This past Saturday, the second anniversary of the US war in Iraq, 8 year old Emme and I attended a peace rally in Hyannis.
Virtually no major media outlet in the US covered the protests, which happened in some 800 cities.
We’ve heard about the loss of life – over 150,000 including over 1,500 American GI’s – and the staggering financial costs – $210 billion by the US alone.
These numbers are difficult to scale, so here’s how they translate at a local level:
Per the National Priorities Project, the taxpayer cost to Massachusetts is $6.0 billion.
This is a whopping 40% of the cost of the most expensive public works project in history, the scandal-ridden Big Dig ($14.6 billion).
The cost to taxpayers in the town where I live, Mashpee, is $650,682.
This would have been enough to retain the 7 public school teachers who were let go in the current fiscal year – plus hire 4 more.