Editor,
Both presidential candidate Mitt Romney and I have been fortunate in life. I was born into a family that had income near the poverty line, but it was during a time when I was able to earn enough money working evenings, weekends and summers to pay for my college tuition and graduate from college, and even go to graduate school.
Then I enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean conflict, because I believed that conflict was necessary, and was able to take advantage of the GI Bill to return to college and gain enough additional education to become employed in the data-processing field when it was just coming into being. By applying what I had learned and continuing to learn, I soon became a “valued employee” and was paid a salary that would have seemed very low to Romney, but was more than I ever thought I would be earning.
And today, while far from being wealthy, I have more than enough to provide me with all my basic needs and a little left over to help those less fortunate than me.
It appears that Romney was also fortunate; he was born into a family that was able to provide him a high level of education and enough money to not really have to work, as I had to, but to make a great deal of money by taking advantage of the work other people performed. If I am wrong about that, I invite Romney to inform me of how I am wrong.
Today, I want to see young people be able to become well-educated and obtain well-paying jobs, as I was able to, regardless of the amount of money their families have. In simple terms, fellow citizens of America, President Obama seems to share that desire with me and Romney does not.
Robert Gardiner
Daily Lobo reader
