Dear Ann Marie Buerkle:
As of a few of minutes ago, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost the tax payers of the 25th Congressional District of New York $3,512,378,700. (See sidebar for Cost of War site link.)
In plain English, that is over THREE AND A HALF BILLION DOLLARS stolen from our district since 2001.
That is roughly $53,500 for every person in the district (FIFTY THREE THOUSAND, FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS).
If we had that money back here tomorrow...
...how many teachers could we hire?
...how many jobs could we create?
...how many crumbling bridges could we replace?
...how many decent housing units could we build?
...how many people could we offer fuel and electric assistance next winter?
...how many doctors' bills could we pay for care for indigent children?
...how many lives could we save from treatable illnesses?
...how many tax incentives could we offer businesses to locate here? (And no, Bob Congel, I don't mean you.)
...how much research and development could we encourage to get ourselves firmly on the path to true renewable energy independence?
...how many farmers could we pay equitably for the work they do?
...how many nursing homes could finally afford to provide the quality of care their staffs came into the field to give?
...and finally, how long would it take for us as a district and a nation to commit to respecting all our people equally; to strive to help all our people achieve their potential; and to feel proud of our nation as we join the global search for peace .
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, From a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953
34th president of US 1953-1961 (1890 - 1969)
Ms. Buerkle, please aim high, higher that you ever imagined you could. Find your way beyond unquestioned allegiance. Think for yourself. Abandon the politics game. Follow your heart. Let compassion for your fellow human beings drive your decisions.
Very truly yours,
Blueskygirl
