Kuhl Pressed on Iraq, Labor Issues

(The Leader, Corning)

By Mary Perham
leaderbath@yahoo.com

(Corning)
- The war in Iraq, a labor act and local
poverty topped the
agenda at a town hall
meeting held Saturday morning by U.S. Rep. John
R.
"Randy" Kuhl Jr.,
R-Hammondsport.

More than 50 people
attended the 9 a.m. meeting at the Southeast
Steuben
County Public Library in downtown
Corning, with questions and
comments
that
extended the gathering well
beyond the planned hour.

The town hall
also coincided with a meeting of the Rochester
and Genesee
Valley Area Labor Federation,
held next door at the Radisson
Hotel
Corning.
The meeting drew a number
of union representatives.

The tone of
Kuhl's town meeting was calm, but
confrontational, with most
residents
speaking against the Iraq war and its effect on
basic needs in
America.

"Our national
demands cannot be reasonably met because of the
war
costs,"
said Corning resident Frank
Anastasio.

Anastasio and others
questioned Kuhl's support of the
Bush
administration's
policies, but Kuhl
said the purpose of the meeting was to gather
public
comments only.

"Let me make it
clear I am not here to defend anybody today,
I'm not
here
to defend myself," Kuhl
said.

Kuhl did pledge to meet with labor
representatives privately on several
issues,
including the Employee Free Choice Act of 2007,
which he voted
against. The act was passed
241-185 by the House on March 1 and
has
moved
on to the Senate.

Union
leaders said the act will allow workers to join
unions without
fear
of retribution by
employers, and disputed Kuhl's claim that the
act does
away with the secret
ballot.

Kuhl said he wanted union input
on problems in education and
programs
such
as HeadStart, a preschool
enrichment program. A member of the
House
Education and Labor Committee, Kuhl
said he is concerned about potential
misuse
of funds and a lack of quality
services.

Other issues touched on during
the meeting included an increase
in
poverty,
hunger and homelessness in
the 29th Congressional District. One
man
complained prescription costs are
forcing the elderly to choose
between
medicine and bread.

City of
Corning Mayor Frank Coccho was assured Kuhl's
support in getting
promised funding for the
city's new transportation center before
2009.

But while labor and local issues
were clearly on the mind of those
at
the
meeting, the war in Iraq was the
key topic Saturday morning.

Most
attendees pressed Kuhl to support a clear plan
to withdraw American
troops from Iraq. Kuhl
voted last week against a House bill that set
a
timetable to pull out troops. The bill
passed 218-212.

Many people favored a
summit of Middle East nations on the situation
in
Iraq and a scheduled pullout by the U.S.,
telling Kuhl the Iraq war
has
no
direction or goals.

Dwight
Highfill of Corning, an Air Force veteran who
served during
Desert
Shield and Desert
Storm, said the earlier conflicts were based on
the
invasion of Kuwait. The current war is
based on the incorrect
information
that
the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had an
arsenal of weapons of
mass destruction,
Highfill said.

Highfill said U.S.
attempts to westernize Iraq, which is
surrounded by
Arab
nations, are futile.
The U.S. should simply find a way to
honorably
withdraw, he said.

"(To
pull out after) six months, I don't know," he
said. "But two years
is
more than long
enough."

Another veteran, Gary Ostrander
of Bath, charged the U.S. has
developed
an
imperialist
mindset.

"And let me tell you, building
empires is not something we do
well,"
Ostrander said.

But Bill
Carson, of Corning, connected the war and the
Sept. 11
terrorist
attacks on the
U.S.

"What's the difference between 9/11
and Pearl Harbor?" Carson asked. He
said the
media focuses on the negative aspects of the
war, but ignored
claims that Iraqi weapons
were shipped to Syria. Carson said
pork-based
defense spending is unpatriotic
and should be halted immediately.

"My
question is, how do we get our country back?"
Highfill said.

Later, the Congressman
had an meeting with union members and
supporters
of
Kuhl's political rival,
Democrat Eric Massa. Nearly 100 people
gathered
outside the library with signs
promoting the Free Choice act
and
chanting
anti-Kuhl
slogans.

Kuhl acknowledged the
protesters with a grim smile and brief wave as
he
walked through the crowd.