“Activating Everyday Nonviolence: Juanita Nelson’s 100th Birthday Celebration and Gathering” is coming up August 17–20 in Western Massachusetts. Although Juanita died in 2015, fellow activists and friends (many associated with Pioneer Valley War Tax Resistance) were inspired by her life’s example to offer a weekend of exploration into everyday nonviolence and the nonviolence of everything…. Continue reading
An article about how climate change is going to impact federal spending caught my eye today. Mostly it got me vaguely thinking about how difficult it is to change — especially on the national scale. The article is about the Biden administration’s warning that climate change is going to cost the federal government a lot… Continue reading
I’m rather caught up in the past lately, what with working on the War Resisters League 100th anniversary and helping finalize an unpublished autobiography by WWI resister and war tax resister Max Sandin. So, lacking any other ideas for a post here, I decided see what was in the NWTRCC newsletter 10 years ago. The… Continue reading
Reading my way through the New York Times one morning in May 2020, a photo caught my eye. It was a shot of a crowd from behind, but the one visible sign read “It Is NOT ok to Kill People.” The accompanying article was about the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, and it… Continue reading
I eagerly await my next letter from the IRS. I just got a letter from them “correcting” my 1040 for tax year 2020, filed on tax day, May 17, 2021. This latest letter came “right on time”; when I called in July 2022 the IRS employee told me it would be 16 weeks before my… Continue reading
While NWTRCC is celebrating its 40 years, I’m taking a second trip down memory lane with a volunteer project of sorting, filing and reorganizing the War Resisters League photo file. WRL produced many publications throughout its history (October 2022 is the 99th anniversary of WRL’s founding), so going through the five-drawer filing cabinet folder by… Continue reading
Pink Floyd was not a group I followed lo these many years, although a few of their songs are familiar. Ed made a CD mix of music to accompany our trips to view total eclipses of the sun, so of course Pink Floyd’s “Eclipse” made the cut. “Money” was a hit single in the U.S…. Continue reading
My older brother’s career and expertise is in the fields (literally) of anthropology and archeology. He has done digs mostly in the Midwest, and funding for this work often comes from the civilian (presumably) budget of the Army Corps of Engineers, which is required to have land surveys done before they shift rivers, manage a… Continue reading
It will take 16 more weeks to overcome a “problem encountered” by the IRS in processing my 2020 tax return, which they received 14 months ago. As previously reported, IRS reports indicate I didn’t file a 2020 return. Without that my social security statement does not include my income or social security payments for that… Continue reading
I can’t even remember how much time it has taken me to create an online account with the IRS. Until recently this was not something I ever wanted to do, because they ask for so much information to establish the account. But there are a few reasons I’ve found it necessary: you can’t get anyone… Continue reading
Every year on May 15, International Conscientious Objection Day, War Resisters’ International (WRI) organizes solidarity with conscientious objectors (COs) and draws attention to their resistance to war. This year, with the ongoing war in Ukraine, they turned their focus on the resistance of conscientious objectors from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, and published statements from the… Continue reading
In these discouraging times for antiwar activists and humanity at large, it was good to be out marching around with like-minded folks and getting encouraging support from passers-by, including tourists from near and far. War tax resistance is a quarterly, paycheck-to-paycheck or even daily act of resistance to war, depending on your method, but it… Continue reading
