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News :: Peace |
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War Tax Education at US Post Office |
Current rating: 0 |
by Ricky Baldwin
Email: baldwinricky (nospam) yahoo.com (verified)
Phone: 217-328-3037
Address: 801 E California Ave, Urbana IL 61801 |
13 Apr 2004
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Local Anti-War Group Educates Taxpayers on War Taxes and Resistance. On Tax Day, April 15, AWARE activists will be outside the Post Office at 2001 N Mattis in Champaign distributing information on the federal government's disproportionate use of our tax dollars on war, militarization and their after-effects. This is not the biggets cost of war, but it is eye-opening. |
(Champaign) On Thursday, April 15, from 9am - 11am and 2pm - 6pm, one local group will be greeting last-minute taxpayers at the 2001 North Mattis Post Office -- with information about how their tax dollars are being spent. Far too little of that tax money goes to helping people or anything constructive, say activists with the Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort (AWARE), while nearly fifty cents on the dollars is eaten up by war, militarization and their after-effects.
The group will be handing out free information from the War Resisters League detailing how the federal government conceals the enormous proportion of our tax dollar that is being spent on war. Many resist paying income taxes for this reason -- a tradition dating back at least to Henry David Thoreau, who was jailed for his refusal.
"I am a tax resister,” says AWARE activist Eric Anglada, “because I am against all wars, all killing. If I’m going to make an attempt at being consistent I must look at how my actions affect people, and this is a clear case where fifty percent of the money that I would pay to the federal government goes to the military which is killing people all over the world, not least in Iraq. I must resist that.” The 24-year-old Anglada is a member of the St. Jude Catholic Worker House, where, he says, he “lives in community with the homeless.”
Anglada says there are illegal ways of tax resistance and there are legal ways. He says he chooses to legally resist war taxes by making less than the poverty level.
"I have the advantage of working with and serving the poor,” Anglada says. “It is injustice to see people in such a wealthy nation literally live without a roof over their head. When we are directing billions upon billions of dollars for fundamentally anti-human activities, I choose to not only not pay income taxes but to openly tell others to do the same."
For more info: Carol Inskeep 344-9155 |
See also:
http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm
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This work is in the public domain |
