BY DIANE WILSON
Had a visit this morning from a little green forest ranger – the forest in this case being Lafette Park. She cautioned us. Again, again she said, that we had to sit within 3 feet of our cloth banners because otherwise its like luggage left unattended in an airport and is liable to blow sky high. So if we’re within 3 feet of the explosive banner we will blow up too. Only right that the responsible party gets blown up. This is about the third time she’s told us this and it’s being listed on their terrorist list.
Normally, the cops are ok if you overlook the times they want to run us outa the park over the radiation/Bush’s black sedan scare. It’s a far cry from the 2002 vigil in Lafette Park when we were hassled at least 8 times a day on a regular basis. My participation in that 4 month vigil lasted exactly 18 days when I was arrested and thrown out of Washington DC. The judge cautioned me if I showed my face in the city I’d be arrested on the spot.
I wasn’t that concerned about resurfacing knowing the turf battle that existed between the park police and the secret service and the city police. None of them liked to share their information, so if you got arrested by the secret service the first time, the second time you get arrested by the city police. Which I did. After 2 weeks of being banned from Washington DC, I showed up for a Codepink rally and got arrested by the city cops. Nice as pie. Handcuffs lightly
applied. They had no idea I was banned.
On another track,this is day 14 into the hunger strike. I’ve ended two of the seven hunger strikes I started in Texas at 14 days because I got exactly what I wanted. A recent hunger strike supporting the demands of the Bhopal survivors in India ended after 5 days. Again, they got almost all of their 7 demands. One old Bhopali woman who had survived the 1984 pesticide leak by Union Carbide in India and who had walked, along with hundreds of others, 500 miles to the Prime Minister
of India, said that they could carry her corpse home to Bhopal. She wasn’t eating until the Prime Minister of India agreed to their demands. And in 5 days he did.
Visit the Codepink “Troops Home Fast” site
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