Hands Across America to Help the Hungry

It is almost unbelievable that Ronald Reagan could top the insensitivity of his visit to Bitburg Cemetery in Germany. But now comes Hands Across America, and the laudable efforts of millions of American to provide some temporary aid, tiny though it may be, to assist our nation’s hungry and homeless.

No one has done more to deny these unfortunates the help and benefits that a compassionate government could provide than our President, whose policies, particularly in the curtailment of food stamps and housing, have sentenced millions of our people to the daily pangs of hunger and deprivation.

Nevertheless Ronald Reagan held forth in a talk to a group of children the other day that there is ample food available for all, and their failure to obtain it is simply because of their ignorance of the programs. And to compound the felony, Reagan (only after the ardent importuning of his wife and daughter, according to news reports) put in an appearance at a Hands Across America rally, joining with millions of truly concerned Americans who want to do their infinitesimal bit to remind the richest country in the world of the depth of its great masses of needy.

HERBERT L. BREGSTEIN

Beverly Hills