LadyCrais
10-07-2002, 07:59 AM
Here's our report, but I don't know who to submit it to:
Nashville Rally
By LadyCrais
We all breathed a sigh of relief when the storms passed us by on Friday, giving us a beautiful day of sunshine for our rally here in Nashville. We started arriving at Centennial Park to meet at noon and discovered that unbeknownst to us, it was “Take Your Dog to the Park” Day, or something to that effect and a pretty major dog show was going on to accompany it. As a result, the park was absolutely packed with people, special parking in the grass, hoards of cars, people and dogs, and a good 15-20 minute 2 mph drive before finally finding a place to stash the car. We met up at the Parthenon, which is about a 1/3 scale of the real thing, and set to work pinning Wanted posters to our various shirts and making a few final posters. One pair had made a 7-8 foot long laminated banner of all of the Wanted Posters for two people to carry between them and another couple of guys had done hi-res laminated posters and had them attached to sticks in the ages-old, approved protesting format. Someone else brought 1000 fliers in many colors and designs. Between 15 and 20 of us finally showed up (sorry, the numbers kept fluctuating!), including one brave soul who drove from Chattanooga to join us. Meanwhile Shamecube, our fearless leader and videographer took video of us doing the “My Name is …. And I Am Farscape!” to have archived for future advertising purposes.
Our first thrill was a fellow in his 50’s or so stopping his car and running up the hill to us wanting information on what was happening to Farscape. He loved the show and wanted to know what he needed to do to do his part to keep the show on the air. Where are the petitions? Where are the websites? You get the picture. So we gave him a flier, which he promised to take back with him to Philadelphia and do what he can to get the action moving up there. So Philly Scapers watch out for this fellow and pull him into your fold.
Unfortunately our next contact was a Parthenon Security? Officer who told us in no uncertain terms that we could not be gathered there and would have to move. Thus began our first of three encounters with the park powers that be! We left and walked more or less together through the crowds of people gathered for the dog show or just visiting with their dogs. Some people came up to us and asked what it was all about and took the fliers. Some promised to watch. I suspect a good many had no clue, given the conversation I overheard that went “What is THAT all about??” Answered by, “I dunno. I think it’s a TV show.” Kind of confirmed my concerns when I saw it was going to be dog people, and particularly dogshow people. Same fanaticism us Scapers have, just directed a whole different direction. If you’re both a Scaper and a dogshow person, your dual fanaticism is admired and appreciated!
Our next encounter with The Law came after we’d made a couple of laps amongst the crowds who told us everything was cool. She checked and found out the Parthenon was having special tours that day and said we should be fine anywhere else, but should stay away from there. A very reasonable and nice woman who even took a flier. One of our people had made email contact with the park officials a while ago and had essentially been told that a gathering of less than 50 people required no permits and should be no problem. And our Officer M.S. West seemed to confirm that to us, along with our rights to gather and assemble.
Unfortunately, her boss did not agree with her, as we came to find out about a half-hour later when we were taking a break and just lounging in the grassy shade cooling off. He rolled by in his cruiser and informed us in no uncertain terms that we were not allowed to hand out our fliers, even if people asked for them. Now needless to say this struck us an abridgement of our freedom, but given that we didn’t think landing in jail would do Farscape’s reputation any good, we decided to Obey Him With The Big Stick! When we wandered back to our cars scattered everywhere, most of us returned to find a card stuck under our windshield wipers from a pet store!!! As you can imagine, this did not lighten our anger. But perhaps it is all to the best, as we now have fodder for a few letters to the editor to declare our outrage.
So we were few, but we were noticed, at least ONE contingent at the park. And with our letters to the editor and maybe a contact with our local TV critic, we may manage to get some press out of it. Meanwhile, as we gathered from numerous locales and universities in Tennessee, we’ve all been supplied with fliers to distribute elsewhere, hopefully, in more fertile territory.
Nashville Rally
By LadyCrais
We all breathed a sigh of relief when the storms passed us by on Friday, giving us a beautiful day of sunshine for our rally here in Nashville. We started arriving at Centennial Park to meet at noon and discovered that unbeknownst to us, it was “Take Your Dog to the Park” Day, or something to that effect and a pretty major dog show was going on to accompany it. As a result, the park was absolutely packed with people, special parking in the grass, hoards of cars, people and dogs, and a good 15-20 minute 2 mph drive before finally finding a place to stash the car. We met up at the Parthenon, which is about a 1/3 scale of the real thing, and set to work pinning Wanted posters to our various shirts and making a few final posters. One pair had made a 7-8 foot long laminated banner of all of the Wanted Posters for two people to carry between them and another couple of guys had done hi-res laminated posters and had them attached to sticks in the ages-old, approved protesting format. Someone else brought 1000 fliers in many colors and designs. Between 15 and 20 of us finally showed up (sorry, the numbers kept fluctuating!), including one brave soul who drove from Chattanooga to join us. Meanwhile Shamecube, our fearless leader and videographer took video of us doing the “My Name is …. And I Am Farscape!” to have archived for future advertising purposes.
Our first thrill was a fellow in his 50’s or so stopping his car and running up the hill to us wanting information on what was happening to Farscape. He loved the show and wanted to know what he needed to do to do his part to keep the show on the air. Where are the petitions? Where are the websites? You get the picture. So we gave him a flier, which he promised to take back with him to Philadelphia and do what he can to get the action moving up there. So Philly Scapers watch out for this fellow and pull him into your fold.
Unfortunately our next contact was a Parthenon Security? Officer who told us in no uncertain terms that we could not be gathered there and would have to move. Thus began our first of three encounters with the park powers that be! We left and walked more or less together through the crowds of people gathered for the dog show or just visiting with their dogs. Some people came up to us and asked what it was all about and took the fliers. Some promised to watch. I suspect a good many had no clue, given the conversation I overheard that went “What is THAT all about??” Answered by, “I dunno. I think it’s a TV show.” Kind of confirmed my concerns when I saw it was going to be dog people, and particularly dogshow people. Same fanaticism us Scapers have, just directed a whole different direction. If you’re both a Scaper and a dogshow person, your dual fanaticism is admired and appreciated!
Our next encounter with The Law came after we’d made a couple of laps amongst the crowds who told us everything was cool. She checked and found out the Parthenon was having special tours that day and said we should be fine anywhere else, but should stay away from there. A very reasonable and nice woman who even took a flier. One of our people had made email contact with the park officials a while ago and had essentially been told that a gathering of less than 50 people required no permits and should be no problem. And our Officer M.S. West seemed to confirm that to us, along with our rights to gather and assemble.
Unfortunately, her boss did not agree with her, as we came to find out about a half-hour later when we were taking a break and just lounging in the grassy shade cooling off. He rolled by in his cruiser and informed us in no uncertain terms that we were not allowed to hand out our fliers, even if people asked for them. Now needless to say this struck us an abridgement of our freedom, but given that we didn’t think landing in jail would do Farscape’s reputation any good, we decided to Obey Him With The Big Stick! When we wandered back to our cars scattered everywhere, most of us returned to find a card stuck under our windshield wipers from a pet store!!! As you can imagine, this did not lighten our anger. But perhaps it is all to the best, as we now have fodder for a few letters to the editor to declare our outrage.
So we were few, but we were noticed, at least ONE contingent at the park. And with our letters to the editor and maybe a contact with our local TV critic, we may manage to get some press out of it. Meanwhile, as we gathered from numerous locales and universities in Tennessee, we’ve all been supplied with fliers to distribute elsewhere, hopefully, in more fertile territory.