On Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at the State Capitol, the 8-month-long "Campaign to Keep Oregon's Guard in Oregon" will hold its official "launch event," Campaign organizers will deliver the signatures of over 7000 Oregonians to officials along with a demand that our state militia not be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. The action will begin with a news conference in the Capitol press room at 12:00 noon PST, followed by delivery of the petitions. The Campaign, part of the national "Bring the Guard Home! It's the Law" campaign, seeks to prevent the upcoming deployment of roughly 3000 Oregon Guard members to Iraq because the terms of the Congresional authorization have expired.

A bill has been drafted in order to enable the Governor to refuse a federal call up unless it is being done "pursuant to a constitutionally authorized federal directive." A companion resolution will declare that the Authorizations for Iraq an Afghanistan are not valid. The proposed measures, once combined, should empower Governor Kulongoski to prevent the Oregon Guard from the deployment planned for this spring.

After presentations from Veterans and military family members, they and other representatives from the 52 organizations involved in the campaign will deliver copies of the petitions to President of the Senate Peter Courtney, Speaker of the House Dave Hunt, and Governor Ted Kulongoski, and to each of the 88 other representatives and senators in the state capitol.

The National Campaign, active in nearly 25 states, is holding its own Launch Event news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, an hour and a half earlier on the same day. Representing Oregon at that event, Leah Bolger of Veterans for Peace Chapter 132 (Corvallis) hopes to tie the national message, which is the restoration of war making powers to the Congress and not the President, to the local event. Details on the DC event are below.

For more information on the Oregon Campaign, contact Peace and Justice Works in Portland at 503-236-3065. National contact information is below.