the REFUGE

Published on Sarasota Indymedia (http://sarasota.indymedia.org)
Free Speech Activists Battle Baywalk
By
Created 10/10/2009 – 10:02pm
[0]The line has been drawn in St. Petersburg between free speech activists and corporate interests [1]. At issue is a sidewalk in front of baywalk [2], a downtown entertainment complex. Baywalk’s owners, CW Capital [3], have lobbied the city of St. Petersburg to privatize the sidewalk for the expressed purpose of stopping protests. Protesters [4] have traditionally used the sidewalk as a gathering place for demonstrations against international [5] as well as domestic [6] imperialism. It’s been argued that protesters constitute a perceived security risk and are bad for business.

Baywalk’s owners have bribed the city to privatize the sidewalk in front of baywalk, saying it is a “deal-breaker,” meaning that without it the owners will not go through with plans of spending up to $6 million revitalizing the property. On Oct. 1st, despite st. pete mayor Rick Baker’s [7] backroom dealing [8], the city council voted down [9] the proposal: 4-4. Following the victory for free speech, St Pete For Peace [10], one of the protest groups, announced that they would not hold protests at baywalk [11] for at least a year as long as the city didn’t again move forward to stop protests.

But the city undermined the peace group’s good faith effort after a St. Petersburg Times editorial [12] convinced one council member, Herb Polson hepolson@stpete.org [13], who previously voted to protect free speech, to call for a revote [14].

Activists have used a variety of tactics to convey their opposition to the city’s plan including protests, letter writing, power point presentations [15], a free speech flash mob [16], and radical cheerleading [17].

The city is scheduled to take their final vote on the sidewalk privatization, around 3pm on Oct. 15th at St. Petersburg City Hall (175 Fifth St. N.) The vote will be made without an opportunity for public comment. Activists have responded by writing on one website [18], “there are ways to speak without words. And they will have a tougher time silencing our actions.”

read more: 1 [19], 2 [20], 3 [21], 4 [22]

listen: 1 [23], 2, [24] 3, [25]

watch: 1, [26] 2, [27] 3, [28] 4 [29], 5 [30],

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Source URL:

http://sarasota.indymedia.org/local/free-speech-activists-battle-baywalk

Dear Friends and Supporters of the Refuge and the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign,

Hello Everyone. It is now Monday, September 28th, 2009. It is 3 days after the last day of the G20 demonstrations and actions. Our contingent from Florida arrived back in Florida on Saturday night. We were tired, but encouraged and excited about what happened there. For more than 5 days and encampment of the poor, the homeless, the unemployed and their supporters camped out at Monumental Baptist Church, on their grounds in of the poorest, historical African American Districts called the Hill District in Pittsburgh, PA. We participated in the March for Jobs on the 20th with more than 1000 people,including PPEHRC, the Refuge, Bail Out the People, several Unions and others. We had to opportunity to speak at this event and talk about how movements to end poverty must be informed and led by those effected by it. We had workshops on endin poverty, worker rights, unions, and global issues. We viewed several films, including “Explicit ILLs”, which talked about healthcare and poverty with PPEHRC and a protest as the back drop. We did a speak out on ending Police Repression, and one about Healthcare. We had a March on Mellon Bank in the middle of the day on Wednesday and managed to get serious attention and disrupt traffice. At this March, we spoke of Predatory lending, foreclosures, and the housing crisis.
We also participated in several large Marches, including a large March on Thursday that was unpermitted. The authorities claim we had only 500 people, but it was more like 3000 to 4000. It was at this event, the Police Repression was the greatest, though throughout the week the Police harassed by Flying helicopters overhead at all hours, sending Police by in their Patrol cars, randomly stopping people and asking for ID’s for no apparent reason, in one case we were visited by Secret Service. At first, we thought they were there for a funeral the Church was having, but when I discovered they were Secret Service, I went up and talked with them and took a picture of them. I got more than 80 pictures at this event this week. So, we have lots of footage. During the unpermitted march on Thursday, the Police used Tear gas in a residential neighborhood effecting both protesters and residents, including children. They used tear gas on the University of Pittsburgh campus, and got both protesters and students, who were looking from their dorms. The Police used high intensity sound machines, which gave me at headache, and they used rubber bullets and concusion grenades. I, as well as the group with me, were victims of tear gas. Several news reporters were hit with batons, tear gased and hit with Police fists, including a New York Times Reporter and a CNN reporter.
At the permitted march, several thousand (at least 15,000) marched. Cheri Honkala, National Organizer with PPEHRC, spoke as did Union Organizers, Cindy Sheehan, and many others. Our march was blocked several times by a massive Police Presence and Military presence. They had helicopters, including Chenok troop carriers, Blackhawk helicopters, and Apache Attack helicopters, as well as armoured vehicles and humvees. So, the Militarized presence was enormous. But, we were undaunted and got our messaged out of justice and peace and economic human rights. Several news organizations from the International community covered the event, including Al Jazerra, the BBC, German Television, Australian Television, and Japanese Television among others.
In closing, we believe it was a very worthwhile demonstration. We were especially pleased that the message of the poor, oppressed, unemployed and homeless were heard by those who were effected by the current economic crisis. Without your help and support, we could not have done this trip. We thank you. However, the work locally, must continue. Our struggle for economic human rights for the poor and oppressed continues. We continue to serve and work alongside the homeless, the poor, and the unemployed. So, we need your continued support, help, and prayers. The Refuge, as well as the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, needs your financial help. We still have expenses from our trip and need to raise $700 for that, as well as regular support. If you can help in any way, please call me at 727 278 1547. Gifts can also be sent to the Refuge at 1818 29th Ave. North, St. Petersburg, Florida 33713. You can also go online to paypal at www.refugestpete.org. For more info. about what happened on this trip you can go to www.economichumanrights.org or www.bailoutpeople.org. Thank you again. Rev. Bruce Wright

In the story of the judgement of the sheep and the goats in the Gospel of Matthew we are taken a further step in our meditations. Both groups are told that their response to the suffering of the hungry, the homeless, the imprisoned and others among the forgotten and the injured is their response to Christ. When,in the Acts of the Apostles, Paul is knocked off his high horse by the Light that shines more brightly than the Noonday Sun, he is told by the one that he rightly addresses as ‘Lord” that he is persecuting Christ in persecuting the church.

Christ has taken upon himself all of human suffering. Whenever you see human suffering you see Christ’s continuing suffering. Pascal said “Christ is on the cross until the end of the world.” What we do to the insulted and the injured of the world we do to Christ.In the end we are either on the cross with Christ or we are among his crucifiers.This is why, in Dostoyevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov”, when the holy staretz, Father Zosima, enters the room and perceives the great sufferings ahead for Dimitri Karamazov, he falls on the ground and reveres those sufferings. He reveres them because they are the wounds of Christ.

James rebukes the Christians of his day for prefering the rich to the poor. Unfortunately this distortion of Christian praxis has not disappeared. The mainstream churches of the modern West are generally churches of the professional middle class.The poor and other sufferers are not treated as icons of Christ but as defective people who need to be straightened out by professionals or as objects of cheap and uninvolved ‘charitable’ acts that are nothing more than contemporary analogues of Lady Bountiful wrapping Christmas packages for the faithful poor. There’s no extension of friendship and solidarity.And what we do to such is what we do to Christ.

May God bring us all to see that our only hope of salvation lies in our recognition that we too are the poor and the needy. That we must deliberately enter into solidarity with them because we in fact are one with them. And since all suffering is the suffering of Christ it is there where we can find our Lord and worship him.

-Frank Valdez

To Everyone who supports, or is concerned about Poverty and Poor People’s Rights,

Please consider helping Refuge Ministries and the local Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign Chapter. We are currently in dire need of financial help. Currently, the Refuge and the local chapter of PPEHRC are housing 3 families, a total of 12 people, including 6 children, in a local church, at the graciousness of that church. It is one of the churches where the Refuge uses office space. We are in dire need of financial help to keep the ministry going and assist these and other families and individuals. One of the families, which is 6 people, is staying at the Church due to their power being shut of at their house. They are on assistance and do not have enough to pay bill. The other families are homeless. This family is in danger of being homeless. They are a few of the many families we are dealing with in this situation. We are trying to raise $2400 to help these families. Additionally, the Refuge is having a shortfall of $1675 this month due to all these needs. I am currently driving a vehicle without air that has mechanical problems to transport people around and we desperately need another vehicle with air that runs good.

In addition to this, we are trying to bring poor people, formerly and currently homeless, as well as the unemployed to an event in Pittsburgh in a week and a half. We need to raise $2450 for this. We are bringing 10 people to this event. We need to rent a van and pay for gas. It is going to be a tent city with poor and homeless people, on Church grounds, during the G20 Summit. It is sponsored by the Bail out the People, The Refuge, and the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign. We need support for this. Your help is urgently needed for both this event and the Refuge. We also want to bring up tents, blankets, sleeping bags, and canned goods. Please, Please help us with this event and the families we are trying to help.

If you wish to help, you can give via pay pal (on the right of your screen). Or, you can email me at bgcwright@aol.com or call me at 727 278 1547. You can mail gifts to the Refuge 1818 29th Ave. North, St. Petersburg, Florida 33713. We can also tell you how to direct deposit funds into account. PLEASE HELP US, THIS IS URGENT. For more info on G20 Summit tent city go to www.bailoutpeople.org or www.economichumanrights.org.

Thanks, Bruce

Jesus, my refuge

In thee, O Lord, I find new power
when my own power is spent and gone.
I see help coming from nowhere else,
to thee alone in hope I turn.

For thee, Lord, I reach out in longing,
though all around me breaks and falls.
Thy arms shall hold me safe forever;
thy love remains, whatever befalls.

In thee, O Lord, is grace abundant.
On thee I trust as on a rock.
The way thou lead’st me on is straight,
my hand in thy firm hand is locked.

So I shall keep, steadfast and faithful,
upon the path that thou hast shown.
Into thy hands I lay my burdens,
entrust all things to thee alone.

-Eberhard Arnold
Breslau, July 30, 1905