Dear Neighbors:
While we regroup and make plans for the next step in opposition to CAMPO's decision, it may be useful to consider the cost of other bad decisions made at other levels of government. For those of you who would ask, ''What has this got to do with Circle C?'' I would direct you to the cost figures.
Any time money is spent for toll roads at the expense of our children's health and education we all lose(yes, they are going to be dipping into the General Fund of which Texas education and healthcare agencies are the number one and two recipients).
I would say that at least people won't die as a result of CAMPO's ill-advised vote, but that would fly in the face of childhood mortality statistics and the highway death toll.
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Horror's index: The cost of the Iraq war
987: Number of coalition forces killed between March 19, 2003, and July
5, 2004
693: Number killed after President Bush declared the end of official
combat operations on May 1, 2003
9,436: Minimum estimate of the number of Iraq civilians killed as a
result of the U.S. invasion and occupation
40,000: Estimated number of Iraqis injured
14: Average number of violent deaths per month in Iraq in 2002
357: Average number of violent deaths per month in Iraq in 2003
30: Percentage of Iraqis unemployed before the war
60: Percentage of Iraqis unemployed in the summer of 2003
$151,000,000,000: Amount spent on the war through the end of this year,
pending Congressional approval
$3,415: Monetary cost of war per U.S. household, on average
54: Percentage of Americans polled who felt that ''the situation in Iraq
was not worth going to war over'' (Annenberg Election Survey)
52: Percentage of soldiers who reported low morale, according to a March 2004 army survey
28.2: Percentage of soldiers in Iraq who screened positive for traumatic
stress, anxiety, or depression
34: Number of detainee deaths as a result of interrogation methods
currently under investigation by the U.S. military
20,000: Number of private contractors performing traditionally military
jobs in Iraq
1: Percentage of Iraqi workers involved in reconstruction projects
$160,000,000: Amount spent by major contractor Halliburton on meals that
were never served to troops
82,000,000,000: Number of U.S. children who could have received health
care coverage with the funds allocated to the war by the Bush
administration
~Sources: Foreign Policy in < http://go.sojo.net/ct/MdzJtGE1UjHS/
The Wall Street Journal.
