Birmingham Pagan Pride Day
Deborah
searles@summerlands.com
Sat Sep 25 10:40:57 1999
This was forwarded to me a couple of days ago.  Thought I'd pass it on.  So far, between here and that little to-doo down in Texas the other week, it looks like it's PAGANS - 2; IDIOT FUNDIES - 0.  *p*Keep up the good work people.  *br*******************************************************p*From: Terry McCombs <magentashadow@webtv.net>*br*To: draiocht@technovate.org*br*Subject: (draiocht) Pagan Pride Day (Birmingham, Alabama)*br*Date: Monday, September 20, 1999 5:43 PM*p*   We, here in Birmingham, had our first Pagan Pride Day last Saturday and,*br*while we only had two months to get ready for it, think it went pretty*br*well.*p*    During the 9 hours we were there, we had approximately 120 to 140*br*people come though. Along with us, others who had booths were such groups*br*as Pets & People, 6 vendors selling such things as candles, dream*br*catchers, books and readings. The Red Cross bloodmobile was there and 27*br*people donated blood.   We had a number of presentations, by dancers,*br*people telling about their paths, an arrow breaker, and others. We also*br*raised over $100 for a local AIDS Outreach project, as well as*br*collected clothing, food and toys. *p*    The funkiest part of the day was when Operation Rescue decided to*br*pay us a visit.  They were in town "celebrating" the bombing of the*br*clinic at which a policeman was killed & a nurse grievously injured a*br*year ago.  That clinic being closed on Saturday, they went looking for*br*someplace else to try and pick a fight. They heard about us and descended*br*on the park where we were. *p*   Luckily, as half the police force was already on that side of town,*br*they came to our call very quickly.  Operation Rescue was forced to take their huge*br*offensive posters out of the park.  We did however rent them a table for*br*their stay (for about 15 minutes), but, when no one would rise to their bait*br*and the TV stations did not show, they left quietly.  A number of people*br*complimented us on our calm handling of this and the police even took*br*some of our informational flyers with them. *p*   I was behind the information table all day, we had flyers and sheets*br*with information about Druidism, Wicca, Paganism in general, and a*br*number of other subjects.*p*    There were a number of people who said they were glad we had this*br*open forum.*p*     Terry McCombs