Please ask all your elected officials to call for a cease fire before we put one more person in peril.


A cease fire would be a carbon free solution. Let's take that to Copenhagen.

In peace,

Colleen Fernald

Santa Rosa protesters decry Obama's Afghan buildup | PressDemocrat.com | The Press Democrat | Santa Rosa, CA#
Santa Rosa protesters decry Obama's Afghan buildup

By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 7:49 p.m.

About 100 people - some of whom voted for President Barack Obama a year ago — came to Santa Rosa's Courthouse Square Wednesday night to quietly protest his decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

Standing beneath the square's twinkling white holiday lights on a chilly evening, some said they were dismayed by the president's announcement on Tuesday, but others said they expected it.

“I am not surprised at all,” said Alan Horn of Sebastopol, who said he is a U.S. Coast Guard veteran. “I knew this was going to happen.”

When Obama failed to call for a ceasefire in his inaugural address, Horn said, “I knew we were in for a tough four years.”

He voted for Obama, but said it was “a vote against John McCain and Sarah Palin.”


Several hundred anti-war protesters marched in San Francisco on Wednesday, with no reports of trouble.


In Santa Rosa, Therese Mughannam said she voted for Obama, who “brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart,” she said. “I feel betrayed by him,” the Santa Rosa resident said. “He is not doing what we voted him in to do.”

U.S. troops could leave Afghanistan tomorrow, Mughannam said. “We ought to give them their country back and let them determine their own destiny.”
“I am one of those who is disappointed,” said George Houser, 93, who moved to Santa Rosa from Nyack, N.Y. four months ago. “It's going to be quagmire. Obama will now become a war president.”

An ordained Methodist clergyman, Houser said he was jailed for refusing to register for the draft during World War II.

Lupita Chavez Alvarez, 18, of Petaluma was among the younger protesters. Obama “set himself up as a peacemaker, but he is escalating the problem,” the Santa Rosa Junior College student said. “We have to fix it.”

Susan Lamont, office manager of the Peace and Justice of Sonoma County, said she was satisfied with the turnout. “It's a real improvement,” she said. “I want more.”


The center, which sponsored a weekly war protest in Santa Rosa for seven and a half years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saw participation fall to fewer than a dozen people, Lamont said.

Now, the organization is talking about renewing the regular event. “The phone was ringing off the hook at the center today,” she said.


Dave Warrender of Sebastopol, a veteran war protester, said he was “afraid we'd come up here and there'd be no one.”

His sign, saying “No More War,” was at Iraq war demonstrations in 2003, Warrender said.

Colleen Fernald of Sebastopol, a registered Democrat who calls herself as “omnipartisan,” said that a safe withdrawal from Afghanistan should start with a ceasefire.


“I wish progressives would get on the ceasefire bandwagon,” she said.

None of the protesters were impressed with Obama's promise to begin withdrawing U.S. troops in 2011. “I think he was throwing a bone to those who don't want an increase in American involvement,” Houser said. “It's by no means certain.”