Letters
Letters to the editor
Highlands Today
Published: January 19, 2013
Residency requirementPublished: January 19, 2013
Avon Park has a new commissioner and a former mayor who would rather exhibit petty parochialism and public personal attacks on the city manager than deal with issues important to the city.
Highlands Today was right on supporting the elimination of residency requirements from Mr. Deleon's contract and for stating that Mr. Anderson was out of line in asking for his real estate holdings.
I would hope that Mr. Anderson has filed his "Statement of Financial Interests" (Form 1) which he is required to do when qualifying for election and every year thereafter. This, of course, includes real estate holdings and is a matter of public record. It's referred to as a Public Disclosure Form. It's the same form Mr. Deleon files every year, which the state website indicates he has done as required in 2012.
As for Mr. Macklin, maybe he should just mind his own business.
John Booth
Avon Park
Social Security
When did Social Security become such a political football? Years ago, Social Security was implemented as a safety net for us working Americans who spent a lifetime working their lives away and dutifully paying taxes.
The reasons why Social Security will disappear in 20 years are many. First of all, sticky-fingered politicians have stolen money from it to pay for wars. Secondly, there are people on Social Security who have never paid a penny into it, have no right to it or have any business being on it. They are stealing it from people like me, who have spent our lifetimes paying into the system.
I have been paying taxes for 50 years and still am, and have yet to get anything for my tax money. In my lifetime, I have illnesses and had periods of unemployment, yet the government has never once been there for me. Since I am a childless widower, I pay the taxes family people don't pay and corporations like Apple don't pay. I have extra tax money taken out of my pay annually and I still have to pay more money into the IRS every year. People like me pay for the people who pay little to nothing into the system, yet they get all the benefits from it.
Clueless Americans young and old alike are sending American jobs and money overseas that won't be paying for American Social Security but will be enhancing retirements for citizens of foreign countries. Let's wake up out there.
Lastly, I watched a CEO of a bailed out mortgage lender (I didn't get his name) say in an interview on PBS that American workers don't deserve Social Security. But I guess it's okay for us taxpayers to bail him out? Our brave forefathers fought against the British because of unfair taxation. Things haven't changed much, have they?
Jerry Nargelovic
Sebring