From: ladyada@space-tyrant.xenu.com (lady ada) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: ARSCC Boston Picket KR Date: 16 Mar 1997 00:17:11 GMT Organization: Cyber Access Internet Services (617) 876-5660 Lines: 299 Message-ID: <5gfe67$gam$1@lator.cybercom.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: space-tyrant.xenu.com X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
OK, never written a KR before, here it goes. I can't remember everything in order, some things might be unchronological, but they all happened. I'm sure I forgot a few things. Maybe when I remember, I'll update the KR Official non-documented quotes: OSA1: What's the diff between OSA and the GO? OSA2: Basically a name change, and a couple policies. OSA: Scientology raises IQ SG: Where's the 3rd party documentation? OSA: We have it. SG: Let's see. OSA: I don't have to prove it to you. You wouldn't believe it anyways. AnonPicketer: Look, it's Ron's birthday, maybe they're looking to blow out some candles. Also, I read the SF report. It sounded as bad as Clearwater. Agression is what they seem to want, but they back from it. Also I noticed you had some one try to pass as an innocent. Maybe other cities are feeling the pressure? They were certainly being harsher than I expected & had seen in the previous pickets. ada Declared SP!? Maybe.... *** *** *** I woke up this mornin' bright and early 9am, to make signs. (There goes $7) It was sunny out, although a bit windy. A decent day for a picket. I was not interested in going alone, Ron Newman (RN) and Sam Gorton (SG) guarranteed their attendance. I bumped into both of them on my way to the org, we trekked together. On arrival, we found two more people there, who are unidentified, so I'll call them Jane and John. They had a banner. So far so good. At 12:10, we began. We noticed there were 2 vans parked outside, one, the C of S van (which is manditory for a picket) and a second large blue van, parked on the corner of the curb. I gave him about 10 minutes, before approaching the driver: "Pardon me, you're parked illegally" "So!?" "Please move your van" "No!" "It's parked *illegally*" "Call the police!" This was very Tone 40. We did call the police, the van was moved. (We got photos of the driver, the van, the license plate.) It took them a few minutes to mobilize, they came out with a copy of 'henri's allegedly fake bombing post' and accused me of being in cahoots. I said I knew him, I didn't agree with him. They asked if I brought a knife with me. They didn't really listen to me, though. Here's where I can't remember what happened when, so I'll put it in anecdotal form. * Funky formatting * One man, apparently puts up the CCHR posters, started accusing me and RN of defacing his signs. Conversation with me went like this: Him: Me: "Pardon me, I was wondering if you'd "I don't know. Sorry, I don't know. seen my signs, someone's defacing I don't know. I don't know. I don't them. They're about psychiatry. know. Sorry, haven't seen them. I Psychiatry hurts people. You haven't can't help you. Why are you asking seen my signs? But I put them every me? I don't know. I don't know. I where! I think you know. Is it him? have no idea. Sorry, i can't help Did you do it? But you must know..." you...." When I tab that way, it means we were talking at the same time. That went on for a few minutes, he later said to his OSA friend: "I think she's denying something." OSA: "I think she did it." He tried about 3 sets of 3 minutes to get me to say something. Well, that was fun :) * It was so good, I exteriorized * I out TR0'd one guy! He started staring at me, so i stared back. He blinked. "BLINK!! YOU FLUNKED!! START OVER" They thought this was funny. But I can't tell if they were laughing at me or him.... * Wow! Am I declared now? * At one point, a woman with very blond hair, straight and somewhat bleached asked me. "Are you Lady Ada?" so, of course, I said "Maybe, why do you want to know?" "Lady Ada posted that she organized this picket" "My name is Joanne, but there are two other women here, maybe one of them is her." If they can't figure out who I am, they don't deserve my attention. * Outed? Heaven forbid... * Later on, when they brought out cake for us, one said and pointed in my direction "Maybe Lady Ada wants a piece." I declined. Oh No! I was Outed!@ OK QUICK BREAK HERE FOR SOME INFORMATION OSA MIGHT FIND USEFUL. Domain Name registration information is stored at internic. I post from Xenu.com. (ladyada@space-tyrant.xenu.com) If one did a domain name registration search on me, one would find 1) My name 2) My address 3) My phone number 4) My ISP. If you do a search on "Lady Ada", one would find an ad for the SP shirts I once sold. Again; my name, my address. If they don't know my mothers maiden name by now, I'll have to call them idiots. OK, BACK TO THE STORY. * I live somewhere * On a similar track, they told me "We know you live in Newton". Which I don't, so I said "No I don't". "Yes, you go to high school in Newton" I was slightly confused. "Last time, you said you lived in Newton." "Oh, uh." Man, I must have looked like a space cadet. They asked me for RN's name, I said "Louise." They have trouble with names. I personally don't care. Neither does RN. They eventually ID'd him. (OK, not like his picture is on his worldfamous web page...) * She wasn't even a psych * A second woman joined us, I didn't ask her name. She was mostly quiet. Somewhat big, blond and had shades. She held the banner with Jane and John. At some point she told them she was a psychiatrist. This set off the most embarressing harrassment I have ever seen, and is what I found the climax (?) of the picket. They started surrounding her, and hounding her and proclaiming she drugged kids. And performed electroshock. She refused to speak to them. Although, from my side of the street I heard them taunting her, trying to push her buttons. She apparently said something eventually, which elicted the reply "SHE SPEAKS! THE PSYCH SPEAKS!" They're awfully heavy on psychiatry. Immediatly they proclaimed the evil of psychiatry. One OSA came up to me and started yet another chain of question/answer session. I think it was the same guy as before: "What do you think about psychiatry?" "What do you think about psychiatry?" "I think it's harmful" "What's true for you, is true" "But you didn't answer my question! How do you feel that a psychiatrist is with you? "How do you feel about a psychiatris being with us?" "I think it's terrible" "What's true for you, is true." This went on for about 20 rounds. It was really annoying, but he went away. One of the OSA's donned a "Psychbusters" shirt. They put up a banner on the C of S van that stated "Electroshock therapy harms memory" or something similar. The guy came back and asked "What do you think about ECT?" "I don't know, what do you think about ECT?" "I think it's a terrible thing" "What's true for you is true" "But you didn't answer my question!" "..." "Do you agree with electroshock therapy?" "Do you agree..." and on and on and on. * I was officially owned. * Oi! So embarressing. A woman came up to me and said she was just walking by and wanted to know what was going on. I explained my side, they interjected and told their side. While they weretalking about their belief's I jutted in "yeah, and they believe in space aliens" which elicted 0 response from her. And a loud "Are you persecuting and belittling our religion?" type thing from the OSA's. This should have been my first clue. She said "are you an ex?" "No, but I know many of them" "I'd rather talk to an ex" so I brought her to someone I thought was an ex. I was wrong about that, but he looked at me with this look of "don't you realize..?" That's about when I realized she was staff and lied to me. She spent the next hour in her car, looking at us. Live and learn. * I was threated with lawsuit! * Because of the vans, I decided to just stand right on the side of the road to picket. 3 skeptics joined, and 4 scn's. This was all good until the police came for the van and then told us to get off the street and onto the sidewalk. I actually didn't hear this, but an OSA told me. So I went up to a different OSA and passed on the news. He acted much like the driver. Very non-confront, very tone '40'. Eventually he got on the sidewalk. Some half hour later, an OSA was crawing his way into the street, I went up to him and said "you have to get back on the sidwalk!" and started giggling, he went back on the curb, but his toes were hanging off the edge. I bumped them with my boot and said "no toes! not allowed!" but he took this as a threat. So now I'm being threatened with Physical Harrasment. I'd go to court just so people could post "Scientologist Sues High School Girl For Beating Him Up!" * My check's in the mail * We got the obligatory "What is your purpose?" "Who sent you here?" "Who is paying you?" I took the care to write in block letters "PROPERTY OF ARSCC" on my sign handles. I'd point at the signs and say "The ARSCC. They've payed me for one hour. Any more and I have to sign up for reimbursement." Dunno if they believed me. They didn't ask who the ARSCC were, so I assume not. I brought it up a good 8 times, I'd ask others "So, is the ARSCC paying you too?" Some people may say "why are you just helping them accuse us?" Well, I've gone to 3 pickets (not including this one) and with the reports from Clearwater, I have determined that talking to them *is* a waste. The man with the CCHR posters kept saying "Why don't you communicate with me?" to which I replied "Because I don't want to" "But i'm being friendly" "You act friendly. You are here to handle me. You are a hatted OSA. Who are you trying to fool? You don't care what I say." (this happened about 3 times) No matter what I could have done, if I had sold Girl Scout cookies, IT WOULD NOT HAVE MATTERED. I would have a terrible case, I'd be PTS/SP/DB whatever. I cannot be 'good', so why not be 'out of her fucking mind'!? I acted how I felt I should act; wacky & nutty. (Or as SG says: 'joking & degrading') * What -does- lesbianism have to do with psychiatry? * With about 30 minutes to go, and 4 OSA's asking about psychiatry, I started using Erisian Principals (increase entropy!) So, next time they asked "How do you feel, knowing that this ritalin-dealer is in your group?" I proclaimed loudly "I AM A LEZZZZBIAN!" (sorry to all you funky butch/femmes out there :) They paused. "I AM A CRAZY LESBIAN. I'M ALSO A PSYCH. AND I USE ECT FOR KICKS!" I continued this for a bit. They kinda giggled about it. "What does lesbianizm have to do with psychiatry?" "EVERYTHING! IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH IT!" My opinion: they are not rational. We try to be. Hence the misunderstandings! On the other hand, one picketer later commented that he thought I cracked under pressure. This may be :) * Snap! Snap! Grin! Grin! * There were 3 OSA's with cameras. (Well, there was a staffer on the second floor with one too. I posed a lot. They have so many pictures of me, but it's still not enough :) I enturbulated one by keeping my sign between his camera and me. Course, he got pix eventually. But they should work for them! The woman who fooled me witnessed him trying to snap me and didn't find it odd at all. * Sing, dance! Make merry! * They put up a lot of balloons and stuff. Handed out flyers and Freedoms. They had a few signs as well. They also put out a boombox and played ThetaRock :) The second floor has huge panes of glass. There were about 7 looking out (staff? public?) and sometimes pointing at us. I waved my signs at them. * It's over between us! * Seems like they loved us so much, they decided to not let go after 2:15 (when we officially ended the picket) RN left early so it was 6 of us walking down the street plus 1 OSA. We decided to split up. I looked behind us and there were 3 more running to catch up. SG and I walked one way (we decided to meet up at the Trident Cafe, very chic, very entheta) and had one guy follow us. We turned around, pointed the videocam at him and asked "Are you following us?" to which he replied he had to hand out all the Freedoms he was carrying (20 or so) so we took them all. He went away. We disposed of the Freedoms. We found the Trident and caught up with "Fred". We found an OSA hiding behind a stack of books (he may or may not have seen us.) We decided to try and meet at the starbucks at 3pm (this gave us a half hour.) We walked up to Tower Records (SG, Fred, the 'psych' and I) where we met (surprise surprise) 2 OSA's. "Hello again" "Are you following us?" "No, we're just looking for somehwere to have lunch" "I suggest you go to Newbury Pizza, three blocks that way. Great subs." "OK." I started breaking up my signs so I wouldn't have to carry them in the wind. I was breaking a crosspiece of wood when the OSA with the camera snapped and said "That looks like a cross" So basically I'm going to be given the caption "Breaking a cross! Relgious bigot!" for the pic. Do I care? No. :) * Trendy kids have a story to tell * We decide it is time to lose them. We walk into Tower Records. We go upstairs. I ask an employee "Pardon me, is there a rear exit to this building?" I explain that they are harrassing our friend. We talk to the guy in charge of security at the time. He's hip. Just then, who shows up again? Out comes the cam. "Are you following us?" "No" "I thought you wanted lunch" "We decided to look at some music." OK. They leave. We assume they are waiting by the doors. In the end, we take a side handicapped entrance/exit and scoot into the trolly station. We waited for 10 minutes, no OSA showed. We assumed they didn't see us. Time to go find the others. * Hiding in the alcove * We decide to take a slightly roundabout route to Starbucks. On the way we find the other 3 picketers. They pull us into an alcove. "What?" I ask. "They're right around the corner!" We huddle for a few minutes, eventually we see two OSA's cross the street and walk away from us. Jane and John go home. Fred, SG and I decide to meet at the Copley library. Fred walks the 6 blocks, SG and I go through the mall. We seem to have lost them. *** *** ***
We came, we saw, we gasped in amusement when we saw the very tall Robert Anderson, Boulder Mission Holder Man, dressed in a, I hope rented, Uncle Sam costume. Three cheers for Mr.Anderson for having a sense of humor. Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah! Three cheers for scaring the children and adults who are frightened of clowns or tall tall men dressed in red, white and blue! Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!From: Stephen Jones <snjones@ix.netcom.com> Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: Picket Report: Boulder Picket Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 13:11:10 GMT Organization: Netcom Lines: 95 Message-ID: <5gi588$c0f@dfw-ixnews3.ix.netcom.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: den-co27-20.ix.netcom.com X-NETCOM-Date: Sun Mar 16 7:03:04 PM CST 1997 X-Newsreader: NETCOMplete/3.2
I'd like to preface this report with a disclaimer:
I came late, didn't bring a sign or handouts and kinda just stood in one spot the entire time holding a borrowed sign (A heartfelt thanks goes out to the charasmatic Mr.Larry Wollersheim for lending me a sign. Thank you.). I'm sure others who were there the entire time, who were marching among the Scientologists, who were engaged in debate with the Scientologists, who were generally acting like any self-respecting picketer would...well, i'm sure they have a much more interesting story to tell.
We came late:
By the time we arrived, the picket was in full
swing. Scientologists (maybe 15 to 25??...they kept marching
in a circle...i didn't count...just a guess....don't hold me
to that number is what i'm saying) Anyway...by the time we
arrived A BUNCH of Scientologists were marching in a long
circle and chanting "Blah Blah Blah. Blah Blah Blah. Blah
Blah Blah Blah..Blah Blah Blah!" Well, they used actual
words...I just forgot what they were saying. Something about
THE INTERNET and RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY...i believe....it just
sounded like a robotic chant to me. It had a nice beat and I
could dance to it...that's all i cared about. I think we
were supposed to be shamed by the chant. I was soothed.
Does that make me a bad person?
We Saw:
The first thing we saw was Mr. Anderson dressed as Uncle Sam.
Mr. Anderson is a tall man and an even taller Uncle Sam if you
count the official looking Uncle Sam hat he was wearing. I
counted the hat which made him the tallest and most imposing
Uncle Sam i've ever seen. Not that one sees many Uncle Sams,
the 4th of July is Uncle Sam season and usually only used-car
dealers and crappy furniture stores use the likeness of Uncle
Sam in their garish advertisements (I Want YOU...TO SHOP TILL
YOU DROP AT SCIENTOLOGY'S MIDNIGHT MADDNESS SALE-ABRATION
BLOWOUT!!! PRICES SO HIGH YOU'LL SWEAR
WE'RE INSANE!!!). Uncle Sam was passing out flyers titled:
This was a nice flyer that outlined the 1st Amendment.
I enjoyed the ironic L.Ron Hubbard quote at the bottom of the
flyer: "On the day when we can fully trust each other, there
will be peace on Earth."
Perhaps Uncle Sam should have given one of these to his OSA
friend who videotaped the entire picket.
I STOOD:
This what I saw as I stood holding my borrowed sign. Uncle
Sam was across the street handing out his flyers (apparently
the majority of the picket moved across to the less busy side
of the street). The Scientologists marched in a big circle..
well...oval really, while they chanted and held signs.
Critics alternated between resting on a small wall behind the
Scientologists (the Slack Picket-Let the Scientologist march
and draw the attention. Stand behind them,hold your sign, and
marvel at the number of people who can actually read your
non-bobbing around sign. Smile when they nod their head and
smile at you)..ok, critics alternated between the slack picket
and actually getting in there and marching with the
Scientologists. Some of the less-lazy picketers engaged the Scns in debate
while they marched. Three cheers for these people! Three
cheers for the Scientologists who engaged in debate! One BOO!
for the aggressive Scn lady who started yelling at
Wollershiem! One CHEER for the woman who helped settle this
woman down! One CHEER to Mr.Anderson for showing a sense of
humor and wearing the Uncle Sam thing! A WHOLE BUNCHA CHEERS
for all the pleasant Scientologists and the pleasant critics!
The grumpiest people there was a pleasantly grumpy reporter and
the grim, and kinda tiny, OSA guy with a camcorder stuck to
his eyeball. A CHEER to Mr.Wollershiem for making loads of
extra signs! A WHOLE LOTTA CHEERS to the ARS critics I
recognized and had a chance to speak with...not that I said much of interest,
mind you...but it was nice for me.
Everyone says Good-bye:
Most of the critics headed to Old Chicago's after
the picket. Much to my regret, but lucky for the critics who did go, I
couldn't attend.
Compared to Steve Whitlatch's account of the SF picket and the reports from the Clearwater picket, the Boulder picket was, for lack of a better description, kinda friendly. Of course I didn't move much and arrived late. I'd be interested to hear how other, more active and verbal, critics perceived the event.
Stephen Jones
The Boulder picket.Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 00:41:04 -0600 From: rayr@ezlink.com Subject: Boulder Picket Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Message-ID: <858559758.14770@dejanews.com> Organization: Deja News Usenet Posting Service X-Article-Creation-Date: Mon Mar 17 00:49:27 1997 GMT X-Originating-IP-Addr: 199.45.150.178 (dyn178.ezlink.com) X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/3.0Gold (Win95; I) X-Authenticated-Sender: rayr@ezlink.com Lines: 187
Another early morning. 5:30Am I was up and getting ready. I headed over to "Brett's" house to pick him up. Brett is a friend of mine who is an interested lurker in the affairs of the CoS. We were headed out of Fort Collins by 7am. It had snowed the night before, but temperatures were expected to be in the 50's. This isn't Florida.
Just outside of Longmont we made radio contact with Telecon, famed co-organizer of the Boulder Protest. We arranged for bagels and a meeting place via handheld radio. After meeting Telecon, the three of us proceeded to Boulder.
We hit Wollersheims (should I just call him the Evil Puppetmaster? That's what the church seems to think he is. Wollersheim claims that *I* am the man running the whole show, though. The truth may never be known.) house at just after 8am. Everyone was introduced to the evil puppetmaster and at 8:30 the German TV crew showed up. We did verbal interviews with them while the cameras were being set up and all that funky jazz. Eating bagels and making press kits.
The German crew interviewed Telecon and Wollersheim on camera. At 10am, we decided it was time for recon. Brett, Myself and Telecon hit the road. Brett and I went to Pearl Street Mall in boulder and Telecon went off to Teegeack Boulder Base to petition for the presence of Xenu. We knew that Telecon was successful in recruiting Xenu as soon we heard "Xenu calling Telecon, come in Telecon" over my handheld radio. Xenu hears radio waves in his head.
The recon was interesting... they kept the area in front of the ORG real quiet, but their people were watching for us. Fortunately, finding OSA in a crowd is about as difficult as real life "Where's Waldo." If Hubbards clones weren't such....well....clones...it might be harder to pick 'em out. We ignored them for the most part.
Unlike Clearwater, all I had in terms of radio freq's was police freq's. The CoS doesn't have any freq's registered in Colorado.
We gathered at the courthouse... And the woman I'll call "The Screaming Woman" (I know her real name...but it's more fun to think of her as a bansheelike wailing woman that she became later in the picket) came and checked out our signs. She read them and trotted off to the goon in waiting so he could drive her back to the org to report the results of HER recon mission.
Now this is Boulder, Colorado. Picketers are about as unusual as trees. But none the less people were very interested in our signs as we walked up the Boulder mall. The response was usually pretty damn cool. People urged us on, took flyers, etc... But nobody shouted anything negative at us. (There is no negativity in Boulder...except around the Scientology Mission.) One girl said, "Oh...scientology, those people are scary."
I had talked to Robert Anderson on the phone thursday night before the picket. As a courtesy call. I'd told him that I would be happy to picket across the street in order to remove the local businesses from the situation as much as possible. I had also explained that the critics are individuals, and what I say is no authority over their actions. If they refused to picket across the street, then there was nothing I could do. I also explained that if anyone on "our side" got out of hand, that I would stand next to him and complain just as loudly about the individual. Bad behavior was not wanted and neither side would tolerate it.
Robert Anderson is a pretty nice guy...but he was obviously influenced by the wench from Portland that they'd flown in. He answered to her orders, demands, etc, with very quick attention. At one point she chastised him for not handing out leaflets to someone. The turnaround was amazing. This little Portland girl obviously craved my body, but she wouldn't share her name with me. She seemed unwilling to talk at all and was there to direct the events. She was "da boss," and even the overwhelming desire she must have felt towards me, couldn't distract her from her work. I hope she reads this...because I want her to know that I'm everything she imagined.
The picketers refused to cross the street. Twice. I'm fine with that...but I figured I'd get hammered for my credibility later. To their credit, they didn't do that. Eventually, they did move, though...after many complaints from the business owners next to the Org.
We started picketing and the counter picketers rolled out. It wasn't long before I heard a "hi Ray" from behind me and turned around to see none other than Joe Neal. I said, "Long time no see. Did you miss me?" He said, "No." I asked if they'd flown him out here just for me and he said he wanted to come here. Now Joe Neal is an interesting guy. He can alternate between "nice guy" and "complete asshole" in a matter of seconds. I tried to be a nice guy to him. And he was okay except when I suggested that he start relaying personal messages from me to Mike Rinder. Then he told me to Fuck Off or something. I dunno. I tried to recommend a resturaunt for him to eat at..but my mind was blank to the good ones.
Xenu showed up...and the scieno's avoided him like he was some kind of Alien. Oh....er...well...he IS some kind of Alien, so I reckon that makes sense. Of all the arguments that all the stooges made that day, Joe Neal's argument made the biggest impact on me. He pointed to Xenu and said, "Ray, you say you're not a bigot... but that's bigotry, my friend." I made a mental note, "bring this topic up for discussion." Consider it raised.
The picket was ok. The bullbaiting was done in Boulder Scieno style. Which is to say, they kept their distance, they talked nicely, they didn't cover the signs, etc. I actually had some good conversations with people. And the church in clearwater needs to realize, we can respect people who respect us. The dumbest move of the picket was when DSA of Denver, Deb Danos had the sign saying "Wollersheim used Penny." I told her, "you're going to look like an idiot when Penny shows up." Show up he did. THE Bob Penny. I was busy protesting and didn't take the time to introduce myself. Much to my dismay. I do hope I get the chance to meet him again. Bob and Lawrence stood there and talked to the media, had pictures taken of themselves, and put the whole "they hate each other" rumor to rest. Hopefully forever. The pictures will be up this week. (As soon as I develop the film)
The second dumbest move of the picket was for the Boulder scns's to start chanting, "Internet bigots, spreading lies blah blah blah something something." This was a stupid move because it prompted a handful of internet users to join our protest. Or such was my impression. Real dumb, folks. Real dumb. Tell ya what, next time someone pickets you... Hire me. I'll tell you if something's stupid or not. Okay?
Nearing the end of the picket Jane Allen (whose phone messages have not been getting to me apparently) and Robert Anderson and I talked. Now this could be a good cop/bad cop thing but they're a couple of pretty nice people. Robert Anderson seems to have this ability to avoid clamthink. Or at least not *look* like he's displaying clamthink. In other words, he appears logical. They offered to take me out to dinner to chat. How could I refuse? Jane Allen is OT8...So if I can convince her...just maybe she'll postulate a nicer church. Hah! Right. We'll be meeting for dinner sometime this week.
Lawrence had this woman from LA following him around bullbaiting him near the end of the picket. At a few points he pressed her buttons and she started wailing and screaming. This is The Screaming Woman. Who didn't seem very bright to me. I think she didn't know how close she was to getting arrested. Maybe she's a smart lady... I don't know her. But she didn't *seem* smart. Hopefully they'll do better next time.
We all adjourned to Old Chicago's for eats and beers. Everyone jabbered and chatted and Keith Cochran footed the bill. The ARSCC had better repay or we'll picket them. Whadda guy.
Great day picketing. They spent lots of $$$ handling us. And we didn't spend anything. The cost of the signs was even covered as we recycled the clearwater signs. Several newspaper journalists were there and one television crew.
Issues and Lessons and stuff:
They complained at being called Clams. My response was that when they stopped calling me a wog, I'd stop calling them clams.
I told Joe Neal to pass on a little note to his superiors. I said, "Pay Wollersheim and we won't picket next year." He won't pass it on.
They think I'm working closely with Wollersheim, or so their clamulets on the picket line had been told. They were shocked to find I had my own brain, that I'd only met Lawrence the week before, and that I was there for my own reasons. Little do they know... *I* am the evil puppetmaster. <sigh>
Next year they'll have an Opto scout....or so Joe implied. OSA, here's a hint for ya. I have a trap set for you...remember that. When it comes to real-tech... I'm several rungs further up the ladder than you are and I always will be.
One last thing.... Robert Anderson, who's like 12'8" tall.. or something like that, (closer to 6 feet..but very tall) was dressed up as Uncle Sam. It was a good move on their part. And he definitely gets the "Best Dressed" award. Xenu was cuddly, but this is Boulder...Uncle Sam got more attention than Xenu. Boulder had its fill of Aliens with Mork.
-Love And Kisses (especially to Ms. Portland (call me if you can't help yourself <lick>))
-Ray
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Arrived at the big org 10:40am. 11am one of the ot's drives by and asks can we have coffee and talk. And so i meet with her. We spoke about 2hrs 15min.Path: szdc-e!szdc!news From: teddy@skylink.net (Ted Mayett (KoX)) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: Sat 3/15/97 Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 06:01:37 GMT Organization: None Lines: 165 Message-ID: <332b705d.156510270@snews.zippo.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Newsreader: Forte Agent .99g/16.339
Mainly she listened, this is Mary, the one I have known for 10+ years. We are about the same age. I made no notes and carry no tape recorder.
I told her about the how I first got on the internet. Told her about how the first people I asked questions of was church management. About sending e-mail and s-mail, about asking if what i was reading was true, about how after three weeks without an answer i had decided it was true.
Told her about the RMGRP, cancels and spam. About how the popular opinion was that scientology was just practice for when a real force, such as a government, tries to control the net.
Told her about the freezone, that the top auditors are part of it, that the only real people left in the cult were the paper pushers. I used the word cult quite often. Also monkeys and clams.
Told her that they were shrinking, and shrinking badly. That the big org, with a vehicle count of 15, is one of the bigger orgs. Asked why it was so important to claim 8 million members. She gave some type of answer. Asked her why the membership claim has not changed in 6 years.
As i say, mainly she listened. I gave an argument that the tech was not the problem. That the problem was management. That management is out-tek, and "what are you going to do about it?" I used this "what are you going to do about it" quite often.
Told her about the pro-se's, how they were costing the church a lot of money. Told her about the court cases and how the rolled-over lawyers were stretched thin. Told her she spends over 20 million a year on attorneys. Told her that copyright and trade secret were already surrendered on parts of OTlll, that I could show up with a picket sign with ot3 on it and OSA could do nothing about it. Told her the NOTS have been on one web page for almost 4 uninterrupted months, and that the cult is not even suing.
Told her about the NY Times article, she had not heard of it. Told her that was the beginning of the end, that the media is watching and waiting, that if the Times is not sued they are all going to bust free, that the years of killing pets and smashing cars and handling newspapers are over.
She did not like all she was hearing, but she just kept listening. I even told her that this discussion was unusual. That typically the OSA do most of the talking when they meet with critics. That the critics usually record every meeting with a clam.
I told her I had not put her full name on the internet, that i was sorry for the few names i had put up, except for sea org. Told her that I had never put up phone numbers or addresses on any of the staff or public. And that i had never mentioned the show on the Strip. And I never have given that name to *anyone*. Told her that another critic recently had his job threatened by scientologists and that I am ready to go with all the information on the show, that I am ready to post it all. Told her I had faxed Duncan and posted to OSA that the next critic gets their job messed with and I blow the show wide open. Then i rattled off names and posts in both the show and the org. She was troubled by this. She knew just how many names I had now.
Told her that the bulk of the critics frown on this behavior, that the critics maintain we must be better than they are, but that I'm not one of the bleeding hearts, that I'm tired of people having their jobs messed with. Asked her why did she suppose I was able to picket. She did not know. Told her it was because I had no job, wife, kids, house, or business that could be destroyed by scientology, that that is what scientology does. She was clearly uncomfortable at hearing this. But she did believe me that that is what scieno does.
Told her the main PI for the cult has warrants out. That church members do not speak anymore at Flag, that only lawyers do. Told her about the picket last weekend, about the vulgar behavior of scieno's.
Asked about my Declare. She said I was Declared, told her that was verbal tek, that I wanted the declare. Told of all I did to get the declare, including trying to call Miscavaige to ask for it. She asked why the declare was so important, told her I was tired of the game anyway and explained that I am ready to take them to court as soon as I get it. That management knows this and so I will never get it. That I am telling her now because I've learned that even pro se, court is a terrible expense in money. And of course a dear expense in time. That I may never bother with the court business.
She listened and listened. Then i spoke of Lisa. Told the story well, and slowly. And she really listened. Every now and then, here and there, i keep asking, what are you going to do about this?
Told her that some of the people on the NG would not know tek if it jumped up and hit them on the nose. And that the clams who come on the NG do not know it either. Told her Jim Kalergis was here and that I ran him off, that I had run off several of them. All the while I am maintaining that the tek is Good, and just not being applied by management. She asks, "why are you picketing" I say I'm here to close both orgs down, that I have already posted that you people can get the women and children you use up at Flag from other cities, not from mine. (I had told her about Donald Strawn) Both with Strawn and with Lisa I kept saying, this is not scientology, this is not the scieno's in this city, none of you would tolerate a rapist in your midst. She agreed to this.
She argued that if the tek were good why would I want to shut them down, that that would not bring tek in to the area. I gave her my theory that when about 50% of the orgs are shut down, the remaining orgs will finally say , "we had better change things". She asked what I really wanted, told her a mutiny, a revolution. That we should do it for Ron, that we should save scientology, that right now I need never picket or post again. It doesn't matter, management is dragging you down and you people don't care. That the numbers were really low, 10 people in one org, 6 in another, etc. That in Europe they hear of the fantastic expansion here and here they hear the same of Europe. That planet wide people are entering the orgs and playing with staff, having fun with them and then mentioning Xenu on the way out. I asked her were they working the University's for new people, she flinched, they are! Told her it was a mistake, that the college kids would just turn on a computer and say, look at this.
Explained why i did the singing initially, that I had to gain control of the street. That they are all in apathy, that I was happy to see Holly curse, because that meant you were coming up to anger. that I would get you to antagonism and then one day interest. interest in your own church. Told her I had posted and predicted 6 months ago that it would take about 6 months till I wore you down enough to talk with me. That i was coming back and coming back strong, fast and mean, with moves they have not seen before. Told her management does not give you information, that they cut you off. That I play with you all because you follow the tek blindly and that works against you. I even explained this part with examples from her org. Told her about how I had set both orgs up for a massive picket early '96, and had posted at the same time to OSA that I would not be there, and about how they here were never informed and so were on standby for two days.
I spoke a lot, and she listened. Mainly she listened. And suddenly I realized I was doing exit-counseling. And I almost smiled, thinking of all the gentler critics on this NG. And at times when she was saying things like, "well I have my own reality and the org is expanding", and this after I explained that even though i have not been bothering them lately, they have only once hit a high of 17 vehicles. But while she is saying things like this and I'm politely listening, watching, and not pushing her into a corner, while I'm doing this I'm smiling and wondering if indeed that is what will happen. Me, Macho Ted, exit-counseler.
All this happening at once, honest and insightful picket reports from CW. JJ and his Ghandi Tech. All the critics yapping for a year, "don't out them, don't out the jobs, be better than them." And there i am sitting in a booth doing exit-counseling. And I understood it in that booth. It takes patience and caring. And TIME. Mainly caring.
Ghandi Tech. That stuff is going to ruin me. One day I'll probably stop calling the scumbags monkeys and clams. It sure is hard becoming an adult. :-)
I told her the Freezone calls people like me "meatballs" She thought that was funny.
-- Ted Mayett http://xenu.phys.uit.no/cgi-bin/globloc.cgi http://www.skylink.net/~teddy/court.html
In Clearwater it was water (washing the buiding and sidewalk). In the desert, fittingly, it was gravel!From: bpetty@primenet.com (BP) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: Phoenix/Mesa Picket Report Date: 15 Mar 1997 15:12:01 -0700 Organization: Primenet Services for the Internet Lines: 36 Message-ID: <5gf6rh$arv@nnrp1.news.primenet.com> X-Posted-By: @206.165.21.18 (bpetty) X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.99.8 (x86 32bit) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII
We arrived at the site to find the sidewalk in front of the building cordoned off with ribbon and folding stands. The scienos were doing a little landscaping. Of course, being highly productive and trained adepts, they were able to accomplish in two hours and with three people, less work than I could do in 1/2 hour without breaking a sweat (even in Phoenix).
We had the Mesa police verify their permit, then picketed from across the street, with all the same visibility as from the blocked off site. And, we kept several members busy looking busy in the hot sun for the whole time.
As has been pointed out in this newsgroup, the Co$ is hardly famous for the esthetic appearance of its orgs; They must really be scared of "taking a bath" to clean up at such coincidental times!
My wife and I were joined by Jeff and Tashback (that's two weeks in a row for them, after Clearwater last week).
After a break for lunch, we returned to find the orgites still busy as bees, bees with one leg and one wing, maybe. At least we have the satisfaction of keeping them doing harmless work, instead of the usual brain-washing.
Happy Thetan Implantation day, Phlubbard. May you roast in pieces.
Well, the San Francisco picket went off reasonably well.From: me_takethisout@primenet.com (kEvin) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: San Francisco Picket Report. March 15th Date: 15 Mar 1997 21:13:07 -0700 Organization: Primenet Lines: 119 Message-ID: <5gfs0j$ntd@nnrp1.news.primenet.com> Reply-To: me_takethisout@primenet.com X-Posted-By: me@206.165.102.192 (me) X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82
I'm going to type in some impressions out of chronological order.
The last memorable incident was being followed to my car. I walked away talking to a woman who had had electroshock in the late 60's and it was a pretty interesting conversation. We walked up one block away from the org and I went slightly right. She wanted to go straight. We both stopped so that she could tell the story without either of us going out of our way. This put me just around the corner of the building. I was looking straight at her when one of the scientologists from the org walked around the corner, looked around, then visibly started when he saw I was about 2 feet away and looking at him. He stood there for a second, then turned again and continued on his original direction acting worried. I went down 2 more blocks doing a couple of quick looks back to see if I could spot him on the wide open street, then got to my car, tossed the sign in the trunk and drove off. I spotted him again in my rear view mirror looking flushed from exertion. I don't know if he got my license plate number. We'll see what happens.
Skipping around in no particular order:
At one point, I went to investigate the apparent drunk apparently abusing Keith Henson. It turned out the guy was drunk and he'd completely misunderstood which side Keith was on. I ended up talking to him for a little bit, quickly getting annoyed with his utter lack of coherence and drunken profundity. I walked up and down the block several times, hoping he'd move along, but he showed no signs of leaving, being coherent, or being quiet. I distracted him onto one of the Scientology[tm] counter picketers and beat a quick retreat to the opposite end of the org. He followed her around and gave her a hard time. I was expecting her to try and pass him off on one of the protestors, but she apparently didn't think of that and after at least 10 minutes she tried some ineffectual attempts to just shake him. Running around the lightpole didn't work, so she mustered up some confront and told him to let her be while she took a smoke break. (I think. I wasn't close enough to hear.) The drunk left after that.
I got a really encouraging acknowledgement from someone who'd stuck in my memory from a previous picket. At the previous picket, this woman had walked by and with a look like she was near tears had looked at us picketing and said, "It's about time." This same woman walked by this time and I caught her eye and she looked happy and gave me a thumbs up. (She never stopped moving and that's the sum total of our contact.)
Unlike the picket in October where they just ignored us, this time they tried using counter-picketers again. (yay! the October picket was boring.) I only recognized one of the counter-picketers from any previous pickets. I did pry out of one of them (word of mouth said he was an OT8) that he was a public volunteering his time.
The counter-picketers were pretty in-your-face this time. I'm not particularly bothered by these kinds of tactics, I hope none of the other picketers were bothered. The OT8 guy tried a tactic that consisted mainly of repeating the word "loser" over and over at me. Made me think I was on a date. (Jay-Oh-Kay-Eee) He's got kids. He paused when I asked if he'd set aside money to send them to college or if he spent everything on auditing. He also didn't like being asked what it felt like to be at effect to a loser. I feel real sorry for his kids. Someone who's been warped into thinking that acting like an asshole is in an elevated state is serious bad news for a parent.
I got to introduce the concept of placebos and control groups to Jeff Quiros and the woman shadowing Wayne Whitney (his sign said, "Stop hurting your own members." Her sign said "Wayne - Stop hurting your own member.") They pooh-poohed the idea that it mattered if results were no more effective than placebos or controls. "What matters is if it works!" (This was my meme virus for the day. you can't think about placebos and control groups and look at Hubbard's bullshit the same way [I hope.] )
I was going at it with three of them when everyone went to lunch, so I skipped lunch. One man I'd spoken with earlier came back and volunteered to help picket. I didn't want to give him my sign (it's old and fragile now) so I handed him a bunch of fliers. He walked around for a bit, but the scientologists all got called into a meeting and it got real boring with no other picketers and no counter picketers. (Wish I'd seen the spare sign someone had stashed away.)
My first counter-picketer was short and boring. He was trying the old invalidate someone by continuously getting their name wrong and ignoring or misunderstanding what they say. I suspect this tactic works better if the target hasn't read the instructions as well. He was the first to just disappear in mid-sentence. (Literally!) Later I figured out he'd gone to bother another picketer. I couldn't figure out why he fled when he did.
All-in-all, I enjoyed this picket. I feel like I did some good. I made up my own fliers, but they were too URL saturated and probably weren't as effective as they could have been. the flip side was a cut'n'paste of Jeff Jacobson's Lisa page, 2 paragraphs from the St. Petersburg Times on the candles getting blown out at the vigil and an ending line that said "Scientology[tm] makes victims out of the uninformed. Arm yourself with knowledge" I figured that would push some buttons in the poor souls who get taken by the scam.
I had many (many = more than 4) of the counter-picketers try and tell me that reincarnation was compatible with Christianity and that the bible was edited to remove references to reincarnation. The first is a blatant lie, but where are they all getting that second one from? Heidrun made noises about that as well. Is it in some obscure reference I've missed?
There was a lot going on and this is a pretty unrepresentative report. I hope someone else will fill in the gaps.
kEvin me@primenet.com
I helped picket the the SF org from about 10:30 am to about 4:00 pm.From: steve@swhitlat.com () Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: SF Picket Report Date: 16 Mar 1997 02:00:22 GMT Organization: Steve Whitlatch, Inc. Lines: 80 Distribution: world Message-ID: <5gfk7m$f49$1@news.aimnet.com> Reply-To: swhitlat@prism.nmt.edu NNTP-Posting-Host: dial-milp-11.iway.aimnet.com X-newsreader: xrn 8.03-beta-17
The scienos came out and did a very aggressive counter picket; they were hostile and abusive. They tried to provoke violence with me. How? By placing some of their faces very close to mine (about an inch away) and shouting insults, things like "you are dogshit" "asshole" "loser" and other similar utterances.
Men usually do not do that sort of thing without intentions of fighting. This happened four times, two different scieno males taking the aggressive role at different times.
The usual patter was to surround me with three scienos and box me in with their pro-scientology picket signs, and then send one right into my face while the other two laughed, ridiculed, and supported the aggressor.
In one case an OT8 shouted "You're a loser!" at least 40 times, as if it would be true if he could just drill the accusation home hard enough.
How did I react? Sometimes by shouting back, sometimes by laughing at them (asking about Xenu and BTs).
I know this: when I responded to them with aggression, they backed down. I can only guess at the orders OSA issued world wide, but OSA certainly did issue prescriptive advice for dealing with picketers. That is clear. However, it appears that OSA does not really want violence. The aggressors backed away when I took the aggressive role. Yes, and it is not all that hard to cave in OTs. There is a part in them that knows scientology is completely false. You can see it in their eyes (and mouths, the mouth is telling) when you bring up Xenu and body thetans. I believe they are ashamed of how foolish they have become.
The scienos used at least one child (about 8 yrs old) as a counter picketer.
It was a very nice day. About 10 people came to picket against the scienos, and the scienos used about 25 different people to counter our picket with a pro-scientology picket, same stuff, "scientology saves lives", "scientology fights drugs", etc. Several scieno faces were new, perhaps public, probably brought in just for the counter picket.
Most interesting thing: A person off the street (really an OT 8 under OSA direction who deceived me into believing he was a non-scientologist) approached me as soon as I arrived and pretended to be uninformed. I spoke with him for about an hour (I'd arrived early), and he asked tons of questions, about who I was, why I was doing this, was I ever a scientologist, how had I become involved, etc.? I answered all his questions as best I could. I am sure OSA was looking for information, either the sensitive kind (secrets), or just plain info they could use to build their files on me (OSA most likely keeps files on all active anti-scientologists).
I could not reveal secrets because I don't know any. I did reveal information about myself, plain uninteresting stuff that anyone who cared to read my ARS posts would already know.
I come away from this picket with more first-hand evidence of how the scienos bully, bluster, and bluff, how they operate through deception, and how when confronted, they fade.
Steve Whitlatch swhitlat@aimnet.com -- Honesty cures scientology.
Well, I finally made it to a picket. I was so proud ;) Anyway, I had been unable to put anything together beforehand, what with being sick for a week and generally having no energy, so Keith offered to help me put together a sign, and I returned the favor by being his ride up to the city.From: dkeith@xenu.best.com (Ex Mudder) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: Re: San Francisco Picket Report. March 15th Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 09:46:17 GMT Organization: The ARSCC (there is no ARSCC) Lines: 177 Sender: one of Xenu's many minions Distribution: all Message-ID: <332f1262.4789405@nntp1.ba.best.com> References: <5gfs0j$ntd@nnrp1.news.primenet.com> Reply-To: dkeith@best.com NNTP-Posting-Host: dkeith.vip.best.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Newsreader: Forte Agent .99g/16.339
Apparently, my DSA overheard a conversationg about this. At one point, when Keith went off to feed the meter, Quiros said "I think he's leaving" (the tone implied that he took credit for driving him off). Darelen responded by telling him that I was his ride, implying that Quiros was engaged in wishful thinking (postualting?). It started fairly tame, with about 7 of us there, (10 total thru the day), and about an equal number of clams outside the org. My sign was
$cientology Church Of Cockroach The Holy * Cult * Law$uit* = hand drawings of cockroaches
Generally, the responce from the public was about 10:1 in support of my sign.
When I arrived, one of the local supressives said that my DSA had asked where I was. (correction to earlier post - neither the DSA nor the OT7 I talked with a coupla weeks ago are sea org). She seemed to be running liason for Jeff Quiros, DSA for the north bay. Quiros sat out there watching the picket, while Darlene would wander out, then head back in, then come out and bring Quiros inside... I think they were in contact with a central group of some sort.
She told me she had looked for the Flag Order on my web page about abortions, but only found the affadavit. I asked her if I could pick up the 2 SJ Mercury articles from her. I think she was confused by how friendly I am - she told me several times "we're on opposite sides" and "you're trying to destroy my religion" and said she ddin't want me to just drop by the local org like everything was fine, then hit me up for a PO box.
Granted, I was leaning my "cockroach cult" sign againt my hip through this conversation. That might have had something to do with it.
One of the oddest things about this picket is that I didn't get my very own counter-picketing clam. While I did sometimes deal with the Jerk who kept taking my fliers from people, and sometimes with one of the other clams on a stick. But most of the SPs who were got their very own clam following them around - but I didn't. This made me feel left out.
Eventually I asked Darlene about it. She denied having anything to do with this, and did nothing to remedy the situaltion. I thot that she had been hatted to handle me or something. Did they just not like me? think I was beneath notice? or did my sign really enturbulate them?
While I was origionally talking with Darlene, I saw Wayne's little puppy with her "Wayne, Stop abusing your own Member" poster. When I saw that I started laughing. Then I turned back to Darlene.
Dunno what she thought.
One of the first people who started talking with me at length claimed to know nothing about the cult, and kept asking me questions. However, the script was nearly identical to the one some people who drop by IRC use - "I know nothing, but..." and then after a few hours reveal that they are a clam in Wog's clothing. The 'net is nice that way - I've heard it all before.
Anyway, after this dude left me (actually, was called off by the 2 DSA's who took him for a side bar) I mentioned to a coupla supressives that a FSM just tried to pretend he wasn't a clam.
I was wrong, apparently. He wasn't an FSM.
He was an OT 8.
There were a couple of young ladies - college dropout age - who were there, who turned out to be Scn. Trying oto give them a flier was the first time (of 3) that the jackass took my leaflet, crupled it up, and threw it away (not that he was always successful - one time he didn't get his hand on it in time, the other he surrendered it after a little tug of war).
If I haven't made it clear, this was after I had handed the flier off, so he was going after the 3rd party. He also had a "rebuttal" to what I had wrote, claiming that mine was inaccurate.
Highly unlikely, as I printed the thing out this morning and wrote it up a little over a week ago.
Anyway, I found those 2 young ladies to be the most depressing scene of the whole picket - I had just seen the pics of Lisa M's hands, and didn't want them to wind up the same way.
To say nothing of the cute 8-10 yr old who seemed to be one of their sisters.
After a couple of hours, I got sick of being nice and decided to start screwing with the picketers. There were 2 - the jerk and normal looking clam chick - who seemd to enjoy talking to themselves. I'd say something, and they launch into a rehearsed speech. Pitiful actually.
At one point I started talking about OT3 with another picketer. She took off, and he started singing and following me around. He said something like "I'm not stopping your free speech, I'm just ignoring it" while singing loud enough to block our conversation. Me and the other Sp split up, and eventually he stopped.
The OT 8 had a button on body thetans. Something I learned at this picket was clam body language - took me some thought and chats with some of the other pickters until I could pick up on it. Darlene, for example, seemed to be very uncomfortable talking to me so civilly with Quiros, et all, looking on, but her body language wasn't "I'm uncomfortable"
I dunno what it was, but now I think I can spot it.
Anyway, the OT 8 responded oddly to my questions. I started with a "is OT 8 Source is the 8th dynamic / Jesus was a pedophile" or is it "auditing your past lives" He refused to tell me.
When I started asking him about Xenu, the Markabs, and BT's he responded in a way I found hard to comprehend - he seemed to ignore what I said, but he would then change the subject of his stream of babble. Its like talking about BTs caused his thought to richoshet in another direction.
We had another lady join us later in the picket, who I guessed (incorrectly) was CBW. It was interesting to contrast the chats we had with her about Mormonism with the kind of nonsense we got from the clams.
Also, 2 of the pickters had Miscaviages's Emoticon (*) on one side of their sign. Darlene asked me/us what it meant - she knew about Grady and the computer meaning, but seemed to be curious if it meant something to the man on the street.
Something interesting about Darlene, my DSA. She reads my posts and my web page, but not on the net. She has to have them edited by someone else to make sure they don't contain things she shouldn't know. Makes me think of Hubbard's "intellugence" job of censoring telexes during the war, after getting busted for using his corvette to attack rocks.
I tried lines like "wife beating bigamist" but neither the clams nor the people walking by seemed to understand or react. Claiming that cockroaches nibbled on Lisa before her death seemed to work much better.
I did get one person, who fits the profile of "dweeb w/o a life" like some clams I have seen, didn't believe that cockroached bite people. The Jerk (I asked him his name several times, but he never told me) immediately stuck to him like a homesick BT.
Near the end of the picket (after lunch) I tried again to start a conversation with one of the clams - the OT 8 I think. I had gotten the normal "take responsibility for your life" "this is a game to you" "you never knew Lisa M" and what not throughout the picket, but this was something else.
He called me a parasite, so I agreed with him. I told him how fun it was to be paid by the government to stand out there.
He asked if I was homosexual, so I said "not usually. I prefer women" He then asked me if I sucked cock or buggered people, and I responded with "not yet, I havn't been sued so I can't do this to the lawyers"
He accused me of doing illegal and psych drugs, so I agreed again.
This approach seemed to confuse him. He'd give a half hearted speech and accuse me of something else.
I have used this approach before, such as with Diane one night on IRC. It worked well then, too. But there was one big difference - Diane responded like a person (a drunk person, but a person) - this guy responded like a badly written BASIC program.
I guess this shouldn't suprise me. I've long believed that Eliza is more effective than an E meter.
Sorry for the confused nature of this post, but the ARSCC (tincc) has been witholding my Prozac till I get my stats back up. ;)
PS: I thought I share my BigWin with you all, even if it doesn't directly involve the picket.
My Congressman mailed me a copy of the NY times article on Scn and the IRS.
I thought that was rather sweet of him.
Another Keith
Ex Mudder: http://www.best.com/~dkeith If your mail to me bounces, its probably because Xenu was in it "In the marketplace of ideas that is the Internet, a lawsuit is generally considered the last refuge of the incompetent"
From: wwhit71151@aol.com (WWhit71151) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: Wayne Whitney - Picket Report Mar 15, 97 Date: 17 Mar 1997 06:37:20 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 44 Message-ID: <19970317063700.BAA04126@ladder01.news.aol.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: ladder01.news.aol.com X-Admin: news@aol.com
Today I arrived at the Org about 11:15A.M. Steve Whitlatch was already there with a whole crowd around him. I was impressed.
This time I arrived carrying a sign which read, “STOP HURTING YOUR OWN MEMBERS.” I held this sign in memory of Lisa. Since I couldn’t partake in the vigil in Clearwater this was my way of paying my last respects to her. This sign I kept facing the org at all times as opposed to facing it towards those on the street as I normally do. I wanted all Scientology members inside to know, without a doubt, that *I* was directing my message towards THEM this time.
When I first got there I was pretty much ignored as I usually am during my weekly pickets. I assumed that they had gone into apathy about me and were going to leave me alone this time as well.
After awhile of peaceful picketing this one member suddenly walks up and starts firing all these questions at me. “What is this sign all about? Why do you keep it facing it at the org?” Etc.. etc. When I told him that it was in memory of Lisa he said, “OH YEA, you didn’t even know Lisa.” When I responded with, “I don’t need to know someone personally to care about them. He responded with, “How many Lisas do you know out there.” As he went on and on he kept getting more and more antagonistic. Finally he moved in and got right in my face continuing with his rant.
At this point Steve Whitlatch muscles in between us to hand me a flier. The guy mumbles something like, ”I didn’t appreciate you stepping in front of me like that.” The guy then wanders off. That ended that little ‘conversation’ right there.
I turn around to continue my picket. I see this woman walk out the front door heading straight for me holding a small sign which read, “WAYNE STOP HURTING YOUR OWN MEMBER”. When I saw that sign my first thought was, ”Geez, I always thought I took great care of my own member”. She walks up to me and sticks the sign right in my face to make sure that I saw it. She then gets behind me and starts to follow me wherever I go.
For quite some time she followed me around about five feet behind me like a little puppy . Half the time when I turned around to change directions she would shove the sign in my face to make sure that I saw it again. If someone asked her what her sign meant she would say, “Ask Wayne here, HE knows EXACTLY what it means.” When I mentioned to someone that probably no one even knew who ‘Wayne’ was she started to occasionally point to me and blurt out, “This is Wayne right here, this is Wayne right here.” I liked the way she kept using my name, it made me feel kind of important out there. WOW, personal attention for a change, they usually just ignore me. I must have hit a raw nerve with my new sign.
It’s interesting to note that this woman didn’t even know me so she MUST have been instructed to do all this by someone inside. I suspect Jeff Quiros put her up to it since he was out in front a lot of the time directing all the counter-picket activities. I also suspect Jeff because he and I have this constant, somewhat antagonistic, situation going on between us right now. This might be why I received the ‘personalized’ attention that I did.
After awhile this other female member comes up and starts talking to me. Unlike the others this woman is really friendly towards me. When she takes over my ‘little puppy’ wanders off to go do other things. We talked for quite awhile, her telling me about her positive experiences in the organization and me telling about all my negative experiences. My impression is that she was sincere about her experiences. At the same time I also suspected that she was sent to get information out of me because she asked me some very blunt questions about who was behind all my activities. This woman eventually went off to perform other anti-picket activities such as putting up a pro-Scientology banner on the large truck they had parked out in front.
Apparently these guys just don’t get it. They appear to be so paranoid about a worldwide conspiracy against them. They just can’t get it through there heads that maybe there are so many individuals out here who simply refuse to put up with their unethical activities and are acting under their own self-determinism to do something about it.
After awhile that one guy (who had gotten antagonistic earlier) came back. This time he was quite a bit calmer and seemed interested in what I had to say -- at first. I related some my negative experiences and tried to explain WHY I was out there picketing. Once again he got right in my face and said in a loud voice, “You’ve got to be the most stupid person alive. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. I just can’t believe how stupid you are. I can’t believe how stupid you are to have kept giving them money when you weren’t getting anything out of it.”
I tried in vain to explain why I did it. I’ve found that unless a person’s been in that situation that most people have trouble understanding what it’s like and how the cult can get a normally rational person to act in bizarre ways. I really wish someone would make a TV movie dramatizing the whole experience. Maybe then more people would understand what it’s REALLY like to be lured into this cult and be subjected to the lies, deceptions, threats, harassment and constant ‘back room reg cycles’. I find it very difficult to fully communicate this experience to people out on the street. I’ve settled with just relaying the objective facts of what happens to you once you walk in that front door. I leave out the emotions that a person goes through. I’ve become very successful at getting enough of the facts across. Fortunately this is ALL that is necessary to keep people out of this cult. The frustration and anger I have to suppress and keep to myself.
Anyway, me and this guy went round and round a number of times. It was worse than talking to a brick wall. Each round ended with me saying, “YOU WEREN’T THERE, you can’t possibly understand what it was like for me,” He’d respond with, ”I just can’t believe how stupid you are to have kept giving them money when you weren’t getting anything out of it.” At some point I realized how pointless the whole conversation was so I think I just walked away. I had better things to do than waste my time with him. His comments, no matter how hurtful I may find them, just make me more determined than ever to continue trying to keep the same thing from happening to others.
By this time the clouds were moving in and it started to get cold. Things were winding to a close. Staff members appeared to be packing up getting ready to leave for some ‘event.’ They even took Hubbard’s bust with them. Around 4:00P.M. this former member (apparently a very satisfied customer of the cult) came up and asked if could ask me a few questions. We ended up talking for about 30 minutes. He spent quite a bit of time just listening to me talk about my reasons for being out there. I thought we had a very meaningful discussion. Not everyone out there to handle the picketers became nasty or antagonistic to me, some were very understanding about my reasons for being out there. I tried to deal with each person on an individual basis. This picket re-affirmed my opinion that my method of picketing is the correct one for me.
While we were talking this other guy came over and started talking to both of us. At first he seemed rather friendly and harmless. As time went on, however, his behavior slowly changed. He became more aggressive, brazen and physical with me. I started to sense that something was beginning to go wrong, that this guy wasn’t who he had at first appeared to be. None of my usual methods of dealing with someone like this were working on him. I began to feel very uncomfortable and decided at that point it was best to just leave. The guy started going nuts on me. He started getting very aggressive, grabbing at both me and my sign. This one woman who was riding by on a bike saw what was going on and stopped. I looked at her and asked if she knew the guy. I was hoping that she did and that she would be able to get him off me. She looked at me with this really concerned look on her face and said, “This guy is nuts, you REALLY DON’T want to be messing with him.” With that she rode off.
It was then that I realized that I was probably in over my head on his one. I kept trying to get away hoping to make my way back to the subway or at least to the hamburger place around the corner where I knew I could get some assistance. He kept grabbing me, pulling me back, harassing me about my sign and a number of other things. I kept inching my way along trying not to do anything to encourage him to escalate his aggressiveness. Fortunately he got distracted for a few seconds by someone nearby and I took the opportunity get away from him. He yelled at me to get back but I just kept walking not even looking back to see if he was following. Fortunately for me he didn’t.
Earlier I had seen this guy go after several others out in front of the org but since I was talking to someone at the time I didn’t realize the seriousness of the threat that this guy was posing. Since most everyone had left and I was the only one left out there I guess he decided to go after me.
It was unfortunate that the day had to end on such a sour note. This was the first time that anyone has gotten physical (almost to the point of violence) with me. This was a VERY rare occurrence I must point out. I’ve always been aware that this type of situation could happen out there but I can’t let this threat stop me now.
SUMMARY
* One thing I’ve noticed is that I tend to get a bit flustered when someone starts badgering me for facts that I don’t have. An example of this was when that guy asked me how many ‘Lisas’ I knew. Since I didn’t keep stats on the number of people I watched get hurt at the mission and org he was asking me a question that I couldn’t really answer. Remaining aware of this will help me in future pickets. If someone tries this again I’ll remember to just keep my comments general instead of introverting and trying to come up with facts to satisfy their interrogat