’s first article about war tax resisters has gone out over the wires — a little earlier than usual, I think, thanks to Deena Gudzer, of Columbia University’s journalism department.
It’s got some quotes from tax resisters Ed Hedemann, Peter Goldberger, Robin Harper, Karl Meyer, and Dennis Dalton, a dissent from an activist who doesn’t see much point in war tax resistance, and some beside-the-point boilerplate rebuttalizing from an IRS spokesman.
…do not start to mutter to yourself about spineless Democratic politicians. For the fault lies not in our politicians, but in ourselves. Let us remind ourselves that twice in two weeks, the avowedly prowar Senators, mainly Republicans, filibustered against a toothless non-binding anti-war resolution against the war. Why? Their base demands it. Theirs is not a spineless base, and so they are not spineless legislators. But in over four years the supposedly antiwar Democratic Senators did not even raise the idea of a filibuster. Why not? In part because their base did not demand it. Not once was it raised to my knowledge. What does the mainstream or “official” antiwar movement, as it more properly should be called, do? Does it demand or does it grovel? Quite frankly it grovels — at most. The Dem politicians are spineless in part, because we are.
How to win friends and influence people (only slightly fictionalized):
To whom it may concern:
I noticed a couple of problems with your stopfundingthewariniraq.com site. First, the logo. Are you sure you meant to go with that trisected octagon thing? The red octagon I get, the trisection not so much. I’m guessing this is that peace sign vs. Mercedes logo confusion that’s been so popular lately. Is that really what you were aiming at, though? I admit, I’m not much up on the latest trends in detournement, so please disregard this if I’m missing the point.
But the second issue seems to me more important. I don’t see any indication on the site that any of the sponsors, organizers, or speakers have stopped, or plan to stop, funding the war in Iraq. Anyone reading the site would have the impression that all they’re going to do is ask other people to do this for them, or, even less usefully, that they’re going to plead with the façade of the building that holds Nancy Pelosi’s regional office to stop funding the war.
The site now looks like it would be better named “Won’t Somebody Else Please Stop Funding The War In Iraq” — it might help if the site mentioned the various ways in which the sponsors, organizers, and speakers are themselves stopping their payments; elsewise, whatever logo is on the site, it risks looking ridiculous.
