JFK still waiting

It is disheartening that on the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, our country still has not lived up to the famous call to action uttered that cold January day: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

In the two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, there has been only one small microcosm of American society that has stepped forward to answer the call that Kennedy was referring to a half century ago: the American military and its civilian colleagues in our intelligence agencies and diplomatic corps.

Other than higher gas prices and the occasional return of a loved one or friend who has either been killed or wounded, America has sacrificed little for something our leaders deem to be of the utmost national importance. Why is it that this is the first major war in American history in which there has not been a special war tax assessed to all Americans?

Although a tax would not cover the entire cost of America’s 9-year-old efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, it would at least make every American think more about the true importance of our current war efforts.

Neil Walther

Spokane