Malcolm Forbes’ Birthday Bash

My first reaction to your report on the Malcolm Forbes birthday party was outrage. But on reflection it helps me to remember that there are two kinds of poverty in the world--poverty of the body and poverty of the spirit. It is difficult to know which is more tragic.

Forbes justifies, without guilt, the expenditure of $2 million on a party in praise of himself. One-thousand of the world’s rich and famous have an enchanting night and one more fabulous meal a stone’s throw from starvation. In the three-day duration of that party, from the takeoff of the first Forbes chartered jet to the last bite of the four-layer birthday cake, approximately 40,000 children died the horrible death of starvation.

If the wealthy, or perhaps just the 1,000 who attended Forbes’ birthday bash, would spend half as much on helping those less fortunate than they as they do on the massage of their own egos, there would be significantly fewer hungry beings on this earth.

HART SPRAGER

Malibu