IMPEACH: This Little Guerrilla Went to Market.
Mon Jan 09, 2006 at 10:51:01 AM PDT
So, we did it.
Yesterday was our first stab at a National IMPEACH Guerrilla Action Day.
Thanks to furryjester, our group of old people from the suburbs of Northern Virginia got together in the offices of the local Democratic Committee, with kids in tow, and painted signs.
And I mean a lot of signs.
What we weren't really sure of was whether we'd be all alone. Thankfully, we weren't.
UPDATE: Thanks to
Dem in VA for the enhanced images of photos taken by him and
puckish.
Let's start with the results.
Here's just a part of our group's output:
Here's what we did with it:
Here's who saw it:
Well, that should just about have killed all you dial-up types. But wait, there's more! It turns out that our call for back-up didn't go unheeded.
Here's what happened in Houston:
Here's what happened in Orange County, CA:
Here's what happened in San Diego:
Anything happening in your neck of the woods? Had any thoughts about joining us? Find out how to make these cool signs at the new IMPEACH project web site or the IMPEACH project wiki, where you can add your tips and tricks as you develop them.
We may just be a small band, but we probably reached a few hundred thousand commuters this morning. Our Norther Virginia signs continue to survive, longer than expected. Seems there are fewer highway crews and/or angry Bush supporters bothering to take them down.
Are you in the neighborhood? You can find these signs along I-66 heading into the city, near the intersection with the Beltway. Or even as far out as Manassas. Also over Route 28 in the Centreville area. And another group we didn't even know about has been active in Tyson's Corner and on I-395. So keep a sharp eye out.
There's really nothing profound to say today, except that my thanks go out to puckish, who brought two of her kids with her, to furryjester, who got us the workspace, and to Dem in VA, who brought his son along as well.
Thanks also to all of you who have been doing your part in all of this. And to those of you who've been putting up stickers, we want you to know that not only are the larger signs more effective (obviously), but they're also a lot more fun to produce and deploy. Working with a local group also makes it possible to share the tasks: gathering scrap cardboard, painting it white, sketching or tracing the lettering, filling in the letters, and of course, hanging the signs. I can paint 'em, but with an infant with me all day, I can't hang 'em. Others in our group can hang 'em all day long, but have no place to paint 'em. Working together, we probably caused a couple hundred morning commute coffee spit-takes. And that pumps money into the local economy when they take their stuff to the dry cleaners.
So if you've been stickering and are hungering for a taste of the big stuff, just say so. We'll tell you all about what we did and how we did it. We can even show you pictures of just about any step of the process. If we haven't got a picture of it or an answer for you, you can be sure the Freeway Blogger does.
And hey, if you're not into the impeachment message, think about what you WOULD be willing to say to people. Censure? Something else? Something completely different?
Freeway Blogging can be about anything you want. And with most people consuming their news in silence, ensconced in a cubicle or trapped at home, there may in fact no longer be any way to catalyze public discussion of the serious issues we face. No way that you or I can afford, anyway. This is the freest free speech still available to you, and if you post your signs safely and on public property, you're pretty well protected from any prosecution. Just use lightweight materials, hang them inside the fencing, and be willing to remove anything the authorities might ask you to remove, and you should be well within the boundaries of law.
Talk to your neighbors, people. They're dying to hear from you, believe it or not. Give them a sign that it's OK to think about things that might not be on the TV news. Let them know that you're thinking what they're thinking.
