TAXES FOR BOOKS NOT BOMBS!

Berkeley, CA: As April 15th approaches, a group of Berkeley citizens, upset at the White House's priority on war, are placing a full page advertisement in Friday's Berkeley Daily Planet urging fellow Berkeley citizens to send their tax dollars to beleaguered Berkeley High School instead of the federal government. "It is our hope," stated group spokesperson attorney Tom Miller, "that other communities will adopt the same program to show the White House that, unlike Congress, citizens won't write a blank check for illegal and unjust wars and mortgage our future." Miller added that Berkeley High School has been forced by budget cuts to give pink slips to many of its teachers, including four out of seven in its much acclaimed Communications Arts and Sciences small school program whose students run an award-winning school newspaper and routinely win national slam poetry honors. Overall, the Berkeley school system is being forced to cut twelve million dollars from next year's budget.

Headlined "Taxes for Books not Bombs!" the ad states "For a war fed on fictions attempting to hide the hypocrisy, ignorance and greed that is its true basis, the White House is sacrificing the real wealth of our country - its young men and woman - on the battlefield and in our collapsing school systems." In addition to urging Berkeleyans to finance books not bombs, the ad also calls upon citizens to work to stop the war, repair the damage done to Iraq, bring our troops back home out of harm's way and work for "regime change" at home "to build true security through a world community based upon just and equitable laws, understanding and cooperation."

Asked whether there was concern about possible White House retribution for non-payment of taxes, Miller responded that it would be each person's individual decision whether to commit this act of nonviolent civil disobedience, but if they did, they would be following an "honored path" in the footsteps of Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau, who refused to pay his war taxes. Tax dollars and tax deductible contributions can be sent to: Berkeley High School Development Group (BHSDG), PO Box 519, Berkeley, CA 94701.

A full downloadable version of the ad can be found at:
http://www.millerngo.com/booksnotbombs.html

Dear Uncle Sam,

In a fit of righteous jubilation – a most patriotic sentiment -- I’m writing this morning to inform you of my refusal to pay the full amount of taxes you request from me today. I was born here and taught to love my country because it was the best country in the world. Reality shattered that illusion years ago, but the nightmare unfolding on Earth this year puts me at odds with this government in the most serious way possible. The United States is engaged in imperial roulette.Our leaders stoke fear while promising peace in the form of perpetual war -- an absurd predicament that has been discredited by some of the finest human thinkers of all time, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Albert Einstein. The Bush Administration, armed with horrific systems of modern warfare, is the most corrupt regime in the world. From now on you should consider me unwilling to pay for the murder of even one man, woman or child perpetrated by these thugs.

Terrorists kill taxpayers because taxpayers fund slaughter and mayhem in countries that spawn terrorists. It’s a vicious cycle, and each person whose dreams have been disturbed by massacre must work to stop it. According to the pie chart on page two of the 2002 1040EZ booklet, 18 percent of 2001’s taxes will pay for war. Research shows that this is a misleading figure. The amount of money spent on war represents something closer to 47 percent of federal income taxes you collect. I hereby withhold 47 percent of my owed taxes because I am unwilling to be a cog in your war machine. To pay such a tax, I would have to stand in opposition to the power that guides me, and I am unwilling to do so. Only a fool would mistake Bush’s lies for God’s truth. Where in the Bible does Jesus say that peace entails dropping laser-guided bombs on innocent people? I’m not a Christian, but I’m terrified by the realization that many of my fellow taxpayers, and our “leaders,” are people who call upon Christ while executing billion dollar acts of murderous thievery. This hypocritical and bloodthirsty oil junta does not represent me, and I will not fund its most satanic and unforgivable deeds.

The taxes I withhold this year will be donated to a nonprofit organization that battles poverty in this country. Now, there is a war worth fighting. If you will be rational and submit to fighting only poverty (America’s deadliest enemy), and if you will redirect my tax dollars from programs of technological military supremacy to the development of economic justice in America, I will resume payment of my war tax with great haste.

With conscience clear,Gil Jose Duran