In hiring, younger workers preferred
Phillip Buonpastore’s commentary, describing tech companies’ unwillingness to hire older workers, hits the nail on the head (“Shortchanged,” Opinion, Dec. 15). When I relocated to Atlanta, I applied for thousands of jobs and found the “thanks-but-no-thanks” attitude from companies. I then deleted my military service and all employment from my work history prior to my college education. I was suddenly getting responses, interviews and offers.
My experience and skill sets remained unchanged, as did my enthusiasm and appearance. Only my implicit age, based on my résumé, changed to an assumed younger me. I maintain a crisp, well-groomed appearance and enthusiasm for the job that exceeds some of my younger peers. These traits are also noticeable among workers in my age group. Buonpastore has pointed out a very real issue of the hypocrisy demonstrated by most companies that claim the need for “skilled” workers when in fact, they want “younger” or “foreign” workers.
DEAN HEINZ, JOHNS CREEK
Add-ons shouldn’t be in spending bill
The recent spending bill passed by Congress included a number of add-ons unrelated to running the government. All those I have seen could have been dealt with in another session, and none of them were urgent. I would propose that any future spending bills include only the budgets for running the departments, and that no add-ons be allowed that do not pertain to those costs. There are plenty of other opportunities for our senators and representatives to add their pet projects to bills. Let’s keep our spending clean and untethered to any special interests or campaign contributors.
SANDRA HORAN, ROSWELL
Democrats went along with torture
Most of the articles and op-eds I have seen on the Senate Democrats’ investigation into the alleged torture of captured Muslim suspects following the 9/11 attacks are incomplete. They do not note that the Bush administration regularly brought Democratic and Republican congressional leaders in to be briefed by the CIA and Justice Department on the progress of the interrogations and the methods being used to obtain information. Rep. Nancy Pelosi was always included and voted to support the techniques being used to learn what the Islamists were planning. Unfortunately, there was nothing bipartisan about this report. Further, based on the Democrats’ current position, which denies their past support of the interrogations, it is pure hypocrisy.
ROBERT L. WICHTERMAN SR., POWDER SPRINGS
With Cheney, your liberal bias shows
The “above the fold” article on Dick Cheney’s interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” by Scott Shane of the New York Times (“Cheney: I would do it again,” News, Dec. 15) was misplaced in your paper. Shane’s assertion in the last sentence of his article that Chaney was motivated by a long-held belief that past restrictions on the CIA were ill advised, and that he relished a chance to do something about it, constitutes an opinion by Shane. His article should be on the AJC’s Opinion page in the “From the Left” section. Just another example of the NY Times’ and, by extension, the AJC’s liberal bias.
TERRY SCOTT, BUFORD
