RICH: Criticism a poor excuse

I've been seeing a lot of mail, articles etc., playing a very familiar liberal theme: Extreme antagonism almost to the point of hatred toward the wealthy.

"Tax breaks for the rich" is one of their most popular myths. (Incidentally, so far no one has responded to my earlier challenge to tell me one tax break the rich got that the rest of us didn't. "Tax break for the rich" is liberal doublespeak for "the rich didn't get hit with two or three or more times the percentage tax than we got.")

Therefore let me present these misguided liberals with a new challenge. Put on your oldest, well-worn clothing and go, tin cup in hand, to Duane Hagadone's door and when he answers your knock look your most pitiable and with tears streaming down your cheeks plead with him to give you a big chunk of his money. After all, you'll tell him, "The fates weren't as kind to me as they were to you and I didn't get the tax breaks you got (a big lie but an essential part of the liberal scenario) so share your wealth with me."

If you don't have the guts to do that, if you're too ashamed, then quit asking the government to do it for you while you hide in the bushes lest, as I said once before, you be seen in your shame. I mean, how dare these meanies accumulate more money than I! How dare they succeed where I have failed! Or even, how dare they have good luck where I've had bad! Just who do they think they are? (And, while you're at it, prepare a letter of thanks to the wealthy for bearing a far, far larger part of the tax burden than you or I. Your eagerness to jump on their backs for a free ride makes me sick. For the record they do indeed have a moral obligation to help the needy but that is a personal obligation. To make it a legal one with penalties is disgusting.)

PHIL MEMBURY

Coeur d'Alene