Posted by CODEPINK Staff
by Mary DeCamp
Some parents train their children on video war games that desensitize them to the real costs of war. Some praise them highly for their competitive natures and their ability to dominate in sports.
An unjust, highly unequal economic system robs young people of meaningful employment options, funneling them into the military-industrial complex instead. If you're poor and uneducated, there's a spot for you in the armed services. If you are financially better off and educated, the corporations that manufacture death open their doors.
Want a civil service job? Those positions are disappearing with our belt-tightening, anti-labor, downsized government swing to the right.
What puzzles me is the lack of outrage. The American Dream has been corrupted and stolen, and we seem complacent in our indentured servitude. Just go to work. Get a job. Pay the bills. Go shopping. Take that prescription medication to dull the sharp psychic discomforts that spring from living disconnected and unfulfilled lives.
How many were thrown out of their homes? How many lost their nest-egg retirement accounts? How many suffer from our poor medical system? How many are burdened with student debt, yet cannot find decent jobs in their fields? How many are dragged through the civil court process, fined, jailed, filmed, finger-printed, and stripped of their dignity by our increasingly intrusive police-state?
Mary DeCamp is the coordinator of CODEPINK Tuscon. Find out what you can do to help bring our war dollars home here.
