Be thankful for those who collect pensions

Recently, after reading Bob Dwiel's lament on being forced to pay for the pensions of public service workers, I thought to myself, "Bob, why on earth would you want to punish those who have selflessly passed up jobs in the more profitable private sector in order to make sure that you were provided with fire protection, the ability to read, write and do arithmetic, governing bodies to pass fair laws, and a place to hike, bike, or have a picnic?"

As a retired teacher, unable to receive Social Security, I rely on my pension to make ends meet - a pension fund that I have made contributions to, and one that took the same hit as yours when the market tanked.

Bob's letter is just another example of the growing contempt I see Americans expressing for other Americans. The overlying theme of these letters is always, "What's fair is fair," but you can just as easily read the almighty dollar and greed written in between the lines. For example, I read another letter written by Patricia Dobbs who advocated that crybaby teacher's salaries be cut by 20 percent. Do you think Patricia ever took into account that to become a teacher you spend $100,000 for a college degree, and you work a semester after graduation as an unpaid student teacher?

Fellow Americans, we should be all thanking God that there are people willing to take up jobs in the public sector to provide for the betterment of all, and we should use that free public school education of ours to read up on how greed was a contributing factor to the Crash of '29 and the Great Depression, and how Americans gladly sacrificed for each other during World War II to pursue a united cause.

James J. Paskiewicz

Algonquin