Dario Amodei Presents Caltech Anti-Iraq War Petition to Pasadena Council

Good evening, Mayor Bogaard and members of the council.

My name is Dario Amodei, and I'm a sophomore at Caltech.

Last Thursday, I presented a petition with 400 signatures

from the Caltech

community opposing war in Iraq. We now have almost 600

signatures and counting, and our message is the same:

the California

Institute of Technology overwhelmingly opposes this war.

Armed conflict with Iraq is bad for Caltech, bad

for Pasadena, and bad for the United States of America.

I would now like to read the petition that so many of this nation's future

scientists have signed.

As citizens of the Caltech community, we are extremely concerned about the

prospect

of war with Iraq. We who create the technology

that fuels this nation are

profoundly distressed that it be used indiscriminately for war.

We feel that the dangers posed by terrorism and weapons of mass destruction

are

best confronted by a reasoned, peaceful, and forward-looking response.

We believe that such a solution should take place through the United Nations and

that to act unilaterally is unacceptable.

We are disturbed by the shortsighted belligerence that has characterized our

country's leaders in recent months and feel it is high time

that voices of reason

speak up. For all of these reasons, we ask the Pasadena

City Council, the United States Congress, and all other legislative bodies to adopt

a resolution opposing the war against Iraq.