2018 – Engaging Peace

Feed the people, not the Pentagon. Artist Roger Roth. Published courtesy of Larry Bassett.

Note from Kathie MM: It’s that time of year again. Just 12 months ago, I published a post by Larry Bassett entitled Ain’t gonna finance war no more — another effort in a long line of efforts to pursue peace and social justice rather than war and destruction.

April is upon us and most people, excluding the obscenely greedy at the top of the military industrial complex, are trying to be “good citizens” and pay their “obligations,” although the vast majority probably have doubts about the fairness and integrity of the system.

So Larry is back, promoting reflection about what it all means, and sharing his tax return.

By Larry Bassett

Here is what I am sending them this year, a greeting card! No gift enclosed!

Here is the front of the card:

My tax return. April 17, 2018. By Larry Bassett.

And here is the back of the card:

I had substantial federal taxes in 2016 and 2017 because of taxable income that I inherited from my father. In the past my resistance had been for much smaller amounts, and since I am retired with relatively low income I would usually owe no federal taxes. But I have seized this opportunity to redirect almost a quarter of a million dollars to good causes in several years. I believe the IRS will have a hard time collecting from me, but whatever they do they will not be able to undo the many people and organizations that I have helped. I am still trying to poke the bear since if the government ignores me my resistance has had limited impact. I resisted $130,000 last year and so far the IRS has sent me five letters and filed the usual tax lien. Maybe I will get their attention when the documentary about my WTR action is released. For more about that, go to The Pacifist Facebook page.

That’s not enough! Artist:
Roger Roth. Published courtesy of Larry Bassett.

Note from Kathie MM: It takes courage in today’s world to believe in and work for democracy, for human rights, for social justice, for ways to be ethical when constantly confronted by corruption. What are your views on the ways in which Larry Bassett faces these challenges? I am sure all of Engaging Peace’s readers look for ways to make the world a better place. Please share your stories with us.

Note from Kathie MM: Stay tuned for a new series from our Engaging Peace intern, Sarah Mensch, who intends to be an active supporter of the March for Our Lives movement.

By Sarah Mensch

“…I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff… that’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be.”

J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, chapter 22

A little over a year ago, I began working with Kathie Malley Morrison exploring the effect of the media on gun violence. During that time, 17 children were shot and killed in school shootings. Since then, 50 more children have been shot and killed at school. Fifteen of them (and two teachers) were victims of the shooting in Parkland.

Students around the nation walked out of their schools in solidarity with the students of MSDHS on March 14, standing outside for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 victims of the shooting. Adults asked their children to “Walk up, not out”— to talk to the student who eats alone, to smile and wave to the “loner kid.” to be so kind to any potential shooters that they do not become actual shooters. It’s important to encourage children to reach out to each other, and doing so would probably decrease violence, depression, and self-harm. But adults telling children to be kind and not to protest is adults telling children that it’s their job to keep themselves safe during shootings, not adults’ job to keep shootings from happening to them. That’s a mistake.

It’s children’s job to learn how to be good adults. It’s adults’ job to keep children safe. So on Saturday, I will march in The March for Our Lives to take responsibility as an adult, because I will not accept that the government isn’t doing everything they can to disarm harmful people and to protect our children. The numbers over the last few years and especially over the past few months have made it clear that legislators have no intention of making children’s lives safer; between the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 and the five year anniversary of the shooting in 2017, 382 pro-gun bills passed in various states’ legislatures. The responsibility of keeping our children safe from gun violence has fallen to us, the voters. So, I will march.