Hey ! I Want My Faith Values Recognized Too !

Hey! I Want My Faith Values Recognized Too!
By Jim Ramelis

My Congressman, Bart Stupak of Michigan, recently introduced the anti-abortion amendment in the House of Representatives version of the proposed Health Care bill. It seems the only time the values of faith based voters are taken into consideration is in matters of abortion and Gay Rights.
I am a person of faith too. I have values that never seem to get addressed by my elected representatives. My God, like the God of most major faiths is one of peace and compassion. The Bible, a holy book used by the majority of people in this country who say they are people of faith, says “Blessed are the peacemakers”. Rev. Martin Luther King said a budget is a moral document. What does our budget say about our morality? It says the United State accounts for 48 % of the world’s military spending and our NATO allies account for 23 %, while the rest of the world accounts for only 29%. Our ferocious ‘enemies’, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria account for barely 1 % of the world’s spending, all of them put together *. They are in the Stone Age, compared to the U.S. in military capability. My tax dollars finance well over a hundred major military bases and a military presence in hundreds of more locales. We give military aid to countries like Israel, with their hateful apartheid policies that push families into concentration camps. Saudi Arabia is one of the most dysfunctional countries in the Middle East with its corrupt royal family and King yet they are the beneficiary of our military aid. These are the people that are funding the worldwide hate schools and supplied 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11.Michigan taxpayers pay 18.7 billion in federal taxes for defense spending. Compassion and healing are cornerstones of spirituality. Seven million people in Michigan could be provided with healthcare for an entire year with that amount of money. Our Federal budget says we are nation of war makers, not healers or peacemakers.
I am a person with spiritual and moral values that extend far beyond “the abortion issue”. Jesus Christ called his followers to tend to the least among us. I want my tax dollars going to the least among us, for health, education, for children, for orphans, for widows, for food for the poor, and infrastructure that benefits all. If abortion foes can’t be expected to fund abortions with their tax dollars because of their moral values, then I and millions like me, can’t be expected to fund endless perpetual war and military spending that is out of control.
Rev. Martin Luther King called America the greatest purveyor of violence in the world way back in the sixties. We are still the world’s biggest arms sales person and war maker. We still use our tax payer dollars to support corrupt regimes. Nothing has changed.
This isn’t a cry for pacifism. I am a veteran and no pacifist. We have a right to defend ourselves. We have gone way beyond just defending ourselves. We are out of control with our military spending and our wars. Our spiritual compass has been lost. We are all about greed and war. We have become Rome, Babylon, and the 21st century’s equivalent to the European colonizers. We are about empire and power. This isn’t what my moral values are all about.
Please, elected Representatives of America, can you consider my, and millions of other American’s spiritual values when you craft legislation? Faith values are more than the “abortion” issue and Gay rights, yet we are ignored.
America is in decline. The country is crumbling from within even as we build more missiles and try and subjugate more nations with our military might. Fixing the existing paradigm, built on greed and war, is not going to work. We claim to be people of faith; perhaps faith is what can save this country. Will our leaders acknowledge that?
*Based on 2005 figures