Free to shine
Shiny & Free
Weblog of G. Allen
http://blackfish.biz/allen/?p=257#commen
Signs and portents part II
Posted on 26 April 2008
I write a wee bit, some of you may have noticed. One of my favorite places to write (outside of my home-office.) is a certain Starbucks coffee house. The one in Downtown Clearwater Florida to be specific. deep inside the Scientology campus. A stone’s throw from Flag and a block away from the infamous Fort Harrison Hotel and the Super Power building.
I’ve been going here on and off for some time, years perhaps. I write and I watch the Sea-Org people march back and forth between classes, late into the night.
There used to be a steady flow of Flag staff in and out of the Starbucks, On stats-day they would line up at the counter. Most of them looked like they were in a big hurry. I nodded at them but never really tried to talk to them. Sea Org members have little time to chitchat.
This is not happening anymore. The last few weeks have been very quiet. No one lines up at the counter. I don’t see any Flag staff relaxing in the shops couches or Delphi kids doing their homework. I don’t see teens hanging out in the veranda. It’s been oddly quiet in there. I see people, not locals. lots and lots of people from other counties, I hear Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Japanese being spoken. There is Japanese lady that come in sometimes with a small child. she looks lost and homesick, they have Starbucks stores all over Japan now. Perhaps it helps.
But the Flag staff are conspicuous in their absence.
So I did what I usually do when posed with a mystery, I asked.
“What religion are you?” said the person behind the counter nervously,
“I’m not one of those guys, I can tell you that” I said, indicating the hordes of Sea Org people in their uniforms walking by.
The person behind the counter relaxed a bit, “well, have you heard of this group Anonymous?”
“I’ve heard of them.” I said.
“They did some protesting over here a few weeks ago.” Said the counter person.
“So I understand,” I said.
“Well, ‘they’ (indicating the Sea Org people outside)” came in here and asked us not to serve the Anonymus people, we told them no.”
“Hmmm,” I said, “ what are they doing now, boycotting you?”
“We think so “ said counter person. “They seem to be going to another place, they don’t have very much money and the other places are cheaper.”
I thanked the counter person for the information and left, not too surprised to tell the truth.
Starbuck’s is one of the only places downtown that has not sported “No Anonymous” signs in its windows. Personally I intend to go there more often now. I have little tolerance for discrimination and that’s what the No Anon signs are. I don’t care if you agree or disagree with the protests. Actions speak louder than words and those Anon people have impressed me with their passion as well as their platform. In all the protests I’ve witnessed, I have not seen any of them get out of line.
Starbuck’s has impressed me too, with their solidarity, not to the Anons but to what is right. The management of Starbucks knows instinctively something that most of the Scientology run businesses seem to have forgotten. That people need to speak out from time to time, that free speech and free expression are something tha’s been fought for in this country, and it’s being fought for once again, in the streets of Clearwater Florida.
They have forgotten, bit not everyone has.
And as long as that is so, there is hope.
------------------------------------------
Additional comment:
Hey an_anon;
Thanks for the advice; I do know something of their fair game policy, enough to understand that, from Scientology’s point of view, they have not yet evoked “fair game” on anyone in Clearwater. To them, this is just “legal actions” to intimidate people as per Hubbard’s directives. They think that by casting such a wide net they can keep people away from the protests. That is their objective at this stage. Staying away for any reason plays into their hands and achieves their objectives. Their objective BTW (IMO) is to keep Clearwater a profit center. Protests interfere with that.
– They took out a restraining order and two injunctions, one of them has my name on it. And what am I as a respondent accused of?
Specifically as a person supposedly acting in concert with “Anonymus” I’ve (allegedly) made “repeated and explicit threats threats of attacks, raids, wars and assassinations upon petitioners.” I (as a respondent) have encouraged “Anonymus members” to use “bombs, machine guns and baseball bats to attack and kill petitioners and other Scinetologists.”
Now, should seeing this kind of crap on a public document serve to keep me away from the protests? If I were guilty of such things, perhaps so. Otherwise a normal human reaction would be to make it a point to attend the protests to protest such an outrageous series of allegations.
And I hope that the around 50 people that were named on these absurd civil actions are all out there too.
The only way to deal with a bully is to stand up to one, Scientology has become the bully of Tampa Bay and I for one am sick of hearing about their continual antics (which date back to 1976 BTW.) Additionally (and I almost forgot…) I’m not doing anything wrong, nor have I done anything wrong, nor do I intend to do anything wrong. Going to a protest is a “protected” activity,
To even suggest that someone should steer clear of a protest because the subject of the protest might resort to the reason for the protest; their policy of “destroying their foes,” most especially as this protest is all about protesting the “fair game policy” in the first place is … Hmmm…...
Besides, I don’t think of myself as a foe of Scientology, I’m a foe of some of their habits and I disagree with a few of their assertions. Or as someone said while being burned at the stake – – “No – no people; I agree with your goals, its your methods I question!”
Thanks for coming by dude, sorry about the rant; these folks have a way of getting under one’s skin.
http://blackfish.biz/allen/?p=257#commen
Signs and portents part II
Posted on 26 April 2008
I write a wee bit, some of you may have noticed. One of my favorite places to write (outside of my home-office.) is a certain Starbucks coffee house. The one in Downtown Clearwater Florida to be specific. deep inside the Scientology campus. A stone’s throw from Flag and a block away from the infamous Fort Harrison Hotel and the Super Power building.
I’ve been going here on and off for some time, years perhaps. I write and I watch the Sea-Org people march back and forth between classes, late into the night.
There used to be a steady flow of Flag staff in and out of the Starbucks, On stats-day they would line up at the counter. Most of them looked like they were in a big hurry. I nodded at them but never really tried to talk to them. Sea Org members have little time to chitchat.
This is not happening anymore. The last few weeks have been very quiet. No one lines up at the counter. I don’t see any Flag staff relaxing in the shops couches or Delphi kids doing their homework. I don’t see teens hanging out in the veranda. It’s been oddly quiet in there. I see people, not locals. lots and lots of people from other counties, I hear Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Japanese being spoken. There is Japanese lady that come in sometimes with a small child. she looks lost and homesick, they have Starbucks stores all over Japan now. Perhaps it helps.
But the Flag staff are conspicuous in their absence.
So I did what I usually do when posed with a mystery, I asked.
“What religion are you?” said the person behind the counter nervously,
“I’m not one of those guys, I can tell you that” I said, indicating the hordes of Sea Org people in their uniforms walking by.
The person behind the counter relaxed a bit, “well, have you heard of this group Anonymous?”
“I’ve heard of them.” I said.
“They did some protesting over here a few weeks ago.” Said the counter person.
“So I understand,” I said.
“Well, ‘they’ (indicating the Sea Org people outside)” came in here and asked us not to serve the Anonymus people, we told them no.”
“Hmmm,” I said, “ what are they doing now, boycotting you?”
“We think so “ said counter person. “They seem to be going to another place, they don’t have very much money and the other places are cheaper.”
I thanked the counter person for the information and left, not too surprised to tell the truth.
Starbuck’s is one of the only places downtown that has not sported “No Anonymous” signs in its windows. Personally I intend to go there more often now. I have little tolerance for discrimination and that’s what the No Anon signs are. I don’t care if you agree or disagree with the protests. Actions speak louder than words and those Anon people have impressed me with their passion as well as their platform. In all the protests I’ve witnessed, I have not seen any of them get out of line.
Starbuck’s has impressed me too, with their solidarity, not to the Anons but to what is right. The management of Starbucks knows instinctively something that most of the Scientology run businesses seem to have forgotten. That people need to speak out from time to time, that free speech and free expression are something tha’s been fought for in this country, and it’s being fought for once again, in the streets of Clearwater Florida.
They have forgotten, bit not everyone has.
And as long as that is so, there is hope.
------------------------------------------
Additional comment:
Hey an_anon;
Thanks for the advice; I do know something of their fair game policy, enough to understand that, from Scientology’s point of view, they have not yet evoked “fair game” on anyone in Clearwater. To them, this is just “legal actions” to intimidate people as per Hubbard’s directives. They think that by casting such a wide net they can keep people away from the protests. That is their objective at this stage. Staying away for any reason plays into their hands and achieves their objectives. Their objective BTW (IMO) is to keep Clearwater a profit center. Protests interfere with that.
– They took out a restraining order and two injunctions, one of them has my name on it. And what am I as a respondent accused of?
Specifically as a person supposedly acting in concert with “Anonymus” I’ve (allegedly) made “repeated and explicit threats threats of attacks, raids, wars and assassinations upon petitioners.” I (as a respondent) have encouraged “Anonymus members” to use “bombs, machine guns and baseball bats to attack and kill petitioners and other Scinetologists.”
Now, should seeing this kind of crap on a public document serve to keep me away from the protests? If I were guilty of such things, perhaps so. Otherwise a normal human reaction would be to make it a point to attend the protests to protest such an outrageous series of allegations.
And I hope that the around 50 people that were named on these absurd civil actions are all out there too.
The only way to deal with a bully is to stand up to one, Scientology has become the bully of Tampa Bay and I for one am sick of hearing about their continual antics (which date back to 1976 BTW.) Additionally (and I almost forgot…) I’m not doing anything wrong, nor have I done anything wrong, nor do I intend to do anything wrong. Going to a protest is a “protected” activity,
To even suggest that someone should steer clear of a protest because the subject of the protest might resort to the reason for the protest; their policy of “destroying their foes,” most especially as this protest is all about protesting the “fair game policy” in the first place is … Hmmm…...
Besides, I don’t think of myself as a foe of Scientology, I’m a foe of some of their habits and I disagree with a few of their assertions. Or as someone said while being burned at the stake – – “No – no people; I agree with your goals, its your methods I question!”
Thanks for coming by dude, sorry about the rant; these folks have a way of getting under one’s skin.