Hilo’s 500th Weekly Peace Vigil leaflet
This Tax Day–
Bring the War Dollars Home!
April 15, 2011 marks our 500th consecutive weekly Hilo Peace Vigil in front of the downtown Post Office/Federal Building. Each week we prepare a new peace leaflet for handing out on the corner and distribution worldwide via the internet. The five points at the bottom of each leaflet remain the same each week. Anyone can sign up on our malu-aina.org website to receive notice of new posts.
We started this vigil on Sept. 12, 2001 to urge restraint not vengeance in response to the 9-11 attacks. It’s been nearly 10 years of endless, expanding, wars: Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya. Who is next? Trillions of dollars have been spent on wars and militarism.
Let’s be clear. Whether you believe 9-11 was an inside job or not, the “war on terrorism” is really a war of empire to secure control of oil and other global resources. Yet the entire world is becoming more and more insecure. Wars continue with no end in sight. The civilian death toll mounts, so too with refugees, people tortured, infrastructure destroyed, etc. etc. On top of that –Nuclear radiation is encircling the planet, global warming is threatening unprecedented climate change, the world food supply is in crisis, economies are on the edge of collapse –with people loosing homes, jobs, and health care. Schools and libraries are being closed and basic human services are being cut. Ask working moms, teachers, and union workers how secure they feel today. One in six workers in the U.S. does not have a job. And 6 million people have lost their homes to repossessions. And now in the name of deficit reduction major domestic program cuts are planned that aid seniors, children, and the poor. But no one wants to talk about the gorilla in the living room — the need for slashing the military and war budgets!
Meanwhile, big corporations and the super rich make obscene incomes and pay little or no taxes. Take for example General Electric. GE made $14.2 billion in profits last year–but paid NO federal taxes, according to the New York Times March 24, 2011. And GE isn’t unique. A fourth of the country’s largest corporations—including ExxonMobil and Bank of America—paid no federal income taxes in 2010. In fact Bank of America was handed $45 billion—that is billion with a B—in federal bailout fund. The big banks and Wall Street caused the current financial crisis yet many of these corporate super rich executives are given multimillion dollar bonuses and provided tax breaks and loopholes to avoid paying taxes. Instead of a government “of the people, by the people, and for” the people, the U.S. has become a nation of, by, and for for the one percent, according to economist Joseph Stiglitz. And both major political parties are helping the corporations to rob the poor to pay the rich.
All U.S. citizens have a responsibility to get the U.S. empire off the backs of people around the world and here at home. Stop all the wars and end all occupations, including the occupation of Hawaii. The struggles for global and local justice are one.
Dismantle the War Machine & the U.S. Empire!
Slash Military Spending & Fund Human Needs!
1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc.
5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action
P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622. Email ja@interpac.net http://www.malu-aina.org
Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (April 15, 2011 – 500th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office
