Why yet another vigil in front of BAE?
By RUTH McKAY
Published: Sunday, Dec. 5, 2004
I am an 85-year-old New Hampshire woman who, for over 20 years, has stood vigil in front of weapons manufacturer BAE Systems in Nashua. Each year I am asked, ?Why?? and so today I try to answer that question.
Why do I stand vigil? Why do I stand at BAE?
Because every day another soldier dies. Another child goes hungry. Another family mourns its losses. Because these are the true costs of war.
Today I read the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq is up to 1,256. Six of those are from New Hampshire.
As it is official policy of the U.S. government not to count the dead of our enemy, it is harder to find the number of Iraqi dead. But a recent article in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet reported the number to be at least 100,000, most of those women and children.
100,000 Iraqis dead. 1,256 Americans dead. The costs of war.
I also read that at least 9,326 U.S. soldiers have been wounded in Iraq. But since the Pentagon only reports those wounded in action, I can only imagine what the true number is.
And how many, like veterans of the first Gulf War, are returning home with exposure to depleted uranium radiation or post-traumatic stress syndrome?
I have read that over 35 GIs have committed suicide in Iraq or upon returning home, although again the Pentagon does not keep those records either.
Wounded on the outside. Wounded on the inside. The costs of war.
There is also a financial cost to war. We have spent over $147 billion dollars on the war and occupation of Iraq. That is $5 billion a month. Over $166 million a day. New Hampshire citizens alone have spent $68 million to date.
To pay for this, we place the burden on those who can afford it the least: our children and our grandchildren, who will have to pay off the federal deficit which now tops $477 billion.
Our state budget which is trying to cut Medicaid and Medicare to the poor and elderly. Our cities and towns must raise taxes to simply maintain level funding for our schools.
The costs of war.
For me, as a woman of faith, the greatest cost is the one we all share equally and painfully - the cost to our souls, our humanity. The cost of knowing the truth of what our government is doing in our names and not being able to stop it.
The truth, as even Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld admits, that we are creating enemies faster than we are killing them. The truth that each and every Iraqi death leads to a deeper desire for revenge, breeding rather than diminishing terrorism. The truth that violence begets violence. And war, the ultimate terrorist act, begets more terrorism.
The costs of war.
So this year, as we have for 20 years, we will again stand vigil in front of the weapons manufacturer BAE Systems in Nashua.
We choose to stand at BAE for two reasons. BAE is one of the world?s largest weapons manufacturer. It reaps tremendous financial benefits from the horrors of war, from the death of children and women, from the destruction of homes and schools. We stand in opposition to BAE and to all who profit from war.
BAE is also the largest manufacturing employer in New Hampshire. The men and the women who work there are talented, skilled and caring people.
We vigil in support of these workers and encourage an industry conversion from the development of weapons to the creation of life-supporting infrastructure.
This year, like most years, we chose U.N. Human Rights Day.
The United Nations states that ?Human Rights Day should provide us with an opportunity to pay tribute to human rights educators - indeed, human rights defenders - who, in formal and informal settings, in small or large communities, and often encountering difficulties and hazards, contribute to building a universal culture of human rights.?
It is in this spirit that my brothers and sisters and I stand vigil at BAE. We will stand in front of BAE on Spit Brook Road for 30 hours, from 11 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 10, through 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11.
I hope you will join us.
Ruth McKay, a former Hudson resident, now lives in Concord.