A Somber View of George W. Bush's America

This sad story (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/24/us/24maine.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1195913759-WIUNq5yvYfdsKAi6ZIruKQ) from the New York Times looks at the sad reality of many elderly in this country. As the income gap between rich and poor expands, many are left to scape by as best they can. Even more sad is the fact that rather than directing money and efforts to help such people, "Christian" organization spend immense sums fighting gay marriage, abortion and other "threats." It has always struck me as ironic that those who are loudest in opposing abortion seem to be missing in action when it comes to assisting poor children (e.g., they support the Chimperator 's veto of SCIP health insurance coverage program) or the elderly. They insist that people be born into the world, but then leave them desperate and suffering. I do not get it. Here are some story highlights:

MILBRIDGE, Me. — They have worked since their teens in backbreaking seasonal jobs, extracting resources from the sea and the forest. Their yards are filled with peeling boats and broken lobster traps. In sagging wood homes and aged trailers scattered across Washington County, many of Maine’s poorest and oldest shiver too much in the winter, eat far more biscuits and beans than meat and cannot afford the weekly bingo game at the V.F.W. hall. [T]housands of elderly residents live on crushingly meager incomes. This winter promises to be especially chilling, with fuel oil prices rising and fuel assistance expected to decline.

Viola Brooks, 81, [pictured above] worked in fish and blueberry factories while her husband worked in textile and logging jobs. Now widowed, she gets $588 a month from Social Security, supplemented by $112 in food stamps and one-time fuel aid of more than $500 for the winter. But this year, that fuel aid will not fill a single tank. The average house cost $1,800 to heat last year, and minimal comfort this winter may require closer to $3,000; trailers will require somewhat less. Electricity and rent already take up most of Ms. Brooks’s income.

Just think what could have been done for American citizens and/or the nation's infrastructure with the $1 Trillion that has been wasted in Iraq. There are times I am ashamed and embarrassed to be an American.