Today, we declare our independence

OK, that was a little dramatic, and a little early, but we are in a way declaring our independence at The Times Herald with the Ben Franklin Project. We're breaking the chains that bind us to the proprietary systems that have held newspapers back for the past decade and breaking out on our own to bring you your news your way. How about you telling us where you think the biggest traffic headaches are in your community? Send an e-mail to jdhuff@timesherald.com. Who has the best cheese steak in your community? Send an e-mail to gpuleo@timesherald.com. Who was the best athlete at your high school, and why? Send an e-mail to dkurtz@timesherald.com. What does Independence Day mean to you? Send an e-mail to gglantz@timesherald.com. We will be declaring our independence on Independence Day and we want you to be an integral part of the project. This is just the beginning, folks. It's time you started receiving Your News Your Way.

My own version of the Tea Party movement

Here it is, plain and simple.

Increase the sales tax to 8 percent and include clothing.

All of you ‘regressive tax’ naysayers need to keep reading before you start e-mailing me.

I can’t believe I walk into the King of Prussia Mall, that is after I walk past all the Mercedes Benz,’ Hummers and Porches, and watch what must be literally hundreds of thousands of dollars a year walk out the door without a single tax dollar being collected.

Are you kidding me?

Where is the common sense, here, folks? And yes I meant to drop the reference to Thomas Paine’s eloquently written masterpiece.

Look folks, adding two cents on the dollar is not going to keep even the poorest of people from eating, so you can drop the ‘regressive tax’ argument right into the harbor.

I ordered an external hard drive for one of my sons a couple of weeks ago from Best Buy. It cost $79.99. When the bill came it was $79.99. Really? An eight percent tax would have brought the total to $86.39. How many millions of dollars would the state collect each year based on an 8 percent tax on electronics alone?

We the people have been sitting around the harbor for far too long, taking what’s been dished out as if we didn’t have any other option.

We do.

This is still our country, and we need to act like it.

Call it a tea party, call it a property party, call it whatever you like, (That’s where I need the help I was asking for earlier, you have to have a catchy name for your movement.) but we need to get our collective acts together and throw all the taxing bodies into the local harbor and not let them back onto dry land until they figure out that we’re actually in charge.