Cyber-Stalking and Creepy Silver-Springers

Silver Spring has always had a reputation for having its fair share of weird and creepy people. But the Old Fart Patrol has taken it to the next level.

The OFP wagging heads are up in arms! They are outraged, offended, and sickened...by a bunch of kids asking for an empty lot to skate in.


Not one argument against these kids holds water:

• They're asking for too much!
  
  Actually, no, they're only asking for an empty lot where they won't get kicked out when they skate.



• They're acting like this is the only issue that matters in Silver Spring!
  
  Actually, no, but teenagers are unlikely to show up in meetings talking about million dollar library bridges or asking why $3 million of county money was given to a rich corporation. And we're sorry for not mentioning your pet issues, zombies and restaurants.



• They're entitled!
  
  Yes they do think they're entitled -- to have an empty lot to skate in.



• They're ungrateful!
  
  Sorry, but the kids prefer not skating in a park so tiny that people are constantly crashing into each other.

Every single argument from the OFP is absurd, and proves the fact that they're really not arguing about the issue, and what they're really so riled up about is a group of mostly poor, mostly minority kids and 1 crazy mom is getting so much attention in the press. And that's attention that rightfully belongs to the OFP and their friends, for really important issues like which new restaurants they can feed their faces in.

Okay that's fine people, but would you mind being just a little less creepy about it?

The OFP has taken "creey and weird Silver Springer" to the next level. They cyber-stalk me -- they talk about me constantly, and they stealthily creep through the interwebs, looking for anything I post, or anything posted about me, and report back to their fellow-Old Fart Patrolers.

They talk about the background picture on my Twitter page, they stalk me on Facebook, and they scour the web for any little morsel they can report back on, where they then commence to wag their heads and point their mean little fingers, because...well, because this is Silver Spring. And this is how we roll. Creepy. And. Weird.

People wonder why Silver Spring's schools have such a big problem with bullies. I know why -- because so many of our kids are well-trained by their Old Fart Patrol parents in the Black Arts of Effective Bullying.

They're bullies on the listserves, bullies in blog comments, bullies in community meetings. And they're trying to bully me and a bunch of 11 - 17 year-old kids. Because this is Silver Spring, and this is how we roll. Creepy. And. Really, really weird.

Response from an Old Fart

Not 5 minutes after posting my groundbreaking expose on the super-secretive Old Farts Brigade that actually runs Silver Spring, who shows up on my blog? You guessed it, an actual member of the OFB, who happens to be a former skater! I couldn't make this stuff up. From Strategic Hype:

"I grew up in this area and I was a skater. We had $0 dollars spent on any kind of skateboarding amenities and we had just as much fun and didn't harass others with our sport. (We actually had a 12ft ramp we built in the woods behind White Flint) So when I hear all this complaining from a very small group of ungrateful kids and a crazy mom it makes me sick."

For those of you who are not familiar with Old-Fartese, I'll translate: "I used to have fun in my life. I don't have fun any more. I hate kids who have fun. Please stop it and become a miserable Old Fart like me."

Strategic Hype, I think we'll pass on your implied recommendation that those of us who still skate, become more like you.

I actually met someone who was heavily into skating that ramp in the woods behind White Flint. He could not have been more supportive -- of me, of local skaters, and of everything we're trying to do.

And when, Strategic Hype, you decide to add something a little bit more, let's say, intellectually compelling, to this conversation -- other than the fact that our community's children make you sick, I'll be more than happy to post that. I'll be waiting!

Old Farts and Player Hating in Silver Spring

Since pro skater Darren Harper and I did The Kojo Nnamdi Show last Thursday, and a bunch of skaters and I participated in Kojo in Your Community in Silver Spring everywhere I go the reaction has been unbelievably, incredibly, extremely positive. People thank me, and tell me we did a great job, and encourage me to continue my efforts to advocate for Silver Spring's skaters.

That's the power of the press, and I started seeing that immediately after former Gazette writer Jason Tomassini first wrote about us in May. People smiled at me wherever I went -- in the grocery store, on the street, on buses, people approached me asking if I was Sk8ter Mom, and giving me all kinds of props for speaking up for the kids.

With continued coverage from the Gazette's Jeremy Arias, TBD.com's Elahe Izadi, ABC 7, University of Maryland Television, and The Kojo Nnamdi Show, we keep getting more support and more supporters from our community.

But this being Silver Spring, there will always be the Old Farts, also known as Professinal Player Haters, who get REALLY riled up by a bunch of mostly-minority, mostly poor kids actually demanding to be heard in their community.

The Old Fart Brigade are easily recognizable by their half-dead appearance (zombies maybe?), and by their antics in the comments sections of local blogs, whenever they get wind of someone, anyone in Silver Spring (gasp!) actually having fun in their lives!

The Old Fart Brigade swore off fun long ago, as it's prohibited in the bylaws of their homeowners associations.

Not every Old Fart actually is old, well not in biological age anyway, but the yungins among them are working REAL hard to get old fast, so they can outdo others in their hood in cantankerousness.

The organizational structure of the OFB is a tightly-kept secret, but my money's on Jon Lourie, President of Silver Spring Town Center, Inc. as being their head poobah.

That's the guy who showed up out of the blue at the exact time and in the exact location that I was set to meet with Reemberto Rodriguez a while back. Grand Poobah Lourie (aka Mephistopheles), before even introducing himself, immediately launched into a cantankerous tirade against skateboarders. His eyes turned bright red and started glowing, and I'm not entirely sure (hey, I was scared), but I do think I saw a couple of protrusions emerging from the top front area of his head, and he looked like he was about to explode when he started ranting about how angry and destructive those little critters are, and how much those whippersnappers just LOVE to destroy things.

This was before the Civic Building opened, and just before he started shooting lazers from his eyes, he looked directly at me and said "you had BETTER NOT let them skate at Veterans Plaza!" I was deeply traumatized. I had scary dreams for a week, thinking Mephistopheles was going to find me and incinerate me on the spot. Or at the very least, eat my face.

But it's all good. I'm all about embracing diversity, and the OFB, even Mephistopheles, need a place to live too.

WE NEVER ASKED FOR COUNTY MONEY!!!

Are we clear on that? Not one dollar. Not one thin dime. Skateboarders in Silver Spring never asked for any county money.

The Price of What We've Been Asking For: $0

That's right, the cost of what we've been asking for, for 2 years, is 0. Nada. Nothing.

We have consistently maintained that all we need is the space, and we will build things to skate, same as K-Town, a homemade skatepark in Kensington.

We never asked the county to build a skatepark. And we would much rather build one ourselves than to pay a huge amount for a completely inadequate facility (*cough* Woodside *cough*.)

What we've been asking for is a patch of ground to skate on, nothing more.

Here's an idea, how about that huge parking lot behind Park & Planning at 8787 Georgia Avenue, yanno, those folks who build skateparks...the same folks who encourage county residents to ride public transportation. And the same folks who, 3 blocks away from a Metro Station, maintain a huge free parking lot for their employees.

Gwen Haney's Cookie Defense or How to Disenfranchise Youth in Silver Spring

Gwen Haney, manager of the Civic Building, claimed that skaters were denied access to Tuesday's taping of Kojo in Your Community in the Silver Spring Civic Building because they took too many cookies and they behaved badly. That's not just a lie -- it's a damned lie.

If some skaters took too many cookies, I don't know and don't care.

The fact is a large group of skaters was stopped at the door and told they could not enter. How do you behave badly in a building you can't go in?

The security guard told me repeatedly that the building manager said to not let the skaters in. She said it as if to apologize for denying them entry, saying again and again that I shouldn't get mad at her because she was only doing what she was told to do.

And what she was told to do, was to not let skaters in.

Dirty Deeds at the Civic Building in Silver Spring

I was contacted by the Kojo Nnamdi Show, asking me and other skaters to attend Kojo in Your Community, a community meeting about public space in the Silver Spring Civic Building. I declined.

I didn't believe we would have the opportunity to express our views, so I decided that I would tell skaters about it, and let them go if they wanted to, but I had no intention of going.

The producer called me back and offered me an in-studio interview. I and Darren Harper did that last week. I was so impressed by Kojo's knowledge about skateboarding in general, and his familiarity with the history of skateboarding in Silver Spring, that I changed my mind about the Kojo in Your Community taping.

I begged, pleaded, and fussed at skaters to come tonight. Many did. And many were refused entry into the Civic Building.

Gwen Haney whined to me about skaters taking cookies. Seriously? The security guard told me repeatedly that the bulding director (who the guard referred to as a 'she'), told her not to allow those skaters in.

We already know and have seen the disregard that many in Silver Spring have for skaters. We already know that in spite of attending numerous meetings and speaking out for their needs, nothing has changed.

Thankfully, one skater, Chris Pacman Santis told Kojo that skaters were told they couldn't get in, and Kojo told Chris to go get all of them. He did. But then, Kojo's staff almost didn't let Chris and the other skaters back in! Chris demanded to get in, saying that Kojo told him to get the skaters, and that Kojo said they could all come in.

Thanks, Chris. You behaved much more maturely than many adults did tonight.