For Valentines Day
my baby gave me
a bouquet of broccoli
gleaned from the dumpster
behind the upscale deli
aside the weapons manufacturing plant.
She wants for me
to live another day
so we can cuddle
against the cold,
against the emptiness,
against the hard earth,
for one more frightful night
together
under the singing bridge.
--Tom Santoni
Editor: Why is eradicating homelessness not the number one priority of our town, county, state and country?
There need not be a single involuntarily homeless person in a nation that can spend, according to Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, $3 trillion dollars on a preemptive war waged against the people of a non-threatening, sovereign nation (Iraq). A fraction of one percent of that amount would end homelessness.
There need not be a single homeless person in a nation that can afford to bail out "too big to fail" corporations to the tune of $700 billion. Isn't the huge and growing homeless population "too big to fail?" Why aren't the same favors bestowed upon corrupt, incompetent, greed-ravaged Wall Street operatives extended to homeless children, veterans, single moms and seniors? There need not be a single homeless person in a nation that spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars annually on imperialistic conquest. According to Dr. Chalmers Johnson, professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego, the U.S. occupies 130 countries with over 700 military bases staffed by half a million U.S. troops. For a mere fraction of the cost of maintaining this wanton empire, homelessness can be immediately eradicated.
In what has to be the mother of all ironies, at St. Augustine's recent $150/plate homelessness benefit in the posh Lightner Museum, a homeless man was denied entrance. Apparently Mayor Joe Boles' merciless statement, "We don't want to be crippled by compassion," has become official policy.
Now, our president-elect has vowed to expand the unwinnable Afghanistan War, continue to build Star Wars, and further increase an already preposterous Pentagon budget. Change we can believe in?
The number of homeless people increases daily. Homelessness is a national disgrace, a criminally negligent failure on the part of every U.S. public official and uninvolved citizen.
Tom Santoni
Veterans For Peace
Hastings
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