Letter: Priority shift could reduce community needs
Regarding the article “Corporate Caring: Local Companies Prioritize Hands-on Giving” [Nov. 16, Xpress], which features Pratt & Whitney employees: I am thankful and grateful for the community service of local businesses and corporations.
However, what if the USA stopped starting and supporting wars, and then some of the billions of dollars of the defense budget that go to military contractors were spent on affordable housing, food, health care, education and other necessities for those here at home who do not have access to them?
Although those working for corporations that develop, manufacture and sell weapons/weapons-delivery systems, like Pratt & Whitney and its parent company, Raytheon, worth billions, might not fare so well, the USA might possibly have fewer veterans with combat-related PTSD and a healthier, better-educated population.
Should we ever arrive at such a utopian but not unreachable goal, those military-contractor employees who lost their jobs could be trained to work in more life-giving/sustaining, rather than life-taking, professions, and the need for community service would not be so great, leaving those wanting to serve to expend their energy in other underserved areas, thus still engaged in “corporate caring.”
— Cynthia Heil
Asheville
No comments:
Post a Comment