How you can resist funding the government →
the tax resistance movement →
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television
It’s a strange surprise when a piece of network television entertainment decides to weave tax resistance into the plot, as the law opera Boston Legal just did.
In the “Stick It” episode, the secretary of one of the main characters gets hauled into court for tax resistance, and her boss defends her — giving a courtroom soliloquy about the lies that the country went to war on, the torture and abuse of detainees, and the decline of civil rights in America that I’m sure left many viewers cheering and wondering why they see only fictional characters saying such things on television.
I didn’t see the show, so can’t comment on any of the nuances, but if you’d care to, you can see the closing arguments here.
A commercial for war tax resistance that went out to some ten million viewers… not bad.
When the IRS seized the home of war tax resisters Randy Kehler and Betsy Corner for fourteen years of back taxes, their community rallied around them, and the civil disobedience was only beginning.
Then “When a young couple buys the contested home at auction from the U.S. government for $5,400, they become involved in a political and moral battle much larger than what they originally bargained for.”
Rick Gee published a very thorough review of the movie a few years back that, depending on your tastes, will either give away too much of the “plot” or whet your appetite to see it.
The film was made in by Carol Coney and features interviews with Brian Willson, Robert Randall, Holley Rauen, John Shibley, Karl Meyer, Ed Pearson, Vicki Metcalf, Ernest & Marion Bromley, Juanita Nelson, Maurice McCrackin, Randy Kehler, and Carolyn Stevens.
On the video, this film is sandwiched between segments of an earnest alternative media television program called “Alternative Views” that is, in this episode anyway, devoted to the October Surprise conspiracy theory.
If you want to watch only “Paying for Peace,” skip ahead to about 16:20 and play through the 45-minute mark.
Beware also the opening seconds of the video (outside of the documentary portion), which are marred by a high-pitched screech.
