THE WASHINGTON POST SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 1,1985

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Speaking Out in Peace Park

Edwin M. Yoder Jr. argues that the demonstrators in Lafayette Park violate his "fifth freedom" the right to enjoy the beauty of America ["Liberty and Junk for All," oped, Aug. 24]. In this manner, the demonstrators forfeit their rights of petition and free speech, I 'm curious as to what lengths Mr. Yoder would suggest we go to preserve the order and beauty of our society. Under whose guide~lines shall we determine if something or someone is an eyesore?

I find the demonstrations at Lafayette Park to be magnificent monuments to the strength and vitality of the democratic system in the United States. I find them every bit as beautiful and as important as the Lincoln and Washington memorials.

In one sense, Mr. Yoder is correct. Other capital cities of the world do keep order and "beauty" in their cityscapes, I understand Gorky Park in Russia has been free of protesters for some time now.

JOHN F. CASSANOS

Washington

Inaugural Articles - 1997 - 1993 - 1989 - 1985 - 1981 -

January 1997

In case you're looking for us (White House Peace Vigil - Peace Park anti-nuclear vigil - and friends) our signs have been moved across Lafayette Park to H Street, as has happened every four years since the vigil began in June, 1981.

Meanwhile a dozen large mobile homes rest on the grass of the southern half of Lafayette Park for the construction crews' comfort. Police patrol regularly, in part to make sure no homeless people crawl under the empty trailers in the icy dark of night. The bricks where office workers and tourists usually walk have been torn up, and huge - ugly - three-story bleachers rise in the space where our vigil normally stands, along the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue, so the press -- for one afternoon -- may stay warm and dry and near bathrooms while President Clinton has his second inaugural parade. The bathrooms on the north side of the park are locked, though construction workers again (as in past years) have for their use several porta-johns which are locked at night. Fences of every variety are intricately laid out to block demonstrators into the northeast corner of the park during the Big Event.

Ronald Reagan tried to have a second inaugural parade but it was so cold Inauguration Day 1985, the president had to call it off, and the quarter-million-dollar bleachers went unused. We were shivering and dancing in the northeast quadrant of the park, giving credit to God for a good sense of humor.

The vigil began five months after Reagan's first inauguration. At that time, people were allowed to demonstrate on the White House sidewalk. After a campaign by the Washington Times in 1983, new regulations were written banishing the vigil to Lafayette Park. During the wee hours of the morning, when tourists weren't about, police hovered and often arrested the vigilers. Department of Interior lawyers wrote a "camping" regulation which was used to criminalize (see CCNV case, U.S. Supreme Court, 1984) what was formerly protected behavior (see Abney case, U.S. Court of Appeals, 1976).

Since there are private citizens who insist on paying for this desecration of Lafayette Park every four years (via the Inaugural Committee), we're stuck with the bleachers again this year. So I'm writing President Clinton asking him, as I asked President Reagan in 1985, at least to leave the bleachers up for the rest of the winter, for homeless people to get out of the cold, wet, snowy, icy streets. I'm not asking for us -- we will remain at our signs with the minimal amount of protection necessary to survive. We are asking on behalf of the homeless sleeping on the DC streets (in spite of police harassment) ... still, after all these years.

Ellen Thomas
PEACE PARK ANTINUCLEAR VIGIL
PO Box 27217, Washington, DC 20038 USA
202-462-0757
prop1@prop1.org

Regulations | Personalities | Information Center
Proposition One | First Amendment

Congratulations to the Park Service on its new, if somewhat timid, rules on the use of Lafayette Park. When the new Execu- tive Office Building and the new Court of Claims were built, great care was taken and expense incurred to preserve the charm and the beauty of Lafayette Park. For a few years a handful of zealots who wrap themselves in the cloak of the First Amendment have been able seriously to detract from the beauty of the square with their billboards and other impedimenta. They could not so clutter up the landscape in front of the Supreme Court, the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial or Mount Vernon. What logic requires that this clutter be allowed in front of the White House? In other cities, both here and abroad, those with a cause and a message for the public have designated places to discuss them without a lot of visual clutter. London has a corner in Hyde Park; Edinburgh a place on Princess Street, and New York has its Union Square. Recently The Post carried an article recommending that the locus for visual or verbal protests be moved to the Ellipse, behind the White House. Why doesn't the Park Service adopt this recommendation! LEWIS H. ULMAN Chevy Chase Edwin M. Yoder Jr.'s "Liberty and Junk for All" ignores the important issues involved in the right of petitioners to raise their signs in Lafayette Park. Irrespective of First Amendment concerns, the "clutter," as Mr. Yoder describes it, in Peace Park should be allowed to survive in an unrestricted fashion. The issue at hand is one of alienation, a subject Mr. Yoder's column ignores. These protesters, who find it necessary to spend their days warning of nuclear holocaust and constitutional destruction, have become estranged from the mainstream of American life. Their concerns seem magnified to the rest ~f us for that very reason.Twenty-foot signs are the magnification of that estrangement. Mr. Yoder should concern himself more with why such unfortu~ nate men and women find it necessary to forsake shelter and decent living conditions in order to voice what they believe to be legitimate concerns, Esoteric issues of the aesthetic quality of Lafayette Park are the only concern of Mr. Yoder. Such insensitivity is symptomatic of the very reasons that these people feel alienated from the American system. TIGGY ELDRED Washington