The Houston Peace and Justice Center endorses "Occupy Houston"

We support this action for the following reasons:

• No one on Wall Street or in Washington has been held accountable for the "Great Recession" that was caused by Wall Street greed and which has led to thousands of people losing their jobs and their homes.  
• Millions of U.S. citizens, including millions of children, live in poverty.  Millions of people who work are not paid a "living wage".  The gap between the rich and the poor/middle class continues to grow.
• Many wealthy people and corporations pay little or no income taxes.   Rather than correcting this inequity,  budget cuts are made at the state and federal levels which adversely impact poor and middle class families and students. 
• Millions of U.S. citizens, including millions of children, still lack quality health care.
• Billions of dollars are spent each year to support the military-industrial complex while human needs at home go unmet.   The billions of dollars wasted on the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya should have been used to create jobs and improve the nation's educational system, infrastructure and health and human services.
• Elections are controlled by money from wealthy people and corporations.  The Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which allows corporations to make unlimited donations to political campaigns, has made this problem even worse.  Public financing of political campaigns is needed.   
• The right wing is trying to destroy our unions which have been instrumental in improving working conditions for millions of Americans and are greatly responsible for the creation of the Middle Class of our nation.
• Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, have been unfairly attacked and demonized by the right wing in this country.  This has led to racial profiling by law enforcement, thousands of people being deported, and the break up of thousands of families.
• Economic and racial injustices in our society and our criminal justice system have led to over two million people being incarcerated and hundreds of people being executed.