Politics & Government
Former Radnor Teacher Turns Her Focus On Activism
Jane Dugdale was part of Philadelphia City Council's adoption of a resolution calling on Congress to "redirect military spending to fund our communities."
On June 21, Philadelphia City Council passed a resolution "calling on the U.S. Congress to bring all U.S. troops home from Afghanistan, to take the funds saved by that action and by significantly cutting the Pentagon budget, and to use that money to fund education, public and private sector family-sustaining job creation, special protections for military sector workers, environmental and infrastructure restoration, care for veterans and their families, and human services that our cities and states so desperately need."
The resolution was drafted by the Delaware Valley New Priorities Network, comprised of dozens of labor, neighborhood, faith, and peace organizations.
One of those organizations was Main Line Peace Action (MLPA) and one of the drafters was Jane Dugdale, resident of the Bryn Mawr section of Radnor Township.
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In fact, most of the people who belong to MLPA live in Radnor; the organization grew out of a local MoveOn.org group, a public policy advocacy group.
In 2011 MLPA decided to focus its efforts on one issue — military spending. In short, reducing it.
Find out what's happening in Radnorwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The group took a draft resolution (read the approved version in the pdf section of this article) to a number of area organizations and The Delaware Valley New Priorities Network was formed, and moved the resolution to the Philadelphia City Council.
In 2011 the resolution was passed by the Radnor Democratic Party. Philadelphia is second largest city that has passed similar resolution.
"We're trying to change the national conversation from cutting domestic spending to cutting military spending," said Dugdale.
She said she has always been passionate about the issue of government spending on military.
In college she marched against the atomic bomb. After school she served in the Peace Corps in Chile.
After retiring in 2006 from teaching English as a Second Language to children in the Radnor Township School District, Dugdale said she found that she finally had time to do what she had always been interested in — activism.
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