not shy about taxes...

It may feel as though you're working real hard. If you are part of the vast majority of Americans you may be working very hard to make ends meet.

Conservatives say "It's your money, and you should decide how you spend it." That's a  simplistic line that resonates at the polling place.

In the wood shop, I use tools others have invented, techniques that I have learned from others, and materials that come as a gift from nature. When someone buys my work,  or commissions a new work, they set me in motion making more, and so we can take the wood shop as a microcosm of the larger word. All things are connected with all other things.

If you assume that the government is a hungry monster of evil intent, and a reflection of all the evil people who surround you that want to take your stuff, you might get angry about taxes and any effort to raise them. So these days, folks being as angry as they are, no one ever proposes a tax increase. quite the opposite is true. The accepted mantra is cut, cut, cut, and along with cut, cut, cut comes steep and relentless cuts in the services we provide for each other.

I propose a tax increase, and my proposal is based on a broader view of humanity. I watch closely, and what I've observed is that people spend a lot of time caring for and about each other. We gather together to do all kinds of things whether we get paid for it or not. My base assumption is that people are good, want to do good things (like caring for their kids) and that they sometimes need help.

If you get to know anyone in government, you would learn that almost without exception, they are caring folks just like you. Government is the tool through which caring people work to improve the lives of each other in ways that we would be incapable alone. We are each personally enriched when we assure that the needs of our fellow Americans and community members are met.

Our governments, local, state, and federal are empowered to do good and to fulfill our goals for a safe, sane and caring society only when adequate tax revenue is provided. We are talking specifically about schools, libraries, roads, health, safety, and national security, none of which would be available to us without adequate taxation. I oppose tax reductions for those who can most easily afford to pay for the security and health of our nation, those who have in turn received the largest share of benefits from the society and economy built through the enormous efforts of earlier generations and by those working right now.

Yesterday I made a wooden post card to be sold at ESSA's Incredible Edible Art Show. Various artists have been invited to make post cards to sell. My own (once again) is made of wood. I've yet to affix the stamp. This is my 3rd day of Spring Break. Yesterday we met with folks from A+ Schools to begin planning their fall Fellow's Retreat in which those who train teachers to utilize the arts in their classrooms. In the Fall Fellow's Retreat I will have the opportunity to teach Fellows to teach teachers to use woodworking in A+ schools.

Make, fix, create, and assist others in learning lifewise.