“I say that people who say we’ve got to choose between guns or butter misunderstand the modern world altogether. I believe they’re fighting the wrong war at the wrong place with the wrong weapons against the wrong enemy.”
. Our Quote of the Week has particular relevance in this moment, as we are asked to make economic sacrifices while our country pursues a path of war.
Sargent Shriver’s 1965 New York speech about the Peace Corps and the War on Poverty is a revelation for anyone wishing to understand Sargent Shriver’s approach to peacebuilding. Shriver himself had gone in his life from being a warrior—fighting in the South Pacific during World War II—to being a peacemaker and social innovator. With his leadership in the the Peace Corps, War on Poverty, as US Ambassador to France, as an advocate for denuclearization, and even in his roles as president and chair of Special Olympics, he was dedicated to ensuring that communities in the US and around the world were stable, prosperous, and free, and that all people had the opportunities they needed to thrive. He understood that conflict among peoples, physical and otherwise, was rooted in the desperation that comes from not having education, economic stability, and political freedom. At the same time, he was critical of governments who made the argument that we must choose between funding guns, i.e., military power, and butter, i.e., a social safety net, in order to ensure our safety.
In the speech he says:
“I’d like to suggest that we can’t win any military war in Vietnam or anywhere else and lose - lose the war in Harlem or lose the war in Watts. And the reason is that there’s actually only one war going on. This war has erupted in the African Congo, down in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, down in Panama about the canal, down in Watts. And all of these riots, or wars, are related. Not because they’re communist or extremist or whatever you want to say, ready to exploit every disturbance here or abroad, but because hunger, and ignorance, and disease exist in stark reality for billions of people. And because millions of people have been denied elementary political freedom and political rights.”
In this context, he asserts that the people “who say we’ve got to choose between guns or butter misunderstand the modern world.”
He goes on:
“Because this war—this single war— in which the Peace Corps is engaged and in which the War on Poverty here at home is a part, is not a war against communism. It’s not against anything. It’s a war or an enterprise or a movement for self-determination. Not just of nations but of people— individual people—and a release of all these people from any form of colonialism or imperialism.”
Over.the past several months, we’ve watched social programs be slashed and health care subsidies be terminated, cuts which have negatively impacted millions of citizens around the country. Now, as we engage in a war against Iran that shows no signs of ceasing, we reel at its cost: in the first week alone, the Pentagon has reported that the war has cost US taxpayers $11 billion. With gas prices rising and markets in a tailspin, how can we accept the choice of guns over butter? Most significantly, with US soldiers being put in harm’s way and with Iran and surrounding countries being bombarded and destabilized, we are causing human trauma and creating the conditions for violent conflict to spread.
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