Prophet Martin Luther King Jr. damned the Vietnam War with his most controversial speech on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before he was assassinated. King said, “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government.” Why is that speech far less known, far less honored, than his “I Have a Dream” speech? King refused to silence his conscience and sell out his convictions.

I have paid no federal income tax for war for 38 years. I lived well all of 2016 on $4,946, less than half the federal income taxable level for me as a single person. As a conscientious objector, to pay federal income tax to train and equip largely low-income people of color to become soldiers to murder on command would be more evil than being a soldier myself.

Don Schrader
Albuquerque, N.M.