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Excuse the language. I'll edit; Alibi didn't

The following exchange from the Letters pages of the Weekly Alibi (Albuquerque, NM, www.Alibi.com) got such a response on my radio show and another live "reading", that I offer it here as a fine tribute to free speech, to Letters sections in general and to the Alibi's in particular, where the letters tend to be passionate...

Don, FYI, is a fixture of the university neighborhood, often seen walking and tanning his golden body along the main drag.

Don's World (April 17, 2003)

Dear Alibi,

No job, salary, relationships, degree, car, house, art, furniture, trip or gadgets are worth paying federal income tax to rob, terrorize, blind, cripple, paralyze, make homeless and murder our sisters and brothers in Iraq and worldwide.

The main purpose of the U.S. war machine is to make sure that most Americans, especially the greediest, keep on hogging and stealing the wealth of the world.

The best way to boycott the U.S. war machine, with no fines and no threats from the IRS, is to live simply under the taxable level. The taxable level this year for a single, sighted, under 65-year-old person is $7,800. I lived well last year on $3,760.

I have owned no car since I returned to Albuquerque in 1988.

The last time I rode in any car was April 7, 2001. I hate cars because I hate wars for oil, poisoned air, the horror of global warming, highways smothering fertile soil ... I love to walk! I would not trade my 12' by 14' home for the most luxurious mansion in the world.

I am glad I have no refrigerator, TV, VCR, car, computer, credit cards, business suit, jet travel, phone, microwave, air conditioner... I wash my clothes by hand at home. I am glad I consume no booze, cigarettes, restaurant meals, junk food, meat, dairy, cooked food, illegal drugs, prescription drugs ... I am glad I have no doctor, dentist, medical insurance. I am an all-raw foods vegetarian devoted to natural health. I yearn for passionate lifelong romance with a man, but I will not surrender or compromise my war tax refusal and my living simply for any man on Earth!

I refused to be a soldier in 1969 during the Vietnam War. For me, as a conscientious objector to pay federal income tax to train other Americans, largely the poor and people of color, to become professional hired killers to murder on command with no conscience would be more evil than being a soldier myself. My life is an all-out public boycott of the U.S. Empire every day as long as I live.

Don Schrader
Albuquerque
_________________________________________
Don Doesn't Get It (April 24, 2003)

Dear Alibi,

Don Schrader? Here we go again.
Blah, blah, blah. You are an anachronism. You are out of place and time. You long for a passionate lifelong romance--good luck! You won't find it parading your ... up and down Central. Your landlord should kick your naked ... out of that 12' x 14' box you call home, so that you can see what the world is really like. No computer, no TV: Where do you come by your warped view of the world? Besides the Alibi, what is your source of news of current events? Do you actually peruse a newspaper or news magazine? Or do you base your ....ed-up image of the country on the evil passersby in oil-burners who honk at your foolish and simplistic propagandistic signs?

By the way, in the interest of "full disclosure"--what is the source of your $3,760? Since you don't work, do you produce anything to earn an income? Or do you live off some trust fund from a deceased parent? Are you milking the system for some disability? Do you vote? If you don't vote, your opinion means nothing anyway--you are irrelevant.

Do you realize the "U.S. War Machine" maintains your right to live and act the way you do, and yes--even to insanely rant against the "Empire." I think it would be appropriate--and divinely poetic--to drop your semi-clad butt into Saddam's Iraq--say, from a Huey helicopter--and watch as your Iraqi brothers and sisters' beat you for being naked, cut out your tongue for speaking out and then stone you to death for being gay.

Such an "enlightened" society might illustrate to you just how lucky you are to live in the United States, where people only laugh at the sight of you.

Gene Anderson, employed, tax-paying, SUV-driving, on-line, satellite, phone, radio/tv, insured, licensed and contributor to society and the economy-- and proud of it.
Albuquerque


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