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Saturday, December 27, 2008
‘Good people in this world’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Days ago, Lawrence Hardnett left me a phone message in a voice that sounded as bright as the shines he polishes onto dull shoes.
“Man, I feel good,” he said.
Remember Hardnett?
He’s a fixture at Bennie’s Shoes in Norcross, where he’s been shining shoes for years. In 2003, an IRS representative paid the career shoeshine man a visit, asked a few questions about his income. Turns out Hardnett owed Uncle Sam about $90,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties. A $175-a-month payment plan was set up, but Hardnett — his business hurt by the economy — couldn’t meet the obligation, along with other living expenses like the mortgage on his Lawrenceville home.
Because of the delinquency, the IRS informed Hardnett that the agency would take his home if non-payment continued. He showed me paperwork in which the IRS had placed a federal lien on his house. Make no mistake: Hardnett knows this predicament was self-inflicted. He didn’t pay taxes for decades — which was wrong — then in mid-2000 had a change of heart and started filing returns.
In October, I wrote about Hardnett’s pickle and the situation caught the attention of two former IRS officials who live in metro Atlanta. One had a background in collections; the other had overseen audits. The men, who now work in private practice and wish to remain anonymous, agreed to help Hardnett, 58, someone who’d never shined their shoes, someone they didn’t even know. They approached the IRS on his behalf.
On Dec. 18, one of the good Samaritans dropped by Bennie’s Shoes. Good news, he told Hardnett. The former IRS officials were able to work out a payment plan. Hardnett will only have to pay $50 a month. The men plan to draft a letter for the IRS that outlines the particulars of the new plan, which Hardnett, undoubtedly, will gladly sign.
I could hear the relief in Hardnett’s voice.
“Please let the public know that this has been taken care of,” he said. “There are good people in this world.”
Amen.
One of the men who went to bat for Hardnett assured me that the arrangement should settle the matter. Then he made a suggestion, something that he hoped I could work into a column about a shoeshine man who probably considers this one of the best Christmas presents ever.
He prefaced what he said by saying he’d voted for President-elect Barack Obama, and how he hoped the senator’s election would go a long way in improving race relations and erasing perceived differences some harbor when it comes to skin color.
Then he told me that he and his colleague were “two older white guys” who stepped up for Hardnett, a 58-year-old black man who’d never shined their shoes, who they had never met. Color, to them, didn’t matter.
The person, his problem, did.
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