IT'S BETTER TO LIGHT UP A FEW IRS FORMS, THAN TO CURSE THE DARKNESS OF WAR

{The story of Haditha, Iraq--delayed another week, to bring you this short report.}

There were six to eight of us gathered in the green-space that divides the road between our St. Clair County library and courthouse.  It was almost noon on July 3^rd the day before the holiday, as one of our signs declared, We pray for Peace, Why pay for War?  And another: Independence from War Tax Day—Check your W-4 on July 4^th to Convert War Tax to Peace Tax April 15^th.

We prayed the Our Father first, being spontaneously joined by an acquaintance of Lyn Chabot as we held hands.  Then we sang “Amazing Grace” led by my wife Ande’s guitar, followed by Lyn and I burning IRS 1099 and W-4 forms letting the ashes drop into a glass bowl of blue water.

This symbolized our efforts to minimize prepayment of federal income taxes that go to war, and redirecting some of that to community service, job creation, and peace projects near in the Blue Water area, or farther away—whatever conscience inspires on April 15^th.   But not having paid so much through the year, will leave some tax due to refuse, and redirect.

Much more smart money to flow in this type of direction--with ever greater focus and inspiration

This is a civil disobedience, with the tax payer advising the IRS openly, of the purpose to not pay all the tax due [amount an individual decision]—redirecting to peaceful enterprise.  The IRS will send letters, and there’s some cost to this discipleship, but help is available on the details from the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.

The wind complicated the burning of the forms, we could have used a sound system to make our presence better known.  Some people did stop, listen and took our literature; two did join in for a while.  But it will take perhaps 1040 citizens of our area, resisting and redirecting their tax money in this way to make significant difference.  We want to keep the positive message, of moving more and more of the {an average over the 40 years I've studied this issue} 50% of federal income tax that goes to war --- > towards investment in the common good.

either conservatives nor liberals are happy with the powerful moneyed politics that leads our country.   The common citizen is not being listened to.  We must learn to vote with our money, as the powerful do.  April 15^th becomes the new second Tuesday in November.  This tax redirection is one of a number of lifestyle changes that people can make to better participate in a real community-responsible democracy. 

 

 

From Afghanistan to Iraq, Libya, Syria, and so many other wars, our money is being badly used.  Gandhi said, “Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty, as cooperation with the good.”  For the Christian especially the question is—when you’ve rendered fully to God what is God’s, what is left for Caesar’s wars?

 

 

Friends Committee for National Legislation includes the separate Medicare insurance fund income taxes in its figures, War Resisters League does not.   http://fcnl.org/assets/flyer/FCNL_Taxes12.pdf

https://www.warresisters.org/content/how-pie-chart-figures-were-determined

 

 

RETURN, FLIGHT FROM IRAQ--DEMOCRACY DWINDLES ON ALL SIDES

This is something I wrote, never published, in the worst days of our Iraq War.  A May 31, 2013 Michigan Catholic news item notes, "Iraq has witnessed the emigration of more than half of its native Christians since the American-led invasion of the country in 2003."  In the past two months violence there is on the upsurge, with more than 2000 deaths many see related to the surge of war hostility in Syria.  The words of Pope Paul II below are instructive.  When will we ever learn.

{note how Doonesberry, Fox News, and Michigan Catholic tell the same story}
 

October 14, 2005

 Dear Editor,

       
            Does anyone else see the amazing inconsistency in the Iraqi and American authorities declaring four days of national imposed holiday / martial law in order to have an election on a new democratic constitution?  The AP story on 10-14-05 opens, “U.S. Marines handed out thousands of fliers and copies of Iraq’s new constitution Thursday, urging people to vote in this Sunni Arab town [Haditha] that only a week ago was the target of U.S. airstrikes.”  [Haditha has been a place of great tragedy that illustrates well the human cost of wars of occupation—more on this in next week’s posting]     Instead of campaign rallies they’re given bombardments. The best one can say is at least they now have some semblance of voting holiday there, while here in the USA we have no day off for our national elections. 
      

ur own democracy, and our respect for life, dies every day we stay in Iraq.  The tens of thousands that have died, and are dying there, take their daily toll on our country’s soul.  We invaded, not for democracy, but to preserve the lifestyle and predominance of the privileged few, a lifestyle built on the over-consumption of oil, and the over-production and use of the weaponry that protects this appetite. 

Pope John Paul II warned us of the absolute futility of war to bring any good, even to the victors, in his letter Centesimus Annus in 1991 at the time of our first Iraq war.  "No, never again war, which destroys the lives of innocent people, teaches how to kill, throws into upheaval even the lives of those who do the killing and leaves behind a trail of resentment and hatred, thus making it all the more difficult to find a just solution of the very problems which provoked the war." The common citizens of our nation are much worse off because of the U.S. government’s dependency on war [Eisenhower called it a military industrial complex] as sole provider of security, while the poor here and abroad repeatedly suffer death and destruction. 

            It does not have to be this way.  If everyone of us in this land, once a source of democracy, that is against this war (and we are 60% according to surveys, or 70% or more if truth were told) decides to spend two hours a day in work and prayer, to stop this war and start the peacemaking, each from our own points of creative leverage, then our war of invasion in Iraq would end within six months.  International efforts at real disarmament and conflict resolution could then begin in Iraq--and here at home.  When Jesus said, “Put away the sword!” he wasn’t talking to the enemy, but first to his own disciples.

Yours truly,

Michael McCarthy PA-C

War is as predictable as a wildfire in Arizona {19 killed in a sudden shift of wind}.  The only thing certain is that the evil and suffering caused in this war, is the clever bad seed for the next.
       We've just celebrated our "Declaration of Independence," July 4th-- our hope for a people's democracy, not a corporate plutocracy.  Without an informed involved public this hope dies.  We have much work and praying to do.

June 18, 2013--Zeinab,her daughters and grandchildren fled to Syria 10 years ago to escape sectarian violence in Iraq but are back in Basrah because of heavy fighting and increasing violence against women in Syria

 
Iraq refugee references
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/iraqs.christian.population.halved.since.2003/7204.htm
http://www.christianpost.com/news/iraqi-christian-refugees-seeking-asylum-unable-to-enter-us-63424/

And a truly remarkable story of the difficulty of all Iraqis to enter America--
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/499/taking-names


Illumination by Kathy Brahney

INDEPENDENCE FROM WAR TAX DAY—BEGIN TO CONVERT WAR TAX TO PEACE TAX

Cross of war complicity--from Port Huron Post Office demonstration 4-15-06

 Once we’ve fully rendered to God, what is left for Caesar’s wars?

As we march onward towards war in Syria--
On July 4^th we lament our country’s increasing dependency on wars without end—a war economy with 50% of our federal tax for war, while 26% of Port Huron is poor.  Therefore a few of us from interfaith backgrounds begin to examine how our federal tax monies perpetuate war.

We will meet July 3^rd, 11 am, in the space between the St. Clair County Courthouse and the Library, to conduct a short public vigil, advocating work and prayer to turn our IRS dollars from war tax to peace tax.  We will burn some of our W-4, 1099, 1040 forms as a symbol of our converting part of federal war dollars into peace investment.

The first step is a spiritual and material change of heart—those who can afford, trying to make less money [in this way liable for less war tax], dedicating more of the time gained to family, Christian works of mercy, working for justice and the common good.

Each of us needs to reflect on how we dedicate our time and money.  For many of us $1000’s of our IRS dollars go towards war every year.

To pay still less for war, change your IRS W-4 and 1099 forms in such a way as to withhold some of the potential war tax money due, and re-direct it to peace, and to serve community needs.  For more information on the details and consequences of this step towards civil disobedience, more closely following our almighty all-merciful God, please contact the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee [nwtrcc.org, 800 269 7464].

Check your W-4 on July 4^th, to convert War Tax to Peace Tax on April 15^th.

WE PRAY FOR PEACE, WHY PAY FOR WAR?

Noncooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with the good.  – Dr. Martin Luther King

From a previous "Iraq Peace Bonds" campaign in 2007--IRS dollars re-directed to our public library

To some, peace merely means the liberty to take advantage of other people without fear of retaliation or interference. ... And to practically everybody peace simple means the absence of any physical violence that might cast a shadow over lives devoted to the satisfaction of their selfish appetites for comfort and pleasure.  ... So instead of loving what you think is peace, love other people and love God above all.    -- Thomas Merton, from p. 122 of New Seeds of Contemplation

No writing today -- Our 35th wedding anniversary!

Ande & Mike June 24, 1978 --potluck reception in her parent's backyard

WHAT’S FATHER’S DAY LIKE IN IRAQ AND SYRIA?

Iraqi father and child at Abu Graib --early in Iraq War

 

A gentlemanly member of our church choir and I exchanged Father’s Day greetings yesterday before mass, and he then asked me the originator of the national holiday in the USA {he knew I’d not guess}—President Richard Nixon.  A leading proponent of the Vietnam War had promoted this day honoring fathers.

Yet war is history’s leading quick cause of orphans and widows—most injurious to fathers.  What deep dichotomy.   We want to honor, but instead, through the institutions of violence, we destroy.  Our heroes are our warriors, but this traditionally male work of war ends inevitably in suffering and loss to our families at home, and in the foreign lands where we fight.

A series of bombings in Shiite-majority areas of Iraq killed at least 30 people on Sunday-- A blast in Najaf struck a produce market---Haider Alaa-Reuters

The Father’s Day, 6-16-13, New York Times reported, “Dozens of Casualties in String of Attacks Across Iraq.”   If you read the international news, articles like this appear almost daily.  “Nearly 2,000 Iraqis have been killed since April, according to the Interior Ministry, making it the country’s most violent period since 2008.”  We left Iraq a little over a year ago, saying our job was done.  A probable million people died violent deaths there in our decade of Iraq War.  Nobody ever counted {a most reliable count was ignored, and this less than half way through the war}.  Hundreds of thousands of fathers? 

ow we are poised to replicate the fight which made Iraq a failed state, in Syria.  Already 90,000 have died there, our headlines proclaim, as an attempt is made to ready the U.S. public [this link changed by NYT on 6-18-13, found similar article to original] to go to war again.  The enemy Sunnis of Saddam that we chased out of Iraq [where we helped install a Shiite government], we now employ covertly to attack the Shiite government of Syria.  We continue to stir the pot of ancient animosities.

The international forces that trust only in guns and bombs to solve conflict, have turned the nonviolent change of Arab Spring, back into an Arab Fall of death-dealing weapons.  A string of hollow victories for violence—Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, Bahrain, Libya, Mali, now Syria.  How many fathers, mothers, and their children must die?

Yesterday I sat in my backyard garden with two of the fathers I’ve known longest and respect most.  We talked of our beliefs, of our wives, of our children—our success and failures as fathers.  We each have different perspectives, but we gave common voice to the hope that our children, and their generation worldwide, will be given the grace of so much greater opportunity for eye-opening service and creative work—peacemaking, the final remedy for war. 

 

Illumination by Kathy Brahney

 

 

 

OVERDOSE ON HOMELAND SECURITY—INJURIOUS TO OUR SPIRITUAL PUBLIC HEALTH

 

If you think about it, it’s hard to live “big” under an impenetrable military shield—shut out from meaningful contact with the rest of humanity.  If you don’t think about it, it doesn’t seem to matter.  We can continue to live our privileged garrisoned lives, cut off, sheltered from, a whole world of wisdom.

Embracing the Gospel nonviolent truth, solves every political and spirtual problem, heals all society’s wounds.  Lord, that we may see with both eyes, walk with both legs, use all our faculties to fully exercise our faith.  Nothing protects us from death, except eternal life—given us in accepting the saving all-merciful love of Jesus, for friend and enemy alike.

 The Good Shepherd can bring back even the lost 1% into the fold

Why throw this away by tying ever-tightly instead, the heavy millstone around the neck, that is Homeland Security?

2011-04-05-ice-training-using-armored-vehicles

Photo from over-the-top website on DHS preparations to control U.S. populace

 

Hopefully this is not our question for God on judgment day, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and not give you to eat, thirsty and not give you to drink…..?    Mt 25: 44

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/us/politics/rethinking-an-open-checkbook-for-a-security-colossus.html?ref=world&_r=1&  This article points to government spying on our citizens as an increased problem post-911, and the long term dilemma—how much do we want to shackle / isolate ourselves to preserve supposed freedom?

“The two-year investigation found that the centers [a Dept. of Homeland Security program] had failed to help disrupt a single terrorist plot, even as they spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and infringed on civil liberties.”

 

The cover of Senator Coburn's actual report  uses the Lego toys motif

PORT HURON -- POVERTY MAGNET, OR BEACON OF HOPE?

Recently there have been articles in our local press that complain our fair city has become a destination point for those seeking supportive social services.  Our city manager cited “liberal social programs in the city” as one of the three biggest problems that drag us down.  It’s implied that those who just want a low income welfare life are encouraged to make Port Huron their home, because so much is done for them here.  A social worker in Sault Ste. Marie sends an alcoholic on a bus Port Huron bound, because those caught in the welfare social strata have it so good in our town?  Could it be that this woman had family here also?  What’s the rest of her story?

Perhaps, as a few reported anecdotes have suggested, some people do move here because we take care of those in need.  We certainly have many programs, agencies, people and churches that readily give a helping hand.  I know a great number of community volunteers involved in various aspects of this effort.    But people at loose ends tend to move most to where they have friends and family.  Many volunteers elsewhere also work to serve the poor and relieve poverty--in Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Detroit, and throughout the state.  We are not unique, and we are not a poverty magnet.

he skyrocketing poverty rate--up to 26%--we’ve experienced, is not because we invite it, or certain people like to wallow in it, but because our community, even more than many across the state, has been battered by withering job loss.  Since my family moved here [from Sanilac Co.] in 1993 to work in the medical community, there has been a constant stream of factories shuttering, closing up shop, or moving south to Mexico, the sunbelt and overseas—to where bigger profits could be made.  The number one cause of our poverty is job loss.

 

Words of Pope Paul VI  -- And if you want true progress, work for justice

 

ur poor are primarily our own people, who used to have jobs with a livable wage.   We’re not a dumping ground for the poor. We’re a Blue Water skeleton crew abandoned by manufacturers who’ve jumped ship for greener cash horizons.  I’d like to see an account of how many have lost jobs in our town in the past 40 years, how many jobs have taken their place, and how smaller or larger their pay scale.  There must be plenty of workers who moved from here when their jobs died, and not finding any elsewhere, have returned.  Do we call this an influx of the poor?

Yes, we have too much rental [instead of resident owned] housing.  Yes, our schools are stressed.  Yes homelessness, joblessness, and poverty are big problems in Port Huron.  Let’s not respond by becoming tight-fisted.   Taking money away from heating system repairs in two of our homeless shelters is not a sign of Port Huron progress.  Our good history of generosity towards those in need is the Gospel way to achieve a better way of life for the community as a whole.

Port Huron should be proud to be called a beacon of hope for the poor.  The hope is that we will again become a powerhouse of creative work and resourcefulness--and that those with the power and wealth will also see the light, share the investment.  We are one of the fresh water capitols of the world.  Our unique geographic location and abundant natural resources gives us a history of being one of the most inventive areas in the nation—cars, boats and homes—and a breadbasket of agriculture as well.  It will happen again, if we maintain and nourish a spirit of generosity and ingenuity.
 

Photo by Dawn Dasharion --Port Huron

 

What makes you think I want all your sacrifices?" says the LORD. "I am sick of your burnt offerings [of excess $ money] of rams and the fat of fattened cattle.  Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.   Isaiah I: 11, 17

 

http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20130518/OPINION02/305180009/Mike-Connell-Don-t-give-up-Port-Huron

Illuminations by Kathy Brahney