=====  A message from the 'makahwhaling' discussion list  =====

Details are still trickling in, but....

Early reports indicate over 50 people gathered to protest Mr. Gore's
whale-killing policies, and several were led away by police. No arrests,
though. Chuck Owens of the PCPW actually got close enough to shake Al Gore's
hand, and lit into him pretty good. If you've ever encountered Chuck, you
can be sure THAT is a moment the vice-president won't soon forget.

Here is a first hand account:


EDUCATING GORE: or Welcome to the Free Speech Area!

by Lisa Distefano
International Director, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

JUNE 19 - Those of us who are mightily displeased with the U.S.
administration policy that has established the concept of "cultural
whaling" were happy to greet Vice President Gore on his presidential
kick-off campaign swing through Seattle on Friday.

On arrival at the Seattle Center amphitheater, our group was given "special
tickets" -- which is to say, they were just like everyone else's tickets,
but our "specialness" was determined after we got inside and our tickets
became the kind of tickets that alert the Secret Service to make sure you
sit waaaaay in the back.

Inside, the rhetoric was thick and trite. Outside, the demo was pretty
powerful and right to the point: At least 50 activists marched with signs
reading ENIVRONMENTALISTS AGAINST GORE, GORE KILLS WHALES...etc. It seemed
a lot of other people had found their voice.

The Gore folks standing in the entry queue, decked out in bow ties, vests,
lo-heel pumps & panty hose, looked across at the demonstrators, and they
were sore amazed. For lo, they did not behold scruffy marginals,
but...themselves. They saw mothers, father, accountants, attorneys, but
they were...on the other side. Holding signs. Agitating. Not in support of
the business as usual.

So, there in the shadow of the Space Needle, we proceeded to express our
feelings about the complicity of the Clinton/Gore administration in making
possible the illegal Makah whale hunt as the veep spoke. (Seattle TV news
broadcasts referred to us "the anti-whaling hecklers.")

I am normally not a protester, but the whole time the hunt was happening,
like everyone else with a conscience who has watched this unfold, I was
screaming "Why is this happening? How could this happen??"

To see the man who made it happen standing in front of me, all smiles and
promising prosperity for all, touting his environmental record... very
animated in a robotic kind of way, amid a surreal campaign event that
featured 1920s jitterbugging and acapella singing.... Well, I found my
voice. I found myself yelling when I didn't even plan to do so.

It was impossible not to.

Al Gore's environmental record? Hello? He touted his recent role in
bringing more protection for salmon to Washington State. After seven years
of activists screaming about the need to protect the salmon as they crashed
lower and lower...now that they're virtually gone, here comes Al. Now it's
an issue. One whale species manages to struggle back from extinction and
get a small foothold on survival... here comes Al, and the Gray whales are
a-okay for hunting. For forest activists watching the Headwaters redwoods
fall, for animal welfare folks fighing CAMPFIRE and watching African
elephants shot down again for ivory, for marine wildlife activists
witnessing the U.S. lay the groundwork for the return to global commerical
whaling... Mr. Gore has become the Mort Saul stand-up comic of the
environmental movement: "Is there anyone here I haven't sold out yet?"

Gore talked about how he was protecting the land and the oceans for his
grandchildren, and I found my voice, and my voice was shouting "You're a
liar! You've failed the future! There won't be an ocean for your
grandchildren to see!"

The cry most frequently heard echoing through the bandshell was "ECO JUDAS."

Whenever we shouted out pro-whale sentiments, Gore's yellowshirt brigade
("Firemen for Gore" - a phalanx of very large AFL/CIO guys who have been
performing ad hoc guard duty at each of the candidate's campaign stops)
held up large "Gore 2000" signs to block us from view.

Finally, a campaign official told us: "You may have dissenting opinions but
you can't express them here: this is a support rally." He said "the free
speech area is outside," (!!) and we were summarily escorted out of the
Flag Pavillion.

We found ourselves next to a long concrete wall, which formed a concourse
and natural sound amplifier all the way down to the amphitheater pit, where
the veep was standing. I found that if you tilted your head back and put a
rolled-up copy of the Sea Shepherd Log to your lips as a megaphone, you
could take advantage of a truly impressive echo effect and get yourself a
direct pipeline to the ear of the Vice President -- and the entire
assembled throng.

Thus, louder than ever, we availed ourselves of the surprise perks of the
"free speech area" for the remainder of the veep's speech in what will
surely be the last outdoor amphitheater appearance of his campaign. (Though
it helped to loosen him up: Candidate Gore, with an eye on Washington
state's software billionaires, was speaking about how he will pave the way
for even higher tech in America's hi-tech future, and at one point quipped
that technology holds the promise of "Quieter demonstrations!" An attendee
shot back: "Like in China?")

At one point, a woman came up to me and said that she normally supported
Sea Shepherd, but this was too much. We were being...well...rude!

"Yes, I know," I said. "We have to make it clear that we are not happy with
what Mr. Gore is allowing to happen. Everyone here was out there on the
water when this administration killed that whale. We saw her die, and that
made this a personal issue. We are getting in Gore's face and we're getting
personal because he made it happen, and for all of us who saw that happen,
this is personal."

At the end of the speech, well-wishers thronged the stage. One of them was
the legendary Chuck Owens, founder of the Peninsula Citizens for the
Protection of Whales and scourge of the Clallam County Commissioners. Chuck
stepped forward, extended his hand, and as the Vice President shook it,
inquired as to why he was allowing whales to be hunted in U.S. waters by
people with no subsistence need for whale meat.

"The Makah have special rights," Gore replied.

"The whales have special rights, too" said Chuck.

Mr. Gore proceeded to engage Mr. Owens in conversation on the subject, and
appeared genuinely intested in what he had to say.

We recommend everyone follow up on that conversation: Encourage the Vice
President to continue to reexamine the situation and his position thereon,
and to back the initiative before Congress to amend the Makah treaty with
respect to whale hunting in exchange for the return of a portion of the
Makah's tribal lands.

That number to call:
(202) 456-1111
*****