Picture a jar of 860 jellybeans.
Each jellybean represents one billion tax dollars.
This is the U.S. military budget.
Now picture 1/10 of a jellybean — or $91 million. This money goes to peacemaking programs. These programs are locally based in volatile countries. They defuse conflict, prevent genocide and mass atrocities, and support reconciliation among adversaries.
In other words, they make peace.
For every dollar spent on peace, $16 of war expenditures are saved down the road. Clearly, spending money on peacemaking is a fiscally conservative thing to do.
In the midst of heated budget negotiations, I urge Sens. Romney and Lee to support the Complex Crisis Fund and Atrocities Prevention and Reconciliation Programs — even if you have to take 1/10 of a jellybean from the military jar to do it.
Kristen Rogers-Iversen, Millcreek
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