Happy Tax Day

In the weekend Wall Street Journal, Dan Arielli wrote a short piece about thinking about April 15 as Mitzvah Day. I am very grateful for his putting  a name to something that I have felt for a long, long time.

My husband and I came back last night  from a week away on a completely bourgeois cruise to the Islands. Yes, it was wonderful. Visiting some of the islands on our tour got me thinking a whole lot about the value of good government.

Again and again, our taxi drivers talked about government corruption and about the mixed blessing that tourism has been to the islands.  Several of the taxi drivers who drove us through one island or another talked about how their government just does not work and the difficulties that greed have caused most citizens. These pictures all show a visual paradise that also hides real corruption and poverty.

Ant this brings me back to taxes.While it might be nice to have a bit more jingle in my pocket, I am deeply grateful to pay the salaries of the police and the fire fighters who protect my city.

I am glad that we have roads that are paved. I am grateful that taxes have gone to educate not just my children, but everyone's children in this country.

I am glad that there was help ( even  if it was imperfect) available after Hurricane Sandy to those who needed it.

There is a limit to what I can do as an individual. I am glad that we live in a country where money goes to feed the hungry ( imperfectly- to be sure), care for the sick ( not as well as we might), create parkland for all of us to enjoy and have safe roads to drive on.

It would be nice if money for such things just dropped down from the heavens.  It does not. it takes all of us putting in a bit more than we would like to create a civil and civilized society for all of us.

So as Dan Arielly states, it's mitzvah day. Go forth and do mitzvot.