A great article from the “Taxes for Peace, Not War” group from Eugene, Oregon suggests itself as a template that other local war tax resistance groups could follow.
It starts by summarizing the ongoing Iraq war atrocity and noting that the American peace movement has largely been caught napping:
A number of years ago, Father Daniel Berrigan wrote a short statement that comes as a deep challenge to the nonviolent peace movement. In it he points out that we yearn for peace, but we are unwilling to make any significant sacrifices to obtain it. The United States public takes for granted that, for a war effort, families will be torn apart, young men and women’s careers and education disrupted, and young soldiers will die. But we in the peace movement want to set our own schedules, fit our peace activities safely into the rest of our lives.
The article then tells the stories of four local activists who decided on a little disruption instead:
For some of us in the peace movement, it is not only Congress who holds the power of the purse. We believe it is each individual’s right to say, “Not in my name, and not with my money!” Some of us are willing to sacrifice security and comfort by refusing to pay for the war through our federal income tax. We are war tax resisters and here are some of our stories.
There’s going to be a “Stop Funding the War in Iraq” protest rally down at San Francisco’s Federal Building on . Naturally, the rally is not one at which the peace activists are going to declare their own unwillingness to continue to fund the war, but instead one in which they will plead with the façade of the building containing Nancy Pelosi’s local office that she stop funding the war.
I’m thinking of picketing the protest as a way of pointing out this disconnect. What do you think would make a good picket sign? I’m considering
The Power of the Purse Begins With You
Stop Paying War Taxes
and
If Congress Won’t Stop Funding War
You Can Stop Funding Congress
but I’m open to suggestions.
