[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 8, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E15]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               STATEMENT AGAINST A PREVENTIVE WAR IN IRAQ

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BARNEY FRANK

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, January 7, 2003

  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, on Monday night, literally 
on the eve of our swearing in as members of the 108th Congress, I spoke 
in Wellesley, Massachusetts at the Unitarian Universalist Society of 
Wellesley Hills at the invitation of that society. The topic they asked 
me to address was the potential war in Iraq, and I spoke to a crowd of 
several hundred people expressing my reasons for opposing a war in Iraq 
at this time. I was struck by the extremely large turnout--overflowing 
the hall--on a weeknight, and on a day when there had been a 
significant snowstorm, leaving the roads in difficult condition.
  At the conclusion of the question and answer period, a representative 
of the society presented me with the attached statement, signed by 
approximately 160 people in the group. (I should note that the 
attendance at the meeting was much larger because not everyone who 
attended had been previously solicited to sign the statement.)
  Mr. Speaker, given the grave nature of the question of whether or not 
to go to war, and the strong interest expressed by these citizens, I 
welcome their contribution to our debate and I ask that the Statement 
Against A Preventive War In Iraq presented by Members and Friends of 
the Unitarian Universalist Society of Wellesley Hills be printed here.

                          ____________________