Letter to the Editor

TO: Washingtonian Magazine
RE: "TROUBLE MAKERS"
FROM: Thomas
DATE: 5/30/96

Owing to it's broad sweep, Larry Van Dyne's TROUBLE MAKERS (Washingtonian Magazine,.February, 1996) necessarily presents a narrow perspective of reality. To be accurate, marshalling factual references to balance the Trouble Makers' story took time.

"The Secret Service has closed Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House to vehicles, creating the kind of security envelope usually reserved for tin-horn dictators. But a group of nuclear weapons protesters known as the Vigil fears that the frenzy to insulate the president from any and all dangers could lead to fencing in Lafayette Park, a safety proposal the Park Police floated at a public meeting." City Paper reported in June, 1995.

"There are barricades to the left of us, barricades to the right of us, and yet directly in the middle sits what is supposed to be one of this nation's most enduring symbols of freedom." U.S. Senator Rob Grams stated, just days ago. "Surrounded by concrete, and ringed by armed guards, dogs, and patrol vehicles, a roadway that once resonated with freedom now reeks of fear."

How could this happen right under the Nose of the Free? It didn't happen in a vacuum, the closing of the Pennsylvania was widely reported -- after the fact -- by the established public media. As is so often the case, the coverage was superficial.

Of course, whether the closing of Pennsylvania Avenue is indeed, "a knee-jerk reaction to fear," is only an opinion shared by Senator Grams, myself, and a growing number of influential citizens. Merely a "perception of reality," as opposed to "Reality" itself. Thus, reality might be quite different. For example whether the closing of Pennsylvania Avenue might be part of a broader incursion against free and open democracy by " tin-horn dictators" acting under color of "national security." might be another question.

Mr. Robbins admitted to Mr. Van Dyne, that I "even today continue a vigil in Lafayette Park." From my personal perspective, whether "long-term, round-the-clock peace vigils" successfully manipulated well-intentioned public officials to nickel and dime the First Amendment to death, or whether they just did it on their own, is a question of vital interest to a democracy, and one which merits factual review.

In my humble opinion, therefore, TROUBLE MAKERS exemplifies the journalistic shortsightness which has missed, misinterpreted, or under-played the years of legal groundwork which paved the way for the growing realization that, as Senator Grams put it, "Giving in to fear is not an acceptable response in a democracy."

Lest my words seem hyperbolic, in an effort to foster an accurate common perspective on an issue of broad public concern, I have hot linked some of Mr. Van Dyne's most egregious oversights to objective reality at http://prop1.org/park/vigil.htm


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