Posted: Thursday, July 10, 2008 12:00 am
The Corvallis City Council this week endorsed a resolution calling on the federal government to create a Cabinet-level Department of Peace and Nonviolence.
Specifically, the council resolution supports HR 808, a measure introduced by Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich that would create such a department.
(It turns out that one of the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Rush, supported the idea of a Peace Department, but nowadays, Kucinich and the popular author Marianne Williamson have been leading the charge for this idea.)
The measure before the council passed, and now Mayor Charlie Tomlinson will write a letter to Oregon's congressional delegation expressing the city of Corvallis' official support for the idea. The letter will have just about the same level of impact as if you were to write a letter on this issue to our congressional delegation.
We make no judgment here on the merits of creating a federal Department of Peace, although it's fair to say that you can color us skeptical. Rather - and this will come as no surprise to regular readers of this page - we question the wisdom of taking up the time of the City Council to address matters that are clearly outside the boundaries of the city.
We already place a heavy burden on the nine members of the City Council, who volunteer their time for free, although they do get reimbursement for expenses. The city's Web site estimates that councilors spend 10 to 15 hours a week on city business, although we know that estimate sometimes (maybe most of the time) is low.
To fully consider a matter such as creating a Department of Peace runs the risk - a substantial risk, to our view - of
distracting attention from the issues that the City Council really does need to grapple with.
Supporters of the council action, not surprisingly, disagree: They argued, in the words of Leah Bolger, the president of the Corvallis chapter of Veterans for Peace, that "city government is where grass-roots
organizing begins." It's also true, as Ward 3 Councilor George Grosch noted, that taking a stand on a federal issue is not entirely out of character for the council.
Actually, we're somewhat sympathetic to the idea that the City Council is the one place where citizens can take their issues, no matter what, and get them heard. Why, it becomes something like a newspaper's editorial page!
But the council is not meant to be that forum, where citizens can present any issue and hope that the council will sign on. It's meant to be the place where we hash out important issues regarding the city of Corvallis.
Spending time on matters that are the province of other levels of government runs the risk of taking the council's limited time away from the local issues that remain its primary charge.