National priorities underfunds local priorities...who loses?
At the national level in the United States (which amounts to the global level due to our "superpower" status), we the American people have spent over TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY SEVEN THOUSAND MILLION DOLLARS on war and death. Closer to home, Ventura County's share tops NINE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS. Those of us who just payed our taxes payed into the nearly ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FOUR MILLION DOLLARS that our county alone will spend on nuclear weapons in the coming year. Has anyone driven through Meiner's Oaks lately?
The road, in short, is a mess. It's uneven and full of cracks and holes. I dont even know when was the last time that it was re-paved. I'm none too impressed with the recently "finished" road repair on the 33 through Mira Monte, either. It's smooth, but it's not even. Where-oh-where could our modest little community come up with the money to maintain our roads, the lifelines to our town with all its offerings? I know!! If we could only but skim a tiny bit off of the ginormous war fund! You know, keep a tiny bit of it here at home where the people who are funding it are driving on crappy roads, unceremoniously splashing about the solid-gold gasoline that they just paid $3.25-a-gallon for before driving their kids to an overcrowded school where the underpaid teacher is hoping just to survive the day without catching something that her new insurance won't cover, so she can...
You know where this is going, and honest-to-goodness it's not a rant. i'm keen enough to know that war money isnt being siphoned DIRECTLY from the save-Ojai's-roads fund, but i'm also smart enough to realize that the $978 MILLION that Ventura County DOESNT have because of the war just might have made my commute a little cheaper and a little smoother if it was even there to begin with. i dont feel any safer because we're at war, i just have whiplash.
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Comments (4)
inspired by Colbert? at 32%, approval the emperor and his cronies have no clothes. nice post... tyler
Comment #1 Posted by: Tyler | May 1, 2006 09:00 PM
honest-to-goodness, i'd never even heard of Colbert when i wrote that, but now that i've seen and heard what the buzz is about, i appreciate the connection and am proud to say i'm a fan of his. btw, this post is in the Ojai Valley News right now as a Letter to the Editor. the only things they did to it were rewrite the dollar amounts as numerals and put quotations around the word ginormous. pff...way to be progressive. hahaha....
Comment #2 Posted by: evan | May 7, 2006 08:33 PM
Did the OVN change your headline, too? Colbert would give that a finger wag!
Comment #3 Posted by: Lisa Snider | May 9, 2006 05:15 PM
haha, they did indeed, Lisa. i think the one i sent with the letter was "War Funds vs. Road Funds" or something like that, and they put "Feeling Cost of War at Home" or something. i'm thinking of writing one sometime with a swear word in it just to see if i get censored. my guess: YES.
Comment #4 Posted by: evan | May 10, 2006 10:41 AM