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Subject: CW '99 Picket Report: Spreading the Enturbulation Around
From: Mirele <mirele@newsguy.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 10:56:25 -0700
Message-ID: <f6055ski3dr50n3dnbb3avfaecehkjh7h5@4ax.com>

I had not planned on going to the CW picket.  It came at a bad time
for me workwise, and so I had decided for months that it simply was
not in my plans.  I also really dislike traveling by air.  It seems to
just suck the life out of me.  However, about ten days before the
picket, I was approached by two people who said they would pay for my
plane ticket if I wanted to go.  I explained that I couldn't take any
time off work, so my trip was going to be of necessity very brief.
These people didn't mind, and so I bought a ticket.  (Hint to OSA:
Bob Minton did not pay for my ticket!)

I left from work on Friday, Dec. 3 and headed to the park and ride.
It had snowed six inches that morning, and it was quite chilly.  (It
has snowed twice since then, and it's still chilly.)  The plane left
for St. Louis on time and I got there in good time, but my connecting
flight (which was coming in from Denver, which was being slammed by a
snowstorm Friday night) was late.  I called anima, my roomie, on her
cell phone number and told her that I was going to be there sometime
after 1 am.  She in turn told me about Scientology's Dot Tech.  In
fact, she was going out with some others to observe RPFers scrubbing
the sidewalks.

Bruce Pettycrew and Anima met me at the airport at the very late hour
of 1:20 am.  We were all pretty bushed, and everyone had gone to bed
by the time I got to the hotel.  I dropped into bed at 2 am.

Saturday was simply a blur, in between the conference and the
picketing.  It started at 8 am for me, with a quick shower and
breakfast buffet down in the hotel restaurant.  Then people started
going upstairs for the conference.  I heard Gabe Cazares speak before
leaving to go out and picket with Bob Minton and Jesse Prince.  (Yes,
you heard that right.)

Bob had wanted to do a couple of turns around downtown with his sign,
and I was willing to go, because I wanted to check out the scene.  So
off we went.  (Keith Henson also went with us, but as usual, he went
off by himself.)  This was, and turned out to be, a short picket.

Since Bob is under this TRO, we couldn't get within 10 feet of Church
property. I noticed that the handy 10 foot dots had been pretty much
scrubbed up by RPFers overnight.  So we skirted the Fort Harrison and
went around on Fort Harrison Avenue in front of the Presbyterian
Church.  I got to see up close and personal the real effort ($1.5 mil)
that the Co$ had gone to in order to keep picketers at bay.  The
sidewalks on three sides of of the Fort H had been destroyed, and
scaffolding was in front of the hotel.  It was truly ugly.  

I had a sign that said Scientology Stop Harassing Critics, and Bob had
his swastika sign.  We got a lot of responses from drivers, all of
them positive. I am not sure that people were able to see Bob's sign,
because it has a glossy finish and really reflected the sunlight.  We
did this for awhile, moving down towards the southwest corner of the
intersection of Fort Harrison and Cleveland (catty corner to the Santa
chair in front of the OSA building).  

Bob then wanted to see if he could purchase anything in the "new" One
Stop Shoppe, which has moved from Cleveland street on the east side to
Cleveland street on the west side of Fort Harrison.  Bob headed up the
street, with me, Warrior (dressed in his best Sea Org garb) and a
freelance TV cameraman.  Bob tried to buy a soda for himself and me,
but they wouldn't sell him one.  He tried to reason with them, but
they said they were calling the cops.  At that point, I stuck my head
in the door and said, "Bob, come on."  I think I might have added that
these people were useless, but as I still have my reactive mind, I
really can't remember.  Then Warrior tried to buy a drink, and the guy
inside the store was rather flummoxed.  He looked Warrior up and down,
bewildered (here's a guy in Sea Org duds!), and finally asked, "Are
you with the picketers?"  Warrior, being the honest guy that he is,
said he was, and the guy said he could not serve him.  They must not
be hard up for Espee Money at the One Stop Shoppe.  After all, our
money spends just as well as Scieno money.  Besides, shouldn't they
want to relieve us of our funds?

After a while, Bob decided to go back to the hotel.  So Bob, Jesse,
myself, and someone else went back to the Holiday Inn, stopping for
gas and sodas on the way.  When we got back to the hotel, there was a
break in the conference schedule and a lot of people were eating
lunch.  I met Stacy Brooks' mother and best friend, who were totally
new to this scene, as well as Gerry Armstrong and Beverly Rice.  I
wasn't really in the mood for lunch, but Gerry gave me half of his
sandwich and Beverly some of her french fries and I still had some of
my soda left.  So that was lunch.

I went upstairs for awhile and listened to some more of the
conference.  Roger Gonnet spoke, and I thought what he had to say was
good and to the point.  (Now, you might ask, Deana, what did he say?
Well, I've had so much crammed into my poor little head over that
weekend, I can't remember but I will say this...when XenuTV gets the
stuff up on the web, be sure and watch it!)

I went back out to the scene of the pickets with David Cecere and
RoxtheFox.  I had a picket sign and I wandered down to what was
becoming a hot center of action on Drew St. opposite the entrance to
the Sandcastle "religious retreat".  The cult had parked five U-Haul
trucks on the park side of the street, to take up the parking, but
Peter Alexander had been able to squeeze a bright red pickup truck
into that tiny space opposite the entrance.  Inside the truck, Don
NOTS and Dr. Dave Touretzky were holding the suppressive version of
the David Frost show.  Don had borrowed Gregg Hagglund's electric
megaphone and he was broadcasting to the Scientologists hiding behind
two more U-Haul trucks blocking the view into the Sandcastle.  He was
offering sodas and ice tea to all comers.  

"Attention OTs and OTettes:  Ron is Xenu.  That is all."  Imagine that
and the OT challenge, delivered in a South African accent to the
inmates of the upper level brainwashing factory!  Don was also
bouncing a blow up alien doll on a string up and down.  Dave was
dressed up as Lord Xenu, and a fussy Lord Xenu he was.  "I have to get
these gloves on," he said, holding up a pair of silver spandex gloves.
"They really make the costume."

They were also painting signs, and guess what!  My entheta powers
didn't save me from getting paint on me. However I thought the "RON IS
XENU" sign that was painted on tinfoil and propped up behind Don and
Dave was pretty cool.  The wine glass filled with coke and duct taped
to the side of the truck was a nice touch, too.

I went back to the hotel with twils, since I'd managed to get paint on
myself.  I washed out the paint, put on some other clothes, and then
went out again, with whom I can't remember.  I ended up down on
Cleveland street, talking to Patricia, and noticing that they'd
managed to totally and strategically keep vans from running a gauntlet
of picketers.  Of course, the vans could have driven down the alley
beside the CW bank building (OSA HQ) but they would have seen the
entheta on our signs, and so they couldn't move.  It was interesting
to watch this cat and mouse game.

Then I wandered down to the entheta truck again, and they'd just
gotten a pizza, so I mooched a slice off them.  Then I went back to
the hotel with someone (whose name I have forgotten), watched a bit of
TV (watched us!) and then wandered down to the lounge to see if people
were getting around for the vigil.  We sat around until the hotel
management closed the lounge (there was a private Christmas party that
evening), and then I drove over to the vigil with Mad Cow, who was
very nattily attired in a kilt.

We gathered on the lawn of the Presbyterian Church, across the street
from the north side of the Fort Harrison, waiting for the family.
They were the last to arrive, Lisa's three aunts and a couple of
cousins.  Then, as the vigil was about to start, a white car with
Bruce Pettycrew driving and XOSA riding shotgun came around the corner
and drove slowly down the street separating us from the Fort Harrison.
All of a sudden, a slide was shown on the side of the building:  "WE
WILL NEVER FORGET YOU LISA".  The effect on the crowd was electric:
"Look, look!"  Bruce and XOSA repeated this three more times and then
came in for the vigil.

The vigil was quite nice and Gregg did a great job. It was too bad
that the police wouldn't let us gather in the street opposite the
cabana where Lisa spent the last days of her life, but I do understand
that they have to keep the streets open.  We blew out our candles and
I was very emotional about it.  I went to CW '97 and I remember how
the cult had the Fort H absolutely dark while we did our vigil in
front of their building, and this year, the Fort H--in fact, all the
buildings they own in the downtown area--were absolutely gauded up to
hide the fact that they allowed one of their members to die.
Scientology, your actions are absolutely transparent.  You are trying
to hide from your moral culpability in the death of Lisa McPherson.
The lights were just a symbol of their inability to deal with reality.

After the vigil, a number of us wandered (yes, it's like herding cats)
down to a little italian restaurant called Ottavio's, on Fort Harrison
St. between Drew and Cleveland.  We overwhelmed the restaurant, and
the meal took a long time to come, but it was sure great when we
finally got it.  I ordered the salmon, and it was simply delicious.
It had a light lemon sauce on it with capers and just melted in my
mouth.  Bob Minton took care of this meal for me, just so you know,
OSA.  

There were a couple of Scn couples in the restaurant.  When Don NOTS
got up to award Patricia Greenway an SP6 plaque, they got offended by
his speech.  The couple sitting nearest to me really was upset and
complained mightily to the maitre'd, but they didn't leave the
restaurant in a huff.  I might say to the female of the couple:  if
you're going to wear a short dress like that, you might want to think
about wearing matching color underwear.  White underwear and a black
dress do not go together.  (What I'm trying to say is that her dress
was so short that it was practically up to her hips and her undies
showed.)  I guess they don't teach you this in Scn?

Then I went back to the hotel with Ethercat and Wynot of Xenu babies
fame.  On the way back to the van, we saw an RPFer, not running,
walking in front of us.  He was a young man, painfully thin, and I
felt terribly sorry for him.  It pisses me off that Scientology has
this prison camp for members of the Sea Org.

Back at the hotel, a lot of people were gathered in the lounge, having
drinks and watching themselves on TV.  I had a long chat with Mark
Bunker and then I went to bed.

My roomie had to be up and out early, so she woke me up early (I'm no
good at sleeping after others have gotten up).  I went down to the
restaurant, had breakfast, talked to a LOT of people and then around
10ish I went with Jeff and we went out to hit the streets again.  One
of the things we did was to drive by the entheta truck and check on
whether its contents were still intact.  They were, even to the wine
glass duct taped to the side.  I radioed to Don NOTS that the trap was
still in place.

Of course there were fewer of us, but we were just as enturbulating.
I first picketed down on the corner of Fort Harrison and Cleveland, by
the Santa's chair, but then I swapped signs with Beverly Rice.  I
didn't think my sign was all that appropriate for public consumption
(after all, "Did Standard Tech Kill Lisa?" is pretty much something
for Scienos), but I did get a moment of sheer inspiration.

I walked down Fort Harrison until I was opposite the parking lot for
the Coachman building.  (This was in front of the Pinellas Utility
parking lot).  I stood there with my sign facing the parking lot.  The
vans were coming in and out of the parking lot, and they were at that
time parked parallel to the building.  As people ran to get in the
vans, and after they were seated, they could see my sign through the
windshield.  Well, this enturbulated the guys loading the vans
something fierce.  They started parking the vans at a perpendicular
angle to the parking lot, at times causing a real parking snafu in the
lot.  At that time, I then wandered across the street, where there was
a handy sidewalk parallel to the Coachman parking lot.  The people
waiting in the atrium would get a good look at my sign.  Then they'd
try another parking manouver to keep the parishioners from seeing my
sign, so I moved back across the street where they could see the sign
through the windshield of the vans.  I did this a couple of times.
Wynot and Ethercat also helped me out in this effort.

I should also note that while I was doing this, I got a LOT of public
support--honks, thumbs up, waves, etc.  I could also tell when a
Scientologist read my sign, as the response was always the same:
"Fuck you!" and flipping the bird.  My response was "Thank you."  I
was particularly appalled that a woman in a red hatchback with two
children riding with her would do that to me in front of the children.
Pretty shameful.

After awhile, I wandered down to the entheta truck.  Gypsy, Don and
Dave were having a good ole time and talking about taking the truck on
the road.  Peter Alexander and Patricia Greenway came out about then
and I took my sign and did some car picketing with Patricia.  Let me
tell you, the wind resistance against the sign, even in Patricia's
little "roller skate" was a bit much.  

Finally, the entheta truck people decided to roll and they radioed for
Peter to come help them get the truck out of the parking spot.  At
that time, the Scienos very helpfully came out with the keys for one
of the U-Haul vans and moved it so the truck could get out.  We did a
couple of laps around downtown, then we stopped for a very quick lunch
at Emily's.  I ate lunch with Mark Bunker, who very kindly picked up
my tab.  Boy I was so glad I got that lunch, because my trip home took
forever!

Then we did a few more laps around downtown, but this time I was
riding in the back of the entheta truck with gypsy and Dave T.  It was
really fun.  We had the blow up alien doll and Dave was all dressed up
as Lord Xenu.  

Finally the moment arrived when I had to go to the airport.  I hopped
out of the truck, gave hugs and kisses to some of the guys (you know
who you are :)) and then went back with Jeff to the hotel.  We
collected my stuff and I went on my way.  Then I had a 10 hour trip
back to Salt Lake City, arriving back late due to a plane going off a
runway in St. Louis (I REALLY hate traveling).  I got home after
midnight.  I logged in briefly to let people know I was home, then
dropped into bed.  The next morning I got an early wakeup call from
someone, which likely kept me from sleeping late, but my brain felt
like it was filled with congealing concrete all day long.

I think that CW '99 was an incredible success.  The cult's actions
spread the picketers all through downtown and caused us to think
quickly and take advantage of openings (literally!) that came to us.
It was an extraordinarily peaceful event--I'm sure the cops were glad
that they didn't have to use their paddy wagons that they had parked
in sight of the Fort H.

I can't help but wonder what the cult's going to do next year--blow up
all the streets in downtown to keep us from walking on them or driving
on them?  I do know, that since we are not hemmed in by Hubbard Tech,
we will rise to meet and exceed the challenges that Scientology might
put in our path to try and keep us from exercising our
Constitutionally given First Amendment right to picket.

Deana Holmes


=======================================================================
Our unanimous affirmance of the Court of Appeals' judgment concerning
16-1-20.2 makes  it unnecessary to  comment at length on the District
Court's remarkable conclusion that the Federal Constitution imposes no
obstacle to Alabama's establishment of a state religion.
=============== Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985) ================   
mirele@xmission.com (Deana M. Holmes) mirele_ on EFNet #scientology