Letters from our readers
Contra Costa Times
Monday, August 30, 2010
The grass-roots advocacy group RESULTS achieved a goal today: getting 100 Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives to cosign a letter written by Oakland's own Rep. Barbara Lee.
The letter urges President Barack Obama to pledge $6 billion over the next three years to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. While only Congress can appropriate the $2 billion per year to the fund, Obama pledging that amount would lead other nations to substantially increase their donations as well.
The Global Fund is a revolutionary development in foreign aid: it requires leadership, cooperation and accountability from those receiving the money.
Since its inception in 2002, it has saved the lives of over 5.7 million people in 144 countries and helped lay the foundation to save millions more.
RESULTS volunteers here in the Bay Area successfully lobbied Reps. Anna Eshoo, Sam Farr, Mike Honda, Zoe Lofgren, Jerry McNerney, George Miller, Jackie Speier, Pete Stark, Mike Thompson and Lynn Woolsey to sign Lee's letter. Volunteers and these representatives should be thanked.
Some may claim the United States can't afford to spend $6 billion over three years to help people dying of AIDS, TB, and malaria; for our own security and well-being, we can't afford not to.
Jim Driggers
Concord
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