Blogtrek

Independence Day: April 15

I mentioned in an earlier blog that for an American to declare his true patriotism for his or her nation, we need to celebrate the independence of our nation not on July 4 but on April 15. On July 4 we can fly fireworks and flags, put on red, white, and blue and play patriotic songs while we picnic and go on vacations in the middle of the summer. None of this tests our patriotism for our nation. April 15 does. On that day we turn in our income tax 1040 to the IRS. Are we willing to pay for what our government does? Are we willing to put our patriotism down not in fireworks but in greenbacks? We were so gung ho about attacking Iraq and getting rid of Saddam Hussein. Now comes the hard part. The bill. About $60,000,000,000 to maybe $200,000,000,000 or so, or hundreds of dollars per each of us. It might want us to think twice before doing things like attacking Iraq, setting up a myriad of bureaucratic agencies, or building a missile defense system that depends on 10 million lines of code going right the first time it is used. Sure, we can party on July 4, but when we see what happens on April 15, we may want to do something on another day - the first Tuesday in November. Sometimes patriotism means saving our government a few bucks.