Pete Meyers
Ithaca, NY
April 15, 2002
Internal Revenue Service
Andover, MA 05501-0002
Dear Internal Revenue Service Person:
I enclose this letter with my completed tax form as an explanation about why I cannot, in good conscience, pay the tax money that is demanded of me by the I.R.S. and the United States government—$2,781.31—for the 2001 tax year.
Approximately 13 years ago, I began—as a spiritual discipline, to monitor every penny that went in and out of my life. Out of this discipline, I have become increasingly aware that how I spend my money—as it symbolizes my life energy—is a very concrete expression of my purpose and intent in this world.
I began to look at how some of the Federal tax dollars are used to fund projects and purposes of which I am in total disagreement with and which I don’t believe I can call my own. For instance, I believe that much of the land we Americans live on is, in fact, stolen land. I believe that some of the people living here are, in fact, descendants of stolen people who have not been adequately recompensed for their history of pain.
My principles dictate, as well, against the spending of my life energies for the express purpose of creating war. I cannot, in good faith, support the building and selling of weapons all around the world—often to dictatorial regimes—when there are so many starving children in the world. Many people in our very own country suffer for lack of adequate education, health care, housing, justice—way too much of our tax dollars, I believe, are going to uphold the interests of the wealthy.
The events of September 11th, 2001, were truly horrifying with so many innocent people losing their lives. These events, and the subsequent U.S. response have helped to galvanize my community and myself to work even more intensively for a world with peace and justice.
I am finding my country’s foreign and domestic response to be unacceptable. For instance, the U.S. continues to eschew its potential role in the operation of the International Criminal Court that would be one of the main pillars of how the perpetrators of the September 11th tragedy might be brought to justice. Instead, the U.S. has caused an equal or greater amount of deaths in Afghanistan through its bombing campaigns. This all with no evidence that the perpetrators of September 11th tragedy have been brought to justice! On a domestic front, we continue to hold people in detention with no clue as to their names because of government suspicion. On an economic front, the U.S intensifies its giveaway to corporate interests in the form of tax cuts to rich individuals and corporations while poor people continue to suffer lives of poverty.
My suspicion is that those people crafting U.S. foreign policy are using what happened on September 11th as a pretext to further solidify its historical role as geopolitical enforcer of supposed free-market policies around the world. I simply will not allow my hard-earned life energy—as symbolized by dollars—to continue to be used in this venture!
I realize that the U.S. government is involved in some good works, which I could wholeheartedly support. The problem I come up against when considering whether or not to willingly hand over my tax dollars is that I know that a certain percentage of my life energy will still go to the maintenance of a military-industrial complex that I just can’t support. As you will see at the end of this letter, I have redirected all of the money I would’ve paid in Federal taxes to organizations that I believe are working for meaningful change in this country and in the world.
By this action of refusing to pay my taxes—and subsequently redirecting them—I hope to affirm a deepening of my country’s democratic traditions. In my vision, we would expand beyond a representational democracy to more of a participatory democracy. I’ve come to believe that it takes a lot of money to even become a representative in the U.S. government. I have seen too many times throughout the history of this country that the government primarily defends and supports the interests of the more privileged. I believe that our budget should be focused on helping those at the bottom of the economic ladder, rather than those at the top.
I like to remind myself occasionally of what Thomas Jefferson said some 200 years ago. Jefferson felt that our nation would need to undergo periodic revolutions in order to remain vital and alive. I see my tax refusal as part of this revolutionary energy and hope that others will similarly begin to take their own rightful power into their own hands—nonviolently. Lets not forget that part of the American Revolution from England included tax resistance.
Here is the breakdown of how I actually redirected the tax money that is demanded of me:
***$375.00—Samaritan Center—Local organization run through Catholic Charities of Tompkins County designed to help people most in need obtain financial assistance for such things as security deposits, medicine, personal needs, etc…
***$14.00—American Red Cross—Local and international organization that helps to support people in times of need to obtain emergency assistance…
***$89.36—United Way of Tompkins County—Local service organization that funds human service agencies…
***$61.45—Tompkins County Living Wage Coalition—Local activist coalition that works for a living/sustainable wage for all people through many different contexts…
***$50.00—African Great Lakes Initiative—Quaker initiative to operate as peace teams in the African Great Lakes and provide training to people to help resolve conflicts…
***$50.00—New York Public Interest Research Group—The New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) is New York State’s largest consumer, environmental and government reform organization. We are a nonpartisan, not-for-profit group established to effect policy reforms while training students and other New Yorkers to be advocates…
***$85.00—The Media Foundation—A global network of artists, activists, writers, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century.
***$15.00—Colombia Action Network—The Colombia Action Network (CAN) is a network of local groups that supports all progressive forces in Colombia, an end to U.S. intervention and an end to aid to the Colombian Government…
***$75.00—People’s Global Action—A network that serves as a global instrument for communication and co-ordination for all those fighting against the destruction of humanity and the planet by the global market, building up local alternatives.
***$125.00—National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee—National organization dedicated to spreading the word and networking about war tax resistance…
***$154.50—Ithaca Coalition for Global Justice, aka The Sharks—A diverse group of workers, students, and community members who are committed to economic, social, and environmental justice in Tompkins County, the United States and the world…
***$20.00—Tompkins County Network for Peace and Justice—Local coalition of groups that began as a result of September 11th and is helping to work for peace in an environment of war…
***$35.00—Human Rights Action Service—Quick action response network run out of St. Louis and circulated nationwide to encourage people to take action on a vital human rights issue internationally…
***10.00—Rights Action Guatamala—Guatamalan organization that works internationally to bring attention to human rights violations in Guatamala…
***$25.00—Witness for Peace—Accompaniment organization that travels to countries that have been underdeveloped by the U.S. and its allies to bear witness to violence and bring that information back home…
***$20.00—School of the Americas Watch/Ithaca—Local organization that works to close the School of Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia. The school has trained many soldiers from Central and South America who’ve been implicated in brutal massacres against their country’s people…
***$190.00—Catholic Worker Vieques Support Fund—Local organization devoted to bringing awareness to the destruction of Vieques, an island of Puerto Rico…
***$50.00—Ithaca Catholic Worker—Local organization working to bring greater awareness to violence done to people of Palestine and Iraq by unquestioning support of Israel economic sanctions imposed by United States and allies…
***$20.00—Radio Free Ithaca—Local organization that provides training and equipment to progressive community groups to make broadcast-quality recordings of speakers, public forums, interviews, and documentaries…
***$40.00—ACORN Living Wage Resource Center—National organization supporting local groups around the country in implementing Living Wage legislation..
***$1000.00—Ithaca Health Fund—Local health fund designed to wrest control of health insurance from large corporations and place power of insurance back into community…
***$75.00—SUNY/Cortland—Thinking About Prisons Conference—Conference sponsored by SUNY/Cortland designed to help people think more critically about our nation’s prison system…
***$60.00—Independent Progressive Politics Network—National organization that is working for an alternative to our present political system by supporting proportional representation and networking national and local political parties and movements…
***$142.00—Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space—International organization dedicated to building a citizens movement to challenge the plan to militarize space…
$2,781.31—Grand total of tax money redirected that I would have paid to the I.R.S.
I conclude my letter with a statement made by a Mennonite pastor, John K. Stoner. “We are war tax resisters because we have discovered some doubt as to what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God, and have decided to give the benefit of the doubt to God.” I sincerely encourage you to treat my letter and my actions with respect. I know, as well, that you have a job to do and will respect that to the fullest degree possible.
In the spirit of life and with peace,
Pete Meyers
“When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967
