Tax Day Peace Rally

download flyers, window signs, and leaflets for this event below

Tuesday, April 15
4:30 to 6:00 p.m. 

Military Recruiting Center
(Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse) 

STEPHAN SMITH TO LEAD US IN SONG! (Check him out at http://www.stephansmith.com/)

Also, many wonderful and diverse voices from all over the Bronx, including Julio Pabon, Ramon Jimenez, Brian Hynes, Youth Leaders form Sistas and Brothas, and more...

Why Have a Peace Rally Now?

Fox News is already declaring "total victory" in Iraq.  Bush and Rumsfeld are now targeting Syria as the next stage in the Great War on Terrorism--apparently the Syrians have the Weapons of Mass Distraction that cannot be found in Iraq.  Can't find Osama or Al Qaeda in Afghanistan?  Distract the world with a war in Iraq!  Can't find Saddam or WMD in Baghdad?  Hmm...maybe a war in Damascus will do the trick!?!

What do you think?  Excited about the next stage of the war?  

Join your local Bronx peace community as we continue to oppose Bush's open-ended war on terrorism and resist the growing culture of militarism in the U.S.  Join us on April 15 as we call for an end to Bush's preventive war policy, the safe return of our troops, and the beginning of sensible budgetary spending focused on a humane domestic and foreign policy.

Our Tax Day Peace Rally will be a multigenerational, multiethnic event--one truly representative of the Bronx--that protests the costs of militarism in our community.  We will protest the way our tax dollars help fund Bush's unjust and illegal war efforts and  highlight the recruitment efforts going on in our schools and communities.

But Why a Peace Rally on TAX DAY?

It's tax time, a time when most of us learn how much we send to the Federal Government, but few of us really know where it goes. Well, here's how Congress allocates the money it controls. That big "X" represents the money we could reallocate by trimming the Pentagon budget just 15%. The retired admirals and generals who advise us agree we could do this just by canceling Cold War weapons systems like nuclear weapons and StarWars which do nothing to keep us safe.

With that savings, we could fund ALL of the following human needs at no additional taxpayer expense:

If you want to protest how your tax money is spent and support the troops in a real way, then come join our Tax Day Peace Rally!

Where does your tax dollar go?

• Since G. W. Bush took office, the US has gone from a $136.4 billion budget surplus in the year 2000 to an estimated $159 billion deficit in 2002.
• The defense budget increased to $396 billion last year.
• Bush recently requested a $78.7 billion supplemental military budget for the initial cost of prosecuting his war on Iraq (a war projected to cost over $200 billion).
• At the same time, budgets for education, health care, housing, and other services were slashed.
• Each day the Pentagon spends $1.7 billion, enough to build 200 new elementary schools, house 136,000 homeless, or provide Pell grants to one million college students (per day!)

Who truly supports our troops?

• With all the money Bush wastes on defense spending, you might think military personnel and veterans are well taken care of...but, the money is not for them!
• The Republican-controlled House Budget Committee voted to cut $25 billion in veteran’s benefits over the next 10 years.
• The Bush administration proposed cutting $172 million from impact aid programs which provide school funding for children of military personnel.
• The administration ordered the Dept. of Veterans Affairs to stop publicizing health benefits available to veterans.
• George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, John Bolton, Tom DeLay, John Ashcroft, Lewis Libby, and others enthusiastically supported the Vietnam War while avoiding serving in it and now are sending others to kill and be killed in Iraq.
• Peace activists, many of them veterans, soldiers and military families, do not want our servicemen and women put in harms way for unjust and illegal military campaigns that only serves to promote anti-Americanism abroad.
• We want the government to honor our servicemen and women by:
• paying each a decent salary
• providing the military and their families full healthcare coverage
• expanding veteran's benefits
• and providing real access to the job training and college education the GI's were promised.

If you want to protest how your tax money is spent and support the troops in a real way, then come join our Tax Day Peace Rally!

For more information about helping with or participating in this rally, email mark@bronxpeace.org

You can also download a flyer for photocopying and distribution.  There are two format options:

• download rally flyer (Version 1) as a Microsoft Word document 

• download rally flyer (Version 1) as an Adobe Acrobat file

• rally flyer (Version 2) as Microsoft Word document

 You can also download one of these window signs:

• download window sign (white background / black text)

• download window sign (black background / white text) 

• download window sign (white background / red & blue text)

OR, you can download one of these FACT SHEETS for leafleting:

• "How much do you really get for college" (anti-recruiting fact sheet1)

• What recruiters don't tell you" (anti-recruiting fact sheet 2)

• "How Bush supports the troops" (anti-recruiting fact sheet 3)

• The military is hazardous to your financial well-being (anti-recruiting fact sheet 4)

• Bush's military spending and "support" of the troops (Tax Fact Sheet 1)

• What we could do with just 15% of the Pentagon budget (Tax Fact Sheet 2)

• Pie Chart of Where Your Tax Money Really Goes (Tax Fact Sheet 3)