Pasadena Activist Plans Cinema Protest

Pasadena Citizen" Pasadena resident Janette Sexton hopes to attract as many as 20 people to her organized protest Saturday from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Cinemark Hollywood theater at 2101 E. Beltway 8.

Sexton has been fighting for global rights for three years and said she hopes her presence at the film's opening will give movie-goers a dose of reality before watching the Hollywood hype.

"I'm trying to get the word out and raise awareness. Not many people even know about climate change," she said.

Like Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," Sexton is hoping "The Day After Tomorrow" arouses just as much public consciousness.

Twentieth Century Fox has taken certain truths about the belief in Earth's next Ice Age and released it as the summer's expected blockbuster.

The PG-13 movie starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal details massive natural chaos across the globe in a matter of days, leaving New York City as a frozen wasteland and California's hillside ripped by tornados.

Global warming and other repercussions human technology has inflicted on Earth is the premise behind the disaster. Experts on climate change who have seen advanced screenings of "The Day After Tomorrow" contend while the movie is definitely "Hollywoodized," its basis is real.

"The overwhelming scientific consensus is that global warming is real, and that it's upon us now," said Tom Prugh, senior editor at the Worldwatch Institute in Washington, D.C., as reported in National Geographic. "In the last century, the average temperature of the Earth has warmed roughly one-degree Fahrenheit. That means an enormous additional amount of heat energy has been built into the system, and there are serious consequences to that warming."

Sexton said she knew she first wanted to protest President Bush's policy on pollution when she visited the Pasadena movie theater and saw TXU Energy promoting their services to patrons with Latin disc jockeys.

"It just wasn't fair to the Hispanic population. Not a lot of them are aware that the laws have been reduced to a point where companies have free rein to do what they want to do," said Sexton, a Hispanic.

After living in Pasadena for more than 20 years, Sexton has taken an active approach in educating others on Houston's pollution problem. During Saturday's protest she plans to adorn 20-by-30 inch foam placards that read "TXU is bad 4 U" and "Bush + TXU = Global Warming."

She said she has warned the theater's management of her protest plans and tried to obtain a permit from the Pasadena Police Department.

Officers advised Sexton that she could only stand on the side of the theater building, not impede traffic, not display offensive signs and must keep moving, she said.

Similar movie theater protests are planned at the Edwards Marq*E at 7620 Katy Freeway today from noon to 2 p.m., LCE East Commons at 8580 Highway 6 North today and Saturday at 9 p.m. and at the LCE Spring 10 at 20115 Holzwarth Rd. in Spring today at noon.

"(Climate change) has happened many times in the past. It's a cycle Earth goes through. Ignorance and arrogance in people do not change things; this will happen again," Sexton said.