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