Kristi Wachter

========
Subject: Scientologists picket my home, 4/28/99
From: humanrights@racerrecords.com (Kristi Wachter)
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 16:17:05 -0700
Message-ID: humanrights-2804991617050001@racer.vip.best.com

According to a gentleman who lives in my building, 4 (maybe 5) Scientologists picketed my apartment today. They were noticed at 2:10 and were gone by 2:20.

Craig ("Tall Black Guy") was here, along with "Pippi" (a lady with two long braids), "YuppieGuy" (a gentleman who looked like a standard yuppie), and one other person (maybe two others).

It's a bit perplexing, since I haven't had a chance to picket since April 3. (Sigh. I like to picket every two weeks. Ah well - my schedule might be freeing up a bit ...)

Three slightly revised fliers were given to me by my neighbor. They read:

THE FACE OF
RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY

This woman, Kristi Wachter, is
a religious bigot.

She's engaged in a smear campaign against peaceful members of a religion and regularly pickets in front of their churches.

When she's not stirring up intolerance in the streets, Wachter abuses the Internet to spread lies about people and religions she doesn't agree with.

Minor changes:

I'm now "This woman" instead of "your neighbor". Maybe they figured calling me "your neighbor" was restimulating positive feelings about me (grin).

They've eliminated "Don't criticize what you can't understand!"

They've highlighted "religious bigotry", my name, and "religious bigot" in boldface type. Isn't technology wonderful? It's still a pretty ugly font, though.

Still no mention of Scientology.

Oh, and I just noticed - either they're trying something subtle with subliminal imagery (unlikely), or their printer is ghosting. If you look closely, you can see the word "FACE" across my neck, and remnants of "RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY" across my chest. Huh.

I suppose this picket could be a preemptive strike against the upcoming picket this Saturday ... or maybe they just noticed the sunny day and figured they'd rather spend some time outdoors instead of in their stuffy ol' Academy[tm] classrooms.

In any case, it's a record number of picketers for me (I've never had more than three before). I'm sorry I missed them - I would have liked to have given Craig my letter.

Ah, well ... next time.

See y'all Saturday,

Kristi

--
Kristi Wachter
the activist formerly known as "Jour" (before $cientology outed me)

I think $cientology is hurting people and breaking the law, and I want them to stop it. See (http://www.scientology-lies.com)for more.
Can you say "Xenu?" ... I knew that you could.

========
Subject: Scientologists picket my home, 4/29/99
From: humanrights@racerrecords.com (Kristi Wachter)
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1999 18:50:12 -0700
Message-ID: humanrights-2904991850120001@racer.vip.best.com

Picket photos available at
http://www.scientology-lies.com/revengepicket.990429.html .

I got to have a nice long chat with my picketers today. They were here from 3:45 until 5 pm, and I got to talk with them for almost that entire time.

Craig was here, along with four people I hadn't met before: Nick, Bob, and Joanna, who was raised in Scientology (she said at one point "we were born into Scientology", so possibly others were too - Nick had a similar look, so she and Nick might be brother and sister).

I tried to give my letter to Craig, but he refused to take it. He later told me he'd read it already - or at least skimmed it - and that he thought I'd spent a lot of time on it (implying too much time).

Everyone gave me their names when I asked and had no trouble being photographed, except Craig, who hid behind his sign again. At various points during the conversation, they refused to share info about their case level, which was fine with me but made conversation a little more difficult. (Joanna asked me where I got my confidential info, which led to me asking her what confidential info I had, and I asked whether she had done OT3 so I could make sure not to accidentally talk about something she wasn't supposed to know about. Later, Nick was discussing the lies on my web site, but couldn't remember any specific lies, so I asked whether he was a Clear. Neither of them would answer those questions.)

I made a point of offering fliers to passersby and displaying my sign to passing busses (as I think I've noted, three bus lines go by my apartment, and at this time of day, there were a lot of them). Once, when I went down to the corner to wave at a passing bus, my flier-holder malfunctioned and dumped all my half-page fliers onto the street, where they promptly blew away. (As I've said before - information wants to be free. (grin)) I picked up as many as I could without running into traffic, but that wasn't very many. Alas, my neighbors will be seeing "Did Scientology Kill Rodney Rimando?" and "Scientology Charged in Lisa's Death" on their way home this evening. (Craig made much of this, saying I should go over and pick up every escaped flier. In the same spirit, Scientology should not have let their copies of Gateway sit around on the sidewalk where any old SP could pick them up.)

About half the passersby declined their fliers and mine; most, but not all, of the passersby who stopped to talk at all expressed disdain for Scientology before they even took my flier. One passerby said he didn't want to know anything from either side, then later came back and debated with the Scientologists until they left, calling Scientology a cult and asking them why they couldn't stand a little criticism from one little person like me.

A couple of the folks who live in my building came out to talk, too. One gentleman engaged the Scientologists in debate for nearly as long as I did - Craig kept saying he thought this gentleman was my boyfriend and, when I refused to confirm or deny (as I do about everything in my personal life that's not already public knowledge, such as my profession), he repeatedly told me that I should get a boyfriend - that would calm me down ("but Craig - I AM calm") and make a big difference in my life. I asked if he didn't think I could be a happy, fulfilled person as a single woman, and he said in my case, no.

We had a minor near-altercation when talking with a passerby. Joanna stuck her sign in front of my face to block me and my sign and very nearly struck me. I said, loudly, "EXCUSE ME!" and moved her sign away from my face. She seemed sincerely apologetic. The gentleman from my building thought she actually had hit me and got very upset and told Joanna, very Tone-40, that if she EVER touched me again, she would be in jail. There was a bit of continued confusion, and then we all calmed down again - I made it clear that I was fine and that Joanna and I had cleared it up reminded everyone that we should keep our distance and be a little more careful.

Craig left around halfway through the picket. Bob tended to keep to himself (I suggested he stay on the sidewalk and not walk out between parked cars on the street), but Joanna and Nick continued to talk with me, the gentleman from my building, and other passersby. Nick and my neighbor were having one of those round-about, we're-not-getting-anywhere conversations typical of the ones I've posted here before. Joanna and I were doing more or less the same, but eventually we managed to have the beginnings of a real conversation - she asked me about my involvement in Scn, and I told her. (While we were discussing whether I was a Scientologist, I mentioned that I had had one of those little six-month membership cards, but I never considered myself a Scientologist. Bob interjected here to inform me that a Scientologist is someone who's applying Scientology.)

I had heard Nick say he didn't trust me or my neighbor (he was lumping us together as if we were fellow critics, even though the only critical tendency my neighbor has displayed is not blindly accepting Scientologists' statements), so at one point I asked Nick if there was anything he could communicate to someone like me, whom he didn't trust, that would raise our ARC level. (At this point, Joanna went off - it REALLY bugged her when I used Scn terms, and she kept insisting I didn't understand them. I told her I was using them out of respect for things that were important to her and Nick, and if they came across to her as disrespectful, I would stop using them in her presence. I rephrased my question to Nick, asking if he could think of anything that would build up our level of trust and enhance our relationship.)

Nick quieted down and thought for a minute and said he just wished we would look at some of the positive things about Scientology. I asked him to tell me some positive things. Joanna told me that Scn had gotten five of her friends of drugs. I looked her right in the eye and told her I was being completely sincere, and told her I was glad that had happened. Nick said it had gotten three of his friends off drugs, and I told him the same thing.

It was around this point that the other passerby came back and started debating, so we lost some of the potential for genuine conversation, but it was a start.

As usual, there was no mention of Scn on their fliers or their signs.

At about 5 pm, they left, saying they'd be back tomorrow.

Afterwards, I spoke with the police about the non-incident between me and Joanna and the rising level of inciteful behavior. The officer gave me both the regular phone number and 911, and repeatedly told me to call that number the next time I see them. I will, reluctantly, just to make sure an officer can remind us all of appropriate picket behavior. (I have no desire to interfere with their legal right to free speech; I just want to make sure we all stay on the right side of the law.)

I was dismayed that the Scientologists demonstrated so little ability to promote peaceful coexistence, but I hope all Scientologists understand that I will do whatever is necessary to ensure my own right to free speech, whether that means working to calm others down and defuse volatile situations, or calling the police whenever that's advisable.

I look forward to seeing demonstrations of their own ethical, positive, exemplary behavior.

--
Kristi Wachter