More Peace... please

In the middle of the day today I decided to run some figures on the Iraq war as part of a UUA messaging campaign looking at the "Moral Balance" of this war. What I found was truly disturbing...

Our Congress has appropriated nearly $365 billion dollars for the war in Iraq since it began. With that money we could have done all of the following:

• Double the number of teachers we currently have in our public schools;
• Build a public housing unit for each homeless person in America;
• Provide health insurance for every uninsured child in America;
• Give $85,000 to each of the 1 million persons displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Or we could have provided full four-year scholarships for every undergraduate student in America.

With these rather heavy thoughts on my mind, I wrote this introduction to our advocacy news mailing list today:

On Saturday, Adam Gerhardstein and Elizabeth Bukey joined 800 Unitarian Universalists and 500,000 Americans marching for Peace. It was a beautiful day to spend in the company of people who are passionate about their country and compassionate with the world. But it is also such a luxury to be able to gather in opposition to a government's policy. One must think of the thousands of Darfurians who have died at the hands of their government, or the thousands of Iraqis who have died and the millions of others who fear to go out in public and face the terror of yet another public bombing. Even in our times of anger, frustration, and protest we are privileged.

With that in mind please take the time to exercise that privilege in the most responsible way. The action items below will help you reach out to your Representatives and to your fellow Americans, giving you an opportunity to share your deepest convictions in the hopes that we can make this world a more peaceful and just place.