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Do the public a favor

WELDON C. COHICK

Linden

This concerns the check I received from American Power and Gas Holdings in Seminole, Fla., which was a rebate from Pennsylvania Power and Light Co. This rebate check for $5.95 was paid to me because we were somehow overcharged by PPL over time. I have paid 50 cents a month for postage to mail my electric bill every year, which amounts to $6 per year.

I am not a complainer, I am an 86-year-old Korean War Veteran and retiree trying to live on a monthly Social Security check, which was computed by the income that I started working for in 1951 when I entered the military during the war.

My yearly income was around $1,000 with a small increase that followed if one received a promotion. Upon being discharged in 1955, the starting wage in this area was $1 an hour.

Today, a one-pound bag of Martin’s Potato Chips costs $8.

A gallon of gasoline was selling for 29 cents a gallon.

Today, it costs $50 just to fill the gas tank on most vehicles. I must warn everyone in this day and age to be a little skeptical about endorsing these rebate checks for $5 or $6, because it could throw one into a higher income bracket and cost the one who cashes it more money than what the check was worth.

We retired senior citizens are still using our Social Security checks to pay school taxes and property taxes so the overpaid school teachers and our elected officials can live high on the hog while we retired senior citizens try surviving on what little is left after we pay $500 or $600 dollars a month for heating oil which is now priced at $3.35 a gallon.

All retired senior citizens’ homes in our state do not receive two Social Security checks every month. Only half of them do.

The other half must survive on a single Social Security check. If our elected officials and all others who are instrumental in establishing local, state and federal laws and policies are unwilling or incapable of correcting some wrongdoings, then they should do the public a favor and resign.

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