Goodwin on Alienation

Amazing! Goodwin uses more than 950 words to tell us of mass passivity accompanying the national consensus on our country’s economic, social and environmental decline. Not once does Goodwin mention the central reality of our time. For half a century, our country has been a warfare state.

In that period, 46 to 70 cents of each year’s federal tax dollar has been spent on war. Last year 52 cents of the federal tax dollar went for war while education, health and child care, housing and protecting the environment accounted for 14 cents. In the name of national security and democracy, we continue to support terrorist military dictatorships creating holocausts through the Third World. We have neglected research and development in civilian competitive production turning us from the world’s number one creditor to the biggest debtor in history.

Together with Richard Goodwin, Americans, their government and institutions continue to deny the deadly connection between our corporate warfare state and its effects.

An important exception is “Citizens Agenda for Common Security and Disarmament by the Year 2000.” Produced by more than two years’ meetings of national staffs of 17 major peace, religious and social justice organizations, this is a national platform for transforming our destructive, bankrupting warfare state to a law-abiding, more democratic, life-enhancing peace-fare state. It’s central principle of common security, is that in today’s interdependent world, no nation can become secure by making other nations insecure.

Until we use a tool such as Citizens Agenda to build a broad movement to transform our corporate warfare state, we shall remain passive, achieving neither security nor survival.

NICHOLAS V. SEIDITA

Northridge