Information worth reading

I’m generally fascinated by trivia and I have taken quite an interest in your features on sophisticated American military weaponry. I am particularly intrigued by your front page boxes which highlight a single brilliant weapon, giving detailed information on design, range, payload, and destructive capabilties.

Yes, it is fascinating, but your editors are missing some worthy and essential information. In particular, I would be eager to see this bit of trivia included: the cost of each weapon. Don’t you think it would be of great interest to your readers? Of course, talk of so many hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on this missile or so many millions on that plane might be difficult for the average reader to fully break down and understand. I realize not everyone shares my love of trivia. Perhaps making some concrete comparisons would help your readers visualize the true meaning of these numbers.

For example, you might begin by comparing the number of malnourished American children who might be fed with the cost of one cruise missile. Or of a single tank. How much of a rural hopsital might be funded by one of those? By a bomber. Is that one? Two? Three? Four schools? Of course, there is no end to the comparisons you could make: shelters for the homeless, fuel subsidies for the elderly, medical care for the handicapped, public transportation for us all. Let your imaginations run wild.

That would be information worth reading. And then you wouldn’t have to be a trivia whiz to figure out who the casualties are as a result of war. Eleni Katsika Penobscot