"A spectacularly successful action'
On Friday, some of us crashed Hemlock's press conference, unfurling
the large NDY banner across our knees while we waited for the police (whom
the manager had called almost immediately). - who informed us that we would
have to leave or be arrested. ....Then, bless them, the reporters came
out to us.
We got outside under a canopy and stayed there, chanting and passing
out literature until evening. It was cold. At 6, we left and met at the
Marriott across the street. They were good enough to give us a meeting
room where we discussed strategy, watched videotapes and some took peacemaking
training....
Saturday, in our designated "protest area," we held a "Seminar
on Dignity." That afternoon, we stormed the lobby, chaining ourselves
to one another and anything that would be difficult to move (I got a table).It
took nearly two hours before the police found bolt-cutters that would go
through the chains and our $1.85 Oriental Trading Company handcuffs and
started moving us out. Once out, we zipped around the building to take
the other doors. ....
The police took our pictures and IDs and gave us business cards with
a case number on them and fire department tickets and let us go! Cheesiest
arrests ever!
At night that evening, we held a candlelight vigil for our dead: we
sang quietly, chanted and told stories of people who were important to
us among the dead and why their lives touched ours. It was a moving, bonding
time for us all. The Sheraton, however, didn't see it that way and called
the police almost immediately. At 10, we left quietly as promised. Singing
"We are a gentle, angry people and we are singing for our lives,"
with the Hemlock people hiding their badges in shame as they walked by
us, was really quite powerful.
Sunday we got up to find our picture on the front page of the Ann Arbor
Times. Not very big, but above the fold. They mostly got the story straight.
All in all, it was a spectacularly successful action, although it would
have been more than twice as good if we'd had twice the people.
- Carol Cleigh
Telecommunications Rules Need Your Comment
T
BART settles class-action suit; agrees
to damages
© Copyright 1998
Disability News Service, Inc.
Bay Area Rapid Transit has agreed to make extensive improvements throughout
its system to ensure that riders with mobility disabilities have safe and
reliable access to the BART transit system and are not be routinely subjected
to "noxious" conditions. BART also agreed to pay damages equalling
$750,000 - $100,000 to independent living centers in the Bay area and $650,000
in free fares to disabled riders. In the May 19 settlement of a class-action
lawsuit alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, BART
agreed, among other things, to fix broken elevators and keep them clean
and in working order and provide accessible parking, accessible "paths
of travel" through the stations and to the trains, as well as accessible
phones and restrooms in over 30 stations.
More D.R. Nation
Back to table of contents
