We, members of the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, bestow this Peace Diploma with the hope your life will be one of seeking peace and working for justice. As you depart from Johns Hopkins University, you may realize recent events have highlighted the many problems we face in Baltimore--extreme pockets of poverty, income inequality, a lack of living wage jobs, police brutality and other ills. These problems can only be solved with a significant infusion of tax dollars.
Sadly, however, some 50% of the federal discretionary budget goes to military expenditures, despite the great needs of cities and states. Unfortunately, the university, especially through its Applied Physics Laboratory, receives an exorbitant amount of funding to do military research. The APL is currently working on a five-year contract for the Department of Defense [sic], announced on February 15, 2013, worth more than two billion dollars, The military contracts involved include submarine security and survivability, combat systems and guided missiles, and theater air defense and power projection.
More recently, Johns
Hopkins University was awarded a contract with a maximum value of $405,000,000
for theoretical analyses, exploratory studies, and/or experiments in various
fields of science and technology; and engineering and/or developmental work for
the practical application of investigative findings and theories of a
scientific or technical nature through employment of their eight core
competencies in support of U.S. Special Operations Command. The work will be
performed in Laurel, Maryland, and is expected to be completed by February
2020.
And the JHU/APL
is doing research on unmanned aerial vehicles/Reaper and Predator killer
drones. We oppose this research as the killer drones help create more
terrorists, are immoral and unconstitutional. A number of U.S. citizens
were targeted and killed by drone strikes, and they were denied any semblance
of due process. The most recent U.S. citizen killed by a drone strike was
Warren Weinstein, a hostage held by al-Qaida. President Obama admitted
that the government was unaware Weinstein was on the premises.
GET HOPKINS OUT OF DRONE RESEARCH. DIVEST FROM FOSSIL FUELS.
Get involved with the Johns Hopkins Alumni for Divestment, an independently organized group of concerned Hopkins alumni seeking divestment. The group is asking the university administration to divest its endowment from fossil fuels. Specifically, divest all direct investments and investments in commingled funds from the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies, as measured in total carbon reserves. To help the administration do so, alumni are pledging to make donations upon divestment. Make a specific pledge as a positive contribution to both the university and all shared futures. Pledges are made at https://www.facebook.com/alums4jhudivestment.
We in the peace movement will continue to speak out. We urge you to add your voices to urge Johns Hopkins University to end all military research and instead focus only on humanitarian research. Take money from the Pentagon and Save Our Cities, including Baltimore.
"The
master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought
the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while
the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially
their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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