September 2004 | Letters
Choice Feedback
Very Tax-ing Situation
As an IRS senior tax collector, I have watched as my authority to collect taxes has been diluted by the Republican Congress. I see many people who do not pay taxes and get away with it, because IRS resources have been cut. There used to be 10,800 people like me and now there are only 3,700. The average age of an IRS tax collector is 47.
I deal with wealthy individuals and corporations who for the most part decide that they do not want to pay taxes. These are lawyers and doctors and presidents of corporations — your neighbors. These are companies that withhold tax money from your check but do not pay it into the U.S. Treasury.
Last year I collected $7 million dollars in taxes that would not have been paid without my intercession and I made $80,000 in wages and benefits. This was a good deal for the government.
Perhaps too good: The President wants to share and contract this work out and pay a 25 percent commission on taxes collected by private companies. President Bush wants to privatize 39,000 of the 100,000 jobs at the IRS. He wants your confidential tax information turned over to some minimum wage worker without health insurance, vacations and other benefits. Is this what you want?
Many people are not aware that the military draft is quietly being reinstated — HR 163 and other pending legislation could restart our draft as early as June 2005 for both men and women.
Now is the time to act. Wake up, talk to your neighbors, family, co-workers and friends about the war, the long hours you need to work to make ends meet, the lack of confidence you feel in your future in a Bush USA. Encourage them to see Fahrenheit 9/11, sign on to www.MoveOn.org, and register to vote. It is time for us to take back the government that benefits the rich on the backs of the struggling middle class. If we don’t band together at the polls now, it may be too late.
Richard, Glen Ellyn, Ill.
Good Vibrations
I AM WRITING to let you know that something has happened at Conscious Choice. I always pick up a copy from Whole Foods and usually I just glance through it. This time it was a completely different experience.
For starters, I loved the cover. It made me want to open up the magazine and read what was inside.
It felt different. I turned to the editorial. Normally, I just skim through, yet before I knew it I was hooked! (Then) I resumed my usual light scanning process except, for some unknown reason, this time I began to actually read the articles! I was captured. My husband even came to me with a cup of tea asking, “Shall we go to breakfast?” And I heard myself reply, “In a little while, I just want to finish reading Conscious Choice!”
Something has happened to Conscious Choice. It’s a tangible thing, and also an energetic thing. It is truly communicating on a higher level.
Val, Internet
Strengthen the Unions
AS A FIRST-time reader, I would like to express my appreciation to all your contributors for the great articles and choice of issues. I just finished reading the July edition of Conscious Choice, and was impressed. As a person with great interest in American politics, everyday life and public health issues, I was thrilled to see these issues tackled in CC. Coming from a small European country, I cannot help but notice the negative influence of the big chains on America’s economical life. Sad to say, we’ve reached the point when it’s not just America’s problem: labor unions have been losing their power and voice in other countries, too. More and more people are losing their jobs and businesses every day because of the big corporations. I do not believe that is the right way to a healthy economy, and I do hope America’s new government will take these workers out of their misery and strengthen the unions.
Zsuzsanna, Chicago
Land of the Free?
AS I LISTEN to the news of our war, I’m struck by how distant I feel from the action. Unlike the war fought by my peers, Viet Nam, I don’t know anyone fighting in Iraq nor does anyone I know know anyone fighting over there, nor do I understand why our troops are there. The issues seem beyond me.
Until recently (when) I heard about the sudden arrest of a Kurdish man I actually know, Ibrahim Parlak, of Harbor County, Michigan. He is a Kurdish man who immigrated to The Land of the Free about 15 years ago after realizing his efforts as a freedom fighter in his own country were fruitless, a man who was arrested by the FBI last week as a potential terrorist because he was a Kurdish Freedom Fighter 15 years ago.
I could go into detail about his life in America — he’s an integral part of a community, lived the American Dream by clawing his way up from nothing to a middle class lifestyle, is doing a fine job of raising a child, but the details of his life are unimportant. What is important is that he was snatched from his home, (restaurant) business and family because They (I don’t even know who’s responsible for his arrest) feel the need to demonstrate to the American people that they’re taking action to avenge 9/11.
The insidious success of Bush’s evildoers did not stop when the World Trade Towers fell. It continues as our nation does evil in the name of defending against evil.
Sally, Harbor County, Mich.
Healthy School Food
IN RESPONSE to a letter in our August issue in which a reader asked for help in finding nutritional options for school vending machines, this letter arrived:
Stonyfield Farms which makes Stonyfield Yogurts has a campaign to help parents get healthy foods into school vending machines. Just visit www.stonyfield.com/menuforchange/storiesofsuccess.cfm or www.stony field.com/menuforchange/parentactionkit/index.cfm
I hope this information will be useful.
Wanda, Internet
Corrections & Clarifications
IN THE August 2004 issue on page 22, the photo caption for the West Side Community Gardens story misidentified the name of the photographer. The credit line should read: Photos courtesy of Liz Sunderland.
The amount of BTUs of natural gas saved by the installation of the solar system in the Taco-Burrito King on page 11 should have read 500,000 BTUs.
Meanwhile ...
In an alternate universe, I am taller, smarter and better looking than I am here.
In a parallel dimension, I am a bigot who can’t stand those bastards with only three ears.
In another quadrant of the astral plane, there are no platform shoes and it is my job to keep it that way.
In a realm that lies just outside of your peripheral vision, I flick your ear for fun and watch as you try to bat me away.
In a temporary dimension that exists every day between 6:59 and 7 p.m., I am on the last three seconds of my life and have just discovered fire.
In a world that lies on the peak of a curve in the time/space continuum, I am in charge of a committee whose job it is to come up with another name for “comb.”
In the folds of a slight wrinkle in the fabric of the universe, Hitler has successfully invaded the United States on Q-Day and freed the Swiss from the concentration camps.
In a mass of gas and dust that wafts through space some 17 light years away, we are all primordial ooze trying to band together to form life.
On a bus stop in Chicago this week, we stood there staring down a dark street into nothingness.
— Ken Green
We want to hear from you. Send your letters to: Choice Feedback, Conscious Choice, 920 N. Franklin, Suite 202, Chicago, IL 60610. [click to e-mail]. Letters should include the writer’s name, address, and phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity or space.
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