The Elephant Weighs In

Tuesday, June 22 -- Four days to go


TODAY, while I was delivering 600 flyers door-to-door in the neighborhood around Ocean Beach, the elephant in the country, MoveOn.org, was sending emails to its 3 million members directing them to the Hands Across the Sand event nearest them.

I have NO IDEA idea what, if anything, this means for the size of the crowd that will be arriving at Ocean Beach on Saturday, but I always like to think that things are going to work out better than I could imagine, and, well, sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't. As of right now, I'm just surrendering to whatever happens next between now and Saturday.

It was just about ten days ago that I first heard about Hands Across the Sand. At that time, there were some 350 Hands events scheduled worldwide (exact same day, almost the exact same time as our little Slash Oil event) including two or three dozen in California, three of them in San Francisco, one right at Ocean Beach. Today there are about 700 Hands events scheduled, including 640 in the USA, about 100 of them in California. The one at Ocean Beach -- ours -- well, it's on, capital ON.


I TOOK a half-hour break from my flyering today, went to the beach, and stepped off the borders of the Slash Oil image. I must tell you, organizing these things is a royal annoyance, but stepping out onto the beach -- oh, man, that's the payoff. I just love that beach, and it's a particular thrill to be there "by myself," trying to visualize it all, trying to imagine the crowd, trying to figure it all out. And then to see, later, what the actual result is. I can't wait to make the outline on Saturday morning. I'm going to need help. If you can come early, please do. I'll be there by 7, and I could use about a dozen assistants to outline the image. For Beach Impeach we had "letter captains," and while there are no letters this time, we're going to need folks willing to help with the crowd. If you folks can show up around 9:30, that would be fantastic.


I'VE RECEIVED several emails from people on this list who were alarmed that MoveOn.org had directed them to some event other than our Ocean Beach event. I suggest that everyone go to whichever event makes the most sense for them. We're all trying to bring awareness to, are trying to weigh in on, the same issue. But I will point out that (and any of you who attended a Beach Impeach event will have already thought of this) there is going to be one event out of all of these several hundred events, that will have an extra creative and artistic aspect to it. I wouldn't miss THIS one, even if I could.

Hope to see you there.

And hey, if you want to get a little inspired, really, check out the Hands website.