News
Opinion
ENLARGE
“Tax reform means don’t tax you, don’t tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree.” — U.S. Sen. Russell Long, D-Louisiana
You had to admire the passion. And it was hard to escape the irony. Wednesday’s political-religious-anti-tax rally was, for some, a chance to break out an old Ron Paul T-shirt or even buy a new freshly-printed garment from entrepreneurial types for whom the Tea Party in Lincoln Park was as much a marketing opportunity as a political event. It attracted a crowd estimated at around 3,000, bigger than expected but significantly smaller than the Obama-McCain-Palin crowds of the last election season.
Leaning against a comfortable, taxpayer-provided tree alongside taxpayer-maintained Gunnison Avenue, I couldn’t help but wonder if the folks toting signs bearing such slogans as “Stop Government Spending” and “No More Taxes” appreciated the fact their anti-tax Tea Party was being held in a public park that’s been supported by many generations of local taxpayers. Several taxpayer-purchased black-and-whites driven by taxpayer-supported uniformed officers made certain things stayed orderly and traffic moved efficiently through Lincoln Park and surrounding neighborhoods.
Speakers for the lunchtime rally waited in a taxpayer-funded gazebo. Their compatriots at another similar session Wednesday evening gathered in a taxpayer-maintained historic structure in another part of the taxpayer-supported park. Most of those attending the two events were probably happy to park in a taxpayer-provided space after completing their drive on taxpayer-maintained roads.
A couple of those speakers are currently cashing salary checks funded by taxpayer dollars, a problem for some but not for folks like me who don’t believe elected officials give up their First Amendment rights or need to clock out or offer disclaimers in order to weigh in on public issues. A third speaker, presumably retired after long and distinguished service in a taxpayer-funded state job, will begin collecting another taxpayer-provided check when sworn in as a member of the Grand Junction City Council in a few days.
Another local columnist, who, like yours truly, wasn’t philosophically conflicted while cashing taxpayer-provided payroll checks in a previous public life, spoke at both events. Still another Tea Party orator wasn’t adverse to the possibility of a taxpayer-funded paycheck during his unsuccessful local campaign a couple of decades ago. The local conservative blogger busily snapping pictures of the crowd retired after spending a career collecting taxpayer-provided checks as a state employee and also as a local elected official.
The Tea Party was ostensibly nonpartisan, a point reinforced by one of the organizers while he was interviewed by local television stations. But speakers, signage, T-shirts and crowd responses clearly showed we live in a very red county, albeit one on a newly-blue state and country.
There were plenty of references, visual and verbal, to the new presumed “axis of evil” of Obama-Reid-Pelosi. Not a single sign or T-shirt and no mention that I heard of the old Bush-Armey-DeLay crew that took a budget surplus that was paying down the national debt and, in eight years, steered the ship of state into an economic iceberg, a significant contributor being an “off the books” war. More than a few potshots at Governor Ritter, none at Bill Owens, the GOP predecessor who finally recognized and acted on problems caused by strict allegiance to the TABOR gospel.
I suppose the “Spend Now-Tax a Toddler” sign could be construed as equal opportunity criticism. Not so much the “Keep the Change” placard. I’m pretty certain another poster urging officials to “Resend the Bailout” was carried by someone more interested in rescinding those actions than in repeating them.
None of this is intended to say the Tea Party shouldn’t have taken place or that participants should shut up. Dissent is the highest form of patriotism, something our Founding Fathers reinforced when they wrote the Constitution and Bill of Rights. All of us understand the frustrations involved in watching and participating in the current economic meltdown. Most of us can pick out pieces of attempts to reverse the downturn that we don’t like or which we wish would have been done differently.
Also understandable is the inclination to seek out someone to point fingers at, the easy villain(s) to attack. As is the tendency to absolve “our guys” from blame even though they were in charge, totally or partially, of the nation’s finances for more than 2,600 days and the “new guys” have been in office less than 100. None of us are totally free from the scourges of selective memory and politically-convenient “facts.”
But let’s remember that, as Franklin Roosevelt once said, “Taxes, after all, are the dues we pay for the privilege of membership in an organized society.”
Jim Spehar’s been paying taxes for more than half a century and spent 12 years helping decide how to spend your taxpayer dollars. Your comments are welcome at jimspehar@bresnan.net.
You had to admire the passion. And it was hard to escape the irony. Wednesday’s political-religious-anti-tax rally was, for some, a chance to break out an old Ron Paul T-shirt or even buy a new freshly-printed garment from entrepreneurial types for whom the Tea Party in Lincoln Park was as much a marketing opportunity as a political event. It attracted a crowd estimated at around 3,000, bigger than expected but significantly smaller than the Obama-McCain-Palin crowds of the last election season.
Leaning against a comfortable, taxpayer-provided tree alongside taxpayer-maintained Gunnison Avenue, I couldn’t help but wonder if the folks toting signs bearing such slogans as “Stop Government Spending” and “No More Taxes” appreciated the fact their anti-tax Tea Party was being held in a public park that’s been supported by many generations of local taxpayers. Several taxpayer-purchased black-and-whites driven by taxpayer-supported uniformed officers made certain things stayed orderly and traffic moved efficiently through Lincoln Park and surrounding neighborhoods.
Speakers for the lunchtime rally waited in a taxpayer-funded gazebo. Their compatriots at another similar session Wednesday evening gathered in a taxpayer-maintained historic structure in another part of the taxpayer-supported park. Most of those attending the two events were probably happy to park in a taxpayer-provided space after completing their drive on taxpayer-maintained roads.
A couple of those speakers are currently cashing salary checks funded by taxpayer dollars, a problem for some but not for folks like me who don’t believe elected officials give up their First Amendment rights or need to clock out or offer disclaimers in order to weigh in on public issues. A third speaker, presumably retired after long and distinguished service in a taxpayer-funded state job, will begin collecting another taxpayer-provided check when sworn in as a member of the Grand Junction City Council in a few days.
Another local columnist, who, like yours truly, wasn’t philosophically conflicted while cashing taxpayer-provided payroll checks in a previous public life, spoke at both events. Still another Tea Party orator wasn’t adverse to the possibility of a taxpayer-funded paycheck during his unsuccessful local campaign a couple of decades ago. The local conservative blogger busily snapping pictures of the crowd retired after spending a career collecting taxpayer-provided checks as a state employee and also as a local elected official.
The Tea Party was ostensibly nonpartisan, a point reinforced by one of the organizers while he was interviewed by local television stations. But speakers, signage, T-shirts and crowd responses clearly showed we live in a very red county, albeit one on a newly-blue state and country.
There were plenty of references, visual and verbal, to the new presumed “axis of evil” of Obama-Reid-Pelosi. Not a single sign or T-shirt and no mention that I heard of the old Bush-Armey-DeLay crew that took a budget surplus that was paying down the national debt and, in eight years, steered the ship of state into an economic iceberg, a significant contributor being an “off the books” war. More than a few potshots at Governor Ritter, none at Bill Owens, the GOP predecessor who finally recognized and acted on problems caused by strict allegiance to the TABOR gospel.
I suppose the “Spend Now-Tax a Toddler” sign could be construed as equal opportunity criticism. Not so much the “Keep the Change” placard. I’m pretty certain another poster urging officials to “Resend the Bailout” was carried by someone more interested in rescinding those actions than in repeating them.
None of this is intended to say the Tea Party shouldn’t have taken place or that participants should shut up. Dissent is the highest form of patriotism, something our Founding Fathers reinforced when they wrote the Constitution and Bill of Rights. All of us understand the frustrations involved in watching and participating in the current economic meltdown. Most of us can pick out pieces of attempts to reverse the downturn that we don’t like or which we wish would have been done differently.
Also understandable is the inclination to seek out someone to point fingers at, the easy villain(s) to attack. As is the tendency to absolve “our guys” from blame even though they were in charge, totally or partially, of the nation’s finances for more than 2,600 days and the “new guys” have been in office less than 100. None of us are totally free from the scourges of selective memory and politically-convenient “facts.”
But let’s remember that, as Franklin Roosevelt once said, “Taxes, after all, are the dues we pay for the privilege of membership in an organized society.”
Jim Spehar’s been paying taxes for more than half a century and spent 12 years helping decide how to spend your taxpayer dollars. Your comments are welcome at jimspehar@bresnan.net.
