Preaching it

 

I had a camera crew in my living room this afternoon. The two men had driven up to Asheville from Greensboro to film my 3-minute comments for Rev. Dr. Barber's annual Moral March on Raleigh and HKoJ event. Usually this event takes place in Raleigh, but this year it is virtual. As a representative of Veterans for Peace, I was asked to speak for the peace groups in the state. Here's what I said:

Greetings from Asheville, where our Veterans For Peace chapter has joined with environmentalists and other grassroots movements to oppose Raytheon, the 2nd largest defense contractor in the world.

Raytheon’s subsidiary, Pratt & Whitney, has just gotten approval - and financial support - to build a plant that will make engines to power the state-of-the-art F-35 fighter jets. These killing machines are sold and used in conflicts all over the world, and could be used by Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the genocidal war against Yemen.

What’s happening here in Asheville is not unique. The military-industrial complex has sunk its roots into every state and district in this country. North Carolina alone has 8 military bases and over 8,000 defense contractors. Governor Cooper proudly proclaims that we are the most military friendly state in the nation.

So much money is spent on the military in this country. The so-called “defense” budget just passed by Congress was $740.5 billion. That’s over $2 billion per day. It’s more than the defense budgets of the next ten countries combined.

Think of what that money could do if our country were not so driven to conquer the world:

• provide health care, food, and housing rights for all; 
• create jobs for a green economy; 
• invest in the care and education of our children; 
• make reparations for the genocide and slavery upon which this country was founded.
  

But instead we remain addicted to war and militarism. We have a sickness, above and beyond the deadly pandemic we are now experiencing. Its roots are in white male supremacy, something we saw in vivid display in our nation’s capital in January. And its roots are in a ravenous form of capitalism that knows only to take, and not to nurture or give back. And its roots are in a culture of rugged individualism that fails to see that we are all connected on this earth.

What we need to heal this sickness is more empathy, more conscience, more commitment to justice.

What if we truly took the golden rule to heart and treated others as we want to be treated?

What if we cared as much about those on the receiving end of our F-35s as we do about our jobs? If we cared about the homeless and hungry, the imprisoned, the refugees, the ill, the “other” - as much as we care about our own near and dear loved ones and neighbors?

If we all could do that, I think we might stand a chance of getting to a peaceful, just, and sustainable world. What a gift that would be for our children, grandchildren, and generations to come.

May it be so.

Forward Together!