Community Members Stand Behind Message: Local Needs Matter

DULUTH, Minn.- Community members and local organizations like Veterans for Peace, Grandmothers for Peace, and Socialist Action joined forces to send out a message to legislators: Local Needs Matter.

“The leadership in Washington in particular, does not understand the things that we value as a community. The things that are important to us as individuals and as community members,” said Philip Anderson, an organizer of the Local Needs Matter Rally and member of Veterans for Peace.

Anderson believes the nation has enough money to address many of the issues communities across the nation face, but that elected officials aren’t prioritizing those things.

“It’s not a matter of not having money. It’s not a matter of we pay too much in taxes and we have to cut taxes,” said Anderson. “The current administration is proposing severe drastic cuts to everything in our federal budget except for the Pentagon war making, and the Department of Homeland Security.”

This year, the Trump Administration announced its plan to slash spending on federal programs involving the environment, education, and battling poverty, while increasing the defense budget by 54 Billion dollars. Anderson believes it is a problem. And he isn’t the only one who holds those opinions.
“These decisions that are made in St. Paul and these decisions that are made in Washington have a dramatic impact here in Duluth,” said Joel Sipress, Council President of the Duluth City Council.

Dozens of people held signs at the rally, opposing recent military actions in Syria and Afghanistan, and calling for legislators to allocate more money to local causes.

“Everyone in Duluth knows that we’re struggling to fix our streets. People in Duluth know that we’re struggling to re-invest and update our 100 year old water system, and one of the reasons we struggle so much to do that is because the state and federal government have walked away from cities,” said Sipress.

Local Leaders like Sipress, and Jen Schultz talked about the importance of prioritizing job creation, infrastructure, and affordable education.  Anderson believes putting those things first is what will really make America Great.

“We have plenty of Money. We lack the will to spend the money on appropriate priorities to invest in our people, and to make our country into what it should be,” said Anderson.