On May 5, 2001 my friend, John Dries And I headed over to the Complex in LA for the May 5th picket.

Numerous people had called saying for various reasons they couldn't make this picket but were up for the next one for sure.

As we approached the Complex, John and I parked on Sunset. It was a beautiful day here in LA. We picked up our signs and wondered if anyone else would show up. As we started to walk, BOOM! Out came a XENU.NET sign, held by a gentleman named Chris from up North. He had brought XENU.NET hats for both John and I! Thank you for coming, Chris, and for the hats!

Chris announced this was his "virgin picket", and we all greeted each other.

OK, not your biggest picket, but I had remembered Bob and Stacy getting out in Boston and doing the original one I was at. :) HI Bob and Stacy :)))) So with that we began to walk.

On the street next to the Complex is a SRF (Self Realization Fellowship) Building, and they had about 10 people picketing there, so the day started out with a bang.

We walked around the Complex once and all three were amazed at how totally empty it was. Honestly, we didn't see anyone except one security officer in the entire Complex at the start, at 10:30. This is a dramatic change from years ago when the Complex was bustling with people all over the place, from every org.

After one time around the Complex, the SPL (Scientology Parishioners League that I was the ED of prior to leaving last July) arrived. They had giant signs against Psychiatry and black balloons. The funny thing is all that did was add ot our picket! Now we looked considerably larger!

We would walk down L RON HUBBARD WAY, and the SPL would follow along, trying to block our signs. (again, who was looking???) LOL.

OK, as we would turn the corners off of LRH way, the SPL would stop each time. I guess they now don't care if the world sees "XENU.NET".anymore, they just don't want the staff to see it!!

We continued and of course they brought out the film cameras to film us. One kid tried to heckle us feebly, but otherwise the SPL was silent.

The anti-SRF picket next to us was getting lots of honks, and these seemed to continue over to our picket, also. I talked to Joel Phillips, who I had turned the SPL over to the night before I left, and he seemed to growl only.

I said, "I hope you didn't invest with Reed Slatkin". His reply was "Tory, I wouldn't discuss this with you". Chris (who was with us) quickly said, "that's a YES!".... and for Joel's sake, I hope it isn't true, but probably is.

After about an hour Chris had to leave, and so we decided to rap it up as it was lunch time. As we walked him to the car, a lady came up. She announced she is a lurker on ARS< and had brought us some stickers for our cars. A very nice woman, who has followed ARS for years.

Someone followed John and I for some time, and then we ditched him. We went to eat in Studio City, and there was a major TV network news crew on the corner. I asked them what was up, and they told us someone had been killed down the street, and they were waiting to do a story.

Since they seemed to have some time, I asked them if they ever did stories on Scientology?

They said it depended on the story, but the camera man said he hated Scientology. I told them I had left after 30 years and if they wanted to do a story, I was happy to tell them mine. They congratulated me on leaving and the reporter asked for my number, and said she may contact me. I gave her my number, and we went to eat.

So John and I planned some future signs and good things to come.

Contact me about our upcoming sign making party and start thinking about some creative ideas for signs. We plan to rock at the next one!
LOVE TO ALL!!!
Tory/Magoo~Dancing in the light~
In for 30 Years
Out for 9 months now
SP 5
Free at last~ (more info, see www.xenu.net/archive/personal_story/tory
www.lermanet.com/toryonosa.htm
www.lisatrust.net
www.torymagoo.com) :))))))

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