Honoring Peg Morton
The NWTRCC network lost one of its stalwart activists and friends on Saturday. Peg Morton of Eugene passed away peacefully at her friend’s home after deciding to end her life through intentional fasting. (You can read this article about her life in Eugene in the Register-Guard’s obituaries section.) I actually first met Peg in 2008… Continue reading
Dive$t from the Pentagon
by Jason Rawn People are talking more and more about abolishing war and redirecting the mis-invested wealth into renewable energy, healthcare, bioremediation, public transit, etc. We need vast resources to address (embrace?) this climate-change-framed historical moment. As it happens, vast financial wealth has been and is currently being created by short-sighted, omnicidal industries. Perhaps this… Continue reading
New Collection Challenges
For years war tax resisters (or potential resisters) have worried about travel abroad. Will my tax debt show up in a passport check when leaving or returning to the U.S.? Despite reassurances that many of us travel abroad and this has not been an issue, the fear lingered in the minds of many. Unfortunately, on… Continue reading
New Website!
In the next few days, NWTRCC will be rolling out our newest website design, a responsive design that can be easily read on devices big and small. We’ve also revamped and updated the site structure and text. We’re so glad to be able to share the results with you soon. Thanks to MuseArts, our consultants,… Continue reading
Refusing the Legacy of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving has got me thinking about how the militarization of the U.S. extends all the way back to the pre-colonial days of Pilgrims and other white settlers arriving on the shores of this continent. In addition to the land they claimed, they decided they had a claim to the lives of the American Indians who… Continue reading
Divest from Weapons and Warmaking: WTRs in Las Vegas
On November 6-8, a small group of stalwart NWTRCC network members gathered in Las Vegas for community time, discussion of outreach tactics, and a vigil outside Nellis Air Force Base. It was a fun time as always. The Administrative Committee met on Friday to review the budget, objectives, and proposals. We finished on time and… Continue reading
On Armistice Day, Remember: Wars Cannot End Wars
Armistice Day marked the formal agreement between Germany and the Allied forces to stop fighting on 11/11/1918. The war that ended that day was considered in 1918 to be the “war to end all wars” and so a holiday marking its cessation was declared a year later by President Wilson. In 1926 Congress made Armistice… Continue reading
Chris Coverdale: 42 days in jail for refusing council tax
Recently Peace News and The Picket Line have posted about Chris Coverdale, a war tax resister in the UK who refused to pay his council tax, totaling approximately £1,800, and was sentenced to 42 days in jail. Coverdale argues that paying council tax would support government-sponsored terrorism in the form of war. He has been… Continue reading
Dear Rick Steves – Could You Be a War Tax Resister?
I recently finished reading travel writer/TV show host Rick Steves‘ book Travel as a Political Act. Rick describes himself as an interesting blend of political perspectives: capitalist, Christian, proud American, supporter of marijuana legalization, and… a pacifist! In addition to his specialty helping US residents learn the ins and outs of traveling in Europe, he… Continue reading
Talkin’ Resistance in Amherst
War tax resisters, supporters, and friends gathered for the 30th time in 30 years — an impressive record in our circles. A persistent if changing group of war tax resisters has planned gatherings large and small over a fall weekend each year since 1985. To many the themes, topics, and discussions will sound repetitive —… Continue reading
The Snowden Model and Finding Our Power
I finally watched the film Citizenfour, about the release of the NSA documents by Edward Snowden. The whole film is impressive, but I was struck by this section where journalist Glenn Greenwald is asking Snowden about whether to release his name and ID him as the source of the documents. Greenwald wanted to make sure… Continue reading
After Roseburg: On guns big and bigger
To the Editor: There has been another mass murder shooting in Roseburg, Oregon. A question stares us in the face. Can we expect to endorse mass homicide on the wholesale level and successfully forbid or prevent it on the retail level? As a thought experiment or moral reflection consider this. Since World War II our… Continue reading
