Why is Congress not setting up an investigation of the Panama Papers, and most importantly, why is the media and thepublic not demanding an investigation?

Why did it take investigative work on the part of foreign media to even uncover this massive scandal and to take the lead inreporting to the world how pervasive it is?

I am 75 years old and have contributed to the tax system since I was 15 years old. Since then, I have paid taxes withouthesitation.

Even now in retirement, I file each year paying a higher percentage of income in taxes than many billionaires andcorporations, in spite of not getting a raise in retirement income. Plus I have seen, since the financial crisis of 2008, thebanks pay near zero on accounts.

Am I angry — you bet I am because I and millions of hard-working Americans have been taken for fools starting withRonald Regan’s so-called supply side economics and the changing of government policies to benefit the rich at the expenseof 90 percent of hard-working Americans.

We then allowed George W. Bush to take the country to war, stealing trillions more of our income and handing it over tobillionaires who we now know have parked it in such places as Panama.

I am also angry because as an African American I have had to work and fight a lot harder for my success in life. I have hadto suffer many insults including being pulled over while driving and being charged higher interest rates when buying a placeto live, as well as having to put up with the system ignoring my concerns.

I am insulted that blacks are expected to fight for a country that treats foreigners with more respect and have done moreover the decades to ensure the assimilation of immigrates who are not black.

I am angry about all the laws that have been passed since the Civil War to keep formal slaves from being integrated intosociety as full citizens.

I am angry that even now laws are passed, which are then only enforced against blacks, such as the so-called war ondrugs, with the specific goal of giving black men and women police records to prevent them from voting. You can be surethat North Carolina’s law allowing police to issue tickets for drivers exceeding the speed limit by one mile will be enforcedmainly against black drivers. I am angry that America finds it necessary to arm its police as if they were an occupying forceand not peace offers earning the respect of the communities they police.

What is also an insult is that people can claim sexual abuse going by decades and be awarded tens of million of dollars, yetpeople who have suffered abuse and even loss of livelihood and even liberty all their lives because of the color of their skinfor the vast majority of cases receive nothing. Suffering from discrimination all one’s life because of the color of one’s skinis the worst tragedy anyone can suffer.

The evidence of this can be found in neighborhoods like south side Chicago and cities like Flint, Michigan.

American laws are not just targeted towards keeping blacks in their place but we have and continue to see laws passed tomake it difficult for people who were born LGBT to make a living and achieve the American dream.

Politicians are using religion as a cover to discriminate against LGBT people, ignoring completely the separation of churchand state clause in the Constitution.

There is a continuing war against women having the right to choose what is best for their health when it comes to thechoice of having a baby or not. The country continues to ignore the needs of the mentally ill and those who are homeless.

America is now well over 200 years old and it’s time to ask why a country as rich in resources as America still has majorproblems in regards to poverty, racism, lack of health care and a failing education system. Could the clue as to why we arein such deep trouble with inequality, etc. reaching levels not seen before lies in the “Panama Papers”?

George Whitaker

Bellevue