Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 15:45:54 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Shawn P. Wilbur" <swilbur-AT-wcnet.org>
Subject: Re: Eugene: City, anarchists assert ideals


I'm in the middle of trying to get a book-chapter finished and sent off,
so more details later, but...

Yesterday, sleepy Bowling Green, Ohio had a visitation by the KKK, who
held their rally within a block of my bookstore. We had 12 KKKers, 20 or
so ARAers (all from out of town), 300+ cops (complete with riot gear, dog
and horsie show, and an enclosure around the event that was pretty clearly
designed to stop everything up to carbombs.) A total fo 75 folks were
willing to go through the gauntlet, show ID, take off their shoes and
socks, get patted down and felt up, etc to join in the fun inside the
pens. Exactly one of them seems to have been pro-clan, though there were
certainly others around, sniffing things out (much like the press and
police.) Most of the town rallied around the "Unity Day Coalition," whose
sole contribution to was the catchy slogan "Don't Attend" (along with
little green ribbons) - and certain amount of organized intolerance for
those who like their issues (and racism certainly *is* an issue here) out
in the open. 

The Toledo Blade called the rally "pathetic,' and i think, for once, they
may have hit the nail on the head. Pretty much everyone i talked to was
walking around like they had virtual reality goggles on, and nothing got
interesting except when people bumped into folks who weren't following
their program - in pretty much all cases, just a media program. The
protesters were natty and naughty. The cops were bored, since it was
painfully clear for most of the afternoon that this wasn't Beirut or
Watts, but they carried on bravely with the usual assortment of
intimidations and such. At least they didn't leave cigarette butts behind.
The Klan was, from all reports, as boring as they always are. The Unity
Day people had their candlelight march, reclaiming the courthouse for the
diligent anti-racists (hehe) who came back to work this morning. all in
all, nothing much has changed, expect a few new cops look at me funny, and
an otherwise potentially sympathetic shopowner friend of mine is pissed
off because some of the ARA crowd felt the need to stick stickers on his
restaurant furniture. 

Nothing more disappointing than a failed spectacle. Nothing more
depressing than the fact that nobody - cops, ARA, townies - could tell me
why they were doing what they were doing, except to repeat versions of the
media scenarios for what "might happen." All of those factions seemed in
entire accord in the belief that some degree of harassing or violent
behavior was justified by those "might-be"s. And nobody that i talked to
(the cops in our area were all from out of town) seemed really to know
much of anything about racism in Bowling Green. (The Unity representative
i talked to grudgingly admitted that a prayer on the courthouse steps
might not quite wash us white as snow on that count - then turned about
that white when i explained to her that we had had neonazis recruiting on
campus a couple of years ago, so some of us actually knew a bit about
dealing (even dealing quietly) with racists.)

One of the cops i talked to told me - with rather chilling candor - that
his force was there "to make sure nothing changed." And, though the cards
have not stopped falling and there are all those "might have beens" to
muddy the waters, it looks to me like all that has changed is that folks
have proved themselves just a little more willing to trade freedom for a
banal sort of safety (no matter how many cops it takes (and how many feels
they cop). And "freedom of speech" has been confirmed as something
inconvenient - how much more convenient just to think and say what you've
been told. 

We have to find better means than this.

-shawn