MAGNIFICENT CHAOS

Montgomery Street, San Francisco was the place to be on September 25, 2019. And it was a good day to be: At last Speaker Pelosi succumbed to a divine moment of peristalsis. It’s been a long and painful constipation for all the many Americans who still have not lost our moral compass. Any discussion of expediency loses track of the fact that, like it or not, Congress’ charge is to investigate criminal malfeasance and when they see it, exercise their duty to impeach.

No more Business as Usual

At 9 A.M. this morning, the streets all around Wall Street of the West were blockaded. 

photo credit: Meaveen O'Connor

Extinction rebellion marshaled a troop of red-clad women (some men too) symbolizing the blood we all share, as they greeted all who emerged from the Montgomery BART.  There must have been at least 20 of them in costume, moving silently and in slow motion.

photo credit: Meaveen O'Connor

The "Black Snake" emblemizing the Daokta Access Pipeline appeared:

photo credit: Meaveen O'Connor

Traffic crawled to a standstill. Thousands of painters, guided by very explicit sketches, glorified the asphalt to scale with 12 gigantic circular murals. 

photo credit: Diablo Rising Tide

The day’s menu, developed by Climate Justice.org, and handed out at the exit of Montgomery Street BART suggested 8 places to “visit.” Two consulates, the Canadian (purchaser of the tar sands pipeline) and the Brazilian (immolator of the Amazon to cattle raising) and 8 banks, Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, B of A, HSBC and Bank of the West, all of them criminally complicit in capitalizing the fossil fuel sector that’s killing life on our planetary home. At each bank entrance, folks crouched, locked down together by resistance hardware. One sign read: Closed Today: Owners Working on Apocalypse.

Lockdown. photocredit: Meaveen  O'Connor

While traffic honked and rumbled as it crawled through the peripheral streets, Jaeger & Reid entertained the painters with their inspired lyrics.  You can listen here and San Francisco’s finest, drawing overtime to look foolish, let anyone know who cared to that the tiny alley they were guarding was blocked to foot traffic.

photo credit: Meaveen O'Connor

But it was the painters, what looked like 500 of them, who won the day, and the extraordinary effort by participating groups, Idle No More, 

"Return to the Old Way." photo credit Meaveen O'Connor

 

Extinction Rebellion, Diablo Rising Tide, 1000 Grandmothers for Future Generations, and the Society of Fearless Grandmothers to quartermaster this extraordinary effort: each mural carefully conceived first in miniature, then chalked with guidelines before the painters got to work. The nearly 500 beautiful silk-screened banners, their posts carefully painted, and the chaos.

 

"Migration is natural; we are all related"

photo credit: Meaveen O'Connor

Oh, the Dionysian Streets!  

   
Check these links out; consider joining:

https://climatejusticesf.org/

https://extinctionrebellionsfbay.org
  
Attend the Third Annual Voting Integrity "In Paper We TRust" conference. For info go to:
https://nvrtf.org/2019-nvrtf-conference/conference-speakers-for-the-coming-2020-election-crisis-in-paper-we-trust/, and to reserve  early bird tickets go to: https://nvrtf.org/event/national-voting-rights-task-force-3rd-election-integrity-conference/

Attend the  non-violent protest meeting Thursday, October 3
at 6 PM at 3358 Cesar Chavez Street in San Francisco. Info:
Norcal@refusefascism.org.