https://nwtrcc.org/2018/08/09/conscience-and-history-nwtrcc-news-1986/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=conscience-and-history-nwtrcc-news-1986 Thu, 09 Aug 2018 22:28:03 +0000 hourly 1 https://nwtrcc.org/2018/08/09/conscience-and-history-nwtrcc-news-1986/#comment-1789 Thu, 09 Aug 2018 22:28:03 +0000 https://nwtrcc.org/?p=8843#comment-1789 My job at the CMTC in the 1980s was my first paid job in the peace movement. Kathy Levine and I moved from Virginia to Bellport Long Island New York to work for this organization whose goal was to get 100,000 people to pledge to resist taxes simultaneously in support of the congressional legislation for a peace tax fund. The newsletter was printed by the thousand a Newsprint and reached Many many people in the peace and justice movement. The daily Mail call was a highlight of this organizational work. The mail came to the home of Ed Pearson the founder of the organization and after culling through it he would bring it over to the nearby office which was a garage behind the home where Kathy and I lived. There were always new pledges and we constantly added names to our mailing list on our homemade computer that was specially built by a couple of local guys to support a large mailing list. This was before computers were very common and not available commercially. We responded to a lot of the mail personally which surprised a lot of people since they were not used to getting personalized responses from nameless and faceless organizations. The creators of the CMTC newsletter were known as KEGL, The initials of the CMTC staff Kathy Ed Georgia and Larry.

]]> https://nwtrcc.org/2018/08/09/conscience-and-history-nwtrcc-news-1986/#comment-1788 Thu, 09 Aug 2018 18:10:12 +0000 https://nwtrcc.org/?p=8843#comment-1788 I was involved in creating many of the early CMTC newsletters. They were a major undertaking and were printed in the thousands in News friend and contained a wide variety of peace and justice news and views. The CMTC Came into being before computers were very common. We had a father and son team on Long Island hand assemble A computer that used floppy disks that were about 10 inches wide. The motivation for creating the computer was because we expected to have a mailing list that exceeded most of the limitations on other types of equipment. We called the computer HAL which had nothing to do with the famous movie but due to the fact that the creators were named Hal and Larry. The CMTC received a good deal of mail And the daily Mail call was a highlight. Ed Pearson the creator of the organization receive the mail and culled through it. Then he passed it on to Kathy Levine and I who diligently processed it. We used to respond personally to many of the letters which regularly surprised people who were used to sending off to nameless and faceless organizations and getting no feedback. The money that was deposited in the escrow account was mostly invested in certificate of deposit’s in local banks. The interest on the account was relatively substantial. Some people The money that was deposited in the escrow account was mostly invested in certificate of deposits in local banks. The interest on the account was relatively substantial. Some people May remember that interest rates in the 1980s was in the teens and banks offered significant rewards for people opening savings accounts. The “staff“ of the CMTC that assembled the periodic newsletter was called KEGL which was the initials of our first names. when Kathy Levine became the first coordinator of NWTCC, she worked out of the CMTC office which was a converted garage behind the house that we lived in in Bellport New York. I am delighted to hear that back copies of the CMTC newsletters still exist. I hope they will end up in the Swarthmore College Peace archives. I remember years ago seeing a stack of them also at the offices of the national campaign for a peace tax fund in Washington DC.

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