Author: Brienna Parsons
June 17, 2019 at 08:21AM
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June 17, 2019 at 08:21AM
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June 17, 2019 at 08:20AM
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If you’re non-binary you can be either or replace God/Goddess with Universe
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House Votes #2, 17-6-19
This week, June 17, the House of Representatives is voting on some notable issues, locked inside of an omnibus spending bill. Call your House member to inform them how you would like to see them vote. Also to learn more about what’s included in this monstrosity. Call now!
1-202-224-3121
To inform yourself regarding the following, start with https://www.congress.gov/ and then whatever methods of information gathering you use for your decision-making on these issues. I like to use Twitter because the amount of opinions out there. But that’s just me. Maybe you ask your parents, or your friends. Whatever you do, democracy needs you. Make your voice heard.
The Omnibus Appropriations Bill – H.R. 3055
H. R. 3055 – Commerce, Justice, Science, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, 2020.
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A List of Progressive Candidates Running In 2020
The below from the original list at BusyGhost’s Blog:
Arizona
Eva Putzova
Former Flagstaff city councilwoman and candidate for Arizona’s 1st congressional district for 2020. Challenging Tom O’Halleran (D).
Full platform on her campaign website.
California
Audrey Denney
Farmer, Educator, Nominee for California’s 1st congressional district in 2018, and Candidate for California’s 1st congressional district for 2020. Challenging Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R).
Full platform on her campaign website.
Shahid Buttar
Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney, Grassroots organizer, candidate for California’s 12th congressional district in 2018, and candidate for California’s 12th congressional district for 2020. Challenging Nancy Pelosi (D).
Full platform on his campaign website.
Julia Peacock
Public School Teacher, Nominee for California’s 42nd congressional district in 2018, Candidate for California’s 42nd congressional district for 2020. Challenging Ken Calvert (R).
Full platform on her campaign website.
Ammar Campa-Najjar
Small Business Owner, Former Federal official, Nominee for California’s 50th congressional district in 2018, Candidate for California’s 50th congressional district for 2020. Challenging Duncan D. Hunter (R).
Full platform on his campaign website.
Aeiramique Glass-Blake
Activist and Candidate for California’s 51st congressional district for 2020.
Campaign website.
Jose Caballero
Founder/Former President of the San Diego Progressive Democratic club, candidate for California’s 53rd congressional district for 2020, 2016 national delegate for Bernie Sanders, and political consultant. Challenging Susan Davis(D).
Full platform on his campaign website campaign website.
Colorado
Crisanta Duran
Candidate for Colorado’s 1st congressional district for 2020, Former member of the Colorado House of Representatives from the 5th district, Former Majority Leader of the Colorado House of Representatives, 38th Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives, and part of the Board of Advisers of Let America Vote. Challenging Diana DeGette (D).
Campaign website.
Illinois
Marie Newman
Candidate for Illinois’s 3rd congressional district in 2018, candidate for Illinois’s 3rd congressional district for 2020, businesswoman, advocate, and Founder of the “Team Up To Stop Bullying” program. Challenging Daniel Lipinski (D).
Full platform on her campaign website.
Anthony Clark
Candidate for Illinois’s 7th congressional district in 2018, candidate for Illinois’s 7th congressional district for 2020, Activist, Teacher, and Director of Suburban Unity Alliance nfp. Challenging Rep. Daniel K. Davis (D).
Full platform on his campaign website.
Betsy Dirksen Londrigan
Nominee for Illinois’s 13th congressional district in 2018 , candidate for Illinois’s 13th congressional district for 2020, former nonprofit leader, former teacher, and entrepreneur. Challenging Rep. Rodney Davis (R).
Campaign website.
Maryland
Mckayla Wilkes
Activist and candidate for Maryland’s 5th congressional district for 2020. Challenging Rep. Steny Hoyer (D).
Full platform on her campaign website.
Massachusetts
Ihssane Leckey
Candidate for Maryland’s 5th congressional district for 2020 and former Wall Street regulator. Challenging Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D).
Missouri
Cori Bush
Nurse, pastor, Candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2016, Candidate for Missouri’s 1st congressional district for 2018, and Candidate for Missouri’s 1st congressional district for 2020. Challenging Rep. Lacy Clay Jr. (D).
Full platform on her campaign website.
New York
Lauren Ashcraft
A standup comedian and candidate for New York’s 12th congressional district for 2020. Challenging Carolyn Maloney (D).
Full platform on her campaign website.
Texas
Sema Hernandez
Activist, member of Democratic Socialist of America, ambassador for the PoorPeoplesCampaign, candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2018, and candidate for the U.S. Senate for 2020.
Full platform on her campaign website.
Washington
Joshua Collins
A truck driver and candidate for Washington’s 10th congressional district for 2020. Challenging Denny Heck (D).
Full platform on his campaign website.
These names and more as the Justice Democrats are soon announcing their nominees. Same for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) and Endorsements from the Democratic Socialists of America. It is truly Our Revolution, this political revolution, and we must fight, resist, and disobey to make this a peaceful, clean, and safe planet for our posterity. 🌹
I’m also hoping to see more candidates support Joshua Collins’ RUN Act to strengthen unions and sign the Progressive Economic Pledge for Higher Wages, Medicare For All, the Green New Deal, College For All, and Ending Corruption. You can sign the Pledge as well and ask your reps, at every level, to sign here as well!
See what candidates I’m supporting, at the end of the month!
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House of Representatives’ Slate: House Votes #1, 10-6-19
Update: H.R. 1957 – Taxpayer First Act of 2019 was insufficient. Introduced to be voted on this week is H.R. 3151, another version of the Taxpayer First Act of 2019. It was introduced by Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) yesterday, June 6.
Considering myself a watchdog, I’m starting this additional series. This is for friends, family, and readers. Anyone interested in following with the news before it’s news, especially as it pertains to Congress, can come here to further inform themselves and their representatives.
I’ll also be sharing these as posts to my Facebook Page, whenever I can, and hopefully will maintain consistency in this work from here on in. I’m not paid for this service. However, if you like what I’m doing, please consider becoming a Patron on my Patreon. Thank you.
This week, June 10, the House of Representatives is voting on some notable resolutions and bills. Call your House member to inform them how you would like to see them vote. Call now!
1-202-224-3121
To inform yourself regarding the following, start with https://www.congress.gov/ and then whatever methods of information gathering you use for your decision-making on these issues. I like to use Twitter because the amount of opinions out there. But that’s just me. Maybe you ask your parents, or your friends. Whatever you do, democracy needs you. Make your voice heard.
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Matrix of Masculinity: Maintaining Moneyed Interests, Malevolence, and Malfeasance Cross-Culturally
This is a follow-up to the two part series, Moneyed Interests, Malevolence, and Malfeasance: A Brief History of Money in Politics and the War on Freedom.
The reason for the season is that 100 years ago today, in the United States, the right to vote was solidified by the Bill of Rights in the 19th Amendment.
Before June 4, 1919, only white men could vote. This level of malevolence towards the opinions of others was perpetuated in more fields than one, and as it was a form of erasure, could be described as a form of soft violence.
Unlike physical, hard, violence, soft violence is defined by using psychological means no different than the use of fear and Psychological Operatives by militaries around the world. Or nonviolent terrorism. However, it’s still upon a continuum of force.
I’ve described that continuum elsewhere. Here we’re looking at the power dynamics of violence.
When physical, clearly the one standing has won a position, and their hierarchical place above another is made clear.
Today, we see another version of this often in the political atmosphere.
“Debate me, debate me.”
The pursuers of violence are always seeking to dominate the field. Show that their opinions are superior. Beatdown, destroy, crush, and get others to “smash the like button” in their favor; their goals are even when not spoken in such violent terms, an act of violence.
When you share your opinion because you would like it known, or if you’re lucky, considered, there may be those that want to demolish it.
Though the Right-wing, and especially the extreme right-wing, are fans of this, it can easily occur on the left of center political spectrum as well. It isn’t about politics; it’s about power. Intellectual dominance. Superiority.
When wrapped up in white supremacy, we see a spike in black trans murders, because this power dynamic is on a continuum. The thought may not necessarily be there at all times, but it’s been documented in studies of mass shooters in ths United States it does often come back to the monetary evaluation of one’s bigoted opinion.
If they won’t value your opinion and pay you, vote for you, kiss your boots, then, and we see this with police, they will be forced to be agreeable.
So as we celebrate 100 years of the right to vote for women, we have to ask ourselves, when so much of this operates in a misogynistic system: how far have we come?
What violence have we endured?
How do we stop this from being repeated? Or worse. How do we make sure that once women are in power, that we do not allow the same to be done to men?
Personally, to the latter, even in the face of the tiny minority of anti-trans “feminists”, I believe that we’re infinitely better than that.
Many of the organizers for suffrage were democratic socialists, abolitionists, and activists for a more inclusive society. They were the first wave.
Following them, the Civil Rights movement, Peace Movement, Gay Rights movement, and the Women’s Rights movement were all coinciding to make the now global Second Wave a force to be reckoned with. Patriarchies across the planet took notice. And ever since, the Third Wave has had an uphill battle.
We are now in the Third Wave, discussing theories of violence and free speech, trans rights and human rights, immigration, and the intersection of all of these and more as the basic needs and desires of women in politics has proceeded at a snail’s pace against an onslaught of toxic masculinity.
The matrix of masculinity is the culmination of years of misogyny and sexist institutions with the new addition of the mostly male trolls of the internet and the violent, threatening men attempting to push the continuum of violence from speech to action.
Going forward, there will be another article to delve into wealth inequality, incarceration, media bias, and the extreme right-wing as it continues to relate to the issue of money in politics, where much of the struggle for freedom for all still lies.
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Moneyed Interests, Malevolence, and Malfeasance: A Brief History of Money In Politics and the War on Freedom, Pt.1
Money in Politics Series, 1 of 2. Find the Second Part here.
A Brief History of War for Oil & Soul
Since World War II, following conflicts around the world had less to do with atrocities such as those performed by the post-Wiemar Republic regime, and more to do with oil. For those unfamiliar, it was planned by fascist leaders in Europe to reach outwards to oil fields in the Middle East, the Caucasus range, and anywhere they could for a supply of it in order to force their beliefs upon others in perpetuity. Oil fueled almost every weapon of war and furnace for weapons manufacturing, a key reason why
As history showed however, the Axis had little in terms of an organized force enough for such a venture – an issue the United States and allies have not had in the decades following. What the modern extremist far-right has learned from the furor and his 20th century ilk, though, is the unity of a single national identity. Specifically, as we’ll read here: white Christianity and a single language.
Thanks to Precedent: Eisenhower
Somehow, the President that gave us the following quote, set the country up for failure following this massive global conflict, ignoring the facts of the rise of the fascist state in Germany.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
Dwight D. Eisenhower. 34th President of the United States, U.S. Army 5-Star General, and Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe during World War II.
Eisenhower is remembered for the above quote as well as his signing into law the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which was the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction and established the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department, empowering federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote. He was the first President to serve during the Civil Rights Movement, and he’s also remembered for his order of federal troops to protect nine children integrating into a public school, in Little Rock, Arkansas, the first time troops were ordered to the South since, again, Reconstruction.
This is where memory of this President, even by Baby Boomers, may cease. Here’s a refresher of where this President opened the door for the abuse of political action committees (which first began in 1943) and imperial hate funding campaign finance.
Eisenhower started the first National Prayer Breakfast. There, Billy Graham left an indelible mark on conservative politics. It was his influence too that created this meeting of church and state, and later inspired the non-secular additions: “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, and “In God We Trust,” to the American currency.
“Soon after his election in 1952, Eisenhower told Graham that the country needed a spiritual renewal. For Eisenhower, faith, patriotism and free enterprise were the fundamentals of a strong nation. But of the three, faith came first.”
Diane Winston, USC Annenberg religion scholar
Successive to the Second World War, the Peace Movement began out of the Civil Rights Movement. The economic, corporal, and costs of life due to the preceding wars had set a fuse inside of many around the world and, most importantly here, in the United States. However, the Peace Movement stateside is embodied by the protests against the war in Vietnam, which many protesters argued was a front to expanding media contracts for Lady Bird Johnson, and the profiteers of war such as the Military-Industrial Complex and most significantly here, Halliburton.
Following that first period, there was enough happening at home with the draft into Vietnam, the Civil Rights Era protests, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the British Invasion, the Space Race, and, the Summer of Love and subsequent “hippie” concert traditions, that the war continued until about the same period that the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC – not to be confused with the more inclusive OPEC) proclaimed an oil embargo. This oil embargo was in response to the Arab-Israeli War over the Suez Canal, one the world’s eight oil traffic chokepoints, at a period when Palestinians and Israelis were first finding unrest between each other in the region. Many remember from their history classes that this resulted in President Carter negotiating the Camp David Peace Accords.
Yet, before a solid celebration of peace could be had, there was another major conflict during Carter’s tenure. An Iranian Revolution to change leadership was happening, and in its wake, in 1979, oil was halted from export. This caused the Second Oil Crisis and perhaps inspired what many considered to be a false flag operation created by mercenaries for oil companies: the Iran hostage crisis.
While Carter was somehow unable to use the same charm which found him success at Camp David, his successor President Reagan made it look like an easy job, as minutes after being sworn in Carter-era diplomats did the work in Algiers. However, while the Algiers Accords meant that oil companies were barred from Iran internal affairs, this marked the beginning of a new era of efforts in the Middle East. This was especially required since some of the first acts of Reagan were to remove price controls on domestic oil, allowing consumer gouging, as well as repealing the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax, that taxed corporations’ massive gains. Just the beginning of trickle-down, supply-side, Reaganomics pushed by corporate advice onto the actor.
While the windfall profit tax is claimed to have increased dependence on foreign oil, that is by in large by the choice of oil companies involved. Returning back to U.S. soil, there was an increase in the use of American reserves for only a short period before the wars for oil continued, and later down the line found profit in transporting oil from the Canadian oil sands. This small moment in history is considered by some conservatives to be why Reagan was iconic, however the following big moment, is the real reason.
The Moral Majority
Following the influence of Billy Graham, the Falwell’s have been following the road map of money in politics. Money that arguably is laundered through churches, similarly to banking and real-estate, to clean the money and erase its roots in what may be a checkered past. Such as televangelists.
Here, I’m just going to leave a quote from Richard Flory, Senior Director of Research and Evaluation at the University of Southern California, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
Coinciding with the popularity of Ronald Reagan, [Jerry Falwell Sr.] founded the Moral Majority in 1979 as a conservative Christian political lobbying group. Although the founding of the Moral Majority is popularly seen as an anti-abortion and pro-family movement, its real roots were different. Falwell and other evangelical leaders felt the federal government was overreaching with its guidelines into how Christian groups maintained racial restrictions in their schools.
The Moral Majority ultimately expanded its platform from segregation in schools to include what is now a familiar agenda: supporting and sponsoring legislation for “traditional” family values and prayer in schools. It also opposed LGBT rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion and other similar social-moral issues.
Richard Flory. USC Dorsife. The Conversation.
Reagan 2.0
Since the Reagan administration, the environment for information has changed quite considerably. In 1987, under the Reagan Administration, the FCC abandoned the “Fairness Doctrine,” which required licensed radio and television broadcasters to present fair and balanced coverage of controversial issues of interest to their communities, including by devoting equal airtime to opposing points of view. This, some argue, paved the way for particular news outlets to provide misinformation under the guise of being, as is sometimes even advertised, “fair and balanced.”
Succeeding Reagan, George H. W. Bush (Bush I) made promises to be as similar to Reagan, who he served as Vice President. And while some may argue he didn’t hold true to that, he did, and here’s why: At the same time as the beginning of the hostage crisis in Iran, Saddam Hussein, a nationalist and fascist dictator, rose to power in Iraq, setting up the next oil stage for the US Presidency to step onto.
In 1990, during the Bush I administration, Iraq, led by Hussein, invaded the oil-rich nation of Kuwait. This was the perfect reason to intervene and accept the oil fields there as US protections. His son followed in very much the same vein of thought, guiding foreign policy and the economy very much the same way for years to come.
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.”
Frederick Douglass, American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman.
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Progress in America: A Millennial Perspective
Before We Get Into It
In the United States, the majority of people are living more comfortably and better off than at any point in the history of the world. However, there are still some critical gains that need to be made such as access to higher education and healthcare so that people have the ability to not only make the best of this position they have, but the American Dream of creating a better world for their families and others around the globe while also attaining and creating higher paying jobs.
Firstly, I’ll focus on Millennials here because they are the second largest voting bloc in the United States, next to Baby Boomers only. They’re a lot older than most people believe. Being born between 1981 and 1996, which includes myself, can be as old as 38, according to the Pew Research Center – which I will be citing in this first portion most often.
Also, more Millennials are living in poverty than any other. Which is interesting seeing as they also “dominate the ranks of the nation’s renters and have since 2016 single mothers as household heads than any other generation. All of these issues are stacked against what has effectively become the “Burnout Generation.”
If you’re interested in the general statistics of poverty, those follow:
The General Numbers
All of these numbers are from 2017 unless noted otherwise. This information is also from TalkPoverty. TalkPoverty has all the sources for the below points, however, those italicized did not fit my criteria of easily accessible and will be updated to reflect that criteria at a later date. Regarding information on global poverty, WorldVision has put together its own information.
Poverty Rates
Overall Poverty Rate: 12.3% (39.7 million people)
Percentage of people who fell below the poverty line—$24,860 for a family of four.
Twice the Poverty Level: 29.7% (95.7 million people)
Percentage of people who fell below twice the poverty line—$49,720 for a family of four.
Half the Poverty Level: 5.7% (18.5 million people)
Percentage of people who fell below half the poverty line—$12,430 for a family of four.
Child Poverty Rate: 17.5% (12.8 million people)
Percentage of children under age 18 who fell below the poverty line.
Women’s Poverty Rate: 13.6% (22.3 million people)
Percentage of females who fell below the poverty line.
African American Poverty Rate: 21.2% (9.0 million people)
Percentage of African Americans who fell below the poverty line.
Hispanic Poverty Rate: 18.3% (10.8 million people)
Percentage of Hispanics who fell below the poverty line.
White Poverty Rate: 8.7% (17.0 million people)
Percentage of non-Hispanic Whites who fell below the poverty line.
Native American Poverty Rate: 25.4% (700,000 people)
Percentage of Native Americans who fell below the poverty line.
People with Disabilities Poverty Rate: 24.9% (3.8 million people)
Percentage of people with disabilities ages 18 to 64 who fell below the poverty line.
Creating Good Jobs
Income Inequality: 16.6%
Ratio of the share of income going to the top 20% and bottom 20% of households.
High School Graduation Rate: 84.1%
Percentage of high school students who graduated on time at the end of the 2015-16 school year
Disconnected Youth: 13%
Percentage of youth ages 18 to 24 who were not in school or working in 2016.
Higher Education Attainment Rate: 44.7%
Percentage of young adults ages 25 to 34 who had an associate’s degree or higher.
Gender Wage Gap: 80.8 cents
Median earnings of full-time year-round working women compared to that of men.
Unemployment Rate: 4.4%
Percentage of all workers who were unemployed.
Unemployment Insurance Coverage: 27.4%
Percentage of unemployed workers who received unemployment insurance.
Strengthening Families and Communities
Children Living Apart from Parents: 6
Number of children who lived in foster care for every 1,000 children under age 18 in 2016.
Teen Birth Rate: 20.3
Number of births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19 in 2016.
Promoting Family Economic Security
Hunger and Food Insecurity: 12.3%
Percentage of households who were food insecure on average from 2015 to 2017, meaning that at some point during the year, they experienced difficulty providing enough food due to a lack of money or resources.
Affordable and Available Housing: 56
Number of apartments or other units that were affordable and available for every 100 renter households with very low incomes in 2016. Very low-income households are those with incomes at or below 50% of the area median income.
Savings and Assets: 7.7%
Percentage of households that used high-cost, high-risk forms of credit to make ends meet during 2015. This includes payday loans, automobile title loans, refund anticipation loans, rent-to-own, and pawning.
Lack of Health Insurance Coverage: 17.5%
Percentage of people under age 65 and below 138% of the poverty line who did not have health insurance at all.
What A Millennial Wants
Millennials aren’t just calling out to everyone they can to fight the climate crisis and trying to call them in on the issues I put in bold first and foremost: education and healthcare. They’re also fighting strongly on social media and their relationships for themselves and others: racial justice. And that’s because besides the obvious, Trump, almost half of Americans are unable to afford food and rent, and in order to find an escape they’re going online, and unfortunately, Right-wing outlets reign supreme in places like Facebook, and bully online to do so.
However, this means that people are being tuned into the propaganda of the Right, which has been shown to radicalize violent individuals. Which is nothing new, and I reported on the entry-memes and the fascism not too long ago. All of which is ultimately exciting for the billionaire, elitist, donor, ruling class, another topic I cover elsewhere.
Once people, especially white ones, are indoctrinated, they act as a wonderful human shield to make it harder to find the really dangerous terrorists hanging out amongst them in real life and on forums. I say especially white ones because they can be inflamed by news such as CNN’s very recent update that “[w]hite deaths outpace white births in more than 50% of states, and by 2045 the U.S. population will be less than half-white. How does this play out politically?” Well, it plays out that white people ignore that everyone, and especially people are color, are effected by things like, another report that CNN put out, the declining “middle class.”
So there’s a lot of issues that are directly pressing to millennials, and why you’ll see less of my generation in these white nationalist groups, however, if and when you do there are usually some pretty clear signs that they are dealing with a comorbidity of mental health issues. These issues may be a form of PTSD, autism, antisocial behaviors, paranoia, and even the big scaries: narcissistic personality disorder, sociopathy, and psychopathy, as well as obvious violent tendencies. Oftentimes, these young white men have no access to mental health care, or are unwilling due to stigmatization, and they’re being indoctrinated by the “free speech movement” and “gun rights” in colleges as well as in video game and online chat rooms and forums.
There are a lot of better candidates to tackle these serious issues than Trump. 45 has arguably, and I do here, who was put up by big business and the white supremacist army, his “base,” is used as the human shields to defend him. Millennials, “the game” according to PBS NewsHour, are far more interested in less establishment candidates such as Marianne Williamson, Andrew Yang, Elizabeth Warren, and most obviously, Bernie Sanders.
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Obit: (a Relative)
Don Jacinto Colon (96)
Working his entire life in accounting for the Puerto Rican government. He was my great grandmother Petra’s youngest brother. He raised six daughters and one son all who have created honorable lives and will continue to do so in his memory.
Services are tomorrow in Puerto Rico. Attending from the continental U.S. will be my great uncle Raphel and great aunt Elsie, representing everyone here who will be unable to attend the short-notice loss.
Flowers have already been sent.
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Memorial Day: Education is the Greatest Weapon, Not Our Lives
Today is Memorial Day. If you visited a family member or friend who served and is in the hospital after being disabled or visited their grave, you are very familiar with this particular holiday. The human cost, you are certainly familiar with.
Aren’t non-violent technologies and the National Guard, be enough? When did the United States become the world police? How has it defended freedom? Why not give peace a chance?
None of those questions will be answered here. For that, there may be another post in the future, or until then, you can search for answers on YouTube. This post is to look at the costs and ask the question: Does higher education provide a better protection of freedom?
The Human Costs of War
According to reports cited in 2011 by the Quaker organization, Friends Committee on National Legislation, over 6,200 US soldiers have died in the war in Afghanistan alone, since 2001, and another 50,000 have been wounded. These are the American statistics however, and may not even be the worst among them.
Less than one percent of the US population serves, and across the nation there are very different enlistment rates. Yet 1 in 4 of our active duty members and veterans show signs of PTSD or some other mental health issue. One vet told me about his issue health issues after Agent Orange effected his body in Vietnam and how poorly the VA was treating him, which is unfortunately common.
Conversely, in 2015 and ’16, Brown University’s Watson Institute of International & Public Affairs took a look at the human costs of war. The paper noted that there were over 31,000 civilian deaths due to war-related violence documented and over 29,900 wounded. But that’s the civilian cost for Afghanistan alone.
Returning home, about nine percent of all homeless adults in the U.S. are homeless veterans, 40,056 homeless veterans, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is terrible, and an alarmingly high number. Perhaps a better use of one’s life would not to be to go to war for something you’re told, and better used to help others and advocate for the betterment of the lives of those scarred by war, and are visibly suffering.
A note here: organizations such as the UN already defend people with “Peacekeepers,” and organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are pointing out human rights abuses. Why not support them? Why accept only wars called for by self-interest?
Then I said I will tell him how important education is and that ‘I even want education for your children as well.’ And I will tell him, ‘That’s what I want to tell you, now do what you want.”
Malala Yousafzai on what she’d say to a Taliban gunman
Compared to People in Higher Education
Since 1982, states have been required by law to provide all students with K-12 public education, regardless of students’ immigration status as they become citizens. This is important because as people come to the United States in droves for the opportunities to learn and support their families, as well as compete in the world, their children may come from places with far different standards. Expats also enjoy this freedom.
“[P]ublic education has a pivotal role in maintaining the fabric of our society and in sustaining our political and cultural heritage; the deprivation of education takes an inestimable toll on the social, economic, intellectual, and psychological well-being of the individual, and poses an obstacle to individual achievement.””
Plyler v. Doe U.S. Supreme Court decision, 1982.
Arguably, a good place for our young people would be in education rather than the military, and after some data, I’ll elaborate why. In fall 2016, over 10.8 million students (roughly 30% of the US population) were enrolled in a four-year university, yet the Census Bureau put out that only 33.4 percent of Americans had even a bachelor’s degree. Here’s why:
In 2016, similar to authoritarian countries around the world, the United States elected its own “strongman,” endangering democracy and freedom in the process. Coinciding with this election, misinformation took a major upward turn. Ultimately, this has shown all individuals in every part of the political spectrum just how ignorant their neighbors are.
Monetary Costs Compared
In a single year, the US could afford Sen. Bernie Sanders’ free public college plan easily if it chose to. Since 2001, according to CNBC, the US has spent $5.9 trillion in its wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan. Nearly $2 trillion dollars was spent in the fiscal year 2017-18, and that alone would cover several years of the “College For All” plan put forth by the Senator which calls for only $70 billion.
From Phil Klay’s essay The Warrior at the Mall
“We risk our country slipping further into the practice of a fraudulent form of American patriotism, where ‘soldiers are sacred,’ the work of actual soldiering is ignored and the pageantry of military worship sucks energy away from the obligations of citizenship.”
“Support for our military remains high at a time when respect for almost every other institution is perilously low, so pushing a military angle as a wedge makes a certain kind of sense. But … our military is justified only by the civic life and values it exists to defend.”
Phil Klay, The Warrior at the Mall. The New York Times. 4/14/18
Brienna Parsons 