I am writing in response to the recent editorial written by Lance Hood in the May 28 edition of the Redmond Reporter.

While Mr. Hood may be a fine technology marketer, an economic analyst and historian he is not.

The Boston Tea Party was not a protest against taxation but rather one against a corrupt monopoly granted to the East India Company by the British government. Modern day Tea Partyists might wish to follow their lead and vent their anger against today’s corrupt and monopolistic corporations.

Mr. Hood asserts that “only half of U.S. wage earners paid taxes” in 2009. Really? Did tens of millions of Americans own no property? Pay no Social Security or Medicare taxes? Purchase no merchandise? Buy no gasoline, cigarettes, or alcohol? Not once go out for dinner or stay at a hotel? It is quite misleading and inaccurate to conflate Federal Income Tax with taxes as a whole.

Likewise, corporations and wealthy individuals seem to conveniently forget about the many direct and indirect benefits and tax breaks they enjoy at taxpayer expense. The great wealth disparity that has occurred in the last 30 years is real. To pooh pooh this with comments about “class warfare” is patronizing and betrays an Orwellian sense of reality.

Important discussions and debates should be had concerning local and national tax policies. These should begin with facts rather than sound bites.

Dan Lovitt, Redmond