FOOD NOT BOMBS under threat resists

Excerpt, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Shamefully mendacious 
U.S. actor-president Reagan morphs into 
U.S. actor-president Obama

The world’s wealthiest country spends more than half of every tax dollar on military, Food Not Bombs comments. Spending that money on the people of the United States would ensure that no one would ever be forced to seek food at a soup kitchen or find shelter on streets of this “rich” and powerful country.

Alas, U.S. federal, state and local governments’ brute priorities favor wars and obstruct [Gaza to Orlando] the feeding of the hungry and housing of the homeless.

Food Not Bombs groups are facing arrest all over the United States [en route to Gaza, ships are disabled, crews detained] while cities are passing laws against people who are homeless and poor.

Down the line, the flawed priorities and hypocrisies are clear. Citing U.S. President Barack Obama’s speeches at the U.S. State Department and at the G8 meeting in France, Dave Lindorff in late May noted the administration’s promise of billions in economic aid to a Middle East/North African region the West has for years disrupted and disabled its people in the name of “democracy.” The president suggested that young Egyptians and Tunisians’ unrest and protest [their resistance] are consequences of their joblessness and hopelessness and the West wants to save them.

“We believe,” the president’s adviser on international economics is reported saying, “these two pillars [of want and unrest] go hand in hand [and] without economic modernization, it will be hard for governments trying to ‘democratize’ to show people that ‘democracy’ delivers.”

Unemployment among young Egyptian men and women is about 30 percent, among young Tunisians, 40 percent.

In “democratic” USA, unemployment and underemployment are estimated at 20 percent overall (not allowing for situational variables in unemployment and underemployment); and among young black Americans, unemployment is 44, among young Latino Americans (official) unemployment is estimated at 30 percent. Speculation is that actual totals are much greater all round.

While the U.S. wages more and more wars, taking necessary funding from U.S. cities and people, “Governments are trying to silence the first amendment rights of Food Not Bombs, seeking a future where no one needs to stand in line at a soup kitchen for food and ask for housing at a shelter.…

“Cuts in social services, laws criminalizing poverty, massive foreclosures, unemployment and the redistribution of our resources to the super wealthy and their corporations must be stopped.”

Food Not Bombs says, as one city after another has passed laws against sharing food with the hungry, “volunteers participating in the Florida Food Not Bombs Gathering in Orlando agreed to start an urgent campaign.…”

In the Food not Bombs campaign, “Legal support and nonviolent workshops are offered to all interested in participating in this important campaign. We are in solidarity with all and invite everyone to camp out on the first of each month outside our local city hall calling for an end to the criminalization of poverty.”

Sources

http://www.foodnotbombs.net/resist.html

On May 25, 2011, Heather Fagan (Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer’s press secretary) hinted that police may gather evidence that could be used to arrest activists later, perhaps at their homes or workplaces away from the news cameras. Mark Schlueb, Orlando Sentinel May 25, 2011

The city didn't arrest us at home or work. They waited until the media left and arrested three volunteers during the June 1, 2011 meal.

FOOD NOT BOMBS TELLS ORLANDO SENTINEL WHY IT PLANS TO CONTINUE DEFYING NEW LAW. (Video)

Common Dreams published on Saturday, May 28, 2011 by This Can’t Be Happening “Jarring Disconnect: If Joblessness and Hopelessness Undermine Democracy in the Middle East, What About Here at Home?” (Dave Lindorff), http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/28-2

Today’s Insight News also noted Lindorff’s article in a previous context.

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