I Just Paid My War Taxes--Mea Culpa!

Paying My War Taxes

Today I filed my federal war taxes. I am almost ashamed to admit it. Many friends of mine risked their freedom, their careers, their homes—really, almost everything, by refusing to pay war taxes. Many of them went to jail for this. Others had to live below the taxable poverty line, in other words, very simply, with an extremely low income threshold. I’m thinking of people like Chuck Matthei, Marion and Ernest Bromly, Juanita and Wally Nelson., the Berrigan’s, Phil and Dan, Dorothy Day, Ammon Hennacy (The One-Man Revolution), Maurice McCrackin. Many folks in the Peacemaker Movement and the Catholic Worker Movement. Many Quakers and Mennonites. I appreciate their enormous sacrifices.

 

Chuck Matthei

I am not against all taxation. I am happy to pay my taxes and share my resources for many things having to do with the health, welfare, and cultural resources of our country. I am also happy to share my resources with those in need outside my country, the poor, needy, refugees, the hungry.

Wally and Juanita Nelson, Ernest and Marion Bromley, Maurice McCrackin

But I strongly object to the use of my taxes for war and for imperialism. Our tax dollars have done so much damage in the world. And lately, the sabers have been rattling again—at people and groups in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, China, and many other places. And most ominously of all, in North Korea, where “all options are on the table.” Well one of those options is the use of nuclear weapons. If it comes to that, then the future of the world, the entire future of civilization, is put at great risk. The world could essentially end. All our own hopes and our hopes for our families, friends, children, and grandchildren could be dashed—incinerated.

 

Ammon Hennacy (right)

Can we trust our leaders not to use these weapons of destruction—in fact, weapons of mass destruction. We have them at the ready. They could be launched at any minute.

Dan Berrigan and Thomas Merton

A Poem by Daniel Berrigan--Appropriate for This Presidential Election

And Where in the World Are You?

I see the wicked glide by
sleek in their velvet hearses
rich beyond measure, egos
puffed like an adder's

No sons of misfortune these;
no cares
shadow the perfumed brows;
a whirligig of furies
their axletree cuts;
the innocent die.

I sweat like a beast
for the fate of my people.
Is God
ignorant, blank eyed
deaf, far distant
bought off, grown old?

They rape the fair world
they butcher, huckster
by the pound, living flesh;
their guns, their gimlets
claim us for trophy.

Why then endure
why thirst for justice?
Your kingdom-come
a mirage, never comes.

I sweat like a beast
my nightmare is life long
and where in the world
are you?

[Fr. Daniel Berrigan. Page 53, Psalm 73 in his Uncommon Prayer: A Book of Psalms]

Fr. Berrigan's poem is like so much of the Bible, dripping with frustration and something close to despair. Where is God in all this? We pray the Our Father, the Lord's Prayer, and ask that "Thy kingdom come," but it seems like it is not coming, not being born in our lifetimes. The world seems like it's owned and manipulated by the super rich, those who "rape the fair world / they butcher, huckster / by the pound, living flesh; / their guns, their gimlets / claim us for trophy." These are heartfelt, sad words written by the poet and prophet Daniel Berrigan.

Fr. Dan Berrigan's "Psalm 81"--a Tribute in the Latest Catholic Worker

The Catholic Worker newspaper of June-July 2016 is a tribute to Fr. Dan Berrigan, who died this past April 30th. Surely this was the passing of a great saint! Fr. Berrigan published a book in 1998 called "Uncommon Prayer: A Book of Psalms." Below is a photo of Psalm 81, written by Fr. Berrigan and published in the latest Catholic Worker:

By the Way, Fr. Berrigan wrote the Foreword for the biography of Maurice McCrackin, written by Judith Bechtel Blackburn and me ("Building the Beloved Community: Maurice McCrackin's Life for Peace and Civil Rights."), available on Amazon.com.

Beautiful Trinity Episcopal Cathedral near Downtown Cleveland. Frida Berrigan's Talk

Last evening Brian Rice and I traveled downtown to hear Frida Berrigan speak. The venue was a comfortable room at Trinity Cathedral, near E. 20th and Euclid Avenue (across from Cleveland State University). Before the talk Brian and I visited the magnificent cathedral and I took a few photos (below). This looks like a 13th Century European Gothic Cathedral, complete with flying buttresses, rosetta windows, and a magnificent interior space. Trinity is Cleveland's oldest church, founded nearly 200 years ago.

So Trinity is a magnificent building, but what is even better is its welcoming nature. The Dean of Trinity, The Very Rev. Tracey Lind, welcomed us to the talk saying, "You are all welcome at Trinity--no exceptions."

Frida Berrigan gave a wonderful talk and reading from her new book, It Runs in the Family. She is a warm and engaging young woman. Frida was there with her mother, Elizabeth McAlister, and her two young children (they were in the nursery, so I didn't meet them). I briefly met her afterwards and told her her uncle, Rev. Daniel Berrigan, wrote the introduction to the book Judith Bechtel Blackburn and I wrote, Building the Beloved Community: Maurice McCrackin's Life for Peace and Civil Rights (originally published by Temple University in 1991--new edition available on Amazon).

Frida Berrigan (left) and the Very Rev. Tracey Lind

Magnificent pipe organ

Incredible carved limestone

New Poem: "The Prophet"

The Prophet

(Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice. . .Matthew 5:6)

Sometimes the rage, anger, unresolved mourning under the skin

erupt in sudden violent spasms--

surprising yourself and the people who love you.

Often it is just anger and you feel like Jeremiah

with a truth to tell--one you cannot but yell out

to the world.

Speak your piece, o friend,

share the vision,

whether it be terrible,

     or beautiful--

Your job is to tell the truth!

[Bob Coughlin November 19, 2014]


As I composed this poem, I was thinking about prophetic people I have known or encountered over my lifetime. Some achieved a degree of fame (or notoriety), like Maurice McCrackin, Marion Bromley, Ernest Bromley, Daniel Berrigan, Dorothy Day, Chuck Matthei, Mike Rivage-Seul. But most are known only to a few people (these names I will keep in my heart). During the Vietnam protest era, the government thought many of the protesters to be mentally ill. Ha! Who's mentally ill??