Peace Action Wisconsin

by Bob Graf, aka www.nonviolentcow.org

A friend sent me last Sunday an article about The Christian Military Chaplaincy. If you read it under Featured Articles and know me a little bit you will know why. I am driven by a force, greater than I, to speak out against violence of human beings on human beings, be it in the streets or at war. The ethical and moral teachings behind this article on military chaplaincy are the same as the ones that drive our Marquette University Peace Action (MUPA) movement to have Marquette Be Faithful to the Gospel and No Longer Host Military Training on Campus, which violates Christian moral values and principles on war and violence.
When looking for a picture for this post I find a military recruiting poster for chaplains on an another article by Father McCarthy on this subject: Pentagon Mammon Molds Christianity. He points out in this article, as in the other one, that in conformity with Pentagon authorized policy, U.S. Military Chaplains do not teach the theology and norms of their Church’s Christian Just War tradition or Gospel Nonviolence to recruits and military personnel. With the military dictating what Christian values can be taught or not taught by chaplains to soldiers, the picture takes on a whole new meaning that is repulsive to Christians who seek to stop violence of humans on humans.
Tomorrow morning a group of us will stand in the cold for a prayer vigil of three recent homicide victims in Milwaukee. How many more men,woman and children must die in the USA, Iraq, or Afghanistan before we stop teaching and preaching violence and war? Military Chaplains, like the rest of us, must break the silence and say “enough!”

Army Chaplain Recruiting Poster

by Jim Draeger
Many people today in our own communities and across the nation ask, “Where is the peace movement?” Answers range from the peace movement is dead to we are pacified by Obama to we are fighting harder than ever. Regardless, the peace movement is alive, healthy, and strong both on and off the streets.
The peace movement gained prominence by taking to the streets. We learned from the labor and civil rights movements that we must rally in the streets to affect change. While our numbers in the streets have declined, our resolve has only strengthened. The core of movement still rallies; some of us have hit the streets every week for decades. We must continue our presence in the streets to keep our voices heard among the noise that attempts to stifle our message of peace and justice.
Equally important to efforts on the streets is our organizing work off the streets. Rallies have empowered us to act beyond the streets in our own homes, communities, and offices. We now lobby elected officials directly, write letters to the editor, organize public educational events, and hold conversations with all citizens to encourage them to find a place in the peace movement. This is the preparatory work that assembles the masses into the streets.
Now more than ever we need to continue our work on and off the streets. I challenge you to take at least one hour a week to work for peace and justice. Write a letter. Lobby your elected officials. Hold a conversation with your opponent. Talk with your neighbors. Gather signatures for petitions. March in the streets. Whatever the action…you are the peace movement and you have the power to enact change.

This is an email blog from Joe Radoszewski (minor editing by Jessie Read):

After all of the initial optimism the first few days of talks in Copenhagen 2 weeks ago, what has happened is basically a total meltdown in arriving at any useful solutions while the clock is desperately ticking. The Corporation of the United States has proved once again thru Hillary Clinton’s double talk that it is a hypocrite of the greatest magnitude, offering false promises and untenable conditions and solutions. Massive arrests of peaceful protesters, the barring of legitimate delegates to the Bella Convention Center and on and on. The people of civil society have proven themselves once again to be no match for the all-powerful corporations. If you have shown no interest in this and are not outraged by what has just occurred, than you are traveling the same dark road that all who before you have traveled when they ignored the famous words of Niemöller, who is perhaps best remembered for his oral admission of personal guilt and condemnation of the bystander. The exact words are in dispute; their sentiment is not:

First they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Finally, they came for me and there was no one left to speak out.

I know for a fact that many reading this blog are mostly oblivious to what has just happened in Copenhagen. What is worse, that same group doesn’t even know enough to give a damn. It is but yet another example of what the future holds for us all because of the mindless apathy that has become all pervasive. I can only encourage everyone, who has yet to do so, to watch the last 2 episodes of Democracy Now to see what is in store for the world in the next few decades, especially those in the lowest lying areas of the world who are most concerned such as The Maldives, Bangladesh, Tuvalu, The Solomon Islands and on: http://www.democracynow.org/

In a nutshell, what has occurred just this week in Copenhagen is a view into the near future. It is global warming on a massive scale with no turning back; armed repression of civil rights in protest and free speech; the continual dumbing down of society especially our own; further repression of the truth and real news sans facts; further robbing of the middle classes resulting in ever greater chasms between the haves and the have-nots. Whether or not one believes the story of Noah’s Ark is fact or fable, I would suggest at a minimum, that everyone learn how to tread water.

Now … do you want to know how I really feel? I am outraged with the School of Assassins; I am outraged that Cheney and Bush were not impeached and laughed all the way to the bank; I am outraged that global warming is real, that our planet is in danger while the pathetic masses do nothing but talk … while there is still time for action; I am outraged that we have been so conditioned to live in a country that condones torture, massive imprisonments, continual wars and genocide while everybody continues to shop, watch TV and look the other way; I am outraged that while we now have an articulate president, he constantly offers promises and hope … but delivers meaningless table scraps and double-speak; I am outraged that we have a Congress so feeble and pathetic it can’t pass even the simplest legislation without rendering it almost useless; I am outraged that we have clandestine covert activities carried on not only by our government but also by government condoned paramilitary groups like Blackwater, no different than those of Savak, the Gestapo, Stasi or the KGB with the only thing keeping them from us … is a simple order of the president when the time is ripe. Where are the cries of outrage? Where is the protest. Who’s even paying attention? Naomi Klein was simply hoarse from all the talking and shouting in Copenhagen. Evo Morales was disgusted and disappointed. Environmental movements such as 350, TCK TCK, GreenPeace, numerous others … rejected and dejected. Where’s the outrage? Where are the Churches? In Nazi Germany, these men stood up as did Franz Jaggerstatter; where are our leaders? Martin Niemöller Reinhold Niebuhr Dietrich Bonhoeffer

For anybody who thinks Al Gore is off the track, global warming is a joke or irrelevant or phoney science, as do the makers of this fake-science broadcast on GB tv Ch #4, and I hesitate to give this link lest it be used as reason to do nothing, [see: http://www.greatglobalwarmingswindle.co.uk/ ] which aired in England in about 2007, to throw a wrench in the works of global solutions, had better take an hour and read thru this next well documented treatise by Bill Butler: “The Great Global Warming Swindle” is itself a Fraud and a Swindle” at http://www.durangobill.com/Swindle_Swindle.html

There, now I’ve said it. Wake up America, it’s no longer 1950.

By Liz Klainot

As the healthcare debate rages on, one of the main questions people have is “how are we going to afford it?” The general consensus seems to be that spending on healthcare should not increase the National deficit, but this would make it tough to get the reforms we need. So what can we do? Well, I have a simple solution. Decrease military spending, and instead shift that portion of the budget to spending on healthcare.

Right now over 40% of US tax dollars are spent on the military, while just 3% are spent on social programs, such as health care. 3%! What kind of country spends all this money on fighting wars and killing people while not taking care of basic human needs, like health care! In the fiscal year 2010 we will pay $704 billion in military expenditures! $130 billion of this will go to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Just think how far that money could get us in terms of providing health care coverage for our citizens. As of September 30th, Americans have paid $915 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan! We could provide comprehensive health coverage for all Americans with that amount of money.
In the next decade, the Pentagon budget will increase by at least $133.1 billion! If we are so worried about increasing the deficit, why do we do it every year with military spending? At the same time, any healthcare legislation is expected to be deficit neutral. So, it’s apparently just fine to spend 100s of billions of dollars a year killing people, but when it comes to saving people, we need to watch what we spend.

We are constantly expanding our military bases in countries we are not at war with. What’s more important, maintaining a military base in Germany, or treating dozens of children with cancer? Buying new bombers, or helping reduce infant mortality by providing women with proper prenatal care? We need to get our priorities straight! By spending all of this money on war, we are not only killing civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, and all over the globe, we are also killing our own citizens, who are dying from lack of adequate healthcare!

We can provide health coverage for everyone without increasing the deficit, if we simply shift some of our war budget over to the health care budget. This would help bring peace abroad, and a more peaceful life for the citizens of this country, as they will be adequately treated for all health conditions and will not worry about how they are going to afford thousands of dollars in medical bills. This is a message congress needs to hear! If you care about this issue, please call your representatives and senators and let them know! We need to spend money on healthcare, not warfare!