There is a crisis happening on a global scale, and we here in the United States of America have a moral responsibility to take action to help alleviate global food prices and ensure that millions of people do not suffer the ill effects of hunger and possibly even starvation. We are all complaining about the high cost of oil these days and how it is impinging on our budget, but in the developing world this is having extreme consequences. The stark reality is that three billion people on the planet earth live on less than $2 a day, and a good portion of that money goes specifically to the purchase of basic food grains to survive. As a result of the skyrocketing price of oil, the price of food grains has risen due to commercial production costs and transportation to as much as $800 a ton for rice which has led to food riots in the developing world.

My father is a Vietnam Veteran. He was an officer in ROTC in 1968 while he was in college and went to Vietnam as a Lieutenant the year I was born. My father felt an obligation to his country and a duty to serve when called. I was born in a snowstorm in rural Minnesota while my father was halfway around the world in the jungles of Vietnam. I am proud of my father and his service to my country. When I was a teenager, going to private Catholic school, I was approached by military recruiters. I was encouraged to join the military and to enlist in the ROTC program, much like my father had been. For whatever reason, I declined. I was not yet a peace activist like I became after the first gulf war, but something in my instincts told me that I could not serve in the military the way my father had served.

There is a scar on the constitution that is deep and growing. That scar is bleeding money and the bigger the wound gets the more the money flows out. Our society is fundamentally rooted in the concept of representational government, but the simple reality of current election financing ensures that those being represented are the wealthy and powerful, excluding the vast majority of Americans from a seat at the table. What is needed to stitch the wounds of the constitution is a medical kit complete with the surgical tools that will remove the abscess of 'government to the highest bidder'. The Fair Elections Now Act, which is currently under consideration in the Senate, will help to restore a sense of balance and propriety to an election process that has been sold out to the private interests of a privileged minority of the electorate.