WELCOME

After 28 years of service in Arlington County’s local government, first on the School Board and then the County Board, I have stepped into a new role and life chapter: Private Citizen. My career has equipped me with extensive experience, valuable connections, and an unwavering passion for fostering good local government in Arlington and in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia (DMV) region, an area I call home.

June 14 Blog: Practical Information, a Story & Rigged Systems

Dear Friends:

I hope everyone is enjoying Pride Month and staying cool. I’ll start out with some practical information:

1. Given that many of my readers live in Arlington where the Arch de Trump will be constructed, I wanted to make sure everyone knows about the opportunity for the public to comment on the plans and design. While words like “abomination” come to mind, I decided to mention the destruction of the view with its visual relationship between Arlington Cemetery with the eternal flame and the Lincoln Memorial, and the eternal flame, as well as airline

safety. Comments close today, the 15th, but it only takes a few moments to comment. I am under no illusion that our comments will prevent the construction from at least starting, but I think it’s important to have a public record of people’s views. Perhaps they may help support its demolition one day in the future.

2. For those of you interested in helping our immigrant neighbors, there is a good virtual national training series that focuses on local actions to help.

3. Evite Scams: I’ve recently been seeing a fairly clever on-line scam and thought I’d let my readers know in case some of you might be fooled. It comes in the form of an on-line invitation from someone you know and using their email which has been hacked. Those I’ve gotten have used different, familiar on-line invitation formats. They looked very legitimate and from people I know. I now do not open such invitations, but email the sender to find out if it is a real invitation or not. If you should happen to open the invitation, you may be ok; unless you start to respond and enter the information it asks for such as your Google password. Please, don’t ever do that!

A Story

I just got a letter from IRS and suddenly much of the news feels closer to home. The letter is for my mother (who just turned 98) for not paying her estimated quarterly taxes last year. My bad. As my readers may know, Mom went into Hospice last January and paying quarterly estimated taxes seemed perhaps not wise for someone who might not live out the year. She has some withholding and my mother’s taxes are very small.

My mother has a small pension from the State of Wisconsin, a small Social Security check each month and small income from a Vanguard money market account. It all basically covers her expenses living here in an apartment with family and someone who comes 12 hours a week to help us both. She has no house, no long term care, no car, and no medications. I feel very blessed that we can take care of my mother and not bankrupt anyone. But, with our current tax code, she still owes several thousand in taxes, which I’ve always felt was excessive for what she earns compared to, say, Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos (who, it is my understanding do not actually pay personal income taxes at all). I remember reading that Donald Trump paid $120 total in some past years. Doesn’t feel fair. But, regular people pay taxes. Mom’s were paid on time in full, I thought.

Then the letter arrived saying she is penalized for not properly paying estimated taxes ahead of April 15. I’ll get a check in the mail. I won’t argue with it, but considering what I’ve been reading and thinking about lately, it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. I wonder how many other people just scraping by are paying such penalties and, IMHO, far more than they should in the first place. And this to support a Federal government that spends more and more on stupid wars, vanity projects and terrorizing hard working people while cutting programs that help people with food, health care, childcare, education and more.

This is nothing earth shattering or particularly new. What I am struck by, however, is where my family sits in the social hierarchy (quite comfortably) and how differently I am starting to see and experience the whole rigged set up. In ways not just economic.

Platner

I’m one of the many who support Graham Platner. I won’t defend his past behavior, but will note that he has admitted to it, apologized for it, and even his biggest detractors have not accused him of crossing the line into physically hitting someone or rape. A low bar? Maybe, but not everyone can have the sort of life that allows them to avoid combat, get mental health care, and do everything “right.” My skepticism of the Democratic establishment and media I’ve always respected, like the NY Times and The Atlantic, grows.

FIFA

Then there is the system that brings us the FIFA World Cup. It is presenting two very different reactions for me. One is how absolutely delightful it is to see much of the world come together in excitement to watch games. It feels like the world is one huge community in its excitement and camaraderie. The other reaction is how absolutely disgusting is the way the organizers are bilking people of money and getting even more extremely rich doing it.

More and more people are seeing how “rigged” it all is. There is a tipping point to all this. Can the world of decent people currently enjoying an international sports spectacle come together not just to enjoy the games, but also to change the rigged global systems that allow indecent people to become obscenely rich through graft, corruption, global destruction and human misery?

I think this is the central question of the incredible historical time in which we are living. I see some positive signs and will write more about this later.

Yours in peaceful resistance,

Libby