Make A Wish

I have a niece who is handicapped. She has had over 40 brain surgeries. She has died on an operating table more than once. Until this weekend I had never seen her. My brother lives in Utah and the Make-A-Wish foundation sent my niece to Orlando to Disney world. Due to my kids being in school I decided to go down and visit. Me and my kids spent one day at Magic Kingdom in Orlando. It was the first time any of us had seen our niece. She is blind and has many other issues. This charity provided them with food, lodging, tickets. The whole family had a good time. I could see how the one child who needs so much attention has made things difficult on the other children. They have become independent and have learned to ignore everything going on around them. It is difficult on the whole family, but I did notice how this experience made a difference. All the kids had fun. My kids enjoyed their day. We got to do almost all the rides and a few of them more than once.

Charitable contributions must be saved as a tax deduction. It is charities like this that would suffer if the tax codes were changed. I know Bush was opposed to any tax changes that would eliminate the home interest deduction and the charity deduction. Our tax code is complex. We as citizens are taxed very little. Health care is one reason why and our corporate tax rate is one of the highest. I don't know all the answers, but people who make over $200,000 which is 5 times higher than the average person could use a boost in their taxes. Especially now that our government owns banks, AIG, Auto Manufactures, etc. Should Americans buy GM and Chrysler now. I contend that since they own those companies as taxpayers they should consider it. Car companies and the union should fight to save jobs. Pay cuts is a normal way around that. Why we pay people two times the national average to put tires on a car on an assembly line is crazy. A $20,000 per year pay cut would keep them well above average, but in a better situation.

Remember to support charities. My brother told me that this one week helped his family greatly. That it helped them to have fun and get away from all their worries. My niece can't speak. She has a trachea and is on oxygen 98% of the time. But you could see her smile on the rides. The motion and sounds made her happy. What a difference our donations can make in the life of one child or one family.