Have you ever used your credit card in the grocery store? I almost always pay for my groceries with a check card, which draws funds directly from my checking account at the bank.

Since the Food Stamp program started using cards several years ago, most of the major grocery stores have added credit card machines in the checkout line. I can remember a time not too long ago when it was downright inconvenient to try and use a card most places. These days, it's almost easier than paying cash.

I can't have cash in my pocket for very long. I only keep out the amount I can afford to spend carelessly — usually between $10 and $20 per week. I suppose it is like an allowance that I give myself.

I use that money if I am somewhere and need to eat out or if I go somewhere that doesn't take check cards. I also use it for very small expenditures, like a bottle of water and a box of worms.

I have noticed that in the grocery store, the first thing the little machine asks me is if I want instructions in Spanish or Ingles — I mean English.

Then it asks me what kind of card I have, although words like debit and credit don't mean very much to me. I only managed a B in accounting, with the B standing for barely or bored, your choice.

After that, the little machine asks me if the amount of the sale was correct. If you don't say yes, it will not go forward. How am I supposed to know if the amount is correct or not, the cashier hasn't even given me a receipt yet? So, like a rat in a maze, I push the "yes" button to get my groceries.

If you push the debit button, the cashier can even give you cash back. If my grandmother could have seen me go to the grocery store and have the cashier take money out of the drawer to give to me instead of collecting money from me, she would have been amazed. "They pay you to shop here?"

She would also have been amazed at the number of Hispanic immigrants these days. I never even saw a Mexican or person from any Central American country until I was about 10 years old. It turns out that this woman, a Mexican immigrant, was married to one of my family members, a distant cousin. I didn't meet her until I was about 10. My grandmother was riding with her and put her up to coming to the door speaking Spanish for a trick. None of us had ever heard Spanish before, except for my father, and we naturally thought the woman was insane.

The days of never seeing anyone who speaks Spanish are gone. It won't be long before all children in U.S. schools will be taught Spanish, right alongside our current English curriculum. They'll have to have it to function in the world as the number of immigrants grows and grows. Already there are signs outside many businesses noting "Se hablo Espanol" — or, translated, we speak Spanish. Mexican flags, Honduran flags and vehicles with slogans in Spanish are all growing more and more prevalent in our culture. We'll probably have more soccer on television, too. I hate soccer, which other countries call football. How can any sport be exciting with a score like one to zero? Unless the fights are good, like in ice hockey.

I saw a report the other day that said Caucasians will be in a minority in this country within 40 years if current population trends continue. Who would have ever imagined that? I suppose that means we could have the first non-Caucasian male president some time in my lifetime. I wonder if some well-meaning politician will try to pass a law requiring states to gerrymander voting districts to insure they don't dilute Caucasian voting strengths? Will there be special scholarships and contracts awarded by the government to the new minority? Only time will tell, but I somehow have a hard time imagining it.

I may sound a bit jaded, but it really isn't so. Perhaps instead of resisting a change we can do nothing about, we should learn to change as well. There are some things that still need to change. For instance, I still feel like there should be more of an entrance requirement to this country than the ability to run, jump or swim.

I also feel the president's plan to give temporary legal status to all immigrants is bad policy in some regards, since it will encourage a large tidal wave of illegal immigration. On the other hand, every one of the immigrants who registers will have to start paying taxes, which is a definite plus. If every illegal immigrant paid full taxes, I would say the problems with social security would no longer be an issue.

However, if millions of illegals start drawing from the program, we'll be even worse off than we are now. We might as well annex Central America.

What I am not hearing is a proposal to eliminate personal income taxes altogether, which are so prone to unfairness due to different tax rates, exclusion of immigrants (legal and illegal) and the exception of those who are paid in cash. In its stead, I would prefer to see sales taxes to cover everything the government is charging us. At least that way you could easily see a tax increase and know exactly what you are paying in by simply looking at your grocery bill. The way it is now, we are getting taxed at every turn — from estate taxes, gasoline taxes, food taxes, land taxes, income taxes, highway tolls, and even hidden taxes, like the ones on cigarettes. You can hardly breathe without paying an oxygen tax.

Of course, some would argue that changing over to all sales tax would hurt the poor, since they have to spend a higher percentage of their income to survive. Fine, give everyone who makes less than $30,000 a special discount card. I'm sure someone smarter than me can help make everything equitable, or inequitable, as the case may be. What's ever been fair when the government is involved? Besides, if we eliminate income tax, we can also eliminate the evil IRS, filing tax forms and the dreaded April 15 tax deadline.

At least if we did go to all sales tax every person who visits this country — immigrant, tourist, illegal alien, or otherwise — would be contributing to the tax base in a significant way by helping to support our nation through their purchases. The more you spread out the tax burden, the thinner you can spread it. I feel I've been spread quite enough, thank you.

Since President Abraham Lincoln instituted our nation's first payroll taxes to help finance the yankee Civil War effort, let the northerners pay the taxes and leave us out of it.

The way things are going these days, most of them end up helping put the 'north' in North Carolina anyway. What with the added immigration from Florida and from other countries, maybe the natives in this state are the real minority.

After this column was written, a website on the tax topic was discovered at www.fairtax.org.

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