Why I Care About PAX
I have attended at least one PAX per year since PAX started, and have officially worked them since 2007. I've worked in the Expo Hall in some capacity my entire time, and in 2017 was asked to help more with the entire PAX West Expo Hall as part of the "management" team (I'm still just a regular Enforcer, no hiring/firing power, get paid the same minimum wage as everyone else).
I took that charge seriously, in spite of the ever increasing commercialization, I have felt some ownership of the show for a long time. Especially the Expo Hall. It's a home away from home, it's an extended family. And people have put their trust in me for a long time. I have a duty of care.
COVID
I was there at East 2020 and like so many others through absolute luck managed to not be an early infection. And I was very glad that PAX was called off for a while. I wasn't exactly excited when they came back in 2021, but I went, and it felt more like just a job than ever before. Because I didn't socialize much, and I sure didn't stay any longer than I had to.
My day job for the last 2 years has surrounded COVID. so I was glad to help, to be there (mostly distanced) as a resource, to remind people regularly to take as much precaution as possible, but yes people still got sick. Though it was tempered by the fact the ones in the Expo Hall traced back to a sick housemate->hotel share, one brought it to the show asymptomatic and left once a test popped (and the entire rest of the team got PCRs and didn't come back until cleared), and then another I know was due to people eating as a group at a restaurant with people outside their bubble.
Speaking of my job, did you know that waste water is about the only reliable numbers we're getting in the USA now that all COVID funding has disappeared? Did you know that all 14 stations in New York City are showing a notable uptick and that the data is at least a week old?
https://gothamist.com/news/is-covid-back-in-nyc-wastewater-surveillance-shows-coronavirus-is-rising
PAX West 2023
ReedPop, PAX, the CDC, Washington State Department of Health, and the Seattle Convention Center née Washington State (Trade and) Convention Center have all teamed up to not care about your safety.
Oh, they'll run you through extremely lax metal detector/x-ray lines because chuds that we don't want at the show anyway (but ReedPop does because $$) don't get angry about those, but they sure rage at the idea of wearing a fucking mask. Plus they'd have to limit ticket sales again to help provide a safer density of people, and well, that's money on the table.
But at PAX East 2022, there weren't just infections traced back to the show, there was a death, directly traced to an infection from the event. PAX East 2022, ReedPop, the BCEC, and Boston all fell down and failed to provide the promised public health measures at the show, ones that were promised ahead of time!
And an enforcer, coworker, and event friend since 2014, Deestar (Dawn Woods) died. 13 months ago, on April 30th 2022. Barely more than a year ago. There's no telling how many other COVID related deaths have occurred because of PAX as a vector, but that one we know absolutely for sure. And I still miss her.
Many Enforcers of note were ready to stage a walk out at West22 and to take our team with us if the precautions weren't up to what they had promised. Hell due to a particular exhibitor, we damn near went through with it, but it was solved, and thankfully there were again few infections, at least known to me.
I went because there were promises made and I wanted to do my part to ensure they were kept, to keep as many people safe as possible. To keep my event family safe.
Now PAX West 2023 is ramping up and they're going to have even less than what they had at East22, they're going to have nothing.
They won't stop people from wearing masks and that's it.
It's funny, a few months back I started thinking I might actually hit my 20 year mark, for sure in attendance, but maybe I'd even reach my official Enforcer 20 in 2027, but I guess not.
I can't sign my name on this event. There's no promises I can hold people accountable to.
I've contributed to the show in some way or another for over 16 years but if nothing changes, and I doubt it will, I'm done.
Even if I step away for just this show, I would be surprised if there wasn't retaliation. My future with the show is likely come to an end, even if I'd rather it didn't.
I honestly don't know that we have any kind of mandate among even West Expo staff like we had last year, but I'm still gonna try to build it.
And if there's anything I learned from the "alleged" rape and sexual assault problems (Allegedly fuck you forever Tango) which led to the creation of the somewhat opaque and ultimately corporately controlled Enforcer Safety Circle back in 2011, it's that we don't have time to quietly organize in the shadows.
So all I can reliably do now is encourage people to stay away for their own safety and hope they'll join with me.
And hey, even if I get fired, banned from PAX, and blacklisted from United Temps, maybe we can finally get a serious conversation about an Enforcer union going again.
Further Reading:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/in-loving-memory-of-dawn-deestar-wood
https://kotaku.com/pax-east-enforcer-covid-coronavirus-deestar-death-1848873690
