To the editor:

Concern for the common good is a part of our national fabric stretching back to 1620 when a sharing of goods was instituted by the Plymouth colony. Concern for the common good is also written into the preamble of the United States Constitution as a call to “promote the general welfare.”

In the Jewish and Christian faith traditions followed by a majority of Americans there is a prophetic call to help those in need and criticism directed toward those who accumulate wealth and power to the detriment of others.

Therefore, it is troubling to hear the McCain campaign claim that somehow it is a destructive policy to ask those in the top 5 percent income bracket — those earning over $250,000 annually — to pay 3 percent more in income taxes to help others while restoring a sense of fairness to the tax code. Those in the upper income bracket are the people who have benefitted the most from our political and economic system.

Senator Obama’s tax proposal would simply correct an earlier unrequested, undeserved, unnecessary and irresponsible tax cut provided the wealthiest among us. From those whom “much has been given, much is expected.”

This belief in a tax cut entitlement for the wealthiest Americans runs counter to the story of Zacchaeus, the wealthy chief tax collector who promised to return half his wealth to the poor and repay fourfold those whom he had defrauded. Zacchaeus’ pledge was made to one of history’s most famous socialists, Jesus of Nazareth, who said in regard to clothing the naked, feeding the hungry and providing shelter to the homeless “… when you do this unto the least of my brothers [sisters] you do this unto me.”

Dick Hall

Coupeville