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• Saturday, February 18, 2006 02:03 AM

  Hardest part of being a taxpayer is knowing I'm a part of this

  To follow up on MarkB's thoughtful note: for years now I've been sad at what has been done (mostly "overseas") with the defense portion of my proudly paid taxes. I am horrified at what we ask our servicepeople to do, and put up with (to take a less charged example: depleted uranium ammunition is dangerous to our own forces as well as its targets, the farmland where the shells end up, the water that runs through that farmland, the people who drink that water...), to preserve our comfortable petroleum-guzzling "lifestyles".

  Between the two Iraq wars I worked with activists trying to change our policies towards the Iraqi people (separate from Saddam). Clearly we didn't do enough. What will it take to stop the torture (of our prisoners AND our servicepeople)?

  And why aren't we doing more to reclaim our nation? Is it that we feel powerless, or that we don't care what happens as long as our own comfort is not threatened? To have more effect we individualists will have to work together better than we are now.

  I appreciate the way Salon shares its process, stays in dialogues with its critics, and does things no one else is doing. Hint: Premium subs make great gifts!

  —Thinking Read Thinking's other letters
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