A no-win situation

Dear Editor:

My name is Lucas Bowers, recently I had written an article entitled "A Veteran Feels Abandoned." Yesterday I read your article "Discouraged Americans Give Up on Finding Jobs."

I joined the military almost 10 years ago and I did so because I actually felt it was the right thing to do given the circumstances of the time. And for a time I found what many seek in life, a job that one enjoys going to. I actually did not feel as if I were going to work, rather going to my purpose of calling. And it was great.

Within the past year everything has fallen apart for me and a great many others. I myself have put in over 100 job applications, for everything from the police academy (still a potential) to as the writer of the aforementioned article said a telemarketer. All being met with no success. And this isn't a matter of myself and others not being qualified, rather too many applicants for too few jobs.

The government would have you believe that the unemployment rate is down, but we should consider those who have exhausted their unemployment claims and are no longer being counted, because (I being one of them) know this is a vast number. We are not lazy people, we are just 100 persons competing for 10 jobs. It's a no-win situation.

Being a veteran of two wars in my adult life I am no stranger to working hard for what I have or want. But I have lost most of what I had. And when it comes to what the federal government sequestering and furloughing those of us who are sworn to defend this nation from enemies both foreign and domestic it poses a very real quandary. One from which I have no answer, I only hope that those who are in my position of daily worry about providing the basic needs of life will eventually find something that they can live on and live with. And that by some act of magic the federal government will actually recognize how bad the average middle class American is doing. This is only my two cents but I hope someone listened.

Sincerely,

Lucas B. Bowers, Tamaqua