Our parish has been asked to sign on to a community letter to get our city and county elected officials to put pressure on our federal representatives to bring war dollars home to meet local needs. Betsy Crites, with Durham Peace Action, is working with representatives of a number of local groups including David Harris of the Inter-Neighborhood Council, Ray Erquhart, Spencer Bradford of DCIA and several IC parishioners.
The first part of the plan is to ask city council and county commissioners to pass resolutions calling for this and to ask our Durham legislative delegation to write letters to Sens. Burr and Hagan, and our Durham representatives. I am attaching a copy of the draft resolution, the letter from concerned constituents (us) and a vividly descriptive flyer from NC Peace Action. The letter needs signatories from all parts of our community. The deadline for signatures is July 7. Once the letters have gone out and our representatives have had a chance to respond, a town hall meeting is planned for September. There are no details available yet.
I encourage parishioners to review this letter and to consider signing on individually after Masses over the next two weekends. Sign-on sheets will be available at the Stewardship Table.
I'm also aware that there differing moral stances .... I encourage those with differing points of view to share those in response.
Here is the letter:
TO: Members of the Durham City Council and Mayor Bill Bell
Members of the Durham County Commissioners
TO: Representatives Paul Luebke, Larry Hall, W.A. Wilkins, Mickey Michaux, and Senators Floyd McKissick and Bob Atwater
CC: Tom Bonfield, Durham City Manager
We greet you with sincere appreciation for the labors of public service you have undertaken. As your constituents we bring to you our concerns regarding the values represented in the current budgeting process both at the state and federal levels.
As we write, the state General Assembly has just overridden the governor's veto on the budget. The resulting cuts or elimination of jobs and vital services in education, health, environmental protection, and other areas will affect us all. Local government officials, along with faith communities, support agencies, and non-profits are struggling to fill the gap, trying to save the institutions and programs that are vital to a free society and a decent life for our citizens.
At the federal level, total military spending and wars consume over half the discretionary spending. This affects choices made in North Carolina. According to the National Priorities Project, North Carolina taxpayers' share of the military budget in 2012 will be $15 Billion.
Taxpayers in Durham’s 4th Congressional District have paid $3.6 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. The proposed FY 2011 cost of these wars, again JUST TO OUR DISTRICT, is $478.6 million. With that huge sum we could have provided:
- 9,200 Elementary school teachers for one year –or-
- 86,226 Students with Pell grants of $5,550 –or-
- 88,901 Low-income people with healthcare for one year –or-å
- 85,077 Scholarships for university students for one year –or-
- 68,807 Veterans with VA medical care for one year
The undersigned represent a broad range of your constituents who come together on the need to reset our priorities.
Will you join us in urging our leaders at the federal level, including 4th District U.S. Representative David Price, Senator Kay Hagan, Senator Richard Burr, and President Barak Obama, to support or introduce legislation that will bring the war dollars home and fund the needs of our district, state, and nation?
Specifically we ask you to (pass a resolution / send a letter to them) stating that our country can no longer sustain extravagant military spending at the expense of our vital domestic interests. We must bring end the war in Afghanistan/Pakistan and the occupation of Iraq as soon as possible.
Enclosed is a draft resolution for your consideration and a brief summary of the trade-offs for North Carolina of the war in Afghanistan. We welcome your immediate response.
Draft Resolution Text:
A resolution of the city council of Durham, NC calling upon
the US government and President Obama to Bring Our War Dollars Home Now
Whereas, the economic collapse has exhausted the financial resources at the local,
county, state and federal levels of the US; and
Whereas, the US government has spent well over 1 trillion dollars nationally on the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 (with North Carolina taxpayers’ share of that total at $32.2 billion, and North Carolina’s share of the 2012 overall military budget estimated at $15 billion); and
Whereas, over 6,000 US troops have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and more than 40,000 wounded, with thousands more succumbing to trauma or suicide; and
Whereas, hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have damaged U.S. credibility as an advocate for human rights, created a resource of recruitment for enemies of the U.S., and generated social and political instability and civil conflicts that cannot be solved by ongoing military action; and
A resolution of the city council of Durham, NC calling upon
the US government and President Obama to Bring Our War Dollars Home Now
Whereas, the economic collapse has exhausted the financial resources at the local,
county, state and federal levels of the US; and
Whereas, the US government has spent well over 1 trillion dollars nationally on the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 (with North Carolina taxpayers’ share of that total at $32.2 billion, and North Carolina’s share of the 2012 overall military budget estimated at $15 billion); and
Whereas, over 6,000 US troops have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and more than 40,000 wounded, with thousands more succumbing to trauma or suicide; and
Whereas, hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have damaged U.S. credibility as an advocate for human rights, created a resource of recruitment for enemies of the U.S., and generated social and political instability and civil conflicts that cannot be solved by ongoing military action; and
Whereas, billions of taxpayer dollars are spent to prop up repressive regimes in the Middle East and elsewhere around the world; and
Whereas, educational services, medical care, housing, other essential public services, infrastructure repair, and family financing throughout North Carolina, especially in cities such as Durham, have been diverted from a constructive economy to these wars and occupations, and
Whereas, budget deficits, largely due to war spending, have been used as a pretext to force reductions in funding for essential public services, including early childhood education, education at elementary and secondary levels, public universities and scholarships for low-income students, mental health services and low-income health care access, affordable housing support and homelessness prevention, and voter registration and education programs; and
Whereas, educational services, medical care, housing, other essential public services, infrastructure repair, and family financing throughout North Carolina, especially in cities such as Durham, have been diverted from a constructive economy to these wars and occupations, and
Whereas, budget deficits, largely due to war spending, have been used as a pretext to force reductions in funding for essential public services, including early childhood education, education at elementary and secondary levels, public universities and scholarships for low-income students, mental health services and low-income health care access, affordable housing support and homelessness prevention, and voter registration and education programs; and
Whereas, 2010 census data shows that in North Carolina one out of every 4 children goes to bed hungry,
Be it resolved that the city council of Durham calls upon the US government and President Obama to end the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring our war dollars home now.
Now be it further resolved, that the City Council of Durham endorse and encourage informational events regarding the cost of the wars and occupations to our community.
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