Another Roll Call

The anniversary of the war came and went a few days ago. I called our Congressman, Rick Boucher (D-VA), and expressed my concern over the continuing war and asked that he vote against new funds and deployment out of Iraq with a set date.
When the war began, Spencer (the oldest son) had just turned 13. He was a young teen with lighthearted hopes and dreams. He recently celebrated his 17th birthday. I never would have dreamed that this ugly war would have been going on four years later...with no real end in sight. The war has subtly, and quite boldly, colored his thoughts, his dreams, his future.

Attached to the war is a mountain of debt for our country to climb as years go by. Spencer, and his younger brother, Emerson, their friends and others they will never know from their generation--and quite likely their children's generation--will work towards conquering that debt and dealing with the aftermath of war.

I walked into the family room just in time to catch the roll call on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. Thank goodness we don't catch the program every day as it never fails to bring tears to my eyes. Beneath the photo of a deceased soldier is their name, age, rank, the division of the Armed Services and the name of the town the person was from. Tonight I learned that someone named Emerson lost his life. Not my son, but someone else's. It's not a name you see every day, it caught me by surprise and made me catch my breath. Tonight I learned that two men who were 39 and 41 years of age recently died in Iraq. I don't know what hurts more; learning that a young kid of just 19 died in the war or the adult near my age who died and probably left behind a wife and children.

Why is this war now in Year 5? When will we collectively rise up and scream "Enough!"?

[Photos courtesy of Creative Commons.]

Thursday 13 #5

1. We lost power Tuesday night at 10:30 pm after it had been blinking for two hours (ice storm).

2. My husband and sons made Bittersweet Chocolate Pancakes with Roasted Pear Butter and Maple Pear Syrup for Valentine's breakfast, thanks to a stove with gas burners. We also gave each other bars of dark chocolate (naturally). I'm writing from my husband's music store in town where we seldom lose electricity.

3. The electricity is due to come back on by Friday night.

4. Last night we huddled around the woodstove at home, wearing hats and our warmest Pjs, with blankets thrown over us and reading by the light of the Aladdin kerosene lamp on the hearth. We heard a loud crack, different from a tree snapping under the weight of ice, followed by the encased hearth mirror falling in pieces and causing the kerosene lamp to also fall and land on the rug. It was like watching a small ball of fire fall in slow motion, my husband quickly picked up the lamp--amazingly still in one piece--and put it aside. The rug did not catch fire, we were fortunate. After that we decided to have another sip of red wine, I believe it was merlot. We laughed nervously; this was a Valentine's Day we'll never forget.

5. Ice storms are deceptively beautiful; everything is transformed into the appearance of sparkling cut glass. Our deck furniture, house and cars have shiny icicle fringes along edges. Trees and bushes particularly, but even ordinary objects such as grass, barbed wire fence and sign posts are turned into glittering works of art.

6. Using a battery powered radio, I briefly listened to the news this a.m. Is anyone concerned about Iran? It hasn't been resolved whether President Bush is sending more troops to Iraq, yet the news is abuzz with eerily similar discussions on Iran to those of Iraq, now four years ago.

7. Four years ago feels like it could be ten. I had turned 40, my husband wasn't yet 40 and our sons were almost 13 and 7 1/2. We were in a different phase of our lives raising sons who were still boys. We hadn't yet built our addition nor started down the path to become Foster Care Providers.

8. In years past, I've started tomato plants from seeds on February 15. My target this year is March 1.

9. A month ago today we had a new record high of 67 degrees in nearby Blackburg, but believe it only reached 65 here in Floyd. Was that really just a month ago?

10. It's now Saturday 2/17. I went to the gym with my client yesterday so he could work and I could shower. Hot water never felt so good, it was very cold in the house Thursday night and sleep was hard to find.
11. Our power came back on at 6:44 pm last night for a new record of 68+ hours without power. Our previous record was 57 hours when remnants of Hurricane Jeanne passed through in September 2004. Emerson and I did the jig of joy and promptly went throughout the house turning up the heat to unfreeze water pipes. Luckily, none of our pipes burst.

12. If it wasn't for being so darned cold, we would have enjoyed the power break as we have in the past. The absence of electrical humming from appliances allows the house to be truly quiet and peaceful. My good friend Laura lives off the grid and therefore never experiences the magic and thrill of a power outage.

13. I'll finish The Poisonwood Bible today, I just have the last two short chapters to read. I'm sorry to come to the end of this book, but I've got good ones waiting in my stack beside the bed.

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$2.9 Trillion Dollars

On Monday of this week, President Bush unveiled a four-volume, 2,500 page, $2.9 trillion dollar budget for the U.S. Government. My initial thought was to the environment, "How many copies are printed? What a waste of paper; they must recycle since it's the government." I repeated the $2.9 trillion dollar figure in my head.

How much is 2.9 trillion dollars? Round it up to 3 to make it easier. $3,000,000,000,000.00. Twelve zeroes to the left of the decimal point. A trillion is a million million dollars. In Jim Loy's article, A Trillion Dollars, he states "It will take me more than 30 years to count (out loud) to one billion and more than 30,000 years to count to one trillion." In other words, 2.9 trillion is a number too high to count and hard to comprehend. My desk calculator only goes to twelve digits--as high as 300 million. It, too, can not compute a trillion dollars.

Of the immense sum, $145.2 billion goes to war, mostly for Iraq and Afghanistan (from October 1) with another $99.6 billion dollars for the remainder of the current fiscal year (to September 30). This is a humdinger of a total. $244.8 billion dollars spent on war for 12 months or $20,400,000,000.00 per month. As you turn a new calendar page, another $20.4 billion of taxpayer dollars goes goodbye. If we collectively decided enough was enough, could we save it and apply it to debt or redirect how the $245 billion dollars was spent?

Mr. David Leonhardt suggests a few ideas in his New York Times article "What $1.2 Trillion Can Buy", he writes:

"Treating heart disease and diabetes, would probably cost about $50 billion a year. The remaining 9/11 Commission recommendations — held up in Congress partly because of their cost — might cost somewhat less. Universal preschool would be $35 billion. In Afghanistan, $10 billion could make a real difference. At the National Cancer Institute, annual budget is about $6 billion." Earlier he mentions that more money could be contributed to the reconstruction of New Orleans.

The President's budget is part of a five year plan to have a balanced budget by 2012. He assumes we'll quit spending money in Iraq (hopefully he's right this time) and various other expenditures. But I ask, can you take five years to balance your family budget or would that land you in Bankruptcy and/or Divorce Court? At our house, if we can't afford something we don't buy it. Sure, we've made plenty of mistakes over the years. When we purchased items on credit, the end result is a future bill that must be paid. We've learned our lesson and work to eliminate our consumer debt, but how about the government? Can it wait to reduce its debt? Can we really afford the war?

President Bush Said...

Yesterday President Bush attended a Democratic congressional retreat in Williamsburg, Virginia, the first he attended since 2001. In last night's news on NPR, it was reported that President Bush said the war in Iraq is "sapping our soul." This quote struck me; it resonated with my strong personal feelings opposing the war in Iraq. I actually agreed with him--and that surprised me. Yet it didn't sound like something he would say unless it was, perhaps, coming from a religious perspective. If the President truly believes the war is sapping our soul, how could he possibly commit 21,500 more troops to Iraq? Could there be a glimmer of hope that he is waking up, or is it more likely that he said something to appease the crowd of Democrats? The soul-sapping war will begin its fifth year in just six weeks.

Read the article which mentions the quote: Bush Puts 'ic' Back in 'Democrat Party' (The Associated Press).

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) to give Democrats' State of the Union Response

Senator Jim Webb, the newly elected Democrat from the Commonwealth of Virginia, will deliver the Democrats' response to the State of the Union speech delivered by President Bush on January 23. Go Jim Webb! Virginia has been in the political spotlight frequently the last few years with Democrats gaining top positions and media attention. Christmas came early last year, we stayed up until the wee hours on election night to learn what was happening. Sen. Webb defeated Republican Senator George Allen by the narrowest margin (.8%) in a race last November that wasn't decided until Allen conceded two days later. Webb's slim victory gave Democrats a 51-seat majority the control of the Senate; for Democrats, but most especially for Virginia Democrats, it was a big deal. Our guy did it! Virginia Democrats have been on a roll recently, recall that Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine was elected in 2005 after serving as Lt. Gov. under popular former Democratic Gov. Mark Warner. After Kaine's victory, he gave the 2006 Democratic response to Bush's annual message to Congress.

You might not have known...

Jim Webb's son is currently serving in Iraq. Sen. Webb wore a pair of his son's combat boots throughout the campaign and took them with him when he wasn't wearing them.

Sen. Webb is a former Republican who served as Navy secretary under President Ronald Reagan. In recent years he broke with his party, mainly due to disagreements with the Bush administration's policy on Iraq.

In September 2002, Webb published an opinion piece in the Washington Post entitled "Heading for Trouble; do We Really Want to Occupy Iraq for the Next 30 Years?" This was published before the Republican-controlled House approved the resolution giving Bush authority for military operations in Iraq.

...but Seriously

I began writing this post Thursday, January 11th, but life got in the way. In my work as Foster Care Provider, you never know what will happen. I was finishing my previous post when the phone rang, it was the substitute Case Worker (social worker) who had tried to visit my client at work. He usually works on Thursday, but last week it was preplanned for him to work on Friday. The Case Worker was on her way back from his employer and wanted to stop in for a 'surprise visit'. I'm not fond of surprise visits. Imagine your long-distance relatives calling to let you know they'll be at your house in fifteen minutes. Well, it's not quite that bad. You welcome their visit, but because you knew in advance you cleaned your house, right? Thankfully, I had vacuumed that morning, but areas of the house were, let's say, off-limits. Surprise visits come with this job; I experience one every other month from my Program Manager, but she gives clues to narrow it down to a few days. It's still a surprise but not 100%. The visit went well with the Case Worker. I met someone new (she has two kids and her oldest daughter is the same age as my oldest son) and my client enjoyed seeing someone whom he's known for many years.

Now let's get to my post. After a few lighthearted entries I am turning to my serious side, to my true nature. In fact, my 6th grade teacher, Mr. James Alexander, wrote in my end of year autograph book that I was "too serious." He had me pegged at age 11. My husband naturally jokes and teases people with ease and makes light of problems. Not me. I'm the sober, pensive, stern, and, some would say, humorless one. No! It can't be, yet it is. My husband and I are very yin-yang and good for each other; he makes me lighten up and relax, whereas I think I help him see the solemn side (and to live within a budget--which is truly a severe and weighty matter). [Thanks to Roget's New Millennium Thesaurus.]

The somber subject on my mind is the war in Iraq. It began March 19, 2003, almost four years ago and less than a week after (oldest son) Spencer's 13th birthday. Fast forward four years. Spencer is soon to be 17 and we as individuals, and as a nation, never dreamed that the war would be going strong--and picking up steam--four years later. On January 10th, President Bush addressed the nation, he stated that he wanted to commit another 21,000 troops to Iraq. If this comes to pass, by the time the troops arrive overseas, the war will be in its 5th year. If you disagree with sending more troops to Iraq, please take five minutes to speak out. Call or write an email or letter to your Congressperson or member of the U.S. Senate. Let them know your opinion. You can be in support of the troops who are over there without supporting the war and without supporting President Bush's plan to bring another 21,000 troops to Iraq. Like countless other families, I have a cousin currently stationed in Iraq and my husband, Scott, had a cousin stationed in Afghanistan a few years ago. Everyone knows somebody who is or has been stationed in Iraq or knows someone else who has family stationed in Iraq. The war in Iraq touches us all, as any long-term war does.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) support President Bush's plan, but I was thankful hear a strong dissenting opinion from Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committee.

“I am opposed to the escalation of American involvement in Iraq, including more U.S. troops. This is a dangerously wrong-headed strategy that will drive America deeper into an unwinnable swamp at a great cost. It is wrong to place American troops into the middle of Iraq’s civil war. It is not in America’s national interest to increase our troop presence in Iraq. The President’s strategy will cost more American lives, sink us deeper into the bog of Iraq making it more difficult to get out, cost billions of dollars more, further strain an American military that has already reached its breaking point, further diminish America’s standing in the Middle East, and continue to allow the Iraqis to walk away from their responsibilities. The fate of Iraq will be determined by the Iraqis—not the Americans. We have already given four years, thousands of lives, and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to Iraq."

The photo was taken when Senator Hagel visited Nebraska troops in Iraq while leading a Congressional Delegation to the Middle East in November. (Pictured left to right) Lt. Col. Gary Krupa, USAF, Senator Hagel and Lt. Col. Stephen Graf, USAF.

To read the remainder of Sen. Hagel's statement, please go here.