by Chuck Warpehoski, Director, Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice

Remarks at the Week of the People Press Conference on March 13, 2007

Good morning and thank you for joining us for this morning’s press conference to kick off the Week of the People.

I’m Chuck Warpehoski, the Director of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice. Our program for today is that I will give opening remarks, followed by comments from our other speakers, and we’ll finish with questions and answers.

This press conference kicks off the Week of the People our chance for We the People to take our country back from the current path of war and turn it in the path of peace.

And we’ve gathered a strong coalition of students, veterans, people of faith, civic groups, peace organizations, artists, musicians, parents, and others to join us for this week celebrating peace and democracy.

Over the course of the Week of the People, we have organized a wide variety of events. For example, today on the Diag is an installation that mourns the Iraqi and Michigan deaths caused by the war in Iraq. Other events highlight the contributions that students, people of faith, musicians, and others make for peace.

The Week of the People culminates in the peace rally and march on the UM Diag at 1:00 on March 17. On the Fourth Anniversary of the war in Iraq, when We the People say enough is enough, it’s time for peace.

Details for all these events are available at weekofthepeople.org

Today, we are because the out-of-control Pentagon Budget is short-changing vital social programs like schools, healthcare, and the care for the environment

This graph demonstrates how distorted the federal budget is. Each of these pennies represents $10 Billion Dollars of spending in the Federal Discretionary budget, that’s the money that we pay each April in our taxes. As you can see, after the Pentagon gets its cut of our tax money, only a few pennies are left for healthcare, education, or social services.

Pentagon spending short-changes social needs – and that’s unconscionable.

I am here representing the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, which brings together people of different faiths and backgrounds. Even though our manners of worship are different, we share many common values–especially the value of caring for the poor.

As people of faith, we consider this outrageous level of Pentagon spending at the expense of our nation’s children, our sick, and our poor to be an affront to our religious values.

In the Christian tradition, Jesus taught that where you put your money, that’s where your heart is. Our federal budget should reflect our national priorities; we should put our money where our heart is. And if you ask most people, that means providing good schools for children, good healthcare for the sick, and a good social safety net to help the poor get back on their feet, not nuclear weapons and no-bid contracts for Halliburton.

The money is there for these programs of social uplift, we just need to change our budget so that war spending doesn’t short change the common good.

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