i found myself having to defend the small amount of the u.s. federal budget that goes to foreign aid over the holidays (one half of one percent!). i saw this line from jfk on usaid.gov--and thought i'd print and keep in my wallet for times when i find myself having these "fun" conversations. he says it better than any of my horrible attempts.
"I realize that there are among us those who are weary of sustaining this continual effort to help other nations. But I would ask them to look at a map and recognize that many of those whom we help live on the 'front lines' of the long twilight struggle for freedom—that others are new nations posed between order and chaos—and the rest are older nations now undergoing a turbulent transition of new expectations. Our efforts to help them help themselves, to demonstrate and to strengthen the vitality of free institutions, are small in cost compared to our military outlays for the defense of freedom."
—John F. Kennedy, Special Message to the Congress on Foreign Aid, March 13, 1962
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