Sunday, February 26, 2006

W.A.R. continues to educate HLS financiers

Wind chills that felt as low as 3 degrees hit activists as we trekked out to visit long time friend, Deryck Maughan, Director of GlaxoSmithKline. Chants were loud and echoed off the building, as neighbors came out to see what was going on. The doorman laughed and danced, but the people who live there weren't, as they had to make their way through us to the front doors. I can assure you, happy they were not, as their property value sinks as another resident brings the evils of HLS (hell) to their front door as witnessed by the pictures and signs we displayed.

Swiftly through the cold, activists moved on to our friend at the Bank of America, Jeffrey Barker. The doorman, always in a state of shock, watched as another ran for the phone to report that a legal demonstration was going on. Screams about the pain inside HLS could be heard everywhere. People rushed to get inside away from the cold and all of the chanting protestors outside, as the demo continued. I bet Jeffrey gets a mouth full from neighbors again, over the next few days, about what he's supporting at work.

Our next stop was our new favorite market maker, Peter Rosten of the Vertical group. His doormen are always a pleasure. I guess it's not their job to do anything. Our signs couldn't be missed, nor our voices, which reached up to the highest levels of this tall building. Peter, this is the beginning for those that create a market for companies that poison 12,800 animals to death including pregnant rabbits and beagle puppies for things like Splenda coffee sweetener.

With a full night's agenda already completed, a few of us decided to make two more quick stops.

We called this - “Knock, Knock Education.”

The first one was David Spencer, VP of Bank of America. We dropped off flyers for him so he can learn about HLS and the campaign against them. Unfortunately, he wasn't home to talk to. Some people love to get mail, some people don't. I know this mail won't be happy, when he opens it up and sees first hand the horror his company is causing. If this doesn't help screaming voices might next time.

We moved down the block to our good new friends Christopher Pesce, Head of Prime Brokerage at Bank of America, and his wife. Christopher (so formal, we'll just call him Chris), so Chris was kind enough to ring us in. We moved up the elevator to the 4th floor. We saw that when the door opened we were right at his doorstep. His wife opened the door and was happy to take our literature while Chris played with their kid on the couch. His wife seemed a little confused at first, but Chris knew all too well what this visit was about. His nervous reaction of smiles and smirks weren't the same ones his wife started to get it.

His wife was mad (maybe it was the picture of the cut open puppy in pain on the flyer!). Maybe not, “This is a gross invasion of our privacy” Ahh stupid you invited us up to talk. I guess it was the picture that upset her or maybe she was smart enough to make the connection that her husband was supporting a company, through his job, that burns the eyes out of cute little bunny rabbits. We could take a hint that it was time to go and we did as politely as possible.