wfn.org | NCC General Secretary Reflects on 2003 State of the Union

["Nat'l Council of Churches" <nccc_usa@ncccusa.org>]

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES NEWS RELEASE

REFLECTION BY DR. BOB EDGAR, GENERAL SECRETARY
OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES
ON PRESIDENT BUSHS STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

January 28, 2003

The President didnt say it, but the country knows it:	The union is in a
state of great uneasiness.  Many people are uncomfortable with a national
priority that provides major tax cuts for millionaires and pays for them
with funds that ought to go to help children without health care insurance,
children who cant get into Head Start, children whose families live on the
edge all the time.

Other Americans wonder why the President insists on escalating the national
debt, saddling their children and grandchildren with an obligation that
threatens the well-being of generations to come, just so a relative handful
of wealthy Americans can add to their list of luxuries.

The creation of a national department for homeland security does little for
our sense of safety when the President fails to fund its budget, and when
local communities cannot adequately fund their police, firefighters and
hospitals.

We should all be concerned about the tone of the Presidents war rhetoric.
Americans are right to be uneasy about the morality of a pre-emptive
American invasion that, even with extreme care on our part, could kill a
staggering number of innocent civilians. The World Health Organization
estimates that as many as half a million casualties would result from such a
war, and UNICEF warns that three million people would be threatened with
starvation.

Just as unsettling, a unilateral American assault on Iraq would surely
trigger a massive growth in anti-American terrorism that would make our
homeland far less secure.

Counting those costs, our common sense tells us there must be a better way
than war.  Our faith compels us to search for that better way.

-end-

CONTACTS AT THE NCC: 212-870-2252/2025/2048; Cell: 917-821-0852; Cell:
917-690-6075; e-mail news@ncccusa.org; Web: www.ncccusa.org