Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, on Monday night, literally
on the eve of our swearing in as members of the 108th Congress,
I spoke in Wellesley, Massachusetts at the Unitarian Universalist
Society of Wellesley Hills at the invitation of that society.
The topic they asked me to address was the potential war in Iraq
and I spoke to a crowd of several hundred people expressing my
reasons for opposing a war in Iraq at this time. I was struck
by the extremely large turnout-overflowing the hall-on a weeknight,
and on a day when there had been a significant snowstorm, leaving
the roads in a difficult condition.
At the conclusion of the question and answer period, a representative
of the society presented me with the attached statement, signed
by approximately 160 people in the group. (I should note that
the attendance at the meeting was much larger because not everyone
who attended had been previously solicited to sign the statement.)
Mr. Speaker, given the grave nature of the question of whether
or not to go to war and the strong interest expressed by these
citizens, I welcome their contribution to our debate and I ask
that the Statement Against A Preventive War in Iraq presented
by members and Friends of the Unitarian Universalist Society of
Wellesley Hills be printed here.
(The petition was appended to the Record).
