Let's Set Our Priorities Straight

Let's Set Our Priorities Straight - Just the other day I heard on the national news that the US- Alzheimer Association is barely clinging on to the raft, so to speak, as research in this particular field is incomparably low to Cancer and HIV. $500 million a year is not cutting it, one of the Alzheimer research speakers put the dot on the I. Even though Alzheimer's disease is knowingly still stigmatized in our society, as used to be the case with HIV in the past, we should in all earnest reflect on other sources of funding which have ridiculously been blown out of proportion. Such is for instance the proverbial bottomless pit of military funding. Utterly unfathomable sums of money are sunk into upgrading the military, marine and air force according to the latest technologies and fashion. Tankers, fighter jets and battle ships cost a fortune, and yet nobody seems to even flinch when it comes to signing new orders. Only one item less on that list of orders would leave enough money to secure and sustain the existence of Alzheimer research for at least another year. We are well advised to return to that point when we still had a choice between tending towards humanitarian needs or cherishing material goods instead. It just can't be that we put the desire for material gain before human basics such as health and mental and emotional well- being. We are apparently more driven by negative traits like envy, greed, fear, and revenge than by compassionate and unselfish motives. Let me give you two examples. All eyes are on Syria these days, and the whole globe is holding their breath in regard to what is going to happen next. Warfare of whatever extent is not the answer despite our all wish to just go in and annihilate whoever is responsible for the latest heinous chemical attacks on their own innocent and defenseless people. What those poor folks need is humanitarian aid but certainly no military intervention, neither for the purpose of solely taking out major strategic targets nor to possibly take it any further and lay a whole nation in ashes. In the meantime though, nobody really seems to be paying attention to the subcontinent India which is being riddled with massive gang rapes and would therefore clearly need some prompt and widespread external intervention as well. Until the ultimate breaking points are reached individually, continuous tax hikes in most western world countries still guarantee a considerable overhead of all the cash flow. If every nation was willing to contribute just a little to a joint international emergency fund for humanitarian needs, we would finally be able to help victims on a grander scale and more efficiently. I understand that for the sake of self- defense, military, marine and air force are needed. However, there's absolutely no need to competitively outdo each other by wasting trillions just for the worst case scenario. Tons of ships are intentionally sunk in the oceans, gazillions of tankers are abandoned in deserted areas left to rust away, and countless aircrafts are disposed as well. Just imagine how much money has been and is still wasted if in the end old and retired equipment winds up being thrown out just like that. We need to understand that unless the human being is put on top of our priority list, we will all be doomed to fail and become extinct.