“Giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism” dominate even in liberal Madison
“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 1967, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”
One year ago, on Martin Luther King Jr. day, I posted a piece about the proposal to base expensive F-35 military fighter jets at Truax Wisconsin Air National Guard base on Madison’s northside, speculating on what Dr. King might say about these high-tech war machines.
In his incredible 1967 speech, Beyond Vietnam, Dr. King spoke passionately about the injustice of growing spending on war, while anti-poverty projects were de-funded. “This madness must cease,” he said. “The evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism are all tied together.”
“A Nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death,” he said.
Opposing the Vietnam War, and connecting militarism, materialism, and racism, were apparently so controversial—and so threatening to the powers-that-be—that many believe the speech led to King’s assassination one year later, on April 4, 1968.
Fifty-two years after Dr. King’s profound speech, with current military spending at astronomical levels, funding never-ending wars all over the world—wars that most people seem to have accepted as “normal,” given the lack of dissent—perhaps we are not just approaching the “spiritual death” that he warned of, but actually spiritually dead?
Even where I live in Madison, Wisconsin–a liberal city that prides itself on being a bastion of “progressive” values—most elected officials and leaders have clearly fallen under the evil spell of the “giant triplets” Dr. King warned of.
Nearly all elected officials, including our anti-Vietnam War activist Mayor Paul Soglin, County Supervisor Joe Parisi, and many alders and county supervisors, are gushing with support for locating high-tech F-35 war machines at Truax Air National Guard base. The Madison Chamber of Commerce, likewise, is drooling over the prospect of economic benefits they will purportedly bring to the city. Our state senator Mark Miller, a former ANG fighter pilot—and our left-leaning U.S. legislators Tammy Baldwin and Mark Pocan—are also cheerleaders for the war planes.
All of these leaders have been completely silent about the huge costs—human, economic, social, health, and environmental—of these machines and the military base needed to support them.
Other than a few courageous Madison alders, who raised this issue in their letter (and appendices) submitted for the F-35 draft Environmental Impact Statement, elected officials have also been silent about the indisputable environmental injustices—or to put it more bluntly, environmental racism—of locating these loud, dangerous, toxic-pollution spewing war machines right next to one of Madison’s most challenged low income neighborhoods where the majority of residents are people of color.
To date there have been only a few dissenting voices among community leaders. Last year former alder Michael Shivers wisely asked “Why not take the cost of about half of these planes and use it for health care for the deprived, or housing for the less fortunate, and of course, let’s not forget our veterans.”
Responding to the argument that we need the planes for “security,” in a October 12, 2017 Isthmus op-ed, local activist Harry Richardson appropriately asked, “What do we need for security?…National security is not just military—we cannot be secure if we are not healthy, housed, and educated, or if our dams and bridges fall apart.”
Indeed, funding our country’s enormous military, including the F-35s, means less money (or no money at all) for infrastructure and social programs that provide health care, housing, food, and numerous other services for people who need them—making these people, and our whole society, much less secure. Richardson calculated that taxpayers in Madison alone contributed $9.6 million a year toward the F-35s. In early 2018, when I wrote last year’s MLK article, each of the 20 (?) F-35 jets to be based in Madison was estimated to cost $150 million dollars, for a total of $3 billion. I don’t know what the estimated costs are now, but they are likely more.
Think of all the pressing social needs that could be met with this money. Actual environmental protection that could be implemented. Schools better funded. Medicare for all.
Toxic consequences of militarism, environmental racism
As I wrote in last year’s post, soils and groundwater at the Truax WANG base are already soaked with toxic chlorinated solvents, petroleum compounds, heavy metals, and a plethora of other chemicals, many of which have also been spewed far and wide in Dane County and beyond since the 1940s when the base was established there.
A March 2018 report showed levels of extremely toxic PFAS (per- and polyfluoroaklyl substances) in groundwater at the base of 39,841 parts-per-trillion (ppt)– 569 times over the EPA’s “health advisory” level of 70 ppt. One mile away, Madison’s Well 15 in Reindahl Park, which provides drinking water to a large part of Madison’s north and east sides, is contaminated with PFAS. Madison Water Utility officials have stated that this PFAS is likely from Truax WANG.
Starkweather Creek surrounds the base on three sides and all the stormwater runoff at the base flows into the creek and then Lake Monona. Anglers who catch and eat fish from these waters–many low income minority anglers–are eating PFAS.
The people most at risk from the toxic pollution that has oozed from the base for decades, the noise of the currently operating F-16 fighter jets, and the added noise and pollution from the proposed F-35 war machines, are the low income people of color living in the Truax apartments adjacent to the base. They also drink water from Well 15.
Several government agencies (city, county, state) and the U.S. Department of Defense have known about the highly toxic chemicals leaching from Truax Field into groundwater under surrounding neighborhoods and Starkweather Creek for at least 30 years, but have not investigated the types and levels of these poisons in the creek and fish—nor have they taken actions to assure that the highly contaminated areas are appropriately cleaned up.
Raise your voice, take a stand
Many critical decisions about the F-35s and Truax ANG’s toxic environmental pollution will be made in 2019 at the city, county, state and federal levels. As we decide whether and how to speak out against the economic costs, violence, death, racial injustices, and toxic pollution associated with F-35s and militarism, we might gain strength from Dr. King’s powerful words:
“Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy…nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one’s own bosom and in the surrounding world…the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility of our limited vision, but we must speak.” 1967, Beyond Vietnam
Those who choose not to take a stand against the “giant triplets of militarism, racism, and materialism” should remember that they are, whether they want to or not, agreeing with them. Silence equals assent.
Or as Martin Luther King said, “A time comes when silence is betrayal.”
Upcoming meetings and public processes with opportunities for public comment:
-January 29, 2019, the Madison Water Utility Board (4:30pm, 119 Olin Ave) will discuss the PFAS in Well 15. The public can comment at this meeting. Please attend and share your thoughts on what should be done about the PFAS contamination in Well 15.
-The public will have a chance to weigh in on the draft EIS for the F35 proposal when it is released some time in February or March. Watch the website for opportunities to comment!
You should also contact your alders and supervisors and ask that they take up this issue with relevant city and county bodies that should be discussing the social and/or environmental consequences of the F-35s and/or Truax ANG pollution– such as:
City of Madison
-Madison Water Utility Board
-Committee on the Environment
-Sustainable Madison Committee
-Solid Waste Committee
-Board of Public Works
-Equal Opportunities Commission
-Common Council
Dane County
-Lakes & Watershed Commission
-Board of Public Health (city/county)
-MAMSWaP (Madison Area Municipal Storm Water Partnership) meetings
-Airport Commission
-Board of Supervisors
