I decided this needed its own post.
In the late eighties/early nineties I was one of those guys outside the Tacoma dome, a subject that came up in at least two recent threads. At the time I was newly out, and I felt that I needed to make a statment. I stopped doing it after a couple of years for the simple reason that I no longer felt the need to do it.
Somebody on one of those threads mentioned a man with a bull horn yelling "watch out for the watchtower." I haven't talked to him for ten years or so, but his name was Ralph Parsons and he was a major factor in my exit from the watchtower (along with my wife). He ran a church in the area, and a once a month meeting for x-jw's. Richard Rowe, who's story is apparently now playing in NYC was a regular there. I think we would have made it out without him, but as it happened he was a big help and for that I will be eternally grateful.
I don't know if the protests are effective or not. They helped us get out. If somewhere, sometime, somehow, a couple more get out, the protesters will have had an effect. Good enough for me.
