Roosevelt Monument

I was in shock to read in your article about space running out in the nation’s capital that $48 million will be spent to build a memorial for Franklin D. Roosevelt--mostly from public funds, rather than private contributions (“More Memorials? Forget It, Says Park Service,” June 8). This boondoggle will contain 11 statues and cover 17 acres.

Why in the name of sanity are taxes going to such a useless exercise in vanity while our country totters on the brink of financial ruin?

Even the most devoted disciples of President Roosevelt surely would agree the money would be better spent on the needs of the living--shelter for the homeless, a decent national health care system for all, for example.

Forty-eight million would not cover either need, true; but it is $48 million down the tubes that might have contributed to a solution--along with a lot of other similar totally unproductive projects funded by Congress.

Our “representatives” in Washington really don’t give a flying fig newton about the misery of the rest of the country, do they?

KAYE KLEM

El Toro