Email I Received from Voters for Peace

ITEM: And I got an email from VotersForPeace. I agree with the bulk of this but if you're going to have a war let's have one against a group that blows up schools for girls.

Dear PHILIP,

This weekend there were successful anti-war demonstrations around the country, especially in Washington, DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles to mark the anniversary of the Iraq invasion. If you participated thank you for doing so. You can see an article and video about the events at http://votersforpeace.us/press/index.php?itemid=1237.

Another set of national demonstrations are coming up on April 3^rd and 4^th in New York City. The demonstrations, "Beyond War a New Economy is Possible," commemorate the April 4, 1967 speech Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave on Vietnam. The legacy of Dr. King and the "Beyond Vietnam" speech will be honored with an urgent call for a new direction by marching on the financial capital of the country: Wall Street. They are sponsored by United for Peace and Justice and the Bailout the People Movement.

This is an opportunity to not only highlight the human cost of war, but also the economic impact of war. The U.S. is currently spending $12 billion each month on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. King linked war and the economy in 1967 when he said that he knew "America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube." Similarly, the United States will recognize that the current wars and overblown military budget make it impossible to invest the funds needed to rebuild the U.S. economy.

The demands of this demonstration are to not only end these wars and bring the troops home, but also to dramatically reduce military spending and invest in the necessities of the American people. There is no justification for the immense U.S. military budget which is equal to the entire world combined especially at a time when the United States and much of the world are facing economic collapse.

On Friday, April 3, United For Peace and Justice will join Bail Out the People's program on Wall Street. On Saturday, April 4, Bail Out the People Movement will gather on Wall Street and join United For Peace and Justice's March on Wall Street that will end at Battery Park. More information is available at: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=4027. There you can find information on transportation, the schedule of events, volunteering as well as fliers you can use to promote the event.

At a time when the administration is escalating the war in Afghanistan, increasing attacks in Pakistan and withdrawing from Iraq at a slow pace that will take as long as all of World War I, and when the administration is bailing out Wall Street while the rest of America suffers, it is important for people to stand together to oppose the dual crisis of U.S. militarism and Wall Street economics.

Sincerely,

Kevin B. Zeese

Executive Director