War and Want: U.S. politicians’ million-dollar net worth, America’s expanding poverty

Unspeakable cruelty

Callous indifference

Editing, brief comment by
Carolyn Bennett

U.S. Poverty in 2009 approached 1960s U.S. poverty

About 1 percent of all Americans are millionaires.

In Congress, that number regularly hovers between 40 percent and 50 percent.

This means that elected leaders generally need not worry about the economic pressures many Americans face – from securing gainful employment to grappling with keeping a family financially afloat. [Center for Responsive Politics] 

Add caption

Christian Science Monitor reports suburban poor

“By official measures, poverty has risen dramatically in the United States. Between 2000 and 2011, the nation’s poor increased from 33.9 million to 46.2 million. As of 2010, 55 percent of the poor in major metropolitan areas were living in the suburbs. Among the ‘near poor’ – those with incomes as much as twice the poverty level – 63 percent were living in the suburbs.

“The rise in suburban poverty reflects long-term demographic shifts – America is more than ever a suburban nation.” Economic changes have widened the gap between rich and poor and have made it more difficult for families to secure a place in the middle class. The rise in suburban poverty is also happening as city centers across the country “attract the young, wealthy, and well educated” and in some cases push out poorer residents.

U.S. Poverty
The Great Depression

Stranded and trapped

 

The greatest difficulty of poor people in the suburbs is transportation but also work inadequacy and impermanence.

“Suburbs are built for cars yet a car is beyond the means of many poor and low-income residents.” They “catch rides with friends, ride bikes, or use suburban bus lines with limited service.” The head of the United Way of DuPage/West Cook in the western Chicago suburbs told the Monitor, “If you don’t have a car, it’s very hard to get a job or to keep a job. … It is also hard to access services.” Poverty becomes harder to escape.  

 

Inadequate living wage

Suburbs abound in low-paying jobs in retail sales and in services like landscaping and restaurants but these jobs typically pay too little to enable workers to rise from poverty.

Many low-wage jobs available through temporary employment agencies may offer a string of positions but such jobs provide no benefits nor guarantee steady employment. Where a manufacturing base exits, suburban employers prefer temporary labor, thus making it difficult for poor and low-income workers to earn a living, let alone rise from poverty.

Ghettos

Poor families moving from city to suburb or shifting between suburbs are far more likely to settle in poorer areas than in wealthier enclaves. As a result, suburban poverty begins to look a lot like urban poverty, with pockets of increasingly concentrated poor. Poor suburbs are getting poorer.

This is not survival of the "fittest"
This is deliberateUnspeakable cruelty
Callous indifference

The executive director of the Chicago Area Metropolitan Tenants Organization observed that poverty is pushed from city to suburbs and like Europe’s poor, America’s poor people cluster on the edge of cities.

Poverty nationwide 2011

Approximately 100,000 household survey

According to the U.S. Census, where reported and sampled, the official poverty rate in 2011 was 15.0 percent: 46.2 million people in the United States were in poverty.

T

he poverty rate in 2011 for children under age 18 was 21.9 percent. The poverty rate for people aged 18 to 64 was 13.7 percent, while the rate for people aged 65 and older was 8.7 percent. None of the rates for these age groups were statistically different from 2010 estimates.

After 3 consecutive years of increases, neither the official poverty rate nor the number of people in poverty [where sampled and reported] were statistically different from 2010 estimates

The number of people in poverty rose for 4 consecutive years.

Since unrelated individuals under the age of 15 are excluded from the poverty universe, there are 371,000 fewer children in the poverty universe than in the total civilian non-institutional population.

Between 2010 and 2011, poverty rates (numbers) increased for naturalized citizens.

Poverty in the United States as Wikipedia reported

2009 January estimate: 643,000 sheltered and unsheltered homeless people nationwide.

Almost two-thirds stayed in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program; the other third “lived” on the streets, in abandoned buildings or other places not meant for human habitation.

October 1, 2008-September 30, 2009: about 1.56 million people (about 0.5 percent of the U.S. population) used an emergency shelter or a transitional housing program

2011 estimate, double 1996 levels: 1.2 percent (1.5 million households including 2.8 million children) of the U.S. population (presuming a mean household size of 2.55 people) were in extreme poverty (i.e., households living on less than $2 per day before government benefits),

 

Child poverty reached record high levels, with 16.7 million children living in food insecure households, about 35 percent more than 2007 levels.

In 2009 the number of people who were in poverty was approaching 1960s levels that led to the national War on Poverty.

November 2012 (U.S. Census Bureau report): more than 16 percent of the population lived in poverty in the United States, including almost 20 percent of American children ─

 

…up from 14.3 percent (approximately 43.6 million) in 2009; and

…to its highest level since 1993

In 2008, 13.2 percent (39.8 million) Americans lived in poverty. 

“Poverty is

a state of privation or a lack of the usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions.” 

The U.S. government’s definition of poverty, an official threshold adjusted for inflation using the consumer price index, is based on total income received: poverty level for 2012 was set at $23,050 (total yearly income) for a family of four. “Most Americans (58.5 percent) will spend at least one year below the poverty line at some point between ages 25 and 75. Poverty rates are persistently higher in rural and inner city parts of the country as compared to suburban areas.”

“About 1 percent of all Americans are millionaires. 

In Congress, that number regularly hovers between 40 percent and 50 percent, meaning elected leaders generally need not worry about the economic pressures many Americans face – from securing gainful employment to grappling with keeping a family financially afloat.”

Consider whether millionaire leaders in legislative and executive branches of government ─ also bent on making war, chaos and crises and funding conflicts across the world ─ concern themselves with basic needs of the states, cities, communities and people of the United States of America.

C

enter for responsive Politics (Open Secrets) Reports

Head of state/legislator millionaires

Compare: Median net worth (latest Census Data) of the “typical” American household is $66,740.

U.S. President’s net worth

Net Worth of U.S. President Barack Obama (D) 2011

Net Worth: From $2,566,014 to $8,265,000

Rank: 8th in Executive Branch Members 

Assets:  9 totaling $2,566,014 to $8,265,000 

Net Worth of U.S. Congress

 

Median net worth of the 94 incoming U.S. lawmakers (according to data collected from personal financial disclosure forms) at the end of 2011 was $1,066,515.

The median net worth for Democratic members is $990,508, compared to a median net worth for Republicans of $907,014.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, where the median net worth is estimated to be $856,009, Democrats are wealthier than Republicans:

Democratic members’ median estimated net worth $910,505

Republicans members’ median estimated net worth $789,008

In the U.S. Senate, where the median estimated net worth for all members is $2.5 million, the Republicans have the edge over their Democratic colleagues:

Republicans $2.56 million

Democrats $2.47 million

 The total median estimated value of all investments by Party Members virtually the same: 

Democrats $2.2 billion

Republicans $2.3 billion

Richest Members of Congress of United States

Name Michael McCaul (R-Texas) Darrell Issa (R-Calif) Mark Warner (D-Va) Jared Polis (D-Colo) John K. Delaney (D-Md) Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa) Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) Vernon Buchanan (R-Fla) Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) Chellie Pingree (D-Maine)

Minimum Net Worth $306,437,919 $215,550,040 $86,024,219 $83,065,361 $46,886,140 $63,082,021 $79,606,299 $-63,427,724 $7,776,073 $23,747,064

Average $500,624,461 $480,325,019 $228,129,609 $214,946,679 $139,025,569 $102,706,012 $100,190,174 $95,327,629 $94,162,532 $88,544,030

Maximum Net Worth $694,811,003 $745,099,999 $370,235,000 $346,827,997 $231,164,999 $142,330,003 $120,774,049 $254,082,982 $180,548,992 $153,340,997

Sources and notes

“Face of U.S. poverty: These days, more poor live in suburbs than in cities: The rise in suburban poverty reflects long-term demographic shifts – America is more than ever a suburban nation – as well as economic changes” by Richard Mertens, Correspondent / September 11, 2013, http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2013/0911/Face-of-US-poverty-These-days-more-poor-live-in-suburbs-than-in-cities/(page)/1

U.S. Census: Poverty Highlights

The data presented here are from the Current Population Survey (CPS), 2012 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC), the source of official poverty estimates. The CPS ASEC is a sample survey of approximately 100,000 household nationwide. These data reflect conditions in calendar year 2011.  http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/about/overview/index.html

Poverty in the United States, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States

Office holders’ financial data Center for Responsive Politics

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/01/new-congress-new-and-more-wealth.html

http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/CIDsummary.php?CID=N00009638&year=2011

“Personal Finances, Why does it matter?” http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/why.php

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Creating disparity: minorities taking more than their share

Majorities suffering long and deep

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

“Behind the increasing interconnectedness promised by globalization ─ are global decisions and policies and practices. These are typically influenced, driven or formulated by the rich and powerful.” Anup Shah is writing on the “Causes of Poverty.” He says, “These can be leaders of rich countries or other global actors such as multinational corporations, institutions and influential people.”

Facing such enormous external influence, “governments of poor nations and their people are often powerless.” Consequently, in the global context, “a few get wealthy while the majority struggle.” 

Here are some of the devastating facts, past and continuing. 

The state for the global majorities is POVERTY.

   

LIFE, LIVELIHOOD

Half the world’s population — more than 3 billion people (est.) — live on less than $2.50 a day

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP)

Market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country in a given time period; GDP per capita, though not a measure of personal income, is often considered an indicator of a country’s standard of living (Wikipedia).

The GDP of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.

ILLITERACY

 

Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.

EDUCATION

Less than one percent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 but this did not happen.

C

ONSUMERS AND SUFFERES: In 2005, the wealthiest 20 percent of the world accounted for 76.6 percent of total private consumption. The poorest fifth: just 1.5 percent

Twelve (12) percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of the world’s water; these 12 percent live outside the Third World.

 

CHILDREN

2.2 billion in the world; 1 billion (every second child) “live” in poverty; for the 1.9 billion children from the developing world −

640 million lack adequate shelter (1 in 3)

400 million lack access to safe water (1 in 5)

270 million lack access to health services (1 in 7)

CHILD DEATH

 

10.6 million children died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (figure equals total child population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy)

1.4 million children die annually from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation

2.2 million children die annually for lack of immunizations

15 million children are orphaned due to parental deaths from of HIV/AIDS (figure equals total child population in Germany or United Kingdom)

   

REGIONAL PEOPLE WITHOUT ELECTRICITY

South Asia 706 million

Sub-Saharan Africa – 547 million

East Asia 224 million

Other 101 million

ILLNESS (water, sanitation causes)

1.8 million (est.) child deaths each year result from diarrhea

443 million school days lost each year from water-related illness

 

Half of all people (close to this figure) in developing countries suffer at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.

Millions of women spend several hours a day collecting water. 

Economic waste associated with the water and sanitation deficit: Costs associated with health spending, productivity losses and labor diversions … are greatest in some of the poorest countries. Sub-Saharan Africa loses about 5 percent of GDP (or some $28.4 billion annually), a figure that exceeds total aid flows and debt relief to the region in 2003.

DISEASE (Infectious diseases grow)

Forty million (est.) million people live with HIV/AIDS; 3 million died in 2004.

350–500 million cases of malaria (annually); 1 million fatalities; Africa: 90 percent of malarial deaths; African children: over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide

 

WATER, SANITATION 

(problems affecting half of humanity)

1.1 billion of developing countries’ people have inadequate access to water; 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.

Almost two in three people lacking access to CLEAN WATER survive on less than $2 a day; one in three living on less than $1 a day.

More than 660 million people without SANITATION live on less than $2 a day; more than 385 million on less than $1 a day.

Access to piped water into the household averages about 85 percent for the wealthiest 20 percent of the population compared with 25 percent for the poorest 20 percent.

1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometer (0.621 miles) − but not in their house or yard ─ consume around 20 liters (5.283 gallons) per day.

In the United Kingdom, where the average daily water usage is about 150 liters (39.7 gallons) a day, the average person uses more than 50 liters (13.2 gallons) of water a day flushing toilets.

In the United States − which has the highest average water use in the world ─ the average person uses 600 liters (159 gallons) a day.

N

ews on the World Socialist Web Site today contains some current reports showing what can only be termed criminal disparities created and sustained by rich nations’, corporations and individuals’ inordinate taking, plunder and negligence (including the oppressively contributory factors of endless wars of aggression, invasion, occupation, destabilization) leaving the majority of the world’s people in dire conditions that − given the present course and level of callousness ─ will last for generations.

 

CRIMINAL MANUFACTURE OF SUFFERING

In the world today “165 million children … are chronically malnourished.” This is a preventable condition that has affected “one in every four children at some point in their lives”: 38 percent of children from the least developed countries have had their growth stunted by malnutrition; malnourished children score 7 percent lower on math tests and are 19 percent less likely to be able to read by the age of eight; the poorest 40 percent are 2.8 times more likely to suffer long-term effects of malnutrition than the richest 10 percent.” 

Overall, “child malnutrition negatively affects self-esteem, self-confidence, and career aspirations. (Save the Children: “Food for Thought Report” based on studies conducted in India, Peru, Guatemala, Ethiopia and Vietnam)

Countries East and South

More than “1.3 billion people globally have no access to electricity; 2.6 billion have no clean cooking facilities. Ninety-five percent of these numbers of people live either in sub-Saharan Africa or developing countries of Asia; 84 percent live in rural areas.” (International Energy Agency)

  Countries West

In recent years, people living in industrialized countries have experienced “staggering growth in poverty and food insecurity: Greece’s children, 439,000 of them, “lived below the poverty line; 26 percent of Greek households with children had an ‘economically weak diet’; 37 percent lacked adequate heating; one in five families were living in ‘poor environmental conditions’; 10 percent (est.) of elementary and middle school students suffer food insecurity, the same ‘level of some African countries,’” (2012 UNICEF report); The United States’ households with children, 21 percent of them, were ‘food insecure,’ meaning that over the course of the year, these households “did not always have access to adequate food.” (U.S. Department of Agriculture data released showing its 2011 study)

Sources and notes

“Poverty Facts and Stats” (author and compiler Anup Shah, page last updated Monday, January 07, 2013): http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats.

http://www.globalissues.org/print/article/26

http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

“Causes of Poverty” (Author and compiler Anup Shah), page updated Sunday, March 24, 2013, http://www.globalissues.org/issue/2/causes-of-poverty

“165 million children malnourished worldwide” (Jake Dean), June 1, 2013, http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/01/maln-j01.html

“Food for thought report ─ Chronically malnourished children are 20 percent less literate - Save the Children Report comes ahead of June 8 G8 nutrition summit in London” Monday, 27 May 2013 - 5:12 p.m.. http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/2013-05/food-thought-report

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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SOTU subterfuge not believed by all, some went deeper

Child poverty USA

What U.S. president fails to address, others voice boldly: poverty, endless war on his watch and going forward

Editing, re-reporting, comment by 

Carolyn Bennett

Courage addresses underlying issues

Homeless in the USA

Cathy Cohen, Kathy Kelly and Bob Herbert participated yesterday in a post-State of the Union discussion and took some of the gloss off the presidential performance and got to some tough domestic and foreign issues. Violence has roots, core, and consequences at home and abroad.

“We all continue to mourn Hadiya’s death,” Cathy Cohen said. Hadiya Pendleton was the young girl who was shot dead in a Chicago South Side park a week after having performed with her high school band at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration.

“We continue to mourn the deaths of all of our young people who are being killed by gun violence,” Professor Cohen said, “but we are still waiting for a comprehensive discussion from the president, a comprehensive speech to talk about all the underlying factors that contribute to gun violence.

“We are still waiting for him [the president is scheduled to visit Chicago tomorrow] … to talk about the ─

Unemployment that young people face

Inadequate schooling that they face

Problematic policies around incarceration

Trauma [young people] face from violence and unemployment in their neighborhoods

Dr. Cathy Cohen

“The truth is,” she said, “without that type of discussion, we are never going to move forward in really trying to deal with and stem the violence in the lives of these young people.”

D

r. Cathy J. Cohen (b.1962) is an American author, feminist, social activist, and David and Mary Winton Green Professor in Political Science at the University of Chicago. Before going to the University of Chicago, she was on the faculty at Yale University. Her doctorate was taken at the University of Michigan. She has served as secretary of the American Political Science Association (APSA); and, as an academic activist, she frequently writes and speaks about gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity, and their interrelatedness and connection to power.

Professor Cohen is one of the founding board members of the Audre Lorde Project and is active in a number of organizations working on social justice issues. In 2010, she moderated the plenary sessions of the Applied Research Center’s conference “Popularizing Racial Justice.” She is the principal researcher on the www.blackyouthproject.com and author of Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the future of American politics and boundaries of Blackness; AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics.

“W

e keep watching young people die in our city,” Dr. Cohen said, “and it seems that somehow the country does not understand … the worth of their lives.…

“We had heard elites and leaders talk about the president coming home, but we felt there needed to be … the added voice of thousands of people telling the president that he needed to come to Chicago. He needed to come home and he needed to talk about gun violence in a comprehensive way.”

Cohen was talking about a petition launched by the Black Youth Project to bring the president home to his hometown, Chicago, and address underlying issues. “We thought it would be critical to have someone who had gone through that loss,” the loss of someone by gun violence in Chicago, she said, “asking the president to come home and speak about gun violence … [and] about 10 days after Hadiya Pendleton’s death, there were more than 47,000 signatures.”

War and poverty

POVERTY and failure to care

In his turn in the Democracy Now discussion, Bob Herbert said, “The big problem—the biggest problem facing the country still is employment:

Too many people out of work

Too many people underemployed

Poverty is expanding

Median income has decreased since the recession ended

Median income has decreased in the recovery period

50 million (est.) people who are officially poor in the United States

Another 50 million are near poor ─ close to one third of the entire U.S. population

Yet we are in a period of austerity.

A

 glaring absence in the president’s State of the Union speech, Professor Cohen joined Herbert, “is a real discussion, a serious discussion of poverty.

“We talk about aspiring to the middle class, expanding the middle class, and these are all good things for us to focus on; but there are, as Bob said, almost a third of the country impoverished or close to poverty.”

What to do

“We have to have a clearer sense about what we are going to do for those communities, for those individuals, to really change their lives and provide them with real opportunities for mobility,” Cohen said.

“There is no way to address challenges as enormous as these without making enormous investments,” Herbert added. “I don’t know how we make headway if we’re not going to make investments in those things that ultimately will put people back to work.… We need to rebuild infrastructure, invest in research and development.” 

Weatherizing buildings from coast to coast, which would put lower-income people to work; all of those things cost money, yet the president emphasized in his speech that nothing he was  proposing will add even a dime to the budget deficits ─ so one part of the speech is fighting another.”

Another way of putting it is to say the president was talking out of both sides of his mouth. There’s also another way of putting it that I will leave to others to put.

R

obert (Bob) Herbert (b. 1945) is an American journalist/op-ed columnist who writes frequently on poverty, the Iraq war, racism and American political apathy toward issues of race. Until 2011, he wrote a syndicated column for The New York Times and other sources. In June 2011, Herbert joined the national think-tank Demos as a Distinguished Senior Fellow. He writes for the Demos blog PolicyShop; and The American Prospect magazine, which merged with Demos in 2010. Herbert is author of Promises Betrayed: Waking up from the American Dream (2005).

If we were to address climate change the way we addressed challenges earlier in history, Herbert said, “We would do something about this.

Put people to work.

Do research and development.

Do conservation.

Weatherize buildings from coast to coast.

We would begin to develop new products, new automobiles, new forms of energy … which become the driving force for industry … another way to revitalize the economy, and put people back to work

COWARDS, the corrupt find tough choices taboo, untouchable

Rebuilding, investing, and taboo of all, exacting fair-share taxes, but Herbert says, “We should be raising taxes.” Although this might be “heresy” ─ not an issue that has political resonance in Washington ─ “we should be raising taxes on everyone because we must raise revenue to make investments, required long-term investments.

“The taxes on those near the top,” he said, “ought to be raised much more than on middle-income and lower-income people.”

DOMESTIC AFFAIRS ARE FOREIGN AFFAIRS, and foreign domestic

D

wight David Eisenhower, America’s 34th president, said in “The Chance for Peace,” a speech he gave in 1953:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed; those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

U.S. post-war
Occupied
Iraq's birth-defect children

The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000-population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.

We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat.

We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed [thousands].

U.S. post war
Occupied
Iraq's wounded children

“This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense,” President Eisenhower said. “Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

60 years on at home and abroad

ENDLESS WAR, poverty, abuses of human rights, liberty

It is untrue, as is often touted by government and other sources, that the war in Afghanistan is a “humanitarian war; that we are there to protect widows and orphans and women and children,” Kathy Kelly said in her turn on yesterday’s Democracy Now post-State of the Union special.

The fact is that “conditions for people in Afghanistan are deplorable. … Over a million children under the age of five are suffering acute malnutrition.

U.S. at war
Afghanistan's civilians

“Expenditures made by United States development groups are now approaching $100 billion; yet Afghanistan is still considered one of the worst places in the world in which a person can live—

U.S. at war
Yemen's children

35 percent unemployment among men

Education system completely corrupt 

Corruption closely linked to ways the United States puts money in the pockets of corrupt warlords all across Afghanistan.

And the president’s claim that the United States is going to be able to effectively train the many different militarized forces in Afghanistan, Kelly says, “is very hard to believe because so many of the people who are drafted into Afghanistan’s military are illiterate.” Many people “are there because they are desperate for money.”

Now and into the future, “civilians are at high risk; antagonism toward the United States continues to rise; the Taliban have said that until all [foreign] troops are out, they will continue to fight,” Kelly reports. Afghans continue to be saddled with ongoing war.

K

athy Kelly (b. 1952, Chicago) is an American peace activist, pacifist, author, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare; and a founding member of Voices in the Wilderness. As part of peace team work in several countries, she has traveled to Iraq twenty-six times, notably remaining in combat zones during the early days of both U.S.-Iraq wars. She has been arrested more than sixty times at home and abroad, and has written of her experiences among targets of U.S. military bombardment and inmates of U.S. prisons.

She has reported on her time on peace teams and in prison in numerous articles for peace and religious journals, and for websites such as CounterPunch and CommonDreams.org. Several of her essays have appeared in books on the Iraq War. She spends much of her time traveling in the United States and speaking for schools, churches, festivals, and activist groups from whom she accepts but does not require a stipend. On the Democracy Now February 13, she had recently returned from Afghanistan.

Kelly is author of Other Lands Have Dreams: from Baghdad to Pekin Prison (2005), collecting and expanding on her letters from Iraq and from prison; co-author of Prisoners on Purpose: a Peacemakers Guide to Jails and Prison (1989), and co-editor of War and Peace in the Gulf (2001). Her latest articles have focused on the experiences of Afghan and Pakistani people facing consequences of U.S. military action.

 

“P

resident Obama,” Kathy Kelly said yesterday, “is a hawkish president who likes to appear dovish.

“The reality is that the Pentagon has said [U.S.] troops will be in Afghanistan until 2024 and beyond [not withdrawn next year as the President said]. And in the ‘21st century military’ that the president and the Pentagon want to create, they don’t necessarily need big, huge military bases all across Afghanistan. What they want to have are ─

Special operations troops working in coordination with the capacity for drone strikes,

Weaponized drone strikes,

Drone surveillance.

Kathy Kelly

What to do

Instead of money, resources, and the ingenuity constantly being poured into military solutions, Kelly said, there are “other kinds of security that are crucial, absolutely essential in Afghanistan.” These include “food security, healthcare delivery security, security so that people can get an education for their children.”

Bob Herbert

And not only this, she said, “The United States and every other country that has invaded and wrecked Afghanistan should pay reparations for suffering caused and help to rebuild an infrastructure appropriate for [Afghanistan].” 

T

here is a ring of similarity, an echo, between, a theme, a paradigm running through America’s internal and foreign relations policies, practices and problems.

Cathy Cohen

Approaches in both sectors are brutally wrong, inhumane. And the only way to begin to rid the United States, and indeed other countries, of bad U.S. leadership is for the people of America to act ─ without regard to party or ideology or personal characteristics, vote out of office, recall or impeach all entrenched office holders. Correct systems and processes and reseat all branches of government with better, cleaner, more able and socially, ethically and morally progressive leaders. This is serious business and the time is long past for cleaning house in Washington.

We must be strong at home and abroad, President Eisenhower said in 1956. “We want to be strong at home in our morale or in our spirit. We want to be strong intellectually, in our education, in our economy; and, where necessary, militarily.”

Progressive thought and politics to me is nonpartisan and it means clearheadedly and with an impartial reading of history taking the best and bettering it.

Sources and notes

“Beyond Gun Control, Obama Urged to Tackle Joblessness, Incarceration and U.S. ‘Culture of Violence,’” February 13, 2013, http://www.democracynow.org/2013/2/13/beyond_gun_control_obama_urged_to

“Obama’s SOTU Address Calls for Middle-Class Revival, But Poverty & Inequality Still Get Short Shrift,” February 13, 2013, http://www.democracynow.org/2013/2/13/obamas_sotu_address_calls_for_middle

President Obama has announced plans to withdraw another 34,000 troops from Afghanistan; longtime peace activist Kathy Kelly warns the war shows no end. Just returned from Afghanistan, she says the company formally known as Blackwater is now running a base just outside of Kabul used by the Special Operations Joint Task Force. Kelly, warns Afghan civilians continue to suffer from longest-running war in U.S. history.

“On Monday, a U.S. air strike in Afghanistan killed 10 civilians. The strike hit what the NATO occupation force called a suspected Taliban hideout in the province of Kunar.” [Democracy Now]

COHEN

Dr. Cathy J. Cohen,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_J._Cohen

KELLY

Kathy Kelly, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathy_Kelly

HERBERT

Robert (Bob) Herbert, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Herbert

President Dwight David Eisenhower

Address “The Chance for Peace” Delivered Before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 4/16/53; Radio and Television Broadcast: “The Women Ask the President,” 10/24/56

http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/all_about_ike/quotes.html

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