Filling in the blanks as part of the ritual known as “doing one’s taxes,” I’m struck by the irony of a decoration that’s adorned my living space for the past nine years. Hanging on my wall, black and white on bright yellow, is a rattlesnake coiled over the inscription: “Don’t Tread On Me.”

The flag — originally flown by the United States Navy in the War of Independence and more recently popularized by health care reform phobics — has had a proud place in my abode since I was a freshman in college. Its appeal to individual liberty and freedom from oppression, which finally found expression in the Bill of Rights, has always resonated with me.

And as a journalist, whose profession just kinda depends upon the First Amendment, I see no reason why it shouldn’t remain.

So there it hangs, even while I fill out my 1040 form, an action some probably consider the ultimate in tread-on-me.

Thing is, I’ve never thought that way about taxes. Maybe paying my share to Uncle Sam hasn’t made me feel like a modern-day member of the Boston Tea Party, but it hasn’t felt like servitude, either. In fact, it feels like being a productive member of society.

I might not grow food and I might not fight crime, but at least I pay my taxes.

Still, I like to know that my portion of the price of a civil society is really making society more civil. In other words: I want to know where my hard-earned dollars are going.

A cursory look at the federal government’s spending shows the lion’s share goes to things like the Pentagon, Social Security, health care and national debt payments. A tiny fraction of it, however, is brought directly home, mostly in the form of earmarks.

These are spending provisions inserted into legislation by congressional representatives, and each is destined for a certain local project.

Some call such appropriations “pork,” though when it comes home to the particular critic’s congressional district, it’s more commonly referred to as “bacon.”

These earmarks can have a huge impact on a city or county, even though they overall are only a small percentage of distributed taxpayer money.

Take a few of the earmarks recently requested by Rep. Jerry McNerney, the Pleasanton Democrat who represents Tracy and the rest of the 11th Congressional District.

Among the Tracy-directed bacon bits are:

• $400,000 for gang-prevention programs;

• $950,000 for cameras in “high-traffic areas” to reduce crime;

• $1 million to continue studying an Interstate 205 interchange at Lammers Road;

• $1 million for an “above-grade crossing” of the Mococo rail line by MacArthur Drive to ease traffic congestion;

• And millions more for levee, water and hospital projects.

The majority of McNerney’s earmarks, including the biggie — $13 million for relocating an emergency dispatch center to Alameda — are not specifically directed toward Tracy. But many of them, such as $10 million to improve Central Valley air quality and $2 million to improve the Interstate 580-Interstate 680 interchange outside Pleasanton, would definitely improve the quality of life for many local residents.

All things considered, it’s a list that ain’t half bad — especially considering how the quality of earmarks ranges from spot-on beneficial to Bridge-to-Nowhere bad.

Maybe that’s not a huge comfort right now, as I calculate my payment under the glare of a rattlesnake flag.

It does, however, give me hope that at least some of my money will find its way back to where it came from.

• Contact columnist and associate editor Jon Mendelson at jmendelson@tracypress.com.

• For more Second Thoughts, visit Jon’s blog.

At a glance

• See Rep. Jerry McNerney’s requested earmarks for 2010 by clicking this link.