04/14/04 00:00 | 429 W Day 2: Fresno, California
The event — a showing of the film “Independent Media in a Time of War” (available on the Democracy Now! web site. The DVD is produced by the Hudson Mohawk Indymedia Center), and talks by Amy and me—was held at the student center at California State University. It was a fundraiser for community radio station and Pacifica affiliate KFCF. We were told by some folks in LA that Fresno was a small city off the beaten track, so not to expect much. Were they ever wrong...When we arrived at the 700-seat student center, every seat was filled and the place overflowed with people standing—about 1000 people had showed up. The next challenge: keeping the cops from shutting down the event. As I started to speak on stage, Amy went outside to hold off the cops, who showed up because of the crowds and the fire code violations. Then an entire class of students arrived but couldn't get in. So Amy held court outside as the students stood around in a circle asking questions and listening. There was an air of comic tension as the police milled about, and the crowds inside and outside the hall cheered the presentation.
The next morning, we read in the Fresno Bee that the EPA had just declared Fresno as home to the dirtiest air in the country, taking top honors from LA. We met a local Latino leader who explained that the problem of dirty air was especially acute for his community. With many Latinos working in jobs that did not provide health care benefits, asthma rates among Hispanic children has shot sky high. We brought him in to speak on Democracy Now! the next day.
As Vic Bedoian of KFCF drove us to the airport, he warned us about the Pelco surveillance cameras. Fresno airport is one of the testing sites of Pelco's face recognition technology —you walk in and a picture of your face is sent to a central computer. Amy found out the hard way about this hyper-security, as she was subjected to a full search when she was found to be carrying a button that said, “Free Faroukh and all Political Prisoners!” The full teardown ended when a Transportation Security Administration official noticed that she was carrying a book by Mumia Abu-Jamal. “Hey, how's he doing — is he ever gonna get out of jail?” asked the guard, pointing to Mumia's book. Then he whispered to Amy that he listened to Democracy Now! every day!