War Resisters League’s Pie Chart
Just like the Vernal Equinox, Tax Day came and went. As the national deadline to pay federal income taxes settled back into April, the frenetic energy seemed to be more prevalent this year. Over 20 public actions took place across the US to raise awareness that close to half of personal income taxes goes towards war. Having participated in various actions at different locations we have all witnessed a variety of reactions to asking people do they know where their tax money goes? This year was different.
It seems that this year the reception to tax day actions was quite positive in many communities. In St Louis, we distributed the War Resisters League’s Pie Chart at a farmers market prior to tax day. We then held two actions on tax day that were full of engaged conversations with those we encountered. Some went out of their way to receive our fliers and engage with us. Quite a few expressed deep gratitude as they too lamented how our resources are being squandered. With the positive response from the people on the streets our group vowed to continue leafleting about military spending throughout the coming year.
Tax Day Action outside of Post Office in St Louis
We would love to hear from you about what actions you have taken or are planning in the near future. Lindsey Britt shared with NWTRCC her letter to the editor published in Brattleboro, Vermont’s newspaper which you can find here along with other articles around tax day. If you wrote to the IRS we would love to add it to Letters to the IRS section of our website. Members of the People Life Fund crafted posters for tax day that were wheatpasted in the Bay Area. Radio interviews were also conducted around tax day and some can be found here.
Letter to the IRS from Jan and David Hartsough
While some war tax resisters were out taking action on Earth Day, Campaign Nonviolence, a project of Pace e Bene hosted an online session of people interested in war tax resistance to provide information and support. It was refreshing to be with a group of mostly strangers talking about war tax refusal in such a heartfelt manner. Others in the group expressed similar sentiments and we agreed to meet monthly. If you are interested you can find out more information here.
Image from David Solnit from the People’s Life Fund
NWTRCC is currently planning our May Conference that will be at Joyfield Farm in North Manchester, Indiana. You can find the schedule and register for the May 5-7 here. Resisting Together will be the theme of this gathering as we share our joys and struggles in this work. Whether in person or online, we will catch courage from each other, strengthen our network, brainstorm future actions and meet new people who share in a vision of a more peace filled world!
Post by Chrissy Kirchhoefer
