The Friends Committee on National Legislation, in their most recent newsletter, cites three recent polls that indicate a majority of Americans think that U.S. military spending is too high and should be capped or reduced. And yet Congress is scheduled this month to consider President Bush’s demand for an additional $102 Billion for the disaster in Iraq, which is on top of the $562 Billion already given to the occupation since 2003 and on top of the $3 Trillion the war is estimated to cost for veterans’ care, weapons replacement, and higher oil prices. It’s also on top of the human cost of over 4,000 Americans and over 1,000,000 Iraqis.
Closer to home, the State of California is out nearly $64.5 Billion from this war (while facing a $16 Billion deficit), and Ojai’s share is $14.4 Million to date.
What to do?
• Sign the Ojai Peace Coalition’s petition to the Ojai City Council, urging their adoption of a resolution calling for withdrawal of troops, contractors, and bases; appropriation of medical, psychological, financial, and educational assistance for veterans; redirection of war funds to neglected domestic needs; providing non-military support for rebuilding Iraq; and transfer of authority to Iraqis with the help of U.N. peacekeepers.
• Attend a presentation and discussion TODAY at 4:30pm about resisting war through taxes and counter-recruitment. Joseph Maizlish of Southern California War Tax Resisters will be presenting along with Norm Bauer of the Ventura County Committee to Stop the War and the War Resister’s League. This is taking place at a private home…contact me for exact location.
• Call our Congresspersons and tell them how you’d like them to vote on the additional death funding:
Elton Gallegly: 1-202-225-5811
Barbara Boxer: 1-202-224-3553
Dianne Feinstein: 1-202-224-3841
Forty years ago yesterday, Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. This date ends this year’s Season for Nonviolence, and reminds us of some of his most powerful words:
“Those of us who love peace must organize as effectively as the war hawks. As they spread the propaganda of war, we must spread the propaganda of peace… We must demonstrate, teach and preach, until the very foundations of our nation are shaken. We must work unceasingly to lift this nation that we love to a higher destiny, to a new plateau of compassion, to a more noble expression of humanness.”
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
In this context, it’s worth remembering the speech Martin Luther King gave a year before his assassination, about Vietnam, in which he called the US “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” He reminded his listeners that the objective of civil rights movement was not just to raise up the poor and the discriminated-against, but to save the soul of the nation. For more, see:
http://achangeinthewind.typepad.com/achangeinthewind/2008/04/to-save-the-sou.html
Evan, should we sign the Ojai Peace Coalition’s on-line petition to the Ojai City Council, even if we already signed the petition at “The Not One More” event?
Thanks!
if you signed it at the Not One More! event, you’ve done it! if you – anyone – do sign both places, we will remove the duplicates. so if you’re not sure but you support it, sign!
Not sure what any of this has to do with spirituality. It would seem to me if someone has a balanced perspective and is inner directed they would be proactive in creating the worlld they would like to see and simultaneously not get up in the drama and story of it all.
Dear Spirit-To-All Do Om,
This is Spiritual Activism, also known as Spiritual Politics.
Dear Spirit -To-All Do Om,
Seems to me that if one of those five hundred pound bunker-busting bombs dropped anywhere near you, you would figure out what this has to do with spirituality pretty quick.
It’s easy to “not get up in the drama and story of it all” living here in nice tranquil, peacefull Ojai where our tummies are nice and full.
Chant Om AND sign the petition. It’s the least we can do!
Thanks, Evan, for continuing to work for your spiritual and political values. Nobody can call you an armchair idealist. As for me, in this world of increasing fear and cynicism, I find myself recklessly and reflexively supporting anyone who is trying to further the values that I share, not worrying that historians may later judge their efforts gratuitous acts of random kindness (or even if there will be a civilized future from which to contemplate the year 2008). So sign me up.
I’m all for activism, having a heart centered voice. I don’t agree with buying into fear, being reactive rather than responsive and perpetuating a doom scenario. That’s not, for me, healthy activism.
I’m all for activism, having a heart centered voice. I don’t agree with buying into fear, being reactive rather than responsive and perpetuating a doom scenario and having that encapsulated in a fuzzy box of spirituality. That’s not,to me, healthy activism.
Spirit, i’m not sure whom you see as a peddler of fear and doom here. i’m also not clear on your distinction between “reactive” and “responsive”. could you please help me by being more clear?