Editor,

As a proud, privileged and hardworking citizen of the state of Maine and the United States of America I want to remind my fellow citizens that that they have a duty to the starving, sick and unsheltered all around the world. There is a misconception that the U.S. gives much more than the 1 percent it gives in foreign aid each year. This isn’t enough and it isn’t nearly as much as we could be contributing.

I urge you to contact your congressman and women in support of the International Affairs budget and ask them to increase funding to the extreme poor. Organizations like The Borgen Project are incredibly important and prominent in helping the needy all around the world by fighting for legislation that will help build these poor communities.

I have been contacting Senators King and Collins and Representative Pingree encouraging them to support The Borgen Project and The International Affairs budget to which they have been interested and knowledgeable on the issue, but they need our support.

Building up the poor around the world will create future markets that the U.S. can trade with while at the same time increasing national security and helping the overpopulation problem. When the extreme poor’s economy grows and the have more money, they have less children which significantly reduces the population. There is also less chance for extremism and crime. These are problems that affect all of us and they need your attention.

Christopher Steward

Saco

Comments are not available on this story.