Beach Impeach ~ Mother of all political protests?
Most people can respect political protests in many forms. I lived for a while on a non-obvious street about six blocks from the White House, where the President would send political protests to keep them out of the way. While there were always hoards of interesting things happening in D.C., I have to admit that my personal favorite type of protest, mostly for amusement purposes, hails from California and is the movement called "Beach Impeach." This man is the mastermind behind it, Brad Newsham:
It’s easy to see what a passionate free spirit this guy is. This picture, from his personal website, wasn’t obviously vulgar, but I decided to censor it to air on the side of caution for those of you not expecting to see a naked man running his way across the beach, and now your screen, in a fight for your freedom.
These events seem like fun gatherings and interesting places, and I can respect their opinions. I’m not certain, however, that the beach is such a great place for a protest. Across the world, there is so much non-political symbolism wrapped up in even going to a beach that it seems counterintuitive to jar people out of their beachy dream worlds with a large protest. I can’t imagine that they appreciate it. Or maybe that is exactly the point? I’m more inclined to think that they are just trying to leverage the shock factor, and, for some people, to get to take a ride in helicopter. Then again, this event is not actually on a beach, but in Cesar E. Chavez Park in Berkeley in the Bay.
Ultimately, if large corporations can have their beach parties, then why not naked travel writers and their entourages? My dad, who served in the military for decades and is an Iraq war veteran, gets angry when he hears anyone trying to tell anti-war or anti-Bush protesters to be quiet. His reply, "I served for them too." It takes a brave guy to say that, but life would be so dull without Californians running with abandon across the beach. Here’s the video:
Even Cindy Sheehan and Cynthia McKinney were in attendance. With such celebrities, it must have been an important event.
If you’re serious, people, it’s going to take more than a beach party to get impeachment up and going. Nancy Pelosi is the representative of many of you, and she’s not even on board. Maybe you need a new strategy.
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Posted on October 14, 2007
Filed Under Government, Military, Politics |
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