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<br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>From: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Lisa Savage <<a href="mailto:lsavage3@gmail.com">lsavage3@gmail.com</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Date: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">August 20, 2010 2:15:29 PM EDT</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Lisa Savage <<a href="mailto:lsavage3@gmail.com">lsavage3@gmail.com</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Subject: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b>$1 trillion and counting -- what didn't get funded?</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div> <h3 class="post-title entry-title"><font size="2"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Sharing my blog post for today. Mark and I will publish a more complete photo essay soon. We welcome your participation in documenting what didn't get funded in your community. peace, Lisa</span></font><br> </h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title"><a href="http://went2thebridge.blogspot.com/2010/08/1-trillion-and-counting-what-didnt-get.html">$1 Trillion and counting -- what didn't get funded?</a></h3><br clear="all"><div style="text-align: center;"> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Il8hY_Aeq7Y/TG6vzuQ4B9I/AAAAAAAAADc/rIZztFyzPsk/s1600/DSCF1646.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Il8hY_Aeq7Y/TG6vzuQ4B9I/AAAAAAAAADc/rIZztFyzPsk/s400/DSCF1646.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507532697447696338" border="0"></a><font size="2"><font style="font-style: italic;">From the former school’s </font><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.msad53.org/burnhamvschool.htm">website</a><font style="font-style: italic;">. "Burnham Village School houses four sessions of kindergarten. This small building offers a unique experience for students. It is a Kindergarten Center with all programs centered on the developmental needs of the five-year-old child."</font></font><br><br><div style="text-align: left;">The tally for combined price tags of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan reached $1 trillion this year (if you can stand it, check the madly running counter <a href="http://www.nationalpriorities.org/">here</a> and note that we've added $38 billion to that figure already). It's such a large number, it's hard to relate to it.<br></div></div><br>Mark and I decided to come at it from a different direction by documenting some of the things that did not get funded while borrowing for more war spending raged on. We drove around photographing elementary schools closed for lack of funds at the end of the '09-10 school year.<br><br>On our travels we spent the night at some of Maine's state park campgrounds, where newish facilities to shower and wash dishes had signs thanking the state's voters for approving a bond issue that made the construction possible. This represents borrowed $ to be paid back by state taxes that<font style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> increase </font>rather than decrease quality of life.<br><br>We also drove over an astonishing number of re-paved roads, several of which boasted signs stating that the project represented federal recovery act $$ at work. People in Maine joke that we have only two seasons: winter, and construction. I imagine many of these road improvement projects were "shovel ready" and had been put off for lack of funds. There were so many of them, including Interstate 95, state highways, and just plain county roads, it was hard not to get the feeling that projects that stimulate demand for petroleum products (and even use a lot of petroleum in the asphalt) were a big priority for allocation of recovery funds.<br><br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Il8hY_Aeq7Y/TG6tXktkTKI/AAAAAAAAADU/7mrlbX6Jozo/s1600/IMG_0140.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Il8hY_Aeq7Y/TG6tXktkTKI/AAAAAAAAADU/7mrlbX6Jozo/s400/IMG_0140.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507530014824090786" border="0"></a><font style="font-style: italic;">Palmyra Consolidated School was closed this year for an estimated savings of <a href="http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/error-delays-action-on-closing-palmyra-school_2010-05-19.html">$448,292</a>. </font> <font style="font-style: italic;">That's equal to the cost of about 10 minutes of the war in Afghanistan.</font><br> <br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Il8hY_Aeq7Y/TG6tGT-h55I/AAAAAAAAADM/FCP-M46dysE/s1600/DSCF1697.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Il8hY_Aeq7Y/TG6tGT-h55I/AAAAAAAAADM/FCP-M46dysE/s400/DSCF1697.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507529718274058130" border="0"></a><font size="2"><br> </font><font style="font-style: italic;"><font size="3"><font size="2">Mark in front of the former Monson (Maine) Elementary School, closed June 2010. Isaac Crabtree turned up as our park ranger that night. He lives across from the school, which is now a community center for the town of Monson. When asked his opinion he said, "I just think it's a shame for Kindergarteners to have to ride the bus for 45 minutes each way."</font><br><br></font></font><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Il8hY_Aeq7Y/TG6yNvMxK9I/AAAAAAAAADk/RzIxmRljGmk/s1600/IMG_0151.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Il8hY_Aeq7Y/TG6yNvMxK9I/AAAAAAAAADk/RzIxmRljGmk/s400/IMG_0151.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507535343398759378" border="0"></a><font style="font-style: italic;">Our own local school district closed Embden Elementary, which had the best test scores </font> <font style="font-style: italic;">in reading in math of all the schools in our district. Estimated savings: $200,000.</font><br> <br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Il8hY_Aeq7Y/TG6zwgqJUFI/AAAAAAAAADs/EEn-nOIaSaw/s1600/Cornville+School+Bring+War+%24%24.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Il8hY_Aeq7Y/TG6zwgqJUFI/AAAAAAAAADs/EEn-nOIaSaw/s400/Cornville+School+Bring+War+%24%24.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507537040302493778" border="0"></a><font style="font-style: italic;">The community school that got us started on our photo essay project. It closed its doors in June. Some small family members of ours and grandchildren of our friends were heartbroken.</font><br><br><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://bringourwardollarshome.org/">Bring our war $$ home!</a><br></div><br>-- <br>---<br>Lisa Savage<br><font size="2"><b style="color: rgb(255, 0, 153);">CODEPINK </b></font>Maine Local Coordinator<br> ☮☮☮☮☮☮☮☮☮☮☮☮☮☮☮☮☮☮☮☮<br><a href="http://goog_1900132683" target="_blank"><i><br></i></a><b><a href="http://went2thebridge.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><i>http://went2thebridge.blogspot.com</i></a> (peace blog)</b><br><br> <font size="2"><b style="color: rgb(255, 0, 153);">CODEPINK</b></font> is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming activities. Won't you join us? <a href="http://www.codepink4peace.org" target="_blank">www.codepink4peace.org</a><br> <br></blockquote></div><br></body></html>