Stairs

I came in the back of a room where Tim Johnson was giving a speech.  There was a group of gay rights activists creating a disturbance right by where I came in.  I wanted to hear what Tim had to say so I talked w/ the leader of the group and said that while I agreed that everyone had a right to be heard, the way his group was acting was denying that right to the guy that most of the people in the room had come to see.  I said I was pretty familiar w/ Tim and thought that he would meet w/ any group that asked, so if their intent was to get a message to him it wouldn’t be that hard, but what they were doing was just making themselves unpopular w/ most of the people in the room.  He seemed to take to heart what I said and started to try to calm down his crowd.

Some security people came heading back toward us and I was pretty sure they were focused on me, so I slipped back out the back door.  There was an elevator, but the car was several floors above, so I decided to try the wooden stairs heading down that was opposite the elevator.  I went down the first flight and the walls were gone, it was just a scaffold, open on three sides attached to the side of the building.  There were two kids standing on the next level down and they watched me continue past them down the stairs.  They had been looking for a way down, too, but for some reason hadn’t considered the stairs, but after they saw me they decided to try it.

The stairway got smaller, dirtier, and less stable looking as I continued down.  Finally after 4 or 5 flights it was just a hole in the floor w/ dried mud all around it and I couldn’t fit.  I knew I needed to continue down, so I looked over the side and there were some thin nylon ropes hanging down.  I grabbed hold of one and started sliding down.  I slid about 30 feet when I saw that the rope ended about 20’ short of the ground.  I slid down to the very end of the rope, just hanging on by my hands and realized that my feet were only 12 or 13 feet above the ground and it sloped downward, so it would probably be OK to drop.  I dropped and rolled and popped up OK.

Behind me, under the building was a large open area where workers were manufacturing things.  Some were operating presses, some were stitching together fabric, some were moving boxes around.  A man from India saw me land and came over to help me.  He gave me two red tassels like the Chinese hang on artwork for decorations.  He told me they would keep me safe while I crossed the water.