It is such a pleasure to have a new president waiting to face the difficult challenges ahead of us.

As I listened to President-elect Barack Obama’s very moving acceptance speech, I found myself thinking that this would be a proud day for Benjamin Franklin, the only founding father who worked his way up from modest means and held to the belief throughout his life that all people were created equal. I think he would have loved to see President Obama.

For me, the moment was emotionally complex. I had read Obama’s military policy and I knew in this respect we were likely to continue with what I consider to be one of the most dangerous paths we are on.

Obama’s campaign Web site (see Obama for America — issues- defense) states that he will rebuild our military for 21st century tasks and he pledges to get another 92,000 soldiers on the ground.

He wants to fully equip these troops with the latest technology, as well as “Preserve Global Reach in the Air,” “Maintain Power Projection at Sea,” and continue with missile defense (Star Wars). He states “When I am president, we will wage the war that has to be won: getting out of Iraq and on to the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

This says to me that the military occupation of our own government will continue and that we will move from one war that has created many more people who have reason to hate the U.S., to another that will do the same. The outgoing British commander of Afghanistan said the only way forward was to find a political solution that would include the Taliban.

The idea that we need to rebuild a military establishment that we currently spend a trillion dollars on annually — equaling over half of the world’s entire military spending — is chilling to me. The thought that we will have another 100,000 people doing the life-changing, mind-warping job of fighting wars of occupation means that we saddle our children with the twin debt of outrageous financial costs and the deep psychological damage that these kinds of wars have brought us in the past.

The U.S. military is the world’s largest contributor to greenhouse gasses. It is also the world’s largest producer of chemical waste, producing more than the five biggest U.S. chemical companies combined.

We currently spend half of our tax dollars on the military.

Thirteen to 18 veterans commit suicide a day, and 12,000 veterans under VA care attempt suicide each year.

On the other side of the Obama policy is his interest in promoting dialogue, his willingness to engage in it, and his understanding that “the world shares a common security and a common humanity.”

The new administration says it will build its diplomatic core, double aid spending in support of the United Nations Millennium Development goals and talk with everyone, friend or foe.

I suggest that we as a community of concerned citizens take our lead from this openness and join together to magnify our individual voices. Now is our time to lobby and inspire our politicians to step up to the braided problems of protecting the earth’s ecosystems, building a responsive representative democracy and fulfilling the founding promise of our country that all men are created equal, which today certainly includes all the people of the world.

Now may be the best opportunity we will have in our lifetimes to make ourselves heard. I suggest that we organize ourselves.

The vitality of our democracy depends now on the town meeting, which could be the foundation of a new system. Let’s meet, talk together and organize larger meetings. Let’s find the time in our busy lives to sign ourselves up for the causes of a healthy planet and universal human rights by dedicating ourselves to the demilitarizing of our economy as well as our foreign policy.

As the nation that consistently outsells the rest of the world in weapons and has been instrumental in much of the warfare of the late 20th century and the early 21st, we have a special responsibility to this cause.

Together we can change our culture away from the corporatization of warfare and government and toward the deep understanding of the universal rights of life. We could base our new economy on sustainable energy and healthy food production, the relocalization movement, unlimited educational opportunities and a recognition of the inherent benefits of well-made, beautiful and useful production that will add real value to ours and our children’s lives.

The author Alice Walker said in a recent interview, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

David Iles is an artist and a teacher of 1- and 2-year-olds in Langley.