World Wrestling Entertainment Protest in Burlington, Sunday Aug 5

Update and Bumped up: I was at the protest today. About 18 protesters - all genders and ages with two members of the Green Party of Burlington joining. We gathered in a line on Main Street, across from Burlington's Memorial Auditorium, just before the event started. We got some appreciative thumbs up honks from passing motorists, but also some nasty stares and a few jeers from the waiting audience. What amazed me were the number of family groups waiting to enter the building. I mean prepubescent children with their mothers and fathers; sometimes I spotted generations of the same family. My hope is that some people just started to think about the effects of violence in their homes. There was a good op-ed in yesterday's Free Press, which reads, in part:

If you are still not convinced, then take the word of the medical journal Pediatrics, which published last August the finding of Wake Forest University researchers: "Both among male and female students, the frequency with which they watched wrestling was associated with a number of indicators of violence and weapon-carrying." Lead researcher Robert DuRant stated, "The more children and adolescents are exposed to violence, the more likely they are to engage in violence -- and media plays a part."

In my opinion the evidence is overwhelming that there is no place for the WWE in Burlington, and in particular in a facility such as Memorial Auditorium which is owned by the public. After the tragic murder of Michelle Gardner-Quinn last year, which of course followed the tragic murder of Laura Winterbottom and the double-slaying of two women in Essex, the Burlington City Council issued a resolution stating "that violent behavior perpetrated against women by men is inexcusable and will not be tolerated in our community," and "that we commit to working with our schools and neighborhoods to educate ourselves, especially boys and men, on prevention of violence against women."

A commendable gesture. Very nice words. But wouldn't action be better? How about an ordinance prohibiting a WWE performance within our city, or at least prohibiting the rental of city-owned property to the WWE in light of its dismal record on domestic violence? Now, that would actually be doing something, something in honor of Gardner-Quinn, Winterbottom and the two Essex women. Something that actually might make a difference.



World Wrestling Entertainment SILENT PROTEST, 5:30 PM, Sunday, August 5 - gathering at the parking lot of College Street Congregational Church, 265 College Street at South Union Ave - across from YMCA (map).

Join SafeSpace and the Burlington Business & Professional Women for a protest against the WWE show in Burlington. To learn more about the WWE as a violence issue, follow this link.

My BPW contact tells me that "this is a SILENT PROTEST and we do not interact with the WWE crowd, although they do taunt us and some people could feel threatened."

Note to Greens in Burlington: this needs our presence and endorsement.