The People Have Spoken

Unblurred, the gallery crawl in Garfield on April 1, was well attended and lots of fun.

The Anti-War Committee had anti-war posters courtesy of JustSeeds on the walls of the TMC annex, Russ Fedorka’s cartoons were on display and we held a penny poll. Several TMC members were there to speak about the Thomas Merton Center. As people looked around, checking out the posters, I would ask them to take the penny poll. They usually asked what that was. Then I handed them a flyer showing the Federal budget in a pie chart. I would point out that the budget allocates almost half to the military, and then I would hand them 10 cents to create their own budget, by distributing “their tax dollars” into the jars on the table, which were labeled with important categories requiring financing by the government.

Participants realized how difficult it is. Most took the poll quite seriously and agonized over it. It was great to get people thinking about choices.

Since it was April Fools Day, we had a poster with our dream budget which included a big chunk for education and only 6% for the military. Several people looked at it puzzled; it did not jive with the other budget that I had handed them, until they noticed “Budget April 1” and had a chuckle.

The Pittsburgh branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), together with the American Friends Service Committee and the Raging Grannies, have held tax day rallies and penny polls for the past 10 years on the last day to pay income tax, usually April 15. We set up next to the post office in Squirrel Hill with posters and a large banner, showing how the federal budget allocates lots of money to the Pentagon and little for human needs (See photo on page 13). We handed out War Resisters League pie chart flyers, and we had our jars for the penny poll. We started out with just 5 categories, but added Veterans, Mass Transit and Environment in later years. Education usually is the big winner and the military get very few pennies. Although there is always lots of foot traffic on the street, people are busy going somewhere and don’t have the time like they have at an Unblurred evening to ponder how to divide their tax dollars, so we don’t get as many participants. Of course the experience varies with the weather. We have stood in the cold, in snow and/or rain, but also in beautiful sunny weather, since Pittsburgh April weather is quite unpredictable. Nobody likes soggy flyers in the rain. They are more likely to linger in nice weather.

Consequently we had tax days, when we handed out almost 400 flyers, and rainy and snowy days when we would distribute only 100. Besides the pie chart, this year’s flyer contains an article on Pentagon Spending vs. Security, details on the budget, and resources.

We hope they will be read.

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73 people took the poll. Some added money out of their own pockets. These were the results:

Environment $1.78

Veterans $.53

Health $1.19

Mass Transit $.69

Housing $.87

Food $1.00

Military $.08

Education $2.66

Participants realized how difficult it is. Most took it quite seriously and agonized over it. It was great to get people thinking about this.

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Edith Bell is the coordinator of the Pittsburgh branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

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