First off, if you follow me on twitter and I’ve unfollowed you, I haven’t. My account’s been hacked, so please bear with me.
The above isn’t really my 8,000th sign - probably more like #8,060 or something, but it’s the 8,000th I’ve posted a picture of on my blog hoping that the sheer volume of photographic evidence will persuade people that what I do is legal, which I believe I’ve largely accomplished. What I haven’t done though is convince them that it’s worthwhile, which at this point is something I find kind of remarkable. Having dashed my brains on this for some 15 years now, I hope you won’t mind giving me two minutes of your time here.
First off, please rest assured I’m not talking about you. You’ve been nothing but supportive and would be doing it yourself if it wasn’t for some very good reasons. But it’s the collective failure that I find fascinating, both as a sociological abstraction as well as a gauge of just how abysmal my sales and leadership skills are. There are a few things I’m pretty good at, but trust me, telling people what to do ain’t one of them.
As you look at these pictures, imagine how long they’d have to be up to get caught on Google Earth, how many people would see them, day after day, with at least some understanding of how many others were seeing them too. And while there’ve been a handful of copycats, that’s out of an audience of many, many millions. Remember, along with these there’ve been another 8,000+ — mostly in California, but also Portland, Seattle, Phoenix, Denver and 100 around Washington DC as well.
So what’s the hold up? Well, ironically the dynamic that keeps people from taking down these signs is the same one that keeps them from putting them up: “That’s not my job.” And that’s true. It’s not your job, or at least it’s never been your job before. Your job has always been to vote, call and/or write your representatives, go to marches and rallies, and do what you can to get out the vote. That’s the way it’s been, and the problem is it isn’t working. And you know it.
I’m not saying that doing what I do is going to work either (although believe me, if suddenly a couple of hundred people started doing it in earnest this country would start to look like Berkeley in the 60s.) But I can say this: it’s fun. Think of it this way: I want you to make art and play a game. The art is to find words you think need to be read and make them big. The game is to situate them in a place they’ll be seen but unlikely to be physically reached. I swear to you, once you put yourself in that mindset you’ll find it’s the most interesting, exciting and important game you’ll ever play.
And you’ll feel about 25 years younger.
Remember, when I put up signs we all get to see pretty pictures.
When you do it we get our country back.
To be continued.