Thanks, Greg, for connecting me to the article [see below: Ask Not Who Bankrolled Falluja].
I like the connections you draw: that our tax dollars get drafted, that we are morally — although not legally [as IRS officers are quick to point out] — responsible for how that money is spent, that we have choices even in our routinized, consumerized, and alienated culture. For future reference, there is a culture of hope within the shell of the old: various forms of living and buying coops and alternative markets that try to avoid slave and slave-wage products, companies that fuel militarism and environmental degredation, etc., not to mention alternative media [which you probably know more about than I do], and alternative cultural venues.
I also like the paraphrase from John Dunne, historically, one of my favorite poets.
It is important, too, that your readers know that war tax resistance is civil disobedience and can be a pretty lonely road, especially for those not connected with a group of some sort (another of the parts of the culture of hope). I was [am not currently] a war tax resister for 25 years AND you are right about having a spouse who doesn’t agree with the act — even if she/he agrees with the concern. I was married — and still am to the same person! — for 19 of those 25 years. And the resistance was particularly hard on her. She had no support group, unlike me, to which she had a “natural” affinity.
In peace,
Steve Gulick
Philadelphia War Resisters League
gunorlickton@mac.com
MoPress 