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WRITE ON: Progressive News for Northern Michigan Issue 3 May 2003 |
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| Local Links Marquette Citizens for Peace and Justice Northwoods Wilderness Recovery State, National and International Links
Write On Issues May
We would like to thank everyone who read the previous issue of Write On. Write On needs funding and articles on subjects that interest you. If you or your group would like to help us cover the costs of printing, $60 for 175 copies, please let us know either by telephone or by email. This assistance is needed if you would like to continue reading this newsletter. Articles for Write On should be no more than 600 words. Please send any questions, comments, upcoming events, or article submissions to writeonup@yahoo.com or call 228-2962. Look for the next issue of Write On in these locations: PWPL, Emma Joe's, Food Co-op, Sweetwater Café and others
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We are providing this monthly publication to inform our neighbors of news affecting the people of Northern Michigan. This newsletter will consider such subjects as environmentalism, social justice, and local activism, which do not receive adequate coverage in other media outlets. Table of Contents What Cost War? Marcus Robyns Focus on a Peacemaker: Jane Addams Kim Donaldson Health Care: A Peace Dividend? Rich Bourgeois Depleted Uranium Fact Sheet Gail Griffith Get the Department of Peace Bill out of Committee COWI Evolves into Citizens for Peace and Justice Ryan Backlund ACLU Action Alert: Support proper solutions to national security issues! From: Matt Howes, National Internet Organizer, ACLU
Dennis Kucinich: The
Progressive Democrat
What Cost War? Marcus Robyns The greatest cost of war, of course, is the loss of human life. We will probably never know the full extent of loss and suffering we have inflicted upon the Iraqi people, since our corporate controlled media will no doubt work assiduously to protect and promote its puppet in the White House. As former President Jimmy Carter recently said, “War is always a catastrophe.” Indeed, the war with Iraq is a catastrophe of unspeakable violence, bald-faced arrogance, and heartbreaking loss in human life and potential. We are all to blame for this disaster and for allowing an illegitimate president and his handlers to bring our country to this travesty. The cost of this war is immeasurable, yet some consequences are all too easy to count. First, the United States is once again an occupying power, and our military is now undeniably a mercenary force for multi-national corporations. Our people account for 3 percent of the world’s population, yet we consume nearly 30 percent of the world’s oil. Do not delude yourselves; this war was fought for control of Iraq’s oil resources. Denied lucrative oil contracts by Hussein in favor of French and Russia multi-nationals, U.S. and British multi-national oil corporations will now enjoy clear access to Iraqi oil under the protection of the U.S. military. Recent news from international sources confirms that the U.S. will construct an oil pipeline from Iraq to feed the needs of Israel and open a conduit for Iraqi oil to the Mediterranean, a project sought after by the U.S. since 1985. We must ask ourselves, “What will the demands of this new empire do to our society and culture?” Are we philosophically close to the concepts of “lebensraum” or “volksgeist”? Second, as our schools lay off teachers, our healthcare deteriorates to third world levels, and the rich get richer, the Bush regime has pushed the military budget over $400 billion per year, $70 billion more than two years ago and 13 percent higher than the average during the Cold War. Spending on the military now accounts for 56 percent of the federal government’s non-trust fund (social security) general budget. Conversely, the government spends only 15 percent on healthcare and education. War has become a priority and death and destruction a national past-time. Third, our civil liberties are under merciless assault and our Constitution threatened by an imperial presidency occupied by a moron and managed by tyrants. We now have the despicable Patriot Act and the forthcoming Patriot II, a nasty piece of legislation that will essentially allow the government to arrest anyone for anti-government activity. This proto-fascist state is sneaking up on us very quickly. Fourth, the war has accelerated the decline and irrelevance of our political system. The democrats’ abdication of their role as an opposition party, confirmed by their acquiescence to an undeclared war, has opened the door to a zealous, ruthless, antidemocratic, and an imperialist ideology that only represents the needs of multi-national corporations. Government officials, and the institutions they represent, are bought and paid for and the electorate is manipulated and deceived by a corporate dominated media. In the next few issues of Write-On, I would like to explore in greater depth each of the above costs of this “war” with Iraq. However, I would also like to consider in detail what should be our response as progressives to these problems. How can we confront and defeat our government’s drive toward empire and a totalitarian state? To this end, I welcome your comments and ideas. Send comments to writeonup@yahoo.com Focus on a Peacemaker: Jane Addams Kim Donaldson Jane Addams (1860-1935) was an activist, community builder, writer, political lobbyist and peacemaker. Not only did she serve the poor of her Chicago community through Hull House, but she acted on the root causes of the poverty and sickness that she saw in the Chicago slums. Hull House, the settlement house in Chicago co-founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Starr, offered services to their neighborhood, such as kindergarten and daycare facilities for children of working mothers, an employment bureau, an art gallery, libraries, music and art classes, meeting space for union organizing, a Labor Museum and the first Little Theater in America. Residents of the Hull House encouraged the passage of state legislation to protect women and children in labor and education, housing and sanitation codes, workplace safety, immigrant rights and more. During World War I, Addams participated in the International Congress of Women at The Hague (1915) to protest against the war, to suggest ways to end it and to prevent war in the future. Out of this congress came the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) with Jane Addams as the first president. WILPF still works to achieve, through peaceful means, world disarmament, full rights for women, racial and economic justice, an end to all forms of violence, and to establish those political, social, and psychological conditions which can assure peace, freedom, and justice for all. WILPF's foremothers rejected the theory that war was inevitable and defied all obstacles to their plan to meet together in wartime. Jane Addams wrote
prolifically on her experiences and interests related to Hull-House and
peace issues and traveled on speaking tours with income from her work
supporting Hull House activities. Adams was also a strong supporter of
the founding of organizations such as the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (1909) and the American Civil Liberties
Union (1920). The seeds of peacemaking and service to the poor that Jane
Addams planted in her lifetime continue to grow and flourish. Health Care: A Peace Dividend? Rich Bourgeois Health care in America is a problem of hot debate leading up to the coming 2004 presidential election. It is unjust and inefficient. It costs too much, covers too little, and excludes too many. As the economy deteriorates, it is rapidly getting worse. The United States spends almost double on health care expenses per person than any other nation and is the only western democracy that does not guarantee health care for all its people. The following problems exist 1. The rising number of uninsured - 41.2 million lacked insurance for the all of 2001. An increase of 1.4 million over 2000. This is 14.6 per cent of the total US population. 70 million or 30 per cent lacked health insurance for a part of the year 200l. 2. Skyrocketing health care costs - $ 1.4 trillion spent in 2001. Costs are increasing at an average of 11 percent, making health insurance less affordable. Average yearly premium cost currently is estimated at $ 3000 for individuals and $ 7000 for family coverage. 3. Persistent racial and ethnic health disparities exist - Hispanic and black and Asian minorities total 21.5 million (53 %) and whites 19.4 million (47 %) of the uninsured. 4. 80% of the uninsured are from working families and more than half are in families that earn low wages - and do not quality for Medicaid. 5. Prescription drugs - prices substantially exceed the cost of the same drugs in other countries where price limits are negotiated. 6. Private and employer based health insurance is unreliable. Private insurers can deny coverage. Employers often can not afford insurance or drop coverage or raise employee contributions. 7. Uninsured Americans - live sicker and die younger (estimated at 18000 per year) - due to a lack of preventive and early health coverage. Conclusion to problem - all Americans should have the right to equal and quality health care and prescription drugs. Medicare should be expanded to cover the uninsured needs in a single payer, public financed, national health insurance system which will have far lower overhead costs than private insurance. Added coverage for the uninsured can be funded by a peace dividend - a cut back in excessive military spending - and the reversal of tax cuts for the wealthy (top 5 %). Depleted Uranium Fact Sheet Gail Griffith Depleted uranium (DU) is radioactive, toxic, carcinogenic, and causes genetic damage. It is a by-product of uranium enrichment for nuclear weapons and energy production. DU is used militarily in armor-piercing munitions, bombs and missiles because of its density and the fact that is explodes on impact to form shrapnel and fine dust. About 300 metric tons of DU munitions were used in Iraq in Gulf War I, and an estimated 1000 tons were used in Gulf War II, where it remains in the environment. Its radioactive half-life is 4.5 billion years. Many citizens of Iraq and our Gulf War veterans have experienced health-related problems that many say are related to DU exposure. These include increased rates of cancers, leukemia, and birth deformities. DU exposures have occurred in U.S. factories producing DU munitions and their communities, and at firing ranges where DU weapons were tested. No comprehensive studies of health effects of DU on Iraqi citizens or Gulf War veterans have been done. The government has adopted a “don’t look, don’t find” policy. U.S. Representative Jim McDermott of Washington, a physician, introduced a bill in March 2003 called the Depleted Uranium Munitions Study Act of 2003, H.R. 1483, to mandate studies of health effects, environmental contamination, and cleanup requirements for DU. You can help by signing a petition with Citizens for Peace and Justice addressed to Representative Bart Stupak urging him to co-sponsor and support or contact him concerning it. Representative Bart Stupak, Michigan 1st district 2352 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 Phone: (202) 225 4735 Fax: (202) 225 4744 Get the Department of Peace Bill out of Committee On April 8, this year, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and 47 co-sponsors introduced a bill to the house that would establish a cabinet level department of peace on only 1% of the Pentagon's budget. HR 1673 was referred to the Committee on Government Reform, as well as to the Committees on International Relations, the Judiciary, and Education and the Workforce. This could be the end of this hopeful bill if the Chairmen of each committee don't find reason to discuss it further. If you would like to see our country working actively towards Peace, please contact the chairmen of these committees. If you need more information on the bill, email writeonup@yahoo.com and the last month's article can be emailed to you. Education and the Workforce: John A Boehner- OH, 1011 Longworth HOB, Judiciary: F. James Sensenbrenner-WI, 2138 Rayburn HOB, International Relations: Henry J. Hyde-IL, 2110 Rayburn HOB, Government Reform: Tom Davis - VA, 2157 Rayburn HOB, Washington, D. C. 20515 COWI Evolves into Citizens for Peace and Justice Ryan Backlund Since the end of the "official" war on Iraq, the dozens of people that made up Citizens Opposed to a War on Iraq in the Marquette area have decided that they want to keep their energy and activism alive with a broader focus. The group will be called Citizens for Peace and Justice. Instead of meeting every Wednesday evening, meetings will be on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month at 7pm at Messiah Lutheran Church in Marquette. CPJ will continue their vigils for peace on Saturdays from 11:30am-12:30 in front of the Marquette Post Office. The group will still be working on issues surrounding the destruction and rebuilding of Iraq, especially encouraging UN leadership in the work. Citizens for Peace and Justice will also work to educate our community on militarism versus non-violent political change, our own losses of civil rights in the United States, and ways to work towards and achieve a lasting peace in our world. CPJ is planning a gathering of peace activists from across the Upper Peninsula in a weekend retreat this summer to share ideas, inspiration and information in the Upper Peninsula For more information, come to a meeting, meet us on Saturdays mornings or email kimdonaldson@hotmail.com. ACLU Action Alert: Support proper solutions to national security issues! From: Matt Howes, National Internet Organizer, ACLU Congress will soon be voting on legislation that would significantly infringe on privacy rights without making us any safer from terrorism. The Congressional investigation by the House and Senate intelligence committees into the September 11 attacks uncovered a number of serious, structural breakdowns in the intelligence community. But instead of taking action to address the real failures in the national intelligence services, several Members of Congress have proposed legislation that would give the government new, unprecedented spying powers and significantly infringe on the privacy rights protected by the Fourth Amendment. Congress needs to address the real national security issues -- not adopt false solutions that violate Constitutional rights. For more information on other issues and the latest news, please visit our website at http://www.aclu.org
Dennis Kucinich: The
Progressive Democrat
I began my career in public life in 1967. I’ve been a councilman, a mayor, a state senator, and now a congressman. As a candidate for President, I offer a different vision for America, one which separates me from the other candidates. I am the only candidate for President who will take this country away from fear and war and tax giveaways, and use America’s peace dividend for guaranteed health care for all, ending health care for profit. I am the only candidate who will stop the privatization of Social Security and bring the retirement age back to 65. As President, I will cancel NAFTA and the WTO, resolve our manufacturing jobs, save our family farms, create full employment programs, and create new jobs by rebuilding our cities and schools. As President, I will repeal the Patriot Act to regain for all Americans the sacred right of privacy in our homes, our libraries, our schools. This is a grassroots campaign to take back America. Join me from your cities, your towns, your farms, and our campuses. Let’s take back America for the people. |