Civil disobedience update: the IRS is mad at me

Back in April, I told you about my first real foray into civil disobedience, my participation in the War Tax Boycott. I withheld 15% of my total tax liability as a protest against the use of federal tax funds to operate an illegal war in Iraq and Afghanistan (never mind the fact that the war has been handled incompetently at nearly every turn).

The IRS has begun to catch up with me, though. On Wednesday -- Christmas Eve, for Jeebus' sake -- I received a certified letter from the IRS informing me that I would be subject to various legal penalties, including liens on my property, if I didn't make arrangements to pay up immediately. Of course, after two divorces and being unemployed since September, my only "property" of any appreciable significance is my car, which they are welcome to have ... but that's beside the point.

My mother, who was visiting at the time, was aghast that I would have done such a thing as not paying my full tax burden in order to make a statement, and she strongly urged me to pay my back taxes immediately. Since my children were in the room, too, I thought it was an excellent opportunity for what I like to call a "teachable moment."

"The problem with American society today," I began, understating the number of problems severely, "is that too few people are willing to stand up and make a statement against the government. They'd rather let the government, which presumably is elected by the people and works for the people, 'do' things to us -- to accept the rulers' decisions passively rather than try to shape them actively." I paused for a beat. My mother blinked almost imperceptibly but said nothing, and I continued. "Well, I'm not going to sit here on my butt and watch the government walk all over us without a fight. If they want to throw me in jail, fine. But someone's got to make a stand. Otherwise they'll keep 'doing' to us until there's nothing more to do."

The point I was trying to make is a simple one: there seems to be a strong value attached to not "making waves." Don't speak out against bad policy decisions, just let things happen as they will, because "they don't affect me anyway." Well, they do affect me, and they affect you, too. I realize not everyone is willing to risk losing property or worse to send a message that the war is wrong, and I realize that, in isolation, my own meager statement is almost meaningless. But it's not an isolated message, and there are many things you can do that won't subject you to the kind of risk I'm taking. I don't know what's going to happen to me from this point forward, but I know that I'm not paying those taxes unless and until the war is over.

Look, I'm no hero, and I'm certainly no saint. But if I can teach my children one thing, it's that sometimes, a principle is more important than the possible consequences.

(cross-posted at Pax Americana)

The importance of being civilly disobedient

I am now a criminal.

Not in the felony sense, but not in the speeding ticket sense either. Today I made the conscious decision to participate in the War Tax Boycott.

Because, as many of you readers know, 2007 was an extraordinary year for me income-wise, (thanks to a certain game show) I just couldn't afford to forgo all of my tax liability this year, and so I did have to write a large check to the U.S. Treasury. But, after some calculating, soul-searching, and thinking about symbolic value, I deducted 15% from the amount I owed, and I wrote the following letter* to accompany my tax return:

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April 15, 2008


Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service Center
Atlanta, GA 39901-0102


Dear Sir or Madam:

After careful consideration of the consequences and balancing them with my strong feelings against contributing fully to the illegal, unethical, and unnecessary war presently being waged by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, I hereby declare myself a War Tax Objector and am withholding 15% of my total tax liability for the 2007 tax year. The 15% amount is intended to represent a compromise or median point between the percentage of U.S. income tax revenue currently spent on the military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan (7%) and the percentage of revenue targeted to military expenses in toto (31%). I simply cannot justify making a full contribution to the deaths of thousands of U.S. and coalition soldiers and exponentially more Iraqi and Afghan citizens, nor to the destruction of the rule of law in America by the regime presently in power.

I understand that this is an illegal act under current federal law, but based on my own values and morals, I believe that the war and occupation themselves are illegal and that my decision to conscientiously object to funding these military actions is a necessary act of civil disobedience in order to express my outrage at the federal government’s continued adherence to a dangerous and destructive military strategy. There was, as we now know with certainty, absolutely no defensible reason to invade and occupy Iraq, and while the military operation in Afghanistan arguably was justified by the search for Osama bin Laden, the apparent abandonment of that mission has made our efforts there futile and has created an increasingly unstable environment for their citizens and our soldiers alike.

Of course, I know that the withholding of a mere $[amount deleted] will have little if any direct effect on U.S. policy in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, I am heartened by the hope that a similarly concerted effort by many American taxpayers, coordinated by the organizers of the 2008 War Tax Boycott (http://wartaxboycott.org), might deliver the message that the country is tired of the warmongering elitists who presently control our government and, indeed, dominate our discourse through the mainstream media. Just as importantly, though, it will allow me to live my life having reduced the stain of blood on my own hands that results from funding a war and occupation that never should have happened and that ought to end immediately.

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,
[Sinfonian]

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Maybe this is a futile gesture, and I'm just setting myself up for an audit, or worse. Or maybe this is just another step in standing up as a citizen and saying that I'm sick and tired of watching the Bush crime syndicate run roughshod over the Constitution. Either way, I'm okay with it. In fact, I feel good about it.

Taking action is empowering. Everyone ought to try it sometime.

(cross-posted in substantially the same form at Pax Americana)

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* Looking back at the letter now, I should have added a sentence about how I planned to use the withheld money in ways that will help change the current state of things, such as donations to progressive candidates and causes. But, frankly, I forgot, and I've already mailed it with my return. Oh well.