Free pizza won out over free speech Tuesday afternoon, but lunch in the Republic of Parkland included lessons in the loss of freedoms.
A portion of the Pacific Lutheran University campus called Red Square was taped off for the second annual First Amendment Free Food Festival sponsored by the student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Anyone who wanted a free lunch of pizza and soda could get a passport to visit the Republic of Parkland and eat their fill.
The one catch was that students had to sign away their First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly, petition and religion. They had to carry a stamped passport and show it any time they were asked.
Around 170 students opted for lunch and quickly found out that sitting with more than one other person at a time was not allowed. That is illegal assembly, they were told.
“They yelled at me for having a camera,” said Jillian Buchanan, 17, one of a handful of Washington High School journalism students who came to the festival. “I almost got kicked out.”
Brown- and black-shirted enforcers for the Republic of Parkland circulated among the lunch crowd to make sure no one exercised any First Amendment rights. Those who did were warned and then escorted out or thrown out of the Republic.
A contingent of PLU Theater Club students wore costumes and acted as enforcers and protesters. They put on the street theater with gusto.
Sen. John McCain, played by campus SPJ President Nate Hulings, entered the Republic over and over and tried to speak about freedom. He was hustled out each time. So was a barefoot Gandhi played by Ted Charles, a PLU freshman, who tried to bring a message of peace and passive resistance. Kyle Sinclair, a sophomore, played a monk in a robe who kept trying to pray but was literally tossed out over the tape. He rolled on the ground. “I’m not hurt,” he said. “It’s what I do.”
Spontaneous protests and sing-ins provoked the wrath of the enforcers.
From the steps of the old chapel above Red Square, the queen of the Republic of Parkland, Ashley Coats, in her royal blue robe and gold crown, smiled and waved over the chaos that erupted time and time again.
She beckoned them to lunch and then pointed out those who disobeyed the rules.
Nick Steele, a PLU sophomore and a five-year veteran of the Marine Corps, said he found the exercise “interesting. It’s a way to get students involved.”
He, too, was tossed out for sitting at the wrong table.
“This reminds me of my first couple years in the military,” he said, explaining that as a Marine he was told they were to protect democracy, not practice it.
Hulings said a number of people came by and declined not to give up their freedoms for pizza.
“People not going in were making as big a statement as those going in,” he said.
“One thing I like about doing this is not having just a lecture or bringing someone on campus (to speak),” he said. “This got them actively involved in something.”
Mike Archbold: 253-597-8692
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