Dazzling Dallas
Colonel Mason's prior report is appended.
I counted twenty-six 'vigilizers' before the two young ladies
from the West End joined us. I think there were probably 30 or
32 total, counting those who came and left. I decided at the
event that my 'official' guess would be 28 participants. It was
a gorgeous day, sunny with temperature in the 70s.
One reporter covered the event, Jonathan Fox of the
Dallas Observer. He interviewed Rick, Bob Williams, and
me. There were six to eight participants who heard about the
event on the Internet via DRCnet and November Coalition web sites.
This was the first time I counted people in attendance that I
didn't know, and more than I could count with confidence. I look
forward to this "problem" getting bigger. The nationwide
publicity on the event helped a lot in getting more people to
come out.
This was also the first time we had passersby
stop and join with us until the vigil's end. There were four
who joined us, including the two women mentioned above. The Libertarian
candidate (Kelly Rush) for the 30th congressional seat and her
companion handed out flyers, our literature and carried signs
awhile, too, as I recall.
This was the first time we ran low on signs.
We did run out of sticks to mount signs onto. I had made two
new 30x40 ones: "Two Million is Too Many" and "PRISONER
- America's Fastest-Growing Occupation." Rolf made a 40x60
version of his captioned photo of a 2-3 year-old black girl bawling
in her prisoner-parent's arms: "The Drug War Destroys Families.
Any Questions?"
He mounted it on the back of his pickup truck,
which we parked in the first spot next to Houston & Main.
Also on his truck was the sign announcing the next vigil for
March 27th.
George DeMerle showed up as he said he would.
Dressed in black and white prison stripes, he was quite a hit.
I told him he could have "any sign in the place" to
carry. He stood in the center of our greatest concentration at
Houston & Main, near Rick and his bullhorn.
Our prisoner family
members, Virginia Traylor and her nephew Sedrick, spent most
of their time near Houston & Elm.
When we get more people than signs, we'll
have to get some to volunteer to hand out literature. Craig Johnson
likes to hand stuff out as well, but his Grandmother died recently;
so he and his Mom both went to Kansas for the funeral.
Bob Ramsey, Drug Policy Foundation of Texas
& Vigil Leader

Dallas Vigil Lively
Here's a quick report on today's vigil. Rick
Day assumed the position of vigil leadership this evening and
certainly did his usual fine job of stimulating the group. Rick
says he counted twenty of us in the protest. I was under the
impression there were more, but I didn't count; so I take Rick's
judgment as fact.
There were a lot of familiar folks in our
group, and we welcomed some new faces. I believe the mass of
us were on the wrong corners and hope next time we'll move closer
to Elm where there seems to be more traffic. Feeling sure that
each participant has particular stories and best memories of
tonight's vigil, my delights include these:
I'll remember the man in pinstriped clothes
driving a Mercedes and slowing his car to a crawl in rush hour
traffic in order to read my anti-George Bush sign. Maybe one
hundred other cars slowed also, but his was the most dramatic
and deliberate. We figure he was either an attorney or a drug
dealer, or both.
There was the 'long hair' who approached me
to say, "Hey, I'm with ya man, but could ya please stop
blowing that stupid horn? A lot of us are working late up there
(pointing to the eighth floor of an adjacent building), and it
is driving us nuts." When I said I was surprised my 'blow
horn' could be heard that far away, he pointed to open windows.
It was 82 degrees today. I agreed to put my horn away if he would
take our flyers back with him for circulation, which he did.
And so the fight grows. Viva la revolution!
COL MASON
One Dallas Vigil Coordinator
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