"Paying Colunteers- Huh?"

Dear Editor,

There are lots of volunteers in the Quad Cities area, who will be surprised to learn that they can get paid! April 8, 2009, The Times Record, p.A4, reprinted a story about paying volunteers. The Serve America Act, $6 billion dollars over five years, will pay people to do volunteer service- $5,350 for college-age volunteers and $500 for middle and high school age volunteers. Now we all know the Serve America Act volunteers are not volunteers.

All Quad Cities area volunteers know they do not get paid. That is why they are called volunteers. Volunteers do voluntary service, not paid service. This Serve America Act, which includes AmeriCorps, is simply more paid government workers. This federal program is a $6 billion dollar masquerade, a disguise, a fraud brought to us by our politicians.

Washington thinks we are so dumb we cannot tell the difference between volunteers and paid government workers. And then again, maybe our Washington politicians do not know the difference. If so, they need to be removed as quickly as possible.

Grace and Peace,

Dorothy W. Rettig