"Have you heard that Jesus has plans for you?", said this 40 something farmer's wife looking woman.
"I'm sorry ? Beezer has fans for me, where?",I replied.
"Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour loves you and has plans for your eternal life"
"Oh, sorry, I misunderstood what you said. That's nice, thank you very much!", looking back down at my sketchpad.
"May I sit down and tell you his plans?"
"Actually, I'm working here.",I said
"It won't take but a minute."
"His plans will only take a minute?" I said thinking, 'That's not good !'
"Yes, he loves you and wants you to share in his kingdom."
"Uh.....That's nice, but no, I'm kinda busy."
She sits down anyway.
"Look ,I'm trying to be nice and hey, I really don't think that YOU know about his plans for me."
"His plans are for all of mankind"
"How about Karl here?",I said. pointing to the old dog.
"All of creation belongs to Jesus."
"Please, I'm working right now. I can hear your preacher on the sound system from here even though we are a block from the Plaza! Can you go save someone else?"
"May I leave this booklet with you that explains our mission?"
"Uh, sure ,Thank you."
"Ok, Remember that Jesus loves you and have a blessed day."
She gets up and goes her way.
I waited about 30 seconds before I tossed her Christian comic book in the trash receptacle.
I thought, "Why is it that the artists are banished from the Plaza (for safety reasons) while the Jesus Festival can take up half of the place and bellow fire and brimstone speeches, homophobic homilies and blast Christian Rock music?" Last week another church held a rally in the Plaza complete with a big screen TV. Many souls were abducted and saved by the pamphleteers canvassing the old Plaza
Well, we are in the Bible belt here aren't we? The Christian proselytizers have the upper hand with the city commission when it comes to the First Amendment.
As Former city prosecutor Jim Whitehouse told me, "We don't care what the laws says, we do things our own way here".
Suvo
This is what is maddening. The events are ok if the CITY allows it. The problems in their reasons for throwing out the artists is crowds, emergency access to the plaza, etc. How does all that change when you allow performances? I am waiting for an answer from the city attorney as to where in the new ordinances it allows for exception when the city PERMITS an event for a paid fee.
ReplyDeleteby the city's own admission the small group of artists cause such a throng of people the massive hoards of humanity the likes the city had not seen before. It must Dwarf the St George street crowd by Millions!
ReplyDeletefor the most part St George street is lined with walls and stores. We all know that in case of an emergency that is the safest and most effective way to evacuate people and to get emergency vehicles is to have them trapped inside the walled in street, right ? According to the city's model wide open spaces is far to risky and dangerous and tougher to get emergency vehicles in there. the city's model would make sure people are all trapped in the street with no wear to go. At least according to the city's Brilliant argument. This is the Best their high priced attorney could come up with. Wow ! Give that man 50,000 dollars!
Since the whole problem with the artists in the plaza is crowd control and safety Issues then of course the city must be planning to cancel the nights of lights. you know that must add at least 15 more people to the mix with the swelling mass of humanity going to the park looking for the artists. And to think the city used to pay untold thousands of dollars to get people to come to the plaza During the nights of lights. The city seems a little confused and conflicted on this issue or are they ? Could it be they are again Bowing to special interests ? Say it ain't so.