There is a VIRTUAL LECTURE SERIES: THE CATHOLIC NONVIOLENCE INITIATIVE [FALL 2022]. The description of the series follows: The Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, a project of Pax Christi International resulted from two historic joint conferences held with Vatican officials in 2016 and 2019. Five roundtable groups researched and wrote on specific aspects of gospel based active nonviolence. Their collective work was presented to the Vatican for the purpose of serving as a framework for an encyclical. Their dialogue continues to this day. This series will explore their work. (https://nonviolencejustpeace.net).
Creation
and Anthropology, Christology, Pneumatology and Ecclesiology + The Voice of the
Church: Papal. The statements will include Church Documents, 2017 World
Day of Peace & USCCB Pastoral Letters. One of the speakers is Lisa
Sowle Cahill, the J. Donald Monan, S.J., Professor of Theology at Boston
College. She is a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America
and the Society of Christian Ethics. Also speaking is KC Choi, the Kyung-Chik
Han Chair Professor of Asian American Theology at Princeton Theological
Seminary. To register go to www.tinyurl.com/CNIseries.
For updates go to www.fallseries.org. Email
David Mueller at rememberdorothy@gmail.com
or call 920-809-4282.
-----------
------------
A
U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II fighter plane completes a flyover of the U.S.
Navy guided missile cruiser USS Zumwalt in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland on
October 17, 2016. (Photo: Andy Wolfe/U.S. Navy/flickr/cc)
Peace Activists, 220+
Groups Demand US Cancel F-35 Fighter Program
"To the people in
the countries the F-35 is sold to and produced in, it's time we demand a
reinvestment into life, not war," asserted Pink Floyd rocker and peace
activist Roger Waters.
October 17, 2022
Prominent anti-war voices including Medea Benjamin, Noam Chomsky, Abby Martin, and Roger Waters on Monday joined over 220 groups around the world in calling for the cancellation of Lockheed Martin's $1.7 trillion F-35 fighter plane program.
"The only people
this project benefits are the executives at Lockheed Martin."
The women-led peace
group CodePink is spearheading an international effort to urge President Joe
Biden and members of the U.S. Congress to cancel the manufacturing and training
of the F-35 fighter jet, which has been dogged by serious
technical and operational problems since it first flew in 2006.
"I joined over
200 organizations from around the world in calling on the U.S. government to
end the disastrous F-35 fighter jet program because as a global community we
need to drastically change our priorities." Waters, co-founder of the
iconic rock band Pink Floyd, said in a statement.
"To the people in
the countries the F-35 is sold to and produced in, it's time we demand a
reinvestment into life, not war," he added.
In a letter to Biden and
U.S. lawmakers signed by nearly 230 groups, CodePink says that its cancellation
demand is "based on the harm caused abroad, cost of the program to the
taxpayer, inefficiencies and failures, the environmental impact of F-35s, and
the effects training has on local communities."
Some of those
communities are in Vermont, where—despite railing against the
military-industrial complex during his two presidential runs—Sen. Bernie
Sanders (I-Vt.) supports the F-35
program.
"Currently, F-35
training in Vermont disrupts the lives of working-class people," the
letter states. "The training is irregular and Vermonters go without
warning of when these trainings will take place. The noise caused by the F-35
hits 115 decibels which especially hurts and injures infants and children, the
elderly, and the disabled. The F-35 has 300 to 600 takeoffs and landings a
month."
Ben Cohen, co-founder
of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and a Vermont resident, said that "the
global community is fed up with overpriced, underperforming weapon systems like
the F-35. It's a complete waste of taxpayer dollars that causes harm abroad and
here at home in Vermont."
"The only people
this project benefits are the executives at Lockheed Martin," Cohen added.
"Real security is knowing you can see a doctor when you're sick, not a
boondoggle fighter jet that can't fly near
thunderstorms."
That's just one of the
many problems plaguing the F-35. The warplane's exorbitant cost has also raised
critics eyebrows and ire. According to the Center for Arms Control and
Non-Proliferation:
The
F-35's price per unit, including ancillary costs like depot maintenance, ground
support equipment, and spare parts is $110.3 million per F-35A, $135.8 million
per F-35B, and $117.3 million per F-35C. Those totals do not include the nearly
$1.3 trillion in life cycle costs to operate and sustain the aircraft over its
66-year life cycle, making it the most expensive weapons system in U.S.
history.
Ashik Siddique, a
research analyst for the National Priorities Project at the Institute for
Policy Studies, recently noted that
canceling all U.S. student loan debt would cost about $1.75 trillion, or about
the same amount as the total cost of the F-35 program. Department of Education
data shows that amount is
also enough to eliminate all tuition at U.S. public colleges for more than 20
years.
According to the
Children's Defense Fund, the projected cost of the program would also be enough
to reduce child poverty in the United States by more than 60% for the next two
decades.
Related Content
"The F-35 program
is a microcosm of the military-industrial complex. Each year the U.S.
government funnels massive amounts of money into the program while letting
places in the U.S. go without clean water for months or years," said
CodePink national co-director Danaka Katovich. "Sustaining this program
for any longer will have detrimental effects on human life and the Earth."
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons
(CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Donations can be sent
to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206,
Baltimore, MD 21212. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at]
comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"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
No comments:
Post a Comment