Red, white and blue Hello! Hikers!

Hey! I’m back!  Actually, I’ve not actually been away, just my means of communicating has!  Thanks to the fine folks at Best Buy and the Geek Squad, I am once again connected to the outside world. 

The interruption has been a bit of a blessing.  There were a few pressing personal matters that I needed to see to.  To be candid, I put my personal life on hold while hiking this trail. Maybe we can have a glass of tea and compare notes about all of that one day.

But then, of course, we all know mid April can be like that, can’t it?  Heck, talk about unprepared.  I didn’t even REALIZE it was tax time.  It is seductively easy to lose track of things like that on the trail.  Then “ding dong, it’s the taxman and ... BAM!”

Write this down: You are never farther from the trail than you are at tax time. 

I understand the importance of paying taxes, but I’m baffled by the process of doing it the way we do it.  There just has to be a better and easier way for Americans to pay our fair share of the tab.  Honestly? , this last evolution has driven me to the edge of depression. Could it be more complicated? 

I get to listen to a lot of NPR on the trail. Regular readers of this blog might remember that.  Have any of you heard of a thing called a National Sales Tax?  Boiled down, it proposes that we buy stuff and pay our income taxes at the same time.  No filing, no receipt saving, no ruining a perfectly good April on the trail.  Personally, I’m pretty much in full agreement with that approach.

Might you please permit me one minute more on the tax soapbox?  Thank you, I’ll be quick.  You might not remember that the National Scenic Trails of the United States are on land owned and overseen by the US Forest Service.  A very – and I mean VERY - small percentage of our tax dollars actually goes directly to the care and feeding of the Florida National Scenic Trail and by extension, the Florida trail Association.

I decided yesterday to write each of my state and federal representatives and communicate to them that I’d like to see them voting to send a few more of my chips to the National Scenic Trail and National Historic Trail programs at the US Forest Service.  Hey, it’s my money that I’m shipping off, isn’t it?  It ain’t much, but hey, it’s me holding up my end of the bargain with Uncle Sam.  And that got me to thinking… what’s his end?

You see, it occurs to me that our civic duty is not only to pay taxes.  That’s just the first part, isn’t it, hikers?  The second part is when we exercise our right as taxpayers to see to it that the dough we’re sending our government is spent on things we, as individuals, deem worthwhile.  If our representatives hear from enough individuals on the same issue, they tend to act on it.  America the beautiful, eh, my friends?  God, I do so love this country.

A few emails – altogether maybe 30 minutes of work - short and sweet.  Do you care about trails and the conservation of our natural and historical resources?  Let ‘em know!  Call me old-fashioned, but I believe in the power of the people. 

Or.. to paraphrase the English philosopher Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery – “It’s a very groovy and American feeling, baby.  Yeah! “

Star-spangled Cheers from the Florida Trail!  Mike

Ohhhh no, don’t you get cynical on me.  In the coming blog I am going to introduce you to the most magnificent example of the power of one single, ordinary American.  Her name was Marjorie Harris Carr, and she, my brothers and sisters, was the real thing.

So much to get you up to speed on.  I can’t wait!  It’s good to be able to talk with you again. See you in a minute.