jonnygoldstein.com

I took part in a flash mob protest thing on the Great Lawn at Central Park. The deal was, show up and lie down with a bunch of other people to spell the word “NO” in the grass that could be seen above by news helicopters. The point was to reject the decision to bar protests from Central Park during the RNC. I heard it got on Fox 5 for their 5PM broadcast, but didn’t see mention of it on their web site. There was a brief mention of it in the New York Post though.

This shows part of the “O” and the “N.” We were covered with trash bags to be more visible from the air, and also to hint at body bags. There were a bunch of choppers swarming over us. Some were from the news, and some were military looking. A little creepy.

The people in the green hats were legal observers. The cops were pretty jolly, like the fellow on the right.

The only thing that really harshed my mellow at this event were 3 or 4 Revolutionary Communist Party acolytes who tried to lead every one in harsh voiced, trite, political chants. It was grueling. That shows just how comitted I am to ousting Bush. I’m willing to endure the kind of egomaniacal would be cheerleaders who seem to swarm to events like this to inflict themselves on everyone else. The people on either side of me hated it too. It did give us something to complain about though, which is always a good time. At the end they tried to gather all the participants to read a letter out loud to us “situating this event in historical context.” I couldn’t take it any more and headed South to the Sheeps Meadow for a picnic for Kanae Ito who is moving back to Japan. Met up with Paul, Mike Sharon, James Claar, and another friend of Kanae’s to eat some yummies and drink some wine. That got the taste of the annoying chanters out of my mouth. Despite the grating chanting, I’m glad that I participated in the event. No. No. No. Yes.