Lent & Taxes

A long time ago, my father brought home a live chicken.  I must have been 8 or 9 years old.  Who knows where it came from.  Dad sometimes did construction work pro bono especially for his AA friends who needed help.

As Dad would say, some of them "did not have a pot to piss in".  (His language was at times colorful.). Their drinking had apparently drained their bank accounts and at times their family relationships.

Dad chopped its head off.  Ever see a chicken flap around after losing its head?  Scared the pants off me.

I felt like the chicken chicken yesterday.  It had been a busy day.

(Dad spoke at 12 Step meetings throughout Michigan. My hometown Chamber of Commerce once gave him a Man of the Year award  for his work.  Dad often spoke at Brighton Hospital. Brighton near Detroit was the first hospital for alcoholism and addiction  in the state. That is where Dad became acquainted with Bill W. the founder of AA.  Bill W also spoke there in the 50s.)

Yesterday, I helped a single mom with three kids.  Income in the mid 20s.  She will receive a refund of $14,600.  It is more than half her annual income.  She works at some church in the office.

You don't think her refund will allow her to maybe repair her car or maybe even get a substantial down payment on a better used vehicle.  Or maybe just some better school clothes for the kids.

Maybe she will actually treat herself and her kids to a nice dinner out on the town. Or buy herself a new coat or dress.

When I see sometimes that our clients don't have a "pot to piss in", well, sometimes it hurts your heart.

Then I think about a mother's smile when she finds out the amount of her income tax refund.

It may be Lent in some worlds.  In mine, it is tax season.  

Lent was first established by a bunch of old men at Nicaea.  The Romans required taxes long before that.

My almost meeting of The Champ

Except in Southwest Michigan, I suspect not many know that Muhammad Ali for decades had an estate and lived in Berrien Springs, Michigan.

Many others likely had closer interactions with Ali than I did.  Here's mine:

In 1994, my school district was preparing for a spring school facility bond issue vote.  I had just arrived at my school district in late summer 1993. I was the business manager new kid on the block.

I drove to one of our elementary schools, Stewart, for a meeting with the school principal something about how the bond would impact her school.  Leaving the school parking lot, I was walking up the long sidewalk leading to the main entrance.  I was running late, so I was walking fast.

On the sidewalk, I passed two people.  Both were wearing business suits. One was a lady.  The other an African American gentleman.  I forget which was carrying a valise which made me think they were some kind of sales representatives trying to sell something to the school and the valise carried samples of their wares. 

I quickly passed the two on the sidewalk.  As I approached the main entrance doors.  Several special needs school children were in the entry with their teacher.  They were all waving excitedly out the glass.

Not sure exactly what I thought at the time, but was wondering why they were waving at me. "Boy. They really like me at Stewart" or something like that.

I opened the school door.  The teacher who would become one of my best friends in the district, Kathy, stated:

"Rob, you know you just walked past Muhammad Ali."

I turned around. Sure enough it was the Greatest, the Champ. 

The valise?  Ali loved to perform silly magic tricks for kids.  I am told he loved to hear them giggle and clap and cheer.  It was his bag of magic tricks.

Later I found out one of the other teachers at the school was a friend of Ali's.  Her husband, a local executive, sat on the Boys and Girls Club board.  Ali may have been honorary chair of the Board.  In any event, he was involved with the Benton Harbor community in trying to improve the impoverished city.

Ali's son played baseball at Niles High School.

A Forbes story about the sale of the Ali estate in 2018 with pictures.  

The estate had at least two famous owners.  Ali at one time the most famous person in the world .

The other more infamous:  Al Capone.

From Forbes:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/keithflamer/2018/06/22/the-secret-history-of-muhammad-ali-mystical-michigan-farm/

Olympic Skating

Alysa Lieu's choice for music to skate with in the Olympics is one of my favorites from the late 60s:

"I will take my life into my hands
And I will use it
I will win the worship in their eyes
And I will lose it
I will have the things that I desire
And my passion flow like rivers through the sky
And after all the loves of my life
Oh after all the loves in my life
I'll be thinking of you
And wondering why

MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!
Oh, no!"

 Even if she did not use the Richard Harris version but instead Donna Summer's. LOL. 

 

https://youtu.be/Dg0h9iZ1ZAg?si=Kk4LkowI5DKVd49c

 

 

 

Hamnet, the novel

Thinking about it, I am not sure there are too many 

movies that I have seen and also read the novel.  Having seen the Henry Fonda 1940 flick The Grapes of Wrath, I have almost finished the Steinbeck novel, not quite.

In college, PBS broadcast a series of BBC Shakespeare plays.  Most of those I had read in my first year back in college from the Navy.  I would follow along with my Collected Works book while viewing some of the Bard's comedies and tragedies. Shakespearean English is simply a precursor to modern English, but retains nuisances of its Middle Ages ancestor.

I am struggling to finish the last 20 pages of Hamnet.  Having seen the movie twice, my reaction to the final scene was visceral, a scene in which Hamnet's mother Agnes watches her husband's Hamlet and finally understands her husband's grief at the loss of their son.

The book cannot produce the same emotion of a movie.  But I know what is coming in these last 20 pages.  So, I hesitate to finish. 

In the movie, Agnes was clearly and outwardly touched by the death of Hamnet.  William seemed to hold it all inside until he was able to produce Hamlet.

I can understand both.

Shake it off

Must admit, that the first time I remember hearing this song is when I took my grandson to see the cartoon movie Sing.  In the cartoon, it was sung by a pig.

At the time, I did not even realize that it was Taylor Swift:

Players gonna play, play, play, play, play
And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate (haters gonna hate)
Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake
I shake it off, I shake it off

- Taylor Swift

Ancestry.com

 This is what Ancestry.com indicates:

 

- Rev Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island (originally Anglican priest, founder of American Baptists)

born in Cowley, Middlesex England, died in Providence, Rhode Island 1603-1683 

- Daniel Williams, 1640 -1712 Rhode Island

- Peleg Williams Sr., 1678-1744 Rhode Island

- Peleg Williams Jr., 1719-1809 Rhode Island

- Peleg Williams, II, 1740-1821 Rhode Island served at Valley Forge

- Providence Williams, 1773-???? married Abigail Hazeltine

- Laura Williams, 1796-1858 daughter of Providence, married John Hunt in 1823

The Hunts:

 - John Providence Hunt, 1825-1910 

-  Anna G Hunt, 1878 -1952, married Charles Burgess, grandfather

- John (Jack) Robert Burgess, 1909-1989

- Robert, 1954-...  

 

 

 

My Opinion Maker Piece for Next Wednesday

Everyone’s favorite time of year has arrived!  No, I am not talking about Valentine’s Day.  Nor am I referring to the solemn religious days of Lent, Passover, or Ramadan.  Nope, I am not talking about folks who live for downhill skiing season.  As far as the latter, the older I get the more I am impatient for the arrival of spring flowers, the return of the robins, and just plain being able to go outside in shirt sleeves without bundling up like Quinn the Eskimo.

No, I am talking about tax season!  Your favorite time of year!  Of course, I am being very sarcastic when I say that tax season is everyone’s favorite time of year.  I suspect that for most people tax season is a stressful time and a pain in the lower extremities.  Some exceptions may apply.  I suppose parents of modest income, who anticipate large refunds because of the earned income tax and child tax credits, may look forward to their IRS refund to help them catch up on bills.  Or maybe their IRS refund will help them come up with a down payment on a more reliable used vehicle.

The IRS just made tax season a little more challenging this year for millions.  How?  Well, last year President Trump signed an Executive Order concerning payments from federal agencies, and particularly the IRS this time of year.  What did the President’s Executive Order 14247 require? 

The President’s order requires the phase out of paper check refunds from the IRS.  Now, the IRS states that 94 percent of taxpayers receive their income tax refunds through direct deposit and they want you to keep doing so.  However, the IRS issues more than 100 million refunds annually.  So, 6 percent or six million or more taxpayers have been receiving paper checks when they get their refunds. 

Taxpayers can still receive paper checks this year, but you will have to jump through hoops to get a refund the old-fashioned way.  According to the IRS, a taxpayer who requests a paper check refund, “…will then receive a CP53E notice in the mail requesting a response within 30 days, either to provide banking information or to explain why such information cannot be provided.”  Trust me, CP53E notices have nothing to do with Star Wars or C3PO.

And don’t we all look forward to receiving notices from the IRS!  I can hear it now: “Oh joy, honey we got a notice from the IRS in the mail today! I was wondering why our refund was taking so long.”   If you were looking for a simple way to provide the IRS with your direct deposit information after you already filed, the Taxpayer Advocate at the IRS states “IRS employees cannot take this information over the phone or in person.”  You will then have to become familiar with a site like ID.me to sign in online with your IRS account.

Unless you love receiving notices from the IRS, you may want to think about what you can do to avoid this stress.  The most obvious is to ensure that when you file your taxes this year you ask for a direct deposit of your IRS federal refund.  (If you just get a paper check refund from Michigan Treasury and nothing from the IRS, as Bobby McFerrin sang: “Don’t worry. Be happy.”)

If you do not have a bank account?  The Taxpayer Advocate suggests you do one of the following:

“Taxpayers without bank accounts can still receive federal payments as the IRS transitions away from paper checks by using prepaid debit cards, mobile apps, or low-cost banking options. The IRS recommends using FDIC-insured accounts found at FDIC: GetBanked or MyCreditUnion.gov, or setting up direct deposit with services like PayPal Debit Mastercard….Prepaid Debit Cards: Many cards, such as the Walmart MoneyCard or PayPal Debit Mastercard, offer routing and account numbers for direct deposit.”

Apparently, the President’s Executive Order was issued because it costs more money for the IRS to issue a paper check than it does to get a taxpayer a direct deposit refund.  There is nothing wrong with saving taxpayer dollars.  Also, I have read that paper checks are more susceptible to theft than direct deposit.  Maybe that is true.

However, I do wonder if there was a better way to go about this way of phasing out paper checks.

Maybe somebody should have asked C3PO?  May the Force be with you this tax season.  And if not, call your congressman and ask, “Where’s my refund?”

Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman

 Probably the most famous of Battle Creek, Michigan resident Sojourner Truth's speeches:

Ain't I a Woman 

Some of her friends:

William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Susan B Anthony.

Political meetings:

Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S,. Grant 

Battle Creek has a monument dedicated to her:

https://www.battlecreekvisitors.org/listing/sojourner-truth-monument/2454/

At least the National Park Service as yet have not taken it down.  Part of their prologue:

Born into slavery in 1797, Isabella Baumfree, who later changed her name to Sojourner Truth, would become one of the most powerful advocates for human rights in the nineteenth century. Her early childhood was spent on a New York estate owned by a Dutch American named Colonel Johannes Hardenbergh. Like other slaves, she experienced the miseries of being sold and was cruelly beaten and mistreated. Around 1815 she fell in love with a fellow slave named Robert, but they were forced apart by Robert’s master. Isabella was instead forced to marry a slave named Thomas...

1851 Stone Church, Akron, Ohio, Women's Rights Convention:

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/sojourner-truth.htm

Jackson Five

"Even though the pain and heartache

Seem to follow me wherever I go
Though I try and try to hide my feelings
They always seem to show
Then you try to say you're leaving me
And I always have to say no
Tell me why (Tell me why)
Is it so (Is it so)

That I never can say goodbye, no, no, no, no, ooh (never can say goodbye girl)
Never can say goodbye (never can say goodbye girl)..."

https://youtu.be/en34tJYd5A8?si=XLSfVj30pGZXW5iu

Hamnet Twice

Pretty sure Hamnet is the first movie that I have gone twice to the theater since E.T. in early 1980s.

The first time is better to experience the surprise. But the emotion of Jessie Buckley's acting still intense.  

Hope the studios continue to grant her exceptional roles.