Heads In the Sand

I Can’t See. My Head Is In The Sand

No war bonds. No children taking money to school for war stamps. No necessary coupons for meat, or coffee, or sugar, or gasoline. No shortages of anything. No draft for compulsory service in the Army. But, we have been at our president’s war for over five years.
Four thousand service women and men dead and perhaps 100,000 wounded or disabled in some way, and most of us continue to act as if nothing has happened; nothing is going on to interrupt our middle class adventure to buy the latest digital toys or 50 inch TV.
We’re not interested in the war. War doesn’t effect us. Little or no interest in the trillion dollars being spent on a war that never should have happened. Little interest in a crumbling infrastructure. Little or no interest in how corporations and lobbyists are now in charge of the country. Little interest in how our veterans are being treated. Little interest in the crumpling of the dollar or the increasingly thunderous recession or the unbelievable increasing debt we are leaving our children and grandchildren.
We are interested in inane talk shows, golf tournaments, the Super Bowl, and the Big Dance. We demand unimportant news because important news would be bothersome and demand thinking. President Bush would get upset if we started to think.
You like toys. We should be able to buy toys for our kids, right? Okay, why does the United States remain one of the few developed countries to allow children to play with toys that contain toxic chemicals? The toys in question contain substances called phthalates (pronounced "thal-ates"). While the European Union has banned these substances in products meant for children, there is powerful resistance from the chemical and toy industries to doing the same here. Big surprise! Last year, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban phthalates in toys. The toy and chemical industries sued the city to block implementation, claiming there's not enough evidence to warrant any action. A similar ban is set to take effect throughout the state of California in 2009.
Investigative Journalist Mark Schapiro, author of "Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power," tells PBS, NOW, "By refusing to close the loopholes in EPA laws that regulate chemicals in toys (and other products), the U.S. government is jeopardizing our health, alienating us from the global market, and erasing our role as a world leader in environmental protection."
Here’s a kicker. The FDA administrator spun like a top when questioned about toxic chemicals in toys. Buh, buh, buh! She represented the Bush administration very well. But here’s another kicker. China makes most of the toys for both the European Union and the U.S. China toy manufacturers have created two systems for making toys. One system creates toys for the European countries, WITHOUT toxic materials of any kind, and the other creates toys for the U.S. with toxic chemicals.
Nicholas D. Kristof, columnist, put his finger on another topic and another kicker: “The bill we are accumulating for the Iraq War amounts to almost $5,000. every SECOND”!!!!!! This is the first major war in American history where the cost is being paid for by borrowing. Professor Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winning economist, calculated that the eventual total cost of the war will be about $3 trillion. For a family of five, that amounts to owing a bill of almost $50,000. Do you feel you are getting your money’s worth?

Here’s more kickers…….
The income of the highest-paid military contractor CEO (Robert stevens, Lockheed Martin): $24, 399,747.00.
Average income of CEOs at top 30 military contractors: $9,095,756.00
Average income of an Army private in combat: $25,942.00

The war to date, not counting indirect costs, equals $522.5 billion.
The cost of the war to date just for Cleveland: $479.2 million. Which equals or would have bought for the people in Cleveland: ALL of the following:
$43.6 million: 48,784 homes with renewable electricity.
$43.6 million: 24,772 children with health care.
$43.6 million: 14,601 people with healthcare.
$43.6 million: 6,726 Head Start places for children.
$43.6 million: 5,390 scholarships for university students.
$43.6 million: 1,045 public safety officers.
$43.6 million: 899 port container inspectors.
$43.6 million: 740 elementary school teachers (public schools).
$43.6 million: 667 music and art teachers (public schools).
$43.6 million: 406 affordable housing units.
$44.6 million: 4 new public elementary schools.
Median household income in Cleveland, 2006: $26,500.00