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IN THIS ISSUE Vol. 2, no. 6 ~ Nelson Waller, Editor ~ Robert Clarkson, Publisher Larry Leitgeb, Layout ________________________________________________________ 1a. PATRIOT OF THE MONTH: GENE CHAPMAN 1b. PATRIOT CANNON INTERVIEW with GENE CHAPMAN 2. Just for Beginners, Part I -- Brother Larry 3. PN Club Leader Sues Fed. government on Constitutional Grounds 4. Court Says Ex-IRS Employee Deserves Whistle-Blower Status 5. PN Club Host Slams Immigration in Run for Senate 6. Fake Populist Kerry and Communist Wife "Collect" Mansions 7. Quote from Thomas Jefferson 8. Patriot Cannon Book Review: PN friend Stanley K. Lott's Slavery and the U.S. Government |
| 1a.
PATRIOT OF THE MONTH: GENE CHAPMAN, THE "AMERICAN GANDHI" ![]() above: Gene Chapman (left) is publicly inducted into the PN's Extra Mile Honorary Society by Patriot Network Executive Director Robert Clarkson Gene Chapman is Patriot of the Month for September, 2004. He truly deserves his epithet of the "American Gandhi." Most often such a name would connote that a person is of "liberal" sentiments and ripping off the legend of India's pacifist liberator, but Bro. Chapman has done his homework on both the life and teaching of Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) and in the Holy Bible. He can defend his stance most compellingly, and as readers are about to learn, can sway government and IRS hirelings as well as the citizens they are in the business of looting and oppressing. Before we begin, here is Bro. Chapman's story briefly in his own words: Gene Chapman was born in 1966 in Denton, Texas. The child of divorced parents, he was raised in a Southern Baptist church community. At age 16 he began a deep study of the Bible. At 18 he became a Christian. Two weeks later he accepted a call to the ministry by the Holy Spirit. Five months later he was in Bible college (Dallas Baptist University). Within a year he was the head of a billboard ministry making news headlines around the world for their messages against the upcoming visit of the Pope to the United States. He presently supports his tax freedom mission by driving a truck which he calls "my 18-wheeled monastery." Bro. Chapman has been heard speaking to several PN clubs. He also participated in a demonstration against the thieves and sadists at the Greenville office of theSouth Carolina Department of Revenue. More of that exciting story in our next issue. We salute him for his uncommon dedication and creativity in preaching truth to a world desperately in need of it. See our last issue for his thought-provoking article "The Law of Moses." A conversation with the creative "American Gandhi," national freedom crusader Gene Chapman PC Guest Editor Nelson Waller's questions are in bold, Mr. Chapman's replies in Roman. ![]() above:
Mr. Chapman keeps up with his online ministerial work
while visiting Dr. Clarkson in Anderson. Thanks for giving us your time today, Gene. Please state your full name and give your Social Security number. Gene K. Chapman, and my religion forbids me from utilizing a government control number. What is it you do, and why do you do it? Well I've transformed over the years into being the leader of the SlaveFreedom movement. I began asking in the beginning of 2000, where is my tax liability in the law to the IRS? No one answered me for five years. So in November 2002 after my "frivolous penalties" reached $584, I wrote the IRS and told them to quit playing games, and that when it reached $20,000 I would begin a death fast. The next month they wrote me back and said I owed $21,000! I announced a DEATH FAST and it ended up beginning April 15, 2003 at 7AM Central time in front of the IRS Regional Center in Austin Texas. You can go to IN-AUSTIN.Com/death-fast to read about it and see pictures. A death fast -- were you serious? Very serious. It went 36 days and Michelle Naef of the M.K. Gandhi Institute in Memphis indicated that I was violating a Gandhian principle if I were to continue. Gandhi had written a letter in 1912 to a man in a death fast and said that we don't fast against those that don't love us and we don't fast against those who think they're right. But you do think it's right? We couldn't be sure, so I ended the fast out of respect for the Gandhian principles, but now I've resolved the moral issues and I think they love me and and I do think they know I'm right. Now I think it's OK to do a death fast. It's not the usual expectation that that Gandhian principles equal Constitutional or Clarkson principles. Exactly where do the two intersect? Gandhi fought off the power of great Britain through their tax system. For example he told people to go pick up salt from the ocean instead of paying the salt tax, and to weave their own garments rather than paying a tax on linen. This broke the British empire; they couldn't afford to pay their 300,000 troops so they had to deal with Gandhi. Basically, what I teach is for Americans to sit down and do nothing to assist a socialist, communist government. I like Clarkson because he's a man of integrity -- I think he's imtelligent in his field -- law -- and he has the Gandhian ideas of frugality that he uses in his daily life. And tell us please how you initially connected with Dr. Clarkson. Well, my people are always trying to get me to do interviews and connect me with other people in the movement. During the Tax March we needed contacts with people who would help me along the way, and Clarkson was a big name on our radar screen! Has Dr. Clarkson been of any help to you? He's given me a tremendous self-confidence in utilizing the law for my self-defense. As a matter of fact we're going to the law library tonight, so I can learn how to use it. OK, back to the tax march -- I believe that's what followed on your Austin Ddeath Fast? In Gandhi's letter of 1912, he suggested that this man go in a different direction than death fasting. My new direection was the tax march on Washington. So seven days after it ended I began the Tax March on Washington DC from Austin, TX -- twenty miles a day, mostly on foot. The roughtest day was a lightning storm where I had to spend the night in the woods in Mississippi. I had a tent, but it was hot with no wind, and I was 20 miles from the nearest gas station. What happened when you got to Washington? I began the Washington Death Fast. The treasury knew I was coming; the supervisor said 40 agents had been assigned to my case a month before I arrived -- the Joint Terrorism Task Force! People can go to your webiste for the rest of the story, is that right? Regretfully space is limited here. Yes, SlaveFreedom.com and they go to audio blogs for Sept. 1-2, 2004. Let's get to an obvious question: why do you dress like Mahatma Gandhi? Actually, I think Gandhi dressed like an Old Testament believer. The sackcloth is Neh. 9:1 and the shaved head is Job 1:20. The fasting is found in David humbling himself before the Lord in Psalms. But why Gandhi and not some more immediate figure in our culture? Well I studied Gandhi's nonviolent concepts years ago and I knew his concepts came from the Sermon on the Mount. Directly? Yes. How? He studied the Bible. Gandhi is viewed by many as the greatest follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ who ever lived -- but he never accepted Christ's subtitutionary death on the Cross for his sins. (Obviously I disagree with his last assumption.) He believed that Christ's story was a metaphor for how we were to live -- a sacrificial ilife. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Without the Patriot Network, we don't have the contacts to protest effectively, or the community to provide emotional and tangible support for opposing socialist communism. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~You're a Christian yourself, obviously? Yes. Any particular brand? I'm about 50% Lutheran, 45% Baptist and 5% Pentecostal -- was a big follower of Martin Luther in college. Do I understand you like Anderson and the thriving, widespread Patriot community centered around Robert Clarkson enough to want to live in these parts? Yes, there's nowhere else I'd rather be. I just have to make sure I pay my bills. Without the Patriot Network, we don't have the contacts to protest effectively, or the community to provide emotional and tangible support for opposing socialist communism! Is this what you do for a living -- 100% full-time in the cause? I drive trucks for a living. I have a SlaveFreedom Amendment petition that I pass out to truck stops all over the country. It's also on my website. And I pass out the business cards that have been so effective in causing IRS employees to want to quit their job. Ah yes, the business card! I want people to go to your site and read about all this in detail -- The theology that's on the card is on the right margin of the homepage, SlaveFreedom.com. Eight percent of the employees at the Federal Building (the IRS takes up two floors of it) told me that since reading the card they have serious moral problems with continuing to do their jobs. We know it's sent shock waves through the main IRS building in Washington too. It does this because they have never evaluated the moral aspects of what they're doing. How long have you been untaxed? I filed my first zero return in 2000 for 1999 and haven't paid a dime since. You got that strategy from our friend Irwin Schiff I believe? Yes. It seems clear the government is fascinated by you, extremely nervous about you, and unable to come up with any charge to lay against you! My site is read by many government agents daily. If we get a hit from Fairfax County, it's the Joint Terrorism Task force; if it's Denton County it's the mental health people looking for whether to take me back to the state mental hospital for another evaluation. If it's Lewisville, it's the city, wondering whether I'm going to blow something up, or burn myself alive. If it's the IRS, well, we know what they're about. If it's the USDOJ that's Mr. Ashcroft's bunch, and if it's the Treasury, that could be just about anybody who's met me within the last two years. And if it says military, I don't have a clue -- maybe they're waiting to invade me! (Laughs). I have yet to get a hit from the White House. Oh -- sometimes it's U.S. Senate or House, dot gov. How do you know that? Because I know where it is and I know who is there, because they talked to me while I was in Washington. Are there others who have expressed support for your work? Bob Schulz [a PN associate for some years -- ed.] has been supportive. Rose Lear is a Catholic lady who did a death fast in connection to her husband's persecution by the federal government prior to my first death fast last year. Hers went 30 days. She's being inspired now to have a big prayer service in Washington at the IRS and Treasury buildings, and it seems consistent with the feelings that I've been having with taking this down a religious road, with the Greek professors. It seems that we're stepping up from the Constitution into God's word in this fight. There are a good number of Catholics in the movement. Rose is feeling led to have some kind of rosary or interfaith service at the IRS building in Washington. She gave some of our movement materials to the Governor Cardinal from the Vatican while he was performing Mass at her church in Michigan a few weeks ago. She said he was so impressed with the material that he began passing it out to parishioners during the service. The Greek professors? We have one gentleman with a master's in theology from a seminary in Alabama who says that my interpretation of First Timothy, chapter one, verse ten is correct -- the word "menstealers" in the King James Bible, and also the I Corinthians 7:23 application that I've made. And we now have a prominent professor who I'm informed wrote the Greek textbook for Bob Jones University saying that my Greek in these two texts is an "appropriate application" and "an arguable position," respectively. Ah yes, menstealers -- tell the folks what you've determined that word actually means! Menstealers is the Greek word andropodistes, meaning "one who imposes a taxing of labor, i.e. income tax, upon an uncondemned free person" -- thus under the judgment of the moral law of God. The Greek lexicon actually translates it it as "ONE WHO UNJUSTLY REDUCES FREE MEN TO SLAVERY; one who steals the slaves of another and resells them; one who counts as cattle and treats as chattel free persons." That's the Social Security number! Thus, the original text on this subject is the complete opposite of how most people interpret it today including most preachers. The Bible totally supports freedom from unjust taxation! Thank you for speaking with us, Brother Chapman. You're welcome. It has been a great privilege share this time with such inspiring people. |
2.
Just for Beginners,
Part I by Brother Larry Many of the people who come to our site are totally aghast at the prospect of not paying taxes. “What!” they exclaim. “Not pay taxes! Won't that lead to anarchy? Don't you feel you should pay your fair share to keep your country strong?" That is to miss the point of citizenship. We are, in fact, a group of very patriotic Americans who feel that our federal government is out of c ontrol. It
was originally designed for
the sole purpose of
protecting our borders. Now it does everything but patrol our
borders --
one of its few lawful, Constitutional purposes! As Ronald Reagan said,
“The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy
appetite
at one end and no responsibility at the other.”If all you are interested in is saving a few bucks, then the Patriot Network may not be for you. I'd like to remind you that our forefathers pledged their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor to the cause of liberty. Surely we can at least pledge to learn and properly demand our rights and help others learn about them. The federal government should be doing the will of the people. With the Patriot Network’s help, they will again one day. I am afraid that most high-ranking administrators and officials within the bowels of government only have their ears tuned to sources of money. By cutting off their supply through our tax freedom activities, we believe that this will eventually force them to sit up and listen. “But not paying your income taxes is illegal!” most beginners say. And that brings up a moral dilemma for them. First, you need to approach the problem from the right angle. Imagine with me that you are walking the street minding your own business and a thief comes up to you, puts a gun to your head, and demands your money. You hand him your wallet and he starts to walk away. Just then, you reach down into your front pocket and find a fifty dollar bill that you put there earlier. Do you run after the thief waving the fifty and saying, “Wait a minute, you forgot something!!!”? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The fact is that most of us in the Patriot Network have not paid income taxes for 10, 20, 30 years. We have gone ahead and forged the trail. AND we are willing to show you the way for pennies on the dollar.No, because the thief was wrong to take your money in the first place. Well today, that thief is our government. Second, we have researched the subject thoroughly and have discovered that there is no law requiring you to file. Now all of us know of people who have gone to jail for lying on their income tax form. This is true. If you file a form and it contains false information, you can go to jail. So here is the solution: Tell the truth wherever you go, but don’t file or pay income taxes! It may sound too simple, but that it exactly how it works. Our lawmakers have down through the years thrown together such a complex system of taxation that they forgot one important little detail. No law commands you to file. In fact, our present income tax is in direct contradiction with the Constitution. The Fifth Amendment, for one example, gives us the right not to incriminate ourselves through testimony of any kind about our affairs and activities. It is so ironic how so many millions of people every year pore over their income tax forms trying to find one more loophole to save them money when in fact all they need is this rule, backed up by PN principles and strategies: don’t file! Income taxes are voluntary. But this fact is usually hard for people to grasp at first. They have been so conditioned to think “inside the box” that when an idea as revolutionary as this comes along, they simply reject it. As Winston Churchill said, "Men occasionally stumble over truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." That is why many of us Patriots appreciate the movie The Matrix so much. It depicts a world that is not real, but to convince people it isn’t real requires some explaining. The fact is that most of us in the Patriot Network have not paid income taxes for 10, 20, 30 years. We have gone ahead and forged the trail. AND we are willing to show you the way for pennies on the dollar. All we ask is that you do this for the love of your Country. We know how terrifying it is for most people to confront a beast as gigantic as the IRS. That is why we don’t expect you to do it alone. Our fearless leader, Robert Clarkson, will always be there to go with you, along with about a dozen protestors. All of us have been coached in how to stand up to the big, bad I.R.S. and will be there for you. Please feel free to examine our web site, PatriotNetwork.Info. You will find it filled with much useful information. Then come to our meetings and begin to get to know us and the Cause we hold so dear. And when you are ready to “take the plunge,” we will be there with you to help and to guide you. 3. PN Club Leader Sues Fedgov on Constitutional Grounds Here is an exciting story involving Gary Fitzner, our man in the Rock Hill area of SC just below Charlotte, NC. Here is how your Editor prefaced it in a Dixie Diary Online feature at anu.org (site of the Nationalist Times in which Dr. Clarkson is a regular advertiser): There are too many angles to tax freedom and liberation to name. Sometimes I feel like writing it all in one long first-class letter to the goons as an open letter to the world (and particularly to those still caught on the taxpayer treadmill), but it's all covered in books our kind have been publishing for many years. It would be a good project, though, because I doubt any one book covers it all, from liability to jurisdiction to routine bureaucratic screw-up. Meanwhile, it's great to see how various patriots foil the "Service" and even, sometimes, get some coverage in the press. The bulletin below is from the Fort Mill Times and I don't think we can argue with the wording. Mr. Phillips is wise to have challenged the IRS on procedural grounds. As yet, the goons pay no attention to any arguments as to the income tax amendment (16th) never having been ratified, etc. perfectly valid as they are! We in the Patriot Network routinely nail 'em on procedure; they break their own rules all the time irrespective of any legal considerations, and courts don't like to see that. Mr. Phillips went further in a sense and challenged the IRS agent's authority to lien. Surprise there is none! Gary Fitzner is assistant Patriot Network club leader in Charlotte. The We The People Congress is our New York associate Bob Schulz's organization. He's the businessman who went on a very public hunger strike in front of the U.S. Capitol to compel the fedgov to answer basic tax questions. And see? They're still at it. Truth will win out ...... and persistence pays. Locals involved in constitutional lawsuit By Jonathan Allen FORT MILL TOWNSHIP--Two loc al men are
part of a lawsuit against the federal government. They say it is
designed
to
secure and preserve rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. Matthew Phillips of Fort Mill is the York County coordinator and Gary Fitzner of Tega Cay is the state coordinator for the We The People Congress - a national conservative group pushing for smaller government and a stricter adherence to the Constitution. Phillips got involved with the group a few years ago while fighting with the IRS. He said they told him he owed money that he did not owe. An IRS agent filed a lien against Phillips' property, and his only recourse was to take the agent to court, he said. The agent had 20 days to respond to a judge's order to prove he had authority to file the lien, Phillips said. Those 20 days passed without a response, and the judge canceled the lien. Phillips said he later found the We the People's Web site by accident, or maybe it was divine intervention. He isn't sure which. Fitzner, a veteran, said he has always been interested in the way government works. He said he noticed over time a divergence between the principles of the Founding Fathers and where the nation is now. Their group has four petitions seeking answers from the government on income tax, the Federal Reserve, war powers clauses and the USA Patriot Act. Their income tax petition was submitted to the government on Jan. 19, and from that point the government had six months to respond. On July 19, after the group heard no response, they filed suit in federal court. "Now a judge will have to decide one way or the other," Phillips said. "Either yes the Constitution is valid and you have the right to petition the government for answers, or no, this is frivolous and the Constitution doesn't matter." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fitzner, a veteran, said he has always been interested in the way government works. He said he noticed over time a divergence between the principles of the Founding Fathers and where the nation is now.Part of the First Amendment states that people have the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Basically that means ordinary citizens have the right to get answers from the government when they feel it has wronged them. It is supposed to foster civil discussions between citizens and their government instead of armed revolt. "This right was used heavily until the Civil War," Fitzner said. "It is something that has been long forgotten and the Supreme Court has never ruled on it. Do the people have a right to question our government and get a redress of grievances?" The We the People Congress thinks so. Fitzner and Phillips say the group has tried since 1999 to get the IRS and the U.S. Department of Justice to answer concerns it has about income taxation and how the two government agencies handle those who don't follow their rules, rules the group claims are unconstitutional. The IRS neither confirms nor denies the existence of the lawsuit, spokeswoman Valerie Thornton said. The Department of Justice also would not comment on the case. Court Says Ex-IRS Employee Deserves Whistle-Blower Status from: New York State Society of CPAs http://www.nysscpa.org/printversions/nysscpa/2004/804/4week/printversion109.htm ![]() NEW YORK -- A former Internal Revenue Service executive won a rare victory in court Wednesday in a whistle-blower case in which he raised allegations of the existence of official favoritism to rich and politically connected California families and businesses that owe back taxes, The New York Times reported. The case is significant because almost all whistle-blower claims are rejected by the federal court that usually hears such matters; this case was heard by a different court. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the former executive, Peter W. Coons, who became the IRS chief tax collector in Northern California in 1997, was improperly denied protection under the 1994 Whistleblower Protection Act. It sent the case back to the Merit Systems Protection Board, which hears initial whistle-blower claims. Coons told his 400 revenue officers to treat all delinquent taxpayers equally, regardless of their social prominence or political connections. This egalitarian policy, he said in a 1999 interview, got him into hot water with his superiors. -- NYSSCPA.org News Staff |
| PN
Club Host Slams
Immigration in Run for Senate There is great news in the party politics of upcountry South Carolina, home to Patriot Network headquarters and innumerable fine patriotic individuals. These are, fortunately, beginning to network in earnest. One of he most encouraging recent developments is the candidacy for U.S. Senate of Patrick Tyndall from the Greenville County hamlet of Fountain Inn. Here is a picture of his billboard on busy Wade Hampton Boulevard in Greenville, otherwise known as Route 29 on its way up to North Carolina. ![]() Perhaps it would be well to simply give you the text of my first Dixie Diary articles about Mr. Tyndall from ANU.ORG, home of our sister publication the Nationalist Times: There has been news from time to time about isolated organizations raising billboards calling for an end to "immigration." In my experience these reports always end in a defeat La Raza or equivalent demands the station cancel the ads or that the ad agency take the sign down, etc., which demands are almost instantly met. I may be wrong but I don't think it's going to happen this time, because the patriot in question has total integrity and the Party backing him isn't so bad itself. The patriot's name is Patrick A. Tyndall, and the party is of course the Constitution Party. If you don't mind, I'll quote my DDO article 047 here to refresh your memory on the candidate: The following is my account of a trek a small army of us made from upcountry SC, which is a key center of nationalism in the Southeast, to the state's capitol region. The occasion was a debate between candidates running for every office one could think of. The landmark Senatorial race was foremost in everyone's mind and remains so as I write. Commie pinko Fritz Hollings is at last retiring good riddance! and we aim to get a man of known integrity into that slot. CP Candidate for US Senate Patrick Tyndall (a staunch Indiana-born copperhead whose campaign photos feature guns and C-flags) simply flattened the opposition. Thomas Ravenel was the ONLY challenger who showed up. He avows a conservative agenda but never so much as when he's trading microphones with a TRUE STATESMAN dealing outspokenly in REAL LIFE ISSUES. Patrick called for American troops along the Rio Grande plus the abolishment of the IRS, the income tax, the Fed and almost all federal agencies. When an attendee asked a question about the prime rate, which I didn't imagine was one of PT's stronger suits, he simply pointed out what is really needed: a sound, CONSTITUTIONAL economy, which would make discussion of interest rates superfluous for most people. Integrity is what's missing in most seemingly viable candidates or at least its vital component, civility. Patrick is a total Southerner, and his family a total Southern family, and their lifestyle a total Southern lifestyle. He's well-educated and employed by a large manufacturing company in which he is universally respected despite - or perhaps partly because of his principled refusal to submit to "multicultural" brainwashing on its premises. The fact that he and his gracious wife Gayle came here from Southern Indiana via Arizona should surprise no Nationalist Times reader. Patrick's political call came slowly yet auspiciously. In 2000 I, the roving political monster, randomly met him at the Red Shirt Banquet held in Columbia, SC to honor the heroes among us, in particular Maurice Bessinger and the legislators who had stood firm against "compromise" by voting NOT to remove the Confederate flag from the SC statehouse dome that year. We chatted about this and that and he, a former pastor, duly assayed the state of my salvation. We didn't bump into each other again until Civil Homeland Defense* organizer and Tombstone Tumbleweed editor Chris Simcox came to Greenville to give a talk on how he and his fellow Arizonans are dealing with the "immigration" problem. I took occasion to mentally vet PT again as potential conscript for the Cause. (A lot of vetting goes on in our circles, much of it very useful.) A year or two later introduced him to Dr. Clarkson and it was natural for the Tyndall family to start working with the PN. More recently I let him know the Constitution Party needed candidates of proven merit for various offices, and Patrick rose to the occasion. He and its leadership were already well acquainted. *private "immigrant"-catching force on the AZ-Mexican border. "Immigrant" is not the proper term since most are invaders and predators. Patriot Cannon Book Review: PN friend Stanley K. Lott's Slavery and the U.S. Government: The Case for the Protection and Support of Slavery Fostered by the U.S. Government Paperback:
96 pages ; Dimensions
(in inches): 0.26 x 8.56 x 5.34 Publisher: American Literary Press; (April 2004) (Available from The Patriot Network Bookstore) Many of you are personally
acquainted with the above named author, but it's our privilege to
officially introduce him in this forum for the first time. |
as
promised in last issue . . . Fake Populist Kerry and Communist Wife Collect Lavish Mansions This article has been verified by the UrbanLegends site, which is normally very liberal. We believe it shows more graphically than anything just how much the plutocrat politicians' lives do not resemble ours when it comes to planning the economy and policies of this society. http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040322-104317-3064r.htm ASSOCIATED PRESS >From a sailing mecca to a ski resort, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, enjoy the trappings of their wealth in at least five homes and vacation getaways across the country valued at nearly $33 million. Some are private escapes for the family, while others serve as prime spots to host fund-raisers and exclusive gatherings for wealthy donors. All reflect the couple's status -- he is a four-term Massachusetts senator, she is heiress to the $500 million family ketchup fortune. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Their other homes, ranging in value from more than $3 million to nearly $9.2 million, belong to Mrs. Kerry. The five-story, 12-room Boston town house -- with six fireplaces, a rooftop deck and an elevator -- is Mr. Kerry's main residence.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each home has a place in the family's life, with its own history and mission, from the preppy island of Nantucket and Boston's Beacon Hill to the Pittsburgh countryside, the Idaho mountains and the nation's capital. Mr. Kerry is on a weeklong break from the campaign at the home in the wooded mountains of Ketchum, Idaho. Located near the banks of the Big Wood River, the nearly $5 million house is a reassembled barn, originally built in England in 1485 and brought to Idaho by Mrs. Kerry's late husband, H. John Heinz III. The Pennsylvania Republican senator died in a plane crash in 1991. The Heinz family has had the house since 1966 and traditionally spends time there in August and during the Christmas holidays -- often throwing a New Year's Eve party capped with fireworks. While Ketchum provides a respite from politics, the tony Beacon Hill brownstone in Boston has been a more frequent campaign way station for Mr. Kerry and his wife. It is the only residence that is theirs as a couple. And, assessed at nearly $7 million, it is the residence that Mr. Kerry mortgaged last year to finance more than $6 million in loans to his campaign. Their other homes, ranging in value from more than $3 million to nearly $9.2 million, belong to Mrs. Kerry and predate her 1995 marriage to the Massachusetts senator. Several are still listed under the name of her late husband. Formerly part of a convent, the five-story, 12-room Boston town house -- with six fireplaces, a rooftop deck and an elevator -- is Mr. Kerry's main residence. It is where he is registered to vote and is located blocks from the Statehouse. While that is their newest home, Mrs. Kerry has had a Massachusetts presence for years. Just beyond the historic Brant Point Lighthouse in Nantucket's harbor is Mrs. Kerry's $9.1 million waterfront estate. Rimmed by tall hedges, with a wide deck and a lawn that reaches to the beach, the three-story, five-bedroom manse was the site of the couple's Memorial Day weekend wedding in 1995. Since then, the house has been used for campaign retreats and Democratic receptions for the party's big-money donors. While Mr. Kerry calls Boston home, Mrs. Kerry's base is Pittsburgh, which is her longtime residence and the headquarters of the Heinz Family Philanthropies, which she chairs. Located on a $3.7 million, 90-acre family farm in Fox Chapel, the home is a nine-room white colonial fronted with six columns, and at the end of a steep drive, hidden from the road by a curtain of woods. The property includes a deep-red, nine-room carriage house. This is where Mrs. Kerry raised her three sons and where she is registered to vote. Their fifth home, in Georgetown, is perhaps the most utilitarian, and is necessary to accommodate the time they spend in Washington when the Senate is in session. Also belonging to Mrs. Kerry, the 23-room, $4.7 million town house, with its wide stairway and landscaped courtyard, is filled with antiques, fine art and family photos. HOMES SWEET HOMES Presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, divide their time among five homes across the country. The couple co-own a Boston residence, and Mrs. Kerry solely owns the other four residences. ![]() •Fox Chapel, Pa.: A nine-room colonial on nearly 90 acres in suburban Pittsburgh. The property also includes a nine-room carriage house. Assessed value: $3.7 million. ![]() •Ketchum, Idaho: A ski getaway converted from a reassembled barn near Sun Valley. Assessed value: $4.9 million. Mrs. Kerry also owns two adjoining lots valued at $1.5 million and $1.8 million. ![]() •Washington, D.C.: A 23-room town house in Georgetown. Proposed 2005 assessment: $4.7 million. ![]() •Nantucket, Mass.: A three-story, five-bedroom waterfront retreat on Brant Point. Assessed value: $9.18 million. ![]() •Boston: A five-story, 12-room Beacon Hill town house that serves as Mr. Kerry's main residence. Assessed value: $6.9 million. "We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must
make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and
servitude. If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in
our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and
our amusements, for our calling and our creeds...we [will] have no time to
think, no means of calling our miss-managers to account but be glad to
obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks
of our fellow-sufferers. And this is the tendency of all human
governments. A departure from
principle in one instance becomes a precedent for another till the bulk
of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery. And the
fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation
follows that and in its train wretchedness and oppression." “Government is not the solution to our problem,
government is the problem.” "The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin." - Mark Twain "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin "A Nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins." - Benjamin Franklin "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor "If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." -Samuel Adams (1780) |