An Open Letter to Donald Trump and the and the Head of the Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development
Dear Donald Trump and the Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development,
My name is Malia Yu and I am a freshman at Summit Shasta, which is a charter school in Daly City. A matter that is very important to me is that you are spending a lot of our money on weapons, when you could be using that money to help citizens or veterans affected by war. An article that inspired me to write about this idea was the article “Who Wins and Loses in Trump’s Proposed Budget” by Alicia Parlapiano and Gregor Aisch. Both authors state that President Donald Trump is spending billions of our dollars to pay for huge increases in military and homeland security, which would lead to eliminating the funding for smaller agencies. The authors state, “President Trump wants to scale back on a number of job training programs, including those aimed at helping seniors, disadvantaged young people and unemployed Americans. The budget also would help states expand apprenticeship programs and training for disabled workers, while eliminating some training grants for occupational safety and health administration.” This fund elimination will later lead to people having no jobs because they are uneducated or disabled. The money should be going into healthcare, paying people who don’t make enough to support themselves and their family, and giving more money to organizations that help disabled people have an education and get jobs. If money is spent towards these causes, people would have a better, healthier, and happier life. Billions of dollars are spent to protect and encourage fear in people, when some of that money can be used to help people. If these weapons are helpful, then why are they killing millions of people instead of saving people by using more money elsewhere? Making weapons promotes fear and takes away opportunities by giving people, affected by war, hardly any help to get back on their feet. I wanted to write to you all, specifically, because I know that you can do something about this matter, even if you don’t want to.
Based on my research, I believe that you should spending more money on veterans and citizens affected by war instead of spending billions of dollars towards weapons. This matter is important because veterans and people affected by war need additional help to get back on their feet after being severely injured or traumatized. When I was researching about this matter, I learned that many veterans are suffering from PTSD, anxiety, traumatic brain injury and other conditions as a result of their service, and these issues affect not only the service member, but also their spouses, children, and extended families and friends. According to an article called “A Legacy of Pride and Pain”, it states, “The poll found that the wars have caused mental and emotional health problems in 31 percent of vets — more than 800,000 of them. When more specific questions were asked, the rates increased: 41 percent — more than 1 million — report having outbursts of anger, and 45 percent have relationship problems with their spouse or partner. Both are indicators of post-traumatic stress and could suggest that rates of affliction may be higher than the government has forecast.” This shows that so many soldiers come back with more physical and mental casualties than they left with.
I know what you’re thinking: weapons help protect the U.S. citizens from danger, most people might agree with that. However, even though they protect the U.S. citizens from danger, it also takes away from U.S. citizens because some of the money can be going to organizations that help people. For all these reasons, I would like to offer a solution: you should limit the amount of money you spend on weapons and use more money to helping veterans and people affected by war. The U.S. spends around 108.5 billion dollars on military weapons. All of this money invested in weapons result in less and less veterans being supported after the war.
Therefore, I implore you to help these people affected by war by doing some of these suggestions: helping them pay for medical bills and providing food and houses for them. This will make a difference because the people affected by war will be able to continue their life healthy and have a stable house while they are trying to heal.
Thank you for your time in reading this, and I hope that I can change your view and opinion on this situation.
Sincerely,
Malia Yu
