by David Evans, Feb 25, 1998

During the past few weeks, they've been called many things across the national media: "The Dirty Dozen," "The Columbus Twelve," "bad apples," "drunken frat guys," "over-caffinated students," "a small but vocal minority" as well as "profane," "rude" and most of all "hecklers." All of this because of what happened on a Wednesday afternoon, February 18.

That's the day the White House sent three of its top foreign policy advisors to Columbus to stage an "international town meeting" at the Ohio State University's St. John basketball arena to "explain America's Iraq policy to the heartland" (as the exalted New York Times phrased it).

Perhaps our leaders in Washington thought that we in the Midwest would be more passive and gullible than people in other regions of the nation. Big mistake.

However, unexpectedly, a small but determined group of Columbus residents became an overnight news sensation when they effectively disrupted and, in some ways, took over the 90-minute-long, global CNN broadcast making the White House look positively asinine. Yet, most of what you've read or heard about these hecklers has been either incomplete or just dead wrong. That is until now.

As soon as Sarah, 26, a working, single mother, and her friend Trish, 21, a woman's health care worker, both heard the news release about the upcoming event, these two determined woman got right to work. "We found out 2 or 3 days before it happened," said Trish "We knew we wanted to do something." (Like many associated with this story, Sarah and Trish agreed to be interviewed only if their last names were omitted. The reason for this is a fear of retribution. In fact, one of their group members, a young woman named Holly, had given her name and phone number out on a press release that was only given to members of the media. Yet, not 24 hours after the St. John's fracas, she started receiving harassing phone calls at her home from multiple unidentified callers.)

After calling up all their friends, they met to discuss what to do. The group ended up consisting of 15-20 people. Most of them were women in their 20's. Also, contrary to what the local and national papers reported, few of them were college students. For years, they had all known each other through their association with various progressive activist groups such as Food Not Bombs, Anti-Racist Action and different anarchist collectives. Without a name for their band but with plenty of driving-spirit, they started to formulate plans.

They looked through various old posters and flyers for ideas. Also, they discussed how a feminist group had disrupted the Miss American Pageant in the 70's, making national news. "We talked about what could be done and what could not be done" explained John Hughes, one of the groups few male or student members. "We didn't want any of us to get arrested" Ultimately, what they did was to lead, perhaps hundreds of, Columbus citizens who were at least skeptical of the White House's war against Iraq in various chants, rants and general heckling. With mantras like "1-2-3-4, We don't want your racist war!" and "No blood for oil," at times they drowned out Madeleine Albright in mid-speech. This succeeded at drawing glaring looks and angry comments from the top government official not used to such treatment. "We've re-claimed the word heckling," explained Trish. "If they [the White House] try to sell their BS in our town, we won't let them get away with it."

That fateful Wednesday afternoon began with a ceremonial peace march called by the Middle East Peace Committee, to the basketball arena with 300 other anti-war activists, including Arab and Muslim student groups. After that they waited in the cold, drizzling rain for a chance to get in. Yet, because of how the White House and CNN had set up the event, there was little hope of that.

Unlike a real town meeting, admittance to this event was highly selective. First there were the red tickets given out for the1000 seats out on the arena floor. Red ticket holders would be the only ones with a chance to ask a question. (Yet everyone with a red floor ticket, who wished to pose a question to the panel, would first have to submit it in writing on a 3x5 card. If the White House or CNN didn't like your question, you didn't get to ask it.) The Ohio State University would recommend certain local and university groups for red ticket eligibility and CNN would either approve or disapprove them. Groups receiving these red tickets included the ROTC, various veterans groups, active duty military, the League of Women Voters, university professors and staff. As well, 40 student groups were approved. Yet many student groups including two environmental groups were disapproved and effectively barred.

Then there were white tickets for the 6000 seats in the bleacher stands. White ticket holders would absolutely not be allowed to ask questions. The white tickets were given out on a limited basis the day before to those who stood in line at the arena. Supposedly, no one group or individual would be able to obtain more than two per person.

Yet, like with so many things that night, the reality was something else. Prior to the event the hecklers received seven tickets from a Middle East Committee organizer (an environmental activist who, being angry that they could only obtain 2 tickets for themselves, took the trouble to photo copy 80 faux tickets on heavy card stock at Kinko's). This mysterious person, associated with one of the banned student groups, handed out their fake tickets outside the arena to anyone wanting to attend the event.

After getting their tickets and waiting in line, group members were thoroughly searched at the entrance by a mixture of OSU police and federal government security personal bearing badges that read "Diplomatic Security." They not only used walk-through metal detectors and wands, but they also performed strip searches on any one dressed in a non-conservative or non-mainstream manner.

The tickets read: No cameras. No banners. No umbrellas. Which evidently gave security the authority to deny admittance to anyone with a banner, a flag or anything with a political slogan on it. Some who wore stickers that read simply STOP RACISM were denied admittance if the did not throw them away.

Sarah, Trish and their group were the most conspicuously dressed people in the crowd. Some wore ghoulish face paint to represent the inevitable war dead. Two others (both women) wore green army fatigues. Still others had black X's painted over their eyes and US flags as gags over their mouths. One wore a sticker reading: "I died for my country. Will you?" Another read: "I regret that I have but one life to give for a gallon of super-unleaded." The reason, they said, that they had decided to wear costumes was because if they could not bring in a banner, then they themselves would "become political statements." The women were forced by security to throw their stickers and flags in the trash.

Consequently, outside the arena, in public, both Sarah and Trish were forced to strip, Sarah down to her brassiere because she had a T-shirt with a political slogan (an anti-Ku Klux Klan message) and Trish was completely topless in an attempt to give Sarah her shirt. (According to the hecklers, none of the other people, that they saw, in line received as stringent a degree of search.)

Yet, while the embarrassed security personnel had their backs turned, Sarah took the opportunity to stuff a contraband American flag mask down her pants. (It's important to point out that the "No War" banner -- that has been seen on just about every front page in the nation -- was smuggled in by a "conservatively" dressed Anti-Racist Action woman who joined in with the hecklers inside the arena.)

Once inside, all the hecklers converged on one spot very high up in the bleacher section, directly behind the stage where Madame Albright and the other White House foreign policy advisors would speak. All they could see were the backs of their heads. But that was good enough for their purposes. They never dreamed they'd actually get this far. In fact, they were sure that as soon as they started what they came to do, they'd all get arrested or ejected, maybe even physically assaulted. Ten minutes before CNN went live on a global hook-up, a rather smug and condescending Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright started to address the crowd. That's when the hecklers went into action. First, they gave Madame Albright a few minutes to speak. Then, they began to yell: "Shame!" "Boo!" "Liar!" Immediately, security people came up. At that moment, one of the hecklers remembers thinking, "This is it. We're going to get arrested."

But then something strange and wonderful happened. About twenty minutes into the program, individuals, perhaps hundreds, from all over the arena started shouting out as well, joining their voices with the hecklers. "It didn't start that way all at once," said Sarah. "But little bit by bit, others got braver and joined in with us." Some even acutely walked over and sat with the hecklers in solidarity. Which made it a stickier situation for CNN and the White House.

Now it just wasn't one small group that they could easily deal with but many scatted individuals throughout the arena. So, according to the hecklers and contrary to what has been reported in the mainstream media, it wasn't out of the goodness of CNN's heart that the hecklers weren't simply ejected from the arena. But rather the broadcast corporation's fear of looking like a miserable bully on their own network. "We overheard people say," said Sarah, "Oh my God. Are we going to lose control? Will we have to pull the plug? Will there be a riot?"

Consequently, the hecklers were not thrown out. Throughout the rest of the program the hecklers kept the pressure on full-strength. Yet, the hecklers pretty much steered clear of profane or offensive words. "We didn't want to offend any people who were not comfortable with such language," explained Trish. "We wanted to get our message out and we knew that would not happen if we used obscenities."

They do admit to using the word "Bullshit" in response to a specific comment from Albright. "Because they were bullshitting us," explained another one of the hecklers. "She tried to tell us that 'the US cares more for the Iraqi people, more than Saddam Hussein.' That's an obvious lie. You can't care about people who you are going to bomb."

However, the most amazing aspect of the heckling was that not only did it serve to disrupt the White House's planned event, the hecklers actually exercised a small degree of control over the proceedings. Most prominently, this control could be seen in the case of Rick Theis, a founding member of the Middle East Peace Committee and a graduate of OSU, who had arrived at the arena early to be first in line to ask a question. Yet CNN skipped his turn many times. Finally, frustrated he stepped up to a mic and made his statement anyway. Reportedly, this made CNN moderator, Bernard Shaw, so angry that the veins on his neck were visibly popping and he had to be held back from "bopping" Theis when he tried to use the public microphone to make a statement near the beginning of the question period. At that moment, CNN cut to a 10-minute long commercial break. During that time Mr. Theis was forcefully pulled off stage by security personnel and ejected out the door. The mainstream media reported that he was "led away" and later "allowed" back in to say his piece.

However, the reality that viewers didn't see was far more interesting. The hecklers relentlessly stomped their feet and chanted "Let him speak!" and "Bring him back!" In response, representatives of CNN went up into the bleachers to "negotiate" with the hecklers. "They were bargaining with us," said Sarah. "It was as if we were holding them hostage and we were." CNN was willing to do whatever was necessary to appease the hecklers and subdued the anti-war sentiment that was making them look foolish even powerless on-camera. Finally, after the commercial break was over, a beaten CNN brought Mr. Theis back to speak.

Yet, none of the Columbus or national newspapers reported any of this. Another concession that CNN made to the hecklers was that they agreed to let one of them ask a question of the panel on cameras. This resulted in John Strange, a substitute teacher in the Cleveland school system, getting a chance to ask a particularly tough question of Madame Albright, which she failed to answer directly.

Neither did they publish the fact that CNN and Madeleine Albright had made a bargain with the hecklers: if they would quiet down, Madame Albright would grant them an audience, after the program, to air their views. Yet, Madame Albright reneged on that promise and quickly left Columbus, probably never to return.

Fifteen minutes before the program was scheduled to end, security officials started pulling the hecklers out of their chairs one by one. Trish was physically ejected from the arena. Sarah was simply forced out by a representative of the Sheriff's Department. Yet both women, veterans of many direct action-styled protests, were not unaccustomed to such treatment from government authority figures.

While some would criticize their tactics as "rude," the hecklers defend their strategy. They indicated that it was only through such tactics that any voice of dissension against the war could be heard. Perhaps Trish said it best: "If we had just been sitting there quietly listening, people watching on television would have thought we were supporters of the war, which we certainly were not. Sometimes you've just got to say what you think and make sure that your voice is heard. And, if they won't listen in a polite manner, then you've just got to be rude."

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