[Vision2020] Uncle Tom's property taxes

[Joan Opyr]

Dear Visionaries:

Doug Wilson has written on his blog (dougwils.com) that as far as keeping up 
with his property taxes is concerned:

“The basic issue in this case is not the law itself, but rather how the law 
is being used. Suppose there were a black merchant downtown who had numerous 
complaints filed against him, and he was the only one who had these 
complaints filed against him. (Say he didn't get his walk shoveled fast 
enough when it snowed or something.) Suppose further that those filing those 
complaints made no bones about the fact that they were doing it because of 
who he was, and bragged about it on Vision 20/20, and they never filed 
complaints against anyone else. Other merchants, who shoveled their walks at 
the same time or later were always left alone. The problem here is not the 
requirement to shovel your walk.”

And in his book, The Serrated Edge, Doug takes a parable from the New 
Testament and rewrites it thus:

"Jesus was not above using ethnic humor to make His point either . . . .  
Put in terms that we might be more familiar with, Jesus was white, and the 
disciples were white, and this black woman comes up seeking healing, for her 
daughter . . . .  She comes up and beseeches Christ for healing. `It's not 
right,' He says, `to give perfectly good white folk food to niggers. . . ." 
(pp. 43-44).

It seems to me that Doug is far too fond of this dangerous racial analogy.  
I say dangerous because if I were a white man of Southern descent who had 
gained national notoriety for writing a Biblical defense of slavery as 
practiced in the antebellum South, I’d be pretty damned reluctant to cast 
myself in the role of Uncle Tom.  But then again, I’d have been more careful 
about paying the property taxes on Uncle Tom’s cabin.

The only reason that Doug asserts this “isn’t about the law” is because Doug 
doesn’t like the law.  Perhaps he’s practicing civil disobedience by 
consistently violating property tax law, city ordinances, and any other 
secular rules and regulations he happens to find cumbersome or “immoral,” 
but it is incumbent upon all of us to recognize that whether or not we 
choose to answer to a higher power, no one is above the law.  It’s a very 
simple proposition: if we don’t pay our taxes, then sooner or later, we find 
ourselves dancing the Willie Nelson for the IRS, the State of Idaho, the 
City of Moscow, or the Latah County Board of Equalization.

Doug wonders why Rose and Saundra have “singled him out.”  He wonders why 
they have chosen to focus on the various business enterprises of Christ 
Church, Inc., rather than on the Methodists or the Mormons or the Lutherans. 
  Why indeed?  Could it be because Doug has his fingers in more pies than 
Simple Simon?  Could it be that the Methodists and the Mormons and the 
Lutherans aren’t quite as enterprising as Doug, meaning they aren’t running 
for-profit presses in their associated schools and offices?  Or, could it be 
– as Doug asserts – that they just don’t give a damn about the Methodists 
and the Mormons and the Lutherans?  I’ll allow this – they don’t.  Why 
should they?  They’re already doing plenty of unpaid work for the lazy saps 
in our county government who ought to be checking the books and checking 
them twice, trying to find out who’s naughty or nice.  Those who don’t pay 
their fair share, share the burden with all the rest of us.  Why should we 
pay what Doug won’t?

Keep shoveling, Doug.  You’re not “down with the brown” by any stretch of 
the imagination, but thanks to Rose and Saundra, the brown is going down.  
If I squint really closely, I can just about see the whites of your eyes.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.auntie-establishment.com