To the Editor:

I recently read the letter (“A tax whose time has come,” June 24) from your “reader” Paul Jaehnert in Vadnais Heights, Minn.

First of all, do you actually send him a copy of The Tidewater News on a regular basis? I suspect that he has a particular agenda, typed a letter and e-mailed it to every publication in the United States. Surely you receive enough letters to the editor from local folks who are actual readers not to have to print something from somewhere like Vadnais Heights, Minn. (pop. 12,302).

Secondly, his proposal is ridiculous. Tax each securities transaction to take the money from people who try to support the United States by investing — he calls them Wall Street speculators — and handing it over to “ the government?”

We’ve seen what good stewards they are with the taxpayers’ money. I would venture to guess that Mr. Jaehnert doesn’t own many securities. His is the old and worn story of “tax you and fund my project.”

I don’t criticize his idea — there are a lot of conflicting ideas out there — as much as I criticize your selection of his letter from outer space to publish under the subtitle “Our readers put their opinions in writing.”

Holt Livesay
Franklin