"You should go see the City Council Meeting tonight."
"Eh? Why?"
"It should be an interesting event with the new mayor. You can be sure there are gonnna be protests. Perfect for pictures."
"Really. Hm. Ok."
Oh yeah, Tom Bates - the incoming mayor for Berkeley, was under fire for tossing a few thousand copies of the Daily Californian, the Cal-Berkeley student newspaper, in a fit of rage the day they endorsed his opponent, the incumbent Shirley Dean.
Not a smart thing to do on a campus where the concept of free speech is a tenet. Also not smart was to do it with politically conscious students milling around at 6 in the morning. Also not smart to lie about it when confronted.
His mea culpa didnt come fast enough.
It wasnt until later that all wasnt as it seemed.
Shirley Dean, in most parts of the country, including liberal New York, would be considered a raving commie-pinko. In Berkeley, she was considered far too conservative and tight with the republican landowners to be considered left-of-center.
The same mayor that caused a furor around post-Sept 11th America by banning the flying of the american flags from the city's fire trucks.
As the city worker put it.. "Berkeley is....... warped."
When I got there, sure enough - the promised protesters and teevee trucks were out in force.
People were lined up to get into the council chambers, the proceedings inside being broadcast over loudspeakers.
Then I realized there was something distinctively odd about the young student protesters.
They werent odd.
In other words, they werent counterculture-looking young people, grungy with multi-colored hair. They were well dressed, well behaved, clean scrubbed, shiny teeth. Tried to sound passionate about their cause and acted like they were in a mosh pit where they werent allowed to get their clothes dirty.
Young Republicans.
Turns out the Students For Ethical Leadership were an adhoc coalition of CONSERVATIVE Berkeley students.
This young woman was actually studying for her finals the next day as she protested, err.. not-so vociferously.
(She asked me to send the picture of her so that her mother could be proud of her. )
It turns out that most of the folk there were actually there in support of Mayor Bates.
One grey-haired man watching the proceedings outside sniffed:
"Please. This is no protest. I was here in the 60's and 70's when we got DOWN. These young kids have no clue."
I had to agree this wasnt anywhere near as exciting as I'd expected.
But I went in to hear the public mea culpa...
After awhile the furor died down and boring city business cleared the room out..
Oh yeah, and the city served cake at the end.
The beat reporter for the SF chronicle finished some last minute notes..
The TeeVee trucks got their 2 minute byte in time for 11 o'clock broadcast.
And the panhandling minstrels played on...
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The next morning over huevos y tortillas...
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