August 11, 2006: Dear Friends:
I am sorry it has been so long since I wrote. I know that many of you have waited anxiously to know the outcome of my sentencing and to know how we are doing. There were two reasons for delay. One was that, although my sentencing actually took place on April 19 (after being delayed twice), the judgment was not entered until June 16, for unknown reasons. So the time for appeal ran until July 16.
The outcome of the sentencing was 30 days in prison followed by 5 months home confinement, to begin shortly after Larken's release date in January. Judge Baylson clearly did not want to put me in prison at all, but when it looked like he was going for six months home confinement, Ms. Davis went somewhat hysterical. She had wanted me in for 15 months, the same as Larken. She was clearly prepared to appeal the sentence if he gave me no prison time at all. She frothed about how nothing but jail time deters "these people." Last time I looked, I'm only one person, so I think she was talking about YOU. I'm taking it as kind of a compliment. I got those 30 days because Larken's research and writing got so much attention. Thirty days for being Larken's wife.
Both sides had some grounds for appeal, and we didn't want to mess with it. This was a sentence that I thought my daughter could handle, and I wanted to focus on preparing for it and having some certainty about the future. I think she will handle it just fine. She'll be almost ten years old. She'll have a whole month to just be with the daddy she's been missing for a year - a whole month to break mommy's rules about food and bedtimes and video games and movies. She's actually looking forward to it now.
As for me, prison will be another eye-opening experience that I'm sure will make me wiser and stronger. Already what I've learned this past year could fill a book (and probably will, at some point).
The other reason I haven't written sooner is that I'm terribly busy. Earning some money to bring the "ends" a little closer together (trying to make them meet would be far too ambitious), keeping a house, caring for a child, and visiting a husband in a prison three hours from home, simply takes more time than there is available.
And how am I feeling now? Well, what does a person do when she has given her country the very best of herself, and her country has rejected that very best as criminal, antisocial, and evil? Do I remake my soul to fit the culture? Or do I remain true to myself and accept that America will never love or understand one such as me? I feel somewhat like a Native American - the descendant of a culture that once flourished on this land, but has been conquered and superseded. It was a culture that valued the life, liberty, property, privacy, and happiness of every person. It was a culture that broke us away from Britain, ended slavery, and gave rights to women. It was a culture that gave us the rule of law rather than men. It is a culture that lives on in our hearts, but not in our country. America is no longer our country - but you are my people.
Please write letters to Larken. He is bored and restless, and he needs to feel your support. And please send letters and money to other imprisoned patriots. If anyone has a good, up-to-date list, please send it and I will post it. I will end with my own words from so many months ago:
"I don't wish suffering on myself or anyone else, but I am proud of people who have stood up for truth and justice when it was dangerous to do so. And I'll be proud to be one of those people, no matter what happens to me."
Love to all -
Tessa Rose
MONEY ORDERS for Larken: Federal Bureau of Prisons Larken Rose 58421-066 P.O. Box 474701 Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001
MONEY ORDERS for other federal inmates: Federal Bureau of Prisons (Name) (Register number) P.O. Box 474701 Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001
LETTERS for Larken: Larken Rose 58421-066, Unit G Federal Prison Camp P.O. Box 200 Waymart, PA 18472
LETTERS & CONTRIBUTIONS for Tessa: Tessa David c/o Larken Rose P.O. Box 653 Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006
CONTRIBUTIONS through PayPal: send to: larken@taxableincome.net