WILPF Action Alerts
Alerts from our Save the Water campaign.
EYE on Congress is an active, continuing project of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. The goal is to educate voters and politicians on peace issues and the war economy and their connection to social spending by keeping ourselves and our neighbors informed on key issues and making our views known to elected officials and to the public at large.
Haitians often invoke the proverb “men anpil, chay pa lou”: many hands make the load light. Haiti’s human rights problems are severe, but experience shows that collective efforts by Americans and others in powerful countries can make a real difference. Our grassroots mobilizations have pried open prison doors for several political prisoners, including Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste in January 2005, and four others in April 2006. A mobilization in July 2005 led the UN to admit civilian deaths had occurred during its operations and to promise an investigation. Knowing that people in powerful countries support them provides hope to political prisoners and confidence to grassroots organizers in Haiti.
Sign the Letter to Barack Obama from Nation Magazine
The WILPF Iraq/Iran Issue Committee urges you to sign this open letter (see text below) to Barack Obama. The letter appeared in the August 18, 2008 issue of the Nation Magazine. By clicking on the link below you will be taken to the Nation Magazine site where the letter can be signed.
Be Counted: Write to Your Local Newspaper
I believe well written opinion letters to major news media have more impact than standing on street corners holding signs or singing to the converted few there. Remember to read and follow the editorial guidelines, and don't forget to include your organization or affiliation in your closing. The editors prefer the latter so they can keep your comments in context. I also include a website link as a courtesy for background checks. One thing I haven't been good about, thoroughly checking my facts & references -- make sure your links aren't obsolete and resources are up-to-date and accurate.
I sent a letter timed for World Water Day (March 22) published last month in the San Jose Mercury News, which has largest circulation in our area. Included "Save the Water" Campaign in close.
I'm sure some of your can write very effective and passionate letters about taxes and military costs, too, targeted to your home communities, no matter what size. Please share your successes so others may want to get it a try.
Here's the letter I sent to our local news editor last week timed to Tax filing deadline.
Our local San Jose CA WILPF will not be doing a Tax Day Rally at Post Office this year--find it less and less productive effort as tax filers use online filing and other means to get theit taxes on time.
To: Letters@mercurynews.com
Tax day deadline is fast approaching. We Americans are concerned about our economy, mortgage crisis, healthcare and ongoing Iraq war. What really irks me is how our taxes are spent.
The costs of current and past wars takes from 43% to 54% of our taxes. Check out www.fcnl.org/wartaxes or www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm with pie charts and analysis delineating these costs.
Forty years ago Martin Luther King, Jr. prophetically observed, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs for social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”
Why are we spending so much for a questionable war while people and companies at home suffer bankruptcies and foreclosure? We need to demand that our money be better spent.
Shirley Lin Kinoshita
Raging Grannies: Get Your Song on for Tax Day!
I’VE ALWAYS PAID MY TAXES (G)
(Tune: "Yellow Rose of Texas")
I’ve always paid my taxes,
I paid them right on time,
I never even cheated - I coughed up every dime.
But now I know my money goes
Straight over to Iraq
For bombs and tanks and missiles
And I WANT MY MONEY BACK!
I used to think my taxes went
For things that made us great -
