Death and taxes and childbirth. There's never any convenient time for any of them.

So says Scarlett, my secret hero.

In conversations with the GRITS about future plans and summer vacation, they have been allotted a percentage of the "economic stimulus payment" that we will be receiving. So far their "I'm going to buy..." list has totaled around $800 each. Since they are only getting about $150 each, there will be some budget cutting going on. They have heard conversation snippets about taxes and Uncle S, our accountant. This, naturally has evoked many questions.
In the spirit of being a GRITS, I've explained that in America, we give part of our money to the government to help pay for things for our country. We should be grateful that we live in a country that governs ourselves. This is why we vote - to decide who is going to be our leader. (Cue Lee Greenwood.) We entrust those leaders to use our money wisely. Uncle S takes all our information to see how much money we were supposed to give the government, subtracts how much we actually gave them and then we either pay more or get back what we overpaid. (It was quite an economics lesson.) They were thrilled and one of the belles broke out into "God Bless America".

Later, I overheard one grit talking to a friend: "As soon as my Uncle S gives me my money from the taxes, I'm buying more Webkins." Apparently some of the details got lost in translation.

I spoke with Uncle S, just to see how he was holding up, since today is, after all, the stuff that accountants' dreams and nightmares are made of. He sounded as though he'd been up for days, which in fact, it turns out he has. The thrill of having his own firm, while still there, has worn a little thin under the weight of hundreds of people calling to find out where their refunds/returns/economic stimulus payments are. I reminded him that in case he hadn't noticed, he was an accountant. He muttered something about "ducking"...

I was reminded of the reason our country is great: we run it. Yes, yes, yes. Political jargon and idealogies can be inserted here. But it all boils down to this. We all have a piece of ownership in the things that are good and bad about America. Taxes are just another means of securing that ownership. Consider today a financial check-up on your government timeshare.

And Uncle S...the grit really, really, REALLY wants the monkey webkins. :)



In 1790, the nation which had fought taxation without representation discovered that some of its citizens weren't much happier about taxation with representation.
Lyndon Baines Johnson (1808 - 1973)