To the editor:

It is hard to argue that the way a person, community or country spends its money does not reflect what that person, community or country values most. What does it say about the United States of America that in 2010 taxpayers will spend $626 billion on defense/war spending and only $76.8 billion on health and human services? I’m afraid to answer that question.

The rest of the world will spend an estimated $500 billion on military expenditures, with China finishing a distant second at $65 billion. Iran and North Korea spend approximately $5 billion each per year on defense.

What makes us so afraid that we will spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build the machinery of war but cannot spare a dime to enact a meaningful health care bill? I do not fear losing the next war. Even with half of our current military spending, I do not fear losing that war. What I do fear is that we are losing our humanity.