It's an And

I really like Dad's post about God and people not knowing and not pretending to know the answers but that that did not mean they were atheists. It seemed similar to discussions I have had recently about religion and spirituality. Today is Easter Sunday and also our anniversary, 17 years since our wedding. I have started writing to reflect and see if I can remember some of the last 11 years and the different roads we ended up taking. It was not a planned out trip.
The title comes from my case with the IRS. We heard from the law student who is working on the case and she has sent in a document or argument to the IRS based on the word 'AND'. I think that may be the way that lawyering goes, it is in the details. So everyone who is not a war tax resister believes that indeed our arguments fit the definition of frivolous arguments as put down by the IRS, however there are two requirements for getting the penalty one is a frivolous argument the other is that the form is filled out in someway incorrectly. Between these two there is the word 'AND'. So it is an And and not an Or, one must do both of these things to merit the penalty. It will be interesting to hear how the IRS responds. I do hope that they respond before the student working with us is finished in May. I had looked at this statement a number of times but had read it as or instead of and, so I am very glad of the lawyers eyes.
I have been having the computer in a different space as it is a laptop and have not written for about a month. Habits are interesting.

July 28, 1944

7/ 28/44

Dear folkses,

            I can see right now that this isn’t going to be much of a letter I just don’t have anything to write.

            I reckon I can tell about the weather. It has been nice and clear and the sun shines all the time with a few little fuzzy white clouds now and then. Sometimes it gets hot in the afternoon.

            I have gone swimming a few times in the rivers. It is about five minutes walk and we have set supper back so that we have a half hour to swim in after work. I think if I go every night I may learn to swim before the summer is over. It sure is fun.

            We have had a very interesting guest here this week. Irene Pickard. She is an English Friend and she and her husdband worked for the AFSC in Genevia Switzerland for 14 years. I don’t know what all they did I guess there was a sort of school there that kids from all over Europe were brought to and I suppose they had something to do with the feeding that has been done as all of that has gone through Switzerland. They got pretty close to all the world politics meeting and the league of Nations and she is reall up on that sort of thing. We have had a couple of discussions around camp as to what part we as pacifists can and should play in the Churches. So many of us are discusted with the way the church has been doing, not only with the war question but everything that comes along that makes much difference. We had a discussion on that the other night. It wasn’t very satisfactory tho. I had the feeling that there were a number of men there that believed very strongly on a certain kind of God and they thought that the rest of us didn’t believe in God at all and they were trying to convince us that there really was a God. There are really very few men in the CPS that would call themselves Athiests. There are a lot of us that have gotten away from our old conception of God tho. We don’t know a lot of the things that some people think they know about God and God’s will and we aren’t willing to guess at them and call it faith. I hope we have some more discussions on this in the future.

            We are beginning to get aquainted with our new director. They are swell people.

                                                Yours with love and stuff

                                                            Bernard