Picket Report - San Francisco Org 83 McAllister Street, Apr 13, 97

Hi Everyone,

Today turned out to be quite a day, complete with a few surprises.

I arrived at 12:00 noon as usual. Over the past few weeks after having received little reaction from them I was starting to come to the conclusion that they had pretty much 'flattened out' concerning my presence out there.

Today things changed a bit. After I was there for about an hour this one long-time member suddenly came up to me. He was the silverhaired guy who spent so much time with the Keith Henson at the last global picket.

He said, "Wayne, Scientology is not the problem here. There's something still in your environment that's keeping you in restimulation. There's someone you're talking to or someone that is somehow keeping you suppressed and that's why the charge you have is not blowing. Please continue to look into this." (This is only the gist of what was said, as this part of our conversation went on for about 5 minutes).

He then continued, "I don't know what you're trying to accomplish out here. I don't think your accomplishing anything quite frankly. If there's anyone out here who is even listening to you (he said with kind of a laugh) we really don't want them because they are probably SO degraded anyway that it would take us too much trouble and time to get them any gains."

He told me, "You have every right to be out here expressing your opinion. This is a country of free speech, for you as well as for me. You're free to come out here and picket every day if you want. I'll even come out and defend you if someone starts harassing you. If you want to keep coming out here playing the victim that's your right. At some point, however, your going to need to learn to take responsibility for you own actions. I said, "I DO take responsibility for my actions, that's why I'm out here." Almost immediately his mood changed a bit and he ended the conversation shortly after that and went back inside.

Our little conversation lasted about twenty minutes. Sorry I had to shorten it so much but I just can't remember it word for word. It was quite a little talk we had for sure.

There are a few things that I find a bit odd about this little 'spontaneous' encounter. For one thing he already knew my first name. Since I've never talked to him before and the only time I've ever seen him is when I'm picketing I have to assume that they are talking about me inside. Another thing, he mentioned a few other things to me (which I didn't mention above) about me that there was NO way he could have known unless Jeff Quiros had told him.

From these observations I HAVE to assume that at this point they are starting to subtly troll for 'buttons' I might have. Some may call this assumption paranoia own my part, I call it being cautious. Knowing the way they got to my sister just before I did that talk show last year I have every right to be a little cautious here. A little paranoia can be a good things sometimes.

After that guy left I continued my picket. That guy had really annoyed me. By trying to cram more worthless LRH tech down my throat he, if anything, only made me more determined than ever.

I continued my picket trying to get my mind back on what I was doing out there. A short while later this bus driver stops at the red light. He throws open his window and yells out, "Why do you think it's a scam?" At that instant the light turns green, he glances up and notices it. He then looks back at me and just sits there for almost another ten seconds while I explain to him why I thought it was. I was impressed by this. I really didn't think that ANYONE would give me that much attention. I guess he just saw me out there so often that he finally just HAD to know. I, for one, certainly know how curiosity sometimes creates such an itch that sooner or later you just HAVE to scratch it.

A while later I see these two little kids approaching me, apparently a little boy about ten and his younger sister. By the time they were close to me I had already changed direction and was heading back the other way. I hear the boy behind me read my sign out loud. They then walk around and step right in front of me. The little girl looks up at me and asks, "Are you boycotting this place?" Because of her directness I instantly decided to deal with them as adults. I have to admit that these two kids acted a lot more mature than I would have expected when I first saw them.

I explained that I was 'picketing' them and then explained why. They both asked quite a few questions which I then answered. The girl then points to the word "SCAM" on my sign and asks, "What does 'scam' mean". I tell her, "Fraud, taking your money under false pretenses". With that they both seemed satisfied and left. As they were walking away I heard the little girl say, "Scientology is a scam, scam, scam. Hearing her say that certainly put a smile on my face for quite some time.

It was now about 3:00P, the wind was picking up and I was starting to get a blister on my toe so I decided to wrap it up for the day. I thought to myself, "One more trip over to the garbage can and then I'll head on home." Just as I was approaching it this woman on a moped pulls up to me on the sidewalk. She asks me a few questions and so I have another chance to go through my usual routine about $cientology and why I'm out there. Finally she says, "I'm a journalist and I would like to do a story on you." I told her I would really like that because I thought my story was one that really needed to be told. We then exchanged phone numbers. I asked her when she thought she would get back to me on this. She told me that my story was not a 'timely' one (meaning she didn't have to meet a deadline with it). She told me she would contact me in a month or two. I was a bit disappointed by the delay but I thought, "Hey another contact, another chance to get my story out." Some of my prospects work out, some don't. Right now I'll take ALL the contacts I can get.

Just as I was putting all my stuff away (the stuff that I had taken out of my bag so I could exchange information with this woman) this one rather hyperactive guy walks up and starts asking me all kinds of questions. His questions finally led to the personality test that $cientology administers. Since there's a giant sample graph from the test in the window the guy points over to it and says he's got a few questions and can I come over and answer them for him. I told him that staff didn't really like me near their front door but I figured I could get a way with it for a minute or two. I put my sign down at my side and walked up to the window with him. We spent about two to three minutes there talking.

Sure enough eventually this staff member came out and asked me to go back out to the sidewalk. He was polite about it and I was polite in return. I just explained that this guy had asked me if I could answer a few questions about the graph for him and I had agreed. At his request I decided to return to the sidewalk. Out on the picket line I'm constantly doing this balancing act between what could be considered harassment and what is within my rights.

I turned around and started walking back out to the street. As I'm on my way this guy walks up to me. He says, "Hi, I'm a journalist from (name withheld for now for obvious reasons) and I would like to take a few pictures of you to publish." I was taken by surprise by this so I just blurted out, "Great, I'd really like that."

While he took his camera out he had me back up right next to the front door. I thought , "OOH! back into the forbidden zone". I'm just standing there holding my sign while he tries out a few different angles and camera positions. After he gets this first shot he then has me move to the other side of the doorway. As I'm changing positions I glance inside. I could see several staff members gathered near the door all scribbling in little notebooks. It looked like they were all frantically writing down descriptions of everyone in the little group that had gathered around out front. This just happened to be one of those times when a small group had gathered around me. After he got his second shot he said, "Your sign is great, it photographs really well."

We then backed up to that planter that's halfway between the front door and the sidewalk. At this point we had a chance to get to know each other a little better and exchange information. He told me how he had been working on another story nearby and was on his way back when he saw me out there. He said he would send me copies of the pictures he just took. He also told me that if his editor was interested they would even publish my story along with my picture.

As he started to leave this one staff member (the one who asked me to move away from the door) ran up to him, pen and notebook in hand, and asked him if he could ask him a few questions. I presume he wanted to know who he was, who he worked for and why he was there. They walked off talking. I was tempted to follow. They stopped at the garbage can and talked for a few more minutes. The journalist finally walks away. The staff member then just stands there watching him for about a minute with his notebook and pen in hand. I presume to see where he went, what kind of car he had and if possible get the license plate number.

I had this urge to go over and try to block his view but decided that might be considered harassment so I didn't. Besides, after talking to this guy I got the impression that he really knew what he was doing out there and that he could take care of himself.

After about a minute the staff member then went back inside, my little group disbanded and since it was now 4:03P I decided it was time to leave for the day.

WOW, what a way to end the day, I was so pumped up!

Wayne Whitney (A guy who STILL gets excited over little things like this)