Our country’s apportioning over half of our federal monies to support the weapons industry and the military is a fact that we Americans must address. This budget imbalance was made clear in The Recorder on April 10 in the column “Federal budget: moral or immoral?” Both of us have been war tax resisters for all our wage earning lives and now the current military spending is beyond bearable. It does not make sense when there are so many citizens in the United States that are not able to have a whole and healthy life here in their own country.
The snapshot of the federal discretionary budget in that column can bear to be repeated:
For every $100 spent on the Pentagon, for war, weapons, counter-terrorism, military personnel and nearly 800 military bases in 80 countries on six continents, an estimated $6 is spent on international affairs, a fraction of which includes diplomacy. Only $14 is spent on housing in our communities.
Both of us have been resisting the payment of war taxes all our adult lives and now the federal budget is in even more disarray than it was in the 1960s. We can all take a stand to elect federal officials to pull our budget back from this military focus. The people of the United States need our support in so many ways.
President Eisenhower warned us all about the Military Industrial Complex, and — lo, and behold — we are in that fix right now!
If you don’t feel like standing out in protest on a street corner, you can write to your officials. Your words are powerful to them. We think you will find your elected officials are ready to hear you.
Carol and Peter Letson
Greenfield