Class, today’s topic will be “Hypocrisy in the Light of Fact.”

Item 1:

Hypocrisy: Governor Carcieri’s position is that the state needs to bring Rhode Island employee benefits, including pensions, “back in line” with what private-sector workers get.

Fact: Governor Carcieri in his financial filing for office acknowledges a pension from his former employer, Cookson America, of at least $200,000.

Item 2:

Hypocrisy: Governor Carcieri insisted that teachers with less than 29 years of service should wait until age 65 to draw full retirement benefits based on their years of service.

Fact: Don Carcieri retired from Cookson America at age 55. He had been with the company 14 years.

Item 3:

Hypocrisy: Governor Carcieri claims that private-sector executive compensation does not affect the public since private workers are not paid with public funds.

Fact: Unless Cookson America had a printing press in the basement where it turned out greenbacks, all funds eventually come from the citizenry as a cost of day-to-day business. The obscene compensation packages for oil executives, for example, translate into a price rise at the pump when we fill our tanks.

Our state is being led by an individual who says one thing and does another. He is vehemently pro-life, then cuts health care for lower-income families. He says the tax burden on the middle class is too great but won’t hear of increasing the tax rate for those with higher incomes.

His mantra is that higher taxes will drive people out of this state. I have lived in several countries and several states during my career in the military. I chose to move to Rhode Island because of the quality of life I saw here. I want to live in a state that takes care of its citizens, especially children and the elderly.

When I was retiring from the military I could have chosen to live anywhere in the country.

I chose to live here in Rhode Island.

To those who would move in order to save a couple of bucks, I say, “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

JAMES P. HAGAN

Bristol