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Remember King ; Work for Peace and JusticeVeterans For Peace calls on the nation to celebrate the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today by learning from his legacy and heeding his words. As peacemakers and justice seekers we believe it is not enough to honor Dr. King by applauding gains our nation has made toward fulfilling is dream. We must also acknowledge that we have fallen far short of his vision of peace and justice and take action to achieve it. This year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the nation will witness an event that both symbolize great strides towards King’s dream as well as his worst fears for the country. While the inauguration of Barack Obama, the first black president for a second term, is a realization in part of King’s dream, it’s distorted into a nightmare by the United States’ wars around the globe, for which the President is responsible. Dr. King wrote that he watched his dream run into a nightmare when he witnessed people perishing on lonely islands of poverty, while surrounded by vast prosperity. We see this today with millions of people out of work, many homeless and hungry, while corporations make record profits and wealth and income gaps soar. He saw the dream turn to a nightmare watching the war in Vietnam escalate; ensuring that more lives were needlessly lost and resources wasted that could have been used to remedy suffering of those in need. We see this today as the nation faces huge budget deficits with calls to cut Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and other human services all the while politicians zealously protect war funding as if sacrosanct. Dr. King tells us that war is obsolete, explaining that the destructive power of modern weapons eliminates the possibility that war serves as a “negative good.” We witness this today in the killing of thousands of innocent people, many of them children, in bombings and drone attacks and in the twisted and broken bodies and minds of the combatants. King had a dream of racial equality and a country free of bigotry, but he also had a dream of peace and justice. He challenged us to transform the United States into a better place and he warned us to change our values. He called on our nation to, “…abolish not only the evils of racism but the scourge of poverty of whites as well as Negroes, and the horrors of war that transcend national borders and involve all mankind.” In Dr. King’s own words, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” After over a decade of war, record Pentagon spending, rising economic inequality and a deep recession throwing millions of people into poverty, this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday we call on the nation to remember that King was a champion of peace and justice who detested war in all its manifestations and died while working for economic justice for sanitation workers. We call on President Barrack Obama to honor the man who died making his dream of being President of the United States possible. We call on the president to turn away from targeted assassinations, drone attacks and all manner of waging war. We call on him to protect the least of our people, and champion poor and working class people. We call on President Obama to heed Dr. King’s warning and pull the nation back from the abyss of spiritual death. Submitted by Michael McPhearson, VFP Board Member Bruce Gagnon, Veteran member of VFP Chapter 001 in Auburn ME and Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space recent insights on Bringing War Dollars Home was featured on OpEdNews website. |
VFP Action AlertsSign the Petition to President Obama and Congress asking for Jobs Not Wars December 4, 2012 Sign the Petition asking U.S. Attorney General to stop threatening two veterans and a nun with 50 years in prison for challenging nuclear weapons December 3, 2012 Sign the Petition to Ban Weaponized Drones: Plea from Brian Terrell November 30, 2012 Sign Roots Action petition to Insist that potential recruits be told the whole story before they sign on the dotted line and put their lives at risk. November 28, 2012 Sign the open letter to President Obama and Congress to Call for Support for a Nuclear Free Middle East November 27, 2012 Sign the petition, To Stand With Father Roy November 26, 2012 Sign the petition, Preserve 1st Amendment Rights of drone protestors outside of Hancock Field Air National Guard Base. November 12, 2012 Sign the DU petition: Stop Blocking International Action on Depleted Uranium Weapons! News from VFP
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CalendarJan 11 - Day of Action Against Guantánamo! Jan 20 - Arc of Justice led by members of Stop These Wars in Washington, DC Feb 10 - Deadline for Howard Zinn Fund Applications Mar 17 - Mar 26, 2013 - SOA Delegation to El Salvador Mar 22 - Apr 1, 2013 - Delegation to Colombia led by Alliance for Global Justice Apr 17 - Apr 23, 2013 - SOA Delegation to Paraguay Apr 18 - May 2, 2013 - Annual VFP Tour to Viet Nam May 19 - May 27, 2013 - SOA Delegation to US Border/Mexico Aug 6 - 11, 2013 - VFP National Convention in Madison, WI rHelp VFP As You Shop by Using Links Below |
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