[Peace-discuss] chilly reception on Florida Avenue

[Karen Medina]

John Wason wrote:
>   as we turned right from Lincoln onto Florida and
>   entered the "Champaign domain", our reception got
>   decidedly chilly.  Lots of glares and very little
>   applause.  It was really quite remarkable, like
>   driving from bright sunlight into a driving rain.

We have a few theories on the difference between Lincoln and Florida Avenues.

Yours is one.
Mort suggested that the people on Lincoln are those who walk from their homes 
on the very liberal "state streets" [Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, Michigan, ... 
aka the "faculty slums"]

As a person from Champaign myself, I think the above situation is compounded 
by a few things:
1) Those on Florida are sitting in the sun longer, so maybe their brains are a bit 
too warm by the time the floats come by.
2) People also come from farther away than Champaign. I recognized several 
people that I know are from small towns nearby. So Champaign residents are 
not to take the entire blame.

A great many people on Florida were indeed quiet, but I also noticed that some 
of the quiet ones were people who I know are for our cause. It was a long 
parade, we were number 60, the sun was warm, there were many things 
demanding attention, and there is the crowd effect -- if the people next to you 
are quiet, you are also quiet -- if the people next to you are cheering, you at 
least think about cheering. 

Even with all this, our reception on Florida was not what could be described as 
cold. I counted at most 5 individuals that were outwardly negative to us. Many 
people were applauding us. This is by far the warmest reception I could have 
dreamt of. It was all beautiful. Lincoln Avenue was the most beautiful.

-karen medina