"One for you, nineteen for me"

Today is D-Day for American taxpayers. Hopefully, you've already filed with the IRS and the DOR, but if you've waited until now, the Globe has some last-minute information that might help.

This year, for the first time in quite a while, I had to pay. Of course, I could use that money to offset a number of things (to pay my high oil bill this winter or to save for the car it looks like I'll need in the next year when this one goes belly up), but I do understand that in a country like ours there are many good reasons to pay taxes.

On the other hand, it is true that many federal dollars pay for things that I completely disagree with -- tax breaks for oil companies, subsidies for corporations that grow corn, and of course, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, to name a few -- and it's also true that there are huge amounts of waste throughout the system.

In the summer of 1846, the Concord naturalist, writer and thinker Henry David Thoreau was jailed for not paying his poll tax for six years. Thoreau refused to pay as a protest against slavery and the Mexican-American War. Out of the experience came the essay "Civil Disobedience," which has inspired many in the realm of non-violent protest. Thoreau's action and his essay prod us to think about the social contract and the obligations one has when in opposition to government policies.