Friday, March 29, 2024

Peacefest comes to campus

October 10, 2000

Government spending will be the topic of discussion at the Bread Not Stones Peacefest at the rock on Farm Lane on Wednesday.

The event, slated to take place from noon to 3 p.m., will include a 30-minute presentation titled “U Slice the Budget Pie.”

It will deal with the extremes of government spending and will include giant inflatable puppets and the “Moneymobile,” which is painted with readings urging the government to invest money in kids.

The bus tour is part of Bread Not Stones: A National Catholic Campaign to Redirect Military Spending sponsored by Pax Christi USA. Participants are encouraging the U.S. to spend less money on the military and more money on social programs.

According to Pax Christi USA, a 14,000-member national peace organization based in Erie, Penn., the Pentagon spends nearly 10 times more on the nation’s military than it does on health care and education.

Local sponsors for the event include the Peace Education Center, Michigan Peace Team, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and St. John’s Student Parish.

“There are excellent moral, legal and environmental reasons why weapons of mass destruction must be eliminated, yet we continue to put a huge amount of money into them,” Peace Education Center member Anabel Dwyer said.

Earlier this year, the Pax Christi USA organization released a statement signed by 34 Catholic bishops that called for “a national Catholic campaign of prayer, study and action to end exorbitant military spending.”

The Bread Not Stones Bus Tour visits 33 cities around the nation, with stops also planned in Detroit, Saginaw and Ann Arbor.

The tour will end next month in Burlington, Va.

“We chose to come to MSU because many students are very concerned with environmental and human rights issues,” Dwyer said. “And we need to have a major public discussion on how we spend our money. People are generally price ignorant on how much is spent on the military.”

Free bread will be provided by local vendors.

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