Banished protester plans to approach President's Texas ranch

ABC 13 ^ | 12/9/02 | Associated Press

[humblegunner]

Banished protester plans to approach President's Texas ranch
By The Associated Press

(12/9/02 - HOUSTON) — A persistent protester who recently was arrested for scaling the front gate of the White House to hang a "No War on Iraq" banner says she is now setting her sights on President Bush's Texas ranch.

Diane Wilson, a 54-year-old grandmother from the southeast Texas town Seadrift, said a Washington D.C. judge advised her last week to go home to Texas or risk a future arrest and some serious jail time.

But she doesn't plan to stay in Seadrift for long. She has big plans for Bush's Christmas in Crawford.

"Right now I'm just dreamin' and schemin'," Wilson said. "We want to do a surprise inspection at a presidential palace. He's demanding it in Iraq and we're demanding it here. We need to see those cupboards and guest rooms. We need to look in the refrigerator. We need to know: Is that jelly in those jars, or what do they have in those jars?"

The White House on Friday referred questions to the Secret Service, which declined to comment on Wilson or her interest in Bush's Crawford ranch.

Wilson, who ekes out a living fishing for black drum in San Antonio Bay, has devoted the past 15 years to peaceful protest and occasional trespass and civil disobedience. She has sued, fasted and chained herself to a chemical plant tower.

Not everyone supports her activism. Her husband has left her. Her dog has been shot. Her own mother wishes she'd just keep her mouth shut, she said.

"But protesting is woven into the fabric of my life. It's who I am," Wilson said. "Sometimes you finally find out who you are and then you realize other people don't like you, but that's OK. I believe you have to take the consequences of your actions."

Still, Wilson is disturbed by what she considers an order from District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Robert Rigsby banning her from the capital city for a full year.

"He told me I could not be arrested for protesting again for a whole year, and I had to get out of Dodge City. I was kicked out," Wilson said in Monday's editions of the Houston Chronicle. "They said if they saw my face in Washington, I would be arrested immediately."

Wilson's court file shows no such order, which she says was delivered verbally. Neither the judge nor Wilson's court-appointed attorney, Reginald Towe, returned calls from the Chronicle seeking clarification, and a transcript of Wilson's hearing Tuesday was not yet available.

Wilson's file indicates only that if she manages to avoid arrest in the next year, a misdemeanor charge of unlawful entry for the White House incident could be dismissed.

The activist's Washington troubles began Sept. 18, when she and other protesters calling themselves "Unreasonable Women" disrupted a congressional hearing on Bush's plans to use military force against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Wilson and Medea Benjamin, a San Francisco activist and founder of the human rights group Global Exchange, unfurled a banner reading "U.N. Inspections, Not War" behind Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as he tried to testify before the House Armed Services Committee. After shouting questions at Rumsfeld, the women were removed from the room by Capitol police. They were not arrested, but the stunt earned the protesters a spot on CNN and photos in several major newspapers.

On Oct. 2, the women took their protest to the White House. Wilson's arrest led to a court order banning her from being within three blocks of the White House. A month later, Wilson violated that order, joining an anti-war vigil in a park across from the White House.

Police and Secret Service tolerated Wilson's presence until she quarreled with police Nov. 27 after they objected to her erecting a plastic tarp to block the wind from a park bench. They arrested her for violating the order to keep away from the White House. After spending a night and most of Thanksgiving Day in jail, Wilson was released. She hopes to rejoin the peace vigil by March 8, International Women's Day, when organizers plan a massive peace march on Washington.

"I'm just a fisherwoman with five kids, three grandkids and a truck that don't even run. I am no threat," she said. "I am just a peaceful protester opposed to an unjust war."

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[armymarinemom]

"Right now I'm just dreamin' and schemin'," Wilson said. "We want to do a surprise inspection at a presidential palace. He's demanding it in Iraq and we're demanding it here. We need to see those cupboards and guest rooms. We need to look in the refrigerator. We need to know: Is that jelly in those jars, or what do they have in those jars?"
We need to look at the inside of a rubber room!

[txhurl]

And why are you pinging me a year later? Just curious?

[StriperSniper]

I think one of those Drum musta took her down and held her underwater a bit too long. ;-)