Gone by the Wayside

One day we're gonna wake up
And the ghetto's all around
All over my friend
Have you ever seen a man break down?
--Feel No Pain, Sade

~~I'm afraid it's no use.
The boat won't come until Monday.
~~No boat will ever come.
We're here forever.
--And Then there Were None,
Agatha Christie
________________

Many niceties of our civil society are going by the wayside due to fiscal insolvency. In the past two weeks, National Parks and Public Broadcasting have taken the ax.

It takes passion, devotion and insight to build something great and good, and momentum to keep it going. Once gone, that good thing is unlikely to return, and certainly not in its former guise. That is why we shouldn't give the heave-ho to civilizing institutions in the name of pragmatic privitization. When things become private rather than shared matters, the money usually follows the drift line of vested interests vs. the general welfare.

In The Sunshine State (not), Governor Rick Scott has vetoed Florida’s nearly $4.8 million appropriation for public broadcasting. The last-minute budget had already trimmed a third from the PBS budget; now, there is nothing. The station I grew up on -- WMFE -- is going dark.

Public broadcasting began in 1970, forged from private educational stations. One of its primary functions has been to provide educational programming for young people, and generations learned the basics of grammar, reasoning and citizenship on that network. It was a "free" counterpart to the hustle of the commercial networks, producing thoughtful programming and financed by private contributions and matching state funds. Its day is drawing nigh.

Now, state parks across the nation are being forced to close; 70 of 278 in California alone. For those that remain, the bargain with the devil is to allow drilling, raise entrance fees, eliminate provisions and/or cut employees in favor of hoped for volunteers. Timothy Egan calls it "the death of American life by a thousand cuts," and that about sums it up.

Compassionate conservatism under George W. Bush hacked away at the AmeriCorps program, Bill Clinton's initiative to unify a stateside version of the Peace Corps, another worthy initiative which could have helped fill in the gaps. Though John McCain made a gesture to support national service, that program was eviscerated years ago.

There's always money for the dirty, pretty things, the things that elicit a rise, or more lately, a shrug from people falling into lassitude. But the generous and decent things that speak of a nation's drive to uplift itself, those things are being frozen in amber.

As with Ozymandias, there will remain a plaque somewhere to note the spot.

Death Dividends

,

We can find meaning and reward by serving
some purpose higher than ourselves—
a shining purpose,
the illumination of a thousand points of light
--George H. W. Bush,
State of the Union Address (1991)

Let us tend to our garden
--Candide, Voltaire

Dilli Doorsth (Dehli is a long way off)
--Sufi saint Nizam-ud-din Auliya to his followers,
assuring them that though impending attackers
had the will, they had not the means

If we're here to "help others,"
what are the others here for?
________________

The Serve America Act which just passed in the House would triple the current number of positions in the AmeriCorps volunteer program, adding 175,00 new participants. The cost will be $5 Billion, and the Senate votes on it next week (Hatch-Kennedy Service Bill Clears House.)

Of the act President Obama said, "If you are willing to volunteer in your neighborhood or give back to your community or serve your country,we will make sure you can afford a higher education."

AmeriCorps partcipants are paid a weekly living stipend equal to that of the members in their service community. Generally, this amounts to a year living at or below the poverty level, and is similar to a Peace Corps assignment in this way. Occasionally, barracks housing is provided, and members may avail themselves of community health clinics for health care needs.

Following the completion of a year of 40-hour/week service, the volunteer is awarded a $4,725 voucher to be applied to college tuition (within seven years of separation from AmeriCorps.) This amount is prorated for part-time work.

Those volunteers in Americorps/VISTA who do not wish to attend college will instead receive the equivalent of $100/month for each month of service. However, this option is not available to non-VISTA Americorps workers (Americorps.org).

Despite Obama's assurance, $4,725 will not cover a year of college costs in most places. The program itself is a noble one, but was gutted under George Bush's tenure, and some Republicans argued that a "volunteer" program should not be paying any funds at all to the participants. At least funding may be returned to the program to get it back on its footing in the Clinton administration.

But back to the funds, or lack thereof.

While both parties now generally support the bill, the problem is funding. When the money is for killing, emergency funding bills sail through Congress. Money for warfare is always somewhere to be found, but social programs always go begging.

On the same day, papers reported:

"A missile fired by a U.S. drone killed at least four people late Sunday at the house of a militant commander in northwest Pakistan, the latest use of what intelligence officials have called their most effective weapon against Al Qaeda (Drones: The Weapons of Choice in Fighting al Qaeda.)

The U.S. killed people at the home of a "militant commander," he without any proven ties to al-Qaeda. Yet in the same sentence, we are told these drones and missiles are our "most effective weapon against Al Qaeda." One does not follow the other in this case, but the weasel words "terrorist" or "al-Qaeda" must always be dropped into a sentence to justify U.S.-imposed casualties.

We know how to kill them at millions of dollars a pop, yet their link to international terrorism is questionable at best. We are using million dollar missiles to kill the human equivalent of a coyote.

"U.S. Air Force officials acknowledge that more than a third of their unmanned Predator spy planes — which are 27 feet long, powered by a high-performance snowmobile engine, and cost $4.5 million apiece — have crashed, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan."

". . .13 of the 70 Predator crashes have occurred over the last 18 months."

One third of the birds are lost, at $4.5 million each. This seems a low-ball estimate, but Ranger will accept the figure on faith. 70 x $4.5 Million = $315 Million.

The exact cost of the missiles is unknown to Ranger, so $1 Million will be my SWAG guesstimate. Add on the 244 times these Air Forces critters fired in Iraq and Afghanistan and you come up with an additional $244 Million. (These figure exclude CIA-funded missiles and Predator losses in Pakistan.)

Adding it up, you get $569 Million -- that's right folks, over half of the way to a year of funding for over 260,000 volunteers to help patch up America.

There ain't anything in Iraq or Afghanistan worth a plugged nickel. Let us rearrange our priorities and spend money to help Americans help other Americans, paid for by American taxes. Now that would be something Made in America.

Instead,

And as the Obama administration prepares its first budget, officials say they plan to free up more money for simpler systems like drones that can pay dividends now..."

Uhhh, does anyone actually believe that weapons systems which kill people by remote-control "pay dividends"? Dividends are about money, not killing. Nobody asks what goes undone and who goes wanting, that might actually pay dividends if attended to.

The article indicates the fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan is intensifying, and of course it is. However, it is the provocation of the U.S. sending more fighters into the fray that causes this intensification.

A nation must prioritize its energies in order to survive economically and militarily. It must ask how and why killing people is in the service of the nation's better interests. The current crop of video game weapons are dealing death at an extravagant cost.

The military tech sites say "Wow", but we ask, "Why"?