Thank you for the USAID editorial

Thank you for the editorial underscoring the devastating impacts here in Maryland and abroad of dismantling USAID (“The perilously high cost of shutting down USAID | EDITORIAL,” Feb. 26).

I’m a proud Marylander who has worked in global health for my entire career. Over 15 years ago when I started my first job out of school, about 370,000 children every year were infected with HIV.

I met parents caring for their children in hospitals, and children in HIV support groups in Cameroon, Uganda, South Africa and other settings. But back then, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which was started by George W. Bush, a Republican president, was rapidly scaling up access to HIV prevention and treatment services and there was hope. Today, the number of HIV infections in children has gone down by 60%.

But much of the funding and nuts and bolts of PEPFAR flowed through which agency? USAID. Experts estimate that every day funding is halted, at least 300 children will be needlessly infected due to lack of preventive HIV medications.

And this is the tip of the iceberg: Decades long progress in reducing child deaths from other more common diseases and conditions like pneumonia, malaria, diarrhea, and malnutrition is being erased before our very eyes.

I call on Sen. Van Hollen, Sen. Alsobrooks, and all of our Maryland representatives to fight for restoring foreign aid and protect USAID by championing bills like Rep. Sara Jacob’s Protect U.S. National Security Act and continuing to speak out to safeguard hard won progress in saving lives.

— Lior Miller, Silver Spring

Kudos to Sun for USAID editorial

The editorial board’s editorial about USAID was both compassionate and fact-driven, effectively highlighting the vital role USAID plays for Baltimoreans, the United States, and countries across the globe (“The perilously high cost of shutting down USAID | EDITORIAL,” Feb. 26). Despite representing such a small percentage of the federal budget, USAID achieves an incredible amount of good worldwide.

Efforts to dismantle USAID, especially by Trump and Elon Musk, are not only an overreach but also a shortsighted attempt to address perceived waste in the federal budget.

I urge Sens. Van Hollen and Alsobrooks, and Rep. Olszewski, to work with Congress to fully reinstate and protect USAID. The president does not have the authority to dismantle USAID — Congress does. It was Congress that established USAID, and it is Congress that has the power to safeguard its future.

— Emily Kauffman, Baltimore

RE: Where’s the outrage?

In response to Sen. Bobby Zirkin’s question, (Where’s the outrage over Hamas’ murder of hostages? | GUEST COMMENTARY,” Feb. 24) I would contend that the entire world expressed horror and outrage over the attack on Oct. 7, 2023. But I would also ask where is the outrage when Israeli forces have killed over 65,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and reduced their homes to rubble? Where is the outrage when Israel prevents basic supplies such as water and shelter from reaching these same displaced people, causing babies to die of hypothermia? Where is the outrage when Israeli ex-army chief Gallant admits that the Hannibal Directive was deployed on Oct. 7? This directive instructs Israeli forces in the air and on the ground to shoot anything that moves, even their own soldiers and hostages.

I have Jewish heritage and oppose any form of antisemitism, but I cannot condone the Zionist movement to take by brute force land allotted to the Palestinians in international agreements. The rest of the world has recognized Israel’s behavior as genocide and ethnic cleansing, in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions and international law. In addition to the horrors being perpetrated in Gaza, on the West Bank Palestinian families are being forced from their homes on land worked by their great-grandfathers, and more women and children are being killed every day. There is a reason that the International Criminal Court has labeled Netanyahu a war criminal.

Not only is the USA standing by and watching this holocaust, our tax dollars are funding it. I would guess that many Israelis have family members who were victims of the Nazi holocaust — unfortunately, it looks like the abused have become the abusers. Where is the outrage, indeed.

— Elizabeth Shire, Towson