To show or to not show ... our hand
Yesterday, a conservative woman, frustrated with government spending and watching the debt for her children grow and grow, emailed and asked us to join them at the “tea parties” the right has been throwing to protest government spending.
Prior to receiving her email, I myself recommended we find the common ground with these fiscal conservatives (republican right wingers too) as their mission could be construed similar to ours: the ways in which our taxes are being spent.
But where conservatives do not want our taxes to be spent on ‘handouts’ for the poor, we don’t want them to be spent on ‘bailouts’ for the rich. Where conservatives don’t want our taxes to be spent on making health care, education, a better quality of life available and accessible for EVERYONE especially those who such things have always been out of reach and denied, we don’t want our taxes to be spent on war, occupation, the military industrial complex.
But we have common ground: STOP SPENDING our tax money and our children’s future… and then it gets shaky.
So I took a chance and wrote Becky back:
Thank you for your kind words and positive invitation! We appreciate and also seek our common grounds!
Those of us who are able will certainly join you - we know where the majority of our taxes are going to - and, as you say, it is NOT to our children, to our health care system, to taking care of us.
But it is debt to the military and every corporation that is profiting off the military.
54 cents out of EVERY dollar we pay the government goes to the military and its debt, which is why our priority is to CUT FUNDS to military spending.
Like you, we do NOT want to live in a nation that puts billions of dollars into making weapons (weapons manufacturers wealthy), spreading wars, hurting people especially women and children disproportionately.
AND we do not want to live in a nation that spends billions 'bailing out' the wealthiest people in this country while the poorest are suffering so much and everyone else's children are being severely neglected.
Many nations around the world are able to provide for their children, their elders, not to mention their environment, without resorting to spending 54% of their funds on war.
In fact, we as a nation, spend MORE on the military than EVERY SINGLE nation in the world COMBINED! it's outrageous!
If we care nothing about the people of Iraq, of Afghanistan, of Pakistan, or even our own youth that are coming back from 'combat' and killing themselves at a rate over twice that of non-combat youth - even if we care nothing about the human and environmental costs of the military, we MUST care about allowing 54% of our money to support such things.
THAT is the BIGGEST drain on our funds. THAT is why we join you, not to stop the trickles here and there of government spending, but to stop the torrent of military spending.
Prior to receiving her email, I myself recommended we find the common ground with these fiscal conservatives (republican right wingers too) as their mission could be construed similar to ours: the ways in which our taxes are being spent.
But where conservatives do not want our taxes to be spent on ‘handouts’ for the poor, we don’t want them to be spent on ‘bailouts’ for the rich. Where conservatives don’t want our taxes to be spent on making health care, education, a better quality of life available and accessible for EVERYONE especially those who such things have always been out of reach and denied, we don’t want our taxes to be spent on war, occupation, the military industrial complex.
But we have common ground: STOP SPENDING our tax money and our children’s future… and then it gets shaky.
So I took a chance and wrote Becky back:
Thank you for your kind words and positive invitation! We appreciate and also seek our common grounds!
Those of us who are able will certainly join you - we know where the majority of our taxes are going to - and, as you say, it is NOT to our children, to our health care system, to taking care of us.
But it is debt to the military and every corporation that is profiting off the military.
54 cents out of EVERY dollar we pay the government goes to the military and its debt, which is why our priority is to CUT FUNDS to military spending.
Like you, we do NOT want to live in a nation that puts billions of dollars into making weapons (weapons manufacturers wealthy), spreading wars, hurting people especially women and children disproportionately.
AND we do not want to live in a nation that spends billions 'bailing out' the wealthiest people in this country while the poorest are suffering so much and everyone else's children are being severely neglected.
Many nations around the world are able to provide for their children, their elders, not to mention their environment, without resorting to spending 54% of their funds on war.
In fact, we as a nation, spend MORE on the military than EVERY SINGLE nation in the world COMBINED! it's outrageous!
If we care nothing about the people of Iraq, of Afghanistan, of Pakistan, or even our own youth that are coming back from 'combat' and killing themselves at a rate over twice that of non-combat youth - even if we care nothing about the human and environmental costs of the military, we MUST care about allowing 54% of our money to support such things.
THAT is the BIGGEST drain on our funds. THAT is why we join you, not to stop the trickles here and there of government spending, but to stop the torrent of military spending.
posted by Xan @ 9:15 AM
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