<div dir="ltr"><div><div class="gmail-ajy" tabindex="0"><img class="gmail-ajz" id="gmail-:9f" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif" alt=""></div><div><div><div><div>Dear
folks here is a letter I sent to Dianne Feinstein after she sent me one
justifying her vote in favor of the huge bloated military budget.<br><br></div>I would highly recommend starting a similar dialog with her and Senatar Kamala Harris and representative Jared Huffman<br><br></div>Ed Oberweiser<br></div>OPC Chair <br></div>Member Veterans For Peace<br><br>December 30, 2017<br><br>Senator Dianne Feinstein<br>331 Hart Senate Office Bldg.<br>Washington, DC 20510<br> <br><br>Dear Senator Feinstein:<br><br>I
received your military spending justification letter (December 14,
2017). I disagree with your viewpoint. The U.S. military is deploying
more than 300,000 troops overseas in 150 different countries. This
covers 75 percent of the world’s nations. The military is engaged in
active combat in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Nearly 40,000 military
personnel are assigned to classified missions in locations that the US
government refuses to disclose.<br><br>The United States cannot afford
to be the next empire. No military in the history of the world has been
more widely deployed as the United States.<br><br>We the People cannot
afford this unnecessary expenditure of our hard earned tax dollars. The
Department of Defense says the DOD owns “more than 600,000 individual
buildings and structures at more than 6,000 locations on more than 30
million acres of land.”<br><br>Meanwhile, in the U.S. we do not have
complete medical care for all our citizens as most modern industrial
nations do. We have many homeless people many of whom are mentally ill,
wandering the streets in every city of the country. Our infrastructure
is falling apart.<br><br>Our youth cannot afford to go to college and
get the education necessary to become tomorrow’s leaders. They need more
not less education to become equipped to face the challenges facing our
country and the survival of human civilization. Humanity is
overpopulating and overpolluting the Earth, our life support system.
Politicians and the wealthy seem to think it’s possible for an
infinitely growing economy on a finite planet. <br><br>All women need to
be given absolute control over their bodies and right to decide whether
or not to have children. This is not a religious issue it is a survival
of the species one. More educated women do not have too many children.<br><br>The
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has given the U.S.
infrastructure a near failing grade, a bleak cumulative ranking of D.
The ranking grades the conditions 15 infrastructure entities such as
roads, bridges, dams, drinking water systems, schools, transit systems
and wastewater treatment.<br><br>According to the government, there are
70,000 bridges that have been deemed structurally deficient. Each
American family is losing $3400 of disposable income every year but to
poor infrastructure.<br><br>Along with its gloomy assessment of the
country’s ailing infrastructure, ASCE also offered suggestions to help
fix it. Among them were increasing investment from federal, state and
local agencies from 2.5% to 3.5% of GDP over the next decade, raising
fuel taxes and educating Americans about the true cost of providing
robust infrastructure. <br>"Our infrastructure has fallen behind the
rest of the world, threatening our economic vitality and even becoming a
danger to our citizens. We can't rely on the same-old way of doing
things. We need to bring a renewed spirit of innovation and purpose to
this challenge. We believe the Making The Grade report provides the
right framework, fresh ideas and infusion of energy needed to jumpstart
this discussion and create action as a unified industry. We look
forward to working closely between the private and public sector to
start implementing our recommendations with all due haste." -- Terry D.
Bennett, LS LPFMRICS ENV SP LEED®AP, senior industry strategist for
infrastructure, Autodesk<br><br>The outrageous amount of resources used
by the military expenditures to prop up the U.S. empire is morally
reprehensible. The military activities are mostly used to support the
obscenely wealthy and their corporations become even more wealthy while
failing to support and care for most of the nation’s citizens. We The
People know this and are outraged.<br><br>Until you seriously
acknowledge this problem which could be seriously addressed by massively
cutting the bloated military budget, I will never vote for your or any
other Congressperson’s reelection. There will be nothing for the
military to defend if our infrastructure collapses as it is rapidly
doing. You need to do what you were elected to do - represent and
support the people who voted for you and not the wealthy elite and their
corporations.<br><br><br>Sincerely<br><br><br><br><br>Edward M. Oberweiser<br>Chair, Ocean Protection Coalition (ocean <a href="http://protection.org" target="_blank">protection.org</a>)<br>Member Citizens for Appropriate Coastal Land Use<br></div>Member Veterans For Peace<br></div>