There’s plenty of money to dole out to foreigners, but not enough to build a tornado shelter for U.S. kids?
By Ronald L. Ray
Our prayers go out to all of the people in Moore, Oklahoma, the seventh largest city in the state, who were struck by a horrific tornado on May 20, 2013. Two schools and a hospital (all occupied at the time) were destroyed. At least 24 people were killed, hundreds injured, hundreds more missing and thousands left homeless.
It is always best when private charity is sufficient to alleviate the suffering of those who sustain losses. Government’s assistance often is misspent, without honest and careful oversight. But there will be costs to rebuilding, which may be difficult, if not impossible, for just the locals and their benefactors to bear.
Take just one example. The school in Moore, where seven children were killed by the storm, reportedly did not possess a tornado safe room. Usually, several are needed at a school of this size.
Moore was struck by similar disasters in 1999 and 2003. Why did the school not have appropriate protection for the students? Typically, the response will be “insufficient funding.” Perhaps local and state options are inadequate to cover such a major project, as is often the case.
Congress is now arguing over whether to help in Moore. These political prostitutes in Washington—Republican and Democrat—have no trouble spending billions of taxpayer dollars on a massive embassy in Iraq or bailing out greedy mega-banksters. Secret torture sites are fine to fund, as are trillion-dollar wars of aggression. Enough United States aid flows to Israel to make all 6 million Israelis a millionaire, every year. Thanks to Congress’s assistance, every illegal Israeli settlement in Palestine can be built with a bomb shelter.
But build a tornado shelter for our own children? Suddenly, “fiscal responsibility” and “limited government” are back in vogue.
We can spend billions to bribe foreign officials and grow opium poppies in Afghanistan, but Americans must accept cutbacks in Social Security, veterans benefits, food stamps and disaster relief?
Our charitable duty is to our own kin, first of all—no less for the nation than for the family.
Ronald L. Ray is a freelance author residing in the free state of Kansas. He is a descendant of several patriots of the American War for Independence.
