Paying for Peace/War Tax Resistance - Patricia Washburn and Perry Treadwell

logo that reads, "If you work for peace, stop paying for war"

A visit with 2 long-time war tax resisters. Patricia Washburn is a religious peace educator, a seminary graduate though never ordained. She testified to Congress for the Peace Tax Fund after the IRS took her house for taxes. Perry Treadwell got a special leading from a verse of Robert Frost when he was 42 and quit his tenured position in microbiology, and found a beautiful life of service. Both address the fears and gifts of decades of war tax resistance.

Perry Treadwell is the author of several books, including Boys into Men, Driving through History and The Last Negro in County is Dead.

Leave a Comment!

Spirit in Action

First Air Date

Listen & Download

Paying for Peace/War Tax Resistance - Patricia Washburn & Perry Treadwell
Radicalizing Steps - Patricia Washburn
There are steps, for most, leading up to war tax resistance, and Patricia talks about some of her first steps, including her willingness to keep her students out of class until the flag would be lowered for Martin Luther King, Jr's death.
Talking Profitably About Controversial issue
There is a complete study guide that Patricia has prepared with how to deal with controversial issues in community. Step 1 - deal with the "affect" before you tackle the "issues".
Simplifying - Like Loosing Your House to War Taxes
Many wonder how bad the consequences of war tax resistance might be. One of the possible penalties is to loose your home, something that Patricia faced and converted to a positive by using it as a supportive opportunity to simplify her life.
Community Support and Clearness Committees
It was helpful, in facing the fear, to have a supportive community to stand with Patricia. In part that came from the clearness committee which sat with Patricia as she considered her war tax witness.
Cliff-leaping Because of a Poem
Sometimes the "nudge" from the Spirit is small but transformative, as in this case, where a poem at the right time and place led Perry to up and leave his tenured university job:

"But yield who will to their separation,
my object in living is to unite
my avocation and my vocation
as my two eyes make one in sight.

Only where love and need are one,
and the work is play for mortal stakes,
is anything ever really done
for Heaven and the future's sakes."

Robert Frost, "Two Tramps at Mud Time", last two stanzas.
Money, Fear, Abundance and the IRS
Refusing to pay for war can have financial consequences, and Perry talks of the liberation he's experienced - the gift that comes from stepping out of the system.
Spiritual Experience - Opening to the Divine
Perry didn't start out "believing", but had experiences which opened his eyes to the mystery and miracle in creation, all around him.
Episcopalian
Presbyterian
Quaker
War Tax Resistance
War Taxes
Peace Tax Fund

Broadcast Date(s)

Guest:

Patricia Washburn
Perry Treadwell

Comments

Add new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
About text formats