“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed,” Dwight D. Eisenhower once said.

Tens of billions of U.S. dollars budgeted for the destruction and reconstruction of Iraq also means those taxes aren’t available for funding of health research. There are possibilities for treatments and therapies to counter multiple sclerosis that should be investigated.

Although we have not been attacked by Iraq, or any Iraqis (none of those involved in Sept. 11 were Iraqi), 400,000 Americans have been attacked by MS. MS kills Americans year after year and it will continue to do so until we wake up.

On Sunday, people will be walking to raise funds for MS. That’s wonderful.

Wouldn’t it be more wonderful still if General Eisenhower had his dream fulfilled and monies were diverted from death and destruction toward life and quality of life?

Let’s ask our congressmen and women to give health care a chance and prevent the next generation of Americans from falling victim to an actual and ongoing threat.

Tom Bulger, Wilton