Editor,
Nothing in my life is more important than refusing to pay federal income tax for war - no matter who is the president, Republican or Democrat. The best way to refuse to pay federal income tax for war with no fines and no threats from the government is to live simply - below the taxable level.
The federal income taxable level for 2007 for a single person under 65 and who is not blind is $8,750 per year. I lived well for all of 2006 on $3,635, less than half the federal income taxable level. I have no right to more than I need while others in this world have less than they need. I enjoy living simply.
Many U.S. progressives spend endless hours of energy analyzing, protesting and cursing the U.S. empire while they continually keep feeding it their federal income tax dollars and their consumer dollars. Many progressives are addicted to the stolen loot of the empire while they damn the blood. And the loot always comes drenched in blood.
As long as you spend like crazy for all kinds of crap that no one needs, you will insist on having an income much larger than the taxable level. Your addiction to buying what no one needs keeps you paying year after year, from every paycheck, for the U.S. to rob, terrorize, blind, cripple, paralyze, make homeless and murder our sisters and brothers in Iraq, Afghanistan and many other nations.
Soldiers risk their bodies and their lives to wage war, but sadly, most U.S. peace activists do not break their addiction to buying what they don't need in order to boycott U.S. wars and insatiable greed. Marching for peace while paying for war is like praying for health while hogging out on junk food. It's a stupid contradiction.
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I have no right to pay tax to do to other people what I do not want them to do to me. I have paid no federal income tax for war for 28 years. I pledge now at 61 to live simply, to own no car and to pay no federal income tax for war for the rest of my life. This is nonviolent revolution.
Don Schrader
Daily Lobo reader
