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Most people today don't know this life, but this was the U.S. less than 75 years ago. "A Week of Hunger" in the WaPo today reported most food stamp recipients deplete their allocation by week three. Larry Brown Harvard School of Public Health estimates it would cost $10-12 billion per year to "virtually end hunger in our nation," a plague which costs society at least $90 billion a year in lost revenue and health and societal costs.
How many days of war funding could eradicate hunger in the U.S.? As the economy pulls more people from the isolated comfort of their recliners, we may put more care into such issues.
As a first-generation American, I can repeat all the stories my relatives who emigrated here - the stories of the "hard times", when 6 slept in a 1-room apartment and a couple potatoes had to feed them all for dinner. Mrs. F's Russian forebears can tell similar stories.
With what we spend in Iraq, we could have defeated hunger and provided good health care to every American. Instead, we have an advisor to a presidential candidate telling Americans to shut up and quit whining. I believe a French girl named Marie had that attitude shortly before she lost her head.
It is unfathomable to me how people could give the McCain candidacy any sort of serious consideration. Yet people do. The Republicans harken back to the "Good Old Days", or Leave it to Beaver* or Father Knows Best but in reality, those days meant the average person never had enough to eat and inadequate health care. They were at the mercy of their employers and landlords and treated more like property than human beings.
Thanks to the last 8 years (and special thanks to Reagan and Bush 1) we're on our way back to that place. Voting for McCain will get us there quickly.
As Billy Joel says: "The good old days weren't always good and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems". Enjoy, I'm going to work. TGIF!
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