By virtue of the protest march down College Avenue yesterday afternoon, it appears the National Governors' Association isn't the only group trying to influence the lives of local and national citizens.
Unfortunately for them, the nation's eyes remained on the NGA annual meeting about a mile away in the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel.
In front of a small State College crowd, about 200 protesters marched with the anti-NGA Redirection 2000 campaign, making their way from Old Main to the corner of College Avenue and Shortlidge Road yesterday.
Representatives from the local United Food and Commercial Workers AFL-CIO joined the Redirection 2000 protesters at the corner, upset about Gov. Tom Ridge's failure to provide them with new contracts in four years. Many state liquor store clerks have been receiving the same salary since 1996, protesters chanted yesterday.
Ridge, who was in closed-door meetings all day yesterday, could not be reached for comment.
For the next hour, the group continued down College Avenue toward Allen Street, often stopping to make a brief speech or two.
Two people, who had come from Norway to "meet radical people to see how they could support us and make this world a better place," participated in the march.
"When I was 12, I thought the world was unfair," said Astrid Nilsen, 21. "Now, I think every group can make a difference."
Nilsen's friend Staale Holgersen, 20, said it is important for groups such as Redirection 2000 to make small advances, because "everybody has a voice and everybody can fight."
Many people at the march held signs carrying slogans such as "Democracy 4 Sale," "NGA — Money buys politics" and "NGA profits over people."
While many of the signs focused on convention agenda issues such as the new economy and education reform, others bled through to different topics, ranging from union contracts to marijuana legalization.
"The dominant opinion of this country is the corporate opinion," said Sam Richards, a sociology professor. "I think more than anything else, we're here to say that."
One sign even protested the controversial death-row imprisonment of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a black man convicted of killing white police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981.
Yesterday's march went on without any security problems.
"We were pleased," said State College Police Chief Tom King. "We know at times protesters set their minds to get arrested. I think they are expressing their views very well."
Other groups, however, found trouble with the law.
Saturday, a group of anti-death penalty supporters called 911 after allegedly being followed by a green van, then claimed they were violated after they were arrested and their car was searched, said Jeffrey Garis, executive director of Pennsylvania Abolitionists.
Prior to the Redirection 2000 march, however, the group did run into a few problems. On Saturday, Redirection 2000 organizer Justin Leto sat in the lobby of Osmond Lab under a white banner that said "The People's Convention — a socially responsible alternative to the Governors' Convention." It was a banner, he said, that the Penn State Office of the Physical Plant had made the group take down from outside.
"We need to get something straight," he said. "NGA is not a private association. We're talking about elected government officials here, meeting behind closed doors, and only seeing one side of the issue. That is not democratic.
"It's important the public have a forum to address governors," he added. "I think our message is clear, and that is we need more accountability in our government."
Leto said he spoke with Ridge briefly at the "Evening Under the Stars" gala Saturday night on Allen Street and told the governor about the opposition but Ridge said the NGA meeting was a closed-door, business-only affair.
