Greetings Loyal Airmen.  There is an old adage that says those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.  Those words seemed to echo in our thoughts recently when several items, some national and others personal, seem to coalesce on us painting a very sad picture.  There are several states across the country who are actually considering changing the history books at the high school level to start with events of the 1920s.  Understand what we are saying here. These text would complete ignore all of U.S. history prior to that time period. There would be no teaching of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War etc.etc.  The reasoning behind this insane idea; apparently today's students are having a difficult comprehending long ago history and its relevance to our present times.  Huh?  Maybe it's too much history for them to take in?

Loyal Airmen, we aren't making this up. Once again the system that is suppose to be teaching our kids is opting out of its responsibility because the going is getting too hard. The level of education being given our American students is falling every year in comparison to other nations and our answer is to teach them less.  Excuse me if Ye Old Air Chief doesn't get that logic one iota.  And our fears if this trend continues are very, very real.  Remember that old saying we started this column with, about not knowing one's history and the inherent dangers of that?  Well here is the personal side to all that.

Our parents lived through the Great Depression that ravaged the soul of this great country during the late 1920s and most of the 30s.  As a child growing up, we were constantly told stories about the endless bread lines and the millions of proud Americans out of work.  Homes lost to foreclosure and the homeless wandering the landscape in search of any glimmer of hope.  Often we would be told of vagabonds coming to the door and asking if they could work for food.  These were the grim tales we grew up with and we went to bed every night thanking God that those days were gone.  That thought we had learned from those awful economic mistakes and that we would never again repeat them. Apparently we were wrong.  Last week, while out with her mother and siblings, Valerie saw several men standing outside a local mall with signs that read, WILL WORK FOR FOOD.  When she came home and related this, we were shaken.  Just like that, in the space of a heartbeat, all those horrible stories from the past resurfaced and we realized the awful truth.  Those days are back and all around us people are suffering, are being forced out onto the streets and going to bed hungry.  In the richest country in the world!

What makes all this even more unpalatable was a news item on the sports page a few days later announcing the sum of money (in the millions) being paid to a returning pitcher for a Major League baseball team.  Millions, plural, to play a game.  While thousands of people are on the streets begging for food, trying to stay alive.  If the insanity of this picture doesn't bother you, then nothing will.  It's all wrong.  And we as a people, as a country need to fix it now.   But how do you spread the wealth to all equitably?  Or a better question, should the government do so?  Remember, in a free Democracy, he who works the hardest is paid more than he who does not. There is a way in which American could pick itself up out of this economic morass and begin to balance its ridiculously out-of-control budget expenditures.  It is such a simple solution and has been proposed time and time again.

              
The operation capital to run our country comes from only one source, the taxes we the citizens pay. It is a totally boondoggle of a complex system with enough variables and exemptions to choke an elephant.  It is almost impossible for the average citizen to understand.  It is also broken.  People with millions of dollars have legal options available to them so that in the end they pay a lesser percentage than those poor and middle class who do not have access to these same options.  And please, Loyal Airmen, be aware, these rich people are bi-partisan, they are Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and Independents.  Their one common denominator, their wealth and ability not to pay their fair share.

The answer is and has always been to do away with our current tax laws and replace them with one simple Flat Tax to the effect of 10 cents on the dollar.  Period.  For every single dollar a citizen ( or corporation ) earns, they pay ten cents to the government.  End of story.  It has been determined by economic experts that such a tax would within a few short years not only fund and maintain the government, but create a growing surplus that would in a very short time eliminate the national deficit.  We aren't making any of this up.  It's all true.  There is also a moralist honestly to such a tax.  Think about it.  If all you made was $25, 000 a year, you would pay your ten percent and that ball player who made $2 million would pay his ten percent.  Somehow that's just right.  Everyone would pay the same equal share.  Another glorious benefit that would be immediately felt would be the down-sizing of the Government Tax Bureau.  Tax forms would cease being thick booklets no one can understand, replaced by one single piece of paper.  You would list your income for the year, calculate the ten percent and voila, taxes done.  It can be that easy.  It should be that easy.

And of course if its so miraculously easy a fix why hasn't the government implemented it?  We'll leave you with that question.  And if the answer you come up with gets you angry, then good.  Maybe some day millions of us will all get angry together and do something about it.  But first, let's not trash our history in the process.  That, in the end, would simply be making the bad times even worse.

Ron – Over & Out.