Letter: Syria and U.S. ignore their own people

Imagine you are a 37‐year-old single father with three children, all under the age of 12, and you live in what remains of Aleppo, Syria. Every day is a search for food and water and finding shelter from the elements. Human predators roam the devastated city and just staying alive is a constant vigil.

Now imagine you are a 34-year-old single mother with four children, ages 7, 9, 11 and 15, and you live in the poorest part of a major city in the United States. You work three jobs and you are in constant fear for your children. The schools are inadequate. There is no place, including home, that is safe from the bullets and the violence.

Starkly different places in the world. Different cultures, different languages, different religions, and different governments. But a common denominator is that both countries have chosen to ignore their own people.

Don’t you think it’s time to really solve this terrible and unjust issue? Who knows what can be done in Syria, but the United States? Come on, we landed on the moon. We built Grand Coulee Dam. We can solve this, but we have to want to.

This story was originally published September 4, 2016 at 5:51 AM with the headline "Letter: Syria and U.S. ignore their own people."