Paying Taxes IS Patriotic

This question came up a short time ago. Obama suggests paying taxes is patriotic; McCain/Palin claim paying less taxes is patriotic. On Oct. 17, 2008, Bill Maher had Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who described himself as a democratic socialist, on his show "Real Time With Bill Maher," and he also commented on the patriotism of paying taxes. This inspired me to echo Sen. Sanders and declare my contention that paying taxes is, in fact, very patriotic.

I watch footage of McCain speaking at a rally of hundreds or thousands of supporters, and he talks about Obama's supposed desire to redistribute wealth, which McCain calls welfare and socialism. What McCain, of course, fails to mention is that Obama wants only the richest to pay more taxes to ease the load on the middle class. What boggles my mind is that at least 95% of McCain's crowds, I wager, are making less than $250,000. Obama would be "redistributing" the wealth from those who can definitely afford to pull more weight to those people in McCain's crowds. And yet the people in those crowds cheer against the idea, and cheer McCain's favoritism to the ultra-rich. Pretty stupid if you ask me.

They claim taxes are not patriotic and yet those taxes, as Sen. Sanders pointed out, go to pay for and help all the people in this country Republicans and Democrats alike call heroes.

Republicans evoke us to support the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our taxes pay to give them the armor they need to stay safe and the medicine they need when injured.

When the World Trade Center collapsed, firefighters and police who rushed into danger to help their fellow Americans died. Our taxes pay the country's firefighters and police officers.

Our taxes pay the teachers and librarians that educate our children.

Americans are supposed to be united, and in standing together that means helping each other. While our government was at first the stingiest in their aid to the Indian Ocean tsunami, our citizens were the world's most generous.

Is paying taxes patriotic? You betcha! It speaks to the very spirit of our country and supports its heroes.

Too many people in our country, I feel, are unpatriotic in being unwilling to share, especially if they have the means to help others without harming themselves. I can appreciate that people with less means are more concerned about paying more, but what we're paying for is the betterment of ourselves and all our countrymen and women.