Eugene Weekly : Views : 3.29.07

Viewpoint:
Taxes for Peace
Why contribute to death and destruction?
BY SUE BARNHART

EDITOR’S NOTE: A number of years ago, individuals in the Eugene area re-created a small war tax resistance group. The group is now called Taxes For Peace Not War and is joined with other similar groups around the country in the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC). The group believes that wars could be stopped and would not even occur if there were to be no funding for them. Members protest by refusing to voluntarily pay all or part of their federal taxes. These are acts of civil disobedience, and the consequences are almost always financial. Below is the story of one of the local group members, Sue Barnhart. Other stories will follow in the next few weeks.

I have been a war tax resister for thirty years. I was raised as a Christian and really took to heart the commandment, “Thou Shalt not Kill.” I never felt comfortable paying taxes for war, but I didn’t realize I had a choice. As soon as I met some war tax resisters and realized it could be done, I began doing it. It feels very empowering to make a statement with my tax dollars. [Read More]

 

Viewpoint:
Goddess of Library Square
A modest place for Aurora to soak up the sun
BY JERRY DIETHELM

A bronzed Eugene Skinner looked up from his log at the front the Eugene Public Library, looked north across 10th Avenue toward his namesake butte, and this is what he saw. It wasn’t the biodynamic fountain or the statue of the goddess that caught his eye but the space itself, Library Square, a modest public square just opposite his perch. It had been carved out of the new buildings that were filled in all the way to Broadway. [Read More]