MAKING SENSE OF A TRILLION!

Numbers can be quite confounding, yet they are a huge part of each one of our everyday lives. Numbers are all around us, everywhere we go, and the bigger the number becomes, the more perplexing it also becomes. The number "1" isn't so difficult to grasp: its the lonliest number. Its the number that represents the number of bodies one receives in a lifetime, or the number of Suns our Galaxy has been blessed with. How about the number "2"? Also pretty simple, huh? It indicates the number of biological parents one is born to. Two also represents the number of eyes we have, and the number of ears, lips, legs, and arms we were given. What if we went into a more irrational number? How bout "3.14"? This number represents pi - the area of a circle, something we've all had to learn somewhere around the 4th or 5th grade. As daunting as that number may be, it is still managable. Let's continue, shall we? Number of days in a year: "365". Number of children who died from Aids yesterday: "1,032". Cost of an 892-sq foot, two-bedroom cooperative apartment in Manhattan: $1.15 million. The conservative estimate for the cost of the War in Iraq: $1.2 TRILLION!
We've now reached the inspiration for this piece.

As of lately, I've been researching the prices of residents in Texas on HarmonHomes.com. So far, I've been astounded with what I've found in comparison to the pricing in New York. When reading the "New York Times" this morning, I read through an advertisement regarding the cooperative apartment I mentioned earlier. "$1.15 million"?, I said to myself, "Damn, I can probably buy 5 homes in Texas for da same price." It wasn't an incredible surprise to me, though it was somewhat affecting. I simply shrugged my shoulders & went on with reading my paper. I came to an article discussing the new Presidential election, though politics doesn't interest me much, I skimmed though the piece & found an area where David Leonhardt was Criticising president Bush...sumwhere here he mentiontioned the estimated cost of the war in Iraq: $1.2 TRILLION. Now, if you thought I was surprised when reading the costly numbers of the co-op in Manhattan, then u should know exactly how low my jaw dropped after learning about the funds being used for something so pointless, so futile, as war! My first question: "How many fruitful, productive things can we be accomplishing with all this money?" My second question: "Where exactly is all this money coming from?" My third question: "Just how much exactly is $1.2 Trillion, anyway?"

Well...knowing me, I went to the dictionary right away & begun with looking up the word "Trillion". The dictionary simply says it's "A cardinal number represented in the U.S. by 1 followed by 12 zeros." Hmm. Well...all dat tells me is that its a large number, but I already knew that. I went back to my elementary school days & remembered that a Trillion is actually a million, million. Whoa!

I was absolutely stunned! I was motivated. I went to work right away. Here are the results: Now, my research & calculations show that if we doubled cancer research funding, treated every American with Diabetes & Heart disease, started a Global immunization program to shelter every homeless person in America for an entire decade, there would still be about $700 Billion left. Shall I go on? Considering that in the next 24 hours, we'll spend another $320 million in Iraq, yes, I probably should. Let us make Pre-K & Headstart provisions for every 3 & 4 year old. Rebuild New Orleans' entirety from the ground up. Implement all the 9/11 commission recommendations. Significantly up our ante in Afghanhistan against the Taliban. What if we provided PETA with the resourses needed to make an impact, what if we used some of this money to plant trees, or clean up our environment? What if we invested in taking care of Mama Earth - which I might add is another facet represented by the Lonely number ONE. How about we provide schooling for children in Africa, What if we donated funds to the United Negro College fund? Heres a crazy thought: What if we fed the children? All the starving children. All the needy children. Our future. If I can feed one starving child with $17 a month - "thats less than .60 cents a day!", then surely we can feed the children with $1.2 Trillion. What if we just used the funds for something much more prolific? When you try to make sense of it, the momentary cost of the War is a bit like pi - i'ts almost without end.

Yet there's an enormous cost outside of what any person like myself or even any economist can count. In addition to the 3,000 dead American Soldiers, more than 22,000 are now amputees, so it was said on CNN.com I would think that many fear dat the veterans' mental health problems will scar the national psyche for decades to come. While we'll hunt for them, there are no numbers to sufficiently measure these costs. Hmm.

Understanding a Trillion is like recounting every moment you've ever lived. In theory it would be possible, but the human mind can only do so much in a day. Understandng the cost of war, however, perhaps comes more clearly into focus, if only for its magnitude in scale.

Just some FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

LOVE, PEACE & BLESSINGS!