MAJOR UPDATE: DEFEDERALIZATION MOVEMENT GOES NATIONAL |
Other states are joining NJ and Vermont in introducing bills in their state legislatures to defederalize their respective state National Guards. |
The national movement is called Bring the Guard Home (it's the law!) In addition to NJ and Vermont, Wisconsin, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania are on board. Other states, including Maine and Maryland, are considering bills.
A new blog entry at
IMPORTANT ALERT - Save Muhlenberg Hospital!
Please come our for the:
PUBLIC HEARING ON MUHLENBERG HOSPITAL
Tuesday, May 6 at 6:00 pm (come early)
Plainfield High School
950 Park Avenue, Plainfield
The Peace & Justice Coalition's current project is working to keep our NJ National Guard from being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan beginning in June 2008 (3 months away). UPDATE! We have sponsors who say they will introduce a bill in the State legislature and a Freeholder who will be introducing a resolution. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR STATE, COUNTY, and LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES AND ASK THEM TO EITHER COSPONSOR THE BILL (in the State Senate and Assembly), OR INTRODUCE A RESOLUTION (at the Freeholder or town/boro council level). This movement is picking up steam in NJ as well as in Pennsylvania, Vermont, and other states.
Vermont has introduced a bill in their state legislature to defederalize their National Guard and have them returned from overseas. Seven other states, including Pennsylvania, who have 22 cosponsors for a similar bill, are considering or planning to attempt defederalization. New Jersey has got to get on the bus! AND YOU CAN HELP!. Here's how:
| Petition | State Legislators | Local | Communicate | |
 Sign the Petition to Help Keep the NJ National Guard Here in New Jersey. Send the link to others asking them to sign and pass it on. Collect signatures!  |
Call, e-mail, or go SEE your Assembly members and State Senator to ask them to introduce legislation to Defederalize the National Guard. Don't know who your state legislators are? Click here to find them on the state legislature web site.  | Ask your town or boro council or your free- holders to pass a resolution in support of defederalizing the NJ National Guard.  Hold a meeting at your house to talk about the war. | Have friends or family members who are among those Guard members to be called up and deployed beginning this Summer? Talk to them. Ask how they feel about going. Provide information.  Join Military Families Speak Out! to give yourself a voice. | |
| Download a hard copy of the petition and ask your friends, neighbors, and family members to sign. Send the petition to (or drop it off at) NJ Peace Action's office: 673 Bloomfield Ave., Bloomfield, NJ 07003 Phone 973-744-3263 BY MARCH 31, 2008 | Visit the Libety Tree web site to learn more about defederalization and download a copy of the Vermont bill. Click here for talking points, links to letters to the editor, news accounts of the Coalition's efforts, and useful information for when you speak to your state legislator. | Put a homemade lawn sign on your front lawn that says "Defederalize the Guard Keep Them Home!"  |  Write letters to the editor or an op-ed piece to your local paper to inform others about the imminent troop deployment and how defederalizing the NJ National Guard can help to keep them home. |
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The Peace and Justice Coalition consists of more than 150 grassroots organizations that have come together to work for an end to the war abroad and the war at home. These organizations include many African American-led groups, as well as antiwar, social justice, student, labor, and other groups.
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
