Somebody gave me this flier that more or less was the call to action that energized some of the people that showed up for this march.

  

I'd heard that there was going to be a climate summit in San Francisco to see what can be done about moving forward using consensus and good science. It was going to be the centerpiece of Gov. Brown's fight to get us all to take climate change seriously. Whatever, it was one of those "everybody that cares should be there" kind of things.

Virginia and I took the train up. We got there too late to join the march at the beginning, so we did the next best thing, going down the road they were scheduled to come up until we saw them coming. Then we looked for a good place to stand and watch people go by. We were waiting for our group so we could join them, but we were also reviewing the march ourselves. Virginia took all of these pictures because I'd forgotten my camera.

  

     

     



     



        

        

  

  

        





           



     

     









           





        



     

        

     

        

     







        

        

        

        

     

For the most part, what I saw as they went by is what I know about those people. You can see what they had to say as well as I can. It's a bit different when an old friend like Gloria Purcell goes by. I've ridden all over the state of California in the passenger seat of her car. Had to stop for a photo op when she and her husband went by. She wasn't on a walker and he wasn't on a cane when I first met them, so many years ago.

           

        



  

          

           

     

        



        

     

     

       

     

     

 

        

The NRDC was giving out those shirts with the California Bear wearing a gas mask widely. I got one to, except mine has the slogan "PROTECT COMMUNITIES" instead of "STAND UP TO BIG OIL". The fine print on the red stripe reads "Brown's last chance", the same for all the different messages I saw on them.

         

            

         



     

        

     

        

     

The big version of that green sign read "I can't hear you over the scientific consensus".



        



        

Saw several people with those orange Trump/Pence stickers on them like it was a parade virus or something.





         

          

        

        





  

        



After the Green Party got to us we fell in and followed them for most of the rest of the march.

           

     

They had decided to highlight that Governor Brown had green lighted something like 7000 oil drilling projects this term. They made an "Oil Rig", with the pump jack thing that looks like a sucking insect head replaced by a characture of the Gov. They pulled on the ropes to mimic the up and down action of an oil well. It took considerable coaxing to get it past the potholes and railroad tracks in Market St.

        

     

           



        

The guy with the YES on Z sign explained that it was a Monterrey County initiative that abolished fracking anywhere in the county.

        

     

  

        

        



     

        

        



 

Behind us there was an endless river of people with signs. Ahead of us it was the same. Virginia said later that the crowd estimate was 30,000 to 40,000 people. I could believe that.

     



        

        

        

The guy with the green and blue flag with the redwood tree on it explained that it was the official flag of the movement to break off Northern California to make it another state.

        

     

        

     



Finally we reached City Hall Plaza, the planned destination.

     

  



        



        

     

           



     



Wow! What a march. I gotta think about all the things I saw.