Recently, I heard a military man on public broadcasting talking about our 1.3 million uniformed service members. I’m always fascinated with the large numbers of people, things, and products in today’s society. I thought of the vast infrastructure, logistics, and money necessary to feed, clothe, equip, house, and transport these folks and the pension funds, medical care, G.I. Bill, etc. I thought of the seven countries where we are actively waging war and terrorizing. I thought of the 100-plus countries with our military bases.
Then, there’s the other 1.3 million I’ve heard about this year. That’s the number of homeless school kids in this country. The infrastructure and logistics for their support is fragile. Yet, there is a great push to increase the support for the military and greatly reduce support for schools and the homeless.
Steve Eabry
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Jun 22 – Jul 2, 2017.