Today
Today, I’ve spent my time learning in Single-Variable Calculus and Intermediate Modern Standard Arabic, studying in McCabe Library, working in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection (SCPC), and walking my partner to an evening meeting at work before going to the grocery store.
Peace Tax Fund
In the Peace Collection, I spent this morning entering data from the files of the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund into ArchivesSpace, the information management system the archive is transitioning onto. The National Campaign for a Peace Fund (NCPTF) “advocates for H.R.4169 – Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act.”^1 The NCPTF, which is a 501(c)(4) non-profit, has been lobbying Congress, aiding supporters who contact their Congresspersons about the bill, and working alongside the educational, 501(c)(3) Peace Tax Foundation.
The concept of conscientious military objectors may be new to you; I know it was a foreign concept to me when I began working at the SCPC in June 2019. Conscientious objection is when a person opposes participation in war because of their religious or otherwise moral convictions. In World War 1, conscientious objectors (C.O.s) were commonly imprisoned. ^2 In World War 2, the U.S. government made legal provisions which allowed conscientious objectors to serve an alternative service to military service.^3 Now, the NCPTF says, “Just as our nation has developed a means by which citizens, on the basis of religious conscience, may choose to do non-military service in lieu of military service when a military draft is in effect, we advocate for statutes that establish a means by which the income tax payments of designated conscientious objectors can be directed to non-military purposes.”^4
I have not informed myself enough to know if I think a Peace Tax Fund is a viable addition to the U.S. tax code, in its current legislative iteration or any previous iterations. Nevertheless, ideas for alternatives to war are welcome to be scrutinized.
Resources:
- http://peacetaxfund.org/about-us/
- WWI C.O.s website. Lots of letters written from prison. https://cosandgreatwar.swarthmore.edu/exhibits/show/about/origins
- See specifically §§305(g) of U.S. Congress. United States Code: Selective Training and Service Act of, 50a U.S.C. §§ 301-318. 1940. Periodical. https://www.loc.gov/item/uscode1940-003050a005/
- Http://peacetaxfund.org/about-us
