Fasting

Dear MoveOn member,

We don't have a budget crisis in Washington. We have a moral crisis.

When Congress can seriously debate forcing veterans into homelessness and cutting food aid to pregnant women and children, while giving tax breaks to billionaires, something is very, very wrong.

That's why this morning, I joined, along with the heads of seven other major progressive organizations, in an ongoing fast launched by religious leaders to protest the brutal and unjust budget cuts being debated in Washington. 

Those who will go hungry because of these cuts are largely invisible to decision-makers in Congress. By fasting in solidarity, we have an opportunity to make their suffering visible, and expose the immorality of this policy. 

Will you join in? You can fast for a day or part of a day, for a meal or a week—whatever you can do.

Please click here to join in.

This began on Monday, when Reverend Jim Wallis and a group of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim clergy launched a prayer fast to highlight what they called the "selective cruelty" in the budget debate. As word spread, thousands more folks have begun fasting as well.

I joined today because all week long I've been looking into the eyes of my 2-year-old daughter, and thinking about the hundreds of thousands of kids who will get kicked out of preschool, who will lose access to health care, who will go to bed hungry each night if these cuts pass.  

I joined because I keep picturing other parents like me, many of them MoveOn members, who will be left with no way to provide for their families if right-wing Republicans get their way.

I joined because according to my faith and my conscience, letting children starve while giving handouts to giant corporations is wrong, plain and simple. And I feel compelled to speak out.

A number of other MoveOn staff are joining the fast with me this morning. I hope you will too, in whatever way speaks to your conscience.

http://pol.moveon.org/pac/budgetfast/?id=26743-10220574-vI3yhpx&t=2

I grew up reading these words from the Prophet Isaiah and they've returned to me powerfully today.

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free

and break every yoke?

While this cause will speak to all of us differently—to our faith, or to our ethics, or simply through the eyes of our children—it is grounded in our common humanity and a common passion to defend those most in need.

Please join if you can.

Thank you for all that you do,

Justin Ruben

Executive Director

MoveOn.org

PS. If you didn't see it, the most-emailed article on the New York Times website yesterday was food writer Mark Bittman's beautiful column about why he's fasting too.

PPS. Fasting can be dangerous. Those with health issues or concerns that may be affected by fasting should not participate. Anyone unsure or with questions should consult their doctor before participating.

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PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. This email was sent to eddie alfaro on April 1, 2011. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.