Land of The Free, Home of The Sick

Hello All,
Hope all is well. In the upcoming days our country, will be celebrating it's 236th birthday. A wonderful occasion in world history. The great declaration made by the founders of this country in that long gone era inspired many through out the globe to fight social injustice and inequality. It has also inspired me to write something along those lines A thought came to mind recently regarding the state of our health care system and the lack of priority that is given to the well being of our union's citizen's.
For quite a long time, this country's status as the world's iconic democratic model went unquestioned. The status of such an iconic status has come into question by many in recent time, both near and afar. Concerning to me is the fact that I have within the last year lost 5 people that were near and dear to my family and I to Cancer, including our precious Andrew Aidan. Not to mention an other person which is at Heaven's Gate as we speak also fighting the dreaded war against against Cancer. Never in my life have I or my friends or loved ones suffered such large amounts of loss due to Cancer.
How does this tie into the decline of our established country's social and political prominence? In my view when our government decides to give to the country of Afghanistan 146 war planes as a GIFT to maintain their country's fight for democracy it becomes concerning. A fight that has cost the American people close to $543 billion dollars and counting. Imagine if the US Govt gave to Afghanistan a plane like the F-22 as an example. The F-22 is a fighter that is made by Locheed Martin. It initially cost $150 million to produce and the government has ordered 195 of them to date. You do the math...150 million x 195 units is around= $28 billion dollars. This does not include the changes in price that have resulted due to faulty design. Imagine giving $28billion +dollars to a country that probably hates our guts. Mean while, the National Cancer Institute last year had a budget of roughly $146 million to combat ALL types of pediatric cancers. The cost of ONE F-22 was allocated to the fight of a disease that is decimating our children. The cost of research for adult cancers is utterly higher but it still doesn't come close to the amount of investment our government has made in Afghanistan as opposed to all of us here. Imagine if we focused our resources on our own country. I pray for the day when this country can rise to social, intellectual, scientific and moral prominence once again and not settle for mediocrity. The day that those virtues are made our priorities once again, our children, well those that aren't stuck with Cancer or other diseases will hopefully have a chance to live in a better place. If we get close to that, this country will be the Land of The Free and Home of The Brave, not Land of The Free & Home of The Sick.
God Bless us all.