Instead of Spending to 'Blow Up' Maybe We Should Spend to 'Help People'

Dear Editor,
    This year our federal government will spend more than $500 billion to "protect America" from terrorists and the like with our military. Just what can $500 billion buy? Considering that we only spent $65 billion on education at the federal level, perhaps we could afford to educate the unwashed masses. We could send a check for $2,000 to every man, woman, and child in America, and still have some left over. We could probably buy enough food, medicine, and construction of infrastructure to completely eliminate global poverty and disease over the course of a decade. Not to mention the fact that this would more than likely eradicate terrorism, considering that there would be no reason to attack us, the Santa Claus of planet Earth.
    But this is America. And we like to blow shit up.
    So when you're popping the last of your leftover Fourth of July firecrackers, take a moment to ponder the symbolic significance of that act: Celebrating our freedom by setting off miniature bombs.
    Let's grow up and divert at least a portion of our "blow shit up" fund into our woefully overlooked "help people" fund. After all, only a little kid would spend mom and dad's grocery and rent money on firecrackers.