LETTER TO THE EDITOR

U.S. cannot afford to slash life-saving foreign assistance

Posted

To the Editor:

More than 20 million people’s lives are in danger due to a mounting famine in Yemen, South Sudan, Northern Nigeria, and Somalia. There is no death worse than hunger and starvation. Yet there is an estimated 1.4 million severely malnourished children who will possibly die in the next few months unless there is relief provided. According to the United Nations this is the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.

How does the United States respond? The Trump administration and some in Congress have threatened to slash by up to 40 percent U.S. foreign assistance, life-saving funding that includes emergency humanitarian assistance.

I have to wonder why a poll by the International Rescue Committee showed that 85 percent of Americans are largely uniformed about the food shortages. I guess that without seeing images of starving women and children on our evening news and social media we will continue to be indifferent.

In the often quoted text in Matthew 25, Jesus doesn’t mince words when he condemns those who ignore the hungry saying in verses 41-42: “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat.”

John W. Flynn, Lincoln