(Web exclusive)

The following letters to the editor of Flagstaff Tea Party were received in March but were not published in the newspaper due to space limitations.

 Ruminations of a tax resister

    Did you wake up this morning feeling powerful? No? Me neither. But we have more power than any people, past or present, have ever had. We're "consumers." There's even a bogus index out there that claims to measure our confidence. Well, I'm confident we're destroying the earth, damning workers in Third-World countries (and here), and disgracing ourselves. Powerful stuff. Plus, we're all on the steering committee of that steamroller known as the United States.

    Heavy responsibilities, and unwelcome ones. If a person lacks original ideas, organizational skills, deep pockets or influence in high places, what's left to do but spout treadworn rhetoric like this and avoid shopping at, say, Wal-Mart?

    Well, we can vote for Nader or attend a protest rally. And we should. But we've all got a bottom-line, last resort ability to influence things — we can simply refuse. A Japanese citizen could refuse to eat whale meat with disposable chopsticks (and their corporations are at least as rapacious as ours), but the real smorgasbord is right here in the good old U.S.A. Just consider our military machine, our arms merchants, our ubiquitous SUVs. 

   And so I'm entering my second year as a federal tax protester. I'm not doing the gutsy stuff like trying to thwart paycheck withholding, or joining the underground economy; I just refuse to fill out a form, pay what I owe. This isn't a protest against taxation — politicians who run on tax cuts are usually demagogues — but rather a tiny revolt against a system of taxation without real representation. Our political apparatus, certainly at the national level, is hardly democratic; it runs on money, image manipulation, and corporate endorsement. Until we have publicly-funded elections and proportional representation, we'll remain the "f-----g peasants" John Lennon sang about. 

   Imagine if the presidential debates had included Nader — and, yes, Buchanan — and been genuine debates, real back and forth argument, for several hours if need be. We would have had a chance to see how the ideas and assumptions of Gore and Bush (and Nader and Buchanan) stood up under muscular scrutiny. Posturing and sound bites wouldn't cut it. That's what we're in desperate need of; otherwise, our democracy is dead.

    In the aftermath of Sept. 11, Bush professed not to understand how anyone could hate us, because we're "so good." Let's try to prove the man right by demanding a real democracy, a real say in how our country conducts itself. And by accepting the responsibility that comes with being the most powerful people the world has ever known.

John Wahl

Flagstaff

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My compliments on your story (about Ellen Seaborne). I thought it was well-written and actually quite fair-minded. It looks like a successful piece of journalism.

 Name withheld

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Unlicensed lawyers a problem

Your story regarding a Flagstaff attorney in the March issue may have inadvertently left the impression that purchasers of legal services should be concerned only that the person from whom they seek legal services behaves ethically. Lawyers certainly should do that and clients have every right to demand it. However, consumers also should make sure to seek legal advice and representation from those qualified to give it.

For many years lawyers in Arizona were regulated by statute. The state legislature mandated the creation of the State Bar of Arizona and required all persons who desired to practice law to obtain a license through that organization. Unfortunately, the statutes authorizing the State Bar and prohibiting the practice of law without a license "sunsetted" during the 1980s. Those laws have never been renewed. As a result, in this state many people sell legal services without having attended law school or passing the bar exam.

These unlicensed practitioners frequently hurt those they intend to help. Often the use of unlicensed practitioners brings severe financial hardship to their "clients," to say nothing of prejudice to their legal interests. Readers can learn more about that by checking the State Bar's Web site, www.azbar.org. The worthy cause of improving the quality of legal representation in Flagstaff and elsewhere in Arizona can be advanced by asking your state senator and/or state representative to support enactment of a statute prohibiting the practice of law without a license.

Name withheld