I am devoted to the possibility of world peace, and am taking action towards that end. So, along with tens of thousands of other taxpayers, I am paying my federal taxes only under protest this year. My conscience demands that I resist, in some way, complicity in funding our excessive military spending and actions.

There is no military "answer" to terrorism. Our "war on terrorism" has now killed many times over the number of innocent civilians than were killed September 11, alienated most of our allies and most of the world populations, and created countless more angry, desperate people willing to resort to terrorist acts.

I ask you to look at history. I ask you to look into your heart. If attacking terrorist strongholds were a viable solution, wouldn't Israel and Palestine have long ago settled into peaceful coexistence?

What of honest inquiry into the roots of terrorism, and addressing what motivates such desperate acts?

As a gesture of opposition to my government's disproportionate military spending, I am refusing the federal government $10.40 of what they expect from me. I am sending the money, instead, to ________________[e.g. our local homeless shelter] so my money is supporting life, rather than destroying it.

I invite you to join me in this affirmation of individual responsibility for a world at peace. We cannot continue to pray and work for peace yet pay for war.

In peace,
Your signature here

Your typed name here

Other possible points to write about:

*How U.S. military budget equals all the other military budgets in the world, combined!

* How the bloated military budget takes money away from domestic needs such as education, healthcare, environmental protection and restoration, renewable energy research, crime and violence prevention, etc. Here's a good quote on that: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." President Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 16, 1953

*Instead of exporting weapons and war, the United States needs to be providing leadership in a multinational political and legal course to address terrorism, aggression, and conflict. We need to be promoting civil, political, and economic human rights along with humanitarian and environmental aid to foreign countries, and here at home as well.