Re: The War Budget Generally & Specifically the Sending of My Student to Afghanistan
Dear Mr. Gates,
I write to you as a former high-school teacher, a person of faith, and a citizen concerned for marginalized communities and our national values. The current debate about funding and sending more troops to Afghanistan misses the point in that it frames the choice as between Iraq and Afghanistan. War is not inevitable; conflict is. War is not a viable long-term solution to conflict – it has never brought about real peace in any circumstance, unless it was the stillness of a cemetery. General Barry McCaffrey himself has said, “We can’t shoot our way out of Afghanistan;” this is not solely limited to Afghanistan but applies to war in general.
In a time of rebuilding after a worldwide economic crisis, Dr. King’s words ring louder than ever: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” The trillions of dollars funding the killing of other human beings overseas would be better served in feeding hungry children, funding small business, investing in schools, and enabling social welfare programs which have been gutted recently by many state and federal budgets.
One of my former students, Tony, is leaving for Afghanistan this week because of your orders. He was one of the most intelligent and promising students I had the pleasure to work with as a high-school English teacher at Rivera High School in Brownsville, Texas. Tony plans to one day attend law school and give back to his community. Tony joined the military to fund his higher education.
While he will be in my daily prayers, I owe more to my student than that. I am writing to you in hopes that you will reconsider all our current wars and pursue peace-building, civil solutions with all parties involved. I close with another quote from Dr. King: “I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor . . . I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop must be ours.”
Please take the initiative to end our current military engagements, for Tony, for me, for our nation, for the world.
Wake this morning to snoring, fit enough to wake the dead.Make my way over to the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Rio Grande City for an inspired message by el padre.The lectern forgotten somewhere behind him, this Padre walked the center aisle like the evangelical preachers of my childhood. His message about Lazarus woke me up far more than a cup of joe.
“Levantante, Lazaro – Rise, Lazarus!Levantante a vivir, levanantante a caminar – Rise up to walk!”
He could have been speaking to me and the 20 others waking up in the Immaculate Conception Parish Hall, readying for Day #2 of walking blacktop and tasting diesel because we feel compelled by a force every bit as compelling as Jesus’ voice outside the tomb that Sunday.There was a jounce in my step when I came down the front steps in the pre-dawn.
Sisters Fran, Nancy, Luella blessed us with a blessing we could taste. Their contribution highlights the philosophy of Cesar Chavez, the philosophy we are trying to follow. Chavez writes in 1978’s “He Showed us the Way,”
We can gather the support of millions who have a conscience and would rather see a nonviolent resolution to problems. We are convinced that when people are faced with a direct appeal from the poor struggling nonviolently against great odds, they will react positively. The American people and people everywhere still yearn for justice. It is to that yearning that we appeal.
A group of people, young students and idealistic teachers, mothers and fathers, filmmakers and journalists and people of faith – a diverse group making a positive statement on a crucial issue at a crux in history cannot but call out sympathetic positive outpourings of love from all those around them. The Valley is an extremely warm place, but add to that the positivity of a unified nonviolent statement, and people react with offerings of love.
The widow’s mite is powerful because it demands great sacrifice.Everything someone has, no matter how small or miniscule it may seem – that is true involvement, true dedication.That zealousness is what will make causes powerful.But the widow’s mite is also powerful because it begs a community of such widows.One cannot eat on merely a widow’s mite – one needs hundreds, thousands of mites.If we had received a generous donation from the UFW or the Mennonite Central Committee covering all the costs of this march, we might have been beholden to their interests out of a sense of gratitude.Plus, we would not have had the community support, investment, and involvement in our efforts; we would not have had to seek it out, we would not have needed la gente, the everyday people.
As it is, we are receiving support from at least 3 churches in almost every leg of this trip.Today we had at least three cops from Rio Grande City, including Lieutenant Rodriguez, and then we were passed off to a constable and a sheriff for the next remaining stretch.The Beloved Community requires all people to give a little, not one or two to give a lion’s share but all to give a widow’s mite.For dinner tonight, a journalist from the Spanish-speaking El Informador treated us to pizzas.The Holy Family Catholic Church in La Grulla graciously opened their church facilities to us, and their large youth group gave us a warm welcome.Nancy Rivera from the Mennonite Central Committee and Andrea, who is a Mennonite Brethren board member, treated us to snacks and then came back to provide us dinner and stay for the evening’s discussion about Cesar Chavez, nonviolence, and the Mennonite Central committee statement on immigration.
Grassroots.Grassroots movements like this March Against the Wall are powerful because you talk to people at the BorderTown Foods grocery store when they generously let you use their staff restrooms.Grassroots movements involve people pulling off the highway, curtailing their Sunday drive to walk a mile in protest of an unconscionable absurdity such as a border wall.Grassroots nonviolent demonstrations mean that you interpret every honk as a smile, every wave as a slap on the back, every head nod as the most compassionate gesture of a Tejano cowboy.Nonviolent grassroots demonstrations mean that you make up songs like “It’s the end of the wall and we know it” to the tune of REM’s “It’s the end of the world” and “No al muro” to the tune of “Sha-na-na-na Hey Hey Hey Goodbye.”Grassroots nonviolent demonstrations mean you make your own signs on the back of bookcovers, you wear overalls and Canadian ties and Hecho en Mexico belt buckles.
Grassroots nonviolent movements only work when people like you become passionate about the issues.It is not enough for one zealous high-school teacher to oppose the border wall because he is indignant that his students will be disrespected by such a symbol of division.It is not enough for a soccer coach to wish that his A+ students and soccer captains could actually attend the great universities they deserve to attend if only they weren’t trapped in the immigration lottery system.We welcome your support, in prayers and in car honks but also in donations of pizzas and votes of confidence.Most of all, we welcome you to walk with us, be it a mile or a day.Levantante a vivir, levantante a caminar.
Smart Borders 