$17 MILLION

     I do not know about you, but I have never had the freedom or wherewithal to spend $17 million . Takes some time to think abut where it should go and though money does not go quite as far as it used to - does it ever - well, we can think of some things to spend it on.
     So....first, we invent a very simple and clear device for TV and cable and transfers to mobile devices - something we seniors desperately need!! Seriously, some of the money could be used to establish simple classes for the elderly, making them comfortable with the basic uses of computers. Nothing fancy, nothing expensive, maybe even community service volunteers and think how much and how far each dollar would go. Good bang for the buck.
      We still have some money so, how about increasing the lunch programs in schools, feeding our children from needy homes. Think of the benefits for us and them. Kids who can pay attention, absorb information, think and create. 
      How about we use some of the money for rental apartments and job training, socialization skills for the homeless, the damaged 'goods' that society creates and usually leaves behind. The mere thought of having a place to lay one's head, to shower, to think, to read a book, to sit like a human to eat a meal. Think of it.
     Or there is the choice to make thousands of micro loans, both here and across the sea, in Asia and Africa, particularly to women who have suffered so much as a result of the constant wars there. We can provide a helping hand to independence, a better life for them and hope for the kids. We can even open small health clinics, especially for women and kids who so desperately need this help.
     Hey, we can even advance women's health care right here in the USA, a place where we have gone backwards over the past few years. We can sentence misogynists to work there, to take classes and understand the need for equality and proper attitudes. While we are doing that, we can increase the education in human rights, in combating hatred, in telling the truths of history rather than the lies we are hearing so frequently today.
     How about some money going to schools, for improving physical plants or adding educational supplies, adding nurses and guidance counselors, for after and pre school centers, for so many things. Even for adult classes in the evenings.
     I am sure we can find so many uses and places where we can productively spend these $17 million. Perhaps we can hire a grammar teacher for Trump. Or we can teach him some polite behaviorisms or the concept, recognition, use and importance of the truth. We can teach all to be civil, to be non partisan when it comes to the welfare of the country. We can even open up more early voting centers on campus, to replace those shut down in order to create difficulties for Democrat leaning students as they attempt to vote.
     There are so many, many places where we can spend our funds. These funds are raised by taxes, taxes that weigh heavily on the poor and middle class, even as the uber rich have reaped great big windfalls from the Trump disaster of a tax program. Over a trillion dollars added this year alone to the national debt as the revenue dollars fall, so the nation borrows more. Sad. Dangerous.
     Or, we can find one simple place to spend those millions, for 17 million dollars covers the cost of one ugly, in so many ways, mile of a border wall. This mile of border wall cuts off animals in migration paths, ruins the flows of water and flood drainage. It creates ugliness in nature where once there was beauty. It destroys all that America was and is meant to be. It encourages hatred. It throws people off to false pathways through life, as the border wall does nothing good for us. And it draws attention away from the fact that we have a demented government; not just him, who now has changed his mind again and is returning soldiers to Syria, but also Congress, particularly the Senate which has seriously and dangerously lost its way.
     We have all lost our way and spend all those millionsof dollars on the wrong things. But there is hope. There are still people remaining on active watch over and for the country, and by extension the world. There is still time, though it is shrinking. "Waneth the watch, but the world holdeth." (Anonymous, "The Seafarer")
      Let us make better use of time and money. Life depends on it.