Military Spending Cards

by Tom White

from WAMM Newsletter July/August 2008

Polly Mann called and asked if I would tell the story of the creation of the annual antimilitary card program. Many of you, and many organizations such as WAMM, have been faithful “distributors” of these multicolored informational postcards, which are now in their 15th year of publication. To date over 200,000 of these little cards have been distributed around the country – actually, around the world.

It is only fitting that this update should be made in the WAMM newsletter, as it was at a WAMM gathering 14 years ago that the “program” had it origins. A special meeting was called shortly after the U.S. Senate election of 1994, in which the Republicans were able to take control of the Senate by capturing eight seats from the Democrats as well as six open seats, resulting in a 53-47 margin. My wife, Darlene, asked if I would join her at the Sabathani Center that evening and I sat in the back of the room, one of the few men, bemoaning the results with about 50 wonderful WAMM women. “What happened?” was the theme of the evening and one of you spoke up: “I just wish I had more information because the other side will use these ‘one-liners,’ or some cute statement presented as fact, and I can’t reach in my purse for a response.”

At the time I was a longtime member of the Interfaith Peacemakers of Edina (IFPE) and we had just rededicated ourselves to our statement of purpose, which was “to nurture a community of peacemakers with a role to gather information, to initiate and support educational programs and to be a forum for dialogue.” Eleven years earlier (1983) the Grandmothers for Peace had evolved from the IFPE. They are still very active providing forums for dialogue at the Edina Library. I was certain that our Edina Peacemaker loyalists would support an educational program, so I committed that evening to formulating some well-documented cards with facts and quotes that would fit in the purse or in an envelope, and the card program was launched.

Although to this day the main funding for the cards comes from the membership of the Interfaith Peacemakers, we still do ask for modest donations to help defray the printing and mailing costs. The most priceless contribution, however, has been made by Denise Olson of Graphic Works, daughter of Interfaith Peacemakers Lou and the late “Skip” Petersen. Denise has donated her time and talent in transferring my feeble layouts to the perfectly formatted cards you see each year.

The purpose of the card program is to assist people in speaking truth to power. They expose the absurd disparity between U.S. military spending and our spending for growing domestic needs. I originally called the cards “Another Look Cards.” Little did I know the disdain our government would have for the truth, and that the cards may be the only factual data for countering the misinformation from the mainline media. If people don’t know the facts, they don’t see the need for change. For example, most Americans would say we are number one in health care, when the World Health Organization ranks us number 37.

People must know that we are the only industrialized country in the world without universal health care, or that our military spending exceeds the military spending of all other countries in the world. Of that Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate than we do. Every year the figures and analogies on the cards are updated from facts supplied by many reputable sources, such as the Center for Defense Information, Office of Management and Budget, Congressional Budget Office, war Resisters League, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, CIA World Factbook, UNICEF, and U.S. Statistical Index. Facts are carefully cross-referenced to assure accuracy.

I receive constant feedback from people around the country on the use of the cards. They are enclosed with Christmas cards, including in bill payments, displayed on library, university and school bulletin boards, passed out iin parades, used as information for talks, and included in organizational fund-raising letters. A few interesting stories: I received a request from a student council member at Southern Methodist University of 1,000 cards with a note: “As you may know, Laura Bush graduated from Southern Methodist U and we would like people to know we don’t agree with many of her husband’s policies.”

Last year Darlene and I visited Provincetown on Cape Cod and saw a ticker tape running across the front of a quaint upscale craft shop named “I Used to Be a Tree,” showing our military spending in Iraq. The activist owner saw the cards and now receives 1,000 cads a year to pass out to tourists and broaden her ticker-tape messages. Her e-mail is capewoman@cape.com.

Each year at a Call to Action church-reform conference in Milwaukee, more than 1,500 cards are distributed to attendees. The Green Party distributes the cards each year at its State Fair booth, and last year the Democrats wanted me to provide them “equal treatment.” Keith Ellison and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer have used the cards in their campaigns. Two years ago the Brainerd Area Peace Coalition ordered 1,000 cards to pass out at their Memorial Day parade but were prohibited from marching by the City Council. They distributed the cards anyway.

I would like to particularly commend and thank WAMM for diligently displaying and distributing the cards at every conference they attend, the Veterans for Peace, who include the cards in all their mailings, the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers, who have the cards on their website: www.mapm.org for free personal downloading, and to the Catholic Franciscan Sisters who are major distributors to many areas of the country.

It is impossible to access the value or success of this card program, but I do know that the numbers and the growing distribution channels have gone beyond my expectations. I feel I am – and, more importantly, all of you who are distributors of these truth cards are – doing our part and being faithful to the following two quotations by Thomas Jefferson:

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be…. If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.” [Over the main entrance of the University of Virginia, founded by Jefferson] “An informed citizenry is vital for a democracy to persist.”

Now I ask you, has the demand for the truth from our government ever been more important?