Drone Protest on Tax Day

 People have been blinded to Federal Spending habits since WWII. The constant increase in military spending is not going to be touched by the small nick caused by Sequestration because it is so bloated from the onset. This sign illustrates that and here's a tax graphic we have used over the years to explain that--  http://www.warresisters.org/federalpiechart.
Today I gathered with activists from Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, The Nevada City Peace Center, The Chico Peace and Justice Center, ANSWER Coalition and others, including my dear friend Darien (below) and her friends from Sacramento Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. The protest, like others across America, was to demonstrate against our taxes being taken from human needs for wars and war planning with a special emphasis on the illegal and immoral Drone Strikes Program.

 One of the most striking visuals of this protest was this long panel illustrating fictitious images of children, just being children, with some of the ages and names of those innocents killed by Drones in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere. The U.S. tries to hide the 176 children/800 innocent civilians killed in countries too politically weak to stop these acts of aggression. As is perfectly obvious, we are not doing anything other than cultivating hatred in these poor countries

 My own small project has been to embroider this quilt square for a civilian man in Pakistan named Munir bin al Haji bin al Assi. Often as I worked on this (I know, it isn't great embroidery,) I thought of him-- did he have a wife and children? was he a kind person? what was his life like and what happened to his family after he was killed by the drone strike? You can't help but wonder what the repercussions were. Veterans for Peace is doing the quilt and I'll send it off soon--it was a good project for contemplation though as I sat by my dear husband (whose birthday just happens to be today) these last six days. My Love goes out to Munir's family. I am very sorry for what our country has done.

p.s. This is what the Killer (Reaper/ Predator) Drones look like except you don't see them before they kill you, your family and your livelihood.