Paul's Perambulations a personal blog

We sent our check for a partial amount of what we owe the government along with a letter explaining why we do this as a matter of conscience, and then sent the remainder to good causes. We refuse to pay the full amount of income tax because so much goes to war-related expenses. Paying others to kill in my name feels to me like doing it myself. We refuse and redirect a relatively small amount because at this point the IRS computer is on to us and, after a series of threatening letters they take it out of my social security check. But Thoreau has it right when he says that’s no excuse to do nothing.

I participated in the Martin Luther King demonstration and celebration at Lockheed Martin today. We peacefully demonstrated against the world’s largest war profiteer and nuclear weapons’ systems contractor. We celebrated that this Friday the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will become international law. In accord with the U.N. Charter (to which we are signatories), the treaty having received ratification by at least fifty U.N. member countries, the manufacture, possession, or use of nuclear weapons is prohibited. The major holdouts are, not too surprisingly, the current nuclear weapon countries. We hope to change that, but there is an immediate gain by this treaty. Countries that have ratified the treaty have agreed not to manufacture, trade, possess or allow into their country any nuclear weapons. It is a major step toward world peace when countries that have been historic enemies of one another mutually agree that they will not develop or possess nuclear (more…)