Reporting from the United States:
For four years, an anonymous Californian calling himself the "Scarlet
Pimpernel" has been papering the state's highways with anti-Bush signs, read
by millions of motorists. He has created more than two thousand of them and
now has found hundreds of followers ready to do the same in the rest of the
U.S.A.
October16, 2004
Even if it is the society of free expression, finding a way to let people
know what you're thinking is not at all easy. It requires getting through
the filter of media, which selects opinions based on its editorial line. You
can try opening a blog on the internet, at times defined as "the information
superhighway," but in the end, only those who think like you will read it.
Is there a way to get your own ideas out to the most people possible? In
California someone seems to have found it: with cardboard, paint and yes,
the highways. But the real ones, where every day, hundreds of thousands of
vehicles travel. And millions of potential readers.
He is a 42-year-old man who lives near Los Angeles and calls himself the
Scarlet Pimpernel, or Freeway Blogger, from the name of his website. In
four years he's created 2200 large signs and has posted them a little like a
couple's friends would do in the days before the wedding: attaching them to
overpasses, around trees on the far side of the guard-rail, and on street
signs. For the army of motorists who traverse the Californian highways every
day, it's impossible not to read these messages. And how very precise they
are: each one is against the Bush administration.
To help understand this guy: after the interminable soap opera in Florida
and the victory of the Republican candidate in the 2000 election as
conferred by the Supreme Court, the Scarlet Pimpernel placed his first
creation on a bridge: a sign which read, "1776-2000 Rest in Peace." He was
referring to democracy. "My father taught me that democracy is where you
count the votes," he explains, "my next sign said 'we had a chance to show
the world what democracy means, and we blew it." With the war on terrorism
and the military intervention in Iraq, the imagination of the Freeway
Blogger has become more whimsical: on the streets
of California and also at times of Arizona, there have followed clever plays
on words like, "Rumsfailed," "Osama Bin Forgotten," and "Quagmire
Accomplished"(after the "Mission Accomplished" of the president on May 1,
2003), but also direct accusations like "Bush Lied" and reflections such as,
"Real soldiers are dying in their streets, so you can play soldier in
yours."
n some cases, perhaps if they are set up in somewhat hidden places, the
Scarlet Pimpernel's messages remain in place for several weeks, even. Most
times, however, they get torn down after a few hours by employees of
Caltrans -- the California Department of Transportation -- which, after a
lost lawsuit, has decided to remove any unauthorized sign from the streets,
or by someone who simply supports the current president. "I've been caught
in the act by the police on four occasions," he says, "they've just asked me
to leave and I've done so. Two times I've been stopped by men who didn't
agree with me. But they didn't insist too much, maybe because I'm fairly
big."
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To carry on his mission, on the other hand, this kind of
free-thought rebel doesn't require too much time. He arrives on the
scene with a van loaded
with signs and everything necessary to hang them up. Sometimes he
puts up an orange vest like those used by Caltrans technicians, to
look like a
construction worker and be less conspicuous. To get away as quickly
as possible from the scene of the "crime," he always has his
skateboard with
him. In not even a minute, he does what he has to do and then leaves
again, with the sign he'll make the next day already on his mind.
Between planning, creating and posting, the Scarlet pimpernel's job
really and truly is full-time. It earns him nothing, although he
succeeds in
getting by thanks to an inheritance. But above all it has been the
principal cause of his separation from his wife, who one year ago
gave him an ultimatum: "Your family or your signs." Now the
2-year-old daughter lives with her mother in northern California.
Behind such passion, understandably, are strong motivations. "I've
travelled a lot and have seen enough poverty to understand that I
have
enough money to live," explains the Freeway Blogger," and this makes
me almost unique in the U.S., where even the richest citizens never
seem to
have as much as they want." At a certain point in his life, the
Scarlet Pimpernel therefore asked himself a question: "What is the
most useful thing I can do to alleviate people's suffering? To bring
warm clothes to people need them," he thought. He then began to
gather free clothing and blankets, bringing them to the poor of the
Mexican highlands.
"In four years I made that trip twenty-five times, transporting tons
of clothes and helping about ten thousand people," he tells. "Later
on, when
Bush was by that time intending to attack Iraq, I asked myself the
same question as years before. And this time the answer was: get
Bush out of the
White House. The idea of the signs came to me, and then I decided to
continue on this path. When Bush is no longer the president, I will
return to helping the poor."
How effective his campaign will be, however, will with difficulty
depend on the signs placed on the overpasses of California. The
Golden State has
traditionally been a democratic stronghold, and here Bush has
practically no hope of winning. But thanks to his blog, Scarlet
Pimpernel has succeeded in
spreading the word, finding other people interested in creating and
hanging anti-Bush signs even on the streets of states where the
candidates are even.
The 13th of October he has therefore called the Day of Freedom of
Expression: up until now, people from 120 cities in 38 states have
joined the effort, and who knows how many will join in the remaining
week.
"There's a good probability that on that day more than a thousand
people will put their posters and leave their mark on the country's
highways,"
rejoices the Freeway Blogger.
With the polls still favoring Bush, maybe all that won't be enough.
Even the Scarlet Pimpernel realizes this. "I can't predict what
effect the signs will have on the election," he says, "but I know
one thing: I have
discovered that even I have a voice in this society, and I don't
have to wait for newspapers, radio or TV to give me space. All I
need is cardboard
and some paint. Anyone can do it." |
