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It didn't start off too well as I left my best black hat on the train. DUH, the train was quite packed being a Friday and an important weekend and I had put my stuff on the floor. When I reached down to get my gear, the hat must had slipped off and gone under the seat and I just zoned out. I will have to go to lost & found when I go home tonight. See later on in this piece.I came to St Mark's Church in the East Village at 10th St and 2nd Ave to attend the first day of the 9/11 Breakthrough Weekend, Five Years of Lies, Four Days of Truth. I got to the church around 3 PM to meet up with Frank Morales, one of the leaders of the New York group and Harvey Newman, a minister of a group in another ministry in Manhattan to do some posters and other work to set up for the speeches for that evening. Harvey was kind enough to sing a birthday song that he had written. I was thrilled. He is a good singer.
Several other people that I was meeting for the first time came and we sat around and talked shop as usual like good 9/11 truthers do until we got a good amount of people to do the work showed up and we split up into teams; the poster group and the chair setting up group. I'm not that good with hand drawing so I helped setting up the chairs with Frank, Sherry and Noah. Sherry decided to balance out the chairs when we ran out so that the room looked even. We took away chairs from one side and balanced them out to make it look even. She did a great job with it. We put up the banner and Frank did the podium and PA system while Eric from Boston put up his shirts and books on his table. Les showed up with his stuff and more people from the group started to show up and we started to set up our table with our t-shirts, books and buttons, etc. Gabriel Day from California came as well with his supplies on his table. I also met a guy from the SF 9/11 truth group. I have forgotten his name off the top of my head and I also apologize to him as well if you read this. (Added 11/5, his name was Joseph) I also met Kyle Hence who was there to sell his new movie 9/11: Press for Truth. If I remember these names, I will be sure to add them to this blog.
It got close to show time when Les asked for volunteers for the door and no one chimed in. A lady, whose name escapes me at the moment, (Added 11/5, her name was Diane) I apologize if you read this, said she would do it and then I said to Les that I would help her out. They said that Charlie usually handles the door but he was not there tonight. So the two of us would handle the door. I took the money and she handled the flyer.
Turnout was light in the beginning as it usually is. But the closer we got to 7 PM and the start, man did we get busy. I ran out of ones so many times, it was CRAZY. But of course, we let a lot of people in that can't afford the donation or that didn't have the full price and seniors I let in for lower donation. But then it got to a point when I wasn't letting people stand in the lobby. Someone asked me why I was giving people a hard time for standing in the lobby and I said if they don't pay they couldn't come in. All someone had to say was if they didn't have the money but they didn't say that to me. They gave me a hard time so I didn't let them in. Then one guy really started screaming about it and Frank came to me and said to stop charging and let anyone that wanted to, that they could listen if they wanted to. Well, no one ever told me that I could do that or I would have let the guy that was screaming about it, in without a problem. But later I talked with Frank about it and he said to me, did you see how many people volunteered when Les asked who wants to work the door? That's why Charlie usually works the door because he knows how to work it because no one else likes to work it. I said, if someone would have said to stop charging at a certain time, I would have and then allowed people to stand in the lobby. So now I know that point and will now strive to do that in the future.
I was a ticket agent for Amtrak so I have handled money and passengers of all kind good and bad in the past and knowledge of customer service is in my past so I am fairly good at it and that is why I offered my services. The lady I worked with at the door said she was surprised how good I was at knowing the faces of the people that would go out to the bathrooms and letting them back in. It takes practice. I missed a few. I know I let a few in, in the beginning without paying but it wasn't too many. But we had a PACKED house. Now I can't speak for what most of the speakers said because of my attention to the door but we had a power packed lineup.
We led off with a nice short speech from Frank Morales who then introduced Elaine Brower who has a son in Iraq. Then Les Jamieson gave a short speech and he introduced Alfons Olzsewski from 9/11 vets for Truth. Then Luke Rudkowski was introduced and he gave a short introduction to the next speaker who got a rousing standing ovation, Korey Rowe, the producer of Loose Change 2. Korey gave a short speech and showed a short video but I believe there was a minor problem with it. I'm not sure because I was still letting people in. The lights went out and came back on while I was still bringing people in and then he gave a speech, fumbling once, getting applause. But continuing on getting quite a bit of applause along the way. After Korey's speech, Les introduced Ron another member of the group and he gave an introduction to the main speaker of the evening, Ralph Schoenman and his speech entitled 9/11 and the US-Israeli Master Plan for the Middle East. Ralph got a major standing ovation. He is a major player in the movement and gave a good speech but lost a bit of his audience.
I wore my new Investigate 9/11 t-shirt back to the station, proudly. When I got off the elevator at Greeley Park I almost got into an argument with a gentlemen who disagreed with the t-shirt but fortunately my wife had left me a voice mail I had to answer. I would not have argued with him but I would have had a nice discussion with him but the phone call took precedence. I had decided to leave a little early so maybe I could get back to Penn Station to see if a kind-hearted car cleaner had turned my hat into Lost & Found. I got to Customer Service at Penn Station at 955 PM by my cell phone and the door said they closed at 10 PM and the door was locked. So I will have to wait until Sunday when I arrive back in New York to see if it is there. So I made it just in time to get on the elevator to get down to the train to try and beat the horde to the train. I fortunately got a seat on the very crowded train. I got to talking to the young man sitting next to me. He saw the shirt and the magazine I was reading, a Global Outlook that I had bought at the church. But we started talking 2 stops before he was getting off so we couldn't get too much into the movement but I got enough of the money & politics into his head for him to Google it and to watch Loose Change. I love it when the students listen to you and ask questions and don't make you look like a fool or ask stupid questions or make fun of you. That I enjoy a lot. Makes me feel good inside. So besides losing my hat, I gained my new t-shirts, one I bought for a spare and my new reading material which I will study on the train when I go back this coming Sunday to finish up the weekend. I will be there on Sunday at Cooper Union all day and on Monday at Ground Zero, then parading and then finishing up back at St Mark's. More to come on that.
