>Letter to the Editor: New Times Los Angeles, published April 22, 1999

Scientology Lies > My Writings > >Letter to the Editor: New Times Los Angeles, published April 22, 1999

[Note: the words in orange were edited out of the letter as the paper ran it.]

Thanks, Finger, for your column about Scientologists who revenge-picket critics' homes.

I had the pleasure of picketing Scientology in LA in March, and true to form, Scientologists revenge-picketed my home here in San Francisco.

Now, I personally don't get all pissy when they pay me a visit. I usually come outside and chat with them; occasionally I ignore them.

However, many people draw a distinction between picketing a public office and picketing a residence. During one of Scientology's revenge pickets, two of the three passersby who stopped to talk expressed their disapproval of picketing someone's home.

Indeed, in many places it's illegal to picket a residence. That doesn't stop our friends in Scientology, though, who blithely picket homes in San Jose and Salt Lake City, despite local laws against residential pickets.

In San Francisco, where they do in fact have every right to picket my home, I steadfastly recognize that right and encourage them to utilize their right to speak freely - I love free speech and love to see people engage in it ( ... although I wish they wouldn't libel people, which IS against the law).

One more point: you may THINK Scientology is "no worse than the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Church, or the Unitarian Church," but I'm not aware that any of those fine organizations have written policies mandating imprisoning their parishioners, and I haven't heard that they have a history of doing so. Scientology has both.

Kristi Wachter
San Francisco

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