GRANBY - This town has joined the ranks of Western Massachusetts communities that will have an anti-Iraq War resolution on the warrant for their annual spring Town Meeting, according to officials.
Executive Assistant Christopher F. Martin confirmed yesterday that a resolution calling for the withdrawal of Massachusetts National Guard troops from Iraq will appear as an article on the warrant for the spring annual Town Meeting set for 7 p.m. May 9 at Granby Junior-Senior High School.
Martin said the town clerk has certified the 10 signatures of registered voters needed to give the measure a place on the warrant.
Other Western Massachusetts towns with similar articles against the Iraq War on their Town Meeting warrants include Belchertown, Amherst, Sunderland and Leverett.
Proponents of the resolutions said their measures are based loosely on similar ones that have been adopted at town meetings this year in Vermont. At least 50 Vermont communities have passed such resolutions, according to the Web site for the Vermont Network on Iraq War Resolutions.
Margaret B. Anderson of Amherst Street collected signatures for the Granby resolution with Joan E. Grenier of High Street.
Anderson said she drew up the local resolution using materials she got from the American Friends Service Committee in Florence. No one from the committee was available for comment yesterday afternoon.
"No one questions that Saddam Hussein was a horrible person, but I don't think you combat evil with evil," Anderson said.
The activist said the National Guard is supposed to be used for "state emergencies and a real threat from outside," and that the extensions of Guard members' tours in Iraq constitute "an under-the-table draft."
Although Anderson acknowledged the town may have a reputation for being conservative, she said she will be happy if the measure just gets people thinking.
However, one official, Selectmen Chairman Wayne Tack, has already taken a position against the measure and said yesterday he will vote against it when it comes up at the annual Town Meeting.
Tack said although he believes residents have a right to put the measure before Town Meeting, he opposes it because he feels Massachusetts should not be exempt from "protecting the country like everyone else."
Every other state has had to send Guard members to Iraq, and he does not see why Massachusetts should be any different, Tack said.