End Human Suffering, Don’t Cause It!

By Bonnie Weinstein

September 24th speech delivered at Dolores Park Assembly Rally on behalf of Bay Area United Against War.

According to Dianne Spearman of the United Nations-sponsored World Food Program, “a principal source of global conflict, chronic hunger, could be cut in half for the comparatively modest sum of $24 billion.”

The war in Iraq alone cost taxpayers over $7 billion a month. And the overall cost of war expenditures in the U.S. is running into the trillions of dollars, yet our government can’t even safely evacuate people from a hurricane.

They ordered millions of people to evacuate Houston, Texas to escape Hurricane Rita. Everyone obeyed and they got caught in a giant traffic jam and ran out of gas without going more than three miles! The world has never seen such incompetence!

They even announced—in the face of this war and these monumental human catastrophes—that they plan to spend $200 billion on a new manned mission to the moon to search for water! And they are spending billions more for “Star Wars”—a project long ago discredited by most of the world’s scientists as useless and dangerous. They do this because these projects give billions in lucrative defense contracts to weapons research, developing and manufacturing corporations and all their spin-offs and cronies including the giant oil industry they rely upon. And all the while they plan to continue to wage war, tear down forests, gouge out the earth and pollute this world’s water supply in search of another way to make a quick buck!

Well, we do not want to see one more dime spent on war and occupation and ridiculous and harmful projects! We are tired of war, corporate welfare, tax cuts for the rich and tax increases for the working poor. We need to turn this around and tax the rich and fund programs for the poor. We need to let this criminal government—run by both Democrats and Republicans who represent the interests of big business—know what our priorities are.

We want our schools rebuilt and hospitals fully staffed. We want healthcare, decent housing and real opportunity for our children. We don’t want to see another child forced into JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps) because they need a Gym class, or forced into the military because they need a job. We need to get rid of JROTC, get the military out of our schools, stop the insanity of this war and bring all the troops home now. We need to use our resources to end human suffering not continue to cause it!

Join with us to demand that the San Francisco Unified School District cut all ties to the military. Those of you who are registered to vote in San Francisco, be sure to vote Yes on College Not Combat Proposition I (www.collegenotcombat.org) on November 8th! Get involved and volunteer your time and skills to help stop this insanity. It will take all of us working together to defeat the warmongers! By working together we can force this beastly government to bring all the troops home now! End the occupation from Iraq to Palestine! And fund human needs not War!

And one more thing, we demand the right of return from Palestine to New Orleans! People have a right to come home after being forcibly displaced, and to have their homes and lives rebuilt! These are the priorities of a world that puts human needs above profit. This is the world we want! H