Price Tags

 A ticker-tape parade costs about two million dollars. 

What can you do with that much money? Let's see...

This year, I struggled to help a little girl get glasses. Based on her prescription, she needed them. Based on her academic performance, she needed them. Based on her own statements, she needed them. But her family couldn't muster the $100 bucks for glasses.

 There used to be easy ways for low-income families to get free glasses in NJ, but many of those grants were decreased this year. It took about four months for us to get her glasses. (Hurray to NYC which has a free glasses program!)

With two million dollars, we could make sure 20,000 children had glasses.

Every week, a group of friends and I make sure that some low income families have fresh, healthy food. I appreciate the foodbanks, but sometimes the nutritional value of canned food is all these families get. My friends and I have coordinated with local grocery stores to help these families.

The average US household spends about $6000 on groceries per year. So, a ticker-tape parade could feed about 333 families for a year each. (Or it could feed your household for over three centuries, barring death and inflation.)

Two of my dear friends needed housing this year. They are both hard-working people but the cost of living was not matching the amount they could each work to support their respective families. Luckily, both have figured things out, but still, there's a lot of financial stress in housing a family and Low Income Housing waitlists do not help families with immediate need.

In NJ, the average annual rent cost is about $30K. You could house over 60 families for a year with the money spent on a ticker-tape parade.

If you take the national average salary for a teacher last year (about $72,000), a teacher would have to work for almost 28 years to earn that much. (Earn-- not save. Not including taxes being removed. Not including living expenses.)  There are ways I would love to help people, beyond inspiration and amplification of their messages. But financially that's just not possible. And I cannot sponsor a ticker-tape parade.

However, you might have figured out that this isn't really about ticker-tape parades. 

It's about a 45-million dollar parade celebrating the 79th birthday of a fascist toddler. 

Yup, that's over 20 times the price tag of a ticker-tape parade. Make that 400,000 glasses. Make that food for over 6500 families. Make that housing for 1200 families. 

Okay, okay, I'll be fair. He says it's not just about his birthday. It's about recruiting more people for the army because this is also the 250th anniversary of the US Army.

Wait. Just wait right there a moment. I have a few more things to say.

a) It's the 250th Anniversary of our nation. It's the 250th Anniversary of a nation that was formed by people fleeing repressive governments for a better life. It's the 250th Anniversary of a country of immigrants. 

b) It's the 250th Anniversary of our Army too, because it's the anniversary of our nation. However, if we aim for more recruits for the army, are they going to be used as the Marines and the National Guard are currently being used: to wreak havoc on hardworking Americans doing their best to get by? 

c) Is this parade really about the US Army or really about rallying up one side of a brewing civil war?

d) Isn't this the president that just pushed to BAN trans people from the army? If that's the case, we clearly don't have a problem with recruitment...

The parade isn't unprecedented. President Bush held a criticized "National Victory Celebration" in 1991. Though large for the time, it was on a much smaller scale both in terms of events and costs. And its costs-- still high-- were $12 million. Adjusted for inflation, that's still half the size of proposals for today.

And who is funding this $45 million dollar event that is making DC unsafe for friendly protests? 

You and I. We are.

The ticker-tape parade is funded largely by the local city and then by sponsors. 

The Army (our taxpayer money) is paying some of costs. Other companies (like Amazon) are donating too. 

The exact price-tag is unclear. But my point is clear: there are extravagant expenses in this administration, all for extolling brutality. And then, there are ghastly cuts which affect free speech, medicine, and research. 

We are all paying with a price tag much worse than money alone. We are paying with lives and qualities of life.