Priorities

OK, it’s ranting time. I heard a very interesting speech the other day in a Sunday school class at church that was given by Jim Wallis via the wonders of DVD (he is the editor for Sojourners). The upshot for his speech/sermon was that the Iraq war is not a just war, and that we as a nation need to repent of this war. All in all it was a great speech. He started off by saying the war in Iraq is personal for us as Americans. This he connected to our troops that don’t come home, or come home without a leg, or mentally scarred. However, I think the problem, in part, is that this war is not personal enough for us as Americans, and thus we allowed for it to happen, and continue allowing it to happen. So, here is a website that I came across thanks to FCNL. If you select your town it will calculate the taxes that the people in your city have paid since the war started and alternatives that money could have provided for instead. Turns out State College PA has contributed $32.9 million dollars in taxes directly to the Iraq war to date. For that price, 39, 587 homes could have been provided with renewable electricity, or 562 new music and arts teachers. It’s appalling. And that’s just to date. This year, our taxes could be spent instead to add another 10,000 homes with renewable electricity, but sadly, we’ll just blow some stuff up with that money instead. Seeing as State College doesn’t even have 40,000 homes it seems like a shame that our whole town could be completely renewable right now. And people complain that renewable energy is too expensive. I guess it is a matter of priorities.

Check it out for yourself.

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/tradeoffs