Hello to all
The following is a report from Director of Field Services, on what happened at the Religious Coalition's convocation before the opening of the Democratic convention in LA on Sunday:
We heard days before the convocation that Operation Rescue West was going to demonstrate at our service. We decided that we would hold a Peaceful Presence facing them in front of the church until the service began. So we put out the word, I made follow-up calls after I met w/Scott who had been hired to help put on the convocation, we got permission to hold the training at the church two hours before the service, I let the press know what the newest and latest was, and we were on.
Sunday started off a bit warm, but beautiful. We made sure to have lots of water and ice to keep folks safe, two o'clock came, and folks started arriving for the training. We trained about 30 people just in time for the arriving protestors. Our folks lined up, some in the shade, others in the sun. They all held their signs and stayed silent under the bull horn assaults and taunts of the other side. When they tried to block our signs, folks just held them higher. More of our folks came, and I went around doing on the spot trainings, sharing with the new folks our philosophy and our methods, and getting their agreement to abide by them. After awhile I lost count of all the folks we trained there in the hot sun and noise. I went around checking on folks, making sure they were ok; talk about initiation by fire for all of these new folks! They did a tremendous job. Some people who had not been at the full training asked why they couldn't chant or sing, but seeing how it worked, they soon understood. Still, it was a relief to go into the beautiful sanctuary and pray and sing with our friends.
For some of us the relief was short lived. Operation Rescue kept sending in folks to "observe". I prayed that they would hear something that would soften their hearts or open their souls. Two folks tried to disrupt things by walking through with a plastic "fetus" and a bible; they were allowed to walk most of the way up the center aisle and then were gently turned back by one of our security people. Others kept coming in and moving around, going in and out of different doors to try to rattle us. Thankfully, most of the congregation was much nearer the front and middle, and it was folks like me and some security trained folks from PP who were at the back, their actions were nothing we couldn't handle.
What was harder to handle was their actions on our March from the Church to the convention center. They had told our security people that they planned on flanking us in the front and back as we marched. We were told there was nothing we could do to stop them. We prepared people to stay together and how to conduct themselves when in close proximity to the OR-W folks. What we knew was a possibility but discounted turned out to be their real strategy; to walk amongst us and harass individuals the entire 1.7 miles. They tried to get between us and the street with their large, ugly signs. We prevented them. They tried to out-shout us with their hateful slogans; they could not (though many of us had sore throats afterwards!) I don't want to repeat the disgusting things they said, but to let you know how weird they were, I will tell you they called VP Gore a whore (because it rhymes? Who knows?).
I think the thing that disturbed me the most though, was their treatment of their fellow human beings. We had a number of older gentlemen walking with us. One of them tired, and when a car with a friend of the movement came around to look for tired people, we convinced him to get in. What happened next is still haunting me. They started taunting him, "you weakling, too tired to go on? Where's your convictions now? You must not be a real man" and so on. Young men, a man about my husband's age, a whole little gang; they just laid into him. I couldn't believe it! I knew they were without compassion, but this cruelty, it just incensed me and scared me at the same time. I had been not talking to them, and encouraging other folks not to engage with them, especially in these close quarters, but I had to say something, if for no other reason than to get them off of him. I told them, shame, shame on you for treating an elder in this manner. Their response in a nutshell? They had no respect for this man or for me as human beings because we condoned murder. It was a hideous moment in a series of others. Of people shouting directly in our faces, in our ears. Of people being taunted, yelled at, challenged, condemned. And all the while, our people held it together. Sang songs like "we shall not be moved". Chanted Pro-Faith, Pro-Choice over and over again. Never pushed them, hit them, or in any way attack them. It was quite clear who were the people of faith and who were not.
We ended with our time on the people's stage where our clergy leaders and our lay leaders spoke from their hearts, from the bible, from the various liturgies that make up our group and led us in more chanting; Pro-Faith, Pro-Choice. Pro-Faith, Pro-Choice. It was moving, it was compelling, it was time for me to organize the return of folks to the church and catch my plane!
[posted 8/18/00]
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