It’s 4th of July, and I have my peace flag flying as usual.\u00a0 My\u00a0most recent peace activities have focused on the Relgious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill and the 12th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Funds. Here also are some comments about my lovely and fascinating wife.<\/p>\n
1. In late May I carried a Minute\u00a0from Chester Quarterly Meeting to Interim Meeting of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting requesting\u00a0that Philadelphia Yearly Meeting send a letter to all members of Congress asking for their support of the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill (currently H.R. 1921).\u00a0 For those not familiar with Quaker lingo,\u00a0the preceding sentence\u00a0describes\u00a0a process by which a large group of Quakers (more than 10,000 in PYM) reach unity on a decision (we don’t vote and don’t have representatives).\u00a0 After some discussion at the Interim Meeting, PYM approved\u00a0sending\u00a0out such a letter in their name.\u00a0 The Relgious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill would enable those conscientiously opposed to participation\u00a0in\u00a0war\u00a0to pay their full taxes into a government fund that did not go to war-related purposes.\u00a0 For many pacifists, paying for a gun for someone else is just as wrong as doing the killing yourself.\u00a0 This puts such\u00a0pacifists (myself included) in the quandry of either paying taxes for\u00a0war or\u00a0being civil disobedient by refusing to pay.\u00a0The refused tax money is\u00a0not\u00a0retained but given away\u00a0to charitable institutions. More\u00a0information and links are\u00a0available at my website\u00a0www.peacefulways.com\/<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 To\u00a0read an informative draft of this letter,\u00a0click Comment #1.<\/p>\n 2. During May and June I have been working with regional Quakers (including PYM) to get their support for my attendance at the 12th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Funds, to be held in Manchester UK in early September.\u00a0 I have attended these biennial conferences twice\u00a0before and found them informative and practical.\u00a0 Philadelphia Yearly Meeting agreed to Minute their support of my attendance at this conference and to pay my expenses.\u00a0 For more information and to see\u00a0my Minute, click on Comment #2.<\/p>\n 3. This 4th of July weekend Fran and I went foraging in a nearby park along Darby Creek (there is also a prior post on this topic).\u00a0 We had our milkweed peas last night (excellent) and spice bush tea and various other wild edibles.\u00a0 We are getting more skilled at this (particularly Fran), and pictures are on line at sheldontimes. com.\u00a0 Now when we go backpacking she is prepared to make fresh bread on the spot and cook it (something like pancakes) on a flat rock over a small flre, along with our foraged foods.\u00a0 She\u00a0never ceases to\u00a0amaze me with her ideas and innovations.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0About a month ago we attended a Memorial Service for\u00a0the last relative of Fran’s mother’s generation.\u00a0\u00a0The extended family was gathered, and I saw a chance (re my last comment in #3) to discover if Fran has always been as interesting and lively as she is now.\u00a0 She always describes herself as\u00a0being very\u00a0shy and quiet most all of her life, and only starting to come out of her shell quite recently.\u00a0This struck me as unlikedly, so\u00a0I asked a number of her cousins about\u00a0what she was like when younger.\u00a0 They said “least shy of all…bubbly…striking… redhead…glamorous…just like she is now” and everything OPPOSITE of how she\u00a0describes\u00a0herself then.\u00a0 I\u00a0was not in the least surprised to hear this, but Fran was absolutely astonished.\u00a0 Isn’t it interesting how others can know us and think about us in a way so different from how we know and think about ourselves?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s 4th of July, and I have my peace flag flying as usual.\u00a0 My\u00a0most recent peace activities have focused on the Relgious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill and the 12th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Funds. Here also are some comments about my lovely and fascinating wife. 1. In late May […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-love","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}