When the largest denomination of Mennonites in the U.S. met in Kansas City for MennoCon 19, H.A. Penner, along with other Mennonite war tax resisters, had put together a proposal that the Mennonite Church U.S.A. renew its Church Peace Tax Fund. The historical peace church had previously established a war tax alternative fund in the… Continue reading
National
Fire and Ice Part I
Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. – Robert Frost In… Continue reading
The Season of Growth and Resistance
“…we cannot turn a blind eye to the people within our community whose basic needs go unmet, knowing that more will join their ranks with budget cuts. What if instead we insisted upon diverting $20,000 to 2,800 homeless households a month? What if, since no one is listening to our pleas of no intensified war… Continue reading
Inspiration from the Past for the Present
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
This Is Not A Drill
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
Let Us Imagine Investing in Preserving Our Natural Wonders
My partner and I were lucky enough to visit Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Craters of the Moon National Monument, Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park in late spring of 2022. And we will visit Jedediah Smith Redwoods State and National Park later this summer, as we often do. These are all extremely beautiful… Continue reading
We Can All Say “No!”
“What we say to a society of murder and racism is a very simple no. What we say to our brothers across this country and around the world is a very simple word. That word is RESIST!” — David Harris, at a 1960s antiwar protest David Harris is one of the featured draft resisters and… Continue reading
Billions, Billions & Billions…Who’s Counting?
On September 1st, the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee backed a proposal to increase military spending for the Department of Defense by $25 Billion. That total was more than the Biden Administration had requested of $715 Billion. The vote was 42 to 17 which passed in the Senate. Many have been raising the… Continue reading
The Obvious Futility of War. What Can We Do?
“You don’t know if it’s going to last two days or two weeks or two months. It certainly isn’t going to last two years.” That was Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld in September of 2002, almost a year after the invasion of Afghanistan and at the time the Bush Administration was building support for their… Continue reading
Righting the Ship
Part I Addressing the Harms in Our Neighborhoods Long time war tax resister Robert Randall introduced me to his hometown of Brunswick, Georgia by saying it was mostly known as a port town for automobile transportation; quickly followed by saying “not much happens there.” On April 4, 2018, 7 people entered the King’s Bay naval… Continue reading
Czar Nicholas II to the Pentagon Papers: The Unexpected Power of Individual Actions
The Pentagon Papers at 50 is getting a lot of attention and giving Daniel Ellsberg another chance to tell his story as well as talk about more recent releases of secret documents including his own. Ellsberg says he’s ready to go to jail again for his use of classified information in his 2017 book The… Continue reading
Report from NWTRCC’s Third Online Conference
NWTRCC held its third online conference the weekend of April 30 – May 2, 2021. More than 40 people attended some portion of the conference, which began the evening of Friday April 30 with a social hour. For the social hour, we broke out twice into random groups of six for 30 minutes. It was… Continue reading