Join the National
Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance and friends for
THE REAL STATE OF THE
UNION
January 12, 2016 1:30 pm
On the sidewalk in front of the Supreme Court
building, across from the Capitol
As Obama delivers his final State of the Union address, we
call on him to speak the truth. The Union, and indeed the whole world, is
ravaged after years of endless war.
Because of the wars:
We are making enemies across the globe.
We have no money left to help those who are struggling and
living in poverty.
Our Mother Earth is dying and the climate is in
crisis.
Violence is escalating here at home, especially against
people of color.
What can we do? Join us on January 12 for a peaceful
rally and hear inspiring speakers with real solutions. Bring signs and
banners, and materials to share with others in making signs. If you are
considering risking arrest in an action of nonviolent civil resistance,
contact joyfirst5@gmail.com
Note: Beginning at 11:00 am there will be indoor
meeting space for activists – see schedule below for details.
SCHEDULE FOR JANUARY 12
11:00 am - People can begin gathering at the Lutheran
Church of the Reformation at 212 East Capitol St. NE for networking,
leafleting, and making signs and banners. If you can bring materials for
people to use in making signs (markers and placards) please do so.
11:30 am -12:30 pm - Group risking arrest will meet at the
church for final planning of action.
12:30 - 1:30 pm - Open mic giving activists an opportunity
to share information on their group and what they are doing in working for
peace and justice.
1:30 pm - Rally with signs and banners, speakers and
reading of the petition (see below) outside on the sidewalk in front of the
Supreme Court building, across the street from the Capitol
Sometime around 2:30 or 3:00 pm - Those risking arrest will
attempt to deliver the petition to Congress and the President in an action of
nonviolent civil resistance. If you are planning to risk arrest or want
to find out more, contact joyfirst5@gmail.com.
Please contact malachykilbride@yahoo.com to sign onto the
petition below that will be delivered to Congress and to the President on
January 12.
PETITION
TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: WE URGE YOU TO CHANGE YOUR POLICIES, AND TO USE
THE STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH TO RENOUNCE INEQUALITY, MILITARISM AND
ECOCIDE
January 12, 2016
Dear Mr. President,
As friends and
representatives of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR), we
are writing to request that you use the State of the Union speech to indicate
you will do your best to change the direction of this country. A real
State of the Union would be a frank speech which would condemn our country’s
addiction to economic inequality, racial injustice, warmongering and the
destruction of our planet. After being honest about our failures, you
would then urge our elected officials to go in a new direction, based on a
democratic ideal for we the people, and not for we the
wealthy. Tell them to listen to the people, and not the
corporations. You could inform them that you will utilize diplomacy
and other peaceful means. You could tell them to listen to the scientific
community and not the fossil fuel industry.
You could also state
that you will immediately end the illegal and immoral killer drone program, and
will never resort again to assassination as a foreign policy. And most
importantly, you would close down the Pentagon, the Department of War, and
renounce nuclear weaponry. Finally, you would pledge to save Mother
Earth. The Pentagon would become the Department of Peace with Justice,
and its mission would be to shape the sustainable future.
We write to you
as people committed to nonviolent social change with a deep concern for a
variety of issues that are all interrelated. Please heed our petition—end
our government’s continuing wars and military incursions around the world and
use these tax dollars as a solution to end growing poverty which is a plague
throughout this country in which vast wealth is controlled by a tiny percentage
of its citizens. Establish a living wage for all workers. Condemn
forcefully the policy of mass incarceration, solitary confinement, and the
rampant police violence. Pledging to end the addiction to militarism will have
a positive effect on our planet's climate and habitat. Should you show
any interest in our demands, we would be available to assist in this process.
NCNR members have
consistently participated in witnesses of nonviolent civil resistance calling
on our government to take meaningful action to confront the climate crisis, the
unending wars, the root causes of poverty, the bigotry and antipathy to African
Americans, Muslims, and other minorities, and the structural violence of the
military-security state. By listening to the millions of people at home
and abroad your administration has recently taken laudable steps to avoid using
military force with Iran and to reduce carbon emissions, but more significant
action is still needed.
Instead of the State
Department, your administration uses the Pentagon to deal with conflict, and
such behavior in concert with our allies greatly contributes to a violent and
destabilized world. The U.S. use of armed drones by the military and the
Central Intelligence Agency is inflicting enormous human suffering, is
unconstitutional, and is only creating more “terrorists.” Your administration
should cease its hostile rhetoric and sanctions against North Korea, Russia,
and Iran. Furthermore, the US should seek a diplomatic solution to the civil
war in Syria, disband NATO, and end the increasing military presence in
Southeast Asia, commonly referred to as the "Asian Pivot," which
threatens China. You must end all military aid to Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia,
and the other countries in the Middle East. A new approach must be taken by
your administration to free the Palestinians from over half a century of
violent Israeli oppression. Diplomacy is the only answer to stop the cycle of
violence. Regardless of whether noncombatants suffer or not, violence and war
are not the answers to conflict. Diplomatic efforts to end the sanctions and
hostile relations with Cuba are a good example of the positive path that can be
taken and should be followed with other countries labeled as our enemies.
Nuclear weapons can
never be used, and the plan to use a trillion tax dollars to “upgrade” the
nuclear arsenal is madness. A study by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary
Assessments, an independent think tank that works closely with the Pentagon,
reports that the actual costs your administration plans for updating the nuclear
triad — the intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and aircraft
capable of delivering nuclear warheads – will cost one trillion dollars. This
is beyond senselessly wasteful! It is immoral and actually illegal under
international law to possess such weapons capable of global annihilation
thousands of times greater than the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
These tax dollars must be re-allocated towards reviving our sagging
infrastructure and supporting social services desperately needed by the
poor. The tax dollars could also be utilized to assist former prisoners
returning to their communities.
Almost half the people
on this planet live off less than $2.50 a day and around 22,000 children die
every day due to poverty according to UNICEF. However, the U.S. has
continued to expend half of the federal discretionary budget on warmongering.
Besides wasting tax dollars, the wars have resulted in untold numbers of lives
lost, injured millions of refugees, and contributed to ecocide.
According to the
National Center for Children in Poverty "More than 16 million
children in the United States – 22% of all children – live in
families with incomes below the federal
poverty level – $23,550 a year for a family of four. Research shows that,
on average, families need an income of about twice that level to cover basic
expenses. Using this standard, 45% of children live in low-income
families."
Unending war and
imperialism means rampant death and destruction. Within the last 13
years, we have experienced how the United States has responded to international
crisis with violence. Our government has waged wars in violation of
international law. The failed Middle East policy leaves a whole
region mired in violence and instability including an enormous refugee crisis.
The continuing support for Israel’s apartheid state and oppression of the
Palestinian people must end. Furthermore, so many continue to be
victimized by killer drones or are tortured and illegally detained now. We
welcome the long overdue release in 2015 of some prisoners from Guantanamo but
you must follow through on your promise to close this shameful illegal detention
camp which has come to represent the racism and structural violence of the
American empire. Even in this country, solitary confinement and mass
incarceration is the norm, and undocumented immigrants, who have fled strife
and poverty caused by international economic agreements, are held for long
periods of time before being deported back into the poverty and instability
they desperately tried to escape.
Our disregard for
the causes of climate chaos is leading to the destruction of the planet.
Being controlled, in part, by the fossil fuel industry, our government has not
been willing to sign onto international treaties to end climate chaos. In
the article “Greenwashing the Pentagon”, Joseph Nevins states, “The U.S.
military is the world’s single biggest consumer of fossil fuels, and the single
entity most responsible for destabilizing the Earth’s climate.”
We believe that
another way is possible and that there are alternatives to the life threatening
policies that our government has promoted and that have been so destructive to
Mother Earth and the people of the world.
Use the State of the
Union as a platform to renounce the past and to promote necessary and positive
social change. Unless our elected officials take immediate and significant
actions, Mother Earth is doomed.
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