After putting the book down for a few months, I recently picked back up my reading of David Swanson’s War Is a Lie, which I got from the author himself at his April 16 appearance in Portland, Oregon. Over this weekend, I think I started to understand why I had put the book down. Just… Continue reading
History
Opposing nuclear weapons at Lawrence Livermore Lab
by Cathy Deppe Last August was the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Japan. As members of the international peace group Global Network, Alex and I were fortunate to participate in commemoration services in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A year later we traveled a shorter distance to California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, to… Continue reading
Mutual aid and war tax resistance
One of the ways war tax resisters support each other is through the War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund (WTRPF). This fund was founded in 1982 by the North Manchester, Indiana chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and later became a separate organization. Its purpose is to provide mutual aid for war tax resisters who have… Continue reading
45 years of alternative fund grants!
(from our June/July 2016 newsletter🙂 “In order that we may offer our fellow citizens an alternative by which their tax monies may be directed to the sustainment of life rather than its destruction, the PEOPLE’S LIFE FUND is established.” Thus read the announcement of the founding of the New York City alternative fund in the… Continue reading
“The Boys Who Said No” and other anti-war media
In the past couple of weeks, I’ve come across a lot of media of interest to war tax resisters and our supporters! There’s a film in development called The Boys Who Said No, about draft resisters during the Vietnam War. The film name is a reference to that iconic poster of Joan Baez and her… Continue reading
Flashes from the Past
In going through some old files recently a few tidbits of historical, inspirational, and/or organizing interest surfaced: In the midst of an election year (it feels more like years) a flyer from the early 1970s is a refreshing change from everything we are hearing from the current crop of candidates. Elizabeth Taylor (no, not that… Continue reading
Martin Sheen backs this war-tax-resisting group
Since I joined the war tax resistance movement, I’ve had many opportunities to get to know friends in the Catholic Worker houses around the country, including in New York City, Milwaukee, and Las Vegas. Catholic Worker houses offer a place to sleep, meals, and/or support for those in need, which may include homeless, poor, mentally… Continue reading
Video: Complicity and Collection – Religious Freedom and Tax
At our November 2015 conference in Las Vegas, University of Nevada – Las Vegas law professor Jennifer Carr spoke to us about her research paper, “Complicity and Collection: Religious Freedom and Tax.” Our audio recording of her talk and the ensuing discussion is now available online, synced up with slides from her PowerPoint. This is… Continue reading
Refusing the Legacy of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving has got me thinking about how the militarization of the U.S. extends all the way back to the pre-colonial days of Pilgrims and other white settlers arriving on the shores of this continent. In addition to the land they claimed, they decided they had a claim to the lives of the American Indians who… Continue reading
On Armistice Day, Remember: Wars Cannot End Wars
Armistice Day marked the formal agreement between Germany and the Allied forces to stop fighting on 11/11/1918. The war that ended that day was considered in 1918 to be the “war to end all wars” and so a holiday marking its cessation was declared a year later by President Wilson. In 1926 Congress made Armistice… Continue reading
Longest Jail Time for a War Tax Resister
People unfamiliar with war tax resistance assume that if you do it, you go straight to jail, or at least wind up there eventually. “Why aren’t you in jail?” Years ago when I was in the ready-room before appearing on a TV interview program, the host asked me “Why aren’t you in jail?” Similarly, a… Continue reading
Greetings from Jeju Island, South Korea
The Korean Navy is destroying Gangjeong Village (current population around 2,000) and the surrounding area by building a base here. In terms of population, 7-8,000 soldiers and their families are expected in the community. Additionally, bartenders, tattoo artists, prostitutes, and others will be drawn to the area The base itself will accommodate U.S. warships such… Continue reading
