Franklin Zahn, deserter from violence
Franklin Zahn of Los Angeles, Calif., a long-time war tax resister and Campaign member, passed away in June at age 88. A pacifist since the 1930s, Franklin Zahn pioneered one of the early efforts seeking legislative relief for military tax objectors. In 1961, he and the Peace Committee of the Pacific Yearly Meeting of Friends drafted the Civilian Income Tax Act designed to establish an alternative, peacemaking use of income taxes paid by individuals who conscience does not allow them to give any support to military preparations.
At this time, I was enjoying the hospitality of Los Angeles Meeting, where an elderly and eccentric Friend by the name of Franklin Zahn resided. Franklin seemed to have an equal fondness for peace activism and outrageous puns. Referring to a time when he was arrested for sailing into the forbidden nuclear test zone in the Pacific during the early 1960s, he described himself as a “jolly good felon.” I didn’t come to appreciate this Friend fully until I read his extraordinary spiritual autobiography, Deserter from Violence, in which he explains how scrupulously he tried to live his life by Gandhian principles. (When renovating homes to create integrated housing in Pomona, Franklin removed each cockroach individually so that he would not have to take a life!)