I wish Mrs. Greene, my first grade teacher, could be placed in charge of investigating allegations of the IRS targeting organizations supportive of the conservative Tea-Party. As I recall, she was great at playground justice, and I learned some valuable life lessons watching the wisdom of the teachers of children. Learned a lot from the lack of wisdom in some teachers of children as well, but I’ll leave that for another day.

You see, when a kid, especially a kid with a history of bullying, started screaming about being wronged by another kid, Mrs. Greene would listen, and if something was improper, she would do what was needed to correct it. She’d also check out the backstory. Sometimes, the screaming was an effort to put so much light on the alleged “offender” that no one would question why the child being screamed about did what they did. You know the scenario. A victimized child gets one too many wedgies and punches the bully in the nose. Teacher sees the punch, and the bully starts screaming that he or she is hurt so that the teacher won’t both to discover that it was the 20th wedgie the bully had given that morning.

That is to say as I read or listened about IRS “targeting” of Tea-Party supporting groups, I started to wonder about the backstory. I won’t say I did extensive research -- after all this blog is a hobby that must not interfere with what pays the bills -- but I did enough to find some interesting twists.

I work in the nonprofit sector, and I know it is the IRS’s job to ensure that nonprofit organizations truly do use donations and gifts for authorized charitable purposes. I helped form a US-based organization to support efforts to help endangered women in Iraq. Honey, let me tell you it took us twice as long as normal to get our nonprofit status, and I’m not complaining one little bit because I’m GLAD the IRS made sure were weren’t a cover for some type of terrorist activity or political sabotage. The US group remains highly concerned about what it can or should support in Iraq.

As I researched the IRS/Tea Party support groups’ backstory, I found something interesting. The conflict basically stems from an effort to identify groups actually serving political rather than nonprofit agendas. These were groups designated as 501(c)(4) organizations under the IRS code rather than under Section 527 of the tax code which requires that they publicly list all donors. It was liberal as well as conservative groups who received letters inquiring about their activity. Actually, I know this to be part of the process as an organization is fully scrutinized before receiving permanent non-profit status. While no status was changed for any Tea-Party related groups, one liberal group, Emerge America, did have their status changed and is now required to list all donors. Emerge America trains Democratic women and encourages them to run for office. Changing their status seemed a no-brainer, and, as near as I can tell, they did as requested without complaint.

So, folks, if you want to know the story, apparently all of the bru-ha-ha is because those “targeted” Tea-Party supporting organizations don’t want to publicly list their donors. It makes me wonder why. In my 20 plus years working in the sector, most nonprofit organizations go out of their way to list and acknowledge donors, except in rare cases when anonymity is requested. Could there possibly be some political wedgies involved?

Growing up on a farm and ranch in the Texas Panhandle, I knew there were three things that could bring terror into my household: weather (e.g. drought), the Cold War, and the IRS. From what I understand, it is part of the IRS’ job to seek out and stop those individuals, businesses, or organization that may fail to comply with the law of the land as it relates to taxation. The IRS should not be loved, but it should be fair.

I do not believe anyone should be singled out for harassment, but I question if that was the case. Nor do I believe any sector should receive preferential treatment. It is legitimate for the IRS to watch for political groups abusing non-profit status. I fear that after all this, preferential treatment may become the case. In essence, the IRS may now be afraid to do its job as it relates to conservative political groups.

Mrs. Greene, where are you? We could sure use you now.