44,000 Uninsured Americans Die Annually While U.S. Spends $651 Billion on Military

Florida Mass March to End War Economy: Healthcare, Not Warfare

When: 12pm, Saturday, October 17th

Where: Main entrance to the University of Central Florida, Orlando (South East corner of Alafaya Blvd. & University Blvd).

ORLANDO – On Saturday, October 17, citizens from across Florida will participate in the “Florida Mass March to End the War Economy” in Orlando, Florida. The march is being held in solidarity with anti-war groups around the nation who are participating in a day of protest and action called for by the National Assembly Against the Occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

More than 44,789 Americans die annually for lack of healthcare services ("Health Insurance and Mortality in US Adults"), a fact recently pointed out by Congressman Alan Grayson (FL-8). The state of Florida has the second largest number of deaths resulting from lack of health insurance, more than 3,900 (report).

Meanwhile, in 2009 the U.S. has allotted $651.2 billion dollars for military spending, including emergency discretionary spending and supplemental spending (document). Orlando’s Research Park is home to four of the top 10 recipients of tax payer dollars via the United States’ bloated military budget including: Raytheon, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, and General Dynamics corporations. Together, these corporations received $96 billion dollars in tax payer dollars via the 2007 military budget.

On October 17, 12pm, protestors will march from the main entrance to the University of Central Florida (South East corner of Alafaya Blvd. & University Blvd) to the Central Florida Research Park entrance to protest local divisions of Raytheon, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, and General Dynamics.

In June 2009 the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported that the U.S. accounted for 42-percent of the global arms spending in 2008. The U.S. military budget is more than 7 times that of China.

More recently, the New York Times reported that “the United States expanded its role as the world’s leading weapons supplier, increasing its share to more than two-thirds of all foreign armaments deals....” U.S. weapons deals have increased from 25.4 billion in 2007 to $37.8 in 2008 or “68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar....” (New York Times, “ U.S. Increases Its Share of Worldwide Arms Market,” September 6, 2009).

The “Florida Mass March to End the War Economy” is being organized by the Florida Peace Congress (FPC), a group which seeks to empower and unite peace/anti-war groups throughout the state of Florida. To date the Orlando action has been endorsed by more than 30 groups representing Miami, Tampa, St. Augustine, and Jacksonville. (List of endorsers below.)

Protest participants will call on Florida elected representatives, weapons makers’ employees, and the Florida general public to denounce the U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and militarism in general.

In his April 4, 1967 speech, "Beyond Vietnam," Rev. Martin Luther King said: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” Organizers contend that the U.S. has a moral obligation to prioritize the funding of human needs over war profiteering. Organizers also call on President Barack Obama to take note of Rev. King’s realization that "the potential destructiveness of modern weapons of war totally rules out the possibilities of war ever serving again as a negative good."

This event is being organized by the Florida Peace Congress (FPC), a group which seeks to empower and unite peace/anti-war groups throughout the state of Florida. To date, the Orlando action has been endorsed by more than 30 groups representing cities of Miami, Tampa, St. Augustine, and Jacksonville. Endorsers include Brevard Patriots for Peace, Green Party of Florida, Florida Peace Action Network, The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, RiseUpTampaBay, Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice, Cindy Sheehan, and many more. (Complete list at website.)

Parking is available in strip mall lots on the west side of Alafaya Blvd. on both sides of University Blvd. (Beware of lots with parking restrictions and tow warnings.)

For more information Email.

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About Humanists for Peace

Humanists for Peace represents both nonreligious and religious humanists who oppose militarism and seek to reform the United State’s historically unethical foreign policy.

Taking its place among specifically religious peace organizations, Humanists for Peace draws its commitment to peace, justice, and pluralism from humanist ethics. As such, Humanists for Peace is comprised of atheist/humanist/nonreligious people who believe that peace and social justice are no less significant than the separation of church and state.

Founded by Jeff Nall, a certified Humanist minister, Humanists for Peace aims to take up the anti-war/pro-peace legacy left by a long-line of humanist peace activists including Erasmus, Condorcet, Mark Twain, Helen Keller, Albert Einstein, Freud, and Bertrand Russell.

“Once people are enlightened they will know that they have the right to dispose of their own life and wealth as they choose; they will gradually learn to regard war as the most dreadful of scourges, the most terrible of crimes” – Condorcet, 1793

In the news: “Peace--Following in a Humanist Tradition,” by Ruth N. Geller HumanistNetworkNews.org (March 18, 2009)