Now Is Time for Action
by Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm
“We’d like our dollars to feed our daughters and not be fodder to greed and war, so bring them home,” I sang with five strangers I had met five minutes earlier at Occupy Seattle. We sat on the cold concrete at Westlake Park, but the spirit of meaningful community was warming my heart. This is a time in history when nonviolent action is pulsing through the world, and the younger generation is finally getting out into the streets instead of only clicking tweets to show political dissent.
People are fed up with corporations and Wall Street. There is momentum with the Occupy protests around the country. Our role as Fellowship of Reconciliation activists is to ramp up the heat against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Bring Our Billion$ Home campaign. Wars are wasteful of human lives and resources; what we are spending on “defense” is actually “burning our nation’s budget” (as the band the Lonely Forest said) and hence failing to defend our country. The wars are instead defending corporate interests.
The Bring Our Billion$ Home campaign seeks to mobilize people in Washington State to call for those billions of dollars wasted on war and greed to be redirected to meet human needs. There are several projects under way to build momentum for the campaign. I have been recruiting and organizing local artists and activists in communities around the state to gather in concert/spoken word jam/discussions with a focus on war spending and the economic crisis. The first event will occur at the Old Foundry in Bellingham on November 18th in collaboration with Whatcom Action Coalition and Whatcom Peace and Justice Center.
Upcoming events, featuring artists who want to “Speak, Sing, and Play (their] Peace,” will occur in Seattle and at Coffee Strong outside Joint Base Lewis McChord. We have also been interviewing people for a film project that will highlight people’s stories and link economic disparity and war’s injustice. From people standing up for underfunded Tent Cities to those currently serving in the military, these stories show that we are not alone in our struggles. The short film will be posted online and available for other events. WWFOR and American Friends Service Committee have been gathering “signatures” around the state to a letter to our State legislators, asking them to stand with us and call on our Federal representatives to cut spending on war and fund needs at home. The letter has received support from people of wide political, religious, and occupational backgrounds.
State Rep. Bob Hasegawa and others have been working with us on a “memorial resolution” that echoes the sentiments of the letter and campaign. Now is the time for action on the campaign. A yearning for change is beating throughout the nation, and FOR must interpose its own enriching rhythm.