Whether its for war or for superfluous local bureaucracies like the NYC Borough Presidents and Community Board system, we are directing taxpayer money to shiny offices in expensive real estate that have no power to help our communities, and to ineffective projects such as this latest war (or un-war) that do nothing to meet the basic needs of human beings and enhance societal health and stability. It is irrational and self destructive to misspend even $100 while Americans are going without. But look around you any Saturday in Rockaway and other neighborhoods I come to every week. Theres the man who stands at the corner of Beach 54th, passively asking for change in the hope of eating anything. Theres the line of old and young residents lining up their shopping carts at the Ocean Bay Community Center to get food from the food pantry, because the federal government has cut Food Stamps again (Obamas ok with this). Theres kids eating chips, Doritos and cheap colored water because their moms are working for $7.50 an hour in a city where $7.50 cant buy a decent sandwich. Theres the homeowner whose expected to pay her mortgage even though no funds have come through yet to help rebuild her home. Theres a creepy, abandoned hospital across from the homes of thousands of low-income children. No wonder none of them dream of being doctors; they never have occasion to run into one. We need apartment houses that families who are homeless now can afford. Homeless families do not want shelters any more than other people do. We need income support for mothers and kids going without food and the basics. We need funds to flow to homeowners who need to fix their homes and properties post Sandy. We need schools that are not overcrowded, books for kids to bring home and keep (not just libraries that arent open on weekends), time for kids to spend with their parents, and music and art to combat all the violence they are force fed through advertising and the internet. We have one hospital on the entire peninsula. All this costs money we are continually told we dont have. Until someone decides we need to fight a war. One of them is a President who was given the Nobel Peace Prize not so long ago. Then suddenly, theres all kinds of money. It is clear that we indeed do have money. How funny too, that we dont go to war with Saudi Arabia. They behead people too. Oh wait, they have a 300 billion barrel oil reserve! Cant make an enemy of them!. No politician, no evening news pundit, has poor people, or anyone but themselves, in mind. Certainly not our President turned war hawk, who can no more be trusted with our future than we could trust his predecessor.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 01:46:40 +0000
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