Security for IRS, schools

If you visit the Cape IRS office, the first thing you must do is submit to an interrogation by a security guard. Even if you only want to pick up some forms by the front door, you must first listen to the guard and answer his questions. If you have so much as a pen knife, you must leave without taking any forms, and you can�t return until you get rid of the knife. If the guard is not present, the office is closed to the public.

Now, all of that is okay. Security is important. A full-time, probably $40,000 a year guard seems a little much for such a small office, but that�s not for me to say. What I find kind of strange is that we pay for the guard at the IRS office, yet we have thousands of kids going to schools without security guards. I want the three or so workers at the IRS office to be safe, but what about the kids?

Last year, when I went to the IRS office to get forms, the guard just sat there. So I was a little taken aback when he questioned me this year. But I got over it. He was just doing his job. However, I wish we could move him to a school. The kids might be a little safe and I could get my tax forms, no questions asked.

GARY L. GAINES, Cape Girardeau