June 18, 1984

Secretary William Clark
Interior Department
14th and C S.W.
Washington, on, D.C.

[to be transferred from ET’s transcript]


White House Antinuclear Vigil
P. 0. Box 27217
Washington, D.C, 20038
June 3, 1985

Ronald Wilson
Reagan White House
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. Reagan:

Greetings once again from your nearest neighbors.

We want to alert you, Mr. Reagan, that we need your neighborly assistance with a project you've stated is dear to your heart: a demonstration for peace, justice, freedom, and the continued life of God's children. We believe we must all be willing to follow up our words with action, and have given up homes, jobs, and families to become front-line peace workers, communicating with visitors through a continuous four-year-old vigil our belief that there is no choice facing humanity today more pressing than whether to eliminate the threat nuclear weapons pose to peace, freedom, justice, and life.

Now, in order to do this effectively as impoverished citizens of the world we must do it publicly. There is no place more public than the White House sidewalk, and since we believe you are the one person most likely to be able to expedite nuclear disarmament with other world leaders, it is only logical to petition you for your contribution to the continuation of life on earth.

The trouble is that the U.S. Park Police, Interior Department Solicitors, Justice Department officials, and National Park Service are likely to try to put a stop to this action by putting us in jail. We ask, Mr. Reagan, that you instruct these people to let us demonstrate in peace, and guarantee our individual freedom to choose what we will do with our own lives.

If you don’t like our location, rather than allowing the police to remove us by violation of our civil rights, you can insure our departure by following up your inspiring words with inspiring action: meet with Mr. Gorbachev, and the two of you use your power as true leaders should to reprove the lot of all humanity. If you and Mr. Gorbachev will take active steps to eliminate all nuclear weapons, setting an example to other world leaders, we will leave, and get about the business of correcting the other problems facing an unnecessarily fearful world.

Your friend,
/s/Thomas
Thomas

/PS/We trust you will give this letter the same prompt response you gave CCNV's hand delivered message of June 4, 1985 (24 hours). ET

[Hand-delivered June,6 1985 / & June 7,1985 with the above /PS/.]


White House Antinuclear Vigil
P.O. Box 97217
Washington, D.C. 20038

June 9, 1985

Letter to: Peace Park permit holders, regulators, enforcers, and visitors

It's time to bring Peace to Lafayette Park.

We have' developed a suggested set of guidelines for our antinuclear demonstration, convinced that we do indeed reap what we sow:

* Be kind.
* Serve God, not mammon.
* Speak only Truth.
* Expose injustice wherever we find it.
* Be gentle.
* Be creative.
* Be responsible.
* Listen to information and opinions with open minds and check facts.
* Label and dismiss rumor as rumor.
* Respect each other's space.
* Point out to others when their behavior lacks respect.
* Forgive.
* Correct our own mistakes.
* Teach by example.
* Be loving.
* Never use violence.
* Be simple.
* Work for peace.
* Help others survive and grow.
* Seek the most effective way to communicate our #1 priority:
* Eliminate all nuclear weapons everywhere,
* opening borders,
* trusting,
* sharing,
* taking time to, listen and learn;
* eliminate all weapons everywhere.

If theseguidelines are acceptable to you, then we only ask that you allow us to continue what we are doing unmolested. If you think we have broken any of our guidelines, let us reason together to determine who is in error.

We will try to be civilized. Please do the same.

Your friends,
/s/Thomas, ET
Thomas and Ellen

cc: Judge Louis Oberdorfer (re Thomas v. USA, USDC CA 84-3552)
Ronald Wilson Reagan


PEACE PARK ANTINUCLEAR VIGIL
POB 27217, Washington, DC 20038
(202) 462-3542
April 28, 1986

URGENT!!

Donald P. Hodel
Secretary of the Interior
18th and C Street NW
Washington, DC

;Dear Mr. Hodel:

On "May 3 to 5," we have been repeatedly warned, the US Park Police plan on "issuing citations" and beginning confiscations and/or arrests of vigilers under the new DOI regulation, 36 CFR 50.l9(e)(1)).

We have attempted, under extremely difficult weather conditions, to comply with the new and existing regulations in the context of a 24-hour peace vigil in Lafayette Park. However, as you can see from the attached "Plea ... for Administrative Integrity," there is considerable confusion on the part of the US Park Police as to what precisely is to be interpreted as a violation.

The Peace Park vigilers, who have maintained continuous vigils from two months to five years, have tried since publication of the new regulation on March 5 to arrange a meeting with National Park Service, DOI and US Park Police officials to clarify various points of contention regarding interpretation of the regulations, to no avail. Today we received a flat "No" from the NPS Department of Public Affairs, instructed by Richard Robbins and Patricia Bangert, DOI Solicitors responsible for writing the three regulations which the Park Police are having difficulty interpreting Several of us have attempted to meet with these Solicitor since July 1984 to obtain definitions, also to no avail.

Since we are in imminent danger of losing our signs and literature, and may in fact be jailed because of the police officers' confusion, we seek a meeting with you as soon as possible -- preferably this week, prior to the threatened "May 3 to 5" -- believing that this is the only avenue remaining open to us to reach an understanding with the NPS, DOI, and US Park Police which will allow us to continue our harmless peace vigil without further unwarranted and unnecessary harassment. We are sure you will agree that this is our right as dedicated members of the public exercising our First Amendment rights, protected by the Constitution these officials have sworn to protect.

We will call your office Wednesday to arrange a meeting. We will appreciate any relief you choose to order in the meantime to free us from oppressive interpretations by police officers eager to enforce the reeulations, or under orders to do so by their superiors.

Sincerely,

/s/W. Thomas /s/Charles Hyder /s/Ellen Thomas


May 1986
We, Thomas and Ellen Thomas, will maintain a continuous non-violent, reproachful presence in front of the presidential mansion.

The intention of our demonstration is to illustrate and communicate our opinions and beliefs including, but not limited to:

1) Our religious conviction that in order to live as the Creator intended we must not be part of a socio-economic system which values property above people, death above life. In order to illustrate this belief we are willing to forego the living accommodations which we would normally enjoy were we to prostitute ourselves to the socio-economic system which is the United States.

2) Our belief that nuclear weapons embody the efforts of two competing systems of political ideology to protect their respective lifestyles from that of the other, and that the only solution to this seeming impasse is the willingness of the individual component members of the social systems to make whatever personal sacrifices are demanded of their lifestyles in order to E-O]. . " the problem posed by competitive i forms of genocidal and/or suicidal ideologies . In illustration of this belief we the willing of live a lifestyle of such stark austerity that no one with any degree of rationality could possibly us of living with any accommodations.

3) Our belief that the often repeated, and sole "moral" justification of the United States Government in defence of its nuclear arsenal..."nuclear weapons protect religious and intellectual freedom from totalitarianism". . . is a lie of unprecedented proportions. In illustration of this belief we may continue to be arrestted by the U. S. Park Police for no "crime" other than our insistence in practicing our religious and intellectual freedom. We will continue to speak, and distribute literature to passersby explaining the recent regulatory history of 36CFR 50. 27, and 50. 19, and our adventures in the Federal Court system in an effort the to help the public understand the true nature of Freedom.

In addition to a number of protest signs we each intend to have a stock of literature, sign making materials, tools, the clothes on our backs, one extra jacket, raincoat, and/ or poncho, umbrella, several sandwiches, one jug of water, one set of' ski pants, hat, boots, and gloves during the cold weather. We will also be engaging, periodically, in "casual sleeping."

/s/W, Thomas /s/Ellen Thomas

Post Office Box 27217
Washington, DC 20038
(202) 462-3542


May 21, 1986

President Ronald Wilson Reagan
White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC

Dear President Reagan:

Be a good leader, Mr. President; examine our claims, for if they are well founded we believe you have an obligation to vindicate our rights.

Here, we believe, lies the crux of democracy: if we disagree with you we have the right (theoretically) to question you, and you have the duty (legally and by oath) to protect that right. You apparently have articulated an awareness of these concepts:

"Freedom is the right to say no. There's something happily rebellious about that." (Ronald Wilson Reagan, May 12, 1986.)

"When ... actions threaten the peace or trample on standards fundamental to the civilized world, we cannot and will not be silent.... To do so would betray our deepest values. The persecution of courageous dissidents weighs very heavily on our hearts." (Ronald Wilson Reagan, June 27, 1984.)

Notwithstanding your noble words, from our perspective it looks as though you must be aware of what has been happening to us during our five-year-old reproachful presence on the north side of your official residence, unless you are very poorly-informed.

Frankly, we think you would do well to consider some ancient advice:

"(T)he terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off, that make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought." (Isaiah 29:21-22)

You are, of course, perfectly free to ignore Isaiah's representations; however, we would like to draw your attention to 42 USC 1983, which establishes a cause of action to redress the deprivation of rights, privileges, and immunities under color of regulation.

It is our belief that Richard Robbins, an Assistant Solicitor with the Department of Interior, is engaged in a wrongful scheme with other known government agents to knowingly deny us and the people of this country equal- protection of the law, and rights guaranteed by the Constitution. The tools of Mr. Robbins' oppressive tactics are regulations crafted and applied with the intent or effect of falsely coloring our constitutionally-protected, socially beneficial, and democratically essential behavior as criminal activity. As a result we have been repeatedly arrested and continuously harassed during our efforts to communicate the need for all of us to work actively for world peace and nuclear disarmament.

"Although nuclear weapons might mean, if not the end of mankind, at least the end of civilization as we know it ... they are necessary to protect against mindless bureaucracy and totalitarian police state tactics which combine to stifle individual freedom and personal excellence." (Ronald Wilson Reagan, to British Parliament, June 6, 1982)

Let us reason together, Mr. President. Only reason might convert me from a skeptic to a fervent supporter -- never oppression.

Last June we wrote you a letter asking you to intervene in an expected arrest. You failed to act, the arrest occurred (although charges were dropped), and no probable cause has ever been shown.

That was certainly not the first letter we have written you, yet we have never received a response.

Please, vindicate yourself. Take some action this year. We are once again being threatened with arrest although we are causing absolutely no harm to anyone. Intercede on our behalf, so that we may continue to be "happily (and peacefully) rebellious."

Sincerely,

William and Ellen Thomas

cc: D. Hodel
R. Robbins
F. Fielding
R. Bedell


WATCHERS at the WHITE HOUSE GATES
Post Office Bow 27217
Washington, D C 20038

November 28, 1986

President Ronald Wilson Reagan
The White mouse
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C.

Dear President Reagan'

You can go down in history as the greatest president this nation has ever known. Today you can divert the world's attention from the Iran/to/Nicaragua arms fiasco by performing a single act. Meet Gorbachev more than halfway Droo SDI and issue a binding executive order*, as Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces, committing the United States eternally:

1 to dismantle all nuclear warheads by the year 2000 and not replace them;

2 to not use or support violent offensive military operation outside the USA as an option in international relations;

3 to pursue an aggressive good faith effort to get all other nations in the world to do the came' and

4 demanding that the USSR commit to l, 2 and 3 above.

Only a supreme act of peacemaking can extricate you from this credibility crisis and remove the threat of a global nuclear holocaust from all of our lives. The world is holding its breath. Pleas, Mr. Reagan be wise.

{Multiple signatures}

* [By issuing such an order, you will help save everyone on earth from a nuclear holocaust, and help save the life of Dr. Charles Hyder today in his 67th day of fasting for these same conditions. See enclosure.]


Ellen Thomas
Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil
Post Office Box 27217
Washington, DC 20038

April13, 1987

Ms. Patricia Bangert and Sandra Alley
Solicitor's Office
Office Public Affairs
Department of Interior
National Park Service
18th and E NW
1100 Ohio Drive SW
Washington, DC

Dear Ladies:

Since April 13, 1984, I have been attempting to maintain a constant, all-weather, round-the-clock expressive presence in Lafayette Park, without living accommodations, sharing responsibility for signs and literature with my husband, William Thomas.

Since February 10, 1967, a petition to ban all nuclear weapons has been circulated 24 hours a day at and near our signs. (See Attachment 1.)

Averages of 500 people per week have signed this petition at the peace signs in front of the White House. Most of these people, and many others, take away with them, copies of the petition and/or other literature. (See-Attachments 2 - 62)

Protecting this literature from the weather is difficult under the very primitive circumstances in which we are forced to work by various regulations. The wind blows it way and rain and snow damage it.

Replacing literature destroyed by rain, snow, and wind is also difficult.

I have recently been given two small plastic crates which help me keep the literature neatly stacked, which I cover with plastic when it rains and snows.

I hereby ask the DOI/NPS to allow me to retain these two crates and the plastic as essential tools for my demonstration.

Your friend in peace,

/s/Ellen Thomas
Ellen Thomas
Enclosures

* Additionally, since 1966 I have suffered recurrent hemorrhoids. Squatting on hard surfaces exacerbates this problem. Since the NPS banned chairs from demonstrations in Lafayette Park, squatting on hard surfaces has become an occupational requirement during my vigil. This has caused me considerable pain. The crates mentioned above, whose primary function is to protect our literature, also serve as a stool which cushioned by a small pillow or a blanket, relieves the pain. I beg you to allow me to continue this practice.

PEACE PARK ANTNUCLEAR VIGIL
P. O. Box 27217
Washington, DC 20038
(202) 462-0757

March 6, 1989

President George Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC

Dear President Bush:

Enclosed is a Petition for Presidential pardon which we submit to you with confidence that your actions will match your compassionate words.

It seems particularly ironic that a person as gentle and generous as Sunrise S. Harmony should be sentenced to federal prison, at enormous taxpayer expense, because he has given up comforts to communicate that we must stop killing each other. Meanwhile murderers walk the streets, in part because of an overburdened prison system.

Your pardon would be more than an act of kindness. It would be a logical extension of your campaign promises to reduce unnecessary expenditure of taxpayers' dollars and to eliminate burdensome regulations, and would send a signal that a regulation which is used to stifle harmless First Amendment religious expression* is NOT acceptable to the Bush administration.

This matter needs to be addressed quickly. Sunrise is due to enter prison as soon as space is found for him, or March 17, whichever comes first. We will be happy to answer any questions and provide any documents you need. Our phone number is 462-0757.

With prayers for a swift and positive reply, we are

Your friends,

/s/W.Thomas /s/E. Thomas

William and Ellen Thomas

Enclosure: Information packet

C: Mrs. Barbara Bush

* We will be happy- to provide information on how the 1982 "camping" regulation has been used selectively to criminalize vigils in Lafayette Park, which historically had previously been protected by the First Amendment, the Senate, and legal precedent.

WILLIAM THOMAS

1440 N St. N.W. #410

Washington, D.C. 20005

(202) 462-0757

December 3, 1990

Robert Stanton

Director, National Park Service, Capitol Region

1100 Ohio Drive, S.W., Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. Stanton:

Regrettably I find it necessary to address RIN 1024-AO90, Federal Resister, Vol. 55 No. 183, October 4, 1990, pgs. 40879-81 -- an Interior Department suggestion to amend National Park Service regulations purportedly to govern storage of property in Lafayette Park.

Although it is specifically asserted that "(t)his proposed rule is also not intended to interfere with demonstrators' ability to distribute literature, march, speak, hold vigils, or otherwise exercise first amendment rights," those are precisely the effects that such a rule would have upon me.

Unfortunately, personal experience and documentary evidence lead me to believe that the motives and aims of this regulatory suggestion are less than honorable or just. Your predecessor, Jack Fish, and I were together in court - on opposite sides - far more often than I -- of the opinion that there are immensely better things to do with one's time -- liked. Hopefully this letter may convince you that this proposed rule is totally unjustifiable, and we can avoid the possibility that you and I will be placed in a position of wasting our energy and that of the judicial system.

Thus far, it would appear that courts in this district have been reluctant to scrutinize the motives and intents behind rulemakings related to Lafayette Park. See Enclosure 1, Thomas, et. al. v. United States, et. al., unfired draft Petition for Writ of Certiorari, and Appendix thereto, case reported at 699 F. Supp. 702 (1988) and 681 F. Supp. 55 (1988), see also Enclosure 2, Huddle, et. al. v. Reagan, et. al., USDC CA No. 88-3130, J. Joyce Hens Green (pending).

Is this NPS rulemaking intended to interfere with the exercise of first amendment rights? What impetus guided the artistic pen of Richard G. Robbins, your regulatory craftsman? What will be the effect on individual freedom of thought and expression if the alleged regulatory weapons crafted under Mssrs. Fish and Robbins (see Enclosure 3) are extended as proposed, and applied against peaceful demonstrators by Park Police force? See Enclosure 2, Vol. 5, Exhibits 133(a)-(c). These questions must not be overlooked.

The first amendment to the Constitution provides:

"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, the free exercise thereof, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances."

Since June 3, 1981 I have been attempting to maintain a continuous presence ("vigil") in Lafayette Park. Symbolically, I exist without "living accommodations" to illustrate my religious conviction that "sin is to value one's own pleasure and comfort above the life of another." E.g. Thomas v. United States, 696 F. Supp. at 713. Because Jesus the Christ said, "(b)lessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God" (Matthew 5: 3-9), I see my vigil as embodying my own feeble attempts to serve a Creator of peace, love and justice.

To my mind there is a distinct line between the (objective) Truth and my and others' (subjective) beliefs. My personal goal is to achieve a more perfect understanding of "actual reality" (i.e. "Truth"). See, United States v. Thomas and Thomas, 864 F.2d 188, 192. Significantly, I believe, there is wide but shallow public support for the subjective notion of "Peace through Strength" which is, in practice, "peace" through force and violence (i.e. "War").

Following the biblical premise that by reasoning together our scarlet sins may be washed as white as snow (see Isaiah 1: 19) -the most effective method I have discovered for measuring my subjective "reality" against "actual reality" is the process of publicly expressing my beliefs and listening with an open mind to the responses and beliefs of others. I call this "Peace through Reason," which is, in practice, peace through understanding, and in direct opposition to the philosophy of "Peace through Strength." This philosophical opposition, I submit, is precisely the type of situation most readily and civilly subject to resolution in the public marketplace of ideas. Although Peace through Reason may presently be playing second fiddle to Peace through Strength in the public mind, unless freedom of expression is allowed to be strangled by needless regulations the idea could conceivably win the hearts and minds of the American public.

For example, very early one morning during the summer of 1981 I was in front of the White House when several students from a local university began to taunt me for laying on the sidewalk. We entered into a lengthy conversation. Finally, I expressed my belief that the students' stated career goals might not be as altruistic as they were being portrayed. The students became angry and left, cursing me. A number of months later one of those students, Joe Tanzi, returned to the sidewalk and reminded me of our first encounter. I remembered the incident. "I've thought about some of the things you said," Joe told me. "I can't say that I agree with everything, but a lot of it made sense. I wanted to try to get a better understanding, so I came back to talk some more." That was the beginning of a productive, reasonable relationship -- which, I believe, contributed in some small degree to peace on earth and the establishment of God's kingdom -- and continued for several years until Mr. Tanzi graduated and left town.

I believe my experience with Joe Tanzi illustrates that openness and a continuous presence in a public place can provide a practical vehicle for transforming hostility to understanding. It seems self-evident that the transformation of hostility to understanding is "peacemaking."

To think, as the proposed rule suggests, that limiting a demonstrator to three cubic feet of property would "not interfere with a demonstrator's ability to ... hold vigils" is absurd. Merely the bare essential items necessary to protect a person from the elements and provide liquid and nutritional sustenance, routinely permitted by the NPS, would exceed three cubic feet. See, e.g., Thomas v. United States, 696 F. Supp. at 713, attached hereto at Enclosure 1, Vol. 2, pg. 18.

But this is only the beginning of the inquiry into a proposal which also claims not to interfere with the ability to distribute literature, march, or speak.

I think it is plain that if one cannot have sufficient articles both to protect oneself from the elements and to stave off starvation, then one will either have one's ability to march and speak interfered with, or one will die. If one dies, of course, one will no longer be able to march or speak.

But even if one could survive a continuous presence on a sidewalk and keep marching and speaking with only three cubic feet of articles, under this proposed rule that would leave zero cubic feet for literature. To my way of thinking this would be a severe interference with the ability to distribute literature which could only harm the interests of any democratic society.

Owing to the extremely broad sweep of actual reality, there are many subjects which need to be covered by any aspiring peacemaker. Therefore the distribution of literature has been integral to my first amendment exercise in Lafayette Park. Additionally, given the possibility that Peace through Reason might easily become more popular, my reliance on literature could increase.

In a world of my choosing, I might feel I could limit literature distribution to personal writings. See, e.g., Enclosure 4, Life, Liberty, and the Hot Pursuit; Enclosure 5, Thomas' Essays; Enclosure 6, Peace Park: the Play. Sufficient quantities of these materials might be contained within three cubic feet, unless these views became moderately popular -- not an unlikely scenario in a world as fickle as I perceive this one to be.

But we are not living in a world of my choosing. Consequently I must address my perceptions that we are living under a progressively more authoritarian regime, and the question of whether the extant social structures are capable of reversing dictatorial progression or are acting to promote it. See. e.g., Enclosure 7, United States v. Sunrise, S. Ct. CR. No. 90-6247, Petition for Writ of Certiorari, filed October 29, 1990 (pending).

I am presently involved with a project known as Proposition One, intended to encourage social structures capable of promoting the common good to act accordingly. Proposition One is a voter initiative -- approved on October 19, 1990 by the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics as proper subject matter for the 1992 D.C. ballot (D.C. Initiative No. 32) -- which proponents intend to place on the ballots in each of the 22 United States with statewide initiative provisions, as well as hundreds of additional localities in those states without statewide initiative provisions. Clearly this is an ambitious undertaking which immediately requires at least nine cubic feet of literature in Lafayette Park to assure sufficient quantities for distribution. See, Enclosure 8.

Because I believe in a God of love it seems reasonable to assume that if everybody can come to their senses and repent, then nobody would have to be condemned to eternal torment. Therefore I even try to lobby those whom I might think to be the least likely to repent. See, Enclosure 9.

The enclosures accompanying this letter represent only a sample of printed matter regularly discussed and distributed during the course of my vigil. Unless I am mistaken the NPS estimates that more than three million people visit Lafayette Park each year. It shouldn't take a genius to realize that sufficient quantities of this literature for distribution could exceed three cubic feet even if the ideas expressed weren't particularly popular.

Over the years, as NPS regulations have become increasingly more oppressive, burdensome, and in my opinion unnecessary, I have altered my activities in an effort to conform my behavior to these changes. For instance, although there is a public restroom in Lafayette Park, in order to avoid the appearance of "using park lands for living accommodation purposes," I never use the public facilities. Because I always leave the park to urinate or defecate, and because there is presently a regulation that requires a demonstrator to be within three feet of his signs, I use a bicycle, among other reasons, to "go to the bathroom." Now, I have to wonder, would possession of my bicycle become a crime under this proposed rule?

Incidentally, the "camping" regulation, which specifically addresses "storage of property," would certainly seem to be adequate to alleviate many of the problems which the proposed rule imagines.

Moreover, unless I'm mistaken, the code of federal regulations also already prohibits abandoned property. In any event I do have in my possession numerous photographs of incidents where Park Police have routinely removed property from the Park under, one assumes, the authority of the regulatory scheme currently governing the situation in Lafayette Park.

Which brings us to "The Current Situation in Lafayette Park." Fed. Reg. Vol. 55 at 40680. The proposed rule asserts that out of some nine or so million visitors to the Park over the last three years, the NPS is terribly concerned with "at least five written requests for some action against the visual blight in Lafayette Park." Id., ET deaf. I wonder, would the NPS consider razing the statue of Andrew Jackson if five individuals who believed that their "pursuit of happiness includes (their) rights to peaceful enjoyment of (their) privileges and rights, in that respect, (and are) not happy when (they are) forced to pass by and (are) forced to see what (they consider) to be an unsightly" monument to human carnage and the subjugation of indigenous people? Id., parentheses substituting.

It seems that the NPS's only "material" argument is, "the use of paint in the Lafayette Park has caused damage to park resources including sidewalks and walkways. The use and storage of bedding, blankets, and sleeping bags on turf areas have caused damage to these areas."

Let us assume that the NPS can convince an impartial factfinder that paint damage to sidewalks and sleeping bag damage to turf areas is a fact in Lafayette Park rather than, as I suspect, a fiction. Then, applying a "least restrictive" standard (see, e.g., ERA v. Clark, 746 F2d 1518), would not a legitimate NPS rule-making necessarily be limited to a regulation that simply prohibited sleeping bags on the-grass and paint dripping on sidewalks?

Which could reasonably bring us back to the question of regulatory intent. Comparing "The Current Situation in Lafayette Park" (Fed Reg at 40680) with previous "Current Situation(s) in Lafayette Park," we discover that "two persons who have been in the Park since 1981" are pointedly referred to. E.g. Fed Reg Vol. 50, No. 161, pg. 33572, August 20, 1985. This in turn could reasonably lead to the conclusion that the "two persons" are considered to be the "visual blight" often mentioned as the aim of the regulations.

I do not think that the subjective opinion of certain park users with regard to the aesthetic acceptability of other park users can reasonably justify a regulation that would have the effect of criminalizing the "continuous presence" of any users whom the NPS might choose to characterize as "visual blight."

Even if the Park Service thinks it is only targeting "two persons," I am reminded of a quote attributed to Pastor Martin Niemeier which seems to illustrate the principle that everyone will eventually be adversely affected should this proposed rule be promulgated.

"In Germany they first came for the Gypsies, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Gypsie. Then they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jews. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me -- and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Also, I believe that the very construction of the rulemaking proposal as published in the Federal Register, and actions of those identified as contacts "for further information," combine to present at least a threshhold question as to the rulemakers' good faith:

Given only the brief "History of Lafayette Park" and "Unique Features of the Park" to balance against my own understanding of Thomas Jefferson's values and priorities, it seems incredible to even suggest that President Jefferson might ever have valued a "meticulously manicured garden park" above the unfettered expression of views and opinions. I also wondered, among other things, who were "those people for whom the park had originally been intended by President Jefferson"? To clarify these questions, on November 26, 1990 I called the offices of Sandra Alley and Richard Robbins -- the two individuals identified in the rulemaking as contacts "for further information" -- to inquire as to the historical source from which the "History of the Park" was drawn. When I was unable to speak with either Ms. Alley or Mr. Robbins personally, I left messages requesting that they return my call to cite the sources from which their "History" was drawn. Neither Ms. Alley nor Mr. Robbins ever returned my call.

Since ancient times it has been recognized that "to make a man an offender for a word" is unacceptable in the eyes of God. Isaiah 29. Writing separately, Judge Wald addressed the impermissibility of stifling "dissent" by redefining it as "camping." ERA v. Clark, 746 F2d 15 _. Please ask yourself, would this proposal have the effect of eliminating "possession of literature" by redefining it as "storage of property"?

Finally, because the Park Service appears to rely heavily on the idea of a public consensus on "aesthetics" and "visual blight," I believe that in fairness the NPS should not have declined to extend the public comment period, as provided for in 5 USC 553, beyond December 3, 1990 (see Enclosure 10), thus providing a more accurate yardstick by which to measure actual public sentiment.

If NPS really thinks it has some legitimate interest in taking "action against" "visual blight," then I think the practical and civilized alternative to this proposed rule would be for the Park Service to specifically identify the "visual blight" which it feels compelled to move against.

If it turns out that I am identified as "visual blight," society can better determine how to deal with that specific problem. Unless I am determined to be "visual blight," then it seems I should be exempt from this proposal.

I hope you will consider this letter carefully and, if my reasoning is sound, act honorably and justly by rescinding this proposed rule.

In the Service of a Loving Creator,

William Thomas

Enclosures:

1) Thomas v. United States - Certiorari Petition

2) Huddle v. Reagan - Complaint, Amended Complaint, Appendix

3) Federal Register

June 4, 1982, pgs. 24299-24306

April 22, 1983, pgs.17352-17354

June 17, 1983, pgs. 28058-28063

August 20, 1985, pgs. 33571-33575

March 5, 1986, pgs. 7556-7566

4) Life, Liberty & the Hot Pursuit

5) Essays

6) Peace Park - the Play

7) United States v. Sunrise

8) Proposition One

9) Bush letter

10) Letter to NPS requesting extension of comment period