NWTRCC Events
Last week NWTRCC hosted a War Tax Resistance/Refusal/Redirection (WTR) 101 online. It was an interactive, engaging conversation. We have been hearing from practitioners of WTR who have been living under the taxable income who anticipate that changing or do not see that path as sustainable. It is encouraging to be engaged with people who are making intentional decisions about how our collective resources are being used.
NWTRCC will be hosting a WTR 101 on Facebook Live this coming Thurday Feburary 2 (2pm eastern/ 1pm central/ 11am pacific). Coordinator Lincoln Rice will be sharing an overview of WTR including history, motivations, practical concerns such as to file or not to file, W-4 forms, self employment and so much more. Join us and share with your networks, those who may be interested. You can also find a recording of the WTR 101 later on our YouTube Channel.
Also there will be a Counselor’s Training this coming Saturday Feburary 4 that you can register for here as well as information about our upcoming NWTRCC National gathering in May in North Manchester, Indiana May 5-7.
Motivations of WTR in the Modern Era M.E./ Atomic Age
Image of Wei Wei exhibit featuring bombs “Little Boy,” “Fat Man” and B83 the largest nuclear bomb in the US arsenal. Photo by Chrissy Kirchhoefer
At the start of each year, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists issues their assessment about the risks to life on Earth through human actions and inactions. After the nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagaski, the international group was formed and began issuing it’s annual state of the world in the form of the Doomsday Clock. The extinction of humanity is represented as midnight on the clock and how close we are to that has been measured by minutes to midnight. The clock was first set at 7 minutes to midnight in 1947; has moved backwards 8 times and forward 17 times.
In 2020 the clock moved to a mere 100 seconds to midnight with the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists citing the threats of nuclear war and climate chaos had a multipying effect when incorporating cyber enabled info warfare. After 3 years at a standstill, the Doomsday Clock was moved forward last week by the Bullitin of Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board to a mere 90 seconds till midnight, closer to anytime during the Cold War when a nuclear winter loomed on the horizon.
During the reveal of the Doomsday Clock status last week there were many international voices and members of the Elders Council who were encouraging world-wide action to prevent a collective human annilihation which can be accessed here.The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (I-CAN) issued a statement in response to the Doomsday Clock stating “So this year’s Clock announcement must not be followed by the usual hand wringing, resignation and excuses, but urgent action to avoid nuclear war.” I-CAN lays out some plans to follow up on the Doomsday Clock dislosure just 2 years and 2 days after the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into legal force.
At the online WTR 101 session, it was framed that the most recent era of WTR reached back to the resisters of WWII who emerged from that war deeply opposed to nuclear weapons. It seems like such an obvious lineage but one would hope as I am certain that they must have imagined that we would not still be engaged in a game of roulette with all of humanity all these years later. Upon reflecting upon Nuclear Winter, all those who have been resisting it and thinking about the Doomsday Clock moving up 10 seconds closer, the words of Mary Oliver’s poem The Summer Day came to mind:
“Tell me what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Post by Chrissy Kirchhofer
