To the editor:

Relief agencies have been telling us that more than 14 million people in six southern African countries face starvation in the coming months as a result of flooding plus drought. Fourteen million! More than the number estimated to have been killed in the Holocaust, about 5,000 times the number killed in the tragedy of Sept.11 that called forth such anguished response, a number roughly equivalent to the total population of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Oklahoma. More than 40 percent of the population that are under the age of 15! And we don’t care? Our government doesn’t care?

A recent news “brief” mentioned that in Zimbabwe alone, 6.7 million people – more than half of the population – face starvation. So where are the headlines? Where is the outcry? The concern? The stories, the reports on relief efforts and their needs? Whatever happened to the world’s determination following World War II that “never again” must such horrendous things happen? How is it that 5,000 starving Africans arouse so much less concern than one affluent American killed in New York? Is the terror any less? And what about the consequences?

How can we talk of human rights and not even try to help these starving men, women and children? For that matter, how can we talk of justice or perhaps especially of war against terror and let 14 million people die agonizing deaths from starvation when we, collectively, have the means to prevent such a tragedy?

Doris S. Dort,

Lawrence