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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 6, 2012)
r lune 6, 2012 Page 20 Military Spending Doesn’t Buy Safety Adding to the debt with unwanted weapons systems by E lizabeth R ose Are you wonder ing where your tax dollars are going? Then take a look at the $642.5 billion stuffed into the Na tional Defense Au thorization Act, which the House of Representatives recently ap proved. House Republicans may spout plenty o f concern about the nation's budget deficit, but their version of the Pentagon's bud get tops the spending levels they had agreed to a few months ago by $8 billion. It's also $4 billion above the total that President Barack Obama and the Penta gon requested. These politicians are trying to fund Cold War-era weap ons that our m ilitary doesn't want and that have been dismissed as outdated and unneces sary by the top brass — leaders like Gen. James Cartwright, the retired vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of S taff and a form er com mander of the country's nuclear forces. The U.S. military budget is six times that of China, and tops the next 17 highest-spending coun tries combined. Military spending has played a significant role in increasing the national debt. Over the last decade, the Pentagon's budget has nearly doubled. The wars in Iraq and Af ghanistan have also contributed to this soaring increase in de fense spending and to record deficits. The drawdown of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq should mean the Pentagon will spend less. But giant military contrac tors have dumped a fortune into campaign contributions and lob bying, making sure that any and all anticipated savings are going to expensive weapons systems — all paid for by you through your taxes. The 10 biggest government contractors are all military con tractors. These companies each spend millions of dollars a year on pol itical contributions and then millions more on lobbying cam p aig n s. A fter the S uprem e Court's Citizens United ruling, which allowed unlimited corpo rate spending on political cam paigns, these contractors are spending even more to win over lawmakers. And judging from the way they voted for that bloated Pentagon budget, the investment is paying off. A recent study by the Univer sity o f M aryland found that three-quarters of A m ericans favored cutting military spend ing, including two-thirds of Re publicans as well as nine in 10 Democrats. This study also con firmed that respondents gener ally underestimate the magni tude of the military budget, and that when they receive informa tion about its size — they're more likely to support Pentagon spending cuts. Americans support our troops. Everyone wants America to be safe. But that doesn’t mean we need to buy expensive weapons systems that Pentagon hasn't even asked for. Throwing money at the Pentagon doesn't buy us safety. It just means that our grandchildren will be paying for weapons systems we don't need and can't use because a defense contractor has buttered up a law maker at taxpayer expense. T he S enate is u n lik ely to p a s s th e h ik e in m ilita ry sp ending that the H ouse R e p u b lic an s voted for, but it show s that if the G O P seizes co n tro l o f the S enate in N o vem ber, U ncle Sam w ill be buying m ore big w eapons sy s tem s. Elizabeth Rose is the com munications director o f Cam paign fo r America's Future. Hate in the Political and Media Arena Confronting poisonous language by M arian W right E delman The growth in hate groups and the use of their divisive and negative lan guage in the mainstream politi cal and media arena is cause for national alarm. Already this year several hor rendous hate crimes, possible hate crimes, and crimes com mitted by people with ties to hate groups have received national attention. In the first week of May a 15-month-old girl was shot and killed along with her mother, grandmother, and her m other’s boyfriend allegedly by Arizona white supremacist, bor der vigilante and longtime neo- Nazi J.T. Ready. he murders were the appar ent result of domestic violence but were tragically little surprise from a man the Southern Pov erty Law Center’s Mark Potok called “a violent thug who typi fies the very worst element in the A m erican nativist m ove m ent.” In Tulsa, Okla., hate crime charges w ere filed in April against two white men who went on a Good Friday shoot ing spree in a black neighborhood randomly targeting and killing three black victims and injur ing two more. In Jack- son, Miss., three white men pled guilty to federal hate crime charges in March after admitting to a pattern of harass ing and assaulting black people that ended with one of the men killing James C. Anderson in June 2011 by driving over him with a pickup truck. And in Sanford, Fla., federal investigators considered whether hate crime charges might apply to the February killing of un armed black teenager Trayvon Martin who was followed and killed by self-appointed neigh b o rh o o d w atch m an G eorge Zimmerman. For 40 years the Southern Poverty Law Center’s mission has been to fight hate and big otry and seek justice for the m ost vulnerable m em bers of society. In its most recent Intel ligence Report, the news on hate groups in America was frighten ing. T here w ere 1,018 hate groups in the United States in 2011 continuing a trend of sig nificant growth that has lasted more than 10 years. The Southern Poverty Law C en ter notes “ [tlh e radical right grew explosively in 2011, the third such dram atic expan sion in as many years. The grow th was fueled by super heated fears generated by eco nomic dislocation, a prolifera tion of dem onizing conspiracy theories, the changing racial m akeup of A m erica, and the prospect o f four more years under a black president who many on the far right view as an enem y to their country.” The report continues: “The truly stunning grow th cam e in the anti-governm ent “Patriot” m o v e m e n t— co ns pi r a c y - m inded groups that see the federal governm ent as their pri mary enem y... M any A m eri cans, infused with populist fury over bank and auto bailouts and a feeling that they had lost their country, joined Patriot groups. The sw elling o f the Patriot m ovem ent since that tim e has been astounding.” over from the fringe into m ain stream politics: J.T. Ready, the white suprem acist and alleged shooter, was a vigilante border patroller, form er A rizona Re publican precinct com m ittee man and candidate for local office who w as applauded, endorsed, and sponsored as an elder in the M ormon church by form er state Senate president Russell Pearce, an architect and lead sponsor of A rizona’s d raco n ian an ti-im m ig ra tio n law. Pearce was him self voted out of office after a recall elec tion forced by a petition drive last N ovem ber— the first such recall in A rizona history. Now he is Vice C hair of A rizona’s Republican Party. W hat does it mean for the country our children and grand children are inheriting when there is so much poisonous d i visiveness in the political and m edia culture and the num ber of hate groups is on the rise? A n o th er o f the S outhern Poverty Law C enter’s signa ture initiatives is the Teaching Tolerance program w hich pro vides resources for educators The apparent killer in the to help create school environ Arizona murders is a prime m ents that are w elcom ing and example of how hate can cross nurturing— “classroom s where equality and justice are not ju st taught, but lived.” T eaching T o leran c e’s goal is to help teachers prepare the next gen eration to live in our already diverse w orld and nation. This is a goal we all need to share and pursue with urgency. Children of color will be the majority in 2019—just seven years from now. W hether w e’re prepared to celebrate our chil dren of color or meet them with fear and hatred will shape their futures and America’s future. As frightening as the rise in hate groups is, the truth is that there are still m illions more A m ericans who d o n ’t condone hatred or bigotry and never will. Their voices need to speak up and be heard— in our fam i lies, schools, faith congrega tions, communities, political and m edia life. We need to have candid con versations about race, confront racial profiling, and promote ra cial healing right now. We must make ugly words designed to demean or disrespect any hu man being unacceptable in our presence and national life. Marian Wright Edelman is president o f the Children's De fense Fund.
