Wellesley Monthly Meeting passed a minute to ask their Clerk to send the attached letter to Senator John Kerry, who is a member of the Congressional "Super Committee" on Debt Reduction.
Dear John Kerry:
As a member of the “Super Committee” on Debt Reduction, in the next few weeks you have a particular responsibility for shaping our national priorities for the next decade. We members and attenders of the Wellesley Friends Meeting of New England Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) ask you to support cutting the Pentagon budget by $1 trillion dollars over the next ten years as was recommended by the Sustainable Defense Task Force. For 350 years Quakers have had a testimony against the preparation for and the application of organized violence in war; this testimony is based in our spiritual experience that there is that of God in everyone. We believe that our security is best served by preventing war. Conflict can be alleviated and ameliorated through development, diplomacy, and international cooperation.
Because of your membership on the Congressional Super Committee, we know your leadership and influence is very important. We request that you reduce the military budget while strengthening civilian structures. In particular, this includes:
• removing our troops and remaining bases in Iraq, • removing our troops and bases from Afghanistan, while using USAID and other civilian entities to help them transition to a functional economy, • reducing waste, fraud, and abuse by instituting the same level of Congressional oversight of the military budget as required for other Federal agencies, • eliminating a substantial number of the 800+ foreign bases, • fully funding the US Institute for Peace, so it can work on ways to reduce the need for sending in the troops.
The charge of the Super Committee is to reduce the deficit which has swollen throughout the past decade largely as a result of over two trillion dollars in military expenditures for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars were paid for by borrowing while taxes were cut by about a trillion dollars. In order to reduce this debt, we now hear suggestions that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and programs of assistance for the truly needy must be cut. In common with most spiritual organizations, Quakers believe in stewardship, by which we mean the right management and sharing of possessions so that future generations may inherit an earth on which they can live in hope and dignity. As part of our witness on equity and fairness, we believe that all of us should contribute our fair share of taxes. We encourage you, John Kerry, to advocate for raising taxes on those most able to pay in order to maintain the social safety net.
For the Wellesley Monthly Meeting of Friends, October 13, 2011,
Carolyn Stone, Clerk Stephen McKnight, Recording Clerk
Wellesley Monthly Meeting passed a minute to ask their Clerk to send the attached letter to Senator John Kerry, who is a member of the Congressional "Super Committee" on Debt Reduction.
Dear John Kerry:
As a member of the “Super Committee” on Debt Reduction, in the next few weeks you have a particular responsibility for shaping our national priorities for the next decade. We members and attenders of the Wellesley Friends Meeting of New England Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) ask you to support cutting the Pentagon budget by $1 trillion dollars over the next ten years as was recommended by the Sustainable Defense Task Force. For 350 years Quakers have had a testimony against the preparation for and the application of organized violence in war; this testimony is based in our spiritual experience that there is that of God in everyone. We believe that our security is best served by preventing war. Conflict can be alleviated and ameliorated through development, diplomacy, and international cooperation.
Because of your membership on the Congressional Super Committee, we know your leadership and influence is very important. We request that you reduce the military budget while strengthening civilian structures. In particular, this includes:
• removing our troops and remaining bases in Iraq,
• removing our troops and bases from Afghanistan, while using USAID and other civilian entities to help them transition to a functional economy,
• reducing waste, fraud, and abuse by instituting the same level of Congressional oversight of the military budget as required for other Federal agencies,
• eliminating a substantial number of the 800+ foreign bases,
• fully funding the US Institute for Peace, so it can work on ways to reduce the need for sending in the troops.
The charge of the Super Committee is to reduce the deficit which has swollen throughout the past decade largely as a result of over two trillion dollars in military expenditures for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars were paid for by borrowing while taxes were cut by about a trillion dollars. In order to reduce this debt, we now hear suggestions that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and programs of assistance for the truly needy must be cut. In common with most spiritual organizations, Quakers believe in stewardship, by which we mean the right management and sharing of possessions so that future generations may inherit an earth on which they can live in hope and dignity. As part of our witness on equity and fairness, we believe that all of us should contribute our fair share of taxes. We encourage you, John Kerry, to advocate for raising taxes on those most able to pay in order to maintain the social safety net.
For the Wellesley Monthly Meeting of Friends, October 13, 2011,
Carolyn Stone, Clerk Stephen McKnight, Recording Clerk