TL Letter: Money Spent on War Could Fix Local Problems

Tom Gunshannon of Larksville recently wrote a letter to the Times Leader that makes a lot of sense:

As I read about the attempts by our elected officials to get approval for $300,000 for the repair of the Coal Street Creek Bridge in Plymouth, I can’t help but wonder where our priorities lie. It appears that the “approval” of the needed $300,000 is a hard stretch for our state and federal legislators and local officials.

Yet we can spend more than $1 billion a day on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. These wars are costing us $300,000 every 26 seconds. Can’t we stop shooting and bombing over there for 26 seconds and bring that money home to fix our bridge?

Isn’t it time that we let the rest of the world stand on its own two feet and stop playing policeman of the world? Couldn’t we start spending all these billions of American tax dollars on the citizens of the United States for a change?

Don’t the citizens of this country deserve a little aid and consideration at long last? Is that really too much to ask?

Tom Gunshannon
Larksville

It appeared in the September 6, 2011 edition of the Times Leader.