In the December 29 New York Times, George Bush said of Osama bin Laden: "His vision of the world is one in which there is no freedom of expression, freedom of religion and/or freedom of conscience." But in Bush's zealous fervor to export democracy at the end of a gun barrel, the President has denied many people these very freedoms. From Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib, to Muslims and anti-war protestors in the US, the Bush administration has run roughshod over civil liberties. Although I am not being detained or tortured, I am also paying a price for freedom.

As another tax year ends, many wage earners start preparing their 1040 forms for the Internal Revenue Service. Meanwhile, I and other members of Austin Conscientious Objectors to Military Taxation (ACOMT, www.acomt.org) are preparing to suffer the consequences of our principled refusal to pay taxes which fund war.

In 2004, ACOMT members experienced an increase in IRS's seizures of our wages and bank accounts. A state worker had a bank account seized twice and recently received more garnishment notices from the IRS. A non-profit employee who is a Catholic Army veteran was forced to reduce his income to avoid repeat levies. A Quaker emergency room physician, whose car was seized in 1991, was recently visited at her home by an IRS agent and faces possible seizure of her wages and another car. A teacher who is new to war tax resistance has already begun receiving collection notices. A housecleaner and artist continues living intentionally below the taxable level to legally avoid paying war taxes. In fall, after 11 years of inaction, the IRS garnished my wages by taking all but $662.50 - the monthly federal poverty level - from my paychecks.

The $465 billion dollar a year war machine has caused the deaths over 1,300 US military personnel and as many as 17,000 Iraq civilians. According to the National Priorities Project, the Iraq war has cost Austin families $375 million to date. I and other war tax resisters want to pay our taxes, but we cannot in good conscience pay others to kill in our names. We regularly redirect thousands of our tax dollars to humanitarian and peaceful causes. Last April 15th ACOMT gave money to the American Friends Service Committee's relief efforts in Iraq and Austin's Nonmilitary Options for Youth. Just before Christmas we made a donation to Casa Marianella and La Posada, two East Austin immigrant shelters. This is a drop in the bucket, but it is one drop less for the barrelsful of blood being shed in the war in Iraq. It means a lot to the non-profit groups struggling to fill the canyon in human services funding left by the massive Pentagon budget.

There ought to be a law (since the First Amendment apparently does not apply to us) that would enable us to direct our taxes to a Treasury Department fund dedicated to non-military purposes Our group believes that the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill is a win-win solution for us and the government. The Bill would grant civil liberties to our minority class of taxpayers by extending to war tax resisters the legal protections the Military Selective Service Act gave conscientious objectors. It would increase tax revenues and decrease the IRS's collection burden. However, it would not reduce the military budget or "open the floodgates" to other taxpayers.

Over 1,000 Central Texans have signed a petition in support of the Bill, and dozens of Austin clergy, community groups and statewide organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas have endorsed it. Many national secular and religious organizations - even the president's own denomination, the United Methodist Church - support the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund (www.peacetaxfund.org). The Bill has the bipartisan backing of 44 Congresspeople including three Texan representatives. Despite this support, it has not had a hearing in a decade, while conscientious objectors around the US have endured many civil liberties violations by the IRS.

The recent election in Iraq is a supposed step toward freedom there. But in Austin, Texas, some of us are still struggling to enjoy freedoms like no taxation without representation won after the Boston Tea Party, 231 years ago. "Freedom has been attacked. Freedom must be defended," the President once remarked. He should make a New Year's resolution to follow his own advice.

--Andy McKenna, peacetax-tx@ev1.net, volunteers for the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund, www.peacetaxfund.org and is in trouble in part because ETS! co-editor Geov Parrish got him into the whole War Tax Resistance business over a decade ago.