10% Tanning tax is racism?

Dear Reader,
This post may tick some of you off, but it is something that needs to be said. By now, I'm sure most of you may have heard about the "10% Tanning Tax" that began on July 1st. I think this is one of our governments best ideas! Why is everyone getting so worked up, anyway? If you can't afford this meager ten percent, then you probably should be spending your money more wisely anyhow.

Most of you don't know that I am a melanoma survivor. I grew up around beaches, as I was a military brat, and yes, even spent a little time in tanning beds when I was younger. My diagnosis of melanoma was a very scary experience, It wasn't just some "sun spots" that could be cut off. My cancer was so deep that when I had surgery to remove it, I was left with almost a four inch scar across my shoulder blade, and it is not pretty! The melanoma had spread to my lymph nodes under my left arm, which resulted in my doctor having to remove twenty-two of them, that scar isn't so pretty either. Then, guess what? Chemotherapy. I had to experience that five days a week for six weeks in office and the remainder of the year with at-home injections three times a week. I don't want pity or sympathy, I want people to know just how far vanity and stupidity can take you.

The part that just makes me so sick is the fact that people are using this new tax law for their own advertising! Saying things such as 'Tired of paying tanning taxes? Join our gym and never be taxed for it again because we have FREE tanning!' Guess what guys? You are STILL paying taxes to tan because you can't expect us to be paying for your gym taxes too, right? By that I mean when I had cancer, I didn't expect for tax-paying citizens to pay for my chemotherapy just because I had not protected my skin all those years. Get real. Somebody has to help fund this health care bill. And that, my friends, is where the majority of the money will end up. Don't like it? Don't fake and bake. It has to be better being pale or using sunless tanners than being orange anyway. Plus, it speeds up the aging process and your wrinkles will appear before they should, but botox can fix that right up...oh yeah, thats being taxed also.

*Steps down from her soap box*

I don't want anyone to have to go through what I went through, even though, it could have been worse. If not caught in time, I could have died. Please, I ask you to wear your sunscreen.

With Love,


P.S.
Please stop calling this tax 'racism' and the 'white people tax'. That is taking it a little too far.