Please give these people a break

I was very disappointed in the recent Daily Herald editorial "Early questions in promised change" (Feb. 4). This strikes me as nothing more than the same old-fashioned journalistic sniping you might expect two years into a new administration. It reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of what is going to be required of all of us to move this country out of the wasteland of the last eight years.

First and foremost, we need to get beyond the idea that those who manage our government at the highest levels should be just like us. Speaking for myself, I expect that only people of unusual intelligence, insight and management skill will qualify for these jobs. I do not qualify and neither do those with whom I normally interact. Surely, we all agree that we need only the best people for these jobs, and I want those people to be smarter, more insightful and more skillful managers than I (or you, frankly.)

I think we can also agree that our tax code is a model of imprecision and complexity. Who among us is absolutely sure we have done everything right on our taxes? And the people we want in these incredibly intricate jobs are people who have already demonstrated and benefited from their unique skills and whose financial lives are much more complicated than ours anyway.

In all cases, these people are volunteering to take 24/7 jobs at less than half what they could be making in private life solely for the benefit of the rest of us. So, is it really productive to carp and whine about intricate and minor tax issues which, when they were made aware, these individuals resolved to the full extent of the law? In Nancy Killefer's case, my understanding is the amount at issue in the tax matter mentioned in the editorial was less than $1,000 and, of course, she paid it. We will get nowhere if, in addition to all of their credentials for the job, we also insist these people be perfect in all respects.

Richard Rosenthal

St. Charles