[Peace-discuss] lowe's etc: an alternative perspective

[Peter Rohloff]

Howdy all. I was the member of the P4P 'security' on parking lot 
detail, and here are my observations:

1. In a space of two hours, I redirected around 100 cars. This is a lot 
of cars, and would definitely have impacted Lowe's parking. I think the 
management has a point.

2. Before we all get our persecution complexes up,  my observation was 
that the Lowe's employees who were assigned to 'towing' were equally 
targeting pro- and anti-war parkers. I think the manager himself had a 
pro-war bias, but this did not appear true of the employees who were 
actually doing the spotting.

3. I was non-partisan in my activities, and I redirected nearly as many 
pro-war as anti-war demonstrators. Both  the police and the Lowe's 
people noticed this, and the police in particular made a point to  
thank us for our help and cooperation. I think building up this kind of 
currency when possible is a good thing, since we peaceniks usually seem 
to be on the police's bad side. I was disappointed to see a few folks 
specifically targeting the police with angry comments.

4. In general, the pro-war people that I re-directed were much more 
understanding than the anti-war people, and much less likely to accost 
the Lowe's employees with angry comments. Giving the Lowe's manager a 
piece of one's mind was probably appropriate, but I started to feel 
sorry for the peons who were taking the brunt of the anger.

5. I had a lengthy conversation with the police about parking 
alternatives and, although they were reluctant to give official 
'suggestions', they let it be known that the old Best Buy on the 
frontage road is vacant. Perhaps we should investigate this as an 
alternative? I'm not sure how far the walk is, but is can't be any more 
distant than Borders, which is where many people parked.

Now the standard disclaimer: Just my $0.02. :-)

In peace, Peter