“Let’s Spend On Living”

I am a strong supporter of the referendum! Already voted YES.

Peace advocacy deserves more respect and visibility.
It's time to stop endless wars and to start working in support of life.

Imagine a world where there were no wars that the USA was involved in, and instead of interfering in black and brown communities around the world, the US military rebuilt bridges, fixed roads, rebuilt schools, installed flood prevention measures to protect us from floods created by global warming, planted trees to help reverse global warming, fight fires caused by global warming, cleaned up and remediated contaminated land and water sources, built solar and wind farms to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, replaced aging water and sewer pipes for clean and safe water in communities, rehabbed and remodeled abandoned and empty properties for low income and affordable housing, created community gardens and parks and playgrounds and community centers in poor communities, created community health and mental health and addiction treatment clinics in every community, and created and ran quality head start, daycares, before and after school programs in communities of need, and built factories that would produce what America needs while providing high paying jobs right here in our country instead of overseas, and made quality community colleges and trade and technical schools free to anyone who wanted to improve their education and get trained for a job that is in a field that our country needs workers in. Imagine a world where instead of sending our young people off to interfere in other countries and police the world, we would send out teams to build hospitals, schools, remove land mines, build bridges and roads, build solar and wind farms and clean water and sewer treatment infrastructure, create food farms that maximize food output while minimizing the environmental impact and water use so that the whole world could be free from want and could reduce their impact on global warming. Imagine a world where America is seen as a welcome world community helper, not a war mongering colonizer.

This is a just a distraction. Instead of having meaningless resolutions, we should focus on electing competent officials with positive agendas. This may make the peace commission feel good, but it accomplishes nothing.

What New Haven is doing in pushing to stop funding weapons and wars is indeed being picked up in cities across the country. Our Congressional representatives refuse to discuss the biggest chunk of the budget they vote on every year. The presidential candidates refuse to discuss it. And it's because the Military Industrial Complex that President Eisenhower warned us about controls Congress. It's because politicians deny the fact that we have a national industrial policy - killing fellow human beings. They brag about the jobs created for building weapons of mass slaughter, but always fail to acknowledge that they could create even more jobs with the same amount of money - building a peaceful green economy with high speed rail, sustainable electricity generation, energy efficient buildings and millions of local jobs creating all of this. Congress fails to recognize that militarizing our economy means militarizing our society, turning our police into an occupying force in certain communities and encouraging use of weapons: The US solves international problems by invading, threatening and killing, why shouldn't people do the same at home? If we're going to get the so-called representative to represent us, not the billionaires and weapons makers, we have to speak out loud and clear. Vote YES. And tell your members of Congress now.