Washington Post - Whatever Happened To... ... the protesters at Lafayette Square park?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/21/AR2011012105339.html

By Kris Coronado

Sunday, January 30, 2011

After gazing at the White House, a group of well-dressed tourists turns around and takes in an entirely
Protester Concepcion Picciotto holds a poster depicting William Thomas. (Benjamin C Tankersley - )different scene across the street. There, centered on the sidewalk along Lafayette Square park, is a jumbled menagerie of wooden and cardboard signs. One shows photos of Hiroshima bombing victims. The caption reads: "Stay the course and this will happen to YOU."

When the onlookers approach for a better view, they catch the attention of Concepcion Picciotto -- the woman to whom this anti-nuclear vigil belongs.
She is rearranging her signs. The previous day, U.S. Park Police briefly relocated her to the northwest corner of the park when they closed it to the public for undisclosed reasons.
"It's so hard," Picciotto explains. "For two hours, they made us move everything and wait."
A 40-something tourist smiles condescendingly. "That's a good idea, though, because you wouldn't want one thing to be in a spot for too long," she says.
Picciotto is not amused. "Well, I have this here for you because you do nothing," she retorts. "You people go around like robots with cameras. If you people were more concerned, we wouldn't have to be here."
The group scoffs and mockingly makes robot movements before walking away laughing.
This is no joke for Picciotto. She has been staging her protest against nuclear weaponry every day since 1981. On this windy winter morning, her petite frame is bundled in a thick corduroy jacket. She wears a scarf over a wig, and many of her front teeth are missing.
When featured in The Washington Post in June 2006, Picciotto left the talking to William Thomas, the man who began the vigil on June 3, 1981. Picciotto had met Thomas a few months earlier and decided to join him.
The pair had regulations to follow -- they couldn't stray three feet from their property or sit in anything resembling bedding. Thomas was arrested multiple times.
Yet all of these challenges seemed negligible in comparison to the one Picciotto faced on Jan. 23, 2009 -- the day Thomas succumbed to pulmonary disease at age 61. With her compatriot gone, how could she maintain the vigil on her own?
That's when Start Loving (yes, he goes by that name only) stepped in.
"I was just unwilling to see it jeopardized," says Loving, a fellow activist.
Loving's presence in the mornings and evenings means Picciotto can grab a shower or relieve herself.
For now, Picciotto will maintain her vigil for a nuclear-free world. There's no apparent end, she insists. To this day, no president has crossed the street to meet her. It's a fact she finds frustrating. "I'm very discouraged," she says. 

Washington protester who outlasts presidents

http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/entertainment/41277832.html

By AFP

June 18, 2010 Updated Mar 15, 2009 at 4:11 AM EDT

She is President Barack Obama's closest neighbor, but don't expect her to be invited over for tea any time soon -- not while carrying on the longest continuous act of political protest in the United States.
Each morning like she has for the past 28 years, Concepcion Picciotto pulls back the plastic flap of her makeshift shelter in Lafayette Park and stares across the street at the White House, but the protester-in-residence voices little hope that the new president will make a difference on issues that dominate her life: ending US interventionist wars and banning nuclear weapons.
"No, they're all the same," Picciotto laments about the commanders-in-chief she has literally watched come and go since 1981, when she and fellow activist William "Doubting" Thomas began their 24-hour White House peace vigil.
"From the beginning I said Obama isn't going to work, because he's inside there," she hisses, pointing to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
"It's a revolving door," she tells AFP in an interview on a recent frigid night.
Obama and the other presidents she has outlasted -- Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush -- "don't support peace."
"It's against what they do: invasions, occupations, wars."
Some Americans dismiss the Spanish-born Picciotto, who declines to give her age but is said to be 64, as a little old lady with a bone to pick.
For many tourists, she is a colorful character who recites greetings in several languages and paints peace messages on rocks -- a harmless flake who has spent most of her adult years living under the sun and stars, enjoying the best view in Washington.
But others see her as someone far more vital: a rabid defender of free speech, a global peace activist who serves as the unheralded conscience of a nation grappling with its warrior/peacemaker past and present.
To activist Jamilla El-Shafei, Picciotto is nothing less than "a living symbol of resistance," defiantly anchored across the street and a world away from the most powerful leader on the planet.
"She is an amazing example of grassroots democracy and she understands that power is with the people," said El-Shafei, who has protested against the US-led war in Iraq alongside Picciotto.
Colman McCarthy, a former columnist in Washington who now heads the Center for Teaching Peace, says she "steadfastly defines the madness of American militarism."
"She is certifiably sane," McCarthy adds. "The rest of us, who think we can live with nuclear weapons, we are insane."
More than just about anyone in the US capital except longstanding members of Congress, the diminutive woman with several missing teeth and a helmet of brown hair is a Washington fixture.
Her large signs -- "Live By The Bomb, Die By The Bomb," "Ban All Nuclear Weapons Or Have A Nice Doomsday" -- are throwbacks to the early 1980s, and the tail end of an era of large-scale government protest.
In the decades since, she has been cursed at, spat on and beaten up -- and that's just by the police, she claims.
"We have had a very hard time with the government," she whispers, batting her mittens together to keep warm.
She recalls the dozens of arrests, the constant 50-dollar citations for illegal "camping" in the park, and dozens of forays by Thomas to Capitol Hill and courtrooms to protect their constitutional right to protest by challenging the various new regulations imposed on them.
But just days after Obama's January 20 inauguration, Picciotto's world collapsed. Thomas, 61, died at their nearby office.
"It was horrible. Horrible," Picciotto recalls of the death of her longtime protest partner.
"They killed Thomas in a way," she says, referring to the harassment by US Park Police, the law enforcement arm responsible for Lafayette Park.
The Park Police acknowledges the longstanding face-off, but insists it has followed the rules to the letter, even as the changing regulations on protests made for some uncomfortable clashes.
"It's like a marriage... but over the years, it's been a good relationship," Park Police information officer David Schlosser says.
Picciotto scoffs at the suggestion that she and police have resolved their differences.
"Just last night a policeman stopped me when I went to the trash can because it was more than three feet (one meter) away from my signs!"
Yet Picciotto carries on, thanks to what McCarthy calls her "great grace of persistence."
The area in front of the White House bustles with protesters during the day, but when darkness falls, Picciotto is alone. She savors the silence, but the absence of other activists is glaring.
"No one else has the courage to challenge (the government) and go through what we've gone through," she says.
Days later, she appears in jovial mood. Ten South Koreans are gathered around her vigil, and she offers greetings in Korean while the tourists snap pictures with her.
A young woman in the group, perhaps mindful of the thousands of Koreans who died in the 1945 atomic blasts in Japan, bows slowly at the waist and wordlessly presses folded dollar bills into Picciotto's palm.
When asked what she would tell Obama if she had the chance, Picciotto says she would urge him to ban nuclear weapons, stop funding Israel's military, pull troops out of Iraq "and put the money here, for people here."
Claiming good health, Picciotto aims to be around for years to come, and wants to write a book about her experiences. But for now she appears content with bringing her issues to light for the million or more tourists and Washingtonians who see her vigil each year.
"She is standing up for her conviction, for peace ... and she is a manifestation of the nation's feelings about war," El-Shafei said.
"She is standing there for all of us."

Minn Tribune: Will it ever end?

Published February 11, 2010, 12:00 AM

Will it ever end?

Protester Concepcion Picciotto sits in the snow Wednesday as she continues a 24-hour-a-day peace vigil in Lafayette Park across from the White House. Picciotto, an immigrant from Spain who has been active with her peace vigil since 1981, said she has been sleeping under a plastic tarp during the city’s recent record snowfall. A blizzard howled up the East Coast on Wednesday, making roads from Baltimore to New York City so treacherous that even plow drivers pulled over. More than three feet of snow has fallen since the end of last week. AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

Protester outlasts 4 US presidents

Protester outlasts 4 US presidents

Published: Monday, Mar 16, 2009, 0:33 IST
Place: Washington, DC | Agency: AFP

http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report_protester-outlasts-4-us-presidents_1239403

Concepcion Picciotto is president Barack Obama�s closest neighbour, but don�t expect her to be invited over for tea any time soon, not while carrying on the longest continuous act of political protest in the US. Each morning like she has for the past 28 years, Picciotto pulls back the plastic flap of her makeshift shelter in Lafayette Park and stares across the street at the White House, but the protester-in-residence voices little hope that Obama will make a difference on issues that dominate her life: ending US interventionist wars and banning nuclear weapons. �No, they�re all the same,� Picciotto laments about the commanders-in-chief she has literally watched come and go since 1981, when she and fellow activist William �Doubting� Thomas began their 24-hour White House peace vigil. �It�s a revolving door,� she said. Obama and the other presidents she has outlasted, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush � �don�t support peace.� �It�s against what they do: invasions, occupations, wars.� Some Americans dismiss the Spanish-born Picciotto, who declines to give her age but is said to be 64. She has been cursed at, spat on and beaten up and that�s just by the police, she claims. Picciotto wants to write a book about her experiences. But for now she appears content with bringing her issues to light for the million or more tourists and Washingtonians who see her vigil each year.

One-man demos to silent protests

    One-man demos to silent protests

Saturday, 29 November 2008 10:08 By Agnes Asiimwe

http://www.independent.co.ug/index.php/component/content/article/42-features/325-one-man-demos-to-silent-protests

How do you express objection?

Mr Joseph Mbogo, 45, spent his morning last Tuesday standing, in protest, outside Parliament in a one-man demonstration, but positioned well enough to be seen by those going in or leaving the Parliamentary Building. The former NRA bush war veteran hasn’t had a share in the national cake, the way many of his colleagues have. It’s now 22 years since ‘they’ took power but all he has is the memory of the harsh bush days. “I wrote to the president in August 2007,” he told The Independent in an interview.

He personally took the letter to Lt. Gen.  David Tinyefuza, the presidential advisor on military affairs. Tinyefuza passed on the letter to the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence with instructions that Mbogo gets help. CMI never helped him. Now he wants CMI to give the letter to the president.  “I need money, I am homeless, my children don’t go to school yet we worked hard together and he had promised not to forget us.”

He joined the army when he was only 15 years, in September 1981. “He [M7] badly needed manpower, they called us thieves, it rained on us but when they arrived in Kampala they forgot about us.”

For his efforts, just as President Museveni was leaving Parliament, a PGB soldier walked up to him and gave him Col. Proscovia Nalweyiso’s (first NRA woman  officer) number. He called her immediately and arranged a meeting. Maybe something could come out of his demo. 

Just the day before Mbogo’s demonstration, Mr Jeff Sewava, 30, an electrician with UMEME took his cause to Parliament, his concern being child neglect and abuse. “There is a lot of violence against children, they are beheaded, defiled, and starved yet the minister for children is not heard and in fact unknown,” Sewava told The Independent. To make his point, Sewava carried his four-year-old child to Parliament and says the child’s mother abandoned him at two weeks and that if it were him who had done so, FIDA and other flurry of NGOs would have been chasing after him. 

But not everybody is taking their issue to the sidewalk at Parliament.  According to some observers, more people are going solo in protest against society injustice.  These people aren’t going to street corners holding placards laden with statements; rather they are enforcing their boycotts and protests quietly as they go about their daily tasks.  According to some silent protesters, the power of a silent protest can be far reaching and effective.

The silent protesters are up against numerous issues. One resident of Bweyogerere says he has been driving without a driving license for some time now. He says he cannot waste time and money on Face Technologies, the company that procures the permits, just to get a laminated piece of paper that is too shoddy to be called a driving permit – but at the cost of an arm and a leg!  

Some people have boycotted bars, restaurants, beauty salons, supermarkets, banks, and other service points because of bad customer care, rude attendants, disrespectful security, dirtiness, or because the firms are owned by people who have been reported to have swindled public funds.  The protesters say they relentlessly complained out loud at first but never saw change until they silently walked away and launched their boycott.

“There is no place to get redress [after a poor service] and that is the reason they are going for silent protests,” said Mr Sam Watasa, the executive director of Uganda Consumers Protection Association. But first, what are Watasa’s boycotts? “I don’t go to shops with imported textiles because most are factory rejects,” said Watasa, “yet if I go to Phenix Logistics and the cloth had a problem, I would return it.” Watasa doesn’t buy imported car batteries because they have no guarantee.

When the protest to save Mabira Forest went digital, with a call to boycott Lugazi sugar on the Internet and via SMS, the power of a boycott of a nation was unleashed on SCOUL and it proved that a business, perhaps even a government, could be brought to its knees.  Hussein Kyanjo, MP Makindye West, a big player in the Save Mabira Crusade says Ugandans are not consistent with their protests.

“The great majority of Ugandans live a subsistence life, they cannot prepare for a month ahead, they live by the day and tomorrow may be different,” he said. Ugandans will react in a demonstration massively today and tomorrow they will have got a job or a deal upcountry and they will abandon the cause to go and make money. “Demonstrations are successful in structured economies where people know how they will live at least for a month. That is how dictators are surviving,” said Kyanjo.

Kyanjo said that with the Lugazi sugar boycott, eventually people couldn’t tell the difference. “It was effective for a short time, about three weeks.” Kyanjo agrees that silent protests are on. “I heard people want to boycott Pepsi Cola products because of his [Amos Nzeyi] involvement in Temangalo, but the consistent ones are few.” 

Consistence is what the demonstration by Mr William Thomas and Ms Concepcion Picciotto is made of.  The two have been demonstrating in front of the White House in Washington, D.C. since 1981. They are protesting against the use of genocidal weapons like nuclear weapons.  The two have survived arrests, harassments, beatings, court battles, rain, snow, summer and winter. Presidents have come and gone but they remain and say they will push for their cause till they die. 

On silent boycotts, not only are some people boycotting but also encouraging everyone around them to do the same.  When Metro Cash & Carry Supermarket, Uganda’s premier store opened, shoppers had to carry membership/loyalty cards to be allowed to shop.  Ugandans long accustomed to dukas thought Metro was being snobbish. This forced many shoppers, most of whom only heard about the cards through word of mouth, to stay away even after the requirement was scrapped. Competition from other stores like Shoprite and Uchumi and a misunderstood marketing gimmick finished off Metro. 

A silent protest comes with many benefits, not to mention the satisfaction. To hold a demonstration, even a one – man demo, one needs police clearance.  “You have to inform the Inspector General of Police, involve us at the time of planning, we need to know the type of placard and the message on the placard,” said Ms Judith Nabakoba, the police spokesperson.  A silent protest on the other hand is free of any hassles. 

Pennsylvania Avenue's other famous couple

Last Updated: Friday, August 15, 2008 | 3:51 PM ET

By Andrea Lee, CBC News

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Concepcion Picciotto in front of her alternative White House on the edge of Lafayette Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the real one. (Andrea Lee/CBC) It is 12:30 on a Thursday afternoon and it is hot, one of those searing, humid days that remind Washingtonians they live in the U.S. South.
In front of the White House, tourists are undeterred. They come in groups large and small, stopping to take pictures of the president's home or to peer through the wrought iron bars that keep them from it.
Across the street, on the edge of Lafayette Park, Concepcion Picciotto is protesting loudly.
"That man is crazy!" she cries, in a high-pitched, heavily-accented voice, pointing to the White House. "Destroy the people! Destroy the nation! No future for the children!"
Picciotto is by no means a threatening protester. She is about five feet tall. Her skin is darkly tanned and heavily creased. She is missing teeth. She wears a dark brown wig over a cap, covered by a purple and beige scarf.
On this day, she is wearing a peach-coloured blouse, white cotton pajama-style pants with pale yellow flowers, and brown sandals. She also wears a large, forest green fanny pack and has a set of keys around her neck.
Don't underestimate her, though. Picciotto is one of Washington's best-known protesters. She and a partner, William Thomas, have lived in a makeshift tent across the street from the White House since 1981.
They set up their "White House 24 Hours a Day Antinuclear Peace Vigil" 27 years ago and haven't left. In a perverse kind of way, they have become Pennsylvania Avenue's other famous couple

YES: People We Love

   Conchita Picciotto has been a neighbor to presidents since 1981

FOR 25 YEARS Concepcion “Conchita” Picciotto has lived on the street in front of the White House, protesting nuclear arms. Hers may be the longest continuous vigil in history.

In 1981, when Picciotto took up residence in Lafayette Square, Jimmy Carter was president. She counts off the others on her fingers: “Ronald Reagan, two terms, then President Bush's father, then President Clinton, two terms too, and now the son of the father.”

But in all that time, she's never talked to any of her presidential neighbors.

Asked what one message she would give President Bush if she could, Picciotto says, “My goodness! The first thing, to come to his senses and stop killing.”

Conchita is regarded as a permanent fixture in D.C. She's been listed twice in the Berlitz guide to the city, and she appeared in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911.

Washington Post - Vigil for peace marks 25th year

Vigil for peace marks 25th year

By David Montgomery

The Washington Post

PREV     of     NEXT  KEVIN CLARK / THE WASHINGTON POST William Thomas has maintained a peace vigil in Lafayette Square across from the White House since June 3, 1981. "I never imagined I'd be sitting here for 25 years," he said.

WASHINGTON — William Thomas first introduced fanny to brick on the White House sidewalk on June 3, 1981. His sign said, "Wanted: Wisdom and Honesty." He's been there ever since, still squatting, still wanting.
A few months after he began, he was joined by Concepcion Picciotto, who has remained similarly steadfast.
War is not over, but the peace protesters have won. Sort of. Lafayette Square, the oasis of green across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, is theirs.
Get rid of the shelter made of a battered patio umbrella, a weathered plastic tarp and those faded anti-nuke signs erected by Thomas and Picciotto?
It wouldn't be the same park.
Tourists from such places as Beijing and Chicago no longer would flash peace signs for digital cameras. School groups would make one less stop. Tour-guide shticks would shrink by a sentence or two.
Anniversary celebrations are for institutions. The 25th Anniversary Speakout for the 24-7 peace vigil began at noon Saturday, hosted by peace and anti-nuke groups, with speakers and invitations to "sing, chant, recite, drum, dance your heartsong."
A quarter-century. Through rain and sleet and snow and summer. And police raids and lawyers and courtrooms. And jail. Thomas once was sentenced to 90 days for violating the elaborate (and ever-evolving) rules of expression.
But that's all been sorted out. As long as they don't "camp" (dozing off on your stool is OK, but no sleeping in anything that resembles "bedding"), stray more than 3 feet from their signs or construct overly large posters, the law leaves them alone.
The National Park Police and the Secret Service have learned to live with the protesters.

"We make it look like a free country," Thomas said. "We're an asset to the government. So they don't pay much attention and pretend we're not here." They have inspired legislation on Capitol Hill. Every session, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., introduces the Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act, calling for nations to mutually agree to disarm. It's based on a ballot proposition that passed in the District of Columbia in 1993 that was inspired by the vigil keepers.
The bill never goes anywhere, but, Norton said, "The reason they have become a fixture is because they are there for the long haul for disarmament."
Colman McCarthy, a former Washington Post columnist who now teaches peace studies, said, "I take my high-school and college students regularly to the vigil. I'd rather they see a sermon on peace than hear one."
The fact that the nation is at war again, that nuclear fear again is in the air, does not take away from the vigil keepers, McCarthy said: "The basic philosophy of the peace movement is not to worry about being successful, but to worry about being faithful. For 25 years these people have carried on a commitment that goes back to Isaiah."
In the beginning, Thomas and Picciotto stationed themselves on the sidewalk next to the White House fence. New rules forced them to the sidewalk on the other side of Pennsylvania. Once every four years, during inaugural parades, they have to move. They also were displaced for the recent reconstruction of the avenue and then allowed back to the new brick sidewalk.
Since the early days, they have split up vigil duties, alternating six-hour shifts so someone is on duty 24 hours a day. Their schedule is at least as rigid as any of the bourgeois clock-punchers who sometimes sneer at their lifestyle. It takes discipline to last 25 years.
When not in the park, the two spend time in Peace House, a group house about 10 blocks away, a space purchased with a little money left by elderly friends several years ago. They do not solicit money. Thomas said he eats donated food and wears donated clothes.
Naturally, there is a Web site, Prop1.org, Thomas' wife, Ellen, who supports the vigil, posts online diary entries about the effort.
"I never imagined I'd be sitting here for 25 years," said Thomas, 60. "I've always been something of a nomad, and to think I would sit here for so long was something incomprehensible."
His fundamental hypothesis is that the government lies. These lies were used to justify the nuclear-arms race, and they are at the root of all the war-making since, he said.
"I'm not convinced absolutely that I'm not incorrect," he said. "So I sit here and I tell people what I believe, in the hope that if I am incorrect, somebody will come by and explain to me the error of my thinking. Unfortunately, it hasn't happened yet."
Picciotto won't talk to a reporter because she is sure the reporter will print lies. She has said she was born in Spain. Today, she will only say: "We got to stop this insanity. No more invasions."
The peacemakers sometimes get on each other's nerves.
"No pictures," Picciotto tells a news photographer even though tourists have been snapping her all day.
"What is wrong with you?" Thomas asks.
"You think I'm a fool?" Picciotto says.
"Yes, sometimes," Thomas says.

Protesting for peace

Spanish immigrant calls sidewalk home in decades-long showdown with White House

by Jason Kane and Nicole Wetherell
Hatchet Reporters

Issue: 4/4/05 | Style

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Media Credit: David Ediger Concepcion Picciotto has become a local and national celebrity in her 24 years of protest on Pennsylvania Avenue.

In the early-morning light flooding the sidewalks of Lafayette Park, Concepcion Picciotto rises stiffly from her rustic encampment of protest. Peering intensely back at tourists who gawk at her from all angles of Pennsylvania Avenue, Picciotto, flyers in hand, braces for another day of heated controversy.

For nearly 25 years, Picciotto has enacted the same routine within the shadow of the White House, willingly subjecting herself to both scathing public criticism and the harsh Washington weather in support of peace and nuclear disarmament.

Having been labeled everything from a prophet to a public pest, she has resigned herself to the name-calling, basking instead in the notoriety attained from her short appearance in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" and the belief that many Americans find comfort in her unfaltering presence in the park.

Picciotto's six-foot-tall signs, which evolve in accordance with world affairs, tower over her small frame, ensuring that the message preached in her soft, heavily accented voice is clear to all who pass.

"Stay the course and this will happen to you," warns one sign bearing pictures of bloodied corpses. "Give peace a chance." The small, wrinkled woman stands defiantly under them, ready to preach about the need for better education in America ("Americans are ignorant people. They're lazy. They've never suffered."), or the dangers of nuclear war.

Shortly after the vigil's conception in 1981, massive versions of the current signs dominated the north gate of the White House, covering approximately three-fourths of the sidewalk along Pennsylvania Avenue. Laws enacted to prevent such behavior have since limited Picciotto to her current allotment, a process that has forced her across the street from her original location and subjected her to what she describes as a never-ending barrage of harassment, citations and legal trials.

"The government makes many rules which are in violation of the Constitution by limiting the size and number of my signs. I have been arrested a number of times, I have been beaten by marines, accosted by police. It's very difficult," she says in a low whisper.

Continued...     

Una Mujer Contra El Sistema Americano, Los Domingos De La Voz (Spanish)

4 | LOS DOMINGOS DE LA VOZ | 8 DE AGOSTO DEL 2004

REPORTAJE
UNA MUJER CONTRA EL SISTEMA AMERICANO

Moore da fama a la gallega de la Casa Blanca

El documental "Fahrenheit 9/11" muestra el rostro de la activista, que denuncia desde 1981 el "injusto y corrupto" sistema social de EE. UU.

PABLO CARBALLO | TEXTO

A trav�s de los ojos curiosos y la c�mara al hombro de Michael Moore, millones de personas en todo el mundo est�n conociendo estos d�as interioridades sorprendentes de la Administraci�n Bush: los entramados empresariales que presionan al establishment, las amistades peligrosas de los hombres m�s poderosos del planeta... Aparte de esto y mucho m�s, Fahrenheit 9/11 tambi�n est� mostrando al mundo el rostro y la voz de la gallega que ostenta un r�cord extraofi cial de persistencia y fi delidad a un pu�ado de causas. Se llama Concepci�n Martin Picciotto (Conchita para los amigos, Connie en versi�n anglosajona), naci� en Santiago y se cri� en Vigo, tiene 59 a�os y lleva 23 apostada en una acera frente a la Casa Blanca. Su manifestaci�nvigilia no ha deca�do desde 1981 hasta la actualidad. Durante este periodo, en la poltrona del Despacho Oval se han sentado cuatro presidentes, a saber: Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton y George W. Bush.

�Y cu�l es el motivo que llev� a Concepci�n a esta protesta sin fin? En realidad, son muchos. Conchita emprendi� su vigilia por un asunto personal, pero con el tiempo fue abrazando el credo de los activistas movilizados contra la carrera armament�stica. Hoy, la gente de Pennsylvania Avenue la reconoce como una vecina m�s. Y los espectadores de Fahrenheit 9/11 atisban por un instante su cara curtida y su gesto guerrero durante un encuentro con una se�ora que pide explicaciones ante la Casa Blanca despu�s de haber perdido un hijo en Irak.

La g�nesis, una odisea

La historia de Concepci�n tiene su origen en la odisea que le supuso la separaci�n de su marido italoamericano cuando todav�a no hab�a cumplido los 30 a�os. Tras un tormentoso divorcio, un tribunal dictamin� que la custodia de la �nica hija del matrimonio deb�a ser para el padre, lo que frustr� los planes de Conchita, que pretend�a regresar con la ni�a a su tierra. No abdic�, sin embargo: recurri� a organizaciones defensoras de los derechos humanos, visit� despachos y administraciones de todo pelaje en Nueva York y Washington; apel� incluso al ministerio espa�ol de Asuntos Exteriores... Todo fue en vano.

Por eso decidi�, en 1981, plantarse delante de la Casa Blanca para expresar su rechazo por "la corrupci�n y la injusticia del sistema social norteamericano". Fue entonces cuando se sum� a Thomas Doubting, un activista que hab�a iniciado dos meses antes una protesta contra la proliferaci�n de armas nucleares.

Al igual que Concepci�n, Thomas no se ha dado por vencido en su protesta permanente. En un correo electr�nico remitido a La Voz, respondi� a las preguntas sobre la pel�cula de Michael Moore: "En realidad, ni Concepci�n ni yo hemos visto la pel�cula. Pero mucha gente nos ha contado que Concepci�n, y tambi�n nuestras pancartas, aparecen en un momento dado hacia el fi nal", explic� Thomas, el pionero de una de las vigilias m�s largas que se recuerdan.

Vivir a la intemperie

Hoy, como cada d�a de los �ltimos 8.400, la acera de Lafayette Park, a la altura del c�lebre n�mero 1.600 de la avenida Pennsylvania, es el hogar de la viguesa Connie. Durante m�s de dos d�cadas, su historia ha protagonizado decenas de reportajes en peri�dicos de todo el mundo. En ellos, adem�s de confesar repetidamente que le gustar�a regresar un d�a a Galicia, ha ido desgranando las complicadas condiciones de vida que ha asumido a cambio de perpetuar su rechazo manifi esto al sistema. Concepci�n vive a la intemperie. Subsiste a base de limosnas y donativos efectuados por simpatizantes de sus causas. Tambi�n vende peque�as piedras pintadas en las que expresa las causas que la mueven a continuar con su vigilia.

Su actitud cr�tica tambi�n le ha granjeado la correspondiente dosis de acritud de las autoridades. Uno de los momentos m�s complicados de la vigilia sin fi n de Concepci�n tuvo lugar el 8 de diciembre de 1982. Ese d�a, la polic�a dispar� y mat� al activista anti-nuclear Norman Mayer, que hab�a amenazado con hacer volar por los aires el monumento al primer presidente de los Estados Unidos, George Washington.

Para Conchita, los enfrentamientos con los agentes no han llegado tan lejos, aunque s� ha padecido su acoso. Le han prohibido dormir en un saco de dormir o colocar sillas en la acera; incluso han llegado a estipular unas medidas m�ximas para sus pancartas de denuncia y una determinada distancia de separaci�n de Thomas, su compa�ero de fatigas. Tambi�n ha denunciado amenazas policiales. Todos los presidentes que han pasado por la Casa Blanca desde 1981 han tratado de deshacerse de su inc�moda presencia. Pero Conchita lo ha resistido todo, conservando lucidez sobre el contenido de sus denuncias y sobre la identidad del enemigo, como revela su respuesta al periodista del Washington Times que le pregunt� en una ocasi�n si no tem�a los eventuales peligros nocturnos en Lafayette Park, con la presencia de alg�n individuo indeseable. Ella se�al� con el dedo la residencia ofi cial del presidente: "Lo m�s peligroso est� ah� dentro. �sa es la verdadera amenaza".

Letter From Newaygo High School, Newaygo, Mi.

Les presidents americains passent... Conchita reste (REPORTAGE)

Les presidents am�ricains passent...
Conchita reste (REPORTAGE)

Par Micha�la CANCELA-KIEFFER
EAF.TMF.ELU I EMI 150900-04h33 w0593
Agence France Presse
USA-elections,PREV

WASHINGTON, 15 sept (AFP) - Il n'est pas un jour ou sa silhouette menue, encadr�e de deux panneaux contre "les armes de destruction de masse", ne soit visible a 50 metres des fen�tres de la Maison Blanche. Tant�t assise, discutant avec des �cureuils, tantot debout expliquant sa cause aux passants.

Depuis bient�t 20 ans, Concepcion Martin Piccioto, "Conchita", sans-abri d'une soixantaine d'ann�es, vit sur deux metres carr�s de trottoir devant la Maison Blanche, d'ou elle expose inlassablement ses id�es.

Elle a �t� la voisine impertinente de Ronald et Nancy Reagan, George et Barbara Bush, Hillary, Chelsea et Bill Clinton.

Vagabonde militante, Conchita esp�re ainsi r�veiller le pr�sident et les citoyens sur les dangers qui les guettent.

"Le monde entier dolt savoir. Je ne quitterai jamais cet endroit", explique l�trange femrne a la peau burin�e et l�norme perruque fabriqu�e par un ami pour la "prot�ger".

"Les armes nucl�aires. Hiroshima. La plan�te bleue au bord du gouffre. La corruption des dirigeants". Elle r�p�te inlassablement les m�mes themes aux Japonais, Isra�liens, moines tib�tains et autres touristes de passage, venus sextasier devant la maison de l'homme le plus puissant du monde.

"D'ou �tes-vous? Br�silien?', demande-t-elle, tendant un prospectus dans la langue appropride. 'Nous navons pas besoin de davantage de catastrophes (. . .) ni de guerres", explique-t-elle a des Japonais tr�s int�ress�s par les photos de victimes d'Hiroshima �pingl�es sur lun des panneaux.

'Vous en avez assez, avec les inondations que vous venez d'avoir au Japon", ajoute Conchita, qui lit assidüment les journaux.

Mme Martin ne s'int�resse pas beaucoup en revanche a l'�lection pr�sidentielle, m�me si du scrutin depend l'identit� de son prochain voisin: "ils sont tous pareils, m�me Ralph Nader", le candidat des Verts:

"Corrompus", affirme-t-elle.

Dans une autre vie, l'Espagnole naturalis�e Arn�ricaine avait "travaill� comme interpr�te pour les Nations unies et pour le bureau commercial de lambassade espagnole".

En 1981, un divorce douloureux a conduit Conchita a changer radicalement de vie et a s'installer sur son trottoir au 1600 Pennsylvania avenue, a Washington.

A New York, Salvador Betancourt, un college de lambassade espagnole, se souvient d'elle : "elle est arriv�e en 1966 (. . .) comme r�ceptionniste, c'�tait une fille tr�s s�rieuse, tr�s bien mise et efficace. A l'�poque, elle ne s'int�ressait pas trop aux questions rnondiales", se souvient-il.

Conchita refuse aujourd'hui de quitter sa "maison' faite de b�ches et de panneaux militants. 'Elle reste environ 16 heures par jour", confirme un policier. "En vertu du code des r�glementations f�d�rales, article 36, qui r�git la manifestation solitaire, elle a le droit de rester l�, si elle respecte certaines r�gles', ajoute-t-il.

Les coll�gues du policier post�s aux alentours ne regardent m�me plus la militante, comme on ignore une statue trop longtemps apercue.

"Je suis l� cornine Jeanne d'Arc: c'est tr�s dur, mais il faut aller de lavant', dit-elle.

La nuit, Conchita voit les lumi�res de la fontaine et du jardin pr�sidentiel s'�teindre une a une vers onze heures, puis dort entre ses affiches, sur une planche bringuebalante, mi-assise, ml couch�e "parce que lon a pas le droit de faire du camping" devant la Maison Blanche.

Selon elle, aucun pr�sident nest jamais venu la saluer.

mck/bd/mf eaf.tmf

Lone Woman on a Relentless Anti-Nuclear Crusade

| POLITICS-US: Lone Woman on a Relentless Anti-Nuclear Crusade

By Anna Blackden, Inter Press Service (IPS), August 17, 2000
http://www.link.no/IPS/art/eng/serv/NA/2000/08/17/00.30_002.html
WASHINGTON, Aug 16 (IPS) - Day and night for 20 years Concepcion Picciotto has occupied a small slab of pavement across from the White House, braving the wind, rain, police harassment and abuse from passers-by.
Connie, as her friends call her, has been keeping an unshaken, round-the-clock vigil for world peace and nuclear disarmament since 1981 when Ronald Reagan first entered the White House as president. In November another president will be voted in and Connie will still be on her personal crusade to free the world from nuclear threat.
"I will stay until whatever it takes to stop the bombing and the proliferation of nuclear weapons ... I am sacrificing a lot and enduring a lot," says Picciotto. "But it's worth it."
Her daily battle for survival and acceptance is in sharp contrast to the lives of her neighbours on Pennsylvania Avenue, the President and First Lady of the United States, Bill and Hilary Clinton. The first couple wield enormous power and influence from a secure and comfortable 200 year-old, 132-roomed, white-washed mansion.
For nearly two decades and through three different presidents, 55- year-old Picciotto has seen policies such as Ronald Reagan's Star Wars, the signing in 1996 of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and now Clinton's recently proposed 60-billion-dollar nuclear defence shield.
Three months after Picciotto set up her protest camp in January I 981, President Ronald Reagan announced the Strategic Defence Initiative, dubbed the Star Wars program. Reagan's proposal was to build a missile defence system that would protect the United States from nuclear attack.
Clinton's National Missile Defence system, which also seeks to protect the United States from nuclear threat could be ready for deployment in 2005. It may be ready for construction when a new president, the 43rd in US history, takes office.
By 1995 the Clinton administration had amassed more than 3,000 Trident nuclear warheads the world's largest arsenal, pointed towards a long list of global targets.
According to Vancouver-based anti-nuclear activist FH Knelman in an article for the Peacemagazine, the United States does not want nuclear disarmament, "it wants nuclear supremacy".
Knelman notes that while in 1994 the US defence budget was 285 billion dollars, the Soviet Union was spending 77 billion dollars on its war machinery while the combined budgets of Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria totalled 9 billion dollars.
"Action must be taken in order to reduce and eliminate the danger posed to humanity by this nuclear madness," says Picciotto.
Picciotto founded the White House Peace Vigil when she arrived in 1981. She refers to herself as "a witness" for the people and strongly believes her vigil has had a global impact - approximately 6,000 visitors a day descend on the White House, many see her holding up her placards.
"People from all over the world say to me we saw you on TV, they have heard my message ... it makes me feel very satisfied that the people are reached and that they then think about the issue for themselves."
But her existence here is not easy. Her presence opposite the White House is a source of irritation and annoyance to the federal authorities. Since she arrived on the block in 1981, the National Parks Service has enacted an impressive array of rules and regulations that restrict her ability to protest.
Picciotto 's colourful protest signs cannot exceed 6 feet in height, the pavement directly in front of the White House is barred from demonstrations (which is why she was forced "across the street" in 1983).
She is also not allowed to lay down at night to sleep in her makeshift camp as that is considered illegal camping - an offence for which she has been arrested "about seven or eight times, though it is hard to keep track over the years"' she says.
It is these restrictions on her freedom that she describes as "torture" and which she wishes to see lifted. While the First Amendment of the US constitution guarantees her freedom of speech these regulations limit how far she can be heard.
Concepcion Picciotto is a tiny woman, no more than 5 feet tall, well presented, highly articulate in English, despite a noticeable Spanish accent which gives away a background far removed from her life as the "protestor-in-residence" at the home of the US President.
She was born in Vigo, Spain. She emigrated to the United States at the age of 18 and says she worked in New York at the Spanish consulate. Picciotto fell in love with an Italian businessman she married at 21.

However, a bitter separation and custody battle cost her a home, her daughter and her job. There began a legal fight that was to lead her to Washington DC where she sought help from her Congressman. Unsuccessful, she took the fight to the gates of the White House.
There she became acquainted with other demonstrators, notably her friend William Thomas (who had begun protesting the previous year) and who influenced her to protest against nuclear arms.
The guards at the White House gate refer to her as a "regular", tolerant of her passive unthreatening protest. When contacted, White House officials did not have a comment.
If she could have five minutes with her new neighbour, the new US president to be elected in November she would tell him that the United States must "lead the way in nuclear disarmament, get
the whole world to stop testing nuclear weapons, stop the bombing in Iraq and lift the embargo."
She says she will be here until the world is safe enough for her to stop her protest. With the US nuclear defence shield already undergoing tests and other nuclear powers threatening to escalate nuclear build-ups, she may be here for a very long time.
(END/IPS/IP/ab/gm/da/00)

Washington Times - White House protester undaunted for nearly 20 years

White House protester undaunted
for nearly 20 years
Washington Times, Thursday, June 15, 2000, Tom Knott

Concepcion Picciotto lives in protest across from the White House, inhabiting a slab of sidewalk by Lafayette Park.

She has not been there forever it only seems that way.

Mrs. Picciotto, a native of Vigo,Spain, is nearing her 20th year along this closed-off portion of Pennsylvania Avenue. Her message, directed to the principal occupant of the White House, is simple: Stop the nuclear madness.

Bill Clinton does not respond, not unlike those before him, and so, Mrs. Picciotto, one voice one remarkably persistent voice is bound to this part of the city, ever committed to the cause. She is unbowed.

"What makes me tired is the same people who can't come to heir senses ' she says on this sunny, pleasant afternoon.

Mrs. Picciotto, 55, came to the United States in 1964 to work as a secretary with the Spanish Consulate in New York City. She lived her version of the American Dream in those years. She had a job and eventually a husband, a daughter and a home. But the marriage went sour, and a protracted divorce and custody fight ensued.

By 1980, Mrs. Picciotto was working and living in Washington, pleading her legal case on Capitol Hill and then finally on the most well-known artery in the city.

It wasn't long, as she came to know other protesters at the White House, that she adopted the anti-nuclear effort. She says she became an unofficial part of the landscape in front of the White House on Jan. 1,1981.

Her only move, from the White House side of Pennsylvania Avenue to the Lafayette Park side, was prompted by the National Park Service in 1983.

So now, 17 years later, she sits in the same spot, reading, painting and handing out fliers to passers-by while championing a cause. Squirrels and pigeons keep Mrs. Picciotto company. They stay at her side in exchange for the occasional peanut.

"What is the future of our children?" Mrs. Picciotto says. "People have to come to their senses, to think twice before engaging in confrontations."

Mrs. Picciotto is amiable, well spoken, easy on those who attempt to make conversation with her. A tourist suggests it would be nice to have a snapshot taken with her. Would she mind? Why, no. Of course not. She smiles for the camera.

Mrs. Picciotto says the winter months can be particularly hard. On some nights, the cold, no matter how many layers of clothing, cuts to her bones. And still she stays, looking to be heard, refusing to go away.

"Bill Clinton is too busy with Monica to pay attention to what I'm doing," she says.

No one seems put off by Mrs. Picciotto's makeshift camp, notably the U.S. Park Police officers milling around their cruisers parked on Pennsylvania Avenue. Her two plywood signs pass the legal requirements.

Even free speech has its limits across from the White House, the limits being no more than two signs per person and no sign taller than 6 feet.

Shouting is permitted, as one middle-aged man makes clear along Pennsylvania Avenue before he turns right onto East Executive Park. He is wearing a white T-shirt with the words "Salvation for Satan" emblazoned on it. He is shouting his thanks to the uniformed representatives of the U.S. government for granting him free speech.

At least one, a park police officer, smiles and says, "You're welcome."

For Mrs. Picciotto, free speech is a lifestyle.

"We have to do this," she says, referring to herself and cohort William Thomas. "The situation is getting worse by the day. We need education, jobs and housing for the poor."

They maintain a post office box and an Internet site (http://www.prop1.org/conchita).

As perhaps the city's truest believer, Mrs. Picciotto braves the elements, the gawkers, the loss of privacy and God only knows what else on this stretch of pavement.

At night, when the avenue is empty and dark and the park fills with characters of questionable repute, does she ever question her devotion to the cause?

"No, she says simply .

Is she ever scared?

"There is the threat right there," she says, pointing to the White House. "There is the danger."

BILL CLINTON NACHBARIN

Nachrichten Donnerstag,
29, Juli l999

BILL CLINTON NACHBARIN

Friedens- Aktivistin aus Spanien Kampiert seit l8 Jahren vor dem Wem WeiBen Haus
Zwischen Anti-Kregs-Parolen und Kisten Mit berrralten Steinen aitz Concepcion Picciotto vor dem WelBen Haus
Foto-dpa
Tz Washington
Sie ist die nachste Nachbarin von Amerikas Prasidenten, und das schon seit 18 Jahren. Doch wahrend Bill Clinton wie seine Vorganger Bush, Reagan und Carter im Wei Ben Housresi ,ist das Heim von Concepcion Picciotto nur ein oaar Quadrtmeterr groB, hat weder Dach och Bett oder Stuhl.
Im August l98l zog Concepcion Picciotto, kurz Connie, vor das WeiBe Hous. Seittdem lebt sie heir auf der StraBe und demonstriert fur Frieden und Gerechtigkeit auf Spanierin kampiert zwischen zwei
Holzchildern, auf denen aie ihre Friedenbotschaften geschrieben hat. Meisten sitzt sie auf einer Kiste, umgeben von Kartons, in denen sie bemalte Steine aufbewahrt. Die verkauft sie, weil sie sons kein Geld Fur Essen hatte..

Zunachst hatte sie direkt vor dem Zaun des sie direckt vor dem Zaun des WeiBen Houses gewohnt. Dann wurde sie auf die andere StraBenseite verbannt-auf Veranlassung der demaligen First Lady Nancy Reagan, wie Connie glaubt.
Von ihren Nachbarn halt sie nicht viel,., Carter, Reagan, Bush oder Clinton, sie sind alle gleich, sie unterstutzen den Krieg.

DEAD LITTLE GIRL OF HIROSHIMA

DEAD LITTLE GIRL OF HIROSHIMA

I came and stand at every door but none can hear my silent tread I knock, but remain unseen for I am dead, for I am dead.
I'm only seven, though I died In Hiroshima long ago I'm seven now as I was then When children die They do not grow old.
I need no fruit, I need no rice I need no food, not even bread I ask for nothing for myself for I am dead, for I am dead.
All that I ask is for peace. You fight today. You fight today So that the children of the world May live and grow and laugh and play.

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Standing at Ground Zero - Fumiko Amano

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From:
White House Anti-nuclear Peace Vigil
24 Hours a day Since 1981
Maintained By Two Individuals
C. Picciotto and W. Thomas
P.O. Box 4931
Washington, D.C. 20008

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

Article in Korean News: June, 1997

Article in Korean News: June, 1997

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Received from Shinichi Miyake, Hokkaido, Japan, 2/11/97

NEWSLETTER "YA- USU-BETSU"
NO. 1 February 1, 1997

Received from Shinichi Miyake, Hokkaido, Japan, 2/11/97: Thank You, Ms. Picciotto!
510 Signatures arrived here in Kushiro

This passage is an excerpt from my letter for Ms. Picciotto. She is an activist of the anti-nuclear Peace Vigil which has continued since 1981 in Lafayette Park outside the White House.

"I am happy to learn that you are getting along quite well. A few days ago, I received a letter from Ms. Michie Mori who is Japanese student studying at American University in Washington, D.C. Michie said, when she recently visited the fort of Peace Vigil you asked her to send the petitions to me. In the big envelope, a lot of signature sheets were enclosed. The number was 477 people on 28 sheets. Total reached 510 in all, including 33 that you gave me three months ago at your fort. I am grateful to you for your cooperation."

To say in detail, the signer's nationality cover over 32 countries as follows:
America/137, Canada/6, Mexico/1, Panama/1, Columbia/3, Brazil/8, Uruguay/1, Argentina/4, UK/17, Ireland/7, Sweden/2, Netherlands/6, Belgium/1, Germany/27, France/4, Switzerland/2, Austria/1, Italy/6, Spain/34,Czeck/1, Slovakia/8, Hungary/1, Russia/4, Turkey/3, Israel/2, Singapore/1, Australia/8, New Zealand/5, South Africa/2, South Korea/95, China/6, Japan/93, and not clear/19.

La gallega apostada ante la Casa Blanca lleva 16 anos viviendo a la intemperie

Concepcion Martin inicio la campana de protesta al ser dela custodia de su hija

La gallega apostada ante la Casa Blanca lleva 16 anos viviendo a la intemperie

El proximo martes, cuando las elecciones norteamericanas confirmen la anunciada victoria de Bill Clinton para un segundo mandato presidencial, ep flamante presidente democrata ocupara de nuevo su despach o
WASHINGTON. R. GARCIA-RICO

Concepcion Martin sigue en su sitio, exactamente igual que el primer dia del mandato de Clinton, como lo ha hecho durante los dos de Reagan y el de Bush, denunciando con su persistente presencia .

La atormentada historia de esta mujer espa�ola, nacionaii- zada americana, comenzo al intentar Ilevarse a su Galicia natal a su hija de pocos meses tras el divorcio de su marido estadounidense.

Perdio la batalla legal en los tribunales y con ella la potestad de la niRa (a la que no ha vuelto a ver), su trabajo (era int�rprete de la ONU y de la Oficina Comercial Espanola en Nueva York), y su hogar que sustituyo como una homeless mas por el estrecho espacio de tres metros cuadrados de acera frente a la Casa Blanca, en los que no puede tener una silla, tumbarse o dormir sbiertamente por imposicion de ordenanzas municipales estabIecidas precisamente para frenar su causa.

Connie como es conocida ella aqui, a pesar de ir ataviada con sus viejas ropas y Ilevar permanentemente un casco para protegerse de posibles agresiones, tambien navega en Internet, hasta donde ha hecho Ilegar su historia y su protesta. Se lo debe a Thomas, un hippie cincuenton que en los 60 se entretenia reflexioando solo por el desierto y del que recibe la racion diaria mas importante de solidaridad.

Y luego sigue explicando los males que aquejan a nuestro mundo:
"Vote por Perot en las ultimas elecciones, pero esta vez me absendre porque nadie puede arreglar esto. Quiza los negros, que son los que tienen mas fuerza".

Connie vive de donativos y del dinero que gana vendiendo unas piedras pintadas que hoy dia se encuentran repartidas por todo el mundo. Se alimenta practicamente solo de conservas, pan y galletas

Sueno con volver a Galacia; me iria ahora mismo, afirma con la clasica morrina de los gallegos repartidos por todo el mundo, sentencia, para asegurar que seguira� con la misma tenacidad eI tiempo que haga falta. Y luego, en voz baja, susurra, ademas, aqui estoy mas cerca de mi hija,
A veces me pregunto si todo esto es una pesadilla o una realidad, dice ajustandose el flequillo que asoma por el casco,"pero todos las problemas provienen de los negocios, del los grupos judios. yhasta que no acebemos con ello,dodevoy a estar mejor" , comenta Connie.

La gente simpatiza conmigo, anade, mientras saluda familiarmente a un guia que acompa a un grupo de turistas coreanos. "Dios me da fuerza para continuar, asegura la mendiga, que soporta temperauras e xtremas enverano y en invierno, como las del pasado ano, que se situaron por debajo de los 10 grados bajo cero. Pronto recibira al nuevo presidente - son todos iguales, no hacen mas que insultarse - y con seturidad proseguira� su vigilia permanente guardando, ademas, su unica propiedad real: una sortija y unos pendientes de su hija, a la que no ve desde hace 16 anos.

The Little Giant

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WHITE HOUSE PEACE VIGIL
SINCE 1981

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CONCEPCION
PICCIOTTO

The Little Giant

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A model of focus and dedication, Concepcion has maintained what may be the longest continuous vigil in history. Her consistancy is legendary and tourists come to Lafayette Park from around the world anxious to meet her. :

Concepcion, standing up for her rights.

"Welcome to the M.A.D. House"
a photo of a sign on her sign
makes tourists laugh.

Tourists from Korea, Japan, Guatemala, France, Peru, Germany, South Africa, Mexico, Spain, & more... flock to see a monument to life, alive: twice in the Berlitz Guide... rumors now she's in the Guiness Book of World Records...

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

Concepcion-der Stachel in der Seite des Weiben Hauses

Concepcion-der Stachel in der Seite des Weiben Hauses

Uber eine merk-wurdige Frau and Nachbarin des USA-Prasiden / Aus Washington berichtet
REINER OSCHMANN
Neues Deutschland
Freitag, 1, September 1995

Das Weise Haus ist eine ers Adresse nicht nur fur Politikaus aller Welt. Es ist Magnt fiir t~glich Tausende Touristen. Zuvorderst aber ist f Amtssitz und Wohnung des elsten Mannes der Vereinigte Staaten. Jeder Prisident auSf George Washington, der 179 den Grundstein legte-und, wj es heiBt, den Bau iibeiwachtc hat hier gearbeitet und mit se: ner Familie gewohnt.

Seit dem 1. AuRust 1983 Irunmehr im 15. Jahr, hat da WeiDe Haus eine ungewiihnl che Nachbarin. Sie lebt gena gegeniiber dem Nordfliigel de Preisidentensitzes unter freier Himmel und ist nur durch di Breite der Gehsteige und de Pennsylvania Avenue von de Prlsidentenfamilie getrenn Bei ihrer Ankunft waren es di Reagans, spiter die Bushr heute sind es Bill und Hillar Clinton.

Busfahrt ohne Riickfakarte

Auf dem BiiFgersteig bean sprucht die Frau nicht meh als drei bis vier Quadratmeter Dort hat sie ihre selbstgeba stelten Transparente und Poster errichtet. Hier ist ihr Fahr rad abgestellt, ihr Zeichenzeu: und das biBchen persiinlichl Habe. ijber drei Plastik-Milch kisten hat sie eine sauberl Wolldecke gespannt - ihr Sofa Stuhl und Bett in einem, unc auch vgn hier aus hat sie Garten, Springbrunnen und;dil Fensterfront auf der Nordseit des White House im Blick Nachts um elf schalten sie dic Beleuchtung des Brunnen ab", sagt ConcepciBn Picciottc und gibt damit Intimkenntnil der Nachbarschaftsverh;iltnisse zu erkennen.

Die 50jahrige stammt aus Galizien im Nordwesten Spaniens und ist seit gut 30 Jahren den USA. Neun Jahre verbringt sie zunachst in New York in der Handelsvertretung der spanischen Botschaft, dann fur ihr Land bei der UNO. Die kleine Frau spricht funf Sprachen, deutsch nur wenig Worte. Die ersten Jahre in New York lebt sie an der Seite ihres italienischen Ehemannes standesgemaB: Eine Grande Damder Gesellschaft - der Ehepartner Geschaftsmann und Vater der gemeinsamen Tochter Olga ("nach der russischen Turnerin Olga Korbut, die ich bewunderte"), die 1973 geboren wird.

Als Concepcion 20 Monate spater eine traumatisch Scheidung erfahrt, nach der der autoritare Vater auch die Vormundschaft fur die Tochter erhalt, verandert sich fur die Mutter alles: Concepcion verliert Ehemann und Tochter, Arbeit und Zuhause. Jahrelang versucht sie die Vormundschaft fur das Kind zuruckzu gewinnen. Sie geht im Bundesstaat New York und in Madrid vor Gericht. SchlieBlich sucht sie, den fur New York zustandigen Abgeordneten im Unterhaus des Bundesparlaments in Washington fur ihren Fall zu interessieren. Alles vergebens.

Concepcion tragt daraufhin den Kampf um ihr Recht in die Offentlichkeit, zumal sie merkt wie oft die Prinzipien des Rechtsstaats nicht mit seiner Praxis ubereinstimmen. Eines Tages, im Sommer 1981. packt sie ihre Sachen, nimmt einen Bus zum Lafayette Park und laBt sich vor dem WeiBen Haus nieder. Seitdem ist sie dort geblieben. Tag und Nacht, Fruhling, Sommer, Herbst und Winter, und seit langem ist der Kampf um ihr personliches Recht aufgrund ihrer Politisie-rung zu einem Kampf um Frieden und internationale Gerechtigkeit geworden.

Heuchelei und Doppelzun-gigkeit der Herrschenden, die sie zunachst personlich, dann als offen politisch Handelnde erlebt, nennt Concepcion als Motiv ihres aufsehenerregen- den und in jeder Hinsicht stra-paziosen Protests.."They're lying" - sie lugen, steht auf dem Anstecker an ihrer Brust, und auch die Flugblatter,,.die die schwarzhaarige Frau an die Passanten verteilt, machen vor allem auf den Widerspruch zwischen den wohltonenden! Friedensbeteuerungen aus dem WeiBen Haus und dem Festhalten an der Atomwaffenpolitik aufmerksam. Sie zeigt mir das Lincoln-Zitat auf ihrer Wandzeitung, um die Offentlichkeit des Protests zu erklaren: To sin by siience when they should protest, makes cowards of men - durch Schweigen sundigen, wo protestiert werden mubte, macht aus Mannern Feiglinge...

Feige ist das Personchen gewib nicht, was immer man von ihr halten mag. Wiederholt ist sie in den vergangenen Jahren von der Polizei eingeschuchtert und bedrangt, nachts uon betrunkenen Obdachlosen im Lafayette Park angegriffen worden. Die Behorden verschlrfel wiederholt ihre Vorschriften um die stolze Spanierin zun Aufgeben zu zwingen. Ers nmuB sie vom Gehsteig vor den kZaun am WeiBen Haus auf del Gehsteig der gegenuberliegen den Strabenseite wechseln Dann wird die Zahlder Transparente auf zwei, ihre maxi male Hofe auf 1.80 Meter be schrankt, Spater festgelect,dab sie ihre Friedenswache nich weiter als drei FuB (knapp einen Meter) verlassen darf. Einc Verletzung dieser vorschrif galte als Im-Stich-Lassen det Protestposter und wurde die Polizei zur Beschlagnahme des Standes berechtigen.

Auch schlafen darf Concepcion des Nachts offiziell nicht weil dies - rechtlich betrachtet unberechtigtem Camping im Park gleichkame. "Man raubt mir Stuck fur Stuck einzelne Freiheiten". Sie sieht darin einen Beleg fur ihr Urteil uber die USA: The land of the free - as long as you agree. Auf deutsch etwa: Das Lana der Freien, vorausgesetzt, Du sagst zu allem Ja und Amen. Das aues schafft Fia Concepcion ganz praktische Schwie- 1 rigkeiten: Sie kann sich kaum vom Fleck bewegen. Wenn sie einmal pro Tag in einem Obdachlosenasyl auf der anderen Seite des Lilfayette Parks du- schen,!zur Toilette und etwas einkaufen geht, kann sie da's nur tun, wenn vorher Bekannte die Aufsicht uber die Mahnwache ubernehmen.

Kopfhelm unter der Perucke Spatabends lehnt sie sich, im; Sitzen, mit dem Kopf an den Holzrahmen ihres Plakatgestells und schlaft so, "pro Nacht vielleicht vier bis funf Stunden. Am schlimmsten sind die Winter, der vor zwei Jahren steckt ihr noch heute in den Gliedern. "Die StraBen waren spiegelglatt vom Eis. Hier auf der Pennsylvania Avenue haben sich die Autos wie Karussells gedreht, und Bekannte wolltenmich wegholen von der Friedenswache. Ich bin Nacht fur Nacht auf und abgegangen und habe gebetet, Gott moge mich nicht erfrieren lassen."

Sie bestreitet, verbiestert zu sein."Ich bin nicht der Typ, der sich in die Ecke setzt und heult. Icb hin ein lustiger Mensch, und friiher habe ich viel gesungen. Ich bin eine Kampferin". Concepcion zeigt auf ihren Kopf, auf dem sie unter Kopftuch und Perucke einen Helm tragt. Immer. Aus Erfahrung, nachdem sie vor einigen Jahren ein amerikani-scher Marinesoldat ins Gesicht geschlagen hat. Fast verschmitzt bedeutet sie mir: "Im Laufe der 15 Jahre kann ich schon Fortschritte beobachten. Anfangs haben mich viele Amerikaner beschimpft: "Go to Russia!', 'Beschaff Dir nen Job'! oder einfach nur: 'Verschwinde!' Inzwischen finde ich viel Aufmerksamkeit und Zuhorer.

Concepcion versteht sich nicht als Aubenseiterin. "Ich bin keine Exzentrikerin, son-dern durch meinen Kontakt mit so vielen Menschen eng mit dem Alltag verbunden. Die da druben", erklirt sie mit einer Armbewegung in Richtung ihrer prominenten Nachbarn, "die leben in einer Welt der Phantasie, ich aber bin Zeuge ihrer Verbrechen."

Ihren Lebensunterhalt be-streitet sie mit bescheidensten Mitteln. Von kleinen Spenden, die sie bisweilen fur ihre Flug- blatter und fur die in leuch-tender Farbe und mit Friedens- symbolen bemalten Steine bekommt, ernahrt sie sich. Ein Backer aus der Umgebung bringt ihr manchmal eine Tute mit Brotkrumen. Sie brauche nicht viel, rauche und trinke nicht. Sie wundert sich selbst, dab sie das alles bis heute gesundheitlich unbeschadet uberstanden hat. "Das einzige Krankheitsgefuhl, das ich verspure, ruhrt von dem her, was die dort tun. Eigentlich mochte nicht mehr hier sein, aber ich weib nicht, wie lange ich bleiben werde".

Den heutigen Amtsinhaber im Weiben Haus halt sie irgendwo fur ehrlicher als seine beiden Vorganger. Nicht nur, weil Amerikas First Lady ihr einige Male ein paar Sandwiches vorbeibringen lieb. Doch trauen tut sie keinem amerikanischen Prasidenten. Auch die vor unserem Gesprach gerade bekanntgewordene Ankundigung Clintons, Amerikas Kernwaffenversuche ab sofort generell einzustellen; nimmt sie voller Argwohn auf. "Clinton ist ein Wetterhahn. Heute so, morgen so". Man musse auf der Hut und, was sie betrifft, vor Ort bleiben.

Unsere Unterhaltung wird mehrfach unterbrochen. Sobald Passanten Interesse fur ihre Friedenslosungen zeigen, spricht Concepcion sie an, for dert sie auf, sich gegen internationale Waffenverkaufe, fur das Verbot von Atomwaffen-versuchen oder gegen die all-gemeine Doppelzungigkeit des modernen Lebens einzusetzen. Kleiner hat sie's zlicht, kleiner will sie's nicht, deswegen hat sie auch keine Scheu - mit einem Blick uber den Zaun des Weiben Hauses - zwischendurch Satze wie diesen fallen zulassen: "Es gibt keine Grechtigkei oder Demokratie in dem, was Amerika vorlebt. It is all propaganda and double standards."

In den Augen manches Amerikaners gilt sie als Kommunistin, mindestens als vater landslose Gesellin. Das ficht Concepcion Picciotto nicht an. "Ich glaube an Gott, aber nicht an die Kirche oder religiose Organisationen, weil sie alle korrupt sind. Ich bin weder Sozialistin noch Kommunistin, und ich kassiere keine Wohlfahrt. Ich bin einfach nur ein Mensch, der Frieden, Freiheit und Gerechtigkeit liebt."

Wenn's nach den Geheimen ginge...

Solche Bekenntnisse reichen aus, Ordnungshuter zu verunsichern. J.F. Muskett, ein drahtiger junger Mann im kurzarmligen Uniformhemd und mit mustgrgultig gestutztem Oberlippenbartchen, ist einer der Geheimdienstmanner, die ebeniso dskret wie unubersehbar den Komplex des Wieben Hauses umstehen. "Er habe, sagt er zu mir, uberhaupt nichts gegen Concepcion, die bekannteste Nachbarin des Prasidenten. "Sie ist eine friedfertige und anstandige Frau. Ich wurde sie auch nicht wegschleppen. Aber wenn es nach mir ginge, wurde ich sie wegbegleiten, denn mit ihrem Dauerprotest verschandelt sie das Weibe Haus, das zu sehen, viele Menschen extra von weither anreisen.

Wie es aussieht, ist Concepcion, die kleine Amerikanerin aus Galizien, ein kleiner, unangenehmer Stachel in der Seit des Weiben Hauses. Sie weib, dab am 1. September Weltfriedenstag ist. Aber das ist ihr nicht weiter bedeutend. Fur sie ist jeder Tag Weltfriedenstag. Seit knapp 15 Jahren.