Media wrong target

in firefighters case;

To the editor:

(Re: “Report on firefighters did no good for public,” Oct. 12)

I don’t feel better knowing the details of the autopsies of the two dead firemen. I feel outraged that Boston does nothing to keep drunks and cocaine users out of the fire department. All firemen and cops should be subject to random drug and alcohol tests. It’s an insult to the scores of honorable public safety workers that someone would be so cavalier with their professional responsibility and go on duty in an unfit condition. It’s a risk to citizens and colleagues alike.

It’s tragic that these men died and we should feel sympathy for their families and support them. We can’t turn their death into an antimedia crusade.

There is no heroism in drunks and drug addicts actively serving as firemen and responding to calls for help. We should force local governments to help firemen with drug and alcohol problems so they can continue to serve with honor.

Matthew Gannon

Norton

Record shows tax relief

always empty promise

To the editor:

Bob Bliss, a Massachusetts Department of Revenue spokesman, uses an unfortunate comparison when assuring us that the governor’s gambling sin-tax-based property tax reduction will be significant (“Homeowners to get break from casinos, officials claim,” Oct. 11). Mr. Bliss assures us that the property tax relief would amount to more than if the income tax were reduced from 5.3 to 5 percent.

Thanks for the reminder, Bob. Is this the temporary, 18-month tax increase that was imposed in 1989? (We must be in a time warp — that seems like an awfully long year and a half.) Is this the tax increase that was the target of a successful citizen ballot initiative requiring it to be rolled back to 5 percent? Is this the same tax increase that the Massachusetts General Court refuses to reduce in spite of the voters’ directive?

At this point, why should we believe anything we’re told about “tax relief” and how it might be achieved? In my opinion, the “temporary” income tax increase should finally be rescinded instead of this complicated gambling-property-tax

scheme. That might start to restore the government’s credibility when it comes to taxes. We might even begin to believe them if they claim they need to raise taxes for infrastructure maintenance.

But as things stand right now, the old maxim “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” is in full force.

Irwin Kraus

Attleboro