reject to the Times
Posted: October 18th, 2007, 5:28 pm
below is a letter i sent to the Times last week
another unprinted letter
two rejects in a row after a couple of prints
i'd have to re write it and not chastise
Subject: a looming time of doom
The editorial, "A looming time of doom" (10/12/2007), opines the "essentially only three ways to maintain the financial stability of the current Social Security program: raise the retirement age, cut benefits and/or raise taxes." Of the first, I am hoping to be a role model for healthful working well into my 70's and beyond, but I quit smoking cigarettes and dropped weight to a healthy level and maintain a positive outlook. My wife, however, is battling glaucoma. She did drop 40 pounds and is a regular exerciser, so she is hopeful as well to maintain her health at least until her late 60's. Beyond that, we are both hoping to continue working part time while collecting from Social Security. But we will also be competing for jobs with a much younger work force.
Raising taxes should not be an option for working and middle class people. The upper classes should have enough of a social conscience to want to contribute something into the general docket. This will have to be legislated, as the need for greed as a philosophical ideology permeates America to a fault.
There is another option that was not mentioned. The wasteful spending on unnecessary wars and an inflated military-industrial complex by the neo-con right wing Republicans not only takes a lot of taxpayers' money, diverting it away from other kinds of socially responsible investments. It also contributes to the concentrations of wealth that are continuing to plague the American economic structure. For instance, over 20 thousand Iraq War veterans have been summarily discharged from the Army without benefits as having psychological disorders after coming home from combat tours with PTSD, hearing loss, etc, discharged as dead weight and refused benefits, but Halliburton and Blackwater continue to reap enormous profits, as do the oil companies.
Mrs. Clinton (per the editorial) has not been willing to talk about increasing taxes on the common American because she knows that we are paying enough taxes already. We need a restructuring of the Federal budget, more responsible policy making, more effective leadership. And the St. Petersburg Times needs to get out of a conceptual box. We should be talking about a blooming boom of late bloomers.
J W
St. Petersburg, Florida/USA
© Copyright 2007 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved
another unprinted letter
two rejects in a row after a couple of prints
i'd have to re write it and not chastise
Subject: a looming time of doom
The editorial, "A looming time of doom" (10/12/2007), opines the "essentially only three ways to maintain the financial stability of the current Social Security program: raise the retirement age, cut benefits and/or raise taxes." Of the first, I am hoping to be a role model for healthful working well into my 70's and beyond, but I quit smoking cigarettes and dropped weight to a healthy level and maintain a positive outlook. My wife, however, is battling glaucoma. She did drop 40 pounds and is a regular exerciser, so she is hopeful as well to maintain her health at least until her late 60's. Beyond that, we are both hoping to continue working part time while collecting from Social Security. But we will also be competing for jobs with a much younger work force.
Raising taxes should not be an option for working and middle class people. The upper classes should have enough of a social conscience to want to contribute something into the general docket. This will have to be legislated, as the need for greed as a philosophical ideology permeates America to a fault.
There is another option that was not mentioned. The wasteful spending on unnecessary wars and an inflated military-industrial complex by the neo-con right wing Republicans not only takes a lot of taxpayers' money, diverting it away from other kinds of socially responsible investments. It also contributes to the concentrations of wealth that are continuing to plague the American economic structure. For instance, over 20 thousand Iraq War veterans have been summarily discharged from the Army without benefits as having psychological disorders after coming home from combat tours with PTSD, hearing loss, etc, discharged as dead weight and refused benefits, but Halliburton and Blackwater continue to reap enormous profits, as do the oil companies.
Mrs. Clinton (per the editorial) has not been willing to talk about increasing taxes on the common American because she knows that we are paying enough taxes already. We need a restructuring of the Federal budget, more responsible policy making, more effective leadership. And the St. Petersburg Times needs to get out of a conceptual box. We should be talking about a blooming boom of late bloomers.
J W
St. Petersburg, Florida/USA
© Copyright 2007 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved