I was watching the news the other day and something caught my eye. I saw that Paul Ryan held some fundraisers in recent days in the northwest. His take from receptions and fancy $25,000 per couple dinners was $3 million.

It got me thinking coming into the holiday season with all the food drives for the food banks and such. Why do we even have the fundraisers for the foobanks? If people of the USA can drop $25,000 on a dinner then I must assume those who can afford these gigs could also be dropping that amount off to their local foodbank daily.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not picking on the GOP because I know it goes on for the Dems too. I just wonder how much the food banks and charities could benefit from some of this money. Maybe if one of the candidates says to their people "take a day off from giving me money and donate it to a local charity." Maybe there would not have to be so many food drives.

The bulk of the money raised goes to ad campians on TV and the people who could use the donations don't even have a TV. Seems like a waste to me. I'd vote for the candidate who says let's put a stop to these fundraisers and donate one day. Guess you could say they could buy my vote by donating for a day.

Joel Berwick

Bellingham