LETTER: Protest war by living simply

Editor,

I oppose all war. I oppose all weapons of war. I voted for no one for U.S. Senate and House in last November's election. None of the New Mexican candidates for Congress opposed all war and all weapons of war.

There is not a dime's worth of difference between most Republican and most Democratic members of Congress on robbing and murdering our neighbors abroad.

Our ballots had a long list of judges for us to vote to retain or not to retain. I voted against them all. All the judges to some degree support the so-called "corrections system," which returns evil for evil -- primarily punishing, caging and branding offenders instead of helping them change their lives. Big shots in government and corporations commit the worst crimes of all. They are rarely prosecuted.

I voted against all bond issues. I have never seen a government agency that could not spend more wisely and stretch the dollars they already have -- even those agencies that do some good. When I am spending my own money and government money, I am far more conservative than any Republican I know.

For years, I was a registered Democrat. I switched to the Green Party in 1995. I switched to no party affiliation in 1999. I am closer on many concerns to the Green Party than to Democrats or Republicans, but my convictions are far more radical than Green Party positions.

Many liberals, many Democrats, many Greens struggle to lift the U.S. poor and working class to middle income or higher, but to what purpose? So the poor and working class can consume more, pollute more, travel more, cause more global warming and pay more for war?

I do not want a bigger slice of the rotten, stolen U.S. pie, saturated with the blood, sweat and tears of poor multitudes worldwide -- victims of the U.S. Empire and obscene greed. Most Americans are as addicted to material crap they do not need as any heroin addict is to the needle.

I lived well all of 2002 on $3,760 -- far less than the U.S. federal income taxable level and less that half the U.S. poverty line for a single person under 65.

I have no right to more than I need while others have less than they need. Living simply is freedom, environmental sanity and fairness for all people on earth. I have paid no federal income tax for 24 years -- I refuse to pay for war.

The most radical, non-violent action persons of conscience can take in this society is to pledge publicly to live simply, to own no car and to pay no federal income tax for war for the rest of their lives. I pledge this now at age 57.

Don Schrader

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