Help for Unemployed

Hurrah for Peter Dreier and Richard Rothstein’s Column Left (“Man-Made Disasters’ Double Punch,” Jan. 21). They’re so right: We shell out billions for the victims of earthquakes, fires and other natural disasters, but turn a deaf ear to the cries from our millions of unemployed. And these include engineers and technicians who could lead in repairing our bridges, roads and other parts of our sagging infrastructure.

Many of us old-timers remember how Roosevelt created the WPA (Works Progress Administration) and the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in the ‘30s, giving jobs to millions of unemployed professional, skilled and unskilled workers. This saved our infrastructure and helped pull us out of the Great Depression. Let’s bombard Clinton and the Congress with demands for a public works and conservation program that’s even better than the one proposed but turned down a few months ago.

S. STANSFELD SARGENT

Solano Beach