Yes, I am naked in a new calendar available for sale. Naked for a cause. The calendar just went on sale, and all proceeds will go to help Jon Dee Graham’s little boy who is in critical need of medical assistance but the Graham’s insurance doesn’t cover “pre-existing conditions.”
Click here to purchase a copy.
I’ve only got a few minutes to post, so let me update on last night:
The rally for the Universal Living Wage was a good turnout. About 40-45 people showed up to hold banners, wave signs, pass out leaflets and bumperstickers. At 4:30 on a Texas afternoon, it is searing hot, so the folks at the corner of Riverside and South Lamar really took a beating.
We all traded out holding the banners…we had one in spanish, four in english and one giant banner with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King.
People honked in support, most were talking on their cell phones. One dad rode up on his bike and wanted me to attach a bumper sticker to his son’s baby seat, which I happily did. Lily chanted for almost two hours straight; I didn’t even have to ask. She was yelling, “1-2-3-4, Universal Wage is what we’re fighting for!” She also misted people with her Disney Spray bottle (which I found ironic; don’t even get me started on Disney, but, man…that bottle worked good!) iolana was running around handing out cold water bottles to all the volunteers. Then she and some of the other kids would take the empty plastic bottles and were collecting leaves and sticks to create potions. They were cracking me up. I ran out of water about an hour into the event, so I ran across the street and bought 15 more bottles from Taco Cabana. Let me just say this: ALWAYS
bring extra bottles to events….it is expensive to buy water from a fast food restaurant!!!
Mostly, my job was walking to and fro, checking on volunteers, bringing in new folks to change out with people who had been holding signs/banners for awhile. We got there at 4 pm, and the girls helped me carry everything across the street (boxes of posters, the banners, the ice chest, etc.) I had brought two, giant black umbrellas, so while we were waiting for the rally to start, io and Lily set up “tents”, with Universal Living Wage placards placed precariously up against the umbrellas. It was pretty cute. I took a pic of them getting set up, and then my camera died. Jon Sullivan was gracious and brought an extra camera so I could document the event. iolana had her first ant bites. I forgot to drink water myself and finally had some around 6 pm. (Wow. I can not imagine going without water for DAYS. I was dehydrated and really, really thirsty after just those few hours.)
Everyone was full of good cheer. We had students, we had ex-veterans (Veterans for Peace), we had hippies, we had homeless people, we had mothers with their children, we had one guy show up with a guitar, we had the Gray Panthers. Sounds like a lot more than 40 people, doesn’t it? Well, the vibe was big, the corner was being lifted up by HOPE and FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION.
Good job, everyone. Thank you, RIchard Troxell, for speaking out on behalf of so many…visit http://www.universallivingwage.org, if you’d like to know more about this great man and what he is working for….