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| About Military Families Speak Out, Bergen County THE WEDNESDAY VIGILS MFSO Bergen County began in mid-August, 2005, with a small vigil of 6 people at the National Guard Armory in Teaneck, NJ. The next day, there were 15, the next, 25. We were so delighted with the response from passersby, we decided to make it a weekly vigil until the troops come home from Iraq. Little by little, we met more people with loved ones in the military, and our membership grew. Soon, the Teaneck Peace and Justice Coalition (TPJC) agreed to co-sponsor the vigil. We celebrated the one year anniversary of the vigil on August 16, 2006 and will celebrate our second anniversary on August 22, 2007. IMPACTING ELECTED OFFICIALS AND CANDIDATES All of our Congressional delegation members were in the Democratic Party. Our Congressman, Steve Rothman, was actively pro-war. Our Senators, Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, were in favor of bringing the troops home, but hadn't yet sponsored any legislation to get the troops home. (Senator Menendez had voted against going into Iraq, Senator Lautenberg was in retirement at the time of that vote but was opposed to going into Iraq.) MFSO, along with so many other people in the area, worked hard to change that. In December, MFSO members, along with a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and a member of TPJC met for nearly 2 hours with Rep. Rothman. Since that meeting, he has co-sponsored the Murtha bill and has spoken out actively for the troops to come home NOW. MFSO members met with the staff and with Senators Lautenberg and Menendez, both in their Newark offices and in Washington, DC as part of Operation House Call. They were among the 13 Senators who voted for the Kerry Amendment. Now, we are working to get other elected officials and candidates to take a strong stand to bring the troops home NOW! On August 14, MFSO members met with candidate for the Senate, State Senator Tom Kean, Jr. The Senator agreed at that meeting to put his answers to our questions in writing. He has since said that he will not do that. Tom Kean, Jr. remains pro-war. He does not want a timetable for withdrawal of troops. He wants the U.S. to remain until we "stabilize the country" and "secure the borders." He refused to answer whether he would be willing to volunteer to serve in Iraq. In September and October, MFSO members will meet with other elected officials and candidates. While MFSO, as an organization, does not endorse candidates, we encourage people to vote for candidates who want to bring the troops home NOW. We met again in 2006 and 2007 with Senators Lautenberg and Menendez who promised to support our troops and try to bring them home, but went on instead to vote in favor of the Supplemental Allocation in May, 2007. We met again with Congressman Rothman who promised to vote against the Supplemental Allocation if the timetable was removed from it. So, he did keep that promise and vote against the Supplemental Allocation. SUPPORT MFSO, Bergen County, serves as a support group for our members who have loved ones serving in Iraq and Afghanistan or are state-side. This has been so important to each one of us. COALITIONS MFSO, Bergen County, is part of other coalitions - the Bergen Peace and Justice Coalition ,the Peace and Justice Coalition, and the Coalition to Bring the Troops Home Now, |
| THE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN MFSO, Bergen County, is part of a large coalition of organizations in Northern New Jersey, the Coalition to Bring the Troops Home NOW. You can read about a recent event which was part of the Coalition's billboard project. Five of the 22 billboards have been in Bergen County. We hold press conferences to announce each of those billboards. Click here to see photos of some of the billboards in North Jersey. |