Sam Levenson, the humorist, recounts a story about his parents immigrating to America. Like most immigrants, they were mesmerized about tales of America’s magical spell and streets lined with gold. After Mr. Levenson’s parents and other immigrants arrived in America they learned three truths; 1) The streets were not paved with gold 2) Many streets weren’t paved at all. 3) They had to do the paving themselves. Mr. Levenson’s memories touched something in me about an unpaved street that I have neglected to help pave, a street called peace. I live in the United States, a country that thrives on war. We have the strongest military in history and it has made a very few rich at the expense of the rest of humanity. Why war when diplomacy would save lives and build bridges? It is my intent for this posting and the next to discuss why we as a country believe war generates peace, and why we believe it protects us from our enemies, which just happen to be other human beings? After Part 1 and 2 of my discussion of war it is my hope that you too will help me and others change the world by helping to pave a universal road of peace.

My initial awareness of war, other then the fight for Civil Rights, was while growing up in Anchorage Alaska. Every Friday, blaring alarms would go off at noon throughout town and we would hide under our desk. The enemy? Russians. In my nine year old mind I wondered if Russian children were also hiding beneath their desk thinking like me, that if I looked up my eyes would melt from my eye sockets down my face from the light emanating from the atomic blast. I also wondered how hiding under a desk would help much if the nuclear bombs we were being so indoctrinated about exploded. I didn’t understand war then, just as I question its relevance now. Innocent civilians are being murdered and mutilated, just as our U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are, while the politicians that wage the war fill up their bank accounts.

The Viet Nam War was also pivotal in me questioning the purpose and reasons for war. I remember the anger surrounding Hugh Thompson, Jr., a United States helicopter pilot who tried to rescue Vietnamese civilians during the My Lai Massacre. Hundreds of unarmed women, children and old men were murdered by U.S. Soldiers. Thompson ordered his machine-gunner to open fire on the Americans if they shot at the people he was attempting to save. It took close to 30 years for Thompson to be given the Soldiers’s Medal for doing the right thing. Before that he was an outcast and his life threatened. Imagine a solider who personified some of West Point doctrines such as, “A soldier should always be thinking, a soldier should question orders that they are given to determine whether they conform to the Geneva Convention and laws of war. West Point teaches that war is so dangerous that it should be waged only as a final resort and that if you want to understand war, you have to understand its limitations and unpredictability.”

Thompson like myself and peace activist across the planet know that war is like a natural disaster. You can’t control it.

Recently during the debt ceiling debacle between Congress and the President of the U.S. I reminisced why the streets of war must be repaved with peace. War is destroying our country, rallying terrorists to engage our thirst for hatred, and spreading propaganda about the need for war to our own children. We are told to hate people that want what we all want. Love of freedom and family. The right to worship the God they believe in, to prosper and have a life where food and health care are not a privilege, but instead, compassion and kindness for a fellow human being. As I listened and watched with the rest of the world as U.S. Congress debated feeding our hungry, taking care of our Veterans, finding provisions for our homeless and mentally ill or continue waging war and giving tax breaks to the wealthiest people and corporations.

I felt only shame.

How could so many of us not stand up for the truth? How could so many of us not realize that the enemy we were supposedly fighting are our own leaders?

While at a writing group I attend on Tuesday mornings, a man of a different political persuasion gave the diverse group some chilling statistics. I want to share some of them with you for two reasons 1) you will recognize that truth has no party and 2) you will recognize why our leaders want us to believe that their is a deficit.

Secretary Panetta called on Congress to cut mandatory spending programs including Medicare and Social Security. He mislead the nation by stating mandatory spending was two-thirds of the budget. Wrong. The military budget for 2012 is 48% of our budget in dollars that is about $1,377 billion. In contrast our human resource budget which includes Social Security is 38% or $1,093 billion. (www.warresistors.org)

Chris Hedges, a winning Pulitzer Prize journalist, estimates we are spending approximately a trillion dollars a year to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Do you know much of that money is from borrowing money that increases our national debt? Did you know that the profits of weapons manufacturers and private contractors have increased four fold since the invasion of Afghanistan? As Americans blame each other for the deficit, we are paying for a deficit financed war as more than 30 million unemployed people and 40 million more have been driven into poverty (Truthdig.com). We are spending fifty-three cents of every tax dollar on our military budget. This is insanity!

The United States has more than 700 military around the world. Just think if we closed just a third of them down the money needed for our poor, schools and infrastructure, and health care would be possible. Major General Smedley Butler, USMC wrote a book War Is a Racket. He explains that we could cut our national debt by ending the war racket. He suggest we take the profit out of war and encourage and allow the youth of America and the world to decide who would have to fight a war by national referendum or vote; whether we should go to war and close down our overseas bases. One man’s opinion, but he is a highly decorated soldier unlike the idiots in Congress and leaders across our country who are profiting from death and destruction. And the majority of them haven’t served one day in the military, much less in combat.

As I close Part one of War – What is it Good for? Absolutely nothing! I challenge you to change your beliefs about war – or at least question them. Our economy is unstable because of war; the jobless rate is high because of war; there is no money for cities, education, and states because of war. In short the cost of war is immediate and evident and apparent to all people. War doesn’t make us safe but, but instead, it feeds our fears. We must be willing to challenge the cloaked myths that maintain war. War is birthed from the human mind, from how we think. That is why I am writing this post. I want you to think and then act to help pave our streets across the world with peace. If we are not courageous or intelligent enough to stop this war mongering now, we will perish together. If we don’t want better for ourselves, don’t we want better for future generations?

In summation we must admit that war is a choice. General Omar Bradley a World War ll veteran said” “Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked, and we who fail to prevent them must share in the guilt for the dead.”

I was the oldest of seven siblings growing up in Anchorage, Alaska. It was my badge of honor, until I realized being sheriff had a price. I can still hear the sweet refrains, “Patricia we left you in charge what happened, You are the oldest and we expect you to set the example, why didn’t you stop them you know better? Didn’t we tell you. What happened?’ Get the picture? Somehow my rank of the eldest was the go to card when my parents needed to blame someone for broken lamps, half-done chores and pranks of adolescent kids who listened to me less as we grew older. I pleaded my case unsuccessfully while questioning why did I get in trouble when it wasn’t my fault for whatever infraction or rule one of my siblings had broken? I finally was heard at around the age of thirteen. We had been dropped off at a house party. The rules were cut and dry, don’t leave the party and be out front when one of our parents would pick us up. Of course there was one sister in particular who was never out front and inevitably would leave the party. I would be frantic the last hour running around looking for her so we wouldn’t be late. Need I say the parties weren’t as much fun for me as it was for them? After about three or four incidents where I was punished for not making sure my sisters were where we were supposed to be, my teen self rebelled. I talked back. Now I don’t know about at your house but talking back, questioning or smart-aleck remarks to my parents or any adult was grounds for a whipping, restriction or both. I chanced it. The burden of being responsible for siblings that knew right from wrong, broke the rules but knew my parents would hold me responsible helped me to challenge the unfair rules. Guess what I didn’t get a whipping. My mother actually listened to me, heard my frustration, and let me express what a daunting task it was to control my younger siblings when sometimes even she couldn’t. It felt good to get it out but better when my mother talked to my father and helped him understand. The rules were changed so everyone who could walk, talk, eat and lived under the roof would be responsible for their actions and decisions – not just ME. What a relief and feelings of pride that I stood up for myself until I was heard.

When was the last time you stood up for yourself no matter what the consequences? I shared my story as an analogy of what is happening in America and around the globe. My story mirrors our country. We are being governed by rules that apply to all Americans while only some Americans are paying the price. A small cadre of corporate media elites, judges, legislators and the wealthiest people around the world are stealing, accumulating power and paying for their $200,000 seats on the first commercial flights to the moon. 95% of the wealth is owned by 5% of the people. That doesn’t leave much for the rest of the 95% does it? Yet we blame, fight, argue, accuse one another or whoever the media has led us to believe is to blame. Currently it’s President Obama, Hispanic immigrants, educators, union members and urban thugs. How much of this crap can we continue to swallow as apathy, depression and anger eat us from the inside out? 95% of Americans squabbling over a pie that was baked by the majority of us while the puppet masters that pull our strings wipe their mouths on our backs and the backs of our children and the generations to come. One of my favorite writers and teachers, Eric Butterworth said, “I am an each-ness in the All-ness that is God.” What I understand that to mean is we are all in this together. There is no them or us. No one is better off, wealthier or more important unless that is what you believe. I am what I am because of you and visa versa. There is no entitlement because of the capitalism board game played by those who continually change the rules. I for one learned as a young girl in Alaska that I don’t have to play by rules that have no honor and are rigged against me. I get to stand up for myself or die trying. What I am here to remind you of is the power to change the rules is in each of us. We can’t continue to wait for the knight on the white horse, God, or whatever you believe is the answer, to tilt the balance of power so we all have a place at the table. It’s not going to happen. You are the knight, you are your rescuer. There are opportunities all around you to change the rules for the good of us all. Vote, call, write that letter, or e-mail your legislator or local officials who are serving their special interest while the interest of the majority of Americans languish in the bottom of a golf bag. Be a participant and stop throwing stones at those of us that are willing to risk the little that we have to help those who have nothing – no food, housing, educational opportunities, health care or decent wages to care for themselves and their loved ones.

If you are reading this and you have been waiting for a sign or an answer I hope you get it. YOU are the answer. Use your power to challenge those we have empowered that are abusing that power. You can start by signing up for one of the American Dream House Meetings scheduled across the country July 17^th &18th, 2011. These meetings are the brainchild of visionary, Van Jones and give all Americans the chance to gather, and not just talk about what the American Dream looks like, but to commit to one another that we will stand together to make it happen.

Please go to http://contract.rebuildthedream.com/ and sign up to attend or host an American Dream House Meeting. One person can impact the world, but just think of what our country and the world would look like if we all did it together.