Imagine not having safe water to drink, and your only hope is for a compassionate and generous people to again rise to the occasion. You know of these people. You have heard of them and their valiant efforts in the challenge to ease the consequences of extreme poverty and disease.

"Americans" they are called.

There is excitement among your people when their name is mentioned. You hope they will not tire from the good they have been doing.

The bipartisan Durbin-Corker Water for the World Act can turn hope into reality, and many are working tirelessly to pass this bill, which will provide 100,000,000 people with first-time access to safe drinking water and sanitation on a sustainable basis by 2015.

Among those tireless Americans are 107,000 ONE members who've signed a petition supporting the bill at ONE.org. There are also 21 senators who cannot only imagine what it is like to not have safe water and proper sanitation, they have the imagination and will to act and so have cosponsored the Act.

I applaud all of them, especially Sen. Arlen Specter, who is one of the cosponsors of this important bill. He has been a tireless advocate for the poorest of the poor and is again providing critical leadership, this time in the fight to help the millions who struggle to survive without access to clean water.

However, the bill remains stalled in the Committee on Foreign Relations and is in need of more cosponsors. As a member of the Advocacy group ONE, I urge the rest of the U.S. Senate to stand behind the bill as Senator Specter has.

The advocacy organization ONE is about a brighter and safer future. It is about what America has been known for and still wants to be, both at home and abroad. In this interconnected and dangerous world, I hope America's will includes leading the effort to save lives and end avoidable suffering through medicine and basic needs like water and food. This is America's next great legacy.

DAN DONMOYER
ONE MEMBER
LEBANON