Letter to the editor

My application for unemployment has been approved. The basis for the approval was my former employer’s (Adventist Health Mendocino Coast) unwillingness to deal with my complaint of a “hostile work environment” at the medical clinic. I pondered then, as I ponder now, about the Adventist Health Mission statement — “Living God’s love by inspiring, wholeness and hope.” that Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2017 and 2018 by reporting millions more in losses than earnings for several of his properties. Compare Trump’s miniscule filings with the average tax filer paying about $12,200, about 16 times more than the One-Percenter multibillionaire.

Our former Congressman Mike Thompson, who now represents another district, more or less summed up the disgusting tax disclosure clown show by saying, “The idea that somebody is making millions of dollars and can get away without paying their taxes by avoiding — in an unprecedented way — their tax liability, while single moms who are trying to take care of their kids are being audited, is absolutely unacceptable.”

Here’s a hot tip for Thompson: Trump is not the only rich-beyond-your-dreams tax cheater eluding their moral — if not legal — obligation to pay their fair share of taxes.

Turn your steely gaze on them also, Mr. Congressman.

Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, observer@pacific. net, the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District, and is also chairman of the Laytonville Area Municipal Advisory Council. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org