Your Tax Dollars At Work

I put a post on my Face Book page the other day and boy did I stir the stink pot with it. The original post was this:

"Some of you might think I am being an ass, but why do We...The U.S. have to lead the efforts to save Haiti again? Where is the all mighty U.N.? Sure it is a sad thing what happened to then, but it is also sad for all those is Humboldt county California. They are going through a similar thing and no fund raisers for them."

And with that came the comments. Which is why I post to Face Book. I speak my mind and others follow suit. Sometimes with me, sometimes against me, and on some rare occasions with and against at the same time. If I get a good thread going I will paraphrase and post it on my blog. In this case there were too many good points to just paraphrase a blog post, so I am putting the good stuff together in order as best I can, and sharing it with all of you.

After the original post I left for work and came back to a couple of my FB friends just going at each other. That was not my intent, but it was a healthy exchange. Both of them were able to speak up and say their piece, and are still doing so as I write this piece. CMH started off with:

"I understand what you are saying completely, however there is no place in America where people are enduring what the Haitians are. It is the humanitarian thing to do, that's all. Those are the things that make Americans set apart from others. We have soup kitchens and housing across our nation, granted not enough, but many homeless choose to not participate in those offerings. I am proud of America in their efforts."

and,

"not making efforts to help them is not humane. If we had family or friends in Haiti we would not feel so strongly against the efforts. They need food and water and Meds.. New diseases could start and get very devastating over there and they would make their way to the US. We certainly don't need that either. "

Had I been able to post right then I would have replied; I am not against efforts to aid them. I am against MY tax dollars going there and not staying here. As I mentioned in the original post there was a 6.5 earthquake in Humboldt county just days before the one in Haiti. No one came rushing to help them and they live right here. At first word in the global media of the Haiti quake, half of Hollywood gathered millions of dollars and rushed half way across the world to help. Where were they three days earlier when people in their own state were devastated by an earthquake only .5 less than the Haiti quake?

ST was available to comment and said:

"I'm sorry if this offends, but, no hungry people choose to starve, no sick people choose to have no medicines, no homeless people choose to live on the street. It is circumstances whether illness, poor luck etc. that cause huge amounts of people in the united states to suffer. I understand where you are coming from Robbie about Haiti, we give because we as a people are humanitarian but we also turn a blind eye to those who suffer across our own country...when you give to those who starve here you don't get the tax breaks either. There is always an underlining selfishness that comes with the generosity of Americans. ..... In my opinion yes we should help Haiti, but also we should allow the UN to run it, that is what they are for!" From there it turned into a battle between CMS and ST about the homeless. In the midst of that feud a few others chimed in about the Haiti thing.

TD said: "I asked the same question this morning... My son and I talked about it this afternoon... it seems to me that with the economy the way it is and the state of our county we would be worried more about the US... although it is a terrible what happened over there, this Country is in serious trouble also and we should be focused here..."

BC wrote: "I've been wondering this for two days. Did someone forget about hungry Americans?"

and JB wrote: "I wonder that every time I see the foreign aid budget. Why send billions to other countries with all the "needy" here at home?"

It seems to me there was quite a bit of anger in the thread. Most of it misplaced. We should not be angry with each other, but more so at the people who cause our passions to rare up in this way. And that is the key word here...passion. We are all very passionate about our point of view, and rightly so. But there is no need to turn on each other. This turned into a "Homeless" issue, and this is not just about homeless adults that standing around a burn barrel smoking and drinking. This is about displaced families all over the country that are cast aside and looked over to feed and rebuild other countries. It is about children without parents who scrounge for food in an alley behind a restaurant, it is about men who returned home from a war to have their country turn away from them, it is about women who have turned to prostitution in order to eat and/or feed their children, the old man with Alzheimer's who doesn't know why he is there.

There are a lot of homeless folks who want to be out there. Whether they are protesting in some way or just can't handle civilized life any more, they just want to be left alone. BUT, for those who are packed into shelters who DON'T want to be there, they are the ones in need of our humanitarian aid. They are not out in the intersection pan handling, they are not begging for money, they are searching for ways to get back on their feet. They WANT to work. They WANT to earn a living and pay their own way and support their families. SO, where is the George Clooney telethon for them? Where are the PBS infomercial explaining their plight? It is plain to see that our government run media outlets are not showing those stories. Granted it is not world news, but it should be in the public eye and, in my opinion the media and the government are to blame for that.

Humanitarian aid is a good thing, don't get me wrong. But look at it like this; If you are on hard times and work is slow and you or your spouse is out of work. With each paycheck you fall a little deeper in debt, but you are still managing to keep your head above water...barely. Now, someone you know from work or a neighbor from down the street asks you for a hundred bucks...what do you tell them? They are not family or a close friend, just someone you know. You know they need it, and you want to help...what do you do? I know what I would do...I would look them right in the eyes and tell them the truth. Tell them "I want to help you, but I just can't afford it right now!" Now, take a look at our U.S. economy and imagine the Haiti and everyone else that "expects" the U.S. to come running to them with handfuls of cash and free labor is that person asking for money you worked hard for or saved to pay bills with. We just need to tell them "Sorry, we just can't afford it right now"

Now, about giving away money, food, building materials, etc.. I have no problem with people giving money and aid to Haiti. I do have a problem the government giving MY money to them. Charitable giving should be up to the individual. I should have a say where MY charitable dollars go. All of these "freebies" that are heading for Haiti are coming out of my pocket, and I was not asked if I wanted my charitable dollar going to Haiti. Can I write that off as a charitable donation when I file my taxes this year?

The government should not be telling us who gets our tax dollar. I say that we should be able to dictate where each of our own tax dollars go. When we file our taxes each year we should get a check off sheet with a list of where taxes need to go. With that, a number or percentage of our income that we owe in taxes. From there WE check the boxes from the list where we want each of our dollars to go. That way everyone pays there taxes and no one has to support something they feel is wrong. When something on the list isn't being funded enough to continue then we know that no one wants to supports it, and it should be eliminated.