Ft. Myers Tax Day Tea Party!

Today, April 15th, is the last day to file your taxes (or ask for an extension). I haven't had to file any taxes in the last couple of years because I wasn't working. But this year I did, from my short lived job as a Carrabba-mico, or otherwise known as a Carrabba bartender.

I was informed by my friend that Ft. Myers was going to have a Tax Day Tea Party and it was going to be organized by Mandy, my favorite talk radio host. Basically it was a gathering at Centennial Park to protest against the way our tax dollars are being spent, and anything else you don't like about the government. So I went to the store and got some supplies and got to work on my sign. (WARNING: Do NOT leave sign supplies out and unattended while you take a quick shower. The following could occur.)

I'll remember next time that it should be double sided, and mounted to some type of stick, because a sign is hardly visible when a 4 foot 11 inch chick is holding it! It was quite the experience and some of the signs were really great! I even got to meet up with my friend Camber and her two little girls. Her youngest daughter was wearing a shirt that said "I'm a Wee-publican"...too cute!


















That night Glenn and I watched an excellent movie called "Taking Chance". Here's a little bit about the movie:

"There is a power and beauty to restraint that seldom finds its way onto TV.
A small, almost perfectly realized gem of a movie, Taking Chance is also precisely the kind of movie that TV should be making. Its story — a real-life example of the military's little-publicized policy of providing a uniformed escort for every fallen soldier — is too small for a wide-release feature film, even with star Kevin Bacon attached. And yet it's a story that should be seen in every American home, and one that, if you don't know it, will leave you wondering why you don't know it.

The man taking Chance home is Michael Strobl (Bacon), the Marine lieutenant colonel who co-wrote the film and wrote the journal on which it's based. A Desert Storm veteran turned stateside analyst, Strobl spends each night scrolling through the Iraq War casualty lists. He spots the name of Chance Phelps, 19, and even though he's considered too senior an officer to escort Chance's remains, he volunteers.

And so, as the body makes its way from Iraq to the Dover, Del., mortuary to Chance's tiny Wyoming hometown, we follow two journeys. One is that of a young man who died before his time; the other is of a middle-aged man seeking to honor the sacrifice of those he supervises while reconciling himself to his own service.

Yet there's also a larger tale being told here about the rituals we wrap around the random ugliness of war. Director Ross Katz, who co-wrote the film, traces each step without undue comment or sentiment — the soldiers loading ice into coffins and coffins into planes, the care shown to follow every one of the complicated guidelines that govern the process. And most movingly of all, he shows us the effect that the process has on most everyone it touches — the impromptu gestures of kindness, the signs of respect and remorse.

Despite its larger implications, this is a small, tightly contained movie, and Bacon anchors it with a properly contained performance. Mixing the gravity and regrets of age with a still-vital masculinity, Bacon projects a dignity and depth that allows him to convey both the pride this officer takes in his duty and his embarrassment at being praised for it.

It may strike some as affectless, but anyone familiar with Marines will likely recognize in Bacon the almost exaggerated courtesy officers use when officially out in public.

This is an undeniably heart-rending film, never more so than at the end, when we're finally shown photos and home movies of the real Chance Phelps.

"I didn't know Chance Phelps before he died," Strobl says when his own mission is over. "But today, I miss him."

So will you."



There's a scene in the movie where Strobl runs into another uniformed escort at the loading area of an airport. He asks the escort "Did you know the deceased?" And the other escort responds "Yes Sir, he's my brother."....and that's where I completely lost it! I couldn't even wrap my mind around the reality of it all. Sometimes it's easy to forget about all that's going on overseas. We get so wrapped up in our daily lives that we forget to remember the bigger picture. Today this movie made me remember, and it also made me proud and thankful. Proud that I live in the greatest country, and thankful for all of the brave men and women that help make it great.