17 Sep 2000

"DaHatter" <bitbucket@lindner2k.com>

I not only have been to my first picket, I got in my second one inside of 24 hours.

...and I can honestly say that co$ pulled me right into both of them.

First -- Trying to get Keith charged with threatening them with ICBM's. How can I even begin to describe how patently ludicrous this seems to me? ...*and* the fact that someone in the system appears to be taking it seriously. Yow!!

In a nutshell, sometime during Friday night on IRC, I decided that I just had to see it firsthand. Now, I've been following ars for years, and have seen some despicable crap go down. This got me out there...

I woke up Saturday AM with an amazingly painful case of sinusitis. Real nasty. I passed on the AM picket, and took a chance that there would be a PM picket. I got myself in reasonable shape to make the drive, checked in on IRC and confirmed that a PM picket was on. I hit the road.

I had pictured gold as something of a cross between a shanty town and an army base out on the desert floor, with nothing but dust for miles around and blast furnace weather conditions. I broke out 30 gallons of drinking water from our emergency supplies, and stopped at a military surplus store along the way for a web belt and two canteens (great gear, much cheaper than a sporting goods store).

I also needed a hat (heh heh). I chose a mesh cap with a desert camo front panel since it was a light color and would stay cool. I briefly considered a Navy cap... <eg

I blew through gold shortly after 6:00pm, and at first thought I was seeing a miniature golf course, a'la Mailibu Castle. No SP's in sight, I drove around and took a few more passes through gold.

Finally, a figure appeared with a picket sign -- it was Graham. I pulled into the median strip, rolled down my window and introduced myself. I then proceeded to park, introduced myself to the others and grabbed a sign. I walked up the right side of the road with one of the guys (sorry, I am *terrible* at remembering names). We got up to one of the gate posts and were chatting away when he pointed out the security camera. I don't know how active these things usually become, but this one was scanning back and forth in what I can only interpret as a panicked pace.

I think the camo gear might have aroused their curiosity.

I met Keith and Mirele, and I'll tell you straight up: I like these guys. They do indeed strike me as good, decent and caring people. ...and Ida is a sweetheart. :)

Anyway, we hung out above one of the tunnels for a while, and a few so's did in fact trickle through there, however, they shielded their eyes from the picket signs.

If lrh's "game" were so damn true and right with the world, would a few words on cardboard be a threat to co$? I think not. Quite frankly, the experience of being at gold was somewhat sad, even anticlimatic.

Many here will say that the staffers simply cannot confront anyone who disagrees with their views, or that they are secretly ashamed. I suspect that the "tech" has rebuilt their mental and spiritual states with all the stregnth of a house of cards. They strike me as fragile.

It got dark. We went to Ida's, picked up Keith along the way, and had a very nice time together. I finally found the door, and got back to L.A.

Just one thing...

On the way out, news reached us regarding Bob's latest incident in Clearwater.

This was troubling to me -- But also a good quick wake-up. It was a stern reminder that no matter what the intentions or attitudes of all these good, bright and optomistic kids, I can't get around one this one very clear fact: Co$ management behaves like a schoolyard bully, and sadly, is doing very real damage to a lot of good people.

I slept very little Saturday night, not even quite two hours. I spent the better part of the night turning two issues through my mind.

1. C'mon, is co$ truly *evil* -- not misguided, misunderstood, or whatever? Evil.

2. If so, what's the proper response to Evil.?

At about the age of ten, I had what I will describe here briefly as a profound spiritual experience while grappling with the same issues. I was directed to a bible verse: A tree shall be known by the fruit that it bears.

You don't need to read co$'s resume very far before you figure out the name of them apples...

As for the response, the model most favored and successful seems to be the way taken by such folks as Jesus, Bhudda, Ghandi, King et all -- Wave a warning sign reminding them that they're messing with a time tested and true power the likes of which they can only begin to *hope* to attain to, help those who come to their senses, and bear witness to the wrath that follows.

With less than two hours of sleep, I woke up for the picket at blue. I'm not talking hit the snooze bar and eventually pry my ass out of bed either. I was wide awake an hour before the alarm.

Y'all have no idea how *unlike* me that is. I am not in any way shape or form a "morning person". I was at blue ahead of everyone else.

My primary concern was watching Graham's back. I brought my viewcam with a full charge and four hours of tape. I turned it on and started recording the minute the signs came out, and kept it on Graham until I left.

I took a sign reading "God loves you, source does not" with a where's the oatee powerz sorta thing on the back side. The former was the message I was primarily interested in converying.

I think we were out there for a little better than an hour and a half, nearly all of it on lrh way. It was mostly just very quiet for a long time. The staffers herded people away from us, everyone was cool, polite and staying way clear of any button-pushing -- on both teams.

Eventually the security guys did come out to "handle" us. They handed out the da sheets, and stayed focused on Graham for the longest time. Eventually one of them came over to me and started to dog me for my id, try to guess my id, read Keith's da pack two or three times...

And then the magic question. Up until now I had remained silent, steady and unflinching. Ah, but then *the* question.

"Why would you hang out with such a loser?"

My reponse was cheerful, upbeat and definitely up-tone.

"Indeed, God does have a curious habit of selecting losers to do his work!"

I was, in fact, quite jovial about it. The handler muttered "then that makes you a loser by association..." at which time I broke out in a big toothy grin.

My handler seemed quite startled!

Mark Bunker: how about licensing Bob Seeger's "Beautiful Loser" for the next video with Graham in it? :)

That's the *only* thing I said to the handler. We played "block the camera with the da fliers" (while my handler grumbled something about people taking pictures of people taking pictures) for a few seconds, when the latest espee-tech was revealed:

The viewcam has a flat panel, not a viewfinder. I could raise or lower the camera and keep Graham in the frame all day long, with full peripheral vision, and make the handler dance so long as he cared to try to follow it. From his tippy toes all the way down to the sidewalk.

He seemed so tired, burned out, beaten down. This is an example of "mankind's greatest hope"? I suspect they are beginning to catch on -- when you fuck around with peoples' spiritual lives, very bad things will start to happen to you. IIRC, the historical pattern is: some "nut" starts blowing a whistle and telling eveyone in earshot that they're fucking up. The abusers have a good laugh and stay on course.

But then "funny" little things start happening, and before you know it, the wrath of God himself is fully upon them. And the perps still stay in denial until it's too late.

I'm certain that each and every one of those kids went in wanting nothing other than to be better people and do good things in this world, and still believe to this day that they're doing exactly that. What co$ mgmt does with that life and energy seems horrific.

We took a water break, and I noticed that we'd been out there for quite a while. I had another commitment elsewhere in town, and had to leave.

Did I mention that I sense a groundswell of bad mojo headed co$'s way?

--
They never figured out that the Net is my (and a lot of others) sandbox, or perhaps more like a friendly neighborhood pub. (they) Came busting right in and tore the place up, and have never figured out why the natives were really pissed at them. -- Keith Henson

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