Desktop Dynamo

We must remember where we came from... and where we are going!

I know I promised no more reassessment stories...but this post is...ummm...interesting.

I wrote a letter to the editor recently and sent it to the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. They printed it yesterday.

Since my mother-in-law's stroke back in April, I've become extremely aware of the vulnerability of some of our seniors. The gist of my letter was that seniors need to be protected during the current Luzerne County reassessment. At no point in my letter do I say that it's fine by me if anyone else loses their property. I focused strictly on the seniors, as I think they are especially vulnerable to a dramatic rise in property taxes.

So far I got one comment at the Times Leader site (feel free to leave your own feedback there...defend or bar-b-que me as you see fit):

"...All non-seniors can pay higher taxes or lose their homes, as long as the senior citizens are treated fairly, it's OK! Brillant!! Spoken like a true, lifelong, go into the voting booth and pull the big "D" lever, mindless democrat. You are the reason we have the three buffoons running the county and foisting this reassessment debacle on us all. We ALL deserve to be treated fairly, regardless of age." - SB

Lifelong, go into the voting booth and pull the big "D" lever, mindless Democrat?? Me??

Umm....I think the last Democrat I voted for was my Dad, Walter, when the local Harding Democrats strong-armed me for my vote many decades ago.

But I'm not sure if I actually pulled the lever for Wally. I might have voted Republican out of sheer spite if I was aggravated with him at the time. (Pretty much a 50-50 crapshoot there, as I was around 20. Dad and I were at loggerheads constantly back then!)

Well, I do agree with the last line SB wrote. We all deserve fair treatment. But I wrote the letter to bring seniors to the front burner. I consider them the most vulnerable. The tripwire for me was when I read an account of a local woman in her 80's facing higher property taxes who said: "...just take us out and shoot us." That has stayed with me every single day since I read it.

No, SB...I don't want anyone losing their homes. Not you. Not me. And certainly not your Grammy, who, by the way, just chucked that scarf she was knitting you for Christmas in the garbage.