This isn’t a very serious diary. More like some vacation photos, Kossack style. This is just a pictorial tribute to some Americans who deserve some recognition, those grassroots activist that are trying to make a difference.
The title stems from a series I started that was devoted to people who do the right thing and while walking the Main Beach area of Laguna Beach yesterday I met quite a few Americans that impressed me. People who are certainly “Outstanding in the Field.”
You know what almost every New Yorker says to me when they hear I go to Orange County for my vacations? “That’s the most Republican county in California.” Well they may have a wingnut representing them but almost everybody I met yesterday told me that Steve Young will be replacing that nit wit in November.
I have to say that I wish I could see as many people getting involved in my blue reputation home town New York City as I do here in this left leaning corner of a California republican county.
Before I show the activist, let me show you what I woke up too. Last week I posted a photo of Jared and Hollywood;
For no reason other than it seems like the right thing to do they pick up garbage on their sweeps. At Hollywood’s feet is his recent take in cigarette butts and in his hand is a jar of beach tar. He claims that beach tar is a byproduct of shipping.
Between the two of them they figure that they save around two hundred plastic bags from entering the ocean per day.
Well yesterday they had some help. When I got out of bed there were hundreds of people picking up garbage up and down the beach.
I never got down there to ask who organized the effort but when I made it to the Main Beach I saw even more impressive crowds.
The first and by far the most enthusiastic were too young to vote but off to a good start in life. These teenagers were working very hard to get passing motorist and pedestrians to remember the children starving in Africa. They worked together to cut up ribbons and festoond the area. Two of them even climbed trees for world hunger;
The second group was a bit older and it would be my second time meeting the Laguna Beach Peace Vigil. The last time I held a sign with these fine Americans was on May 19, 2007. George W. Bush has killed another 537 Americans since then.
They had both good and bad news to report. The bad news is that their numbers have dwindled since the first Saturday morning protesting the upcoming war in Iraq back in March of 2002. The good news is that there is almost no one to heckle them anymore;
Now get this. This is the part that really amazes me. activism is so popular that they maintain a Saturday protest schedule. The Peace Patriots have to clear out for another crowd. That is when the party really gets going;
Not that drug arrests in America are not a very serious issue. They had life stories all over the lawn of Americans who are separated from their families and their lives while serving long sentences in prisons after getting busted with pot;
I guess because it is such a fun topic but these guys got a much bigger response than either world hunger or Bush's war. Almost everyone honked their horn and shouted in support.
I had some fun when I was leaving and ran into these two guys;
I said "Hey can I get a photo of the latecomers?" The guy in front said "What do you mean late. Those others are early. We're not suppose to be there till 1:30." I said "It's 1:45" and he came back with "So we're close enough."
No but seriously folks, I promised this young lady that I would post a link and ask for a donation to World Vision Dot Org
Ah, I gave at the beach.
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