$44.3 Million

The Gross Domestic Product of the entire COUNTRY of Montserrat? Yes

The combined estimated export value for the COUNTRIES of Palau, Marshall Islands, Cayman Islands, Tuvalu, Montserrat, East Timor and Anguilla? Yes

But that's not what I'm referring to. It's the money raised to build the Akron Art Museum.

Museum director Mitchell Kahan is quoted in today's Akron Beacon Journal: "I think it shows Akron can be a leader in culture."

Now I'm all for the arts so if you are an artist, then continue creating. Be the artist you were made to be. And I'm all for urban renewal and such. And I have a confession to make: my company made a profit by selling material for this structure. But really, this much money for an art museum?

Here' what I bet $44.3 million dollars could do:

- wipe out diarrhea as one of the leading causes of death to children under the age of 5.

- provide a good part of the world with access to clean drinking water.

- sponsor 115,364 children through Compassion International for an entire year.

- double the salary of 44.3 million people because half the world live on less than $1 per day.

- or we could build an art museum.

Museum architect and designer Wolf Prix said that in his design for the museum "all hopes have been fulfilled."

I wonder what God hopes for. Perhaps the mere survival of the 30,000 children under the age of 5 that died today?