Some notes on MATA and the battle over public spaces
Yesterday evening we encountered something that we really haven’t dealt with before during our five-year tenure as the Mid-South’s premier zombie walk event (I just made that “premier” bit up; is it true?!): Persistent resistance from officials who did not want us there.
This post is going to be about public spaces and the right to assemble, the right to be weird, and the misplaced anger of some authority figures. It is likely to run long and be full of detail and some philosophic wonkery, so I’m putting the bulk of the post after a jump. Still, if you are interested in your rights as a taxpayer — hell, as a human being living in an increasingly vibrant city — to utilize public spaces in responsible yet creative ways, I encourage you to read it and let me know what you think.