To the editor:
As one who believes that we will all have to answer for what we have done in this life to a divine authority, I would make the following suggestion to our political leaders concerning the Syrian refugee situation.
Why are you spending $64,000 per refugee to bring them here, vet them and support them for one year when that money could feed 400 people for one year in poor countries where rice costs 13 cents per pound and potatoes cost 11 cents per pound?
You spend tens of thousands of dollars to give one lucky person, selected at random, a comfortable life instead of making a material difference in the lives of hundreds.
It is a lie that we can do both. Resources are always limited, and spending $64,000 on one person takes those resources away from hundreds that might be helped.
An injection that costs pennies can prevent a baby from contracting HIV from an infected mother. A single dose of vitamin A can prevent blindness in kids in central Africa. Yet we continue to spend thousands of dollars per person on immigrants and refugees who can’t earn a living wage and/or need to be investigated to ensure they are not terrorists.
This is a false kind of compassion. Nobody who sincerely wants to help people can tolerate this kind of waste and misappropriation.
Doug Forbes
Greenfield
