Dear Friends: Crimes against humanity are being committed by our government in our name and with our tax dollars: We are bombing people in seven primarily Muslim countries. We are killing tens of thousands of people in the Middle East (most of them civilians) and creating millions of refugees. We are spending one trillion dollars a year on wars and preparations for wars while cutting funds for almost everything else. We are spending one trillion dollars for modernizing our nuclear weapons and the missiles that carry them. We are threatening nuclear wars with Russia and Korea.
We live in the American empire, which is organized to bring resources from the rest of the world to the U.S, to feed our addiction to consumerism.
When a frog is placed in cold water and the temperature of the water is gradually increased until it boils, the frog boils to death. Like the frog, we have become numbed and accustomed to all this madness.
We cannot remain silent. We must speak out and act to stop this madness. This is certainly not the way God would have us live.
What is needed is a radical transformation of our society and relation to the rest of the world. What are we led to do to help stop this insanity and help move our world from greed, war and empire to a peaceful, just and humane world for all of God’s children?
– David Hartsough, San Francisco Friends Meeting (PYM)