Take A Stand Day Is Coming Up - Tuesday, August 28th

Take A Stand Mike Castle!

A call to Delawareans to gather in Wilmington's Rodney Square on the 28th of August and send a message to our Republican Congressman - take us out of Iraq!

Take A Stand Mike Castle!
Across the country the Iraq Summer Campaign is gaining momentum as they prepare for their final events on August 28th. The politicians who continue to support an endless and reckless war will be called on to stand with their constituents and bring the troops home. In Delaware, Mike Castle has been feeling the heat all summer, and has started to whine about angry Delawareans constantly reminding him of his support for the president’s failed policy in Iraq. The Iraq Summer Campaign in Delaware is organizing a huge Take a Stand Day event in Rodney Square, including a town hall meeting and speeches from 5 – 7 pm as part of an all day festival with music, food, vendors, entertainment, and local community organizations. After building a movement all summer, the people of Delaware will gather in Rodney Square and demand that Mike Castle stand with his constituents to end the war.
The summer began in early June with the kick-off event outside Mike Castle’s office in Wilmington. More than thirty Delawareans gathered for the launch of the Iraq Summer campaign, and addressed speeches to Mike Castle reminding him to stand with the people of Delaware, not the failed policy of President Bush. After covering the demonstration outside his office, the reporters went to get Castle’s response. Even though Iraq Summer calls for a responsible redeployment of troops out of Iraq based on a reasonable timetable, and despite the fact that Iraq Summer activists had met with Castle and explained their position, Mike Castle chose to resort to the rhetoric of fear and misrepresentation, telling WHYY and the News Journal that the demonstrators “don’t care about the Iraqi people” because they were demanding immediate withdrawal. False, just like the reasons given for invading Iraq.
After Castle voted against a timetable to bring the troops home from Iraq, Delawareans marched to Castle’s house in Wilmington on July 19th, 2007. The leader of the march was Thomas Little, a retired Marine whose son is also a marine. Little started things off saying “I was quiet about the war at first. I was serving overseas in Africa and figured others with sons and daughters were better spokesmen. But, I came home two years ago and saw that this war was totally out of hand. It is clearly not winnable and the troops are daily targets in a civil war. Keep them safe. Bring them home. Then we can better sort out Iraq.” The demonstrators marched and chanted, carrying a banner that read, “Rep. Castle - You Got Us Into Iraq, Now Get Us Out!” Despite the nearly fifty fed-up Delawareans who marched and spoke out to express their disapproval of Castle’s obstinate refusal to stand with his constituents, no major media covered the event, revealing the entrenched power and deference Mike Castle has gathered after decades in office.

Following on the march, the Iraq Summer Campaign organized a Report Card delivery at Castle’s Dover office. The Report Card showed that, despite Castle’s claims to disagree with the President’s strategy on the Iraq, in ten of eleven votes Castle towed the party line and voted to support President Bush’s disastrous Iraq policy. The only time he voted to end the war was in the purely symbolic resolution against the President Bush’s surge on February 16th, 2007. Whatever credit he deserved for this move was swamped by the fact that 91% of the time Castle voted with President Bush instead of against ending the war. The bottom line: Castle gets a failing grade.
With Congress going into recess for August, outraged constituents decided to welcome Mike Castle home. Under scorching heat, the Iraq Summer Campaign gathered in Rodney Square. They collected more than one hundred statements of conscience calling on Castle to end the war, gave out yard signs and window signs reading “Support the Troops, End the War,” and successfully recruited new activists to pressure Castle to end the war.
On the evening of August 6th at Wilmington Technical Community College, several members of the Iraq Summer Campaign happened to run into Mike Castle at a home buying and foreclosure event. Bill Shafarman of Wilmington grilled Castle on his failure to end the war. Mr. Shafarman also asked Castle why he had refused to answer Iraq Summer’s numerous invitations to Take a Stand Day on August 28th. Castle said that he would “be away” and did not want to reschedule so that his constituents could express their concerns about his voting to support a reckless, endless war.
During the question and answer session at the end of the event, Rudi Batzell, a volunteer with the Iraq Summer Campaign, stood up and asked Mr. Castle how he could justify spending billions of dollars a month in Iraq when hardworking Delawareans couldn’t afford a home and many who owned a home were facing foreclosure. In his response to the question, Castle stated that “this war just needs to grind to the end.” Castle doesn’t seem to understand that American lives and resources are being destroyed in the grinder.
In response to Castle’s blatant disregard in his voting and in his words for the lives of our soldiers and the well being of the American people, the Iraq Summer Campaign is hosting Take a Stand Day on August 28th in Rodney Square, Wilmington. From 5-7 pm, Take a Stand Day will feature an “empty chair” Town Hall in which Delawareans address a Congressman who refuses to listen to his constituents, and speeches by local leaders and activists. There will be an all-day festival in Rodney Square, including food, entertainment, live music, vendors, and community organizations. For information about Take a Stand Day or to register as a vendor or community organization, contact Sarah Jankowski of the Iraq Summer Campaign at 202-425-0978 or email at delaware2@iraqsummer.org. Mike Castle must stand with the people of Delaware and bring the troops home. Castle believes he can ignore his constituents. Maybe he’s been in office so long he’s forgotten he represents the people who elected him. Let Mike Castle know how you feel and help build the movement to end the war by attending Take a Stand Day on August 28th!