May 14, 2003
Peace Encampment Announces Intention to Remain, With New Mission
Andy Seaton Testifies Before City Council
This morning before the Portland City Council, five representatives of the Portland Peace Encampment pitched their case to the Mayor and Commissioners, who showed no obvious signs of compelling interest.
Although, to be fair, the series of three-minute "communications to council" were somewhat rambling and unfocused. Strangely, the one camp supporter who appeared to be speaking without notes or other material seemed to be the most consistently clear.
Today's presentations were, in the main, general assertions of the rights of the campers to continue their protest. Andy Seaton (pictured above) argued against the "obstructions as nuisance" ordinance which has repeatedly been used against the encampment, which nonetheless continues its presence across the street from City Hall.
The one piece of news for the day was the announcement that the Portland Peace Encampment, together with a "national coalition" of such camps across the United States, is re-working its mission statement.
Now that most of the country considers the war in Iraq to be over, campers intend to remain on their 24/7 vigil until the United States comes into compliance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948.
Left unstated was the matter of just how such compliance will be judged. It's probably safe to say that such an obviously open-ended mission likely will not sit well with the members of the City Council. As a statement of purpose, it essentially guarantees a permanent encampment -- or, more likely, a continuing (and increasingly tense) back-and-forth with the Portland Police Bureau.
As is normally the case with such communications before the Council, neither the Mayor nor any Commissioner had any questions or comments for this morning's presenters.
Comments (2)
steve on 14 May 2003
The eloquent speaker you heard, speaking without notes, is a guy named Glenn. He's homeless, and was heavily involved with Crossroads, the project coming out of Sisters of the Road Cafe. He's been living at the peace camp 24 hours a day since it started.
Dill on 20 May 2003
I only hope that one evening I will be watching the news and see one of those piece-of-shit activists getting his head caved in with a cop's batton.