I did not choose my career for the money that I would make. I knew when I was in college that dedicating my life to being an educator would not land me among the rich and famous. I like most teachers certainly had the ability to work in other fields that would have been more financially lucrative but I understood my personal beliefs that urged me to do something that would have a huge impact on society. I thought of how my own teachers had given me the greatest gift of all, the ability to read and write and think. 

Both of my grandmothers were illiterate. Reading and writing did not enrich their lives the way it did mine. They had few opportunities to expand their horizons in a society that viewed them mostly as caretakers of husbands and offspring. By the time I came along the possibilities for women had increased beyond anything my grandmothers had ever imagined. I was privy to knowledge that was unheard of in their worlds. 

I suppose that hearing the regrets of my grandmother Minnie Bell when she spoke of being unable to read or write fueled my determination to be a teacher more than anything else. Somehow it became an almost spiritual vocation for me and so I embarked on a long career of teaching and guiding young people that continues in a small way even to this very day. 

I never made a great deal of money but my earnings were adequate. The perks of doing something important meant more to me that raises and bonuses. I faithfully plied my trade and collected my salary. Then I honestly paid my taxes even as I grumbled to see how much of my pay went to the city, the county and the federal government. I understood that none of the wonderful programs that kept our nation free and fair would exist without contributions from every one of us. 

I grew up in a time when taxes on the wealthy were proportionately much higher than those whose incomes were much lower. It seemed to be a fair system that even allowed my mother who lived on a ridiculously low amount of money to forego taxes altogether. To me it was a system designed to support each other wherever we fell on the continuum of poverty or wealth. It made us a kind of community of individuals all making sure the everyone would be okay. 

I remember when all kinds of tax reductions and schemes began to favor the richest among us. I suppose that I might have been resentful given that I still paid federal income taxes while millionaires found ways to reduce their payments to amounts lower than mine, sometimes even paying nothing at all. It seemed like a system of smoke and mirrors but I was satisfied with my life. My needs were being met and I was happy in my career so I did not dwell too much on envy for those among us who had earned wealth beyond anything I might ever have imagined. 

Of late my attitude has changed even as I am still in a good financial place in spite of the relatively low pay from my lifetime of work. I sense that the richer some people get the more money they want to keep without much thought of ensuring that everyone in the country is able to enjoy the most basic of human needs. Not only does a small number of people hoard a sizable percentage of the wealth in our nation but they pay little or nothing in federal income taxes that most of us have to contribute year after year. 

I’m not one who approves of leaks from federal institutions but learning that our current president, Donald J. Trump, paid nothing in the same year that I paid my share from my small pension as a former teacher really bugged me. Even worse is the fact that he was so angry that we all found out about his good financial luck that he is now filing a lawsuit for ten billion dollars of the money that millions of Americans like me sent to the government each year.

I don’t mind supporting programs that keep us safe and enrich our lives but the thought of giving more money to a man who has already earned over a billion dollars in a single year makes me furious. I wonder who he thinks he is and why he is so special that he should pay nothing and then fume when we find out.

I earn extra money each week from tutoring and I report every penny that I make. Nobody would really know if I decided to keep that amount secret but the honest thing to do is to tell the IRS exactly how much I earn in addition to my pension and then pay the appropriate taxes as a grateful citizen. Knowing that the person leading our land seems to be intent on cheating to further enrich himself does not sit well with me especially if our system is so broken that it allows such things.

I understand the arguments that note how we should give breaks to wealthy business people who create jobs and expend money to keep workplaces going. Still we should not overlook the fact that they also make profits from their investments that allow them to live luxurious lives beyond the dreams of the rest of us.

Teachers like me help to create the workers who will fuel the businesses of these people. We don’t get extra advantages because of the incredible resources of intelligent citizens that we send from our classrooms to to contribute to our society. Nobody stops to think of how much more we actually bolster the welfare of our nation than any businessman anywhere. Without the humans resources that we prepare for the work world our entire nation would collapse. How fair does it seem that we or any other worker should carry more of the burden of taxation than those who already have so much more wealth than we will ever see? The least they might do is to pay an amount that is proportional to ours.

The insult of Trump attempting to even suggest that he is somehow owed money from the coffers that have been filled by ordinary workers across America is obscene. He can boast about using it in charitable ways after he gets it but so far nothing in his life seems to indicate that he is a person who thinks about the needs of those who are struggling to survive. I have never thought of Trump as a generous philanthropist, but rather someone so greedy that he even convinced his addled father to remove his niece and nephew from the inheritance that would have been theirs . 

As someone once famously said the only things certain in life are death and taxes. Trump now shows us that a lucky few don’t even worry about taxes. Ours should not be a society aimed at enriching those who are already wealthy while ignoring those who have little. It’s time that we went back to a system in which everyone pays a fair share in accordance with the ability to do so and nobody should be attempting to grab billions of the funds that we have worked so hard to contribute. 

Taxation seems to be a topic that rears its ugly head again and again. We don’t like it when we can clearly see that only some are favored while the rest of us bear the load.