District 9’s Congress member should focus on bringing more money home
Before my first tour of duty in the Middle East, I had a conversation with a close friend from high school as I was preparing for a nine-month deployment to Afghanistan.
She told me that she didn’t want me to go because she didn’t agree with the reasons the U.S. was continuing the conflict. After I joked about asking the Navy if I could stay so she would feel better, I told her the main reason I wear the uniform and “go’” when I am ordered.
“I go so you have the freedom to tell me why you feel I shouldn’t go,” I said.
Protecting our freedoms has sustained my service to our country for more than 20 years until today. But it occurred to me recently that I have never taken full advantage of this right that I have fought to protect.
Well, today I will invoke the freedom to say what I feel needs to be said: Our country is failing in how we are addressing the conflict in Gaza, and instead of using more funds to hurt children overseas, we need to use our funds to help our children here at home.
My experience tells me we are sending millions of dollars away without accountability
The recent news from President Biden that we are building a pier in Gaza to deliver aid touched me in several ways.
You see, I have deployed overseas in uniform five times and those experiences show me that we are repeating past mistakes. I have seen what a humanitarian crisis looks like with thousands of people starving and fighting for food.
I have watched a four-star general address a room full of Afghan provincial leaders that after 15 years, we would stop giving them equipment and resources with no accountability and then watch our country continue to spend $300 million per day for another five years.
I even personally know the feeling of my government sending me out to serve as a diplomat while only giving me the
tools to be a warrior. And this last sentiment hits home the closest because of my most recent experiences.
I am still serving as a captain in the Navy reserves and my parent command is Naval Forces Europe and Sixth Fleet.
I spent a month in Italy, from November to December as part of a force responding to the Oct. 7th attack by Hamas against Israel. So, I know the servicemen and women who will be planning the building of this pier and the delivery of this aid to Gaza.
I have the same feeling that I have had many times in the past. Our country will again use our military to make up for a lack of diplomacy and we will send taxpayer money overseas that our people desperately need here at home.
Money for Israel’s defense could bolster education in Memphis
Now you may say, why does that matter to me here in Memphis? Well, I feel our No. 1 priority should be to bring resources home to the district. But instead, Congress continues to consider sending Israel an additional $14 billion.
For that amount, we could rebuild every school in Memphis Shelby County Schools and raise teacher pay to the highest in the nation. It would be
enough for every high school senior in the state of Tennessee to get a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Vanderbilt.
And that additional money we sent to Israel is almost three times all the federal funding that our congressional district received from our government last year. With all the problems that our district is facing, I believe we have far better uses for that money at home and the focus of our representatives should be bringing dwindling resources home to our district.
So, I will say what many people in the community feel. I affirm the right for Israel to exist, defend itself after Oct. 7th, and their position as our ally. But taxpayer money should not be used to starve, injure, or take the lives of civilians in any conflict.
Our country should withhold all military aid to Israel and use other diplomatic means to force them to comply with international law. And it’s about time for leadership in this district that will put the needs of our country, community, and district first.
Corey Strong is the former chairman of the Shelby County Democratic Party. He is running in the Democratic primary for the District 9 congressional seat in the Aug. 1 election.