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

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

Exhibit 12 - G