Do you know how great it feels to earn money again? Today I deposited a paycheck for the first time in four months. An honest to gosh paycheck with taxes taken out and everything! Since it was a bi-monthly check, it was quite a decent amount, enough to make my mortgage payment for the first time since May. Over six hundred was taking out for Federal taxes and almost three hundred each for state taxes and social security, but you know what? I didn't care. I'll be getting some of that money back come tax time in April, and it feels good to be able to contribute something again. Even if it means paying taxes.
You see, the way I look at it, we have a certain social responsibility that can not be ignored or be made to sound like too big a burden for others to bear. It's not morally right, to call for less government, when less means more distress for the less fortunate among ourselves. And who are these people calling for less government, the ones who are making all the money? The ones in the back pockets of corporations and lobbyists and bigots and religious zealots? The one's who have multiple homes and fly around in private jets and shop in high end boutiques? Does that feel right to you?
I believe we ARE responsible for providing for the poor and needy and especially for other hard working Americans who have been punished by the greedy, who sent our jobs overseas in order to make a buck. I believe that excessive CEO bonuses are a crime; the stock market is nothing but legalized gambling for the elite, and that laying off workers and making one person do the job of three, while making enormous corporate profits, is a form of economic slavery.
I want to thank my family for having taught me the difference between right and wrong, between wealth and greed. I want to thank the planets Jupiter and Saturn for being in the right alignment for my money to start flowing again. I would like to thank the House and Senate for belatedly extending unemployment benefits for the millions of long term unemployed. I would like to thank the former employer who rescued me from amongst the ranks of the unemployed, and gave me a new and challenging assignment so that I can contribute something to the world again, be rewarded with a paycheck, and pay taxes to help those who can't work and those who are still looking for a job.
