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Saturday 28 September 2002.
Up early, and more signmaking! Larger, bolder and more controversial messages (but all accurate), such as: "IRAQ WAR ONLY TO BENEFIT OIL COMPANY CRIMINALS AND CORRUPT DEFENSE CORPORATIONS". "WAR AGAINST IRAQ: RECRUITMENT DRIVE FOR TERRORISTS" and others. It is a chilly and drizzly morning, and the streets are wet, unusual weather for September. Arriving at the Vera Cruz Park at 11, we dragged our signs, flag and camera bag from the lot 2 blocks to the park. A large crowd had assembled in the park and a few were waving banners from the sidewalk, and political speeches were being delivered via a loudhailer. More people were constantly arriving...the inclement weather having no dampening effect on the peoples' need to press home a series of points. This time, the cops were there in force with a number of police motorcycles positioned strategically in the center of Cota Street and some officers patrolling the area on foot. I leaned the Flag against a tree trunk as finished up one of the signs and unseen by me, it was blown over by a sudden gust of wind... noticed by one of the law enforcement who immediately came over and gave me a chewing! Oops! (It is actually against the law to allow the Flag to touch the ground). By the time we left the park, one of the Green Party officials counted some 650 marchers and we went all the way up State Street on both sides for 6 blocks all the way to Anapamu: our mumbers had swelled to over 1000 by now, and was even noisier ond more colorful than the previous week. We marched back down Santa Barbara Street via the Courthouse again and ended up back in the park. By now it was raining, a thick wet chilly drizzle, the camera lens kept getting wet but everyone's spirits were buoyed. This is an urgent cause, and many people are feeling that is is their patriotic duty to stop this madness...and such a strong turnout on such a lousy day was so encouraging! We heard later that up to 400,000 people had marched in London to protest Tony Blair's shortsighted, brown-nosing efforts. Fantastic!
Tuesday, October 1, 2002:
The Peace March, Episode #1 gets airings 3 and 4 on Channel 17.
Very cool!
Friday, October 4, 2002:
We hear about a 2 hour peace vigil on the corner of State and Anapamu near the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, so we take the cameras and a few signs down there during the lunch period! There's a small gathering with various folk from the Green Party and others in the Peace movements handing out fliers and leaflets. Penny does a couple of interviews, including one World War II veteran, who is currently on probation for political activism. These interviews were much easier due to the relative quietness of the situation compared to the pent-up energy and loud volume of the marches. I stood on the streetcorner brandishing a placard and talking to passers-by!
Saturday October 5, 2002:
Peace March #3! This time we set off late having woke up later than intended. For this installment, I had constructed the largest banner that was "wieldy", consisting of some 2 large white bedsheets ripped in half, with the four sections stapled together to form a 20 foot by 3 foot sign, with the slogan "THE BUSH MAFIA: AXIS OF EVIL" in 2 foot tall blue and black letters...this one could be read a mile away, and all of last 2 weeks of signs and placards for anyone who came along without one! This march was scheduled to start at De la Guerra Plaza at 10 am, which we thought may have caused some venue confusion, but on arrival, there was a large, noisy colorful crowd of over 1000 people, being addressed by a variety of speakers through a rented sound system. This is way cool, the protests are increasing in size with each week!
Penny dropped me off with the placards and went to park the car, while I found some people to carry the AXIS OF EVIL banner. The police were there in force and we set off up State Street in a show of patriotism and solidarity. I led the march off with the five others holding the 20 foot "Axis-of-Evil" banner, and we turned up State Street again, with the march spilling over onto both sidewalks as well as both nearside traffic lanes. By the peak of the march, the turn out was an estimated 1500 people. We got as far as Upper State Street when the whole shebang ground to a halt. Some 17 year old kid, in an act of deliberate of civil disobedience, marched in the street right in front of the police and got a ticket for his troubles: then he walked promptly into the center of the street, knowing full well the consequences and was arrested instantly, whereupon he lay down on his front only to be dragged away to a black'n'white patrol car, but this started a whole new rather confrontational aspect to the march, reminding me of the atmosphere during the protest marches in the UK in the 1980s denouncing the ugly Margaret Thatcher regime. People rushed into the street and the police threatened to use pepperspray...a tense situation developed where the black'n'white cruiser into which the arrestee was bundled was surrounded by a loud chanting crowd of several hundred marchers. There was also nearly a fender bender in the chaos and a potentially dangerous situation was narrowly averted; one cop quoted later in the "News Press" report the following day that there was "nearly a riot on our hands". Passions on this explosive issue are running very high, and some of the younger folk can get quite enthusiastic! But equally heartening was the overwhelmingly positive response from non participants on the street, businesss owners that Penny interviewed, and the honks of approval and peace signs from passing drivers. I even had one cop on the street congratulate me on the huge sign I made, but at the same time I got warned a number of times for jaywalking, as did Penny!!! The march reversed back down State Street without further arrests or incident, and reassembled back in de La Guerra Park where more political speeches were given through bullhorns.
Saturday, October 5th, Demonstration #2, Vandenberg Air Force Base.
By now, tired already, it was lunchtime and we drove back home to get some lunch before we set off on the 101 towards our second target of the day: Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, some 70 miles west of Santa Barbara. On arrival at the main gates, there was a small but vocal demonstration of perhaps 100 people on the grass outide the base perimeter. Orange fences and large waterfilled plastic roadblocks had been erected across the roads around the base entrance, and both military and regular police were out in force, as well as military personnel. Black cloth covered the entrance sign and logo of the Base: we were told that are apparently very sensitive to newscameras associating certain activities at Vandenberg, and the nature of some of the orders that emanate from there.One wonders why this would be *bad* publicity? Like, DOH!
We got the signs out of the car and Penny was yet again armed with the videocam and started rolling tape. Every time a military helicopter clattered overhead, we turned our huge 20 foot BUSH MAFIA - AXIS OF EVIL banner upwards to the sky for the inevitable aerial photo! We accumulated interviews with protesters, as well as some relatively intelligent feedback from the token cute female Air Force Major, who was obviously sent out as a PR ploy. Many other military personnel assembled were videotaping the protesters, as well as gong into the parking lot to videotape the cars and trucks parked there. Apparently, according to veteran protesters, tapes are used for material for the Base newspaper, as well as officially "going on file". Well, we refuse to be scared in these times of encroaching global fascism, Orwellian surveillance, the attack on civil liberties and human rights and the rapid weaponization of Space by the Bush Junta. This our Constitutional First Amendment Right of free speech and freedom of peaceful assembly. And, let this never be ever forgotten: WE-THE-PEOPLE pay the SALARIES of the military machine and it's humongous and bloatedly fat budget.
Scared?
Why are they so scared and seemingly so threatened by, even paranoid of this small, peaceful, unarmed group of Americans, campaigning for and on behalf of values that are civilized, peaceful and patriotic? The protest split into two halves at one point, and formed a circle under the eucalyptus trees on the far side of the base, mostly out of sight of the street. For me, one of the salient points raised on this experience was the fact that both sides were intently videotaping each other's activities. Yes...videocameras are the great leveler, and surveillance now goes both ways, to an extent. Another thing I noticed, was that when asked questions about anything pertaining to the their security operation, they would not even answer or acknowledge the questions even. I asked asked several of the police on duty as to whether any of these Number One Buzzcut toughs knew any English, but all I got back were blank stares. Perhaps the cops don't understand English either. Whatever the cause, it seemed as if rather than being there to Protect all the American People, the orders from the Base Commander regarding *our particular group of Patriots* were to intimidate, scare and alienate. It seems as if the U.S. military community regard such free-thinking folk as these protesters as a part of the enemy. What a terrible shame.
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