The term “national security” is almost always ASSUMED to imply the need for more militarism, more fear of people in other countries, more willingness to fight wars, more military weapons, more military spending, and more nuclear weapons.
That is a VERY NARROW channeling of our vision and our thinking.
Really, our nation is NOT SECURE in many other ways. Our nation is NOT SECURE when:
- Many people are poor
- Many people are homeless
- Many people lack decent health care
- Many people feel alienated from society
- Many people are very angry
- Many people own guns that endanger themselves, their families and friends, and their communities
- Environmental protections are being stripped away
- Our air and water are getting more polluted and more dangerous to breathe and drink
- Our climate is rapidly being disrupted in many ways that threaten human health, safety and survival
- Right-wing extremists have taken over many parts of our federal, state and local governments
- Right-wing judges are inflicting their cruel ideologies upon us, weakening our constitutional rights
- Big Money dominates our elections and skews our governments toward corruption and abuse
- Racists and right-wingers pass laws making it hard for minorities, youths and poor people to vote
- Big Business and conservatives sharply reduce working people’s rights to join labor unions
- Immigrants and refugees are prevented from arriving, becoming Americans, and sharing our nation
- The U.S. government and both political parties have been bullying other nations for many decades
- Mainstream media report news with a strong bias toward nationalism, militarism, the 1%, etc.
- Military spending dominates the federal budget and takes hundreds of billions of dollars away from programs that could solve poverty, provide health care, etc.
- Many schools have full-time police officers but no counselors, nurses or librarians
- Innocent people of color are disproportionately being shot — and killed — by police
- A totally out-of-control president breaks federal laws, acts like a dictator, repeatedly violates the Constitution, refuses to be held accountable, and lashes out against the people who are trying to protect the Constitution and the rule of law — and his political party supports his fascist behavior — and the “opposition” party timidly challenges him on only a very few points
A huge Congressional bill — the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) — keeps throwing more money into the military budget and does almost nothing to recognize the many ways our “national security” has been endangered and is increasingly endangered.
Ordinary people must push hard on our media and our politicians and the general public to significantly re-define what “national security” should really mean!