By: Jack Payden-Travers

Jack Payden-Travers — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 18:40:42 +0000

As director of the National Campaign for A Peace Tax Fund from 2011-2015, I had the opportunity to meet with Rep. Lewis and his staff. John Lewis was among those few people one gets a chance to meet who radiate a presence when you are with them. As a Federal Lobbyist for the NCPTF, I found his office to be among the friendliest to visit. In recent years he was the sole sponsor of the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act. Not only was he the “conscience of the Congress,” he introduced this bill each session because he believed it to be a most important piece of legislation for conscientious objectors to the militarism that is so institutionalized in US society. Marian Franz, now deceased, who for many years was the Director of the Peace Tax Fund, wrote an essay on John Lewis that is included in A PERSISTENT VOICE: Marian Franz and Conscientious Objection to Military Taxation, edited by David R. Bassett, Steve Ratzlaff & Tim Godshall, an EMU alumnus.

Comments on: Alumni remember Congressman John Lewis

By: Jack Payden-Travers