DEAR EDITOR:
Recently, your question of the day was, "do you care about Mitt Romney's taxes?" No, I don't. He paid enough in taxes, along with his wife. Their payment to the IRS was about $6.2 million for two years. At least 100 people would entertain $62,000 income plus they gave $7 million to charity. That comes out to more than $11.2 million. Yes, they could afford it, and I would gladly pay that amount if I earned their income.
Of course, it takes special people to earn that amount of money and pay that amount of taxes. We, in these great United States of America, should be proud to have successful people born and raised here. Envy, yes, jealous, no. Anyone can indeed work up the ladder to success. I may have been something special if I would have gone on to college after high school. I did not. I went to work in the steel mill and then learned to make the money, and how. Limited income was for someone else, not me.
After the light came on, I knew what to do get ahead in life. No, I did not get the results of someone being in the right place at the right time, but I took what was handed out. Sometimes I cried and sometimes I laughed, but I kept going until I reached the height of my aptitude and ability ... but to never reach the height of my desire. I wanted for more, and ended up doing what I realized I must to live in comfort.
When I was at the end of my rope, so to speak, I did not quit. I joined the Air Force. This was my way of progressing and it was not a way of quitting.
I read every day that there are good jobs out in the work force but not enough people qualified to get hired for the work. People need to get qualified. Go to trade school. Go to business school. Get ahead in life. Do not sit on your brain and cry. When I cried, I learned this was not a way of getting to the top of my desire or my abilities. If aptitude is not available, get off your butts and study. There really is help accessible.
When I taught 12th-grade electrical technology, I had students with fourth or fifth grade reading ability. I sent them out of my lab to go for reading comprehension. Yes, most were helped and raised their level of reading ability. And they were proud. So was I.
At my old age, I wish the best to be had by everyone. We must realize, too, that not everyone will get to where they wish to be, but as I told my workers in the mill and my students in school, "Look up and try going to the stars, you at least may reach the moon. Meaning, of course, go up and up as far as you can and nothing will prevent success.
-- Patrick M. Liste, Girard