It was unusually cold that morning, even for the normally mild weather in D.C.
It had rained the night before, so the pavement in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was wet as well as being cold. ... There was a strange tension in the air. Something ominous.
Hearing hissing and boos from the crowd, I looked up and saw several police distributing among themselves plastic gloves and thick plastic ties - like large trash bag ties - which would be used to handcuff us.
It was the plastic gloves that had elicited the response from the crowd.
Yes, some of us were HIV positive. Some were visibly sick with AIDS. We knew that AIDS could not be transmitted by human touch. We hadn't considered that violence might erupt and blood might be shed.
The tension began so thick, I feared that our Peaceful Demonstration of Civil Disobedience might, indeed, become violent.
Just when my anxiety level was starting to kick in the "flight or fight" effect in my brain, and I was conscious that I was making a decision about which it would be, something happened that broke the tension.
One of the Radical Faeries - a street theater group - began to skip among the bodies on the street, sprinkling fairy dust on us while taunting the police: "They'll see you on the news. Your gloves don't match your shoes."
The protesters began to giggle. That Radical Faerie was soon joined by other Radical Faeries who pranced among us, sprinkling glittery fairy dust as others began to outline our bodies in white chalk.
Everyone had picked up the chant, "They'll see you on the news. Your gloves don't match your shoes," as they laughed and giggled.
It was irresistible. Even some of the police began to laugh.
Well, it was miraculous, was what it was. The tension broke and were were all back to 'civil' part of the disobedience and the 'peaceful' part of the assembly.
Read all of Mother Elizabeth Keaton's remarkable posting at her blog Telling Secrets.
| 
ession on
