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Indybay Feature

Activists in Their Natural Habitat

by Jack Burchill
When observing activists in their natural habitat, one who is astute, becomes aware of the subtle nuances of this strange and wonderful, foreign culture.
A vigil like this can be very powerful as an inspiration, the energy is so positive and the action make one feel very good. All around are people trying to make a difference in other people's lives, the power of love that we all thought the sixties would bring about forever, that high water mark that Hunter Thompson talks about. When going up to a shielded GAP worker with a smile on your face, pervading exuberance, you see that shield waver and if you say just the right thing, you see them smile. This is what keeps people going out there.
However, we tend to forget, in all our giving of warmth, that we are all human, made up of equal parts positive and negative, atom for atom. Not everyone agrees on everything and not everyone communicates perfectly, two old bulls may but heads if put in the same herd. In this case, I see it as the young bull challenging the older one. Activists who have dedicated their life to it, often have an ego to protect and a set way to believe. It's almost required of a hard-core activist to be stubbornly set in their ways, how else would they be able to unconditionally stand up for what they believe in. This leads to a solid belief that whatever one does is absolutely right, don't get me wrong, most activists are always looking to better them selves and will do a lot to accede to the beliefs of others but will usually go through a Long debate to get there. What happens when you have two who believe that their way is right but have two different ways? Well, there is the consensus process, this mediates these problems-usually. Activists argue strangely, whenever I witness this phenomenon, I think that it's strange, using lingo and political correct terminology, they never raise their voices, this is a sign of weakness. When observing activists in their natural habitat, one who is astute, becomes aware of the subtle nuances of this strange and wonderful, foreign culture.

What am I blabbing about? And shouldn't this be in the opinion section? Yes, It should be, I suppose, but journalism is considered news and this is my journal. As to what I am talking about; last night, there was a squabble stemming from history between two very active, activists. I am telling you about this to illustrate, (1) It is not all fun and free love on the front lines, (2) I will be as unbiased in my articles as I can possibly be. You will get no censored events in my column or tactful insinuation, we are all human, on both sides of this debate-even Donald Fisher, though I'm still working on that one.

Yesterday around four o'clock, the news finally came and channel four filmed us doing what we do best-orate. We have another news day scheduled on Wednesday with games and skits. Last night we talked extensively about how to theme the games and what to do in our skits, we came up with many variations on old favorites. Our company was large but dispersed one by one, by the time it was time to go to sleep there was only myself and one other person. This is the smallest the vigil has ever been, may it never fall below one.

This morning, I slept far longer than I've been able to sleep since the beginning of the vigil. I was glorious, I slept until ten, through all the traffic noise of a motorcyclist convention. When I finally awoke, there were three people there and I was renewed that the vigil would maintain. On the topic of rest; I will not be doing this article tomorrow and, unfortunately, will not be able to greet the GAP workers tomorrow with my fresh new batch of flyers. I will get someone to stand in as writer for tomorrow, I am eager to find out what happens.
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