air Assault Brigade were forced
] to tell the Iraqis they were not firing at them, and
] ordered them back to their home country telling them it
] was too early to surrender.
]
] The drama unfolded last Monday as the Para batallion
] tested mortars and artillery weapons to make sure they
] were working properly.

SADDAM'S SOLDIERS SURRENDER

] When President Bush visited Atlanta in mid-February,
] suburban housewife Sally Rountree decided to take the
] opportunity to show her opposition to the probable
] invasion of Iraq. So she scribbled a homemade sign - "No
] War for Oil" - and found a place along the route of the
] presidential motorcade, hoping Bush would see her
] protest.
]
] As she tells it, she was never rude. She didn't shout.
] She didn't elbow other onlookers or jostle toward the
] front of the crowd. She merely stood holding her sign.
]
] Nevertheless, for the offense of exercising her rights as
] a citizen of one of the world's greatest democracies, she
] was spat on, threatened and yelled at. One man went so
] far as to denounce her for wearing a cross around her
] neck, "insinuating I was not a Christian," she said.
]
] As she wrote in an op-ed essay for the Atlanta Journal-
] Constitution: "I was frightened that my neighbors were
] going to hurt me because I dared to express my opinion.
] This could not be happening. Not in America, right?"
]
] But it is happening here.

Pseudo patriotism vs. American values