April 15, 2026
Dear IRS,
This year, just as we were preparing to pay our taxes, the President of the United States launched a reckless war against Iran, without a clear justification or objective and without Congressional approval. Within the first 24 hours of this horrible misadventure, our country had fired a missile at an elementary school, killing 150 innocent schoolchildren.1 These are their graves:
Photo Credit: Iran’s Foreign Media Department, via Associated Press
Since March, the militaries of the United States and Israel, funded by U.S. and Israeli taxpayers, have killed 1,443 Iranian civilians, including at least 217 children. Thirteen American servicemembers have been killed.2 All of these people were created by God and endowed with unique talents and gifts. All of them suffered violent deaths in an armed conflict initiated by the United States. Their blood is on our hands. Informed by our consciences and our Catholic Christian faith, we can no longer contribute to this reckless destruction of human life. Therefore, we are not paying the additional $3,748 that we owe in taxes for 2025. Instead, we have donated this amount to organizations that are working to advance peace and human health and dignity.
We ask that the federal taxes that we did pay this year be directed toward health care, disease research and prevention, education, and critical infrastructure. The needs here at home are significant. 2 million people in the United States of America live in homes without running water. Millions more have running water, but it is not safe to drink. In our state of Wisconsin, communities with aging lead pipes or wells contaminated by toxic chemicals are told by federal agencies that there is not enough money to provide clean drinking water to American families. However, there always seems to be enough money for killing machines, like the F35 fighter jets that cost over
$80,000,000 (80 million) each and whose presence in Madison, Wisconsin is lowering property values near the airport they use for take-off and landing due to extreme noise. In the United States, approximately 13% of total federal spending and over 50% of the federal discretional budget goes to pay for past, present, and future wars – more than the next nine countries combined.
Since the start of the war in Afghanistan in 2001, Congress has appropriated $14,000,000,000,000 ($14 trillion) to the Pentagon. How can
WRL’s Day Without the Pentagon logo, Nov. 1997.
the United States have $14 trillion dollars to blow up roads and bridges in other countries, but we have no money to fix roads and bridges in our own? Here in Wisconsin, towns are pulverizing their paved roads and reverting back to gravel roads because there are not enough state and federal highway funds to maintain the paved roads. Here in the Dairy State, these roads are part of the critical infrastructure that allows milk from our dairy farms to safely reach processing plants. In 2007, the I-35 bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed due to lack of maintenance, and 13 people plunged to their deaths in the river below. Was another foreign military escapade more important than the lives of those Americans?
As numerous members of our families battle cancer, there are a nationwide shortages of critical cancer drugs. The federal government is cutting funding for research and treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, which has devastated members of both of our families. In contrast, the United States had enough R&D funds to develop, test, and supply Israel with the thermal and thermobaric munitions that it used to literally vaporize Palestinians in the Gaza war. Creating heat of 6,332 degrees Fahrenheit, these weapons were used in violation of international law to reduce men, women, and children to tiny bits indistinguishable tissue.3 The United States, under both Republican and Democratic administrations,4 is deep in the “Culture of Death” described by Pope Francis.
Our consciences have spoken. We can no longer continue to pay for war while praying for peace.
Sincerely,
Ryan and Kara O’Connor
Madison, Wisconsin
1 https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/us/politics/iran-school-missile-strike.html
4 https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/u-s-made-weapons-used-by-government-of-israel-in-violation-of-international-law-and-u-s-law/