Today..... was...
something that I can't even begin to put into words. It was nerve-wracking, to say the least, but there was so much great dialogue that took place, among other things...
Around 11am, we started chalking the sidewalks. There has previously been dialogue happening with chalk leading up the the visit. The administration has done their best to wash those messages away previously, whenever they could... but... today, we covered the entire section of public sidewalk along campus, leading all the way up to the stairs up onto the Quad on campus. It was absolutely beautiful! I had walked a few of the Riders down to get a bite to eat, and it brought tears to my eyes when I came back and saw everything. It was wonderful.
At 1pm, we got in vigil line- the Riders, and handful of other students and community members, and myself. We read an anonymous "letter from the closet" outloud in unison. During this, there was some yelling from the crowd of students gathering on the hill. When we finished the letter, Caitlin and Alex (Riders), another student, and I joined hands and walked onto campus and made it about 20 feet- farther than the 3 feet last time. We were stopped by campus security, Alex and Cait were escorted to the Campus Security office, and were then arrested by Clinton Police. they were released within an hour-ish, and joined us again. As soon as Alex and Cait were escorted away, I and the other student who participated in walking onto campus were swamped by newspaper reporters.
At one point in the afternoon, the grounds keepers at MC pulled out a hose and started to spray the sidewalk (remember, this is a PUBLIC sidewalk) and even started to ask the riders and some students sitting and dialoging on the sidewalk to move, and security actually stopped them and I guess told them to come back later.... But... they didn't leave before another Rider (Danielle) and myself went and sat down in the middle of the sidewalk in front of the campus stairs, haha.
Anyways.... Conversations continued when we walked down to Cups coffee house in Clinton, just off campus, and hung out there until around 8. Picnic will be tomorrow from 11-3, i'm looking forward to it!
There are pictures attached from today, and here are links to news articles, I was quoted and featured (not sure what will come of that yet, hah):
This article has a link to the newsclip too...
http://www.wlbt.com/global/story.asp?s=9208995
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pb...#pluckcomments
Be sure to check out the new posts made to the website with media links from the ride, Ana Kirey has posted photos
