Your opinion page cartoon in the March 21 edition was yet another tired reiteration of the old Tea Party mantra: why pay for services that don’t directly benefit me? The answer is so obvious it’s almost laughable.

We all pay for services that do not directly benefit us. We pay for sewers we don’t use, for roads we don’t drive upon, for schools our children don’t attend, for water we don’t drink and for police and fire protection we hope never to need.

Why? Because we all want to live in a civilized society where the greater good is respected, where our families can flourish, and where everyone is safe and secure. If anyone doesn’t see the benefit of such a system, perhaps they should just purchase a ticket and go pay a visit to one of the many Third World nations without such benefits. You’ll see first-hand the sad results of unbridled self-interest.

Rebekah Alpisa, Bellevue