{"id":642,"date":"2010-07-18T12:59:18","date_gmt":"2010-07-18T19:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/?p=642"},"modified":"2010-07-18T17:33:29","modified_gmt":"2010-07-19T00:33:29","slug":"fighter-jets-instead-of-housing-and-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/?p=642","title":{"rendered":"“Fighter jets instead of housing and food”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canada’s Prime minister, Steven Harper, has decided to spend over ten billion dollars of hard earned taxpayers money on high tech fighter jets.<\/p>\n

(To get an idea of how many one dollar coins make up ten billion dollars ….. think about the number of stars in the milkyway \u00a0galaxy….where there are an estimated two hundred billion stars.)<\/p>\n

One has to wonder how out of touch our leaders are. People are homeless across the country and the food banks are lined up with people begging for \u00a0food every day. The number of people living on the street here in Victoria and in cities across Canada \u00a0is at a crisis and local governments are challenged simply to provide one inch mats on church floors for people to sleep on. It is hard to understand how Defence Minister Peter MacKay and our leaders can justify this massive expenditure on weapons that are designed to shatter the bones \u00a0and rip \u00a0human beings to shreds.<\/p>\n

It is painful to look at photos of Mr. Mackay, as he sits squeezed into the executioner’s chair of one of these fighter jets, grinning out to Canadians ….like a jackal. \u00a0I believe that he is living in a lunatic, fantasy world. He obviously thinks the price is worth it. I believe that he doesn’t care about the tragedy playing out on the streets of our Canadian cities. \u00a0It can only be described as obscene. Harper needs a reality check.<\/p>\n

The cost of these fighter jets will be well over ten billion dollars….. after they have agreed on the huge costs of the maintenance program for these nightmare death machines. It will literally be in the billions ….without question.<\/p>\n

This doesn’t start to measure the level of hatred that will be sown by the collateral damage \u00a0that will vaporizes the innocent civillian’s around the world wherever these instruments of death will be unleashed…… placing Canada further at risk from revenge attacks. What is Harper and MacKay thinking about? \u00a0Do they honestly believe that the few contracts won for a few high tech companies will somehow make this bill disappear? I hope people are following the money trail very closely and watching the shell game \u00a0as money changes hands. I personally smell a rat.
\nI believe that Canadians would rather see houses built for the homeless. We would rather see new bridges, hospitals and community centres and other infrastructure built in our communities. This would provide “real” jobs for “real” needs \u00a0for Canadians and make Canada stronger. \u00a0China, India and Russia are investing heavily on wind farms, modern power generation and new infrastructure. They are flourishing. They are leapfrogging us. We are sinking and drowning in debt.<\/p>\n

It is our choice.\u00a0One has to ask why the conservative government (as well as the Liberals) \u00a0support a financial model that spawns bankruptcy. \u00a0Look at America. It’s wars and investment in \u00a0hundreds \u00a0of military bases around the worls has brought it to it’s knees.<\/p>\n

So why do Canadians support a government that believes in this dead end path?<\/p>\n

We do have a choice. We can elect a government that supports peace. (The Liberal government under Ignatieff is no better……but there are other choices.)<\/p>\n

Thanks,<\/p>\n

Deryk Houston<\/p>\n

Fighter jet sculpture \u00a0 \u00a05ftX6ft \u00a0(Canadian War Museum collection)<\/p>\n

Title: \u00a0“War or Peace…those are the choices”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canada’s Prime minister, Steven Harper, has decided to spend over ten billion dollars of hard earned taxpayers money on high tech fighter jets.<\/p>\n

(To get an idea of how many one dollar coins make up ten billion dollars ….. think about the number of stars in the milkyway galaxy….where there are an estimated two hundred […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=642"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":664,"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions\/664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}