LETTER: All Americans need some assistance

To the Editor:

I would just like to mention something to you Republican business owners who took offense to President Obama saying “You didn’t build that by yourself.”

First of all I think most of you do understand that those words were taken out of context. I emphasize the word most, because I’m sure there are some folks out there who want to believe all the negative ads about our president.

I understand. I know that old irrational prejudices are hard to kill. I know that those of you who listened to the entire speech know what the president meant.

We all, at some time during our lives, use and need government services. If you used a government loan to start up your business, if you went to a public high school, if you went to a public trade school, if police and fire departments protected your business, if you used public highways to get the equipment to build your business or to ship your product, if a soldier on some foreign battlefield, fought and perhaps gave the ultimate sacrifice, so you could build your business in a free country.

If any of these things somehow made your business possible or made things easier for your business to prosper, then you would have to admit, that probably you did have some help. Might have been a little or maybe a lot, but no, most of us don’t do anything completely on our own.

John Wilson

Star Prairie

Tags: letters to the editor, opinion