I know I'll face a lot of criticism (and possibly hardship) for what I did this morning. I visited my local IRS office and asked them to remove the levy on my bank account. I had a very friendly conversation with Mrs. W and explained my position - we even shared a couple of laughs, and she was actually pretty empathetic - I consciously kept it light and friendly, despite the potential consequences of my position. But she couldn't lift the levy without my either paying the "balance due" or creating a payment plan subject to my filing for the years I've not filed, and I told her (in a friendly, matter-of-fact way) I can no longer comply with this oppressive, unjust system. So, the levy stands. The system will do what it was designed to do - attempt to oppress, degrade, and intimidate. I'm not going to try to stop it anymore. I'm not angry, and I'm not afraid (well, maybe a little anxious, mostly for my boys).
If lack of criticism and hardship were prerequisites for making changes in this world, then nothing would change, would it? I take my life (and my children's, and yours) too seriously to play this game anymore. All I want to do is be free to go out and make my living, unhindered. But our ingenious system will punish me and treat me like a criminal if I insist on the "unhindered" part.
Please, friends, don't lecture me on government budgets and "fairness" and roads and schools and, "Well, this is just our system, and everyone has to do it." You might as well tell the slave that he can avoid beatings or a hanging if he'll just stay on the plantation and do his work. Is successfully walking the line to avoid beatings the same as freedom? Or you might as well explain to the kid who broke a Jim Crow law and got his butt kicked that everything will get back to normal if he'll just drink out of that drinking fountain, or sit there on the bus or in the restaurant. Is compliance that avoids punishment the same as freedom?
You see, that is what I'm standing up for - freedom. No one who's out working for a living should have to face having their bank account wiped out, or should have to face prison time in connection with earning their bread. No one should be incurring debt as they work to support themselves. It's a crass, mean-spirited, manipulative system invented by - surprise! - the wealthy and powerful. And they count on our tolerance and compliance to keep it going. Well, my tolerance and compliance has come to an end, because I no longer consider myself a means to their ends. I was not put on this earth to pay the income tax. That is not my purpose. Like I said, I take my life too seriously anymore to play along.
And what about my kids? What about Martin Luther King's kids? The fact of their existence didn't make Dr. King sit down and shut up - if anything, it probably compelled him to push harder for change. And what of anyone who had kids and took a risk to stand up against what they perceived as oppression? I take this stand for my kids, too. I don't want them growing up and working under the income tax. And my compliance, history proves, will change nothing.
I feel free, but a little afraid, because I have crossed a line into unknown territory. I've never seriously had to face the possibility of homelessness before. People, it's our freedom or that damn tax system. What's more important to you?
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