Heartland: I Won’t Pay My Taxes If You Won’t Pay Yours

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I know a man who has a passion for slashing taxes but a political agenda very different from mine, and I wanted to know what he thought of withholding income tax as an act of civil disobedience. He initially said that he was opposed to breaking even unjust laws and that his approach is to work the system. In his view, the income tax is unconstitutional and therefore an unjust law because it should have been ratified state by state, rather than introduced as the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. When I explained the critical mass approach to tax withholding, he cautioned me to beware of the law of unintended consequences. If this war tax resistance initiative is successful, he said, people like him could take the same approach to withholding taxes for social spending. I told him that it seems to me that spending on human needs and environmental protection is already eviscerated. “Well, then you have nothing to be afraid of,” he said.

Salt Lake City mayor Ross “Rocky” Anderson recently made an impassioned speech in which he said, “I implore you: Draw a line. Figure out exactly where your own moral breaking point is. How much will you put up with before you say ‘No more’ and mean it?”

What do you say, Rocky? I’ll sign on if you will.

Meanwhile, tonight Jodie Evans has, Cinderella-like, put on a gown and jewels for a gala gathering of high-tech titans. I have no doubt that when her glass slippers revert to pink mules, she will be clutching some high-octane names for the war tax resisters pledge list.

Stay tuned and sign on at www.dontbuybushswar.org.

While you’re online, check out www.thecrossingsaustin.com for information about my April 24–27 retreat, which is tentatively titled “The Brain, the Shadow, and the Alchemy of Creation.”

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