By Mary Fahnestock-Thomas, Hamilton
From the very beginning, the US Constitution has mandated a counting of the US population at least once every 10 years. The object is to make sure states are represented appropriately in the US House of Representatives and to help local, state, and the federal government know how best to allocate OUR TAX DOLLARS for infrastructure, schools, hospitals, first responders, etc.
This year’s census is being ended early, at the end of September, perhaps because the current administration is not particularly interested in knowing about hard-to-count people — immigrants, the poor, ethnic minorities — and intends to spend OUR TAX DOLLARS the way it wants to, thank you very much.
So if you care about this process and have not filled out Census 2020 already, please do so as soon as you can. You may have received the form in the mail, but you can also fill it out online at my2020census.gov, or call 844-330-2020. You can request service in many different languages.
The process takes 5-10 minutes, depending on how many are in your household. There is no citizenship question, nor are you asked for your Social Security number, your preferred political party, or any money or credit card or bank account numbers. Unlike at times in the past, it doesn’t ask how many slaves or televisions you own or even if you are feeling well.
Please do this for our town, county, and state.