Growing up in Northeast Georgia in the Great Depression, Anne Cleveland was privy to a lot of adult conversation during the lunchtime gatherings that happened nearly every Sunday at her grandfather’s farm. The grownups talked about everything—from family loyalty and morality to education, politics, and ownership of property. “In retrospect, it reminded me of the Greek Stoics and the Front Porch Philosophers, where families gathered to discuss current events and philosophy. As I recall my experiences, the conversation usually got around to discussion of politics and the role government played in everything from schools to farming.”

 

Anne’s family resisted the idea of government intervention. They didn’t like President Roosevelt’s policies and they didn’t want the government intruding in their lives, collapsing personal freedoms. With her ears tuned to the porch conversations, Anne learned that not only must a person stand for something but they must also be willing to stand up and fight for it. She also learned the valuable lesson that if you do stand up and fight for your beliefs, it is possible to win. “I listened to all their reasons as to why they resisted the intrusion including some of their solutions. One such incident revolved around the local school imposing a ‘three-dollar incidental fee’ on each student. My grandfather filed an injunction and to avoid shutting the school down, the school board dismissed the fee.” Without realizing it at the time, Anne was witnessing the power of a person standing up for their freedoms. It is a stance she has since come to know well.

 

A high school student when World War II broke out, Anne left the farm at 17 and moved to Atlanta, where she worked for Sears Roebucks and later at Bell Aircraft. She had incredible adventures in Atlanta and fell in love with a young Air Force pilot who flew the B-52s that came off the assembly line at Bell Aircraft. Completely smitten, Anne married and moved to Florida. She started a family and her husband made an attempt at civilian life, setting up a crop dusting business at the end of the war. However, as a reserve officer, he was called back into military duty with the outbreak of the Korean War. She didn’t know it at the time, but Anne’s life as a military wife was really only just beginning.

 

As a military wife you move around a lot. First, the family went to an air base in Tennessee, then to Biloxi, Mississippi. Anne’s husband was then ordered to go to Korea for a year. After that time was up, he left for a tour of duty in Japan. Six months later, Anne and the family joined him. Japan would change Anne’s world forever. Particularly, when it came to her understanding of the concept of freedom.

 

A short while into her stay in Japan, Anne went shopping with three other officer wives in the prefecture where the movie “Sayonara” was filmed. In an unfortunate accident, the driver of their cab hit a young Japanese boy who had been riding a bicycle in the road. Thankfully, the boy was not hurt. Despite this, the ladies were taken to a Japanese jail where they were interrogated for hours—even though they were mere passengers in the car. Held in the jail and repeatedly asked if she was a member of the communist party, Anne called the Provost Marshall’s office on base to send someone to get them out. A young airman third class showed up, folded his arms and informed Anne and the others that they were under the jurisdiction of the Japanese government and must do what they were told to do. Anne was livid. “I was so incensed, wondering where my government of the people, by the people, and for the people was, not defending me in a foreign country. We were eventually released and I made inquiries as to why the Japanese were in charge of American citizens when we had won the war.”

 

After her release, Anne obtained a copy of the “Status Forces Agreement” signed by Gen. McArthur. Shocked, she learned the United States government truly was not in charge. They had won the war and yet they weren’t in charge? It just didn’t make sense. “That was startling news to me and from that moment on I read everything I could find to understand what happened, and to learn the roles of political governments in general and mine in particular. Being in a foreign country, imprisoned by a foreign government, so impacted my life and thinking I was impelled to find the answers as to why my government did not come to my rescue. Being in a country where I did not understand the language nor the reasons I was being held hostage motivated me to find out why that happened.”

 

Her jail experience had opened Anne’s eyes to some of the truths in government but it was not until 1957, when Ayn Rand’s powerful novel Atlas Shrugged was published, that Anne wholeheartedly began to pursue an understanding of the Philosophy of Freedom. “Atlas Shrugged was a dynamic story about individualism versus political governments which changed my life and thinking. As a result of reading that book, my interest in individual freedom intensified.” For next seven years, Anne studied and learned, gaining her own understanding of freedom in the process. Once her eyes were opened there was no turning back and the decisions and actions she took from then on were unwaveringly the choices made by a person who understood the importance of freedom.

 

In 1960, Anne’s husband received orders to return to the United States. He was reassigned to Stead Air Force Base in Reno, Nevada. Anne had never been so happy to set foot on American soil. After settling her family in, she began searching for people to teach her more about freedom. She met many interesting people by contacting them through newspaper articles and book publishers. Through her bridge playing she met people connected to the local college, local FM radio station, DAR Chapter and John Birch Society. She subscribed to the Colorado Springs Gazette, which was one in a chain of 13 newspapers. The editorial page was very slanted towards the philosophy of freedom and Anne began corresponding with some of their editorial writers. Through them, she met many more interesting people who were well informed about economics, political governments, and the concept of freedom.

“Her jail experience had opened Anne’s eyes to some of the truths in government but it was not until 1957, when Ayn Rand’s powerful novel Atlas Shrugged was published, that Anne wholeheartedly began to pursue an understanding of the Philosophy of Freedom.”

 

As Anne’s knowledge of freedom deepened she also grew more disenchanted with some of the things being taught to her children in the school. “I began reading their textbooks and discovered the socialist philosophy of communism was quite prevalent in the text. I formed a textbook committee with several locals to go over the textbooks and make reports about the material contained there to present to the state textbook commission. The local news covered our project and all of a sudden there was a great deal of opposition. The night before the Textbook Commission meeting in Carson City, every one in my little group called and said they would not go and advised me not to.” The following day, Anne drove to Carson City with her stack of book reviews, alone. “I was met by a group of very unfriendly reporters but entered the hall and presented my reports to the commission. It made no difference in the material printed in the textbooks. But I spent time with my own children going over material with sessions I called counter-brainwashing.”

 

When their two years in Reno came to a close, Anne and her family returned to the same air base they’d started out at in Smyrna, Tennessee. There, she encountered some harrowing experiences with the local school. “The local principal ran the school like a prison warden. Because I objected to what was taking place, my children were targeted for all sorts of abuse. The things the school did and my actions of resistance would fill volumes. I kept detailed records of everything.” One day, Anne decided that when the next incident happened, she would remove her children from the school.

 

“My daughter came home with a note that I had to pay one dollar before she could receive her report card. And that day my son did not come home from school. When I called they said he was held in detention. I had already written newspapers about the incidents in the school. I decided to go get my son and the Nashville television station called. I told them I was about to remove my children from the school; they asked me to wait until they arrived.” The cameras were already rolling when Anne marched in to remove her son from school. The next day, headlines in Nashville, Tennessee were about the dollar report card fiasco, and the school was on the evening news. The battle was on and Anne never returned her children to the school. “I faced arrest for defiance of the compulsory school laws, kept my children home and home schooled. This was in the early sixties, and what I endured as a result of this action is a lengthy sordid story. I was well prepared for the eventuality of arrest. The strategies I had in place to prevent going to jail are too lengthy to detail here. But I never went to jail and never returned my children to the school.” Anne’s two eldest children were middle-schoolers but she also had a young son not yet ready to go to school. She decided that when the time came, she’d keep him home as well.

 

By this point in time, Anne had spent most of her married life bound to the military. More than anything, she wanted a chance to live free from its rules and regulations. So, she gave her husband an ultimatum: Anne was quitting life as a military wife; he could either leave the military or lose her. Choosing the former, the family moved once again, this time to Georgia. There, Anne’s next project would be to learn how to live self-sustainably. And, how to go it alone.

 

After working for a motel managerial school, Anne and her husband eventually bought a farmhouse on 18 acres where Anne planted a two-acre garden and learned how to can and freeze food. But, her husband struggled with civilian life and their marriage fell apart. They divorced in 1969 and he soon remarried and left the state. Suddenly, Anne was on her own. With nobody to turn to, she had to figure it all out herself. Her two teenagers were both in serious accidents (from which they recovered), her youngest was still a preschooler and needed constant guidance, and she had to put food on the table. As Anne gathered wood for fires, collected food and canned it, she told herself over and over again that she was going to be ok. They would make it. “The desire to experience freedom, and to learn how to be self-sustaining, responsible, and in control of my life was so strong, it kept me going.”

 

“Anne was on her own.  As [she] gathered wood for fires, collected food and canned it, she told herself over and over again that she was going to be ok. They would make it.”

 

On top of everything else, Anne was about to enter yet another round in the fight to keep her rights and freedoms intact. “I was teaching my young son at home when the truant officer came for a visit and told me I would be arrested if I did not enroll him in school. I enrolled him but refused to allow any immunizations. Thus, began another three-year battle back and forth with the school, kicking him out because he was not immunized. When the truant officer came I would re-enroll. Eventually a letter from the school board came, informing me I would be arrested if I didn’t have a shot record and re-enroll.”

 

Anne had prepared for this inevitability by keeping an extensive file on everything. She hired the best lawyer in the Southeast and had him file a lawsuit in federal court, challenging the Constitutionality of forced immunizations. “This action stirred up a lot of publicity in the newspaper, on radio, and television. As one reporter told me, my story was so newsworthy because one woman sitting in the country had taken on the bureaucracy and was winning. The power of political government could not connect me to any organization or any religious group. It was a long hard fought battle that I fought alone with my legal representative. And won. The State of Georgia was forced to change the law on forced immunizations. My son finished school without ever having any immunizations and never had any childhood diseases.”

 

Through it all, Anne became a champion for some, a pest to others. But, what she cares most deeply about is that her freedom has remained. After many years of study and practice, she now defines freedom as: “self-responsibility and self-control; no more and no less than just that.” Today, she enjoys a quiet life in her small North Georgia town, writing articles about her experiences and freedom and enjoying her grandchildren, all of who are home-schooled and have never had immunizations. She is on Twitter and has her own blog chronicling “eight decades of free thinking” (http://www.octogenariansblog.com/). As Anne sees it, the actions she has taken, the path that she has chosen through her varied and colorful life, and her love for individual freedom can all be traced back to her childhood with the lessons and stories she learned sitting on that wrap-around porch at her grandfather’s farm in North Georgia. 

Thank you Anne, for sharing your Story with us.

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