Irony

In 1215 AD a group of disgruntled Barons forced King John of England to sign The Great Charter, or Magna Carta, if you will. The Magna Carta restricted the King's powers forcing him to be more observant of the will of those he governed. There were many reason's for the Baron's dissatisfaction with the King. Among these were his excommunication by Pope Innocent III and disastrous defeats in his ongoing war with France, which resulted in the loss of the provinces of Brittany and Normandy, among others. Theses losses forced King John to continuously raise taxes. Finally, the Baron's had had enough. They revolted and forced John to sign away his some of his power. Thus, in many ways the signing of the Magna Carta was partially the result of a tax revolt.

The signing took place in a marshy piece of land near London, on the Thames, called Runnymede.

Now comes the irony.

In April of 2004, my wife and I were house hunting and looking for our first real home. We had looked at many houses, but none seemed appropriate. An acquaintance of my wife told her about an available house in the Cottage Home Neighborhood on the city's Near East Side. She went to see it and realized that it was what we'd been looking for. Thus, we came to reside at 1215 Polk St, a rehabilitated Victorian cottage built in 1893.

The gentlemen we purchased the house from were expatriate Britons. Having an appreciation for British history, they saw the connection between the street number and the year of the signing of the Magna Carta. Thus, they came to christen the house "Runnymede Cottage"

My wife and I now stand in danger of losing our "Runnymede" due to a system of outrageous taxation.

It is up to the the new Barons of Indiana, the people, to rise up with a unified voice and demand from our legislator's that this broken system be scrapped. The system of assessing and taxing property is damaged beyond repair. Repeal all property taxation.