By David Heiller

It probably seems like a long way from the basement of Good Times Restaurant in Caledonia to the War in Iraq, but I made that journey last week.

I sat in a room on January 21 and listened to people ask questions of our state senator, Bob Kierlin.

People could have asked about anything, but the recurring theme was that we donít have enough money to fund our way of life. Iím not talking about an excessive or extravagant way of life either. Iím talking about good roads and decent schools. Iím talking about something as basic as all-day, every-day kindergarten, a program that is so obviously beneficial to kids and to society that it seems like a no-brainer to fund it.

Guess what, the state doesnít fund it. It comes from local school coffers.

ìOK, you want it, you pay for it,î you say? You are right, we do, struggling all the way.

So what has this got to do with the war in Iraq? Just a minor detail of money. Our country is spending $1 billion a week to fund the war there. Thatís on top of the $100 billion that we have already spent. Think about that. We canít repave Highway 44 in Caledonia, but we can as a nation spend a billion dollars a week half a world away, to force-feed democracy to people that donít even want it.

I donít buy it.

President Bush can spend his inaugural speech talking about freedom (he used the word 27 times) and liberty (a mere 15 times). Never mind that those two once-sacred words donít apply to our two biggest Arab allies, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

We need to get our priorities straight. I got a reminder of that last Friday in the basement of Good Times. Iím not holding my breath waiting for it to happen, but it was good at least to hear those concerns raised.

The more our voices are heard at the grassroots level and passed up the political food chain, the more likely we are to see some positive changes.

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