September 2005

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NOT FOR PROFIT?
I was surprised when I read the article “Who Makes What” [by Marcia Manna, July] and noticed a huge discrepancy in nonprofit salaries. In the section, you mention only five professionals, three of whom work for KPBS—and all make more than $100,000 a year. I have worked in the nonprofit sector for five years, and while there are many deserving professionals who are compensated accordingly, the majority is support staff, whose salaries are considerably lower than your article represents.

Unlike the other professional categories you profiled, where there was a wide variation of titles and compensation, nonprofit people employed below the executive level were not represented. By leaving those kinds of jobs out of your report, and only focusing on the executive level, you are misrepresenting the compensation of people who work in the nonprofit sector. This could have a huge backlash on donor support to many nonprofits that offer crucial services to San Diego and its citizens. Hopefully, next year you will take the time to look at more than three companies to represent an entire field.

KERI COPANS
SAN DIEGO

 

TODAY'S LESSON
This is in response to the letter to the editor from Anne Hendershott [July], who took issue with your outstanding article on the local Roman Catholic diocese and Bishop Robert Brom [“A Church Divided” by s.d. liddick, June]:

Until I read your letter, Anne, my definition of hypocrisy, I now know, was far too narrow. You have enlightened me. You stated that Bishop Brom acted on principle. Really? Could it not be that the real issue was not homosexuality but rather obfuscation? But what does my church have to hide? Let me think.

The “culture of death”—your words, I believe. Tell me, how many young men blew their brains out because of guilt and remorse after having been raped by a vicar of Christ? Hundreds?

How many Catholics have left the church in the U.S. and Europe during the past 10 years? Thousands? Tens of thousands?

How many parishes have been closed during the past 10 years? Fifty? A hundred?

How many churches have filed bankruptcy during the past 10 years? Twenty? Thirty? Fifty?

What good could have been accomplished with the $1 billion that was paid as a result of child molesters serving as priests? Untold good.

And how many molesters were allowed back into the confessional, the confessional, to forgive or retain sins with the church’s full knowledge of their terrible actions? Most of them!

Bishop Brom is busy spinning to divert attention from this sinful behavior. But he is a minor player. Joseph Ratzinger, who had total and complete control over these terrible sins, not only avoided blame, he became Pope. And speaking of the Pope, the person who could have stopped the pain years ago, who should have defrocked priests, who allowed young boys to have their minds destroyed, who should have been outraged. This evil person will now become a saint? And what did he do about what’s happening to nuns?

Once again, thank you, Anne, for helping me to better understand hypocrisy. I’m a lifelong Catholic who spent 10 years in parochial school, was an altar boy and had an aunt who was a nun. I say shame on Bishop Brom, shame on Cardinal Ratzinger, shame on Pope John Paul, and shame on you.

JUSTIN ZIMACK
VISTA

 

TAXING SITUATION
Leo Hamel’s dedication to the sales tax idea is “menu thinking” [“Tax Revolt” by Larry Edwards, Business, August]. A better reason to replace the income tax will come from thinking without the menu of ideas on the table— to think “outside the box.”

Even though I am one who would gain tremendously from a national sales tax in place of income taxes because I buy very little, I reject a sales tax and accept the “Ridgeway Solution”: Reverse the flow of taxes. We need to eliminate the federal relationship with the individual citizen; a national sales tax would not do that. We need to terminate the IRS and eliminate 99 percent of present paperwork, but this way: The U.S. Treasurer should bill the states for their share of the national budget, the states have counties collect the federal and state taxes after adding their own, and the citizen would pay a single tax to a single collector. The counties would keep their shares, support their cities, forward the balance to the state, which would keep its share and forward the balance to the U.S. Treasurer, electronically. (Cities should not be incorporated, with full governments and their own taxes.)

No one would be able to avoid paying the tax unless they skipped out on the rent. Every rental and mortgage-paid home would be taxed as if mortgaged with no other tax to individuals. Business entities as taxpayers could be taxed by states differently, at their discretion.

Never mind the mechanics; that would be easy. Any replacement system would have to be transitioned over years. A sales tax is a way, but not the best way; I think a domicile tax is.

SAL GRITZ
ESCONDIDO 

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