Reducing the Defense Budget, Reordering National Priorities 1979 General Resolution

WHEREAS, President Carter has proposed a federal budget which calls for significant increases in military expenditures, while at the same time calling for major cuts in expenditures for human and social services; and

WHEREAS, this shift in federal priorities is likely to have disastrous effects on the nation's well-being by increasing inflation, by contributing to unemployment and a decline in the country's economic output, and by channeling the nation's precious human and material resources into wasteful and destructive enterprises;

BE IT RESOLVED: That the 1979 General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association urges its members, churches and societies actively and persistently to work for change in federal spending priorities; that such efforts include, but not be limited to:

  1. Establishment of workshops, seminars, and forums to bring to public attention the disastrous consequences of ever-increasing defense spending;
  2. Organization of petition drives, letter-writing campaigns, etc., to the appropriate officials in the U.S. Congress and the administration; and
  3. Where appropriate, direct non-violent political action; and
  4. Our call upon the citizens of all nations to work for a similar reordering of their national priorities.