11-19-2000

Dear butterflies:

We held an election rally at Market and Powell in San Francisco today to
support a fair election and recount of votes. I brought my 6 foot yellow
swallowtail butterfly with the butterfly ballots on its wings.  The ballots
were on yellow poster board and the design was created by Jan LeComte, a
friend of Julie Longhill.  This was our first internet art collaboration all
done at the last minute.  Please see this below.

Well, it was all worth it. Everyone loved the butterfly.  Its really bright
and cheery and the butterfly ballot wings were a sensation, especially for
all those photographers wanting to get their best shots.  The butterfly was
the best shot around.  I got to speak about the resolution I'm going to ask
Berkeley to endorse to abolish the Electoral College.  I placed it on the
Peace and Justice agenda for December 4 at 7PM at the North Berkeley Senior
Center.  All are welcome.

After the rally was over, we began a march, but I stopped to talk to some
people on the way.  People with cameras just happening by all wanted to get
some pictures.  Children that I passed had on big smiles.  Does that kite fly
one asked? I passed a bar and someone came out only to be confronted by what
must have been for them something far better than a mammoth pink elephant.  I
was asked to wait until the people in the bar could come out and get a peek.

Anyhow, I was by now hopeless lost from the march and wandering aimlessly
down the streets of San Francisco wondering how I could have possibly been so
foolish. Then Synchronicity took charge.

I had just passed the intersection of Eddy and Tayler (might be Tyler), and a
man passed me with a video camera.  Moments later he came back and asked if I
could stop so he could get a shot.  It turned out he was from CNN. That 6
foot butterfly with the butterfly ballot on its wings really caught his
attention. So I was videoed by CNN and he interviewed me about what I thought
about the election. The funny thing was, they weren't even at the
demonstration.  He had just came out of a conference being held close by. His
name was Scott Wallace and he turned out to be a CNN producer stationed in
Atlanta.