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Squadron13 joins Oct. 27 Peace March in Seattle |
On this 3 day trip we brought Lynn Porter (far right) with us, one
of our Vets from VFP929 in Eugene.
Meeting up with a car-pooling group in Olympia prior to our departure
for the Seattle march.
Only fitting that our first stop of the day earns us our first police
surveillance!
Just to get into the spirit of things we consider repeating our trip
into the gates of Fort Lewis as we did over a year ago in order to get
to the PX to buy some cigarettes with our buddies from IVAW. Kinda like
a starting a family tradition, but we're a little short on time since we
know that would involve at least an hour of harassment. Instead we go to
the Starbucks just across the street "to get some coffee". Filled with
gawking military personnel, it is barely 5 minutes before the local Dupont
police show up.
No doubt they received a call that they were being invaded by "traitors".
Lucky for all concerned, the Dupont police are quite polite, friendly and professional as shown in this video. Sadly we learn that they no longer have their very small police station which had a very homey small town look to it. It is hard to imagine the stress that these officers must face acting as a buffer between the military folks and the pro-peace crowds. Our hats are off to them!
Driving up all the way from Eugene Oregon, we greatly appreciate Amy and her family who allow us to stay over at her house for the night when we conduct operations in the area. Upon arrival late on Friday night, we were greeted by many members of VFP 109 "The Rachel Corrie Chapter", a wonderful potluck, and some great conversation.
A few wrong turns in the confusing Seattle streets put us in a bad spot, right smack in the middle of the police staging area that was getting ready for the march. We were ordered to park and forbidden to proceed despite our instructions from the parade organizers to stage at the north end of the park where we could have joined the rally that was going on. It was our first disappointment. The picture above shows one of the organizers trying to straighten things out. "Complications" popped up out of thin air and we feared we would not be permitted to join the march. The police "asked" to search our bus. Under duress, we gave the OK. What they thought they might find I don't know. They found blankets, pillows, sleeping bags and food. Lucky for us, they missed our stash of secret weapons. Our powerful weapons were hidden under my bunk, a computer keyboard, which is the modern day equivalent of the "pen". Lucky for us the Seattle Police haven't figured out that "the pen is more powerful than the sword".
With my top secret M1A1 Event recorder, I capture the cop instructing
us that we must stay between the police vehicles that will be escorting
us on the march.
Even their SWAT team showed up. Do we look dangerous or something? Good thing we didn't have any Buddhist Monks or pissed off grannies aboard. Then I would have understood all this attention.
This lady might have had something to do with it. I didn't catch her name but she was a writer from Portland who joined us in lieu of walking the 2.5 mile route. If anyone knows her name and contact info please let me know.
Here is a smorgasbord of pictures that I picked from my collection.
Click on Page 2 to see more!!!
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