War Resister Statistics for Education

Compiled by Frida Berrigan, Senior Research Associate, World Policy Institute

April 11, 2003 - President Bush asked Congress for $75 billion to pay the initial costs of the war in Iraq.

For the same amount of money, we could hire 1,155,715 Elementary School Teachers to educate Americas children

Five days of war in Iraq = Eliminate illiteracy world wide

($1.1 billion) ($5 billion, World
Game Institute)

2.8 hours of war in Iraq = Nutrition supplements for 200,000 eligible families not

($45.8 million per hour) covered ($130 million, CBPP)

1 minute of war in Iraq = Headstart Education for 115 children

($763,000 a minute) ($6,633 per child, National Priorities Project)

1 second of war in Iraq = Twice what U.S. spends per year, per child

($12,730 per second) in primary education ($6,043, Digest of Ed. Stats)

For more information: Center for Budget and Policy Priorities http://www.cbpp.org/

Guest Column about Julia Ward Howe originally appeared in the Bloomington Herald-Times, May 2002
by Denise Breeden-Ost

"Howe did not exhort moms to put their feet up, daughters and sons to buy greeting cards."

In 1870, Julia Ward Howe invented Mother's Day. Or did she? Howe might not recognize her "Mothers' Day for Peace" in 2002. Here is Howe's "Mother's Day Proclamation": Read

May 12, 2003
Hon. Richard G. Lugar
1180 Market Tower
10 West Market Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Dear Senator Luger:

It was a privilege to hear your Commencement address at Indiana University. I would also like to express my appreciation for Chip Sinders's kindness in meeting with Bret Davis and me. We admire your receptivity to constituent concern, and we are grateful for the efforts of Chip, Lesley, and Ken to listen to diverse opinions. Read

Grace News

By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

The U.S. government this week launched its Arabic language satellite TV news station for Muslim Iraq.

It is being produced in a studio -- Grace Digital Media -- controlled by
fundamentalist Christians who are rabidly pro-Israel. Read

I'm back home and safe--here's one more story from Palestine, Starhawk

Next year in Mas¹Ha
By Starhawk

On the eve of Passover, after a month I spent in the occupied territories of Palestine working with the International Solidarity movment, a month that saw one of our people deliberately run over by a bulldozer driven by an Israeli soldier, ...
Read

Ice Mountain on Trial
by michigan IMC

May 2003Modified: 05/16 09:46 EST
The fight against water privatization continues in Mecosta County, Michigan. There, the citizens group Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation is engaged in a legal battle with Ice Mountain Water, alleging that the bottling plant violaties Michigan's public trust principles. MCWC lawyers argue that Michigan's public lakes and streams are entrusted as a common good to the people of the state, and can therefore not be sold for profit. Read

U.S.: Bush Expands the Infrastructure of a Police State
By Patrick Martin
5 May 2003

While claiming democracy and freedom as the goal of its invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Bush administration is moving step by step to restrict freedom and undermine democracy at home, building up the infrastructure of a police state with essentially unlimited powers to spy on, interrogate and arrest American citizens. Read

by Kellie Gasink
On July 3, cities around the country will hold National Public Hearings to Repeal the Patriot Act.
On July 3, cities around the country will sponsor independent public hearings called by the National Coalition to Repeal the Patriot Act. I would like the folks in each city to select a liason to work with me because I will be working through ALL the steps to make these a successful public hearings with all the cities that choose to hold public hearings. Read

Repro Choice: Oppose the Unborn Victims of Violence Act

Sometime in the next few months, we expect the Senate to consider--probably with little notice--S.146, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. "On its face," according to a fact sheet from Planned Parenthood, "this bill creates a penalty for violation of a number of criminal statutes if, in the course of commission of these crimes, an "unborn child" is injured or killed. The dangerous reality of the bill, however, is that it would elevate the legal status of the fetus to that of an adult human being. This is merely the first step toward eroding a woman's right to choose. The loss of a wanted pregnancy is a tragedy, but solutions should be real, not political." Read

Dear Green Dove,
from Mazin Qumsiyeh

As I hear of an appointed General Garner (one who signed a Zionist statement attacking Palestinians) "in
charge of Iraq" now creating "jobs" for subservient Iraqi and Iraqi Americans (recruited by the CIA or
Wolfowitz at the Pentagon). As Iraqi oil and money start flowing to a myriad of pockets of corrupt new "officials" and much media attention is paid to other
corrupt elitists and people in power (including Israeli apologists who hijacked our government and got
Israel its war). As countries who did not tow the Bush/Rumsfeld/Cheny line are being punished while
countries that did are getting the crumbs of the
massive spoils of war. As American, Israeli, and European "collectors" buy and sell Iraqi treasures.
As Israel continues its rampage against the occupied Palestinians (now fortified with billions more of our
taxes). As I hear the news of Israeli demands for Palestinian refugees to give-up their right of return
to their homes and lands. And finally, as the American public has to turn to other sources of information while the US media keeps spouting propaganda lulling some into talk of WMD, "democracy", Saddam and other distractions. It is time then to just put out the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (signed by both the US and
Israel but violated daily by these countries). So here it is, read it and judge for yourself.

Mazin Qumsiyeh
visit our new website and act: http://Al-Awda.org

Police Shut Down HotHouse

HotHouse, the non-profit club well-known not only for its vibrant, multicultural entertainment, but its enthusiastic support for other progressive community projects, was raided by the Chicago Police Department on Friday night. Put in the context of growing Chicago police harassment of other left-of-center organizing projects since the March 20th Lake Shore Drive protest, this is an attack that we ignore at our peril. Read

A CHANGE OF VIEWPOINT
by Ellen Barfield
May 25, 2003

It is most peculiar to find yourself back again where you were half your life ago, and with an entirely different agenda. I was 23 years old and quite naive when I traveled to South Korea under US Army orders in January 1980. At age 46 this May I found myself again traveling there, this time to testify at the commemoration of the Gwangju uprising and massacre of 1980 as a guest of the Korea Truth Commission (KTC).

As a newly-promoted Army Sergeant I had no idea there had been an assassination and coup in South Korea in 1979, nor that unrest was widespread due to anger at the illegal military dictatorship. Read

I knew that the wave of anti-Americanism that would swell up after the Iraq war would make me feel ill. And it has. It has made me much, much more ill than I had expected.

My anti-Americanism has become almost uncontrollable. It has possessed me, like a disease. It rises up in my throat like acid reflux, that fashionable American sickness. I now loathe the United States and what it has done to Iraq and the rest of the helpless world. Read

The Palestine Right to Return Coalition

The "road map" to further colonization

I think it is rather telling that the so called "road map" for a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict failed to include the words: "international
law" and "human rights." That these four simple words can be skipped in a document of 2221 words suggests
that this latest effort will not produce peace. The map also seems to ignore the wall of apartheid being
built and there is no mention of getting input from people affected regarding their future or teh nature
of the state they live in. Read

Challenging Empire on the World Stage
by Rebecca Solnit
Orion OnlineMay 20th, 2003

What We Hope For

On January 18, 1915, six months into the first world war, the first terrible war in the modern sense -- slaughter by the hundreds of thousands, poison gas, men living and dying in the open graves of trench warfare, tanks, barbed wire, machine guns, airplanes -- Virginia Woolf wrote in her journal, "The future is dark, which is on the whole, the best thing the future can be, I think." Dark, she seems to say, as in inscrutable, not as in terrible. Read

Annan marks International Day of Families with call for more resources

15 May - United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on world leaders today to provide the resources necessary for putting families closer to the centre of public policy in the effort to solve social welfare issues ranging from ageing and migration to fighting AIDS. Read