commentary

How can anyone refuse to pay a paltry $75.00 per year when the stakes are so high?

Re: No pay, no spray: Firefighters let home burn – U.S. news – Life – msnbc.com

Gene Cranick

Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn’t paid a $75 fee.

Gene Cranick of Obion County and his family lost all of their possessions in the Sept. 29 fire, along with three dogs and a cat. 

“They could have been saved if they had put water on it, but they didn’t do it,” Cranick told MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann.

The fire started when the Cranicks’ grandson was burning trash near the family home. As it grew out of control, the Cranicks called 911, but the fire department from the nearby city of South Fulton would not respond.

“We wasn’t on their list,” he said the operators told him.

Everyone knows the story by now. The Tennessee man, Cranick, who didn’t pay the firefighting dues and then landed high and dry when his house caught fire. But, the burning question here is this: can there be a political story somewhere in all this? Is it really silly to ask the question, did Cranick refuse to pay the tax out of ideology or some hateful anti-tax spite?

Morally, I think we can all agree that the fire department and the city of South Fulton were WRONG (!) to let the house burn because of principle. There are other ways to enforce a tax law than letting a family suffer with such a devastating loss. It is sad that some folks out there have to see this occurrence to open their eyes to the necessity of taxes. The anti-tax protestors don’t seem to get it about how their streets aren’t paved with “smaller government”, but with the tax burden that all citizens of all stripes share.

It is a harsh lesson indeed – too harsh in my opinion, but this speaks straight to the heart of the tax issue.