Dear Governor Romney, I am a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University, an HBCU, not an Ivy League school as you

attended. I attained a degree in Engineering Physics, fulfilling my parents dreams of lifting myself up from humble beginnings to the middle class. I served my country as an Air Force Officer - Communications/Computer Systems - and worked in the following positions in the semiconductor industry: process engineering, device engineering, manufacturing engineering, operations engineering; product engineering. I performed an experiment that rid one of our manufacturing processes of CFCs that both helped the environment and increased throughput at our Poly Silicon Gate Etch process increasing profit. I was co-author on a paper delivered at an industry Analytical Technology Symposium titled: Optimizing Phosphine Doped Tetra Ethyl Ortho Silicate Final Passivation in MOS Technologies. It employed a central-composite experimental design using JMP software. August 26, 2003 I was laid off from my high tech company in Austin, Texas. It was coincidentally, the 4th year anniversary of my fathers death and the fourteenth round of downsizing that year. For my service to industry, I was giving a severance totaling what would have been nine months of an annual salary. Post that, I could apply for expensive Cobra. For a time, we had no health care insurance. Doctors visits were measured and out-of-pocket. During this time, I worked in a warehouse for UPS as temp manual labor. I worked from 3 9 AM Monday Friday. I made $6.52 per hour with a physics degree. Unemployment insurance: heres a math problem - $1,368.00 per month; $1,500.00 mortgage. You do the math. By the way: thats a FULL check, it was usually minus the $6.52 per hour x 30 hours per week. Working didnt get me ahead. I surely didnt wait around for my government check. I stopped counting resume submissions on Career Builder, Indeed, LinkedIn: at 1,500. I pretty much saturated the job hunting market at the time. I audited a class in Data Analysis at the University of Texas in the Astrophysics Department. I was a graduate student there for a time. Ive worked selling security systems, mostly door-to-door, cold calling, setting up appointments, doing demonstrations in-house, etc. Not exactly what a Myers-Briggs INTJ type is talented to do. I did teach high school math and physics for a time, inspired by one of my clients - now fast friends. Teaching was always exciting, fun and I sincerely hope I had a positive effect. Oh yes: to feed my family, I had to go on government assistance for the first time in my life. Interesting since, in spite my beginnings east of US 52 in Winston-Salem, NC my family was never on food stamps. For the record: one's dietary choices are limited, thus your health suffers when you are limited by a budget. But to feed my family, its what I had to do. Its not what I ever imagined myself doing nor did I want to stay there. Im back in the semiconductor industry, after eight years of scraping by, getting caught up with my mortgage finally, moving to New York and living apart temporarily from my family. There was question as to whether my youngest child could attend college (or my wife and I afford it). I am taking graduate classes in Nanotechnology/Microelectronics.

Some questions for you: What about the above sounds like a leech or "lazy" to you? Are soldiers, retirees; the elderly and veterans part of the 47%? What the hell is trickle-down government? Are you proposing trickle-down economics a view popularized and [now] disavowed by David Stockton is a good idea? 5. If you cant hold positions from [previously] publically recorded statements HOW will you function effectively as head-of-state? 1. 2. 3. 4. Lastly: Life is far better for my family than it was four years ago, and I am registered to vote.