rally!
10 february, 1996
Lafayette Park, Washington DC
first I'm uneasy
fewer agitated than agitatorsinformal group of suited to the side
anyone want to go first?
I raise my hand to lead the chargelike preachin' to the choir
by the time I spoke
there was maybe three dozensmy talk, lead off
somewhat straight from cda.htmlI advocate parental control
instead of legislation
prevention of frank and honest dialogue.parents should decide for kids
not government deciding for us like kids that won a roused reaction
some guy yelled "write that down" caught off guard, I noted
"that was a high point"
and fingered a dreadlock
staring at the cooler I was standing onthis is a life or death issue!
those kids without parental supervision
15 year olds in new york and LA
need access to graphic information about safe sex
besides,
by the time a kid knows to look for weird shit,
there's not much you can do about it.I was followed by a hill suit
John Doty, Legislative Correspondent
reading a statement for
someone who wished they could be there
new york's rep Jerrold Nadler
first rep to turn his pages black!and we cheer
nice censorship bashing platitudesand we cheer. Jonah Seiger semi-passionate
gettin' the job done for the
Center for Democracy and Technology
more explicatory
said right thingsand we cheer Bill Winter
from the Libertarian party
is so with us in so many ways
rah rahright on
we reject "paternalistic laws"
he opened his talk with a jokea little cold in the toeswe asked Louis Farrakahn to count the crowd he sez we've got a million.
we liked that.
let's chantInternet Freedom Now!
(I guess an Internet rally ain't the place for rhythm)as Mark Mangan
author of Sex Laws and Censorship
historicized our strugglea homeless black fellow
with serious groucho eyebrows and a few teethemerged
chiming in with the crowd against censorship
"hallelujah! hallelujah!
decency lives in this house!" the well bread white boy
calmly opposed to speech supression
continues faltering seeing his chance,
homeless wanders toward the stage
"I'm a computer genius! I'm a computer genius!"
"hallelujah!" several generous geeks escort him aside
while Mark continues his recitation of supression
Louis somebody banned printing
upon punishment of hanging
Jonathan Blumen,
editor, Ethical Spectacle
delivered more than ten minutes
but it was goodstrong
unswavering for the homeless
freedom of speechdavid casti held forth briefain't like ice cream
something you getwhen you're well behaved
I thought he might bebut not
a chiq queer,
a chiq geek
black trenchcoat long blond hair gray fedora smoker's teeth
he's more at risk than Ithose threatened with jail spoke the most poignantly without notes sign:
fuck the cda in hexidecimal open mike afterwards
everybody staysa budding geek waves the whole bill spooled printout with perforated printer fuzz on each side
like School House Rock,
a leather jacketed
cyber punksang "I'm just a bill ...just a telecom bill"
did he make that shit upon the spot? den of iniquity woman approaches
after web reading, nice to meet you.AOL pays her bills,
"It's perfectly fine if you want to say that I sometimes have a hard time working for a family service."without bothering to the mike,
homeless page publisher
Thomas held forth on fascism
from a park bench. the open mike winds down
I hear the Libertarian host
hoistpgp, encryption offshore sites and anonymous remailers
ways to dodge the law
I step up one more time
I believe in what I'm doingI'm not going to change for unreasonable law
besides,
David Casti adds
the way the CDA is drafted, even with all offshore smut you can still be arrested here. I wonder if we are going to extradite
porno publishersmoral legislator to the worldcomin' in to los angeles
net butcher
incarcerator of content
bringin' in some internet sleeze...one last chant
the most rousingFuck the CDA!
20 mins done,
a latecomer asks me"is it over?"
yeah."that's what happens when you code all night."
long dark drawn
like the addams butlergregor
pater ofmyhouse dot com
approachedinvited me home.
justin's links by justin hall: contact