I was told this story and was meaning to send it in around George W
inaguration . It sounds so silly in 2001. At the time the entire group was
very serious and considered it a mild/ heavy political act.
The counter inaguration of President Nixon in 1969.
Four friends went down to Washington DC to do an action against the newly
elected President of the United States. They were so worried about this new
right wing president that an affinity group was formed. Affinity groups
were small action groups made up of very close friends who had known
eachother forever and trusted eachother with their lives.
In New York City where they lived they had met secretly and decided what
the action would be and what role each would play.
The night before the Inaguration the anti war, and peace movement, along
with hundreds of political folks from everywhere danced all night in a
large tent . The band that played was................... It had rained and
the ground was very muddy. Folks who partied that night and showed up the
next morning to demonstrate against the president had mud on their shoes and
bottoms of their pants.
One person in the affinity group was going to throw a balloon filled with red
paint at the newly elected president Nixon as his car passed by during the
inaguration parade. Another person in the group was a photographer on the
streets taking photos of the parade and people. The two others were a man
and a woman dressed very nice in camels hair coats . The woman held a small
american flag. They just stood around and looked towards the street.
Problem number 1
Did you know that on the morning of the Inaguation all the stores in the area
were closed. They could not get the paint from the store they had planned
to. The only close store that was opened was Peoples Drug Store. No paint
, but they did have Pepto Bismo, which was pink. One of the people bought it
and went into the restroom.
Problem number 2
How to get the Pepto Bismo into the balloon.
A gulp of Pepto Bismo would be taken, not swallow, and then spat it, blowing
into the balloon until the balloon was as filled as possible. The person
left the rest room with pink around the lips.
The photographer was taking photos of the Americans on the street, the cars
in the parade started moving, the president was coming by in the big black
car, everyone was in place. In a moment the car was in front of the
affinity group, the balloon filled with Pepto Bismo was thrown from behind
the photographer, the photographer while shooting pictures blocked the two
plainclothes men running towards the thrower. The plain clothes men finally
pushed pass the photographer and the couple with the small american flag
blocked them behind the photographer, the thrower escaped.
The balloon came close to the car but missed President Nixon. The end
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Feb 24 2001 - 00:39:57 EST