Duty to Warn

Peace activists extend an olive branch to the Tea Party to talk about war

On Tax Day, Tea Party members from around the country will descend on the nation’s capitol to “protest big government and support lower taxes, less government and more freedom.” CODEPINK, a women-led peace group advocating an end to war and militarism, will be sending some representatives to begin a dialogue. While we come from the opposite end of the political spectrum and don’t support the goals and tactics of the Tea Party, there is an area where we are seeking common ground, i.e. endless wars and militarism.

As Tea Partiers express their anger at out-of-control government spending and soaring deficits, we will ask them to take a hard look at what is, by far, the biggest sinkhole of our tax dollars: Pentagon spending. With the Obama administration proposing the largest military budget ever, topping $700 billion not including war supplementals, the U.S. government is now spending almost as much on the military as the rest of the world combined.

Perhaps the Tea Party and peace folks—unlikely allies—can agree that one way to shrink big government is to rein in military spending. Here are some questions to get the conversation going:

How the corporations broke Ralph Nader and America, too

Ralph Nader's descent from being one of the most respected and powerful men in the country to being a pariah illustrates the totality of the corporate coup. Nader's marginalization was not accidental. It was orchestrated to thwart the legislation that Nader and his allies—who once consisted of many in the Democratic Party—enacted to prevent corporate abuse, fraud and control. He was targeted to be destroyed. And by the time he was shut out of the political process with the election of Ronald Reagan, the government was in the hands of corporations. Nader's fate mirrors our own.

Meet Alex White Plume

Alex is the former Tribal President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. He lives on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota.

Alex bears the remarkable distinction of being the only person in the United States to successfully farm and complete a legal hemp crop within the borders of the USA since 1968. comment

I had the rare & unique opportunity to meet Alex while visiting the Indian Nations of the Pine Ridge Reservation last September. He graciously allowed me to photograph him, and some of his hemp plants while there.


Alex White Plume in front of some of his hemp crop.

The hemp that Alex grows is NOT the kind that gets you high. It is a mutated form of hemp that is THC FREE! This is confirmed by independent USDA laboratory testing done at the request of the DEA.
Subscribe to Duty to Warn