While some in our country want to curse taxes they have to pay many are thanking their lucky stars for those returns they'll get back in a few weeks.

The Republican Party has taken this day to protest taxes, and often times you hear the GOP pontificate about how unnecessary they are.

But on this day, I invite you all to participate in a different kind of event than the Tea Parties across the country.  Instead I invite you to think about what things in your life, paid for by tax dollars, that you are grateful for.

For me it was a first - I had to pay.  Not because I made a lot of money, but because I am self-employed.  While I have to say it hurts, I know I'm paying for my country.  I'm paying for students who can't afford to go to college so they might have a chance, I'm paying for free lunches, I'm paying for my dad's salary, for the health care of the 9-11 Firefighters who breathed the toxic air on that awful day.  I'm proud to pay taxes because its the right thing to do.