Chekhov's Mistress
Text of A Letter to All of My Elected Officials On the US Response to the Asian Disaster
This is a text of a letter I am sending to the president and my representatives Schumer, Clinton and Nadler:
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Mr. President,
I am writing to tell you that I am embarrassed by our government’s response to the victims of the tsunami disaster in Asia this week. After 9/11 there was an immediate outpouring of sympathy and support from around the world. Our problem was their problem. Today we are sending the message to India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and other countries that we just don’t care very much when the crisis is not in our own back yard.
Please do more. I understand from reports in the New York Times that our initial aid offer was for $15 million. Yesterday we increased that amount to $35 million and we are sending troops to the region to help. At .0003% of our GDP, $35 million is not nearly enough and makes us look quite stingy as a country. If a person making $250,000 donated an equivalent percentage of their income, that person would donate only 74 cents!
Please do more. If we can allocate $13 billion (according to the NY Times) to Florida and other states for hurricane relief, surely we can contribute more than 1/4 of one percent of that amount toward relief from one of the largest natural disasters the world has ever seen. Certainly we spend more than $35 million in Iraq every day, and to what end?
Please do more. Let’s let the world know that we are indeed compassionate. Let us make the word compassionate mean something.
Sincerely…
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About this Post
- Posted by: Bud Parr
- Date: December 30, 2004
- Filed Under:
Dismal/Dismaler: Econ/Politics
- Comments:0
- Links to this Post: Technorati
