I am forever opening the paper to some new head-scratcher of a disconnect. A couple of days ago it was Bunning yowling that not one more cent should go to the unemployed until Congress had a plan (presumably one of which HE approved) to pay for it. This morning, it was a tiny afterthought on the weather page about the Marines landing (again) on Iwo Jima that caught my eye. It seems that, this being the 65th anniversary of that immortal bloodbath/victory, someone at the Pentagon thought it would be a good idea to throw a party:
The Marines flew in trucks, water and food from Washington...The commemorative was to be attended by about 1,000 people including Marine Corps commandant Gen. James Conway, members of Japan's parliament and representatives of the Iwo Jima survivors' association...A drill team also arrived on the Island.
Both my Mom and Dad served in WWII; and I understand and appreciate the sacrifice those men made at Iwo Jima, but is this an entirely appropriate use of taxpayer dollars when there are people living in their cars in America because the country has fallen on hard times and all of the safety nets are failing? How much does it cost to fly all of the celebratory paraphernalia and personnel to Iwo Jima, and how much did the staging of the event cost? I think this is a legitimate question as well as why this was necessary on the 65th anniversary of the battle? What happened on the 50th anniversary, the 55th anniversary and the 60th? Will the 75th bring a full-scale reenactment of the battle?
How many other similar commemorative enterprises, toasts and roasts, flying beneath the radar of taxpayer indignation, go undetected every year? In my humble opinion, that sacrosanct Pentagon budget needs a much closer look. How many people did they say die every year in the U.S. for lack of healthcare? If we can't find the means to care for the living in this country that our forefathers fought to preserve, it is an insult to their memory when we pile any of that desperately need coin on their graves.