Weekly vigil in Asheville NC

Veterans for Peace perennials Rusty Sivils, Chris Berg, Bob Brown, and Gerry Werhan, backed up by the Jesus chorus. Date is December 28, 2021. Location is downtown Asheville. Photographer is Clare Hanrahan.

LTE by member of Chapter 099

 Stop over-funding defense budget

If our country had been mangled by foreign terrorists as much as it has been this year by Mother Nature, we would be avenging the damage this very moment.

But how do we avenge the damage that we ourselves have caused: Global climate change, leading to more dangerous weather patterns, forest fires, extinctions of wildlife?

Meanwhile, we increase our so called 2022 defense budget up to $768 billion. That’s $25 billion more than President Biden requested, more than any of the Trump defense budgets. Already we
have been giving more than half of our country’s discretionary budget to defense, which in turn turns it over to weapons corporations. They in turn beg for additional funds from locations where they locate, more than $100 million in this county and state alone.

And our military burns more fossil fuels than 140 countries. Where is our defense of our planet from climate change, or health care, or homelessness or education?

We have a black hole in our government. Our continuous over-funding of a department of government that hasn’t seen the writing on the wall is sheer stupidity.

Rachel Bliss, Asheville

LTE by member of Chapter 099

Letter: The rest of the Pratt & Whitney story

Posted on December 13, 2021 by Letters

On Nov. 23, WLOS produced a 2.5-minute segment on the progress of the Pratt & Whitney plant. While the information and footage of the plant were welcome, what was missing made the segment little more than a puff piece of promotion for the company.

Unmentioned were:

• The $100 million in subsidies provided by state, county and private sources, including the gift of 100 acres of free land from Biltmore Farms.


• The ownership of the company by Raytheon Technologies, the second-largest war corporation in the world.


• The intended production of engine components for fighter jets like the F-35 to be sold to Israel and Saudi Arabia for their genocidal attacks in Palestine and Yemen.


• The powerful effect on our climate emergency that comes from the aerospace industry that Pratt & Whitney is a part of.


• The threat to the French Broad from an industrial plant of this size and nature right on the river.
• The notorious reputation of war corporations to promise jobs that often don’t materialize or are misreported, and are not guaranteed to be for local residents.


• The secret decision-making that brought this plant to Buncombe County without adequate public discussion.

Reject Raytheon AVL is a local citizens group focused on exposing the rest of the story that was neglected by WLOS. Visit our website for more information: rejectraytheonavl.com.

— Ken Jones
,Swannanoa

Reject Raytheon Asheville Action on December 12, 2021

Photos posted by Ken Jones on Facebook.