March 13, 1999
Picket report; Atlanta, Georgia
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Picket Report, Atlanta, 3/13/99
From: mad_bovine@my-dejanews.com
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 02:08:41 GMT
Message-ID: 7chq35$n7i$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com
Boys and girls, it's time for the next installment of the ARSCC-ATL annual LRH
picket report. Sit back and get comfortable, this is gonna be a long one. :)
So, after driving from you-know-where, I picked up Wynot and drove to the new
location of the Atlanta org. It has moved to the Dunwoody area, it's new
address being 1611 Mount Vernon Road. It is located between a Texaco station
and really good pastry store. There is no sign out front of the building
yet, so you could miss it very easily if you weren't already looking for it.
The parking lot in front of the building can hold a dozen cars, and had about
10 cars in it.
After a quick lunch in the pastry shop, we assembled our signs and began
picketing. I had my usual "Scientology is a SCAM" and "Scientology HURTS
People" signs, while Wynot had a new sign that said "Scientology BANNED in
Greece!" and "Scientology CONVICTED in Canada!" The sidewalk here is slightly
wider than at the old location, so Wynot and myself didn't have to dodge
around each other as we walked our beat. The weather was very cloudy,
threatening rain, and very, very windy. Oh yea, and it was cold. More about
that later. :)
I didn't carry any flyers this time. Instead, I printed up some fancy business
cards with the heading "Read the REAL Truth about Scientology". On the cards I
listed several of the more popular critical sites, such as www.xenu.net and
www.entheta.net. At the bottom of the card it says "Presented by a CRITIC of
Scientology".
As we walked we noticed two things; the total lack of foot traffic, and the
heavy car traffic. The traffic light would back up traffic, and it was
humorous watching everyone in the cars craning their necks to read our signs.
I get the idea these people didn't know scientology had moved into their
neighborhood. Now they do. One lady DID know about scientology and yelled her
support to us while she was stopped in traffic. Another lady drove by very
slowly, then turned around to stop and asked us what it was about. She had
internet access, so I handed her a URL card and gave her the 5 second rundown
on scientology. I didn't want her to block traffic, so I resumed picketing,
waving to her as she drove off. Other than that, we got thumbs ups, waves,
and honks galore.
After 15 minutes of picketing, our old friend Linda (OT-7) came out to handle
us. She brought a new friend with her, whose name I never really got. One
thing we appreciate about the Atlanta clams, they are nice. Not
confrontational, not harrassing, all they want to do is talk and take up
sidewalk space, making us dodge around them as we walk. They still don't
realize this action doubles the size of our picket. :)
Wynot quickly realized that his unnamed handler had no idea what she was
doing out there in the cold. She really didn't seem to know much about
scientology, according to Wynot, so he had compassion on her and just made
light conversation about scientology and events of the day.
My handler, Linda the OT-7, fouled out with me as soon as she opened her
mouth. She said "So, what is your name again?", so I carefully enunciated
"Mad-Cow". Then I said "Come on now, yer OT-7, don't let me down here." Geez,
I remembered her name, how can you forget "Mad-Cow"? Anyway, we talked about
Dianetics (she's read it 4 times and still doesn't understand it all), M/U's
(how clams aren't allowed to derive meaning of new words by context), the
internet (she ain't on it), civil war reenacting (of course I had to talk
about that!), and other religions (she's catholic, and I forgot to tell about
"there was no Christ"). For someone who is supposed to be able to converse
on any subject, she said "uh" and "I don't know anything about that" a lot.
And ain't OT's supposed to be at cause over MEST? Then why was she rubbing
her hands and complaining about the weather? Despite being a nice person,
Linda is a very bad example of OT-7.
I will give Linda points for one thing, she has a sense of humor. It started
to sprinkle at one point, so I said "Hey, who postulated this rain? I'm gonna
As-Is this!". She laughed as I waved my magic picket wand, and the sprinkle
stopped.
While we were passing the time with our handlers, Susan Webb came out to take
our pictures. I mugged with Linda while Wynot posed with his new friend.
Susan asked me "Why are you back?". I said "You know I just HAD to see you
again!", to which Suzie replied "YeaRightWhatever" and rolled her eyes. Oh,
and something new has been added to Susan...she's about 6 months pregnant. I
wonder what impact her pregnancy will have on her role as Atlanta DSA (if
indeed she is still DSA). Maybe the first camera didn't work right, because
10 minutes later she returned with a fancy digital camera and took our
pictures again.
Then the Decalb County Police passed by. As this happened, some guy came out
and very politely told our handlers that Susan wanted a word with them. Then
the police passed by again, pulling into the parking lot next door, where
Susan came out and conversed with the officer. Wynot and I exchanged knowing
glances, thinking that the clams had called the police. I immediately
determined to answer this maneuver by extending the picket 30 more minutes.
Talk about pulling it in.
Then the officer walked over to us to find out what the deal was. The clams
had not called the police, the cops just saw our picket and was checking it
out. I gave the officer a very quick explaination of scientology (it's a
cult) and why we were picketing it. Then a second cruiser pulls up to see
what was up. While Wynot further discusses things with officer number one, I
fill in number two about our activity. The officer mentions something about
devil-worshiping cults, so I tell him about LRH and Aleister Crowley. Guess
what. The officer is a devoted Christian, and knows all about Crowley. Oops
:)
Both officers have internet access, so receive one of my URL cards, which I
note go directly into their shirt pockets. Officer number one assures us
that we are perfectly legal in our picketing activities, and if the scienos
try to follow us, that's Misdemeanor Stalking in Decalb County. After shaking
hands, the officers leave us to our picket.
So after almost two hours, we called it a day. Bidding our handlers taa taa,
we walked away from the org in the opposite direction from our
transportation, intending to walk around the block so as to determine if we
were being followed. We not only weren't being followed, but the block was
substantially larger than we were expecting. We eventually arrived at the
Cow-Car, huffing and puffing, and made our getaway unnoticed by the clams.
Stay tooned for furthing picket reports.
Moo.
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