Picket, Gold Base, Dec 8 2001
09 Dec 2001
idaj007@aol.com (IDA J 007)

Picket Report, Gold Base
8 Dec 2001

Santa Ana season has arrived. These strong east winds sweep in from the northeast desert, sweeping up over the mountains and down the passes and valleys. The mountains appear painfully sharp against the sky, and the wind plays hell with the trees. At Gold Base, the curbs are littered with branches ripped from the landscaping. Branches as big as my wrist were snapped right off. When the Santa Anas blow, the tumbleweeds complete their life cycle. They are torn from their roots and hustled across the land, strewing seeds as they roll. The unfortunate weeds at Gold have a short trip; they roll across Highway 79 and fetch up against the fences that embrace the property.

It took me 30 minutes longer to reach Hemet from San Diego due to high winds in the foothill passes. Winds were probably 50 mph there, and I was headed straight into the m.

Still, I was the first to arrive at Ida's Sinister Place of Gathering. Shortly after, Arel, Graham Berry, and phr came in, followed by Richard of Riverside and his nephew Jack.

Ida fed us a wonderful lunch; ham, cabbage, scalloped potatos, and some species of corn souffle. Well fortified for our venture out into the Land of Wind and Clams, we headed out to Gold.

The signs were a bit hard to handle in the wind, but we carried on. Gold Base was dead. There was no one out and about. Three guards in the shack, no foot traffic. I heard motorbikes deep in the property, and saw a few of the elite walking from the ugly studio building of Golden Era. Construction hasn't progressed very far on the housing, and Davey's house bristles with a perimeter of cameras. Woe betide the naive Girl Scout who thinks that would be a good place to sell a box of mints!

There was very little to report about this picket. Graham assumed the role of carnival barker between the tunnel and the guard shack. Arel caught an inmate out; when she turned her sign towards him, ($cientology is Your Ruin) he cut and ran like a little bunny instead of the Mightee Bean he is told he can become.

We got a good number of honks, waves, and thumbs up from the traffic. Three white pickup trucks came by in quick succession, the drivers honked and flipped us off!

The only memorable moment was when a police car made several passes and pulled over to talk to us, having been summoned by Ken Hoden, who was hovering around the guard shack in the company of Richardson, who hid and took photos of Graham. This officer was a cheerful, easygoing sort, who said he'd been called because Hoden was concerned about potential illegal actions on our part.

Cop sez, "Are any of you named Barb?"
I sez, "Depends. Who's askin?"
He sez, "I'm asking."

I laughed and admitted to being me. The officer said that Hoden had shown him a printout of their website on me (www.religiousfreedomwatch.com) He didn't seem to take it very seriously. He waved away my attempts to refute it; when I started to explain how the cult is attempting to portray us as terrorist criminals, he nodded and said, "Well, that's Golden Era for ya!" He didn't seem very terrified in our presence.

Note to Kein Hoden: Dude, I have prepared a Police Information Packet, which includes a couple of your ridiculous hate pages. Do please keep distributing that page on me, your pathetic attempts to discredit me support my counter argument that your organization is a criminal, fraudulent, lying cult. You see, my copy of that page is accompanied by my comments on your claims against me. If you ever expect to be taken seriously, you'd best change your tactics, as you are currently playing right into my hands. Officers will probably enjoy reading about your cult's harrassment of Jesse Prince, Bob Minton, Kaeli, Keith Henson, Ida Camburn...well, the list goes on. Thank you so much for being so cooperative in calling the police, saving me the trouble of visiting their division headquarters. You probably know there's little you can do to prevent them from reading this material, and since it's all documented, it'll be hard for you to claim that it's all lies.

Unlike your silly innuendo and fabrications on freedomwatch, hah!

At one point, a car pulled over, blocking one of the driveways. Apparently the guy had tire problems, and was involved in hurling trash out onto Scientology property when Richardson pulled up behind them. The people in the car started picking up their litter, and Richardson left. Guess he isn't paid to help change tires.

It was starting to get dark when we headed back to Ida's. Richard & nephew returned to Riverside, and the rest of us came in, got warm, had onion soup and more ham.

Ida had a full house overnight. We were still better provided for than the poor clams at the Kirby Gardens Apartments, only 3 in the living room, and no bunk beds!

This is true,

Barb
9 Dec 2001