From jemanuel@bellsouth.net Sun Dec 06 06:39:20 1998
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Clearwater on Friday
From: Valerie <jemanuel@bellsouth.net>
Date: 6 Dec 1998 06:39:20 -0800

Arrived in Hellmouth on Friday, noonish.

Discovery #1--desk clerk says I have no reservation. Funny, the hotel already charged my credit card for the darn room. Don't know if it was my screw up or the hotel's....in any case they have a room for me, and we'll straighten out the problem later.

Glad to see Bev sitting on the couch in the lobby, then I see Garry on the phone. We go up to the press conference room (conference is over) and I'm introduced to way too many people to remember. Pick up flyers, note lovely and heart wrenching full color posters of the dead lining the wall. I'm happy to meet CiCi, Jeff Jacobsen, and there goes my memory.

In the lobby, I see a tall dark haired man, thirtyish. His badge says "Xenu". Bev asks him if she can intro him to me. Tilman! VERY happy to meet the first ars member who ever returned my e-mail. Great to meet you, Tilly.

I'm told we're going to picket that afternoon for a few hours, and that CoS pulled a real beauty of a stunt to block the picket, by pulling their own permits for in front of the Ft. Harrison, and jackhammering the sidewalk across the street into oblivion. I'm sure others will have better details on this.

I don't know if I can use what I brought to picket with or not---I brought a cardboard coffin, a Halloween prop, with some of the victim's names painted on it in red. Now I'm told you can't stand around, you have to keep walking. I can't carry the coffin alone, it's 6 feet long (or 1 foot taller than certain CoS leaders). Garry says he'll make me a sign, think of a slogan.

We go with "Scientology:World's Dumbest Way To Go Broke." Garry has "Honk if you hate Scientology." Don't recall Bev's, or even if she had one. There are, at any given time over the next few hours, at least 20 of us. We walk--up & down, around & around the hotel. It's hot and muggy. People honk, wave, cheer, and thank us for picketing. (Note to self: CoS NOT popular with the general public in CW!)

I learn a new game, "Make the Scientologist Hide." This is what happens when I point my disposable camera at any of them. They've hung black curtains in all the alcove entrances of the Ft. Harrison, and there are people behind them. They only come out after you pass, and they dart back in if you change direction suddenly. Yes, you should run. We're carrying a communicable disease deadly to your cult known as Free Speech.

We soon discover that the back of the Ft. Harrison is more fun to hang around than the front. It's only later I'm told by doing this we seriously disrupted operations at Ft. Death. Pity. These people are not confronting--apparently via orders from above. Does this mean CoS policy can alter depending on circumstances? Isn't that squirreling? They don't talk, they barely look, they run, they hide. *sigh* How disappointing!

We stroll over to the Church on Cleveland, and picket there. Arnie Lerma's endless cries of "No OT's here!" are amusing.

Garry drives Bev & I around CW, showing us the various properties owned by the cult. This puts a chill down my back. We visit one called Hacienda (something), a seemingly endless line of two story apt. bldgs. It's gated, with security guards on bikes. I ask Garry to pull into a driveway so I can take a picture. When I walk back to the car, he says, "Look behind that tree to the left."

I can't see anything but the tree, and I say so.

"There's a guard behind it, he stopped behind the tree when we pulled in," Garry said.

We drive a few yards up the road, suddenly dart back off and stop in the grass. When I get out I see this guy tear off into the compound!

First lesson in CoS: Hand over your wallet. Second lesson: Run & Hide!

How pathetic.

We see endless streams of FLAG vans, with their holiday decorations on the windows keeping us from seeing in & the passengers from seeing out. Ditto the large FLAG busses. (Are all their vehicles white from lack of imagination, or because they're the 'good guys/white hats'?) I realize for the first time that I'm actually in enemy territory! At least, they'd consider me their enemy.

As we pass behind the Ft. Harrison at about 9 pm, I tell Garry there's a guard standing behind the far right gate curtain. Garry goes past, and pulls into the parking lot behind the hotel. We turn around. As we pull back out into the street, one of the city-type FLAG busses stops by the gate I'd pointed out, and people are getting off. They're trotting into the entrance, with monitors/security types saying hurry. We pull up nearer the bus & all hell breaks loose!

"GET BACK ON THE BUS! GET BACK ON THE BUS!" They are shouting and pushing those people back on the bus, and as we watch--stunned--the bus burns rubber and takes off down the street! Good grief! Must be those ARS powers at work.

Next stop--Clearwater Police Dept. We decide to report strange incident, just in case.

Saturday was even more enlightening.

Later,

Valerie

"Valerie, the only difference between you and a pit bull is the pit bull doesn't wear lipstick." Will Teal
(another happy USPS worker)