I received an email from the university today warning of a planned announcement and possible protest by PETA tomorrow. It reminded me of something I wrote shortly after starting work here all those years ago when we had another PETA visit. Oddly, this was before 9/11 and reading it now I can compare the security situation that day with what we now experience going to the airport. It also reminded me that I used to smoke. Something I tend to forget now that I’m a year and half clean. Interestingly, this happened within days of my taking this position…I should have paid more attention to what the universe was telling me.
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With the threat of animal rights activists showing up to demonstrate, the university has taken extreme cautions. I sit here in my office behind 2 locked doors. Outside the second door is the sign identifying this as the administration office. It has been covered with a large manila envelope.
Proceeding down the hallway, the only door unlocked is the bathroom door. Oh…and the elevator. Which you need to exit the building since you can’t get to the stairs without a key.
Once on the third floor where there is outside access, you will find uniformed police at every entrance/exit (locked of course). The officers are all in complete riot gear. In the parking lot just next to the building are even more officers hovering near a large bus (evidently for hauling the arrestees off to jail), and a whole stable full of horses. Maybe I can get a horsey ride to my car after work.
The big guy, my boss, is in his office which is locked too. To access his office you need to get through mine. Good Luck!
The big guy came to me just before lunch to let me know that I should lock my door just as an added measure of security. Even though I can see everyone that might come through the locked front door. His reasoning is that they could easily run into my office with a camera before I could get to my door to shut it. Damn…there goes my fifteen minutes.
Ya’ know…they have gone to great extremes to be sure and let the protesters know where to find the labs with animals. It seems to me that they should put all the police in front of the cafeteria. That would be the perfect decoy and the protestors would still have something to protest. “The killing of animals for food” or “I wouldn’t even feed this stuff to my dog”.
Oh well…gotta’ go put on my sunglasses and trenchcoat and grab my ID card so I can go outside and have a cigarette. I should be back in about 30 minutes if I don’t get stopped by security.
Transplanted from the San Francisco Bay Area to Portland, Oregon 14 years ago. It's a love-hate relationship. I'm still here so maybe it's more love than hate...maybe...jury's still out.
rodger dodger 