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Alice's Priorities

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Why I Will Continue to Stand Up for Peace

Some people have asked me why I should be concerned about a national issue like the war in Iraq, since I’m not running for Congress. As a recipient of the Seattle United Nations Association’s Human Rights Award and the Washington State Network for Human Rights Award, I think the question is indicative of how we isolate issues and don’t see the bigger picture.

In turn I ask, “What do you think would have happened if every elected official in this country had stood up to an administration that had been planning to invade Iraq before the election took place – and said no. Would we have wasted more than $150 billion of the nation’s resources, impacted the lives of millions of US and Iraqi families with devastating loss of life, and squandered the good will of people and governments across the world? Isn’t it the sacred duty of every elected representative to promote the security and general welfare of the populace?”


General Dwight D Eisenhower described the impact of military spending most eloquently 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, and the hopes of its children.”

The theft from Washington State taxpayers so far is $4.1 billion. According to estimates of the National Priorities Project based primarily on government statistics, this amount could pay for

2,964, 558 children receiving health care or

453, 895 Head Start slots for children or

72,325 elementary school teachers or

610,846 housing vouchers

In addition, Washington’s share of the money recently approved for new nuclear weapons could pay for

105,126 people receiving health care or

68,933 housing vouchers

The health, education, and welfare of Washingtonians is being injured by the continued expansion of US military activity throughout the globe. As your elected representative, I will stand up in the state legislature, in the Democratic Party, and with our Senators and Representatives for a shift in priorities away from war and the huge military budget to a sensible security policy and more federal support for the pressing needs of the people of Washington State.