Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
April 17, 2022
Hello All – We unjustly neglect Thomas Jefferson's phrase in the opening lines of the 1776 Declaration of Independence, that humans have an "inalienable right" to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." "Happiness" seems like an outlandish goal in these dystopian times, but if it was an "inalienable right" on the cusp of the bloody American Revolution, I think it's worth looking at.
A place to start our investigation is the World Happiness Report-2022, published by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Based on Gallup World Polls conducted from 2019 through 2021, this extensive study provides a revealing look at how roughly 150,000 respondents in 146 countries rated their own happiness. Does military spending lead to happiness? If this were so, the United States (#1), China (#2), India (#3), and Russia (#4) would win the prize. Or is it money that produces happiness? Maybe we should look at total wealth. The big military spenders do well in this category also: United States (#1), China (#2), India (#7), Russia (#13). Do money and military power produce a happy people? According to the World Happiness Report, the USA ranks 16th in terms of happiness, while China ranks 72nd, Russia 80th, and India is 136th. My source for this information, an essay by peace scholar Larry Wittner, notes that "furthermore, over the decade since the annual world happiness surveys began in 2012, none of these major powers has ever appeared among the 10 happiest nations." According to the Happiness Report, in 2022, the five happiest countries were: Finland (#1), Denmark (#2), Iceland (#3), Switzerland (#4), Netherlands (#5). While we can't investigate this right now, it's worth noting that none of these countries have big military expenditures.
In contrast to the national planning of the five "happiest countries" noted above, President Biden's proposed budget for the next year is top-heavy with military expenditures and pays a mere pittance to advancing our "happiness." As is always true, most of our taxes will go to pay for programs like Social Security and Medicare, or for Veterans Health or interest on the national debt. These expenditures are fixed by law. The smaller part of the budget is called "discretionary" funds, meaning that Congress votes on them. Thus only $1.6 trillion (28%) of next year's federal budget will be voted on by Congress; and $813 billion of this (51%) will be for military spending. The U.S. military budget is already more than the next 11 countries combined, 12 times more than Russia's, and higher than at the peak of the Vietnam War or the Cold War.
When numbers get into the billions, my eyes glaze over. Let's bring the question of military spending closer to home. According to the National Priorities Project, Westchester's share of the past year's military expenditures ($740 billion) was $7.65 billion. The Rivertown's share of last year's military expenditures was Hastings ($69.9 million), Dobbs ($71.6 million), Irvington ($103.7 million), and Ardsley ($36.2 million). Last year there was an effort in Congress to cut military spending by 10 percent. Sadly, this was defeated; but it is informative to see what else could have been done with this 10 percent besides buy new weapons or hire military contractors. For example, for its 10 percent Hastings could have hired 59 elementary school teachers, Dobbs could have funded 144 Head Start slots for children for four years, Irvington could have funded 306 four-year college scholarships, and Ardsley could have powered every house in the village with solar electricity for nine years.
While putting our hard-earned wealth on solar electricity and college scholarships, rather than on war and preparing for war, won't automatically produce "happiness," it would be a good start and a step in the right direction. Let's do it.
Beauty as Fuel for Change
CFOW's new initiative, Beauty as Fuel for Change, is now launched. Our founding statement says: "At this time when our #Democracy is at a crossroads, CFOW embarks on a new initiative for 2022. As Community leaders of this initiative, Concerned Families of Westchester stalwarts hope to inspire an exploration of expressive, creative visioning. We want to plant seeds of positive representations, to interrupt the negative, divisive patterns we live with today. A project to change the conversation, with creative expression that is hopeful and helpful and inspires us to create a better world! This is a vehicle for positive imaginings & a way to reach out beyond borders to build bridges between activists in all arenas and to let us unleash the power of creativity in our human community!" To learn more, go to our Facebook Group. To contact the project organizers, email BeautyAsFuel@gmail.com.
CFOW Nuts and Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. Weather permitting, we meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, at 12 noon at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) A "Black Lives Matter/Say Their Names" vigil will be held each Monday from 5:30 to 6:00 pm in Yonkers at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. If you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, each Tuesday and Thursday at noon, please send a return email for the link. Our newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page. If you would like to support our work by making a contribution, please send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW Weekly Reader
Featured Essays
The Casualties at the Other End of the Remote-Controlled Kill
By Dave Philipps New York Times [April 15, 2022]
---- Capt. Kevin Larson was one of the best drone pilots in the U.S. Air Force. Yet as the job weighed on him and untold others, the military failed to recognize its full impact. After a drug arrest and court martial, he fled into the California wilderness. …Drones were billed as a better way to wage war — a tool that could kill with precision from thousands of miles away, keep American service members safe and often get them home in time for dinner. The drone program started in 2001 as a small, tightly controlled operation hunting high-level terrorist targets. But during the past decade, as the battle against the Islamic State intensified and the Afghanistan war dragged on, the fleet grew larger, the targets more numerous and more commonplace. Over time, the rules meant to protect civilians broke down, recent investigations by The New York Times have shown, and the number of innocent people killed in America's air wars grew to be far larger than the Pentagon would publicly admit. Captain Larson's story, woven together with those of other drone crew members, reveals an unseen toll on the other end of those remote-controlled strikes. [Read the article]
Russia, Ukraine and the 30-year quest for a post-Soviet order
By Mary Elise Sarotte, Financial Times [UK][February 25, 2022]
[FB – Mary Sarotte is the author of a new book, Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate]
---- Why has the post-cold-war order broken apart in a violent fight over Ukraine? It is now beyond question that that order has crumbled, and that Europe will once again, as in 1989, bear a line of division between Moscow-centric and Washington-centric blocs. It is also beyond question that the source of this tragedy is Vladimir Putin's insistence on eliminating Ukraine's independence — because that independence, representing Ukraine's intolerable freedom (in the Russian president's eyes) to choose between Russia and the west, is the ultimate reason why violence has come. As someone who witnessed the dissolution of the old cold-war dividing line while studying abroad in West Berlin in 1989, it is hard to fathom that a latter-day version of it will now return, only further to the east, and with the Baltic states playing the role of West Berlin. I certainly did not expect to see the return of this division in my lifetime. [LInk].
---- Why has the post-cold-war order broken apart in a violent fight over Ukraine? It is now beyond question that that order has crumbled, and that Europe will once again, as in 1989, bear a line of division between Moscow-centric and Washington-centric blocs. It is also beyond question that the source of this tragedy is Vladimir Putin's insistence on eliminating Ukraine's independence — because that independence, representing Ukraine's intolerable freedom (in the Russian president's eyes) to choose between Russia and the west, is the ultimate reason why violence has come. As someone who witnessed the dissolution of the old cold-war dividing line while studying abroad in West Berlin in 1989, it is hard to fathom that a latter-day version of it will now return, only further to the east, and with the Baltic states playing the role of West Berlin. I certainly did not expect to see the return of this division in my lifetime. [LInk].
War & Peace
Noam Chomsky on the Russia-Ukraine War, the Media, Propaganda, and Accountability
An interview with Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept [April 14, 2022]
---- The right question is: What is the best thing to do to save Ukraine from a grim fate, from further destruction? And that's to move towards a negotiated settlement. There are some simple facts that aren't really controversial. There are two ways for a war to end: One way is for one side or the other to be basically destroyed. And the Russians are not going to be destroyed. So that means one way is for Ukraine to be destroyed. The other way is some negotiated settlement. If there's a third way, no one's ever figured it out. So what we should be doing is moving towards a possible negotiated settlement that will save Ukrainians from further disaster. That should be the prime focus. That requires that we can't look into the minds of Vladimir Putin and the small clique around him; we can speculate, but can't do much about it. We can, however, look at the United States and we can see that our explicit policy — explicit — is rejection of any form of negotiations. … There is a sort of a guiding principle that we should be keeping in mind, no matter what the issue, the most important question is: What can we do about it? Not: What can somebody else do about it? That's worth talking about. But from the most elementary point of view, the major question is, what can we do about it? And we can, in principle, at least do a lot about U.S. policy, less about other things. So I think that's where the focus of our attention and energy should be. [Read More] Also of interest is another interview with Noam Chomsky, also about Ukraine, "How To Prevent World War III," Current Affairs [April 13, 2022] [Link].
The Blitzkrieg Failed. What's Next? [From a Russian Dissenter]
By Boris Kagarlitsky, Russian Dissent [April 15, 2022]
---- The special operation in Ukraine was conceived by Putin and his entourage as a way to turn the political situation around. The Kremlin strategists weren't the least bit interested in the fate of the people in Lugansk and Donetsk, or even in the future of Ukraine. At a historical impasse, with no way to revive the economy, cope with the burden of growing problems, or raise the approval ratings now rolling into the abyss, they found no better way to solve all their issues at once but with the help of a small victorious war — a classic mistake that governments make when they are not ready to embark on urgent and inevitable reforms. The outbreak of hostilities was a fatal step that irreversibly changed the situation, but not in the way that the Kremlin expected. It was a gamble that only could have worked if Ukraine had been defeated in 96 hours, which, apparently, they were counting on. But, Ukraine is no longer the same as it was 8 years ago. There was clearly no plan B. They did not prepare for a prolonged armed struggle in hostile territory. [Read More]
The Yemen Crisis
An Interview with Helen Lackner, New Politics [April 13, 2022]
---- We're now entering the eighth year of the full-scale fighting that started in 2015. This week we've had the first truce or serious ceasefire in more than six years. And most importantly, there's been a blockade of the most populated parts of the country for the same period. So, while a lot of people have been focused on the military activities, which are indeed important, in terms of the impact on the population and the suffering of the population, the blockade and the prevention of basic goods coming into Yemen has been much more significant. While thousands have been killed in fighting, the majority of the estimated 377,000 deaths since the war started have died from indirect causes, specifically malnutrition-related diseases and the lack of medical treatment. Although 70% of Yemen's population lives in rural areas, they have been dependent on imports for 90% of the staples in their diet: wheat, rice, and other basic foods. Therefore, the blockade and the collapse of the economy have resulted in a very, very serious economic and humanitarian crisis. The UN estimates that this year more than 20 million people — two thirds of the country's population — are in need of humanitarian assistance and more than half of the population need food assistance, which is a very serious situation. The people who are most in need are those who live in the Huthi-controlled areas. The Huthis control about 70% of the country's population, even though, in terms of geographical area, they only control about a third of the territory, and that is the area that is most in need of support and where people are most isolated and most in need of assistance. [Read More]
The Climate Crisis
Joe Biden Supports a Windfall Profits Tax on Oil (Past Joe Biden, anyway.)
By Bill McKibben [April 15, 2022]
---- There is, I think, no real argument against a windfall profits tax on oil. It's not like it's gotten more expensive to produce oil in recent months; the price has soared only because Vladimir Putin (long a partner of the big western oil companies, who financed his government lavishly) invaded Ukraine, causing prices to spike. This is the definition of a windfall, one that has given huge profits to oil companies, who have used them to buy back shares and enrich themselves and their biggest investors. That's why bills have been introduced in the House and in the Senate, and why hundreds of civil society groups support them, and why huge majorities of the American people tell pollsters they want the laws to pass. The White House has made no decision, so perhaps they should consult Past Joe Biden. Here's what he said in 1981, when the Reagan administration was trying to repeal the windfall profits tax he'd helped pass in the 1970s. [Read More]
The State of the Union
The Amazon Labor Union's Historic Victory Was the First Step
By Jane McAlevey, The Nation [April 15, 2022]
---- The Amazon Labor Union will go down in history for its vote to unionize Amazon's JFK8 warehouse on April 1. But now the real fight begins. Under Byzantine US labor law, winning the union election is only step one. At present, the ALU is not even legally certified by the National Labor Relations Board. Without a legally certified union, the employer does not have to commence negotiations. On April 8, Amazon filed objections. This is the standard union buster's playbook: to delay and outlast the workers, to prevent certification and the ability to get to contract negotiations. … Even so, the ALU can still win on this battlefield. Better organized than many older unions, it understands that the workers on the inside need to be the focus of its efforts. First, the ALU must consolidate and build on the power it has amassed. This starts with it going all out to win a second election, at LDJ5, a nearby Amazon sorting facility. The vote to unionize LDJ5 begins on April 25 and lasts for four days. If the ALU wins a second time—and with Amazon bosses now increasing their intimidation there, there's no guarantee of victory—it will gain additional leverage to get to a contract fight. After that second election is in the rearview, the focus shifts to how to force Amazon to the negotiations table. If the workers can build to a supermajority strike by walking off the job, there is no Prime Delivery. There is no delivery, period. So workers have essential, strategic workplace leverage. To get to the negotiations table, the ALU must act like a certified union despite the employer's stalling tactics. [Read More] Also of interest is "Dear Gen Z: Now Is the Time to Join the Labor Movement and Change the World," by Caitlyn Clark and Jeremy Gong, Jacobin Magazine [April 2022] [Link].
Israel/Palestine
The Reality That Israel Cannot Evade
By
---- In recent weeks, there has been a significant escalation of incidents of Palestinian resistance throughout the Palestinian Territories occupied by Israel. At least fourteen Israelis were killed in four attacks by Palestinian youths in the Negev, Khadera, and Tel Aviv. The severity of the recent resistance incidents is not in the death toll, as there is no comparison between the Israeli losses and the seventy-four years of Palestinian losses as a result of the occupation and the continuous Israeli aggressions. Rather, their danger to Israel is in the damage caused to Israel's image through the loss of security stability in a country that justified its existence by being a safe haven for Jews around the world. … But the question that Israel never tries to answer: What is the motive for these people to sacrifice their lives to attempt to cause Israel pain? These recent resistance activities are marked by certain facts that cannot be overlooked: the perpetrators of these resistance operations are not affiliated with Palestinian organizations, and the planning and execution of the attacks were individual efforts. The perpetrator of the Dizengoff Attack was Raad Hazem, a handsome young man with good employment opportunities in software development. His action cannot merely be explained away as being frustrated with life. … While Israeli security is entangled in dealing with this latest wave of Palestinian attacks across the occupied territories, Israel remains far from confronting the root of the problem, which means that its extensive and expensive security policies will not provide a fundamental solution. [Read More]
Our History
Jackie Robinson, Pioneer of BDS
By Robert Ross, The Nation [April 15, 2022]
---- Seventy-five years ago today (April 15), Jackie Robinson became the first African American player in the modern era to play for a Major League Baseball team. Every player and coach today will wear number 42 on their backs in honor of Robinson. Since 2004, "Jackie Robinson Day" has served as an opportunity to celebrate Jackie Robinson's pathbreaking career and, more recently, his contributions to the American civil rights movement. But we should also celebrate Robinson's role as one of the first people to engage in a related, equally transformative endeavor. Documents housed in Michigan State University's African Activist Archive Project, which have been largely ignored by historians, reveal that Robinson was one of the first Americans to advocate for boycotting, divesting from, and sanctioning South Africa. Robinson partnered with the American Committee on Africa (ACOA), an anti-apartheid and anti-colonial organization, as early as 1959—when few Americans were even aware of apartheid in South Africa, much less the movement to end it. … Robinson paved the way for Willie Mays, Willie Stargell, Eddie Murray, Barry Bonds, Andrew McCutchen, and Mookie Betts, among so many other African Americans, to play Major League Baseball. But through his groundbreaking contributions to the anti-apartheid movement, Robinson also paved the way for a global movement of athletes, grassroots organizations, churches, universities, labor unions, municipal governments, and, eventually, the US government to boycott, divest, and sanction South Africa until the regime's eventual collapse in 1994. [Read More] Also of interest is "Jackie Robinson was a radical – don't listen to the sanitized version of history[Link].
