Participation in war violates my belief in the worth and dignity of every human being (the light within, as Friends call it).
I am certain that if I were being drafted into military service, I would refuse to go, because I could not participate in killing another human being.
Taxes are just one step further removed: instead of the government conscripting my labor and using it for war, I voluntarily trade my labor for money, which the government then uses for war.
These two situations are morally very similar in my mind.
Ken Brown, who is best known for his educational work in peace and conflict resolution studies, but who also was one of the founders of the War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund, died earlier .
Here is an obituary that talks about some of his work and achievements.
The creative activists of the Free Keene movement are at it again.
This time they’ve formed a group called “Robin Hood of Keene” that shadows parking enforcement officers on their rounds and quickly fills expired meters before they can reach them to write out tickets.
Members of the group place cards under windshield wipers that read,
“Your meter expired; however, we saved you from the king’s tariffs, Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
Please consider paying it forward,” and includes an address where donations can be sent.
Alleging that the Robin Hooders have “repeatedly and intentionally taunted, interfered with, harassed, and intimidated” the meter officers, the city has filed for a restraining order (the activists insist that this has nothing to do with any intimidation or harassment on their part, but with the city’s loss of revenue from the thousands of parking tickets they have prevented).
In the filing, parking enforcement officer Linda Desruisseaux said,
“Besides following me, crowding around me, making video recordings of my activities, and placing coins in expired meters to prevent me from writing tickets, these individuals repeatedly taunt and harass me, asking why I am stealing peoples’ money and telling me to get another job…
In particular, Graham Colson likes to taunt me by saying,
‘Linda, guess what you’re not going to do today — write tickets.’…
The taunting and harassment tends to get worse when there is a group, as they try to one-up each other at my expense.”
The IRS scandal that all the frogs are croaking about is largely a steaming pile of political bullshit… but the winds are blowing the smell directly into the offices of the IRS, which which is making it an unpleasant place to do business:
A former Internal Revenue Service official who ran the unit now at the center of scandal says the agency is about to be hit by a wave of resignations that he fears will hobble its operations.
“I think there’s going to be a significant number of departures from the agency,” said Marcus Owens, a Washington attorney who served as director of the exempt-organizations’ office .
The same post is now occupied by Lois Lerner, who has come under fire for her agency’s treatment of conservative groups.
“That’s going to have an impact on tax collections and tax administration,” said Mr. Owens, who said he thinks the controversy has been overblown.
Mr. Owens, who worked for the IRS for 25 years, said a number of IRS officials have talked to him about their plans to leave.
He said the investigations underway have crushed morale, while some IRS officials are starting to get threatening anonymous calls at home.
In the other IRS scandal, the one that to me seems more actually scandalous, the agency has backed down from its repulsive legal opinion that Americans have no legitimate privacy expectations in their email communications, so agency investigators should feel free to rifle through them without bothering to get a warrant.
The new policy says the agency won’t aim to read your email at all if it is only pursuing a civil action against you, and will “in all cases” obtain a warrant when trying to get your email from whichever Internet service provider is storing it, when pursuing criminal cases.
Fran Quigley at Counterpunch takes another look at the Transform Now Plowshares case, and in particular how the government progressively ratcheted up a misdemeanor trespassing charge against the three pacifists until now they stand convicted of federal terrorism felonies, awaiting sentencing from jail as they’ve been deemed violent criminals too dangerous to release.
The fabled Greek crackdown on tax evasion seems mostly for show: “of the estimated 13 billion euros that government officials say is owed by Greece’s 1,500 biggest tax debtors, only about 19 million euros [≈0.1%] has been collected in .”
I did, however, find this article in the Indianapolis News:
“Standing Firm: Beverly Weaver and her husband, Duane Grady, pastors of Northview Church of the Brethren, have continued their tax protest despite IRS liens on their savings.”
Waging peace for husband-wife pastoral team means fighting feds by rejecting part of tax bill
Couple is part of national network advocating diversion of revenue from defense to social programs.
by Judith Cebula Staff Writer
Beverly Weaver and Duane Grady believe the U.S. government has the power to do good — to help educate children, feed the hungry, and take care of the elderly and the sick.
But because of their Christian commitment to peace, they oppose the government’s power to wage war.
So they don’t pay taxes that support the U.S. Department of Defense, veterans benefits, and government debt related to defense spending.
It’s a step this married couple has taken annually for nearly 15 years.
According to their calculations, roughly half of their federal income tax support these programs, so they withhold that amount each year.
Instead of paying the government, they donate the amount to the Iowa Peace Network, an inter-faith group dedicated to peace activism and education, Grady said.
Pacifist history
Together Grady and Weaver pastor Northview Church of the Brethren on the Northeastside.
Along with Quakers and Mennonites, the Church of the Brethren is known as a peace church because pacifism has been a core teaching throughout its nearly 300-year history.
Weaver and Grady are among an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 Americans who withhold a portion of their tax dollars because of peace activism, said Karen Marysdaughter, director of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.
In , the couple learned that the Internal Revenue Service had put a lien on their savings account to collect $2,200 in back taxes plus interest and penalties.
Grady and Weaver aren’t fighting the lien.
“This is part of the price of my belief,” Grady said.
“I don’t oppose taxes.
I just oppose the way taxes are being used.”
This is the third time that the IRS has come calling to collect from the couple.
Each time, Weaver and Grady have paid the taxes themselves and received help from other war tax resisters in paying the fines and interest on the taxes.
They belong to a national coalition of resisters who pay into a relief fund.
Grady and Weaver are requesting help this year.
They have sent a copy of their tax return and the IRS collection notice to the director of the fund, along with a statement of their religious commitment to peace.
Based in Indiana
Ken Brown helped start the War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund about 25 years ago.
He directs the peace studies program at Manchester (Ind.) College, a Church of the Brethren affiliate.
Brown said about 300 people throughout the country are part of the network.
Fund members include Mennonites, Quakers and Brethren, mainline Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, and peace activists of no religious affiliation.
In addition to supporting the War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund, Grady and Weaver also support the creation of a “peace tax fund.”
It would require changes in U.S. tax laws to allow conscientious objectors to divert their tax dollars from war and defense program to humanitarian governmental projects.
“All of this is an effort to be a little more consistent in our faith,” Weaver said.
“It’s an issue of not wanting to pay for war when I am praying for peace.”
