Basic Understandings Unfortunately, our nation s elected leaders do not share this basic understanding. At the local level, cities and states are spending more money on police and prisons. In many state budgets, costs of incarceration rival expenditures for schools and education. We may be approaching the day in which the government will guarantee only guns and steel bars, not classrooms and textbooks, housing and food, libraries and museums. We have to work consistently and effectively to eliminate militarism, its wasteful use of resources and the culture of violence it supports.
Social change begins with a vision, but becomes reality with dedication and organization.
The campaign gives us the opportunity to organize in new and creative ways. Drawing on traditions from alcohol and drug abuse recovery, the campaign seeks to break the U.S. addiction to the military one day at a time. Across class and social lines, most of us are familiar with recovery traditions from our own experience or from the experience of a friend or family member. Focusing on one day s military spending is more tangible than challenging the total military budget, which is too large for most of us to understand. Hold a rally supporting a community institution like a school, daycare center, library or community arts program that would be better supported if the Pentagon did not consume so many resources.