BY SHARON MARTIN

According to Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Public Mind Poll, 44% of Republicans and 18% of Democrats think “armed revolution might be necessary in the next few years to preserve our liberty.”

Wait a minute? What are we rebelling against?

Immigrants? That seems to be the loudest squeal from the pig pen.

It’s a lie I see repeated, that immigrants take from the system and give nothing back. In reality, they pay taxes of all kinds and spend money that circulates through our economy. And they work.

Ever seen a recent immigrant holding a sign asking for donations? No, me neither.

Do we need freedom from abortions? The rash of legislation lately would make one think so.

Abortions will happen. Legal abortions in safe, clean clinics save the lives of desperate mothers. Their numbers can be reduced, however, with education and contraception.

Makes you wonder why so many in the anti-choice crowd want to limit access to both, doesn’t it?

Taxes? A stamp tax set off one rebellion here.

We have a taxation problem, but it may not be the one libertarians and conservatives are protesting.

First, FICA is not a tax, but an insurance premium. Yes, it comes out of your paycheck. If it didn’t, most of us would never save enough to ever slow down. We’d work until we keeled over or until our kids took us in.

The reality is that both Social Security and Medicare are effective programs. Their problems are fixable without armed rebellion.

But what about income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, and the assorted fees and outright thievery? With our increasingly bottom-heavy taxes, we are in transition from democracy to plutocracy – government of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy.

Taxes are necessary. We should all pay our fair share so that the government of the people can do its business. But the same people who benefit from our increasingly regressive tax laws are cashing in, offering for big bucks those things that our taxes should be providing – access to education, security, and quality healthcare.

And in a real public relations coup, they have us protesting taxes for them, when we’re the ones who pay.

Finally, a real reason to rebel! But armed rebellion? Hell, no.

We only have to look at the successful rebels – Mahatma Gandhi, Clara Luper, Jesus Christ – to know that there are better ways to change the system.

We can’t sit, like an old man at the stop sign, waiting for someone else to make the first move. The time to tackle our real problems – regressive tax laws, lobbyist-run legislatures, and a bandit economic system – is now, before rebels with automatic weapons rush in.

– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer