Adventures in a Foreign Land

 Is This Even Legal?

Photo: This is one of the many flags that mysteriously appeared one morning lining our street. In the background you can see our new house and the prehistoric horse apple tree (see previous blog). The undulations on the lawn a clear sign that a mammoth was there.

TAXES, AFTER ALL, ARE DUES THAT WE PAY FOR THE PRIVILEGES OF MEMBERSHIP IN AN ORGANIZED SOCIETY.”

— FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

My travel companion and I scratched our heads this weekend when we walked out of our Texas home to go to brunch (brunch is a big thing here in Dallas). The streets in our neighborhood were lined with American Flags.

When I was a homeowner in the California Bay Area I wouldn't dream of putting the American Flag in front of my home. It would be considered too divisive. I cringe at the thought of the community backlash over my flag after a quarterback for the Bay Area team the 49ers decided to kneel during the anthem. The 49ers weren't even doing that well that season. They lost every game but 2. But the idea stuck and created a national dialog and trend (rightly so in many ways).

Nike pulled their controversial Betsy Ross shoe just this year after the governor of Arizona complained. In Laguna California they repainted their police cars with the American Flag on the sides after a public uproar. Students at the University of California Irvine have demanded the American Flag taken out of student government meeting rooms. 

I certainly didn't want student protesters and CNN cameras in front of my seaside home. Better to stay under the radar I then thought. I even threw away my Toms shoes with their American Flag print (I will point out that a portion of Toms goes to help disadvantaged children).

But now in Northern Dallas here they were on our streets during Veterans' Day. Being admittedly conflict avoidant we both pulled our beanies a littler further down our heads and tried to keep a low profile in our little Subaru as we drove to the restaurant with our dog Chief in the back expecting an Antifa confrontation at any moment. 

We didn't have a flag planted in the front of our house. Feeling a bit like that last kid that wasn't picked for kick ball we pouted on the drive wondering what was going on. Finally over shrimp and grits -- a staple brunch menu dish here in Texas and the South -- we looked it up on our iPhones. It turns out that its part of the home owners' association. Two things amazed me. First home owners is optional and a measly $35 a year. And second this was an ongoing practice without any controversy. 

Where were the student protesters? There is a university just blocks away. Surely they could walk or bike over to our neighborhood and march down the streets. What about the implications of race inequality? Is Dallas so homogeneous that this is not a problem?

I did what I always do. I looked it up.

Dallas is very diverse with only 30% non-Hispanic whites making up the population. The rest is Hispanic and Black or African American. Black is a whopping 25% of the population. Intriguingly, 30% of the population is from out of the country. According to a 2006 study by the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy, the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex has the largest gay population in Texas. Sue Ellens, a popular bar with live music and dancing, was rated one of the top 10 lesbian bars in the county.

When I compare this to San Francisco only 5% of the population is black and almost 50% are white. That is almost twice as high as Dallas. So what gives?

Is it the political climate? The mayor of Dallas is a democrat and so was his predecessor. In fact, Dallas has predominantly been blue for a very long time. Only 2 or 3 districts vote Republican the rest of the 15 to 20 districts vote a solid blue.

I can't figure it out. So, perplexed, I turned my attention to the $35 annual dues.

The last time I was in a homeowner's association in California the dues were a mandatory $150 a month. Just the day before our brunch date, I got my entire tax bill from Texas. It is nothing I have ever seen before.

The number, if I told them, might sound sound like a lot to my twenty-something kids living in San Francisco and West Hollywood. But they have to remember this is my entire tax bill. There is not any income tax in Texas. And here in front of my nose was an annual home owners bill for thirty five bucks. I couldn't even buy lunch for that in California. (I have many friends reading this that still live in CA so I hope they see the humor).

In California, although the property tax rate is only 1%, they add fees to get it closer to 2%. Because of the price of housing in California and coupled with o the highest income tax in the United States, California took some 25-30% of my income. And here is a bill for almost as little as a tenth of that here in Texas. I opened my bill and smiled. I have never done that before.

Was I getting more in California?, I wondered. So, I looked it up!

Texas pays almost the same per student in public education, it spends 3 times as much on roads and infrastructure, and almost the same in law enforcement as California. This is magic I thought to myself.

When we got home we got online and paid our $35. Next Veterans Day there will be an American Flag in front of my new home. 

I will go out on a Sunday morning, I will wear my bathrobe, my bunny slippers, my flannel pants, and my white undershirt, and see that flag in the light breeze while I grab my newspaper so my wife can do her crossword puzzle and I can read the comics over a cup of coffee. All the time I will be knowing that there will be no cameras, no twitter, and no protests. 

I miss the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean and wandering the tide pools. 

But only sometimes.

Dain 

THE INCOME TAX CREATED MORE CRIMINALS THAN ANY OTHER SINGLE ACT OF GOVERNMENT.”

— BARRY GOLDWATER