Chekhov's Mistress

Be Diligent This Tax Season

by Bud Parr

I have a friend who doesn’t care much about money (an ethos I envy but unfortunately, don’t share). He would give it away rather than bother with it, and takes advantage of every opportunity to donate to a good cause, like eschewing membership miles for charitable contributions. Consequent of his attitude about money, he doesn’t pay much attention to whether or not he over-pays his taxes each year, letting receipts for tax deductible items drift around, unaccounted for. This oversight amounts to nothing less than a negative donation, contributing to a cause that he (and I) vehemently oppose: the U.S. government’s military aggression in Iraq. At least 17% of your tax dollars go to pay the defense budget, not including the added cost of financing the billions of dollars in debt that our deficit requires. If you dissent to this war, then you have a responsibility, in my estimation, to not pay any more taxes than you are legally required.


I bring this up here because of the stunningly noble gesture on the part of Flemish author Paul Verhaeghen, who now lives in the United States, teaching at Syracuse University. According to a press release at Dalkey Archive Press, who is soon publishing his novel, Omega Minor, Verhaeghen recently “accepted the Flemish Culture Award for Fiction, but rejected the attached prize money of 12,500 euros.”


His words:

“When I was writing Omega Minor, I would never have guessed that the country I live in, the United States of America, would ever resemble Germany in the 1930s. Now there are concentration camps for presumed enemies of the regime—more than 83,000 people have been detained since 9/11, and 14,000 are still ‘in custody’—and just like the Nazis, who exported the horror to Poland, the American government detains these people in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Egypt, on Cuba, and in countless other places. There are again torture rooms, and eager torturers, and the architect of the legal underpinnings of torture is now attorney general…

I have made the calculation. If I would accept the 12,500 euros associated with this award, about five thousand dollars would flow into the American Treasury. I could pretend that this money will be used to finance public schools or medical care, or will help to alleviate the suffering of the forty million Americans who live below the poverty line. But who would I be kidding? The president just asked Congress for an extra 120 billion in emergency funds for the war. I gladly accept the award, but the money—no, that I cannot accept. This money would be paid for in human blood.”
posted March 13, 2006

comments

It’s nice to see authors making a difference with their actions, rather than with just their words for once. If I’d thought about it that way, I would have refused the check too. It’d be really hard, though. Luckily, he’s got a professor position, so can afford to turn down grants like that. Other lowly writers would be more desperate.

    – Leopold McGinnis (03/14  at  10:35 AM)


It seems to me the money would find it’s way back to U.S. government somehow. One thing he could have done was accept the money, then donate it to a humanitarian relief organization. That would have made a more powerful statement.

    – Jamie (03/14  at  05:30 PM)


Unfortunately, Jamie, if he had accepted it, then it would be taxed and that would have defeated his purpose. If he just donated the money, we wouldn’t be talking about it and therefore would not have been much of a statement at all.

Funny, Leopold, that you would say that about his being a professor. I purposely included the fact that he he was an academic to show that he probably didn’t have a lot of money (maybe this is just my perspective living in NYC - I know some that make a lot and others who don’t, but I would generally associate that profession as one in which 12,500 euros would be a decent chunk of change. Nonetheless, the gesture is still a strong one, even if its refusal leaves no material mark on its intended recipient.

    – Bud Parr (03/14  at  08:25 PM)


Excuse me for being the annoying right wing commenter but is comparing the US to Nazi Germany now a ho hum thing?  This guy chooses to live here and yet blithely compares America to Nazi Germany!

I hate to break to Mr. Verhaeghen but the “blood money” of the US Government makes possible his employment.

One can have serious issues with the US detention policies and even its human rights record, but comparing the US to Nazi Germany is just plain ignorant and insulting to the memory of the Holocaust.  Is Guantanamo Bay comparable to Auschwitz?!  This is not a morally serious person.

He may be acting out his principles but I fail to see why his ridiculous rhetoric should be taken seriously.

    – Kevin Holtsberry (03/15  at  09:57 AM)


Kevin,

While most of your argument is predictable, I agree that Bush is probably not going to start exterminating masses of people. However, you should know better than to generalize so wildly, because if I recall, you have a master’s in history. Verhaeghen didn’t mention the Holocaust, he compared the current environment to Germany in the 1930s, which is an entirely different matter and not necessarily hyperbolic.

    – Bud Parr (03/15  at  04:06 PM)


“just like the Nazis, who exported the horror to Poland”

Is that not a reference to the Holocaust?  Is not the use of the term “concentration camps” a reference to the Holocaust?  What else could he be hinting at?  What is he getting at when he talks of Germany in the 30’s if not the rise to power of fascists and the implementation of the Holocaust?  Rampant inflation and avant garde theater?

Isn’t his entire point that it is happening again?

    – Kevin Holtsberry (03/15  at  04:54 PM)


Kevin! Don’t exhaust me with this stuff every time I mention politics on this site. You should know that concentration camps existed a decade before the Holocaust. Don’t confuse the two.

    – Bud Parr (03/15  at  05:05 PM)


120 billion for the Iraq does not equal 120 billion for bombs and guns. Bridges, power plants, roads, water filtration systems, hospitals are ALSO paid for out of this outlay. 

I guess that writer you admire doesn’t want the Iraqis to have these things. Perhaps he’s still trying to ‘give sanctions a chance to work.’

Cal Berne

    – Cal Berne (03/30  at  05:47 AM)


Sorry Cal, but yours is a childish comment and misses the point.

    – Bud Parr (03/30  at  09:04 AM)


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