KATHY, YOU GO, GIRL!

I wonder if the people bemoaning the cost of the Gulf Coast reconstruction take pride in the rebuilding we did after WWII in Europe through the Marshall Plan. If they do, and if they justify the different response by exclaiming that the foreign rebuilding was a matter of national security, then I'd really like them to explain how allowing poverty to flourish and devastation to remain unaddressed won't have a significant negative impact on the health of our country and ultimately our domestic security.

I read one blogger's comment referring to federal funding of the reconstruction as taking his money and giving it to someone else, morphing the reconstruction into wealth redistribution. Well, I say that if my tax burden this year goes up a hundred dollars or two in order to rebuild the Gulf Coast then so be it. There is a responsibility we have as members of this national community - a responsibility to help one another. And why in the world we should leave that up to chance, the hope that the private sector will step in and do the job fairly and completely, is beyond me.

We've been told that we're in the midst of a global war on terror and as a nation we have not been asked to sacrifice to fight and win that war. Instead, a small percentage of our fellow citizens are carrying the burden - and future generations will inherit the bill to pay for the war. For once, can our leaders ask us to do something as one? To make the sacrifice of a one-time higher tax bill in order to reconstruct the Gulf Coast and not condemn those hit by Katrina to years of poverty? I believe in the goodness of Americans and believe we'd give what was needed.