Letter to the editor
I have enjoyed Milt Zall's column in the past. However, his recent intervention
against pay raises for the military was apparently ill-informed because
he equated military and civil service work conditions as a basis for equal
increments, and thus unwelcome.
His column of May 21, 2001, "Equal raises for all," was abusive in alleging that military personnel
claimed "that military personnel walk on water and deserve higher pay."
He provides no quotations to substantiate such inflammatory assertions.
The quotations he cites from letters seem to be reasonably calm statements
from military personnel that their working conditions are tough for them
and their families.
The abusive comments were unwarranted, and an apology is in order. If he
is unable to frame a publishable apology, I recommend that he be reassigned
to topics where his lack of military knowledge and apparent lack of sound
judgment are irrelevant
For your information, I still do not recall with fondness the years when
civil servants doing the same work as I was were making roughly twice as
much in aggregate pay, including housing and other allowances. And they
often received large annual percentage pay increases. Where was Mr. Zall's
call for equal pay then?
Name withheld upon request