It’s been a busy week. On Sunday Fran and I were invited for brunch with a group of young people who are seriously commited to living the peace testimony (Circle of Hope Church, Shalom House), to discuss war tax resistance. We had had a meeting previously. Two of them are prepared to be civil disobedient for the first time this year, as war tax resisters. Another identifies himself as a war tax resister by living under the taxable income. On Tuesday April 15 I mailed our taxes, attaching our letter of explanation that for conscience’ sake we had not paid some of our taxes. We had instead given that amount of refused tax to UNICEF for the children of the world. Next, I distributed about 80 of WRL’s pie charts to tax payers in front of the Bryn Mawr Post Office. The pie chart, based on published figures of the United States budget, shows how roughly half of the federal budget (our 1040 tax) is devoted to war and related military expenditures. That same Tuesday afternoon the Republican candidate for President, Senator McCain, spoke at Villanova. I and about ten other Villanovans for Peace held a very visible public demonstration as a few thousand students and townspeople passed directly in our path on their way to the Pavilion. That was the opportunity for me to distribute all my remaining pie charts. Later, I was interviewed by WFMZ (Allentown TV) and appeared briefly on their 10 pm news broadcast that night (click link for broadcast). A good day. Last Tuesday we (Villanovans for Peace) sponsored the AFSC Boots display on campus. This display includes combat boots representing all the PA deaths in Iraq, as well as many large posters and informative handouts. The display was set up in the middle of campus, and many students passed through it.
April 16, 2008
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The following describes something coming in September — more will be posted as time allows:
June 8, 2008
Dear Friends:
This letter is to introduce our member Paul Sheldon, who is traveling to attend the 12th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns to be held in Manchester, England, September 5-7, 2008. The conference will bring people of conscience from around the globe to meet on issues of peace tax fund legislation and conscientious objection to war taxes.
Paul has been a war tax resister since 1988. His conviction that pacifism requires some response to the issue of paying for weapons of war was largely inspired by the witness of war tax resisters in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Paul is a past Clerk of the War Tax Concerns Support Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and past Clerk of Lansdowne Monthly Meeting.
We share Paul’s belief that his attendance at this conference serves two purposes. First, actions taken there may contribute to the redirection of our taxes to peaceful purposes. And second, his experience connects us with other pacifists worldwide and serves to inform and encourage Friends here. Paul plans to share his experience of the conference with his Monthly and Quarterly meetings and with Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
We recommend Paul to your care and look forward to hearing a report of his time with you. Our prayers go with him for a world where “ The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.”
Yours in peace,
Max Muenke,
Clerk, Lansdowne Monthly Meeting
Comment by admin — June 18, 2008 @ 5:00 pm