Misplaced Priorities of U.S. Federal Budget
"One in five children are born into poverty in the U.S. and 10 million children are without access to health care. Our schools are literally falling apart in desperate need of billions of dollars worth of basic repairs. One in four children experience hunger on a regular basis. And yet we spend more than $450 billion on the military each year and that figure continues to rise. In addition, we spend billions of 'supplemental' dollars on waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan. We cannot find the money to fully fund the Head Start program, but we have no problem channeling our vast wealth to weapons manufacturers.

Our children cry out for the bread of life, but that cry falls upon our deaf ears and fails to penetrate our hardened hearts. Are we not indeed offering our children stones when they are asking us for bread? Does security come from amassing the stones of war and the capacity for domination? Or does true security come from a healthy, educated population, empowered to develop to their full humanity? Can we make room in our hearts to hear the cry of poor children? Can our prayer life be a space to ask God to give us the strength of spirit to effectively challenge the misplaced priorities of our federal budget?"

45 million. The number of children who will die unnecessarily by 2015 if current giving trends of rich nations continue.
$120 billion. The total amount needed to halve poverty by 2015.
$616 billion. The annual military spending of rich countries.
$1.53. The amount rich countries spend on foreign aid per person per week, equal to the cost of a cup of coffee.
0.14. The percent of national income the United States allocated for foreign aid in 2003, equaling one-tenth of U.S. spending in Iraq."

Lacking U.S. Support, Kyoto Treaty Enacted to Reduce Greenhouse Gases
"Two centuries after the dawn of the industrial age, the world today [Feb 16, 2005] takes its first concerted step to roll back the emission of 'greenhouse gases' believed linked to climate change with the enactment of the Kyoto global warming pact. The agreement, negotiated in Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto in 1997 and ratified by 140 nations, calls on 35 industrialized countries to rein in the release of carbon dioxide and five other gases from the burning of oil and coal and other processes. Its impact, however, will be limited by the absence of the United States, the world's leader in greenhouse gas emissions.

Proponents say the stakes are high: the gases are believed to trap heat in the atmosphere, contributing to rising global temperatures that are melting glaciers, raising ocean levels and threatening dramatic and potentially damaging climate change in the future. Implementation of the agreement was delayed by a struggle to meet the requirement that countries accounting for 55 percent of the world's emissions ratify it. That goal was reached last year -- nearly seven years after the pact had been negotiated -- with Russia's approval. The Clinton administration signed the protocol in 1997, but the U.S. Senate refused to ratify it, citing potential damage to the U.S. economy and insisting that it also cover countries with fast-growing economies such as China and India."

"Japan Marks Enactment of Kyoto Global Warming Pact," La Crosse Tribune, Feb 16, 2005.