woah- strength or absolute stupidity
Ok so this is a big one. Let me preface this with a note that I'm totally high right now which could be clouding my judgement.
There's a guy named Lloyd who has been standing on McGill sidewalks on McGill College with this giant poster that says all these anti-semetic horrible things about Jews on it as well as something about perversion in the jewish general hospital. he has been standing outside every day since the beginning of june with this huge-ass racist fucking poster- EVERY DAY! that's 9-5 monday through friday five days a week without a break WEARING THE SAME OUTFIT EVERY DAY for EIGHT HOUR A DAY since june standing with his fucking poster!! that's june, july, august and the beginning of september---say 100 days times 8 hours a day so that's 800 hours of RACIST POSTER in the downtown FACE of my city!! where i live! where i've never seen this before EVER. it's about ME! i'm Jewish!! that sign is implicating ME!! i'm first STUNNED that jews are being targeted IN MONTREAL CANADA in SUCH A BLATENT MANOR and second-- that he's been there for 100 DAYS and NO ONE HAS SAID ****ANYTHING**** ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aren't adults supposed to like- STOP THAT BULLSHIT?! that's JUST NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!!! NOT IN THE DEMOCRATIC WEST WHERE PEOPLE ARE FREE! WTF?!!
listen- i'm not gay so i haven't had to do that ground breaking, i'm targeted thing, BUT I FUCKING GET IT NOW! that FUCKER had a poster that was the equivalent of "gay people are whatever" only it said "jewish people are whatever"!! i mean, not to sound like a pratentious bitch or anything but jews are experts in dealing with this type of shit, we've been watchdogging and doing it forever and have huge organizations with huge amounts of money that are supposed to keep this shit from happening. big organizations. big money. it's just not even the same scale-- people have only been building organizations with big money for the standing up for gay rights since the 60s... ...hang on, maybe i don't know what i'm taking about here-- i fully support all gay activism i just thought that just wasn't supposed to happen to jewish people... big organizations... big money... i'm going crazy with dilusional thoughts
Anyway, that being all said here's what happened to me and how i'm involved: The first time i ever saw him in june i was so shocked that i went up to him and talked to him to find out what his deal is. i mean, guy with big anti-semetic poster shows up in a place where that shit has NEVER happened before because there's a HUGE VIBRANT ACTIVE jewish population, you'd better bat and eye! Hel-lo! What? That's what I thought! So I asked him what was up. His response goes like this: worked for the Jewish General Hospital, lost my job, wouldn't let jewish girl grab my balls in the laundry room. saw jewish men dancing in their underware and i was offended. got fired cuz i wouldn't let a jewish princess feel my genitals. it's what he said! i wouldn't forget that! i was shocked so i asked what he had done about it and he rants about how rich jewish doctors own everything and he wouldn't get a fair trial if he tried to sew for sexual harassment. that poster said something about sexual preditor in the jewish general hospital with perversion and christ saying that judaism was a false religion, i remember those words specifically. i was like, buty why is judaism a false religion and he said that his was a mission of love and that he loved jewish people and couldn't really think of what to say but i think i said something along with i think you're crazy and then i left and talked to some really upset jewish woman who asked me if i knew if we could do anything about it. we talked for a bit and didn't come to many conclusions. i went hom and was thinking about it for a bit but stopped after a while. the next day however, i did a double take as i walked down mcgill college and again, saw the poster standing in front of the store. this is the 2nd day in a row that i've seen him. i had class in a bit and i was on my way to my eye check up at lasic but i took the time to call bnai brith and find out what to do and i talked to some guy who said he's been feilding complaints about the dude with the poster who wears the same clothes every day fo 6 weeks already. bnai brith is looking into it but the best thing to do it to call the police. so i did. they said they'd check it out but i called 3 times and they didn't come. i sat and waited around for them. for about an hour (and then i went to lasic instead of shopping like i was planning to do). but even as i was in the lobby of lasic i was still on the phone with the police, filing a report and telling dude from bnai brith what was happening. on my way home from lasic, i went into the police station in the getto on prince arther to find out what the fuck happened with the police. i called them. they didn't come. they're supposed to come. so at least i can talk to them. they didn't come. the woman behind the desk explained that because of freedom of speech, even though i didn't like his speach, they couldn't do antyhing about it and they knew he was there but she promised to send a cop car by dude to check him out. so i went home thinking that this was all very unfair and not really knowing what to do about it. something had to be done- hadn't it? i mean, the poster was clearly anti-semetic and in the wrong place. i guess i didn't mention it but he was standing under the canadian flag!! i mean woah! can someone actually do this and get away with it? aren't people supposed to come out from behind a corner and arest the dude? wearing trench coats? from law and order? (just kidding- actually, not really, i think that's what everyone was thinking but it just wasn't happening so dude was gonna just chill there with his hainus poster in front of everyone just chilling cuz he knows/ or knew or wahtever that no one was going to say anythikng).
day three- i'm walking buy and woah! dude's there AGAIN! what? what? ..... what??!!!! how? why? how?! .... how?!! how is it possible that he's standing on the street again! seriously! am i stupid for not getting this? i just don't get it! he's just chilling there! a few people like turn their heads when they walk by and a few people might challenge him for a second or ask what's up but very few... very few... most people just walk by and he keeps on chillin...
day three i walked into all the business on mcgill college and told them that they'd better ask dude to move off of the front of their property (i went into the HSBC building and talked to the security station first and the doorman and the restaurant next and the doorwoman at the realistate agency (if that's what it is) after) i told them that he was making their businesses look bad, the police were doing nothing so if they asked him to get off their property, he was affecting the customer satisfaction of the businesses and his poster was hurting business because jews most likely wouldn't go into a business where there's an anti-semite with a giant poster at the door. logic right? just ask him to move off their property. logic. i appealed to the Green. and for buisness, the Green is primo. i can see business as a druggie dealer who would set the dogs on whoever tried to cut his happy flow (of green). ice 'em.
SO I MADE POSTERS- it took me a bit to figure out what they'd say but because the police had told me the bad police who i called on day three to complain again said i needed a lawyer and that the police could do nothing cuz he broke no laws...
anyway- next time i see guy-- he's standing in front of McGill--- it's late August--- let's do the time warp again!!! let's do the time warp again!!!
without going into the what? how? whys of before, i'll keep it short. i was furious to see him still outside with a different version of his horrible poster standing in front of mcgill right? but i figured when school started, he's be asked to leave. this is a school. he's standing at the gates of my school. you can't do that in front of a school.
school starts. his poster changes. it says different version of bad things about jews. i move. my posters stay at colin's. he moves into a new room. doesn't throw out my poster which i've left in his room for months (all those months i didn't see guy and poster, my posters lay in colin's room under his bed).
find posters and protest
i kinda want to describe the protest but i've been sitting in my kneeling chair too long and my back hurts.
i got high
think it's all crazy and a big mistake
but i think i've convinced myself otherwise
i did a good think today protesting
maybe it was a crazy move, but it was a bad day for poster dude (his name is lloyd), good day for me
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
Edmund Burke
I told my dad and he gave me that quote. it means a lot. i think he's really proud of me. i didn't realize when he gave it to me that he was trying to tell me that. my dad's a really special person. i think my mom cried when he heard what i was doing.
it's rosh hashana- the jewish new year- i want this year to be a good year. i don't want to feel angry every time i go to school becasue there's a guy with a poster standing in the front of my school. i don't think i'm crazy to want that. am i crazy? why have i been the only person to actually get the community to say anything? why hasn't someone said something? why does it have to be me? i feel like i'm crazy for doing it. it took so much energy over such a long period of time. and now i think i'm crazy. i just want school to be what it used to be. i want to feel safe all the time and take for granted that i'm just like everyone else. but i'm not. i'm jewish. people really do hate me in this world because i am jewish. aren't we supposed to watch for that? isn't that how so many jewish people were killed?? because nobody said anything? man i'm balling right now. crying like a hysterical child in my kneeling chair. maybe i am crazy.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
Edmund Burke
i didn't realize when he gave me the quote that he was trying to tell me that the was proud of me. my dad's a really special person. i think my mom cried when she heard what i was doing. am i completely insane? am i completely bonkers? why me? why am i the first person who has made a fuss? why me? my brother likes to quote things. i think he probably got it from dennis. that makes me feel better
ok i'm going to keep going- i think it's important that i get this all down now before i forget. i think my mom might want to read it at some point anyway, i'll have to correct it and make it look nice...
so the protest. i knew dude was still there. his poster has changed a number of times since the beginning of school. it's gone through waves of badness. sometimes worse sometimes not quite as offencive. today, because i had taking my posters and brought them to my house a few days ago, were conveniently located by the door where they had been stashed for the weekend. so i grabbed them this morning just in case i had to protest. I planned to go to class, check and see if he was there after class at 12:30 and then maybe sit with my anglo sign in my hands or on my knees and my french sign at my feet, just sitting in the corner, maybe studing a bit minding my own business for about an hour and see what happened. i got out of class, saw colin sitting on the ledge outside the physics building and went over to him. he wasn't feeling good and wasn't going to class. brooke had called me and told me we were going to lunch together and told her to meet me at the roddick gates and shrugging off protesting was planning on going to lunch with colin and brooke. the pit that i had had in my stomach all through india class went away. i had told brooke to meet me at the gates because i wanted to swing by the poster guy and see how bad his poster was today. she said she didn't want to be part of a political statement. whatever. it's something i wanted to maybe do but probably not cuz we were going to lunch anyway.
i have colin by the hand, we're going to lunch, we're at the crossing between the beach street and main street and brooke calls back saying that she can't stand at the roddick gates becase the guy's poster makes her very uncomfortable and she doesn't want to be around it. that's what she said. in her distressed voice. it clicked in my brain. i told colin that i had to protest. i don't quite remember what happened but we all hooked up, read the sign and brooke and colin decided to go get lunch while i sat with my poster. so i sat down with my english poster in my hands above my head and my back up against the wall and the french poster at the feet to the right to mr anti-semite. just while they were going to booster juice to get me a booster juice. not long. i sit there and get nods from everyone who passes by me and a couple of thumbs up and some nice smiles and whatever. it starts well. this is going to be easy. i roll my eyes a bit and hold my poster that says that "this man's poster is a blemish on the vibrant, multicultural community of montreal" it's small, not big, it's hand written, it's not a big deal. right? about 5 minutes later. another guy with a MEGA PHONE starts ranting on the megaphone!!! he's all, i hate this man's poster, it's a discrase to mcgill, hate speech, intollerable, bla bla bla LOTS OF STUFF AOBUT HOW THIS MAN'S POSTER SUCKS!!! i'm just sitting there yelling YEAH!! all the time at what he's saying. it's what i'm saying!! this is good!! he's got a megaphone!! people are stopping and reading other dude's sign. they're reading my sign!! they like my sign!!! i'm getting a lot of positive feed back!! "tell him why you don't like his sign, talk to him, tell him that you don't his sign outside of your school or on the streets of montreal, tell him! go up and talk to him! far too long has he been standing here! get him off our campus" bla bla bla and on and on and he hardly stops to breath! he's got lots of time, get off our campus, he's here to learn, he not here to hate, he's got lots of time, this is the nicest he's going to be to mr poster, he's got a megaphone and people won't be silent any more, people are getting riled up, this is good, they're reading his poster, they're reading my poster, they're liking my poster. i'm right. i like being right. i'm getting positive feedback. i'm right. people agree with me. people are riled up by the megaphone. we didn't plan this. this is turning out all right for me. good job jamie. way to pick the exact right time to start the protest. it was going to be me with a sign. i think the stars aligned and the megaphone and i arrived on the scene at almost the same time. i like being right. i like the megaphone blasting on about how right i am. i even hear my poster being read on the megaphone. i'm definitely in the right. i like being right.
this goes on for a while. megaphone goes on, i reposition myself to the left of the poster and on the corner of the roddick gates. we have him surrounded, megaphone and i-- we're picking up people coming out of mcgill as well as those people on the street. there's a mob now. brooke and colin show up with food for me. brooke and colin feed me boosterjuice while i hold the sign above my head. i'm still right. there are even more people now who think i'm right. the megaphone and the mob are telling me i'm right. i'm not the only one who thinks this way. megaphone man thinks this way too. the mob thinks this way. brooke takes the french poster that is propped up at my feet and hold it up. for a long time. colin stands behind the two of us. he feeds me booster juice through a straw for a long time. brooke has to go to class. brooke's proud of me and colin kisses me and takes up the poster for a while then he has to go to class. the mob stays. megaphone goes quiet and is talking with a chap in the corner. the mob has a mind of it's own led by some very angry jewish girl who is not afraid to get into mr poster's face. she's yelling at him. dude with a hooked nose is giving him the verbal one-two as well. girl draws on his poster. oh no. this is bad. the mob dispurses. i little later, some guy spits on dude and goes into school, dude is shocked and after a moment of recovery, goes after him. anna has walked up. she walked by before, so did her friend sarah, so did a lot of other people i know, lots of people stopped. lots of people took pictures. guy's gone. anna brooke and i go to lunch. we eat sushi at sakora. it's good. i'm kinda still riled up. on the way to sakora, we see firemen. tht's ok that drummond was blocked off, sakura's on montain street anyway, and we got to see firemen.
after sakora i'm on my way to the music building to tell andre white why i missed class and to find out what happened. anna said he's appreciate it. good idea i think. we walk by the gates, guy's there again. he hasn't left for the day like i though he did. but his poster is upside down against him with the heinus side pointed toward him so no one can read it. is he ashamed? probably we think. anna brooke and i walk over. there's a reporter. i go and talk to him. he talks to mr poster. anna pipes in. mr poster offends her by lieing. she gets riled. brooke leaves and i hold my poster and talk to the reporter while anna give him the gears and some other people walk by. 2 guys got up in my face saying that i was riling the situation up and my poster was stupid and there was nothign wrong with his poster. that was bad. anna didn't like that either. the other side we both them the two pricks. nothing wrong with that side either. we're the problem. "ok bye!" and they left but i only tried that after it was very uncomfortable for too long a while.
the poster is back up again. my poster is back up again. anna's still going. a girl come up with her own poster. it's in green marker. it's really simple. who wants to follow this ignorant prick- not i. simple. in green marker. she stands next to me. she isn't jewish. she thinks the poster is horendus too. anna leaves and the girl and i stand next to the poster. first years walk by and stand with us. the police come and lloyd and his poster cross the street to talk to them. he was wronged. someone spat in his ear. this won't go unanswered for. they're going through security tapes. the camera saw it. he's going to be prosiquted. lloyd's been wronged. the girl follows me across the street. we stand at the corner with our posters talking to each other. lots of people come and stand with us. reports come and we talk to them for a while. more picutres. old guy says the police looking into his spitting whatever is a waste of tax money. amen. i agree.
lloyd goes back to the otherside after a while. so do we. more reporters. more pictures. by now, lloyd and i are talking. he likes me. i'm a chosen one. nothing i can say can upset him. he's filled with love. a good christian boy. doesn't he look like it? i ask lloyd to move over, my friend has come and decided to take up the french sign that brooke and then colin held for me. my friend from the women's union. she's great. she stood with me for a while. we just stood together getting compliments from passers by. she gave me all the credit. she agrees with me too. i had a number of important encounters today. they were all good. it was cool. she leaves when lloyd and i mutually decide to call it quits for the night. he offers to buy me donuts tomorrow if i'm there. it's his job to be there, he'll be there. it's rosh hashana... will i be there? i need a new poster. i need a new plan of attack. i need to make sure i'm not crazy. i have to find out if they printed my letter. brooke came over at 5:45 and we edited my quick letter that i had worked up. sent it. went to rosh hashana. it was really nice. i ate a lot of beats. got home, reworked the letter, got brooke home safe, went to colin, found him and brough him home (power was out at his place) and got him all ready for bed. i took a bath, smoked up, got SUPER PARANOID, started writing. i'm going to bed now. i've been writing for two hours. it's time to sleep.
sorry this is so long- it's more of a document than a livejournal update... i'm going to rework it and let people read it i've decided. it need some gramar/spelling help bigtime. :)
xoxo Jamie
There's a guy named Lloyd who has been standing on McGill sidewalks on McGill College with this giant poster that says all these anti-semetic horrible things about Jews on it as well as something about perversion in the jewish general hospital. he has been standing outside every day since the beginning of june with this huge-ass racist fucking poster- EVERY DAY! that's 9-5 monday through friday five days a week without a break WEARING THE SAME OUTFIT EVERY DAY for EIGHT HOUR A DAY since june standing with his fucking poster!! that's june, july, august and the beginning of september---say 100 days times 8 hours a day so that's 800 hours of RACIST POSTER in the downtown FACE of my city!! where i live! where i've never seen this before EVER. it's about ME! i'm Jewish!! that sign is implicating ME!! i'm first STUNNED that jews are being targeted IN MONTREAL CANADA in SUCH A BLATENT MANOR and second-- that he's been there for 100 DAYS and NO ONE HAS SAID ****ANYTHING**** ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aren't adults supposed to like- STOP THAT BULLSHIT?! that's JUST NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!!! NOT IN THE DEMOCRATIC WEST WHERE PEOPLE ARE FREE! WTF?!!
listen- i'm not gay so i haven't had to do that ground breaking, i'm targeted thing, BUT I FUCKING GET IT NOW! that FUCKER had a poster that was the equivalent of "gay people are whatever" only it said "jewish people are whatever"!! i mean, not to sound like a pratentious bitch or anything but jews are experts in dealing with this type of shit, we've been watchdogging and doing it forever and have huge organizations with huge amounts of money that are supposed to keep this shit from happening. big organizations. big money. it's just not even the same scale-- people have only been building organizations with big money for the standing up for gay rights since the 60s... ...hang on, maybe i don't know what i'm taking about here-- i fully support all gay activism i just thought that just wasn't supposed to happen to jewish people... big organizations... big money... i'm going crazy with dilusional thoughts
Anyway, that being all said here's what happened to me and how i'm involved: The first time i ever saw him in june i was so shocked that i went up to him and talked to him to find out what his deal is. i mean, guy with big anti-semetic poster shows up in a place where that shit has NEVER happened before because there's a HUGE VIBRANT ACTIVE jewish population, you'd better bat and eye! Hel-lo! What? That's what I thought! So I asked him what was up. His response goes like this: worked for the Jewish General Hospital, lost my job, wouldn't let jewish girl grab my balls in the laundry room. saw jewish men dancing in their underware and i was offended. got fired cuz i wouldn't let a jewish princess feel my genitals. it's what he said! i wouldn't forget that! i was shocked so i asked what he had done about it and he rants about how rich jewish doctors own everything and he wouldn't get a fair trial if he tried to sew for sexual harassment. that poster said something about sexual preditor in the jewish general hospital with perversion and christ saying that judaism was a false religion, i remember those words specifically. i was like, buty why is judaism a false religion and he said that his was a mission of love and that he loved jewish people and couldn't really think of what to say but i think i said something along with i think you're crazy and then i left and talked to some really upset jewish woman who asked me if i knew if we could do anything about it. we talked for a bit and didn't come to many conclusions. i went hom and was thinking about it for a bit but stopped after a while. the next day however, i did a double take as i walked down mcgill college and again, saw the poster standing in front of the store. this is the 2nd day in a row that i've seen him. i had class in a bit and i was on my way to my eye check up at lasic but i took the time to call bnai brith and find out what to do and i talked to some guy who said he's been feilding complaints about the dude with the poster who wears the same clothes every day fo 6 weeks already. bnai brith is looking into it but the best thing to do it to call the police. so i did. they said they'd check it out but i called 3 times and they didn't come. i sat and waited around for them. for about an hour (and then i went to lasic instead of shopping like i was planning to do). but even as i was in the lobby of lasic i was still on the phone with the police, filing a report and telling dude from bnai brith what was happening. on my way home from lasic, i went into the police station in the getto on prince arther to find out what the fuck happened with the police. i called them. they didn't come. they're supposed to come. so at least i can talk to them. they didn't come. the woman behind the desk explained that because of freedom of speech, even though i didn't like his speach, they couldn't do antyhing about it and they knew he was there but she promised to send a cop car by dude to check him out. so i went home thinking that this was all very unfair and not really knowing what to do about it. something had to be done- hadn't it? i mean, the poster was clearly anti-semetic and in the wrong place. i guess i didn't mention it but he was standing under the canadian flag!! i mean woah! can someone actually do this and get away with it? aren't people supposed to come out from behind a corner and arest the dude? wearing trench coats? from law and order? (just kidding- actually, not really, i think that's what everyone was thinking but it just wasn't happening so dude was gonna just chill there with his hainus poster in front of everyone just chilling cuz he knows/ or knew or wahtever that no one was going to say anythikng).
day three- i'm walking buy and woah! dude's there AGAIN! what? what? ..... what??!!!! how? why? how?! .... how?!! how is it possible that he's standing on the street again! seriously! am i stupid for not getting this? i just don't get it! he's just chilling there! a few people like turn their heads when they walk by and a few people might challenge him for a second or ask what's up but very few... very few... most people just walk by and he keeps on chillin...
day three i walked into all the business on mcgill college and told them that they'd better ask dude to move off of the front of their property (i went into the HSBC building and talked to the security station first and the doorman and the restaurant next and the doorwoman at the realistate agency (if that's what it is) after) i told them that he was making their businesses look bad, the police were doing nothing so if they asked him to get off their property, he was affecting the customer satisfaction of the businesses and his poster was hurting business because jews most likely wouldn't go into a business where there's an anti-semite with a giant poster at the door. logic right? just ask him to move off their property. logic. i appealed to the Green. and for buisness, the Green is primo. i can see business as a druggie dealer who would set the dogs on whoever tried to cut his happy flow (of green). ice 'em.
SO I MADE POSTERS- it took me a bit to figure out what they'd say but because the police had told me the bad police who i called on day three to complain again said i needed a lawyer and that the police could do nothing cuz he broke no laws...
anyway- next time i see guy-- he's standing in front of McGill--- it's late August--- let's do the time warp again!!! let's do the time warp again!!!
without going into the what? how? whys of before, i'll keep it short. i was furious to see him still outside with a different version of his horrible poster standing in front of mcgill right? but i figured when school started, he's be asked to leave. this is a school. he's standing at the gates of my school. you can't do that in front of a school.
school starts. his poster changes. it says different version of bad things about jews. i move. my posters stay at colin's. he moves into a new room. doesn't throw out my poster which i've left in his room for months (all those months i didn't see guy and poster, my posters lay in colin's room under his bed).
find posters and protest
i kinda want to describe the protest but i've been sitting in my kneeling chair too long and my back hurts.
i got high
think it's all crazy and a big mistake
but i think i've convinced myself otherwise
i did a good think today protesting
maybe it was a crazy move, but it was a bad day for poster dude (his name is lloyd), good day for me
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
Edmund Burke
I told my dad and he gave me that quote. it means a lot. i think he's really proud of me. i didn't realize when he gave it to me that he was trying to tell me that. my dad's a really special person. i think my mom cried when he heard what i was doing.
it's rosh hashana- the jewish new year- i want this year to be a good year. i don't want to feel angry every time i go to school becasue there's a guy with a poster standing in the front of my school. i don't think i'm crazy to want that. am i crazy? why have i been the only person to actually get the community to say anything? why hasn't someone said something? why does it have to be me? i feel like i'm crazy for doing it. it took so much energy over such a long period of time. and now i think i'm crazy. i just want school to be what it used to be. i want to feel safe all the time and take for granted that i'm just like everyone else. but i'm not. i'm jewish. people really do hate me in this world because i am jewish. aren't we supposed to watch for that? isn't that how so many jewish people were killed?? because nobody said anything? man i'm balling right now. crying like a hysterical child in my kneeling chair. maybe i am crazy.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
Edmund Burke
i didn't realize when he gave me the quote that he was trying to tell me that the was proud of me. my dad's a really special person. i think my mom cried when she heard what i was doing. am i completely insane? am i completely bonkers? why me? why am i the first person who has made a fuss? why me? my brother likes to quote things. i think he probably got it from dennis. that makes me feel better
ok i'm going to keep going- i think it's important that i get this all down now before i forget. i think my mom might want to read it at some point anyway, i'll have to correct it and make it look nice...
so the protest. i knew dude was still there. his poster has changed a number of times since the beginning of school. it's gone through waves of badness. sometimes worse sometimes not quite as offencive. today, because i had taking my posters and brought them to my house a few days ago, were conveniently located by the door where they had been stashed for the weekend. so i grabbed them this morning just in case i had to protest. I planned to go to class, check and see if he was there after class at 12:30 and then maybe sit with my anglo sign in my hands or on my knees and my french sign at my feet, just sitting in the corner, maybe studing a bit minding my own business for about an hour and see what happened. i got out of class, saw colin sitting on the ledge outside the physics building and went over to him. he wasn't feeling good and wasn't going to class. brooke had called me and told me we were going to lunch together and told her to meet me at the roddick gates and shrugging off protesting was planning on going to lunch with colin and brooke. the pit that i had had in my stomach all through india class went away. i had told brooke to meet me at the gates because i wanted to swing by the poster guy and see how bad his poster was today. she said she didn't want to be part of a political statement. whatever. it's something i wanted to maybe do but probably not cuz we were going to lunch anyway.
i have colin by the hand, we're going to lunch, we're at the crossing between the beach street and main street and brooke calls back saying that she can't stand at the roddick gates becase the guy's poster makes her very uncomfortable and she doesn't want to be around it. that's what she said. in her distressed voice. it clicked in my brain. i told colin that i had to protest. i don't quite remember what happened but we all hooked up, read the sign and brooke and colin decided to go get lunch while i sat with my poster. so i sat down with my english poster in my hands above my head and my back up against the wall and the french poster at the feet to the right to mr anti-semite. just while they were going to booster juice to get me a booster juice. not long. i sit there and get nods from everyone who passes by me and a couple of thumbs up and some nice smiles and whatever. it starts well. this is going to be easy. i roll my eyes a bit and hold my poster that says that "this man's poster is a blemish on the vibrant, multicultural community of montreal" it's small, not big, it's hand written, it's not a big deal. right? about 5 minutes later. another guy with a MEGA PHONE starts ranting on the megaphone!!! he's all, i hate this man's poster, it's a discrase to mcgill, hate speech, intollerable, bla bla bla LOTS OF STUFF AOBUT HOW THIS MAN'S POSTER SUCKS!!! i'm just sitting there yelling YEAH!! all the time at what he's saying. it's what i'm saying!! this is good!! he's got a megaphone!! people are stopping and reading other dude's sign. they're reading my sign!! they like my sign!!! i'm getting a lot of positive feed back!! "tell him why you don't like his sign, talk to him, tell him that you don't his sign outside of your school or on the streets of montreal, tell him! go up and talk to him! far too long has he been standing here! get him off our campus" bla bla bla and on and on and he hardly stops to breath! he's got lots of time, get off our campus, he's here to learn, he not here to hate, he's got lots of time, this is the nicest he's going to be to mr poster, he's got a megaphone and people won't be silent any more, people are getting riled up, this is good, they're reading his poster, they're reading my poster, they're liking my poster. i'm right. i like being right. i'm getting positive feedback. i'm right. people agree with me. people are riled up by the megaphone. we didn't plan this. this is turning out all right for me. good job jamie. way to pick the exact right time to start the protest. it was going to be me with a sign. i think the stars aligned and the megaphone and i arrived on the scene at almost the same time. i like being right. i like the megaphone blasting on about how right i am. i even hear my poster being read on the megaphone. i'm definitely in the right. i like being right.
this goes on for a while. megaphone goes on, i reposition myself to the left of the poster and on the corner of the roddick gates. we have him surrounded, megaphone and i-- we're picking up people coming out of mcgill as well as those people on the street. there's a mob now. brooke and colin show up with food for me. brooke and colin feed me boosterjuice while i hold the sign above my head. i'm still right. there are even more people now who think i'm right. the megaphone and the mob are telling me i'm right. i'm not the only one who thinks this way. megaphone man thinks this way too. the mob thinks this way. brooke takes the french poster that is propped up at my feet and hold it up. for a long time. colin stands behind the two of us. he feeds me booster juice through a straw for a long time. brooke has to go to class. brooke's proud of me and colin kisses me and takes up the poster for a while then he has to go to class. the mob stays. megaphone goes quiet and is talking with a chap in the corner. the mob has a mind of it's own led by some very angry jewish girl who is not afraid to get into mr poster's face. she's yelling at him. dude with a hooked nose is giving him the verbal one-two as well. girl draws on his poster. oh no. this is bad. the mob dispurses. i little later, some guy spits on dude and goes into school, dude is shocked and after a moment of recovery, goes after him. anna has walked up. she walked by before, so did her friend sarah, so did a lot of other people i know, lots of people stopped. lots of people took pictures. guy's gone. anna brooke and i go to lunch. we eat sushi at sakora. it's good. i'm kinda still riled up. on the way to sakora, we see firemen. tht's ok that drummond was blocked off, sakura's on montain street anyway, and we got to see firemen.
after sakora i'm on my way to the music building to tell andre white why i missed class and to find out what happened. anna said he's appreciate it. good idea i think. we walk by the gates, guy's there again. he hasn't left for the day like i though he did. but his poster is upside down against him with the heinus side pointed toward him so no one can read it. is he ashamed? probably we think. anna brooke and i walk over. there's a reporter. i go and talk to him. he talks to mr poster. anna pipes in. mr poster offends her by lieing. she gets riled. brooke leaves and i hold my poster and talk to the reporter while anna give him the gears and some other people walk by. 2 guys got up in my face saying that i was riling the situation up and my poster was stupid and there was nothign wrong with his poster. that was bad. anna didn't like that either. the other side we both them the two pricks. nothing wrong with that side either. we're the problem. "ok bye!" and they left but i only tried that after it was very uncomfortable for too long a while.
the poster is back up again. my poster is back up again. anna's still going. a girl come up with her own poster. it's in green marker. it's really simple. who wants to follow this ignorant prick- not i. simple. in green marker. she stands next to me. she isn't jewish. she thinks the poster is horendus too. anna leaves and the girl and i stand next to the poster. first years walk by and stand with us. the police come and lloyd and his poster cross the street to talk to them. he was wronged. someone spat in his ear. this won't go unanswered for. they're going through security tapes. the camera saw it. he's going to be prosiquted. lloyd's been wronged. the girl follows me across the street. we stand at the corner with our posters talking to each other. lots of people come and stand with us. reports come and we talk to them for a while. more picutres. old guy says the police looking into his spitting whatever is a waste of tax money. amen. i agree.
lloyd goes back to the otherside after a while. so do we. more reporters. more pictures. by now, lloyd and i are talking. he likes me. i'm a chosen one. nothing i can say can upset him. he's filled with love. a good christian boy. doesn't he look like it? i ask lloyd to move over, my friend has come and decided to take up the french sign that brooke and then colin held for me. my friend from the women's union. she's great. she stood with me for a while. we just stood together getting compliments from passers by. she gave me all the credit. she agrees with me too. i had a number of important encounters today. they were all good. it was cool. she leaves when lloyd and i mutually decide to call it quits for the night. he offers to buy me donuts tomorrow if i'm there. it's his job to be there, he'll be there. it's rosh hashana... will i be there? i need a new poster. i need a new plan of attack. i need to make sure i'm not crazy. i have to find out if they printed my letter. brooke came over at 5:45 and we edited my quick letter that i had worked up. sent it. went to rosh hashana. it was really nice. i ate a lot of beats. got home, reworked the letter, got brooke home safe, went to colin, found him and brough him home (power was out at his place) and got him all ready for bed. i took a bath, smoked up, got SUPER PARANOID, started writing. i'm going to bed now. i've been writing for two hours. it's time to sleep.
sorry this is so long- it's more of a document than a livejournal update... i'm going to rework it and let people read it i've decided. it need some gramar/spelling help bigtime. :)
xoxo Jamie