On Dia de los Muertos? Seriously?
Short diary, but it was funny to me at the time.
I was on Olvera Street for 2 reasons today: To have a late lunch with a friend at Philippe's (Birth place of the French Dip Sandwich) near Union Station in Los Angeles, and check out Olvera Street on Dia de los Muertos (Nov 1)
So I used the Metro (In LA!) and began to walk in the tunnel from the Metro trains to the main entrance of Union Station on Alameda where I was meeting my friend who came on a different train. While going through the tunnel, I noticed 3 small clumps of people in the tunnel handing out literature for Meg Whitman (R Running for California Governor) and Carly Fiorina (R Running for California State Senator).
I had noticed a sign saying no trespassing, loitering or soliciting on both ends of the tunnel...a busy walkway.
So I took a few pics. I did not engage them or say anything...just documenting the ONLY people in the tunnel not actually using it for its intended purpose.
I arrived at the entrance and noticed the people that had been passing out literature began to leave the tunnel and were behind me.
They were not following me per se, but I think being photographed woke them up to the fact that maybe this wasn't a good idea. I met my friend and pointed to the leafleteers as we began leaving the station into the sunlight. The Whitman fans were close enough behind us that my friend said over her shoulder as we were walking that "there is no soliciting here." A male in the group said "what?" I was planning to ignore them but I had to get my friend's back of course and repeated that "There are signs stating that there is no soliciting here." The guy came away from his group and approached us while we were still walking and said that "we can't block his Constitutional rights", with a slightly raised tone. I replied that "telling him that there is no 'soliciting' was not impinging on his Constitutional rights...and he was soliciting as he was trying to sell his candidates." He came closer and began to speak again until another member of his group pulled him back. We just kept walking out of the station...wondering at how easy it was to rile these guys just by calmly drawing their attention to a sign.
Would I have taken pics if Democrats were doing the same thing? Probably not. But I would have been irritated if they did the same thing. The area had a lot foot traffic and the Meg people were in the way.
If it is OK for them to be there, then it is OK for scientologists to have stress tests and LaRouchites to show pics of Obama with a Hitler mustache. There is plenty of sidewalk space outside of Union Station where it would be appropriate to inform whomever you want. But they wanted to be where people HAD to walk by them.
Ok, so approaching the entrance to Olvera Street...and we see one last Whitman Fan. A lone man. Approaching people and asking them if they spoke Spanish. He was not very successful passing out his stuff. My friend wondered why all the anglo Whitman people were in Union Station, and this lone man was handling Olvera Street. LOL indeed.
Anyways...I just thought it was pretty funny Whitman people were at a largely hispanic area on Dia de los Muertos to support their candidate. Good luck with that, amigos.