Priorities

I started writing a follow up email to friends and family that I was hoping to solicit some donations from.  As I began, I kind of got caught up in the frustration of how we can spend billions of dollars on political campaigns, not to mention the cost to us as tax payers for actually carrying out the election, the money spent by groups to either get out the vote or prevent people from voting.  While it didn't turn into a tirade, it became evident that it probably was setting the correct tone to get people to give.  I sent it to my wife with a preface saying that this was what I'd like to send, but knew I shouldn't.  In her wisdom, she suggested another blog post.
So, here it is:

Greetings from Memphis!
As many of you know already, I'm running the St. Jude marathon again
this year and raising money for the hospital.
I've been thinking about how we, as a nation, spend money.  With the
elections coming up in a month, it is estimated that $5.9 billion will
be spent to elect/reelect the President, Congress and one third of the
Senate.  $5.9 BILLION.  Every member of the House (who isn't retiring)
pretty much is running/raising money year round.  The President and
Senators have a little bit of time where they're not forced to do
this, but it's still not very long that they're not running again and
the campaigns and PAC's are raising/spending money.
What does this have to do with St. Jude? Directly, nothing.  But, what
could St. Jude Children's Hospital do with $5.9 billion?  Well, it
costs about $1.9 million to run the hospital each and every day.  So,
with the aid of a calculator, you can see that the hospital could run
for 3052 days on that money (not including interest earned).  For 8
years and 4 months, they would not have to raise funds.  For that
amount of time, they could continue to treat children, help families
and research cures without wondering if donations will be enough to
cover operating expenses.
I guess my point is that we watch commercials for politicians running
for office or trying to stay in office.  We hear lies, double speak
and, often times, pointless blather.  We get junk mail, phone calls, and
emails.  We see yard signs, bumper stickers and billboards.  It all
costs money.  And, honestly it's just to get about 5% of the country
to move from one side to the other.  The other 95% made up their minds
months ago.  But, since the elections will swing on that 5%, the rest
of us have to endure the inundation.
After the election, yard signs will end up littering our roads and
flyers and junk mail will end up in our land fills.  And St. Jude will
still have to spend a tremendous amount of energy to raise money.
So, instead of giving money to your favorite (or least hated
politician), which is not tax deductible I might add, how about giving
it to the kids at St. Jude?  Please make your donation at:
http://heroes.stjude.org/scottsmith  Also, while any amount is greatly
appreciated, remember there's no limit to how much you can give
(unlike the $2500.00 you can give directly to a politician).
Many thanks,

I think my overall point is simply - we have our priorities messed up.  What else could we do with that money?  Build a dozen schools, provide 118,000 public sector jobs (teachers, police, firemen) with an average salary of $50,000, pay off some of the debt (or at least the interest on the debt).  How about buying 59,000 $100,000 homes for homeless vets?  There are so many more worthy things that could be done with that money.  Unfortunately, in today's America, those billions of dollars will effectively turn into trillions of dollars in influence.  And, that's the shame of our political system.
So, that's my rant for the day.  Apologies if anyone is offended.  I tried to not let my personal political leanings show.  I realize that it's not tax payer dollars we're talking about here, but the donations of individuals.  I know that I can't tell others what to do with their money.  I also know that there are many, many generous people in this nation of all income levels.  I guess I just wonder if we can't do a bit better and if we shouldn't be focusing our energy and resources on doing more good works instead.