By Frances Matteck/editor-in-chief

Robert Reich, economic adviser to President Obama, has made some disturbing comments regarding his vision of how jobs created by the stimulus package should be distributed.

In January, he appeared before the House Democratic Caucus Steering and Policy Committee, where he said jobs created by the stimulus should not “simply go to high-skilled people who are already professionals or to white, male construction workers. ”

Reich said he doesn’t have anything against white, male construction workers, but that other people have needs as well.

Basically, he wants to award jobs to people based on skin color, gender and their socioeconomic status — everything but their qualifications.

Rather than focusing on who he thinks these jobs should go to, Reich should consider ways to keep them from going to illegal immigrants. That would certainly help our current unemployment woes.

In the meantime, Reich cannot justify reserving jobs created by the stimulus for people not qualified to do them.

Since we, our children and our grandchildren are paying for this stimulus package, we deserve to have our roads, bridges, levees and schools built by the person most able to do the job not someone who got it because of skin color or sex.

I don’t care what color or sex you are. If you have put in the work to become qualified for a job, then you deserve it.

“ I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Famous words by a noble man. Mr. Reich needs to take a page from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s book.

What happened to the American Dream? The dream where people could work hard and make better lives for themselves.

If we are going to start taking jobs that deserve to go to qualified people and giving them to people who haven’t earned them, then there is nothing for people to work for –— no promise of a better life to motivate them to put in the hard work.

No one is entitled to a job. It is something everyone has to work for, whether it is through school or on-the-job training. The work put in to overcome obstacles is what defines character.

Hopefully, Obama will keep Dr. King’s message in mind when he considers Reich’s image of our future.