Dear friend,

When I first launched my Congressional campaign, I didn’t expect my pacifism to be a controversial topic.

I came of age during 9/11, and for much of my adult life have lived in a world where our country is embroiled in foreign conflicts. It was really easy for people in the U.S. to forget about wars like Iraq and Afghanistan, because they aren’t happening here, but they have real impacts for Americans who have to go off and fight and real impacts for the nations we deploy to.

If troops from other nations were deployed to the U.S., I think we would take issue with that. So I’m not surprised when other nations don’t like that the U.S. thinks it can have an unquestioned presence in other parts of the world.

I don’t want any human being to be a victim of war. But I don’t think the way we prevent that is through providing more military assistance or weaponry to other countries.

In Gaza, and in Ukraine, the United States needs to leverage its wealth to play a humanitarian role on the global stage. We need to provide food, shelter, water, medical aid and refugee status to people torn apart by conflict.

The Trump Administration dropped the refugee ceiling to a historic low in 2021, only admitting 15,000 people, compared to over 200,000 in 1980.

America is a country built and sustained by refugees and immigrants. It’s shameful that we close down our borders to people in need, and I applaud efforts to raise the refugee ceiling in the past few years. But we need to raise the limit even more, especially to those from countries devastated by American foreign policy intervention.

As somebody who grew up watching what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s clear how awful and horrifying war is. Loss of life, loss of community, destruction of cities—these things just shouldn’t happen.

America is ready for a change. 66% of us want a ceasefire in Gaza; we need politicians with the courage and conscience to ask for the same.

The U.S. has the power to help these people in a way that doesn’t include military intervention or weapons. It’s time for us to use it.

In solidarity,

Maebe Pudlo