A Teachable Moment
 
I recently drove down to visit family in the piney woods of east Georgia. We're talking the really rural, truly deep South folks. I had to go into the local county seat a couple of times on errands and knew I wasn't in my beloved Washington, DC, when I could find parking right on the square in front of the courthouse two days running! Free! On both days I ate lunch at a sweet little sandwich shop run by a couple of very nice young women. On the second day, I happened to park right in front of their shop and when I stopped by to get lunch, one of the women said that the license plate on my car had been quite the topic of conversation while I was in the courthouse. It seems no one could quite figure out the "Taxation Without Representation" motto.

I rolled up my proverbial sleeves and did my really brief version (two minutes, tops) of the story of the disenfranchisement of DC voters. I reached the end of my spiel and said that the motto came from the fact that we were the only citizens of the United States that paid Federal taxes but were denied representation in Congress. There was a slight pause, and one of the women said, "Well, that's just wrong. Shouldn't be like that." The other one piped up and said that "Somebody ought to fix it." I suggested that they let their Senators (Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isaakson) and their Representative (Paul Broun) know their thoughts. All three of them being Republicans, I'm sure they'll be interested, right?

It may not be perfect -- I always thought it should say "Taxed Without Representation" -- but our license plate motto served to raise just a little bit of social conscience in east Georgia and gave me the opportunity to talk to regular people about our situation. It's too bad we can't get it on the quarter.