Saturday, March 15, 2008

The Rich Mackin Non-Protest Article

To mark the birthday of Rich Mackin, I posted this previously unpublished article about Mackin's 1999 non-protest demonstration on my MySpace page (edit: now a page thankfully deleted). I posted it there partly because it's where Rich, a fellow MySpacer, would see it, and partly because I am trying to find ways to make both my Blogger and MySpace pages different from each other. I thought putting the article exclusively there was a step in the right direction.

Then Ian (who has a cameo in the article) asked me directly why I didn't post it on this blog as well.

Well, he got me there.

Here's the article.


Non-Protestors Prove That Nothing Works
Story (and photo) by Chad Parenteau

The best photo opportunity on Sunday, August 22, came when I watched protester—excuse me, non-protester—Alan Ezust, take his sign that said "JUST SAY NOthing" and turn it over to show a blank sign. He found it more appropriates. So did I. So did his fellow non-demonstrators facing the Park Street T station in the Boston Common that afternoon.



This non-protest started around one o'clock at the urging of local 'zine publisher and activist Reverend Richard J. Mackin, who was there leading the way with his small, unassuming sign, "This Is Not A Protest!"

Before and during this non-event, he offered the following written statement on a small flyer: "The week of 8/8/99 the cover story of US News & World Report was '1000 years ago'; Time and Newsweek both featured 'The Blair Witch Project'—No news is good news.

"The First Amendment guarantees our right to freedom of speech–even though we have nothing to say! Forcefully assert your apathy!"

Self-titled a "Consumer Defense Corporate Poet," Mackin actually spends a lot of time writing wry letters to popular business corporations. Most of the frightfully similar replies from various consumer representatives have the feel of what is called a found poem, defined in The Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms as "a piece of writing that was not intended as a poem, but is so declared by its 'finder.'"




So in his own way, Mackin creates a relevant kind of poetry; and with this willful display of apathy, Mackin & co. created a more poignant statement than anyone else in the area of the common that day: The dog wash happening out on the grass; the small gathering around a wooden cross with two people talking about You Know Who; The family passing out cards asking people to pledge "Pure Love". None of them, I think, received the feedback this half-dozen or so did by holding signs that said anything from "Sarcastic People for Apathy," to "A-OK."

And where would a protest--even a non-protest--be without a few (a)political statements.




Ian Thal (fellow artist and activist): "You know, this country was founded to protect freedom of speech and expression and such that so we can have no opinion."

Mackin: "Just because we have freedom of speech doesn't mean we have something to say."

Chris Alighire (pirate radio disc-jockey): "Do not look at us. We are not here for you."

And then there was the chant: "Two, four, six, eight .... Two, four, six, eight ...."

Followed by: "What do we want?"

"Nothing!"

"When do we want it?"

"Whenever!"

Not a perfect delivery, mind you. They seemed to take long breaks between chants. Thal tried to inspire a singing of the Beatles' "Let It Be" with no real success. Another participant seemed to eat Goldfish crackers more than even hold a sign. But, of course, who there was going to criticize apathy protesters for lack of motivation?

Not Andrea Kulish, who kept alternating between holding her "A-OK" sign and photographing the gathering. She did have a disclaimer, though, written on her back: "I am not documenting a protest 'cos everything is O.K.!!"




The onlookers on trolleys and duck tours had the most fun, laughing and goading Mackin and the others to act as they passed by. One driver even communicated to them via his speaker. "Good job. Keep up the hard work."

The passersby on foot, however, were more reserved in comparison, many walking by quietly, though some did have questions and comments.

"I have nothing to say."

"You could be sitting down watching TV."

"It's an experiment, obviously."

"They let you out today, huh?"









An old man walked by shooting up his fist and shouting, "Hooray for our great democracy!" Hard to say if it was sarcastic or not, but it got the group chanting again.

There was more open praise than open condemnation. A woman with a child stopped long enough to say, "I love your cause."

"What cause?" said Thal.

"Your non-cause," the woman shot right back.

One of their best supporters was a hot dog vendor from afar, who fielded questions from kids wondering what Mackin and his friends were protesting. "It's not a protest," he told them, having seen enough in his day-to-day around the Common to be in on the joke.

One onlooker who gave me her name (which I've decided not to print) had the idea that because it was a non-protest, she wouldn't get in trouble if she stole one of their signs. She had O.K.ed it with an official looking man standing nearby (who was only an official for the green line subway who couldn't do anything anyway).

She did run off with a sign, with no one even thinking of running after her (it would have been out of character anyway, I guess). One or two of them, however did point out the humor in the fact that she was walking around the busy streets of Boston with a sign expressing apathy.

Though there were several punch lines throughout the day, the best one came when I overheard that Mackin hadn't even applied for a permit to gather. His reasoning, hard to disagree with, was that you couldn't really apply for something that's about nothing. True, no police were around for Mackin to test how safe they were, but neither did anyone complain enough for them to come, if at all.

In the past, I've seen demonstrators either ignored altogether or removed from areas because of the statements on their signs. If only they could have witnessed this. There might be a lesson to learn. Not a happy lesson, but a valuable one.

Sometimes, the less you say in public, the less you have to say in this country, the better off you are.

And if you still get hostility, you can remember the closing chant Mackin and the rest gave when they were packing up less than two hours later:

"Hell no, we're gonna go! Hell no, we're gonna go!"








8 comments:

~lannalee~ said...

Excellent, Chad.

Funny, I used to work with Rich way back in the day (mid-90's), and just today decided to look him up. And I found this post. Fun.

Ian Thal said...

Dude! You misspelt "Article" in the title!

Chad Parenteau said...

AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

Fixed it.

Ian Thal said...

Just in time for me to post a link.

Rich Mackin said...

Hey! I remember that! Funny, now that i have a website again (.com these days)the first 4 Googles were my site, my site, this, and something from the UK saying I was probably a bully (likely actually referring to the train fan of the same name.)

How goes? Technically, my legal name (as of today- just got my new SS and license) is Rich Vail Mackin. I got a new name part from my new wife!

Unknown said...

How funny ... I was looking up articles having to do with apathy in the workplace and this came up. I'm Rich's sister. Glad my family is so openly supporting apathy, given it's lack of popularity ...

Ian Thal said...

You must forgive us: Bill Clinton was still President.

Lediana Stillo said...

Very funny. Love your cause of a "non-cause" lol