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Alone with your Trusty Radio
By farrind on 2008-10-25 09:35:49
I did a lot of driving this week. There were students to return to campuses (one going south, the other, west on the
Thruway...) and other trips. I'm not wild about driving but I generally had a good time, and I visited the New York Sheep and
Wool festival on one of my trips. I might have been lonely in my car, but for my Trusty Radio. I listened to news, and some
interesting music...but most of the time it was just news, mile after mile... News this week will seem bleak if you listen for
too long. The stock market crisis is not just a big news story; it dominates the news. Not everyone has much invested, I
realize, but a lot of us have something, a higher proportion of Americans than you might think. And this, in simplest terms,
is why it is such BIG news and why thousands of us are listening intently to the unfolding story: because nearly everyone is
affected in some way. One of us, Sara M. posted on the Co$ts of War (see October 17) with some amounts on spending on
Iraq. Visiting a couple of the links she included gave me numbers which I'll put below. The point is, the US is spending a lot,
and that the money could go to other purposes. Now, you can't just take war spending and infuse the money into backing up
banks, and restoring confidence - the crisis of our economy is far, far more complex than that. But I still wonder: could we
use our resources in a better way? Instead of using them in Iraq, would it be smarter, better to return them to our own
economy? From the National Priorities Project website: I encourage you to try this site yourself! It is interactive:
e NY state has spent over $58 billion on the Iraq war
¢ In McNulty's congressional district (District 21) it is proposed to spend over $1.8 billion to rescue banks and the stock
market
¢ McNulty's district has spent nearly this same amount on the Iraq war
This $1.8, if used to hire police officers, would get us about 37,000 for an entire year. I work near S. Lake avenue in Albany,
where a young man was murdered last week. After this tragic event, many of us there are quite concerned about safety, and
would like to have even a fraction of this many police looking out for us! Now I will sign off, and go listen to my
radio! Farrind
