Cis-gender?
So much concern with body images and now a “cis-gendered woman?” (“Letter to the Editor: No room for transphobic language in Advocate,” March 5, 2015) People are exploring the age old question of, “Who am I?” Find yourself on the soul level. Try a course in meditation, perhaps Buddhism. As the Christian Bible states, “You must lose yourself in order to find yourself.”
Time to toss the tax code
Let us tip our hats to the politicians and public relations teams who dedicate their careers to presenting as normality a tax code that long ago should have been sent ot the crusher for the piece of Rube Goldberg junk it is.
It’s tax filing time. The newspapers and airwaves are full of helpful little reminders. All the good people at the Internal Revenue Service are eager to help you navigate all the necessary complexities, the infuriating inconsistencies, the undetectable pitfalls.
Watch out for criminal enterprises posing as tax preparers and scams promising huge refunds. File early. Pay your fair share.
To pay into the public coffers in support of public works that benefit all is a social good. The system that exists is a fair system, fair enough at any rate so that the tax-paying citizens can feel a part of the grand societal endeavor — to make the world safe for vulture capitalism.
The tax code is an abomination. Why do we put up with it?
Just below the amiable surface at the IRS lurks the frightening power to dismantle your life piece by piece. It can tap any source of income, seize any asset, to extract from you whatever it feels entitled to.
The chilling threats keep the citizens shackled in chains of absurdity while the politicians squander pallet-loads of cash on tin-pot dictators, wars of aggression, corporate welfare, and sterling compensation packages for themselves. Tax havens and loopholes are left in place as a service to the fat cats who fund their political campaigns.
The U.S. tax code is a microcosm of American society, As the tax code favors the wealthy and puts an onerous burden on people who must work for a living, so American society is torn apart by glaring inequalities.
In a just society the people would simply refuse to participate in a tax code that is nothing short of extortion. Then the change would come.
What are white people owed?
Editors Note: Comments on the Advocate’s site have been pouring in under the article, “The $5 Trillion Debt: Do white Americans owe their black neighbors for slavery?” Most comments argue that black people aren’t the only ones who struggle. Join the debate online at www.valleyadvocate.com.
Do whites who immigrated here after 1865 also owe money?
What about Hispanics?
Asians?
Do whites who can trace their lineage back to soldiers who fought for the Union owe money, too?
Are Oprah and Will Smith also going to get reparation checks?
How about blacks who moved here after 1865? They going to get money, too?
I’ve been called a teabagger, racist, sexist, homophobe quite a bit in the past few years simply because I’m white. How much money am I owed for this cultural hate?
