Spending choices askew

Thank you, Jamie Tobias Neely, for your column published April 11; finally a voice of reason regarding the new health reform law.

As a nation, we seem willing to spend the dollars to continue war in the world at the cost of American lives as well as civilians, including children in Iraq and Afghanistan. We do not bat an eye at the price tag.

But try to do something generous for our own people in the form of expanded health care coverage and we act as if someone is personally stealing from us.

We dash to the aid of victims of a tsunami and of earthquakes and yet we are unwilling to let our neighbor be covered by health care. I choose peace and the extension of a helping hand – all citizens of this wonderful country should have access to the same health care as those who represent us in Washington, D.C. We aren’t there yet but perhaps if we stopped the wars, we could afford to be generous to every American. Thank you, Jamie, for pointing out the conundrum – I also choose spending for kids, not war.

Cheri Catt

Mead