Baltimore should put an end to ‘Fleet Week’ festivities

The recent article, “Danish ship collides with U.S. Navy ship Sunday in Inner Harbor” (Sept. 12), points out the absurdity of “Fleet Week.” First, why are we spending taxpayer money for an event that is solely designed as an advertisement for militarism? How much did this event cost? How much carbon dioxide did the “flyovers” put into the atmosphere?

Our military budget keeps going up and up and up, and what we get is endless wars that we lose and that we had no reason to start in the first place. Of course, the military contractors are doing quite well, thank you. With a couple of Maryland Peace Action members, I was at the Inner Harbor on Saturday protesting the huge military budget, arguing that we need to redefine security in this country. Real security doesn’t come from bombs, which we have far too many of. Think about this: If the military budget was cut by just 10% and that money was reprogrammed, just the 10% of what Baltimoreans pay would be enough to provide

7,679 public housing units, more than double the amount needed to end homelessness in all of Maryland.

Most all the people we spoke to at the Inner Harbor said that they agreed with us — we need to cut military spending, by a lot. We should all let Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and our

U.S. House of Representatives members know that we are tired of being No. 1 in military spending in the world but 28th in providing for the social and environmental needs of our citizens. The U.S. ranks just below Cyprus and Greece on this measure.

It is time for the citizens of this country to say no to outrageous military budgets and instead understand real security as addressing domestic needs.

— Jean Athey, Baltimore

The writer is a board member of Maryland Peace Action.