Beeped

Some clown apparently doesn't want me to vote. Or rather, says I shouldn't be allowed to vote.

Each week I try to spend one of my lunch hours in the basement break room of the courthouse reading (actually more like skimming) the latest edition of The Rhino. Why I do this is beyond me because I usually end up saying to myself..."Well, that's ten minutes I'll never get back." But I digress.

This week's edition has a rather idiotic Beep call (granted most editions do) in my opinion. Forgive me as a don't have a copy in front of me to quote directly from, and this week's edition is not yet online, but you'll get the gist. The caller was ranting about how students attending college here in Greensboro help determine the outcome of local elections thus nullifying the voice of the local taxpayer. The Beep ended with the caller suggesting that "only taxpayers should be allowed to vote in elections."

This struck me as hilariously funny and incredibly ignorant. First of all, to suggest that the college population in Greensboro could seriously sway any local election is almost completely ludicrous. I went to college. I know that most of the time, college kids only show up for elections in a Presidential election year. And most don't know and don't really care about the local races. I'll concede that it is possible that a large number of straight ticket voters could sway an election, but personally, I really doubt it.

But what I find really funny is how the caller apparently is defining "taxpayer." Am I to take that to mean "property tax payer"? I suspect that that's what the caller intended. But just in case, in a very broad sense of the word, everyone in Greensboro is a "taxpayer". Everyone pays sales tax. Everyone pays tax anytime they pull up to the gas pump. Everyone, even those under the legal voting age, who have a job generally pays some amount of income tax. You get the idea. So I'll go with my original assumption that the caller meant "property tax payer".

Let me delve a little further into that. I, like many college students, rent an apartment. Yes it is true that I do not receive a property tax bill. But my landlord does. And so do the landlords of all those students who don't live in campus housing. And you can bet your last sweet, property taxpayin' dollar that at least some of our rent is going towards the landlord's tax bill. So don't tell me I'm not paying property taxes here, Bubba.

This dude needs to go back and read his history books. See topic: Taxation without representation.

Didn't we fight a war over that very idea some 220+ years ago? Oh that's right. The Revolutionary War. Major battle fought right here in Greensboro. Remember it? Dumb ass.