Concord Monitor Article about SgtUSMC

[Kat Kanning]

Concord Monitor

Making his case, day by day
Letter campaign has brought much notice


By RAY DUCKLER
Monitor staff

May 27, 2008 - 7:16 am

      
KEN WILLIAMS / Monitor staff
Peter Macdonald, seen at his house in Lee, has attracted attention for his unusual letter-writing campaign.Zoom
Purchase Photos Online


      



Uncle Sam pointed his bony finger straight at Peter Macdonald last year.

"I want you."

Uncle Sam, in this case the Secret Service, wanted to meet the man from Lee responsible for all those letters. Was he dangerous? Looney?

"They told me if I keep writing letters, they would throw me in jail and I would be lost in the system and no one would ever find me," Macdonald said recently, relaxing in the living room of his home. "I said, 'Go ahead, lock me up, I'm going to continue writing letters.' "

Macdonald, a 55-year-old former Marine, is embarked on a letter-writing campaign that's more relentless and repetitive than last winter's snowfall.

He writes a fresh e-mail every morning. He sends his daily message to newspapers and other mainstream media outlets, to veterans and politicians, to judges, lawyers and most anyone else who can read.

He writes about the corruption he perceives in local government, property rights for the little guy, our cherished Constitution and our beloved armed forces.

And he names names, a sore spot in his hometown and surrounding areas.

His letters are full of accusations: Madbury Selectman Bruce Hodsdon, he says, bullied a local auto repair business out of town. Judge Peter Fauver, he insists, violated the Constitution by siding with Hodsdon and against the family-owned business. He claims Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter has questioned his sanity, forced him to see a doctor and temporarily had his medical benefits stopped. He once wrote that he understood why Carl Drega, who killed four people 11 years ago, including two state troopers and a judge, had issues with local officials.

And, he often says, he's not a threat, to himself or anyone else.

"I am not a terrorist as the NH government and courts labeled me. The NH courts and government have knowingly with intent to cause harm taken my freedom. . . . The newspapers fuel this by refusing to tell the truth or my side of the news."

"I have been asked many times throughout the years from many different agencies as to my thoughts on Peter Macdonald and his stability or instability," said Chet Murch, police chief in Lee. "I actually get along with him, and I can talk to Peter, but I will never come out and say whether or not Peter is a threat to anybody. Things can change at any moment. I can't get into the head of Peter Macdonald."

Many have tried. His letters - he started writing them at least eight years ago - have shone a spotlight on himself. Some people laugh him off, others get angry, and still others get scared.

He's been jailed, viewed as a threat by local, state and federal officials. He's been cuffed and shackled in his own driveway, been interrogated and interviewed, been placed under the care of a psychiatrist.

Yet he's never been convicted of a crime, a point that he's proud of as he looks you in the eye and tells you he's not nuts.

"It's scary to me that he's interrogated by people and they think he could harm someone," said Macdonald's 21-year-old daughter, Tracy. "From growing up with him, I know he wouldn't hurt anyone, but federal officials don't know that. It's scary for me that he's been to jail and went through all of that, but we deal with it."

"I cannot let what other people think of me stop me from doing what's right," said Macdonald, who dropped out of Alton High School in 1970 to join the Marines. "My image has nothing to do with what's happening. People are so afraid to speak up for fear of what's happening to me."

Family man

Macdonald's letters can shock you. With respect to Drega's violent outburst, Macdonald wrote, "This is the right in our Constitution. War is hell but innocent people get hurt in a war."

Macdonald doesn't fit preconceived notions some people might have of a rebellious patriot who swears by the Second Amendment.

You won't find his home up a tree, buried in the woods. You won't find him cooking a squirrel over a campfire. And his house isn't fortified to keep law enforcement officials out.

Instead, you find photos of his wife and three daughters in his living room. Instead, you hear that his twin daughters begin their master's programs this week at the University of New Hampshire, and that his oldest daughter works as an administrator in a doctor's office, and that he's been married for 27 years, and that his wife, Agnes, has been a dental hygienist for 35 years.

Instead, he offers you coffee, patiently answers your questions and acknowledges that some people believe he's mentally ill.

"Just a wonderful person," Agnes said. "If this is what he needs to do to get his message across, fine. We taught our kids for every action there is a consequence. People read his letters and think he's a violent person; he's not. We have no guns. We have no underground tunnels or booby traps. We just don't."

Yes, there are subplots here that make you squint and wonder about the guy. Take his front yard, for example, where you'll find a chaotic pile of twisted metal. Macdonald calls it art; one of his daughters calls it a "trash pile."

Macdonald carves things out of wood. Just off his living room is a narrow porch where he displays his work. He sometimes brings his carved figures to schools.

There's a profile of Martin Luther King Jr., a statue of the six soldiers raising the flag at Iwo Jima, and various fire trucks pulled by horses. All are meticulously cut and painted.

"It relieves stress," Macdonald said.

There are stories of Macdonald digging in his heels against local government. He wanted to build a barn on his property, prompting a neighbor to complain that it would block her view of the sun. The town denied his request, saying the barn would be too close to a wetland, so Macdonald went with Plan B.

"He bought a tractor trailer, the trailer itself," Murch, the police chief, said. "He painted it lime green, registered it and put a clothesline on top and hung a bunch of underwear on it and left it there. There was nothing the town could do about it because it was a registered vehicle.

"Peter doesn't let things go. That was 15 years ago."

Thirty-seven years ago, in 1971, Macdonald's life changed. He was a Marine, on leave from Southeast Asia, when he suffered a head injury in a car crash. He spent 60 days in the Portsmouth Naval Hospital. He lost all memory of his life before the age of 19.

"I didn't remember my family, my brothers, my sister, nothing," Macdonald said.

He returned to Southeast Asia, claiming a paperwork error turned an honorable discharge into a 31-month tour of duty, mostly in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. He supervised brake systems for planes launched off portable runways and delivered supplies to friendly camps. He was injured twice, breaking his back and suffering nerve damage in his ears. (His war record was confirmed by a military media relations department in Virginia.)

Macdonald came home to Alton in 1974. He says he remembered no one, including his family. He says the car accident three years earlier had stripped him of his memory.

"He's my brother and I looked up to him," said Macdonald's youngest brother, Michael, a business owner in Albany, N.Y. "He didn't know who I was from Adam. He didn't have a clue, and we built it up from there. It was a little awkward."

The first letters

Macdonald has bounced back. He bought and sold real estate, married Agnes in 1981 and settled in Lee. He was a stay-at-home father, raising his three daughters and stressing education.

"He's a great father," Tracy said. "He was always there. He took part in our field trips, participated in school. His letters, people do roll their eyes, but he's not hurting anyone. He's just expressing what he thinks."

One of the things Macdonald thinks is that the Bushong family of Madbury was illegally forced to close their car repair business eight years ago. He accused Hodsdon, the selectman, of holding a grudge against Glenn Bushong because of a dispute that originated at a Little League game in the 1980s.

Bushong and his wife, Cindy, desperate for help, saw Macdonald's letters supporting them in the local newspaper and asked him for help. They went to court together, claiming other businesses in the area were allowed to operate despite zoning laws. Why not theirs?

Macdonald's letter-writing frenzy, warming up through the Bushong case, has been energized ever since. He lost that case, and few listened when he claimed that the judge was guilty of discrimination and favoritism. All these years later, the judge, Fauver, still gets cited in almost all of Macdonald's e-mails.

But the Bushongs are now his lifelong allies.

"I honestly am telling you the guy is constitutionally right," Cindy Bushong said.

Added Glenn Bushong, "He's a true patriot."

Hodsdon, of course, sees it differently. He said the Bushongs' business, unlike others in the area, was too new to be grandfathered in under local zoning laws and therefore could not operate legally.

"They never had an established business," Hodsdon said. "There's no grandfathering when you just start doing something."

Hodsdon, like others, also questions Macdonald's state of mind.

"He is balancing on the edge of a knife," Hodsdon said. "As long as he's balancing on the edge of that knife, it's fine. . . . I certainly don't trust him. He made the town of Madbury change a lot of policies as far as security is concerned because of his threats and his implied threats. He knows that edge and he goes right up to it."

Local, state and federal agencies worry about Macdonald as well. They worry about his letters, and they worry about his plans.

One of his e-mails said: "When do we know to kill judges and government officials is justifiable. The United States is a nation where the people's rights always must come first. We have a Constitution to protect us (the people) against abusive government acts committed by a special class against (we) the people."

Sound alarming? Dangerous?

"I'm doing nothing wrong," Macdonald said. "If what I'm doing warrants me being arrested, I will gladly go to jail for believing in the American system. The Constitution is there to stop government wrongs from impeaching on the people's rights."

Macdonald has been questioned by authorities, over and over, once spending 29 days in jail before the charges were dropped. Murch has been sent to speak with him.

"I wouldn't call it an interrogation; I'd call it an interview," Murch said. "Clearly Peter has some time to sit down and write things out. I think he walks a very fine line with some of the things that he says."

No lunch with Lynch

Last year, Uncle Sam thought Macdonald had gone too far, dispatching a pair of Secret Service agents to his home. That's what happens when you send an e-mail to the White House that mentions President Bush and Carl Drega's property rights in the same message.

"There were calls for taking up arms and abolishing government officials who purposely violate the Constitution to harm anyone," Macdonald said.

Meanwhile last spring, Macdonald bid $200 at a charity auction and won a lunch date with Gov. John Lynch. The governor would not eat with him.

"All I can say is that this is a security matter and I can't comment," said Colin Manning, Lynch's spokesman.

Macdonald was also visited by the state police this month. A plainclothes detective, Sgt. Richard Mitchell, confirmed that meeting and another visit a few years ago, but he would not comment further.

A psychologist who examined Macdonald four years ago at the state's request said Macdonald had all his marbles. He's just a tad obsessive.

"Mr. Macdonald impressed me as an individual who has very strong beliefs and a highly tuned sense of moral obligation," wrote Michael Vanaskie, a licensed psychologist. "His thinking about his responsibilities and the responsibilities of all United States citizens was quite strong and well developed. . . . I did not see him as being a threat to any individual in government, aside from the fact that he speaks his mind and does not easily give up."

Macdonald won't give up. He was a Marine during the Vietnam War. He says our soldiers have died to preserve our Constitution. He claims he's merely exercising his freedom of speech and poses a threat to no one.

"My mission is to correct the wrongs in government," Macdonald said. "I do not want anyone harmed by this."

Added Murch, "It just continues, on and on."

Ray Duckler can be reached at rduckler@cmonitor.com.

[Russell Kanning]

funny
I like the green trailer

[Puke]

Interesting. Now we have a little background on why his strange posts keep appearing.
Another example of what happens when someone speaks out against gov't.

[kola]

wouldnt it be nice and appropriate for ol margo katz "scoop" to do a story on Sarge.

kola

[dalebert]

I think it kind of explains why the letters are so vague. He's been writing them for eight years. I'm sure it seems to him like he's explained it in great detail already but to those of us that are just now starting to see his letters, they are written as if we must already know what he's talking about.

[Russell Kanning]

you could head on by his place and get the long version ... I am sure

[Lex]

He should come to PorcFest (or Burning Porcupine) and tell his story at the camp fire! 

[freedominnh]

Thank-you for posting this article.  Glad Peter has such  strong family support.