Barnabas File

Experts in psychosocial development  claim that the experiences we have between the ages of 12 and 15 shape our values, world view, and beliefs.  When I was that age, the President of the United States was Dwight D. Eisenhower.  Because of that and the fact that he was the first Republican my parents ever voted  for, my visit today to the Eisenhower Museum and Library in Abilene,  Kansas, was especially moving. Eisenhower is the quintessential American success story, one of seven sons born on the wrong side of the tracks in a small Midwestern town who went on to become a military hero as leader of the Allied forces in Europe during World War Two, worked alongside figures like Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Charles DeGaulle, and served two Presidential terms during a time of both prosperity and unrest. Those who were part of the Greatest Generation—men and women who fought and won the Second World War—saw “Ike” as one of them and rewarded him wi...

How do you explain taxes to a three-year-old?  I was leaving the house one day last week to pick up the completed tax return from our preparer.  Cooper, our grandson, asked where I was going.  When I told him, I could tell that the idea ‘taxes” was not on his radar.  I started to tell him that taxes help pay for the fire fighters and police officers (but they are only indirectly funded by Federal tax money).  I did tell him that the money we paid to the government helps build our roads.  I suppose I could have told him that the money helped to pay for our military but really did not want to go down that road too far.  As I thought about this later, I could have explained that our taxes (at least for now) help people who are sick and do not have food. This whole train of thought led me to think about the things that our tax money pays for that were provided in other ways in the past.  When people were less mobile, more connected to their nei...