Published in the Wisconsin State Journal

Jean Sweet: U.S. should fund social needs, not war

Dear Editor: I remember the horrors of World War II when my fiance served in the army in the Pacific. He fought in the battle of Okinawa but it took 50 years before he could write his war memoir. During the Vietnam War, I demonstrated in Madison and wrote protest letters to Washington. As Another Mother for Peace, I wore a medallion reading: “War Is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things” and will wear it until the wars end. In January 2003, our family organized the full-page newspaper ads of lists of names of people who had signed the “Not in Our Name” Statement of Conscience.

March 19 and 20 will mark almost a decade of war in Afghanistan and eighth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq with protests in Madison and every state. In a recent column, journalist Amy Goodman wrote: “The U.S. is spending $2 billion a week in Afghanistan alone. That’s about $104 billion a year. ... Compare that with the state budget shortfalls. ... The math is simple: The money should be poured back into the states, rather than into a state of war.”

There is change in the air. Journalist Robert Koehler wrotes about the change in Egypt and Madison: “Maybe what we’re witnessing is the end of passive citizenship, at least as something the military-industrial status quo can count on. And maybe, in this country, the defense of public sector union jobs is just the beginning, to be followed by demands for a defunding of our wars, which radiate suffering in all directions, and a redirection of spending into education, health care, infrastructure and other programs that serve the common good.”

Todd Dennis, local president of the Iraq Veterans Against the War, calls on veterans and peace organizations to mobilize in Madison March 19 , at 10 a.m. at Library Mall to stand in solidarity with workers organizing for their rights. “Under the guise of budget crisis, these and other politicians throughout the country are attempting to undo the hard-won union rights of the American people. Yet, these same politicians continue to reach deep into the pockets of working people to finance the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while sending our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters, off to fight them. It is time for us to start connecting the dots between endless war abroad and the erosion of our rights and public goods here at home.”

Jean Sweet

Madison