Joseph’s story
26 Weekends at Columbia County Jail
Friends Journal
Joseph’s account of the witness and confinement behind the book.
Read at Friends JournalResources
Learn more about Joseph’s witness.
This page gathers selected sources, organizations, and reading paths behind Joseph Olejak’s witness: Quaker faith, peace testimony, war tax resistance, public responsibility, and the human dignity questions that come into view through county jail.
Joseph’s Story
Start with Joseph’s own account.
These resources begin closest to Joseph’s own account: his writing, interviews, and coverage directly connected to the book and the sentence that shaped it.
Joseph’s story
Why I Stopped Paying Taxes
QuakerSpeak
Joseph explains his war tax resistance directly and plainly.
Watch at QuakerSpeakJoseph’s story
26 Weekends in County Jail for Protesting War Taxes
Fellowship & Fairydust
A current interview connecting the book, Joseph’s tax refusal, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the moral reasoning behind his witness.
Read the interviewBook Review
Book Review: 26 Weekends in County Jail
Fellowship & Fairydust
A review of Joseph’s book detailing his war-tax refusal and the the wider questions his jail weekends exposed: addiction, chronic pain, bureaucracy, imprisonment, public responsibility, and the systems that target vulnerable communities to ensure they keep coming back.
Read the reviewWar Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Witness
Context for refusal and a constructive alternative.
These resources give context for refusing to fund war, the risks people take, and the constructive alternative Joseph supports through peace tax witness.
Movement resource
National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee
NWTRCC
A central resource for war tax resistance, consequences, counseling, and community support.
Visit NWTRCCLegal context
War Tax Resisters Taken to Court
NWTRCC
Background on court cases and the relative rarity of prosecution and jail among modern war tax resisters.
Read the explainerResistance guide
War Tax Resistance Guide
War Resisters League
A broader educational guide to war tax resistance. Verify the current version and any references to Joseph before publishing.
Explore WRL resourcesProposed legislation
H.R.4529 - Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act
Congress.gov
The proposed bill Joseph points toward: a lawful path for people who want to meet public responsibility without being forced to fund war.
View the proposed billQuaker Faith and Public Witness
Plainspoken context for Quaker language.
For readers new to Quaker language, these resources help explain peace testimony, Inner Light, integrity, and the faith tradition beneath Joseph’s witness.
Regional Friends body
New York Yearly Meeting
New York Yearly Meeting
Regional Quaker context for Friends, meetings, worship, discernment, and witness in New York and nearby areas.
Visit NYYMQuaker publication
Friends Journal
Friends Journal
A Quaker publication where readers can find essays, reporting, first-person witness, and spiritual reflection from Friends.
Visit Friends JournalQuaker videos
QuakerSpeak
QuakerSpeak
Short, accessible videos on Quaker faith, worship, testimony, discernment, and public witness.
Visit QuakerSpeakQuaker testimonies
Quaker Testimonies / SPICE
QuakerSpeak
A helpful introduction to the testimonies many Friends summarize through SPICE or SPICES: simplicity or spirituality, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship.
Watch the SPICES explainerInner Light
Inner Light / That of God
Quaker.org
A plain-language explainer for the Quaker belief that there is “that of God” in everyone, a core idea behind Joseph’s way of seeing the men inside jail.
Read about Inner Light