From the April 2003 Idaho Observer:

Hunger fast ends with no answers

DOJ: “We'll answer their questions -- by prosecuting”

from We The People

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Shortly before 5 PM on the 30th day of her hunger strike (April 3) the front desk at Rose Lear's DC hotel called her room and informed her she had just received a several page fax. It was from U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.). It was the reply for which Lear had risked her life.

It was supposed to contain specific answers to each of the 537 “true or false” type questions about U.S. income tax law that Lear formally served on her Congressman as a Petition for Redress of Grievances.

The questions were not answered. Hoekstra's response to Lear was several pages of the same avoidance mechanisms We the People typically receive from the federal government in questions regarding the income tax.

Lear called Hoekstra's office and demanded to talk to the Congressman. He was not available.

By Thursday night, after contemplating the situation and consulting with a number of people, Lear announced to a small group of WTP supporters that she was moving toward ending her fast.

She prepared a written retort to Hoekstra's response that included documentation from the We The People Foundation showing, clearly, that the Congressional Research Service report cited in Hoekstra's “response” does not answer ANY of the 537 questions from the Truth-in-Taxation Hearing record & Petitions for Redress.

Lear arranged a meeting Rep. Hoekstra April 4 and delivered her written retort.

Although disturbed by her representative's failure to answer the questions, Lear reported to WTP that in her Friday meeting with Hoekstra, he offered assurances that his door would remain open to Lear and that he would work with Lear to help obtain the official answers that Lear sought from the IRS and DOJ. On March 28th, Hoekstra sent letters to IRS and DOJ requesting answers to the questions within 30 days.

Lear remarked, it was now clear to her that “there are many on Capitol Hill that want the same answers we all do. We are not going to stop. These questions have to be answered.”

For the record, Lear's two Michigan Senators, Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, refused to meet with Lear during her 30-day hunger fast.

Lear now intends to take the fight back to her home state of Michigan and continue to apply pressure to elected representatives around the nation to get official answers to the Petitions for Redress. She stated that she “fully supports the WTP initiative to stop withholding and that cutting off money was going to get their (Washington's) attention.”

Lear traveled home, through Chicago on Friday afternoon and has started to eat again. She reported that she experienced some substantial fast-related health problems on her trip but was doing well enough to make chicken soup for herself for Saturday dinner. Lear relayed that she wanted to thank everyone for all the support and effort expended in trying to get the questions answered.

She also said that she had talked to her husband William, (who called from prison on Saturday), that he was elated that it was over but that he was very supportive of Rose throughout the entire fast.

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Note: We The People Foundation has conducted a most respectful, thorough and lawful campaign to compel the federal government to answer pertinent questions regarding the legality of the income tax (A chronology of which was published in the March edition of The IO). Thus far, no matter how respectfully or eloquently or lawfully WTP's petitions for redress are submitted to the government, it refuses to answer them.

WTP is working with with the Lears. Both the Lears and WTP vow to continue pressing the government for answers -- no matter what.

WTP's website is located at www.givemeliberty.org