Rose Lear, the "tax honesty" activist from Muskegon, Mich., has announced she has ended her hunger strike against the federal government after 29 days and was scheduled to return to her home today after two weeks in Washington, D.C.
Having stopped eating on March 5, Lear had said she was willing to die for her cause if she did not secure answers to 537 questions included in a petition for redress of grievances sponsored by the organization We the People, which was delivered to all 535 members of Congress last fall. The questions concern the movement's contention that the federal government lacks any legal jurisdiction to enforce the income tax, that there is no law that requires Americans to pay the tax, and that the tax is enforced in a manner that violates the U.S. Constitution.
After her congressman, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., did not respond to Lear's request for answers and her husband was convicted – she says unjustly – of failing to file a tax return, Lear decided to start her fast.
The 52-year-old woman had been in Washington, D.C., since March 20 when she first met with Hoekstra. The meeting was videotaped and is available online at the We the People website.
She now says she has come to an agreement with Hoekstra after trading letters with him this week.
"The reason I'm ending my hunger strike is because my congressman and I have come to terms of agreement, but he can't do it alone. We need everyone of you out there to put pressure on the Senate," Lear said in an audio entry on her online blog.
"The Senate controls the Judiciary Committee. Orrin Hatch of Utah is the Republican majority leader of that committee. That's where you need to focus your attention."
In the blog entry yesterday, Lear said she was planning to go out to dinner last night for one of her favorite meals: crab legs.
Lear was scheduled to return home to Michigan today so was unavailable for comment for this report.
The activist said she had "a very long talk" with Hoekstra and his chief of staff before making her decision.
"One congressman cannot do it all. He needs the people behind him," she commented on the blog.
She says she plans to continue her fight against the income tax when she gets home.
Said Lear, "I'm going to organize on the state level and we're going to fight this in the state of Michigan."
Two years ago, at the request of We the People, IRS and Justice Department officials agreed to meet with WTP leader Bob Schulz to answer his questions after he went on a 20-day hunger strike. Government officials later reneged, and We the People held its own congressional-hearing style forum in Washington, D.C. At the event, several expert tax attorneys and former IRS officials testified that the income tax system is fraudulent and that most Americans are not legally required to pay. It was the record of that forum that accompanied the petition delivered to Congress.
"The Internal Revenue Codes is being misapplied to the majority of Americans who are being victimized, terrorized and abused, leaving those not well-heeled financially without any means to defend their homes or businesses and thus destroying their families," Lear said in a statement on Monday.
Lear had identified today as an important date, saying that after 30 days of fasting, permanent damage to a person's body can occur.
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