SENTIENT TIMES Feb/Mar 2002

A New Contract With The Planet

Kofi Annan’s beautiful words point the way to the future. A more compassionate America will be a more secure America. These are not Utopian dreams. Every pledge on this page is within our power to fulfill. And they will cost no more than we spend now. We call on our government to:

1. Attack World Hunger And Poverty As If Our Life Depends On It: It Does. Anchor our foreign policy in the compassion for the poor that unites all the world’s religions. Reduce the debts of impoverished countries. End America’s sad history as the world’s leading exporter of weapons. Shift foreign aid from buying weapons to feeding people.

2. Champion The Rights Of Every Child, Woman And Man. Make America stand for justice, not expediency. Stop turning a blind eye to governments that abuse their own people. Ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. If punishing a foreign tyrant means, in actual practice, punishing the women and children who are his victims, desist, and find another path.

3. Pay Our UN Dues Ungrudgingly And End Our Obstructionism To The World’s Treaties. Throw America’s full weight behind the United Nations. Pay our UN dues on time and without conditions. Withdraw our lonely vetoes of the landmine ban, the bans on chemical and biological weapons, the Kyoto Accords and the International Criminal Court. Show once again the “decent respect for the opinions of mankind” that our Declaration of Independence affirms.

4. Reduce Our Dependence On Oil. Oil holds us hostage to regimes hated by their own people; their hatred transfers to us. America is 5% of the world’s people but we generate 25% of the pollution that causes global warming. It’s our duty to lead. We will reduce our consumption 25% by 2010.

5. Lead The World To An Age Of Renewable Energy. Make a Moon Mission scale commitment to develop solar and wind power technologies. Set and meet a goal of 20% of our energy from renewable sources by 2010.

6. Close The Book On The Cold War And End The Nuclear Nightmare Forever. Cast a cold eye on giant weapons designed to destroy giant enemies that no longer exist. Cancel obsolete Cold War weapons. We applaud the nuclear force cuts the President announced, but even 2,000 warheads poised and aimed at Russia is unwise. We squander $35 billion a year on this obsolete arsenal. Save most of that money, take our missiles off “launch on warning” and invite all nuclear nations to negotiate a nuclear weapons ban.

7. Renounce Star Wars And The Militarization Of Space. Reaffirm the ABM treaty. After spending $134 billion (twice our lifetime commitment to cancer research) our military has nothing to show for its obsession with a dubious National Missile Defense but the deep suspicions of our new allies. Enough is enough.

8. Make Globalization Work For, Not Against, Working People. Open the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to the public. Let sunshine into the councils of the World Trade Organization and the North American Fair Trade Agreement. Affirm that the welfare of the planet’s people supersedes corporate patents and profits.

9. Get Money Out Of Politics. Curtail the vast corrupting influence of corporate campaign contributions, which make Congress beholden to private interests. Enact public campaign financing—we can fund it entirely by closing a single offshore tax loophole.

10. Close The Gap Between Rich And Poor At Home. All these words will ring hollow to the world if America does not close the chasm between Rich and Poor in our own society. We will fully fund Head Start and health-care insurance for the millions of American children who can’t get either, and invest the money needed to build and nourish schools worthy of this great nation.

This New Contract for the Planet is revenue-neutral. By ending programs that are detrimental to America’s security and harm our nation’s role in the world, the Contract provides $40 billion in savings. The Contract invests that sum in programs that enhance security by attacking poverty at home and abroad, restoring the environment and celebrating the dignity of all the people of the world.

Investments in New Jobs
• Increase humanitarian and economic aid • to poor countries: $10 billion
• Renovate America’s crumbling schools
• over 10 years: $10 billion
• Reduce debts of impoverished nations:
• $9 billion
• Provide health insurance to all uninsured • American kids: $6 billion
• Increase federal funding for clean energy • and energy efficiency: $ 2 billion
• Public financing of federal elections:
• $1 billion
• Fully fund Head Start: $ 2 billion
Total: $40 billion

Savings from Cutting Outmoded Programs
• Reduce nuclear arsenal to 1,000 war
• heads: $15 billion
• Cut Cold War weapons: $12 billion
• Eliminate Star Wars: $8 billion
• Curb international weapons sales:
• $4 billion
• Eliminate offshore corporate tax loophole: $1 billion
Total: $40 billion

A New Contract With The Planet is a joint venture of a growing list of advocacy groups. All of us share a commitment to bring America’s global policies into harmony with the common sense and common decency of the American people. The Contract is a work in progress. We invite your suggestions. Visit our website at www.ContractWithThePlanet.org.

SENTIENT TIMES
PO Box 1330 Ashland, OR 97520
PHONE (541) 512-1084 • FAX (541) 512-1085
dmokma@jeffnet.org