|
 My Visit to the Temple of Doom Matthew G. Sullivan, page 4 06/14/01 As soon as I arrived, I was told that the designated "protest" area was on a corner about half a mile from Legends Field where the speech was taking place. It was hot, muggy and we were left far from any attendees of the speech. A few people driving by were beeping horns in support, and that was about the only thing keeping me from going home. By this time, it was raining, my sign (which read "Keep your chump bribe! You won't buy legitimacy!") was about to disolve, and I was ready to go home. On my way out, I heard someone mention that he had tickets to go to the speech. He was looking for people to go in and make a stand. The only price was that we had to dispose of our signs, and obviously that wasn't a problem for me. So we walked back to the stadium, got hassled and searched at the gates (We were easy to distinguish from the republican rodents who had come to cheer SquatterBoy) and found some seats. The crowd was some sight indeed. Ultra-wealthy beach developers sitting next to rednecks sitting next to geeky "federalists" sitting next to Xian fanatics. These are the slime who stole the election, who support the all out assault W has started on the environment, who are willing to stomach ANYTHING for a bribe. I felt like Indiana Jones entering some bizarre power-cults messianic ritual. Not to mention all of the snakes (the two legged variety). I wanted to start booing when Jeb was introducing his brother, but the other people in this hastily formed affinity group wanted to wait until W was speaking before getting thrown out. That was a good tactic. We waited until W took the stage. We waited until the initial cheering stopped. We waited until he got through all of the chummy remarks about his brother. We waited for him to start talking policy, in particular the tax cut (which was his 'reason' for speaking to the 'public'). And at that point, we started. I was mostly yelling "Still Illegitimate" and occasionally a heckle to his policies. One bonehead in the row behind me said he was going to kick my ass if I didn't shut up, but that was the wrong approach. It only encouraged me. I'm not trying to say I'm some kind of badass, but I really wasn't afraid, because I knew I was right. I knew that should I be attacked, it would only further expose the violence that the Florida Republicans are willing to resort to to supress democracy in this state. Some "official" showed up and tried to tell us to shut up, but we ignored her. Someone sitting in front of me asked if it was ok that I was being threatened, and she looked me in the eyes and said "sure it is". Oh, I wish I had a video camera. I really, really wish I had a video camera. She was picture perfect, the uber-conservative bizzotch. Dressed like Katherine Harris, with almost as much make-up on, visible signs of plastic surgery gone awry. I loved to hate her. She tried to provoke violence by making a spectacle of falling on one protester as she walked by, but we didn't let her. The ushers were repeatedly asking members of our group to leave but we stuck to our seats. Some of the republicans around us thought they would be clever by cheering "Woooooooo" whenever we would yell anything, to try and muffle us. I guess they didn't understand that we were there to spoil the speech, and when they are yelling like that, no one would hear the Squatters speech. But with a wonderful bit of irony, their attempt to silence us silenced the Resident. I couldn't have been more pleased. I had even gotten good at shouting out before the Republicans could muffle me, so it sounded like a cheer. Illegitimate! (Woooooooooo!) Illegitimate! (Woooooooooo!) Finally, the ushers realized that we weren't going to shut up, so they gathered a large enough group to throw us out. In a surprise move, we got up and left peacefully, denying them a violent spectacle. That way, we could be thrown out, in front of all the snakes and rodents, for exercising our first ammendment rights. And the newspapers were all able to get pictures of us being escorted out the door, exposing this "public event" for what it was, a Republican pep rally paid for by taxpayers no dout. And as we walked past the security, one of them (an off duty cop) said "You should leave now before you regret it". Again, I'm not a badass, but there is something about being right and standing up for right that makes me lose fear. I went right up to him and said "What are you going to do? Arrest us for speaking? We have tickets, and we are yelling like everyone else in that building, but you just don't like what we're saying". He looked at me amazed that I would challenge his abuse of authority. And I turned around and headed for the exit. As we were leaving, it became obvious that Shrub's speech was over. Mission accomplished. Matthew G. Sullivan 
|
© 2001 Rose Rose
Site designed and maintained by Rose's Eclectic Garden