Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King Jr.

We do remember that you said this:

"This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." — MLK

Vigils Against War Funding to Be Held at Congressional Offices Nationwide

As the country celebrates the life of Martin Luther King on January 18, Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) will launch on January 20 the Brown Bag Lunch Vigils to be held every third Wednesday each month. The vigils are an expansion of their Healthcare NOT Warfare campaign.

With the White House having just announced its intention of requesting another record military budget ($708 billion, not including military budgets in the Departments of State and Energy or the CIA) and another war supplemental ($33 billion), it is appropriate that the first lunchtime vigils will take place immediately following Martin Luther King Day.

Colorful vigils and pickets are already planned in many congressional districts, including the following, with others being added: AZ-3, AZ-5, CA-6, CA-22, CA-23, CA-48, FL-10, FL-17, MA-2, MI-9, OH-13, OH-17, PA-7, WA-2, WA-6, WI-3, WI-7. More details are available about each location online: http://tinyurl.com/brownbagvigil

PDA  is asking members of the House to publicly commit to voting “No” on any bills that fund wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Yemen, and to publicly urge their colleagues and the House leadership to make the same commitment. As lesser steps in the same direction, PDA is encouraging congress members to cosponsor HR 2454, calling for an exit strategy from Afghanistan, and HR 3699, prohibiting any increase in the number of U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan.

$33 Billion More for Wars? Hell No!

2010: Obama wants yet another $33 billion for wars.

If the U.S. House of Representatives votes No on war funding, war ends.  Wars have been ended this way before.

A majority of the full House is 218. 

In June 2009, 202 voted No but most of them had unrelated motivations.

In December 2009, 34 voted No.  We should reward them. 

Here’s a flyer on ending the war in Afghanistan: PDF.  Here’s how to step up your activism.  Here’s what’s needed instead of bombs and guns.  Here’s a way to nonviolently resist. You should build a campaign in your state like this one in Maine.  Join midday vigils in front of every congressional office in the country on the 3rd Wednesday of the month: sign up.

Facts you can use: A report from the National Priorities Project (PDF) contains on pages 23 and 24 documentation of how investing in military reduces jobs and hurts economy.  Get cost of war to your area here, but multiply it by five. Get cost of military contracts to your area here.  Where U.S. public opinion is.

Try an AVATAR Awakening.

Track every congress member’s commitment to blocking war funding at http://defundwar.org
 
 

Protest Murderous CIA Drones, and March to Cheney’s House to Arrest Him