Sep 10, 2017 2 min read

Your comments in your Tuesday editorial about Americans worrying too much about our own lives and not having knowledge about what goes on in other parts of the world – especially tragedies – appears to have been written with blinders on.

You indicated that we only learn about happenings in this country because our news media only reports about the United States. I wanted to let you know that One American News reports the news that you say is not reported.

You also seem to indicate that we should be more concerned about the plight of individuals in other countries, suggesting that we, in fact, are not. I urge you to do some research. If you do, you would learn that in 2014 Americans donated $355 billion to charities. Out of that total, 72 percent came from individuals. The amount in 2015 was $373 billion. Those were back-to-back, record-setting years. Giving USA reports that in 2015, Americans gave $15.7 billion to international charities. This was a 7.5 percent increase over the previous year. This says to me that perhaps Americans do not have such a narrow view of what goes on around them, being much better informed and engaged than the picture you painted in your editorial.

Carmen J. DiGiacomo

Pittsburgh