How about pandemic bonds?

President Joe Biden said we are waging a war against COVID-19. I say it’s time for pandemic war bonds to support that effort!

Many of us who are lucky enough to have escaped the most serious health and economic fallout from this plague on the world may be eager to help by buying bonds to help pay for relief packages and lift our country.

Realizing that interest rates are low now won’t stop the call of patriotism. Even though the government can secure lowinterest loans, wouldn’t bonds that don’t get redeemed for years, if ever, help the situation? Could bonds be gifted to first responders or purchased by corporations to use as bonuses rewarding hard work?

Corporations could choose to match purchases made by individuals and give out souvenir certificates (as participation, not legal redeemable tender) designed with their logos. Or the Treasury Department could create participation certificates, maybe numbered, or real paper bonds that are nice enough to frame and one day could become collectors’ items commemorating the mighty virus battle that we won.

Some may even choose never to redeem the bonds, boosting the U.S. Treasury. It’s time to think outside the box and give us a way to thank all those in this mighty effort to take back our country from the pandemic.

— Beth Birnbaum, Northbrook