Voice of a million tongues ...

For anyone who doesn’t already know, I’m against the war.

Simply put, I just don’t think that a case has yet been made that we should send our loved ones thousands of miles away to kill and maim the loved ones of Iraqis.

I don’t think the petty differences of our leaders and their leaders should result in the bloodshed of anyone I know or don’t know.

I don’t think — no matter how hard the president has tried to “prove” it — that a relation has been established between Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaida attack on Sept. 11, 2001.

I still think that Dubya is trying as hard as he can to have a reason to annihilate Saddam, because it would make his father happy.

I think that right now Iraq is the government’s Lee Harvey Oswald.

In any time of crisis, our government has found one person (or in this case entity) to blame all our problems on. It’s always been a lone gunman or someone acting alone in some capacity.

So if we catch that lone gunman, the American people can go back to driving their gas-guzzling SUVs, going out on the town, and buying stock in Enron.

In other words, we can trade in our duck tape (yes, there really is duck tape) and plastic sheeting (code lemony yellow) for scotch tape and wrapping paper (code evergreen).

But I still maintain that we needn’t put all this on one man (the previously mentioned Saddam).

And I don’t think that we need to kill innocent Iraqi women and children to do it.

So who cares what I think, right?

And who cares how loud I yell?

Well what if six people get together and yell?

What if 19 people get together and yell?

What if those six and 19 people are Lockport’s Common Council and the Niagara County Legislature?

Would that make a difference?

While I wasn’t about to poll the 19 legislators, I’ve spoken to all six city aldermen and I’ve proposed a resolution to them: In essence, a statement that the Common Council opposes in principle, the war we’re about to go into.

A couple people I talked to didn’t like my proposal. The other four were on the fence about it. So it stands a chance, albeit, a small one.

Nonetheless, I’ve proposed it and now I leave it up to you to let your public officials know your stance.

If any official wants to take up my resolution, it can be found on my Web site, conveniently located at scottleffler.com.

For a list of the 124 other municipalities that have passed similar resolutions, check citiesforpeace.org.

And to the Common Council: If you don’t like the anti-war declaration, you can still vote on my proposal to undo the city’s unconstitutional political sign law.