Pat Gray, the quintessence of a Green Party Candidate. She is running against Tom Lantos for his Congressional Seat (Northern San Mateo and Southern San Francisco Counties). We gave out lots of her fliers during the parade. At this point there are at least three people who are at least talking about going for that seat. If they all get on the ballot, we may set a new standard for interesting Green Party Primarys.

Matt Gonzalez meeting Donna Spring. Donna got elected to the Berkeley City Council back in 1992, when the Green Party was still a fresh idea in California. Since then her constituents have reelected her every election cycle, and she is now our incumbent with the most seniority. Matt got elected to a much bigger district, and is much more visible. Having them on the same page gives me a connected feeling.

 

When I took this picture Peter was telling Donna that everybody should see this chart. I think it shows revenue sources for California's Government, by income bracket. She took it in gracefully.

I just love this picture. Donna Spring, Matt Gonzalez, and Peter Camejo hanging out. In the background, Mark Sanchez (a Green on the SF School Board) talks to a couple of guys whose names I don't know. The hour or so that we spent talking before the parade got moving was probably the best (if not the only) good chance to talk to each other in an unstructured way these people have ever had.

 

I'm not sure if that is a four seat bicycle or a pedal car behind John-Marc Chandonia. (He was  also one of the people Susan King introduced at the opening of the San Francisco Green Party office.) Either way, that vehicle is officially called a "surrey". By the end of the parade all of the flowers on its front and back had been given to people we went by. They were very popular, especially with women.

 

The theme of the Green Party contingent was "party", so these guys provided the "Sheik Yabootay" style party. The guy with the silver turban was beautiful to watch dancing down the street. He had a constant stream of good moves. I think the black guy was the mix master. He had a lot of good party songs, and every now and then he would announce "GREEN PARTY!!!!" in a way that would make the crowd cheer.

I think these two were the youngest members of our contingent. For some reason, looking at the guys sign reminds me of the weekend I spent at an LRY conference in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, during the '75-'76 time frame.

My only regret of the day was that I didn't get a picture of somebody with green hair at the other end of this banner by the "GREENS" not shown here. As we walked by the crowds along market street the women gave out lavender flowers that smelled wonderful. They were great crowd pleasers. I think the San Mateo County Greens will be planting a lot more of the stuff for next year.

Looking at the above, I find that I don't have good pictures of Brian and Sanda, or quite a few others.Once the parade got started quite a few other people joined us, and our contingent grew to something like 50 people. I was busy handing out fliers at that point, so my hands were really full with that job. My other excuse is that I did have a few pictures that were on a floppy that died, unfortunately.

 

The SUV was part of the BlueWaterNetwork thing, which followed us down the road. Their stereo was MUCH louder than ours, and it spewed that late '70s hit where the woman sings about needing "hot stuff tonight" over and over. Made me wonder if you could get STDs from listening to music. Actually, it was all for show. The smoke drenching mother earth was from a smoke machine. There was actually a team of humans pulling the whale, so they used no fossil fuels during the parade. I saw several people read my MEND YOUR FUELISH WAYS sign and then focus on it with that frustrated look they get when contemplating something unpleasant.

After the parade there was a street fair in front of City Hall that went on for blocks. It was totally mobbed, but I saw a few things that made me click the shutter. Click the dream catcher to see those.