When I went to school back in the ’60s to Roosevelt Jr. High, now the Williamsport Middle School. I had a teacher, Mr. Brown, we knew him as Farmer Brown because in summer he farmed and in winter he taught school. He either was a social studies or history teacher. At the start of the day he stood in front of the class. Then went to the windows and walked down, opening them. When he got to the back of the room, we all turned to him. He asked us all, “what did I just do?” We all mostly said, “You just opened the windows and let the heat out.” He said, “Exactly.” Then he went back to the front throwing play money out the windows and closing them. Once back in front of us, he said, “Now what did I do?” Again, we all said, “You just threw money out the window.” Again, he said, “Exactly.”

What he was getting at is when you leave school, get a job, your paycheck will have deductions. Let’s say Fed Tax, State Tax, Social Security, Medicare and of course school tax. Let’s focus on the school tax. Now let’s say you’re not married, no kids or your oldest kids are grown and they are still taking out school tax. Why?

Let me put it this way. You’re paying for your schooling a little at a time. It’s like an advancement and you pay until you no longer work or die. As for property tax, it goes until you die. Now-a-days, they tell you it’s for the kids in school. But they’ll pay for theirs when they are out of school.

Let’s say you rent and don’t pay property tax. When your landlord sends you a letter that rent is going up, why is that? It’s because his property tax on what he owns is increasing and you pay.

Another thing you learn in school is there are bodies of government – state Representatives, Senators and Congressmen. There are three freedoms: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Taxes and Freedom of Religion. But there’s no free speech if you say anything and they take it the wrong way. There is no freedom of taxes. We have more taxes on everything. There is no freedom of religion because religion is spelled singular, not plural, and we came here for Freedom of Christianity.

So when others come to the USA, live it our way, they shouldn’t try to change us. China and Japan.

Carl D. Barlet

Linden