We are a people prone to sensationalist tendencies, so although it may not be "difficult" to think of things more offensive than the fact that the people who would raise our taxes have not been paying their own, that list is nevertheless fairly short. Why Vice President Biden is the only one in the administration who has been labeled "gaffe-prone" is quickly becoming a quandary; there have already been too many days since January 20 marred by major blunders. Those who questioned the integrity of John McCain's vetting of Sarah Palin might also do well to wonder who, if anyone, has been vetting President Obama's cabinet nominees.

The tax problems, of course, have been all over the news - the nominees to be secretaries of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury, have all been held up or outright sunk for not paying their taxes. And we recall the questions over Secretary Clinton's foreign donors, and the scandals that made Governor Richardson the first casualty of post-election nomination flaps.

The ultimate irony of this accumulation of tax problems is that the most flagrant of the bunch made it through confirmation before the rest came to light. Sure, the amount Tom Daschle failed to pay was significant, especially considering the army of accountants he probably has who should have corrected the mistakes over the years. But what Secretary Geithner failed to pay is astoundingly egregious - not so much in the amount as in the chutzpah. He did not merely miss a line-item on his tax returns (multiple years); he outright pocketed the money that the IMF gave him to be paid as tax. Troublesome, indeed.

But the past couple of weeks have brought other frustrations, as well. The biggest, of course, is non-partisan. It seems that nobody, left or right, actually believes that the stimulus package(s) now under consideration will actually work. The mantra from our legislators, and from the White House, simply seems to be that we cannot merely stand-by and do nothing.

That simplistic and dangerous view of what it means to govern ignores the very principle behind market economies - our government is trying to replace the Invisible Hand with its own, and all but using the wasteful spending of the last administration to justify its doing so. The governor of South Carolina last week said that we are becoming a "savior-based economy" - an apt pun indeed. And people are blurring the line between faith in government, versus reliance on it. We too easily forget how resilient we are. Although we rally and band together to move mountains after we are attacked by some outside force, we quickly despair and fracture when facing our own internal dilemmas.

And finally, a word about the right. The South Carolina legislature is considering a bill that would create a state holiday to recognize the fallen soldiers of the Confederacy. First, in light of the above, is that really something that deserves attention at this juncture? But, more importantly, the proposed idea, on its face, wreaks of separatist bigotry in a way that simply needs to stop.

It is simply human nature to cherish your roots and culture, but that does not translate to qualified-Americanism. Call me an "American of European ancestry" or an "American of Jewish heritage" if you must, but don't call me a "European-American" or a "Jewish-American." I'm not. I am an American. And, regardless of whether people agree on the providence of using compound-adjectives to describe themselves, I feel comfortable making a sweeping generalization that it is those who are most offended by people calling themselves African-American or Chinese-American, or Mexican-American are the same ones who go to the greatest lengths to make themselves, in all but name, Confederate-Americans.

To those people, I say honor your history as you will, but do not deny others' their own. And rather than focusing backwards on what has divided us for centuries, turn your attention instead to our collective survival for the future. We have a long haul ahead of us.