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.

The venerable peace group The Fellowship of Reconciliation has signed on to A Call to Resist the War in Iraq. (I covered the Call in more detail back in January.)

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 2005 Pig Book. (Warning: may also infuriate non-conservatives.)