Editor:
In Terry Crock’s recent letter, Yes, we need change: It’s called personal responsibility, he spoke of the change we need as taking greater personal responsibility. That is true always.
Terry backed this up by speaking of Americans who see the USA more as a land of entitlement than responsibility and mentioned folks who had bought homes they could not afford as an example of a group wanting a bailout.
So far, the folks who have been bailed out are big corporations and many of them.
Conservatives like to point to lazy welfare users and they do indeed exist but their costs often pale in comparison to big corporations who work the halls of Congress with their hands out while paying less taxes than they ever have which shifts the cost of running the government to folks like us.
The energy and defense industries are infamous for taking our tax monies, corporate welfare, while we focus on lazy individuals as the reason for welfare reform.
ExxonMobil, which posted the highest profit ever, still gets our tax money for “aid” in exploration.
The nuclear power industry would not exist without government welfare and who can forget the $600 Department of Defense toilet seats.
As a businessman who farms, raises our own food, and has 33 folks on the payroll, I am proud my tax money goes to help those less fortunate and I know some of that money is wasted.
Perhaps what we need more of is participation in our democracy to root out all government waste, while recognizing society has folks that simply can’t make it without a hand up.
Maybe greater citizen involvement in government is some of what Kennedy meant in his famous speech, and there are many ways to get involved — anything from school board and township meetings to state and federal government.
T. Lyle Ferderber
Saxonburg, Pa.
