Well, spring has sprung, and I hope everybody’s Easter was merry and bright . . . I mean, white . . . would you believe, snow covered? Aw-heck. Dang blab it! I hope you all stayed warm and didn’t have to shovel too much snow.
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I save up reader e-mail and once in a while let you, the reader, write my column for me. No better time than now. First up is Clarkston-area thinker/ranter, Dave Cleveland.
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Taxes are the American Way
? A car company can move its factories to Mexico and claim it’s a free market.
? A toy company can out source to a Chinese subcontractor and claim it’s a free market.
? A shoe company can produce its shoes in Southeast Asia and claim it’s a free market.
? A major bank can incorporate in Bermuda to avoid taxes & claim it’s a free market.
? We can buy HP Printers made in Mexico.
? We can buy shirts made in Bangladesh.
? We can purchase almost anything we want from 20 different countries, but heaven help the senior citizen who:
A. Dares to buy their prescription drugs from a Canadian pharmacy. That’s called un-American!
(Think the pharmaceutical companies don’t have a powerful lobby? )
And B. Complains about having to pay income tax on their Social Security benefits, which has been true since 1995. The original FICA law promised that would never happen. Our seniors lose as much as 40 percent of their benefits because our government decided in 1995 (tie breaking vote in the Senate made by Al Gore by the way) they would tax Social Security benefit checks as income; a benefit ,by the way, that has already been paid for with their (and our) tax dollars (FICA withholding tax and Payroll tax for employers). What a country!
Only in America do we come up with the concept of taxing an already existing tax on the one group of people in our country who can least afford to have that done to them (the retired senior citizen).
Maybe these are issues that should come up in the next election instead of the other pie in the sky promises that are usually made.
Regards, Dave Cleveland
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Up next, Carl from the Orion area . . .
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Don,
Interesting column last week. When I was a lad at Shrine Grade School in Royal Oak, my parents used to tell the nuns, ‘You are an extension of us as parents when our son is in your classroom. If our son gets unruly during class, we give you full permission to administer whatever punishment that’s necessary to straighten him out, just like we would do at home.?
My wife is a preschool teacher and tells me parents today take any type of discipline or correction to their own children by a teacher as being some sort of personal slap in the face.
Parents will often come barging into the room with their boxing gloves on . . . ready to pick a defensive fight with whatever teacher had the unmitigated gall to discipline their children.
What a difference between the 1960’s and now, heh?
Carl J.
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And, finally I received an e-mail from Lisa to remind folks that this Saturday, from 3-6 p.m., is a wally ball fund-raiser for Dave Carpenter.
Carpenter, readers should remember is the 1983 Clarkston High School grad, who, after sucking down gobs of mold infested air, needs a double-lung transplant.
Terry Templeton, owner of Waterford Courts, 6110 Dixie Highway, is providing free wally ball court time as a fund-raiser. For $10 wally-ballers can get their game up. There will be a 50/50 drawing. If you have any questions, call Waterford Courts at 248-623-9622.
Want to help Don write a column? Send your thoughts, via e-mails, to his royal laziness dontrushmedon@charter.net.