A state of disobedience

From the transcript at trial: Commonwealth of

Virginia v. Alvin Scheer

DIRECT EXAMINATION, CONTINUED

BY MR. STENNINGS:

Q. And how did you feel about the President at that time, Mr. Scheer?

A. The President? Sure talked like she meant well. I mean, she was out there in front of the cameras all the time. Checking schools, visiting old folks. Seemed like she really cared, really felt our pain.

I never made much money in life. Used to have to hunt to help feed the family. Couldn't pay the tax on my rifles though, let alone buy the ammunition to hunt with the thing; not at three dollars and fifty cents per round . . . for the tax alone.

When they came and took away my neighbor after his kids let slip to a teacher that their daddy still had a gun at home? Give him five years for tax evasion? Put his family on welfare? I couldn't face that. So I had to give up one of my two guns. The other? Well, you know by now I buried—

Q. MR. STENNINGS: Stop right there, Alvin. The Court doesn't need to hear about any of that.

A. Okay if you say so. Anyway, I never could get the hang of bow hunting.

Q. So you gave up hunting, Mr. Scheer?

A. Well, sure. Though it made it a lot harder to feed my family, like I said. Anyway, sure and some of them new programs did help. When my factory closed, moved down Mexico way . . . trying to run away from the taxes, I reckon . . . and my missus got sick? She could go to the doctor right off, and I didn't have to pay for it. Mind, she had to wait in line for a while, half a day maybe . . . maybe a little more, and the doctor didn't have much time to see her. But he gave her some medicine. And she was okay for a while.

I did get work again, eventually. Didn't make so much as I had been. But they raised the "minimum wage," which seemed to help, a little.

Though, why prices kept going up every time they raised the income tax on the big companies and the rich folks, I don't rightly know.

Weren't for charity, that and welfare food parcels, don't reckon we'd a made it.

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