October 2, 2001

• At 7:45 last night I went out to join the 8PM SHARE rally to open the Winter Response shelter, after spending all day catching up with any time-sensitive email in case I spent the next few days in jail.
  
  That would be an ironic way to lose the savageweaklink game wouldn't it?
  
  The flyer had said we were meeting in the Courthouse park but the announcement at the meeting was that we were meeting in Occidental Park, three or four blocks away. So I gave myself enough time to check out both places by 8. I started with Courthouse Park, just a block uphill from where I live, but I didn't see anyone, so I turned downhill to check out Occidental park. Halfway there, tho', I met a man coming from Occidental who was looking for the rally. i went on down to see if he'd missed anyone and he went up to see if I'd missed anyone. I didn't find any rally at Occidental or the nearby Pioneer Square park so I went back up to the Courthouse, and this time I went on through to the back of the park and found the rally. But now I couldn't find my fellow searcher. (He did turn up later.)
  
  This was beginning to feel like the day of the Harmonic Convergence, when I stumbled around Sand Point in the pre-dawn darkness with 2000 psychics who didn't know where we were supposed to meet. At least this time nobody fell in a gully.
  
  It also reminded me of my midnight search for Tent City 2, up in the Beacon Hill Jungle... but I digress, and I'm trying to write shorter blogs.
  
  After all that, they nominated me to stand up on a bench and get the evening organized!
  
  Things did run remarkably well after that. The main thing was getting everybody settled down and reassured. ("If they decide to arrest us, they'll warn first, and you'll have time to choose what to do.") Then everybody -- including our community supporters -- grabbed a mat and two blankets from the truckload SHARE brought and crossed the street. The KC Admin Building is right there.
  
  The building has a recessed entrance, creating a very large patio with a partial overhang. There was a line of yellow tape just on the street side of the stairs leading up from either side of the doors to the upper patio levels. That still left a large stretch of patio. Sleeps forty, we found. We just laid down our mats and blankets, set up coffee and security watches (there were a dozen KC security officers, police officers, and Sheriff's Department officers, but we still provide our own in case they want to take coffee breaks.) After awhile several officers came over and asked if we planned to break down the doors. We said "No." They asked if we planned to be out by the time people started coming in to work and we said "Yes. We plan to operate the shelter as it would be operating if it were inside, which means 'opening' at 9:30 PM, with everyone getting up at 5:30, cleaning up the area, and being out by 6 AM." So they said, "That's fine with us. We'll all find out what King County says tomorrow."
  
  I was up for most of the night, but when I did lay down for a nap between watches, I felt an incredible sense of peace.
  
  A lot of times, when you do what you think is right you don't have to fight.
  

  • 5:38 pm
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