They arrived at 10:15 a.m. Wednesday to display pie graphs, set up tables brimming with free pamphlets and bread rolls, and to inflate giant plastic puppets - some 15 feet tall.
The Bread Not Stones Peacefest, sponsored by Pax Christi USA, was at the rock on Farm Lane calling for a redistribution of 15 percent of the Pentagon’s budget - which is currently allotted to the military - to be used for human needs such as health care, education and Head Start programs.
“We are the people who will redirect military spending - and we are on the march,” said the Rev. Peter Dougherty of the Michigan Peace Team.
The 30-minute “U Slice the Budget Pie” presentation began shortly after noon, with opening comments from Dougherty.
According to Pax Christi USA, a 14,000-member national peace organization based in Erie, Pa., the Pentagon spends about 10 times more on the military than it does on health care and education.
“It’s really a blessing to be able to do this,” said actress Kate Loewe, who played Uncle Sam in the “U Slice the Budget Pie” presentation. “I live in Washington, D.C., and I’ve seen the vast inequalities that exist between the White House and the Pentagon compared to what really goes on in the city. It’s the ultimate paradox - living in both a seat of power and a place of poverty.”
Pax Christi organizers say the United States ranks low in providing health care even though it’s one of the countries with the lowest mortality rates. Countries surpassing the United States include Finland, Japan, Spain and Ireland.
“We are the only one out of two industrialized nations that doesn’t provide health care for its kids,” said Shauna Farabaugh, a “U Slice the Budget Pie” actress.
A large inflatable rocket read “The U.S. spends $35 billion on 12,000 nuclear weapons - the equivalent of 120,000 Hiroshima bombs.”
A free-standing bar graph proclaimed the United States spends $271 billion on the military, the equivalent of 17 times what “potential adversaries” such as Russia, Korea and Iraq spend.
The Bread Not Stones Peacefest began its tour Sept. 1 in Los Angeles and will end next month in Burlington, Vt., after touring 35 cities in 60 days.
At the end of the presentation, Farabaugh and Loewe passed around muffin tins labeled with categories such as health care, education and agriculture. The tins contained 100 pennies, which audience members used to show where they wanted Pentagon dollars to be redistributed.
The tour also brought with it the “Moneymobile” bus, painted with readings urging the government to invest money in kids. But the bus couldn’t be pulled up to the rock.
“Actually, we were asked to park the Moneymobile in a parking lot due to traffic problems,” said Eric LeCompte, the national organizer of the Bread Not Stones Peacefest tour.
