[Peace-discuss] Fwd: FCNL: Send Your Own State of the Union Message (1/23/02)

Thu Jan 23 17:02:44 CST 2003

>Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 17:46:06 -0500 (EST)
>X-Authentication-Warning: vienna3.his.com: majordom set sender to 
>owner-fcnl-news at fcnl.org using -f
>Subject: FCNL: Send Your Own State of the Union Message (1/23/02)
>From: fcnl-news at fcnl.org
>Sender: owner-fcnl-news at fcnl.org
>Reply-To: fcnl-news at fcnl.org
>To: undisclosed-recipients:;
>X-MailScanner: Found to be clean
>X-MailScanner-SpamScore: ssss
>
>FCNL LEGISLATIVE ACTION MESSAGE - January 23, 2003
>
>The following action items from the Friends Committee on National
>Legislation (FCNL) focus on federal policy issues currently before Congress
>or the Administration.
>
>PLEASE FORWARD THIS ACTION ALERT TO YOUR FRIENDS.  We need to flood Congress
>with calls, faxes, and emails now-to help prevent war!  New members,
>especially, need to hear from their constituents.
>
>SEND YOUR OWN STATE OF THE UNION MESSAGE: On Tuesday, Jan. 28, President
>Bush is scheduled to deliver a State of the Union Address.  He is expected
>to put forward the case for why the U.S. should invade Iraq (but not North
>Korea), increase spending for the military and homeland security, cut taxes
>further for the wealthy, and yet maintain "fiscal discipline" (i.e., frozen
>or reduced funding) in most other areas of discretionary federal spending.
>He will likely call upon all the U.S. public (except the wealthiest) to
>sacrifice in the face of continuing threats at home and abroad.
>
>Likely, he will not announce new initiatives for the nonviolent prevention
>of war or to address the root causes of war.  He will probably say little
>about the continued erosion of civil liberties at home and deterioration of
>human rights abroad, or about how little will be left in his budget to
>assist poor and low income families facing economic hardship.  Likely, he
>will not say much about what his Administration plans to do to address the
>growing HIV/AIDS pandemic, which has already killed tens of millions in the
>poorest countries of Africa and now threatens to sweep across South and East
>Asia.  He will probably not mention his Administration's efforts to
>undermine the enforcement of environmental laws or how little his
>Administration plans to do to curb our country's gluttonous appetite for
>oil.
>
>ACTION: Please contact your representative and senators.  Let them know that
>you think the President is leading the country in the wrong direction.  Tell
>them that you do not want the U.S. to go to war with Iraq and urge them to
>communicate this to the President.  Let your members of Congress know what
>is most important to you.  Urge them to help advance your priorities in the
>108th Congress.
>
>Start with the sample letter posted in our Legislative Action Center,
>personalize the language, then email or fax your message directly from our
>site.  You can also print it out and mail it.  To view the sample letter,
>click on the link below, then enter your zip code and click <Go> in the
><Take Action Now> box.  Here is the link:
>http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=1277031&type=CO.
>
>YOUR LOBBY VISITS, CALLS, AND EMAILS ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE!  Staff from a
>number of legislative offices have reported receiving calls from
>constituents on Iraq and North Korea and that these calls have helped to
>influence their bosses (i.e., your legislators).  More than 100 members have
>signed the Brown/Kind/Wexler/Doggett letter to the President (see our
>January 16th Legislative Action Message).  Hundreds of thousands marched
>this past week end in Washington D.C., San Francisco, and elsewhere.  Public
>opinion polls are beginning to swing in our favor and the news media is at
>last beginning to realize that there is an anti-war movement.
>
>NATIONAL CALL IN DAY WEDNESDAY JAN. 29: The day after the President's State
>of the Union Address, there will be a national call in day to the White
>House and Congress to oppose war with Iraq.  Please stay tuned.  On
>Wednesday, Jan. 29, FCNL will send a special legislative action message in
>response to the President's speech.  The White House comment desk is
>202-456-1111.
>
>STATE OF THE UNION BACKGROUND INFORMATION:  President Bush is leading the
>country toward an unjustifiable, dangerous, and costly war while ignoring
>the real threats to human security today.  His proposed tax cuts will only
>compound the problem.
>
>Iraq poses no imminent risk to its neighbors today--let alone to the U.S.,
>and there are other, less costly, nonviolent ways to address weapons of mass
>destruction and human rights through cooperative action by the United
>Nations.  War would needlessly and unconscionably endanger the lives of tens
>of thousands of U.S. troops and civilians, millions of Iraqis, and others in
>the region.  The budgetary and economic cost could easily soar to more than
>$1 trillion.  There are no guarantees that the next Iraqi regime will be any
>better than the current one with respect to human rights, democracy, the
>rule of law, or its neighbors.  A U.S. invasion of Iraq could rapidly become
>a quagmire, provoking more acts of terror around the world, increasing the
>suffering of the Iraqi people, and consuming endless amounts of blood and
>treasure.
>
>There are other threats to human security today that are far greater than
>Iraq.  These include poverty, disease, illiteracy, and oppression at home
>and abroad.  Demand for emergency shelter and food has increased sharply in
>cities across the U.S.  The poverty rate is once again on the rise.  More
>than 11.7 million children now live below the U.S. poverty line.  Incomes
>for the poorest households fell in 2001, and the income gap between the
>poorest and wealthiest households grew to a new record.  The number of
>people in the U.S. without health insurance grew by 1.4 million in 2001 to
>over 41 million (including 9.2 million children).  The economic disparities
>are even greater for African-American and Latino families.  States have run
>out of money and many have cut child care and other programs serving poor
>and low-income working families.
>
>Around the world, the international HIV/AIDS pandemic has already claimed
>tens of millions of lives, and it is now beginning to gather momentum in
>South and East Asia.  The pandemic thrives in the poorest countries, making
>them poorer still.  In many countries, illiteracy, poor health care,
>violence, and oppressive, corrupt, and inept governing institutions remain
>barriers to escape from both poverty and the pandemic.
>
>The President's war plans, tax cuts, and budget priorities threaten to take
>away the resources the country and world needs to address these real
>challenges to human security and development.
>
>CONTACTING LEGISLATORS
>
>Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 or 800-839-5276
>
>Sen. ________
>U.S. Senate
>Washington, DC 20510
>
>Rep. ________
>U.S. House of Representatives
>Washington, DC 20515
>
>Information on your members is available on FCNL's web site:
>http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/directory/directory.dbq?command=congdi
>r
>
>CONTACTING THE ADMINISTRATION
>
>White House Comment Desk: 202-456-1111
>FAX: 202-456-2461
>E-MAIL: president at whitehouse.gov
>WEB PAGE: http://www.whitehouse.gov
>
>President George W. Bush
>The White House
>Washington, DC 20500
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>This message supplements other FCNL materials and does not reflect FCNL's
>complete policy position on any issue.  For further information, please
>contact FCNL.
>
>Mail: 245 Second Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002-5795
>Email: fcnl at fcnl.org
>Phone: (202) 547-6000
>Toll Free: (800) 630-1330
>Fax: (202) 547-6019
>Web: http://www.fcnl.org
>
>Your contributions sustain our Quaker witness in Washington.  We welcome
>your gifts to FCNL, or, if you need a tax deduction, to the FCNL Education
>Fund.  You can use your credit card to donate money securely to FCNL through
>a special page on FCNL's web site http://www.fcnl.org/suprt/indx.htm
>FCNL also accepts credit card donations over the phone.  For more
>information about donating, please contact the Development Team directly at
>development at fcnl.org. Thank you.
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>This message may be found regularly on FCNL's web site http://www.fcnl.org
>where a printer-friendly version is available and on PeaceNet in the
>fcnl.updates conference.
>
>This message is distributed regularly via the fcnl-news mailing list.  To
>subscribe to this list, please visit FCNL's web site at
>http://www.fcnl.org/listserv/quaker_issues.php.
>
>Alternatively, you can send an e-mail message to majordomo at his.com.  Leave
>the subject line blank.  The message should read "subscribe fcnl-news."
>Please Note: Make sure that you are sending this message from the e-mail
>address to which you would like fcnl-news materials to be sent.
>
>If you currently receive this message via the fcnl-news mailing list and are
>no longer interested in receiving messages from this list, send an e-mail
>message to majordomo at his.com.  The message should read "unsubscribe
>fcnl-news."
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>We seek a world free of war and the threat of war
>We seek a society with equity and justice for all
>We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled
>We seek an earth restored...