In the spirit of giving.

I have been thinking how I can put into words my thoughts on the comment Barack Obama made about his tax plan.

Quote"John McCain and Sarah Palin they call this socialistic. You know I don’t know when, when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness."Unquote

The opposite of selfishness is generosity, not taxes. In both the Christian and Muslim faiths generosity is highly regarded as a virtue. True generosity comes from the heart and is meant to thank to God for all the things he has done for us. The government taking money from my pocket to give to others by no definition can be called a generous act on my part. The government by its very nature cannot be generous. The definition of generosity in Webster’s dictionary is “The trait of being willing to give your money or time”. The government does not have any money other than what it takes from the tax payers. Giving away others money cannot be deemed a generous act.

If each of us were to have less taken from us in taxes, we would have the ability to;

• Give more generously. I know that some do what they can for charities and that other do nothing, however that is a personal choice.
• We could give to charities that reflect our personal values and beliefs. I know that many times the government most definitely does not use my money in ways that reflect my values.

The last point I will make on charitable giving is that we all must be sure that we give to charities that use contributions wisely and spend as little as possible on administrative costs. By selecting such charities we can be sure our contributions will do the most good. I have no confidence that the governments funding of officially sponsored charities (which includes all government welfare programs) would meet my definition of efficient giving.

The American Institute of Philanthropy’s charity rating guide (http://www.charitywatch.org/) provides ratings of charities. Each charity is rated A through F. I urge each of you to visit this website before making future charitable contributions.

Datadiver