Vermonters Call on Senator Sanders to Stand for Peace – CODEPINK

On Wednesday, October 4, CODEPINK held a sit-in at Bernie Sanders’ office on the Hill. Two constituents of Bernie Sanders traveled from Vermont to ask Bernie to demand negotiations in Ukraine. Both were arrested along with nine other peace activists. While the sit-in was happening, Vermonters in Burlington held an action at the senator’s office. Below is a collection of quotes from Vermont residents asking Bernie to be a champion for peace. 

War is not a solution for solving disagreements.  Respectfully and patiently listening and talking with one another is what can bring about understanding and common security.  Our leaders must listen to us and use diplomacy to end this war! –Nancy Rice, Randolph Center, VT

We need Bernie to provide leadership to put a stop to the US funding of the  Ukraine War now. Use the money for health care, not warfare. –James Marc Leas, South Burlington

I have been so disappointed that my senator, Bernie Sanders, who is usually a champion for peace, has voted for more more and more weapons to Ukraine and even criticized Democrats who called for peace talks. Yes, Bernie should condemn the Russian invasion, but he should also be calling for a negotiated end to this brutal war. –Crystal Zevon, Barnet, VT

I want the war in Ukraine to stop now, before more people are obliterated and before irreconcilable global devastation is unleashed. I want my Senator, Bernie Sanders, to take a strong leadership role in calling for a negotiated solution. –Duncan Nichols, Thetford, VT

War is agony, immense, needless suffering. It violates our sense of morality.  I want the war in Ukraine to stop now, before more generations are obliterated and before irreconcilable global devastation is unleashed. –Duncan Nichols, Thetford, VT

There is devastation throughout the world from war and the catastrophic effects of climate change, and we need you to use your loving influence and caring to attempt to alleviate the devastation. Please do not let Vermont be part of the destruction.  Please take a stand for peaceful negotiations everywhere….and please remove the F-35s, which are weapons of destruction, from our state.” –Martha Hennessey, Ludlow, VT

It’s time to change our direction away from war and towards peace. –Carol Cannaveno

War has never and will never be the answer. The trauma and the cost of human lives is never worth a political agenda. –Jane Stromberg

The Biden administration is behaving in a very cavalier manner, poking at a nuclear nation, and this is a dangerous ‘game’. The proxy war against Russia being carried out in Ukraine is immoral, as more and more people die from the armaments the U.S. has supplied. Stop the madness; stop the war. –Laurie Larson

War only brings suffering to the people at home and abroad while lining the pockets of weapons manufacturers. Please vote no on more military spending for the war in Ukraine. –Karen Starr

 War is an antiquated way to resolve problems. An appalling amount of money is spent,lives are lost or ruined, and it always has to come to an end at some point. What a waste! –Carol Davis

For the love of all people caught up in this war — for the conscripted and enslaved men of Ukraine and Russia pitted against each other to the death for the benefit of oligarchs; for the many dead and displaced civilians; for those starving across the world from the consequences of war in the Ukrainian breadbasket; for those in Europe, America, and Maine coping with natural gas shortages; and for everyone alive today and generations yet unborn who face the very real threat of nuclear annihilation — we must demand immediate diplomacy to end to this war.” –Vermont State Senator Eric Blakley 

With the assault on the environment looming large, the last thing we humans need is more war. The untold damage to the Ukrainian environment must be stopped. We need to figure out a better way of resolving conflict that doesn’t include violence. -Jane Palmer

 Waging war is the stupidest action we could take: It does not engage our intelligence, which would guide us to negotiate, not attack and kill, in order to resolve differences and support the health and well-being of entire nations! Please stop supporting this war and support peace talks instead. –Elizabeth Champagne

 I would like to ask my Senator: It is really easier to go to war—with all the killing of soldiers and civilians, the tremendous outlays of money, and the devastating destruction of the environment—than it is to seek diplomacy? Bernie, you should know better! –Deborah Olsen

 In spite of the travesty of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we must stand for a world without war and develop the tools of negotiated peace and peacemaking. We cannot live equitably and protect the earth if we further war. –Judith Wade

We must find a way to support Ukrainian self-determination while also pursuing all avenues to a cessation of armed combat. –Catherine Grant

Only negotiation will end the Russian/Ukraine war, and we ask your leadership toward negotiations. –Kathleen Shepherd

War is NEVER the answer: To support the Ukrainian people, the US MUST stop supplying arms to the (US-supported) Ukrainian government and compel them to negotiate equitable terms to immediately DE-escalate the situation. NATO troops must be withdrawn from the Russian Border. –Renee Carpenter

 Bernie, I know you’re peace and diplomacy-oriented. I appreciate your actions for Yemen and against the 2023 NDAA Pentagon budget. Please be an advocate for peace in Ukraine and gather in more legislators to join you in immediately working to end this conflict. –Mary Baker

If the US security state doesn’t cease its military overreach, as it is doing in Ukraine, our economy will fail–plunging citizens into deep, inescapable austerity and needless, endless suffering. Senator Sanders needs to say NO to the moral depravity of war and the pathological bend toward nuclear winter. –Kristianne Gale

I believe diplomacy and reconciliation are always possible, and that war leads to ongoing suffering and violence, down through the generations. I learned both of these truths growing up in two households with a father and stepfather who were both refugees from war. Please support diplomacy. –Didi Pershouse

I don’t like war or warhawks on the right or on the left. I don’t like getting involved in wars, like this one in Ukraine, with no end game in mind. I don’t like interrupting potential peace talks to continue wars for political purposes, as the US and UK have done in the case of Ukraine. I expect my senator to stand up for diplomacy, not another endless war. –Joseph Goodman