User talk:BenLS

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Thanks for your contribution to Tax Honesty Movement
Thanks for your edits to the article entitled Tax Honesty Movement. In my opinion your comments were right on point! Yours,Famspear 22:32, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Vote Count on Tax Honesty Movement Page
Examining the deletion page I counted 9 votes for deletion, 12 for keeping the page, and 5 other votes to redirect or rewrite. Am I missing something? I am relatively new to this sort of thing on the Wiki...

I disagree with removing the article. The Tax Honesty Movement is real and growing. To remove a page dedicated to explaining the fact of the movement as a "tax-protester" POV fork misses the point of the article entirely. This movement is not centered on this scheme or that scheme to avoid or evade the federal income tax, but rather on obtaining honest answers from the government concerning the tax code, federal regulations, and their relation to Supreme Court decisions, given that there are many conflicting answers coming from various levels of government. That's all. People involved in this wish to distinguish themselves from the "let's try this an see if it will win" crowd concerning federal taxes.

There is no doubt that many involved in the tax honesty movement do suscribe to one or more of the theories mentioned on the tax-protester page but it is nonetheless illogical to transpose those theories onto a movement designed to promote discussion between the people and government. The tax honesty movement is NOT concerned with merely avoiding taxes, it is concerned with government accountability and political discourse in a free society. If you listen to Mr. Champion's radio show you would learn that he is repeatedly asking government officials and tax experts to come on his show in order to promote discussion. If you understood the objectives of the We The People Foundation you would see that Bob Schulz's rallying cry revolves around the government answering questions as provided for in the 1st Amendment right to petition clause. The focal point of the Tax Honesty Movement is government response; the central theme of tax-protesting is not paying taxes.

I admit that, unfortunately, many people who identify themselves as part of the tax honesty movement are unable to see this distinction themselves and can cause a knee-jerk response from people unfamiliar with all of this. However, that distinction is there and the original article is a good start for reaching an unbiased exposition of its objectives. I noticed that it was in the process of being edited to remove any hint of POV when it was suddenly deleted.

I urge you to reoconsider your decison to delete the page. BenLS 14:33, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I am not going to get into a new discussion on whether the tax honesty movement, whatever it is, is notable or non-notable, real or unreal, important or irrelevant. I will, however, explain my counting of the votes.
 * Please see the fifth point at Articles for deletion, which says, in part, "Unregistered and new users are welcome to contribute to the discussion, but their recommendations may be discounted". A large number of the recommendations at Articles for deletion/Tax Honesty Movement were from such users, and I have discretion as administrator to not count their recommendation. This is because AfD depends on a consensus of Wikipedians, rather than a contest as to who can get the most forum buddies to show up and post "keep".
 * I will not be undeleting this page, or discussing the matter further. Feel free to request that my decision be reviewed on Deletion review. Stifle (talk) 14:43, 7 April 2006 (UTC)