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Friday, April 15, 2005
I HATE THEM ALL
Tax Day in the U.S.A. Whatever may be the extent of my willingness to share with the unfortunate on other days, there ain't none of that there today. Not any. At all. GRRRRRR. No sad sack, public assistance-dependent drech better walk in front of MY Honda today. Something about involuntary charity makes me cranky.
Once a few years ago I sat down and toiled through the numbers until I learned that the various forms of taxation at various levels of government take fifty-one cents out of every dollar I make. Which means that until sometime in July I work for others and do not keep one cent.
Knowledge like this should not affect a person extremely comfortable in every way. It's not like the government by taxing me has implicitly condemned me to homelessness under a bridge overpass, pathetically cherishing my few possessions in a tattered garbage sack. Absolutely not. Many times both friends and foes have drummed into my head that I have "everything".
And it's not that I usually kick elderly, poor, uneducated, helpless souls in passing and laugh at their plight. On the contrary, I practically force charity on the needy. Dang, last Saturday I made a total fool of myself being charitable. Rain hammered down as I drove into the parking lot at the ghetto grocery. Getting out of my car, I noticed a very old woman, supported by a wobbling cane, shakily tottering across the street toward the store door. She was soaked to the bone. She nearly fell several times and recovered after perilous almost disastrous attempts to keep her feet under her. It was awful to watch. I waited. When she reached the shelter of the roof overhang, I said to her, "Hi, I'm going to do my shopping and then I'll wait for you. When you're done, I will take you back to your home. No way you are going to try to walk back home in this downpour trying to carry groceries."
She was horrified, clearly afraid of me. There I was, a strange bossy white woman in a goofy sweatshirt outfit telling her that I was going to put her in my car and take her...."home"? There she was a poor, crippled, extremely elderly black woman, a helpless person. She glared at me and yelled, "NO! Yo' AIN'!!"
Consternation. What to do or say? I tried again. "No, no. Nothing to be afraid of. You see, I'm just worried about how you're all wet already and having a hard time walking through the rain and water puddles. Let me give you a ride, OK?"
"NO! YOU LEAVE ME ALONE! I can walk. GO AWAY!!"
To say that I was horrified, put it mildly. I felt that under the circumstances, to allow her to try to totter home with that cane and a bag of groceries, through a blinding downpour...it would be to let her metaphorically run over a cliff. She was afraid of me, though. No sense in trying to talk any more.
I did my shopping, approached the out-door. There stood the security guard, a nice-looking elderly black man in a uniform. I thought, "Aha. She wouldn't be afraid of HIM." So I asked if I could have a word with him and told him about the crippled old lady's plight. I asked if he would be willing to put her into a taxi for her trip home. He agreed immediately. I pressed a twenty dollar bill on him, as he seemed reluctant to take my money. "No, no," I remonstrated, "this is something God shoved down MY throat. No reason for youu to take the hit. You just call a cab and talk her into a safe ride and I'll be relieved and thankful." I pointed out the little old lady to him. He nodded and got out his cell phone, waved me goodby.
Yeah. I know I'm arrogant and crazy. But you can see that ordinarily I'm pretty soft-hearted toward those truly in need.....although not today. Not on the day when government shoves me up against the wall, pulls out a gun and says, "Hand over your purse." If that old woman crossed my path today, the most she'd get out of me would be....uh...I'd stick my head out the car window and bark at her.
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