From:
To: Mary Gourley; City Council
Subject: Support for Peacetown Ceasefire Resolution!
Date: Tuesday, February 20, 2024 10:48:05 AM
Dear City Council Members,
I am a 15 year West County resident; I am so grateful for Sebastopol as a home, for so many reasons. I am an arborist, ancestral skills teacher, and event organizer. As a teacher and outdoors person, I am deeply in love with our coastline and the Sonoma County ecology. As an artist, I am consistently excited about the local dance and music communities.
Please consider passing a local Ceasefire Resolution! I am hoping it makes it's way back into the calendar tonight; like many other towns and cities, we can handle the conversation, despite the perception that it is too inflammatory.
It is deeply in keeping with the peacemaking ethos of Sebastopol to take a ceasefire stance. It makes good sense for us to join the Movement of over 100 municipalities in the US who are sending a clear message to the Federal level that is funding the atrocious mass killing in Gaza.
As a community oriented advocate for peace, i have long been rooted in the power of multi-faith organizing (which I did more in my 20's). My ex partner and my step daughter (now 29) are both Jewish, and the colonial settlement of Palestine by the Israeli state was a regular topic at our dinner table. It is an issue i have been tracking for decades. It is clearly an unjust use of US tax dollars to fund our governments political and financial interests in the Mideast. Sending billions for bomb and weapons of war is deeply unethical and our compliance must stop.
It is deeply troubling to hear a peaceful stance be associated with antisemitism. As someone who has been organizing as an ally with Jewish Voice for Peace, it is crystal clear to me that many Jews are saying 'not in our name' and 'never again for ANYONE'. This is the only sane and healing stance one can take after the horror of the holocaust. It is tragic that some people are confused by that collective trauma and seek to unconsciously repeat it out of fear.
PLEASE heed the call to add our local voice to the Movement to stop the killing. Let's adopt a resolution that advocates for a balanced end to the violence! We are not going to solve the conflict from here, but we can speak up against the horrors being done with our money.
In gratitude for your work,
russell sparks