Even
Republican candidates who seem to march in lock-step
with the agenda of the Bush administration claim
they are just the guy to bring "change to
Washington."
And
as tired as we might be of hearing the word, there's
no doubt about it--Americans are aching
for change. We have had seven long years
of famine in the land--a shortage of trustworthiness,
a scarcity of integrity, a dearth of dignity,
a lack of peace and prosperity for ordinary Americans.
We are hungry for change.
We've
witnessed our leadership squander the outpouring
of global good will after the traumatizing attacks
on 9/11. We've weathered hurricanes that have
exposed the parasitic disparities that cling to
race and class. The American dream of home ownership
has collapsed under many families struggling to
make ends meet. Middle and working class families
are routinely denied health coverage. Twelve million
live and labor in the shadows of our communities
while comprehensive immigration reform is sidelined.
Our earth has a fever, yet we are blowing up mountains
for dirty coal. And we continue to surge ahead
in Iraq with a military
solution to a political problem, characterizing
the decline of extreme violence as "success."
We are hungry for change, and for good reason.
But
there'’s one change the candidates aren't talking
about. It's a change that would immediately
garner good will from nations around the globe.
It's a change that could free up the funding to
rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf coast, construct millions
of affordable homes, and provide health coverage
to all of our nation's uninsured children. It's
a change that could balance our security budget
so that we invest in nonmilitary tools like poverty
reduction, the empowerment of women, and direct
diplomacy. The beauty of this change is that it
is one, simple change with reverberating
ramifications for all of the issues that we care
about so deeply.
The
change? To reorder our federal
budget priorities away from militarism toward
true security that meets human and environmental
needs. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. proclaimed that "a nation that
continues year after year to spend more money
on military defense than on programs of social
uplift is approaching spiritual death." He
didn't confuse courage with militarism or equate
might with right. The spiritual death of our nation
preoccupied King far more than the daily threats
made on his own life.
And
if its measure is the imbalance between funding
militarism and funding social uplift, then we
too ought to be more preoccupied with the spiritual
death of our nation than ever before. The
U.S. spends more
on military defense than the rest of the world
combined. Military spending consumes
more than half of our discretionary spending,
the part of the budget that also funds the areas
of social change in which Americans want to invest.
Because the Pentagon's piece of the pie is so
massive, other programs are starving. Yet, according
to experts, we could redirect almost $60 billion
without compromising our security one iota.
None
of the leading presidential candidates are pointing
out these facts or calling for a shift in our
federal budget priorities. I have heard cynics
cite this sad truth and conclude that nothing
will ever change. But those of us who
are people of faith don't have the luxury of letting
go of hope. The transformation of a nation addicted
to militarism into a people living out peace is
a possibility that we can't afford to deny. Because
if we don't change course, I believe we will soon
discover that militarism, like racism, is a sickness
unto death.
In
this election year, the most pressing "values
issues" are profoundly spiritual issues.
Eradicating poverty, tending to the sick,
educating our children, healing God's creation,
and ridding the world of nuclear weapons are all
spiritual issues. To live into King's dream
of the Beloved Community, we cannot be put off
by cynicism, distracted by pundits, or diverted
from creating real change.
When
the prophet of peace, Martin Luther King, Jr.,
met death by the gun, communities went up in flames.
It was as if hope too had breathed its last. And
yet, beloved though he may be, the movement for
social change led by King was not about King himself,
but about a common vision shared by Americans
of good conscience and articulated by a fresh,
prophetic voice crying out in a wilderness of
hate.
The
state of our union, crippled by militarism and
burdened by debt, is a challenge that is beginning
to unite Americans around a common vision.
We have awakened to the fact that we are tied
into a common garment of destiny with the rest
of creation. Climate change and poverty, terrorism
and nuclear weapons, genocide and disease are
the great challenges that lie ahead. Life and
death have been placed before us. Courage
and fear. How will we choose to live into
this new year?
Our
message at WAND is the same: redirect excessive
military spending toward unmet human and environmental
needs. But this election year, new opportunities
and possibilities lie in wait.
Below
I have listed a variety of ways that you and your
community of faith can get plugged into the 2008
elections to create real change.
| |
First, make sure you are registered to vote and get the word
out to friends, family, and neighbors, especially
young people and women! (Click on the
icon to the left to register online right
now!) |
