Bijou Community Members Have Low Incomes to Avoid War Taxes

In the middle of an article about nonviolent resistance, Evan Weissman mentions the Bijou community, which I otherwise know nothing about but which sounds pretty wonderful from this description — I’d like to know more:

The Bijou community of Colorado Springs, Colorado is a living example of nonviolent community resistance in the “belly of the beast” of right-wing military and Christian extremism.

The members of this community live below a taxable income level so that they don’t pay for war.

In addition to ongoing bannering and civil disobedience at some of the 5 major military institutions in the area, the Bijou community runs services for the mentally-ill, homeless, working poor, incarcerated, and the general community including: a soup kitchen, food banks, a land trust, several homes for transitional and homeless folks, a free bicycle clinic, and a musical theater group.



War tax resister Susan van Haitsma’s response to the recent attention given to military recruitment is to look at The Recruiter in Each of Us:

I’d like to place all the blame on the Bush administration for maintaining this insatiable war machine that eats our young. But I think we all share responsibility. If we pay income taxes, recruiters are on our payroll.


If you need some ammunition to get your conservative friends curious about tax resistance, take a look at the Heritage Foundation’s Top 10 Examples of Government Waste and the Citizens Against Government Waste Pig Book. (Warning: may also infuriate non-conservatives.)