On civic responsibility and paying taxes

I know I haven't written in a long time and I would like to write about my move to Washington, DC (surprise! to anyone who didn't know). But I'm going to push that to another day.

Instead, I would like to write about an event I attended yesterday at a very interesting cafe. The speaker was Howard Zinn - a man I have deeply admired since I first heard him speak at Johns Hopkins a couple years ago. The focus of his talk was the new Obama administration and how it is still our civic responsibility to put pressure on our new president. His point, which is valid, is that we've placed so much hope on Obama. But we forget - he too is a politician. What I appreciated was, rather than bashing politics, Zinn was sending the message of civic responsibility. A message we often forget. But that's why I voted for Obama - he campaigned on that message. A little more in my next post (yes the one in which I discuss my new DC life) about whether or not he's selling out. But first...

Of course civic responsibility seems a lot to ask for these days. With the controversies surrounding Daschle, Geithner and Kellifer, personal responsibility seems to be the new target. I'm so torn. I'm confident that Daschle, at least, would have been a good HHS Secretary. I still don't know enough about Geithner and Kellifer, but they were nominated for a reason, right?

But what kind of world do we live in if our leaders owe $150,000 in taxes? I mean, at least they've been put under pressure because of it; which is more than I can say for a country like India. But what about all those people - poor, middle class, wealthy - who DO pay their taxes? Who don't make mistakes on their taxes? Who fix mistakes as soon as they receive a notice from the IRS? What can you say to them?

Backtracking a little bit - Howard Zinn is quite a humorous man. I picked up a copy of A People's History (which he signed! eek!) Going to re-read that after I finish Three Cups of Tea.