In Boston thirty-five (35) people showed up in 40 degree rain yesterday, with speakers and massive local media coverage and there were similar events planned in thirty cities across the country this weekend, to show "solidarity" for pedophile priest crime victims in Europe who have recently come forward, especially in Ireland, to coincide with St. Patrick’s Day.
However, in L.A. today in 70 degree sunshine, four demonstrators and me took part in the Solidarity Demonstration, shown in photo above left (except me, I was taking pictures).I don't know where I fit in at these events because I'm a reporter but not really, just a blogger. I'm a survivor but not part of SNAP.
Tod Tamberg isn’t going to agree to meet with me after the press conference as we see here, at left. He talks only to "real" credentialed journalists.***********
WHere THe HeLL Do I FIT into this whole thing?????
When the press event started, I folded my camera to stand with the survivors, as this event was about solidarity. So I went and stood behind one of the signs, and...
GET THIS!!!
After the KTLA 5 guy finished his interview, KNX radio went down the line with his microphone, interviewing the survivors where we were standing there in a line.
He interviewed Carlos, interviewed, John, interviewed the lady on my right who was from Church of Christ, then with his microphone he passed right over me to the woman on my left who was also with the Church of Christ.
Passed right by me.
Reporters asked the Church of Christ women questions about the Pope, but not me...?
So I'm standing there with my mouth open, literally, because I thought when the microphone passed me, that it was going to stop and I’d have a chance to say what I was thinking, which was:
This pope was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as Cardinal Ratzinger, before he became Pope Benedict. So this Pope was the person to whom who all the pedophile priest crimes the last 40 years were reported at the Vatican.
Now he and his brother are responding with exactly the same sound byte we've heard now from every archdiocese in the USA and now also from every bishop in Europe:
The Sound Byte The Bishops All Use from Munich to Manhattan Beach:
'I'm Shocked, This is the First I’ve Heard of These Charges. I'm Dismayed. Our apologies to the victims, ahem, but look over there, the Church of Christ has pedophiles too. . . .'
So instead of participating, I'm left standing in the middle of the sidewalk not knowing if I should be over here or over there. Am I part of this group of victims, or am I in the news media because I write this little blog?
Actually I don't fit in anywhere. I'm this oblique entity in skin that just keeps going and going.
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PICTURE AT RIGHTReporters stand around waiting for someone to show up to do the event today in L.A. In the end there were as many reporters there as demonstrators.
I would have been glad to organize and run SNAP events in L.A., volunteered a hundred times.
They won't let me in, because I ask too many questions.
So you figure it out.Look in the photo at right at the turnout we had in L.A. today compared to Boston yesterday. (Stories from Boston linked at bottom of blog.)
In 2007, 510 pedophile priest survivors in L.A. got settlements from this Archdiocese, plus another couple hundred in Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Riverside, which are all close by.
Where Did Everyone Go?
When something happens for SNAP in L.A., lucky if three people show up.
Carlos Perez and I were the only two actual pedophile Catholic priest survivors at the demonstration this morning in L.A. One woman from Church of Christ was a victim, the other was her mother. John is there in honor of his dead brother, one of the victims.
Two Priest Rape survivors there and reporters interviewed Carlos and passed right by me, refused to even let me say anything when I was begging the guy from KNX. Literally the news guys turned their backs on me.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME????
I can’t help thinking, what? Did someone tell them not to talk to me. That seems paranoid.
I ask Carlos, did you call the news media to set up this event today? He says, Oh no, Barbara Blaine did that.
********
Maybe
Because I was taking pictures, the reporters figured I was a reporter too, so did not interview me.
BUT I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY!!!!!
Of course, I wasn’t quiet about the media snub, I'm City of Angels Lady.
So I followed the guy from KNX as he packed up to go somewhere else, and I said, huh? Why don’t you interview me? I’ve been writing about this for three years, and you're not going to interview me?
He said, "Oh I didn't know you were a survivor, I thought you were news media."
So I ran after him and said, Yes, but not a paid journalist. And I know about the Pope, I know about the crimes all across the country.
Mr. KNX was running faster than I was and he went through the Cathedral entrance.
I was calling and running after him:
“What the f-- just because I'm not affiliated with a nonprofit, you won’t interview me? Is that how bad mainstream media has gotten?”
Then an arm stretched out blocking me from going further.
“Ma’am, I'm sorry you cannot come in.” A tall thin black man in a black suit with a thin tie and Security emanating from all over him towered over me.
I stopped, taken aback, “Can’t come in? What do you mean, this is a church.”
“Ma’am you've been identified as one of the demonstrators.”
Me: “No I'm not, that guy from KNX just said he couldn't interview me because I'm with the media.”
Black security guard (who just did not seem menacing at all, probably goes to a Gospel Church in South Central himself, still he stood over me and said slower this time, enunciating the syllables): “Ma’am, you have been identified as one of the demonstrators, you are not allowed on the church grounds.”
*****
In Photo below, you can see the meager turnout in L.A. today, the KNX guy is in the background scowling.
*************
Some of what Carlos had to say today:
Sorry, Folks, it got real hot standing there and I thought I was not getting the audio so did not get the whole interview.
***********
THIS IS A CREEPY way I reacted to being so close to a Catholic Church in order to attend this event today:
I could tell security cameras were on us, all four or five of us who had shown up to show the world that Los Angeles stands in solidarity with the Irish and the Germans and all of the survivors in Europe.
Again survivors met in front of the Cathedral for the event, and at Our Lady of the Angels at the west entrance, I always feel some church creep is watching me on the security cameras.
And it excites me.
[DELETED]
PLEASE
Hold these demonstrations someplace else.
At Left KTLA and other main stream media interview L.A. Archdiocese spokesman, but City of Angels is blocked entry.
Cut paragraphs:
In Fact, I don't know where I fit in. The reporters would not interview me. I stood in line with the other four people, Carlos and I were the only two survivors of Catholic pedophile priest rape, and the reporters interviewed everyone, then blatantly passed me right by with their microphones, it was just one more incredibly weird inexplainable experience like all of them I keep happening.
At first I was thinking, do I look that bad they don't want me on camera? Then realized it was a radio reporter who still would not interview me.
I'm a journalist and a survivor, and that half-in half-out identity left me standing outside the Cathedral entrance hollering after the KNX reporter as he went inside.
.
AT LEFT AND BELOW:
COOL SIGNS
The two women from Church of Christ brought cool signs...
****************
FUTURE DEMONSTRATIONS?
L.A. has a new U.S. Attorney. We should focus demonstrations on him. As a group, survivors in L.A. need to ask the new U.S. Attorney, whatever happened to the Federal Grand Jury investigation of the L.A. Archdiocese and Cardinal Roger Mahony?
POST SCRIPT:
Everything comes full circle.
Below is what I saw when I arrived at the Cathedral:
Below is what I saw when I got home.
Everyone in L.A. is just trying to make a living...
NEWS FROM BOSTON YESTERDAY:
Boston Protestors Call For Govt. Probe Into Church
BOSTON (MA)WBZ - BOSTON (AP) ― Protesters in Boston called for a government investigation of clergy sex abuse claims nationwide, saying revelations concerning the Pope show the Catholic church will never reform itself..
Advocacy groups seek hearings on abuse scandal
BOSTON (MA)Boston Globe - By Matt Byrne Globe Correspondent / March 14, 2010 - As European governments have begun inquiries into the most recent allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy members in several countries, two Boston groups called for similar hearings in the United States at a demonstration yesterday outside US Senator Scott Brown’s Boston office...
THEY SHOWED Solidarity in San Francisco too
Clergy Abuse Victims Speak Out
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)KCBS
The Survivor's Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in the United States is watching with dismay as more and more victims come forward in Europe.
"Dismay"?
That doesn't say it by half.
***********
Posted by Kay Ebeling, Hollywood, California
More to Come Soon.
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