WOMAN LIVES PEACE

HIGH TIMES

MURPHY HIGH SCHOOL

MOBILE, ALABAMA

February 1991

WOMAN LIVES PEACE

By LUTZ KLEVEMAN

On A chilly morning in the last autumn during the CLOSE-UP program, I strolled through the streets of Washington D.C. Surrounded by seemingly listless and hasty people I approach the White House. Fascinated by this building which I have only seen on TV before, I prepare my camera.

Suddenly, I discover a woman on the other side of the road who officiously sweeps stubs together. I come nearer greet her and stand still, curious about her reaction. Gay eyes out of her wrinkled face look at me and she answers with a friendly "Hello" and "How are you today?" I feel invited, and we easily engage in conversation. Proudly, she presents me her stand which is covered by pictures and information ma- terial. The slogans on the yellow boards are fairly visible.

Since 1981, Concepcion Picciotto has been living on that spot. Every season, day and night during almost tell years under the open sky, she has demonstrated for peace. She is a living pence vigil against the nuclear war.

"Today, we have to set clear signs of peace against rearmament, of the super powers the discord in the world she asserts." Her voice doesn't sound fanatic, rather tender.

She talks to people to inform and convince them shout the madness of war. Excitedly she says, "Each day is different. Today I meet you, tomorrow maybe in African or a Japanese..."

Although the courageous woman can be seen daily by the President and his family, no official has ever bothered to talk to he;. Instead, there have been laws enacted to re- strict her field of activity and to drive away the troublesome person. "this control only reveals their fear, " Concepcion, says defiantly.

Several times policemen and Navy soldiers have beaten up the defenseless woman and destroyed her stand. The evidence she shows me, newspaper clippings and pictures of her face covered with blood. Despite those maltreatment's Concepcion continues her mission for freedom justice, equality, and pence. The source of her resoluteness and confidence is God. "When danger arises, I wait, I see, and I pray she tells me.

For farewell we embrace each other and wish each other peace and a nice day. I'm glad that she exists.

---

A LIFE OF PROTEST

A LIFE OF PROTEST

By George Joseph Tanber
TOLEDO MAGAZINE, Decmber 4-10, 1988

WASHINGTON: She's beginning her eighth winter in the neighborhood, yet she's never met the only other residents of the block.

Mr. and Mrs. Reagan, meet Concepcion Picciotto.

Mrs. Picciotto - Connie to her friends -- occupies a humble patch of sidewalk in Lafayette Park, directly across from the entrance to the White House. She's there in the morning, when the tourists line up fa their visit to the executive mansion; she's there in the afternoon, when office workers flock to the park for picnic lunches; she's there in the evening, when rush hour traffic clogs Pennsylvania Avenue, and she there at 3 a.m.. when silence rules, save for the occasional stirring of a restless drunk on a nearby park bench.

Each day, and nearly every night since August 1981, Concepcion Picciotto has been there It`s her home. But she's not alone. She has her signs - "Live by the Bomb . . Die by the Bomb." "Civilized People do not Nuke Fellow Humans" -- her friend William Thomas, and the squirrels.

Mrs. Picciotto and Mr. Thomas demonstrate for living Co-founders of the White House Anti-Nuclear Peace Vigil, they claim the modern record for presidential protest They pass out pamphlets, they talk with passersby, and they display their signs Their message, they say, is simple: peace, freedom, and justice for mankind.

Not so simple, it seems, has been the response. They've been harassed and arrested by police, beaten and taunted by strangers, and ignored by most of their audience.

"We are sacrificing a lot." says Mrs Picciotto. who is 43. "And we are enduring a lot. But it's worth it.

IT'S A CURIOUS life for a woman who was born half a world away, in western Spain. Orphaned at a early age, Mrs. Picciotto was raised By her grand mother. When she died. young Concepcion decided to fulfill her lifelong ambition of emigrating to the United States. She arrived in New York at age 18 and found work as a secretary with the Spanish Consulate.

At 21, she met and married an ltalian businessman. The birth of a daughter, in 1973, was followed 20 months later by a messy divorce, the details of which Mrs. Picciotto declines to discuss The result, she says, was the loss of her husband, her daughter. her job, and her home.

She spent seven years trying to gain custodv of her child. Her odyssey began in the courts of Manhattan and took her to Albany, Madrid, and finally Washington. where she sought help from her congressman. Rebuffed at every turn. Mrs. Picciotto decided to take her case to the streets.

In 1980, she secured a part-time job as a babv sitter and began spending her off-days in front of the White House with her hand-painted signs calling for justice. She also wrote letters. One, to Lillian Carter, drew this response: "I sympathize with your case, but I am 80 miles away and have no power."

Gradually, as she befriended other demonstrator: Mrs. Picciotto`s repertoir expanded to include the anti-nuclear effort. Her zeal also grew. Finally, on warm summer day, halfway through Ronald Reagans first year as president, she collected her belongings and took a bus to Lafayette Park, where she has remained.

Shortly after, she joined forces with Mr Thomas, 40, who had begun protesting at the White House the previous year. (He had been expelled From Britain for discarding his U.S passport and declaring himself stateless).

Initially. Mrs Picciotto and Mr Thomas spent their days in front of the White House and their nights in the park. But in 1985 the National Park Service enacted restrictions on White House sidewalk demonstrations forcing the protestors across the street The protestors responded by increasing the number and size of their signs. At one time. Mrs Picciotto and Mr Thomas had 18 free-standing plywood signs in a row. The tallest was over 10 feet high.

Public concern and pressure from the Interior Department resulted in further restrictions two years ago. Today, no one is allowed more than two signs. and thev can't exceed 6 feet in height. This peeves Mrs Picciotto, who sees a conspiracy directed at forcing all protestors away from the area.

Rather than pout about her misfortune, though, she is content to sit on her milk crate, which doubles as her bed, and spread the word: "Stop building nuclear weapons, and let`s use the money to eliminate poverty."

MRS PICCIOTTO is a tiny woman, about 5 feet tall. she's well-mannered and articulate, although she speaks with a thick accent. She always wears a brown wig the size of a football helmet, covered with a scarf -- she won't say why -- and on a recent chilly afternoon she wore corduroy slacks, a wool sweater, and a down vest covered with protest badges. Her shabby appearance contradicts her penchant for tidiness; she constantly sweeps leaves and litter from her part of the sidewalk and neatly stacks her belongings behind the signs.

Her face is weather-beaten, but her dark eyes sparkle, reflecting the enthusiasm she has for what she calls her "life's work."

She survives. she says, on coffee, sweet rolls, and bread. Occasionally, friends bring her cheese, fruit, and sandwiches. She uses the restroom at a nearby Hardy's restaurant and showers infrequently at a downtown shelter for the homeless. She averages three hours of sleep a day, leaning against one of her signs.

Winters are the worst, says Mrs. Picciotto. No amount of clothing keeps the cold out, and she spends most nights pacing the sidewalk to avoid perishing.

Her livelihood comes from donations, she says. On a good day she may make $15. The money is spent on food, printing literature and paint for the "peace rocks" she began making several years ago. The rocks have become popular souvenirs for tourists, although Mrs Picciotto declines to charge for them.

Harassment is her biggest concern. It ranges from verbal abuse to physical harm: Eight years ago a U.S Marine punched her in the face. There also are threats from the homeless people who sometimes inhabit the park.

Park police are another problem, since sleeping is considered camping: -- a park offense -- and leaving posters unattended also is unlawful. Mrs. Picciotto and Mr. Thomas frequently play 'cat-and-mouse' with their adversaries. Sometimes they lose. Last summer Mr. Thomas, who calls himself an intellectual and spends a lot of time in the library, served 90 days in the pokey for camping.

THERE ARE good moments. too. Every week a woman from the Humane Society delivers a bag of peanuts to Mrs. Picciotto so she can feed her beloved squirrels. She sometimes receives mail from people she has become friends with. (The Vigil has a post office box). And after her bike was stolen, a young man employed at a nearby bicycle shop pieced together another for her Despite the hardships. the sidewalk across from the White House will remain Mrs. Picciotto's home for the foreseeable future.

"Certainly. I could go back to society." she says "I could make a !iving. But God has chosen a greater task for me". One of the squirrels grabs a peanut from Mrs Picciotto`s hand and scampers into the park.

"Imagine." she says,"I have seen people freeze to death in that park, right across the street from the house of the most powerful man in the world."

AT LAFAYETTE SQUARE IN FRONT OF THE WHITE HOUSE

La Casa Bianca
3,366 persone tutte al servizio di un inquilino

Punt E Mes l'alternativa

Anno - Numero 239 - L. 1200
mercoledi 2 novembre 1988
la Republica
I segreti della "reggia" americana
dal nostro corrispondente
ENRICO FRANCESCHINI WASHINGTON - Accovacciata a terra tra pile di violantini, ritagli di giornale, cartelli che inneggiano alla pace nel mondo, borse, pacchettini, una cesta di pane secco, e il sacco a pelo che le fa da letto, Concetta Picciotto indica la Casa Bianca, dall'altra parte dellaa strada, e dice, nell'italiano stentato dell'emigrante della seconda generazione:

"Per me Bush o Dukakis uguali sono. Non me importa chi fisce la dentroal posta di Reagan. Tutti e due non buono. Non me piace"

Da sette anni si e accampata qui, proprio di fronte al 1600 di Pennsylvania Avenue, l'indirizzo piu esclusivo d'America, la residenza del presidente degli Stati Uniti: d'inverno e d'estate, di giorno e di notte, conduce cosi la sua isolata, testarda protesta control l'America, accusandola di spendere in armamenti quello che portrebbe usare per vincere la fame nel mondo e portare la pace tra I popoli.

...origine siciliana (debonno esserci dei parenti di mio marito a Catania, ma io non li hosentiti mai, dice), Concettina Picciotto e l'insolita sentinella dell'oggetto del desiderio che da un anno fa discutere una nazionne intera e di riflesso mezzo mondo. Se ne parla se ne scrive, lasi evoca di continuo: ma, generalmente, per I media e peri candidati che se la contendono, la Casa Bianca e soprattutto un concetto, un'idea di potere, un simbolo. Invece, naturalmente, e anche una casa vera e propria, per di piu, ora, con I tipici problemi di una casa che sta per cambiare inquilino. E forse, in assoluto, la residenza di un capo di Stato piu vicina alla strada, alla gente, solo una cancellata la sepera dal traffico di Pennsylvania Avenue, e dal marciapiede si distinguono perfettamente le finestre al secondo piano, dove vivono Ronald e Nancy Reagan. Eppure I washingtoniani vi passano davanti indiffernti, in auto o a piedi, ormai abituati a queata straordinaria intimita con il loro "Commander in Chief" comandante in capo.

Gli unici a prestare attenzione sono uno sparuto gruppetto di dimostranti, che aditano nel giardino davanti alla Casa Bianca, Lafayette Park, dove esorta una piccola tendopoli. Vicino Concetta Picciotto, barricati dietro cartoni sacchi a pelo, giacigli di fortuna, vivono una dozzina di hippy, pcifisti, ecolgiti provienti da tutta America e anche dall'Europa. "Io sona arrivata da due settimane" spiega Ann, tedesca di Monaco, 23 anni. Di giorno fa il giro dei ristoranti con un amico, raccolgono gli avanzi, e vengono qui a spartirli con I numerosi vagabondi che stazionano nel parco. "Anche queato e un modo di manifestare per la pace" dice. "Non le dia retta" la interrompe un nero che passegia su e giu nervosamente. All'occhiello della giacca ha un distintivo che invita a votare per Dukakis. "Questi qui sono un branco di razzisti, odiano noi neri e gli ebrei, passano le notti in orge disgustos" continua l'uomo. Fa un infuocato comizio di tre minuti, e se ne va. "Ci vuole pazienza, chissa chi e, forse un matto, forse un provocatore" riprende la tendeschina, "ma non importa, ognuno ha diritto di pensarla come vuole". Ma davvero fate le orge notturne davanti alla Casa Bianca? " Beh, magari capita che qualcuno faccia l'amore, la notte fa freddo, bisogna pure scaldarsi. Ma l'unico atto collettivo e quello che recitiamo ogni sera al tramonto, tutti insieme, tenendoci per mano, in mododa suscitare una corrente di energia positiva, che attraversi la strada, raggiunga la Casa Bianca, avvolga il presidente e lo spinga ad essere piu buono nei suoi rapporti col mondo".

`Fino a tre anni or sono, l'accompamento dei dimostranti era dal lato della strada dove c'e la Casa Bianca; poi la polizia l'ha fatto spostare ("viotando I nostri diritti civili " dice Cocetta Picciotto "ci perseguitano in continuazione"), affermando che turbava la quiete publica e impediva l'accesso visitatori. C'e un continuo afflusso di di turisti, che fanno la fila per entrare alla Casa Bianca: la maggior parte proviene da fuori citta, o dall'estero.

La visita ristretta ad un'ala dell'edificio, transformata in museo; bibliote che e salette che di regola non vengono usate dalla famiglia presidenziale, ad eccezione, della sala da ballo e della grande sla da pranzo dove avvengono I banchetti ufficiali. Sul depliant che ognuno riceve all'ingresso c'e scritto; "Il presidente e la sua famiglia la invitano a vedere questa splendida dimora e a conoscere di prima persona il suo speciale calore, la sua dignita". La gente e visibilmente emozionata, l'invito ottiene l'effetto desiderato, fa scattare una certa familiarita tra l'anonimo americano del Nebraska o del Tennessee e la quasi regale figura del presidente: un legame che rafforza l'amore viscerale del cittadino medio verso il Capo della Casa Bianca.

Ma I turisti non possono vedere l'Ufficio ovale, dove lavora il presidente, o la residenza, al seconda piano, con le camere da letto, la stanza della tivu, la sala da biliardo (voluta da Nixon), le ca; mere per gli ospiti, la stanza della regina (cosi chiamata perche ci hanno dormito quattro sovrane e la stanza di Lincoln (ancora abitata, secondo la legenda, dal fantasma del presidente). Il turista non puo immaginare che sotto la Casa Bianca si estende un labirinto di cunicoli, di cantine, passaggi sotterranei, rifugi antiaerei; e che oltre a svolgere le funzioni di casa, la "White House" e una specie di grande ministero, in cui lavorano talmente tante persone che il numero esatto e un segretto di Stato: 622 sono nel libro paga della Casa Bianca, mail totlae dovrebbe arrivare a 3.366, secondo un libro appena pubblicato, "The Ring of Power" (L'anello del postere), scritto da un ex-funzionario dell'amministrzione, il qualle ha scoperto che circa 2.700 militari e agenti del servizio segreto, stipendiati dal Pentagonio, lavorano in realta nella casa presidenziale.

Ogni presidente porta con se un gruppo ristretto di nuovi consiglieri e collaboratori, ma il grosso degli impiegati, delle segreterie, del personale di cucina e manutenzione, resta al suo posto. Tocca a loro adeguarsi ogni quattro od otto anni ai gusti del nuovo inquilino. Alcuni sono insostituibili: come le 20 centraliniste che smistano 7,000 telefonte al giorno, e sono in grado di rintracciare chiunque, ovunque, in qualunque momento.

Non e sempre stato cosi: iniziata a cosruire nel 1792 per ordine del primo presidente, George Washington, abitata a partire dal 1800 (quando la residenza del presidente e il Congresso furono trasferiti da Filadelphia ava nuovo capitale, Washington appunto), un tempo la Casa Bianca funzionava molto peggio. Ha avuto l'acqua corrente nel 1834, la luce a gas nel 1848, l'acqua calda nel 1853, l'ascensore nel 1881 e l'elettiricita nel 1891. Leprime "first lady" stendevano la lavanderia in sala da pranzo, gli inglesi l'hanno bruciata durante la guerra d'Indipendenza (solo un tremendo temporale impedi chi fosse del tutto ridotta in cenere). le truppe nordiste ci hanno bivaccato dentro durante la guerra di secessione. Alla festa d'inagurazionne della sua presidenza, nel 1832, Andrew Jackson apri le porte della Casa Bianca al popolo: ne salto fuori una tale baraonda che il presidente scappio dormire in albergo (4 anni dopo, alla festa d'addio invito il popoio a mangiare con lui un immenso formaggio, che fini sbriciolato sui tappeti, lasciando per settimane una puzza insopportabile).

Ci sono voluti quasi cent'anni perche fosse denominata ufficialmente "White House" (prima era chianata semplicemente "President's House"), anche se fin dall'inizio venne vernicita di bianco, guadagnandole il sopranome di "casa bianca". Adesso un lato e color seppia, hanno tolto l'intonaco per effetuare dei lavori di restauro: non in vista del nuovo presidente, ma per il 1992, quando verra celebrato il bicentenario della Casa Bianca. All'uscita della visita guidata, I turisti possono leggere su un cartello eslicativo tutti I particolari dell'opera di abbellimento restauro, intrapresa "per mantenere lo splendore originale della residenza presidenziale".

Poi escono su Pennsylvania Avenue, e nel sole di queato autunno ancora tiepido incontrano le sagome di quattro noti protagonisti della vita politica: Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Mike Dukakis, ed Oliver North, il "Rambo" della Casa Bianca, l'ufficiale dei Marines al centro dello scandola Irangate. Per 5 dollari, un fotografo ti riprende in posa con il tuo eroe preferito, a grandezza naturale. Chi e il piu popolare stamene? "Bush, vogliono tutti posare con lui" risponde il fotografo, e aggiunge "io pero voterio Dukakis".

WHITE HOUSE ANTI-NUCLEAR PEACE VIGIL
24-HOURS A DAY SINCE 1981
C. PICCIOTTO & W. THOMAS
P.O. BOX 4931
WASHINGTON D.C. 20008

December 1987
Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

Dear Mr. Gorbachev:

This letter was born of discussions and arguments. Although I alone am signing it, it carries within the silence, pain and struggle for peace and justice of many people.

I come to you through this letter to welcome you in Peace to Washington, D.C. and to ask you to continue your courage and wisdom in innovative suggestions aimed at reaching world disarmament.

Your moratorium on weapons testing had tremendous world impact, but a weapons freeze, moratorium or reduction cannot assure survival. Only the absence of genocidal weapons can assure continuance of the species.

We cannot negotiate the amount of evil the world can allow itself. All genocidal weapons are evil.

You may know of me and my own efforts to make an impact on the world toward the same goal, since my antinuclear peace vigil has appeared in newspapers in your country and, I'm told, on television, too. It is known as the "White House Antinuclear Peace Vigil, 24 Hours a Day since 1981, maintained by just two individuals: William Thomas and Concepcion Picciotto."

In spite of our having been jailed several times, having been beaten and abused, and living a very rough life; in spite of our signs and work being confiscated and destroyed, we have always returned to rebuild and share our message even more broadly, refusing to give in to mindless forces, believing that the truth is sure to win. All that matters is that there be justice for all, and not merely for a few.

On December 20, 1984 our subpoena (from Concepcion & Thomas) was served on President Ronald Reagan and a crew of government figures.

Before and since we, Concepcion and Thomas, have suffered much indignity as we maintain our stand right outside the presidential door. Surely there must be a way to bring a halt to such blatant violations of constitutional law, a Constitution that President Ronald Reagan swore he would uphold.

President Reagan goes right on, seemingly unable to explain his action (or inaction) aimed at sinking the Constitution ship he sails.

Demand Peace and Justice, Mr. Gorbachev, for you alone can demand and enforce world disarmament. Do not shrink from the struggle.

I wish you all good health and strength and success in your many difficult tasks.
Sincerely, Concepcion Picciotto
IN FRONT OF THE WHITE HOUSE

Park Next to White House Is Demonstrators Haven

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
VOL. CCVI NO. 124
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1985

Park Next to White House Is Demonstrators Haven

One Way to Capture Mr. Reagan's Notice Is to Erect Big Sign!
Trash as Protest Symbol?

By ROBERT E. TAYLOR
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON - Concepcion Picciotto has a great view of the White House and it of her. That's the trouble.

When President Reagan gazes past his front lawn, across Pennsylvania Avenue to Lafayette Park. the first thing he sees is Mrs. Picciotto and her sign. "Stop the Arms Race. Dismantle Nuclear Weapons declares the lettering on one of her largest signs. a l0-foot-by-12 foot (3 meters by 3 1/2 meters) hand- painted piece of plywood that is one in a row of similar signs stretching 40 yards along the sidewalk. Signs and posters of all sizes portray messages. missiles and mushroom clouds, even a white-robed Mr. Reagan cradling a missile amid fiery Armageddon.

Most of the signs belong to Mrs. Picciotto and another demonstrator, William Thomas, who jointly claim the modern Record for presidential protest. Almost round the clock since mid-1981, they have 'stood sentinel duty here in what she calls a "vigil for freedom. peace and justice."

Mrs. Picciotto, 41 years old, says she began her protest career in. 1975. Mr. Thomas, 38, started protesting at the White House, he says, not long after being forcibly expelled from Britain in 1980 (he had thrown away his U.S. passport and declared himself a "stateless person"): last spring, he married Ellen Benjamin, a self-described former yuppie who quit her job and joined his protest.

'We sacrifice our lives," Mrs. Picciotto says.'We want to open the minds of the people to the destruction of the planet."

But Mrs. Picciotto's signs may have shown the White House their last anti-nuclear winter. The National Park Service, the overseer of the historic square, is proposing to ban big signs in Lafayette Park. It cites complaints that the placards "interfere with the view of the White House prevent picture taking and ... generally ruin the aesthetic quality of Lafayette Park." It even calls them a safety hazard: When one blew over, officials say, it crowned a passerby, who required stitches.

Specific Rules

The Park Service's remedy is brutally specific. It's rules, expected to be made final shortly, would restrict each demonstrator to two self-supporting signs, which would be elevated no more than 6 feet, and which always must be attended by someone, within 3 feet. The signs could be no larger than 4 feet square and a quarter of an inch thick.

Why that particular size? The Park Service's "Sign System Specification Manual," which it uses to figure the size of its own signs in the various national parks decrees that 4-by-4 signs allow 10 lines of letters readable at least l00 feet away. The manual says there isn't any real need in the park to have larger lettering that could be seen from farther away. The American Civil Liberties Union, on the other hand, is unconvinced. "Perhaps this is why so many Pedestrians get eaten by bears on Park Service property every year." the ACLU suggests.

The ACLU and some others complain that the rules, first advocated in 1983 by then-Interior Secretary James Watt, needlessly abridge constitutional rights. But many a park passerby is unsympathetic. "I hate to say it, but it's become an eyesore", says Michael De Cavallo, a Howard University student. David Denholm of Vienna, Va. in a letter to the Park Service, calls it a "disgusting display."

Lafayette Park-It is named for the Revolutionary War hero- long has ken a haven for people seeking to influence presidents. A plaque still marks the bench where financier Bernard Baruch dispensed sage advice. In recent years, however, the advice has become less and less conventional. A fear years back. a group protesting the plight of the homeless lived in tents in the park through much of the winter. More recently, one woman spent a week up a tree, there protesting nuclear weapons.

Those displays pale before some other applications for park permits. One wanted to build "facilities necessary for an actual abortion and a Christmas Day live birth," according to the Park Service. Another sought approval to erect "a spaceship and spaceship landing facilities."

Last summer, one regular demonstrator actually "brought in a bunch of trash to the park as a 'natural resource demonstration'", according to Mr. Thomas, Mrs. Picciotto's partner in protest. The collection included paneling, doors, paper bags and a porcelain toilet. Mr. Thomas claims Park Police left it there for two weeks to buttress the case against the signs. But the Interior Department attorney, Patricia Bangert says that, if a person claims trash is a protest symbol, "there isn't a whole lot we can do about it."

Some park signs double as homes. The supports for one 20- footer enclose a living area for Bill Hale and Jimmy Wayne Powell. One afternoon, Mr. Powell is seen changing clothes inside, amid empty beer cans, a rug and ashes from a fire. Emerging bare-chested, with streamers of toilet paper flowing from his seaman's cap, Mr. Powell declares he is demonstrating for "religious freedom for American Indians." The sign above him calls for expanding public libraries.

Mrs. Picciotto keeps the trappings of office as well as home. Her largest signs lean together to shelter folding chairs, a briefcase, typewriter, bicycle, and small trailer packed with anti-nuclear leaflets. She also squirrels away bags, clothing, food and thermoses of hot coffee for the long night ahead.

Foiling Police

She does, after all, sleep here. She sits on a folding chair, she says, her head propped against a sign. "Camping" in the park is prohibited, so when police find her eyes closed she is off to the pokey. But catching her isn't easy. Park residents post lookouts to alert sleepers to police patrols. And making charges stick in court is tough, frustrated Park Service lawyers complain.

Mrs. Piccciotto's weather-beaten face peers out from under a dark wig and scarf. She mostly eats food donated by church groups to homeless people and what she finds in dumpsters behind restaurants. She use park lavatories, though they close at night.

Mrs. Picciotto charges that the growing restrictions on park demonstrators are "like what Hitler did in Germany, they're taking away the rights of the people, bit by bit." The ACLU agrees, partly. It says that while some restrictions might be warranted, the purposed limits are "arbitrary and unreasonable."

The conservative Washington Legal Foundation, meanwhile, counters that the rules are ambiguous, and "too permissive".

Some other groups find themselves in unaccustomed roles. For example, the Sierra Club, which might be expected to worry about damage to the park, is opposing the rules on free-speech grounds. Meanwhile, Reagan administration officials, seldom accused of being tree-huggers, are defending the environmental sanctity of the square.

Precedent suggests any curbs will be upheld. In defense of aesthetics and presidential security, the Reagan administration already has barred signs from the sidewalk directly in front of the White House. The federal courts, although divided, ultimately upheld that ban as well as one on sleeping in the park.

An Interior Department lawyer expects the final sign rule to be published, with "minor" changes, late this month. Its effect will be delayed by a 30-day notice period and possibly by court challenges.

But even Mr. Thomas, the demonstrator, says the writing may be on the wall for the protestors. He says he has proved his point and talks of "getting on with my life". Stroking a tangled brown beard, he adds, mostly to himself: "I've been thinking- Israel would be the best place to try to work for peace."

From the international edition: WALL STREET JOURNAL, January 6, 1986

(received in mail from Kuwait)

SHADOW WHITE HOUSE

DC HOME NEWS November 15, 1985

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SHADOW WHITE HOUSE

LAFAYETTE PARK - There's a famous park here in Washington, across the street from the White House. By the government it's called Lafayette Park, or President's Park. By some cab drivers, press, and public it's called Peace Park, D.C.
It's the kind of place where the champion demonstrators of the western world congregate 24 hours a day throughout the year, to make their views known to the president, who lives just across the street

There's a woman in Peace Park who has become quite famous for her four-year continual presence, day and night, seeking a total nuclear ban.

Liberty And Junk For All?

Liberty And Junk For All?

The Washington Post
Saturday, August 24, 1985

For reasons connected with the high cost of parking at the fancier Washington hotels, my occasional early-morning walking route to a press breakfast takes me across Lafayette Park, just opposite the White House.

Here, where Henry Adams once built a great house, and where Andrew Jackson still rears his horse in equestrian splendor,my dedication to the constitutional right of petition undergoes -and invariably flunks-- a stern test. It is not unlike the test your belief in free speech would undergo if someone were screaming political slogans in your ear every time you hit the sidewalk.

The test for me is the clutter of billboards, placards, tents, mock cemeteries and whatnot that now disfigures one ofWashington's most agreeable squares, and one of the few refuges of distinguished architecture.

I was delighted, therefore, to read that the National Park Service: intends to crack down on the demonstrators who (often in absentia) have turned Lafayette Park into a junkyard, a zealot's haven but a citizen's eyesore.

New regulations would restrict the size: of placards--a long, ugly row of which now conceal, at eye level looking across Pennsylvania Avenue, the north facade of the White House. They would also have to be attended, or they would be treated as abandoned property.

The Park Service is, if anything, over-cautious. But depend on those who confuse vandalism with liberty to find even these mild measures objectionable.

The American Civil Liberties Union, bless its myopic soul, predictably finds this tightening frivolous, perhaps unconstitutional. "They want to make Lafayette Park look more pretty," said an ACLU spokesman, "[but] we just don't think that is a very weighty concern to justify the infringement of First Amendment Rights.

Not a weighty concern An exercise of rights that blights, all day every day, a public square? How far, one is led to speculate might libertarian numskullery go?

If someone with a burning message is moved to bedeck the Washington Monument with a huge wraparound banner the 100-foot level, or hang a sandwich board with anti-nuclear slogans around Mr. Lincoln's neck in the Lincoln Memorial, must tho aesthetic interests of tens of thousands be dismissed?

Why must the rest of us suffer, in silence some trashing of the commonwealth every time a world-saver with $20 to spend for a signboard and a paint brush goes into action! By long legal usage, even the most essential personal liberties are subject to reasonable "time, place and manner" restrictions when their exercise becomes a nuisance or a menace to others.

It is, as Holmes told us. no legitimate exercise of free speech to cry fire falsely, in a crowded theater, causing a panic. And nd even the silliest judge in the land would uphold your right to ring my door- bell every day at 3 a.m. to deliver your urgent warning against nuclear power.

This is not a plea for banning the right of timely and appropriate petition. It is an argument for measure, and for what might be called the Fifth Freedom: the right to enjoy unlighted the graces of the American landscape.[WHAT WOULD THE LANDSCAPE LOOK LIKE AFTER A NUCLEAR WAR?]

And by the way, while thousands of tourists must seek their first southward glimpse of the White House across a forest o[ placards, just who is being petitioned for a redress of grievances! Ronald Reagan is at the ranch. Congress is in recess and even when in town does business near Lafayette Square.

The petitioners and demonstrators should be permitted to do their thing at set times in the park, or in front of the White House or wherever they wish, then fold up,their demonstration sets and move on.

Outrage over the casual spoliation of the American land and cityscape of which the trashing of Lafayette Park is part--is made the keener by visits to European cities. They somehow manage to avoid becoming political gulags without sacrificing their visual grace.

Not so us. Like the clutter erected on the west side of the Executive office Building, like disfiguring, shoddy, box-like office buildings, steamy parking lots, instant-food strips. daily litter sufficient to make a landfill of the Pacific Ocean bed the junking of Lafayette Park is of a piece with our national tolerance of ugliness: And this in the name of liberty! Thomas Jefferson, who had much to say on that subject, was a man of taste who saw that virtues need not be graceless, nor beauty incompatible with liberty. A citizenry that becomes visually brutalized exposes itself to political brutalization as well.

Capital Park Dispute Free Speech or Eyesore

Capital Park Dispute
Free Speech or Eyesore?

USA TODAY
FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 1985 By Leslie Phillips
USA TODAY

The cluttered landscape of Washington's Lafayette:Park provides: a haven for protester and their causes - and a visual black eye for lots of residents and tourists, Concepcion Picciotto, who lives between placards emblazoned with mushroom clouds, says new restrictions proposed by the Reagan administration violate the Constitution.

"You can say a requiem for the First Amendment," she said Thursday from the park, located across from the White House. "I think it's very unfair."

The American Civil Liberties Union says if the new regulations go into effect unchanged, it will sue.

But for Joseph Plock, a bank officer, who passes the demonstrators on his lunch hour, the proposed rules don't go far enough.

"I think they (the signs) should all be ripped down," he fumed. "It's litter."

From a 12-foot-high proclamation opposing the bomb to a "Stop the Arms Race Now" message in seven languages, about two dozen signs border the White House side of the park.

Among the main changes, which are subject to a 60-day period of public comment: Each protester would be limited to two signs no larger than 4 feet by 4 feet and they would have to stay within three feet of their signs.

"We've had everything down there from desks to make-shift toilets," says Park Service spokeswoman Sandra Alley.

Nevertheless, it's a curiosity for tourists.

Concludes 15-year-old Ivan Austin of England: "If I was the president, I wouldn't like it much."

(picture: SIGNBOARD PROTESTS: placards line Lafayette Park across from the White House. photo by Lee Anderson

New Rules to Curb Lafayette Protests 'Visual Blight' Cited

New Rules to Curb Lafayette Protests
'Visual Blight' Cited

By Karlyn Barker
Washington Post Staff Writer

The National Park Service, arguing that the proliferation of permanent protest displays is causing "visual blight" in Lafayette Park, has announced new regulations that would restrict both the size and the number of protest signs there and prohibit the plywood huts and other structures that have sprung up across the street from the White House.

The regulations, according to the Park Service, are intended to control the manner, but not the content, of protests by demonstrator;s who have settled into the park on a long-term basis and turned its picture-postcard beauty into what many call an eyesore.

"We've obviously had a lot of complaints about conditions in the park," said Sandra Alley, associate regional director of public affairs for the Park Service's national capital region. "We're not trying to curb First Amendment rights, but we are seeking some sort of balance.

Hand-carried signs would be exempted from the new regulations, and protest groups would be allowed to set up temporary speaker's or "soapbox" platforms for rallies in the park.

But other "structures"--the huts, chairs, desks, makeshift toilets, kitchen sinks and other personal items that officials say protesters have brought in or "stored" in the park--would be prohibited.

Under the new regulations, scheduled to take effect in late November after a period for public comment, signs placed or set down in the park must be no larger than four feet in either dimension and no thicker than one quarter inch. They may not be elevated more than six feet from the ground at their highest point and may not be combined with other sigrls to form larger structures.

No protesters may have more than two such signs in the park at any one time, and those signs must be "attended" at aII times, meaning that: someone must be within three feet of the sign or it will be considered abandoned property.

Park Service officials say they need the tighter restrictions because protesters have begun setting up billboard- like, hand-painted signs along the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the park, obscuring the view of the White House. posing a Safety threat in high winds and generally ruining the park's esthetic quality.

But park protesters and civil libertrians, who have tangled with the Park Service before, raised concerns yesterday thnt the new restrictions could violate constitutional protection of free speech and free expression.

"They`want to try to make Lafayette Park look more pretty in the view of some people," Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the ACLU's local office here. "We just don't think that is a very weighty concern to justify the infringement of First Amendment rights."

Though an around-the-clock antinuclear vigil has been going on in the park for more than two years, court decisions have prohibited overnight "sleep-in" protests there. Long-term demonstrations on the sidewalk in front of the White House also have been banned, a move that has made Lafayette Park all the more attractive to protesters.

"I came here June 27 and I just haven't gotten home yet," said Prima Blakus of Portland, Ore., who sat in a chair at the southeast corner of the park yesterday and flashed the peace sign to passing motorists. "Now I've gotten stubborn,I'm waiting for world peace." More than 50 signs--encouraging everything from world peace to, birth control to freedom of religion--were set up in the park yesterday, sharing space with lunching office workers and drawing the attention of tourists. Only two demonstrators, Blakus and Concepcion Picciotto, were in the park with the signs.

Picciotto, an organizer of the anti-nuclear vigil, said she and a companion, William Thomas, built several of the larger protest signs that face the White House. "The more weapons they build, the more signs we have to have to show the people what is happening," she said.

But Park Service officials, in a memorandum accompanying publication of the regulations in yesterday's Federal Register, warn that without the new restrictions the "dumplike atmosphere" and "building boom" in the park could get ~worse. They say they have received requests for permits to establish a library in the park, a landing spot for;l spaceship and facilities to perform an abortion.

WATCHERS AT THE GATE

THE NORTH IRELAND TIMES
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 1985

FEATURES

WATCHERS AT THE GATE

Beaten, abused, living rough, they stand like some moral Maginot Line on a permanent White House peace vigil...

---

SPECIAL REPORT By COLIN McALPIN

---

ON June 1,1981, a man and a woman began a remarkable vigil for peace in a small park across the street from the Washington White House... there messages line the sidewalk facing the home of the President of the United States, signs of all shapes and sizes, in various colors, with drawings of the mushroom cloud of skulls...angled side by side, they stand like a moral Maginot Line resisting the White House.

The man and the woman-Concepcion Picciotto and William Thomas- live under the stars, exposed to the rain and snow, summer and winter, without tent or sleeping bag. They feed like the pigeons and squirrels in the park, on what comes along, sometimes from the nearby McDonald's or Hardees bins.

It is a starkly contrasting picture in the capital of the world's greatest nation. On the south side, in the great mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue live Ronald and Nancy Reagan...across the street in Lafayette Park, without address or visible means of support, are Concepcion and William, with their messages of peace.

Concepcion was born in Spain and educated by nuns to live by high spiritual and social principles and values.

She takes the time to talk to passers-by about why she and William maintain their lonely and long-lasting vigil: "As a young dreamer, I came to the United States searching for something different - a more promising way of life. Over 20 years ago I became an American citizen. Peace, justice and freedom have always been my ideals, and I believe that these ideals should be available for all people."

When she became a citizen she swore to uphold the constitution...but today she says she sees that the constitution is just a game, a mere facade, a stage play.

Concepcion is a small, untidy woman, surrounded by the rubbish of her camp life. All she wants, she says, is to be "given the opportunity to be heard properly before being hastily condemned because of my actions and activities as a United States citizen."

Sitting in the humid evening of a Washington summer, with the tourists carefully steering a path out of her reach, she told me of the ordeal of maintaining the vigil.

She and William have been arrested innumerable times. He was severely beaten by a Park Police Officer while taking photographs of the Officer assaulting another protester who was handcuffed. She has been forcefully strip searched, and suffered defamation of character by the same officer. "Our signs are regularly confiscated, and broken," she says. "We just come back and defend our rights to free expression in the courts, make more signs, go on with our work."

They seldom sleep, only in brief snatches. If the police catch them asleep they will be charged with camping: "We are not camping, but exercising our right to 'speak out' against the forms of political and technical insanity which presently threaten all life on earth."

On December 8, 1982, one of her mentors and friends, Norman Mayer was killed at the nearby Washington Monument, suspected by the police of having dynamite in a van parked alongside the tower.

Concepcion - known as 'Connie' to a growing worldwide army of supporters of the anti-nuclear lobby-was then joined by the 38-year-old William, an intellectual known simply as 'Thomas' to the millions around the world who follow this story of the only round the clock peace vigil against nuclear weapons being conducted anywhere in the world.

For their pains, quite literally, they have been attacked and beaten by right wing 'patriots' as well as the police. But their anti-nuclear vigil continues to send a message to the White House.

'Decent, Civilized People Do not Nuke Fellow Humans', says one... 'Live By The Bomb, Die by The Bomb', another. 'NATO and Warsaw Pact Countries Stand Astride The Same Uncontrollable Weapons Pile. The World Trembles at Its Fate', says another...'There Is No Shelter From the Nuclear Bomb', says another.

Press from around the world have photographed this quiet couple; people come from every country in the Western world to see if they are still keeping up their vigil...they do, sneaking a couple hours of half-sleep whenever they can before the police come around to shine a light in their faces-"I have a psychic antennae that picks up an approaching policeman at fifty feet," says Concepcion with a smile, "I can be awake before his night stick starts to poke me into the caged wagon."

Concepcion and William are the lonely watchers at the gate. And they'd like to hear from you. They can be contacted at C. Picciotto and W. Thomas, White House 24-hour anti-nuclear vigil, P.O. Box 4931, Washington, D.C. 20038

Pledge of Resistance

Pledge of Resistance

Iowa Idea
Spring/Summer 1985

"I had the pleasure of representing our local United Mine Workers Union in the national convention. . . and introduced a resolution favoring the adoption of international socialism. We got so prominent that they called it the IOWA IDEA. -G.H. Freyhoff of Mystic, Iowa, February 7, 1903.
These and many other signs in Lafayette Park in Washington D.C. stand facing the White House for Nancy's and Ronnie's daily inspection.


24 HOUR A DAY, 4 YEAR
WHITE HOUSE ANTI-NUCLEAR VIGIL
Today in front of the White House (across the street from the White House lies Lafayette Parks two worlds are joined and separated by Pennsylvania Avenue.
On the South side in the mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue live Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Across the street without address or visible means of support, live a woman and a man known as Concepcion Picciotto and William Thomas. They began their vigil there on June 1st, 1981, and are there till the present.
Mr. and Mrs. Reagan live well housed and well fed. The crumbs from their table feed Concepcion and Thomas for a week. They live under the stars, exposed to rian and snow, summer and winter, without tent or sleeping hag. They feed like the pigeons in the park, on what comes along, sometimes from the Mc Donald's or Hardees dumpsters.
Mr. Reagan, across the street issues moral messages against abortion and an Evil Empire, for freedom, the market, and school prayer.
Concepcion and Thomas tend their messages night and day. These messages line the side walk farina the White House, signs of all sizes and shapes, in various colors, with drawings of the mushroom cloud or skulls. Angled side, the signs stand like a moral Maginot Line resisting the White House.
The Police harass Concepcion and Thomas, and they have been arrested innumerable times, Thomas was severely beaten by Park Police officer David Haynes while Thomas was taking photo graphs of Officer Haynes assaulting another protestor who was handcuffed. Concepcion was forcefully strip-searched 'and suffered defamation of character by the said officer. The signs were confiscated and broker. They came back and defended their rights to free expression in the courts, making more signs, clIng ing to their turf. They sleep little, by snatches. If the police catch them asleep they will he charged with camping.
Although the insist they are not camping, but exerci zing their right to "speak out" against the forms of political and technical insanity which presently threaten all Life on Earth, ultimately their problems are the Government's problems, their complaints the complaints of us all, as they stand before the Goliath of rights denied.

Concepcion Threatened as Police Look On

ANTI NUKE VIGILlST THREATENED

by DANSFORTH B. TAYLOR

HOME NEWS WIRE

Washington, D.C. - Lafayette Park - A Metro Police officer pulled his motorcycle up to the curb in front of Concepcion Picciotto's Anti-nuke demonstration and said: "Connie, you made it through last winter, but you won't make it through this one.

He smiled, gunned his cc's and sped away.

He called Ms. Picciotto by her familiar name "Connie." He had a blonde mustache and he wore a helmet and dark glasses.

"I took it as a death threat," said Ms. Picciotto, a 43-year-old woman who has manned the 24-hour anti-nuke demonstration across the street from the White House for the last four years.

Several nights earlier, a man came after Ms. Picciotto wtth a two-by-four, smashing her signs instead, as she ran for police help.

"The man chased me all over the Park," she said. "The Park Police watched but did nothing. Then the man said things to the police so they handcuffed him and took him away.

"He was back, sleeping on the park bench a few hours later. The Police would like to see me scared out of here ."

The right to demonstrate in Lafayette Park is being threatened by forces that would eat away at the Democracy from the inside. Our own people, our "peace" officers, are harrassing our own citizens who dare to think that bombs can de dismantled.

The Metro Police Chief and the Park Police Chief here in Washington are being alerted to this situation before It gets to be tragic.

"Lafayette Square 'Swept' Clean

"Lafayette Square 'Swept' Clean

By Kenneth Bredemeier
Washington Post Staff Writer

May 10, 1985

The team of 15 gray-shirted National Park Service maintenance workers arrived shortly before 2 p.m. yesterday at the Lafayette Square sidewalk office of Casimer Urban Jr., self - styled presidential candidate.

Within half an hour, the workers had carted off many of his books and personal papers and hauled away his office, a triangular 10-foot-high plywood structure he had erected and covered with crudely painted messages calling for the impeachment of "R.W. Reagon." They left his two desks and assorted other office equipment.

A short distance away, a small contingent of' U.S. Park Police yanked long- time anti-nuclear demonstrator Ellen Thomas off a portable stage as she screamed at them and arrested her and a man who tried to assist her. Workers promptly hoisted the stage onto a truck and took it away, too.

At Lafayette Square, directly across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, such scenes are commonplace these days.

The park has become a battleground between the conflicting demands of court decisions supporting the First Amendment right to demonstrate, albeit with a raft of rules, and those who think the clutter of hand-oainted signs and rickety structures built by the demonstraters has turned the park into an eyesore.

Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.) complained to the Park Service earlier this year about the "growing visual pollution around Lafayette Park," which he called "highly offensive."

U.S. Attorlley Joseph E. diGenova, echoing the feelings of some, but not all, visitors to the park, said, "While some of these people think they're making a statement, in fact they're making a mess. At this point, it's beconling a disgrace .... We're going to do whatever we can within the law to keep the park clean."

Interior Department officials have ordered police and maintenance workers into Lafayette Square five times in the last three weeks to look for signs that don't comply with Park Service regulations, as well as loose lumber and piles of clothing and personal belongings that demonstrators are prohibited from keeping in the park.

But, just as soon as the workers have carted off truckloads of signs and possessions, they reappear.

This cat-and-mouse game, which is not likely to be resolved soon, had its origin in two court decisions last year.

In one Instance, the U.S. Court of Appeals here approved a series of Interior Department regulations on protests on the sidewalk in front of the White House that limited the size of signs to 3 feet by 20 feet, prohibited all stationary signs in a central zone and banned wooden signs.

As a result, most protesters, many of them demonstrating against Reagan administration nuclear arms policies, have now moved to Lafayitte Square, where there are no size limits on the signs and they can be built wlth wood. Some signs are now--20 or 25 feet tall, such as one saying, "We believe no issue is more important than the threat of nuclear war."

In the second decision, the Supreme Court last year banned over-night sleeping in Lafayette Square as a means of protest, saying it was not a First Amendment right.

That decision has led to almost constant conflict between the Park Police and the small band of 24- hour-a-day demonstrator s, who trade off guarding each others' signs through the night. Until earlier this week, most of them, as well as two dozen or more homeless people, had been sleeping on the steps and entrance arcade of the National Court Building, across Madison Place from the park.

But Federal Protective Service officers at the urging of court officials, this week booted out the sleepers, who now have opted for spending the night on the sidewalk.

Arthur B. Spitzer, the legal director for the local division of the American Civil Liberties Union, has fought government restrictions on protests in the vicinity of the White House. He said he is monitoring the latest Lafayette Square sweeps by police and maintenance workers.

"The First Amendment protects your right to have a fairly big sign," he said. "But there's some things; there I couldn't defend, such as large piles of personal belongings. I have no objection to the government hauling away things that are not communicative .... "The protesters can't homestead there."

Royce C. Lamberth, head of the civil division in diGenova's office, said officials are studying ways "to improve the situation in Lafayette Park" and may try to devise further rules on the demonstrations, such as limiting the size of signs.

Meanwhile, many of the long term demonstratots vow to kecp their vigils.

Conception Picciotto, a 43-year-old native of Spain, said she has maintained her anti-nuclear protest on Pennsylvania Avenue for four years, and said she will continue "as long as God gives me health ard strength.

"The Constitution allows us to present our views peacefully," she said as she handed out literature this week. "We are not going to give up."

LIFE AT GROUND ZERO

The Home News
Serving Dade County for 41 years

Your Hometown Newspaper APRIL 25, 1985

LIFE AT GROUND ZERO

by Dansforth B. Taylor

There's a famous park here in Washington, across the street from the White House. It is called Lafayette Park. It's the kind of place where the champion "demonstrators" of the Western World congregate 24 hours a day throughout the year, to make their views known to the president, who lives just across the street. There's a woman (there in the park) who has become quite famous for her three year continual presence (day and night) seeking a total nuclear ban. One of her mentors and friends for years, a Dade County citizen, Norman Mayer, was shot and killed at the Washington Monument three years ago, Dec. 8, 1982, suspected (at the time by the police) as having a half-ton of dynamite in a van parked by the tower itself, supposedly ready to explode at the touch of a radio signal from Mayer.

Mayer's reach for immortality was based on a bluff. There turned out to be no dynamite in his van at all. Still, he was shot in the head from three hundred feet on the basis that he had reported the existence of the "dynamite" to police who claimed to have no reason not to believe him.

The story is more fascinating when looked at through the eyes of this fiftyish-appearing lady who may certainly be dubbed the "Chief Demonstrator of Lafayette Park."

Meet "Connie" Concepcion Picciotto, who is more than willing to point out that Mayer was the "father figure" to the care of committed demonstrators who see themselves as setting a world-class standard for the specialized lobbying effort against "NUCLEAR WAR."

Connie's partner is a 38-year-old intellectual names William Thomas,known simply as "Thomas" to millions of fans around the world who followed the story of the only' 24-hour peace vigil against nuclear weapons being conducted anywhere in the world.

Connie and Thomas must never sleep soundly, or the police of Washington will arrest them.

That is the game that has been played since June 3,1981. Both Thomas and Connie have been arrested scores of times. They have been beaten by zealous patriots and they must never sleep too deep
.

Thomas got deported from England for trashing his American passport and he headed for Washington.

"They just pushed me through the doors at Customs and said 'welcome to America'." Thomas feels that he is a man without a country because he believes that the United States nuclear policy is dangerous.
Thomas joined Connie in 1981 and the 24-hour anti-nuclear vigil started.

Enter Norman Mayer.

Mayer paid Connie a-penney-a-piece to pass out his anti-nuke literature. Norman, who was nearing seventy years, became o father figure to the anti-nuke movement. He stood up for them in court and he had a plan he would not reveal. A plan to get the world's attention on the nuke issue. A faster plan. He watched and he helped.

Thomas had gone on a 57-day hunger strike. Norman talked him out of that with a bouquet of roses. Thomas was dying on the sidewalk and Norman brought roses and said he had a better way to get the world's attention than to die.

On Dec. 8, 1982, Connie and Thomas were arrested one more time. Norman returned from a trip and found them gone. It was time for Norman to do (in his mind) the one great heroic act for his dialogue on freedom, truth and the meaning of life.

---

"The main point I'm trying to make," he says, "is that the earth is a unit, it's a whole thing. It is not compartmentalized. And what people do is divide this unit up with imaginary lines. This is not productive...they fight wars over land they do not own. The only thing you actually own is your own life...

"I can clearly see that there are many different concepts of reality, but a concept of reality doesn't change the actual reality. There is a real plane and an imaginary plane, and when we live in the imaginary [plane it causes chaos"-and that, he says, is why the world is in the mess it is in: festering with war, crime, cruelty, starvation, poverty, oppression and assorted petty personal problems."

Thomas says there's only one reason he bothers to talk to people: to provoke them into thinking about the existence of God, "because if they believe there is no justice beyond what we can see in one lifetime, then the rule of the earth will continue to be Might is Right - and it isn't." To him, God is reason.

He said the purpose of life "is to acquire wisdom and attain moral perfection."

To that end, he embarked on an odyssey six years ago, leaving behind a wife and a New Mexico jewelry business, to experience life and find out what is true and what is not.
At the time, he was studying the Bible, and he found himself preoccupied with the notion that money is the root of all evil."I had a house, three cars, bank accounts, insurance policies and I thought: I have all these things, these 'rewards',and yet the Bible tells me I am not living the right way...And I thought, if that was true - if money led to evil, and if you need money to live - then the syllogism followed that evil is necessary, which was not palatable to me."

So he set out to see if he could live without money or jobs, in order to prove that money was unnecessary. "To tell the truth," he says, I had some anxieties. I was leaving my wife behind. I said, "Is this rational? Are you sane? But I had to test this out. And I knew that if I found it to be true, then the world was living a radically irrational existence."

Thomas' journey took him to New York where he worked for a week as a carpenter to make enough money for a one way ticket to Casablanca. From there he walked on foot to Cairo. He had no money.

"There were days I went without food," he says, and in six months I did sleep outside for about six weeks. But otherwise food and shelter were just provided. I never asked anybody for anything. I had a blanket over my shoulder and the clothes I was wearing: that was all. People would just come up to me and say, "Where are you going? That's a long way. Where are you sleeping? Come with me." They asked me, they frequently asked me what I needed. I never asked."

He returned to the United States for a time, working as a dispatcher for a cab company and as a stone carver. Then he resumed his journey. Over several years, he said, he traveled back and forth across Europe. HE found himself last year in London, where he was jailed for several months after overstaying his visa. Eventually the authorities deported him to the United States. He arrived last October at Kennedy National Airport, where he had to be forcibly removed from the plane. "I was dragged into the customs office," he says, "where I was told I was now in America and free to go where I pleased."

The seed to that ordeal was a decision he had made in London months before: He no longer wished to be an American citizen. In the course of his wanderings, he had come the conclusion that the United States was contributing to the destruction of the earth and exploiting its inhabitants. Therefore, for him to advise others not to fight over land and exploit one another, while he was benefiting from the American passport, seemed hypocritical to him. Association with a country whose ideals he loved but while practices he abhorred was inconsistent with his goal of attaining moral perfection.

So he had taken the waterproof wallet containing his union cards, his social security card, and his passport and had thrown it into a lake in Hyde Park, England. "I assumed," he says, that there was nothing wrong with throwing away my passport because I knew myself to be a free man... Then I decided I would walk back to the Mideast, but when I got to Dover, I was arrested...

"I argued that I couldn't have a visa, because I didn't have a passport, for reasons I have already explained. Additionally, visas are designed to control populations, and since I was leaving the country, I was no threat to the population...They had no right to tell me I had to be an American. It is not for anyone else to decide who I am; it is for me to decide..."

Thomas has written down his thoughts and his experiences, an account that exceeds 300 pages. In March, he telephoned the Soviet Embassy here, saying he had a manuscript dealing with the conflict between America's ideals and its practices and asking if the Soviet embassy was interested. He says he has no sympathy for communism, but thought he'd try to communicate his ideas on this through another channel. When he arrived at the embassy, he met with V. Doroshenko, the third secretary in the information department.

According to Thomas, he and Doroshenko exchanged ideas, and Doroshenko asked if there was anything the embassy could do for Thomas, who told Doroshenko he was interested in peace. Thomas said Doroshenko then told him that the Russians too, were interested in peace. "And then I told him," Thomas recalled, "that I thought this mutual buildup of nuclear weapons had to do with mutual fear between the two nations. And he said yes, he thought that was true. And then I told him that in order to prove that Americans had nothing to ___ of the Russians, I wanted to surrender myself to the Soviet Union. He said, "You don't have to do that," and I said that nevertheless I would. He said, "You cannot, and I said, "I will. I am not leaving. So they had me removed by the police."

Doroshenko confirmed that the meeting took place and confessed to having been puzzled by Thomas' calm refusal to abandon the idea of surrender. "I told him," said Doroshenko, that he would have to go to the chancery first if he wanted to go to the Soviet Union, but he wouldn't move, so what could I do?

The young scriptwriter with the curly hair who had stopped hours before to ask Thomas what he stood for had been preceded by an old man with no hair who was carrying a lot of newspapers under his arms. "What is this about?" he asked. The papers flapped under his arms like wings. Thomas answered: "Wisdom and peace." The old man's mouth fell open. Then he walked away, shaking his head vigorously, and saying, "You never let up do you?"

Thomas thanked him

THE NORMAN MAYER VIGIL CONTINUES

ALTERNATIVE PRESS
BUFFALO, N.Y.
October 11,1984
WEEKLY PUBLICATION OF THE
ALTERNATIVE NEWS COLLECTIVE

Surveillance of the White House:
THE NORMAN MAYER VIGIL CONTINUES,

A "Petition in Hieroglyph"
by Ed Powell

Norman Mayer's soul goes marching on, though his body was killed by a Washington SWAT team on Dec. 9, 1981. Norman's two friends, Thomas and Connie, kept his message alive through a 24 hour vigil in front of the White House. Norman's leaflets turned into huge signs, "As an Act of Sanity Ban Nuclear Weapons," Or " Have a Nice Doomsday", and took on new content: "Live by the Bomb. Die by the Bomb."

During the first year (1982-83) Robert joined the vigil as a permanent member; a handful of others came, later left. Now the vigil is up to a hardcore of 12 members who live in Lafayette Park, proving you can not only survive but flourish without money if you have friends.

Thus a new community is sprouting in the very center of the nation's capital. The homeless are creating a home for themselves, in defiance of law and social pressure. "WHITE HOUSE Officials DESTROY PROTEST SIGNS" runs an Associated Press story of June 24, 1984 but a week later still more signs had grown. Visiting dignitaries in the White House could thus look out on the rabble, perhaps ask embarrassing questions. "The signs", say; the AP, "were clearly visible from the north portico of the White and from the Windows of the State floor, used for official parties and state dinners" (Buffalo News, 6/24/84).

On August 6, The Washington Times ran a page 1 story, "SIGNS TAKING ROOT IN LAFAYETTE PARK". The Times explained how the number and size of the signs had grown since last year's effort to regulate them, and quoted a White House staffer: "They look horrible...My little nieces and nephews come to visit Washington and when they went back to upstate New York that's all they talked about" (Washington Times August 6, 1984).

Understandably, kids Like life - and Washington is mostly made up of dead stone. In Lafayette Park people are beginning to talk to each other and play guitars; men take off their shirts...

Lafayette Park: Not Just Another Pretty Postcard

Lafayette Park: Not Just Another Pretty Postcard

THE NEW YORK TIMES
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1984
By IRVIN MOLOTSKY
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 - It used to be that one could stand in the middle of Lafayette Park, look across Pennsylvania Avenue and recognize the grand view of the White House that appears on so many travel brochures. No more.

Today, between the visitor and the mansion, there are dozens of protest signs calling for an end to the arms race,eradication of the narcotics trade, elimination of the national debt and a return to a belief in God.

Live by the Bomb/Die by the Bomb," one sign warns. "God Is the Absolute," says another, painted on a wooden billboard as big as the side of a van. Still another cries out: "Arrest Me, I Question the Validity of the Public Debt. Repeal Section 4, Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution."

Between the statues of Andrew Jackson and the Comte de Rochambeau are nine empty tents erected in a crescent shaped "Reaganville" to protest what activists contend is the lack of proper concern for the homeless on the part of the President.

On the other side of Andrew Jackson, a voice rising from two loud speakers attached to a wooden platform 10 feet high ridicules people who accept the theory of evolution because, it is argued, that would require a belief that people have descended from maggots.

A Look of Permanence

The symbols of protest have a look of permanence about them. But that has not been achieved without a few court fights, here and elsewhere, between the government and the demonstrators over how to draw the line between the constitutional right to protest and the right to be left alone and enjoy a park.

"The problem, if that's what you want to call it, is that 10 years of court decisions have held that structures must be allowed at demonstrations, said Patricia Bangert, a lawyer with the National Park Service. Other court decisions, she added, have ordered the Government to permit demonstrations on a 24-hour basis and to allow amplified sound.

Just about the only victory the government has enjoyed in this area was the Supreme Court decision June 29 upholding a ban on overnight sleeping in the National Parks near the White House. It is because of that ban that the nine tents of "Reaganville" stand empty in Lafayette Park.

'An Eyesore in Some Ways'

What do tourists think of the scene?

Bruce Lilley, on a visit from the Baltimore area, where he is a graduate student in biology at the University of Maryland, took no offense at the protest signs as he looked at victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima depicted in photographs that had been tacked to a board. "The pictures are pretty impressive," he said. "You can't get an idea of what radiation does to you until you've seen the pictures."

Mr. Lilley said he saw some good in the protester's efforts. "There's Ronald Reagan over there in the White House and he looks out at this," he said. "It shows how strong the First Amendment is. It might be an eyesore in some ways, but it's better to make a mistake in favor of freedom and not to shut it down."

The tents are a tempting setup for tourist photographs because a corner of the White House can be seen in the background, behind the trees in full leaf. Sharron Uhler, an archivist from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, could not resist the temptation to snap two colleagues from Topeka as they stood next to a sign that said, "Welcome to Reaganville 1984 Where Sleep is Considered a Crime."

"I think it's just kind of interesting," said Miss Uhler, who was in Washington for the archivists' convention. "It's good that we can have a mini tent city in front of the White House."

The tents are about 8 by 10 feet and have rust-colored sides and cream tops. They were put up by the Community for Creative Nonviolence, which is trying to find shelter for the city's homeless.

The tents are empty, just like the President's promises," said Mitch Snyder, a leader of the group, which lost the case in June in the Supreme Court. The broken promises, Mr. Snyder added, included a failure by the administration to refurbish an old building that his group had used to house 700 people a night last winter.

Mr. Snyder says most people, including Government officials, do not begrudge his organization the opportunity to express opposition to President Reagan by erecting empty tents in the middle of the park. But some, he said, "would trade esthetics values for the First Amendment." He said the collection of tents was not an eyesore but instead "enhances the view of the White House, especially in this Administration."

Nuclear Arms and Fast Food

Many of the protest signs concern nuclear disarmament. One, a wooden version, is about 10 feet wide and 15 feet high and says that the end of the threat of nuclear war is "The Absolute Responsibility of every rational being on this planet."

"People give me money, but I use it mostly for printing," said Concepcion Picciotto, pointing to a pile of handbills and petitions behind one of her posters. She and William Thomas erected many of the signs on nuclear arms, according to their handouts.

Miss Picciotto added that she had been living off discarded food from nearby fast-food shops. "But now they are under orders to lock the dumpsters, so it will feed the rats instead of people," she said.

As Miss Picciotto spoke, a group of perhaps 20 Japanese tourists walked up Pennsylvania Avenue. When they got to the front of the park, half of them turned to take pictures of the White House and the other half photographed Miss Picciotto's and Mr. Thomas's signs, among them some showing bodies burned in the 1945 United States atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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Concepcion Information List | Conchita Personal Story
Photographs | The President's Neighbor

SIGNS TAKING ROOT IN LAFAYETTE PARK - THE WASHINGTON TIMES August 8,1984

THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 8,1984

SIGNS TAKING ROOT IN LAFAYETTE PARK

By Charles E. Wheeler
The Washington Times

Dozens of large protest signs have gone up in Lafayette Park since last year's National Park Service regulations restricting demonstrations on the White House sidewalk, and they're getting mixed reviews from locals and tourists.

Many of the signs are almost the size of billboards and most have sturdy, semi-permanent support braces anchored in the park.

"They look horrible," a White House staffer said yesterday.

"My little nieces and nephews came to visit Washington and when they went back to upstate New York that's all they talked about," she said.

Here starts an anti-nuclear 24 hour vigil since June 1981 maintained by Thomas and Concepcion," says a narrow, hand- lettered sign.

More than 100 feet (and 18 signs) later, the row of protest signs erected by "Thomas and Concepcion" ends.

"There are no real restrictions on structures like there are on the sidewalk in front of the White House," said attorney Trish Bangert of the Interior Department, when asked about the size and semi-permanent status of some of the signs in Lafayette Park.

Restrictions apply only if a structure is attached to a tree or disrupts the environment in some other way, she said. All of the protest signs in Lafayette Park are free- standing.

Signs by Thomas and Concepcion account for more than half the total number now resting in Lafayette Park.

They aren't the only protesters, though. A new 12-foot by 12-foot sign was getting a final touch of paint Monday just a few yards from where Thomas and Concepcion have their display.

Most of the signs condemn nuclear war, but one 15-foot-long by 10-foot-high sign says, "God is the Absolute."

A smaller sign says: "Arrest me-I question the validity of the national debt."

The most imposing structure stands 16-feet high, is 12 feet wide and cries out in silver and black paint, "Have a nice Doomsday".

They don't bother me at all," said Sue Eubanks of Fredericksburg, Va. "They're better across the street [in Lafayette Park] so the president can look out the window and see them," she said.

"If they've got time to paint signs, they've got time to get a job and go to work," said as Indiana man who just arrived with his wife for their first visit to the nation's capital.

"That's how we got the money to come to Washington-work," he said.

The signs "should be there, of course," because "its a free country" said a man from New York City.

"Oh, my Lord! They're funny, though," he said.

"There ought to be a better way to do it than littering," said Mike Kuntz, a University of Nebraska student visiting from Lincoln.

"It's just a barrage of senseless words and graffiti across from the White House," said his friend, Joe Frazier, a University of Virginia student from McLean.

The Federal Court of Appeals held a formal hearing July 25 concerning the constitutionality of some of the Park Service regulations restricting signs on the sidewalk directly in front of the White House.

A decision is expected within a month or two, an Interior Department spokesman said.

Protesters maybe able to go back across the street the White House sidewalk if the court rescinds the Park Service regulations. If not, the protest signs in Lafayette Park may continue to grow in number and size.

Protesting According to the Rules

Protesting According to the Rules

The Washington Post
Saturday, November 3, 1984 By Philip Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer

Daily, except for unwelcome trips to court or jail, Concepcion Picciotto has stood her White House vigil since the summer of 1981, protesting the spread of nuclear arms. In those three years, she has been arrested 15 times.

"I believe in the ideals of this country," Picciotto says in her native Spanish accent, vowing to stand fast: within eyeshot of the president of the United States across Pennsylvania Avenue.

She wears a wig the size of a football helmet and a chestful of buttons carrying political slogans. But Picciotto's legal difficulties are not rooted, at least directly, in anyone's suspicion that she is a wide-eyed, bomb-throwing radical.

Instead, Picciotto and other protesters have run afoul of a new thicket of regulations drawn up by the Interior Department, enforced by the U.S. Park Police and recently blessed by the courts, and designed to restrict those who choose the president's doorstep to express their political opinions..

The rules, in effect since May, are expected to get their first major test since winning court approval when demonstrators gather today for a rally called by the Community for Creative Non-Violence.

The regulations leave little to a demonstrator's imagination:
A demonstrator who is not carrying a placard or sign, for example, may sit to rest on the White House fence ledge. If he rests while holding a placard, he is subject to arrest.

Signs of up to 20 feet in length and three feet in height may be set up on portions of the White House sidewalk. All must be at least three feet from the fence to guard against concealed explosives.

Signs constructed of cardboard, posterboard or cloth may be carried by demonstrators. Wooden signs are forbidden because, security experts testified in court this year, they could be used to scale the White House fence.

In a central zone extending 10 yards on either side of the White House fence centerpost along Pennsylvania Avenue, stationary signs are prohibited in order to clear the view for tourists. Demonstrators may be in the "central zone" while carrying signs, if they keep moving.

In a series of recent court cases, federal officials have defended the rules as necessary to protect against acts of terrorism and preserve the beauty of the White House view.

Lawyers for the demonstrators, including the American Civil Liberties Union, continue to complain that the restrictions are illegal intrusions on First Amendment guarantees of free speech and the right to assemble.

With relatively little fanfare, the onset of the regulations-prompted, according to the administration, by the threat of a demonstrator to blow up the Washington Monument two years ago-has turned the White House sidewalk and Lafayette Park into a legal battleground.

"There is no more important place for demonstrators than out in front of the White House," says Jeffrey Pash, a lawyer at the prestigious law firm of Covington and Burling who has represented some indigent protesters in court.

"Whether the First Amendment has been backed into a corner, that might be a little strong. But the regulations are certainly a setback for people like Concepcion."

"Frankly we were shocked that we had so much trouble getting the rules through the courts," counters Royce C. Lamberth, chief of the U.S. Attorneys office civil division. "The White House is probably one of the most vulnerable living residences of a head of state in the world."

Interior spokeswoman Sandra Alley said Interior received numerous complaints from tourists before the department banished large, permanent protest signs from in front of the mansion to nearby Lafayette Park.

Administration officials say their concerns about presidential security were heightened considerably when, on Dec. 8,1982, a longtime White House protester,Norman Mayer, backed a truck up to the Washington Monument and threatened to detonate 1,000 pounds of dynamite. When Mayer tried to drive away, possibly headed for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,police shot him to death.

"One thing that was obvious," Lamberth said of the episode, "was, what do we do when the same thing happens at the White House?"

In the view of attorney Pash, security then became "an all purpose alibi" for a crackdown on demonstrators' activities near the White House. "Whether Mayer caused the new regulations or was more of an excuse is certainly open to question," he says.

As evidence of the administration's attitude, Pash cites a Jan. 13, 1983 MEMO by then-Interior Secretary James Watt. In the memo, included in a recent court case, Watt asked for a briefing on the demonstrators. "My intention is to prohibit such activities and require that they take place in the Ellipse," well south of the White House grounds, Watt said. His sweeping idea never took effect, but interior moved to implement its stricter regulations soon afterward.

Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge William B. Bryant threw out the rules, branding them "totally ineffective" and "demonstrably too vague." Bryant's ruling, however, was stayed by the U.S. Court of Appeals while the government's appeal was pending.

Last Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals in White House Vigil for the ERA Committee v. William P. Clark, upheld the regulations for both security and esthetics reasons.

In the face of such pronouncements, Picciotto says she tries to toe the Interior Department's Line. "I just moved in here," she says, indicating a patch of sidewalk in Lafayette Park where demonstrators have been told to stand during the reseeding of the park lawns.

"I think I'm all-right here, but I'm not sure."

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Camping or using park land for living accommodation purposes.

Attaching signs or other objects to lamp posts, trees or structures in the park.

Constructing, including painting, signs or structures in the park.

Storing construction materials-lumber paint, tools, laundry carts, luggage, household items,food or personal property-in the park.

Injuring federal property, including snow fencing, grass or other vegetation or structures.

Erecting structures without an official permit.

Using sound equipment so as to disturb nonparticipating persons in the area unreasonably.

Failing to hold or secure signs so as to eliminate safety hazards. Signs must be secured from high winds and supports must not pose a tripping or other hazard.

Failing to have dogs or cats entirely under control and caged or on a leash not more than six feet long.

NOTE: In order to reseed the park, public access to the grassy areas currently is being restricted. Until the grass is established, which is expected to take another two to four weeks, all activities, including demonstrations, have been relocated to the sidewalks within the park.

RULES FOR SIGNS ON SIDEWALK IN FRONT OF WHITE HOUSE

No signs or placards shall be permitted on the White House sidewalk except those made of cardboard, posterboard or cloth having dimensions no grater than three feet in width, 20 feet in length, and one quarter inch in thickness.

No supports shall be permitted for signs or placards except those made of wood having cross-sectional dimensions no greater than three quarters of an inch by three quarters of an inch.

Stationary signs or placards shall be no closer than three feet of the White House sidewalk fence.

All signs and placards shall be attended at all times they are on the White House sidewalk. Signs or placards shall be considered attended only when they are in physical contact with a person.

No signs or placards shall be tied, fastened, or otherwise attached to or leaned against the White House fence, lamp posts or other structures on the White House sidewalk.

No signs or placards shall be held, placed or set down on the center portion of the White House sidewalk, comprising 10 yards on either side of the center point on the sidewalk. However, individuals may demonstrate while carrying signs on that portion of the sidewalk if they continue to move along the sidewalk.

Marine Assaults Concepcion and Thomas

WEEKLY PUBLICATION OF THE ALTERNATIVE NEWS COLLECTIVE

ALTERNATIVE PRESS BUFFALO, N.Y.

WEATHER: ACID RAIN TODAY IN NEW YORK STATE. CHANCE OF ACID SNOW IN CANADA. HOT AIR BLOWING IN FROM WASH. D.C.. CHANCE OF FALLOUT TOMORROW.

Volume 6 Issue 15 February 16-22, 1984
AFFIDAVIT OF CONCEPCION PlCClOTTO

I, Concepcion Picciotto, under the penalty of perjury, hereby depose and state that:

On January 22, 1984, at about six AM, a small blue automobile stopped in front of my anti-nuclear protest signs on the south side of Lafayette Park, bordering Pennsylvania Ave. facing the White House. A man, who later identified himself to Park police officers as John Deming, U.S. Marine Corps, Navy Annex, Va., emerged from the passenger door of the automobile. Mr. Deming walked to the end of my signs, and punched a sign which read, "Live by the bomb; die by the bomb." He then kicked the sign, breaking it.

I recognized Mr. Deming from an occasion which had occurred approximately two months earlier. At that time, during the late evening, Mr. Deming had accosted me in the same location, the site of a round the clock vigil against nuclear weapons which I have been maintaining for over two and one half years. Mr. Deming repeatedly cursed and threatened, telling me that he had been trained to kill. After some time, a police officer arrived, and told Mr. Deming to leave. Before leaving, Mr. Deming warned me that he would be back.

When I noticed what Mr. Deming was doing to my sign on the morning of the 22, I asked him why he was doing it. He told me, "These signs are shit!" He then began calling me a number of names including "communist", and "nigger", and told me to "get out of this country". He began to advance on in a threatening manner, and I told him I was going to take the license number of the car. He got back in the car, and drove west on Pennsylvania Ave. before I could get the number.

A short time later I saw a man approaching from the west. I did not immediately recognize Mr. Deming because he was now wearing a blue ski jacket, while he had been coatless when , he left in the car.

Mr. Deming walked past me and began to punch holes in a sign which read: "God is the Absolute."

"You are a coward", I yelled at Mr. Deming, terrified at his behavior.

Mr. Deming then punched me in the mouth. He grabbed the aluminum head-dress which I wear, and forced it down over my face, cutting the bridge of my nose. He held the head- dress over my face making it hard for me to breathe, and increasing my terror. I broke away, and ran into the street. screaming for help. I saw Mr. John Foxcroft and called for him to phone the police.

At about that time my friend. William Thomas, arrived at the signs, and Mr. Deming immediately attacked Thomas by punching him repeatedly in the head, knocking Thomas to the ground more than once.

Park police officers Rico Woods and Charles Stubby arrived shortly after. They summoned an ambulance to inspect my wounds, and questioned Mr. Deming briefly, before he was driven away in an Armed Forces police car.

This is at least the third occasion on which Thomas has been physically assaulted by a U.S. marine in connection with our protest activities, and at least the fourth occasion on which s marine has attacked our signs.

signed: Concepcion Picciotto
January 23, 1984

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Concepcion Information List | Conchita Personal Story
Photographs | The President's Neighbor

Judge Lifts White House Picket Rules Washington Times

Judge Lifts White House Picket Rules

The Washington Times
THURSDAY, MAY 5, 1983

By David Sellers
Washington Times Staff

A federal judge yesterday struck down new National Park Service regulations that limit the activities allowed as part of demonstrations on the sidewalk in front of the White House.

U.S. District Judge William Bryant issued a temporary restraining order, explaining that he failed to find that an emergency existed and that federal officials should have allowed a 30-day comment period on the regulations instead of putting them into effect immediately.

"I don't think there's any justification for not having that 30-day period:' Bryant said. "There's no articulated exigency."

Although there are 20 days left in the comment period, Bryant's order is good for only 10 days. Lawyers for both sides acknowledged that they may be back before the court at a later date; but they said they would try to work out any differences among themselves.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Bates said he was not certain whether his office would appeal Bryant's order.

The new regulations, implemented April 22, prohibit individuals from exhibiting placards or signs on the White House sidewalk unless the person holds them at all times.

The regulations also provide that any packages or containers put down on a sidewalk must be attended and law-enforcement officials must be permitted to search the property. The property also may not be permitted to remain on the sidewalk for more than an hour Bates argues that there are three reasons to support implementation of the regulations: security, congestion and enjoyment of the White House. Although Bates claimed that the demonstrators impede pedestrian and vehicular traffic and "limit the significance and enjoyment of the White House experience for the public:' he based most of his argument on the security concern.

"These are carefully considered regulations that have a minimal impact," Rates argued. "There's no attempt to ban people from demonstrating ."

Two government witnesses who testified at yesterday's hearing, Secret Service Assistant Director Jerry Parr and U.S. Park Police Deputy Chief James Lindsey, said that recent events convinced them of the need for the regulations.

Specifically, they referred to last week's explosion at Fort McNair in Southwest Washington, the bombing of the American embassy in Beirut and the incident involving Norman Mayer, who last year threatened to blow up the Washington Monument with 1,000 pounds of dynamite he said he had in his truck, Mayer was a frequent demonstrator in front of the White House.

ACLU legal director Arthur Spitzer, who represents several demon- strators including the White House Vigil for the ERA Committee, based his argument on two areas: the merits of the regulations and the method by which they were implemented.

Spitzer contended that the government had been considering the regulations for several months and that there was no emergency that Justified bypassing the 30-day comment period.

Spitzer also argued that the regular protesters, including one of his clients, Edward Saffron, who has demonstrated in front of the White House for 14 years, were mindful of the needs of the public and allow tourists to have a clear view of the White House.

"Here the First Amendment interest is paramount. It's not a privilege to use the White House sidewalk; anyone can walk there," Spitzer said.

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(picture: Connie holding sign "Quick return to the White House beat". A day after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against enforcement of rules governing picketing at the White House, this protester arrived to carry her sign and take up a sitting position along the wall.)