Word: tented
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...ACORN's Tent City was impressive; right by the major highway, Republican delegates coming in from the airport couldn't fail to notice the gospel tents, huge "Reagan-buster" signs, and people milling about from the ice-machines to the shade and back. The heat was so bad, that some of the older people from other parts of the country, not used to Texas heat, had medical problems. But there were not many of them, and the others who were well continued to chant; "We're Fired Up, We're Going to Dump the Chump...
Acorn members ignored media attempts to sensationalize the Tent City by focusing on the handful of abrasive Yippies camping nearby. And they refused to be tempted to air-conditioned houses by the middle-class Yuppies who left the Tent City after experiencing a little discomfort. Calling themselves "Peacekeepers" because they held seminars on how to remain nonviolent and protect their bodies when attacked by the police, these well-to-do allies field suit to have the City immediately provide another campsite with shade trees and air conditioned first aid vehicles. Dallas' responsibility to protect First Amendment rights only extends...
Although the press was out in force for the Tent City, and most of them did capture ACORN's message that Reagan had his own version of a "War on Poverty", they were drawn largely to the more easily sensationalized small fringe groups also camping at Tent City. ACORN president Hanggi, who came from Arkansas with her husband and daughter, said that in talking to the media, "What I had to deal with was their perception of what a protest rally was." In the 60's and early 70's, she said, most of the anti-war rallies were white...
Many press reports highlighted what was considered to be the low numbers of protestors. A long Washington Post article claimed the Tent City proved that the era of large protest demonstrations was over, prompting one participant to say: "That reporter must not have been at the same Tent City I was at." Hanggi and others shrugged off those media reports, saying the reporters just don't understand the different realities of working in a poor people's movement, as opposed to the anti-war protests. Hanggi said: "The difference is that we're working on different issues, such as economic...
Perhaps the biases in the press are understandable. After all, at the Tent City the temperature was about 110 degrees all three days and dust settled over everything. Air conditioning at the Republican convention made the place pleasantly chilly--some delegates even protested that the hall was too cold. The press was treated to free food, such as shrimp salad lunches and drinks by the GOP, while they could buy a plate of rice and beans at Tent City. The Republicans provided free phones, typewriters, tv's and work areas, while there was a bank of pay phones atop...